Jimmy Cross

Jimmy Cross, The lieutenant of the Alpha Company. He is responsible for the entire group of men. But he only joined because his friends were, and he did not want to be drafted. He was in charge of the whole platoon. Although he has admirable intentions, he is shaky and unconfident of how to lead his men. His unrequited love for Martha has blinded him in the sense that he does not focus on his platoon as he should. After one monumental accident, he burns the letters and picture of Martha and refocuses on his platoon and their safety along with his. The picture he thought of the most was when she was playing volleyball “Martha was bent horizontal to the floor, reaching, the palms of her hands in sharp focus, the tongue taut, the expression frank and competitive. There was no visible sweat. She wore white gym shorts. 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 one hundred pounds. Lieutenant Cross remembered touching that left knee. A dark theater, he remembered, and the movie was Bonnie and Clyde, and Martha wore a tweed skirt, and during the final scene, when he touched her knee, she turned and looked at him in a sad, sober way that made him pull his hand back, but he would always remember the feel of the tweed skirt and the knee beneath it and the sound of the gunfire that killed Bonnie and Clyde, how embarrassing it was, how slow and oppressive. He remembered kissing her goodnight at the dorm door. Right then, he thought, he should've done something brave. He should've carried her up the stairs to her room and tied her to the bed and touched that left knee all night long. He should've risked it. Whenever he looked at the photographs, he thought of new things he should've done.” This picture was in his mind when his most monumental moment took place. The moment is when Ted Lavender is shot and killed. Jimmy Cross conceded himself to be distracted