What is a motif in a film or novel?
Read this wikipedia article:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motif_(narrative)
Think about some of the motifs in O'Brien's In the Lake of the Woods. Post comment regarding some of the key motifs in the novel and how they contribute to the narrative.
Work to be completed: Imovies, Kim Addonizio poems, Steal-a-line poems
Make sure you print out poems and place them in the silver inbox in the back of the room. Imovies go into the Gamzon-workshop folder.
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BRING IN POETRY BOOK FOR DISCUSSION.
HMWK:
IN THE LAKE OF THE WOODS, read to pg. 189, Ch. 20
Think about the new writing assignment:
Write a short story 5 pages or longer that uses motifs to develop the story (recurring themes, symbols, language, imagery).
OR
Write a short story 5 pages or longer that uses a real historical event as an important story element.
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ReplyDeleteThe theme for lake of the woods is death because of Kathy and His father's death and the reoccuring theme of attempting to understand it. No matter what they do they cannot bring life to their suspicions.
ReplyDeleteA motif from In the Lake of the Woods is control. John is ultimately trying to control all aspects of his life. As a child, and later as a young man in the army, he tries to do that through his use of magic tricks. In the army, he uses his "magic" to try and forget the terrible things that he witnessed and did, in a way controlling the workings of his own mind. Through politics he attempts to control the people, but really just to seem in control of his own life, which seems to be spiraling into chaos. In the end, however, he can't control anything, not even his own actions, and he drives Kathy away, although in what way we can't be sure.
ReplyDeleteA recurring theme in In The Lake of the Woods is love. John Wade goes into the Vietnam War, learns magic tricks, and secretly spies on Kathy's every move in college, due to his desire and need for love from other people. Essentially, this motif,is the cause of other motifs within the novel.
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ReplyDeleteOne motif that appears in Tim O'Brien's In the Lake of the Woods is magic. John Wade's magic tricks are brought up several times throughout the novel, and he is referred to as Sorcerer by the soldiers in Charlie's Company. This motif adds to the narrative because it gives the reader the sense that Wade has the capability to make things disappear.
ReplyDeleteAnother motif in the novel is clearly the Vietnam War and Wade's post-traumatic stress disorder. The war has obviously had a significant impact on Wade and his mental state, which is illustrated by the fact that his war stories are frequent throughout the novel.
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ReplyDeleteSome of the motifs of Tim O'Brien's In Lake of the Woods are death and confusion. The narrator is confused by Kathy's death as John and his mother were both confused about the death of his father. Everybody else is confused about Kathy as well as who was supposedly the closest person to her. Nobody can really figure out why these two people went, which is really typical in these types of situations. Both of these two motifs are closely tied together in the fact that without one there wouldn't be the other. Confusion comes by way of death and death most likely by confusion...
ReplyDeleteMagic:
ReplyDeleteThe recurrence of tricks and magic in In the Lake of the Woods reinforces the secrets and inexplicable events in the story. From childhood, John enjoyed amateur magic tricks--making things appear from nowhere, playing with props like silk scarves and mirrors. As John matures, his hobby translates into habits of secrecy, concealment, and denial. The soldiers in Vietnam call John "Sorcerer" after he entertains them with a few tricks, but the name carries a hint of the sinister after the events at My Lai. As he does in his tricks, John is able to make traumatic events disappear, for the sake of his career in politics, and the sake of keeping Kathy's love. Later, when Kathy disappears, it is like a magic trick gone wrong: he has made her vanish, and the reader must figure out the secret to the trick.
Tim O'Brien uses motifs in In The Lake of the Woods to enhance the story.
ReplyDeleteThe love between Kathy and John is very important to the story. O'Brien highlights their feelings in a very effective way because he continually goes back to stories of their times together. His stories of their love is important to showing their relationship.
O'Brien also goes back to stories of war many times in the novel. His theme of war occurs in many of his books. War is like a motif across all of his writing that connects all his books and becomes a statement of his writing. Within "In the Lake of the Woods" O'Brien uses war stories to show the type of person John is and give the reader background on what made this character the way he is.
Tim O'Brien also uses a few phrases repetitively like when he says that John was naked. This could possibly show his vulnerability.
