Revealing self identity through conquering one`s own fear as seen in dennis o`neil`s batman begins the novel - USD Repository
REVEALING SELF IDENTITY THROUGH CONQUERING ONE’S OWN
FEAR AS SEEN IN DENNIS O’NEIL’S
BATMAN BEGINS THE NOVEL
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra in English Letters
By
ASSISTA DHYAN PURNAMA PUTRA
Student Number: 014214023
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First, I would like to express my gratitude to my advisor, Drs. Hirmawan
Wijanarka, M.Hum for the guidance, advice, and constructive critique. Thank
you for being so patient and understanding for the past three semesters. I would also thank J. Harris Hermansyah S.,S.S.,M.Hum and M. Luluk Artika W.,
S.S. for the guidance, and advice. My appreciation is also for the lecturers who
have taught me so much knowledge during my study and my thesis writing, especially to my academic advisor, Dewi Widyastuti S.Pd., M.Hum. I also thank the secretary and library staff who have provided me with information that I required all this time.
My deepest gratitude goes to my late Father, my Mother, my Brother and my Little Sister. Thanks for the patience. I dedicate my thesis especially to all of them.
Thanks to my friends in English Letters, especially to Betty “ Nee Chan”,
Liia, “Asakura” Budi, and Dian Savitri ; To my friends at Shocker Toys
Center , Agustinus, Joko, Endi, Booby, Agus Ariyanto, Ludfi and Yudha,
thanks for being my best friends forever. Besides I thank my other friends, wherever you are; just because I do not mention your names, please do not be upset. I appreciate all your support, especially the ones who have lent me their
Lastly, my special gratitude goes to my beloved girlfriend, Liza, because without her love, companion, support and patience, I could not finish my thesis. I love her very much.
Sincerely, Assista Dhyan
TABLE OF CONTENTS TITLE PAGE ……………………….……………………………………. i
APPROVAL PAGE ……………………………………………………… ii
ACCEPTANCE PAGE ………………………………………………….. iii
MOTTO PAGE …………………………………………………………... iv
DEDICATION PAGE …………………………………………………… v
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ……………………………………………… vi
TABLE OF CONTENTS . ………………………………………….…… viii
ABSTRACT ……………………………………………………………… x
ABSTRAK ……………………………………………………………….. xi
CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION ………………………………………... 1
A. Background of the Study ………………………………………. 1 B. Problem Formulation …………………………………………... 5 C. Objectives of the Study ………………………………………… 5 D. Definition of Term ……………………………………………... 6CHAPTER II: THEORETICAL REVIEW …………………………….. 8
A. Review of Related Studies ………………………………….….. 8 B. Review of Related Theories ……………………………………. 101. Theories of Character and Characterization ……………. 10
2. Watson’s Theory of Fear ……………..……………...… 13
3. Roger’s Theory of Self Identity ………………………… 15
C. Theoretical Frameworks ………………………………………... 19
CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY ……………………………………... 21
A. Object of the Study ………………………………….……….… 21 B. Approach of the Study …………………………….…………… 23 C. Method of the Study …………………………….……………… 24CHAPTER IV: ANALYSIS ……………………………………………… 26
A. The Characteristics of Bruce Wayne…………………………… 261. Bruce Wayne’s Childhood….…………………………... 27
2. Bruce Wayne’s Adulthood ……………………………... 31
B. The Fear Undergone by Bruce Wayne ………………….……… 37
1. Fears of Bat and Dark Places……...…………………….. 37
2. Fears of Being Blamed as the Cause of his Parent’s Death.39
3. Fears of Power …………………………..……………… 40
C. Bruce Wayne’s Conquering his Fear to Reveal Self Identity….... 42
1. Conquering Fears of Bats and Dark Places ………….…. 43
CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION ………………………………………….. 49 BIBLIOGRAPHY ………………………………………………………… 52 APPENDIX ……………………………………………………………..
