Joy Newsome Defense Mechanisms in Room Film (2015)

JOY NEWSOME DEFENSE MECHANISMS IN ROOM FILM (2015)

A Thesis

Submitted to Faculty of Adab and Humanities in Partial Fulfillment of the

Requirements for the Degree of Strata One (S1)

WIDYA ATSMARA

1113026000035

ENGLISH LETTERS DEPARTMENT

FACULTY OF ADAB AND HUMANITIES

STATE ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY SYARIF HIDAYATULLAH

JAKARTA

2017

ABSTRACT

Widya Atsmara, Joy Newsome Defense Mechanisms in Room Film (2015). A Thesis. English Letters Department, Faculty of Adab and Humanities, State Islamic University Syarif Hidayatullah, Jakarta, 2017. This research is focused on Joy Newsome, one of the main characters in Room film. It aims to reveal the characterization of Joy Newsome in the film and to reveal Joy’s psychological condition through psychoanalysis theory by using qualitative method. The findings show that Joy Newsome, a 24 years old mother who has a tough life in “room”, is being trapped for seven years with his son, Jack. She protects her son from being met with Old Nick for five years. Joy plans to escape from “room” for her son’s sake. She becomes unconfident about her life compared with other people. Due to the anxiety, Joy has unbalance personality structure caused by the domination of Id or Superego. Her anxiety of her surroundings trigger her depression appears, especially when she gets out of “room”. Joy has done six defense mechanisms to overcome her anxieties and fortunately, those are enough to make her better and ready to start a new normal life. Joy looks stress for facing a new environment after getting out of “room” which is a place that symbolizes her habitual life. She cannot fully express her feeling and emotion due to her son’s sake. Furthermore, she uses defense mechanisms to heal herself. The mechanisms that she used make her survive outside “room” and she got used to the condition as she was in “room”. Keywords: psychoanalysis, defense mechanism, film analysis, personality structure.

APPROVEMENT

JOY NEWSOME DEFENSE MECHANISMS IN ROOM FILM (2015)

LEGALIZATION

iii

DECLARATION

I hereby declared that this submission is my own work and that, to the best of my knowledge and belief, it contains no material previously published or written by another person, nor material which to a substantial extent has been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma of the university or other institute of higher learning, except where due acknowledgement has been made in the text.

Jakarta, November 3rd 2017

Widya Atsmara

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Bismillahirrahmaanirrahiim

In the name of Allah, the most Merciful and the most Kind.

First of all, the writer would like to give the most appreciation and many thanks to Allah SWT, for the blessing so I could finish this thesis. All the praises belong to Allah SWT, the Lord of the Universe and the Creator of the living things from nothing to something. Then, may peace be upon to our beloved prophet

Muhammad SAW, his family, his companion, and all of his followers.

The writer would like to express the sincere gratitude to her advisor, Mrs.

Inayatul Chusna, M.Hum for her great patience, time, guidance, kindness, care, and contribution in correcting and helping the writer to finish this thesis. Thanks for all her advices and helps that has been given to the writer. It is such a precious and honor thing to have her as the writer’s guide lecturer. May Allah SWT bless her always.

In addition, the writer would like to give appreciation to the following people, namely:

1. Beloved parents, brother, sisters, and grandmother for supporting all of the

efforts since the very first beginning. Thank you so much that the writer

could not say anything to thank them.

2. Prof. Dr. Sukron Kamil, M.A, the Dean of Faculty of Adab and Humanities.

3. Drs. Saefudin, M.Pd, the Chairperson of English Letters Department.

4. Elve Oktafiyani, M.Hum, the Secretary of English Letters Department.

5. Elve Oktafiyani, M.Hum and Ida Rosida, M.Hum as the judges of the

examination, thank you for correcting this thesis.

6. All of the lecturers of English Letters Department for educating the writer

during her study at State Islamic University Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta so

that her knowledge can be used in this thesis and her life in the future.

7. Dearest friends in the English Letters Department year 2013, especially for

the class of A (Crowsa) and class of Literature for supporting and giving the

writer endless advices and caring. For Gina Nurshafarina who kindly shares

her ideas, knowledge, and thoughts, thank you so much for your help. For

Rainbow After Rain (Danti Yaniar, Lana Prismanisa, Elsya Prawita

Oktafiani, Purnama Sari Maharani), thank you for our togetherness, all the

sadness, tiredness, laughing, cheerful, and sorrowful days to make this effort

worth.

8. Dearest friends of high school, thank you for always pray for the writer to

keep fighting for this thesis and for the spirits.

9. Dearest work partners in Bank of Indonesia, SLA DMST and Archive

Division, thank you for the spirit, understanding and attention to finish this

thesis.

May Allah bless them always anywhere anytime.

The writer realizes that this thesis if not really perfect. Therefore, the writer welcomes any criticism, suggestion, and advice for a better improvement. And also,

the writer hopes that this thesis would be useful for all the students of State Islamic

University Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta and the readers in general.

Jakarta, November 3rd 2017

Widya Atsmara

vii

TABLE OF CONTENT

ABSTRACT ...... i

APPROVEMENT ...... ii

LEGALIZATION ...... iii

DECLARATION...... iv

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ...... v

TABLE OF CONTENT ...... viii

CHAPTER I ...... 1

INTRODUCTION ...... 1

A. Background of the Study ...... 1

B. Focus of the Study ...... 4

C. Research Question ...... 4

D. Significance of the Research ...... 4

E. The Objective of the Research ...... 5

F. Research Methodology ...... 5

1. Method of Research ...... 5

2. Technique of Data Analysis ...... 6

3. Instrument of Research ...... 7

4. The Unit of Analysis ...... 7

viii

CHAPTER II ...... 8

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ...... 8

A. Previous Research ...... 8

B. Theoretical Framework ...... 11

CHAPTER III ...... 25

RESEARCH FINDINGS ...... 25

1. The Analysis Character of Joy ...... 25

2. Joy’s Personality Structure ...... 32

3. Joy’s Defense Mechanisms ...... 40

CHAPTER IV...... 56

CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION ...... 56

A. Conclusion ...... 56

B. Suggestion ...... 57

WORK CITED LIST ...... 59

APPENDIX ...... 62

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study

Film and psychology are already linked since early 1900s (Melechi).

Thomas Mann and D.H. Lawrence have operated Freudian theories into the

plots of their stories and persuaded many people that literature and arts and

cinema authorized Freud’s psychological theories, even these theories revealed

universal truths such as homosexuals and Oedipal (Packer 27-28).

Actually, the inextricable link between films and psychology is an

obvious one when the audiences consider watching a film. They are nearly

always observing human behavior in its many ways which are shapes and

forms. When people watch a film, they pay attention to both the story and

themselves. In doing so, they can learn to understand themselves and their

surroundings more objectively.

Psychology has always been a popular topic within the films. From 2001

to 2014, there are plenty of psychological films. Most of them themed horror

and thriller, and the rest of them are about bipolar, crime, schizophrenia,

personality, hallucination, and despair (IMDb). However, there has been

concern raised within the discipline that its portrayal in general along with that

of psychologists and psychological disorders has been far from accurate on the

whole.

Room is one of many films1 that have issues about psychological aspects.

This film was directed by Lenny Abrahamson, written by Emma Donoghue

and released in November 2015. Room is adapted from a novel with the same

title, also written by Emma Donoghue. This film is starring Jacob Tremblay as

Jack and Brie Larson as Joy Newsome, they both are the main characters.

Room is a Canadian film based on a novel that tells about the relationship

between Jack, five years old boy, and Joy Newsome, a 24 years old Ma, in a

narrow space. They call it “room”. Joy has been living in “room” for seven

years. She had been kidnapped by Old Nick, a stranger who tricked her to take

her to that place by asking her to help his sick dog when she was 17 years old.

Jack is Joy’s only son with Old Nick. At certain times, Old Nick will come to

the “room” and sleep with Joy while Jack is sleeping in a tight wardrobe. Jack

and Joy both sleep, bathe, cook, play, do a laundry, exercise, and do everything

in “room”, and they are never able to step out of that place. Actually, Joy is

stressed this whole time. She is the character who has psychological problem.

She is worried about her and her son’s life in the future if they are still trapped

in “room”. Then, after Jack’s fifth birthday, she decided to tell him the truth

about the world outside “room”, while she always makes a world in “room” for

Jack this whole time. She made a plan for Jack so that they can be safe, but her

plans always fail. Her mental become worse that she looked like a depression

1 Winter Sleepers (1997), Fight Club (1999), A Beautiful Mind (2001), The Soloist (2009), Black Swan (2010), Silver Linings Playbook (2012), American Psycho (2000), Shutter Island (2010), and etc.

woman with unfocused eyes and facial expression. Moreover, they succeed to get out of that “room”.

