The Psychological Issues of Cutting

Deconstructing Gillian Flynn's Work There are multiple themes found in Gillian Flynn's novel Sharp Objects. This book explores various aspects of small town life versus that of the big city, family issues, and mental illness. However, all of these different issues are related to the human condition in some way. At the crux of these themes is the overarching motif that the author is actually issuing commentary about human nature itself.

A close read of the text as well as that of psychological literature related to Sharp Objects reveals that the author is exploring the theme of human nature and what it means to be human to indicate that it is inherently morbid. This thesis is found in several different passages in this book. However, it comes across the clearest in the characterization of the novel's first-person narrator and protagonist, Camille Preaker. Preaker exemplifies how morbid human nature is in a couple of important ways.

Firstly, she had an unhappy childhood due to her dysfunctional family in a small town in Missouri. Secondly, she has incurred mental illness due to that traumatic childhood. Thirdly, she has coped with these problems by taking them out on herself. Preaker is what is known as a cutter, someone who mutilates himself or herself simply by cutting various words into their own flesh. The words that Preaker cuts emphasize her self-destructive urges: they include words such as "wicked" and "whore," which obviously demonstrate how she feels about herself.

These self-destructive urges exemplify the morbidity that the author shows the reader about human nature in this book. It is interesting to note that mutilating one's self has significant psychological implications, and yields insight into the parts of human nature that Flynn has chosen as the dominant theme in Sharp Objects. In fact, cutting as an expression of self-mutilation perfectly reinforces the author's viewpoint that human nature is morbid.

The four principle reasons for this action include the desire "1) to reduce negative emotions, 2) to feel "something" besides numbness or emptiness, 3) to avoid certain social situations, 4) to receive social support" (Selby). All of these reasons suggest that there are many negative traits associated with human nature. These include negative feelings, a lack of feeling anything at all, social anxiety, and the need for help. People can address all of these different part of their lives in other ways that are healthier.

However, Flynn has chosen a character to express these negative aspects of human nature in an even more negative way, because she is suggesting that human nature itself is morbid. There are other facets of Preaker's characterization that reinforce the theme that human nature is somehow fundamentally morbid. One of the most convincing of these is the fact that she has changed vices as she transitioned from childhood to adulthood. Whereas before she preferred to cut herself, as an adult she prefers substance abuse. Specifically, is an alcoholic.

Alcohol is a known depressant. As someone who has mental illnesses stemming from her childhood, alcohol is one of the last things that could help this character cope with her life. However, the author's point in writing this story is that human nature is not necessarily designed to cope, but rather to destroy itself. It is difficult to argue this fact considering the following passage in which Preaker reveals that she "drank more vodka.

There was nothing I wanted to do more than be unconscious again, wrapped in black, gone away" (Flynn). These sort of musings are nothing short of self-destructive. They demonstrate that one of the author's chief motifs in writing this novel is that human nature is fundamentally morbid, and wants to harm itself. Flynn also conveys this them in more subtle ways. For instance, there is an interesting duality between the outside world and the internal side of human nature. Externally, Preaker is fairly attractive and has a pretty face.

However, she makes a point to always cover up the rest of her skin which is almost completely mutilated. The significance of this fact is that human nature ultimately has something to hide -- its morbid, negative side. Preaker embodies this duality, which is why she is afraid for people to see her skin beneath her clothes. Similarly, she is afraid for them to see her true character beneath her exterior.

She actually gives voice to this concept when she reflects to herself, "Sometimes I think illness sits inside every woman, waiting for the right moment to bloom" (Flynn). The diction in this passage reinforces the aforementioned themes. The term illness has connotations of disease, which is similar to the idea of morbidity and that human nature is simply born to die. Also, in this passage Preaker states that illness is inside "every" woman, which shows how pervasive this diseased aspect of human nature is. It is in all woman.

Finally, the true perverse nature of this quote is revealed in the part where Preaker thinks about illness blooming. Life is supposed to bloom. However, the author has instead chosen to write about illness blooming, because that supports her thesis that human nature is basically diseased. In fact, it is very significant that most the characters in this novel actually have something to hide. It is not just Preaker who is not what she seems, and whose internal reality is much worse than her external reality.

In fact, this idea extends to the whole town that she is in. On the surface, it would appear that Preaker is well to do in a nice small town in which wealth is more common than poverty. However, this fact is simply not true. For instance, Preaker's family has numerous problems despite its wealth. Her mother is a hypochondriac, she has no relationship with her father, her relationship with her step father is strained, and she has a hard time to relating to her living sister at all.

Similarly, as she investigates the murders in her town it becomes apparent that many people there actually have something to hide and are attempting to expose one another as potential suspects or simply as people who are dubious in nature. Even the girls who wee murdered were not necessarily innocent -- although they certainly did not deserve to be killed. Still, the author is going to great lengths to depict the fact that there is actually a lot wrong with people in a town that looks normal.

That is why Preaker thinks to herself, "I felt no particular allegiance to the town...A town so suffocating and small, you tripped over people you hated every day" (Flynn). The town itself has something to hide, and is simply a macrocosm of the inner morbidity that plagues human nature. An examination of the motivation for Preaker's desire to cut herself supports the Flynn's theme that human nature is morose. As the preceding paragraph indicates, people cut themselves for a variety of reasons.

One could possibly interpret some of those reasons as a cry for help. However, the most important thing about the morbidity of human nature that the author stresses is that.