In writing this article, the most difficult thing for me is to find resources. When I first got
this assignment, I immediately realized that it was a challenge for me, but after studying and practicing for so long, I felt I could finish it. I encountered many difficulties in writing, such as analyzing the links between characters and stories, but fortunately I got some help from my classmates so that I could finish this assignment smoothly. This assignment contains everything I have learned. I can clearly understand my growth and progress. This assignment not only shows me what I have learned this semester, but also makes me review what I have learned more profoundly.

Author Edgar Allan Poe using Freud’s psychology’s theory to illustrate a man’s transform between pure and evil in “ Black cat”, it’s more like a record of main character’s inner activities because when he struggle with his behaviors, he also can’t help with the pleasure brought by drunkenness. In this paper, the author uses first person perspective and a large number of symbolic techniques to make the reader feel the situation in the text to the greatest extent. The theme of the unconscious takes up a large part of the text, because the man often falls into a state of unconsciousness after getting drunk. In this way, we can enter into his inner world, and everything he do after drunkenness is the real emotions inside.

Perhaps a black cat is not just a cat. In western culture, cats have always been a symbol of ill fortune. Because the black cat has not been around the witch, plus the black cat in the above only one eye, then the cat should represent evil. In《Black Cat》by PoE，“My original soul seemed, at once, to take its flight from my body; and a more than fiendish malevolence, gin-nurtured, thrilled every fibre of my frame. I took from my waistcoat-pocket a pen-knife, opened it, grasped the poor beast by the throat, and deliberately cut one of its eyes from the socket ! I blush, I burn, I shudder, while I pen the damnable atrocity. When reason returned with the morning — when I had slept off the fumes of the night’s debauch — I experienced a sentiment half of horror, half of remorse, for the crime of which I had been guilty; but it was, at best, a feeble and equivocal feeling, and the soul remained untouched. I again plunged into excess, and soon drowned in wine all memory of the deed.” The man tried to resist this life but lacked the courage to face his family and wife, so he vented his resentment on the innocent cat after getting drunk. He treats the black cat like he resists the reality of his relatives, he did not start with the black cat, which means that he actually has a good side, but after a long time, he still dealt with the black cat, which means that he has no bottom line.The conscious response expresses the man’s inner world, breaking through his own bottom line, so even knowing that he had gotten rid of his favorite black cat’s eyes with his own hands, he left it behind with a little guilt.

For the connections of  two stories on the conflict between “Wishful Impulse” and the forces of repression are very clear. In the beginning，the main character describes himself as tenderness, kindness and love for animals. But he became cruel and irritable when he got drunk. In a sense, family consideration and wife’s care are becoming his pressure，like a prison that lock himself inside. But these are invisible, and he did not notice them. He yearned for freedom, so drunkenness became the only key to escape from prison. This connect to Sigmund Freud’s《Five Lectures On Psycho-Analysis》in second lecture, “I had substantiated the fact that the forgotten memories were not lost. They were in the possession of the patient, ready to emerge and form associations with his other mental content, but hindered from becoming conscious, and forced to remain in the unconscious by some sort of a force.”

These invisible pressures are unconsciously repressed by men in the heart, like a seed, lost in alcohol like giving fertilizers to his seeds. These repressions are slowly released by alcohol, like the Pandora Box that opens the heart and cannot be closed again. After getting drunk, he released his inhibitions step by step, so his bottom line was relaxed step by step. In《Black Cat》by PoE, the narrator said, “I grew, day by day, more moody, more irritable, more regardless of the feelings of others. I suffered myself to use intemperate language to my wife. At length, I even offered her personal violence. For Pluto, however, I still retained sufficient regard to restrain me from maltreating him, as I made no scruple of maltreating the rabbits, the monkey, or even the dog, when by accident, or through affection, they came in my way. But my disease grew upon me — for what disease is like Alcohol !”

After killing his wife and hiding in the wall, He succeeded escape many police checks, but on the last occasion he was impulsive enough to reveal himself. In a sense, is this a wishful impulse? The man himself said what he wanted to say, even a word, when the police were about to leave. But when he spoke, he did not know what he was talking about.This can be explained by Sigmund Freud’s《Five Lectures On Psycho-Analysis》in lecture 3, “Because, in addition to his desire to say it straight out, he is actuated by strong opposite motives. It is a proceeding which is liable to be dangerous to offend people who are one’s hosts, and who can call to their aid the strong arms of numerous servants. One might easily suffer the same fate that I used in the previous lecture to illustrate repression. On this ground, the critic does not express the particular insult directly, but in a disguised form, as an allusion with omission. The same constellation comes into play, according to our hypothesis, when our patient produces the irruptive idea as a surrogate for the forgotten idea which is the object of the quest.”