54 Summary of Batman Begins the Novel…………………..……...….……... 54
ABSTRACT
ASISSTA DHYAN PURNAMA P. Revealing Self Identity through
Conquering One’s Own Fear as Seen in Dennis O’Neil’s Batman Begins the
Novel. Yogyakarta: Department of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata
Dharma University, 2007.Batman Begins the Novel is a story about Bruce Wayne, a multi-billionaire
who has split personalities or an alter ego known as Batman. Batman Begins the
Novel is the starting point of the history of the birth of the dark knight, Batman.
Bruce Wayne’s true self identity is achieved through the development of his character in the novel. The writer decides to analyze Bruce Wayne’s character because he finds his true self through his journey of conquering his fear.. The main character tries to search his true self, to know the best of him, and to identify himself.The writer’s objectives in doing this study are: (1) to reveal the characteristic of Bruce Wayne; (2) to reveal the fear undergone by Bruce Wayne character, (3) to reveal how Bruce Wayne conquers his own fear to reveal his self identity.
The writer does a library research by using the novel as the primary source. The writer uses Carl Roger’s theory of self identity to explain the main characters’ self identity, Watson’s theory of fear, and the theories of character and characterization to show the characteristics of Bruce Wayne.
The writer finds out that the ways to recognize one’s self identity to be honest to one self, to be courageous in choosing complicated choices to be better, and to work hard in achieving it. Bruce Wayne can recognize his self after encountering fear. He then admits his fear and tries so hard to know his self better by experiencing new things and learning about life. On his journey Bruce experiences new things that help enrich his life and open his mind. He becomes more realistic and philosophical. It is important to know who we really are. One must work hard to understand him/herself better by opening his/her mind to new experiences.
ABSTRAK
ASISSTA DHYAN PURNAMA P. Revealing Self Identity through
Conquering One’s Own Fear as Seen in Dennis O’Neil’s Batman Begins the
Novel. Yogyakarta: Jurusan Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Sanata
Dharma, 2007.Batman Begins the Novel menceritakan tentang Bruce Wayne, anak
seorang billionner yang mempunyai kepribadian ganda atau biasa disebut sebagai
alter ego yang dikenal sebagai Batman. Batman Begins the Novel merupakan titik
awal sejarah kelahiran sang ksatria malam, Batman. Identitas diri sejati Bruce Wayne tercapai melalui pengembangan karakter Bruce Wayne di dalam novel. Penulis menganalisis karakter Bruce Wayne karena identitas diri sejati yang dicapai oleh Bruce Wayne didapatkan melalui berbagai petualang untuk mengalahkan rasa takutnya.
Tujuan penulis dalam studi ini adalah: (1) untuk mengungkapkan karakteristik dari Bruce Wayne; (2) untuk mengungkapkan rasa takut yang dialami oleh karakter Bruce Wayne dalam novel (3) untuk mengungkapkan bagaimana karakter Bruce Wayne menaklukkan rasa takutnya untuk menunjukkan identitas diri sejati dari Bruce Wayne.
Penulis melakukan studi pustaka dengan menggunakan novel sebagai sumber utama. Penulis menggunakan teori identitas diri Carl Roger untuk memahami identitas diri, teori rasa takut menurut Watson, serta beberapa teori karakter dan karakterisasi untuk menunjukkan karakteristik Bruce Wayne.
Hasil dari studi ini penulis menunjukkan bahwa identitas diri diwujudkan dengan cara jujur kepada diri sendiri, berani dalam menentukan pilihan-pilihan sulit untuk menjadi lebih baik, dan bekerja beras untuk mewujudkannya. Bruce Wayne menyadari rasa identitas dirinya setelah dikuasai oleh rasa takutnya. Dia menyadari rasa takutnya dan berusaha keras memahami dirinya sendiri dengan pengalaman-pengalaman baru dan mengenal lebih jauh tentang kehidupan. Bruce Wayne dihadapkan dengan banyak pengalaman baru yang memperkaya hidupnya dan membuka wawasannya. Bruce Wayne menjadi lebih realistik dan mulai banyak berfilosofi. Sangat penting untuk menyadari siapa diri kita sebenarnya. Seseorang harus berusaha keras untuk menyadari hal ini dengan membuka dirinya pada pengalaman baru
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION A. Background of the Study In their life time, human beings, from biologically born as babies, growing
into adults, growing old, to the time of death, learn many things throughout the experiences they have when they live. Experiencing different condition and difficult situation will give effect to the development of personal growth; this development is not merely about age. Facts show that human beings (regardless of how young or old they are) will have problems. Human beings might have different problems, such as personal problems, social problems, communication problems, and other uncountable problems. Facing those problems make human beings try to develop their characters according to the environment they live in.
