NARRATORAoS XENOPHOBIA AS SEEN ON THE CALL OF CTHULU BY P LOVECRAFT: PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH Muhammad Alif Faturrachman Universitas Bangka Belitung.
Sungailiat.
Indonesia alifauditore@gmail.
ABSTRACT
This study titled Narrator Xenophobia as seen in The Call of Cthulu by P Lovecraft: A Psychological Approach is a psychoanalytical analysis of Howard Phillips LovecraftAos The Call of Cthulu .
, the study aimed to identify the personality of Francis Wayland Thurston, the main narrator of the story, xenophobia and self-defense mechanism issues and also figure out the characterization of this character.
As a literary research, this study utilized the use of psychoanalytic criticism by Sigmund Freud as the analytical tool and also the concept of selfdefense mechanism proposed by Berger.
In addition, this study utilized the descriptive qualitative research method, where the writer read the short story thoroughly to obtain the data needed for the discussion.
The finding of this research is that the character of Francis Wayland Thurston does has some issues with xenophobia which causes him to utilized the self-defense mechanism needed to ensure his safety.
Therefore, the writer concluded that Francis Wayland Thurston in this short story does represent the characteristic of a xenophobic person.
Keywords:
Narrator Xenophobia.
Psychological self-defense Introduction (Calibri 14 bol.
Being a part of human history along with the development of human languages, literature cannot be separated from many other fields of study.
Moreover, intertwined with many other fields such as sociology, history, philosophy, psychology, and many other fields (Goksen, 2.
Therefore, through those complex relations, it is possible to correlate literature criticism with other fields wherein languages are being used as the primary medium of those fields of In addition to the relationship between literature and other fields such as psychology through the use of languages, it is also acknowledged that on one of the most general level, most literature portrays people engaging in social interactions.
Thus, literature gives an image of society in words just as the bathroom mirror gives a reflected visual image of ourselves (Wofford, 2.
Therefore, since literature does represent Page | 1 human and society, it is able to be criticized using the psychology In order to gain a better psychology relation.
Wellek and Warren .
in the Theory of Literature stated that psychology of literature means the psychological study of the writer as type and individual, or the study of creative process or study of psychological types and laws present within work of literature, or finally the effect of literature upon the readers .
udience psycholog.
Therefore, based on Wellek and WarrenAos statement, the psychological perspective could be applied to analyze the psychological aspects of the writer, the character within the literary works, and also the readers of the works.
As the result, this definition strengthens the claim that both literature and psychology are related to each other as it reflect human life such as the way it described human feeling, imagination, thought, and views through the mean of written narration.
Albeit the matter of whether the said literature is a fiction or non-fiction works, it does reflects on human and society psychology as a whole personal or collective mind within the literary works that can be studied through the psychoanalytic criticism theory based on many psychoanalysis methods such as the FreudAos psychoanalysis method.
The Call of Cthulu is a short story written by an American author Howard Phillips Lovecraft which also known as P Lovecraft.
It was first published in Weird Tales magazine in 1928 and became the most notable short story by P Lovecraft that set the creation of the Lovecraftian genre, the Cosmicism philosophy, and the Cthulu mythos in modern days.
The Call of Cthulu story revolves on a man named Francis Wayland Thurston which discovers several old notes belong to his late Unbeknownst to him, these notes led him to discovers a grand conspiracy involving an ancient oceanic entity and its secret cults.
P Lovecraft introduce his early work with his own style of narration involving fear in form of phobia which related to human world.
Phobia has an effect of overwhelming and unreasonable fear toward an object that provokes anxiety and avoidance (Fritscher, 2.
It also has a long-lasting effect that causes intense physical and psychological reactions, that can affect human abillity to function normaly.
Moreover, there are several type of phobias that exist in the world, and one of the most unique phobia is known as the Xenophobia.
Xenophobia derives from the Greek words xynos, meaning 'the stranger' or 'the unknown' and phybos, meaning 'fear'.
In order to cope with their phobia, human tend to apply the self-defense mechanism in their daily behavior to avoid knowing what they feel they cannot handle.
