Why You Should Buy Frank O'Connor's My Oedipus Complex - Essay Example

Why you should buy Frank O'Connor's "My Oedipus Complex" In both Frank O'Connor's "My Oedipus Complex" and Graham Greene's "A Shocking Accident" attitude of a little boy to his father is described. Frank O'Connor in his short story "My Oedipus Complex" tells about non-simple relations of father who has just returned from war with his son. First they competed for mother’s attention. But when a baby had been born in the family, mother gave all her attention to the baby, and father and son became friends.

In Graham Greene's story "A Shocking Accident" a little boy adored his father, but then he got to know that his father had died in a comic way. The boy (and young man later) was afraid of people’s laugh because of it. He became very happy when a girl he married did not laugh when she has heard the story about his father’s death.The character of the main hero, Larry, in Frank O'Connor's "My Oedipus Complex" is described brightly and with good humor: “I always woke with the first light and, with all the responsibilities of the previous day melted, feeling myself rather like a sun, ready to illumine and rejoice.

Life never seemed so simple and clear and full of possibilities as then”. This presents Larry to the reader as active and cheerful boy. There is no such description for Jerome in Graham Greene's "A Shocking Accident" except of notice, that “Nor was Jerome a boy who cried; he was a boy who brooded …”. So the character of the main hero in Frank O'Connor's "My Oedipus Complex" is more interesting to read about that one in Graham Greene's "A Shocking Accident".The paradox in Graham Greene's "A Shocking Accident" is that Jerome’s father died, because a pig had fallen on him.

It is really very unusual kind of death. But there are more paradoxes in Frank O'Connor's "My Oedipus Complex". Firstly, Larry said, “The war was the most peaceful period of my life”. Then, he wanted to marry his mother and to have a lot of babies, when he grew up. And when a baby has been born, Larry found that he don’t like the baby. But the baby helped his father to understand that Larry wasn’t a bad boy, and they had common problem: mother didn’t pay them attention any more. That’s why plot in Frank O'Connor's "My Oedipus Complex" is more paradoxical.

Conflict between father and son is shown in Frank O'Connor's "My Oedipus Complex": “Father and I were enemies, open and avowed. We conducted a series of skirmishes against one another, he trying to steal my time with Mother and I his. When she was sitting on my bed, telling me a story, he took to looking for some pair of old boots, which he alleged he had left behind him at the beginning of the war. While he talked to Mother I played loudly with my toys to show my total lack of concern.” It would be very useful for 12th grade students to discuss the source of misunderstanding between Larry and his father, because this problem often occurs in many families.

It’s not easy to overcome misunderstanding between father and son, and Frank O'Connor's story "My Oedipus Complex" could help in it.The ending of Graham Greene's "A Shocking Accident" is rather predictable. Of course, a normal girl won’t laugh of Jerome’s father’s death. In Frank O'Connor's "My Oedipus Complex" ending is less expectable. Larry and his father managed to become friends only in the face of common problem, and this problem turned out to be one more child in the family. When father heard Larry’s words “If another bloody baby comes into this house, I’m going out”, he understood that he could sign under every word.

Father saw that there was an issue on which Larry had the same position as he did. A friendship always can occur between people with common views on life. Thus, Frank O'Connor's "My Oedipus Complex" is deeper in description of human’s relations.So, Frank O'Connor's story "My Oedipus Complex" is more worth to buy, because it is full of paradoxes and irony. Furthermore, the situation described there is more applicable to the real life then in Graham Greene's "A Shocking Accident".