Reconstructing Female Identity In Gone Girl

Gillian Flynn is a famous contemporary American writer. The print and electronic version of Gone Girl has sold more than two million copies. The thesis discusses how Amy,the heroine shapes her identity and how she reconstructs it. It shows that Amy has been gazed and is in the position of the Other. Her identity has been defined by the patriarchal culture. This also gives rise to the motives and driving force for self-awareness and identity reconstruction. In the view of psychoanalysis, the constant psychological struggle leads to her self-awakening and identity reconstruction. It is also a process of gradual female identity reconstruction. Finally, Amy successfully reconstructs her identity. Seeing from the outside, she expresses her views by writing and ridding herself off the influence of the patriarchal culture. She also regains economic freedom and job opportunities. Seeing from the inside, she rebalances her id and super-ego to form a stable self. Then the thesis comes to the conclusion that women’s identity is influenced by culture from the outside and unconsciousness from the inside. In a word, the reconstruction of Amy’s identity needs not only to fight against the system of social gender but also needs to strike a balance between the id, the ego and the super-ego.