In addition, phobia is said to be a result of the unresolved conflicts between the id and the superego within human mind, therefore, the ego forced to please both side by applying the selfdefense mechanism called repression and This research intends to analyze the psychology of Francis Wayland Thurston as the narrator of the story, by the mean of using psychoanalytic literary criticism theory based on Sigmund Freud psychoanalysis theory as an approach and using the Qualitative research Furthermore, it also aims to Page | 2 analyze the characterization and a AuXenophobiaAy also known as the fear of the unknown/stranger on the character of Francis Wayland Thurston on The Call of Cthulu short story.
This research also employ the theory of self-defense mechanism, in order to analyze the proofs of Francis xenophobic behavior through his psychological self-defense Selective Selective memory.
Displacement.
Projection.
Regression.
Ambivalence.
Fixation.
Identification.
Rationalization.
Reaction Repression.
and Supression (Berger, 2.
Literature Review Psychoanalysis The concept of psychoanalysis was initially proposed by Sigmund Freud .
and also initially used as a method of therapy medication.
Freud began his psychoanalytic work in the 1880s while treating his patient that suffers from behavioral disorder.
He nicknamed the behavior disorders as 'hysteria' and began treating the victim of hysteria by listening to the patients talk through their Based on this experiment.
Freud proclaims that people's behavior is influenced by their unconscious as he believes that human beings are motivated, even driven, by their desires, fears, needs, and conflicts of which they are unaware (Tyson, 2.
In addition, according to Freud, human personality is complex and consists of more than a single component.
In his well-known theory of personality Freud stated that human mind is divided into three components which he refers to as Authe physic apparatusAy (Freud, 1.
The first component in Freud theory is known as the Id, this component resides within our unconscious mind from the time of our birth.
this aspect of personality is completely unconscious and includes the basic instinct and The component is widely known as the Ego, this component also lives within our mind, specifically our conscious mind and acts as the one responsible for our behavior to deal with the reality around Freud also stated that this part is also developed from the Id and responsible to repress the Id in order to follow the acceptable manners and norms in reality.
While the last one is known as the Superego, this component presents within our mind, specifically on our unconscious mind.
Superego is the aspect of personality that holds all of our internal moral standards and the ideal that we receive from both parents and the society present that developed our sense of right or wrong that guides us in judgments making.
(Cherry, 2.
Therefore, these concepts of human psychology components work together to create complex human behaviors that led to the creation of Psychoanalytic Criticism theory as a tool to analyze the psychology within the literary works based on FreudAos psychoanalysis theory.
While, the essential concept about psychoanalysis is quoted in a short article for inclusion in an encyclopedia that is stated by Sigmund Freud .
n Charter, 2006: .
Under the heading The Corner-Stones of Psychoanalytic Theory: AoThe unconscious mental processes, the Page | 3 recognition of the theory of resistance and repression, the appreciation of the importance of sexuality and of the Oedipus Complex Aethese constitute the principal subject-matter of psychoanalysis and the foundations of its theory.
No one who cannot accept them should count himself a psychoanalystAo Indeed.
Sigmund Freud has formulates the concepts of psychoanalysis theory which relates to human psyche as pessimistic view of human nature, he emphasis on nature biological forces, early experiences shape personality .
, and universal developmental stages.
The Call of Cthulu case relates with one of basic concepts relates Aouniversal developmental stagesAo, it means that what at some point of the narrator life, he gain a traumatic experience that causes him to fear the unknown as it fear itself is supposed to be a universal In other words, according to Freud, he formulated in 1916 on the very idea of He quotes:
We apply the term AotraumaticAo to an experience which within a short period of time presents the mind with an increase of stimulus too powerful to be dealt with or worked off in the normal way, and this must result in permanent disturbances of the manner in which the energy operates (Freud, 1916:
Freud explanation about trauma explains that not only trauma relates to the causes but it also explains about the effects of trauma itself which result in producing anxiety in a person mind, in this case, it cause anxiety in the narrator mind that led him to become a xenophobic person and employ the selfdefense mechanism in order to reduce his anxiety.
Anxiety According to Asch, anxiety is always characterized by a feeling of helplessness, a disjunctive force.
This is due to the fact that the danger is within, and its nature is not known since the original threat was deal with repression and further and often the anxiety rises out of a conflict of a defense system, which cannot be resolved by simple means .
4: .