Everyone in this world is free in making decisions or even taking risks within the bound of one’s value system and as an individual. It is the fact that they continuously try to discover and develop one’s potentials to its very best.
There are differences in the living condition of human beings, who considerably have different thoughts and ways of concealing their true self. The thing that has to be noticed is the uniqueness of human being. Everyone might have their own ways in responding their condition of living. Growing in very different conditions and backgrounds of life makes human realize to achieve a consequences in every choice that human beings should make and it is not as easy as waving your hand. There are lots of boundaries that force you to give up while trying achieving your dreams. Acquiring personal growth shows how human beings present themselves as self-actualizing persons, who have already achieved and fulfilled all of their needs, desires, and dreams.
Fear is one primary emotion of human life that has to be faced; every human being in this world cannot escape from it. Fear is like a virus, there is no other human being in this world that can help you to escape from it. Only the person himself can cure him/herself from this disease. It needs courage, support, and sacrifice. Even in literature many famous writers have made great literary works through conquering their own fear. By taking the fear into the next level, people are taken to learn and to understand how the writer has an experience to conquer the fear itself which results in revealing who the writer truly is.
Batman Begins the Novel is a movie adaptation novel from famous movie
created by Dennis O’Neill. The story is about young Bruce Wayne
Batman Begins in search of his destiny. The heir of Wayne Empire disappeared seven years ago.
No one knows where he goes. Bruce’s vast fortune has been given away, and the crime began with the brutal murder of his parents and he started to feel living in the hell in Gotham city.
The other side of the world, in a dark Himalayan prison, a nameless hardened man fought everyday to survive, he spent seven years scouring the of his childhood. In the darkest place of his own anger, Bruce Wayne will discover his destiny and an ordinary man he will become a legend.
Batman is originally a comic book created by a teenaged Bob Kane in the
1930s, believed to be most well known fictional character and had continuous publications featuring many new adventures for more than 65 years. Another famous fictional character which had the same record as Batman is of course the guy with big “S” in his chest. the man of steel, Superman. The first concept of Batman created by Bob Kane was not the Batman that we know; Batman is a real BAT-MAN. A human with the appearance of a bat only by using red clothes and have a pair of real bat wings, fighting over magic and mystic forces. But later by Bill Finger, Batman was perfected and born into Batman that we know right now. Bill was the maker of Gotham city, creator Batman partners the Boy Wonder, Robin and all other Batman enemies, except Joker. Then Batman Comic was published by DC Comics, and later Batman Comic was well known as a Detective comic. Batman combined the best dozens great fictional heroes (and few villains). Batman Character is another ordinary guy that any of us could be if we dedicated our lives of being really smart, really athletics, and really scary. He had no super powers; he barely can’t even fly or see trough walls, he is not super fast and he has not magic ring. The only things he had are his gadgets and vehicles that even could never equal. In 1960s, Batman was adapted into a TV series.
James Bond
The Character Batman was played by Adam West. And later will be followed by
Batman Begins the Novel is a great example how a man tries to reveal his
true self by conquering his own fear. The character Bruce Wayne, an orphan who had to struggle alone in the cruel world and had to sacrifice many important things in his life to understand who he really is (try to actualize himself), by creating his other alter ego which later will be well known as Batman: the Dark Knight to conquer his fear. The struggle in finding his true self is the most important thing that will be discussed in this thesis. How he had conquered his own fear by becoming Batman will be the most interesting point to analyze in this thesis. Batman later on will be the most dominant character in Bruce Wayne life.
