Troubled Transformation

Missing Mom, published in 2005, is an emotional novel by Joyce Carol Oates. In the novel, Oates portrays an amorous, weak and kind-hearted American woman, born after 1970s, who seems insolent and individual.The writer presents Nikki's psychological changes before and after her mother's killing, reveals her spiritual process from the spiritual trough caused by her mother's death to autocriticism, from self-criticizing her own human nature to her personality development, and then to psychological maturity and getting the new life.This essay is using the method of psychological analysis, the thesis tries to unscramble Missing Mom from three aspects, analyze Nikki's psychological changes in the past and the present, resolve her psychology when facing to the predicament and the process of self-identity and perfecting her personality, and then show the author's concern and thoughts about the present women and their existing meanings. It helps readers to correctly understand Miss Mom and Oates'art of novels.