Displacement is a type of defense mechanism when one “substitues a less threatening object for the original object of impulse” Huffman and Vernoy, 2000:480. An individual is
not able to express her anxiety to the true sources that give her unpleasant feelings since it possibly would further threaten her. However, displacements are often quite satisfactory and
workable mechanisms for releasing energy more safely. The displacement is shown by Suzie’s participation towards an art by joining a choir
competition. She sings very well without the slightest burden and she does not show that she is in a bad condition. She sings professionally, and she does that to cover that she is sick,
traumatic, and sad at all the situations that she face. Yet, her choice to join a choir competition proves that she can handle anything even if it is not good for her. She does not
just get dropped, stressed,or any kinds like feeling desperate because she just loses anything she has, but she can avoid her bad, strong willingness that she can have a better life than
before so that she choose to sing. Her hard working earns a good result. She is chosen to go to Paris, a step in the right direction, one step that may lead her into a better life that she has
before. Contacts to be made, money to be earned, money to be saved, and a better life’s coming for her.
But on stage – dressed as a banana, or a tree, or kicking her legs in the can-can or singing in the heavenly choir number dressed in nothing but a pair of wings – she
works hard and gets noticed and is amongst the lucky few from Miss Modern’s Touring Troupe who are chosen to go to ParisPotter, 2000: 21.
4. Regression
Regression is another one of the defense mechanisms identified by Freud. According to Freud, there are times when people are faced by situations that are so anxiety provoking
that they cannot deal with it and they protect themselves by retreating to an earlier stage of
development
According to the psychoanalyst, Sigmund Freud, it is a defense mechanism leading to the temporary or long-term reversion of the ego to an earlier stage of development rather
than handling unacceptable impulses in a more adult way. This is usually in response to stressful situations, with greater levels of stress potentially leading to more overt regressive
acts. Regressive behavior can be simple and harmless, such as a person who is sucking a pen as a Freudian regression to oral fixation, or may be more dysfunctional, such as crying or
using petulant arguments. Regression is a defense mechanism that works for people who deal with stress to go
back into an infant gesture. If some people go under heavy stress, they would avoid it by sleeping, some would cry, and some other would put their thumb in their mouth Kasschau,
1995: 274. It is called “regression” because it does not make progress. Thus, it will be backwards of progress then it is called “re-gress” or back to start.
When someone experiences great stress, they feel back into childish behavior. Some of them respond to stress by over-eating or by drinking too much. Freud states that this is a
regression to an earlier oral mode of pleasure. Or when a young male patient encounters heterosexual difficulties, he sometimes will resort to such immature forms of gratification as
masturbation or homosexuality. This regression allows the man to discharge libidinal energy in a safe way. But, it also prevents him from trying to solve his present interpersonal
problem McConell 1980, 488-489. Instead of being sad, depressed, stressed, or so on, Suzie chooses to start a new life. It
is a life she might think she will get a better life than before. It is a life she might think she can forget the pain that she get because of losing her family. Then, she decides to take a new
journey, a long but not broken journey at all. Firstly, she starts to follow a group of Britain, begin her new life in America with the thought that she would meet her father there.
Three men standing at the door, the older one, and his two adolescent sons, their fur hats, their pale faces; the old woman’s voice pleading with the men, pressing food
upon them, and then pressing the child upon them too and the word -- America -- like a curse or prayer Potter, 2000: 16.
We can see the other evidence through the following quotation. And so the journey begins that takes the little girl and the three men further than any
have ever been before, across steppe and through forests, through the smouldering remains of what were villages, as they cut a path across country, through the
devastation of the civil war, towards the border Potter, 2000: 16.
And the last evidence can be seen in the following.
Then she’s handed over, yes to America, because where her boat is going, just like yours, says the fat man with the strange smile, to the two young men in their fur hats
as they disappear with an anxious wave Potter, 2000: 17.
Secondly, when she arrives at Britain her with foster parents, English students at school taunt her by calling her a gypsy, but she cannot yet understand English. A teacher
at the school overhears her singing Je Crois Entendre Encore in Yiddish, and teaches her to sing and speak in English. Then she is chosen by her teacher to join a choir because her
voice captivates her teacher’s heart. When the teacher firstly hears her voice, the teacher is really impressed. He asks her to sing, any tunes will do at first, and then hymns, real hymns,
with English words. By following the choir itself, she learns how to speak with English word and little by little forgetting about Yiddish, her first word before. “And he punishes
her, but kindly, every time she lapses into Yiddish” Potter, 2000: 20. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
After joining a choir, then she gets a chance to go to Paris in order to join another singing competition with Miss Modern’s Touring Troupe. “She works hard and gets noticed
and is amongst the lucky few from Miss Modern’s Touring Troupe who are chosen to go to Paris” Potter, 2000: 21.
When she stays in Paris, she gets a chance to join an opera with the famous actor named Dante. As time goes too fast, by the opera, she meets another man, named Cesar and
she has falling in love with that guy. “He feels flattered to be needed by such a beauty; and then it is not just the blonde, but her dark friend, too, because she can sing, really, she has a
lovely voice you know “Potter, 2000: 23. That is clear, that from the brief explanation above, it looks that Suzie enjoys her new
life in another country which is Paris. She looks as if she does not have any problem before in her life. She covers every problem she has with more adult. She prefers to begin her
journey, forgetting about her problem for a while then until finally she join a singing competition, and an opera until by that time she meets her crush who is willing to help her
find her father. In the result, the regression is clearly shown by the act of Suzie which is enjoying her
life by moving from one to another country, from the United States changes her name given by a group of Britain that she followed, lives withher foster parents, join a choir
competition because her teacher at the school overhears her singing Je Crois Entendre Encore in Yiddish, and teaches her to sing and speak in English, then heading to Paris for
singing dance troupe meet Lola, Cesar, and Dante until she decides to leave Paris she feels not safe by the Nazis attack the Romani village and kill a child and heading to
America as Cesar suggestion to her. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