In this under graduate thesis, the writer is going to analyze the character of Bruce Wayne, the multi-billionaire which had split personalities or an alter ego which known as Batman. Batman Begins the Novel is the starting points of the history of the birth of the dark knight, Batman. Bruce Wayne’s true self identity is achieved through the development of his character in the novel. The writer decides to analyze Bruce Wayne’s character because the true self that he tried to obtain by conquering his fear is obtained through the experience of the journey that Bruce Wayne had in the novel. The writer only focuses in analyzing the main character Bruce Wayne. To gain better understanding of every person in relation with finding true self, the writer determines to apply the psychological approach in this study.
The writer chooses this thesis to understand the process of how an different time and situation because of that many individual are afraid to express who they really are. They fear with the consequences, because once one decided to choose he/she cannot take it back. The decision is final until the day we die. The character Bruce in the novel is good example of an individual who tried to find his true self, by conquering the his own fear and becoming what he think to be the most suitable life for him, by becoming Batman. The writer is really interested in learning about human life. How human struggling for what they will later find it to be the most precious thing in for the rest of the human itself.
B. Problem Formulation
In order to have a thorough analysis, this thesis will focus on the problems stated below:
1. What are the characteristics of Bruce Wayne in Batman Begins the Novel?
2. What is the fear undergone by Bruce Wayne character in Batman Begins the ?
Novel
3. How does Bruce Wayne in Batman Begins the Novel conquer his own fear to reveal his self identity?
C. Objectives of the Study
This thesis is intended to present a discussion of the emotion of the character in the novel, Bruce Wayne, who later will find the truth that the most The thesis is mainly to answer the problem formulations. Firstly, this study will try to find out Bruce Wayne’s characteristic in order to understand deeper about his views, his thought, and attitudes from his character. Secondly, this study will try to explain the fear undergone by Bruce Wayne, which is seen through the novel. Then, by using the first and second problem formulation and also the theories, which later will be explained further in chapter 2 the writer will try to reveal how Bruce Wayne’s true self identity is revealed.
D. Definitions of Terms
There are some terms which should be defined in analyzing Batman
Begins the Novel. These definitions of terms hopefully will help the readers to
have a better understanding of this study. They are:
1. Fear According to S. H. Bartley in Concise Encyclopedia of Psychology, fear is considered as one of the primary emotion along with joy, anger and grief. Fear itself is the emotion of avoidance of a consciously recognized, usually external, eminent danger. A state of arousal that results when, an individual recognizes a lack of power or capability to handle some threatening situation (1987:423).
2. Self identity Carl Roger’s theory about self identity in the book Theories of personality:
primary sources and research, One criticism uttered by psychologist of Roger’s conscious as a person who has been learnt a lot, person who has experience lot about life. It can be explained that a person who seeks out the mind in it is subterranean hideaways and behaviorism, and the consequences sometimes that the person itself will be forced to accept the third forces. In the other word, each man potentially is the world’s best expert on himself and has the best information about him. (1965:467)
In The Development of Human Behavior, Richard Dewey stated that achieving true self of identity is to understand how social behavior of an individual person can always entail a knowledge of the person plus the cultural and physical environment in relationship to which the personality is developed and with which it interacts at the time the behavior itself (1951:199)
CHAPTER II THEORETICAL REVIEW A. Review of Related Studies Reviews on the novel, Batman Begins the Novel, by Dennis O’Neill show
a discrepancy in many subjects. Many sources are giving more understanding about this work from different articles. The writer will summarize the ones that are significant to the writer’s thesis as stated into the following paragraph.
