In the Lake of the Woods by Tim O'Brien Literary Analysis Essay Sample

It is said that the initial reactions to trauma can include exhaustion, confusion, sadness, anxiety, numbness, and dissociation. These responses are totally normal as they affect most survivors, but at what point do these responses to trauma become abnormal? Coping with trauma may be the hardest thing a survivor can do and it is the way in which these survivors choose to cope with their trauma that determines the outcome of their mental health throughout their lives. In Tim O’brien’s In the Lake of the Woods the author explores John Wade’s different experiences and how he handles them using symbolism, conflict, and characterization to support the idea that repressing trauma is an inefficient coping strategy.

Magic is a symbol often used throughout the novel to express John Wade’s first ineffective strategy to cope with his trauma. When John was a young boy he and his dad had a very detrimental relationship, his father would pick on him nicknaming him “Jiggling John ''. Though in a verbally abusive relationship John loved his father and so when his dad died trauma from his childhood had built up causing chaos in John’s life. To cope with this chaos John started to get into magic, “This was not true magic. It was trickery. But John Wade sometimes pretended otherwise...” (O’Brien 31). Magic symbolizes John’s desire to be loved by others, to hide his own weakness and sadness, and to “fool” other people into believing that he’s happier than he really is so that he can believe too. Magic created an illusion that John was perfectly fine and because he never dealt with his father’s death head on he started to develop unhealthy habits. By using magic as repression John is avoiding his problems and since “unconscious repressed memories are said to lead to physical and mental health problems, and recovery of the repressed memory is crucial to symptom relief” (Atkinson-Tovar 1) John’s trauma continues to build up and later develops into major mental health problems. The outcome of magic as a form of repression becomes John’s new found love for manipulation and manipulating others which comes back to bite him later on in the novel. Because magic in the novel is the start to John’s mental problems and love for manipulation, magic as his coping strategy to repress trauma is ineffective.

The loss of the election that John runs in highlights why having politics as his occupation is just another ineffective strategy for John to cope with his trauma. Just like magic politics started out as just a simple form of repression. Like mentioned magic introduced him to the thrill of manipulation, he became so good at it that he turned it into his career. “..politics and magic were almost the same thing for him. Transformations—that’s part of it—trying to change things. When you think about it, magicians and politicians are basically control freaks”(O’Brien 27). He uses politics to trick the public and himself into thinking that he is this perfect, handsome, war hero to forget about the trauma he faced during the war. By coming off as this perfect individual he thought that he would win the election and be able to forget about the horrors he faced at My Lai. This however was not the case, because he was leading the illusion that he was perfect. “The main problem with trauma is that everyone else knows the incident is over but not the person who has experienced it” (Morris 1). When John led the public to believe that he was perfect he failed to mention the acts of horror he committed in My Lai, later leaked to the public costing John the election. If John hadn’t repressed his experiences from My Lai and was transparent with the public he could have had a much better chance of winning the election. John losing the election proves pretending to be someone he isn’t and repressing his memories of the war is only a coping strategy that is self-destructing.

The unhappiness that John feels in his relationship with Kathy is something that is expressed throughout the novel, but it is how John copes with his unhappiness that shows why repression is an ineffective strategy. When the readers first met John he was depicted as this secretive manipulative man who hides all of his trauma from everyone and there is no exception when it comes to his relationship with his wife. Ever since after the war there had been an odd strain on John and Kathy’s relationship, because John refused to talk about what happened in Vietnam Kathy grew a sense of distrust in him “Maybe she had grown tired of tricks and trapdoors, a husband she had never known,..” (O’Brien 23). If John hadn’t repressed all of his trauma from the war and was open with Kathy it would likely be that they would end up fine however this was not the case. The repression of John’s trauma became a chain reaction of unhappiness and strain in his marriage. From there on out there marriage only plummeted more and more as Kathy’s distrust in her husband became his distrust in her, leading to John stalking her every move throughout the day. John’s life is consumed by the symptoms of trauma especially “avoidance (..., numbing of responsiveness, efforts to avoid thoughts, feelings or conversations that act as a reminder…, feeling of detachment/estrangement from others…)” (Morris 1) in which is the ultimate destructing factor to John’s marriage with Kathy. The avoidance of John’s past carries into the bond of his marriage, John’s refusal to share his past with his wife is the end of their trust in each other and the breaking point to their marriage, showing that repression of trauma is not a healthy coping strategy.

The repercussions that John faces by choosing repression to cope with his trauma are damaging and overall the downfall of John as a person, if only John would have dealt with his trauma in a healthier way he would have seen that his life could have been something meaningful and beneficial to not only himself but others around him. With symbolism, conflict, and characterization Tim O’Brien proves to readers that repressing trauma is an inefficient coping strategy seen through John Wade’s different experiences and how he handles them.