Martha

Martha, a young woman, supports Jimmy Cross, a man stationed in Vietnam, Through her gifts. Jimmy Cross had carried her letters ''In the late afternoon, after a days march, he would dig his foxholes, wash his hands under a canteen, unwrap the letters, hold them with the tips of his fingers, and spend the last hour of light pretending'' (O'Brien 1). Jimmy cross uses these letters to escape the horrific truths of war. He uses extreme care with these letters, washing his hands, and using just his fingertips, as he views Martha as these letters, Delicate and careful, steryotypical traits of a woman. These letters represent Martha as Jimmy immediantly pictures her, daydreaming, whilst reading these letters. Martha emotionally supports Cross through her letters by providing peaceful memories of her, which allows him to spend the last hour of daylight peacefully. Another gift Martha provided is a pebble she picked up from the beach back at home. Jimmy cross used this gift to comfort him as ''he carried the pebble in his mouth, turning it with his tongue, tasting the sea salt and moisture. His mind wandered. He had difficulty keeping his mind on the war. On occasion, He would yell at his men, to keep their eyes open, but then he would just slip away into daydreams, walking barefoot along the Jersey Shore, with Martha'' (O'Brien 8). This pebble is used as an escape from the atrocites of Vietnam as Jimmy Cross views Martha inside the pebble. Even during an important march with his platoon, Jimmy is imersed in a dream with Martha at the beach. Her feminine memory provides him with enough comfort to have this important moment with his platoon disrupted. Her nurturing and soothing nature as a woman provides him enough security to allow him to daydream during Vietnam. This shows how Martha comforts cross by demonstrating how he is soothed by her gifts. A literary Critisism by Katherine Dabrieo showcases how Martha provides the comfort of a tradional wife, "The reverence with which Jimmy treats Martha's letters illustrates the importance of her role in his war experience; to him, she is a comfort amidst the chaos, love despite the violence. Martha sends Jimmy poems, photographs, and "a good-luck charm" (9), a pebble from the Jersey shore that she had carried close to her heart before sending it to Jimmy "as a token of her truest feelings for him" (9). Her letters are long and beautifully written. In this sense, in her faithful and genuine letter-writing, Martha fulfills the traditional duty of a woman left behind on the home front during a time of war." (Dabrieo 6). This passage illustrates how Martha in The Things They Carried represents a traditional wife, despite not being married, during Vietnam. She cares for and nurtures Cross via her photos, letters, and gifts. This shows that Martha in The Things They Carried is emotionally supportive of a man, Jimmy, on the battlefield. Another way Martha comforts Cross is through her feminine looks. "Her eyes were gray and neutral, her lips slightly open as she stared straight-on at the camera ...Her legs, he thought were almost certainly the legs of a virgin, dry and without hair, the left knee cocked and carrying her entire weight, which was just over 117 pounds" (O'Brien 4). Cross uses his mental image of Martha to support him during war, wondering if she is a virgin or not.