Meanwhile, there are three types of anxiety, they are neurotic anxiety, moral anxiety and realistic anxiety.
C Neurotic anxiety is defined as apprehension about an unknown In neurotic anxiety, the ego depends on id because it can only produce anxiety (Freud, 1964: .
C In moral anxiety, the ego depends on So, the dependence of ego causes a conflict between ego and superego that can produce anxiety.
is about the conflict between realistic needs and the dictates of their superego after children establish a superego (Freud, 1964: .
C Realistic anxiety, the ego depends on the outer world in neurotic anxiety.
The outer world leads the ego to realistic anxiety.
Realistic anxiety is closely related to fear.
But, they are In fear, the object is specific.
However, in realistic anxiety, the object does not involve a specific It is only an unpleasant feeling involving possible danger (Freud, 1964: .
In addition to this research, the researcher use the concept of defense mechanism by Sigmund Freud that has been elaborated by Berger .
as a Page | 4 further discussion of psychoanalysis The idea of defense mechanism was firstly introduced by Sigmund Freud who states that:
AuA defense against an unwelcome internal process will be modeled upon the defense adopted against an external stimulus that the ego wards of internal and external dangers alike along identical lines.
In the case of external danger the organism has recourse to attempt at flight (Freud, 1964: .
Ay In short, defense mechanism is used by a person to avoid the undesirable feeling, in this case, it might be the feeling of anxiety.
In result, that particular person does employ the selfdefense mechanism in order to cover their undesirable feeling in front of other Furthermore, the defense mechanism that was proposed by Freud in 1964 has been elaborated and divided into some forms like: repression, fixation, rationalization, displacement, and etc (Berger, 2.
In each forms, these have their own mechanisms that concern with their own problem related to people Self-Defense Mechanisms Berger's 2004 study .
s cited in Pangestu & Sunardi, 2.
wrote that self-defenses mechanisms that could be employed by a person, which include:
C Selective perception: an act where a person only chooses to hear and see no other than what they wanted to C Selective memory: an act when a person modifies their own memories by only remembering their past memories and forgetting their negative experiences or Denial or disavowal: an act when a person does not believe or admit some aspects of reality and refuse to do so.
Avoidance: an act when a person chooses to keep their distance from people or situations that are possible to cause anxiety from the unconscious state of mind.
Displacement: an act when a person tends to vent on another person or something less threatening than the person or the thing that caused fear, anxiety, frustration, or anger to Projection: an act when a person ascribes the fear, problem, or guilty desire that they actually felt to condemning them for it, in order to deny that they have it themselves.
Regression: an act when a person returns temporarily to their past psychological state, which is not just imagined but relived to their Ambivalence: an act when a person has a simultaneous feeling of love and hate or attraction and repulsion toward the same person or object.
Fixation: an act when a person has an obsessive preoccupation or attachment toward other things.
Identification: an act when a person addicted to a desire of becoming similar to someone or something else in some aspect of thought, value, or behavior.
Rationalization: an act when a person creates or proposed their Page | 5 own logical reasons or excuses for behavior generated by unconscious and irrational determinants.
C Reaction formation: an act when someone has a pair of opposite attitudes that generate problems, so one attitude is suppressed and kept unconscious by overemphasis on the other .
t's opposit.
, although it does not disappear completely from the C Repression: this act refers to repression of several aspects in consciousness such as ideas, feelings, thoughts, fantasies, and memories.
C Suppression: an act when a person deliberately sets aside the part of their mind and consciousness that they find something that might hurt them or cause fear and anxiety to Concerning those concepts of psychoanalysis theory and self-defense mechanims, this research will apply psychoanalysis theory as the foundation of analyzing xenophobia and self-defense mechanisms in The Call of Cthulu short story and it also describes the defense mechanism by Berger .
to explain more detail about the character of Francis Wayland Thurston or also known as the narrator of the story.
Previous Studies A research that entitles AuAn Incomplete Psychological Novel: a Psychoanalytical Analysis of Hazel Lancaster in John GreenAos The Fault in Our StarsAy by Pangestu N & Sunardi F .
psychoanalytical analysis of John GreenAos The Fault in Our Stars .
, aiming at identifying Hazel Grace LancasterAos, the main character of the novel, self-defense mechanisms, and core issues as well as their potential causes.
