Self-harm is seen as a very taboo thing in modern day society. It is understandable why it is seen in such a bad light considering it implications, but many works of literature use self-harm as a tool to show the importance of something. Self-harm can be used to do this because of its inherent contradiction to one of our mot primal instincts. Self-preservation. This instinct is found in pretty much every animal. As a result it represents the cowardice of our animal nature. Thus when an author implies are makes one of his/her character practice self-harm what they are actually saying is that the character is leaving their human instincts and simply living in a plane of existence were intellectual or spiritual needs outweigh the physical compulsions of the charterer.
For example, In the novel The Awakening Edna the main character of the novel makes the decision to commit suicide at the end of the novel. This action was due to her realization that she could not exist happily in the society that she lived in due to the role that the culture she lived in wanted her to play. In the context of the novel her action is not of someone who is depressed and mentally ill but instead of a person that has reached a higher level of understanding of her surroundings. As a result the author is stating that she s willing to turn from her primal instincts and make the statement that her intellectual pride is worth more to her than her primal urge for survival.
