Throughout history, war has always existed, however, it is only recently that humanity recognized the difficulties. Tim O'Brien's "The Things They Carried" follows a platoon of soldiers during the Vietnam War. One of these soldiers is First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross, who is the officer in charge. these soldiers. Say no to plagiarism. Get a custom essay on “Why Shouldn’t Video Games Be Banned?” what for a moment – ​​through daydreams, and the consequences of such an escape Jimmy Cross kept letters from a girl named Martha who informed him that he would do so” we read every night when. the soldiers dug their burrows for the evening “At the end of the afternoon, after a day of marching, he unwrapped the letters, held them in his fingertips and spent the last hour of light pretending.” He was looking at Martha's photos and wondering what she was doing in New Jersey. It was the routine he had created to cope with the war. At dusk, he put away the letters and patrolled the perimeter to ensure his safety, or rather the misconception of safety. By doing this, he felt he was fulfilling his duty as a leader to his soldiers. Cross and his men marched day after day, moving from village to village with Cross from time to time, giving orders to spread out the columns before returning to dream of Martha. Cross uses Martha as a means of escaping the reality he finds himself in: constantly walking, digging burrows, throwing grenades, and shooting bullets for the pleasure of knowing that when night falls, they will be resupplied. He dreams of certain times he spent with Martha, as well as times he hoped to spend with her. He would dream of being with her on the Jersey Shore. He constantly wondered if she was a virgin. He created a pedestal for Martha's supposed purity. His dreams shape his personality throughout the story, the way he acts around his men, as well as how they perceive him after Lavender's death. They wrongly think that he is mourning death; however, he simply mourns the fact that he cares more about Martha than his men. Throughout the story, Lieutenant Cross is absorbed in his thoughts about Martha. He considers it his means of escape; however, while escaping, he loses track of where he is. He found it difficult to think about the war and his surroundings while walking through the jungles of Vietnam. He constantly wonders who took the photos she sent him, whether it was one of her boyfriends or not. He walked away without realizing anything else, like when Lee Strunk, one of his soldiers, drew the short straw and had to clear a Vietcong tunnel. “Lieutenant Cross was looking down the tunnel. But he wasn't there. He was buried beneath the white sands of the Jersey Shore. [He and Martha] were pressed together and the stone in his mouth was his tongue” (O’Brien, p. 336). He dreamed of being on a beach with Martha instead of facing his reality in the dense jungle with his soldiers. Her daydream ultimately leads to Lavender being shot in the head by a sniper. Lavender's death was preventable, and he knew it, but because of his infatuation with Martha, he couldn't concentrate. The story progresses by showing how Cross's fantasy turns from comfort to obsession. Cross was thinking about the movie he went to with Martha when he touched her knee; he said he wished he had carried her upstairs and touched her knee all night. After Lavender's death, Lieutenant Cross realized.