Change

" First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross began composing a letter in his head to the kid's father, not mentioning the shit field, just saying what a fine soldier Kiowa had been, what a fine human being, and how he was the kind of son that any father could be proud of forever." (pg. 157)

From the beginning of the book to now Lieutenant Cross has dramatically changed. Jimmy is a dynamic character in this book because he went through a major change after the death of Ted Lavender. In the beginning of the book, Jimmy was the one to make sure there was room in his bag for the letters from Martha and the pictures of her. After Ted's death, he burned these and tossed his good luck pebble into the wilderness.

Here is where he made a change to leave his old world behind and accept the new one he was placed in. Jimmy realized that his men had to be number one priority if he wanted to be successful. Now, later down the road, he has built great relationships with his men. Instead of keeping unrequited love letters, he now kept a spot in his bag for paper to write letters. In this point of the story he is thinking of his men and the letter he is going to write to Kiowa's father. Here we see how Jimmy's perspective and life have taken a 180 since the beginning of the war.