Background of the Study

of Identity vs. Role confusion. As the consequence, he also fails to deal with the crisis in the following stage.

B. The Focus of the Research

Based on the previous explanation, the researcher wants to reveal the psychosocial development of the main character in the novel The Perks of Being a Wallflower. The novel portrays the life of a teenage boy named Charlie who has some traumatic experiences, and the worst one is that he is sexually assaulted by his Aunt when he was a child. It becomes so hard for Charlie since his Aunt is the one whom he cares and loves. Moreover, he has two more traumatic experiences that influence his psychosocial development; those are the sudden death of his Aunt and his best friend. His traumatic experiences make him fail to solve the problem in the fifth stage of Erikson’s psychosocial development. As the consequence, he grows to be a really quiet, shy, and pervert boy. In addition, he has difficulties in communicating with others and giving responds toward the social phenomenon around him. His failure in the identity vs. role confusion stage gives impacts toward the way he deals with the crisis in the following stage. As a result, he also fails to achieve the balance outcome in the intimacy vs. isolation stage. The researcher employs psychosocial theory by Erikson to conduct the research focusing on how the traumatic experiences make Charlie fail to pass through the psychosocial development runs successfully. Erikson mentions that human personality development has to pass the eight stages of psychosocial development, and in the novel the stages are experienced by Charlie. Therefore, Erikson’s theory is applied to analyze Charlie’s psychosocial development.

C. The Formulation of the Problems

The problems of the research are formulated as follows. 1. How do Charlie’s traumatic experiences make him fail to accomplish the basic strength in the fifth stage of Erikson’s psychosocial development? 2. How does the failure affect his personality in the sixth stage?

D. The Significance of the Research

1. Academically, this research reveals some points about the traumatic experience and the effects of it upon the personality development of individuals. Significantly, it is important to know about the traumatic experience since there are many people who are not aware of the effects of it toward a person’s personality development. Thus, this research will give comprehension to people about how traumatic experience influences a person’s personality development. 2. Practically, this research will be an encouragement to others about the effects of traumatic experience that can be the hindrance for individuals’ to pass the personality development runs successfully. The understanding about the personality development that is influenced by social and historical factors will help people to be more aware that other people who have a deviant behavior must have a serious problem in his life related to the historical and social condition around them. Thus, this research will give insight for people about the factors that influence someone’s improper personality development, which results in their deviant behavior. This research will also be a warning for parents to be more careful in guiding their children in the process of gaining self-identity, so their children will grow up properly, and be avoided from any psychological and emotional problems. 8

CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW

A. Literature and Psychology

The relationship between literature and psychology is not directly seen by common people, but those two terms have a great influence for each other. In understanding the relationship between literature and psychology, it is needed to explain the definition about literature and psychology itself. Literature has many definitions since many professionals have different opinions in defining the meaning of literature. According to Eagleton 1996: 2, literature is not only about fiction or non-fiction, but also about how people deliver their thought and their imagination through peculiar ways of communicating into literary works or writings. However, most of the literary works depict human condition in real life or represent the life experience of the author. Whereas literature is the representation of human behavior in literary works or writings, psychology is the scientific study of human behavior, which includes attitudes, thoughts, and physical changes, as well as emotional changes in real life McMahon, 1990: 5. Nowadays, psychology can be applied to analyze literature because the characters in literature can be studied like real people. Therefore, there is an indirect relationship between literature and psychology because both of them are studying about human condition. The difference is that psychology studies human in reality, while literature learns human activity that is created by the author to represent the real life. Consequently, psychology can be the device to make the reader of literary works 9 understand what the author intends to say about human psyche phenomenon through their works that might possibly happen in real life. According to Wellek 1942: 81, psychology of literature is psychological study of the writer, as type and as individual, or the study of the creative process, or the study of the psychological types and laws presents within works of literature, or, finally, the effects of literature upon its readers audience psychology. Wellek’s statement above strengthens the fact that psychology and literature have an indirect relationship. First, it can be said that literature is the product of human mind formed by the psychological process of an individual. Then, Wellek believes that the role of psychology in literature is to analyze the effects of literature or literary works upon its readers or it can be called as audience psychology. The effect itself is how literary works can give the reader enlightenment or acknowledgement about the life experiences happening to many other people without directly experiencing it. Also, a good literary work will take the reader to follow the imagination that has been created by the author. That is how the psychology of the audience is formed while they are enjoying literary works. Psychoanalysis is a theory that is firstly introduced by Sigmund Freud in order to analyze literary works from the psychological view. Therefore, Freud is known as the founding father of psychoanalysis theory. Freud mentions that the human mind is constructed of three elements; those are the id, ego, and superego. Freud’s psychoanalysis is also famous with his exploration of the unconsciousness and theory that human being is driven by something that they have little or no awareness Jess Freist, 2008: 29. In addition, Freud says that human personality development is