A popular motif throughout In the Lake of the Woods is that of John being overweight as a child and using magic to hide his self-consciousness about his weight. The reason his mother keeps bringing John's weight up in the evidence sections is because it made him feel inferior in his father's eyes, so he had to compensate through his magic tricks instead of actually talking to him about their troubled relationship. He brings this into his adult life through trying to hide his identity from Kathy by his original stalking of her, another way that he shows how he cannot communicate.
ReplyDeleteLet's try this again...
ReplyDeleteThere are many motifs or reoccurrences in Tim O’ Brien’s Lake of the Woods. One I have noted is the most obvious; death. John suffers memories of the loss of his father. I can’t tell yet how close he was to his father, though in evidence, after his death John grew more and more angry. Death is the obvious theme of this novel, as it is a death-mystery. Kathy’s death is the premise and the concept of the whole thing.
Magic is another motif I find to be prominent in this novel. When John was a kid and after losing his father, he loved to do magic tricks. He would walk through his childhood life and practice. When he was older, and first started dating Kathy, he always described his “following” as being invisible, a magical experience. When he went into politics’ he describes and see’s the whole thing as a big circus-type-magic act. With the audience (the people) in the palm of his hand. Kathy’s disappearance, was in a sense what John called a disappearing act.
One of the very obvious motifs is magic. It is mentioned a lot throughout the novel. John Wade's obsession with it as a child and the similarity Kathy's disappearance has with a magic trick.
ReplyDeleteAnother very significant motif is death. John's fathers death and the possibility of Kathy's death as well. John has been fascinated by killing he is so angered by his father's death that he says all he wants to do is kill. John even goes so far as killing plants when he was younger to release this desire for destruction.
The biggest and most important theme in the Lake of the Woods is death. Other people have mentioned it so i wont be redundant. Basically the book revolves around death and suffering almost.I suppose the book is a testament to human nature and the inevitability of death. It adds to the mysterious vibe going on in the book. The repetition of this motif makes the book more eerie as well. I suppose this was on purpose.
ReplyDeleteA seemingly insignificant motif in In the Lake of the Woods is John's memory of the two snakes eating each other in Pinkville. They are mentioned frequently; he is often fixated on them. He begins to compare his relationship with Kathy to those two snakes, as shown in several flashbacks. He even wonders a few times what may have happened if those snakes had continued, or what happened to them afterwards. It seems to be a strange thing to focus on, but as the novel progresses, the snakes become more significant to the plot and, to an attentive reader, begin provide an insight into what may have ended up happening to Kathy. "One plus one equals zero" is ultimately how the novel ends.
ReplyDeleteAmane Amireh
ReplyDeleteA reoccurring theme in the Novel In the Lake of The Woods by Tim O’ Brien, wood be loss. John first suffered from the loss of his father. Then later after that he had to deal with the disappearance of his beloved Kathy. The motif in the story lets the readers mind ponder what will happen next. It makes the reader feel sorry for John. I think this is the main motif because the story is based on the disappearance of Kathy and John wondering where she went, and why she left.
Two motifs are both the magic and the death of Kathy. The book is bascially based on death but magic also plays a part. Johns love for both the magic and the love for kathy makes it almost myserious
ReplyDeleteO'Brien uses a few different devices in this story, moving through time, etc. The first is his documentation of "evidence." Another reoccurring motif is magic, the idea of which has affected John as a child, soldier, and somewhat after his service. Actually, thinking about it now, it's almost as if John's "magic" faded following his war experience. The psychological effects of war could be another motif (but they're more like the theme itself). Secrecy, such as John's knowledge of the massacre and his killing of Private First Class (I forget his name). John also spies on Kathy, adding to the idea of secrecy.
ReplyDeleteThe motifs that are in the novel are magic and loss. John loved doing magic, and that is how a lot of people remembered him by doing magic. There has been many loss through his life. First it was his father who he loved so much even though at time he brought him down to thinking he was nothing. Then he lost Kathy who was the most important woman in his life at that time. It was very difficult for John to get over both of his losses.
ReplyDeletesha81_gurl=Shana
ReplyDeleteMagic is one of the biggest motifs in the novel as it reoccurs many times throughout the novel. His moniker "the sorcerer" brings this into conrext and makes one think that he is not a normal person, which by his actions we can clearly tell that he is not.
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