Richard Thinbill Character Analysis in In the Lake of the Woods

A young soldier who serves alongside John in Charlie Company, and witnesses enormous brutality at Thuan Yen, though he claims to be innocent of any wrongdoing. Richard Thinbill is ultimately responsible for bringing John’s presence at the massacres to the public eye. Richard shows signs of PTSD, and often comments on the flies surrounding the dead bodies at My Lai and Thuan Yen.

Richard Thinbill Quotes in In the Lake of the Woods

The In the Lake of the Woods quotes below are all either spoken by Richard Thinbill or refer to Richard Thinbill. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

Vietnam, Authorship, Interpretation Theme Icon

). Note: all page numbers and citation info for the quotes below refer to the Penguin Books edition of In the Lake of the Woods published in 1995.

All I remember now is the flies.

Related Characters: (speaker)

Page Number and Citation: 138

Explanation and Analysis:

Thinbill sighed. “I guess that’s the right attitude. Laugh it off. Fuck the spirit world.”

Related Characters: (speaker),

Page Number and Citation: 216

Explanation and Analysis:

Richard Thinbill Character Timeline in In the Lake of the Woods

The timeline below shows where the character Richard Thinbill appears in In the Lake of the Woods. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

...that John killed Kathy, an idea that Eleanor rejects as ridiculous. A man named Richard Thinbill complains about “flies,” though he doesn’t specify where he saw them. (full context)

...is structured as a collection of “evidence.” The first piece of evidence comes from Richard Thinbill, who says, “We called him Sorcerer.” The next pieces of evidence are related to John’s... (full context)

Richard Thinbill again mentions the huge number of flies, but doesn’t say where he saw them. A... (full context)

...soldier is often given orders that clash with his definition of right and wrong. Richard Thinbill complains once again about flies. A soldier named Salvatore LaMartina claims that everyone at My... (full context)

...court-martial, Paul Meadlo discusses rounding up Vietnamese villagers and claims that they were Vietcong. Richard Thinbill claims that he shot no people in Vietnam, only cows. Eleanor says that she “found”... (full context)

Richard Thinbill, at a court-martial, explains that a soldier nicknamed Sorcerer shot an old man “by accident.”... (full context)

...“the dentist.” The narrator, speaking in the first person for the first time, agrees with Thinbill that Vietnam was the spirit world: there were ghosts and graveyards everywhere. The narrator claims... (full context)

...and thorough. In the sunlight, soldiers shoot, rape, sodomize, and stab Vietnamese villagers. PFC Richard Thinbill, a young, good-looking man, asks Sorcerer if he can hear “the sound.” Sorcerer nods that... (full context)

The narrative returns to Vietnam. Charlie Company moves toward the sea in the east. Thinbill mentions the spirit world to Sorcerer, and observes, “Fuckers just don’t die.” The soldiers are... (full context)

Thinbill says, half to the other soldiers and half to himself, that they must have killed... (full context)

...if they’ve heard any rumors that what happened in the village was criminal or murderous. Thinbill, intimidated, says that he hasn’t heard any rumors of this. When Calley asks Sorcerer if... (full context)

Later in the night, Thinbill approaches Sorcerer and asks him if he thinks the two of them should say something... (full context)

...urinate, and resume firing on their victims. As he laughs, John rolls into the mud. Thinbill tells him to take it easy. John begins to calm down, but as he calms... (full context)

...hears other sounds in the area—some people are crying, and there are echoes of gunshots. Thinbill tells John he has the right attitude—“fuck the spirit world.” (full context)

Richard Thinbill is quoted talking about the flies. In another piece of evidence, from a court-martial, he... (full context)

All the soldiers who fought in Vietnam were young: Calley was 24, T’Souza was 19, Thinbill was 18, Sorcerer was 23, etc. After the massacre at Thuan Yen, they spent months... (full context)

...Peers Commission, who was looking for dirt on John. In a letter to John, Richard Thinbill apologizes for giving testimony that was used to implicate John in the Thuan Yen massacres.... (full context)

...have to be hopeful, and thus hopes that John and Kathy are happy together somewhere. Thinbill acknowledges that John pulled off one final magic trick by disappearing. Still, Thinbill says, John... (full context)

In a footnote to Thinbill’s final comment, the narrator discusses the peculiarities of memory. Like John, the narrator has his... (full context)