The Thing They Carried essays

The Thing They Carried essays 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 Crosss 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 (OBrien, 78). His love for Martha was an illusion that he had made into reality. Cross had always doubted Marthas true feelings for him. He had assumed that she had a boyfriend; he was jealous of Marthas situation because of his own situation. He disliked being far away from home and wanted to be back at home with his family and friends. Cross was concerned about Marthas virginity because he wanted to believe that Martha was a virgin. His c oncern with Marthas virginity was all an illusion he had created for the pure and innocence of life. Since Cross was tired of the war and death, he was trying to run away from the reality and war that they were fighting. He had no way of escaping the war and as the leader he had made a serious commitment to the ...