We have now introduced three theories or "lenses" for analyzing literature, each of which looks emphasizes a type of power struggle which can occur within individuals, relationships or societies:
I. PSYCHOANALYTIC LENS: Inner Conflicts between Desire (ID) and Law (SUPEREGO) II. FEMINIST LENS: Interpersonal Conflicts between Male Power ("Patriarchy") and Women's Freedoms III. POST-COLONIAL LENS: Social and Political Conflicts between Oppressors and Oppressed Groups. Your job is to take these three lenses and apply each of them to a literary work. So, you'll be reading three works, and then finding a quotable example from each. Type it up, then write write a 2-3 sentence analysis of each quote, applying one of the literary lenses to each. Here are the links and prompts to get you thinking:: 1. Flannery O'Connor's Short Story "A Good Man is Hard to Find" -Psychoanalytic Lens: How does the Misfit exemplify the Id? The Grandmother sees herself as a defender of proper behavior, and so the representative of the Superego, but is she? And why does the story focus so strongly on these two characters? (This is a really good story to bring in the unconscious archetypes of Jung). 2.Walt Whitman's poem "I Hear America Singing" -Feminist Lens: Women appear near the end of the poem. How are they portrayed in relation to the men? Should a poem about America be equally divided between men and women? Or, on the other hand, is including women in the scene a powerful defense of their equality (considering this was written at a time when they could not vote and therefore were not considered "citizens")? 3.. Langston Hughes's "I ,Too Sing America." -Post Colonial Lens: Hughes, an African-American poet and playwright, wrote this almost 100 years after Whitman's poem as a response to it. Why do you think he did that? How does he present his position in society as a member of a colonized and devalued race? How does he try to take back his identity and define himself through the language and imagery in the poem? Post your quotes/analyses in the comments section as a single comment (please number them 1,2 and 3). If you have any questions, let me know via email and I can help. I'll also post replies to one or two comments -
17 Comments
Allie Talavera
9/20/2015 11:10:03 am
1. In Flannery O’Connor’s short story, “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” the Misfit exemplifies the Id. The Misfit does what he believes in and doesn’t follows any rules set by the government. On the other hand, the grandmother plays the role of the superego. The grandmother sees herself as superior to others because she dresses like a “lady’. She is also very quick to judge others decisions because in her eyes, everyone should follow what she should believe in.
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Makenzie Lowrey
9/20/2015 01:01:09 pm
1) "Does it seem right to you, lady, that one is punished a heap and another ain't punished at all?" -The Misfit
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Daisy Major
9/20/2015 02:22:16 pm
1) A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O'Connor has an id and a superego represented by the misfit and the grandmother. The misfit is the id because he does whatever he wants without thinking about the government or being punished. The grandmother is the superego because she believes in being a lady and being classy and that everyone else should be like her. One example from the text is, ""If I were a little boy," said the grandmother, "I wouldn't talk about my native state that way..." This shows how the grandmother compares herself to everyone else and believes she is better.
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Suubi Mondesir
9/20/2015 04:47:27 pm
1.) In the short story entitled, “A Good Man Is Hard To Find”, the Misfit exemplifies Id because he acts solely on his wants and desires. He chooses to kill, gain little pleasures and have power over others. In the story the Grandmother is depicted as the Superego. She appears to be the standard of proper behavior and manners. However in my opinion, she did not represent these values. Throughout the story she sees herself above others. The following quote shows this. “In my time, said the Grandmother, folding her thin veined fingers, children were more respectful of their native states and their parents and everything else. People did right then”. I also believe the reason the story focused so heavily on the Grandmother and the Misfit was to show the two extremes of mankind. In Jung’s archetypes, The Outlaw would be Misfit, who represents liberation and the self proclaimed Hero or savior would be the Grandmother who represents mastery.
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Seamus Cochrane
9/20/2015 05:48:33 pm
1) The Misfit is the embodiment of the Id in the short story, "A Good Man is Hard to Find". He is the Id because the Id is made up of the primal urges of all human beings, including the urge to hunt and kill. Furthermore, the Id has no grasp of consequences. The same can be said of the Misfit. He kills people simply because he can and with no regards for the consequences that come with it. Similarly, the grandmother is the embodiment of the Superego. This is because like the superego, she prides herself on being a perfect little member of society who follows all the rules. The story is focused on these two characters because they represent the ever present conflict between the Id and the Superego. Not only that, but in relation to Jung's archetypes it can be said that the Grandmother is the ruler, who is trying to get control over the Outlaw (the misfit).
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Meghan Pawlak
9/20/2015 05:49:17 pm
1. This was a good piece to show the struggle of the conscience and un-conscience. Either the grandmother trying to repress the Misfits desires of killing making him the ID in the story and the grandmother the super ego.
