In the book In the Lake of the Woods, the character John fought in a war, and throughout the book it portrays the effects of the war. The profound impact of war intertwines with various facts of life, shaping the character’s journey. The forces that impacted the writing of this book are the era in which it was written, O’Brien’s personal experience, and societal influences. The Vietnam War, an important period in American history, significantly shaped the writing of In the Lake of the Woods. O’Brien, a veteran of the Vietnam War himself, drew upon his own experience and observation to capture the psychological effects of war. In the book it says, “After he’s shot PFC Weatherby - which was an accident, the purest reflex - he tricked himself …show more content…
Even though the War technically ended in 1975, the people who experienced it now had to fight another war within themselves. In an article talking about the long-term impacts of the Vietnam War it says, “approximately a decade after the end of the Vietnam War, it found that for many veterans, their PTSD had become a chronic (that is, persistent and long-lasting) condition” (Matthew). With so many people dealing with such effects, even after many years have passed, the timing of O’Brien couldn’t have been better. People could easily connect with the characters and sympathize with them, even as far as coping with what they may be going through. O’Brien’s personal experience as a Vietnam War veteran undoubtedly influenced his writing for the book. In an interview, O’Brien reflects on the time he experienced during the war, stating, “The sorrow you feel when a friend dies, and the subsequent anger when there’s no way to strike back” (Interview). The emotions he states he felt after losing someone during the war are relatively similar to how John Wade felt when his father …show more content…
Beyond the personal experiences of the author, the book is also influenced by the societal trends at the time. A genre the book falls into is psychological thrillers, “.Psychological thrillers are relatively recent, as they gained popularity in the early 90s” (Grigoryan). Although O’Brien may have had other reasons to write this book the way he did, there’s no doubt that the popularity of the specific genre played a part in deciding how it was written. Psychological thrillers usually feature a protagonist who is driven by obsession or violence, along with eternal conflicts (Dukes). John often showcases such behavior, in the book it says, “...for John Wade the spying was like an elaborate detective game, a way of crawling into his father’s mind and spending some time there” (O’Brien 2009). John has a habit of spying on people he’s close to and has done it multiple times. He does this because of his internal conflict with himself, when he spied on Kathy, he did so because he was insecure, and when he spies on his father, he does so because he thinks his father hates
The Vietnam War was a controversial conflict that plagued the United States for many years. The loss of life caused by the war was devastating. For those who came back alive, their lives were profoundly changed. The impact the war had on servicemen would affect them for the rest of their lives; each soldier may have only played one small part in the war, but the war played a huge part in their lives. They went in feeling one way, and came home feeling completely different. In the book Vietnam Perkasie, W.D. Ehrhart describes his change from a proud young American Marine to a man filled with immense confusion, anger, and guilt over the atrocities he witnessed and participated in during the war.
Tim O'Brien is confused about the Vietnam War. He is getting drafted into it, but is also protesting it. He gets to boot camp and finds it very difficult to know that he is going off to a country far away from home and fighting a war that he didn't believe was morally right. Before O'Brien gets to Vietnam he visits a military Chaplin about his problem with the war. "O'Brien I am really surprised to hear this. You're a good kid but you are betraying you country when you say these things"(60). This says a lot about O'Brien's views on the Vietnam War. In the reading of the book, If I Die in a Combat Zone, Tim O'Brien explains his struggles in boot camp and when he is a foot soldier in Vietnam.
...but scared children who are alone and lost in the world, the kids who fought battle in Vietnam went to war thinking they knew all of the answers and somewhere in the middle of it all they realized that they are scared kids who don’t understand what is going on the world around them. They wish only to be in the safety of their mothers home. Everything in the story symbolizes and relates to the truth in war, attitude and actions that cause war are the same that take place with the characters inGreasy lake. The changes that the narrator goes through at Greasy lake are similar changes that happened in young kids who fought in the Vietnam War.
Tim O’Brien begins his journey as a young “politically naive” man and has recently graduated out of Macalester College in the United States of America. O’Brien’s plan for the future is steady, but this quickly changes as a call to an adventure ruins his expected path in life. In June of 1968, he receives a draft notice, sharing details about his eventual service in the Vietnam War. He is not against war, but this certain war seemed immoral and insignificant to Tim O’Brien. The “very facts were shrouded in uncertainty”, which indicates that the basis of the war isn’t well known and perceived
An interesting combination of recalled events and editorial commentary, the story is not set up like a traditional short story. One of the most interesting, and perhaps troubling, aspects of the construction of “How to Tell a True War Story” is O’Brien’s choice to create a fictional, first-person narrator who might just as well be the author himself. Because “How to Tell a True War Story” is told from a first-person perspective and O’Brien is an actual Vietnam veteran, a certain authenticity to this story is added. He, as the “expert” of war leads the reader through the story. Since O’Brien has experienced the actual war from a soldier’s point of view, he should be able to present the truth about war...
O Brien 's point of view is an accurate one as he himself because he is a Vietnam veteran. The title of the short story is meaningful because it describes each soldier’s personality and how he handles conflict within the mind and outside of the body during times of strife. The title fits the life as a soldier perfectly because it shows the reality that war is more than just strategy and attacking of forces. O’Brien narrates the story from two points of view: as the author and the view of the characters. His style keeps the reader informed on both the background of things and the story itself at the same
John Wade craved love, admiration and affection. All his life, all he wanted was to be loved, and his father’s constant taunting hurt him immensely. In going to the war, John fulfilled his dream to become a figure who was both admired and respected. He was not a strong, macho man, who thrived upon violence and bloodshed, yet he was young and ambitious. Wade saw the war as a way of gaining ‘hero’ status in order to reach his lifelong ambitions of reaching the U.S Senate. When the revelations about his acts in the war were made, John Wade lost everything that he had fought so hard to build for himself. In this superficial way, one may argue that it was the war that ultimately led to who John Wade became at the end of the novel, yet many other factors involving his life before the war must be examined.