Now, it becomes a huge problem for Joy after getting out of “room”. She feels that the world is different and desperate when her boy does not want to interact with the world in common ways. While Joy is in her mother’s home, she cannot adjust herself with the neighborhood, and also her family, because her life is ruined and she thinks that only her life which is ruined. She has never interacted with other people for seven years and when she has to face the social environment, she finds it difficult. The world seems new for her, although she had lived there before. Her stress appears again and drives her to be sick due to consumption of medicine for her sleeping.

Sometimes, Jack miss “room” and asks Joy to visit “room” even for once, for the very last time. Joy accede his demand and feels hurt when she sees

“room” again, she does not want to remember all of her bad memories in that place, so Joy asks Jack to leave that place and go home.

The main character in this film steps into the world outside “room” which is not a new world, yet seems strange due to what she has been through for seven years. The writer sees that Joy believes that the world outside “room” is safer, more comfortable, and promises a better future for her and her son.

However, she becomes anxious.

The writer chooses this film as her corpus because the main character of the film has psychological conflict within her, her surrounding, and the world which is interesting to be analyzed. Besides, the main character supposes to be

happy after getting out of “room”, but she feels reverse. The writer sees that

the problem is the main character herself and she makes problem for her own

self. In addition, drama film rarely talks about psychological issues which

interest the writer.

In order to understand Joy’s psychological condition, the writer will use

psychoanalysis theory of Freud. This theory focuses on explaining one’s

psychological condition that deals with her unconsciousness. Joy’s anxieties

will be analyzed using defense mechanism of psychoanalysis theory. Joy’s

immoderate behavior will be understood by using this theory.

B. Focus of the Study

According to the background of the study above, the writer focuses and

limits the scope of the research within the psychological condition of the main

character, Joy Newsome, which will be analyzed with psychoanalysis theory

of Freud and her characteristic with characterization theory.

C. Research Question

1. How is the character of Joy Newsome depicted in Room film?

2. How is Joy’s defense mechanisms seen in this film?

D. Significance of the Research

By analyzing this film with psychoanalysis theory, the writer will know

better about this theory and other supporting theories. The interesting issue and

the implicit conflicts make the writer and the reader have a better understanding

about the implementation of psychoanalysis theory either in literature or real

life. The writer hopes that this research can be used as a reference in studying

literary works, especially in analyzing psychological aspects of the character,

and can be an inspiration for other researchers, and can be accepted as a further

research for honor theses. Moreover, the reader will gain and improve

knowledge to use this theory for further research and studies about

psychological problems.

E. The Objective of the Research

1. To reveal the character of Joy Newsome in the film.

2. To reveal Joy’s defense mechanisms in this film.

F. Research Methodology

1. Method of Research

Based on the background of the study and the objective of the

research above, the writer decides to use qualitative method in analyzing

the main character’s psychological problem in Room film.

“[...] metode kualitatif dipengaruhi oleh paradigma naturalistik-

interpretatif Weberian, perspektif post-positivistik kelompok teori kritis

serta post-modernisme [...]” (Somantri 58). Qualitative method is

influenced by some paradigm and critique groups. Some ideas from those

paradigms and critics are created to complete this method. This method’s

style is to construct the reality and to understand the meaning of the data.

John W. Cresswell concerns on several paradigmatic assuming dimensions

of qualitative method. He says, “Penelitian kualitatif kerap ditandai

penggunaan bahasa informal dan personal seperti “understanding”,

“discover”, dan “meaning”” (Somantri 58). The qualitative method

involves the researcher directly which makes the research is not quite stiff.

There are five kinds of qualitative method that are commonly used: “(1)

obervasi terlibat, (2) analisa percakapan, (3) analisa wacana, (4) analisa

isi, (5) pengambilan data ethnografis.” (Somantri 58-59).The writer uses

content analysis which examines documents such as a general category of

meaning.

Commonly, an unequal relationship happens between the researcher

and the reality that has been researched. It will cause refraction of the data.

The researcher that used a qualitative method is demanded to collect the

data sharply.

2. Technique of Data Analysis

The research will begin with the characteristic theory to analyze the

main character, and then find out the psychological problem of Joy

Newsome. The writer will explain the problem. The writer watched the

film for several times carefully to learn the main issue that the writer

analyze.

3. Instrument of Research

The instrument of the research is the writer herself by watching the

film repeatedly and reading the script to understand, identify, and analyze

the related data with psychoanalysis theory of Freud.

4. The Unit of Analysis

The unit of analysis in this research is Room film that was written by

Emma Donoghue from her own novel, directed by Lenny Abrahamson,

and distributed by A24 within duration 118 minutes. This film is saved as

a file in computer.

CHAPTER II

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

A. Previous Research

The writer has found some researches that analyzing Room as the thesis

material. Those two researches are using different theory with the writer of this

thesis. In addition, the writer also sees the research which is talking about

psychoanalysis. Due to the Room film is rarely analyzed as a corpus of

research, the writer decides to learn other research with the similar issues of

psychoanalysis. These previous researches aim to be as a consideration.

The first paper is Representasi Peran Ibu Dalam Film “Room” (Analisis

Semiotika Pendekatan John Fiske pada Film Room karya Sutradara Lenny

Abrahamson). This paper is written by Dewi Maulati from Telkom University,

Bandung 2017. It examines the signs of mother role as a form of the mass

media. The writer of this research uses John Fiske’s semiotic method to

determine the level of the reality, the level of representation, and the level of

ideology.

This research focuses on Joy Newsome as the main character because the

writer of this research is analyzing the role of a mother as an independent

woman. As a mother, Joy would sacrifice anything for her son’s sake. She

protects and takes care of her son for five years in “room”. She would not let

anyone hurt him, especially Old Nick. The result of this research are ideology

of motherhood and ideology of feminism found in this film, which represented

through behavior, conversation, expression, gesture, conflict, and environment.

The ideology of motherhood that is talking here depicted as serving her child well and the man who abducted her to fulfill his sexual desire without ask for any feedback.

The second paper is Jack’s Effort to Overcome His Social Phobia after

His Great Escape in Emma Donoghue’s Room: A New Criticism Study. This paper is written by Nabila Zuhroh Terananda from Airlangga University,

Surabaya 2016. It examines Jack’s phobia and the symbols that support Jack’s effort to overcome his phobia. As five years old boy, Jack’s personality is still developing and his limited scope of growth makes him uncomfortable to the new environment out of “room”. That is why Jack shocks to be a part of social environment and acts like he is phobia.

This research focuses on Jack as the main character because the writer of this research is analyzing Jack’s social phobia. The writer of this research uses new criticism theory to analyze this film, especially about the social phobia, to see Jack’s problem closely. Jack thinks that he and his mother are the only real humans, while the others are alien of outer space. That is why he shocks of meeting other humans outside “room”, which makes him phobia to the society.

The result is the characterization, the symbol, and the tone show the effort that

Jack does to overcome his social phobia after he escaped “room”.

The third paper is Defense Mechanism in the Main Character of

Tennessee William’s A Street Car Named Desire. This paper is written by

Meiriza Lidya from Andalas University, Padang 2011. It examines the personal

psychology problem of the main character, Blanche Dubois. The writer of this research uses psychoanalysis theory of Freud by analyzing the main character’s psychological condition, the cause of her psychological condition and defense mechanism that she uses. The main character is a widow. She has psychological conflict within herself that leads her to some strange behaviors.

It is all because she traumatized of her past life that building mechanism to defense herself from the bad memories.

From the psychological condition, Blanche is in terrible condition which seems by her act such she like to bath in hot water when the weather is hot, she often talking lie to people, and she is afraid to stand in the bright light. That is all because she is phobia, feeling guilty, psychosis, and has hallucination, This paper shows that Blanche’s strange behavior caused by her failed marriage due to her husband ends his life by suicide, losing her job and being kicked from her big home to become poor, scandal in her plantation, and raped by her brother in law. To overcome all of her trauma and bad memories, she defends herself with defense mechanisms which are fantasy, denial, regression, and projection.

The similarity among the previous researches and this research is the same material, but the difference is the theory. Those two researches is using the same material as the writer, but they are using different theories to analyze the different topic such as motherhood role with John Fiske’s semiotic theory and social phobia with new criticism study. Meanwhile, the writer uses psychoanalysis theory of Freud to analyze the psychological condition of the

main character. Moreover, the third research is using the same theory with

similar issue due to see the implementation of the theory.

