Persona and Shadow of Kevin in Lionel Shriver’s Novel We Need to Talk About Kevin

Gunanda, Sellawati Djaya (2021) Persona and Shadow of Kevin in Lionel Shriver’s Novel We Need to Talk About Kevin. Skripsi thesis, Universitas Widya Kartika.

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Abstract

This research discusses the topic of Kevin Katchadourian’s archetype, as the main character in the novel We Need to Talk About Kevin written by Lionel Shriver. Kevin is described as a teenager with psychopath disorder who committed school massacre. The objective of this research is to analyze the persona and shadow archetypes of Kevin. This research uses character and characterization theory by Murtagh John Murphy and psychological approach with archetype theory developed by Carl Gustav Jung. Descriptive qualitative method is used to analyze and describing the quotations based on Jungian archetype theory of persona and shadow. In addition, library research method is also used to get deeper understanding and more correlation between the analysis and the theories from books, journals, and websites. The results of the research are divided into two, the first is regarding to Kevin’s persona and the second is his shadow. (1) Kevin has two personas, namely his persona as a loving child for his father and a caring brother for his little sister. Since childhood he was able to show his persona very well to his two family members and make them love and trust him the most. (2) Kevin’s shadow deals with his manipulative and violent side. He is very good at manipulating his father and little brother, and uses them to protect him if his mother mad at him. Whereas since childhood he has normalized crime, so he realized it as a teenager by committing murder and does not regret it. It is concluded that Kevin failed to strike a balance between his persona and shadow, choosing to unite with his shadow which is psychologically unhealthy according to Jung’s theory.

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