In the book The Ultimate Guide to the Dark Knight (updated version), Chuck Dixon said that “Batman origin was the stuff of classic literature, an orphan alone in cruel world that Dickens never dreamed up. The most self-made of all self-made men in popular culture (2005:6)” Batman is not only a comic book but can be seen as a classic literature, seeing from the history of what this comic achieved and gave to the society of America. explains that
of Encyclopedia of Pop Culture: Batman
Batman is one of the most popular and important characters created for comic books. In the entire pantheon of comic-book superheroes, only Superman and Spider-Man rival him in significance. Among the handful of comic-book characters who have transcended the market limitations of the comic-book medium, Batman has truly become an American cultural icon and an international marketing industry in and of himself. Batman is one of the few original comic-book characters to have generated more popular interest and revenue from exposure in media other than comic books. But Batman is first and foremost a product of comic books, and it is in this medium where he has been most influential. The whole multitude of costumed avengers driven to strike fear into the hearts of evil-doers owe
)
Because Batman is a symbol of both America's problems with violence and crime, and of American idealism, representing the dark side that lies in each and every person, Batman will likely always retain his place in popular culture.
According to Ed Leed, Batman Begins the Novel has been the best read of a movie tie-in for more in-depth coverage and material after the movie Batman
Begins is released. The novel has been enriched by lots of Ra's Al Ghul diary
notes and biography, more details about Bruce Wayne's homeless wandering years, and a long, extended Bruce Wayne search for research about Ra's Al Ghul (www. Amazon.com: Batman Begins (TM).html/exec/articles/novel/page_4).
Daniel R. Bills also said the fact that the Batman Begins the Novel is made truly for giving vivid picture of the author’s true feeling, true anger. He made the novel to show how great the great the story of Batman is. It is so perfect about how the adventure starts out for Bruce Wayne and ends up of how there is a world and a city with a hero like Batman. A great ending and a great author goes well together. It is a must to read to say the least. O’Neil proved that he knows how to capture the essence of the character, and convey desperation of a dire situation to the reader. (www. Amazon.com: Batman Begins (TM).html/exec/articles/novel/page_7) In , the hero is a lonely man who travels the earth
Batman Begins the Novel
to redeem his soul This novel tries to give a vivid picture of how a person can .
Batman created by Tim Burton and Joel Schumacher. It more closely follows the
darker psychological them . Batman
Begins the Novel explores the origins of the Batman legend and the Dark Knight's
emergence as a force for good in .B. Review of Related Theories
1. Theories of Character and Characterization
In Literature: Structure, Sound and Sense, Perrine explains that characters are classified into static and dynamic characters. Static characters are characters that change little in their outlook or personalities during the course of the story. They remain stable and are the same sort of persons at the end of the story as at the beginning. They are described without much detail and they are not changed by circumstances. Dynamic characters are characters that undergo changes in some aspects of their characters, personalities or outlook from the beginning to the end of the story. The change could be better or worse and may be a large or small one, but it is something important and basic, and more than a minor change in opinion (1974: 71). In the subject of type of characters, Mario Klarer in An
Introduction to Literary Studies states that generally characters can be rendered as
types or as individuals. A typified character in literature which only has one specific trait is referred as a flat character; character with more complex traits is known as a round character. In individualized character, both elements are used character has a specific individual. Both typified and individualized character will relate with the characterization of the character (2004: 17-18).
Klarer further explains that there are two modes of presentation: the explanatory characterization, or telling, to describe the characters through narrator; and dramatic characterization, or showing, to describe the characters without narrator or mediator, so that the readers will be able to perceive the acting as if witnessing a dramatic performance. The image of a person is shown solely through his or her utterances and actions without interfering commentary, so the objective perception, interpretation, and evaluation are in the hands of the readers. (2004: 18-19)
Another theory of characterization is presented by Murphy in his book,
Understanding Unseen: An Introduction to English Poetry and the English Novel
for Overseas Students. He claims that there can be nine ways to classify
characterization. They are:
a. Personal Description: The author provides the description explicitly in the work; b. Character as Seen by Another: The author describes the character’s characteristics through other character’s point of view; c. Speech: The author describes the characteristics of each character through the speech or what the person says; d. Past Life: The author gives the clue about someone’s characters through the e. Conversation of Others: Another clue that the author tries to convey the character to the reader is in the conversation by other characters. The person being spoken about by the author in a form of conversation given by other characters;
f. Reactions: Through the reactions of the person in a certain situation and events, the author tries to present the character to the reader; g. Direct Comment: The author gives the character of a person directly through the comment that written down on the book; h. Thoughts: Through the thoughts of a person, the author tries to give the reader direct knowledge;
I. Mannerism: The author can describe a person’s mannerisms, habits, idiosyncrasies that may also tell something about his character (1972: 161-171).