This film has not analyzed with psychoanalysis theory and the

psychological condition of the character inside and outside “room” that is

interesting to be analyzed.

B. Theoretical Framework

1. Character and Characterization

“You can only involve an audience with people. You can't involve them with gimmicks, with sunsets, with hand-held cameras, zoom shots, or anything else. They couldn't care less about those things. But you give them something to worry about, some person they can worry about, and care about, and you've got them, you've got them involved.” (Frank Capra, Director)

Characterization is an important element in narrative work. The

word “character” is pointed someone who is involved in the plot story. The

using of “character” word suggests different meanings in English literature

which are as the character, behavior, desire, emotion, and moral principle

that belongs to the character. The personality of the character consider to

the meaning based on words (verbal) and behavior (nonverbal).

Meanwhile, the word “characterization” has a wider meaning because it

reveals the problem of the character.

Fiction is a form of creative work to give a freedom for the author to

develop characters. The relation between real life and fiction story is quite

complex. Character of the story should seem real, understandable, and

alive (Boggs and Petrie 60). If the audience interest to the characters, they will also interest to the whole story, especially if the character has lifelikeness.

Characterization method is unlimited on telling and showing.

Through a direct method (telling), the author has not only delivered character according to her behavior, but also through mind, feeling, and mental conflict. While, indirect method (showing) seen when someone talking about another character’s behavior. This method is also called as a dramatic method which abandoned author’s presence.

There are several advantages of this method which are the reader could be involved actively, creatively, and imaginatively. As it mentions above, characterization consist of: a. Characterization Through Dialogue

This characterization is about their attitudes and emotions can be

revealed in subtle ways through word choice and through the stress,

pitch, and pause patterns of their speech. Actors’ grammar, sentence

structure, vocabulary, and dialect reveal the characters’ background,

level, and mental process (Boggs and Petrie 61). What they want to

say and how they deliver it can be analyzed as characterization. b. Characterization Through The Choice of Names

This characterization possesses appropriate of sound, meaning, or

connotation (Boggs and Petrie 66-67). Character name is used to give

idea and clarify the character. Sometimes, it describes the physical

look of the character. The author has not randomly chosen a name for

their characters because it relates to something big such as problem,

thought and many things further. Every name has its meaning or

purpose by the author for developing the character. And it may be seen

implicitly or explicitly. c. Characterization Through Appearance

This characterization uses the character’s appearance to give freedom

to the author to express their perception and perspective. In real life,

we often thought wrong about people by looking at their appearance.

We judge them out easily by looking how they dress up and by their

expression, and their manners (Boggs and Petrie 60). The same thing

happens in literary works. This characterization relates to

psychological condition and to the cultural perspective surroundings. d. Characterization Through External Reaction

Perhaps, the best reflections of character are a person’s action,

whether it is for an occasion, problem, condition, word, or behavior.

Every action of the character mirrors their individuality. The character

and the plot become bind up and do not able to distinguish when the

motive is formed (Boggs and Petrie 62). So, the audience can also see

the character in real view by analyzing through external action. e. Characterization Through Internal Action

There is a hidden world that unnoticed by other people but their own

selves. It happens in the deep of the characters’ head, consists of

secrets, silent opinions, daydreams, memories, anxieties, and

imaginations. These cause horrific disaster (Boggs and Petrie 62).

Some people usually talk to themselves secretly. Maybe only in mind

or in front of a mirror whispers which other people would not know.

This causes many things and leads to problem.

f. Characterization Through Reaction of Other Characters

How other characters see a person called reaction of other characters

(Boggs and Petrie 64). Perspective, comment, and behavior of other

character to the main character is significant. It helps the writer and

the audience to predict how the character is, because a human is a

social creature which socializes with the person’s surroundings.

People surroundings may know a little bit or quite much information

about the main character that is not told from the main character’s

perspective.

In short, characterization is used to see the character’s characteristic

through dialogue and behavior from the character itself and other

characters. The understanding of how a character described help to

understand the content of a story. In the context of this research, the

description of the main character helps to understand her psychological

condition. The writer will use another theory to analyze the character

psychological condition through Freud’s psychoanalysis theory.

2. Psychoanalysis

Psychoanalysis is a scientific discipline based on a systematic accumulation of knowledge about the mind and how it works: especially relating to mental processes which are inaccessible in any other way.

“Freud’s fundamental contribution was to open up the entire realm of the unconscious to systematic study and to provide a language and terminology in which the operations of the unconscious could be expressed” (Habib 571). Freud’s purpose is to open the whole realm of unconsciousness to be a new study to express new terms and language.

“Freud postulated that we bear a form of “otherness” within ourselves: we cannot claim fully to comprehend even ourselves, why we act as we do, why we make certain moral and political decisions, why we harbor given religious dispositions and intellectual orientations” (Habib 571). Freud explains as a human, we cannot fully understand what is the meaning, the cause, or purpose of our act or mind about something because something is unexplainable.

Freud developed psychoanalysis in the late nineteenth century as a method of studying the growth of the human personality. He said there are three levels of consciousness. First, “consciousness” is a part of mental life which has fully aware (LN and Nurihsan 46). It includes mind in every time of “consciousness”. It contains those thoughts of which you are currently aware (Burger 55). Second, “preconscious” is a soul layer under

“conscious” as storage the unrevealed memories, but with particular effort could be remembered (LN and Nurihsan 47). It includes mental content

which is easy to realize if we remember it on purpose. Third,

“unconsciousness” is the biggest layer of individual mental life which is also storage of repressed unpleasant experiences and repressed emotional pain (LN and Nurihsan 47). In psychoanalysis, the term “unconscious” is where human behavior is actually under the control of the subconscious self, so human cannot remember some things they have been done or perhaps they deliberately ignored, except in certain situation.

Psychoanalysis is divided into many theories, such as dream theory, personality structure theory, psychosexual stage theory, defense mechanism theory, Oedipus complex theory, and etcetera.

Sometimes, a few people think that psychology and psychoanalysis are similar, yet they are different from its level of work. Psychology is under consciousness while psychoanalysis is under unconsciousness.

Psychoanalysis could not explain the cause and the result because it happens under unconsciousness, so it characterized as associative, while psychology characterized as causative because the cause is clear and could be explained.

The two concepts in psychoanalysis theory that will be used are: a. Personality Structure

Personality theory has been influenced by Sigmund Freud.

Divided into three, they are desired, actuation and control. “Teori

psikologi yang paling dominan dalam analisis karya sastra adalah

teori Freud (1856-1939) yang membedakan kepribadian menjadi tiga

macam, yaitu: Id, Ego, dan Super Ego” (Ratna 344). Each of these has its own functions, properties, components, operating principles, dynamisms, and mechanisms. They interact so closely with one another. Behavior is nearly always the product of an interaction among these three systems.

Id is a primitive and instinctive personality component which is illogical, and irrational. It operates according to the pleasure principle.

Id is a source of life and death instinct. In gaining pleasure, Id through two process which are reflex and the primary process. The primary process tries to decrease pressure by constructing an imagination named wish-fullfilment (LN and Nurihsan 41-42). The best primary process is a dream. Id operates to avoid pain out of consciousness. The

Id neither linked with social custom nor procedure (Cervone and

Pervin 105). Id cannot tolerate frustration or postponement of satisfaction for any excuse. Id is a selfish, pleasure-seeking structure, amoral, insistent, and hashes (Schultz and Schultz 50). Id demands to get what it wants any time.

Meanwhile, Ego is a manager of personality which is a decision maker about pleasing instincts that orientated to the reality principle.

Its main role is as a mediator. It aims to prohibit tension to find another way to please Id (LN and Nurihsan 43). Ego based on secondary process thinking which is realistic thought. It finds reality and functions for satisfying Id. Ego is the executive of the personality

since it controls the gateways to action, selects the features of the

surroundings to respond and decide (Hall, Lindzey, and Campbell 37).

Then, Superego is a personality moral component which related

to society norms. It aims for interfering with Id’s need, pushing Ego

to replace with moralistic aims and control behavior based on rules

(LN and Nurihsan 45). It includes moral aspect and social behavior

which are containing idealism and etic standard. Superego finds

perfection. Its main concern is to decide the right and the wrong, so

that it walks perfect according to the standard. (Hall, Lindzey, and

Campbell 37). Superego creates guilty feeling as the punishment.

Superego can become too powerful and burden the Ego with standards

of rightness (Burger 58).

The Id presses for satisfaction, the Ego tries to delay it, and the

Superego urges morality above all. In the healthy individual, a strong

Ego does not allow the Id or the Superego too much control over the

personality. The goal is to find a way to satisfy the demands of both

the Id and the Superego. If one of the Id or the Superego is more

dominant, thus the Ego will defense itself with negative mechanism.

