Jane Eyre

Unavoidable Times; “My Oedipus Complex” “My Oedipus Complex” is a short story and a perfect reflection of the hard times faced by families post war. This story takes place after “the first war” which is assumed to be World War 1. Because of the war, Larry is not able to build a relationship with his father when he was a little kid. Then, when the father returns, Larry does not even understand that he is his father. Larry feels incredibly left out of his own family, which until recently only consisted of him and his mother. Larry faced extremely hard time early in life. Larry’s father’s absence and later troubles due to the war made Larry a victim of the war as well.
Larry is having a hard time building normal relationship with his father because of his father’s absence during the war. For the first part of Larry’s life, he had a passive relationship with his father. He did not know anything about his father. “Father was in the army all through the war- the first war, I mean- so up to the age of 5 I never saw him much, and what I saw did not worry me…like Santa Claus, he came and went mysteriously” (O’Connor, 1). Larry barely even saw his father when he was a child. His father only came and went mysteriously. It was impossible for Larry to build a loving relationship. A father/son relationship is necessary for a child. Larry’s father was supposed to be his male role model and a positive influence. This was impossible because he was not around. Larry is excluded from the relationship necessary with a boy and his father purely because of the war. Even when Larry’s father returned, Larry was not used to his father’s presence in the household. Larry thought of his father as a stranger and an intruder rather than a mentor and a friend. Larry doesn’t even identify his father. “Every time I pointed out to her the waste of making up two beds when we could both sleep in one, she had told me it was healthier like that, and now here was this man, this stranger, sleeping with...