ABSTRACT
This thesis discusses Yasunari Kawabata’s novel entitled Beauty And Sadness. The novel tells about the life of a girl who is experiencing good and bad experiences during her chilhood until early adulthood which become the determinant of her transition to become a homosexual.
The purpose of this research is to find out the causal factors of Otoko’s homosexuality as seen in Yasunari Kawabata’s Beauty And Sadness. There are two problems to solve in this thesis. The first is to reveal the main character’s sexual pattern seen from its characterization, while the second problem is to find out the causal factors of her homosexuality.
The writer used library research in this study. The writer found suitable sources containing necessary data and information by concidering the factors of validity, accuracy, and also appropriateness that could finally decide which source could be used. The primary source was the novel Beauty And Sadness by Yasunari Kawabata.
The writer finds out that the sexual pattern of the main character in the novel is changing, from a heterosexual person to a homosexual person. Then the causal factors of the changing are psychosocial factors which includes a bad conditioning of heterosexual behavior and homosexual experiences and its positive reinforcement. The writer finds there are self-defense mechanisms which the main character uses during her struggle in copping with her trauma in her past heterosexual relationship. The self-defense mechanism which she uses are repression, sublimation, denial of reality and emotional insulation. The writer also finds is the representation of Otoko’s trauma through her dream as the later impact of her traumatic experiences. The last finding which the writer find is the positive reinforcements of Otoko’s homosexual experience. Otoko meets both biological and emotional needs from her homosexual experience.