In so doing, their research employs psychoanalysis theory by Sigmund Freud as its analytical tool.
literary research, it uses a descriptive qualitative method, where they read the novel thoroughly, focused on the character and characterization of Hazel Grace, and compared and analyzed it along with the theories that are used.
The finding of their research is that this novel does contain its main characterAos self-defense mechanisms and core issues evidence that could be analyzed by employing the concept of self-defense mechanisms (Berger, 2.
that was analyzed through the psychoanalytic approach (Freud, 1.
The potential cause of the self-defense mechanisms can also be inferred from the characterAos development and childhood.
And yet, since this novel does not provide any clue or evidence as to how the main character develops her cBerliore issues, they come to the conclusion that this novel is not a complete psychological novel.
Both of the previous study and this study Previous focus on the concept of self-defense mechanisms employed by the character in the literary works by employing both Freud psychoanalysis and Berger selfdefense mechanisms as a tool of research, however, on different object of the study and the focus scope whereas this study will focus on the xenophobic behavior unlike the previous study which focus on a victim of cancer.
Research Method This research is in the form of library Library research utilizes the use of reading through many books and other references such as articles, journals, and Page | 6 websites sources in doing this research to support the topic and discussion, as well in order to provide a coherent and cohesive analysis.
The researcher use a short story entitled The Call of Cthulu written by H.
P Lovecraft as the object of Therefore, this research also employs the usage of some written books concerning the topic, literature books, articles, journals, and website sources as references.
These aim to support the idea of the topic.
There are two sources of data in this research: the primary data and the secondary data.
In this research, the source of primary data or the object of the study is the short story itself that is entitled The Call of Cthulu written by H.
Lovecraft.
The Call of Cthulu is a short story written by an American author Howard Phillips Lovecraft which also known as H.
P Lovecraft.
It was first published in Weird Tales magazine in 1928 and became the most notable short story by H.
P Lovecraft that set the creation of the Lovecraftian genre, the Cosmicism philosophy, and the Cthulu mythos in modern days.
The Call of Cthulu story revolves on a man named Francis Wayland Thurston discovers several old notes belong to his late granduncle.
Unbeknownst to him, these notes led him to discovers a grand conspiracy involving an ancient oceanic entity and its secret cults.
Whereas, the secondary data is taken from some critical works and some books that concern with the short story and the explanation psychoanalysis theory.
Bogdan and Biklen .
stated that qualitative research is descriptive which the data is collected in the form of words or pictures rather than numbers.
Data in the form of quotes from documents, field notes, and interviews or excerpts from videotapes, audiotapes, or electronic communications are used to present the findings of the study.
This research uses the descriptive qualitative research method by reading and taking notes on literary and internet sources.
Firstly, the writer finds the book and the other references to get more data that relates about trauma, and the psychoanalysis theory by Sigmund Freud.
In this case, the writer also uses the short story as a form of text to be analyzed.
Then, the writer focuses on the main source of data The Call of Cthulu that will be read repeatedly and comprehended.
addition, the writer also does collect more data to expand the understanding of The Call of Cthulu, the theory of psychoanalysis, and the self-defense mechanisms through written and online In analyzing data, the writer makes the list of data, to select the necessary data that can be analyzed in this research.
After that, the next step is collecting and classifying the data concerning the cases of the research.
In this step, the writer will apply the theory that is connected with the problem of the research to be described and to analyze the data with the theory.
Then after describing and analyzing data, the writer concludes the discussion of the data into the conclusion that is important to be read.
Result and Discussion In The Call of Cthulu.
Lovecraft provided us with an example of a xenophobic character, the narrator Francis Wayland Thurston, a man who suffers from the Xenophobia or the fear of the unknown.
In the story.
Francis Page | 7 Wayland Thurston is a well-known resident of Boston and also known as an Following his granduncle's sudden and mysterious death, he discovers and investigates the Cthulhu Cult.
Along with his investigation, he writes the manuscript of "The Call of Cthulhu" based on his findings from his grand-uncle's notes, belongings, and his own discoveries.
The transcript itself was divided into three parts: "The Horror in Clay," explains his grand-uncle's death.
Francis discovery of his granduncle belongings, and also the story of Henry Anthony Wilcox, a hyper-sensitive sculptor from Rhodes island.
