let rettelse

jeg har stilen i word format hvor det er meget mere overskueligt, en stil på cirka 3 1/2 side med halvanden linjes afstand og skriftstørrelse 12

med en let rettelse som den jeg spørger efter tror jeg ikke det tager særligt lang tid

vil nu kopiere hele stilen ind men jeg kan også sende filen i word format for overskuelighedens skyld, hvis du gerne vil have det så send blot en email til [email protected]

her kommer stilen, det er et essay om novellen "Killing Lizards"

Killing Lizards

Attention is a primary human need, and the lack of attention can have fatal consequences. Attention is particularly needed from the ones dear to you, as they take key part in forming your identity and your entire way of thinking, thus having a major impact on your psyche. Killing Lizards is a short story that explores the psyche of the young Gavin. To understand Gavin’s mind and the thoughts he has, we need to keep Sigmund Freud’s, often abbreviated Freud’s, model of the mind and his psychoanalysis methods in mind. Freud’s psychoanalysis had categorized the human mind in three different categories; the Superego, which is where we have our cultural regulations and moral codex, the Id, which is the subconscious primal needs and desires we have and finally there is the Ego, the ego mediates between the Superego and the Id, it enables our existence to continue without us constantly being in conflict. The conflict between the Superego and Id is illustrated clearly by the twelve-year-old boy Gavin in the short story “Killing Lizards” by William Floyd

Gavin and his family are originally from England, but due to a prominent job promotion for the father the family has moved to Africa. Gavin’s sister, Amanda, has left for boarding school in England. The mother of the family works as an actress. They currently reside near a university campus located in Africa.

The mother of the family is an actress, which is quite a double entendre that we will return to later. She is described as a beautiful red-haired woman, and it is clear that Gavin is very fond of his mother. The dilemma with his mother, and in the entire story, is that his mother does not seem to care about Gavin and pays nearly no attention to him. She is irresponsible and seems too immature to have a child, and the consequences of this are displaced to Gavin.

The father is tall, thin and with sparse black hair, in other words he is definitely not the peak of physical attraction, he seems to be more of an ageing calm man. There is quite a contrast between the blossoming attractive mother and the ageing calm father. The father works at a school as a professor in the Chemistry department, which does seem quite ironic, seeing as he fails completely in regards to maintaining the chemistry between him and his wife. Gavin seems to actually be fairly fond of him, as seen when Gavin decides to visit his dad with his friends, before they proceed to killing lizards, they have a well functioning relationship and interact just like parents and children do.

In what seems to be a healthy family, from an outsider’s point of view, only one relationship in the family actually is as would be expected, that is the relationship between Gavin and his father, they are the only ones who still maintain a relationship with the interaction a child such as Gavin needs. The relationship with the females of his family is the true dilemma. The relationship between Gavin and his sister, Amanda, is nothing alike what it used to be, as said in the text:
“He used to like his sister but since her fifteenth birthday she had changed. When she had come out on holiday last Christmas she had hardly played with him at all” (page 1-2, line 10-12). He is clearly beginning to feel somewhat alienated from Amanda, and his mother as well, because as he says a shortly after: “A conspiracy seemed to have sprung up between the women of the family from which Gavin and his father were excluded”. This is a key sentiment, and it shows us exactly what the dilemma is for Gavin. Gavin is feeling excluded, and he feels increasingly uninteresting because his mother pays so little attention to him, meanwhile Amanda is getting the attention and caring that Gavin naturally craves. Gavin’s case is in fact getting so bad it is appropriate to introduce the Oedipus complex. The Oedipus complex is a concept developed by Sigmund Freud, and it is defined as male child’s unconscious desire for the exclusive love of his mother. The desire includes jealousy towards the father and the subconscious wish for that parent’s death. In Gavin’s case it is a logical extension to also subconsciously wish for his sister’s death, so that he can posses his mothers undivided love. This is exactly what Gavin is experiencing; an Oedipus complex in its subconscious form, Gavin reveals the complex in the text when he says:
“He had this dream quite a lot these days…it was a variation on the theme of his sister’s death, but this time it also included his father. His father and sister had died in a car crash” (page 2, line 22-26).
It is an Oedipus complex in its complete form. He feels very attached to his mother and as the text proceeds we realize he has a strong need to feel loved by his mother and a very strong desire to have her attention, and as much as he needs it, as little does he receive it. Thus Gavin is developing an Oedipus complex, which makes him feel startled by himself. Described in the text as: “He knew it was bad, and sometimes he forced himself not to think about it. But it always came back.”(Page 2, line 23-24). Continuing in the Freudian psychoanalysis this is the struggle between his Superego and his Id. This is the struggle between his consciousness containing his moral conviction and his sub consciousness containing his desire for his mother’s undivided love. On the one hand he has his moral dictating that wanting your own father and sister to die is bad, but on the other hand he has this incredibly strong desire to feel loved by his mother and get the attention that he has never gotten.

It is this Oedipus complex, his subconscious desires, that causes Gavin to follow his mother, and thus he discovers the staggering truth that his mother has been cheating on his father. Apparently his beloved mother who’s love he so desperately seeks has been living a lie, or putting on an act (being an actress) in not just the professional sense in regards to her job but also her private life has been a masquerade. Upon discovering this fatal secret Gavin is no longer in the powerless situation he was before. No longer will he have to let out all his anger and frustration on helpless lizards, he now has what he for so long has been without, control. Because Gavin knows that nothing binds people together like a secret and this is why he is feeling so ascertained that things will change, as he says: “He looked again at the sunglasses in his palm. Things would change now. Nothing would be the same after this secret. It seemed to him now as if he were carrying a ticking bomb”

The title “Killing lizards” is at first a reference to Gavin’s hobby. This hobby is Gavin’s way of getting all his desperation, anger and torment out, his Superego and Id are struggling because of the desires he has, and as such he needs to blow off steam and the lizards become the victims. Once again Gavin’s Superego is affronted so as a defense mechanism he twists the motives behind killing lizards, as stated in the text: “ A slight guilt had soon grown up among the boys, and so they convinced themselves that the lizards were pests and that, like rats, they spread diseases” (Page 3, line 82-84).
On a symbolic level the lizards resemble the parents, in the way, that they are rather inactive and they display no signs of aggression, and they are capable of hiding very well. The symbolic is distinct at the very end: “…The big lizard. It was catching the last warmth of the day, red head methodically bobbing…Stupid lizard, he thought, sunbathing, you never know who’s around…he imagined the stone striking the lizard, hurling it off the rock. The lizard basked on, unaware… His mother would be home now, he should have enough time before his father returned” (Page 5-6, line 161-172). The lizard and the mother are interchangeable, and evidently he was referring to his mother, because after all the talk about striking the lizard, he leaves the lizard in the forest behind and seeks out the “Big lizard”.

Gavin’s case is a tragic one indeed, he has been neglected completely by his irresponsible and immature mother, perhaps his father to some extent as well, and this has had a severe impact on Gavin’s mind. “Killing Lizards” shows how important attention and nurturing is for a child, and it shows us the consequences said things has on a child’s mind.