The Invisible Boy Alden Nowlan Analysis

Alden Nowlan’s “The Invisible Boy” can be examined through psychoanalytical criticism by evaluating the characters’ principles. Nowlan introduces his first character, the invisible boy, who can be observed as the anima. He shows feminine characteristics because his sister takes care of him whereas in the typical brother and sister relationship it is usually the brother who takes care of the sister. His sister is the only person who can see him so he it is mandatory for him to rely on her. All the people in the town consider him godly due to the fact that he is invisible. In the story it explains: After all, they reasoned, one who possessed such a mysterious power must be favoured by the gods: his wife was certain to bear sons who would do

Overall, the sister is portrayed as the nemesis figure because she rewards Oochigaeskw for all her good intentions and later punishes Oochigaeskw’s older sisters for being immoral. When she is being introduced, Nowlan quickly states that she has two sisters who are quite abusive. As stated in her introduction, “The two older girls considered the youngest a great nuisance and shamefully mistreated her; kicking and cuffing her about and burning her hands and face intentionally.” The two older girls appear to be similar in character to the stepsisters of Cinderella. Unlike her older sisters, Oochigeaskw decides to do what she feels is right and chooses not to do anything negative. She went to go see if she had the power to see the invisible boy and when she found out that she did, they quickly eloped. As for her older sisters, the invisible boy’s sister turned them into bugs, but that was not out of Oochigeaskw’s spite. In the text it narrates, “But if such transformation occurred you must not think it was done for revenge.” This explains that she did not allow that to happen according to her id—instead she was listening to her superego from the