What is Love? Tim OBrien's The Things They Carried Essay

(Bloom’s Guide pg.22). As Martha gave Jimmy Cross letters to support him and to encourage him to stay alive, Jimmy cross takes his letters and uses this to unintentionally blind him of what he should really be focusing on, and

The first paragraph is mainly based on Lieutenant Jimmy Cross and his love for Martha, who is a junior at Mount Sebastian College in New Jersey. This gives the readers a feeling of love and care. However, as we read further in the paragraph it is shown that the love Lieutenant Cross has for Martha is one way, as Martha may not feel the same way for him. “Martha of the first chapter, the reader eventually learns, was not Jimmy’s-or even O’Brien’s- first love” (Paragraph 6). Lieutenant Cross believes that the love Martha had for him is a friendly gesture and nothing more. The way Lieutenant Cross talks about Martha throughout the story seems, as he loves her a lot. He would pretend that they were taking a walk on the beach or camping together, which were a little impossible as she was in college, and he was in Vietnam. He would sometimes forget that he was at war and had to lead his mates.

This statement suggests that he wants to taste her, yet they have not (or will not) kiss each other. Furthermore, this provides evidence that his insatiable love for her is a weighty test for Lt. Cross -- and this burdensome weight drives Lt. Cross to become detached from important situations. Psychologically, Martha's letters make Lt. Cross fixated on his love, which the reader supposes is unreciprocated by Martha. Clearly, Lt. Cross wants a mutually loving relationship with Martha, evidenced when the narrator states, "More than anything, he wanted Martha to love him as he loved her" (434). Twice in the first two pages, Lt. Cross notes, "They were not love letters" (434). Furthermore, when Martha's salutation, ?Love, Martha,' is mentioned, Lt. Cross sadly resigns and "understood that ?Love' was only a way of signing and did not mean what he sometimes pretended it meant" (435). These thoughts are not obsessive in and of themselves, but the fact that Lt. Cross mulls over these overwhelming feelings while leading a group of soldiers suggests that Martha is an inordinate weight on Lt Cross' shoulders.

I feel as if she is just using jimmy as a shield to hide under and she probably does have feelings for jimmy but she is just scared to tell him how she really feels about him. I also feel as if she has a boyfriend and she is not telling anyone because she is a person that liked to hide secrets. On page 27 and 28, They’d run into each other, he said, at a college reunion in 1979. Nothing had changed . He stilled loved her. For eight or nine hours, he said, they spend most of their time together…. At breakfast the next morning she told him she was sorry. She explained that there was nothing she could do about it, and he said he understood, and then she laughed and gave him the picture and told him not to burn the picture and told him not to burn this one up. Jimmy shook his head. “It doesn’t matter”, he finally said, I love her. This quotes shows that even though jimmy and Martha ran into each other they were talking and jimmy finally knowing that martha doesn’t love him the way that he thought she loved him that way. On page 28, “ Jimmy thought it over and then gave me a smile. This quote shows that even though he found out that martha doesn’t feel the sameway that he feels about her is that he is going to

Something tells me that Martha did love Jimmy, but he was saying all of these things that countered that because he kept second guessing her love. Maybe she did not want to talk about war because it made her upset, maybe he thought she should have a better life being with a non-military sort of guy. When Jimmy said, “Because he knew she had boyfriends” (356), maybe she just had friends that were boys? These types of situations are relatable, and O’Brien shows that very easily, even if it is in a war

Majorly, the decisions we make in life have to do with what our feelings show. Love is an important matter of our life because it helps motivate us in different ways. O’Brien references Jimmy’s romance with Martha, which was not mutual. Martha was a junior at Mount Sebastian College in New Jersey. Even though Cross is extremely in love with her, Martha did not feel

Through the exchange of letters between Lt. Jimmy Cross and the center of his infatuation Martha in “The Things They Carried”, he allowed himself to become more obsessed with the thought of her. The letters simply state the events Martha encounter in her daily life, lines

Jimmy's transformation begins when he decides to burn the pictures and letters of his girlfriend, Martha. To be a leader in war was meaningless to Jimmy Cross compared to the love he had for Martha. Cross' subsequent burning of Martha's letters suggests that he's determined to put such romantic ideas behind him. He repeatedly convinces himself that there will be no more fantasies about Martha. The burning of Martha’s things is symbolically used by O’Brien to signify a turning point in Cross’ development. Cross realizes that Martha's feelings for him were not those of love, for she is an English major, a girl who lives in the world of words. Cross was rationalizing his un-requiting love for Martha to create a “home world” inside his mind so that he could mentally escape from the war when he needed to.

