The Loss Of Self:Freudian Psychoanalysis Of The Road

The Road is a novel of Cormac McCarthy with great achievements. It won himthe Pulitzer Prize in2007, and afterwards, a wide readership and concern in critics.This thesis aims to analyze the loss of self in the novel from the perspective of theFreudian psychoanalysis. Through analysis, the thesis reveals the reasons why thecharacters in the novel lose their self when the nature and social system are whippedout. Accordingly, the influences of this loss give the reader a universal apocalypsethat the dark side in human mind is so destructive that it can blind the self, push theself into the villainous abyss, and even terminate the existences of human beings aswell as the society. This analysis process reminds readers of the alarming humancondition in the real world. The study intents to explore the relations between humanbehavior and human mind, between human activities and living condition, and themoral problems closely linked with human beings.This thesis consists of five chapters. The first chapter introduces the author andthe novel as well as Freudian psychoanalysis briefly. The second chapter discusses theembodiment of the lost self from the following aspects: the id-prevailed personalitystructure, the abandon of civilization, pleasure-seeking, aggression, and hystericalkilling in the characters of the story. These states of human mind caused by anxietyand fear according to Freudian theory eventually intensify into hysteria represented bythe fascination of killing human beings. The study on the personality structures of thecharacters indicates that the id prevails in the three parts of the mind, and humanbeings are living in an id-dominated condition. For the fear of death and being killed,men cast off the persona of civilization, regress to savage and head for hystericalkilling. The third chapter focuses on the causes and influences of the loss of self. Theexternal cause derives from the disorder of the external world inside and outside thestory; the internal root lays in the dark side of the human nature. The influences ofthis loss are mainly concerned from three aspects: death of the self, destruction of thenature and termination of the civilization. Human beings’ hysterical killing, seeminglyself-protecting against attacks of others, is destined to go to their doom accompaniedby the destructions of the nature and civilization by them.The fourth chapter tries to propose a possible way to reconstruct self in aself-lost world through the following three aspects: the recognizing of the evil of theid, reconstruction of the superego and a harmonious external world. Although theauthor exposes the darkest side of human nature and human villainy, he praises thejustice and strong will in human mind and implies the hope of reconstructing selfbetween the lines.From what have been analyzed above, the thesis intents to explain why thecharacters lose the self in the deserted landscape and how they indulge themselves inthis loss. When the restraints of external world are taken off, the repressed part ofhuman mind will prevail, and dominate the human activities. Stimulated by fear ofdeath in a condition of meager sustenance and motivated by the id and instincts,human beings go down into hysteria. The darkness of human nature is exposed. Menlose their identity and degenerate to savage. Accordingly, this thesis attempts to evokea universal pondering upon human nature, existential condition, the future and meansof salvation in the real world. Thus, The Road is an apocalyptic fiction, ringing thealarm to all human beings with the tale of “anonymous” characters, which carriesuniversal symbolic meaning.