Analysis Of Tim O Brien's In The Lake Of The Woods

Tim O’Brien’s narrative structure in his novel In the Lake of the Woods parallels the mystery of the disappearances of John and Kathy Wade, as well as soldiers’ understanding of My Lai, deliberately submerging readers in a state of inconsistency and ignorance. The novel’s incorporation of hypothesized events surrounding Kathy’s disappearance—each expanded upon as though narrating factual occurrences—obscures the truth. The culmination of deep investigation of every possibility throughout this work is merely a set of unfathomable questions, reflecting O’Brien’s view of war.
He wants his readers to question each possibility and, ultimately, to question one’s ability to understand reality altogether. As the narrator states, “Nothing is fixed, nothing solved. The facts, such as they are, finally spin off into the void of things missing, the inconclusiveness of conclusion… All secrets lead to the dark,

and beyond the dark there is only maybe” (O’Brien 304). The facts of Kathy’s and John’s disappearances lie somewhere beneath all of the conjectures, confusion, and misremembrances, suggesting that the human mind cannot never fully distinguish fact from fiction regarding traumatic events. The soldiers of My Lai would have similar but intensified traumas to those who have just lost a loved one who, as evidenced by In the Lake of the Woods, struggle to understand the reality of the events.
John Wade’s use of disappearing as a defense mechanism is exacerbated by his participation in the My Lai Massacre.

Coping by losing himself in an innately fraudulent political role and by repressing his traumatic memories, the protagonist leads a duplicitous life based on his own less painful version of truth. While other soldiers may not entirely repress their actions in the war and otherwise, O’Brien reveals the extent to which the truth of traumatic events of war is incomprehensible. The occurrences of My Lai were experienced differently by each individual: every soldier, every victim, and every witness. The various visuals, thoughts, noises, and physical experiences, and the multitude of interpretations of each of these sensations by each person, render objective understanding and accurate recollection impossible. O’Brien reveals that, whether as the result of people altering events in their minds to cope with the reality—as John Wade does—or of simply experiencing things from one’s position that is unavoidable biased, My Lai can never be accurately

understood.