Identification And Alienation: Jesse's Search For Self In Wonderland

Wonderland marks a water-shed of Oates' writing career.Since it,one of Carol Joyce Oates' preoccupations is about power and identity.It starts Oates' exploration of the human psychological world.The life of the protagonist Jesse is a reflection of the turbulent American society from the early1930 s to the end of the 1970 s,which is a “wonderland” in Oates' own words.From a homeless orphan with a nightmarish childhood to a great brain surgeon,Jesse undergoes losing,pursuing and acquiring his identity in half of his life.He manages to have a clinic of his own and becomes the famous Dr.Vogel.Yet it proves that this Dr.Vogel is not Jesse any more.At the time Jesse becomes Dr.Vogel,he has lost his true self,his inner core.Dr.Vogel actually is a surrogate of the patriarchs.This Frankenstein monster is a product of Jesse's obsessional identification or assimilation with his fathers' personality.It results in Jesse' self-alienation.He becomes a hollow,heartless and autocratic “devil”,as his daughter says in the end.This thesis aims to offer a detailed analysis of the protagonist's road of self-construction which results in alienation of his true nature.In light of Lacan's theory of the Mirror Stage,the conclusion is clear that man's self-construction in the patriarchal society is a continuum of identification with paternal figures,in Lacan's words,the other.The process of identification with the other is also a road of self-alienation,for Jesse becomes completely an-other in the end.The protagonist's subjectivity goes to alienation and disintegration.The analysis of the novel Wonderland in the perspective of Lacan's psychoanalysis is to expect contemplation about man's true personality and autonomy of existence as an independent,thinking being.