vii ABSTRACT
WIBISONO, MIKAEL ARI, Defense Mechanism Adopted by the Protagonists Against the Terror of Death in K.A Applegate’s Animorphs. Yogyakarta: Department of English Letters, Sanata Dharma University, 2016.
Death is something that every living thing in this world cannot avoid. Sooner or later death will come and claim the living things’ life. When someone is forced to face death (or in other word face the terror of death) it will create a reaction inside that person’s mind related to the death which he or she faces. Usually the reaction caused by such even is fear. Fear can be one of things that affects one’s psychological condition.
This study has three objectives. First, this study describes the characteristic of the protagonists in Animorphs. Second, after describing the protagonists and understand their characteristics, this study wants to analyze the kind of terrors which are faced by the protagonist. Third, after understanding the terror and the character’s reaction towards it, this study wants to analyze the kind of defense mechanism that they use, and how they apply it in their daily life
This study used library research methods. First the writer read the main source of the study which is all of the Animorphsnovels. Second the writer selected thirteen books and conducted close reading on them. Third the writer then studied from books, journals, and studies which has a relation with the problem on the novel. Finally the writer analyzed the relation between the studies/theories and the novel. The primary source of this study is K.A Applegate’s Animorph, while the secondary sources are books and journals about psychology, terror, and defense mechanism. The approach used in this study is psychological approach, because this study wants to analyze the psychological condition of the protagonists.
viii ABSTRAK
WIBISONO, MIKAEL ARI, Defense Mechanism Adopted by the Protagonists Against the Terror of Death in K.A Applegate’s Animorphs. Yogyakarta: FakultasSastraInggris, UniversitasSanata Dharma, 2016.
Kematian adalah hal yang tidak bisa dihindari oleh semua mahkluk hidup di bumi, cepat atau lambat seseorang akan mengakhiri hidupnya atau dengan kata lain mengalami kematian. Ketika seseorang dipaksa untuk menghadapi kematian, sebuah reaksi akan muncul di pikiran orang tersebut yang disebabkan oleh bahaya kematian. Reaksi yang biasanya muncul akibat menghadapi kematian adalah rasa takut. Rasa takut adalah salah satu hal yang memiliki pengaruh besar pada kondisi psikologis manusia.
Penelitian ini memiliki tiga objektif. Pertama penelitian ini membahas karakteristik dari para protagonis novel Animorphs. Kedua, setelah mengetahui karakteristik para protagonis, penelitian ini membahas teror yang dihadapi oleh para protagonis. Ketiga, penelitian ini membahas mekanisme pertahanan ego yang digunakan oleh para protagonis untuk melawan teror tersebut
Penelitian ini menggunakan metode kajian pustaka, langkah pertama yang diambil oleh peneliti adalah membaca kelima puluh empat novel Animorphs yang merupakan sumber utama dari penelitian ini. Langkah yang kedua, peneliti memilih enam belas buku dari lima puluh empat buku untuk dianalisa lebih mendalam. Langkah yang ketiga, peneliti menyaring dan menganalisa buku, jurnal, dan penelitian yang berhubungan dengan penelitian ini. Langkahterakhir, peneliti menganalisa hubungan antara permasalahan yang diajukan dengan teori dan penelitian yang ada di buku dan jurnal. Sumber utama dari penelitian ini adalah novel Animorphs karangan K.A Applegate. Sumber sekundernya terdiri dari berbagai buku dan jurnal yang berkaitan dengan psikologi, terror, dan
mekanisme pertahanan ego. Pendekatan yang digunakan oleh penelitian ini adalah pendekatan psikologis. Karena penelitian ini menganalisa kondisi psikologis dari para protagonis.
Masalah yang dihadapi oleh para protagonist dari novel Animorphs adalah terancamnya hidup mereka karena invasi dari Yeerks. Penelitian ini
menyimpulkan bahwa para protagonis menggunakan mekanisme pertahanan ego berdasarkan sifat dan karakteristik mereka. Jake yang dianggap paling dewasa dan bertanggung jawab menggunakan mekanisme yang disebut anticipation
ANIMORPHS
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirementsfor the Degree of Sarjana Sastra in English Letters
By
MIKAEL ARI WIBISONO Student Number: 124214015
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAM DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
ii
ANIMORPHS
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirementsfor the Degree of Sarjana Sastra in English Letters
By
MIKAEL ARI WIBISONO Student Number: 124214015
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAM DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
vii
THE MORE YOU
KNOW
viii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First of all, I would like to express my gratitude to Jesus Christ, for the
protection and blessing given to me. He protected me from harm, ensuring that
nothing will harm me in writing this thesis.
I also would like to express my gratitude to Drs. HirmawanWijanarka,
M.Hum, my thesis advisor who has guided me in writing this thesis. He patiently
notified me about mistakes which I made repeatedly, until I fix those mistakes. He
also told me about various things which helped me in writing this thesis, from
how to write this thesis in proper format to trivial things which I still considered
as important and helpful. I will not forget to give my gratitude to Mrs. Elisa
DwiWardani, S.S., M.Hum for her willingness to become my thesis co-advisor.
She has helped me in correcting several additional mistakes which I made in
writing this thesis.
My gratitude also goes to my parents and brothers whom I love so much.
They often remind me to write my thesis. They often scolded me if I did not write
my thesis. They expressed their love toward me through their scolding because I
believe that they want me to graduate as soon as possible, after that I am able to
fully struggle with the next stage of my life.
I also would like to thank my friends who have accompanied me in writing
this thesis, Cicilia Dwi Saputri, Putri Ekarini, Theresia Anggraini, Bambang
Listyanto, Yoseph Odipus, and Yakobus Joko. They have given me motivation,
encouragement to quickly finish this thesis. I would like to give special gratitude
ix
thesis. She patiently guided me in writing this thesis in the proper format.
Somehow I believe that if they did not often invite me to write thesis together, it
would be hard for me to build enough motivation to finish my thesis.
I also would like to say thank you to people who have provided a place for
me to write my thesis, the Library of Sanata Dharma University, LUK café, Smart
Lounge and Mini Library at Lippo Mall, and KFC joint at Merbabu Hotel. The
x
CHAPTER II: REVIEW OF LITERATURE………..6
A. Review of Related Studies………6
xi
ABSTRACT
WIBISONO, MIKAEL ARI, Defense Mechanism Adopted by the Protagonists Against the Terror of Death in K.A Applegate’s Animorphs. Yogyakarta: Department of English Letters, Sanata Dharma University, 2016.
