The Thing They Carried

A detailed Summary of The Thing They Carried

At times when humans are not satisfied with what they have, they escape to a fantasy world. When a human can not continue living the reality, he escapes to a world of fantasy. The author of "The Thing They Carried" describes a group of military soldiers that have a careless and unorganized leader. Lieutenant Jimmy Cross was the leader of that platoon who was responsible for the lives of his men. The problems occurred in this platoon due to Cross's illusion of being in love. He was unorganized and did not take his job seriously; also he did not follow the military rules as a lieutenant for his men.

Lieutenant Cross was receiving letters from a girl named Martha; he had hoped that they would be love letters. He spent hours during the night reading the letters, which were sent to him by Martha. Cross was in love with Martha, and he had been pretending that Martha loved him as well, but he also knew that the love, which Martha had for him, was not as intimate as his love for her. He tastes the flaps on the envelopes, hoping Martha used her tongue to close the envelopes. Lieutenant would think of romantic camping and being with Martha everyday (O'Brien, 78). His love for Martha was an illusion that he had made into realit

Again Cross wasn't focusing on the situation that he and his men were in. He was debating his own conscious. The reader would assume that instead of Lieutenant Cross's debating his own conscious and daydreaming, he should have concentrated on the war in order to win. He never enforced or required any of his men to follow the military rule. The platoon carried illegal objects with themselves which they were not allowed to carry or use. For example: one of the soldiers "Ted Lavender carried six or seven ounces of premium dope, which for him was a necessity" (O'Brien, 79). It would be a question to ask Cross that how a soldier can be alert or functional in the war when he is under the influence of various kinds of drugs. By allowing the men to do what they wanted, Lavender was jeopardizing others lives as well as his own life. "Lavender, who was scared, carried tranquilizers until he was shot in the head outside the village of Than Khe in mid-April" (O'Brien, 78). The reason that Lavenders got shot was his own lack of care and responsibility of Lieutenant Cross, if only he had stopped Lavender from smoking drugs he could have been alert and alive. "Kiowa, who saw it happen, said it was like watching a rock fall. Or a big sandbag or something just boom..." (O'Brien 80). Cross knew that Lavender was high and on drugs when he got shot. "Lieutenant Cross felt the pain. He blamed himself" (O'Brien).

chopper to take Lavender's body, they secured the area for the chopper to land safely, and they sat down waiting for the chopper and smoking the Lavender's left over dope (O'Brien 80). Lieutenant Cross finally realized that because of his love for Martha Lavender was dead. After the chopper had left they "...burned Than Khe" (O'Brien 80). They thought that they had to get back at them by burning do

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Approximate Word count = 1213
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Novels