Background of the Study

1

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

This first chapter part consists of five important things. Those are background of the study, problem formulation, objectives of the study, benefits of the study, and definition of terms. Background of the study discusses about the topic explored in this study. Problem formulation consists of two questions to analyze this study. Objectives of the study describe the goal of to achieve in this study. Benefits of the study mention and explain what the benefits of this study are. The last one is definition of terms that consists of some definition of terms related to the topic.

A. Background of the Study

To live in this world is not an easy thing. What makes it difficult is that every human being must struggle hard to survive in the condition changing every time and cannot be predicted. The changing and unpredicted condition can result pressures for human beings. The pressures can make somebody feel stressful or depressed. If this happens, he or she will behave in a manner that people consider him as strange or weird. In some cases, there are some people in the beginning who feel depressed and then they show some signs of strange behaviors that can be categorized as abnormal behaviors or disorders. Wilson et al 1996 state that depression symptoms can occur as a primary problem or in connection with other disorders PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI 2 p. 192. As there are many kinds of abnormal behavior, it can be assumed that the kind of abnormal behavior a person has can be seen through his or her behavior or characteristics in his or her personal and social life. The depression that a person has can also be classified into abnormal behavior if it changes someone’s ways of behaving to be different from others. Coleman 1976 states that when we think of abnormal behavior, we are likely to think of extreme, spectacular examples because, as in other fields, it is the bizarre and the sensational that command attention p. 5. Coleman also states that since the word abnormal literally means “away from the normal,” it implies deviation from some clearly defined norm p. 13. Therefore, people who show their behavior of such kind “away from the normal” can be categorized as abnormal. The indicators can be seen from the way they behave, such as the way they speak, the way they think, the way they view something, etc. They do something that they think is normal, but others cannot accept it as normal. Others will see that people like that are weird and not normal. The definition of abnormal behavior itself has developed broader along with the changing of the time. Over the years, abnormal behavior merely belongs to mental health, but then norms and values have been included in. That is supported by Davison and Neale 1996. They state that over the last century, for example, more and more people have decided that their psychological problems needed professional help. With this increasing flow of patients, therapists and researchers have seen problems that were new to them, and new diagnoses emerging p. 9. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI 3 One of such behaviors which is interesting to be discussed is manic- depressive disorder. This mental disorder belongs to affective or mood disorders. Coleman explains that the term is related to emotion or affective disorder, that these disorders can extremely affect emotional responses that can cause the extreme both feeling of elation and depression p. 339. Hence, manic-depressive disorder is also related to the emotion responses. Furthermore, he explains that manic-depressive disorder is characterized by episodes of extreme elation and overactivity or extreme depression and underactivity or an alternation between the two p. 339. Kraepelin describes the disorder as “a series of attacks of elation and depression, with periods of relative normality in between and a generally favorable prognosis” as cited in Coleman, 1976, p. 340. Coleman also mentions that historically the manic-depressive disorder that belongs to affective disorders was found among the early period of the Egyptians, Greeks, Hebrews, and Chinese writing and also Shakespeare’s, Dostoevsky’s, Poe’s, and Hemmingway’s literary works. Thus, manic-depressive disorder has been existing since many years ago. There are also many famous people experiencing this disorder, let alone many people who experienced this disorder are people who had power in that era. The examples of the famous and powerful people are King George III, Moses, Rousseau, Dostoevsky, Lincoln, Tchaikovsky, and Freud p. 339. They experienced the disorder because they felt the extreme elation or depression in themselves. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI 4 The issues as described above can be portrayed in a work of literature like novel. Little 1981 says a novel creates a completely imagined world through description and dialogue, and may thus explore basic human issues in depth p. 68. Through Paulo Coelho’s novel, entitled The Winner Stands Alone, the readers can get the portrayal of real life experiences about manic-depressive disorder. The Winner Stands Alone is a novel by Paulo Coelho that depicts a situation where people obsess with wealth, love, luxury, and fame. The story starts when the major character, named Igor Malev who is forty, rich, handsome, a successful person and also obsesses with over wealth, has been left by his wife, Ewa. She makes him have obsession of love upon her because Ewa leaves him for another man, a successful fashion designer. Then, Igor travels to the Cannes International Film Festival to get and win his lovely wife back. Even more, Igor takes risks by destroying others to prove his seriousness to get Ewa back to him. Igor’s obsession to get his lovely wife causes bad effect on his surrounding. The victims of his doings are innocent people that Igor exploits to make his plan realized. The ways of Igor destroy others by killing them in order to get her lovely wife back to him deviate from normality. Hence, the story of the novel gives the readers a portrayal of manic- depressive disorder experienced by the main character. According to Igor, his character and life, behaviors, his views of something and his ideas are normal, but others see them as abnormal. People recognize that how he does something to get what he really wants is uncommon. Besides, the story in this novel has other interesting things. In this novel, Paulo Coelho as the author not only tells about PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI 5 one aspect, but many aspects, such as how the reality of glamorous and luxury life is, crime, love, and obsession, and also there many lessons that can be learnt. Therefore, this novel is very interesting to discuss.

B. Problem Formulation