| In The Lake Of The Woods |
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SUMMARY The main storyline often branches out to flashbacks of significant events in John’s past. John’s childhood is constantly referred to as the advent of his persona, Sorcerer. As a child John was frequently abused verbally and physically by his alcoholic father, whom to other children seemed the perfect father. John often visited Karra’s Studio of Magic, but the only item he bought was the Guillotine of Death, purchased by his father. John was devastated after his father’s death. John and Kathy met and became intimate during their college years, despite the amount of secrets harbored between the two. John spied on Kathy, which she was aware of, just as he was aware of her affair with the dentist. When John was deployed to Vietnam he and Kathy conversed through letters, some of which frightened Kathy. John became deeply absorbed in his identity as Sorcerer. Charlie Company was involved in a massacre of a village, but later, while working a desk job in records, John erased his involvement with the Company. Afterwards, John became lieutenant governor of Minnesota and later ran for the US Senate , with his campaign managed by the business-oriented Tony Carbo. After his landslide loss, John and Kathy moved to a cottage in Lake of the Woods. They are continuously troubled by the revelation of John’s Vietnam secrets, but pretend to be happy nevertheless. One night John wakes up to boil a kettle of water for tea. Instead of preparing a drink, he pours the boiling water over a few household plants, reciting “Kill Jesus,” which seems to please him. He remembers climbing back into bed with Kathy, but the next morning she’s gone. After a day of walking around the area and discovering the boat’s absence, John talks to his closest neighbors, the Rasmussens. After some time they call the sheriff and organize a search party. The authorities are suspicious of John’s calm demeanor and noninvolvement in the search effort. Kathy’s sister joins the effort and John begins to search for Kathy as well. After a month the search party is called off and the investigation into John heats up. With a boat from Claude and supplies from the Mini-Mart, John heads north on the lake. Claude is the last person to talk to the disoriented John, over the boat’s radio. O’Brien introduces a number of theories over the course of the story. Maybe Kathy had sped over the lake too quickly, hit a rough patch of water, and had been violently tossed into the lake, where she drowned. Perhaps she had misnavigated the boat and had become hopelessly lost in the wilderness, only to run out of supplies. Or possibly John had returned to the bedroom with the boiling water and had poured it over her face, scalding her. Afterwards he would have sunk the boat and body in the lake, weighed down by a number of rocks. Or the event might have been John’s last great magic trick, a disappearing act. John and Kathy would have planned her disappearance, and to have John join her later on, after the search efforts had been called off, leaving them to a new start at life. O’Brien introduces numerous pieces of evidence to support these theories, and leaves the decision up to the reader. SETTING The present conflict in the story occurs in late 1986 , in northern Minnesota. The backwoods setting provided by Lake of the Woods is key in creating an air of mysteriousness around Kathy’s disappearance. John and Kathy intentionally choose this setting for its isolation from the outside world, which is desirable to them in their quest to forget the stress and emotion of the failed election. In addition to the immediate setting of the main course of action, the American political environment also pushes into action the story conflict, as well as develops the interaction between Kathy and John. Through the campaign the couple had let their relationship take backseat to the political issues immediately at hand. As they move to Lake of the Woods to relax and redefine their marriage, John and Kathy realize that their paths have drifted farther apart than initially believed. Although John is crushed by his political loss, Kathy is secretly glad that he will no longer be distracted by the ruthless field. As the two are emerged in the wooded setting, long-time secrets begin to resurface and tensions rise, setting up some very interesting theories for Kathy’s disappearance. CHARACTERS Main characters John Wade - A 41 year old man at the height of his political career, serves as the central focus of the novel. The lieutenant governor of Minnesota, John was running for the U.S. Senate when he was defeated in a landslide after details of his war actions in Vietnam were uncovered. John and his wife Kathy rent a cottage in Lake of the Woods, Minnesota after the primary to escape the pressures of the outside world. John is repressive of his memory of Vietnam, as well as details of his childhood, including his father’s death. Kathy Wade - John's Wife, has been intimately involved with John since their college days. She has stood by John’s side faithfully throughout their marriage, despite her fierce inner loathing for the field of politics that serves as John’s passion. Kathy is aware that John represses memories of his past, memories that bubble up in John’s dreams and subconsciousness. In spite of John’s anger and frustration from his loss in a landslide election, Kathy is secretly glad that he will be out of politics and more involved in her life again. Secondary Characters
QUOTATIONS AND STYLE ANALYSIS
:John has an unquenchable thirst for power, a thirst that eventually leads him into politics. We can trace this trend back to the death of John’s father. After John’s father died John would often hold conversations with himself, pretending that his father was still there. John poured all his concentration and effort into getting his father back, but even his magic kit was not able to bring him back to life. This leads him on a quest for power: practicing his magic tricks, entering the field of politics, extending his image as Sorcerer, altering records. Kathy recognized the need for control shown throughout John’s life, and it scared her to death, as she frequently voiced in her letters to John. As with his father, John attempts to erase the events that happened in Vietnam, and succeeds for a time. In the election this illusion becomes undone, exposing him as the powerless man that he’s always been, which sets up the conflict with himself and Kathy in Lake of the Woods. The quote shown here is a defining moment for the two characters, establishing their positions through the events leading up to Kathy’s disappearance.
