Bonnie’s Psychological Character Analysis

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CHAPTER 2
Bonnie’s Psychological Character Analysis
The character of Bonnie Parker can be described from various angles. In this study, the
main purpose is to study her character and her journey from a psychological perspective using
Freud’s Psychoanalytic theory and Sutherland’s Differential association theory. For that reason,
Bonnie’s biographical details, her motives, aspirations and criminal spree and her relation with
Clyde have been analyzed in order to see which psychological theory explains her decisions and
life choices more accurately. In order to do so, the book namely ‘Go down Together: The True,
Untold Story of Bonnie and Clyde’ by Jeff Guin has been used to give an authentic series of first
hand details regarding Bonnie’s real life.
Bonnie was nineteen years old when Clyde and she met. At that time, she used to be
indulged in romantic dreams and aspirations. She wanted to be a poet and also tried her luck with
the acting career but she failed. Her expectations from her husband became shattered when her
husband went to jail. As a young girl, she was never involved in anti social or criminal behaviors
even though she went through a hard time, as harder as Clyde did. According to Guinn (49),
“There was nothing mean-spirited about the little girl.” This implies that she had no criminal
instincts in her before she met Clyde. As per her biographical details, she and her family did not
go through an extreme state of poverty as others of her age did including Clyde. However, she
had a hunger for attention or fame. This hunger can be perceived as a reason behind her decision
to embrace the stylish criminal persona that she became.
The main reason behind Bonnie’s attraction for Clyde was based on physical attraction
towards him. According to her biography, she always used to fall for physical appearances and
style (Guinn 60). Apart from that, she got the chance of getting financial freedom by joining
Clyde and his anti-social group. So, it can be said that it is not fully Clyde who manipulated her
into joining his crew. Freedom from gender norms was another reason that influenced her to be
together with Clyde. This freedom can be seen in her photo shoots where she used to be seen
with cigar giving so called ‘unwomanly’ poses (Alakavuklar 1063). These events hint at the fact
that Bonnie had some repressed urges that she kept hidden until she met someone in front of

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whom she felt free to expose herself. It is difficult to say whether it was love or something else
that pushed her towards him.
This unknown ‘something’ can be analyzed from what Sutherland terms as association.
According to Akers and Wesley (235), Sutherland opined that people tend to indulge in anti-
social behaviors by getting inspired from others in their lives. They do so because those criminal
acts give a purpose or meaning to their otherwise meaningless lives. Any sober person can turn
into a vicious criminal as a result of reconstruction of one’s self image under some
circumstances. In this regard, this can be mentioned that Bonnie lost purpose in life after she lost
her husband. Thus, she was in desperate need to reconstruct her life so that she could live the
dreamy and adventurous life that she ever wanted. As per the book by Jeff Guinn, “After years of
predicting she’d be a famous star on Broadway, or perhaps a renowned poet, she was still a
nobody in the Dallas slums” (Guinn 47). Another significant thing that happened in her life was
that she used to frequently fall in love and that too with people with criminal ideologies.
Thus, it can be said that she had a hidden criminal instinct although she never was
directly involved in such acts alone. This instinct can be well analyzed by explaining Freud’s
psychoanalytic theory. According to Steiner (143), Freud thinks that human beings can have two
types of instincts including life instinct and death instinct. Life instinct inspires individuals to
live safe and comfortable lives while death instinct makes people aggressive towards others.
According to her biography, Bonnie had a bad temper and she never wished for a stable and
boring life. So, it can be assumed that it was her lack of life instinct that manipulated her to join
the gang of Clyde. On the other hand, the death instinct in her inspired her to justify the murders
that Clyde was associated with. If her relation with her former husband is studied then it can be
seen that she never helped her husband to flee from jail while she did whatever she could to help
Clyde in his plan to escape from jail.
Two reasons were there behind making different choices for different people. First of all,
she was being left out for her former husband while she got what she wanted when she joined
Clyde. So, it can be opined that her love for Clyde was because of these reasons. According to
Freud (31), Freud in his psychoanalytic theory, gave the idea of the deepest area of our
consciousness namely Id that stores al our anti-social desires. These desires stay repressed until