Narcissism and Sexuality Dance under the Stage of Human Reason: “Tamar” and “The Snake”

Narcissism and Sexuality Dance under the Stage of Human Reason: “Tamar” and “The Snake”

TheAmerican ecological poet, Robinson Jeffers is well-known for his uniqueidea of inhumanism, which goes beyond irrationalism by suggesting thathumans should throw away all their properties to assimilate into MotherNature. Meanwhile, the American novelist John Steinbeck wrote “TheSnake,” which depicts a mythic or psychic world existing within theunconsciousness. This paper aims to illuminate human narcissism asindicative of Jeffers’s inhumanism; and the sexual repression as theeffect of reason in the name of civilization. I try to investigate the textsof “Tamar” and “The Snake” in the light of some relevant psychologicaltheories. Through this analysis, I argue that the lewd acts anddisastrous ending of the long poem are due to the dishonestself-attachment; and that sometimes sexuality can be extruded throughthe scientific and rational veil, asking a fundamental question abouthuman mentality.