In The Lake Of The Woods Summary

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Pages: 5

Tim O’Brien’s In the Lake of the Woods is a love mystery. John Wade, the protagonist of the story, is married with Kathy Wade. They met in college and while John was in the Vietnam War, Kathy waited for him. They finally move to Lake of the Woods but one morning John wakes up without Kathy by his side. Her disappearance led to the main conflict of the story. In Lake of the Woods is a mysterious and easy place to get lost in. John eventually gets accused for the murder of his wife because of his childhood, college years, and Vietnam experiences.With John’s political career, Kathy finds it irritating to be a politician’s wife so she might have just decided to run away. A boating accident might have been the cause of her death as well. Ultimately, …show more content…
John’s early life is used against him to accuse him for the disappearance of Kathy. As a child, John was abused by his father. The relationship they had together was difficult. After his father committed suicide, he grew a craving to kill. O’Brien claims “What John felt that night, and for many nights afterwards, was the desire to kill. At the funeral he wanted to kill everybody who was crying and everybody who wasn’t. He wanted to take a hammer and crawl into the casket and kill his father for dying. But he was helpless. He didn’t know where to start.” (O’Brien 28). This proves the anger John has and the capability of murder. The Vietnam experiences he has and how it affects him shows the readers how John is highly suited of murdering his wife. He has such a terrible temper that he’s willing to kill anyone. O’Brien declares “He’d go the eyes. Yes, he would. Tear out the bastard’s eyeballs-fists and fingernails-just punch and claw and hammer and bite. God, too. He hoped there was a God so he could kill him.” (O'brien 83). This statement can prove a lot about John. He is willing to a kill a God, therefore, he is willing to kill his wife. He is the target of much suspicion. His background might say a lot about him, but there’s no complete evidence that he did murder