Uncle

In Winston’s essay, I found quite compelling the innocent, yet curious nature of Jake. I was intrigued by his compulsive affection towards his uncle Paul. He admired him so much that my first thought was that perhaps Jake was gay. However, as I deepened my understanding of the story I was drawn to the idea of Jake having simple sexual identity behaviors. He reminded me of some of the stuff I have read from Freud, such as the Oedipal complex, but with a twist. Psychoanalytic theory states that the Oedipal complex emerges during the phallic stage when the child is ages 3-6 years old. Jake being of that age is showing such signs. However, Jake does not wish to have his mother and kill his father. He does not desire his mother, if anything, he does not like being around her. Instead, Jake seems to desire his uncle Paul and wants to get “kill” or get rid of his mother because she is not fun. Jake’s fascination with Vince’s “magic penis” and how he seems to enjoy playing barber shop with him is also a sign of Jakes identification with his sexuality. Further in psychoanalytic theory, Freud said that a child must resolve their complex via castration anxiety. Jake is sort of resolving his anxiety by placing devotion on his uncle’s penis and Vince’s. Because both of these people have penis’s, Jake does not fear a loss of his penis or competition, the only threat he may be feeling is losing his uncle’s penis if his mom gets in the way. 

I hope this makes sense, this is what I was thinking while reading the essay...