Effects Of War In Tim O Brien's In The Lake Of The Woods

The Effects of War in In the Lake of The Woods

The theme for In the Lake of The Woods is the effects of war a soldier must face when they come home from battle by the novel focusing on the protagonist John Wade and his internal struggles. The author uses imagery, symbolism, and diction as John Wade as he struggles to live alone with his wife on a cabin on a lake in the woods with both his past and future haunting him.

In Tim O'Brien's novel, there are many instances of imagery when John is having to go through his memories of what happened in Vietnam, especially when he is in a trench and saw everyone around him kill all that moved or breathed.. Later throughout the novel he lied constantly about what happened and often he thought especially

But John’s magic tricks did not start at Vietnam, it started while back while his father was still alive. “He spends his lonely childhood practicing magic tricks and discovers that he can retreat behind the magic mirrors in his mind and deny both his father's death and his rage at that death”(Trudy Bush). These mirrors were essential for his life. In addition to their purpose they also symbolized the safe times he use to have, quite possibly his life would have gone so much worse or so much better. These mirrors in his head serve to retreat him from the struggles in his life. They released him from the pain of his father’s suicide, the struggles in Vietnam to an extent to where he can live and get by. The mirrors act as a “security blanket” for him, the idea that he is his own audience was comforting. He could control all around him and manipulate objects before his very own eyes. It made him feel that for once, he actually had control of his own life despite the events in the

Most of the time he is in a trench coated with mud and other liquids that not even he knows what they are.”he found himself lying in a muddy trench while all around him, in some too-explicable exorcism of small-arms fire, an entire village was put to death.”(Verlyn Klinkenborg). Hence the use of Cataplexis when the village around him was put down into flames and everyone killed right in front of him. The impending doom of not John but all those around him. A majority women and children but they themselves saw them as the enemy, without no enemy there is no war. On page 267 the novel reads “He would call in artillery. He would fire up jungles. He would make the rivers burn”. Which means John may have seen actual rivers burn but it is more than that, he himself felt a part of his being ripped away or his sanity lost. The fire he had inside of him, the passion of life and to go home yet agaibn”He [John] was not a religious man, but he now found himself talking to God, explaining how much he hated him.”(Trudy Bush). Another Example is the use of allusion by using a couple of biblical references and even John having a deep hatred for God. Possibly for the events that happened in his life from the past or now, perhaps all together at once.“In the Lake of the Woods contains profoundly religious themes. O'Brien has written about how the