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give her a lot more secure feeling. This also can be seen from the perspective of identity foreclosure. Because she is being strictly controlled by her father, she also
wants some sort of authoritative power. Erikson 1984: 78 states that the children want to be like hisher parents, who to himher appear very powerful and very
beautiful and quite unreasonably dangerous. The child “identifies with them”, heshe plays with the idea of how it would be to be them. In this case, Frank’s father is not a
good role model. That is why Frank is suffering from the fluidity of defenses.
3. Negative Identity
Negative identity is the result of failing to handle the crisis in adolescence stage or the failure to develop a strong sense of identity. Those who are confused
about their identity are likely ended up in having a negative identity. Erikson 1968: 172 states that negative identity is the loss of a sense in identity and often expressed
in a scornful and snobbish hostility toward the appropriate roles of identity. Those who are having negative identity are likely to be negative in their manner of life. As
they are suffering from the identity confusion, they will face a difficulty in defining choices about the future and are likely to commit crimes. Their behaviors are also can
be considered as more aggressive and hostile toward those who seem to threaten their search of identity.
In the previous finding, it can be seen that Frank is suffering from gender confusion. The point is that Frank fails to acquire her own gender identity and she
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believes that she loses her penis. In actualities, Frank is a girl who never has a penis and because of that another problem appears to Frank. Misogyny or an extreme
dislike of females is what Frank suffers from her negative identity. Misogyny is the hatred or dislike toward females, the dislike can be in a form of sexual discrimination
or sexual objectification of females. Frank’s hatred toward female is coming from the consequence of having a
negative identity. She fails to grasp that she is a girl and as a result of that she curses her own disability as a girl. It is not only because of that aspect, in her family she
only lives with her father and she knows that her mother leaves her father with no reason, abandons the children in the process. So the hate of females that Frank has is
not only coming from her gender confusion but also from the fact that she has been abandoned by her own mother.
My GREATES ENEMIES are women and the Sea. These things I hate. Women because they are weak and stupid and live in the shadow of men
and are nothing compared to them , and the Sea because it has always
frustrated me, destroying what I have built, washing away what I have left, wiping clean the marks I have made. And I’m not all that sure the Wind is
blameless, either.
Banks, 1987: 29 The hate towards women that Frank suffers is not something trivial. It is the
consequence of being unable to resolve her identity crisis. The lines “..These things I hate. Women because they are weak and stupid and live in the shadow of men and are
nothing compared to them,..” clearly signify that Frank disregards the women. She
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believes that women are the inferior beings. It is such an irony because Frank is also a woman who believes that she is a man, the superior gender in her understanding.
Women… well, women are a bit too close for comfort as far as I’m concerned.
I don’t even like having them on the island, not even Mrs Clamp
, who comes every week on a Saturday to clean the house and deliver our supplies. She’s ancient, and sexless the way the very old and the very
young are, but she’s still _been_ a woman, and I resent that, for my
own good
reason. Banks, 1987: 29
From the lines above it can be assumed that Frank hates the presence of women around her. The line “..I don’t even like having them on the island, not even
Mrs. Clamp..” shows that even though the only woman around her is an old lady who does the chores, she never likes her and resents her. This is likely the part of hating
the presence of a woman from her misogyny. She never likes the idea that she lives on the same island with an old woman.
Frankly, I didn’t have much faith in either, Jamie being too small to stop me if I really started to topple, and the girl being a girl. Probably too weak; and,
even if she wasn’t, I expected she would let me crack my skull on the pavement because women like to see men helpless.
Banks, 1987: 58 From Frank’s point of view, it can be seen that she always assumes that girls
and women are the inferior being. She also believes that women are happy when they see men become helpless. These are the points that show how Frank really resents
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women. It can also be assumed because she thinks that she is a girl and she curses her own live because of that.
Whatever it was that disintegrated in Eric then, it was a weakness, a
fundamental flaw that a real man should not have had. Women, I know from watching hundreds – maybe thousands – of films and television
programmes, cannot withstand really major things happening to them ;
they get raped, or their loved one dies, and they go to pieces, go crazy and commit suicide, or just pine away until they die. Of course, I realize that not
all of them will react that way, but obviously it’s the rule, and the ones who don’t obey it are in the minority.
Banks, 1987: 114 It can be assumed from the lines that Frank has a thought and believes that
man is the superior gender without flaws. As the other lines “..Women, I know from watching hundreds – maybe thousands – of films and television programmes, cannot
withstand really major things happening to them:..” shows what Frank believes to be the fate of what women should be. Even thought those understandings come from
television, Frank always believes those parts, because that is what she always thinks from the beginning. This condition undeniably comes from her various problems
which she encounters throughout her life. This misogyny is likely the continuation of her gender confusion which she fails to overcome, resulting in her hate towards
women. Thus, it can be said that Frank’s misogyny is the consequence of having a negative identity.
All in all, the finding above shows that Frank’s failure in successfully handling the stage of identity vs. identity diffusion is marked by her identity
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diffusion, identity foreclosure and negative identity. The result then shows that Frank is unable to develop a strong and healthy sense of identity. If a certain adolescent
cannot emerge with a strong sense of identity it will later affect the stage of late adolescence or young adult: intimacy vs. isolation.
B. The Stage of Intimacy vs. Isolation
Erikson 1980: 101 states that only a youth with a reasonable sense of identity can establish a real sense of intimacy. Intimacy itself is the ability to form a
link or to be close with others, be it a family, friends, lover or as a participant in a certain society. The point of intimacy is to build a good relationship with other people
and a good sense of intimacy can only be obtained by those with a reasonable sense of identity. Although Frank is still in her late adolescence stage, she has several traits
that can be related to the problems in the stage of young adult. Therefore, it can be said that if those problems of Frank are not resolved, the problems are likely to
continue in the later stage.
1. Intimacy Crisis
The feeling of intimacy usually happens in the stage of late adolescence or young adult. In Frank’s case, because she is suffering from the confusion of identity,
her sense of intimacy is also affected. Rather than develops a normal sense of intimacy, Frank treats intimacy as something unnecessary. Frank has a tendency of
avoiding people. The crisis of Frank’s intimacy can be seen below.
