Alright guys, gals, and non-binary pals, the time has come to talk about Freud. I know, I know exciting, right?
Okay, I actually have a lot to say in this blog post about my psychoanalytic essay, so strap in because it’s going to be a bumpy ride.
Coming into college, I wanted to be a psychology major. I have always been fascinated with how the brain works and why people do the things they do. However, I was mostly interested in abnormal psychology and realized that it wouldn’t make sense to take a bunch of classes I wasn’t interested in only to take one that I was. So here I am now, an English major, finding out that I have to write an essay using psychoanalytic theory, and I’m genuinely excited about it. Looking into characters’ minds to find all of their hidden, repressed desires? Sign me up.
It was pretty easy to decide that I wanted to do a Freudian analysis of a text, but the hard part was deciding which text I wanted to write about. Having already written an essay on The Awakening, I wanted to switch it up a bit. I found another story in the anthology written by Kate Chopin, and immediately loved it.
The only problem was that I didn’t see how I could use Freud to analyze the story. I read the story probably ten times before seeing a connection to Freud’s idea of the id, ego, and superego. Now, I saw a connection, but will Dr. Pennington see a connection? We’ll just have to wait and see.
“The Story of an Hour” is such an interesting story, even though it’s incredibly short, and I highly recommend it to anyone who hasn’t read it. I thought it was going to be difficult to write an essay on such a short story, but I found more than enough evidence for my claims. The thing I’m worried about most is that I haven’t written an essay like this in a long time, so I’m not sure if I’ve done it correctly.
At any rate, I actually enjoyed writing the first draft of this essay. I really liked taking a close look at a specific character and trying to figure out how her brain works. I don’t know, okay? The psychologist in me just really liked it; there’s no other explanation.
I’m aware that this essay is the one that students struggle with the most, so I’m fully prepared for Dr. Pennington to tell me that my entire essay is wrong. For now, though, I will enjoy my last few days of ignorant bliss before turning in my first draft.
