Love and Spin

We are projected into the future and we learn that Jimmy Cross is still very much in love with Martha. She still doesn’t love him and still has that flat look in her eyes. It’s as if her heart is absent of feeling. Jimmy Cross met her at a high school reunion ad still has hope for her. He is what I would call a hopeless romantic. In the chapter Spin, our narrator reveals some things about himself and war did have its sweet moments. Sometimes they would give the local children candy to get a smile. Mitchell Sanders sent body lice to his draft board in Ohio as way to get even. Of course he could never really get even with because there is no equivalent to war. They played checkers because it was there were rules. Everything was clearly defined. You could see your opponent and there would always be a definite winner and loser. It was something they were in control of. They even met an old man that would guide them through the mine fields so they wouldn’t be blown to pieces. The group was sad to see him go. The amount of boredom they felt had to be eating away at them. They could be sitting in a hole for hours on end with nothing to do. I suppose it is still better than having enemy contact. I found sickening when Azar blew up the puppy and his excuse was that he’s just a kid. War destroys the hearts of the innocent. It is a sad reality to accept but war takes away all feeling. It almost makes you inhuman.

The Things They Carried (literally)

I didn’t expect the first chapter to literally be about the things that they carried. I expected it to represent a more abstract idea. The weight of what they carried seemed enough to bring any man down. They carried equipment, food, and items of sentimental value. Most of the men fighting in this war are barely old enough to legally drink. They are too young to kill and too young to die. They have seen so much blood and death in this war and they have almost become desensitized to it. I suppose that is the only way they are able to deal with the war. It’s probably best not to feel. Jimmy Cross does have feelings though. He is in love with a woman named Martha who does not love him at all. He makes up fantasies about her in his head and it distracts. It distracts him from the war and when Ted Lavender is killed he blames himself. He burned her letters and pictures so he could stop thinking about her. He hated her and loved her at the same time. He felt a fair amount of guilt. They even joke about the war as if it is some kind of game. A dangerous game of course. Joking must be a coping mechanism for them or a way to make the war seem less real. They categorize the men who have shot off their own limbs to escape war as wimps. As they said these things about them there was a trace of envy. These men who did these things to themselves possessed bravery. They were brave enough to endure pain and not care what others thought of them.