Analysis of In The Lake Of The Woods Essay

Vietnam was a very tragic war for the American soldiers. For many of them seeing so many innocent people die made them crazy and go into shock. After returning back home many suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. John Wade also suffered from this condition making him restless and very disturbed. Because of Johns mental condition it can be said that he murdered his own wife without even knowing it, therefore Kathy Wade is In the lake of the Woods.

Primarily, there is evidence that on the night of the crime John Wade entered the bedroom with the teakettle while Kathy was still there. It was almost a fact, but not quiet, that he moved down the hallway to their bedroom that night, where for a period of time he watched Kathy sleepAt one point he remembered her eyelids had snapped open (188-189). After boiling the plants to death he came straight to the room to see his wife while he was still holding the kettle in his hand. Odd, he thought. The numbness inside him. The way his hands had no meaningful connection to his wrist'"' (50). Undoubtedly, this quote says that because John could not feel his wrist tilting he did not feel that he had poured the water out of the teakettle one to Kathy who suddenly woke up.

After doing the damage of boiling his wife he still did not realize what he had done. In the dark she seemed to smile at him. Then she jerked sideways, puffs of steam rose from the sockets of her eyes. Impossible, of course (84). In the dark everything looks distorted so obviously the smile that John saw in the dark was a look of pain and the puffs of steam came from the melting of Kathys eyes. He remembered the weight of the teakettle. He remembered puffs of steam in the dark...the steady lap of waves against his chestAbsurd, Wade thought (131-132). Because this story is written from the point of view of John, the words impossible of course and absurd, Wade thought would mean he did not see any of this as real which is why he continued to boil Kathy to death and did not think much of it the next morning.

Finally after Wade dumps her into the lake and sinks her to the bottom, he goes back home and forgets it even happened but as time goes by pictures of the night flash through his head randomly. When Patty comes to see him, Wade goes to check out the boat house in the middle of the night and has a strange feeling. As sense of pre-memory washed over him. Things had happened here. Things said things done (188). From this quote the reader can see that Wade is starting to remember the night and later on he starts to show that he knows exactly where she is. He didnt think about it. Quick, he stripped naked and filled his lungs and dove to the bottom where Kathy was (242). From the bottom of the lake, eyes wide open, Kathy Wade watches the fish fly up to swim in the land of sky blue waters... (286). Kathy stares up at him from beneath the surface of a silvered lakeshe swims in the blending twilight of it in between (288). Nearing the end of the story John realizes what he has done. Had he harmed her? Well no, but yes (283). This statement means that he had harmed her, yes, but he did it in his sleep, justifying that he didnt mean to. He was Sorcerer. He was guilty of that, and always would be...if object was survival, which it was not (280). The name Sorcerer was given to a side of John Wade that wanted to kill, manipulate, do magic, or make things disappear (the papers at the desk job in Vietnam and Kathy). These quotes mean that he was sorry for what he had done and that was why he went to commit suicide.

In conclusion, Kathy is in the lake because John boiled her to death by pouring hot water on her with a key kettle; similar to what he was doing to his house plants. After John found out what Sorcerer had done to his wife he went to commit suicide thinking that this would give Kathy justice in what he did to her. Tim OBrien said he wrote this story to give me back my vanished life (298). Like John Wade, Tim OBrien was a veteran of Vietnam who met characters like PFC Weatherby, Cally and the man with the hoe and wrote his experiences with them in this book. The key lesson to be remembered from In the Lake in the Woods is illustrated by this final quote from the author. All secrets lead to the dark, and beyond the dark there is only maybe.