In The Lake Of The Woods Literary Analysis

Emily Morra
Ms. Drosdick
Honors English, Period 9
2/9/2018
Independent Book Essay: In the Lake of the Woods
Often times, love is compared to a wide variety of ideas and concepts. Despite the distinct genres and stories, all authors manage to get these ideas across through entailable aspects of plot. In the Lake of the Woods, written by Tim O’Brien, uses symbolism to generate several similar factors pertaining to the plot of his novel. With the entire novel centered around the unusual relationship between the two main characters, John and Kathy Wade, O’Brien’s development of these components can be observed repeatedly throughout this novel. Overall, O’Brien’s application of symbolism develops characterization, foreshadowing, mood, and the overarching

As well as John and Kathy’s love being such a mystery, it is also evident that it was even a war. As mentioned previously, the narrator tells this story with a flipping perspective, never going in chronological order. In between parts where it is shown how John is so scared, almost too much, to lose Kathy, there often seems to be some sort of flashback to his time at war in Vietnam, usually regarding Thuan Yen. It almost seems as if John and Kathy’s love is going back and forth, and one of them will never know, in a bad way, what the other has in store for them, or whether the battle will be won or lost. Like his time in Vietnam, his relationship with Kathy seems to be an everyday battle. They don’t seem very satisfied with their love, and for the reader, the tension between them seems almost constant, for example, in the supermarket. Rather than just grocery shopping and taking care of the day’s business, John and Kathy fall into an argument because of the growing tensions between them and in their relationship. One piece of evidence even states, “Love and War are the same thing, and stratagems and policy are as allowable in one as in the other.” (O’Brien 193). By including that love and war are the same thing, the author is almost telling the reader that John and Kathy’s so-called love was a war. In terms of their “stratagems,” John and Kathy obviously kept secrets from each other. John was secretive about politics and his campaigns, and Kathy was very secretive about her affair with the dentist. Also, the one time Kathy got pregnant, John told her to get an abortion, resulting in even more tension and hate between them rather than love. By exposing their love as war and as an everyday battle, characterization of John and Kathy is developed in terms of their feelings. Again, similar to the mystery of