this is a critical evaluation of a short Stpry, My Oedipus Complex. i doubt any of you have read it, but i get the impression some of you are good at reviewing this kinda thing... it's for school. English of course. i will also be adding my teachers comments when i get them. so i can compare.
My Oedipus Complex – A Critical Evaluation
“My Oedipus Complex” is a short story written by an Irishman, Frank O’Connor. This has been an entertaining and successful story due to the author’s techniques. His use of characters, theme, imagery, word choice and humour make this a very enjoyable story.
The word “Oedipus” comes from the Greek legend where the hero killed his own father and married his mother. As the name suggests, this story contains a similar theme, only in a milder more humorous sense. In the story Larry, whose father has just returned from the war, finds that he is no longer an equal in his home. He has to compete with his father for his mother’s attention. This results in quite a funny situation, which I found very funny.
In the story, Frank O’Connor uses the boy as the narrator. Therefore the story is told from the perspective of a five-year-old. However, the language and word choice is very sophisticated for a child. Using phrases like “these obscene words referring to my person” makes Larry seem more adult than he really is, which adds to his indigence at being suddenly treated like a child. Of course I found this really funny because it’s so strange to see a child think like this.
Soon, things begin to get rather tense between Larry and his father. The author actually compares it to a battlefield when he says, “conducted a series of skirmishes against one another”. This gives the sense of an ongoing battle between the two. The silliness of this little private battle between a grown man and his five-year-old son is very entertaining from my point of view, especially as the father has only just returned from a proper war.
Every now and again, Larry will produce little bits of childish logic. Things he has worked out that make perfect sense to him but we, as readers, know better. For example, his mother tells him when he asks about why there isn’t a baby in the house when all the other families have one, than a baby costs “seventeen and six”. This makes no sense to Larry as “the Geneys up the road had a baby and everyone knew they couldn’t afford seventeen and six.” So he reasons that the Geney’s baby must be cheap and that his mother must want a better modal!
Another example is when his mother persuades him to sleep in his own bed because it is “unhealthy” to hare hers. It is then terribly unfair to him that his father gets to sleep with his mum when it is considered bad for his health and believes that his father should really sleep in a bed of his own. Larry even tells his mother he is going to marry her when he grows up because he is certain that this is the reason why his father gets all the attention. This is where I think most of the humour comes from.
Larry of course thinks that all this is the right way to go about things. He seems to think quite highly of himself, certainly that he is a very important person in the household. This adds to the success of the story, especially when his father returns.
Another technique used to make this story successful is the world choice and use of imagery. An example of this would be “like going for a walk with a mountain”. This is referring to his father. It gives the impression that unlike his mother, his father is solidly immovable. It also gives a sense of height compared to the little boy, as his father must seem much taller than he is from his perspective.
One of my favourite examples of this is “feeling like a bottle of champagne”. This gives the image of fizzling and bubbles and celebration. This means that the boy is very happy and energetic at this moment, but also that maybe his mood with fizzle out and he’ll run out of “bubbles” as he does later in the scene.
The authors use of irony is another very successful technique. Larry is told he must go to church every Sunday and pray for the safe return of his father. But when his prayers are finally answered, he realises that this is a disaster. So he comes to the conclusion that “God wasn’t quite what he was cracked up to be” and that “God had codded” him. By tricking him into praying for a calamity is disguise, the author makes the whole situation very humorous indeed.
Due to all these techniques, Frank O’Connor has made “My Oedipus Complex” a funny and successful short story that I particularly enjoyed reading.