But if they are balance, the Ego will choose positive mechanism. And

the mechanism that will use here called defense mechanism.

b. Defense Mechanism

Defense mechanism is a mental process which aims to reduce anxiety. This mechanism works in level of unconsciousness. It is also defined as an effort to self-protect from emotional pain. Defense mechanism cope anxiety like when we are in danger of being overwhelmed by it. Anxiety serves as a warning to the person that the

Ego is being threatened and that unless action is taken, the Ego might be overthrown.

Ego must reduce the conflict between the demands of the Id and the structures of society or the Superego. All behaviors are motivated by instincts, defensive in the sense of defending against anxiety. There are situations in which the truth about ourselves emerges, when the defenses break down and fail to protect us. Defenses are necessary to our mental health. We could not survive long without them.

Defense mechanism is under the pressure of excessive anxiety.

The Ego has many different techniques to remove anxiety and fear of someone’s feeling and wishes, known as a “defense mechanism”

(Burger 60). The use of defense mechanisms, for failure to keep threatening thoughts from our consciousness would create tremendous anxiety. But, too many defense mechanisms can result in tying up much of the Ego’s energy, and sometimes in losing touch with reality.

Defense mechanism is divided into several mechanisms, whether those create by Sigmund Freud or any other figures. This

section will explain a few mechanisms that are used in this research.

These are brief explanation below: a. Repression is “the unconscious, although active, withdrawal of

certain painful or self-injuries thoughts or feelings” (Silverman

347). It is the energy that would get a person into difficulty with

society or would be upsetting is allowed no expression, and is

forced back into the unconscious. This mechanism is a process of

suppressing things to “unconsciousness” since it intimidates the

Ego safety (LN and Nurihsan 53). Thoughts, ideas or desires are

being free from the consciousness. It consists of painful

experience that is concealed in “unconsciousness” and is kept in

the deepest mind (Cervone and Pervine 116). It is arising when

an object-choice that provokes improper alarm is forced out of

“consciousness” by an “anticathexis” (Hall, Lindzey, and

Campbell 50). Freud said that repression is “the cornerstone on

which the whole structure of psychoanalysis rests”. All of the

mechanism end here. The problem is that repression is a constant,

active process requiring that the Ego expend energy. One night a

boy sees his father physically assault his mother. When later

asked about the experience, the boy insists he has never seen

anything at all like that. He may not be lying. Instead, he may

have found the scene too horrifying to accept.

b. Denial is “a defense of refusing to admit something unpleasant is

happening or “a form of refusing to accept the reality of a

situation”” (Snowden 110). Denial is someone refuses to admit

the unpleasant thing or refuses reality. Denial is “the least

complex of the three. As base, denial is accomplished by

attaching a negative marker (e.g., “no”, “not”) to a perception,

thought or feeling. In this way, thought or feeling that would be

upsetting, if accurately perceived, are ignored or misrepresented”

(Cramer 2). This form omits bad memories by refusing its

existence. At first, people realize denial, but it becomes

unrealized automatic. This kind of mechanism is useful in

reducing anxiety, have the quality of maladaptive with distracting

someone from the reality. It is connected to repression and

involves rejecting the presence of any external threat that has

happened (Schultz and Schultz 53). We are insisting that

something is not true, despite all evidence to the contrary. The

more we use it, the less we are in touch with reality, and less likely

are we able to function fully. Parents of a child who has died may

continue to deny the loss by keeping the child’s room and stuffs

unchanged. c. Rationalization is “a person may defend himself and his own

inadequacies by finding “logical” excuses or arguments for his

behavior” (Silverman 349). This form involved rational reason of

the act when the real reason is unacceptable. The behavior is

being reinterpreted, so that it seems to make sense and acceptable.

Ego forms a sensible reason to explain an intolerable act that

affected by illogical instinct from the Id (Cervone and Pervine

115). We excuse threatening thought or action by persuading

ourselves there is a rational explanation for it. It is fewer

intimidating to accuse somebody else for our fault than to accuse

ourselves (Schultz and Schultz 54). The person who is fired from

a job may rationalize by saying that the job was not a good one

anyway. d. Projection is “a person perceives in others unacceptable impulses

and disturbing characteristics that he himself possesses”

(Goleman 376). Projection is a person who attributes his own

undesirable qualities to others. “By repressing awareness of his

own undesirable characteristics and projecting them onto others,

the individual alleviates his feelings of inadequacy or guilt and

avoid recognition of certain of his own deep feelings” (Silverman

349). When they feel anxiety, Ego will decrease it by shifting the

cause to the other person or object. It is if the source of the anxiety

can be attributed to the external world rather than to the

individual’s own primitive impulses or to the threats of

conscience, the person is likely to achieve greater relief for the

anxious condition. The person says, in effect, “I don’t hate him.

He hates me.” e. Intellectualization is one way for the Ego to handle threatening

material and to remove the emotional content from the idea. By

testing the idea in a harshly logical, unemotional behavior, some

feelings can be brought into “consciousness” or permitted to stay

in “consciousness” without fear (Burger 62). This is a process to

self-defense by learning and finding out the problem in order to

uninvolved further. A woman might imagine her husband, for

whom she holds unconscious hostility being involved in a

gruesome automobile accident, under the guise of unemotionally

pondering the importance of wearing seatbelts. f. Regression is “the individual may escape from frustrating or

anxiety-provoking situations by returning to earlier or more

primitive forms of behavior” (Silverman 348). Regression is

when human had through all the developmental stages. They will

get back to their previous stage or their very first stage when they

feel anxiety or discomfort. Regression is a repetition of

appropriate manners for “development stage” (LN and Nurihsan

55). It aims to gain help to face traumatic occasion. It is the person

retreats to an earlier period of the life that was more pleasant and

free of frustration and anxiety. Commonly contains a return to one

of the “psychosexual stages.” (Schultz and Schultz 54). The

individual return to this more secure time of life by manifesting behaviors displayed at that time such as childish and dependent behaviors. A married woman likes to sleep with bend over position and biting her nails when her husband gets mad to her.

CHAPTER III

RESEARCH FINDINGS

In this chapter, the writer analyzes the film based on these two questions,

“How is the character of Joy depicted in Room film?” and “How is Joy’s defense mechanisms seen in this film?” This corpus is divided into three parts. First, to analyze particular character of Joy in Room film. The analysis begins with examining her physical appearances, habits, and behaviors which can be seen from her direct statements, thoughts, dialogues, and interaction with other characters.

Second, to observe her structure of personality which are Id, Ego, and Superego.

The last, to analyze her defense mechanism. The writer would describe her defense mechanism by analyzing her words, her acts, and her psychological problems.

Furthermore, the writer explains deeper about her general characteristic, then analyzing the character using Freudian psychoanalysis theory.

1. The Analysis Character of Joy

Joy Newsome is the main character in Room film. She is a young mother

of five years old boy named Jack. She is obsessed to escape “room”, which she

lives in for seven years during the kidnapping. She desires to have a perfect

and normal life as other people have outside, since she only lives in a small

place which she considers as an abnormal life.

Living only with Jack in a narrow space insists her to become a good

mother who can protect her child from her kidnapper, Old Nick. She makes a

world inside “room” for Jack in order to have a normal life as people live outside. Joy realizes that she is the only one who Jack leans on to, so she needs to become tough for him. She is a calm woman. She never makes any change about how she responds to anything. She always restrains herself from getting angry since she does not want Jack’s brittle mental become worse when she is mad at him. She is so patient and never complains about anything in her life, even though Old Nick does not bring them vitamin she thanked him instead.

She always speaks in a low tone to Jack because she knows that Jack is only a little boy who does not adequately understand about what she really wants. She knows that her son’s mental is still developing and she needs to be patient to make her son understand.

Joy : Abracadabra! Jack : Now the candles! Joy : We don’t have any candles Jack : [moans] Joy : I know. Jack : You said a birthday cake, for real. That means candles on fire. Joy : Jack... It’s okay without the candles. It’s still a birthday cake. Jack : You should ask for candles for Sunday Treat, not dumb jeans. Joy : I’m sorry. You know, I have to ask for stuff that we really need, stuff that he can get easily. (00:06:00 – 00:06:30)

The conversation above shows the moment when Joy says sorry to Jack for the candle less cake. Jack shouts to Joy of his disappointment to his mother about the very first cake he had had no candle, he also blames Joy for her demand about jeans to Old Nick while she can ask for candle for him. Joy

knows very well that her son is still young and wants his wishes come true, so she only can sigh and make her son understand.

