Melissa Tyndall English 1020 Dr.

Hawkins April 4, 2001 Romantic Notions Halt Realitys Motion:

Love and Distraction in Yellow Woman and The Things They Carried

People sometimes become so wrapped up in love that they are swept away and the only thing that matters is the two people who are in love. But, before a couple can ride off into Grimm Brothers sunset and live happily ever after, people must differentiate between reality and myth. In the real world people have jobs, tasks, and responsibilities they must carry out. In Yellow Woman, the Yellow Woman leaves her responsibility as a mother and wife to pursue an affair that she claims is part of a myth with a fairy tale quality. The woman meets Silva by the river, he implies he is a god from a Native American myth, and she simply goes with the stranger (the Yellow Woman excuses her affair by claiming that she is just part of the ancient myth). In The Things They Carried, First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross evades his responsibility as the commanding officer by constantly slipping into a dream world where he and a girl named Martha are together. Instead of being focused on important military tasks, Cross is busy making up romantic scenarios in his head. In both stories, the main characters are caught up in dream worlds that distract them from carrying out their responsibilities and are awakened from their romantic dreams by gunshots. The best way to exemplify the mindset of the Yellow Woman are her thoughts as she lies with this stranger, This is the way it happens in the stories, I was thinking, with no thought beyond the moment she meets the katsina spirit and they go. (Silko 723). The Native American woman obviously had no previous thought about her

responsibilities as a mother or wife before sleeping with a total stranger. Her first thoughts of home were not worry for her family, but she selfishly wondered what they had thought happened to her. The Yellow Woman, caught up in a dream world, did not seem to see past the fairy tale she was living. She had convinced herself that Silvas claim of being a god was true, and that they were meant to be together. This idea of fate made the Native American female lose touch with reality and slip into oblivion. I was surrounded by silence. I drowsed with apricots in my mouth, and I didnt believe that there were highways or railroads or cattle to steal. (Silko 724). The real world had disappeared to the woman, who was only concerned with her affair. When the Yellow Woman finally gave thought to the real world and her family that lived below the mountain, she did not think of going back to her duties as a wife or mother. There are enough of them to handle things. My mother and grandmother will raise the baby like they raised me. Al will find someone else, and they will go on just like before. The Yellow woman abandoned her responsibilities and her family for a myth. The woman was hasty and thoughtless, as she said, I did not decide to go. I just went. (Silko 725). This statement further explains the neglectful attitude of the adulterous and irresponsible woman who was soon awakened. Although the womans dream world surrounded Silva, so did her awakening. Silva, who turned out to be a thief rather than a god, was out riding with the Yellow Woman when they came upon a rancher. The rancher was upset about someone stealing livestock from local ranchers and confronted Silva as the culprit. As the Yellow Woman rode away as she was instructed, four gunshots awoke her from her dream-like state. It

was then she realized that Silva had probably killed the rancher, and follows the paved road back to her home and her responsibilities (Silko 726-27). In The Things They Carried, First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross also leaves his responsibilities for a dream world. The officer does not physically leave his men (as Yellow Woman did), but mentally drifts away into a myth of his own making. In fact, rather than preparing for what would occur the next day, Cross would dig his foxhole at the end of the day and spend the last hour of light pretending. (OBrien 1481). Cross used his last moments of daylight dreaming up a mutual love that did not exist. He imagined romantic trips, licked Marthas envelopes because her tongue had been there, and wondered about her sexual past. At dusk Cross put his letters away and, Slowly, and a bit distracted, he would get up and move among his men, then at full dark he would return to his hole and watch the night and wonder if Martha was a virgin. (OBrien 1481). Obviously, Lieutenant Cross could not be prepared for an ambush or something of the like in such a state. Crosss distracting dream world clearly endangered his men. Once again, First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross also was distracted as he marched with his men, focusing more on Martha than the soldiers of the Vietnam War. Crosss mind wandered to a date he had with Martha at a movie theatre, where he touched her knee and eventually kissed her. Obviously unsatisfied with the result of the date, the young soldier once again begins to create romantic scenarios when he should have been tending to the task at hand. Instead he thought how, He shouldve carried her up to her room and tied her to the bed and touched that left knee all night long. (OBrien 1482-83). Cross kept going over what he should have done rather that what he was currently responsible for.

Lieutenant Cross also evaded his responsibilities when Martha sent him a lucky pebble, for he was once again transported from reality. Cross pondered his beloveds true feelings and romanticized her letter about being separate but together (OBrien 1844). The soldier imagined himself on the Jersey shore with Martha, and what she would look like on the beach. On occasion he would yell at his men to spread out the column, to keep their eyes open, but then he would slip away into daydreams, just pretending, walking barefoot on the Jersey shore, with Martha, carrying nothing (OBrien 1845). It was due to this faulty and misguided mindset that Lieutenant Cross ended up isolating and blaming himself for the death of Ted Lavender, a fellow soldier. The day Lavender was killed, while a soldier was investigating a hole, Cross unwillingly began to think of Martha again. He tried to concentrate on his soldier and the war but Lieutenant Cross gazed at the tunnel. But he was not there (OBrien 1486). Instead of being concerned with the safety of his men, Cross thought about lying on the seashore and kissing Martha. Moments later, one of the soldiers was shot on his way back from urinating. The young soldier then hated himself for his obsession with his daydreams, he had loved a woman more than his comrades and it had resulted in a death that Cross would have to carry forever (OBrien 1489). It was after this shooting that Lieutenant Cross realized that Martha would never love him and belonged to a fantasy world that he would never be a part of (OBrien 1489). The next morning Cross burned Marthas letters and began gain. No more fantasies, he told himself as he shut down his illusions. The Lieutenant finally began to see the cruel and harsh reality of war rather than his mental paradise. It was due to the death of a man that, Lieutenant Cross reminded himself that his obligation was not to be loved but to lead. (OBrien 1492-93)

In both Yellow Woman and The Things They Carried, the main characters got caught up in daydreams about love that made them forget their responsibilities. Their romantic notions and sentiments both played a part in death, and it was these tragic circumstances that brought Yellow Woman and Jimmy Cross back to reality. While people are taught about myths and fairy tales at a young age, people cannot allow their romantic ideas to run away with them. These two stories show that there is a fine line between healthy romanticism and losing ones sense of reality. In Leslie Silkos story, as well as in Tim OBriens, the main characters romantic notions and dreams distract them from carrying out their responsibilities and they suffer for those actions.