characteristic is described through what the characters do, what the characters themselves say and think, and what other characters say about him.
The third characteristic is that Charlie is a lonely person. As the researcher has said before, Charlie only has limited friends in his life. Since his beloved aunt
dies in a car accident, Charlie feels his life is become lonely because his beloved person has died. In the middle school, his best friend, Michael, also dies and it
gives Charlie another hard time. Since he is left by his two favorite persons, he becomes very lonely. He does not have friends to talk to. Most of his friends stay
away from him with no reason. He also gets bully sometimes. He even seldom talks about his life or his problems with his family. He likes to keep his story
inside. But this time, I went alone because Michael is gone, and Susan hangs
around different boys now, and Bridget is still crazy, and Carls mom sent him to a Catholic school, and Dave with the awkward glasses moved
away. I was just kind of watching people, seeing who was in love and who was just hanging around, and I saw that kid I told you about. p.26
In his high school life, his friendship with Sam and Patrick gives another color in his life. Charlie is happy having Sam and Patrick beside him, but in the
other time, when he is not with Sam and Patrick, Charlie will feel very lonely. His loneliness brings him into the memories of Michael and aunt Hellen. The fact that
Charlie drives alone to the grave of aunt Hellen and tells about his life gives a fact that Charlie is lonely. He is lonely that he has to go alone to his aunt’s grave just
to tell about Sam and Patrick and his high school life rather than tell his story to his family. In the method of characterizing the character, the researcher finds out
that Charlie’s characteristic as a lonely person is described through what the characters themselves say and think.
The last characteristic of Charlie is that emotionally unstable. As someone who is left by his favorite persons, Charlie has gone through hard times that make
his emotions unstable. In his letters, Charlie says that he always gets panic and sad easily. He is also, sometimes, worry about something suddenly. The researcher
finds that every time Charlie feels something wrong with him or he makes any mistakes accidently he will get nervous and panic. Charlie also shows his emotion
through crying. He admits in his letters that he is the panicky kind of person. I remember when I was just about to say good-bye to my aunt Helen, I
started crying. It was a real kind of crying, too. Not the panicky type, which I do a lot. And I made Aunt Helen a promise to only cry about
important things because I would hate to think that crying as much as I do would make crying for Aunt Helen less than it is. p.103
The researcher also finds that Charlie shows his unstable emotions through
the way he acts panicky and nervously. He always feels bad whenever he does something wrong and when he thinks he hurts people. Charlie also feels sad and
he cries when he remembers his aunt, Hellen. The exact time of Charlie when he suddenly feels sad and panic is when a Christmas time comes. Charlie also writes
that he is too sad to continue writing his story that it really bothers him. There is a time when he gets sad suddenly because he cannot find a good present for his dad.
The worst part of his unstable emotion is that he can be numb all of the sudden. Charlie shows that Michael and aunt Hellen play the important role in his sadness.
Charlie also says in his letter that he misses his aunt and Michael and he wants them to be there with him when he gets sad.
This unstable emotion characteristic is described by Charlie himself. In the method of characterizing the character, the researcher finds out that Charlie’s
unstable emotion characteristic is described through the way he says and thinks. Charlie directly says that he does crying a lot in panicky type especially when he
remembers his aunt and when it is about Christmas time.
B. Charlie’s Behaviors Reveal his Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
Although Charlie has sexual abuse from his aunt when he is a kid, Charlie can still grow like a normal teenager. As an introvert, calm, loner, and emotionally
unstable, Charlie’s characteristics define his behavior towards his trauma that he got when he was a kid. Outside of Charlie’s “normal behavior”, he has actually
represses his pains, emotions, and guilty feeling inside his unconscious. The pain and the bad experience that he represses are the fact that he is molested by his
beloved aunt when he is just a kid. He also represses his guilty feeling toward the death of his aunt and the unresolved reason of his best friend’s suicide. Those are
repressed inside his unconscious because Charlie does not want them to haunt him and he wants everything to be alright and does not scare him. This shows that his
behavior in repressing his trauma and not telling other people about that are the caused by his characteristics.
Since Charlie is quiet, lonely, and emotionally unstable, he cannot express his burdens to other people. He cannot tell his friends about the things that bother
him because he is a lonely person and he does not have any friends. Because he is PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
also an introvert person, he does not know how to tell other people about his trauma and he prefers to keep everything inside. His unstable emotion also brings
him into a condition where he actually has the trauma but he refuses to feel and accept it as the part of his life.