Meanwhile, stated in the book Fiction: An Introduction to Reading and
Writing by Roberts and Jacobs, there are four ways to present information about
characters as follows:
a. What the characters themselves say (and think, if the author expresses their thoughts). It is done by paying attention to their speeches; also considering whether those speeches show change or development;
b. What the characters do. It is done by observing the characters’ actions, then interpreting those actions as signs of characters; c. What other characters say about them. It is basically the same with analyzing through speeches, but the speeches are from other characters who talk about a d. What the author says about them, speaking as storyteller or observer. In a third- person point of view novel, the author gives extra information about the characters (1989: 147-148).
2. Theory of Fear
J.B. Watson, the behaviorist revolution announced his theory about fear
in the book the Psychology of Fear and Stress, fear is a curios feature in behaviors explained to be as a result always and only from the presentation of an independently denumerable list of stimulus. In other words, it was the job of describing such perfect stimulus and response relationships. Watson also invented this hypnotically states that
If we are to discover the way in which the brain is involved in fear, or the way in which fear can lead to learning of new behaviour or the disruption of existing behaviors, or the extent to which a person’s susceptibility to fear is a product either of his environment or of his heredity. If we do this most vital thing, then we will be able to estimate the degree of fear (1974:34).
J.B. Watson’s four general classifications of fear stimulation are:
1. Intensity Intensity is mode stimulations, which is very intense and capable of creating pains, example: tried to avoid intense sound, intense air blast, electric shock and etc.
2. Novelty Feeling insecure towards someone or something new, example; fears
3. Special Evolutionary Danger Fears towards something in a particular situations is explained to be specials and unusual, example when a particular situation is repeatedly responsible for the death of significantly large portion of the member of a species over a sufficiently large span of time
4. Social Interactions with Conspecifics As the result of more complex evolutions, involving the development of a mutual interactions form of behavior.
S. H. Burtley in Concise Encyclopedia of Psychology, explains that one of
the primary emotions along with joy, anger, and grief, fear is the emotion of avoidance of a consciously recognized, usually external and eminent to danger.
The confusion to fear is understandable, since fear represent a state of arousal that results when an individual recognizes a lack of power or capability to handle something threatening situation, and is a physiological states. Fear is physiological changes primarily induced by the biochemical arouser adrenalin.
Adrenalin are basically prepares the skeletal muscles or great strain as might occur in running to escape or in protecting self and property (1987:423). In a simplest way, Kelly in the book Theories of Personality: Sixth edition, explained that fear is psychology disturbances results when fear is persistently prevents a person from feeling secure. (2006:553)
3. Theory of Self Identity
Carl Rogers in the book Theories of Personality: Understanding Persons
says that Self identity is tempting to base our own evaluations toward simply ideas of whether we like or dislike the potential goodness and creativity of every human being (2004:434). Roger’s theories have major relevance for psychotherapy. Roger’s made several characteristic in his the self or self-concept theory (2004:417).
a. Individual Differences Individuals can be said to be different in their level of development and in the conditions they perceive must met to be approved by others.
b. Adaptation and Adjustment The progress towards adaptations and adjustment in the group of people or society will lead through stages of functioning, leading to greater openness to feelings, the present and choices.
c. Cognitive Process Thought and feeling of oneself may be impeded by accepting other messages about what should do.
d. Society Society has tendencies to help the self centered person to improve, including for the improvement of the society itself.
e. Biological Influences f. Child Development Children sometimes become the victim of the alienation of the growth forces within themselves if they are raised with conditions of worth.
g. Adult Development Through the experience of their life the self centered person can change in his adult hood, becoming freer.