Death is something that every living thing in this world cannot avoid. Sooner or later death will come and claim the living things’ life. When someone is forced to face death (or in other word face the terror of death) it will create a reaction inside that person’s mind related to the death which he or she faces. Usually the reaction caused by such even is fear. Fear can be one of things that affects one’s psychological condition.
This study has three objectives. First, this study describes the characteristic of the protagonists in Animorphs. Second, after describing the protagonists and understand their characteristics, this study wants to analyze the kind of terrors which are faced by the protagonist. Third, after understanding the terror and the character’s reaction towards it, this study wants to analyze the kind of defense mechanism that they use, and how they apply it in their daily life
This study used library research methods. First the writer read the main source of the study which is all of the Animorphsnovels. Second the writer selected thirteen books and conducted close reading on them. Third the writer then studied from books, journals, and studies which has a relation with the problem on the novel. Finally the writer analyzed the relation between the studies/theories and the novel. The primary source of this study is K.A Applegate’s Animorph, while the secondary sources are books and journals about psychology, terror, and defense mechanism. The approach used in this study is psychological approach, because this study wants to analyze the psychological condition of the protagonists.
xii
ABSTRAK
WIBISONO, MIKAEL ARI, Defense Mechanism Adopted by the Protagonists Against the Terror of Death in K.A Applegate’s Animorphs. Yogyakarta: FakultasSastraInggris, UniversitasSanata Dharma, 2016.
Kematian adalah hal yang tidak bisa dihindari oleh semua mahkluk hidup di bumi, cepat atau lambat seseorang akan mengakhiri hidupnya atau dengan kata lain mengalami kematian. Ketika seseorang dipaksa untuk menghadapi kematian, sebuah reaksi akan muncul di pikiran orang tersebut yang disebabkan oleh bahaya kematian. Reaksi yang biasanya muncul akibat menghadapi kematian adalah rasa takut. Rasa takut adalah salah satu hal yang memiliki pengaruh besar pada kondisi psikologis manusia.
Penelitian ini memiliki tiga objektif. Pertama penelitian ini membahas karakteristik dari para protagonis novel Animorphs. Kedua, setelah mengetahui karakteristik para protagonis, penelitian ini membahas teror yang dihadapi oleh para protagonis. Ketiga, penelitian ini membahas mekanisme pertahanan ego yang digunakan oleh para protagonis untuk melawan teror tersebut
Penelitian ini menggunakan metode kajian pustaka, langkah pertama yang diambil oleh peneliti adalah membaca kelima puluh empat novel Animorphs yang merupakan sumber utama dari penelitian ini. Langkah yang kedua, peneliti memilih enam belas buku dari lima puluh empat buku untuk dianalisa lebih mendalam. Langkah yang ketiga, peneliti menyaring dan menganalisa buku, jurnal, dan penelitian yang berhubungan dengan penelitian ini. Langkahterakhir, peneliti menganalisa hubungan antara permasalahan yang diajukan dengan teori dan penelitian yang ada di buku dan jurnal. Sumber utama dari penelitian ini adalah novel Animorphs karangan K.A Applegate. Sumber sekundernya terdiri dari berbagai buku dan jurnal yang berkaitan dengan psikologi, terror, dan
mekanisme pertahanan ego. Pendekatan yang digunakan oleh penelitian ini adalah pendekatan psikologis. Karena penelitian ini menganalisa kondisi psikologis dari para protagonis.
Masalah yang dihadapi oleh para protagonist dari novel Animorphs adalah terancamnya hidup mereka karena invasi dari Yeerks. Penelitian ini
menyimpulkan bahwa para protagonis menggunakan mekanisme pertahanan ego berdasarkan sifat dan karakteristik mereka. Jake yang dianggap paling dewasa dan bertanggung jawab menggunakan mekanisme yang disebut anticipation
1 CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. Background of the Study
Every living thing in this world will eventually die; we do not know when
we will experience it. We usually never care about it in our life because our daily
life runs as normal as usual. But what if our life is terrorized by death or in other
words we are faced with a situation which could endanger our life.
The impact of being under the terror of death may change people’s
personality completely, for example, it may change a person with happy go lucky
attitude into someone with a gloomy mood. In worst case it may also cause
someone to lose their sanity. The impact also may disturb people’s social life, for
example the fear makes them depressed and scared enough as the result it will be
hard for people to socialize with others. In K.A Applegate’s Animorphs, The protagonists of the books face this kind of situation; their life is terrorized by an
alien race known as Yeerks. The protagonists have to risk their life multiple times
to protect themselves and planet earth from the Yeerks’ secret invasion.
Fear can be one thing that affects one’s psychological condition the most;
every person in this world has different reaction toward fear. Some people may
not show any reaction of fear whenever they were facing certain terror which
tough in front of other people while in fact they were scared inside. People like
this usually want to show other people that he or she is fearless, and ready to face
anything, sometimes people like this also want to be a role model for the people
around him/her so that they too can be as fearless as he/she is. There are also
people who like to run from the trouble. They tend to deny the fact which is
happening in front of them. They pretend that nothing happen, they are trying to
believe that everything is fine, but inside their heart they know that the terror is
exist and it is unavoidable.
Self-esteem, it is argued, safeguards people against the ill effects stemming from many of life's problems. This premise assumes that people with high self-esteem, in contrast to those with low self-esteem, will behave in more socially acceptable and responsible ways, will somehow be more resilient to life's vicissitudes, will generally display higher achievement in conventional pursuits, and will ultimately possess greater socio emotional well-being (Burns, 1979; Covington, 1992)
Both Burns and Covington believes that self-esteem development is really
important, as they believe that it will help protecting our mind from any kind of
terror towards it and it will make it easier for us to think of a solution to overcome
the terror.
Self esteem itself is more like our confidence toward our self; this
confidence is the one which is usually used by human to show their courage.
