The OEDIPUS COMPLEX IN THE FROG BY JOHN HAWKES

Abstract

The Frog is one of the well-known novels written by John Hawkes in 1996 which is narrated by the main character Pascal. The novels by John Hawkes which are the results of conscious rejection of the traditional realistic are accepted unusual and avant-garde by great numbers of literary critics. John Hawkes focuses on certain themes such as  love, morality, unsatistaction, and erotism via adopting peculiar methods to show how a writer can exceed the limits. In The Frog the author demonstrates how a young boy who feels an overwhelming obsessive desire to his mother develops a behaviour characterized by love, hatred, satisfaction, dissatisfaction, trust, and obsession towards  the people around him in some manner. That obsession which is called Oedipus Complex was introduced by an Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud in 1899. Despite the fact that the first chapter of the novel is devoted to indicate Pascal has a wonderful childhood and acquaint the reader with the peaceful home in which he lives, he, still, encounters some difficulties which are resulted by his obsession of his mother. One of the main reasons of these difficulties he encounters is the reality of Pascal is exposed to some short stories were  read aloud by his mother and he was influenced by these stories profoundly. The stories he listens about the frogs on a daily basis  make Pascal to have a great interest in frogs which are going to alter his life dramatically in the long term. When he thinks he swallowed a frog which  lives in his abdomen in times to come, his attitudes considerably change, his obsession with his mother gets bigger unlike he starts to loathe his father more. For that matter Pascal’s life comes under the influence of his obsessions. In this article we will discuss Pascal’s behaviours and how they are shaped by his excessive love of his mother to  reac