The Traumatic Experiences as the Hindrance of Charlie’s Personality Development in Stephen Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower, A Psychosocial Analysis.

Abstract

This research aims to identify how traumatic experiences become the hindrance for the main character of The Perks of Being a Wallflower to handle the fifth stage of psychosocial development, and to explain the impact of this failure to his personality in the sixth stage. To answer the objectives, this research employs the psychosocial theory by Erikson. The research used a qualitative research with content analysis method. The main source of the data was a novel entitled The Perks of Being a Wallflower. The research analysis was conducted through five steps: reading and re-reading, classifying and categorizing, interpreting and scrutinizing the meaning of the data, and checking the trustworthiness by triangulation. The results show two important points. Firstly, a psychosocial crisis occurs in the main character’s life based on Erikson’s psychosocial development theory i.e. Identity vs. Role Confusion. In this stage, the result shows that the main character experiences traumatic experiences, which make him suffer from three major problems of identity confusion in his adolescence period: identity diffusion, identity foreclosure, and negative identity. Secondly, the failure brings impact on his personality in adulthood stage: intimacy crisis and isolation. It can be seen through his inability to make an intimate relationship with others, which makes him feel lonely and suffer from depression.

 Keywords: traumatic experience, psychosocial development, Erikson, personality development, The Perks of being a Wallflower