Literature can be analyzed to gain a better understanding of the meaning of the piece. “Men at My Father’s Funeral” written by William Matthews and Little Red Riding Hood written by Brothers Grimm are to pieces of literature that can be better understood by taking a psychological and psychoanalytical approach. It is important to examine the way human beings react to certain situations either consciously or unconsciously and how these reactions direct their behavior. Sigmund Freud believed that the personality was structured of three components, the ego, the superego, and the id.
“He conceptualized the id, driven by pleasure as primarily unconscious and the superego, embodying social constraints as both conscious and unconscious. The ego,…show more content… “The ego, superego, and id are the three components of personality structure, according to Sigmund Freud.” (Hedgespeth). In examining these three zones the short story Little Red Riding Hood can be psychoanalyzed. The mother and grandmother in the story are the Superego because they represent all that is moral and good. The wolf represents the psychic energy of an id. He is lacking in morals or logic and only exists for his instinctual gratification and he proves this in the line, “What a tender young creature! What a nice plump mouthful-she will be better to eat than the old woman. I must act craftily, so as to catch both.” (Grimm, Chapter 2). Little Red Riding Hood represents the ego, as she attempts to balance both extremes. She represents reality and mankind. As the ego, Little Red Riding Hood was driven to do what was right and listen her mother and grandmother. The natural curiosity of a child caused her to disobey the adults and ultimately lead to trouble with the wolf. A psychological approach can also be used when grandmother has Little Red Riding Hood get water to put in the trough. The grandmother tells the child, “Take the pail, Red Riding Hood; I made some sausages yesterday, so carry the water in which I boiled them to the trough.” (Grimm 5). The grandmother use the Psychological reversal mechanism to turn the situation around. She knew that the wolf greediness of smelling the food would be the end of