My Oedipus Complex

While “My Oedipus Complex” incorporates heavy references to psychology, history, drama, and warfare, it also functions as a warm story of changing families. The high-stakes feeling of the story is achieved through its figurative language and unreliable narrator. While O’Connor often wrote politically motivated pieces and became a vocal figure for Irish culture, it is the universal parts of Larry’s home life that are most highlighted in the story. The story explores the theme of families maintaining the innocence of children during wartime. The larger lessons are not political but emotional as the story argues for separating possession from love and a way of teaching maturity through compassion and imitation.

As an adult narrator looking back on this time in his life, Larry captures his naive adolescence in all of its impulsivity and ignorance. The tone the narration takes is a stylistic choice to explain the complex feelings Larry was feeling at such a young age. This narrative voice creates a comedic dissonance to emphasize the impact this time had on Larry, despite its mundaneness. For example, when Larry describes the great tragedy of his mother’s injustice as “principal rights and privileges were as good as lost,” the complicated language feels detached from the childish tantrum he is throwing (18).

This stylistic choice to separate the actions of the characters from how they truthfully are by introducing a mechanical tone prompts the reader to question the narration. While the first-person perspective of the story leaves out a lot of information, Larry specifically overlooks crucial details in his need to exaggerate the great struggles of his life. These decisions give the story a feeling of suspense that is heightened by O’Connor’s use of situational and dramatic irony.

While Larry’s actions are often destructive and counteract his goal of affirming his mother’s affections for him; his young voice comes through as sympathetic. As he mourns the loss of the peaceful life he once knew, he narrates, “I wished it was time for Father to wake; I wished someone would make me a cup of tea” (17). The inclusion of “someone” in comparison to specifically wanting his mother shows an interest in maintaining his routines and potentially being willing to accept Father into these routines—if Larry can be in control and keep everything else consistent. To Larry’s dismay, Father and Mother are not interested in maintaining Larry’s routines and instead embrace the change that accompanies Father’s return.

This behavior and lack of empathy for Father not only emphasizes his comfort zone with Mother, but also shines a light on Larry’s other unmet needs. While Larry is jealous of other larger families, the lack of other children in this story paints Larry as a quiet and lonely child. Because of the lack of peer interactions, the parallels between Larry and his father are more pronounced. Both are unsure of how to act, and because they both do not have models to learn from, they struggle with how to behave. Larry initially desires a sibling, though he values his routine with Mother. This naivete and inability to foresee the shifting dynamics that would undoubtedly occur with a new baby shows Larry’s lack of experience with larger family dynamics and social dynamics.  

Larry, even as a young child, is clear in his goals. This pragmatic side highlights both his biases in the narration and the gaps. O’Connor does not choose to open up the story to the outside world, instead limiting the interactions Larry has. Larry is not aware of the financial or political struggles happening outside his immediate world. The closest Larry gets to seeing the violence of the war that just shaped the world is through the objects his father brings into the home. The detail that Larry provides these artifacts is given more importance than the conversations between adults Larry is certain to have overheard, but not remarked on. He recites the objects with such specificity that it mirrors Father’s own fascination with his military keepsakes. Larry describes “model tanks and Gurkha knives with handles made of bullet cases, and German helmets and cap badges and button-sticks, and all sorts of military equipment” (12). His ability to be specific, while choosing not to recognize the lack of animosity at the beginning of his relationship with his father, evokes sympathy.

This misinterpretation of his relationship with his father is at the core of this story. A veteran who had not spent any considerable amount of time with his son, Father fails to forge a connection. Even as the two are not yet close, O’Connor shows how Larry is shielded from any of Father’s struggles. His mother works to protect her husband, who has trauma, from Larry’s demands for attention while also protecting Larry from having to see how badly the war has affected his father’s psyche—an example of the labor involved in maintaining the Innocence of Children During Wartime. Knowing that her husband needs rest, she makes Larry promise not to come into his parents’ bedroom in the morning, but she never conveys to him why this request is so important. When Larry comes in anyway, she recognizes his distress and allows him to stay if he promises to be quiet. When Larry acts out physically against the sleeping father, prompting him to wake in confusion and alarm, Father responds, “‘What time is it?’ […] in a panic-stricken voice, not looking at Mother but at the door, as if he saw someone there” (18). Larry’s mother swiftly carries him out of the room, and Larry seems to remain oblivious to the trauma and potential PTSD that this behavior implies.

Larry’s patience cannot last long, just as clues of frustration seep through about Father’s employment and Mother’s financial struggles. Through subtle inconsistencies and body language, many character details become apparent. Even as Larry enjoys talking and using language as a means of showing power and confidence, the dialogue is still brief and simple compared to the prose. The most notable information to be gleaned from dialogue are the names. While Larry is most often referred to as “the child,” his mother chooses to address him as Larry. This is unique as she does not use his name when speaking directly to her husband, nor does she use her husband’s name when addressing her child or someone else. This intimacy is contrasted by Larry using the more casual names of “Mummy” or “Daddy” when speaking aloud, but not in his own head. This means, however, that the most central figure and person given the most power in the family, Mother, is not given a name.

While names, objects, and spoken language are the means to which characters attempt to seize control, ultimately both power and affection are given out regardless. Choosing to resolve the conflict given such high stakes as the title “My Oedipus Complex” suggests, O’Connor does not offer a path back to normalcy, but rather an evolution. A new baby is born, and a new stranger comes into the house. Repeating the cycle over again offers an optimistic view of the future where people are given more chances to make connections. This also represents a coming-of-age transition for Larry, as he has successfully traversed a difficult conflict with his family and matured into a son who is capable of empathizing with his father.