The largest aspects of a story's exposition include the introduction to conflict, characters, and setting. Select one of these elements from your text so far. Discuss, in depth, your understanding of the element, and how you believe it will continue to develop and transform throughout the reading.
For example: Focus on one specific character you have been introduced to. Discuss their description and character traits, as well as your opinion of the character so far. Then, share any predictions you may have for the character's future.
After posting, continue the conversation. Add detailed analysis to at least two other classmate's posts made. Continue responding until you feel the conversation has reached a point of resolution.
John Wade’s failed election sets the stage for the conflict to become. To get away from the shame, he and Kathy rent a cottage in the woods. Neither of them really discuss what happened, and if they do, John gets touchy. Kathy has to walk on eggshells around John throughout the day. All John can think about is his past and everything seems to be boiling over in his mind. When they go to bed, “ Kathy snapped off the lamp. She turned onto her side and said, ‘Dream time,’ almost cheerfully, as if it did not matter at all that she was now going away” (22). The conflict is that Kathy will soon be missing. There will be a mystery of where she is and why or how she is gone, which will be exposed with further reading and analyzing of evidence we are given.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what you are saying in this, but is Kathy being gone really the conflict. Or is it the fact that John always goes in his mind and does not include Kathy in anything? He seems to be more to himself rather than her. He always pretends about his dad and things that he wants to be true, so maybe that is the conflict instead.
DeleteJohn wade is a character who hides things. He lets all his burdens gather up inside of him. His wife Kathy knows what he is thinking, but not all the time. He can just be sitting with his wife on the porch and watching the stars for his thoughts to come crashing in. “There was that crushed feeling in his stomach, yet even then he pretended to smile at her. He said reassuring things, resolutely, as if he believed, and this too was something he would later remember-- the pretending” (O’Brien 4). John pretends to smile at his wife because he does not want to show her how he really feels. He wants to seem like he is strong and will keep on moving, not that everything he has worked up to is now gone like yesterday’s trash.
ReplyDeleteDo you think Kathy is a lot like John but in her own way? She seems to be more distant as well. "Later, Kathy pushed back the blankets and moved off toward the railing at the far end of the porch. She seemed to vanish into the heavy dark, the fog curling around her, and when she spoke, her voice came from somewhere far away, as if lifted from her body, unattached and not quite authentic" (6). I feel like she is equally hiding something.
DeleteIn the first part of this book, Tim O’brien has an unusual approach to the character introduction. We dont learn about the characters right off the bat, not even their names. The setting is very shallow and not in depth but I feel like as this book continues on this is going to get better at describing and showing us more in the book. John wade is in his own trapped world where he thinks everything through while Kathy is already over the fact she's leaving.
ReplyDeleteI agree, but does Kathy really know that she is leaving? The book hints to us that Kathy is going to be gone but does she know that she will be gone, or is she gone unwillingly
DeleteI agree to a point about how it's a little odd that we don't learn the characters' names until a little after his introduction but I feel it gives the book more of a mysterious vibe and sets the stage for the mystery of Kathy leaving. I think O'Brien's approach is fairly well done because he describes the situation and how John and Kathy are feeling without actually giving them a name (yet). For example, "They pretended things were not so bad. The election had been lost, but they tried to believe it was not the absolute and crushing thing it truly was" (2). From this we get the idea that both characters are upset but they're trying to push it off which, I think, gives us an idea of what they are like.
DeleteThe protagonist of the novel, John Wade is a politician whose career comes to an abrupt halt after it’s revealed that he was involved in the infamous My Lai massacre of 1968 during his time as a soldier in Vietnam.
ReplyDeleteTraits- Weird, Loud, Crazy,obnoxious
I’m personally not really liking him because he seems really needy and desperate kinda like a attention seeker.
The character of John wade is the main character of the novel. He is a Vietnam war vet that aspires to be a politician. John lost his father at an early age which seems to traumatize him. One instance where we can see how traumatized John is when he says “He imagined yelling in his father's ear telling him to please stop dying”(O’brien 15). He would often talk to himself and carry out full conversations with his projection of his father in his own mind. John often has the sudden and random need for violence that can easily be provoked by emotional events. This make the reader wonder just how long it will be before he acts upon these needs for violence? My opinion on John is that he's a time bomb because a career in politics can be emotional roller coaster which I don’t think he can handle without exploding. John also has a wife (Kathy) who he is crazy about and would often stalk her because he felt the need to know what she was doing at all times. At some point in the book we know his wife will suddenly disappear. The Question is, is it of john's doing or not? And how will he react to this event?
ReplyDeleteJohn has been shown to be occasionally violent and aggressive, and being forgetful or suppressing his memories, "He would both remember and not remember a fleet human movement off to his left. He would not remember squealing. He would not remember raising his weapon, nor rolling away from the bamboo fence, but he would remember forever how he turned and shot down an old man with a wispy and what looked to be a rifle" (O'Brien 109). I don't think it's unreasonable to predict that he killed his wife and forgot about it. Most of the book seems to be explaining the context in which the events of the story occur, so I'm not sure if John will ever discover what happened to his wife, as the story hasn't progressed much in ~100 pages and it might not progress much more in the rest of the book.
