Malcolm D. Ervin
Professor Kristen Raymond
English 1101
28 September 2011
Pebble: The Symbol of Emotion
In The Things They Carried, O’Brien talks about many of the objects that he and his comrades carried while they were in Vietnam. They carried things like food, water, weapons and ammunition. They also carried comfort items like tranquilizers and M&M’s. Although the weight of these things placed a physical burden on the soldiers, it was the emotional weight that each of the soldiers carried that took the heaviest toll on them. The pebble, carried by Lieutenant Jimmy Cross, symbolizes multiple things that evolve throughout the text. It will prove to be a source of comfort, anguish, and relief to him.
Lt. Cross was madly in love
It was his fault because his mid was always on Martha. “…First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross crouched at the bottom of his foxhole and burned Martha's letters. Then he burned the two photographs. … but he used heat tabs and Sterno to build a small fire, screening it with his body, holding the photographs over the tight blue flame with the tips of his fingers”(O’Brien pg. 20). Cross thinks that destroying the things that remind him of Martha will put his mind at ease, knowing that Lavender was killed on his watch. “Moments before Ted Lavender, a doped-up, sleepy-eyed member of Alpha Company, is shot while "on his way back from peeing," Lieutenant Cross is "not there" because 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. He was smiling. Vaguely, he was aware of how quiet the day was, the sullen paddies, yet he could not bring himself to worry about matters of security” (Chen 86). Cross was too busy dreaming about being at home with Martha to realize that his friend was in danger. He was not “there”. Although he was in his fox hole making out with a pebble, in Cross’ mind, he is on the beach in New Jersey making out with Martha. The pebble symbolizes his love for Martha. He destroyed the letters and the pictures Martha sent him after Lavender’s death. The one thing he couldn’t destroy was the pebble. He could have thrown it away, but it would still exist. Just like his love for