Both studies of Stephen Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower above are discussing about the relation between Charlie’s life and his purpose in writing
the series of letter and the brief explanation of Charlie and the symbols. Angel Daniel Matos explains more about Charlie’s growth of his real life is also as a
reflection of the teenagers’ issue of 1990s in America. Charlie’s growth of interaction can also be seen through his growth of writing. The specific discussion
of the study above is about how letters are used to express Charlie’s feeling about his social life and the way he develops his writing is to fulfill his aims. In the
other hand, Michael Bulong says briefly about Charlie in general and symbols in the novel.
Yet, this study is different with the studies above. This study focuses on Charlie’s characteristics and behavior and how both the characteristics and
behavior can be related to his post traumatic stress disorder PTSD through the repression and unconscious in psychoanalysis.
B. Review of Related Theories 1. Theory of Character and Characterization
When the readers see or read literary works, the readers will also find the characters. Character is important, especially in a fiction because they can give a
deeper understanding about the story. Character is the significant thing in this study, and it is very important to find the definition about what the character is.
Characters are the persons represented in a dramatic or narrative work, who are interpreted by the reader as being endowed with particular moral,
intellectual, and emotional qualities by inferences from what the persons say and their distinctive ways of saying it - the dialogue - and from what they do - the
action. Abrams, 1999 : 32 As authors write a story, they will use a variety of techniques to help
readers get to know the characters in the story and what the characters are like. Characterizationis the method a writer uses to reveal a character’s values, goals,
feelings, etc. to readers. According to Robert and Jacob, there are four ways to characterize or
make characters understandable for readers: a. What the characters themselves say and think
We can find the characteristics by looking at what the characters say about some situations of something that happens to them. Here we can see that
their statement and thought reflect their intellectual and also their emotions.
b. What the characters do It is clear to find the characteristic of the characters through their action
rather than their words. Their action towards something or some cases can show how they deal with it and show their personality.
c. What other characters say about them The statements or the conversations between other characters can describe
how the characteristics of the specific character are. d. What the author says about them
Here, the author directly tells the reader what the characteristics of the character are.
1991:53
By correctly interpreting the tools of characterization used by an author, readers can arrive at clear understanding of what characters in stories are like
since the personality of the character contributes to the description of a character.
2. Theory of Psychoanalysis
Since theory of psychoanalysis deals with human behavior, psychoanalysis concepts have become part of our everyday lives.
When we see through psychoanalysis lens, the psychological history begins in the childhood and the adult behavior that is the direct result of the early
experience. Because the focus of psychoanalysis is to help the psychological problem, then, the focus in this study will be on the behavior of a person that is
destructive in some way. Sigmund Freud, in Lois Tyson’s book says that the destructive behavior reveals the existence of some psychological difficulty that
has been probably influencing us for some time without our knowing it or if we do know about a problem but we do not realize that it affects our behavior
