Whether it’s mental, emotional, or physical—violence has always been an issue in society. When people use violence, the objective is to hurt other people. Even though emotional violence, also referred to as emotional abuse, does not cause any physical pain, it will eventually hurt a person. Children are more prone to getting hurt emotionally because their minds are not yet fully developed, and they have yet to learn how to control emotional pain. When adults experience emotional abuse it becomes detrimental to their mental health. Physical abuse, on the other hand, usually starts as a verbal argument and then grows into a physical fight. Unthinkable violence, such as the shootings at Columbine and Virginia Tech, were likely a product of abuse during the shooters’ recent past. Abuse can then lead to depression, or outbursts of rage that lead to violence. The texts “In the Lake of the Woods” and “How I learned to Sweep” illustrate that when a person is exposed to emotional abuse it leads to further mental health problems which ultimately ends in physical violence.
The book “In the Lake of the Woods,” written by Tim O’Brien, is about an emotionally damaged man, John, who experiences multiple violent incidents while growing up. Magic was his life as a child; he would study his catalog of tricks and would spend time in front of a mirror perfecting his act. When John was fourteen, his father passed away, which left him emotionally scarred. Later in his life John met Kathy, who he married after his return from Vietnam. In Vietnam, John continued his violent behavior: he shot and killed a fellow soldier. After his landslide loss for of Presidency, John and Kathy traveled to a Minnesota lake side-cabin, where John would perform his ultimate magic trick and make Kathy disappear.
When John was growing up he was faced with many emotional problems. One of these problems was that John’s father was an alcoholic: he would sneak down to the garage and get drunk daily. In the mirror, where John practiced is magic act, he would imagine that his father did not drink; he would pretend that his father loved him. When John was in the fourth grade his dad would make fun of his weight. His father also didn’t like that John was wasting his time in the basement practicing magic; he wanted him to be normal like the other kids. John’s father would jerk a thumb at the basement floor and say, “'That pansy magic crap. What’s wrong with baseball, some regular exercise?' He’d shake his head. 'Blubby little pansy.’” (O’Brien 67). Other kids in the neighborhood loved John’s father—often coming by to toss around a football. One boy in the neighborhood even made a speech about John's dad where he said “'I wish he was my father'” (O’Brien 67).
Later, John experienced and displayed brutal violence in Vietnam by shooting and killing an innocent civilian. He was also forced to watch this brutality because there was no getting away from it. “He shot the smoke, which shot back…If a thing moved, he shot it. If a thing did not move, he shot it. There was no enemy to shoot, nothing he could see, so he shot without aim and without any desire except to make the terrible morning go away. When it ended, he found himself in the slime at the bottom of an irrigation ditch. PFC Weatherby looked down on him. ‘Hey, Sorcerer,’ Weatherby said. The guy started to smile, but Sorcerer [John] shot him.” (O’Brien 64). This quote is an example of how John was desensitized against violence. His only way to stay alive was to kill others. PFC Weatherby was an unfortunate casualty of John's disturbed mind.
Following the Vietnam War, John would experience what is now known Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. During this time, he would see flashes of memories of dead bodies. The combination of the accumulated damages would lead John to the murder of his wife Kathy. John's loss of the Presidency had put him in great debt: not only did he lose a great deal of money in the election, but he had lost his reputation. John wanted to be happy; he wanted a good life with Kathy, but the "mirrors" in his head hid that happiness in a place where John’s magic had no effect.
During his adulthood, John’s life was filled with emotional bliss because of Kathy, yet he was not honest with her—never confessing to here the crimes he had committed. “The secrets were his. He would never tell…He was Sorcerer after all…The trick then was to be vigilant…The secrets would remain secret – the things he’d seen, the things he’d done…he would go from year to year without letting on that there were tricks.” (O’Brien 46). This quote clearly explains that even after he was with Kathy, he chose to keep his “magic tricks” a secret from her. He did not have enough trust in either her, or in himself, to let his real self be known. This is an example of how the violence he experienced during his childhood caused him to have low self esteem as an adult, and how this lead to the creation of his alter–ego (The Sorcerer).
John’s memories of Vietnam finally caught up to him one night when sleeping in a cabin. After waking up for the second time that night, John got up and boiled a teakettle. When the water was ready, John grabbed it and watered the plants, which killed them. John then re-boiled the teakettle, and poured, “boiling red water” on Kathy. He took Kathy’s body onto a boat and sunk her body by the rocks. “He remembers puffs of steam in the dark. A strange flapping sound, like wings, then a deep buzzing, and then later he’d found himself waist-deep in the lake.”(O’Brien 134). The author does not confirm that John killed Kathy, but with this quote one can make an educated guess.
The poem “How I Learned to Sweep” has a similar theme as “In the Lake of the Woods.” In the poem, a girl’s mother avoids communicating, just like Kathy and John did not communicate. Another similarity between the two works is that both mention war, and the violence caused by war. The quote “I saw a dozen of them die...” (Alvarez 267) is similar to John’s experience witnessing casualties during the Vietnam War. Another similarity is that both of the protagonists are trying to rid themselves of the war violence. John uses the "mirrors" in his head to hide his actions while in “How I Learned to Sweep” the girl tries to get rid of her emotions by sweeping; she is trying to “sweep” away the dead bodies just how John had “swept” away his murders.
Both of the readings show us that witnessing violence can have an immense effect on one’s life. In John’s situation the killing of his wife Kathy was a reaction to his violent experience throughout life. In “How I Learned to Sweep,” the shocking images caused the girl’s depression. The protagonists in the two readings are hiding their emotions inside themselves. John experienced multiple emotional abuses; his father played a huge roll in damaging John’s self esteem. John also witnessed the rape and the killings of women and children, which added to his collection of violent images. These readings shows that when a child’s emotional health is damaged it can cause great harm; however, if the abuse is treated early it can forever change a person’s actions.
Works Cited:
Alvarez, Julia. 1994 How I Learned to Sweep. In Readings for Writers. Boston: Bedford/St. Marin's.
O’Brien, Tim. “In the Lake of the Woods.” New York: Penguin Books,1995.