A Freudian Personality Interpretation Of Billy In Cormac McCarthy’s The Crossing

In the contemporary American literature, scholars and readers speak highly of theworks of McCarthy’s, for his concentration on the description of the Middle and lowerpeople in American and Mexico, their life experience and feelings. Especially, hiswestern novels such as Border Trilogy and The Blood of the Meridian, maintain hismaster status in the American modern literature. In the tripology, the Crossing is theclassic novel about the boarder of America and Mexico. Many scholars would like toanalyze it with the philosophy of ecocriticism, which lacking the other new researchof this novel. This thesis will focus on the analysis of the image of the protagonist ofBilly, to fully and deep analyze the character and personality of Billy.The Crossing is not a typical work of psychology, while it has a gooddemonstration of the psychological changes of the protagonist Billy to show hischaracters. Cormac McCarthy ingeniously takes use of the three crossings posing theinfluence on the characters of Billy including the intrinsic psyche, the outwardreaction and the sublimation of his personality through the analysis of the three levelsid, ego and superego to dig the underneath Billy’s characters. During his procedure offacing hardship and self-recreation, Billy is reflecting the personality theory of Freud.In the theory, the dominated personality on the protagonist will determine thecharacters of Billy.Billy is originally an innocent boy with the desires for the inner id, searchingfor the inner desires and the adaptation of the reality. Ego defense mechanisms makeBilly have a highly control and advance of him. And then, the sublimation in everyjourney, which makes his image even fuller. At the same time, this thesis illustratesthe reasons of purifying in Billy, and deepens the thoughts of morality and conscience.Through the description of American and Mexican social environment, wars andhumanity, reflecting Billy’s personality and changing.This thesis is going to analysis The Crossing in the perspective of Freud’spersonality structure, and it is divided into three chapters.Chapter Two analyzes the ego defense mechanism of Billy when he is fighting with the reality, which is the biggest mechanism helping Billy to not to break down.At the same time, it is the strong reflection of his inner heart.Chapter Three discusses the causes for Billy to have superego as his dominatedpersonality, including the inner and outside causes. And his effort of struggling andmeditation face towards the good people and things around him.Chapter One describes the id, ego, and superego in the perspective of personality,including the struggle of his psychology in order to analyze the inner feeling of theprotagonist.In The Crossing, Cormac McCarthy analyses the border state of America andMexico through Billy’s experience. Through the analysis of his character and thetheory, it shows the advantages and disadvantages of Billy. The formation of one’scharacter has some reasons, which has a fully reflected in the thesis. This thesis ismainly from the angle of psychology, digging the inner characteristics of Billy.Meanwhile, it has a full exploration of the American in Mexico, in the society andwith the locals.