The image of youth characters portrayed in South African literature has traditionally focused on their manifest responses to the political issues of the different moments of the country’s history, with little attention on the interiority of the concerned individuals’ being. Unlike their counterparts in the apartheid regime, the post-apartheid generation of youth has lived in a supposedly freer environment, yet some have continually exhibited errant behaviour. Guided by the theory of psychoanalysis, this study investigated other possible psychological drives behind such behavior against the background of the prevailing post-apartheid environment of the selected novels. Through their coping mechanisms, dreams and stream of consciousness, we are able to access the characters’ unconscious mind. Findings revealed that individuals’ actions and behavior exhibited are mainly unconscious expressions of psychic emotions of disappointment, anguish, guilt, regret, and suppressed unpleasant experiences suffered in childhood.