People who have lots of self esteem are usually more courageous or confident in
facing almost any kind of situation than people who have less self esteem. People
with low self esteem will more likely be shaken or confused whenever they were
It is interesting to analyze how people react toward something which
terrorizes their mind. The different reaction shown by people is usually caused
because of their natural personality. For example, people who naturally have a
brave and courageous personality usually react against such condition nearly
without showing any fear in front of people, but that’s not always the case because
sometimes there are also people who response to terror by clearly showing their
fear even though naturally they have a brave and courageous personality.
It seems that the level of terror also affect how people react towards it, the
bigger the terror the more it affect people’s mind. For some if not most people,
terror of death is the biggest terror of their life. Whenever they are facing this
terror they cannot control their fear and thus it greatly affects their daily life.
B. Problem formulation
Based on the background of the study mentioned above, this study will
analyze these three problems
1. How the protagonists’ characteristics are described in the story?
2. What are the terrors faced by the protagonists and their impact to the
protagonists?
3. What kind of defense mechanisms are utilized by the protagonists based on
C. Objectives of the Study
The objective of this study is divided into three parts. First this study
wants to analyze how the protagonists are described in the novel. As stated in the
title, in which this study wants to analyze how the protagonists react to certain
terror, it is important to understand how the protagonists are described in the
novel. The first problem focuses on describing their characteristic, how they
interact with other people.
Second, after describing the protagonists and understand their characters,
this study wants to analyze what kind of terrors which are faced by the
protagonist. This study also explains how those terrors are able to strike the
protagonist both physically and mentally
Third, after understanding the terror and the character’s reaction towards
it, this study wants to analyze what kind of defense mechanisms which are utilized
by the protagonists to help themselves coping against anything which is caused by
the terror.
D. Definition and Terms
The word terror mentioned on the title is something which causes very
strong feeling of fear (Merriam Webster, 2015)
Defense mechanism is psychic procedures for avoiding painful admissions
5
CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
A. Review of Related studies
Therese Holm (2001) studied about the use of language in several
children’s book, which among them is Animorphs. According to Holm, the
language in Animorphs is somewhat cliché-filled and flat, she is referring to the
use of repetitive expression or passages that seems to be bit turgid in front of adult
reader. For example: “He just looked at me with those deep, troubled eyes –eyes I
can now see only in my memory” (Animorphs 1999: 56).
This style of writing is usually brushed off by adult reader. They consider
it as badly written. Yet for those who usually cares about the plot of the book
rather than the writing style prefer this kind of writing style because it made it
easier for them to read.
Roger D. Sell (2002) compared Animorphs with the famous children show
known as Power Rangers, both media has two similarities. First, the main plots of
both stories are about five teenagers who are given a special power to protect their
planet from evil.
Second, the unification of the group (from both media) somehow erase the
individuality from each person. They become more care to each other more than
they care about their own wellbeing. Roger symbolizes this as the need of erasing
individuality for the sake of a greater good (in Animorphs the greater good refer to
Roger symbolizes the protagonists’ ability to morph into any creature that
they touched as children’s metamorphosis into adult hood. When they leave their
human body to morph into animal form, they leave their normal human mind and
body into something new, something which they never know before, something
which sometimes are dangerous for them. for the sake of saving other people, it is
similar to children who has to leave their childish personality in order to find
something better and new for their development.
He also stated that the protagonists’ ability to morph can also be viewed
from negative perspective, from this perspective the morph can be symbolized as
people who want to cast away their identity, or people who try to throw away their
old identity because they feel more comfortable in their new identity.
Dr Edwin Bakker and Dr Beatrice De Graaf study that something like
terrorist attack or terrorist threats can cause a shock to some people. They will be
terrorized or traumatized by those events that may disrupt people’s psychological
condition.
Terrorist attacks, and even terrorist threats, can be considered traumatic
events. Such events are defined in the “Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders IV” as an event in which the person experienced,
witnessed, or was confronted with an event or events that involved actual or threatened death or serious injury, or a threat to physical integrity of self of others (Edwin Baker, 2014:5).
According to them, the differences of fear shown by people whenever they
were experiencing this event were not caused by the level of the terror. The
difference is caused by the perception, imagination and vulnerability of targeted
audiences or otherwise involved parties. In other words each people have different
Fear should not be considered merely as a negative reaction to threats and attacks. In fact, fear of danger is a very natural and useful emotion. Fear is a survival mechanism. Fear of terrorism can encourage people to take the necessary precautions and actions (Edwin Baker, 2014: 2).”
They also believe that fear does not always bring negative effect, people
can use that fear as stepping stone so that they can overcome that situation. This is
related with the previous statement that each person have different reaction of
fear, it is up to them to manage their own fear. They can let the fear consume their
mind, or they will try to overcome those fear.
“Recall the valence prediction that fearful and angry individuals will make
risk-averse choices across gain and loss frames when compared with individuals who are low in dispositional fear and anger. The appraisal-tendency approach generates the same prediction for fearful individuals. However, it differs for angry individuals, predicting that they will make risk-seeking choices across frames.”(Lerner, 2001: 3-4).
Jenifer S Lerner and Dacher Keltner analyze about the result of human’s
fear and anger. They study that human’s fear may cause severe result to
themselves or even to everyone around them. The result is caused by people’s
behavior when they were affected by strong emotion like fear and anger.
In the end, what makes this study different from the previously mentioned
studies is that this study explores the relation between the protagonists’
characteristics with their mental condition. This study also focuses on analyzing
how the protagonists of Animorphs utilize certain defense mechanism to cope
against the terror. This study also analyzes the development of the protagonist
caused by the terror, how the terrors mold the protagonist into a different kind of
B. Review of related Theories 1. Terror Management Theories
Because this thesis explores someone’s reaction whenever they face
something which terrorize their mind, this thesis adopts terror management
theory.
Terror management theory is a theory which revolves around the
management of self esteem to control psychological conflict which is caused by
facing the terror of death. This theory is proposed by Seldon Solomon, Jeff
Greenberg, and Tom Pyszczynski
Self-esteem is sought because it provides protection against the fear of death, the fear of death is rooted in an instinct for self-preservation that humans share with other species. Although we share this instinct with other species, only we are aware that death is inevitable--that is, that our self preservation instinct will inevitably be thwarted.
(Greenberg, Pyszczynski, & Solomon, 1986: 1).