According to Roger after experiencing the valuing process, the person will be self actualizing or “fully functioning” and will not lose the use of some human functions through the adverse socialization messages. Roger also made list of characteristic of a “fully functioning” person which can be interpreted as a sign of mental health (2004:420-421):
1.Openness to Experience The “fully functioning” person is open to experiences, receptive to the subjective and objective happenings of life. In this sense, one might describe such person as having an expanded consciousness.
2. Existential Living Person who is open to experience show that the person had a tendency to live fully in each moment, experiences changes will allow the real self to adapt, or possibly changed by the new experience and ill easily adapted to each moment of existential living.
3. Organismic Trusting Experience had made a person with organismic trust to rely on oneself inner experiences at each moment to guide the inner sense of what is right for him or her and will not depend to outside authorities to say what is right.
4. Experimental Freedom The “fully functioning” person experiences freedom in each moments oneself have right to choose what is important for himself. Oneself free to choose at least and attitude toward the experiences of life.
5. Creativity The “fully functioning” person lives creatively, he or she will find new of living at each moment of their live. They will be described as the best able adapt to new conditions.
In Introduction to Personality: Second edition, Roger explains that the theory of self emphasizes the uniquely experienced reality of the person. Behavior of one self is the immediate perceptual events as they actually experience by the individual. Because no one else –no matter how hard he/she tries, can completely assume another person “internal frames of references,” the person himself has the greatest potential for awareness of what reality is for him. In other words, each individual potentially is the world’s best expert on himself and has the best information about himself. The emphasis is on the person’s perceptions as the determinants of his own action, how one sees and interprets events determines perhaps the best conceptualized as a tendencies toward fulfillment, towards actualizations, toward the maintenance and enhancement of the organism”(1971:105) That is why the inherent tendency of the organism (human being) is to actualize oneself. Motivation then will not become a special construct, but finally became an overall characteristic of simply being alive. The human beings who in the courses of finding one true self will engage in a valuing process. The experiences that are perceived as enhancing it are valued positively and it influences one perception and behavior. A. H. Maslow explains in his book
Theories of Personality: Primary Sources and Research (1965:307-315) that
when human philosophy (his nature, his goals, his potentials, his fulfillments) changes then the philosophy of politics, of economics, of ethics and values, of interpersonal relation and of history change by itself. Maslow finds that now humans are in the middle of such change in the conceptions of man capacities, potentials, and goals. New vision has been emerged of the possibilities of man and of his destiny. Maslow concludes the theory of how to help men become what they can and deeply need to become.
Maslow based these investigations on healthy and creative people. He refuses the view of pessimistic, negative and limited conception of humans. By other experts and his other fellow colleagues, this theory is well-appreciated and is categorized into a branch of psychology called humanistic psychology, that is a kind that emphasizes growth and fulfillment, autonomy, choice and responsibility, optimistic and favorable view of human nature. They believe people are capable of changing into better ones. They state that self-actualization will be experienced by everyone, and it should happen, because people have tendency to actualize. Self-actualization will lead people to a better person, a better self, a more humane individual. A quotation from International Encyclopedia of Psychology:
Thus, according to Rogers, full humanness involves openness to experience of all kinds without distorting them. People thus open to experience will show a flexible, existential kind of living that allows change, adaptability, and a sense of flowing. These people trust their own internal feelings of what are right, and they use the self as their basis for and guide to behavior. (1996: 1485)
Rogers, Maslow, and most self-actualization theorists point out that self actualization is an important part of human life that ought to be achieved.
D. Theoretical Frameworks
In this thesis, the writer will use three theories, namely theory on character and characterization, theory of self actualization, and theory of human development. Then, the writer will use psychology review on character development. For the first theory, theory on character and characterization are used because the writer wants to analyze the main character’s characterization. Bruce Wayne is a dynamic character because he faces developing stages in his life. In the beginning, his character is described as a “lost child” but later he discovers his self-identity and finally who he really is. Then, theory on characterization will be applied by showing the direct and indirect ways by the he looks and how he speaks and indirect way by showing his action toward society.
