Jimmy Cross Chapter Summaries

Chapter 1
When Jimmy Cross understands that Ted Lavender is really dead, he has now realised that he might have prevented it his whole outlook changes. Before, he couldn't get Martha out of his head. He was a daydreamer and a lover more than he was a soldier, and he thought often about that. But afterward, he understands that when someone dies, that can't be changed. It makes him realize his duty, and he is suddenly able to distance himself from everything that used to be important in his life. He understands that he is now living in another world and that he is a soldier whether he wants to be or not.
Chapter 3
The lack of a purpose sometimes drives the men crazy. They feel that there is no definite morality to what they are doing. They
They play out in his memory and in his writing over and over, and he is helpless to contain them. Writing about the war is his link between the past and the future, he says. And the terrible and beautiful things he saw in Vietnam will be with him forever.
Chapter 5
Dave Jensen becomes unable to tell what is right and what is wrong. He has been fighting Vietnamese for so long that when he begins to fight with someone from his own side, he goes a little crazy. He thinks he has to make up for the way he hurt Lee Strunk, when even Strunk believes he had every right to hurt him.
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He knows no one in the town will understand his experiences, so he hardly talks to anyone. His thoughts are endless and repetitive, but he cannot get away from them. He spends a lot of time alone because he simply cannot seem to relate to anyone anymore.
Chapter 20
Though Tim is trying to spook Jorgenson, he gets spooked himself. Vietnam is a terrifying, savage, mysterious place, and he does not want to become it. He feels he is doing just that by scaring Jorgenson. When he sees Jorgenson terrified, he feels a connection to him. They both know what it's like to think you're about to die. But Tim is also terrified of the power he has over Jorgenson.
Chapter 21
Rat Kiley is literally driven crazy by the war. The entire country seems full of ghosts--every sound the men hear is haunted--and when they are travelling solely by night; they can hardly tell if their own bodies still exist. Rat cannot handle this. He sees visions of himself as dead. He views the other men as just so many anatomical parts. He loses his sense of reality.
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