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Jackie Izzo
9/20/2015 06:34:06 pm
1. Psychoanalysis lens: In the short story A Good Man is Hard to Find, by Flannery O’Connor, the misfit exemplifies the ID because he truly cares about his motives and desires to fill the emptiness within him. Death is his ultimate happiness and makes him feel powerful. The desire of murdering innocents is his immediate desire. The Grandmother is shown as the superego because she pushes her family and she feels she has control over everyone. The Grandmother even feels she is in command of the misfit, showed in the conversation between the two. Even though she was trying to help him by stating “I just know you are a good man, you’re not a bit common” (O’Connor 9), The grandmother is still telling the misfit what he should be and who he is. This shows she feels powerful over him. Flannery O'Connor focuses mainly on these two characters because they are two very different archetypes. The Grandmother is considered the “lover” and the “caregiver”. The misfit is the “criminal” and the “shadow”. The author focuses on these two archetypes because he wants to show comparison between the two characters.
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Sarah Bailey Lakatos
9/20/2015 06:47:29 pm
1. In the short story, "A Good Man Is Hard To Find". You can identify the id and the superego through the Misfit and the grandmother. The Misfit is the perfect example for the id. He doesn't want to conform to the rules of the government. He continues to stand up for what he believes in. The grandmother on the other hand is the opposite. She represents the superego because she believes that she is the higher up than the rest of them because she dresses like a "lady" should dress. She conforms to the rules and believes that everyone should believe in the same thing she does.
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Kaitlyn Viola
9/20/2015 07:27:06 pm
1. In the short story, "A Good Man Is Hard to Find", The Misfit represents the Id because he acts directly on desire as opposed to considering the socially acceptable aspect of things. He says "Nobody had nothing I wanted" when he is questioned about stealing something. Once he sees something he wants, he takes it without caring that it is not morally right and there could be legal consequences. The Misfit acts on desire, which is why he represents Id. Grandmother does represent Superego because she often compares herself to others. She views herself as superior to others.
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Rachel Kline
9/20/2015 07:45:16 pm
1.) In the short story, "A Good Man is Hard To Find", the id is represented by the Misfit. He does whatever he wants and does not pay attention to what society says is what he should be doing. In Jung's archetypes, the Misfit could be considered the Outlaw. The superego in the story is represented by the grandma.She could be represented by the Caregiver archetype.
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Kathleen Patterson
9/20/2015 08:00:36 pm
1. “A Good Man Is Hard To Find” by Flannery O`Connor features a nationally known criminal, The Misfit, who represents the ID, and a seemingly average grandmother, who represents not just the superego, but a corrupt one at that. The almost childlike narration of the short story, which includes rambling details, helps to capture the increasing mental flickers and quickly acted on impulses that The Misfit exemplifies, and a good example of this putting on the husband's shirt that he immediately needed once he felt uncomfortable shirtless, a primal move where he gained the shirt through a very animalistic way:killing the man wearing it. Also, the narration is very helpful to see the corrupt superego figure, the grandma, as she was always pushing proper dress code, the religion she deemed proper, and aided in a dictation of where the road trip was headed. However, part of that detail revealed age wearing on her sense of true reality, as she strongly suggested a trip to a house in the wrong state, and could no longer place the distinctive shirt that her son had been wearing, as well as getting further corrupted by the persuasion of the ID, in going against her beliefs that God raised the dead.
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Brad
9/20/2015 08:24:51 pm
1. “’Why you're one of my babies. You're one of my own children!’ She [Grandmother] reached out and touched him on the shoulder. The Misfit sprang back as if a snake had bitten him and shot her three times through the chest” (O'Connor 11). An ID figure is unpredictable and swift when it feels threatened as the ID does whatever it desires. This is exactly why The Misfit is the ID of the story as he spends his time toying with the family as he sees fit, especially by his killing of them while they are all separated. Meanwhile there is then the grandmother, the story's superego. She tries so hard to control the Misfit and her grandchildren but she is too weak. She is unable to try to teach her kids good manners and she also fails to convince The Misfit to not kill her as her “law” was just not strong enough to face a criminal.
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Brad Chavero*
9/20/2015 08:27:05 pm
Forgot to put my last name.
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Tyhler Harty
9/20/2015 09:01:15 pm
1.) In the short story "A Good Man is Hard to Find", by Flannery O'Connor, their are two characters that exemplify the id and the superego. The character who shows the id is the Misfit since he acts on impulse and his desires. An example of this is this passage,"She reached out and touched him on the shoulder. The Misfit sprang back as if a snake had bitten him and shot her three times through the chest. Then he put his gun down on the ground and took off his glasses and began to clean them." it shows the id since he only reacted on his impulse. Also the Misfit represents the id by never following the rules by killing people and escaping from jail. The superego is the grandmother because of how she tries to keep the Misfit (the id) under control so he doesn't lash out at her. A good example of how she tries to control the Misfit is when she tries to make him find himself in Jesus.
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Matthew vaderveer
9/21/2015 04:01:25 am
“Nobody had nothing I wanted.”
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Courtney Fenty
9/21/2015 04:13:49 am
1. "A Good Man is Hard to Find"
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Akin Gaddis
9/21/2015 05:48:26 am
1. A Good Man is Hard to Find
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