Comparison of Characters Using Psychoanalytic Criticism

In essence, virtually all literatures represent some truth, especially those that arise from either a person’s sub-conscious mind or from experiences. This paper adopts the role of psychoanalytic theory in conducting a comparative analysis of Monkey the King and Mercy from two literary works – The Journey to the West and The Mercy Journals respectively. Monkey the King and Mercy share as much differences as similarities based on the way each one of them portrays defense, expectation, fears, and transformation from their experiences. A synoptic overview two texts reveals an intriguing similarity and the basis for fear of the past by the two selected characters – Monkey the king and Mercy. Claudio Casper’s The Mercy Journals begins a post-apocalyptic era due to lack of water that eventually culminated into a crisis.

The Monkey King does not care about the obstacles on his way as he designs tactical approaches to suit his aspirations in life. Even though Wu Kon had proven to be arrogant, he was merciful to the monkey community. Freud’s theory provides a complex relationship that bridges our dreams and the literary work. While designing this model, Freud postulated that our unconscious centers on the childhood events. In essence, whatever happens in our life must have originated from the developmental stages in which our parents as well as our drives for desire in life play a part. From The Journey to the West, while on his usual run, Monkey King causes havoc at the Palace of the Dragon King after realizing his appointment at the Palace was a humbling one.

Overall, he wanted to be regarded as god of heaven, a move that received significant amount of opposition. Freud’s psychoanalytic exploration unearths a true picture of the unconscious mind and dream. The unconscious desires represent human traumatic events, unresolved conflicts, fears, and suppressed emotions. This is evident in The Mercy Journals. As shown in Newton’s “Psychoanalytic Criticism,” the authors are able to write exactly what has previously happened in their life and use imaginary characters to address their aspirations (pp 206). Throughout The Journey to the West, Wu Chengen, through Monkey King, highlights what motivated him to express interest in adventure as opposed to living within the confines of the usual norms. Taking the role of both the antagonist and protagonist, Chengen exposes how human desires can contribute to changes in life including learning skills to help defend personal aspirations.

As a reader, I am able to deduce that due to his past suppressed emotions, Mercy has eventually developed an unhappy psychological distress. For him to overcome his situation, he learns to transform so as to fit to his immediate environment but maintain his focus on the expectations he has had about life. While Monkey King portrayed restlessness as he pursued immortality, Mercy, however, engaged in outdated activities including reading of overdue library – an aspect that had less impact as he retraced ways to reconnect to the real world. In both cases, we learn about a society boiled down to its most basic parts – struggle for power and the scarcity of resources. Overall, Sigmund Freud’s model of psychoanalysis has gained root in literary criticism.