| Summary: | This study is an attempt to discuss the personality of Henry Fleming, a fiction
character in the novel the �Red Badge of Courage. There are two problem statements in this
study, (1) What defense mechanisms which occur in Fleming�s character and (2) How does
the process of emotional maturity in Fleming�s personality.
This study used American Studies theory by Robert Meredith which agrees that the
American Studies approach needs more than one academic discipline. The reconciliation of
academic discipline enables the writer uses psychological approach. According to Wilbur S.
Scott the application of psychological knowledge can generate three kinds of study and
analysis: a more precise language with which to discuss the creative process, a study of lives
of authors, and the use of psychology to analyze fictional characters. The theories of
psychology were taken from Sigmund Freud�s Psychoanalysis: A General Introduction to
Psychoanalysis (2002), Sigmund Freud�s The Ego and The Id (1962), Anna Freud�s The Ego
and Defense Mechanism (1948) and Kevin Everett FitzMaurice�s The Secret of Maturity: Or
How Not to be Codependent (1989) and Self-Concept: The Enemy Within (1989).
The result of the study shows that there are a total of 25 acts of defense mechanisms
conducted by Fleming in this novel. Henry acts all of the ten defense mechanisms from Anna
Freud�s theory. The primary act of denial is refusing to accept the condition Henry is facing
and even lying to his own comrades. The acts of regression are not to talk to his own
comrades either to help or just ignoring his comrades. Most of the acts of fantasy are about
the ideal war in Henry�s perspective which in reality was far from it. In the acts of
displacement, most are by blaming his comrades and his generals instead of the enemy. The
act of sublimation is conducted by hiding his fear and projecting his confidence. In the act of
projection, Henry is projecting his insecurities to his enemy and his generals. Henry�s act of
rationalization is by justifying his flee from the battle. Henry�s act of intellectualization is by
letting his thought overcome his act. The act of repression is by forgetting the fact that he is
dependant to someone. And in the last, the act of reaction formation is by attacking the
enemy in order to hide his fears. The process of Fleming�s emotional maturity must be seen
as a process toward his manhood. Fleming�s process of emotional maturity starts with
acknowledge his feeling (Level 1), being honest about his thought (Level 2), willing to open
his thought and feeling (Level 3), able to ask for and to receive the nurturing first from
himself and then from his friends (Level 4), Henry comes to a major realization - that the
mental boundaries and subsequent anguish he has put himself through were little more than
that - mental boundaries and he seems to be developing good qualities he saw in Wilson
(Level 5), and Henry has achieves the values he observed from Wilson and realize that he
has left the self-concept completely (Level 6).
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