This theory seems to assume that self esteem management is important in
coping against fear. Self Esteem can provide protection to one’s mind because it
will reduce the thought of fear as long as people can manage their self esteem
really well. terror management theory, increased self-esteem
According to terror management theory, increased self esteem should enhance the functioning of the cultural anxiety buffer and thereby provide protection against death concerns. In effect, high self-esteem should reduce the effects of MS on worldview defense.
(Greenberg, Pyszczynski, & Solomon, 1986: 6)
People who have more self esteem is believed by this theory to be able to
control their behavior and fear in front of other people whenever they were facing
Mruk (1999) also agreed that self esteem is an important factor in
defending our mind from threatening factor. Mruk believed that people with high
self esteem will be able to develop a better control toward threatening thought.
a People with either dispositionaly high or experimentally enhanced self-esteem exhibit less anxiety and anxiety-related defense in response to threatening stimuli. High self esteem has also been shown to decrease defensive responses to thoughts of death.
(Harmon-Jones, 1997)
On the other hand, according to Mruk (1999) the mind of people with low
self esteem will more likely be affected when they are experiencing threatening
stimuli that could affect their mind. Their emotion will be susceptible to various
negative effect because the lack of self esteem.
People with lower trait self-esteem tend to experience virtually every aversive emotion more frequently than people with higher self-esteem. Trait self-esteem correlates negatively with scores on measures of anxiety, sadness, depression, hostility, anger, social anxiety, shame, guilt,
loneliness, as well as general negative affectivity and neuroticism. (Mruk, 1999)
In summary terror management theory believes that it is important for
people to manage their self esteem really well. Because if they want to have better
control toward threatening thought, increasing their self esteem is useful to
maintaining their control toward their mind/emotion. The more self esteem people
have, the more they can control their emotion toward threatening stimuli. On the
other hand, people with low self esteem will more likely be unable to control their
2. Theory of Characterization
In fiction especially in Novel, characters or casts always exist inside of it.
In a novel character is the one responsible for what happen in the story, they are
the actor who is involved with what happen in the story.
Thus in every novel there is a term known as Characterization.It is how the
character in the story are described, their appearance, personality, and how they
interact with the plot. Minderop (2005) stated that in novel there are two methods
that are usually used to characterizing the character inside the novel, they are:
a. Direct method
Direct method characterization is done by the writer itself. The writer,
without the use of any character inside the novel explicitly mentioned the
characteristic of the character inside the novel.
b. Indirect method
Indirect method characterization is usually done by ignoring the existence
of the writer. The characterization is done through the characters inside the novel
itself. Usually one character will describe the characteristic of another character.
Minderop (2005:) stated that characterization in a novel involves six things;
i. Through the dialogue or conversation between each characters
From the conversation between character we may gain information about
their conversation person A discuss about Person C, in it he describes who is
person C, his characteristic, his personality, how person C interact with each
other. In some cases person A will reveal about himself, either to another
character (person B for example) or to the reader.
ii. The setting of the conversation
In fiction or even in reality, the setting of the conversation will affect the
characterization process, for example people who converse in a public area will
have less serious discussion compared to those who converse in a more private
area, thus their conversation will be affected by the situation, because when
people wanted to talk about other people in a public area they are cautious with
other people who may hear the conversation. They are afraid if their conversation
is heard and eventually known by that person or they afraid that they may broke
that people’s reputation
iii. The character which is discussed or characterized
This refers to the characters which being characterized in the conversation
in a novel, we can call this character as the object of characterization because
he/she is the one being described by other characters.
iv. The mental condition of the character
Mental condition is one of characteristics of the character inside the novel.
other people, and dealing with their problem. Sometimes mental condition of a
character is mentioned explicitly by another character.
v. Intonation, dialect, and vocabulary
Intonation will reveal the nature of a character, the level of intonation
when a character is talking will determine their personality (Minderop : 34).
Vocabulary is also important in determining the characteristic of a character, for
example, we can learn that a character is a polite and kind character if he/she
tends to use polite words when speaking other people. On the other hand a
character which tends to use harsh, rude, or impolite words can be easily
identified as a character with an impolite characteristic. From the use vocabulary
we can also imagine the background of a character.
vi. The action of the character.
Aside from how they speak, how the characters act and behave in the story
also can give us an image of their characteristic. For example we can know that a
person has short temper emotion by analyzing how that person tends to do
something unpredictable like injuring other character when he/she is irritated.
3. Theory of Defense Mechanisms
Defense mechanism is psychic procedures for avoiding painful admissions
or recognitions (Peter Barry, 1995: 98). Defense mechanism is utilized by people
(both consciously and unconsciously) to defend their mind from psychological
George Valliant studied about defense mechanism and introduced a
version of defense mechanism based from his idea. He classified defense
mechanisms into four levels, Psychotic, Immature, Neurotic and Mature.
a. Psychotic Level Defense Mechanism
Psychotic level defense mechanism is commonly used to alter the reality
of the user’s mind. Thus the users of this type of mechanisms are often looked by
other people as insane or crazy. The mechanisms which are included in this level
are: (Valiant, 1992: 243-244)
i. Delusional projection
Delusions about external reality, the user of this mechanism imagine about
an imaginary situation different from the actual situation.
ii. Denial
Refusing to accept the reality, they believe that the situation around them
is not real.
iii. Distortion
Crude reshaping of external reality to fit the victim’s mind, this is similar
with delusional projection only in this mechanism the user tries to imagine the
current situation into their liking
Immature level defense mechanisms often alter distress engendered by
threat. Although it will take some times before the user is able to heal their
problem, the change caused by using this mechanisms is really significant, they
will have a lot of improvement in relationships with other people . The
mechanisms of this level are: (Valiant, 1992:244-245).
i. Projection
Attributing one’s unacknowledged feeling toward others, this mechanism
involves sharing what is hidden inside the user’s mind to other people.
ii. Schizoid fantasy
Tendency to use fantasy to escape from the problem, the user fantasize
about something which is able to ease up their stress
iv. Passive-aggressive behavior
Aggression toward others caused by passivity, the user annoy other people
around them by suddenly acting passively
v. Acting out
Direct expression of unconscious wish or impulses, the users express their
c. Neurotic Defense Mechanisms
Neurotic level defense mechanisms alter private feelings or instinctual
expression. To the beholder they appear as individual quirks or neurotic hang-ups.
