REPRESSION AND DISPLACEMENT OF MAIN CHARACTER IN
ELIZABETH GILBERT’S NOVEL EAT PRAYLOVE
(A PSYCHOLOGICAL ANALYSIS)
A THESIS
Submitted to Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the Degree of SarjanaSastra
By:
OCTHAVIANI
Registration Number 2103220034
ENGLISH AND LITERATURE DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGES AND ARTS
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
First and foremost the writer would like to express her great thankfulness to The Almighty God, Jesus Christ, for the loves, blessing, strength, and guidance which have been given to the writer during the completion of this thesis. This thesis has been written to fulfill the requirement for the degree of SarjanaSastra (S-1) at the English Department, Faculty of Languages and Arts, State University of Medan.
This thesis would not have been possible without the guidance and the help of several individuals who always contributed and extended their valuable assistances in the preparation and completion of this thesis. The writer’s special appreciation goes to:
Prof. Dr. IbnuHajarDamanik, M.Si., the Rector of State University of Medan.
Dr. Isda Pramuniati, M.Hum., the Dean of Faculty of Languages and Arts state University of Medan and to all her staffs.
Prof. Dr. Hj. Sumarsih, M.Pd., the Head of English Department, Rika, S.Pd., M.Hum., the Secretary of English Department, Dra. Meisuri, M.A.,
the Head of Non-Educational English Program, and Dra. Masitowarni
Siregar, M.Ed., the Head of Educational English Program and her Academic Counselor, thanks for their administrative help during the writer’s study in English Department State University of Medan.
Drs. Muhammad Natsir, M.Hum, the writer’s Thesis Supervisor who always gave the encouragement, constant support, constructive comments, and suggestion to the writer in finishing this thesis.
All lectures of English Department especially for my beloved lecturer
Winda Setiasari, S.S., M.Hum., who have lead, enlightened, encouraged, and given insightful comments during writing of this thesis.
The writer’s family, her beloved Dad, Mr. Firmawan Tinambunan and
Mom, Mrs. Tiomian Lumban Gaol (+), thank you for your love, patience,
financial supports and prayers. To her beloved sister, Mrs. Beta
RinaTinambunan, her nieces, Andini Angelica, Rizkia Najua, Indri Vanesha and her nephew, Raja Fajar Dermawan thank you for supporting the writer.
The writer’s best friends, Sumarni Parapat, Vivien R Banurea, Yanti
Joseva Munte, Ripka Banjarnahor, Risna Situmorang, Elniscaya Hulu,
Kidu Girsang, Indah Julia Fitri, Dwi Rizki Nurkusuma, Siti Hujaifah
Tanjung, Sri Ayu, Nanda Chairunisah, Riris Desnia, Dewi Sartika,
Nursani Oktora, Dwi Astarini, Eko Iffery, Ulan Tri Lestari, and
especially Belfric Herianto Siagian for the friendship, love, helps, laughter,
and for all the sweet memories we shared. She loves them all the way and will never forget them.
The writer’s colleague’s friends Applied Linguistics A and B 2010
especially for her comrades; Sumarni Parapat, Yanti Joseva Munte,
Vivien R Banurea, Ripka Banjarnahor thank you for the love, having special time, chit-chatting, having stupid laughs and tears, and supporting each other for this past 3 years.
The people who direct or indirectly contributed in this research, your
kindness means a lot to her. Thank you very much. May God bless you all!
Medan, April 2014
The Writer,
i
ii
E. Psychoanalysis ... 15
1. Defense Mechanism ... 16
a. Repression ... 17
b. Displacement ... 18
F. Biography of Elizabeth Gilbert ... 18
G. Brief Summary of Eat, Pray, Love... 19
CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHOD ... 21
A. Research Design ... 21
B. The Source of Data ... 21
C. The Technique for Collecting Data... 21
D. The Technique for Analyzing Data... 22
CHAPTER IV DATA AND DATA ANALYSIS ... 23
A. Repression and Displacement of the Main Character ... 23
1. The Causing of Repression ... 23
a. Self Identity Crisis ... 23
b. Marriage Conflict ... 27
2. Displacement of the Main Character ... 30
a. Disorder Eating Habit ... 30
b. Converting New Orientation of Spiritual Life ... 33
c. Losing Faith about Marriage ... 35
CHAPTER V CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION ... 37
A. Conclusion ... 37
B. Suggestion ... 38
REFERENCES ... 39
1
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. The Background of the Study
Talking about literature is basically talking about life. Literature has
played an important part in human life. Literature is part of language usage of
human artwork, literature combine human thought, ideas and experience and
creates a new map of experience which closely used to communicate and
elaborate human social life. Furthermore, it represents life in measure a social
reality, even though natural world and inner of subjective world of individual also
has been the subject of literary imitation.
