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Character Analysis Of John Wade In In The Lake Of The Woods

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The protagonist of In the Lake of the Woods, John Wade can attribute most of his traits to his experiences and choices that he has made in his life. Specifically, his childhood and fighting in Vietnam affected John immensely, in which shaped him into the secretive and murderous man he is today. While the events of his childhood laid the original framework for this instability, it was truly the war that ingrained it within John. The secretive and distrusting nature of John originates from his own father's secretiveness he witnessed as a child. At first glance John’s father seemed like a great guy with zero problems: “People enjoyed his company-- John too-- and the neighborhood kids were always stopping by...to toss around a football or listen to his father’s stories…” (O’Brian, 2006, pg.66). In reality, his father was …show more content…

As a kid grows up, they learn from their parents how to deal with situations. In the case of John, his dad had a huge influence on him and seeing his dad sneak into the garage at night to have a drink had a huge impact, whether he knew it or not. John learned from his father to put up a front that everything is normal, even though things were far from that. Alike his dad’s secrets of being an alcoholic, John withheld the stories of the horrific things he did in Vietnam from Kathy. In this respect, the events of him killing innocent people and committing war crimes in Vietnam contributed to his secretive nature as well. He himself can’t seem to come to terms with the atrocities his battalion committed--which is why he keeps revisiting the memories--

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John and his father eventually created a bond and started talking about the war, “if we were alone, he would begin talking about some aspect of the war or of his service” (McLean 355). In other words Jonathan's dad was hurt when he saw his son looking through his stuff. Jonathan's actions mentally hurt his father because he didn't respect the boundaries and instead of asking him about the war he just went through his stuff. In real life most people don't want to talk about a “touchy” (topic they are sensitive about) subject unless the other person understands it. Although Johnathens dad was hurt by his son, looking through his fathers stuff created a more

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They continued a flawed and sad relationship for many years past the point of recovery and ultimately paid the price for it with Kathy’s suicide. Issues such as fear and dishonesty both consciously and unconsciously began and persisted from the beginning to the end. John developed mental issues after his father committed suicide, one of the results of these issues was that John has metaphorical mirrors in his head that deflect and protect him from the truth (65-66). When undesirable things happen in his life, he tried to bury and

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The significance of war in John Wade’s life, has deformed his present state of mind and diluted the clarity of his daily thoughts and actions. The horrific events he experienced caused a terminal disease, as evident by his spastic fits of yelling “Kill Jesus”, running in-and-out of the bedroom he shares with Kathy, kicking and screaming as if he was possessed by a devil, and his unstoppable quest to end any life in his presence. John decides to acheive this by killing all plants in his home. As he waits for the pot to boil, he imagines himself, “kicking and gouging. He’d go for the eyes.

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