Authors often use cause and effect scenarios in a text to build on an overall theme. Identify one moment of your text that has had a drastic impact on the characters or plot. How did this moment affect your reading? Why do you think that the author included this moment in the text?
The most drastic impact on John was losing the election despite his past failures or memories. The loss drove him even closer to insanity than he already was. When John was boiling water for tea in the middle of the night, he was taken back to the numbers and the polls. For example, “He was not thinking now, just watching the numbers come in. He could see it happening exactly as it happened...One minute you’re presidential timber and then they come at you with chainsaws” (48). The election affected John as it did because of how focused he had been with the plans to get there and he had already established in his mind how life would be if he had won the election. Because John’s numbers were great prior to this, he didn’t need to feel worried. His pretending led him to believe that would be his life. On p. 49 O’Brien continues, “That was the final truth: just so unfair.” This affected my reading because the situation only led to more confusion and craziness from John which provokes my thinking about what actually happened with Kathy’s disappearance. The loss was put into the text to trigger John’s brain and give more insight to what’s happening between John and Kathy.
ReplyDeleteI agree with everything that you have stated here. John has turned out to be a crazy person and do crazy things. What is happening between Kathy and John? Is it the fact that Kathy got worried about him, saying she thought he needed help. Or is it the fact that Kathy thought their relationship has changed, and they are not the same anymore? I see where you are coming from for all of this, but what do you think about what actually happened with Kathy, what is actually going on with Kathy and John that made you think this? There are many things that are happening between Kathy and John. I feel like John is not close to insanity, but is actually insane right now. He does so many things, and does not remember some of the stuff he does. He is a stalker and overall he is creepy. All in all I agree with what you are saying here and you have really good points to think about.
DeleteI think you are right about John being currently insane right now. I wonder too about what is actually happening with them and it makes me enjoy reading this book because of the mystery. I think that between John and Kathy there is just too much tension and that Kathy needs to talk to John about everything, just like O'Brien said on page 113. On p. 116, O'Brien says, "She'd be blunt with him. Not accusing, just telling. All those years, she'd say, like a disease, but now everything was different. They were free. They could start over and do things right and make their marriage fresh and good." I wish Kathy would've actually done this in general, but at least prior to leaving if she really did leave him.
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ReplyDeleteThe point in the book when John boils water in the teakettle and burns all the plants is a drastic impact on the characters. The narrator states, “ ‘Kill Jesus,’ he said, which encouraged him, and he carried the teakettle out to the living room and switched on a lamp and poured the boiling water over a big flowering geranium near the fireplace” (49). This is a drastic impact because I believe this is what lead Kathy to leave/disappear. Throughout the night John keeps boiling water in the teakettle and bringing it over to every plant, burning them all. While he is doing this he is saying ‘Kill Jesus’ because he is mad and upset about losing the election. I chose a quote from earlier in the book partly because this night is the big turning point before Kathy disappears. All was normal until that night. Kathy most likely heard him boiling the water and killing the plants, so it probably caused her to freak out a little bit. We do not really know yet, but I know for a fact that his outburst caused something in Kathy leaving. I predict that if they find Kathy and she is alive she would have left because of this night, also if she is dead John killed her that night but does not remember. This affected my reading because it made me think about what really happened, that night when John freaked out Kathy was normal, then the next morning she was gone. Also I have more and more questions the more I think about what happened. Like, did John kill Kathy, did she leave willingly, is it Kathy’s past that made her leave. All of this is from one moment, that night. So since that moment I have been evaluating the text more to try and figure out what happened to Kathy. I think that the author included this moment in the text because I believe that it was a turning point in Kathy and John’s relationship. Later in the book the narrator is talking about Kathy and how she misses the way that her relationship with John is not the same any more. Therefore that moment when he is burning all those plants something clicked with John, and he really showed how messed up he has become from this election.
I definitely see your point and I generally agree. I personally think the election was the turning point because this stems from that election. But I can also see that everything else in his life prior to this is also a factor of this moment in the book. I definitely agree that that night in general was obviously the cause of her disappearance and it has been interesting reading on and trying to figure out the actual story of how she left. Do you think that John will come around and remember what exactly happened soon?
DeleteI do think that John will come around and remember because at a point in the story when John was having a flashback he remembered more than he did before. So I believe that each time John has a flashback he remembers a little more. I feel like by the end of the story we will realize what happened to Kathy and how that effects their relationship. I do not know if he will remember soon though, I feel like it will take a while. I think that in the present time John is in jail (in spite of the evidence chapters) therefore he did something to Kathy but he has not remembered what yet. What I mean by that is that there is evidence pointing to John doing something and he does not remember it, but like you just pointed out to me, he may remember soon. Hopefully by the end of the book he does.
DeleteI feel like John doesn't really care what happens at this point because he has already lost so much anymore is just gonna kill him when he burns the plants with the water you knew at that point right there something was really wrong with John. He doesn't know what to do with his life he gets so attached every time for something to just disappear.
