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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.
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We were finishing our lunch, sitting in the kitchen, me with my stew, my father with brown rice and seaweed salad. He had his Town Gear on; brown
brogues, brown tweed three-piece suit, and on the table sat his brown cap. I checked my watch and saw that it was Thursday. It was very unusual for him
to go anywhere on a Thursday, whether Porteneil or any further afield. I wasn’t going to ask him where he was going because he’d only lie.
Banks, 1987: 15
The lines above show that Frank is not even building a good relationship with her father. In her late adolescence stage, Frank is supposed to build a strong sense of
intimacy with other people of her choice. But in reality, Frank chooses to not gain a good relationship even with her father. This crisis of intimacy is the effect of Frank’s
identity crisis, she fails to develop a good sense of identity and the impact shows up in her tendency of intimacy crisis.
I think he just wants to keep putting it off; he might be frightened of me gaining too much independence, or he might simple be scared that I’ll kill
myself the way a lot of youths seem to when they get a bike. I don’t know; I
never know how exactly how much he really feels for me. Come to think of it, I never know exactly how much I really feel for him.
Banks, 1987: 35 The feeling of unnecessary intimacy of Frank continues as she is not aware
about the relationship between herself and her father. She never grasps the understanding of love in the family. It is stated in the line “.. Come to think of it, I
never know exactly how much I really feel for him..” that Frank is not aware about the feeling of intimacy and she treats that feeling as unnecessary thing in her life.
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Not only that Frank has an intimacy crisis with other people, she also has a strange hobby of torturing and killing animals. It is usual for people to keep some
kind of animals as their pet. As for Frank, with her crisis in intimacy, she conducts some sort of animal cruelty. This animal cruelty is another consequence of having an
identity crisis. Frank tortures the animals as a mean to explore and find out her real identity and is based on her own negative perspective. Generally, animal cruelty is an
act of human in inflicting harm or killing animal. There are various purposes in doing such action, as for common sense, it is to take the meat or the fur of the animal. There
also occur some cases where killing and harming animal is a form of self-defense. But for Frank, killing animal is her joy and torturing animal is her hobby. This is the
other form of Frank’s intimacy crisis and this time it is for the non-human who lives around her. Frank is regularly torturing and killing animals, using the corpses as
trophies for her play thing. She is also using those animal corpses to conduct her weird ritualism, in which she seeks answers of her questions to an anonymous god. It
can be seen below. ‘I hope you weren’t out killing any of God’s creatures.’ I shrugged at him
again. Of course I was out killing things. How the hell I supposed to get heads and bodies for the Poles and Bunker if I don’t kill things? There just
aren’t enough natural deaths. You can’t explain that sort of thing to people,
though. Banks, 1987: 5
It is shown from the lines above that even though Frank’s father always knew that Frank is always killing insects and small animals, he never did a real action
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against it. And as for Frank, killing animals is her need. She needs corpses to pile up the Poles and the Bunker, those are the kind of fortress that Frank builds as a form of
her defense in the island where she lives in. I thought again of the Sacrifice Poles; more deliberately this time, picturing
each one in turn, remembering their positions and their components, seeing in my mind what those sightless eyes looked out to, and flicking through each
view like a security guard changing cameras on a monitor screen. I felt nothing amiss; all seemed well. My dead sentries, those extensions of me
which came under my power through the simple but ultimate surrender of death, sensed nothing to harm me or the island.
Banks, 1987: 12 Frank uses the corpses of dead animals as some sort of guards. She beheads
the heads of those animals and arranges those heads in hope that those heads can function as sentries who keep the island from danger. By doing so, Frank feels some
sense of safe and secure. As for Frank, because she is the one who kills those animals it proves that she is their master. Their dead bodies are nothing more than trophies
which function as sentries for Frank’s safety. Frank also owns a torturing tool which she calls the Factory. The Factory is a
collection of torturing tools and traps, each of them have its distinctive features. Some of the traps contain inflammable liquid, some filled with poison from animals
and the other contains an insect-eating plants. Whatever, it was a sign. I was sure of that. The whole fraught episode must
signify something. My automatic response might just have had something to do with the fire that the Factory had predicted, but deep inside I knew that that
wasn’t all there was to it, and that there was more to come. The sign was in
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the whole thing, not just the unexpected ferocity of the buck I’d killed, but also in my furious, almost unthinking response and the fate of the innocent
rabbits who took the brunt of my wrath. Banks, 1987: 24
Frank uses the Factory to conduct her weird ritualism where she puts insect or small animal to the Factory and let those insects crawl their way out into various parts
and traps from the Factory. Frank then observes the death of those animals and sees it as a form of prophecy. This condition is the consequence of Frank’s intimacy crisis.
She lacks the faith in other person and thus she seeks answers of her problems from this ritualism method, by killing and torturing animals.
I looked up then and saw the head of a wasp poking up from the top of a candle on the altar. The newly lit candle, blood red and as thick as my wrist,
contained the still flame and the tiny head within its caldera of wax like pieces of an alien game. As I watched, the flame, a centimeter behind the wasp’s
wax-gummed head, freed the antennae from the grease and they came upright for a while before they frazzled. The head started to smoke as the wax
dribbled off it, then the fumes caught light, and the wasp body, a second flame within the crater, flickered and crackled as the fire incinerated the insect from
its head
down. Banks, 1987: 32
Although Frank uses her animal cruelty as an excuse in doing some sort of ritualism. It can be seen that she is enjoying the process of torturing and killing
animals. The lines above show that Frank always enjoys the part when she tortures an animal; she never wants to miss a moment.
