On Raven’s Inferiority Complex In A Gun For Sale

Graham Greene(1904-1991)is one of the leading writers in the 20th century in Britain.A Gun for Sale,known as Greene’s famous entertainment,was published in 1936.It tells a journey of revenge experienced by the assassin Raven who is ugly and full of hatred for life.Western scholars have laid the most emphasis on Greene’s narrative technique and characters’criminal behaviors,while there are few researches and studies on A Gun for Sale in China,and even fewer further researches on characters’ psychology and social problems in the novel."Inferiority Complex" is the key concept of eminent Austrian psychologist Alfred Adler’s motivational theories.According to Adler,inferiority feeling is a kind of feeling originated from helplessness of childhood.When it attaches to organ defects and familial and social trauma,it will form complicated inferiority complex.People with inferiority complex usually avoid or cover the problems they really need to solve and try to pursue false superiority to satisfy and numb themselves.The protagonist’s inferiority complex in A Gun for Sale can be better understood by combing Adler’s discussion of inferiority and the social background before the Second World War in Britain from three aspects of person,family,and society.This thesis picks the protagonist Raven in the novel to deeply analyze the cause and manifestation of his inferiority complex.In the introduction,a literature review of the predecessors and a brief introduction to Adler and his inferiority complex are given.And then the following three questions are put forward:What are the causes of the formation of Raven’s inferiority complex?What are the specific manifestations of Raven’s inferiority complex?How does Raven’s inferiority complex relate to the social environment at that time?The first chapter mainly analyzes Raven’s intentional escape of facing personal defects.The physiological defect is the immediate cause of Raven’s inferiority complex.On the one hand,he lacks social interest and alienates himself in interpersonal interaction due to the discrimination of others;on the other hand,he is self-closed and withdraws into a restricted life circle.Raven’s personal defects deepen his inferiority complex.Chapter two mainly discusses Raven’s emotional loss in chasing family love.The absence of parental love and family tragedy are important causes of Raven’s inferiority complex.The desire of having a family makes him indulged in the fantasy of love and entangled in the ambivalence of kinship which aggravates his inferiority complex.The third chapter focuses on Raven’s passive compensation for pursuing high social status.The ignorance of the development of humanity in a capitalist society is the root cause of Raven’s inferiority complex.Raven tries to compensate for his inferiority complex in social status.Therefore,he disparages women hysterically and defends his self-esteem blindly and as a result,he falls into false superiority.The conclusion part summarizes and extracts the questions above and points out that inferiority complex in the process of formation and deterioration is indispensable with personal defects,family tragedy and distorted social values.Raven’s tragedy and failure to go beyond the inferiority complex reflect the indifferent relationship under the influence of industrial civilization in the 20th century.From that,we can perceive Greene’s humanistic concern about the real problems of the early the Second World War and the expectation of social stability and equality.