MATERNAL INFLUENCE AND THE UNCONSCIOUS: A PSYCHOANALYTIC STUDY OF GINA CHUNG’S GREEN FROG

Abstract

Gina Chung's Green Frog depicts parenthood in a complex manner that significantly influences the characters' thoughts and inner experiences.   The story of Green Frog shows how important a mother's presence is in shaping identity, suppression, and unconscious conflict. Therefore, the objective of this study is to examine the origins of at maternal influence and the unconscious, with a particular focus on the mother-child relationship. Sigmund Freud's framework of psychoanalysis is used to examine the origins and impacts of repression and seclusion on women's personalities through the character of frog.  This paper employs the character analysis methodology to determine that the victim's passivity in response to psychological oppression in maturity stems from their childhood experiences of repression.  This paper also endorses the view that women who endure violence during childhood are at a higher risk of experiencing abuse in adulthood, which subsequently results in psychological instability. Through a psychoanalytic reading of Gina Chung's Green Frog, this paper looks at maternal influence and the unconscious. It focusses on the mother-child relationship as a place of denial, anxiety, and unconscious desire.  Using Freudian and post-Freudian ideas, the study looks at how the main character's mother's power affects his or her mental growth, inner conflicts, and broken sense of self.  As both a carer and a traumatizer, the mother figure creates unresolved conflicts that show up in the form of symbols, silence, and emotional dislocation.  The paper shows how Green Frog expresses the lasting psychological impact of maternal influence by looking at unconscious impulses and symbolic structures.