Lieutenant Cross’s personal items however, may be the reason members of his platoon are dying. His obsession of the relationship he desires to have with Martha is causing him to lose focus. O’Brien’s theme of bringing a sweet fantasy to a crashing reality is demonstrated through his use of characters, setting, and
Despite that deaths like this are commonly caused by freak incidents, he feels that if his attention had been focused on the war at the very moment Lavender died instead of the girl whose love he can never obtain, he could have prevented this loss of life. As a result of his remorse, Cross decides to remove all distractions he possibly can and “[burns] Martha’s letters [followed by] the two photographs” (O’Brien 23) of her. It is Lavender’s unexpected death that helps Lieutenant Cross recognize his responsibility to his men who are counting on him to direct them around the perils of Vietnam. When he is contemplating how to alter his tactics of leadership for the better, he reminds “himself that his obligation [is] not to be loved but to lead]” (O’Brien 26). By doing this, Lieutenant Cross demonstrates that he has the ability to learn from his past mistakes and improve his accountability to lead his men to
David Barajas English/poli.sci. Eric martinsen March 26,2014 War Mentality Before watching these movies, a little doubt set in that between these two movies there would be a difficult time finding differences and similarities because of such a huge time gap between them. The thought process when approaching these great war flicks was the major military advancements the us government has made to the armed forces since the late 70s. To a nice surprise, a common foundation for these great stories were starting to become clear. The more the movie went into depth, the more stronger the similarities and differences presented themselves.
Many responsibilities in the military are determined by the rank of the individual. In the story “The Things They Carried” we become acquainted with a platoon thrust in the jungles of Vietnam during the War. What the reader knows very early in the story is that other than the Platoon leader, Lt. Cross the rest of the platoon is comprised of grunts. In fact the narrator states “As PFC’s or Spec 4s, most of them were common grunts and carried the standard M-16 gas-operated assault rifle.” So we can determine from that statement that Lt. Cross was the highest ranking person there, as well as the platoon leader. This means he had both positional authority and ranking authority, which I say because one does not dictate the other.
Both of these ate away at the men; mind, body and soul. ‘Carry’ means to hold or support while moving, to transport, transmit, or transfer, but figuratively, ‘carry’ connotes bearing a grievance. After Ted Lavender was killed Lieutenant Jimmy Cross carried Lavenders burden with him because he felt personally responsible for his death. He was to busy thinking about Martha the one he loved, even though he knew she didn’t love him in return. L.T.
When Curley's wife screamed, he didn't know how to make her stop except to do what he did, but he did not intend to kill her. Curley, of course, is also looking for a way to achieve revenge for Lennie's crushing his hand so he will definitely try to kill Lennie in the most cruel way possible. He says he will "gut shoot" him. George must save his friend by a mercy killing.
They also conducted reconnaissance missions to infiltrate and expose the enemy. They collected intelligence, planned and directed air strikes, provided internal leadership for other units, and set up ambushes. Although the Vietnam War was considered a loss by the general public, it was a victory for the Rangers. They were able to learn from mistakes and gain knowledge about jungle warfare and many more techniques to aid them in future wars. In January of 1991, Saddam Hussein launched his three best heavy armored divisions across the desert into Kuwaiti initiating the Gulf War.
It is possible as outlined in this story that he had a change of venue, an epiphany, in that his infatuation and love for a girl back home might be the culprit for his loss of focus in his duty as Lieutenant and that he held himself responsible for loss of lives. In doing so, he took drastic steps in incorporating change and removing the obstacles and focusing his energy on the survival of his troop. The drastic changes included, “Jimmy Cross crouched at the bottom of his foxhole and burned Martha’s letters. Then he burned the two photographs” (O’Brien
The Counterculture obviously relates to Kesey theory of drugs being the key to an individual liberation. When Kesey was in the process of writing the novel One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest the Korean War was still a fresh memory, and then in shock came World War II after. According to Kesey war can cause trauma to patients. Following the daily beast article many of the patients in the nove One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest suffered from war trauma. For example, “Old Colonel Matterson thinks he’s still in World War I, Billy Bibbit suffered a breakdown in ROTC training when he couldn’t answer the drill officer’s command without stuttering, and McMurphy, who received a dishonorable discharge in the Korean War for insubordination” (American Dreams).
Although the stories in the novel may not all be fact bases, O’Brian actually had knowledge of the war because he experienced it first hand. This novel lets you get a deeper look into how the soldiers felt during the Vietnam War. “The Things They Carried” depicts a gruesome but realistic look as to what the Vietnam War was like. “The Man I Killed” shows readers that American soldiers were remorseful of their actions during war time. There are many truths in “The Things They Carried” because it gives readers a deeper look into the feelings of the