Through the character of Cooper and the impact of his choices on Finch, the novel presents the negative effect that trying to escape one’s past can have. It shows the consequences of two things from Cooper’s past from which he has been trying to run: his experiences in the War in Afghanistan, and his decision to take Finch and escape to the cabin in the woods.

Cooper admits that fighting in the war had a devastating impact on him. Through his nightmares, the incident in the diner where he imagined that two civilians were carrying weapons, and his panic attacks, the reader sees the effects of PTSD. In particular, the incident wherein he kills two civilians to save the life of Jake continues to torment him. Indeed, Cooper reflects,

[I]f there is one thing I have learned in this life of mine, it’s that the mind is the cruelest of all weapons. Battles, skirmishes, they did their mean work and then they were over, but the wounds on the mind remained: scabs, welts, pockmarks. They never really went away. They could come back, strike again (108).

Although he survived the war and gained valuable survival skills from it, he also carries the trauma and guilt over what he experienced.