ENG 300: Essay 2
WC: 1,050 words
Professor Monica Ayuso
Spring 2008
Morrison’s Trace: a Criticism of The Oedipus Complex
In his psychoanalytic excerpt, “The Oedipus Complex”, Sigmund Freud
ruminates on how children develop bonds with their parents. According to Freud, children
develop intimate bonds with parents by adopting the roles and values of the parent whose sex
they share. Conversely, the parent of the opposite sex becomes a cherished object of affection.
The Oedipus Complex implies that a boy adopts his father’s identity (and roles) in the hope of
gaining the affection of his mother. Inevitably, the boy’s attempts to become his father and live
out the role of husband/wife between himself and his mother is bound to fail. According to
Freud, these futile and misunderstood efforts cause a child to be “in love with the one parent and
hat[e] the other” (NA, 919). In other words, the boy envies both his father for the love of his
mother and for is own inaccessibility to that love. Freud goes on to list two literary masterpieces
whose protagonists exhibit this complex: Hamlet and Oedipus Rex. By superimposing his own
psychoanalysis on literary masterpieces, Freud aims to validate his own concepts. Perhaps then it
is only fitting that, since the apex of Freudian psychoanalysis, literary writers have been
adopting, reassessing, and ultimately modifying Freudian concepts. In Toni Morrison’s novel,
Jazz, Joe Trace exhibits typically Oedipal characteristics, but for all the Oedipal tendencies Trace
seems to possess, he also has psychological features that seem to go against “The Oedipus
Complex”.
While much of Trace’s psychology supports “The Oedipus complex”, those opposing
characteristics, apparently engendered by the circumstances of his childhood, function as
plausible possibilities indicating the limits of Freudian psychoanalysis, and the need for a less
myopic form of psychoanalysis on some literary characters. Undoubtedly, Trace’s obsession for
Dorcas can be attributed to “The Oedipus Complex”. Of all of Jazz’s unique characters, Dorcas
has the most in common with Trace’s mother. Trace’s mother, Wild, is exactly what her name
indicates: a wild untamable, incomprehensive, nonconforming woman. Dorcas is, as described
by Alice Manfred, a “mishandled child” who “knew better than you or me or anybody just how
small and quick this little bitty life is” (Jazz, 113). Throughout Dorcas is depicted as having the
wild and untamed disposition of a typically misguided and untethered teenager. When Trace
meets her, her defiance to conformity signifies, within the depths of his psyche, some trace
vestige of his lost mother. Accordingly, Trace does everything in his power to make himself
completely accessible to Dorcas’s affection.
Another validation of Joe’s Oedipal tendencies is quite explicit in a self-reflective
thought made about his wife and marriage: “Like me saying, ‘All right, Violet, I’ll marry you,’
just because I couldn’t see whether a wild woman put her hand out or not’” (181). At first glance,
a reader might think Trace retrospectively is acknowledging his former ignorance of Violet’s
wild insanity. But, scrutinizing this statement reveals his hidden need for a wild woman. Here,
Trace is exposing his need for Wild, his mother. When Trace realizes that his wife, Violet, is not
Wild, Trace is compelled to search for his mother once again. Therefore, this text equates
Trace’s infidelity to a psychological obsession with his mother. And just as “The Oedipus
Complex” suggests, he is looking for his mother’s image within another woman.
While Violet is certainly disturbed by many past traumas, she is not out of control, crazy
or wild. For all of her eccentricity, Violet proves to be a strong willed and methodical character.
She thrives on order, integrity, and reciprocal love. Because of this distinction, Joe doesn’t see
Violet as being socially and psychological regressed, broken, and vulnerable, as he understood
his own mother to be. Instead, he respects her more or less as an equal and contemporary.
Violet’s lack of regression and strength of character produces in Joe Trace two sensations:
placidity and complacency. Ultimately, Joe Trace likens Violet to a piece of furniture, “I treated
Violet like a piece of furniture you favor although it needed something every day to keep it
steady and upright” (123). To Joe Trace, Violet doesn’t encapsulate the psychological recreation
of his mother; she is too easy to maintain, too placated, and not psychologically broken.
However, “The Oedipus Complex” does not account for Trace’s complete lack of hatred
for potential father figures. Throughout, Trace doesn’t show any aversion for whatever father
figure he might have. Actually, he seems to have a kindred affection for those few characters that
meet the qualifications of being a father figure. Perhaps the most obvious of these characters is
Henry Lestory, otherwise known as Hunters Hunter. Lestory is a master woodsman and hunter.
As a boy, Trace is taught life lessons from Lestory. Trace’s deep intuition and understanding of
human nature, an essential skill Trace uses to navigate through the psychological intricacies of
other characters, can be attributed to lessons learned from Lestory. Throughout Trace’s interior
monologues, he never shows the slightest hint of distaste, mistrust, hatred, or intolerance for
Lestory. Yet in “The Oedipus Complex”, Freud states, “There must be something which makes a
voice within us ready to recognize the compelling force of destiny in the Oedipus…. It is the fate
of all of us, perhaps, to direct our first sexual impulse towards our mother and our first
murderous wish against our father” (NA, 921). Here, Freud posits the Oedipus complex as a
universal law throughout humanity. And yet, Trace’s apparent indifference to a “murderous
wish” for his father is in polar opposition to Freudian law. Therefore, Joe Trace presents to the
reader the possibility that fictional characters can vary from the limited psychological confines
described in “The Oedipus Complex”.
Just as Freud used literature as a foundation, or backbone, to support his psychoanalytical
theories, literary writers have used Freudian psychoanalysis to build upon literature. As a result,
novelists, like Toni Morrison, have often adopted and modified Freudian psychoanalysis.
Specifically, Joe Trace reveals the possibilities of psychological variation and promotes a case
specific reality in which psychological universals, while being relevant, prove to be narrow and
limited in assessing the psychological interiors of fictional characters.
English 300
5
Works Cited
Freud, Sigmond. "The Oedipus Complex." The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. New
York: W. W. Norton Company, 2001. 919-923.
Morrison, Toni. Jazz. New York: First Vintage International Edition, 2004.