“They carried USO stationery and pencils and pens,” they carried many things, but one thing they had a loose grip and cramped fingers on was love. Lieutenant Jimmy cross had only a vision of what it was to be a growing adult when he was drafted, his sight of love and a sweet girl named Martha was transfigured; objectification, obsession, and then finally hate. Tim O’Brien in his short story, The Things They Carried makes Martha not just an object, but a sight of what Lieutenant Cross had lost when he was drafted. Cross went through a slight grieving process with her because the Objectification was his way of denying the real truth of what her love meant, his obsession was his anger because it was the realization of what her love meant, and

He was in charge of seventeen men, which one had died at the cost of him daydreaming about Martha, unaware of his surroundings; being the lieutenant he had carried responsibility. Responsibility symbolizes the growth in each character; but his resistance to responsibility is due to lack of his independence. The constant desire for Martha’s love is just an example of him not wanting the responsibility; therefore, Jimmy Cross is unable to reach his full potential as a leader. Another intangible thing “Jimmy Cross humped his love for Martha up the hills and through the swamps.” Unknowing whether or not she told the truth about her being a virgin; the uncertainty that is why it was so sweet to him; the symbolism of the love of Martha is his connection to his life outside the war, the one he never wanted to leave. His love for her is not guaranteed but it is okay because as humans we need something to fight for and to Cross it was the hope that one day Martha might chose to be with him. The weight on his shoulders was not only literal but also metaphorical because thoughts are just as heavy as the tangibles.

"Then at full dark he would return to his hole and watch the night and wonder is Martha was a virgin." He recognizes the ideas that she may not be a virgin, and even acknowledges that there are other men in her life. Jimmy knows that Martha has many boyfriends, and when he receives a picture from her in the mail, wonders who the photographer was. He treasures the picture and takes it everywhere with him, and yet the small shadow in the picture of the man taking it seems to be his focal point. He wants to focus purely on his unrequited love for Martha, but he can't. He seems to force himself to understand that she does not actually love him. She will never be his, and he knows that somewhere inside him, but continues to imagine that the love that she signs at the end of her letters is really a romantic love.

Although “Jimmy Cross humped his love for Martha,” paragraph 3, they were not lovers. Jimmy Cross would think frequently about Martha as it would take Jimmy into a fantasy world. These thoughts would ease his mind and gradually increases his love for Martha. With time passing, thoughts about Martha became more significant in Jimmy Cross’s mind and his feelings also escalated. Jimmy Cross would also imagine sexual experiences with Martha such as in paragraph 5, Cross imagines to have touched her “left knee.” Martha became a remedy, a cure, or a spiritualized gorgeous being for Jimmy Cross in the distressing environment of war.

“Love is just a word until you find someone who gives it the definition.” As defined by every student’s best friend, Webster dictionary is a feeling of strong or constant affection for a person. Still, there is a person or someone involved even in the

Love is to trust someone completely and care about their well- being above your own. Love is devotion and independence, admiration and respect. Love is having someone who brings out the best in you. Love is a connection that makes you smile every time you smile every time you see the other person. Love is comfortable feeling or well-being and affection. Love is deep desire to protect the one you love. Love is friendship, honesty, happiness, affection, and sharing. Love is contentment, companionship, passion and desire. Love is finding that missing piece that completes you. Love is friendship, kindness and the little things that matter. Love is pure happiness. Love is the feeling that you don’t want anything to change ever. Love is everlasting

Love: What is it? Love, what is it? To many people love means many things. To others, to love is to place their happiness in one another. Others love can be how they feel about that special someone. I'm not talking about the fatherly love or that motherly love. I'm talking about the love that you feel towards someone. That special someone that you could possibly spend the rest of your life with. Webster defines love as a strong feeling of attraction resulting from sexual desire; enthusiasm or fondness. But to me love is not just a feeling, but it is the way that you treat that special someone that you care for. Treating them so kindly so they'll know you care and love them. Love in my eyes, is making that