Jimmy Cross Symbolism

Stories of war often seem unrealistic when the reader has not experienced anything of the sort. In the story "The Things They Carried" Tim O'Brien tells war stories through a character named Jimmy Cross. With the detail O'Brien uses in his book he must have experienced these events to be able to describe them in such a fashion. The many friendships and personal relationships Jimmy had could have just been O'Brien's platoon he served with and actual girlfriend, possibly with different names. All of the feelings and emotions of a person who truly went to war are spread out into this book. If it is actually O'Brien's past maybe this was the best way for him to put the memories of his friends dying out in the open and help him stop thinking about
It affects the mind and can change a person entirely. O'Brien says that "War is boring"(O'Brien 34). While this is true, others think "It is also mystery and terror and adventure and courage and discovery and holiness and pity and despair and longing and love"(Evans 3). Sometimes the troops would feel like they are "fighting two different wars"(O'Brien 63). This can mean many different things including the war of staying alive, trying to stay the same person they used to be, the war of sanity. "O'Brien's soldiers are people who live in extremis"(Evans 2). Somehow these people complete their missions while possibly not wanting to be part of the group and situation entirely. At one point Jimmy thought "all I wanted was to live the lifestyle was born to, a mainstream life"(O'Brien 51). Most soldiers don't want to be in the position they are, even if they disagree, a part of them wants to live a normal life a be at home. War can seem everlasting. "You can tell a true war story by the way it never seems to end. Not then, not ever"(O'Brien 76). But "in the end, of course, a true war story is never about war. It's about sunlight. It's about the special way that dawn spreads out on a river when you must cross the river and march into the mountains and do things you are afraid to do"(O'Brien 85). O'Brien knows what war means to him because he experienced it first hand. It takes many qualities to be a living war veteran. They
I want you to know why story truth is truer than happening truth". The cycle demonstrates a theme common to O'Brien's work: the importance of story telling and the accumulation of stories as means of perceiving and interpreting a seemingly incomprehensible world"(Werlock 324). These stories and experiences all happened with his friends and platoon soldiers during the war. Without those companionships O'Brien wouldn't have kept his sanity in the slightest. A perfect example of a war companion is Mitchell Sanders, who was also a soldier in Cross's platoon. Sanders influences Jimmy, who is actually O'Brien, in a fatherly way. These fatherly qualities include having a devoted life style and he is also a kind person with an unbreakable sense of justice. They do have a difference though by having their idea of storytelling not being very similar. Despite having clashing ideas of storytelling, Mitchell's ability to tell his stories and discuss the nuances between himself and Jimmy make a permanent impression on O'Brien. Kiowa, Jimmy Cross's closest friend during the war, was a perfect example of rational, quiet morality a midst the horrors of war. In the book "The Things They Carried" Kiowa eventually dies after the platoon accidentally camps in the middle of a sewage field. Although it was a very traumatizing