The second theory is theory of fear. J.B. Watson made several criteria to show how someone suffers by fear. Bruce Wayne suffers a lot of fear since his childhood; he is on a journey to find his own identity. His past will be the based of his changes in finding his identity.
The third theory is theory of self identity. By using theory of Carl Roger, the writer wants to explain how the Bruce Wayne Character has freedom to self identify himself as the way he wants to be, then by using models and studies of learning process, the writer will show how the changes in the character development of Bruce Wayne.
In this review, it is proven that character is a figure of personality. Therefore, the term character is the same as personality. It is seen from psychology perspective because the personality has tight relationship with psychology. In studying personality, psychology method will be used.
CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY A. Object of the Study The literary work that is going to be discussed in this thesis is Dennis O’Neill’s Batman Begins the Novel. Batman Begins the Novel is an adaptation of
famous movie Batman Begins which tells about the finding self-identity as a man from an orphan whose parents are murdered in front of his eyes and this event has created some kind of self- traumatic, which later in the story the main character will be fear of crimes, dark, night and bats. The environment is very cruel, many corrupt cops and judges, crimes. The main character later tries to find his “identity”. Through the conflict within himself and society, he finds his true self identity. He believes that he is a man and he will be a new legend for himself and the community. is one of the best novels created by Dennis
Batman Begins the Novel
O’Neill which was first published in New York, 2005 by Ballantine Books. This novel itself contains 305 pages and is well-known to be the most best-seller adaptation novel after the movie tie-in in the same year.
Dennis O’Neill is well known for more than twenty years. Editor and writer Dennis O’Neil put the “dark” in the Dark Knight and was the guiding force behind the Batman mythos at DC Comics. O’Neil began his career as Stan Lee’s produced several novels and works of non-fiction, including the national bestseller
Batman: Knightfall and The DC Comics Guide to Writing Comics, as well as
hundreds of comic books, reviews, teleplays, and short stories. O’Neil wrote almost all of DC’s and Marvel’s major titles, including Green Lantern, Shazam!, Spider-Man, Superman, Wonder Woman, Iron Man, Daredevil, Justice League of America, and Azrael. As an expert on comics, pop culture, and folklore/mythology, O’Neil is a popular guest at conventions and on radio and television. He lives and works in New York with his wife, Marifran
The story is about Young Bruce Wayne in search of his destiny. The heir of Wayne Empire is disappeared seven years ago, his vast fortune has been given away, and the crime began with the brutal murder of his parents and he started to feel living in the hell in Gotham city. The last holds out against corruption are outnumbered. The other side of the world in a dark Himalayan prison, a nameless, hardened man fights everyday to survive, he spent seven years scouring the globe, studying criminal mind looking for an answered to the ugly riddle (his fear) of his childhood. Here, in the darkest place of his own anger, Bruce Wayne will discover his destiny and an ordinary man will become a legend.
The thesis focuses more on the development of Bruce Wayne’s character because the writer intends to analyze how someone’s personalities can be changed from time through time, after long journey in finding the truth about one self and the most interesting points is how can own fear can be used as weapon in
B. Approach of the Study
Since this study focuses more on the development character of Bruce Wayne which is influenced by family, environment, and his dark past, therefore, the psychological approach will be applied. According to Rohrberger and Woods in their book Reading and Writing about Literature, psychological approach is an approach to literature, which “involves the effort to look at and demonstrate certain recurrent patterns”, and which refers to a different body of knowledge, that is psychology (1997: 13-15). It is applied when the attention is focused on psychological interpretation for enhancing the understanding and appreciation of literature. In applying this approach, psychological theories are generally used as the interpretive tools. Further, they say that psychology is a study of man’s life together with his mind and behavior
It is also said by Guerin in his book A Handbook of Critical Approaches to
Literature, that psychological approach is an excellent role for “reading beneath
the lines”. It is the most commonly used as interpretive tool by modern critics and shown by examples how the readers may apply this mode interpretation to enhance their understanding and appreciation of literature (1979: 12).