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Northern Lights By Tim O'Brien


            
             The title of my book was Northern Lights. The title of the book had very little significance to do with the plot structure of the novel. The only time that the title came into the story was when the main character, Paul, was so absorbed in his activities at the lake that he barely noticed the northern lights. I think Tim O"Brien just used it as an example of Paul's state of mind when he was completing his goal at the lake. "He did not notice the northern lights. He did not look up. He did not see the rocketing, wavering, plummeting red in the sky. The mosquito rattled in his ear and he plunged toward Pliney's Pond"(343). .
             Conflict and Plot.
             One of the major conflicts was when Paul's brother Harvey came back from Vietnam to live with him and his wife. The other conflict was selling their house after Paul lost his job and moving somewhere that didn't contain so many memories of his childhood. The complications that surrounded Harvey were his obsession with the bomb shelter he built for his fire and brimstone preacher father, and the other section of the complication was his drinking problem.
             The other complications surrounded Paul was that he lost his job and had to face the decision of whether to move or not. The climatic moment in the novel was when Paul finally faced up to his past with his father and his father's death. A quote that illustrated the climatic moment is the paragraph that said, "It seemed almost a ritual, but he knew it was neither a ritual nor an armistice, for his universe was fear and memories, and as he waded inch by inch into the hot algaed waters he said, "Here we are, at last."."(343). The only recognizable resolution to the novel was Paul facing up to his father in the lake. None of the material problems (such as finding a job, solving Harvey's drinking problem, or moving) were solved by the end of the book. .
             Character.
             Paul: His major actions were getting lost in the woods with his brother Harvey, getting drunk, and taking a final swim in the lake.


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