"The Tale of Inspector Legrasse," this part recounts a police inspector's encounter with the Cthulhu Cult on Lousiana.
and "The Madness from the Sea," was the last part in Francis manuscript and was based on the discovery of a diary belongs to second mate Gustaf Johansen.
Francis ends his narration predicting that he will be hunted by the cult or even Cthulu itself for everything that he has known.
It could be seen that Francis is struggling against his own fear.
Generally, in order to cope with phobia, human tends to apply the self-defense mechanisms consciously or even unconsciously to avoid things that they thought cannot handle.
In this case, the writer is going to analyze Francis Wayland application of self-defense mechanism against his xenophobia.
Based on the analysis of The Call of Cthulu plot and characterization, it signify that Francis had xenophobia issues.
Hereinafter, the analysis data of his implementation of several points in selfdefense mechanisms both consciously or unconsciously which could be extracted as the following:
Denial The first self-defense mechanism found on The Call of Cthulu short story begins with FrancisAos early narration itself in the form of denial.
According to Berger .
, denial occurs when someone choose to ignore a problem that actually exist and believes or pretends that it does not exist at all.
Francis in his narration stated that:
AuThe most merciful thing in the world.
I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contentsAy (Lovecraft, 1.
This statement is a sign of his denial of reality as Francis stated that the inability of human mind to correlate all its contents is the most merciful thing in the Furthermore, this statement provides the first sign of xenophobic behavior through FrancisAos way of In his narration, he mentioned that being unable to knows everything that human did not know is simply an act of mercy by the human mind itself.
FrancisAos narration could be interpreted as his gratitude for his ignorance, on the other hand, this statement provides the clue of his fear of the unknown and his denial of the fact that it is an inability, not a gift.
However, he thoughts that the inability to correlate all of human mind contents has saved him from the fact that there are a lot of unknown things that existed in this world and Francis himself did not know exists which made him feel threatened by those unbeknownst to Hence.
Francis felt safe in his isolation from everything that he did not know by believing that his ignorance is keeping him safe from his fear of the Page | 8 unknown as a form of his denial selfdefense.
Selective Perception Another self-defense mechanism employed by Francis in The Call of Cthulu is in a form of selective perception.
According to Berger .
, selective perception happens when someone only hears and sees as well as believes something that makes them feel better.
Francis, in his narration, stated:
AuWe live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage farAy (Lovecraft.
He tends to be ignorance and choose the selective perception method as his self-defense which applies that he only sees, hears, and believes things that he thoughts he could handle and choose to not meddle with things that he did not Furthermore, this narration gives us the glimpse of his selective perception as he narrated that we live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far, as this sentence is a perfect allegory of his own views of the world and the world that he wants to Francis in his xenophobic way of thinking has depicted his own perspective on the world around him, indicating that he only sees, hears, and believes what he desires to then ignore everything that he did not desire which he refers to as the sea that should not be voyaged.
Francis prefers to ignorance as his justification of his xenophobic behavior supported by the phrase which read that we live in a black sea of infinity.
Generally, the color AoblackAo is always associated with fear, mystery, death, sadness, and many other things as black itself is the absence of color, thus, creating a persona of something unknown or strange.
While, sea is always associated with vast unknown, dark, and deep part of the earth which human did not yet had the ability to correlate all of its contents.
followed by a word infinity to emphasize a total ignorance of the world unbeknownst to him.
He ends his narration by saying that we, human, should not voyage far into the black sea of infinity.
Furthermore, the narration given by Francis indicated that he feared what he refers to the unknown, with black sea of infinity as an allegorical metaphor of the unknown things around him, meanwhile, he seeks justification of his fear in form of an allegory of a placid island of ignorance, as he felt safe and peace if he chooses to know nothing while simultaneously threatened by the things that he did not knows about.
Avoidance The third self-defense mechanism found on The Call of Cthulu short story shows how Francis avoids his fear.
According to Berger .
, avoidance occurs when someone stays away from people or situations that are able to There is evidence of Francis narration imaging his way of thinking to support the use of avoidance which read as follows:
AuBut someday, the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into Page | 9 the peace of a new dark ageAy (Lovecraft, 1.
