On Good Country People From Jung's Analytical Psychology Perspective

Good Country People is one of classical novels of famous American female writer Flannery O'Connor.It tells the tragic life of the female protagonist,Joy-Hulga.She is afflicted with physical defects,but she is arrogant and defiant.And Joy-Hulga is eventually deceived by a young Bible salesman.It reveals that people feel confused and their humanity is twisted.And some critics once remarked that it was the best story of O'Connor.The perspectives of previous studies mainly focus on the religion,Southern identity,women consciousness and so on.And there are rare studies which concentrate on the psychological perspective.Flanner O'Connor does pay more attention to Southerners'mental problems in her works.Thus the thesis decides to adopt Jung's analytical psychology to interpret the novel.Firstly,the thesis adopts Jung's personal unconsciousness to analyze the similarities of American Southerners'personality in the first half of the 20^th century.According to the important concept of“complex”,the thesis explores the influence of American traditional values on modern people.Secondly,the thesis analyzes the differences of three main characters in the novel by using Jung's collective unconsciousness.The main points are to explore characters'psychology and the personal as well as social reasons which lead to characters'mental illness from persona and shadow.Thirdly,the thesis discusses that the interpersonal relationships of the main characters who suffer from the twisted personality.Finally,the thesis reveals that their individuation ends in failure from the perspective of personality development.By interpreting the main characters'obscure behaviors and their psychology,their twisted personalities are caused by double reasons including individuals and society.What's more,their twisted personalities not only make their psyche been in the disharmonious state,but also harm to the construction of interpersonal relationships.Thus,by analyzing the novel,readers can get a more comprehensive view of the novel including the deeper reasons of the tragic ending.And the thesis also provides some enlightenments for contemporary people to establish the appropriate personality development values.