Picture 3.1.1 (00:03:25) Picture 3.1.2 (00:05:41)

The picture 3.1.1 shows her flat yet hopeless expression when she is tired to face her son. She always reminds herself that she lives only with her son and she can only repress all her bad emotion than to project it to her son. Moreover, her dull brown hair, her bare pale face and skin, and her plainness draw how her life goes on (Picture 3.1.2). How she dresses up by wearing small old and faded clothes and training pants supports her plainness.

Picture 3.1.3 (00:16:55)

From the very beginning, the film describes Joy as a loving mother. She loves Jack with all of her soul. She always does everything for her son’s happiness such as breastfeeding Jack in his quite old age, let him does everything, whether it is rolling on the bed or running from corner to corner while she does housework, telling a story and singing a song before sleep, caring about her son’s health, giving him education, and many more. Even, she cannot be mad at Jack when he comes out of the cupboard with his curiosity in the midnight. That makes Old Nick seeing him and choking Joy’s neck.

Instead, she shouts at Old Nick and prevents him from touching her son. It is all about her affection to protect her son. She cannot do anything to deny Old

Nick to sleep with her, but she feels pain in every moment with him. She cannot do anything since he will hit her without any doubt if she resists him. She did it once when she held the door to escape, but Old Nick tortured her by squeezing her fingers on the door. However, being raped every night becomes a habit of her life. Although she gets hurt by that, she is still fine.

There are moments when Joy cannot hold back her emotion, as she does not want to yell at Jack, but when she is tired of something she loses her control.

When Jack is crying, she suddenly realizes what she did and regrets it. It is all caused from her burden thoughts which she cannot express it. After the incident

Old Nick meets Jack, Joy makes a plan. They both need to escape “room” as soon as possible. She asks for Jack’s help to execute her plan by pretending sick and dead. Jack refuses to roll beneath a carpet and yell to her. She does not

want to see Jack crying like that, so they need to cooperate. Setting aside her feeling, she insists that Jack help her.

Jack : It might be my dog, Lucky. Joy : Jack we can’t have a dog. There’s not enough room… space… there’s not enough space, with the barking and the scratching. Jack : Lucky won’t scratch. He promises. Joy : There is no Lucky! Jack : Yes, there is! Joy : No, there’s not. You made him up in your head. He’s not real. Jack : [sobs] Joy : Jack, I’m sorry. Come here, come here, come here. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. You’re right. That wasn’t nice. (00:15:24 – 00:16:07)

As it is seen above, the pause pattern occurs when she decides the proper vocabulary to explain to her son. The stressing in “There is no Lucky!” emphasizes the reality of their condition. Her pitch rises when they are talking about the dog, but when her son cries, she suddenly changes her pitch to low.

In picture 3.1.7 below, Jack screams to Joy because he does not like to be rolled like that. Immediately, Joy hugs her son and chills him down. However, she does not cancel her plan due to her big desire of getting out of “room”.

“Anxiety is a psychological and physical response to treat a self-concept by subjective, consciously perceived feelings of tension” (Vitasari et al. 190).

It bothers someone’s feeling and impacts to mental and psychic health. Usually, anxiety felt when someone feels insecure of something to be faced. Joy’s real anxiety is about her son’s life. She is afraid that her son will not develop well in “room”. She wants her son to grow normally as other kids out there and have

a bright future with friends. Moreover, she also feels that the world is terrifying for her. When she is inside “room”, her anxiety is Old Nick presence and power, and Jack’s future. Then, when she is outside “room”, her anxiety is the environment.

When they both success to get out of the “room”, Joy becomes strange.

She does the opposite things as she did in “room”. She becomes an impatient mother. She is often mad at Jack for everything he does and also shouts at her mother. She always insists Jack to play with his new toys and stays away from her. She even denies her son’s desire to breastfeed. Her calmness vanishes. She refuses to socialize due to she feels awkward with the real world. She becomes lazy by only lying on her bed and having a bad daydream or fantasy as she is still in “room”. An alarm’s beep and door sound disturbing her mind. Joy no longer takes care about Jack, her mother, Jack’s grandma, does instead. She shuts the world away and keeps alone in her bedroom. She lacks of confident to face the world since she has a different story of life from the others.

She realizes that medicine given by doctor helps her to reduce the hallucination. She drinks pill to stop anything goes on her mind. She knows that the function of the medicine is to reduce her hallucination. By consuming the medicine, it proofs that she is weak. She cannot handle the hallucination and she takes a shortcut to stop it. Whereas, her body cannot receive the pills in big amount, so she faints in the bathroom and gets into the hospital. After she comes back home, she cries with Jack because she feels that she is not a good mother for her son. This is her weakness, afraid of failing as a mother.

Otherwise, Jack thinks that Joy is a good mother for him by telling her “But you’re Ma.”

Picture 3.1.4 (01:19:30)

Joy’s life inside and outside “room” is contradictory to her name. Literally,

Joy means happiness. Otherwise, her life is traumatic, unjoyful, and miserable instead. Why is she named Joy? If we see it from her parents’ perspective, her parents want her to have a happy long life because all parents want the best things for their children. It gains many conclusions in the end of the film from the audience. It aims the audience to have a full attention to the whole story with their early conclusion or it intentionally gives the contradiction meaning between her name and her life.

In conclusion, based on the characteristic above, Joy Newsome is depicted as a lover and calm with no dynamicity when she is inside “room”. But when she is in the real world, her characteristic changes into lazy and impatient.

Furthermore, being in the real world grows anxiety inside her by the coming sound within her head. Thus, defense mechanism overcomes this anxiety. But

before that, it is important to analyze her personality structure to consider what

Ego does over the domination between Id and Superego.

2. Joy’s Personality Structure

In the previous analysis, Joy is seen having psychological problems. She

is a loving mother, she looks taciturn, and she controls her emotion in a good

way to survive inside “room”. At the beginning, everything seems fine and

right in its place, but it changes as the film goes on. Her Superego and Id

struggle to obtain the dominant place. Then, when she lives outside “room”,

those problems are turning worse. She shuts the world to avoid interaction with

people and she becomes easily mad to people around her. The problems lead

to become the anxiety of her life in present time. Thus, those problems can be

understood by using psychoanalysis theory belongs to Freud, which is about

personality structure and defense mechanism.

Personality is “a configuration of cognitions, emotions, and habits which

are activated when situations stimulate their expression” (Triandis 908). It

consists of people’s emotion and habit of life. The habitual that people usually

do every day build personality and emotion also do the same function.

According to Freud, there are three structures of personality that present

in human’s mind which are Id, Ego, and Superego. Id presents at the same

moment human was born, the most natural form of human personality which

works based on the pleasure principle. It can be “understood as a demand to

take care of needs immediately” (Boeree 5). In other word, Id is chaos, a

cauldron full of seething excitation that demands immediate satisfaction without considering about the way to get what Id wants To fulfill Id wishes, there is Ego. Ego operates on reality principle, controls paths that need to take, chooses that needs to fulfill, and ways to fulfill it. This aspect can separate the wishes from the reality, tolerate stress, and compromise which can change as time passes. Ego functions to delay, to allow, or to postpone the satisfaction of

Id. The last structure of personality is Superego, which functions to lead the direction about right and wrong and in accordance with social value. Superego also contains the value of guilt and reward sense.

Normal people will have a balance of them three in which Id desire is controlled by Superego. While, Ego action does not only follow Id, but also follows Superego. Imbalance personality make people get guilty or never get guilty. If Superego is not working well because Id is the dominant one, it leads someone never get guilty. Otherwise, if Superego is dominant, someone will be always getting guilty. It happens to Joy’s case in which her Id wins. Her

Superego cannot control her Ego that follows what Id wants.

While Joy is inside “room”, Joy’s personality structure starts with

Superego dominating. As it has been explained above in Joy’s characterization, we can see that Joy controls her emotion in a good way until it unexpressed. It can be seen that Joy is taking a deep breath to explain to her son when he is mad at her about the candle on his birthday cake (Picture 3.2.1). She cannot shout out her real emotion to her son due to her son’s sake. She wants to be a good mother for her son. She does not want to make her son afraid of her.

Besides, she wants him to understand what was important in their condition at that time properly, not by force. Another example is when she faces Old Nick.

She is always being nice in front of him since she knows that Old Nick is more powerful than her. He will do any harm things to her if she rebels him. For instance, her hand impacted by the door when she tried to hold the door to get out of “room” by tricking Old Nick back then. Afterwards, she learns to stay still and does not beat Old Nick anymore.

