The dreams that make the child: A psychoanalytic approach on dreams to Lakambini Sitoy's The Night Monkeys

• Main Author: Villena, April Anne A.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2012
• Subjects: Creative Writing
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_bachelors/2564
• Institution: De La Salle University

This thesis is a study of Lakambini Sitoy's The Night Monkey. The analysis will focus on a psychoanalytic approach on dreams with the use of theories from Sigmund Freud ( The Dream-work , Interpretation of Dreams and Wish-fulfillments) and Carl Jung (Study on the Conscious and Unconsciousness and Symbolisms) are used to interpret elements of the dream and story such as character, theme and plot. In addition, theories of Bruno Bettelheim on Child Psychology are used to analyze the child character's behavior. The illustration in the story is analyzed as well with the use of Alice Guillermo's Reading the Image , there is the examination of the basic semiotic plane, iconic plane, contextual plane and evaluative plane of the illustration. All these modes of analysis are used to derive at an answer to the question of how children's dreams in literature affect child behavior. Two other stories that tackle the same dream content are mentioned in the thesis to further broaden the depth of analysis, namely, Ang Tsinelas ni Inoy (Inoy's Slippers) by Renato Vibiesca and Dagat sa Kama ni Troy by Rene O. Villanueva. Children's Literature has always been one of the modes of learning and understanding of children. This thesis finds that even the use of dreams to convey messages and moral lessons can affect the child's behavior, considering that the child in the story experiences a change between her waking-life before and after the dream.