He emphasizes that, knowledge could indeed lead us to our own doom, threatening our established position in the world just because we know too much about the entire world itself.
Moreover, he said that if we are able to compile all pieces of knowledge of the unknown, then we will surely go mad in our own realization of what lies beyond our ignorance or fleed the unraveled world of knowledges into the safety dark age of knowing nothing.
From this point, his narration imply that he does fear the unknown and tries to avoid it by any means necessary.
even mentioned that the risk of knowing the unknown might led him to become mad or even fleed into the safety of a new dark age, therefore, he chooses to remain ignorant of the unknown things that lies far beyond his own bits of Rationalization The last self-defense mechanism which Francis used in his narration is According Berger rationalization occurs when there is an offering of logical explanations or even excuses for any behavior that came from unconscious and irrational behavior and perspective toward something.
Consequently.
Francis tries to explain each of his other self-defenses such as his perception, denial, explanations that cause the readers to agree with his idea of xenophobic way of The reason of why he uses the rationalization is to conceal the motives that would trigger his fear and anxiety of his xenophobic issue and to self-justify Although that Francis does not mention directly about his xenophobia, the way he acts and thinks does actually give clues to the readers about the subtle symptoms of a xenophobic person.
addition, the proofs of Francis Xenophobic behavior based on the way he thinks narrates, and the way he utilized the self-defense mechanisms against the things or knowledge that he does not possess nor he understands has been found and discussed thoroughly in this study.
The proofs that have been found in Francis narration signified that, in order to cope with the xenophobia within his mind that caused by the conflict between his id and superego, therefore, his ego employed 4 out of 14 self-defenses to cope with the anxiety or the fear of something that he did not know.
As a result, he chooses to deny the existence of the unknown world and appeal to this inability to admit the existence of the unknown as mercy, denying the fact that it is not merciful at all but inadequacy in his ideology which he believed in his denial stance.
After that.
He chooses to prefer his own perception rather than to see the reality as a whole to avoid the things that might trigger his traumatic memory or might be his fear of the unknown in his selective perception Third of all, after he chooses to denied and prefers his own perception of the world around him.
Francis chooses to avoid the things unbeknownst to him in his avoidance stance.
Then lastly.
Francis tried to rationalize all of his behavior and fear with a logical explanation to make sure that he does fear the unknown and Page | 10 all of his behaviors are the correct things that he should do in his rationalization Therefore, self-defense mechanisms work as a valid theory and tool to identify the sign of xenophobia in Francis characterization since selfdefense mechanisms are commonly applied by those who suffer from phobia to keep themselves away from the sources of their fear and anxiety.
However, due to the fact that the author himself did not mention the story about FrancisAos past other than the fact that he has a granduncle and also an anthropologist, it seems to be impossible to deduce the original sources of his xenophobia that perhaps originated from his childhood or other traumatic events in his lifetime.
Conclusion P LovecraftAos The Call of Cthulu has presented to us a fascinating case of a xenophobic character in the form of Francis Wayland Thurston that can be analyzed using psychoanalytic literary criticism based on the Freudian psychoanalysis method.
Analyzing the psychoanalysis method is a valid literary and psychology analysis since the fictional character represented real human life.
The character itself is an imitation of the reality in which Francis does represents the characteristic of those who suffer from xenophobia or fearing the unknown.
In this discussion, we have proofed that Francis does suffer from a psychological phenomenon known as xenophobia.
The result of this discussion is that Francis does utilize several types of self-defense mechanisms to protect himself from the threats that he refers to as the unknown.
The mechanisms itself include denial, selective perception, avoidance, and However, since his Cthulu narration is limited to retelling his uncleAos notes, an inspector story, and a sailor journal, it is difficult to find the sources and the reasons for his xenophobia.
This difficulty also supported by the absence of FrancisAos background or his childhood in the short story other than the fact that he is an anthropologist.
Although the successes and fame gained by H.
Lovecraft because of this short story, he failed to fill in some plot holes and left a great amount of mystery surrounding the characterization and plots of The Call of Cthulu.
Lastly, the character of Francis might have successfully represented the character of a xenophobic person and how they apply the self-defense mechanisms, but the lack of personal narration by Francis Wayland Thurston
has left some unanswered questions References