Most of us, when beginning to write or even continuing to write, have no idea what we are going to say or are saying. That is probably why we become so incoherent, and our audience becomes confused. We start adding sentences in that are way off topic, and do not build on the piece at all. Tim O’ Brien displays to his readers that he is not even close to that kind of writer.
While I was reading O’ Brien’s In The Lake of The Woods, I realized how “all over the place” the novel seemed to be. One chapter, the main character in the book would be talking about his battles, and the next he was looking for his wife. All of a sudden, the reader is trying to understand the many different quotes from both fictional and real people. Most readings and books structured like that would bring out the question, “What is this piece of writing even about,” but In The Lake of The Woods does not create this question in the readers mind. Why not? In order to understand this, I feel a summary of the book is necessary.
John Wade is a Vietnam War veteran who has seen and done some extremely controversial and just naturally wrong things in the war. After the war is over, he returns home to his beloved Kathy Wood, who he then in turn marries. All the secrets of his past are jumbled up and mixed with the political confusion of the present. He has lost an election to enter the U.S Senate, and has no idea where his life is going to lead him next. Him and Kathy decide to get away from all of the media and accusations about his past by residing in a cabin by a lake. The marriage’s flaws begin to shine brighter than ever before, and one morning John wakes up to find Kathy missing. This adds on to the massive confusion in John’s life.
This really helps the reader figure out why O’ Brien has structured his book the way he has. Jumping from John’s present troubles to his past troubles and then to what other people have to say, and then back to his present troubles confuses the reader in such a way that they are absorbed in the book, and know what the character is truly going through. When I say confused, I do not mean that they have no idea what is going on in the book. I mean the exact opposite. They know exactly what is going on in the book, causing them to feel the confusion that John Wade is feeling.
Another thing the author of the book does in some chapters is that he adds a hypothesis chapter here and there. This is John’s conjecture of what he thinks happens to his wife. It sometimes changes from cheating to running away, and at other times builds on to his previous hypothesis. The only thing is, reading the hypothesis chapters, one would not think it was just John’s guess. The details are so vivid, and go deep into Kathy’s mind. There were times where I forgot that these were not real stories, but only what John thought.
The way O’ Brien does this, displays to the reader that the main character has a very wild imagination, and proves the point that he is actually very afraid of losing the important people in his life. It shows the effects of losing his father when he was little combined with what he saw in the Vietnam War. All of this without stating it in bare terms.
Tim O’ Brien does not just throw his chapters around with incoherency, but, instead, actually has a reason for every little sentence, paragraph, and chapter structure he has used. The best part about this all is that a couple months ago, I would never have thought that I could not only analyze fiction novels in this way, but also be able to use the techniques in my own writing.
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