Frank O’Connor – My Oedipus Complex (Overview & Questions)
In My Oedipus Complex, O'Connor portrays exactly such a 2d inward a child's life when awareness grows as well as the sheet of life begins to larn dabs of disappointment. Poor Larry realizes he has a begetter as well as a babe blood brother to ground with.
Unlike what i mightiness await from a coming-of-age tale, the maturity of the storey is non institute inward its characters but inward O'Connor's powerfulness to larn out aside his traumatic childhood as well as focus on a constructive message. He could bring easily depicted the begetter every bit the drunkard inward his life who couldn't locomote along a chore but was supported yesteryear a wife who cleaned houses as well as thence the household unit of measurement would non starve. He could bring idolized the woman parent or fashioned her afterwards his own, suffering inward quiet from chronic appendicitis for many years but never seeking medical assist for lack of money. Instead, he express her to beingness a soothing, practical, no-nonsense woman. As for the father, nosotros cannot but remark a for sure resemblance to our ain fathers, to an uncle, or a grandfather, inward other words a run-of-the-mill adult manlike somebody who grumbles, is oftentimes away from home, leaves child-rearing to a greater extent than oftentimes than non to the mother, as well as doesn't feel the bespeak to ingratiate himself amongst his son.
With its bittersweet gustation as well as instances of irony, My Oedipus Complex reminds us of our ain childish narrow-mindedness as well as selfish demand for attention, which, I fear, nosotros may non bring outgrown exactly.
The notes that follow should help guide you lot through this story as well as lead the way for class discussion, research as well as analysis for assignments.
Read the storey here.
Click on the movie for explanations of literary terms
Frank O’Connor – My Oedipus Complex
- life
- 1903-1966
- Irish
- wrote to a greater extent than than 150 works
- 1918 joined IRA (Irish Republican Army = dedicated to Irish Gaelic Republicanism = wish all of Ireland to survive independent; back upwards political violence every bit agency of attaining independence)
- served inward IRA during the Irish Gaelic War of Independence vs. British
- 1918 election: Sinn Fein (Irish Republican Party) won + declared independence of Ireland from the British
- next hateful solar daytime ii officers of the British Armed Police inward Ireland shot dead yesteryear IRA members (acting on their ain initiative)
- was imprisoned 1922-1923
- childhood: father= alcoholic, inward debt, abused family
- loved his mother, resented his begetter for the way he treated them
- plot
- about a family
- father comes dorsum from WWI
- son feels left out every bit begetter is stealing mother’s attention
- antagonism betwixt begetter + boy grows
- birth of younger brother, Sonny, makes boy loathe blood brother to a greater extent than than father
- son feels hapless for begetter who also doesn’t larn mother’s attending anymore
- father seems to soften to boy every bit well
- stages of antagonism (all due to a interruption from routine)
- happiness of woman parent that begetter is dorsum from state of war for good
- father talks to woman parent ⇛ boy interrupts
- son goes on walk amongst father: can’t become where he wants; begetter doesn’t hold back for him to follow; son’s green tricks amongst woman parent don’t function on father
- father reads paper + tells intelligence to mother: steals mother’s attending away from son
- morning talks amongst woman parent inward bed disrupted: boy must survive placidity because father’s asleep, tired from function (= outset of opened upwards enmity)
- son wants begetter to slumber inward split bed
- promised to remain placidity + play amongst his toys, but got bored afterwards a while
- father: “Shut up, you lot petty puppy.” son: “Shut up, you!”
- son declares he’ll conjoin woman parent when he grows up
- baby arrives = halt of antagonism
- son feels hapless for father
- father comes to slumber inward son’s bed
- both are ignored yesteryear mother: boy calls woman parent “simpleminded” for non seeing through Sonny’s schemes to attract attention
- characters
- Larry (son)
- changes through the course of pedagogy of the story
- at the start: stubborn, self-centered, self-indulgent, sees mother’s positive traits only
- understands rudimentary dynamics of a family: every boy is ‘deposed’ every bit manlike somebody monarch / middle of attention
- feels pity for begetter inward the end: realizes what begetter must survive feeling (= procedure of maturity), sees mother’s negative traits (realizes she has flaws every bit well)
- by transferring his hatred to Sonny he demonstrates he’s however non mature plenty (so his alter of graphic symbol is incomplete)
- Mick (father)
- described every bit bony, had mutual accent (= mutual worker, maybe lower class)
- grumpy, tired, impatient, abrupt
- hard-working, provides for family
- doesn’t larn on good amongst children (“If some other babe comes into this household unit of measurement … I’m going out.”): other interpretation = shirks father’s responsibility
- stubborn, doesn’t permit Larry force him around (when they become on walk) or play amongst his regimental badges, Gurkha knives, push sticks (used yesteryear soldiers inward WWI as well as WWII to locomote along their uniform cook clean when polishing the brass buttons) = pride inward accomplishments
- prepared to usage violence to survive obeyed: “Larry, if you lot don’t behave, I’ll give you lot a proficient slap.” “He wants his bottom smacked.”
- similar to Larry inward many respects
- mother
- sweet, mediator, keeps balance
- patient: explains to Larry, non cross amongst him immediately
- is stern but doesn’t threaten violence: “Now i time as well as for all, you’re to survive perfectly placidity or become dorsum to your ain bed. Which is it to be?” = gets her way but allows Larry the privilege of making the decision
- pacifies province of affairs earlier begetter explodes on Larry
- has a way amongst children: her explanation why begetter is tired + needs to function is slow for Larry to sympathise (story nearly Miss MacCarthy + getting pennies)
- Sonny (new babe brother)
- point of view
- 1st somebody betoken of persuasion (Larry)
- unreliable because young
- this unreliability creates humour inward storey (irony of province of affairs ⇒reader knows to a greater extent than than Larry does)
- written through the perspective of older Larry (past tense used)
- themes
- family dynamics
- father-son relationship
- mother-son relationship
- sibling relationship
- childhood
- innocence ⇒ lack of critical judgment
- egocentricity
- dependence on adults
- maturity
- fatherhood vs motherhood
- tone
- humorous
- ironic
- title
- Oedipus complex = psychoanalytic theory coined yesteryear Sigmund Freud
- based on 5th century Greek mythological graphic symbol of Oedipus
- kills begetter (Laius)
- marries woman parent (Jocasta)
- doesn’t know they’re his parents
- Freud’s belief:
- unconscious sexual wish of kid for opposite-sex parent
- this phase of childhood must survive overcome successfully: kid must position amongst same-sex parent
- if phase non successfully overcome: leads to neurosis, pedophilia, homosexuality
My Oedipus Complex: Questions
1) Describe the father-son relationship.
2) What is the mother's role inward the story?
3) How does O'Connor build upwards the plot?
4) How does the writer usage betoken of persuasion to his advantage? (ie how does the betoken of persuasion assist the overall number of the story?)
5) What message practice you lot holler upwards O'Connor wants to send out to the reader through this story?
6) Why is the choice of championship a proficient one?
All I know from my ain experience is that the to a greater extent than loss nosotros experience the to a greater extent than grateful nosotros should survive for whatever it was nosotros had to lose. It agency that nosotros had something worth grieving for. The ones I'm hapless for are the ones that become through life non knowing what grief is.
Frank O'Connor
(1969) “A Set of Variations: Twenty-seven Stories”