UNVEILING THE UNCONSCIOUS: A PSYCHOANALYTIC EXPLORATION OF THE ID IN JOHN GREEN’S LOOKING FOR ALASKA

Abstract

This paper examines the Freudian psychoanalysis of Looking for Alaska by John Green with the particular concentration on the idea of the Id as the driving force behind the desires and choices of characters and the breakdown in emotional states. The focal point of analysis is Mile’s "Pudge" Halter and Alaska Young whose self-centered behavior and impulsive actions, unresolved and unacceptable traumas, and their emotional extremity reflect the dominance of the Id - the primitive and pleasure-driven part of the hysterics that do not consider the logic, morality, and social order. The study is qualitative and interpretive methodologically, and its method blends the close textual reading and thematic coding with the post-structuralist approach developed by Catherine Belsey that provides the possibility of making various, multiple readings of the character psychology and narrative development. The conclusions lead to conclude that Looking for Alaska breaks the tradition of a coming-of-age novel and turns out to be a psychologically dense book about adolescence, when the forgotten and the urgent are prioritized many times over. In this study, what pairs with Freudian theory and post structuralist criticism is their perpetual relevance to analyzing young adult literature and provides reason to believe that accents on the value of teenage fiction as a means of delivering Freudian impulses of appetite, rebellion and suicide.