In the lawless land of “Stickfighting Days,” the concept of order may be the furthest thing from a reader’s mind. But within the chaotic landscape, the residents of the dump have managed to find some semblance of structure. Instead of laws, the boys rely on a common understanding of what constitutes right and wrong behavior. They turn to a judge who, despite lacking the power to enforce his decisions, manages to stand as an authority the boys choose to obey. It is within the context of this seemingly unstable understanding that Olufemi Terry explores the Freudian idea that the human mind is divided into three distinct parts, the id, superego, and ego.

In the chapter “Psychoanalysis and Psychology,” Michael Ryan writes that according to Freud, a person’s id is the totality of their most basic, unconscious desires (Ryan, 114). The id’s goal is to maximize pleasure and minimize pain. In contrast, the superego is the part of the mind that functions as the conscience (114). A person’s superego attempts to follow the social standards that exist within that person’s society. The last of the three parts, the ego, is the conscious part of the mind that has to find a balance between the superego and the id. Terry’s exploration into the inner turmoil that comes with repressing certain desires in order to follow certain social standards parallels Freud’s ideas surrounding the conflict between the id and the superego. Terry creates an authoritative figure with many of the characteristics of the superego and demonstrates the issues that can arise when an individual’s deep-seated desires clash with this authority.

Despite being almost entirely anarchist, the boys in the dump choose to rely on the authority of the judge, Salad. Although Salad is an outwardly imposing, muscular figure, it is well known that he is sickly and weak despite his stature. Instead of physical intimidation, Salad’s “voice is what commands [their] respect, mostly. He is very fair too” (Terry, 34). The judge is considered “fair” because he is representative of the common beliefs of the boys in the dump, and his rulings align with what they have come to expect collectively. What else could lead a group of disgruntled savages to follow an authority that has no real power over them? In “Psychoanalysis and Psychology,” Ryan demonstrates how these Freudian concepts affect the main character of “The Great Gatsby”, Nick. Ryan finds that “Nick’s father is like the superego, the bearer of rules that bring about self-control, and Nick himself has clearly learned or internalized those rules” (Ryan 126). In “Stickfighting Days,” Salad has quite a similar role in the lives of Raul and the rest of the stick fighters. Salad is the one who weighs the desires of individual stick fighters against the importance of following the dump’s societal beliefs. He proposes fair matchups, intervenes when someone cheats and separates boys when a fight goes too far. In essence, his role is to decide when the desires of individual stick fighters need to be repressed in the interest of following an arbitrary set of rules. Terry’s representation of Salad illustrates how the superego can take shape, exert its power, and what can happen when a person’s repressed desires successfully manage to overcome it.

Terry takes readers of “Stickfighting Days” on a journey that follows the inner turmoil of the main character, Raul, who experiences a continuous battle between his id’s desire for wanton violence and his superego’s tendency to follow the social standards imposed on him by the judge and his fellow stick fighters. Throughout the entire story, Raul expresses a yearning to maim and kill those around him. He states that although he likes Markham, he’d “like to kill him” and he “dream[s] of doing it in front of a huge pack of boys” (Terry, 32). Raul’s murderous urges are only contained by the strong feelings of disgust that occur when he begins to act on those impulses. These feelings occur during the final moments of his fight with Tuor, where his bloodlust transforms into sorrow, and he feels “there’s only shame in [his] win” (Terry, 39). Later in the story, a similar series of events transpires between Raul and the scavenger, Tauzin. Raul eats a piece of bread that Tauzin claims to have poisoned. In retaliation, Raul attempts to kill the scavenger and deals a potentially fatal blow. Although it’s unclear whether or not he successfully ended Tauzin’s life, Raul experiences the same feelings as before as “once more shame comes on [him]” (Terry, 41). These are all examples of Freud’s idea of compromise formation, a method that the mind uses to allow “repressed material to attain expression, but in such a way that it compromises with the repression the ego exerts against it” (Ryan, 114). Raul’s homicidal impulses are the repressed material that is seeking some form of expression, and his feelings of disgust towards the impulses are the compromise. In most cases “such repression works by making our feelings unpleasurable, so that we learn not to exercise them,” but as we learn later in the story, unpleasurable feelings aren’t always a sufficient deterrent when in conflict with a strong inclination towards heinous behavior (Ryan, 114).

The final moments of the story demonstrate what can occur once a person overcomes the repression of their desires. During Raul’s rematch with Markham, the judge steps in to prevent the fight from getting too out of hand. At this moment, the authoritative figure that Raul had previously respected finally loses its power over him and he begins beating Salad to death with his sticks. His animalistic desires appear to take total control of his actions as the balance between id and superego that his ego was maintaining is disrupted. At this point, compromise formation has ceased to be an effective method of keeping his id in check. During the beating, Raul concludes that the onlookers “do not know it, but [he] [is] freeing them from the tyranny of authority.”(Terry, 45) Raul is attacking the very embodiment of his superego, and yet instead of feeling disgust, he smiles and beats the judge long past the point of death with the help of Markham. Terry is demonstrating that methods like compromise formation aren’t always effective when confronted with desires that are so deeply ingrained in the fabric of one’s being. In fact, the sheer violence and duration of Raul’s assault indicate that finally overcoming the ego can result in an explosive outpouring of the repressed material. In the past, Raul had “dreamed of a killing blow, the single cut that cleanly ends life,” but that form of surgical violence was no longer enough for him (Terry, 45). At this point, he disposed of the pretense of having an interest in the art of fighting, and instead succumbed to a desire for mindless brutality. His id has overcome the part of his superego that prevented him from killing, and he realizes that his passion for violence was even greater than he had known before.

Within the stick fighter society there aren’t laws or rules, and yet there still exists an authority that prevents the boys from blindly surrendering to their desires. The story demonstrates how authority can emerge under these conditions, and that despite the clear importance of preventing something as problematic as murder, simply relying on something like compromise formation isn’t always enough. In fact, it seems as though suppressing desires can lead to devastating outcomes. In the absence of an authority with true power, Raul, and eventually Markham, are able to violate the unwritten rules of their society without consequence. It is evident that structure is a necessity, especially for young, impulsive boys. In a broader sense, the ease with which the social agreement is ignored in the stick fighter society in “Stickfighting Days” indicates the importance of having a system in place to safeguard against individuals whose id overcomes their superego. “Stickfighting Days” shows that the authorities that are tasked with upholding social standards must have enough power to prevent someone with an especially influential id from running rampant. The role of this authority is to be a safety net for when the ego’s balance between superego and id is skewed heavily towards the id.

Works cited