Life is the source of creation, and the thought and language of an excellent literary work often carry the creator’s personal experience. Irish author Frank O’Connor (1903-1966), in his “My Oedipus Complex” in Frank O’Connor’s Short Stories (1952), gives us an insight into O’Connor’s connection between real life and literature. Create great perspectives that are cleverly blended.
”My Oedipus Complex” is a masterpiece of Frank O’Connor’s succinct writing and delicate language. The novel is told in the first-person narrative tone of the little boy-Larry, and the love of “me” for “mother” and the “war” between “me” and “father” in order to win the “mother’s love” are vividly portrayed. . Although the story is fictional, the appearance of its characters coincides with O’Connor’s life course everywhere. It is precisely because the novel describes the truth that when the main theme is presented, it is even more touching.
To say that O’Connor has an Oedipus complex is not without reason. His real name is Michael O’Donovan, born in 1903 in the Irish town of Cork. O’Connor grew up in a poor family, and his mother, Mienni, was beautiful and virtuous. His father, Michael, was a former British soldier who was a drummer in a military band. After the army was disbanded, he also served in the navy. Michael was an alcoholic and would often go out on credit to buy sprinkles, leaving the family deeply in debt. He even forced his wife to sell her family fk in exchange for alcohol money. In some biographical sources we can see this description, “Mine goes out to work every day for a small salary. Sometimes it is lucky that this payment is not all used by her husband to buy ‘Guinness Stout’. However, Minnie’s ‘Hiding in the East’ made her husband very angry, and he even used a saber to force his wife to hand over the wine money. Young O’Connor bravely rushed forward to protect his own at the risk of being injured. Mother.” When it came to educating his children, O’Connor’s father would rather have O’Connor fight other boys than make him literate. He often rudely scolded his son for being “lack of manliness and worthless”. Because of his father’s brutality, O’Connor often sought refuge with his understanding mother. He has always regarded his mother as an idol, and even admitted that he is “Mummy’s baby”. O’Connor hated the pain his father inflicted on his mother. Throughout O’Connor’s life, his struggle with his father never ceased. The mother, however, harbored a puzzling nostalgia for her father. She couldn’t fully accommodate O’Connor’s hatred of his father. The reason why my mother is grateful for such a father is that her father did not dislike the fact that she grew up in an orphanage and gave her a home. The mother’s tolerance and kindness, as well as the hard work she paid to maintain the family, had a strong shock in O’Connor’s young mind. It can be said that O’Connor’s childhood was in the loneliness of expecting his mother to come home.
In “My Oedipus Complex,” Larry’s father is away from home for a long time because of the war. During the days when his father was in the war, Larry was left alone with his mother’s love. However, after the war ended and his father returned, Larry felt that his father had seriously threatened his privileges, and that his mother no longer loved him as much as before, so he concluded that it was his father who stole his mother who should have belonged to him. Larry said a lot of childish words with a very serious adult kiss, which formed a strong contrast and made people laugh. For example: “Mummy, do you think God will send Daddy back to the battlefield if I pray so hard?” “Will another war be waged if God likes it?” “Mummy, I want Daddy to go to him Going to sleep in your own bed will make you healthier!” As the balance of mother’s love gradually shifted to his father’s side, Larry could no longer tolerate his father’s “madness” like this. After a fierce quarrel, he and his father “officially declared war” , became the “open” enemy. Larry racked his brains to distance himself from his father and told his mother that he would marry her when he grew up to show that he would never give in. It can be said that the war between Larry and his father has entered the heat of the moment. The birth of his younger brother Sony brought a turning point in the conflict between father and son. After Sony was born, my mother focused all her attention on Sony. Neither my father nor “I” seemed to get the care of my mother, so they stood on the same front. In the end, the father and son put their past suspicions aside, and the father “bought me back a very beautiful railway model for the first time ever.”
