Background of the Study

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B. Research Focus

This research is conducted using a novel entitled The Wasp Factory written by Iain Banks in 1984. The focus of this research is the identity crisis from which Frank, the main character, suffers. The life of Frank is rather unusual, when she was a toddler she was attacked by a dog and her father told her that she is actually a boy and she lost her genital during the accident. That accident leads Frank into developing a crisis of identity in which she believes that she is a boy and suffers from negative identity where she is involved in killings and strange rituals. This research uses Erikson’s stages of psychosocial development theory to understand Frank’s identity crisis problem. According to Sokol 2009: 140 Erikson’s stages of psychosocial development are a life-span model of human development which includes eight successive psychological stages. Each stage is associated with an inherent conflict or crisis that the individual must encounter and successfully resolve to proceed with development. In each stage, the person is expected to confront and challenge the problems that arise during his stage of development. It is also expected that the person is able to master the challenges and successfully resolves the problems in each stage. If the problems in certain stages are not completed, the problems might reappear in the future. The researcher will use 2 stages of Erikson’s psychosocial development to look into the problem of Frank’s identity crisis. Those stages are: identity vs. Identity Diffusion and Intimacy vs. 6 Isolation. Those two stages of Erikson’s psychosocial development are expected to give a decent understanding about the problem of Frank’s identity crisis. The research focuses on Frank’s identity crisis which causes her to resort in having a negative identity, an inability to adapt her own identity into the society where she lives, and results in her strange and bizarre behaviors. The objectives of the study are to find out in which stage of psychosocial development Frank fails to handle and the impacts of the failure toward Frank’s personality.

C. Research Objectives

The objectives of this research are: 1. to identify in which stage of psychosocial development Frank fails to overcome, and 2. to analyze the impacts of the failure in overcoming the crisis toward Frank’s personality.

D. Research Significance

1. Theoretically, the significance of this research is to enrich the research in literary analysis field, especially in psychoanalysis. 7 2. Practically, it is also hoped that this research can become a further reference and give better understanding on the use and the application of psychoanalysis in analyzing a literary work. 8 CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW

A. Psychoanalysis and Literature

Psychoanalysis is a theory of human mind that originally developed by Austrian physician Sigmund Fred 1856-1939. The psychoanalysis itself is a theory of individual behavior and experience, what psychoanalysis seeks to explain is the complex relationship between the body and the mind Farrell, 1981:202. In general, psychoanalysis is a study to understand an individual behavior based on hisher stability of mind. Psychoanalysis offers a distinctive way of thinking about the human mind and of responding to mental distress Bondi, 2007:3. Psychoanalysis is based on the understanding that individuals are unaware of the factors that cause their emotions and behaviors. If by any chance those individuals fail to grasp the relation between their emotions and behaviors they are likely to feel a sense of insecurity, difficulty in relating to others, depression or even result in suffering from deviant behaviors. That is where psychoanalysis comes in place. Psychoanalysis and literature share the same principles and can be connected because they deal with human life. Most of the works of art including literary works 9 are based on the real world. The characters inside literary works are indeed similar to those people in real life. The character in the literary work also has personality, emotion, behavior and feeling of those real human. Even though psychoanalysis and literature can be related in some way, they are actually different. Literature is a representation of human life in the form of text and language. On the other hand, psychoanalysis is defined as a theory that attempts to understand, describe and predict the human behavior. Although psychoanalysis and literature have different form, it is clear that the focus of both are the same, it is about ‘human being’. One may use psychoanalysis theory to analyze a particular character within a literary work. The works of literature has been and still continue to be, as long as it exists, as one of the common denominators of human life and experience. Through which human being, may recognize themselves and converse with each other. By looking into the elements of a literary work, the character and their actions are the imitations and representations of the real word. The characters also have personality, emotion, behavior and feeling of those real human. Therefore, the use of psychoanalysis as a mean to understand the work of literature is possible.