The Vietnam War. Tragic War for the American Soldiers.

The Vietnam War. Tragic War for the American Soldiers.

  • Submitted By: davidpe
  • Date Submitted: 03/11/2009 12:54 AM
  • Category: English
  • Words: 818
  • Page: 4
  • Views: 840

Vietnam was a very tragic war for the American soldiers. For many of them seeing so many innocent people die made them crazy and go into shock. After returning back home many suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. John Wade also suffered from this condition making him restless and very disturbed. Because of John’s mental condition it can be said that he murdered his own wife without even knowing it, therefore Kathy Wade is “In the lake of the Woods.”

Primarily, there is evidence that on the night of the crime John Wade entered the bedroom with the teakettle while Kathy was still there. “It was almost a fact, but not quiet, that he moved down the hallway to their bedroom that night, where for a period of time he watched Kathy sleep…At one point he remembered her eyelids had snapped open” (188-189). After boiling the plants to death he came straight to the room to see his wife while he was still holding the kettle in his hand. “Odd, he thought. The numbness inside him. The way his hands had no meaningful connection to his wrist'"' (50). Undoubtedly, this quote says that because John could not feel his wrist tilting he did not feel that he had poured the water out of the teakettle one to Kathy who suddenly woke up.

After doing the damage of boiling his wife he still did not realize what he had done. “In the dark she seemed to smile at him. Then she jerked sideways, puffs of steam rose from the sockets of her eyes. Impossible, of course” (84). In the dark everything looks distorted so obviously the smile that John saw in the dark was a look of pain and the puffs of steam came from the melting of Kathy’s eyes. “He remembered the weight of the teakettle. He remembered puffs of steam in the dark...the steady lap of waves against his chest…Absurd, Wade thought” (131-132). Because this story is written from the point of view of John, the words “impossible of course” and “absurd, Wade thought” would mean he did not see any of this as...

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