ABSTRACT
This undergraduate thesis discusses a novel written by Gayle Forman entitled If I Stay through the psychoanalytic study. The novel was published by Penguin Group in 2010. The main character of the novel, Mia Hall, is in a comatose state after she gets an accident with her family. Her parents and her brother do not survive. In this unconscious state, she has to choose one of the two choices whether to stay or to leave. Her decision-making process, which the main character faces, inspires the researcher to study how Mia Hall’s unconsciousness is able to influence her decision making.
The researcher formulates two problems for this study. The objectives which are analyzed in this study are (1) how the main character is described in the plot development of the story, and (2) how the decision-making process of the main character is seen in the story.
This undergraduate thesis used the library research method. To do the analysis, there were several steps done by the researcher. First, the researcher conducted a close reading on the novel to find the significant points of the main character. Second, the problems were formulated to find the appropriate approach for the study. Psychoanalytic approach was applied in this study. The third step was answering the problems. The researcher used theory of character and characterization, theory of plot, theory of unconsciousness, and theory of decision making. The last step was conducting the conclusions.
The analysis produces some results and findings. The first finding is that the main character’s traits are family-centered, enthusiastic, loving, and thoughtful. The second result is that the main character’s decision making process is a descriptive model of decision making. The reason why she decides to stay in the world is influenced by her identity and the effects of her unconsciousness, in which she still has her grandparents as her family, her dream to become a cellist that she can pursue, and the people surrounding her whom she can share her affection for.
