Reading #1, Question #1

[Hannah Baran (Louisa HS)]

What does Martha mean to Jimmy Cross? Why does he fixate on her?

[Andre]

Martha represents hope to Lt. Jimmy Cross. His love for her
motivates him and the thought of being with Martha soothes him. Lt.
Cross often finds himself daydreaming about himself and Martha, once
he imagines walking alongside Martha on the New Jersey coastline, when
in reality he is marching through the unforgiving Vietnamese jungle.
Lt. Cross is frequently unfocused because he cannot stop thinking
about Martha. He fixates on Martha rather than his duties because she
is the one aspect of his life back at home that is still with him in
the jungle; she stays in touch with him and he hopes more and more
each day that she will share the feelings that he has for her. Martha
is also a beautiful and intelligent young girl which leads Lt. Cross
to only think about her more. Although, his mentality changes later in
the chapter.
After Ted Lavender's death Lt. Cross realizes that Martha is a
distraction, he still loves her, but he promise not to think about her
and to focus one hundred percent on his duties and on the men he is
responsible for. "He would shut down the daydreams....He was now
determined to perform his duties firmly and without
negligence" (O'Brien 24-25). Lt. Cross is determined to keep his men
alive.

On Jan 20, 12:56 pm, "Hannah Baran (Louisa HS)"

[Jarrett Talley]

I agree with Andre that Martha gives Jimmy Cross a drive to keep
fighting and never give up. Lt. Jimmy Cross looks to Martha as a goal;
he continuously mentions his love for her and her friendship for him.
Cross knows that Martha does not love him and that she probably never
will. "The first [photograph] was a Kodacolor snapshot signed love,
though he knew better" (O'Brien 4). He uses her not loving him as a
motivator to make it home and someday try to make Martha feel for him
as he does for her. Jimmy also looks at Martha as a prize, "her legs,
he thought, must certainly be the legs of a virgin" (O'Brien 4), and
she is a prize that cannot be won if he dies in Vietnam, so he will
not give up until he makes it home to win his prize.

On Jan 20, 12:56 pm, "Hannah Baran (Louisa HS)"
<hannah.ka...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Katelin]

Martha means the world to Jimmy Cross. She's like his escape from the
war and the dangers around him. He has intense feelings for her and
often day dreams about the two of them being together, when in
reality, he's fighting the treacherous Vietnam War and his soldiers
are dying all around him. Martha and Jimmy are obviously really close
and it seems he needs something to be devoted to and something to
return to to keep him alive.

On Jan 20, 9:56 am, "Hannah Baran (Louisa HS)"

[Shelly]

As Katelin said, Martha means the world to Cross. He uses the thought
of her to escape the reality of what is going on around him. While he
is marching or in combat, he imagines himself with her and it takes
place of what he is actually doing. Over and over he finds himself
wondering about her, why she does certain things, and he takes her
words into analysis and imagines what she was thinking when she wrote
them. He likes to imagine that she loves him in the way that he loves
her, when he truly knows that can't be true. "They were signed Love,
Martha, but Lieutenant Cross understood that Love was only a way of
signing and did not mean what he sometimes pretended it
meant" (O'Brien 2). Cross's feelings for Martha distract him from his
men and when he finally realizes this, he understands that he must set
aside his feelings for her and focus on them. "He was realistic about
it. There was that new hardness in his stomach. He loved her but he
hated her. No more fantasies, he told himself" (O'Brien 23).

On Jan 20, 12:56 pm, "Hannah Baran (Louisa HS)"

[Casey]

As Andre said Martha brings Jimmy Cross hope as he is fighting in this
tough war, but she is also like a vacation from the tragic land of
Vietnam. As a soldier and a lieutenant, Jimmy Cross has to face death
and destruction everyday and having a friend, who cares for him and
that he loves, halfway across the world, gives him something to think
about to escape the madness. Even on the field,"His mind wandered. He
had difficulty keeping his attention on the war (O'Brien 9)." Martha
is almost a vice for Lt. Cross when he is fighting because he is not
focusing on his men. As a result of his fixation on her, he loses a
soldier and he is the only one to blame. Martha provides Jimmy Cross
with some relief, but in the end he ends up hating her because he has
sacrificed his job and a life to love someone who does not care for
him in that way.

