Jimmy's main struggle in dealing with his friends death is to figure out a way he can become a better leader. He wants to lead his troop with confidence and preciseness. Before his friend's death, Jimmy had constructed a bulwark to separate him from the rest of the troop. Jimmy was in his own world, mainly back in New Jersey with Martha, but sometimes in a fantasy world where nothing felt real and he would do amazing things like fly over Vietnam waving the whole madness goodbye. His misconception of fantasy and reality is one of the first things that he changes about himself in order to become a better leader. Making this decision was near impossible, the pictures that he had become inured to seeing everyday were put to flame and Martha was no longer in his thoughts.

By burning those pictures he not only breaks free

Jimmy Cross needed to figure out a way to stop the wasting of precious lives and start saving some. He needed to unite his troops into one, and reduce everyone's individuality. In a time of war you should have no friends. If you take the time to know the person then you are only getting yourself emotionally attached to that person, and when it comes time to act with your mind not your emotions you will hesitate therefore putting all of your men's lives at risk. Jimmy could not have that in his squadron. He needed to overcome another great hurdle in his strive for complete leadership. Individuality against Conformity. Everyone in the story had there own things they carried, some carried lucky pebbles like Jimmy and others carried the New Testament like Kiowa. Jimmy needed to find a way to unite everyone under the sole basis of their missions. They all needed to be soldiers. Jimmy decided to lead by example, when he tossed the lucky pebble away and burned his pictures, he intended for everyone to follow.

Jimmy knew that each men would have to carry certain weight that could not be measured in units because it was inside them. Kiowa, for example, who had to learn how to deal with balancing his true emotions with the weight of bei

Some common words found in the essay are:
Jersey Martha, Jimmy Cross, Ted Lavender, Kiowa Jimmy, Martha Jimmy, Individuality Conformity, , jimmy cross, trying maintain, ted lavender, fantasy world,
Approximate Word count = 840
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)