Psychological Analysis In Summer People By Shirley Jackson

Introduction

Psychological approach to literary analysis aims at understanding the behavior and actions of the characters by studying their psyche and its relation to the author of the text. Psychological analysis assists in developing a general method of predicting actions and understanding why actions and events happened the way it did based on the study of psyche of both characters and authors. Every literary work is the product of the author’s psyche, their active imagination and thoughts. Studying any piece of literature on a psychological level reveals just as much about the author as psychoanalyzing of authors might lead to new revelations about their work.
Analyzing Shirley Jackson’s works will give a reader a very astute idea of

Chilling to the bone, it has a macabre way of delivering its message. City people who belong in cities and take refuge in small towns in places with nice weather and small population during the summer are outsiders to the people in these places. They come for their own selfish needs, used to their comfortable and easy life style with their money and new technologies. And then they leave when their needs are fulfilled. But from the other perspective, the people in these towns also welcome and then exploit these people for their own needs. Every summer, they open their towns and earn money thanks to the outsiders, the summer people. They provide them with the comforts they are used to having in the cities and their various businesses flourish around that time. They tolerate the outer presence till they have to and it isn’t done out of any goodness in their

The nervousness and paranoia of the characters can be felt as they pretend to be normal with each other. Mr. and Mrs. Allison are used to only having good memories and feelings towards their summer cottage and the people of the town and they don’t know how to react when suddenly it all changes. They try not to get angry and annoyed because according to Mrs. Allison, those things only work in cities. To them this might be strange and unexpected, but from the other perspective it is all very normal and gradual. On a psychological level, this is triggering anxiousness and unease but from the outside, they have to pretend to see that it is all normal and inevitable because they are just the Summer People, outsiders who don’t belong in the town and even now, as they want to stay back instead of going to their city, they are choosing to live far away from the town. They don’t know what happens in the town after summer. They had no idea that the delivery boy leaves, the kerosene supply is closed and the person who sells them bread and eggs leaves to see his