Andrew Prior Thesis

“Many of our flaws are old emotional defenses that may fade away when we are loved in spite of them.”
R. Cormier
To be emotionally flawed means to have an undesirable or non beneficial characteristic or trait. An emotional flaw does not occur in an instant at random; it is a stable defensive emotional state in response to a problem or traumatizing event. The characters within the novel ‘In My Father’s Den’, written by New Zealand author Maurice Gee, have been examined and proven by critics to be emotionally flawed. Published in 1972, the novel In My Father’s Den expresses characters who are emotionally flawed in the sense that they have not fully developed emotions or cannot express themselves freely. The protagonist, Paul Prior, and the antagonist,

The name Andrew is derived from the bible. ‘Andrew the Apostle’ was a follower of Jesus and was the first of the 12 disciples who claimed that Jesus was the messiah. This could be linked to the story as Andrew Prior is a follower of his mother whom he looks up to. This biblically alludes Andrew’s perspective of his mother as Jesus. Andrew had deemed himself unworthy compared to his mother which could also be a sign of symbolism. This is because in the bible, Andrew the apostle saw himself unfit and unworthy of Jesus’ (Edith). Critic H.May comments on Andrews state of emotion. “Andrew's ability to think independently and engage emotionally had been seriously distorted”, H.May describes. This extract, provided by an educated critic, describes the inability of Andrew to emotionally express himself. This is because his “ability to think independently” is distorted. This means that the quote is implying that Andrew’s way of emotionally expressing is misleading and or out of a false sense of individualism. This idea links back to the idea of his close connection with his mother and the influence she had over Andrew. Her so called, ‘puritanical’ ideas had influenced Andrew and forced his natural characeristics to have limited development at a young age.. Like Paul, Andrew also struggles to emotionally express his true identity. This is because of

This is because she is able to freely express herself without limitations or little restrictions. The name Celia is derived from the biblical latiin name, Cecelia, which means to “blind men.” The name Celia is an identification of a feminine female in ancient Latin and even in the bible. This is relevant because it gives another example of biblical insight to a character’s background, in this case, Celia Inverarity. To ‘blind’ could be a biblical allusion to creating a distortion in the mind of other characters such as Paul Prior. Critic H.May describes Celia as “a quiet unassuming girl with a ready sense of humour'.” The description of Celia by critic gives a positive insight to Celia’s character and her attributes. She is humble, unarrogant and has a “ready sense of humour” which ultimately stands out as a significant characteristic because this identifies Celia’s ability to live her life philosophically. “Celia laughed again. She was puzzled. You let him take her?” said Celia, ‘(132). Gee utilizes simple sentences in order to express the reaction of Celia towards Paul’s loss of Joyce Poole. This quote demonstrates Celial’s ‘casual’’ way of reacting to a problem of Paul’s. It seems that she does not take it as seriously. However, this example of humour and casualty reflects the difference between herself and the other