A Rhetorical Analysis In The Dinner

Sigmund Freud, the creator of Freudian Psychoanalysis, once stated, “Where id is, there shall ego be.” Throughout The Dinner by Herman Koch, the readers can visualize Paul’s ideas of the world. The audience knows from the beginning that he dislikes his brother Serge, and he is married to Claire, with a son named Michel. Psychoanalysis is present as the story shifts and expresses Paul’s mental stability, and the readers learn the truth about Serge’s character.
In the very beginning, the audience learns that Paul does not like Serge, in fact, he is disgusted by his brother. Repeatedly Paul makes statements such as, “He would eat the way one fills the tank with gas,” always criticizing Serge’s actions (53). As Paul starts to describe his childhood,

Because he can get away with killing a woman, and has both of his parents to help cover him up, he has to be more confident in committing crimes. If Serge were to turn both Rick and Michel in, there is a high chance that Michel would not go to jail due to his mental health. Michel’s superego is considerably damaged due to his parent’s behavior. Considering he killed a woman, and then later beats another homeless man, he apparently has instincts which are inhumane and selfish. Paul even explains that he hopes people would forget about this crime, that other news would cover it up when he thinks, “I was hoping, in fact, that it would blow over, that with the passing of time, the interest would fade, that people would be occupied by other, newer news, and that the exploding gas can would be erased from their collective memory,” proving that he only cares about keeping his son’s name clean (149). He even states, “After those six months, after that year, we would be able to go on living as a happy family. A scar would remain somewhere, true enough, but a scar does not have to get in the way of happiness,” which is consequently untrue (149-150). The way that Paul and Claire have raised Michel is a scar that their son will have to deal with the rest of their life. The home that Paul grew up in has scarred him, and it is ridiculously obvious that it still affects him