What is a good way of exemplifying an existintial crises for a character in a story?

Question

For instance, a young woman tragically loses her family and friends. All that remains in her life is a callous, crude, 'ubermensch-like' man who saved her from her own demise. Though she doesn't know it, through this coldness, he is in fact helping her through this process of mourning and existential awakening (like Tyler Durden from Fight Club).

My question is, what sort of strife and conflict would occur between these characters and what sort of literary and psychological devices should I use to exemplify this? What sort of psychological processes are involved in such a crisis and how are they expressed and interrelated? Does age or sex influence these processes? Are there certain stages of denial, admittance, acceptance, suicidal tendencies, etc.?

Answer 1

Instead of thinking of what literary and psychological devices to use, try thinking of what kind of young woman she is actually.

It is like asking a doctor to prescribe a medicine based on a general compendium of symptoms only. Other factors, equally important, have to be addressed first before you can begin to decide what devices to use:

What is the point of the story, how does it end?
What is the relationship between the woman and the callous man, romantic, platonic, symbolic, etc...
What kind of woman is she: strong, opinionated, vacillating, unsure, intelligent, moronic, passive, aggresive, etc. Different women will, ultimately, respond to different psychological stimuli or the same psychological stimuli differently, and thus one cannot say what devices are possible or even necessary until those particulars have been understood.

Even such factors as age and sex are only factors to the point as you wish them to be. You could have the two characters thwarted by a difference in their age or you could have the characters actually bond through the difference in their ages. A woman who would destructively bond with one person of one age and one psychological make-up wouldn't necessarily react the same to someone of a similar age but of a different psychological make-up, so the factor is inter-dependent upon the situation you place them in.

For different 'combinations' of the above, different psychological strifes and applications would necessarily occur. If the point of the story is nihlistic, but the relationship platonic, one could make her an island, placed in the center and thus untouchable; her inability to forge an intimate connection (everyone remains distant and cold) resulting in the formation of a nihlistic outlook, yet one that is freeing once one accepts such.

However, a nihlistic overall outlook, but with a callous cold romantic entanglement necessarily portrays a world in which such connections are self-destructive and eventually isolating, leaving the heroine, and her paramour, isolated and alone at the end, betrayed by the world and, in return, betraying it and themselves as well. (think 1984.)

The particulars of the purpose of the story, and the details, will ultimately suggest the literary and psychological devices themselves. Like a doctor prescribing an asprin for a headache but an antibiotic for a virus, the behavioral qualifications and impulses of the characters are the result of the background to which the story leads its own conclusion.

Answer 2

Great question!
I don't see many of these on here.
I adore Tyler Durden in 'Fight Club', as well.
I think the idea of pitting the two characters against each other as a way of having the female character learn existentialist points of view works well.
The twist, IMO should come when the two of them become enfolded in a crisis of neither of their making (your choice) and SHE must then save him.
Having them both humbled by circumstances beyond their control softens their edges a but much, though.
You'd need an additional device to return them to their original Camus-esque edginess.
And that's the way you wrap the story
(in gilt or horse manure--again, your choice).
I'm a writer, and I'd give you more, but the I'd have to send Unca Guido over with the cement shoes.
Good luck with your story.

Answer 3

I love writing myself "Tyler" is one of my favourite characters.
The guy would be in a slight trance a day dream constantly with his brain processes too high with the dopamine chemical. Making him sort of be under a trance. His thoughts would be constantly working 200%. He may have several people that have popped up in his life every time he was either happy or sad creating certain personalities. Maybe you can have have realise, but have his alter ego a bad one want to take over his self.

