| Claire Messud is one of the most brilliant American young writers and also a writer with brainy and deep mind. She is of high social responsibility, and most of her current works is quite insightful. The Emperor's Children is her fourth novel, and also her best-known novel. It was firstly published in 2006 in America, which has aroused wide and great attention from critics. As an outstanding novel, it receives good critics from many journals, such as The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The New York Observer, etc. It is longlisted for the 2006 Man Booker Prize and is named by The New York Times as one of the best books of 2006.The specialty of the novel lies in its colloquial narrative style, depiction of multi-angle characteristics, application of stream of consciousness as well as intricate arrangement of structures. Most importantly, the psychological depiction and inner monologue best reflect the inner confusion and unhealthy personality of both the protagonists and the modern people.With its background set in New York and with 9/11 as a turning point, the novel reflects American social realities. Claire Messud focuses her writing on a group of elites in New York, showing their pursuit, puzzle, loss, epiphany and rebirth. With high writing techniques, Claire Messud clearly shows the psychological fluctuations and growth of these elites, especially those of the children of the "emperor", who himself also experiences different periods of quietness and loss. By using large quantities of psychological descriptions and internal monologues, Claire Messud creates elites of complex characters, who live in a special and fixed period, and whose psychological and spiritual conditions are completely displayed. The psychology of the protagonists in the novel develops from a chaotic condition to a healthy one, which is also a process during which their personality develops from incomplete to complete state. In their psychological growth, the ego and the superego play a vital role. Therefore, it is of great significance to interpret the psychological growth of the three children on the basis of the theory about ego and superego in Freud's personality theory.The thesis mainly consists of five chapters, among which chapter two, chapter three and chapter four are the body parts. Chapter one is the introduction, including Claire Messud, The Emperor's Children, previous studies both abroad and at home, Freud's personality theory, layout and significance. Chapter two mainly focuses on the immature period of the psychological growth of the children, which is also the period about the lure of superego. Chapter three depicts the lost period of the children, which is the period of fight between ego and superego. Chapter four is the analysis of the mature period of the psychology of the children, which can also be regarded as the period of victory of ego. Chapter five is the conclusion part. It concludes that the novel expresses the author's wish for the protagonists to pursue healthy personality, implying her anxiety about the unhealthy personality and psychological problems of more and more modern people. What's more, it explores the way to reach personality balance and healthy psychology, which gives enlightenment to the modern people:one should control his unreasonable desires and form harmonious personality. Only by obtaining well-developed personality, can one obtain mature and healthy psychology. |
PDF Full Text Request