The Devouring Mother in Gillian Flynn’s Sharp Objects
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.36586/jcl.2.2024.0.50.0139Keywords:
Devouring Mother, Jungian archetypes, Gillian Flynn, Mother Archetype, Sharp ObjectsAbstract
While the mother archetype traditionally symbolizes nurturing, care, and unconditional love, its negative aspect, the devouring mother, embodies traits of control, manipulation, and suffocation. Drawing on Jung's theories, and his concept of the collective unconscious and symbolic archetypes, particularly the mother archetype, through close textual analysis and theoretical insights, this paper explores the dual nature of the mother archetype and its psychological implications in Gillian Flynn's novel "Sharp Objects, 2006". The paper analyzes the character of Adora Crellin as an embodiment of the devouring mother archetype. Through Adora's behaviors of possessiveness and emotional abuse towards her daughters, Camille, Marian, and Amma. The paper illustrates the detrimental effects of a suffocating maternal influence on individual autonomy and psychological well-being shedding light on themes of dual maternal influence, traumas, and complex mother-daughter relationship. Through this psychological approach, the paper aims to contribute to the broader discourse on maternal psychology and its impact on human development.
References
Bandura, A. (1977). Social Learning Theory. New York: Prentice-Hall.
Douglas, S. & Michaels, M. (2004). The Mommy Myth: The Idealization of Motherhood and How It Has Undermined Women. New York: Simon and Schuster. .
Fejer, A., & Abduelredheh, A. S.(2021). Transgenerational Transmission of Violence: A Study in Gillian Flynn's Sharp Objects. AL USTATH, 49(4), 31-44.
Flynn, G. (2006). Sharp Objects. New York: Shaye Areheart Books.
Heimkreiter, A. (2022). The Mother Archetype – Understand and Embody Her Feminine Power. Retrieved from Where wonder waits: https://www.wherewonderwaits.com/the-mother-archetype/
Jaber, M. (2022). Monstruous Mothers and Dead Girls in Gillian Flynn's Sharp Objects and Gone Girl. Miscelánea: A Journal of English and American Studies, 65, 171-189.
Jung, C. G. (1969). The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious. United Kingdom: Princeton University Press.
Ladd-Taylor, M.& Umansky, L. (1998). “Bad” Mothers: The Politics of Blame in Twentieth-Century America. New York: NYU Press.
Monfared, M. S. & Heravi, S. A. (2022) A Study of Childhood Trauma in Gillian Schieber Flynn's Sharp Objects, Dark Places, and Gone Girl, [ Master’s Thesis, Shahid Beheshti University]. Research Gate. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/365318305_ A_Study_of_ Childhood _Trauma_in_Gillian_Schieber _Flynn's _ Sharp_ Objects_ Dark_ Places_and_Gone_Girl
Murrow K. E. (2020), The Mother-Daughter Dyad as Modernized Archetypal Mythology in The Last House on The Left and Carrie, [ Master’s Thesis, University of Regina].Ourspace.
https://ourspace.uregina.ca/server/api/core/bitstreams/ec47bc8f-a6f9-4806-91e7-5960626fd484/content
Oran, D. F. (2021). The Mother Archetype and Hands on Hips Motif. ZfWT, 13(1), 335-355.
Qodariyah, B. A., Rohmah, A. & Natalia, A. (2017). The Major Characters in Gillian Flinn Novel “Sharp Objects” (A Psychoanalysis Freud),. Channing: English Language Education and Literature, 2(2), 78 -85.
Tamir, S. A. & Elfira, M. (2021). Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn: Persistence of Patriarchal Motherhood and the Nascence “Odd” Monstrous-Feminine. Proceedings of the International University Symposium on Humanities and Arts 2020. 593, pp. 267-272. Indonesia: Atlantis Press SARL.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2024 Journal of the College of Languages (JCL)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