On Jan 20, 12:56 pm, "Hannah Baran (Louisa HS)"
<hannah.ka...@gmail.com> wrote:

[carla downs]

As Shelly said, Cross fixates about Martha to escape the world around
him. He dreams of her, ultimately taking his mind away from the
reality of war. Martha means hope for Cross as Andre said, but
sometimes hope isn’t enough when fighting for your life, as well as
being responsible for other men and Cross knows that. “He felt shame.
He hated himself. He had loved Martha more than his men…” (O’Brien
16). Hope is what can keep one going through tough times, but it can
also steer one away from the real world. The pebble Martha gave Cross
is a sign of hope because “He wondered what her truest feelings were,
exactly, and what she meant by separate-but-together” (O’Brien 8).
This pebble seems to fixate Cross because it keeps him wondering.

On Jan 20, 12:56 pm, "Hannah Baran (Louisa HS)"
<hannah.ka...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Kevin]

I agree with Katelin, Martha is Jimmy Cross' subconscious escape from
the war. The way Cross dreams of being with Martha shows his
unrequitted love for her. "He would sometimes taste the envelope
flaps, knowing her tongue had been there" (O'Brien,1). By licking the
envelope flaps Cross is able to stay connected with Martha over a long
distance, even without her knowing it. In showing dedication to
Martha, Cross is able to persevere through the fires of war to dream
about once again being reunited. This comes to light even though he
knows Martha doesn't truly love him. "They were signed Love, Martha,
but Lt. Cross understood that Love was only a way of signing and did
not mean what he sometimes pretended it meant" (O'Brien,2).

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[Madison Stanley]

I agree with Andre that Martha brings hope to Jimmy Cross and
motivates him to continue fighting. Jimmy chooses to convince himself
that Martha has the feelings he truley desires by shoving the proof
that she sees their relationship differently to the back of his mind
to be forgotten. He knows that if he confronts the truth about their
relationship, she will no longer be an icon for him to fight for.
Martha is a dream that Cross can escape to in order to forget the
tragedy around him; Martha is like a sweet drug to Cross. She pulls
him away from the real world into an imaginary bliss, and even though
he knows that escaping everything with his dreams of her is overall
unhealthy for him and destructive for his job as a soldier, he can not
pull himself away. Like a drug addict, Cross finds that the quick
bliss his dreams of Martha drug him with are addictive and something
he can not willingly avoid.
When Cross falls into his daydream of Martha while Lee Strunk is
in the tunnell, he finds himself falling into his dreams without
trying. Those dreams have become part of who he is, and something that
he has convinced himself he survives with. "And then suddenly, without
willing it, he was thinking about Martha. The stresses and fractures,
the quick collapse, the two of them buried alive under all that
weight. Dense, crushing love" (O'Brian 11). Cross can not help his
subconscious desire to have a "hit" of Martha. Cross survives so that
he can have some of his drug and so that he can get that quick, fake
bliss.

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[Maeha Karlow]

I agree with Jarrett, though, I feel that Martha is less of a goal
than she is just something to keep Jimmy Cross' mind of of the war. I
believe that he does not even love her; the infatuation is based on an
escape, rather than love. This infatuation allows him to create a
mental world apart from the reality of war. He ponders what she meant
by "seperate-but-together," instead of wondering who will die next
(O'Brien, 8). He simply needs something else to keep his mind
occupied. Night after night, day after day, he would "return to his
hole and... wonder if Martha was a virgin," not because he genuinely
cared, but because it was better than wondering how close the Vietnam
soldiers could be (O'Brien, 2).

This fantasy only lasts until Lavender dies. He then recognizes that
the distraction has negative effect on the soldiers around him. He
quickly decides he "would get their shit together, and keep it
together, and maintain it neatly and in good working order" (O'Brien,
24). He could afford no more lives lost "because of [his] carelessness
and stupidity" (O'Brien, 25). Obviously, Cross did not truely love her
if he could drop all his emotional ties to Martha. He just needed a
mental escape.

