Social Action Reading Response #1

 
       In“The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien, Lieutenant Jimmy Cross, the main character is facing the Vietnam War right now. In the beginning of the story, O’Brien describes what the soldiers carry with them to war. These things include fear and guilt. Cross himself carries the memory of Martha, a college crush. However, Jimmy finds that he can no longer think about her due to the fact that she is a constant distraction to him at war.

        In the beginning, Cross is very obsessed with Martha. He thought about whether or not she was still a virgin and why she had sign the letter “Love” But only Martha doesn’t return this feeling back for him. Cross started to lose focus at war. “As he is lying in his foxhole, he looks at pictures of Martha he can’t help to fell more than anything, he want Martha to love him as he loved her”This quotation it shows that Cross really loves Martha and he wants to be with her. He would always think about her; in the foxholes, while marching, and even when there’s a danger.

        This feeling has changed when Ted Lavender, Cross’s fellow soldier die. Lavender was killed because Cross was unfocused at war due to Martha. Cross had blamed Lavender’s death on him. When he sat in the hole crying he thought he had,“love Martha more than his men.”Because of Martha, Cross had defeated his ability as a leader. Martha has possessed him so much that even "without willing it, he was thinking about Martha." This shows that he has lost control on where and when is the right time to think about things like that.

        Cross had finally realized that his feelings for Martha were never real. He just uses Martha as a way to escape from war. Cross even questioned himself is he was actually a leader, a lieutenant. But now it was already too late, Lavender is dead and there’s nothing he can do to change that. The morning after Lavender was dead, Cross decided to stop his love for Martha. To completely forget her, he burns her letters photos. As he thought what she wrote in the letter, Cross began to hate her even if he still loves her, it was the, “hating kind of love”He told himself that he was going to forget about her and put the army in front of love. He was "determined to perform his duties firmly and without negligence."

        Overall, Cross had been stuck in the middle of love and war, not knowing which one to choose. Neither one he chooses is going to take something valuable away from him, his love for Martha or his fellow soldier. And in the end he did made a choice. He chose his men over Martha even though it’s too late. And maybe the only way to make it up to him is by putting leadership in front of love.
  
      The message this book wanted to tell us is that we should make the right choice and not waiting until you lose something to finally know how importance it is. Cross regret that he had not been able to save Lavender when he could. He blamed himself for his death, for that he did not do his responsibility as a leader of the army. For that he hated himself for choosing love over his men. I think that we should all make the right choice or what you considered to be right because we can’t choose two things at once; which every choice we make will meant losing the other one. So choose wisely.

       I learn lot from this book, “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien. I learned that we should make the right choice in life to avoid regretting what we did later on. I also learned that we should be able to put down the things that are obviously not realistic. I think we shouldn’t be thinking things that are not going to come true, especially at Cross’s view. Think about the unrealistic thing will just distract us from the place we are. Cross is using the memory, the past, and Martha, to help him escape from the war. You might think that imagining will make you feel better, but it doesn’t, it sinks you down deeper into the hole until you are completely desperate, until the point you can’t stand up again. Living in the past is like avoiding the future, it’s okay to remember the past, but living? Just not the way it’s supposed to be.