They often can be dramatically changed by conventional, brief psychotherapeutic
interpretation. The mechanisms of this level are: (Valiant, 1986: 786-794).
i. Repression
The mechanism which involves withholding one’s feeling in their mind,
the user usually tried to hold their true feeling inside their mind in order to hide it
from other people.
ii. Withdrawal
Removing oneself from the reality, the user of this mechanism prefer to
cut their ties to other people or the community around them to avoid painful strike
to their mind
iv. Isolation
The mechanism in which the user cut the ties between their emotion with
reality. The users of this mechanism tend to face certain annoyance without
involving their natural emotion.
v. Displacement
vi. Undoing
Attempting to undo threatening thought, the user of this mechanism try to
repent their threatening behavior by doing the opposite of said behavior.
d. Mature Level Defense Mechanism
Mature level defense mechanisms are commonly found among
emotionally healthy adults and are considered mature, even though many have
their origins in an immature stage of development. They have been adapted
through the years in order to optimize success in human society and relationships.
The use of these defenses enhances pleasure and feelings of control. These
defenses help to integrate conflicting emotions and thoughts, whilst still remaining
effective. Those who use these mechanisms are usually considered virtuous
(Valiant, 1992: 239-246).
The mechanisms of this level are:
i. Altruisms
Instinctually gratifying service to others, the user of this mechanism try to
make their mind feel better by making other people satisfied with what the user do
ii. Anticipation
It is a defense mechanism which involves realistic planning for future
events. The users of this defense mechanism literally anticipated the danger and
making a plan in order to prevent the situation from causing disturbance to the
user or people around them.
iii. Acceptance
This mechanism is the opposite of denial, the users of this mechanism
positively accepting their actual situation.
iv. Patience
The defense mechanism in which the users patiently endure their current
difficult circumstances until it passes away.
v. Humor
Expression of ideas or feelings that brings pleasure to oneself or others.
Sometimes the users of humor sarcastically jokes about the current situation in
order to cheer the users or the people around them.
vi. Courage
The willingness to face a certain threat, the user of this mechanism prefer
C. Theoretical Framework
Terror management is used to solve the problems that study have from
analyzing the novel (Animorphs). The first problem may not be answered by
applying the theory, as the first problem is about finding out what is the source of
the terror, and how that terror were able to incite fear in the protagonists’ mind.
Terror management theory can be applied to solve the second and third problem,
the second problem is about what is the effect of the terror, this is related to the
level of self esteem that the protagonists of the novel (Animorphs) has. Because
all protagonists have different kind of self esteem the effect of the terror will also
be varied. This study analyzes the level of self esteem that each of the protagonists
possess, and see how does it helps the character in defending their mind or
emotion against the terror of death from their enemies. As stated before in
previous section that terror management theory deal with the management of self
esteem, thus the study will adopt that theory to see the management of self esteem
inside the novel.
George Valliant’s defense mechanisms will be used to analyze how the
characters of Animorphs cope with their situation. What kind of defense
mechanism that they will adopt to help them coping with their problem, what is
the result of using that defense mechanism, whether they are able to manage their
situation by using the defense mechanism or not.
This thesis fused the application of Terror Management Theory and
Defense Mechanism, because this thesis believed that both theories can be
understand how the character react to the terror, or in the word how the terror
affected the protagonists, are they scared, or will they fight back against the terror.
After learning their behavior toward the terror this thesis analyzed what kind of
attempt which they used to fight the terror which lingered in their mind.
Minderop’s characterization of characters in a novel will be used to further
understand the nature of the character of Animorphs. It is difficult or maybe
impossible to analyze the protagonists’ reaction toward the terror if we do not
20
CHAPTER III
METHODOLOGY
A. Object of the Study
Animorphs is a series of novel written by K.A Applegate, the whole story
consists of 54 books. There are also ten spin-off series which even tough are not
really important to the main story it still has relation with the main story. The
series was published by Scholastic, the first main book was published on June
1996 while the last book was published on May 2001.
Animorphs is written in first person style, the story is told by a narrator
which is none other than the protagonists themselves. Each book is narrated by
different character, for example book one is narrated by Jake while book two is
narrated by Rachel and so on. Only the last book which had different style of
narration, the last book is narrated by all of the character.
Twenty six books of Animorphs series were written by ghostwriters.
Typically, K. A. Applegate would write a detailed outline for each book, and a
ghostwriter, would spend a month or two writing the actual novel. After this,
Applegate, and later her series editor, Tonya Alicia Martin, would edit the book to
make it fit in with the series' tight continuity. Ghostwriters are credited for their
The books was re-released from May 2011 to September 2012, but
because of tepid sales, the re-release version only released eighths of the original
fifty four books.
On 1998 Animorphs series were adapted into television series by
Nickelodeon; the series is split into two seasons, 20 episodes on season one, and 6
episode on season 2. The series lasted approximately 20 minutes (minus
commercial).
The television series is not a complete adaption, although it borrows lots of
element from the books, not all of the story in the books was adapted into the
series. Animorphs had also been adapted into several video games, not only that a
toy line based on Animorphs were also made in 1999, but the commercial was
rather unsuccessful so the sale was cancelled.
The story of Animorphs is about five teenagers who accidently involved in
an alien war. The story begins when the five teenagers walk from a shopping mall
together through a construction site. On the construction site they meet with an
alien named Elfangor. This alien tells the five teenagers about an alien race called
Yeerks which is about to invade planet earth, after Elfangor gives them a special
power. These five teenagers must risk their life multiple times to save their planet
from the Yeerks. Yeerks is a parasite-like alien race which has similar form as
slugs, they are able to enter people’s head and then control those people from
Animorphs cannot trust anyone about their secret identity, anyone can be invaded
by yeerks, neighbor, teacher, friends, and even their family.
The elements of the story is about war (because they fight against the
yeerks) survival and horror ( because they risked their life multiple times),
freedom (because they fight to liberate earth and other planets from the yeerks).