In general, literature is divided into three parts namely prose, poetry, and
drama. As Dongoran (2000: 1) states that poetry is extra ordinary because it’s
precious, polish, and the way in which it charges words with force and suggestion.
Drama or play is different from other literary works. Drama is treated as literature
to be read privately, or as the other, to be seen in public performance. While prose
is the expression in a direct style, in other words we can say straight forward
speech.
Prose can be divided into some parts; they are novel, short story, novella
and romance, etc. Novel is an invented prose narrative and a certain complexity
deals with imaginative of human experience. A short-story is a piece of prose
fiction marked by relative shortness and density. A novella is a written, fictional,
prose narrative normally longer than a short story but shorter than a novel. A
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or relates improbable adventures of idealized characters in some
remote or enchanted setting.
Human faces many conflicts in their daily life, whether external conflict or
even internal conflict. Internal conflict is the conflict that comes from the human
itself while external conflict is the conflict that comes from out of human itself.
Such phenomenon is universal as the context can happen wherever the place,
whenever the time, and to whoever the people.
In ways to release their problem, human usually do verbal language for
instance sharing their experience/problem to the other people, writing it into diary,
poem, short story and novel. Besides using verbal language, they also doing
nonverbal language (doing action) for instance looking for better something or
someone that can make them feeling safety and happy.
There are few studies also support the research on repression and
displacement like Leslie Morrison in his journal “Coping and Defense
Mechanisms of Mothers learning Disabled Children” (1986) and the result of his
research is the analysis of the children’s problem in studying and mothers’ use of
coping mechanism when involved with medical, social and educational agencies.
And then Joseph Burgo in his journal “Why Do I Do That?: Psychological
Defense Mechanisms and the Hidden Ways They Shape Our Lives” (2012) and
the result of his research is a depressed college freshman faces many conflicts and
then he did psychotherapy with an esteem doctor he credits with helping him to
develop distinct “views of human nature and what drive us” which enabled him to
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happiness. And Gurwara Simmi in his journal “Inter Personal and Intra Psychic
Defense Mechanisms: Anita Desai’s Fire on the Mountain” (2011) and the result
of his research is his analysis is to try to cope with their basic anxiety by adopting
a complaint or self-effacing solution and moving toward people, by adopting an
aggressive or expansive solution and moving against people, or by becoming
detached or resigned and moving away from people.
Character is a person used by the author to carry the action, language,
ideas, and emotion of the story. Character can be divided into two types; they are
main character and minor character. Main character is the central figures in a
novel if one the main characters play the rules for more than others do, he is
called the focus of the story or the protagonist. The second is minor character. The
minor character is the character of less important than those of the main.
To recover from all these conflicts, human using defense mechanism
which is a part of psychoanalysis. According to Freud (1969: 11) psychoanalysis
is a scientific discipline which was begun sixty years ago; it’s a body of
hypotheses concerning mental functioning and development in a man. Freud
(1974: 585) also states that a defense mechanism in which a drive or feeling is
shifted to a substitute object, one that psychologically more available. For
example: when someone felt depression because of failure in love, he will be
shifted to a substitute objects perhaps into a better person.
To discover the conflict, human often gets in repression and displacement
as the elements of defense mechanism. According to Freud which is quoted by
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experience of anxiety. As the result of repression, the person is not aware of
his/her own anxiety-producing impulses or does not remember deeply emotional
and traumatic past events. While displacement is a defense mechanism in which a
drive or feeling is shifted to a substitute object, one that psychologically more
available. For example, aggressive impulses may be displaced, as in scapegoating,
upon people (or inanimate objects) who are not sources of frustration but safer to
attack.
