Leshaya’s Pursuit of the meaning of life in Han Nolan’s Born Blue

ABSTRACT

Existential psychology analyzes human as a dynamic subject which underlined by concept of motivation and concept of freedom rather than as objects or passive objects. One of existential psychology theory which is often discussed and the most well known is Logotherapy. Logotherapy theory is a theory brought by Victor Frankl, studying about the meaning of life.

Born Blue is a novel consists of hard-hitting story of a girl named Leshaya. She has revolved foster homes, experienced physical abuse, an unwanted pregnancy, etc. After all she has experienced in her teen-age and born a child, she is aware that she needs to have a better and meaningful life for her baby and herself. The reason of taking this title is because the novel contains existential dynamic and the researcher is interested in analyzing this novel based on Existential Psychology theory, Logotherapy.

The research questions are (1) how does Leshaya experience existential dynamics in her life? (2) How is Leshaya’s pursuit of the meaning of life in her existential condition? The objectives of this research are to find how Leshaya experiences existential dynamics in her life and to describe Leshaya’s pursuit of the meaning of life in her existential condition.

The researcher uses psychological approach with existential psychology theory, Logoterapy. This theory is used due to revealing anything about human’s search for meaning and meaningful life, especially in the main character of Born Blue novel, Leshaya.

The results in this research are (1) Leshaya experiences the element of tragic triad which becomes the characteristic of existential dynamics. Those elements are suffering, guilt, and death. Leshaya experiences many suffering, guilt, and death in her life which have been the process of finding the meaningful life (2) Leshaya find her meaningful life in her existential condition through the creative values, the experimental values, and the attitudinal values which are mentioned as the sources of meaningful life or the way to find the meaning of life in logotherapy.