Summary Of John Wade's In The Lake Of The Woods

The complexities and dark backgrounds of the core relationships experienced by John Wade in the text In the Lake of the Woods, parallels the structure and presentation of the plot line that warps the underlining truth understood by the readers. Understood by the readers as manipulative, John Wade’s persona has the potential to be altered in the face of each relationship he forges through the modification of information flow towards his audience. In a similar manner, the configuration of chapters through the text promotes the reader’s natural thought process through decision making to determine the guilt of John Wade. As the text advances repeatedly through background, evidence and finally hypothesis with new situations suggested, the information

Progressing through the novel, the length of hypothesis’ given lengthens to account for an increased amount of background that the reader has accumulated, taking more factors into consideration. The active knowledge of the narrator’s game is proposed as “although this plethora of information may seem valuable, it will lead the reader only further into his own Lake of the Woods, a place where facts are useless and conjecture supplies only open-ended answers” (Radelich 572). Suggests that the more that is believed to be known, the more the reader is thrown into a spiral of information that is not particularly useful in the determination of guilt of John Wade. In the whirlwind of information where information flows as the narrator allows and possible explanations are forged, the ability of the narrator to sway the audience is optimized. Observed most clearly in the evidence sections, the narrator speaks directly to the audience about the evidence and what is to be made of it. By incorporating an opinion, the narrator hints towards the hypothesis that is believed to be most true by the narrator. An example of this may be found in “The truth is at once simple and baffling: John Wade was a pro. He did his magic then walked away” (O’Brien 266). This statement made by the narrator has the potential to sway the audience into the belief that John Wade was guilty. The sections in which the narrator speaks directly to the reader are used to influence their own opinion on what the true fate of John and Kathy