Lieutenant Jimmy Cross Character Analysis in The Things They Carried

The Lieutenant of the Alpha Company. He never wanted to go to war, nor did he want to have to lead men. Instead he's preoccupied with how much he's in love with a girl named Martha from home. This infatuation lasts long after the war, though they never get together.

Lieutenant Jimmy Cross Quotes in The Things They Carried

The The Things They Carried quotes below are all either spoken by Lieutenant Jimmy Cross or refer to Lieutenant Jimmy Cross. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

This was not Mount Sebastian, it was another world, where there were no pretty poems or midterm exams, a place where men died because of carelessness and gross stupidity. Kiowa was right. Boom-down, and you were dead. Never partly dead.

Related Characters: (speaker), ,

Page Number and Citation: 22-23

Explanation and Analysis:

For a few moments he considered asking her to his room, but instead he laughed and told her how back in college he'd almost done something very brave. It was after seeing Bonnie and Clyde, he said, and on this same spot he'd almost picked her up and carried her to his room and tied her to the bed and put his hand on her knee and just held it there all night long. It came close, he told her—he'd almost done it. Martha shut her eyes. She crossed her arms at her chest, as if suddenly cold, rocking slightly, then after a time she looked at him and said she was glad he hadn't tried it. She didn't understand how men could do those things. What things? he asked, and Martha said, The things men do. Then he nodded. It began to form. Oh, he said, those things.

Related Characters: (speaker), ,

Page Number and Citation: 27

Explanation and Analysis:

Lieutenant Jimmy Cross Character Timeline in The Things They Carried

The timeline below shows where the character Lieutenant Jimmy Cross appears in The Things They Carried. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross of Alpha Company is carrying letters from a girl named Martha that he loves from... (full context)

Lieutenant Jimmy Cross walks with pictures of Martha all over Vietnam. He has two pictures of her: one... (full context)

The things they carry depend on their rank and role. Lieutenant Jimmy Cross is a lieutenant and so he carries a different kind of gun and the responsibility... (full context)

...ground. The men carry him to a chopper and then smoke his dope. Lieutenant Jimmy Cross blames himself for Ted Lavender's death because he loves Martha so much that he's been... (full context)

In the first week of April, just before Ted Lavender died, Lieutenant Jimmy Cross got a pebble as a good luck charm from Martha. She said in her letter... (full context)

...a dangerous job. Ted Lavender takes a tranquilizer and goes off to pee. Lieutenant Jimmy Cross checks the tunnel when he gets concerned about Lee Strunk, but he can only think... (full context)

The things they carry are determined by superstition: Lieutenant Jimmy Cross' pebble, Dave Jensen's rabbit foot, Norman Bowker carries a dead man's thumb that was a... (full context)

After Ted Lavender dies and is taken away in the chopper, Lieutenant Jimmy Cross leads his men into Than Khe where they burn everything down and shoot every living... (full context)

...night Kiowa talks about what it was like to see Ted Lavender die. Lieutenant Jimmy Cross walks away and begins digging a foxhole. He sits at the bottom of his foxhole... (full context)

...of Ted Lavender's death, the short distance between life and death. Kiowa says Lieutenant Jimmy Cross is commendable for caring so much about Ted Lavender and his men. Kiowa goes to... (full context)

The morning after Ted Lavender dies, Lieutenant Jimmy Cross burns Martha's letters in his foxhole. Then he burns the two photographs. He decides he... (full context)

Lieutenant Jimmy Cross feels determined to excel as a Lieutenant now and protect his men. He decides he... (full context)

Many years after the end of the war, Jimmy Cross visits Tim O'Brien at O'Brien's house in Massachusetts. They reminisce, drinking coffee and looking at... (full context)

Eventually, O'Brien feels like the mood has lightened enough for him to ask about Martha. Cross stands up and returns with a picture of Martha playing volleyball. Cross asks if O'Brien... (full context)

At the reunion, Cross learned that Martha had become a Lutheran missionary and a nurse who had done service... (full context)

Cross tells Martha that he loves her, but she keeps walking and doesn't answer. He walks... (full context)

Cross tells Tim O'Brien that he still loves Martha. O'Brien tries to keep the conversation away... (full context)

Cross thinks it over for a moment, then agrees to let O'Brien write the story, saying... (full context)

Cross then makes O'Brien promise not to mention anything about something, but O'Brien cuts him off,... (full context)

...the Batangan Peninsula for five days, and he led all of them to safety. Jimmy Cross gave the poppa-san a hug while Mitchell Sanders and Lee Strunk gave him boxes of... (full context)

...people he knew and would know in the future, like his family, Linda, Lieutenant Jimmy Cross, his wife, his unborn daughter, his two sons, and the young man he killed outside... (full context)

...the next week or so. On the second day the elder monk gave Lieutenant Jimmy Cross a cane chair and put it near the altar area, then bowed and gestured for... (full context)

...the shit field, where they were warned by village women to stay away. Lieutenant Jimmy Cross had to fire his pistol in the air to make the mama-sans go away. The... (full context)

Jimmy Cross yells at a young soldier to close up rank. The young soldier is separated from... (full context)

When Jimmy Cross looks at the river he knows he made a mistake setting up his men there.... (full context)

...New Testament. Sanders says Kiowa must be close. Bowker says they should tell Lieutenant Jimmy Cross, but Sanders refuses, claiming it's Cross' fault Kiowa is dead for stationing them there. Bowker... (full context)

Jimmy Cross is fifty meters away from the three men. He's finished composing the letter to Kiowa's... (full context)

Jimmy Cross never wanted to be a leader. He had signed up for the Reserve Officer Training... (full context)

Jimmy Cross recalls two old women from the nearby village who had come out to warn him... (full context)

Jimmy Cross again notices the young soldier and approaches him. The young soldier was trying not to... (full context)

The young soldier seems panicked and doesn't look up when Jimmy Cross gets to him. The young soldier keeps saying, "Right here…Got to be right here." Cross... (full context)

...and begin to dig around Kiowa. Everyone else comes over to watch except for Jimmy Cross and the young soldier. (full context)

Jimmy Cross is near the center of the field almost completely covered in the muck. He keeps... (full context)

Jimmy Cross knew that "when a man died, there had to be blame." Blame could be put... (full context)

Jimmy Cross keeps floating in the water of the river for a long time. From the east... (full context)

...Different soldiers coped in different ways: Dave Jensen took vitamins high in carotene, Lt. Jimmy Cross took NoDoz, Henry Dobbins and Norman Bowker attached a safety wire between their two belts. (full context)

...chopper came to take Kiley away, there was some time to say goodbye. Lt. Jimmy Cross vouched that the shooting had been an accident. Henry Dobbins and Azar gave Kiley comic... (full context)

...starts with a nameless body. In 1969 the platoon came under fire and Lieutenant Jimmy Cross radioed in an air strike, and the platoon watched the village burn to the ground.... (full context)

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Lieutenant Jimmy Cross Character Analysis

Lieutenant Jimmy Cross Quotes in The Things They Carried

Lieutenant Jimmy Cross Character Timeline in The Things They Carried

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for every book you read.