To me, the labyrinth represents the collective unconscious. Many people can access it but are fragmented in time, on their own journeys, and cannot control when they can access it. Everyone wants to access it to gain more knowledge but don’t always know how or why they want knowledge, just as the boy when he wandered into the library.
The library is literally a well of collective knowledge, exactly like Jung’s collective unconscious. The boy’s descension into the dark labyrinth below the library symbolizes his descent into the collective unconscious. It is there he enters a dreamlike state, not questioning or judging anything, but rather engaging in what Jung calls “sensing and intuiting,” through which one accepts experiences but does not judge or evaluate them. Thus begins the individuation process in which all of the selves comprising the boy’s conscious and unconscious encounter one another.
While delving into his own subconscious and tapping into the collective unconscious, the boy encounters the parts of himself: his shadow, his anima, and his animus. Jung explains that through individuation, there is a danger of what Jung describes as “falling victim to the shadow...the black shadow which everybody carries with him, the inferior and therefore hidden aspect of the personality."
Shadows are traditionally the parts of oneself that are negative and repressed by the consciousness. Your shadow often appears in dreams as a person who is the same gender as you. The old man represents the boy’s “shadow” (also known as id), which represents all of the parts of the boy’s self that his consciousness is unaware of. The old man is aggressive, violent, and cannibalistic, as he forces the boy into a jail cell and says that he will eat his brains after he learns how to read three massive tomes. In Freudian psychoanalysis, the concept of cannibalizing another can mean that the “cannibal” wants to exert power over and subdue over the person they “consume.” In this case, since the old man wants to eat the boy’s brain, it means he wants to control the boy by feeding off of his energy and knowledge.
Essentially, the shadow, which has been repressed by the boy’s conscious self, attempts to forcibly assimilate with the boy to gain more power over his conscious self. In psychoanalytic terms, the old man represents the boy’s unconscious aggression, jealousy toward others, and need for control, which attempts to dominate the boy’s ego, or rational, conscious self (which lost control when he descended into his subconscious, leading to such intense intrapersonal conflict).
The sheep man and the beautiful girl represent the boy’s animus and anima, respectively. In this case, the animus represents the boy’s masculine, “logical” side, while the girl represents his feminine, “emotional” side. The sheep man attempts to reason with the boy, explaining why he cannot set the boy free because of the punishments he will receive. He also thinks of a concrete, realistic plan to escape, but only after he is sure it is feasible. On the other hand, the girl is gentle, encouraging, and appeals to the boy’s emotions, giving him hope and encouragement to escape (even though he and the Sheep Man didn’t believe it to be possible). These selves all act independently and only sometimes interact. For example, the boy says to the girl, “our worlds are all jumbled together - your world, my world, the sheep man’s world. Sometimes they overlap and sometimes they don’t. That’s what you mean, right?”
While the boy has no trouble communicating with the girl, she is unable to talk. This symbolizes Jung’s belief that men repress their “opposite” feminine self and instead favor their masculine side. The girl does not have a voice because that which she represents the positive, "feminine" aspects of the boy that he has been taught by society to silence.
Ultimately, it is only by drawing upon knowledge found in the collective unconscious and uniting with his two selves that the boy may overcome his intrapersonal conflict with his shadow and escape the labyrinth of his subconscious.
The library is literally a well of collective knowledge, exactly like Jung’s collective unconscious. The boy’s descension into the dark labyrinth below the library symbolizes his descent into the collective unconscious. It is there he enters a dreamlike state, not questioning or judging anything, but rather engaging in what Jung calls “sensing and intuiting,” through which one accepts experiences but does not judge or evaluate them. Thus begins the individuation process in which all of the selves comprising the boy’s conscious and unconscious encounter one another.
While delving into his own subconscious and tapping into the collective unconscious, the boy encounters the parts of himself: his shadow, his anima, and his animus. Jung explains that through individuation, there is a danger of what Jung describes as “falling victim to the shadow...the black shadow which everybody carries with him, the inferior and therefore hidden aspect of the personality."
Shadows are traditionally the parts of oneself that are negative and repressed by the consciousness. Your shadow often appears in dreams as a person who is the same gender as you. The old man represents the boy’s “shadow” (also known as id), which represents all of the parts of the boy’s self that his consciousness is unaware of. The old man is aggressive, violent, and cannibalistic, as he forces the boy into a jail cell and says that he will eat his brains after he learns how to read three massive tomes. In Freudian psychoanalysis, the concept of cannibalizing another can mean that the “cannibal” wants to exert power over and subdue over the person they “consume.” In this case, since the old man wants to eat the boy’s brain, it means he wants to control the boy by feeding off of his energy and knowledge.
Essentially, the shadow, which has been repressed by the boy’s conscious self, attempts to forcibly assimilate with the boy to gain more power over his conscious self. In psychoanalytic terms, the old man represents the boy’s unconscious aggression, jealousy toward others, and need for control, which attempts to dominate the boy’s ego, or rational, conscious self (which lost control when he descended into his subconscious, leading to such intense intrapersonal conflict).
The sheep man and the beautiful girl represent the boy’s animus and anima, respectively. In this case, the animus represents the boy’s masculine, “logical” side, while the girl represents his feminine, “emotional” side. The sheep man attempts to reason with the boy, explaining why he cannot set the boy free because of the punishments he will receive. He also thinks of a concrete, realistic plan to escape, but only after he is sure it is feasible. On the other hand, the girl is gentle, encouraging, and appeals to the boy’s emotions, giving him hope and encouragement to escape (even though he and the Sheep Man didn’t believe it to be possible). These selves all act independently and only sometimes interact. For example, the boy says to the girl, “our worlds are all jumbled together - your world, my world, the sheep man’s world. Sometimes they overlap and sometimes they don’t. That’s what you mean, right?”
While the boy has no trouble communicating with the girl, she is unable to talk. This symbolizes Jung’s belief that men repress their “opposite” feminine self and instead favor their masculine side. The girl does not have a voice because that which she represents the positive, "feminine" aspects of the boy that he has been taught by society to silence.
Ultimately, it is only by drawing upon knowledge found in the collective unconscious and uniting with his two selves that the boy may overcome his intrapersonal conflict with his shadow and escape the labyrinth of his subconscious.
- Christa
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