A Psychoanalytic Study of Emma Donoghue’s Room: An Adlerian Reading

Abstract

The aim of the present study is to investigate the notion of inferiority complex, striving for success and freedom of choice in dealt with Adler concept of personality development in Emma Donoghue’s Room. Specifically, how these concepts unveil negative emotions encouraged the characters to develop their personality through the novel and how the characters resolve the personality problems in this novel. Jack grows up alone in a room with his mother. Since she was 19 years old, Ma has been kidnapped. She is raped and imprisoned in a room until her son, Jack, was born. Life in room, as Jack refers to their zone of imprisonment, is a constant pain for Ma, only alleviated by her desire to protect her son. In their daily lives in Room, they experience horrific events that can be classified as psychological illnesses for Ma and Jack. Therefore, there are some problems of knowledge about how the freedom of choice works out, which are delivered to two main questions of (1) How is characters` freedom of choice depicted in Emma Donoghue’s Room? and (2) How does Ma’s personality development impact to the notion of inferiority complex and striving for success? In case of knowing answer of these problems, concepts of inferiority complex, striving for success and freedom of choice become the main topics in this study. The research method of the present study is analytical-comparative method which has used the American school of comparative literature in analyzing the above example. The corpuses of the current study include Emma Donoghue’s Room.