First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross The Things They Carried

Imagine that you are in a crisis, you cannot only just grab what you can carry but what is of utmost importance to you…what would you carry with you? In the short story “The Things They Carried” we follow US Soldiers in the Vietnam war who are trekking through the jungle. The story touches on different characters and things of importance that they carry on their person for comfort, need and those without monetary value but sentimental value.

I carry a picture of my sons 1st school picture, its not just a wallet size picture I bought either. The picture I carry of my son is the free missing children’s picture that allows parents an area to enter emergency contact information and physical appearances in case of emergency situations. If you looked in my wallet you would find this picture of my son behind a plastic envelope part of my wallet to protect it from spills and damage. This would lead one to believe that my son is extremely important to me because of course he is.

When you look at this photograph understand that it is not the picture that is important to me but what it represents emotionally. A mother does not have to carry her children’s pictures to prove her love for those children, another mother may

Now to me it would have great meaning if they were letters from someone who was close to me like a spouse or child but Lieutenant Jimmy Cross has no real relationship with Martha. In fact he mentions how “They were signed “Love, Martha” but Lieutenant Cross understood that “Love” was only a way of signing and did not mean what he sometimes pretended it meant.” To me it is difficult to understand why he carried her letters around when he knew she did not love him, to me importance is based on mutual feelings. I could not carry unnecessary things from someone who may not mourn me if I was killed in action but to Lieutenant Jimmy Cross they held great