Death of Percy Boy Staunton in

A detailed Summary of Death of Percy Boy Staunton in

It is easy to see why Canadian literature is not distinguished among the great literary works of all time. It is simply because no Canadian author has achieved greatness worth recognizing. Robertson Davies, author of many Canadian novels, is one such author who has been recognized as one of Canada's greatest representatives in writing Canadian literature but has not achieved greatness in this field. As a writer of numerous series' of books surrounding the life lessons he learnt growing up and from his readings of Carl Jung, he wrote a book analyzing the personality and how it affects the inner self. Jung analyzes the older boy as being the ego, the inner self, and the younger boy as the shadow, the part that has sculpted the older boy. From this Jung comes up with this statement, "The shadow is underestimated by the conscious and overestimated by the unconscious" (Jung, 45). This means that one's conscious, if not faced will be pushed back into the mind until one day it overpowers the mind, body and soul. In Davies' writing this refers to the role of Percy Boyd Staunton, as he is one such character who does not face his guilt, until the day it becomes too much to deal with that he is destroyed, mind, body and soul. Since

Dunstan Ramsey was Paul's life-long friend and enemy. Boy and Dunny ran some what of a parallel life. They both grew up feeling guilt for Mrs. Dempster. Dunny realized that to live a complete life, one must rid one's self of the guilt. "In fact, as Jung explains it, an individual (and the world that is a macrocosm of the individual) needs the balance of dark and light, evil and good, and the integration of the shadow, to function correctly, and to achieve vitality and wholeness". (Diamond-Nigh, 29) Dunny dealt with his guilt by supporting Mrs. Dempster in her later years. Boy on the other hand ignored the guilt he felt for Mrs. Dempster and Leola. Boy did not know, but his conscience was so big that he would soon have to some how open it up and face it. Dunny's paperweight was the key. His paperweight was the stone that was hidden in the snowball that hit Mrs. Dempster in the head when they were children. When Dunny told Boy and Paul about the snowball incident, Boy realizes what he is guilty of and what he repressed for so many years. Boy also realizes that Dunny told the truth when he told him: "I'm simply trying to recover something of the totality of your life. . . . . It's time you tried to be a human being. " (Davies, 264) At that point, Boy knew he had to deal with the shadow he was hiding from himself his whole life. Boy didn't know how to rid himself of the guilt, and turned to Paul Dempster for the answer.

It can be observed that childhood experiences play a very important role in the stableness of ones soul. One mishap in childhood can create a devastating blow to ones true happiness in later life. This was exactly the case in Boy Staunton's life. Once, when he was little, he got in an argument with Dunny which led to snowballs being launched at Dunny from an aggravated Boy Staunton. The last snowball concealed a rock, and hit Dunny's neighbor Mary Dempster in the head. As a result, she gave birth prematurely (to Paul Dempster), and then afterwards became "simple minded". This particular incident acted as a foundation for Boy's growing shadow, and contributed to the demise of his soul. "The shadow is the part of ones being that for some reason has b

Some common words found in the essay are:
Paul Dempster, Dunny Boy, Boyd Staunton, Carl Jung, Boy Paul, Suicide Boy, Leola Leola, Mary Dempster, Dempster Dunny, Boy Staunton, body soul, mind body, mind body soul, dempster head, life boy, mary dempster head, paul help, boy escape, paul dempster, boy staunton, davies 265, life-long friend enemy, stone stone,

Approximate Word count = 1468
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English