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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.
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As for Frank who loses her way because of her identity confusion and intimacy crisis, the only thing that can satisfy her is her hobby of killing animals. As
for Frank, she never sees it as her hobby, because she takes it seriously as she always mention about “the Factory’s warning” as a guiding point for her life.
I lit the candle inside the skull of Old Saul. That orb of bone, holed and yellowing, was what killed all those little creatures who met their death in the
mud on the far side of the creek. I watched the smoky flame waver inside the place where the dog’s brains used to be and I closed my eyes. I saw the Rabbit
Grounds again, and the flaming bodies as they jumped and sped. I saw again the one that escaped the Grounds and died just before it made it to the stream.
I saw the Black Destroyer, and remembered its demise. I thought of Eric, and wondered what the Factory’s warning was about.
Banks, 1987: 35 Frank always blindly follows the answers she gets from the Factory, although
in truth, all the answers are all coming from her own. She is a confused young girl who is faced with the crisis of identity; with no one to help her all she can do is
looking the answers with her own method. The crisis here can be clearly seen in Frank’s misbehavior. The behavior is related heavily with her intimacy crisis. She
refuses to build a good relationship with others, as a result she even keeps a distance with the member of her family. She also refuses to seek help from other person and
use a weird method of animal cruelty in finding the answers to her problems.
2. Isolation
If a certain person is unable to develop a strong sense of identity in hisher late adolescence or young adult, heshe will likely to settle for the crisis of intimacy
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and a deep sense of isolation. Those who are having a deep sense of isolation will not group themselves in the society, they tend to live alone and avoid people. It can be
seen before that Frank is suffering from the intimacy crisis and the other consequence of that is the deep sense of isolation. Because Frank never finds a person that can
build a good relationship with her, she tends to isolate herself. She refuses to interact with other people and see it as a normal thing to do. Frank treats that disability
normally because she has a weak sense of identity and this sense of deep isolation is the impact.
I don’t go giving people presents of burning dogs, or frighten the local toddlers with handfuls of maggots and mouthfuls of worms. The people in the
town may say ‘Oh, he’s not all there, you know,’ but that’s just their little joke and sometimes, just to rub it in, they don’t point to their heads as they say it;
I don’t mind. I’ve learned to live with my disability, and learned to live without other people, so it’s no skin off my nose.
Banks, 1987: 6
The lines above show that Frank is disregarding the fact that she is isolating herself from the society. She sees it as a normal thing and does not bother to even
think about it. Even though it is clear that the society is not accepting Frank, it can be seen that it is Frank’s job to be able to blend into the society. The reason why the
society is afraid of Frank is likely because Frank feels that it is not important to get along with the society and she never takes a real action about it. This shows that
Frank has a tendency of isolating herself from other people and also the society.
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Mothers told their children to behave or Eric Cauldhame would get them and do horrible things to them with worms and maggots. As I suppose was
inevitable, the story gradually became that Eric would set fire to them, not just their pet dogs; and, as was probably also inevitable, a lot of kids started to
think that I was Eric, or that I got up to the same tricks. Or perhaps their parents guessed about Blyth, Paul and Esmeralda. Whatever, they would run
from me, or shout rude things from a distance, so I kept a low profile and restricted my brief visits to the town to a taciturn minimum. I get the odd
funny look to this day, from children, youths and adults, and I know some mothers tell their children to behave or ‘Frank’ll get you’ but it doesn’t bother
me. I can take it. Banks, 1987: 36
The society where Frank lives in is afraid of Frank. Although Frank never really did something that harms them, the society still disregards the presence of
Frank. She treats this as something normal and does not bother her, as she says that ‘I can take it’ means that she never really put an attention to this kind of problem. In the
eye of her society Frank is seen as something negative, this is likely because Frank also treats the society in the same way. Frank’s house is separated from the town and
she always keeps a low profile when visiting the town. This behavior is seen by the society as an attempt to sneak around. Another part is that Frank’s family is already
seen as a bad family by the society. This case happens because Frank has a feeling of deep isolation, she refuses to show herself to society and as a result she is being
excluded. In this finding, the researcher can point out that Frank’s personality is heavily
damaged by her identity crisis. The damaged personality then causes impacts in her behaviors. Those behaviors listed above are the result of Frank’s identity crisis. As
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from Erikson’s theory that if a certain person is unable to resolve the problems, heshe is likely to face identity crisis. The identity crisis then can cause an unhealthy
personality for the person. That is what can be seen from Frank, she fails to overcome her problem in adolescence stage: identity vs. identity diffusion. The problem then
continues in her late adolescence stage which she also fails to overcome. The impacts of the failure are Frank’s unhealthy personality and her various defiant behaviors.
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CHAPTER V CONCLUSION
Based on the finding and discussions in the previous chapter, some conclusions can be drawn related to the research focus and objectives of the problem
stated in Chapter 1. The conclusions are derived into the following points: 1.
The researcher finds out that Frank is unable to overcome the stage of Identity vs. Identity Diffusion and as a result, she suffers from identity crisis. There
are three conflicting problems of identity crisis phenomenon based on the theory of Erikson’s psychosocial development which match the condition of
Frank’s identity crisis in the novel. Those problems are: 1 identity diffusion, 2 identity foreclosure and 3 negative identity. The first phenomenon is
Frank’s identity diffusion which can be seen from her emotional breakdown or acute upset, her confusion in gender identity and also her excessive self-
awareness where she feels less inferior than other person. The second problem is identity foreclosure where the problem is originated from the excessive
involvement of parents. The excessive involvement of parents then causes Frank to suffer from the fluidity of defenses in which she feels safer when she
owns a weapon. The last problem is Frank’s negative identity, this problem can be observed from her negative attitude. Frank is a girl who is suffering