This article successfully describes that death is the only way out of nightmares. In this paper, death can not be understood from time as the end of life, but the end of spiritual pain in life. In order to save himself from the mental crisis, the protagonist adopted an extreme way. It turned out to be in a more painful situation and unable to extricate itself.

               The House on Mango Street is a novel written by Sandra Cisneros who is a Mexican-American author. The novel is based on the author’s real experience in an immigrant neighborhood in Chicago. All the stories happen on Mango Street. The book records the growth of a girl, Esperanza, from a teenager to a mature woman. The novel is written from her perspective and narrates the stories using her innocent tone. Esperanza has sharp observation and keen thinking ability. The story starts with Esperanza’s description of how her family moves frequently and settles down on Mango Street. Esperanza has experienced extreme poverty, racism, patriarchy, sexual offense, and other traumatic situations. Since Mango Street is a poor Latino area, the neighborhood has witnessed immoral behaviors. The House on Mango Street tells the journey of Esperanza’s struggling for her identity. The theory of personality is Freud’s prominent idea. It contains id, ego, and super-ego. According to Freud’s idea, people’s psychology has more than one aspect. Id, ego, and super-ego are not coming up in sequence. They incorporate each other. They become significant at different life stages, which has a great impact on Esperanza’s destiny. Cisneros uses id, ego, and super-ego to depict different characters. Esperanza’s friends also have gone through unpleasant experiences. However, they give different responses to these unpleasant or unfair facts because of their different inner emotions. Esperanza’s friends give different responses to society. They choose to surrender to society. Their ego prevails over id and super-id. Their individual desire gives way to the cruel society. However, Esperanza chooses to fight against society, trying to satisfy her id. When she successfully meets her initial id, her super-ego does not allow her to escape for her individual’s good, but pulls her back to help her neighborhood gain freedom and rights. Esperanza, as a frail individual, changes the society due to her firm inner emotions. The environment in society has different impacts on individuals’ id, ego, and super-ego.

                 The society has a small impact on people’s id. According to the authors, “Freud states that id is the first and most primitive part of the personality, present in the infant. The id is a completely unconscious, pleasure-seeking, containing all of the basic biological drives: hunger, thirst, self-preservation, and sex” (Ciccarelli and White 496). The id is based on the pleasure principle. People would like to fulfill their desires immediately regardless of the consequences. As the author mentions at the beginning of the story, Esperanza introduces her house, “we don’t have to pay rent to anybody, or share the yard with people, or be careful not to make too much noise” (Cisneros 3). With many economic advantages, Esperanza still does not like her house and wants to change to a decent house. The desire to change the house is the id from Esperanza’s heart. Although she knows her family is too poor to have a decent house, she still has the desire for a good one. The id is the primary hope which cannot be affected by the environment. The name “Esperanza” derives from her grandmother’s name. Her grandmother is a tragic woman. As the author describes, “She looked I out the window her whole life, the way so many women sit their sadness on an elbow” (Cisneros 11). Esperanza does not want to have the same experience as her grandmother. Moreover, her classmates often laugh at her name because of the cultural differences in understanding the word. Thus, she has been hoping to change her name since she was young; though she cannot rename herself. No matter what the environment is, people have the primary drive for something pleasant, comfortable, and enjoyable. Although id is limited by reality or would cause bad results, the drive naturally exists. Some people follow the id. Sex is one of the primary desires. When Esperanza gets her first job, her boss molests her at work. On a carnival night, three boys rape Esperanza, seeking bodily pleasure. Her boss and three boys put the sex desire in their mind into practice. They do not restrain the id regardless of the hurt to the girl and the worm of conscience. Hence, the society affects individuals little in the aspect of id.

                 Society affects individuals’ egos. According to the authors, “Freud claims that Ego is a second part of the personality. Ego is mostly conscious and is far more rational, logical, and cunning than the id. The ego works on the reality principle, which is the need to satisfy the demands of the id only in ways that will not lead to negative consequences” (Ciccarelli and White 496). Ego mediates the relationship between the id and the environment. Ego is based on the reality principle. Most women on Mango Street have id: they would like to gain equality, freedom, and love. However, the social environment says no to them. Women know that they cannot change the environment, so they accept the reality and live with it. Rafaela is a typical woman on Mango Street. When her husband goes to play dominoes at night, he locks Rafaela in the room of the third floor only because his wife is too beautiful. Young Rafaela spends days leaning on the window, searching for limited freedom. Many older women can dance in the dancing bar but may also be victim of this kind of locking up. Rafaela as well as other dancing women accept the reality since they know it is the common phenomenon on Mango Street. Women are not equal to men. Women are toys of men and owned by them. In the chapter “No Speak English,” Mamacita is caged upstairs at home because of the language. She cannot speak English, and her Mexican is regarded as an ugly language. It is so ridiculous someone should be caged for the language barrier. She cannot change the perspectives of others, even her kid hates the Mexican language. Esperanza’s friend Sally is another example. Sally’ s father often hits her hard at home, and she goes to school with numerous scars on her face and body. Her mother sees the abuse but does nothing. To escape from her father, Sally gets married at a young age, before eighth grade. However, her marriage does not rescue her, but brings her into the hands of another man. Her husband would also beat her and lock her indoors. Sally is not allowed to look out the window, and she gradually becomes afraid of going outside. The author states, “id is the horse while the ego is the rider. Freud depicts the ego is just like a man on horseback, who has to hold in check the superior strength of the horse” (Mcleod). Sally gets married because of her id: she wants to get rid of her father. When she is abused by her husband again, she does not fight against her treatment because of ego. Ego also searches for pleasure as id, but ego avoids bad consequences, which is affected by environment and reason. Sally does not try to change the situation again, because she knows the social environment cannot be changed, and she would feel pain if she fights back. Thus, the society will affect ego of people.

