An Interpretation Of The Psychological Crisis And Conflict In John Hawkes' Works From A Horneyan Approach

John Hawkes (1925-1998) is commonly recognized as an avant-garde writer in the contemporary American literature. Second Skin (1964) and The Passion Artist (1979) are his representative works. The causes of Cassandra's and Vost's death have aroused a lot of arguments and discussions. Adopting the motivational theory of Karen Horney American famous psychologist, the thesis tries to analyze the characters and their inter-relationships. The most significant characteristic of Horney's theory is that it insists on the importance of a person's complicated evolutionary history. It explains human beings and their relationships in terms of its functions within the present structure of the psyche.A Horneyan reading of the main characters and their relationships in these two novels leads to my argument that Skipper's image in Second Skin is not as lofty as commonly expected. Also Miranda is not a murderer as she appears to be. Cassandra's death is a direct outcome of the conflict between two opposite defensive strategies—self-effacement and aggression. In The Passion Artist Vost's aggressive behavior in his dealing with women is a strong manifestation of his childhood traumas. Gagnon kills Vost because he finds that his detachment-defense strategy does not work.Furthermore, the psychological analysis of the characters proves helpful for us to understand the author's psychological conflicts in his writing of the two works. On one hand, he allows the reader to see the destructiveness of certain defense strategy while he seems to approve of it. Unconsciously, the author tends to validate characters whose defensive strategies are similar to his own, and to satirize those who resort to different solutions. Through a rough comparison between the self-effacing defensive strategy in Second Skin and the aggressive solution in The Passion Artist, the thesis argues that Hawkes'inner conflicts are expressed but not resolved in the novels. Purposely, Hawkes would not like to want reader to know where he stands. It is his unique way of handling his inner conflicts that does much to produce the works'richness, complexity and elusiveness, which turn out to be its lasting charm.