Sigmund Freud proposed the idea that the human mind can be categorized into three different places: Id, super-ego, and ego. According to him, the id is the impulsive part of the mind that only worries about “pleasure” without worrying about much else, such as the consequences that these actions might arise. The super-ego is the moral part of the mind, it always chooses the situation in which the individual does the right thing, despite any other circumstances. Finally, the ego is an attempted balance between the id and the super-ego. This last one, the ego, is according to Freud the type of psyche present in most of the minds of the people around the world. However, there are always some exceptions which make human’s judgment very extreme and not practical. Both id and super-ego are extremely impractical. The hedonistic approach of an id psyche means that this person will only be acting for a self-interest that looks for pleasure and for fun. For obvious reasons, this would end up in failure. At the same time, the super-ego approach is not plausible. In John Gardner’s novel Grendel, there is a certain soldier that lives by super-ego. He follows Grendel in an attempt to be a hero and destroy him, but since he cannot, he is tortured by the fact that he is not killed. Grendel spares this man’s life on purpose to mock him, because he knows that the warrior would rather die fighting than live as a coward. Artists and authors have been profoundly influenced by Freud because the id, ego, and super-ego theory analyzes the way that characters make decisions and develops their particularities. Due to this theory, readers are better able to understand the rationalizations of the characters in a particular work.
Sunday, April 22, 2012
Wylie. Period 5. Team 5. Post-Modern Synthesis Question
Lorena Huang Liu
Diana Huang
Rachel Yeo
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We agree with your arguments and points about how Freud's psychological findings were reflected in Grendel, however, there was no mention of the artists Pollock and Warhol — two painters specifically mentioned in the synthesis question. Aside from that, we generally found your response very wholesome and interesting in that you bring up aspects of Grendel that strictly relate to Freud's categorization of the mind. If you tied together the painters and Grendel, that would have made a more comprehensive response. Nonetheless, it is obvious that you researched and did a really spectacular job connecting two not so obvious characteristics of the post-modern era. Overall, good job.
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