B. Approach of the Study
This thesis uses psychological approach, because the study deals with how
people are coping with a condition that cause terror to their mind, this approach is
used to get better understanding the relation between the protagonists’
characteristics and their psychological condition.
Psychological approach itself as the name suggests analyzed the ”Victim”,
and then learned their faulty behaviors and habits, along with damaging words,
thoughts, interpretations and feedback that affect strategies for daily living after
receiving a certain psychological attack or in this case, the terror of death.
Psychological approaches assume that many disorders result from mental,
behavioral, and social factors, such as personal experiences, traumas, conflicts,
and environmental conditions. (Paris, 1997)
Paris (1997) stated that human characters in literature works were not
simply functions in a text or encoded messages from the author, but they were
Thus a psychological understanding about these characteristics will make the
literature works more fascinating. Because if we analyze the characters’
psychological condition, we will get better understanding about
Thus, by using psychological approach, this study analyzes how the terror
affect the character inside the novel, what kind of reaction is shown in the novel,
and find out why they show that reaction. This approach is used in relation with
one of the theory which is used in this study, which is the terror management
theory. As terror management theory analyze how the protagonists manage their
self esteem to cope against the terror, the psychological approach is used to jelp
finding it out and also learn the relation between the terror and the character’s
reaction.
C. Method of the Study
The study adopts library research method, the researcher gathered various
data and theories which is relevant with the study by looking it from a various
book and other source. There is no interviewing some people in gathering the
data, because the data in this study is purely from books and other written material
(like journal from a website for example). The source itself is books which
contain important information related to the theory which is used in this study and
also written material which contain information which is able to help this study.
The main source of this study is K.A Applegate’s novel Animorphs. Altough the
writer did read the entire fifty books, only eighteen from fifty four books were
#4, #5, #6, #7, #10, #11, #15, #16, #17, #19, #21, #22, #25, #27, #33, and #34 The
reason why only eighteen books were chosen is because the chosen book was
enough to describe each of the protagonists’ characteristic. The protagonists’
characteristic also doesn’t change at all. In book #15 Rachel is described as brave
and reckless, in book #54 Rachel is still brave and reckless. It doesn’t mean that
the other book doesn’t have any kind of description regarding the protagonists’
characteristic. It is just that if this study used all the data from the entire series,
this study will lose its primary focus and will just become a study about
explaining Animorphs in general. The secondary data are Peter Barry’s The
Beginning Theory, Edwin Bakker’s Towards a Theory of Fear Management in the Counterterrorism Domain: A Stocktaking Approach, Ernest Becker’s The Denial of Death, and George Vaillant’s Ego Mechanisms of Defense: A Guide for
Clinicians and Researchers. Other sources also include journal and studies which has relations to this study.
The first step that the writer did was reading all of the fifty four Animorphs
novels. After finished reading all of the novels, the writer chose sixteen books
from the fifty four novels which considered important in helping the writer on
working on this thesis and reread them thoroughly again in order to fully
understand the problem which is faced by each of the protagonists. The writer
then studied from books, journals, and studies which has a relation with the
problem on the novel. Finally the writer analyzed the relation between the
25
CHAPTER IV
ANALYSIS
As stated in the title, this research adopted the terror management theory to
analyze the problem. Terror management theory concern with how to deal or treat
a psychological attack caused by various thing related to terror (which in this
study’s case is terror of death) to human’s mind and analyze what happen inside
their mind when they are dealing with the trouble. This thesis also analyzed how
the protagonists adopt defense mechanism in order to cope with the terror. The
analysis in this study will be split into several parts based on the number of
problem that it has.
A. Description of the Protagonists’ Characteristics.
Minderop stated that there are several ways of describing a character in a
story. K.A Applegate, the writer of this story seems to characterize or describing
the characters inside the story from the opinion of other character, instead of
directly mentioning it herself, by using the third person perspective. The novel
Animorphs is told from the first person perspective, each book is narrated by each protagonists, telling the story from their own perspective (for example book one is
they describe other character, and also their expression and emotion when
speaking, it is easier for the reader to analyze the character inside the novel.
1. The Description of Jake’s Characteristics
The First character to be described is Jake, from other character’s
perspective (from books which is narrated by any character other than Jake), Jake
is the kind of person who has the charisma as the leader of the team. Other
characters often look up into him whenever they need a decision in any situation
(especially difficult ones). Rachel, in book seventeenth stated that Jake is a very
responsible person, he is described as someone who is needed on a team.
But it was tricky, see, because we knew Jake, my cousin and our sort-of leader, might get all tense and righteous on us. Not that he's that way at all. He isn't. But he's very responsible. Someone has to be, and it sure isn't me. (Animorphs #17, 1996:2).
Jake is also depicted to be kind and humble as well, as although he often be
considered as the de facto leader of the team and often becomes the one who gives
command to the team, he does not want to be called as leader. This is proven
whenever he is called by prince by Ax, because of his leadership, Jake dislike that,
and he often reminds Ax to not call him prince.
<l am Aximili-Esgarrouth-lsthil.> We all just kind of stared.
"Ax," Marco said. "Pleased to meet you" <Who is your prince?>
One by one we looked at Jake.
"Oh, give me a break," Jake said. "I am not anyone's prince." But the Andalite had stepped forward.
He bowed his head and lowered his tail.
Even though Jake does not consider himself as the leader of the team, he
cares greatly about the safety of his friends, he often feel responsible whenever his
plan does not go as planned and eventually put him and his friend in danger. He
often shown worried and scared whenever his friends are put in danger. Jake’s responsibility is one of the reason why his friends tends to rely on him in making
a decision.
In accordance to Terror Management Theory, where the management of
self esteem is very important in fighting the terror in people’s mind, Jake has a good control toward his self esteem; he is able to keep his emotion in check even
in a dangerous situation. Numerous times throughout the series, the protagonists
other than Jake describe him as the person capable of handling certain situation
which no other protagonists is capable of, like giving the right strategy in the
middle of a battle.
If we Animorphs have a leader, it's Jake. He's strong, inside and out, and really good looking, also inside and out. I mean, he's just an amazingly cool guy. Jake has had to grow up a lot in a very short time. It's weird to be a kid, and yet act like some kind of a general or something. We all decide the big stuff together. But when we're in a fight, it's Jake who has to make the little decisions a lot of times, the little decisions that could leave one of his friends dead.
