Reactions. The character shows their character from their reactions to various situations and events Murphy, 1972:161.
2. Lois Tyson’s Theory of Psychoanalysis
According to Lois Tyson ’ explanation in his book Learning for a
Diverse World, that has been quoted by Cecilia Lam ’s English paper
“Psychoanalysis of Maggie”, everyone has at least one core issue. He states in the book that a core issue is the main cause of some sort of recurring self-
destructive behavior, whether that behavior is really mild or really serious 2001:26.
In his educational book Critical Theory Today: A User Friendly Guide second edition, Tyson also explains that this literary theory explores how
much repressed desire and unresolved emotional distress, motivate a character’s actions, conflict and resolution in a story. According to Chicago
Literature Examiner named Magdalene Paniotte in her literary article, Overview of Lois Tyson’s “Critical Theory Today” 2012, Tyson explains
that psychoanalytic criticism assumes that human behavior and conflict is mostly determined by internal factors originating in early developmental
stages. According to Tyson, the unconscious consists of repressed wounds,
fears, unresolved conflicts and guilty desires. It has been stated in his book Critical Theory Today: A User Friendly Guide second edition Tyson,
2006:12. Tyson also states in his book Using Critical Theory: Using
Critical Theory to Read and Write about Literature that the theory of
psychoanalysis focuses on events that we go through in our life as we grow up, affects and shapes our psychological development, and we can see this
development as we get older. These early experiences tend to perform in our adult lives 2013:23. He also explains that we all experience some sort of
psychological problems in our lives, and psychological problems are a natural and unavoidable part of being human means that we all have at least
one problem that related to our psychological, and it is important to try to identify and understand them because, according to psychoanalytic theory
that is how we can start to heal the problems 2013:23. For psychoanalytic theory, the result of the emotional experiences we
had growing up is our adult personality, which means our early emotional experiences have a big impact on our personality. And according to Tyson,
the most important source of our early emotional experiences is the family. Because it is in the family that our sense of self and our way of relate to
others are first established 2013:25. Psychoanalytic theory is more interested in understanding the origin of
personal problems. This theory wants to offer ways to overcome personal problems. According to this theory, we all have core issues, so analyzing the
three main characters from this perspective does not necessarily mean that we are judging them negatively. Usually the charact
er’s race, class, and gender are the major factors in forming their personalities and creating their
personal problems. But psychoanalytic focuses on the family because it is the basic concept, and cultural factors as race, class, and gender play
different roles in different families. Tyson describes in his book Critical Theory Today: A User
Friendly Guide second edition that our unconscious desires do not
acknowledge or change our destructive behaviors because we have formed our identities around them and we are afraid of what we will find if we look
at them closely and carefully, and these unconscious desires are served by our defense mechanisms 2006:15. Defense mechanisms are the processes
by which we keep the repressed not allowed to be expressed in order to keep ourselves from knowing things we do not want to know because we feel we
can’t handle the feelings 2006:15. In other words, defense mechanisms are the processes by which the contents of our unconscious are kept in the
unconscious 2006:15. The unconscious is the storehouse of those painful experiences and emotions, those wounds, fears, guilty desires, and
unresolved conflicts that we do not want to know about because we feel we will be affected very strongly by them 2006:12.
In his book Using Critical Theory: Using Critical Theory to Read and
Write about Literature ,
Tyson states, “Many of our defense mechanisms develop during childhood as ways of protecting ourselves emotionally”
2013:26. It means that during our childhood we develop these defense mechanisms unconsciously to protect ourselves emotionally. These defense
mechanisms become more destructive than helpful as we get older because
these become a way for us to protect ourselves in a wrong way. These defense mechanisms keep us from understanding, and then healing, our
psychological problems. Those defense mechanisms include Avoidance, Denial, Displacement, Selective Perception, Selective Memory, Projection,
and Regression. Displacement is when we take out our negative feelings about one person on someone else less threatening that the person who
caused our fear, hurt, frustration, or anger. Avoidance is we stay away from people, places, or situations that might make us anxious by stirring up
repressed experiences. Denial is when we believe an unpleasant situation doesn’t exist or an unpleasant even never occurred 2006:15.
Sometimes our defense mechanisms break down for a moment, and this is when anxiety happens. Tyson also states that anxiety is an important
experience because it can reveal core issues 2006:16. Core issues do not consist of unsteady negative feelings such as insecurity or low self-image,
they stay with us throughout life and they determine our behavior in destructive ways of which we are usually unaware, unless they have
effectively addressed 2006:17. Tyson explains in his book Using Critical
Theory: Using Critical Theory to Read and Write about Literature , that:
“A core issue is the underlying cause of some sort of recurring self-destructive behavior, whether that behavior is
something as mild as being habitually late for important appointments or something as serious as being habitually
involved with abusive romantic partners” 2013:26 From those statements above, we can conclude that our self-destructive
behavior is caused by core issue. That behavior can be something simple for
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