DeleteThe book seems to be written in a bizarre, non chronological order with chapters about “Evidence” every once in awhile, and almost half of the chapters take place in the past. I think the author wrote the book this way because the backstory of the characters--specifically John Wade and his experience in Vietnam--are important to understanding the story. I don’t really like how the book is written, because it makes it harder for me to keep track of what is happening. The book implies that John Wade is somewhat insane or ill, “...and then the rage, how it surged up into his throat and how he wanted to scream the most terrible thing he could scream--Kill Jesus!--and how he couldn’t help himself and couldn’t think straight and couldn’t stop screaming it inside his head” (O’Brien 5). I predict that he killed his wife but forgot, because in other parts of the book he forgets things, and he seems violent and insane. What do you think?
ReplyDeleteThat is something I considered, but i thought otherwise later in the book, as his undying love towards kathy would never result in the harming of her, but rather the present the irrational behavior in John, all short of killing.
DeleteI agree I also believe that he is the one who killed his wife but through some psychological feat doesn't even know he did it himself.
DeleteI think that it is a possibility that John could have been the one that killed his wife. Even from the beginning, it can be interpreted that their relationship isn't the strongest and that John has some psychological problems. With these two things put together I think it is very possible that John could've killed his wife.
DeleteIn the novel In the Lake of the Woods, the protagonist is John Wade. He is a veteran of the Vietnam war and a failed politician. He comes off as overprotective and strange based on his interactions with Kathy, his wife. Even when he returns from war, he still follows her around instead of interacting with her directly. For example, "He hiked over to Kathy's dorm and waited outside on the concrete bench. In mid-morning Kathy came out and headed down toward the classroom buildings. The routine hadn't changed (O'Brien 43). I think that this strange habit will end up leading to complications in his relationship with Kathy. In my opinion, I think that him doing this shows that he doesn't trust her and I think that this is what makes John overprotective and strange.
ReplyDeleteIt is evident that mistrust is a key factor of their relationship. O'Brien does well in illustrating that John is extremely secretive as his background as the "sorcerer" ,and holds his secrets to himself and kathy reciprocates this attitude towards john. Trust is only achieved through sharing and honesty which is lacking in their relationship
DeleteWar may never change, but I'm in belief that war changes a man. John Wade, a man that has been through a tour at vietnam, exhibits strange and downright alienating behaviors as a main character throughout the exposition, setting a tone of uncertainty. The exposition of the story tells of the main character’s life, about his loneliness and rage as a child, and explaining the extremely influential moment of his father's death, which john often talks to an imaginative father that never did die. This exposition also explains the undying relationship of kathy, who is married to john, and is missing after John’s loss as a politician. What is most peculiar is John’s rage. In page 53, it tells of John Yelling “kill jesus” to kathy in bed. While the purpose of this is to show John’s rage and behaviors, why does he say just this to kathy?
ReplyDeleteI agree that the loss of his father and his time in Vietnam is what contributes to John weird behaviors. I think that this will lead to problems in his relationships with Kathy and possibly even lead to him being the reason why she disappears.
DeleteI can only agree with that statement, war is so deceiving and misleading, fear is always on the mind. But my question for you Ryan is, do you think that the war really changed John Wade? For he went to war worried that Kathy would cheat on him, so he would spy on her, and the first thing he does when he comes back is start to spy on her again. So that leads me to believe that he has not really changed much, in fact it might've only made him worse.
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ReplyDeleteJohn Wade is a failed politician that grew up loving magic and trickery, as well as his father who he lost at age 14. John loves to be deceiving but he also loves to be loved. He has this constant fear that something bad could happen at anytime, and that if he can find out that Kathy, his wife, is cheating on him by catching her in the act, then he will know how to respond. In the text John Wade writes to Kathy while over at war in Vietnam: “‘Something is wrong,’ he wrote to Kathy. ‘Don’t do this to me. I’m not blind--Sorcerer can see.’” (Tim O’Brian 39.) John shows this fear that Kathy could be cheating on him and he is trying to get her to tell him something he may not know, even though he has no idea whether she really is cheating or not. In my own personal life, I have times where I know that my trust is not fully developed with someone, and I will try and use words to get them to tell me if something is up, but in the end, trusting someone is a bold move that shows someone really cares. Also, in the quote John Wade refers to himself as the sorcerer, that is not a good sign, the fact that he sees his own worth in a nickname that he was given. John needs to have his own identity for himself, the nickname is a great for John’s confidence and bond with his platoon, but John needs to know he he truly is, and what he wants in his life. The author has Kathy reply in a very unique way, she replied: “You scare me”(TIm O’Brian 39.) This response really drives the mystery forward, for Kathy does not answer if anything is wrong, she replies with a growing concern. I think that Kathy snuck out for she has always been very independent, and I think she really needs a time to think about how far the two have come together, and how much she has not been able to do with her life yet. But that prediction leads to my questions, if Kathy left John Wade, without telling him, what is it in John that she sees differently from when they very first started dating? Has John’s spying on her grown him too close for comfort to her?
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