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in supporting the conflicts in this fiction. By this study, the readers of this study could see how psychological approach especially the inferiority complex could
build a character. Besides, this study may also be helpful in giving information to others who are talking about inferiority complex or who are in different fields.
E. Definition of Terms
In order to avoid misunderstanding in reading this thesis, some terms are then should be defined and the meaning of each will be limited.
The term characters used in this study as described by Stanton 1965,
concerns with two things. First is someone‘s interests, desires, emotions and moral principles, and the second is that characters are the individual who exist in a
story p. 17. Characters in this study refer to what Stanton stated, the combination of interest, desires, emotions, and moral principles which create distinctive
features of people. In other words, characters refer to the character‘s traits. The character traits of Hanna Schmitz are then believed to be the factors which affect
her inferiority complex and her motivation in making important decisions in her life.
Inferiority complex, according to Adler 1956, is defined into two
senses, first is ―abnormally increased inferiority feelings‖ and the second is ―the means by which an individual explains to himself or herself and others that he or
she is not strong enough to solve a given problem in a socially useful way‖ para. 132. Besides, Huffman et al 1997 also added that inferiority complex is the
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feelings of inferiority developed from early childhood experiences of helplessness and incompetence p. 455. In this study, the term inferiority complex studies the
first sense that Hanna has abnormally increased inferiority feelings due to the illiteracy she has.
In the second sense, Hanna Schmitz explains to herself and others that she is not strong enough to solve a given problem in a socially useful way. Here, in
The Reader by Bernard Schlink, Hanna Schmitz is presented as a strong, firm woman who defenselessly accepts to be sentenced to life in prison. The shame
that she is illiterate forces her to choose spending her whole life in the prison rather than defending herself from the conviction.
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CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
