An Analysis Of The Narrow Road To The Deep North From The Perspective Of Jungian Complex Theory

The Narrow Road to the Deep North,Richard Flanagan's sixth novel,awarded the Man Booker Prize in 2014.Flanagan was the third Australian novelist who won this prize.Based on the history that Australian POWs built Burma Railway for Japanese,the fiction describes Dorrigo Evans' war experience,presents traumatic memories of war victims and elaborates the influences of war on humanities.Jungian complex theory is applied to analyze the novel.First,the formation of complexes is explored through factors such as culture,war and archetypes.Then complexes,i.e.love complex,success complex in the novel are analyzed.Finally,endeavors are made to elucidate how complexes exert influences on human beings.This thesis consists of five chapters.Chapter One contains the significance and purpose of studying Richard Flanagan's The Narrow Road to the Deep North,literature review,the introduction of theoretical basis,research questions and the structure review.Chapter Two focuses on exploring factors that influence the formation of complex in the novel,mainly from internal and external factors.Chapter Three aims to analyze complexes in the novel.Chapter Four explores the positive and negative influences that complexes have exerted on people.Chapter Five concludes that nearly all the characters in the novel had complexes and influenced by them.Drawing on Jungian complex theory,this thesis finds out that the formation of complexes in the novel is the result of both internal and external effects,namely war,culture and archetypes.And the traumatic symptoms of the characters are the best evidence that complexes exert influences on people.Taken the historical background into account,this thesis aims to make readers realize that complexes can have both good and bad effects on personalities and encourage them to positively deal with traumatic events.Besides,love is the most efficient method to balance complex.