Picture 3.2.1 (00:06:41)

Her Superego controls and muffles Id so that she looks like a normal mother at the beginning of the story. She realizes that Old Nick has the strongest power there, while she is just the weak person who cannot do anything. However, something has changed.

Joy really wants to get out of “room” because she becomes more stress as the time pass by. She is tired of being trapped. She is longing for anything out there. There is nothing she can do except live unpretentiously. Her desire to escape the “room” is so big that leads her to do anything but ends failure.

Then, when Jack grows older, she makes a plan with him. After a fight with

Old Nick one night when Old Nick met Jack for the first time, Joy grabs Old

Nick to prevent him touching Jack. However, Old Nick grabs her back and slams her to the bed. Then, he chokes Joy’s neck until she cannot breathe.

Since that incident, she makes a plan to get out of “room” because she cannot live any longer in that place. Additionally, she does not want to meet

Old Nick anymore. She is so tired of everything happened in her life for seven years. She wants to be free from Old Nick.

She wants to make Jack understand that there are two sides in everything and the reason they trapped in that place and cannot escape even a second

(Picture 3.2.1). Thus, Joy explains to Jack the truth about the world outside

“room” patiently. She tells the explanation slowly so Jack could understand everything since Jack is only a five-years-old boy which means he is too young to understand the complicated real world is. In picture 3.2.2, Joy shows that the outside world is real with the presence of the leaf that drops on their skylight.

Since Jack denies every fact that she gave, she forces him to listen every explanation that she told him at last (Picture 3.2.3).

Picture 3.2.2 (00:28:17) Picture 3.2.3 (00:30:12)

With her desire to escape from the “room” and Old Nick, she makes an action. Then, she plans to make Jack looks like he has a horrific fever, so that

Old Nick will bring him to the hospital. If Jack arrives at the hospital, Jack needs to give a letter she wrote to somebody out there to help them both. Jack screams when she put a hot fabric upon his face, but she needs to do this. On this occasion, it can be seen that the control of normative values, as thinking about her son’s condition that torture and be forced to do her plan, cannot control her desire to get out of “room”, so that the action that she does is everything that will fulfill her desire. Unfortunately, her plan is failed because

Old Nick does not bring Jack to the hospital. In this part, Joy seems does not have a balance personality structure by the Id always get what it wants and the

Superego that cannot hold the Ego to please the Id, different with the beginning of the film which Superego is dominating and muffling Id.

Picture 3.2.4 (01:37:50)

Nevertheless, she does not give up easily. This time, she makes another plan. This time, she demands Jack to play as if he were dead, so that Old Nick will bring his body out of “room” and put him at the back of his truck. She explains to Jack that he needs to unroll the carpet quickly and to jump at the first slow. Then, Jack needs to find somebody in order to ask for their help and to give them the letter she wrote. Before this plan work out, they trained how to roll and unroll the carpet repeatedly. Jack shouts to her mother that he hates her for letting him do this. Joy hugs him immediately and calms him down.

Actually, she worries about Jack to do this, but there is nothing she can do to make them safe but this. In this occasion, the control of normative values cannot control her desire, again. She worries, but does not want to stop this since this is the only hope for them to run away and to be free. Joy cannot control her desire so that she keeps on her plan due to her desire is dominating.

Even she needs to force her son.

Picture 3.2.5 (00:43:33) Picture 3.2.6 (00:43:44)

The real reason Joy desires to get out of “room” because she worries about her son’s future. She did this for her son’s sake. Truthfully, she does not

want to get out of “room” where she already gets used to live in. But, she needs to get out of “room” to save her son’s future.

When Joy is outside “room”, she feels something odd with her father’s behavior while they are home. Not even once her father, Robert, communicates with Jack in any chance. Joy feels that Robert is still cannot accept the existence of Jack in their family. Finally, she tells him her desire for Robert to accept

Jack, like what her mother does. In this part, the control of normative values cannot hold the Joy’s reaction. Joy asks Robert to speak and to look Jack in the eye, while the whole day he treats Jack as if he were invisible. Joy feels bothered by that, but Robert cannot fulfill Joy’s demand, as it is seen in Picture

3.2.10 when Robert only says sorry of Joy’s demand. At last, Joy takes Jack to her bedroom forcedly as she would like to stay away from the dining “room” as soon as possible. She feels disappointed by her father’s treatment towards her son and she thinks that her life could be worse than she expected.

Picture 3.2.7 (01:16:42)

Joy’s next desire is she wants Jack to interact with his new world, not only trapped with his usual activity in “room” that only watches TV. Now, Jack

has new toys, neighbors, and grandmother who he can ask to play with. Joy pulls Jack back to come down the stairs to play with his new toys. She forcibly puts Jack sit down in front of his toys and shows him how to play with it. This desire is fulfilled. Jack tries to play with the toys in front of her after getting his mother angry with him. Her desire closes her heart-eyes about Jack that feeling hurt by her reaction. Superego cannot control Ego for fulfilling Id’s desire because there are no rules around her like she was in “room”. She thinks that she has the power to reveal her real emotion now.

Picture 3.2.8 (01:24:32)

Joy unusually shows her real emotion to other people, including Leo, her mother’s life companion. She never complains about him, yet she does not like the fact that her mother is having another man who is replacing her father’s place. Then, she is shutting the world away and being alone in her bedroom.

She feels tired of the world which is way too out of her expectation. This is the proof that her Id rebels against Superego to become dominant. Her Id rebels to

be fulfilled and replaces Superego place by showing her dislike about her

mother’s life. Then when she keeps herself alone, her Id is dominating.

In short, when Joy is inside “room”, her Superego is dominating at the

beginning of the story because she will receive the punishment of her act right

after she did a mistake, but it changes. Her Id is more dominant in the middle

of the film when she tries to escape from “room”. Meanwhile, when she is

outside of “room” her Id is more dominant since the punishment will not

receive immediately. Id or Superego is not always dominant. There are symbol

stands for Joy’s Superego. Old Nick is Joy’s Superego when she is inside

“room”. It is so hard to fulfill her desire at the time because the condition is not

supported. Then, society is her Superego when she is outside “room”. It leads

to defending herself with negative mechanisms. She insists her desire to be

fulfilled and ignores her sensitive emotions about her surroundings, even the

rules. Moreover, defense mechanisms that she used to overcome her anxiety

will be explained in the next explanation.

3. Joy’s Defense Mechanisms

In this film, the writer found several types of defense mechanisms that

have been used by Joy Newsome, which are projection, repression, regression,

intellectualization, rationalization and denial. The writer will analyze Joy’s

psychological problem.

The tendency to avoid painful, harmful, and unpleasant scenarios is a

fundamental defensive strategy (Bowins 159). Every person does not want to

feel pain nor harm, so they will do something to avoid those feelings because everyone wants to feel happy and safe. “When anxiety becomes too irresistible, it is then the turn of the individual’s ego to employ defense mechanisms to protect the self from unacceptable thoughts, impulses, or wishes” (Rishipal 47).

Everyone may have anxiety about something, but when someone has too much anxiety of something or several things it will lead them to take an action to overcome the anxieties.

The writer sees that inside “room”, Joy’s anxiety and depression still can be overcome by Jack’s presence for Jack sake so that she only uses positive mechanisms. She still holds herself from being insane for Jack since she thought that Jack only has her for the rest of his life, so that Joy needs to be a normal mother for Jack. Metaphorically, Jack is the sun of Joy’s orbit. Her life is devoted to him. Jack is everything for her. He is like the control of her actions.

She respects Jack as she respects her father. Her honor and her love to her fathers she pours to Jack.

Every human has life and death instinct. Life instinct is “the life of the individual, by motivating him or her to seek food and water” (Boeree 6). It makes human catch for their pleasure to live well. This also called libido.

Moreover, life has a goal. It has an end which is death. This kind of goal named death instinct. Freud believes that every person has an unconscious wish to die”

(Boeree 7). Every human have problems of their own life which feel painful, tiring, and exhausting. Sometimes, people wish to die to end their suffering because they think death promises that those problems will release. Joy’s life

instinct is saving her son’s life, while her death instinct is hostile her parents to defense herself from disappointment of her parents’ divorce.

Intellectualization is one way for the Ego to handle threatening material and to remove the emotional content from the idea. By testing the idea in a harshly logical, unemotional behavior, some feelings can be brought into

“consciousness” or permitted to stay in “consciousness” without fear (Burger

62). This is a process to self-defense by learning and finding out the problem in order to be uninvolved further. Joy can handle her problem and anxiety during she is inside “room” due to the presence of Jack and their survival life. She handles the threatening and permits some act to stay. The threatening that surrounds her for years is Old Nick’s power to hide her, to abduct her, and to control her. She is powerless inside “room” compared with Old Nick.