               The society will mutually affect super-ego. The author says, “Freud called the third and final part of the personality, the moral center of personality, the superego. The super-ego contains the conscience, the part of the personality that makes people feel guilty, or moral anxiety when they do the wrong thing” (Ciccarelli and White 497). The environment will affect super-ego, and the super-ego will also influence the environment. In the view of the cruel environment, most women on Mango Street accept their fates. Some people try to search for equality, freedom, and love, but stop searching when they fail several times. However, Esperanza never surrenders to fate. She dreams big and wants to change her situation and surroundings. Her family is as poor as the neighborhood, but she wants to get rid of poverty. She suffers from sexual harassment, but she does not accept it. Whatever Esperanza thinks is wrong or bad, she never accepts it from her heart. Girls in school all imitate adult women to wear high heels, being eager to show their beauty and femininity in front of boys. Most girls are eager to seduce boys’ which can embody their self-worth. However, Esperanza never wants such kind of attention. She values freedom. She believes the self-worth never comes from men, but one’s own. Racism is another theme which appears throughout the novel. In “Red Clowns,” Esperanza is offended by white boys, and the boys say, “I love you, I love you, little Spanish girl” (Cisneros 100). Spanish women are regarded as sexually wild, which is a kind of discrimination. Esperanza hates this unfair racial discrimination. Three sisters’ emergence changes Esperanza’s life. They praise Esperanza’s name and tell her that she will go far. Their statements have encouraged Esperanza to strive against reality and escape from Mango Street. Esperanza works hard on her writing. One day, she is powerful enough to leave the neighborhood. However, at last, she realizes the life on Mango Street has shaped her identity, and she cannot erase it, though she leaves Mango Street physically. In the last chapter “Mango Says Goodbye Sometimes,” Esperanza says, “They will not know I have gone away to come back. For the ones I left behind. For the ones, who cannot out” (Cisneros 110). Esperanza leaves the street for a better coming back. She hates poverty, racial prejudice, patriarchy, and sexual abuse on Mango Street, so she leaves. She will accumulate power through her literary influence. She will return to her roots to change the social environment on Mango Street and help stop suffering. Esperanza has gone through many black experiences and becomes a mature lady. Her life is always struggling for her inner desires. The author represents “super-ego … an agency that seeks to enforce the striving for perfection, as it holds out to the ego ideal standards and moralistic goals” (Lapsley and Stey). The social environment affects her super-ego, and her super-ego can influence the environment positively. Thus, society will mutually affect super-ego.

                The society will affect individuals’ id, ego, and super-ego differently. The society will not affect id, and it will affect ego. What is more, it will mutually affect super-ego. Id, ego, and super-ego become significant at different stages in Esperanza’s life, shaping her destiny. In the first life stage, when she was a child, she shows her id but hides the id subconsciously. In the second stage, the id and ego of Esperanza are fighting fiercely with her precocious mind. In the first two stages, the individual is controlled by society. In the third stage, after the three sisters give her directions, the id of Esperanza defeats the ego, and super-ego controls her from surrendering to the environment. Super-ego refers to social morals and values. What is more, her super-ego pulls her back to help women on Mango Street to liberate themselves. The main character Esperanza is a typical character who is always negotiating between individual desire and social environment. At last, her super-ego changes the society through her effort. From the novel, I have learned that people should embrace equality, freedom, and love. People should fight for what is right and make our tiny contributions to society. Mango Street does not only exist in America. Every country or city has its mango streets. We always focus on the bright side of a city: high buildings, modern shop malls, the efficient traffic system, clean roads, and flourishing economy. However, we ignore many black corners peppered in the city. People in poor areas suffer poverty, prejudice, racism, and the backward culture. Class differences makes it hard for them to catch up to mainstream society. From my perspective, the government and the society should pay more attention to these groups, give them equal respect, and improve their basic life. The most critical way is to provide them with education.

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