My Oedipus Complex

My Oedipus Complex In Frank O’Connor’s short story “My Oedipus Complex” he writes about a young boy named Larry, who is use to his fathers absence because of World War I. Larry soon fines himself trying to take over his fathers house hold including wanting to marry his mother. When the war ends, Larry’s father returns home and Larry and his father are faced with the conflict of trying to attain his mother’s attention. Over time Larry eventually identifies with his father and starts to see his mother in a different way.

Up to the age of five, Larry never really had seen much of his father only on occasions.

He was very content on being with his mother. In the mornings he would wake up and climb into bed with her and begin the day talking to his mother about what they were going to do thru out the day. In the mornings after breakfast, they would both go into town to attend mass or go do some shopping. By doing this, Larry began to try to make decisions like his father would. For example Larry’s mother wanted to have another baby because they were the only family who did not have a newborn. Larry was told they were expensive and could not afford it until father came home from the war. However, Larry noticed that their neighbors had a baby and it would have done them just fine. As Larry began to settle with the idea of him and his mother Larry’s father comes home after the war has ended and everything changes.

When his father was around Larry soon began to notice his mother’s attitude would change. She would start to scold Larry for being so loud in the mornings that his privileges of climbing into bed were cut off since he would wake his father sometimes on purpose for the reason that he got jealous. Her attitude began to change as well. She would tend to get anxious to please his father all the time and would now send Larry into town with his father. At first Larry was very optimistic about it, but soon realized that he and his father