Moreover, she is also afraid that her son will never have any knowledge. Then she acts well to Old Nick. She is not making any trouble to him since she has gotten the punishment of her bad act. Above all, she concerns about her son’s safety and life. It can be seen that she is afraid that her son will never have a better life because they are trapped in “room”, but she makes a move by teaching him to read and to know several things about the world. She does not want her son to be left in education. Her fear cut off by her act. She also asks her son to help her in household work such as cooking or laundering.

Picture 3.3.1 (00:25:23)

Besides, Joy is also using denial as her mechanism. Denial is a defense of refusing to admit something unpleasant is happening or “a form of refusing to accept the reality of a situation” (Snowden 110). Joy denies the fact that Jack is her son with Old Nick. She hides Jack so that Old Nick never sees his face.

She always puts Jack in the wardrobe at night when Old Nick comes. Then, she puts him back to bed when Old Nick is out. She never tells Jack anything about

Old Nick and vice versa. She denies the fact that Old Nick is Jack’s biological father, which reminds her of her unlucky life as an abducted girl for years. She only accepts Jack’s presence and pushes aside that horrific fact about Jack’s biological father. The more she admits it, the more she feels terrible about her life.

Old Nick : Oh, hey sonny! Jack : [screams] Joy : Get away from him! Don’t touch him! Don’t touch him! Old Nick : Fuck! Joy : Don’t touch him! Old Nick : Quit the noise! Quit the noise. Quit the noise. Do you want to breathe? Yeah? Do you want to breathe? Then shut the fuck up. God! Fuck. Joy : Don’t touch him.

Old Nick : Fuck. If you ever touch me like that again, if you grab me like that, I’ll fucking kill you. Do you understand? Joy : Don’t touch him. Old Nick : Yeah. Don’t forget where you got him. (00:23:27 – 00:24:05)

On the contrary, when they both get out of the “room”, the problems come for both of them. Specifically for Joy, it triggers her depression appear to the surface when she faces the world she had left for seven years. Joy thinks that getting out of “room” will make her happy, but that is not happening.

Actually, Joy’s life is inside “room”. She has been living in “room” for seven years and she gets used to what was happening there. Seven years in “room”,

Joy has already adapted herself with the situation. Even though she experiences uncomfortable situation but, for her, it is a cycle or ‘normal’ condition at last.

Her life instinct as a mother (wants to continue life) forces her to save her son’s life. She needs to escape from the “room” to make sure that her son gets a normal life. Become a part of the real world again makes she feels unsecure due to she needs to adjust herself again.

Joy is also using denial outside “room”. It is seen when the reporter comes to the house and interviews Joy, when she avoids outsider, and when she comes to visit “room” for the last time.

Joy looks stressed with her own thought after the interview. The reporter asked ‘Was this the best thing to keep Jack when he was born than to leave him in the hospital and let Jack had a normal childhood, not in “room”, but Joy thinks Jack has her and that is the only matter for both of them. But still, that

question bothers her. She never thought to leave Jack nor put him away. They have each other and will always together, no matter what. Joy does not care about the world as long as Jack is always with her. Although the reporter’s words give another burden to her, she still believes that Jack is better by her side than in any other place. She refuses the reporter’s words which said Jack is better in the hospital or any other place, but not in “room”. As a mother, she knows what the best thing for her son than another person. Jack is her son, only hers, and only her who understand him. What actually bothers her is the fact that what if the reporter’s words are right? This occasion makes her become more stress and hard thoughtful.

Picture 3.3.2 (01:31:28) Picture 3.3.3 (01:31:33)

Joy seems to shut the people out of her surroundings after her father’s denial of Jack’s presence. Robert reaction may hurt Joy, who imagines that her parents would welcome her and her son warmly once them back home, but it all vanishes. The writer finds that Joy may do that because she feels guilty about her parents’ divorce. She thinks that her parents’ divorce caused by her kidnapping. That is why she acts like she avoids the world and embraces her sadness.

“Jack, can we go?”

Joy feels unsafe and hurt when she and Jack back to “room” for a visit by Jack’s demand. But Joy only stands at the door as she does not want to get in. She is just watching Jack exploring “room”. Those words reflect that Joy cannot receive any burden more by bad memories. If she gets in, all those memories will appear and hurt her more than she can receive. She asks Jack to get out of “room” with a frown on her forehead. Joy does not want to remember that she had lived there for seven years with all the misery she felt. Going back to “room” only reminds her to those bad memories and she does not want her struggle to be normal and to forget those memories lose in vain. She cannot even say goodbye to “room” as Jack demand her to do. She only whispers it unsound to “room” then left “room” with no burden on her shoulder, leaves her past behind

In this film, the writer also found that Joy is projecting her anxiety to another thing that unthreatening for her. Projection is “By repressing awareness of his own undesirable characteristics and projecting them onto others, the individual alleviates his feelings of inadequacy or guilt and avoid recognition of certain of his own deep feelings” (Silverman 349). Joy regrets her nice behavior that her mother always said to her, in this case is to be nice to a stranger. If she did not do that, she would not trap by Old Nick who asked her to help his fake sick dog and her life would not be mess like this. In picture

3.3.4, we can see that Joy is yelling to her mother and confessing that she regrets to be a nice girl, so that she could easily be tricked by a stranger who

kidnaps her for seven years. From this proof, the writer sees it as a projection of defense mechanism because Joy is the one who acts nice behavior to the stranger and she blames her mother for her mistake. When she blames her mother, the writer sees her projecting her mistake to reduce her anxiety of being trapped and all those bad memories in the “room”. For Joy, blaming herself is terrifying. That is why she projects her anxiety to her mother who is less threatening for her because she is disappointing about her parents’ divorce. She sees her mother has found a new man that replaces her father’s place. Joy sees it as her mother’s fault. Overall, she knows that the kidnapping is her fault of being unaware of the stranger. Joy regrets her nice behavior that her mother always told her to. If she did not do that, her life would not be mess like this.

Picture 3.3.4 (01:26:55)

Joy thinks that her mother’s life is fine without her and she knows there is something wrong with her. She keeps being stress all the time and being mad as she shouts at everyone. She denies that not only her who life was destroyed, so she tells her mother that her mother’s life seems fine without her as she sees that after her mother divorced with her father, her mother now has a guy named

Leo live with her. For her, that means that she is very fine and has a good life while she was struggling to survive in a narrow place. She thinks that her mother never cares about her, especially when she had gone without any trail.

The truth is her mother’s life was also destroyed when she lost Joy as her one and only daughter for seven years and found her with a child whom is her grandson. However, Joy seems like she closes her eyes to the fact and accuses her mother like that. These are because she projects her fear about her life ahead to her mother’s life. At this point, Joy is using denial and projection as her mechanism coincidentally by denying the fact that not only her life was destroyed and project her guilty feeling to her mother.

Picture 3.3.5 (01:26:24)

Regression is when human had through all the developmental stages.

They will get back to their previous stage or their very first stage when they feel anxiety or discomfort. The individual returns to this more secure time of life by manifesting behaviors displayed at that time such as childish and dependent behaviors. In this part, Joy seems using regression as her mechanism. The writer found it when she is inside “room” as she always

wanted to run off and lived in the real world in which far from the “room”.

However, when she gets out, she cannot adjust herself in the real world and shut herself out of the world. She supposed to be happy because she success to get out of “room”. In fact, she feels reverse. As time pass by, she feels unsafe and uncomfortable with the world she lives in. Everything seems wrong for her. The entire burden on her shoulder from the past would not vanish easily.

Those bad memories still haunt her even she is safe now, but she never feels fine at all. Actually, she knows that something is wrong with her, not her surroundings. But, sometimes she will blame anyone near her to reduce her anxiety of knowing that she is the one who is wrong. Her unhappiness is also a part of her anxiety of being a part of the world again. Furthermore, she usually bends over on the bed when she sleeps and likes biting her nail while she blanks. She likes to sleep in her bedroom and does not want to interact with people because she thinks that when she is asleep, she would not face the reality. The reason she does not want to interact with other people because she does not really want to get out of “room”. She already gets used to be alone and interact only with her son and her kidnapper. Being in the bedroom, bend over on her bed is comforting for her just like when she was in the womb. The bedroom, which separates her from the world that threatening her, is a symbol of the womb where a fetus is protected from any harm. Moreover, her sleeping position is similar to a fetus position in a womb. Her condition is a form of defense mechanism where she regresses to a situation which comforts her and protects her from any harm.

