I cut Arty’s meat slowly while my chest fills with a yearning that would like to spill out through my eyes and nose. It is, I suppose, the common grief of children at having to protect their parents from reality. It is bitter for the young to see what awful innocence adults grow into, that terrible vulnerability that must be sheltered from the rodent mire of childhood.
Can we blame the child for resenting the fantasy of largeness? Big, soft arms and deep voices in the dark saying, “Tell Papa, tell Mama, and we’ll make it right.” The child, screaming for refuge senses how feeble a shelter the twig hut of grown-up awareness is. They claim strength, these parents, and complete sanctuary. The weeping earth itself knows how desperate is the child’s need for exactly that sanctuary. How deep and sticky is the darkness of childhood, how rigid the blades of infant evil, which is unadulterated, unrestrained by the convenient cushions of age and its civilizing anesthesia.
Grownups can deal with scraped knees, dropped ice-cream cones, and lost dollies, but if they suspected the real reasons we cry they would fling us out of their arms in horrified revulsion. Yet we are small and as terrified as we are terrifying in our ferocious appetites.
We need that warm adult stupidity. Even knowing the illusion, we cry and hide in their laps, speaking only of defiled lollipops or lost bears, and getting a lollipop or toy bear’s worth of comfort. We make do with it rather than face alone the cavernous reaches of our skulls for which there is no remedy, no safety, no comfort at all. We survive until, by sheer stamina, we escape into the dim innocence of our own adulthood and its forgetfulness.
Using the concepts of the Id, the Ego and the Super Ego, write a one page response to this piece of writing. What happens to us as we grow up according to this author (Katherine Dunn)? Do you agree? Is this a positive or negative thing? Use specific examples of when children behave in evil ways adults would not.
PSYCHOANALYSIS
Freud divided the mind into three parts, id, ego, and super-ego. Each part of the mind is responsible for something different. Id and super-ego are comparable to the angel and devil sitting on one's shoulders telling one right and wrong
Id-the impulsive, child-like portion of the psyche that operates on the "pleasure principle" and only takes into account what it wants and disregards all consequences.
Id is equivalent to the devil sitting on one's shoulder.
Super-Ego-plays the critical and moralizing role in the psyche, aims for perfection, includes ego's ideals, punishes misbehavior with feelings of guilt.
Super-ego is equivalent to the angel on one's shoulder.
Ego- the organized, realistic portion on the psyche that acts according to the "reality principle" and seeks to please the id’s drive in realistic ways that will benefit in the long term rather than bringing grief.
Ego is equivalent to one's conscience.
Iceberg Model of Human Consciousness
How do these ideas apply if we view Heart of Darkness as a journey into self? The critic Frederick Karl notes that Conrad utilizes the jungle as a symbol not only of what we fear, but also of what we destroy (130-2). Through this symbol, Conrad voices his concerns on both political policy and the irrationality of human behavior.
· Which characters represent Id, Ego, and Superego?
· What circumstances are necessary in order for the Id to overtake human consciousness? What is destroyed in the process?
· What does Conrad seem to be saying about human nature (at least the nature of MEN) in general?
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