:This passage serves to develop two characters, through speech and analysis. Tony is confirmed here to be the systematic, analytical character that he is introduced to be in the earlier political flashbacks. The jargon used by Tony only exaggerates his character more, as the crude, straightforward man that he is. But more importantly, we gain the insight of someone close to John, surprisingly an unbiased view of him. John and Tony were by no means friends; the partnership was purely political in nature. Tony reveals the angle of John that is hinted at but never directly stated by the narrator: John is in a state of extreme self denial. The magic world which he has created, where Vietnam never happened, has merged with the real world, so that he isn’t aware anymore where his fantasies end and where actual events begin. If it wasn’t for this facet of John’s subconsciousness, the mystery of Kathy’s disappearance wouldn’t be so immense. As the reader doesn’t know the difference between fact and fiction, the possibility of John killing Kathy is always open.
:The narrator lets his presence known especially in the footnotes of the evidence sections. Because of his involvement in Vietnam we can confirm John’s observations of his experience. Since Sorcerer always has a card up his sleeve it’s necessary to have an unbiased opinion on which to rely. In fact, the narrator does confirm what the soldiers of Charlie Company tell: Vietnam was a spiritual, ghostly place, almost a magic place. This magical shadow over the land serves to strengthen the magician façade that John holds over his fellow soldiers of Charlie Company. O’Brien communicates this feeling to the reader in the diction of the footnote. He captures the mystery of the war, and the frustration that arises from it in abrupt short sentences, imagery, personification of the surroundings, and repetition. In this environment of confusion, the reader is easily able to relate to John’s struggle with reality. As a whole, this passage helps to broaden the theme of magic.
:John’s motivation for deception is revealed in its true nature. John was by no means deceptive because he wished to hurt people. Ever since the verbal abuse he endured from his father, John had tried to hide his flaws in order to be accepted by those he loved and by those who loved him. Unfortunately, this mindset bypassed the truth that a relationship must be built on a foundation of trust. O’Brien utilized repeated sentence structure at the end of the passage to emphasize these feelings harbored by John. John searches for the reasons repeatedly mentioned at the start of the passage, and comes to the conclusion that his father never praised him because he was flawed in some way. Because of his deep love for Kathy and the persistent fear that he’ll lose her, John never reveals the horrors he experienced in Vietnam. Through his act as Sorcerer, John believes that he’ll appear flawless and thus won’t lose the love of his life. But most importantly, John harbors his evil secrets out of the love for Kathy that O’Brien promotes at the end of the quote. After all, “he was crazy about her.” (O’Brien 300)
:O’Brien won’t let the tale of a troubled war veteran end in a brutal murder. Nor would he consent to one definite conclusion for what was until then an uncertain mystery. By offering multiple terminations for an open-ended mystery, O’Brien forces the reader to look deeper at the possibly overlooked details of the novel. Instead of merely closing the book and reflecting on how good a story it was, the reader is inclined to think back on the actions of characters, concurrent evidence by other sources, reputation of those sources, and repetition throughout the plot. Driven by the innate human quest for the truth, one is prompted to make a decision for themselves. The most crucial piece of evidence in the quest to reach a conclusion is the repetition of the two snakes throughout the story. It seems quite logical that John would invent a way for himself and Kathy to disappear, as he had often wondered how to make one plus one zero. One could also argue that John had murdered his wife, in part because of the mental concerns plaguing his mind since the war. One might also agree that Kathy had disappeared, as a consequence of an accident. However, this would defeat the meaning of this piece of literature, totally abandoning the long-courted themes of love, confusion, power, and magic. THEMES REFERENCES
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