Answer 4

I would think that this sort of struggle is analogous to that of Sartre's "The Flies" between Zeus and Orestes. I am leaving much of it out for dramatic effect and to save time, but it is at the end and is one of my favorite charaterizations of existentialism (other than the Camus' "The Myth of Sysyphus")

Zeus: Impudent spawn! So I am not your king? Who, then, made you?
Orestes: You, but you bludnered; you should not have made me free.
Zeus: I gave you freedom so that you might serve me.
Orestes: Perhaps. But now it has turned against its giver. And neither you nor I can undo what has been done.
...
Orestes: Neither slave nor master. I am my freedom. No sooner had you created me that I ceased to be yours.
...
Zeus: That is true; men like you I hold in abhorrence.
Orestes: Take care; those words weree a confession of your own weakness. As for me, I do not hate you. What have I to do with you, or you with me? We shall glide past each other...without touching. You are God and I am free; each of us is alone, and our anguish is akin.
...
Zeus: Poor people! Your gift to them will be a sad one; of loneliness and shame. .....What will they make of it?

Orestes: What they choose. They're free; and human life begins on the far side of despair.
__________________________

However, existentialism is not necessarily congruent with the rejection (or even the acceptance) of god. It is can essentially becoming your own god; in that, your fate is your own. (As in Demi Moore's existential hero in Charlie's Angels 2 - at the end - her really long monologue has some existential undertones.)

Therefore, between these two characters, the strife would simply be her becoming her own person, despite his protestions that it was he that set her free (i.e. - helped her find herself and gave her freedom from the depression of loosing her family (or - he may have actually been responsible for the separation with her family in that he "freed" her from them as it was his will...modern day, her beginning reliance on him could be evidence of munchheissen's syndrome, but that is a bit too hollywood, i suppose, I am not a writer). Anyway, her realization that it was her that actually found her freedom/found the answer to some choice is the existential moment.

As for neuropsychological processes, higher functioning is attributed to the frontal lobe. The amygdala (behind the frontal lobe) is associated with emotional reactions and is considered to be the seat of personality. Whereas, the cingulate gyrus links emotions and decision making. Therefore, an existential break would be components of their interaction. Without a clear understanding of "where" you are actually trying to go with your story, it would be hard to identify an exact psychological phenomenon associated with existentialism and its counterparts. Once that detail is actually worked out, there could be a whole host of reasons (i.e. - personality disorders, syndromes - recent work into the realm of acute ptsd (not chronic) shows evidence that damage to the hypothalamus is somehow related to the it, but the brain has not been fully worked out).

I have no guess to offer as to whether age and sex influences certain processes. Again, once the situation is presented and a diagnoses is met, then the woman may be granted "special" conditions such as age to better relate the psychological phenomenon. The 5 stages of grief include admittance, acceptance, and denial. But, the best source for something like that might be Psychinfo. You'd actually have to research grief/aging studies. But, from a developmental perspective, I would suggest the basic ideas of Erik Skinner:
Age: Stage: Resolution:
B-18mos trust v. mistrust trust
18mos-3yrs automnomy vs. shame/doubt independence
3-6 yrs initiative vs. guilt purpose
6-puberty industry vs. inferiority competency
teen yrs identity vs. role confusion sense of self
young adult intimacy vs. isolation love
middle age productivity vs. stagnation productivity/caring
old age integrity vs. despair wisdom/integrity

Other than that, the denial/admittance/acceptance construct can be characterized by logic and self-reflection - which could lead to the actual existential break, I suppose.

Suicidal tendencies - usually linked with depression. A possible thing to look at here would be Festingers cognitive dissonance theory, which basically suggests that it is uncomfortable for people to have beliefs that do not match (are inconsistent) with their actions OR Bem's self-perception theory - people are unsure of their beliefs, so they take their cues from their behavior (they may change their belief system to fit their behaviors). This inconsitency could be the cause of the depression and possible suicide, if the situation was indeed one that her actions were in no way consitent with her belief systems.

Though some of my suggestions is beyond the scope of my actual experience, I hope this helps.

Answer 5

she just has to question the meaning of her existence to the point where she questions the existence of God.
suicide should be a question she asks (the ultimate rebellion of it) as if it makes sense to her.
Your hero should just wait her out.
Till she hits bottom, and then tell her what she needs and wants to hear.
That he loves her.
Or have him show it.
The ultimate sacrifice perhaps.
Just a suggestion.