In the United States, 50% of marriages end in divorce. In most cases, lovers lose their trust in each other and fall apart. It is not until they are gone that they realize what they truly lost: a companion, a lover, a best friend. In the novel Tim O’brien sheds light on such relationships alike Kathy’s and Wade’s by utilizing symbolism and setting. Wade and Kathy lose their trust in one another and they split apart with Wade the protagonist is immensely affected by it; understandably, loss in trust is backstabbing but without it, humans cannot appreciate what they have. In the very beginning of the novel, O’brien sets the mood and atmosphere of the residence. This also creates imagery of the situation of Wade and Kathyś marriage. O’brien …show more content…
It can even be said that O’brien exploited symbols to represent different personas of the characters such as: onions, and peas in a pod. The wife of a good friend of Wade was interrogated and she compares Wade to “one of them famous onions” (O’brien 190), she mentions that if “you keep peeling back the layers, there’s always more.” (O’brien 190). Wade was known to have “two lives; one, open, seen… another… in secret.” (O’brien 192), he was very secretive even in his marriage; however, he’s like that because he loves Kathy. Wade suffers from P.T.S.D due to his service in Vietnam. He tries to keep everything hidden away from Kathy and the public--knowing they would think very differently of him if they find out what he has been through. Wade lies beneath many layers of secrets, “if you keep peeling back the [secrets], there’s always more.” (O’brien 190). The next symbol that appears to be the most obvious yet one of the most important would be the Lake itself. Throughout the novel, the narrator mentions the lake being massive and incredibly complex. Towards the end of the novel, the narrator mentions that “everything is present, everything is missing--nothing adds or subtracts” (O’brien 287). That being said, the lake can represents the depth of secrets and past problems of all the characters--more specifically Wade. Wade has more problems than anybody else in this novel;