DeleteOne of these moments that come to mind right away was the loss of the election that John was running in. After he lost the election everything started to go down hill for John. I think it triggered what happened to him when his dad died the loss of something that John cares about destroys him inside to the points where he can’t control his actions. With these outbursts and flashbacks Kathy has no decision she can’t take it anymore she leaves…. Or wait maybe she told him she was gonna leave and John killed Kathy and bury her body. This is how that plot affects my reading it makes me think about so many different possibilities you have to revolve your head around them all. It makes you think deeper than you actually realize on how the text is set up. The others includes this action to show that he is distraught to losing anything else after losing his father.
ReplyDeleteThe event that I believe affected John's character and the overall plot the most is when his platoon kills an entire village of people when he was fighting in Vietnam. This event has a drastic affect on the plot because people find out about it and it causes him to lose the election and causes people to look at John differently when searching for answers for his wife's mysterious disappearance. We see this when the two county sheriff's are initially questioning John and the part time sheriff Vinny states “didn’t kill no baddies”(O’Brien 126). By this he takes a stab at John for the events that took place in Vietnam and assumes his guilt in the disappearance of his wife partly because of these events. This event also affects John as a person because it traumatized him and changed him as a man. The question is did these events change John for the better of for the worse? And how will this affect the investigation going forward?
ReplyDeleteThat is a very interesting point Bennett. I can totally see how Vinny is taking a stab at John's past. But to answer your question, I think the events most definitely changed John for the worse, for anybody seeing death before your eyes it can be such a horror. The events in Vietnam also really showed how life can disappear so quickly, and I think that really boosted the fear of losing Kathy even more. I also think Vinny is going to negatively look at John and see him as a possible killer, because in Vietnam that is all the soldiers encountered, was death and hate.
DeleteI think that one event that impacted John the most was when he witnessed the massacre in Vietnam. I think that although before that he was struggling with mental issues because of his fathers death, what he saw in Vietnam impacted who is is today. I think that the effect it has made on him can be seen in his political career along with his every day life and relationship with Kathy. In one letter Kathy wrote to John, she says, "You scare me" (O'Brien 39). Kathy said this after John had been describing to her what was going on with him in Vietnam. This shows that even Kathy could tell through the letters they were writing that he'd changed. This affected the reading by showing a side of John that we hadn't seen yet. Without his side of what happened in Vietnam, we wouldn't have known what he did and why he came back different. I think the author included this in the book to show why John acts the way he does. It is a very important moment in his life and has impacted who he is now.
ReplyDeleteKosma, do you think that the main reason that John acts this way, is not because of the horrific sights he saw in Vietnam, but because he doesn't want to lose Kathy? Because John is the kind of guy that lost his father so young, and the fact of losing a loved family member is horrible. I think that Kathy means everything to John, and the auther is using the events in Vietnam to stray us from how John really feels about Kathy.
DeleteA moment in the story where the plot shifted is in the beginning when John and Kathy Wade were talking on the porch. They were talking about what they want their future to look like, they talked about having kids, road trips to Verona, and being happy. Then as John and Kathy were talking, a terrible thought popped into her head. The book says: “Kathy made a sound in the dark, which wasn’t crying. ‘You do love me?’ ‘More than anything.’ ‘Lot’s I mean?.’ Lots,’ he said.” (Tim O’Brien 7) This quote shows how unsure Kathy is, she has a feeling that not everything is what it seems, and this is greatly affecting her decisions. I predict that Kathy left because she is unsure about how things have gone so far in her life, and that she wants to escape the current situation she is in. I also predict that John is going to realize sometime later in the story how all the decisions he has made and the way he has treated his marriage will show. This really effects the plot because I feel Kathy needs a break from everything that has happened, and honestly I can connect this to my own life as well. There are many times where I feel things are not going the way I really wish they could, and the best answer to my stress is to go somewhere where there are no worries. This moment affects my reading because I have this little feeling that there was something that John did not do enough of to show that he loved Kathy, and that Kathy did not leave and get lost, she could have left to escape being with John. Later down the page the book says: “‘Happy,’ she said. ‘Nothing else.’” (Tim O’Brien 7) Which shows how much she really wants to be happy, and has this feeling that everything will soon get better. But now where I am in the book, Kathy has been missing for two days, and it does not seem like the happiness she dreamed of, is going to come from John. So that leads me to my question, do you guys think that Kathy truly lusts to be happy, but does not think that John is going to give her the happiness she wants?
ReplyDeleteThe event that I believe affected John's character and the overall plot the most is when his platoon kills an entire village of people when he was fighting in Vietnam. This event has a drastic affect on the plot because people find out about it and it causes him to lose the election and causes people to look at John differently when searching for answers for his wife's mysterious disappearance. We see this when the two county sheriff's are initially questioning John and the part time sheriff Vinny states “didn’t kill no baddies”(O’Brien 126). By this he takes a stab at John for the events that took place in Vietnam and assumes his guilt in the disappearance of his wife partly because of these events. This event also affects John as a person because it traumatized him and changed him as a man. The question is did these events change John for the better of for the worse? And how will this affect the investigation going forward?
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