In the Lake of the Woods: Motifs

Previous Next

Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, or literary devices that can help to develop and inform the text’s major themes.

Eyes

Eyes feature prominently in the novel. John constantly looks to Kathy’s eyes as a barometer of approval. The college-aged Kathy has eyes that challenge John. Her eyes question his stated reason for wanting to become a politician and reproach him for letting her down with his transformation in Vietnam. Her eyes trace the trajectory of his political career and her response to it: happy and full of light at his first election win, but they are only eyes when he gets elected lieutenant governor, and they are unreadable eyes when he loses the Senate primary. When the novel first opens and Kathy and John are feeling awkward with one another after John’s defeat and the Vietnam revelations, her eyes are distant and already looking past him.

Other people’s eyes are also telling. John reads Pat’s doubts about him in her eyes and Claude’s intelligence in his eyes. When John hallucinates about killing Jesus, he thinks he should go for the eyes, clearly finding them to be the most vulnerable part of the body or the most damaging. Given John’s attention to eyes, it’s no wonder, then, that in the version of the story that has John killing Kathy, he does so by pouring boiling water into her eyes.

Water

Water is a recurring element in the novel, taking on immense significance whether it’s Lake of the Woods or the boiling water that John uses to kill plants and, possibly, Kathy. Water can be deadly. It may be hiding Kathy’s body or offering an opportunity for John to commit suicide. The boiling water in the teakettle holds the power of near-instantaneous death. The lake is enormous and mysterious, far too big even for the hundreds of people searching for Kathy to thoroughly cover, far too big for any human to understand. At times, the water in the lake is such a potent entity that it takes on the appearance of a solid object. At other times, the lake’s surface reflects the water around it, creating a lake with no boundaries or end. The lake is permanent, following a regular pattern of changing color with the seasons. Water also plays a pivotal role in each of the novel’s hypothetical endings. Drowning, boiling Kathy alive, and fleeing by boat, all depend on the properties of water.

Pretending

John has long mastered the art of pretending, beginning with learning magic tricks in childhood and then ratcheting up his skills after his father commits suicide and he needs to pretend that his father is still alive. As an adult, John utilizes the art of pretending in every aspect of his life. He pretends to be Sorcerer to maintain his sanity in Vietnam and then to cover up his culpability in the deaths at Thuan Yen. John becomes a successful politician by pretending to be sincere and modest, though he prefers to call it manipulation. On the eve of his primary defeat, he pretends that everything is fine even though his loss signifies he will never achieve his life’s dream of being a political player on the national field.

Kathy has always gone along with John’s games. She has long pretended that she didn’t know that John spied on her, and she pretends she doesn’t mind giving up a house of her own or children for John’s career. Claude, although a wealthy man, pretends to be otherwise. To justify their murder spree, the men of Charlie Company convince themselves that the villagers are Viet Cong. Not all characters in the book hide from the truth, however. Pat doesn’t cover up her distrust of John, Vinny states bluntly that he believes John killed Kathy, and Thinbill acknowledges his presence at Thuan Yen, even though he didn’t speak up at the time.

Previous section Themes Next section Symbols