A Socio-Psychological Analysis of Lin Kong's Characterization in Ha Jin's Waiting

• Main Authors: Ming-jing Chen, 陳明璟
• Other Authors: Wenjia You
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2006
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/23467760962480114935

碩士 === 國立中正大學 === 外國文學所 === 94 === Critics of Ha Jin’s Waiting have suggested that the shadow over Lin Kong’s emotional life is the threat of environment. His ability to love or hate has been thereby exhausted. However, little research has theoretically analyzed the link between the external factors and Lin Kong’s character. The further analysis of how his psyche is influenced by these outer forces is also not available. Therefore, the aim of this thesis attempts to re-examine how Lin Kong’s character is deformed in a hostile milieu from a socio-psychological perspective. The thesis involved a survey of two external forces on Lin Kong’s character: the ideology of the Cultural Revolution and the discipline of his army hospital. The analysis of them is conducted in light of Louis Althusser’s and Michel Foucault’s ideas. Moreover, Karen Horney’s neurotic theory is applied to examine Lin Kong’s eccentric personality traits. The findings of this thesis lead to a number of implications. Lin Kong is deformed by political ideology as an obedient subject and self-disciplined as a docile inmate in a placid/regimented army hospital. The bitter conditions cause him extreme anxious and sap his emotional energy in the end. Thus, the findings support the view that Lin Kong is intellectually subjected, physically administered, and therefore emotionally stunted in an enclosed institution during an era of political turbulence. To conclude, the thesis may explain the dialectic relationship between the ideology/discipline and Lin Kong’s neurotic symptoms, as well as provide readers with a better understanding of how his odd character is conditioned in a given time and space in the novel.