Interpretation Of Lindsey’s Self-realization In The Opposite Of Me From The Perspective Of Jungian Archetype Theory

The Opposite of Me is the first novel of Sarah Pekkanen(1968-), which narrates a touching story about kinship, love and life. In concise and exquisite words, Pekkanen successfully creates a typical urban female image in the contemporary society, emphasizes the confusion which is peculiar to the urban females and also highlights the struggles with it. This novel has ranked among the best seller list ever since its publication. It is generally viewed as a most popular American female novel in the year of 2010 and passionately recommended by many noted medium and writers.The author of this thesis makes a profound interpretation of The Opposite of Me from the perspective of Jungian analytical psychology and mainly focuses on the “archetype theory”, aiming to explore the process of the protagonist Lindsey’s self-realization.This thesis consists of three parts: the introduction, the main body and the conclusion. The introduction mainly introduces related information about the writer, her work, and its literature review at home and abroad, and presents a related and booming literary school—“Chick lit” in order to attract more attention to it.The main body is divided into four chapters.Chapter One presents a brief introduction to main ideas in Jungian analytical psychology, including such concepts as “archetype theory” and “individuation”, striving to manifest humans’ complicated psychological process when they confront with real life.Chapter Two explores the protagonist Lindsey’s distorted identities under the inflated persona. Based on the notions of “the persona” and “the shadow” in Jungian archetype theory, the author analyzes Lindsey’s distorted identities under the persona she displays in real life from three aspects of sisterhood, career planning and personal love.Chapter Three analyzes Lindsey’s struggles against the shadow after the breakdown of the persona. Jung states that humans will be in a state of confusion and chaos when the persona is broken down. To protect themselves from the threat of the shadow and keep psyche peace, they often unconsciously make use of various ego-defense mechanisms, especially repression, denial and projection. According to Jungian archetype theory, this chapter makes an in-depth analysis on Lindsey’s reactions and mental struggles against the shadow without the protection of the persona.Chapter Four manifests Lindsey’s self-realization. From his viewpoint of individuation, Jung maintains that the ultimate purpose of individuation is humans’ psyche in its fullest possible development. To reach this goal, it is required that humans take off the persona, abandon ego-defense mechanisms, strive to know the shadow and admit it as a part of their own inner life and attempt to achieve the whole realization of the Self. In the light of Jung’s principle of individuation, the author states that Lindsey is brave in encountering with the shadow, launches the process of individuation and gradually achieves the process of self-realization in sisterhood, career planning and personal love, corresponding to Chapter Two.In summary, by analyzing the archetypal characteristics of Lindsey’s self-realization in The Opposite of Me, the author of the thesis exposes the complicated changes in her inner world during the process of self-realization, aiming to reveal this novel’s far-reaching social significance of humans’ psychological struggles.