If you are analyzing a specific text or film for a project, tell me: What is the you are focusing on? What assignment theme or thesis are you trying to develop?
is arguably the seminal literary exploration of a son trapped by a mother’s love. Gertrude Morel, profoundly dissatisfied in her marriage, pours all her frustrated ambition and affection into her youngest son, Paul. Her love is excessively possessive and controlling. The novel creates an unforgettable account of an Oedipal son who is deeply dependent on his mother, and the price he pays is a false dichotomy between spirit and sexuality. Paul cannot give himself fully to any other woman, shuttling between the spiritual but cold Miriam and the sensual but unintellectual Clara.
Moving into contemporary literature, the dynamic is inverted to explore the terror of maternal ambivalence and guilt. In Lionel Shriver’s epistolary novel, Eva struggles to bond with her son, Kevin, from infancy. Kevin grows up to commit a heinous school shooting.