As any avid reader understands, solid, well developed characters are required for any story to be worth reading. In order to create these characters or to identify them within a novel, one must have a strong understanding of human nature and psychology. It is for this reason that the Austrian psychologist Sigmund Freud is often discussed within English classrooms. Characters need to behave as real people, and real people are often contradicting and in conflict with themselves. Indeed, “...Freud stresses that neither the primary nor the secondary process is alone capable of signification; it is only through their collaboration that discourse occurs, and that the subject is constituted” (Silverman 81). What this means for the characters of a
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Silverman explains that as time goes on, “…the preconscious” – Gabriel – “acquires the status of a censor, blocking entrance of those wishes it deems unacceptable...” (60). In other words, the preconscious, and by extension the secondary process, works to tame and control the impulses of the unconscious and primary process. Gabriel redirects Finnigan's flames, deciding that if he must burn things, there are “some things [that] deserve to get burned” (Hartnett 70), such as the possessions of people who slighted Gabriel through his life. Later, after the family car is torched, Gabriel tells Finnigan that it is time for the fires to stop. Finnigan brags in a later chapter that it wasn't Gabriel's instruction that stopped the flames – that it was instead the arrival of the dog Surrender – but in this scene he says “Who cares? … It doesn't matter. There's nothing left to burn” (Hartnett 108). Gabriel's hint from before that the people who have wronged him are the only ones who should suffer from the fires still affects Finnigan's actions. As they grow older, Finnigan develops more wit and is able to out talk and outsmart Gabriel and avoid being controlled by his words, just as the primary process works to get around the secondary process. But the book's conclusion shows most …show more content…
The secondary process is marked for “...[tracing] a more circuitous route to gratification, which necessitates the temporary toleration of unpleasure, but promises a more satisfying conclusion” (Silverman 67). By willing himself into death and accepting the temporary pain of dying, Gabriel guarantees the long term pleasure that will follow him into the afterlife once he has rid the world of Finnigan. There is nothing Finnigan can do to stop him – Gabriel is entirely in control. Meanwhile, to the primary process, “the renunciation of immediate pleasure for one ultimately more substantial” is considered “intolerable” (Silverman 60). Finnigan responds to Gabriel's revealing his true reason for death with the simple question of “Why? … Why would you do that?” (Hartnett 222). Not only does Finnigan not want to die – he can't fathom putting up with the suffering of dying for the sake of the pleasure it will eventually bring. To him, a man and a process who has always received instant gratification, it is impossible to imagine taking pains to obtain this kind of pleasure when there are surely other ways to access it
Silverman explains that as time goes on, “…the preconscious” – Gabriel – “acquires the status of a censor, blocking entrance of those wishes it deems unacceptable...” (60). In other words, the preconscious, and by extension the secondary process, works to tame and control the impulses of the unconscious and primary process. Gabriel redirects Finnigan's flames, deciding that if he must burn things, there are “some things [that] deserve to get burned” (Hartnett 70), such as the possessions of people who slighted Gabriel through his life. Later, after the family car is torched, Gabriel tells Finnigan that it is time for the fires to stop. Finnigan brags in a later chapter that it wasn't Gabriel's instruction that stopped the flames – that it was instead the arrival of the dog Surrender – but in this scene he says “Who cares? … It doesn't matter. There's nothing left to burn” (Hartnett 108). Gabriel's hint from before that the people who have wronged him are the only ones who should suffer from the fires still affects Finnigan's actions. As they grow older, Finnigan develops more wit and is able to out talk and outsmart Gabriel and avoid being controlled by his words, just as the primary process works to get around the secondary process. But the book's conclusion shows most …show more content…
The secondary process is marked for “...[tracing] a more circuitous route to gratification, which necessitates the temporary toleration of unpleasure, but promises a more satisfying conclusion” (Silverman 67). By willing himself into death and accepting the temporary pain of dying, Gabriel guarantees the long term pleasure that will follow him into the afterlife once he has rid the world of Finnigan. There is nothing Finnigan can do to stop him – Gabriel is entirely in control. Meanwhile, to the primary process, “the renunciation of immediate pleasure for one ultimately more substantial” is considered “intolerable” (Silverman 60). Finnigan responds to Gabriel's revealing his true reason for death with the simple question of “Why? … Why would you do that?” (Hartnett 222). Not only does Finnigan not want to die – he can't fathom putting up with the suffering of dying for the sake of the pleasure it will eventually bring. To him, a man and a process who has always received instant gratification, it is impossible to imagine taking pains to obtain this kind of pleasure when there are surely other ways to access it