Since the repression does not eliminate someone’s pain, emotion, etc, although Charlie’s bad experience, guilty, and emotion has been repressed, they
does not go away, in fact they are going to affect Charlie’s behavior. Charlie’s unconscious causes some destructive behaviors that reveal his psychological
problems without he knows it or he knows it but he did not realize that those psychological problems that are affected his behavior. Those behaviors are the
keys to the symptoms of his post traumatic stress disorder PTSD. The symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder can be seen in Charlie’s series of letter that he
writes. Charlie as someone with post traumatic stress disorder has fulfilled his
first criteria which is Criteria A1 and A2. First, Charlie has fulfilled Criteria A1 which includes experiencing and witnessing the event that threat his psychological
integrity. This can be proved by witnessing Charlie’s traumatic experience as the victim of sexual abuse from his aunt. Second, Charlie has fulfilled Criteria A2
which says that someone with post traumatic stress disorder PTSD will response the traumatic events with intense fear, helplessness, and horror. Children may
express this by a disorganized or agitated behavior. In criteria A2, Charlie also shows the intense fear of his traumatic experience and his huge loss of his beloved
people in a car accident and in a suicide. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
Charlie starts his letter when he is about to enter high school. In living his high school life, Charlie behaves like his other friends did, but actually, he is still
showing the signs of post traumatic stress disorder PTSD through his behaviors. There are several symptoms that are suitable to Charlie’s behaviors. The exact
minimum number of the symptoms is six and those are considered as the symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder PTSD.
The first symptom can be seen in Charlie’s behavior during Christmas time. In Charlie’s birthday which is before Christmas, Charlie always fells sad
and nervous all of sudden. Christmas’ eve is the time when his beloved aunt dies in a car accident when she is about taking presents for Charlie. Charlie always
adores his aunt because she is kind and always gives Charlie two presents, Christmas present and birthday present. All he fells at that time are nervous, a
panic kind of nervous and he always wants Christmas to end soon.“Im really glad that Christmas and my birthday are soon because that means they will be over
soon because I can already feel myself going to a bad place I used to go” p. 81 Charlie once says that even though he is glad that Christmas had come, he
actually does not. His point by “glad” is that the existence of Christmas finally will be end soon because it has appeared. In December 23
rd
Charlie experiences strange things, such as he looks in a mirror for hours and things starts to slip away
and he sees nothing. Charlie also tries to breathe really hard and tries to see something. Charlie also fells weird because he does not feel well and scared. He
does not know what is happening to him, but he always experiences the same things every year.
“I really dont feel very well. I dont know whats wrong with me, but Im starting to get scared. I wish we were going back home tonight, but we
always sleep over. I dont want to tell my mom about it because it would just make her worry. I would tell Sam and Patrick, but they didnt call
yesterday. And we left this morning after we opened presents. Maybe they called this afternoon. I hope they didnt call this afternoon because I wasnt
there. I hope its okay that Im telling you this. I just dont know what else to do. I always get sad when this happens, and I wish Michael were here.
And I wish my Aunt Helen were here” p. 83. Another nervous and panic moment is when Charlie gets so emotional and
confused suddenly when he cannot find what Christmas present he should give to his father. It can be seen that most of his nervous, panic, and emotion happen in
Christmas time. The researcher finds that one main reason of that is his guilty feeling deep down in his heart about his aunt. There is also a time when Charlie
says that he does not like his birthday. Seeing that his birthday is very close to Christmas where his aunt is dead when she is about to bring him birthday present
and Christmas present. Every time he remembers Christmas and his birthday then Charlie will also remember his aunt and he feels guilty. “It started yesterday at
home. I dont like my birthday. I dont like it at all” p. 84 “Is it your aunt Helen?” It was the way she said it that started me feeling.
“Please, dont do this to yourself, Charlie” But I did do it to myself. Like I do every year on my birthday” p. 87-88
The changing of feeling that Charlie got in his birthday and Christmas eve is the description of post traumatic stress disorder’s symptom called Sudden
acting or feeling as if the traumatic event were recurring Criterion B3. What Charlie has experienced above shows the key feature of this symptom that he
loses some awareness of his present surroundings and is simply not remembering PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
the trauma. He also makes a strange gesture that is perfectly congruent with his trauma when he looks at the mirror for hours and suddenly sees nothing. He is
back at the scene of the incident of his aunt. He felt guilty and it caused the feeling of insecurity, panic, and nervousness whenever it was Christmas time or
the time when his biggest emotional experience happens. Here the researcher finds that his lonely characteristic play a role in his
nervousness towards Christmas time. Since he is lonely, he always focuses on himself and therefore, his mind will stuck in the memories of his aunt. It will be
different if Charlie can spend his time more with other people so that he can little by little get distract from his aunt’s memories. His characteristic of emotionally
unstable also plays an important role in making this symptom. Because he is emotionally unstable, he can easily change his emotions, then, release his guilty
feeling towards the accident of his aunt that gives him nervousness and panic. Thus, Charlie experiences as if the trauma is recurring.
There is also a time when Charlie gets scared all of sudden when he is in his dad’s old bedroom in Ohio.
“I am sitting in my dads old bedroom in Ohio. The family is still downstairs. I really dont feel very well. I dont know whats wrong with
me, but Im starting to get scared. I wish we were going back home tonight, but we always sleep over” p. 83
It shows that Charlie is still recollected the things which still relate to his beloved aunt. His aunt is his dad’s younger sister and the way he gets scared when
he is in the house of his dad describes the relation of his fear with the things that remind him to his aunt.
