My Oedipus Complex

While “My Oedipus Complex” incorporates heavy references to psychology, history, drama, and warfare, it also functions as a warm story of changing families. The high-stakes feeling of the story is achieved through its figurative language and unreliable narrator. While O’Connor often wrote politically motivated pieces and became a vocal figure for Irish culture, it is the universal parts of Larry’s home life that are most highlighted in the story. The story explores the theme of families maintaining the innocence of children during wartime. The larger lessons are not political but emotional as the story argues for separating possession from love and a way of teaching maturity through compassion and imitation.

As an adult narrator looking back on this time in his life, Larry captures his naive adolescence in all of its impulsivity and ignorance. The tone the narration takes is a stylistic choice to explain the complex feelings Larry was feeling at such a young age. This narrative voice creates a comedic dissonance to emphasize the impact this time had on Larry, despite its mundaneness.