Ted Lavender Character Analysis

Lieutenant Jimmy Cross is reminded of his love for a girl named Martha by the multiple memories he has of her. He carries pictures of Martha as well as the letters she has written him. Jimmy remembers their first and only date to the movies and is heartbroken that the love he feels for Martha will never be mutual. The narrator then starts to explain the things the men carry. Most are things that would be needed for survival during a war, like compasses, raincoats, mosquito spray, and tents. Others are things the men have an emotional connection to like, a girlfriends panty hose and a bible. But all men carry burdens, memories, and one another. One day while the men are on a mission a soldier named lavender is shot. The men almost make a joke of his death and some are shocked at how lightly they are taking this tragic event. At the end of the chapter Jimmy has a realization that he needs to stop living in the past and decided to forget about Martha and take on the responsibility of a leader.

The most shocking part of this chapter was the way the men handled the death of Ted Lavender, specifically Cross’s reaction. The soldiers all took his death way too lightly. Ted was killed right in front of them and killed at a time they were least expecting something like this to happen. The way the soldiers handled this was almost inhumane. Then as
It showed me how people may have a manipulated thought about how tragic war is because of the inability we have as humans to believe such tragedy is possible. It made me wonder if people who were in the war don’t only tell stories from their experience not because it’s painful for them but because they worry about people not believing them. O’Brien made a very good point in saying that in some way for people that lived through a tragic situation they can only tell what seemed to happen, and how in some way telling these stories is