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In The Lake Of The Woods Literary Analysis

Decent Essays

Throughout Tim O’Brien’s, In The Lake Of The Woods, the nature of love is mysterious. This is demonstrated throughout the novel by presenting several characters with mysterious backgrounds, deploying an unknown narrator, and leaving the end of the book on a cliffhanger. All of these elements come together to show that the nature of love is pure mystery. The main character, John Wade, is full of mystery. As a child, he was extremely interested in magic. He even relied on it as a coping mechanism when his father died. As an adult, his interest in magic didn't fade. When he was in the army, his nickname was Sorceror. Once in the army, John Wade began not only to hide the secrets of his magic, but also secrets of his personal life. Once he came back from the war, this habit only got worse. The narrator of the novel also exhibits mystery. Nobody knows who he is, or why he is telling this story. His purpose could be considered just as much of a mystery as what happened to Kathy. Lastly, the ending of the book clearly exudes mystery, since there is never an answer confirming what happened to Kathy.
The mystery of the narrator is almost as important as what happened to Kathy. Even though the narrator tells a large part of the story, there is no mention of who he really is. The narrator clearly knows every intimate detail about John and Kathy’s relationship, and knows tons about John and his childhood as well. Although we know that this person knows all of this information, we have

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