Written assignment: Troll Bridge
We live in a society filled with norms, solid framework and expectations. We are expected not to fart at meetings or to tell every stranger we meet about our sexual preferences. Although it may seem that these “appropriate” behaviors are a pure reflection of our true selves it is not, according to psychoanalytic Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung. All humans have deeply stored inside their brains a subconscious mind, which is where all our truly desires are suppressed. These desires can be expressed differently. To take an example: Writers are often able to access a collective unconscious and use it to create artistic literary work filled with symbolism and features which are interesting to the psychoanalytic …show more content…

And the troll agrees to eat him at another time. Many years pass and Jack is now a fully-grown man, with wife and a kid. Although this sounds like a happy ending it is not. Jack is still morally unstable and is not a nice man. He does not love his wife and is working a lot away from home. Furthermore he is cheating on his wife again and again, and does not really seem to care: “It also meant that it was fairly easy to get laid if I wanted to, which I did. ”(p. 8, l. 15). His selfishness and the fact that he acts on his desires without thinking of other’s feelings show that he has no empathy. He becomes this lonely selfish man; his bad side has completely taken over his body.
At this point Jack goes out to seek the troll. This can be interpreted as some kind of defeat. He realizes that he has accomplished nothing in life and that he has been selfish. Therefore he is completely devastated. “I began to cry then, stupidly, silently, sobbing under the bridge” (p. 9, l.22). When he finds the troll it has become smaller and weaker, it’s trembling. Jack then surrenders himself to the troll and gives him permission to eat his life.

While Jack gets older he gets more and more corrupt and more selfish, which also is why the troll, who represents the good parts of Jacks conscience, almost can’t be seen. When Jack gives himself to the troll in the end, he gives the troll another chance at life, where he had failed. With this Jack also gives himself a new