The “father” in the novel seems to be a copy of O’Connor’s father. Larry eventually reunited with his father, which is arguably O’Connor’s best wishes. And O’Connor’s love and nostalgia for his mother constitute the source of this article. “O’Connor” was originally the name his mother used when she was working for others. Out of his deep love for his mother, in 1931, he published his first collection of short stories, “Guests of the Country”. As Frank O’Connor rose to prominence, his real name, Michael O’Donovan, gradually became less known a
However, My Oedipus Complex is far more than a simple autobiography. In the novel, we can see the image of a “father” suffering from war. After the “World War I”, his father who had experienced vicissitudes of life returned to his hometown, but faced a huge problem of survival. There was no source of income in the family, and he had to support his family. “Dad didn’t say a word, just lit his pipe, smoked fiercely, and looked at the shadows outside…” “Your poor dad is very tired, very anxious, and can’t sleep well all day…” The war made him leave his hometown , so that he could not enjoy his family; the end of the war made it difficult for him to find a job, which created a greater gap between him and his estranged son. O’Connor hated the pain the war brought to the family, and he had a strong desire to have a warm and harmonious family.
O’Connor’s “Oedipus complex” is actually reflected in his infinite nostalgia for Ireland, the “mother of the motherland”. In O’Connor’s writing, he often places the background of the story in a rural or small town in Ireland: the themes of his novels also focus on describing Irish customs, religion, love, marriage, family and hatred. “There (Ireland) is where the Ark left me” is O’Connor’s often-quoted wisdom.
O’Connor’s deep attachment to his motherland, Ireland, has not changed in the slightest over time. In the first half of the 20th century, Ireland suffered from war. In 1918, O’Connor resolutely joined the IRA, fighting for Ireland’s freedom from British colonial rule. In 1923, he was captured by the Free State Army. Ten months as a prisoner of war made him miss his motherland and hometown unforgettable. After being released from prison, O’Connor first taught in the country and then worked in libraries in Srigo and other places. In 1928 he came to Dublin to work in a library. In 1935, on Yeats’ recommendation, he became director of the Abbe Theatre, a position he was forced to resign after Yeats’ death in 1939. After the outbreak of World War II, O’Connor worked for the London Broadcasting Corporation. The oppressive and dull cultural atmosphere in China has forced many writers to go into exile, and the famous writer Joyce went abroad because he could not bear the darkness and filth of Dublin. Many of O’Connor’s works have been banned in Ireland because of his frequent attacks on current affairs. He himself was seen as an “anti-Irish Irishman”. So O’Connor moved to the United States in 1951 and continued to work on his own. He has taught at Northwestern University, Harvard University and Stanford University. A stable and prosperous life did not change O’Connor’s deep thoughts of his motherland. As times changed and the political atmosphere at home eased, O’Connor returned to Ireland in 1961 to teach at Trinity College in Dublin, where he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters the following year. O’Connor died at his home in Dublin in March 1966. From beginning to end, O’Connor never gave up that stubborn Irish complex.
Frank O’Connor wrote more than 150 short stories in his lifetime, as well as novels, plays, poems, and two autobiographies. More than 70 of these short stories describe family life in Ireland and are closely related to O’Connor’s own life and experiences. Wohlgelernter wrote of “My Oedipus Complex”: “Although the protagonist of the story is only a young boy, it is not difficult to conclude that Frank O’Connor’s ironic humor is not only a For boys who fell in love with their beautiful young mother and wanted to murder their own father, and bemoaned the current state of life in Ireland, where boys develop a strong attachment to maternal love from adolescence onwards, it is not unreasonable A tragedy.”
O’Connor subtly integrates his own life into his creations, perhaps to escape reality or to vent his feelings. In a word, it is because of his ups and downs and twists and turns in life that O’Connor’s works are so realistic and lifelike; it is because of his compassionate and compassionate feelings that O’Connor can truly convey people’s desire for love, family and understanding the voice of the heart. The poet Yeats praised O’Connor, calling him “the Chekhov of Ireland”. To commemorate this great writer with outstanding contributions, Ireland established the “Frank O’Connor International Short Story Festival” and the “Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award” in 2005.