(Animorphs #9, 1997:10)
Jake’s capability in controlling his self esteem is the reason why he is chosen by his friend to be leader of Animorphs. Based on his friend’s decision, we can see that Jake is the person who can control his self esteem better than his
friend. Even though Jake is capable of managing his self esteem, that does not
and put his entire friend in danger, Jake will show his fear and confusion. He gets
scared because he feels responsible for what happen to his friend.
2. The Description of Marco’s Characteristics
Marco is the second character to be described in this study. In the story,
Marco only lives with his father, they mother was believed to be missing on the
sea and presumed dead by everyone. After the accident, his father was greatly
depressed that it caused him to quit his job.
“Marco and his dad live in a garden apartment complex. One of the older ones, on the far side of the big neighborhood where Jake and Rachel both live. I'd only been over there a couple of times. I think Marco is kind of embarrassed because he doesn't have much money. He used to live in a house just down the street from Jake. But that was when his mother was
still alive, and before his father had a breakdown and quit his job.”
(Animorphs #4, 1996:42).
Marco’s mother who was believed to be dead is actually alive; she was
infested by a Yeerks known as Visser One, the highest ranking Visser in Yeerks
world. Before he learned that fact, he is reluctant in becoming Animorphs,
become the guardian of the earth, because he does not want to make his dad to
lose another family member again. After learning the truth about his mother,
Marco became determined to fight against the Yeerks and defeat them, in order to
save his mother from Visser One’s control.
Even though Marco’s family is in a devastated condition Marco, is
depicted as the kind of guy who likes to make fun or joke on anything. He often
makes fun of everything, even in a most dire situation he still able to make a
annoyed by the situation. His habit of making jokes is sometimes able to irritate a
person to a certain degree. Sometimes he make a joke about something which is
not suitable to his or their current condition, and sometimes he accidentally make
a joke which can hurt other people’s feeling. Rachel often disliked Marco’s joke, Marco and Rachel often argued with each other, this is caused by Marco’s
constant annoying comment toward Rachel, regarding her personality.
Sometimes, Marco’s joke can be seen as an attempt to hide his true feeling
(shy, fear, etc) in a certain condition. He once stated it himself that he makes jokes
to defend his mind from anything that may harm his inner mind. His habit to make
a joke also can be seen to hide his sadness because of the loss of his mother. He
doesn’t want other people to know his inner mind. He forces himself to make other people believe that Marco is the guy who likes to crack a joke.
“My dad stood for a long time, looking down at the white marble
headstone. It has my mom's name. The day she was born, the day she died. And a message that says, "No wife, no mother, was ever more loved, or more deeply missed."
My dad and I stood a few feet apart. We didn't say anything. We both just kind of cried.
You probably wouldn't think I was the kind of guy who would cry. Mostly I don't. Mostly I make jokes about things. It's better to laugh than to cry, don't you think?
I do, even when the world is scary and sad, especially when the world is
scary and sad. That's when you need to laugh.” (Animorphs #5: 81) Compared to Jake, Marco has less control toward his self esteem. In the
story, whenever Marco was put in a dire situation, he was overwhelmed by the
fear in his mind. For Example in book #21, After the Animorphs morphed into a
flea in order to infiltrate a meeting between world leaders, Marco was unable to
transform back in time, he will be stuck in the form of flea for the rest of his life.
This caused him to panic and made him unable to control his transformation even
further.
3. The Description of Rachel’s Characteristics
In term of appearances Rachel is depicted as beautiful, she always wears
clothes which made her looks like a beautiful model. Despite Rachel’s beautiful, model-like appearances, her personality is bold and reckless; Her friends
considered her as the type of person who always jumped into action.
I guess most guys would say Rachel is prettier. Personally, I don't think of her that way because she's my cousin. But Rachel does look like some kind of blond supermodel. Not that Rachel acts like Ms. Fashion. Just the opposite if there's danger, Rachel is right there, usually a few steps ahead of anyone else. (Animorphs #6, 1996:11).
From the quotation above, Rachel is described as the kind of person who
prefer to challenge the danger or terror rather than running away from it.
<Hammerheads!> I yelled. <Hammerheads!>
We drove down beneath the surface, and there they were: hammerhead sharks.
<There must be ten of them!> Tobias said.
<Ten of them against five dolphins and a tiger shark,> Rachel said. <We can handle it.>
there are other times when I just want to slap her. We had fought sharks before. We had won, but it had been a close call. Very, very close. And there were more sharks this time.
<Easy, everyone. We don't know they're going to attack us.> Jake said, as calmly as he could with ten sharks heading straight for us.
(Animorphs #15, 1998:35)
In book #15, The Animorphs encountered more than ten hammerhead
sharks while on a reconnaissance mission under the sea. Despite the
overwhelming odd, Rachel prefers to fights all the sharks rather than run away
from them. She even shows disappointment when all of her friends decided to run
away from the shark.
I have been afraid many times since becoming an Animorphs. But this was bad. There are few things as horrifying as watching a shark come at you. Knowing he intends to eat you.
<0kay, look, we don't need this fight,> Jake said. <Let's get out of here.> <Just run away?!> Rachel asked in outrage. <You're welcomed to stay behind, Rachel,> I said.
(Animorphs #15, 1998:35)
Rachel’s recklessness can be clearly seen from quotations above, she is the kind of person who likes to face the problem head on rather than run away from
the problem.
Aside from her bold and reckless characteristics she is also described as
short tempered person. Even though she often shown to be brave in facing a
certain dangerous situation, whenever she deems the odd to be too overwhelming
for her to handle, or she dislikes a certain situation so much she will be unable to
control her self esteem. Her inability to control her self esteem is shown through
her outburst anger and showing an irresponsible attitude. She once decided to skip
school after being told that it is impossible to win the war against the Yeerks by
her and her teammates; they berated her for how she skips school and run amok in
a morph form. Rachel’s control toward self esteem is not as good as Jake’s control toward his. Rachel is unable to conceal her inner feeling. Another example is on
book #22, in which a boy named David angered Rachel so much that she wants to
kill him.
I was going to hunt him down and destroy him.
