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Essay on Analysis of Cavemen in the Hedges

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Chase Thomas

Prof. Julia Elliot
English 282

November 15, 2011

“The Cavemen in the Hedges” “The Cavemen in the Hedges” is a short story that contains many underlying themes of psychoanalytical theory. Themes of the “id,” a selfish, primal, version of one’s self concerned only with physical desires; the “superego,” part of a person’s psyche that is only worried about ideals and morals; and the “ego,” the rational part of the brain that attempts to satisfy both the id and superego natures make up an immense proportion of the breakdown of this story. Repression and other psychological defense mechanisms are also very important in the analysis as well. The first display of the id is that of the cavemen themselves. Our cavemen are …show more content…

She lets the cleanliness of her once perfectly kept house go to pot. She no longer cares about reality or morals and becomes lost to the raw desires of her primal nature. The next theme that is displayed in “The Cavemen in the Hedges” is the superego. This is seen in several of our characters at times, but it is without a doubt personified in the annoying neighbors, the Schaefers. Evan and Winsome are described as New Age hippies and “over-friendly”. Their dress reminds me of how a choir robe would look. These two are the type of people that believe everything has a spirit and every creature should be cared for. While having dinner with our main characters, Winsome begins to get teary-eyed over having found a newborn cavebaby that had died in their backyard. She shows compassion for this abandoned creature, one of the greatest emotions expressed in terms of the superego. When Kim declares that she doesn’t understand how Winsome could possibly cry for these “things” and that they are “disgusting”, Winsome thinks Kim is being judgmental. This is an archetypal viewpoint of the superego, as she says this with almost a condescending tone in her voice. The Schaefers appear to be a moral, sensitive couple that cares deeply for all manner of peoples and this supremely annoys Kim and the narrator. The reason they are so put off by their neighbors is that they are uncomfortable with themselves in comparison to the Schaefers. The Schaefers are happily married

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