In addition, “room” is also a symbol of womb where Joy feels comfort when she was inside “room”. She has been living in “room” for seven years and she gets used to it. Everything she does in “room” become habits so that leaving those habits behind to have a new life outside “room” is threatening for her. That is why she feels uncomfortable with the society. Lying on the bed with bend over position is also a symbol that she regresses to her previous moments in “room”.

Picture 3.3.6 (01:25:45)

Repression is the unconscious, although active, withdrawal of certain painful or self-injuries thoughts or feelings (Silverman 347). The writer found several events when Joy is using this kind of mechanism. When Dr. Mittal comes to check Joy and Jack’s condition, when she drinks sleeping pill to reduce her hallucinations, and when she easily gets mad with something disturbs her.

When Dr. Mittal comes to see how Joy and Jack doing after ten days at home, Joy doesn’t want to meet him. Instead she only lay on her bed upstairs.

She does not want to remember her past in “room” through meeting Dr. Mittal

and other people. Dr. Mittal does the visit to see how Jack and Joy develop and adapt their selves in new, yet old, environment because he knows that Joy neither Jack cannot go to the hospital at that time. But, Joy refuses to meet him when Dr. Mittal is meeting with Jack downstairs as he is watching Jack draw a picture on the paper. The writer sees that Joy refuses to meet Dr. Mittal because she does not want to talk anything about her past in “room” nor consult about her anxiety of all those memories.

Joy vomits in the bathroom and be found by Jack in the middle night. Joy is fainted with the vomit around her mouth and eyes rolling up. The writer sees that Joy is poisoned since she consumes many medicines that the doctor gave to help her sleep. In the midnight, Joy cannot sleep and go to the bathroom to consume the medicine that brings her to sleep after so many thoughts in her head which disturbs her sleep. But on the occasion, she consumes too much which drives her to faint.

In her sleep, she keeps dreaming there are the sounds of the door open and alarm beeping, just like when she is in “room”. She really hates those memories, so she really wants to be at peace. Yet, Jack comes to her bedroom and watches cartoon which triggers her bad memories with its sound. Suddenly, she gets mad. She is trying to forget those memories, but Jack comes up with those similar sounds. In psychoanalysis, sleep is a condition where what is being repressed appear in the mind due to Ego weaken. That is why all those sounds appear in her mind while she is asleep since Ego cannot control Id or

Superego.

Picture 3.3.7 (01:24:08)

Joy is also using rationalization as her mechanism and it has excuses.

Rationalization is involved rational reason of the act when the real reason is unacceptable. Why does she regret to behave as a good person to people as her mother taught so? Why does she do it as problem after she come out of “room”?

When she traps in “room”, she always tells her son how her family like. There are her mother and father who wait for her to come back home. A complete family that she knows this whole time. But, when she gets out of “room” and sees that her parents have divorced, she feels so disappointed. Moreover, she finds that her mother has had another man who replaces her father’s place in their home. A happy family that she imagines this whole time is ruined. Due to her disappointment, she is angry with her mother for borrowing her cell phone to Jack and it triggers her to blame her mother over her nice behavior of helping people. This rationalization that Joy used is a form of defending herself of being disappointed of her mother, which cannot be accepted, so she finds another reason to defend.

Joy : Right, well, I wasn’t always in room. I’m like Alice. I was a little girl named Joy.

Jack : Nah! Joy : And I live in a house with my mom and my dad. You would call them grandma and grandpa. Jack : What house? Joy : A house. It was in the world. And there was a backyard, and we had a hammock, and we would swing in the hammock, and we could eat ice cream. Jack : A TV house? Joy : No, Jack, a real house. Not TV. Do you even listening to me? When I was a little older, when I was 17. I was walking home from school— Jack : Where was I? Joy : You were still up in heaven. But there was a guy. He pretended that his dog was sick. Jack : What guy? Joy : Old Nick. We call him “Old Nick.” I don’t know his real name is. But he pretended his dog was sick Jack : What’s the dog’s name? Joy : Jack, there wasn’t a dog. He was trying to trick me,okay? There wasn’t a dog. Old Nick stole me. Jack : I want a different story! Joy : No! This is the story that you get. He put me in his garden shed. Here. Room is the shed. He’s lock the door. He’s the only one who knows the code. You know the secret numbers that open the door? He’s the only one that knows, and I’ve been locked in here for seven years. I’ve been here for seven years. Do you understand? (00:29:16 – 00:30:31)

The proof above is Joy’s latest memories of a harmonious and happy family. She thinks that if her mother does not have a new man in her life, their family would get back together as it was before. This makes her sad and angry about the condition. In fact, this is her mistake of being abducted which makes her parent divorced is unbearable for her. She cannot accept the fact that this is her mistake. The rational reason of this is blaming her mother.

At the end of the film, Joy is seen lying in the hammock with her son, cuddling with bend position. It depicts as if she feels comfort with her new

environment, as if she succeed to face her problems although we know that traumatic is hard to release. She had met Dr. Mittal as her psychiatrist at the hospital to talk about her problems and to reduce her anxieties. As she was in

“room”, she gets used to the condition and become comfort so that her anxieties reduce.

In brief, Joy is using six types of defense mechanism that belongs to

Freud. They are projection, rationalization, regression, repression, intellectualization and denial. She is using intellectualization and denial when she was inside “room”. Moreover, she is using repression, denial, projection, regression and rationalization when she is outside “room”. She uses all of those mechanisms to overcome her anxieties of being a person who comes back to the real world and cannot adjust herself. The reason she is using negative mechanisms outside and using positive mechanisms inside “room” because

Jack is her filter superego. She can handle her emotion with Jack beside her.

When she was in “room”, Jack always there with her. He never is out of her sight. Everything she does, Jack watches so that she controls her move. But when she is outside “room”, Jack is out of her sight. The home they live in is much bigger than “room”, and Jack is not always with her. She feels abandoned and more unsecure of being in the world. That is why she more uses negative mechanisms when she is outside “room”. Finally, Joy is successful to overcome her anxieties through those mechanisms and lives well with her family since she isolates herself by experiencing the feeling as she was lived in “room”. She is successful to deal with her past and the society.

CHAPTER IV

CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION

A. Conclusion

Room is a film that adapted on a novel with the same title, written by Emma

Donoghue and directed by Lenny Abrahamson. This film released on October 2015 in Canada. The writer analyzes the main character of Room film, Joy Newsome, to understand her character and her problem through personality structure. Moreover, the writer examines the main character’s psychological problem through defense mechanism to reveal her anxiety of being temperamental. This psychological theory that used here belongs to Freud.

According to data analysis that explained in the previous chapter, the writer can conclude that the analysis of character leads to some characteristics of her psychological condition. Joy is a loving mother, who will do anything for her son’s sake, she is calm with no dynamicity, and she has unstable emotion. Her nice characterization while she was in “room” changes into bad when she is outside

“room”. She becomes lazy and impatient. It is influenced by the environment that not suitable for her and her mind that mess up.

Furthermore, Joy Newsome’s personality structure is an imbalance between her desire and her value control, so her action will do as her wish because of all her burdens for seven years of being trapped in a narrow place. Superego is dominating at the beginning of the story, and then turns into the domination of Id. Even when she’s out of “room”, her personality structure is still imbalance due to her bad

memories of “room” which makes Id dominating. Those bad memories lead her to be more stress. Several people stand as a symbol for Joy such as Jack and Old Nick.

Therefore, her personality structure is imbalance and it results in anxiety. Then, she overcomes it into being temperamental and isolates herself from other people.

The main character of the film, Joy Newsome, looks stress of facing a new environment after getting out of “room”. The “room” is a place that symbolizes her habitual life after adjusting herself for seven years. Joy cannot fully express her feeling and emotion due to her son’s sake, so she learns to act as everything is fine.

She uses defense mechanisms to heal herself by defending herself from anxieties in order not to appear to the surface. The mechanisms that she used to make her survive outside “room”, and she got used to the condition as she was in “room”.

B. Suggestion

The writer suggests the readers who interest in this film to analyze it with different theories in order to find another aspect except psychology. But before that, make sure the readers understand it well. The writer presumes that it needs a deep understanding and concerning to use psychoanalysis theory. Besides, other theories and views are great to analyze this film. The writer hopes this research could give a contribution and information to the student of the English Letters Department who wants to analyze character of the film using Psychoanalysis theory by Sigmund

Freud, especially about personality structure and defense mechanism. Moreover, the writer recommends the readers to discover the psychological aspects in other films.

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APPENDIX

Room Film Poster