A Psychological analysis on The Main Characters of John Grisham “The Testament”

ABSTRACT

People like reading literature either for entertainment or for knowledge. By reading literature, they can broaden understanding of life. Literary works also gives so many useful values and messages and give contribution to build up sensitivity to the environment. One form of literary works is novel that often tries to reflect human like by portraying the soul and the inner mind of the characters in novel. Moreover in our society there is the belief that novel is a slice of life, because it tells about real people and resemble real life as much as possible,

Testament novel contains special conflicts that the main characters face. The conflicts experienced by the characters are reflection of human’s problems in real life. Related to this case, the problem of the study can be formulated: (1) Who are dominated characters in The Testament novel and (2) How are the psychological aspect of the main characters expressed in that novel. Then, the purpose of that study are to analyze the dominated characters in Testament novel and to describe the psychological aspects expressed on the main characters in Testament novel.

To conduct this study, qualitative research was used to review literary research dealing with the research question of study, it used also the objective approach of psychological aspect to deepen the analysis of this research.

In Testament novel there are three main characters. They are ; Troy Phelan, Nate O’Riley, Rachel Lane as round characters whereas others as flat characters. The main characters who dominated in Testament had experienced the Double-Avoidant, Adient-Avoidant Conflict, Double-Adient Conflict. Unsolved conflict they face can produce anxiety, mental disorder, and psychology illness.

In this study, the writer analyzed the novel based on extrinsic aspects especially on psychology aspects. There are many fields that can be investigated in the novel ; symbolism, diction, style of language, imagery, and so on. However, it is - hoped that this study can be used as references for further researchers.