The human conflicts not only appear in daily life, but it is also reflected to
the literary work especially in novel. A novel is a piece of literary work provides
not only an interesting narrative featuring philosophical value and moral teaching
but also a lesson about various aspects of life. Kennedy (1974: 43) says that a
novel is a book, length story in prose, whose author tries to create the sense that
while we read, we experience actual life. A novel is often used as an object of
study, one of the novels is Eat, Pray, Love. Gilbert as the main character in the
novel faces many conflicts in her life especially related to her psychology conflict.
She had everything, a husband, a house, a successful career. But instead of feeling
happy and fulfilled, she was consumed with panic, grief, and confusion. She went
through a divorce, a crushing depression, another failed love, and the eradication
of everything she ever thought she was supposed to be. This is the repression.
To recover the problems, Gilbert took a radical step in order to give her
the time and space to find out who she really was and what she really wanted. Her
5
an elderly medicine man and also fell in love the best way. And this is the
displacement.
There are some reasons to choose Elizabeth Gilbert’s novel “Eat, Pray,
Love” by considering some points: firstly, Eat, Pray, Love is like a modern novel
because its technique involves an emphasis on the devices of storytelling as well
as on the telling of the story. Secondly, because it has a great adventure story and
has a spiritual lesson, it educates how to discover problems in our life, how to go
out from the problem and displace to another better thing. Third, this novel is very
famous and interesting to read because it is one of the best seller and it has been
reflected to a movie. So that is why the writer comes up with the topic
“Repression and Displacement of Main character in Elizabeth Gilbert’s Novel
Eat, Pray, Love.
B. The Problem of the Study
In the novel “Eat, Pray, Love” written by Elizabeth Gilbert, the writer
would like to analyze the repression and displacement that is the element of
defense mechanism which is represented by the main character. Thus, the problem
of the study can be stated as:
1. What are the reasons for the main character’s repressions?
2. What are the displacements that happened to the main character?
C. The Scope of the Study
There are many kinds of defense mechanism by Freud. They are
repression, sublimation, projection, displacement, rationalization, reaction
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this study, the writer just focused to reveal two mechanisms; repression and
displacement to analyze the main character.
D. The Objective of the Study
Repression is a condition when the characters get some conflicts in their
life. They try to do displacement by going out from the conflicts to get better life.
Thus, the objective of this research is:
1. to find out the reasons for the main character’s repressions.
2. to find out the displacements that happened to the main character.
E. The Significant of the Study
It is very interesting and challenging to discuss repression and
displacement that often happen to human life. While human repressed by the
some conflicts in their life, they will try to displace to something better. In this
case, the research findings is expected to the English teachers, the investigation on
the novel will add the knowledge of literary work, the students, it would provide
better and clearer understanding on the element of a novel and for the students
who are interested in studying literary works. It is of course will be very useful for
them in enriching their knowledge and increasing their language proficiency, and
the readers of literature, they can get some moral teaching through the novel. It
can also help the readers know and understand that human conflict can be a
serious problem that may always influence somebody in his life. It does not matter
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CHAPTER V
CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION
A. Conclusion
Having analyzed the repressions and displacements of the main character
in Eat, Pray, Love novel by Elizabeth Gilbert, this novel clearly reflected the
causing of repressions and the displacements that occurred to Liz as the main
character in the novel. The points can be concluded as follows:
1. The reasons for Liz’s repression cover two important factors. They are
self identity crisis (Liz’s disability to recognize herself, Liz’s
disorientation to recognize God, and Liz’s lasted over in anxiety. And the
second factor is marriage conflict (Liz’s unavailability for having a baby
and Liz’s disability to love and understand her husband).
2. The displacements that happened to Liz after facing repressions were
triggered into three forms. They are disorder eating habit, converting new
orientation of spiritual life and losing faith about marriage or having sex
without marriage.
From the answers of the two problems above, it can be concluded that Liz
valued that life is a choice; Liz could not be able to fulfill her responsibility as a
wife for having a baby as a risk of a married woman and Liz could not be able to
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B. Suggestion
Based on the conclusion above, there are some suggestions needed to be
considered. They are:
1. It is suggested to other students to make more comprehensive and deeper
analysis about character.
2. It is suggested to other students who are interested in psychological