In the Lake of the Woods is a fictional mystery written by Tim O'Brien. Through the book we learn that our lovers, husbands, and wives have qualities beyond what our eyes can see. John Wade and Kathy are in a marriage so obscure that their secrets lead to an emotional downfall. After John Wade loss in his Senatorial Campaign, his feeling towards Kathy take on a whole different outlook. His compulsive and obsessive behavior causes Kathy to distance herself from him. His war experience and emotional trauma are a major cause for his strange behavior. We remain pondering about Kathy's mysterious disappearance, which becomes fatal for her. Possible scenarios are presented in eight chapters marked 'Hypothesis', these chapters add a mysterious twist which can change our train of thought to 'maybe' or 'perhaps' this is the truth.
Bagby, the author utilizes the literary device, imagery, to illustrate the fact that he will never be able to forget the severity of the war and the fact that fighting in the war causes him to struggle to keep his sanity due to the terrifying realities he faces. For instance, Bagby writes, “I will never be the same though, never, never, never. If I have to go into battle again, if I am not killed, I will come out insane... The friends I lost and the many bodies I carried back to the helicopters to be lifted out, I will never forget” (Bagby 1). In this passage, Kenneth W. Bagby wrote to his parents that he was afraid of having to go into battle again because felt he would go insane. By using descriptive language, the author is able to appeal the the reader’s sense of fear and helps the reader visualize Bagby carrying soldiers that are injured or deceased to be taken out. With this in mind, the readers can see that war is not an event that Bagby is able to let go of because what he experienced was so horrifying that it will leave a permanent burden on his shoulders. Moreover, Bagby writes “ I got to know this boy well, and he was my best friend. His name was Dan Davis. On Monday morning, the 15th of November, he died in my arms of two bullet wounds in the chest” (Bagby 1). In this quote, Kenneth W. Bagby described the death of his best friend, Dan Davis, which he met on the ship to Vietnam. By being specific about how Dan
"War is hell . . . war is mystery terror and adventure and courage and discovery and despair and . . . war is nasty (80)." When it all happened it was not like "a movie you aren't a hero and all you can do is whimper and wait (211)." O'Brien and the rest of the solders were just ordinary people thrust into extraordinary situations. They needed to tell blatant lies" to "bring the body and soul back together (239)." They needed to eliminate the reality of death. As ordinary people they were not capable of dealing with the engulfing realities of death and war therefore they needed to create coping skills. O'Brien approaches the loss of his childhood friend, Linda, in the same way he approaches the loss of his comrades in the war as this is the only way he knows how to deal with death. A skill he learned, and needed, in the Vietnam War.
Tim O’Brien served in the Vietnam War, and his short story “The Things They Carried” presents the effects of the war on its young soldiers. The treatment of veterans after their return also affects them. The Vietnam War was different from other wars, because too many in the U.S. the soldiers did not return as heroes but as cruel, wicked, and drug addicted men. The public directs its distaste towards the war at the soldiers, as if they are to blame. The also Veterans had little support from the government who pulled them away from their families to fight through the draft. Some men were not able to receive the help they needed because the symptoms of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) did not show until a year
In the early stages of the story O’Brien is faced with a “moral emergency”, though the draft letter sent to him in the early summer of 1968 stirred up many more feelings than that of just a moral nature. O’Brien experienced unease within his conscience about how this particular war had no “imperative of its cause”; people were dying for reasons unknown. This news also hit him in a deeply emotional way; he became quite livid with the entire idea of
...ust deal with similar pains. Through the authors of these stories, we gain a better sense of what soldiers go through and the connection war has on the psyche of these men. While it is true, and known, that the Vietnam War was bloody and many soldiers died in vain, it is often forgotten what occurred to those who returned home. We overlook what became of those men and of the pain they, and their families, were left coping with. Some were left with physical scars, a constant reminder of a horrible time in their lives, while some were left with emotional, and mental, scarring. The universal fact found in all soldiers is the dramatic transformation they all undergo. No longer do any of these men have a chance to create their own identity, or continue with the aspirations they once held as young men. They become, and will forever be, soldiers of the Vietnam War.
The impact of the Vietnam War upon the soldiers who fought there was huge. The experience forever changed how they would think and act for the rest of their lives. One of the main reasons for this was there was little to no understanding by the soldiers as to why they were fighting this war. They felt they were killing innocent people, farmers, poor hard working people, women, and children were among their victims. Many of the returning soldiers could not fall back in to their old life styles. First they felt guilt for surviving many of their brothers in arms. Second they were haunted by the atrocities of war. Some soldiers could not go back to the mental state of peacetime. Then there were soldiers Tim O’Brien meant while in the war that he wrote the book “The Things They Carried,” that showed how important the role of story telling was to soldiers. The role of stories was important because it gave them an outlet and that outlet was needed both inside and outside the war in order to keep their metal state in check.
The Vietnam War was a conflict that many people did not comprehend. In fact, the war was atrocious and bloody. According to The Vietnam War: a History in Documents, 58,000 US soldier died and more than 700,000 came back with physical and emotional marks (Young, Fitzgerald & Grunfeld 147). For many Americans this war was meaningless. In the same way, O’Brien admits, “American war in Vietnam seemed to me wrong; certain blood was being shed for uncertain reason” (40). O’Brien believes the war was not significance. Furthermore, the lack of logic in the matter makes him confused about going to war. That’s why, he does not understand why he was sent to fight a war for which causes and effects were uncertain. The author continues by saying, “I was too good for...