[Zoe Kopin]

I agree with Kevin, Jimmy Cross uses his fixation on Martha as a way
to temporarily escape the war. While he is daydreaming about her, he
forgets about what is going on around him. During his daydreams, he
is still going through the motions of war, but his mind is elsewhere.
"Slowly, a bit distracted, he would get up and move among his men,
checking the perimeter, then at full dark he would return to his hole
and watch the night and wonder if Martha was a virgin" (O'Brien 2).
Cross begins to think about Martha constantly, because his thoughts
about her give him relief from the horrors of war. Any reminder of
her can distract him, such as the pebble she sends him in the mail.
"...he was not there. He was buried with Martha under the white sand
at the Jersey shore. They were pressed together, and the pebble in
his mouth was her tongue" (O'Brien 12). Jimmy Cross is not so much in
love with Martha as he is with the distraction she gives him from the
reality of war.

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[Natese]

I agree with Andre. Martha is somewhat an icon to Jimmy Cross. Just as
Kiowa carries his knife and Henry Dobbins extra rations of food, Cross
carries the letters and pictures of his one love. He knows Martha does
not share the same love for him as he does her; but, he still
continues to idolize over her, obsessing over her left knee and the
way she signs her letters with Love, Martha. She becomes Cross'
inspiration each day but also a terrible distraction that leads to
daydreaming heavily and losing concentration on leading his soldiers
through war. For example, Cross would read his letters and "At dusk,
he would carefully return the letters to his rucksack. Slowly, a bit
distracted, he would get up and move among his men... then at full
dark... return to his hole... and wonder if Martha was a
virgin"(O'Brien 2).

On Jan 20, 12:56 pm, "Hannah Baran (Louisa HS)"
<hannah.ka...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Rolph Recto]

Zoey: I see your point - and its makes perfectly good sense - but I
will have to disagree: I think Jimmy Cross is very much in love with
Martha. One can see that he is very hurt to think that Martha does not
reciprocate his love for her, that their relationship is strictly
platonic. The reason why he burns his photographs of Martha after Ted
Lavender died is because he recognizes that his love could forever
remain unrequited, and sees that his romantic fantasies of being with
her will never come to fruition. Jimmy Cross is very angry at Martha
for this; that is why "he loved her but he hated her" (O'Brien 24).

However, one must now explain *why* Jimmy Cross loves Martha. The
stark contrast between their environments is very telling: she lives
in a dorm in Mount Sebastian College, quotes lines of poetry, and
takes long walks at the beach; he carries heavy equipment through
endless slogs in the jungle and sleeps in a hole in a ground as death
looms over him at every instant. At night, Jimmy would "day slip away
into daydreams, just pretending, walking bare-foot along the Jersey
shore, with Martha, carrying nothing. He would feel himself rising.
Sun and waves and gentle winds, all love and lightness" (9). Thus, one
can clearly see the Jimmy loves Martha because she is the embodiment
of lightness, the antithesis of his present condition. Loving Martha
relieves him of the burden of the things he carries.

[Lindsey]

I agree with Zoe and Kevin. Cross uses Martha as an escape from the
war. He uses his love for her to distract himself from the hard times
he is going through. This is both a good and a bad thing. While he
doesn't let the actions of war get to him because of his profound
love, he also is too distracted. Martha takes Cross' mind too far
away from war so he can't focus on the actions before him. Cross
spends his nights wondering if Martha really cares for him instead of
putting all his thoughts towards caring for his unit. His thoughts
wander and when Lavender is killed, he blames himself. "He pictured
Martha's smooth young face, thinking he loved her more than anything,
more than his men, and now Ted Lavender was dead because he loved her
so much and could not stop thinking about her"; Cross' obsession with
Martha becomes a nuissance because he stops caring about his men when
she comes into his mind (O'Brian 7).

I also agree with Madison with the statement she makes about Martha is
only a vision of love for Cross, he doesn't truly love her. He just
needs an excuse to let his mind wander and to give him something to
look forward to. War is a nasty place and Cross feels the need to
create a fake love to make his time in Vietnam worthwhile.

[Emily Barnes]

I think that Cross fixates on her Martha because because Marthat is
not only her escape, but also because she reminds him of what he
caould have had if he hadn't been drafted. When he daydreamed about
Martha, he would imagine what it would be like to noy have to carry
anything. "...just pretending, walking barefoot along the Jersey
shore, with Martha, carrying nothing." In his daydreams with Martha,
Cross imagines that he doesn't have to carry anything, no equipment,
no weapons, and no responsibilty of another man's life. I think taht
this is the key, with Martha, he doesn't have to worry about taking
care of any man's life other than his own, like before he was drafted.