The Psychological Effects of Parental Guidance in Edward Bond’s The Children (2000)

Abstract

The world has witnessed various economic, social, and political problems throughout history. People could not overcome the psychological disorders that stemmed from war. Individuals growing up under these conditions surely need parental guidance to find the correct path in puberty. Correspondingly, Freud emphasises the importance of parental protection and supervision. Psychosexual developmental stages, which are part of “Psychoanalysis”, have served as a guide for parents to raise well-behaved children. In this respect, Edward Bond cleverly deals with the social problems in his plays. He touches upon the theme of violence and victimised children by exposing social issues to present solutions to the existing order for the sake of constructing a mentally healthy generation. Bond additionally believes that literary figures should shed light on the violence that people are exposed to in their early ages. For this purpose, he evidently challenges the problems that the society preferred to keep their ears deaf and eyes blind in The Children (2000). In other words, the purpose of this study is to show how Edward Bond successfully reveals the psychological problems of the younger generation by focusing on their main underlying reasons under the light of Freud’s “Psychosexual Development Theory” in The Children.