Even though society nowadays is becoming more and more tolerant towards relationships between people of the same gender, we still are more used to the traditional love between the man and the woman. This is one of the central themes in the first chapter of the book because readers realize that in these times of war, love is what keeps soldiers motivated to go through the hard times, “To carry something was to hump it, as when Lieutenant Jimmy Cross humped his love for Martha up the hills and through the swamps” (O’Brien 3). You can see that nothing was easy during these times as you couldn’t just carry love, but you had to ‘hump it’ through all the obstacles that are represented by the ‘hills’ and ‘swamps’ and this is why it was worth it. What’s most important is that the soldiers carried their love for the people back home, which was their initial motivation since they didn’t know anything about anyone they were going to fight alongside with, “First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross carried letters from a girl named Martha.More than anything, he wanted Martha to love him as he loved her” (O’Brien