No, not destroy. That was a weasel word. It was vague, meaningless. I was going to kill him. I felt sick inside. It might have been the morphing that was annihilating my internal organs and replacing them with the primitive organs of a housefly. Or it might have been the feeling that comes from rage and hate.
(Animorphs #22 1998: 13)
The quotation above is told from Rachel’s perspective; in the quotation
Rachel shows her desire to kill David. She questioned whether her desire to kill
David is because of her inner rage or not. Another example is from book #33, in
this book Rachel loses her self control and wants to kill an enemy named Taylor
because Rachel can’t forgive what Taylor did to Tobias.
Rachel's claws closed on Taylor's neck, crushing her esophagus. She was turning blue, suffocating. "Help!" she rasped pitifully. "Someone help me!"
<Rachel! No. Rachel, don't do it!>
<She dies, Tobias. For what she did to you, she dies.> She moved as if to slam Taylor against the wall.
<No!> I yelled. <Rachel. No.>
Rachel turned to look at me, hesitated. Then dropped Taylor like a crumpled candy wrapper. The sub-visser fell to the floor and scrambled for the door.
(Animorphs #33 1999: 80)
From the examples above, it is safe to assume that whenever Rachel is
angered enough, she will do irrational act without any second thought. The
judgment that she believes murder are the solution to the problem. Her decision to
murder someone shows that she can’t control her self esteem, because she can’t
find any other solution other than murder whenever she is angered.
4. The Description of Cassie’s Characteristics
The character of Cassie in the novel is depicted as the character that brings
moral value to the team; and like Jake she shows great concern toward the well
being of her teammates. She is kind and empathetic; her caring nature may cause
her to be able to sense other people’s feeling. Because of this she often acts as the therapist of the team.
Several times in the story, whenever a certain character is put on a deadly
situation, she will comfort that character. The perfect example of Cassie’s
kindness and concern toward her teammates is in book fourth when Marco nearly
gets himself killed by a shark; Cassie came to Marco’s house the day after the
incident to make sure that Marco does not get terrorized by that scary experience.
From the case above we can learn that Cassie cares greatly about her friends’
wellbeing, she can’t put her mind at ease until she truly sure that her friend is
alright
Another instance is when Cassie helps Marco to morph back into human
in book twenty first. Marco is having some difficulty in morphing back from flea
to human form, and he almost gets trapped in the flea form. She comforted Marco
both vets, her mother worked as a doctor in a zoo, while his father runs a wildlife
clinic in their barn. Cassie often helped her father on taking care of the injured
animal. It can be assumed that Cassie unknowingly creates a bond toward the
animal, that bond perhaps what makes her care greatly about other creature’s life.
Her habit of to taking care an animal may affect the way she saw the life
of other creature. Several times in the books Cassie often angry or became
irritated if she saw animal is being endangered or mistreated by human. In book
fifteen Marco commented that Cassie is not the type of person who likes to create
a plan which could endanger themselves, but if it is about saving a mistreating an
animal she will do anything to save it.
It was Cassie's idea, oddly enough. Normally she'd be the last person to ever cook up a harebrained scheme. But this involved mistreating animals. And you don't want to mess with animals when Cassie is around.
(Animorphs #15, 1996:2)
In summary, Cassie is the type of person who cares greatly about the well
being of her friends. She likes to comfort her friend whenever she feels that her
friend is in danger or in some sort of trouble both physically and mentally.
Unfortunately, her kind and caring attitude make it hard for her to control
her self esteem. Whenever Cassie is involved in something violence, she cannot
tolerate that action and she will run away from it. This is shown in book
nineteenth, when she along with her team slaughters an army of controlled
Hork-Bajir. She is terrified by her action of killing the Hork-Bajir that she decides to
5.The Description of Tobias’ Characteristics
As described by him and other characters Tobias is the type of character
who tend to create a gap between himself and society or in other word Tobias is
an outcast. Tobias’ condition (him being an outcast) is caused by his family’s
condition. Both of his parents are dead by the beginning of the story, Tobias live
under the care of either his uncle or his other relatives (he moved from one
relative to another) and according to Tobias himself, none of his relatives did not
really care about him.
In school Tobias did not have much friends, he often became the object of
bullying by other students. His lone wolf nature was further magnified when he
was accidentally misused his morphing ability which caused him to become a red
tailed hawk for the rest of his life. Thus he was completely cast away from normal
human life.
Asides from fighting the Yeerks Tobias also faced with the problem of his
new life. In the beginning Tobias was having a difficulty in adjusting to his new
life, he was heavily devastated when he killed a rat for the first time because he
was unable to cope with his new instinct. He is a human who have to live with a
body and instinct of a hawk. Tobias, at first finds it difficult to cope with his new
condition. His first kill made him believe that his human mind was gone; he
believed that he was a hawk, so he began to stay away from his human friends and
began to life as a red tailed hawk
I found a place for myself. It was perfect red-tail territory - the place where I had made my first kill. A nice meadow surrounded by trees. Not far off there was a marshy area that was good, too. Although there was another red-tail who had a territory over there, so I couldn't hunt there often. I spent my days hunting. Sometimes I would ride the high hot winds and watch the meadow. Sometimes I would sit in a tree and watch till some unwary creature ventured out. Then I would swoop down on it, snatch it up, kill it. Eat it while the blood was still warm (Animorphs #3, 1996: 50).
It is not until later in the same book that he was convinced by his friends
that even though his body was a red tailed hawk, he still had human mind, he was
still Tobias.
Tobias can be described as the lone wolf of the team; he is the type of
person who prefers to be alone rather than interacting with other people. Even
though Tobias has a lone wolf attitude that he doesn’t mean he completely
secluded himself from people around him. Tobias only prefers to be alone
especially whenever he is in distress. Before the series began, other characters
confess that they only know little about Tobias. His lone wolf attitude may have
been caused by his family and social background.
Regarding how Tobias handles his self esteem, he has his own way of
coping with his current situation. Whenever Tobias is faced with situations which
cause discomfort or even distress in his mind, he tends to hide into seclusion.
B. Terrors Faced by the Protagonists and its Impact to the Protagonists
The source of terror in this book is mainly the Yeerks and death. The fight
against the Yeerks has pushed the mind of the protagonists to the limit. As stated
in terror management theory, human is the only species which is able to realize
