LANDON CARTER'S PERSONALITIES DEVELOPMENT IN ADAM SHANKMAN’S A WALK TO REMEMBER MOVIE: A PSYCHOANALYTIC APPROACH

AURORIA, RAHAJENG SARININGDYAH (2010)

Abstract
This research paper elaborates the personalities development of Landon Carter in A Walk to Remember movie that are analyzed through psychoanalytic approach. The objectives of the research are to analyze the structural elements of the movie and to analyze the movie based on psychoanalytic approach. This research belongs to a descriptive qualitative research. The primary data of the research is the movie entitled A Walk to Remember movie whereas the secondary data source comes from the text of the movie being researched and secondary data source such as biography of the author, websites and other sources. The method to analyze the data is descriptive analysis. Based on the analysis toward the movie, the writer concludes that the personalities development of Landon Carter are shown by the structural elements which build the film such as characters, setting, plot, theme, and mise-en-scene and from psychoanalysis perspective through the system personality of Landon Carter.

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION A.
Background of the Study Life is always full of mystery that no one could ever know what will be happening in the future life. It could be getting worse but it is neither impossible if it turns to be something good, something better and even the best that it has ever had. Everybody is changing, and it is caused by some certain factors. Sometimes, a change is needed to make someone to be a better person or to reach a dream. However, a change is not an easy and simple thing to do. The change of thought and point of view will lead someone to the changing personalities. This could be caused by someone else’s influence or something undergone in life. A lesson of being changing and changed can be noticed on the film A Walk to Remember in which the major character is undergoing such changing of his personality and his life after he has met with a girl that he never thought he would be falling in love with. He uses to be such a popular rebellion guy, but then he is changing into someone else’s better. There is such a personality development of him that is interesting to be observed.
A Walk to Remember is one of the most favorable movies played in the early 2002. The movie is originally taken from the novel of Nicholas Sparks with the same title “A Walk to Remember”. Following the success of the novel selling as one of the bestseller, the movie, then, becomes one of the blockbuster movie in the US. This movie is directed by Adam Shankman and produced by Denise DiNovi and Hunt Lowry for Warner Bros. The novel, written by Sparks, is set in the 1950s while the film is set in present day. The film is released on January 23, 2002. The movie takes about 102 minutes long play.
The movie is presenting Shane West as Landon Carter and the popular young pop singer Mandy Moore as Jamie Sullivan. The setting is taken place in Wilmington, North Carolina at the same time as Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood (2002) and the TV show Dawson's Creek are being filmed there. The total shooting time is only 39 days. The movie also successfully grabs some awards indeed, such as: MTV Movie Awards in 2002 which is won by Mandy Moore for the category of Breakthrough Female performances. Also in the same year, the couple Mandy Moore and Shane West win the film- Choice Chemistry which is awarded by Teen Choice.
The man behind the success of A Walk to Remember is a director named Adam Shankman. Before turning to be a filmmaker, Adam Shankman was an inventive dance and physical comedy choreographer. He was one of the top music video dance choreographers in the business before stepping behind the camera to direct such high-profile mainstream comedies as The Wedding Planner, Bringing Down the House, and The Pacifier. In his childhood, Shankman was interested in a lot to theater, then, from Los Angeles he moved to the East Coast to join in Juilliard dance program after graduating high school, and spent the next five years as a dancer and actor in and around New York.
Shankman finally find his calling as a director with such features as the teen romance A Walk to Remember, Bringing Down the House, and Cheaper by the Dozen 2. in 2005, Shankman expanded his role of executive producer of the suburban comedy The Pacifier, which he continues until the film of Cheaper by the Dozen 2 and the dance drama Step Up in 2006. The story of A Walk to Remember goes when firstly Landon Carter (Shane West), the popular but rebellious, and his friends hanging out in a place nearby the lake to “train” their new member wannabe, Clay Gephardt. The accident happens after clay is jumping out to the lake and he get hurt, when at the same time, the security finds them and get Landon Carter as the only person left to catch. The headmaster detents him to carry out the mandatory participation in various after-school activities, such as tutoring disadvantaged children and performing in the drama club's spring musical. This situation forces him to have such interaction with Jamie Sullivan, the innocent religious and geek Jamie Sullivan (Mandy Moore). The daughter of their church's pastor, a girl he has known for many years but the one whom he is rarely talking to.
When Landon has trouble with his drama dialogue, he is coming to Jamie and asking for help. Jamie is so surprised that Landon has been asking her for help. But then finally, Jamie agrees to help Landon with one condition.
Jamie wants Landon to promise her that he would never fall in love with her. Landon deals it and they would be having practice after school. During the practices, Landon learns a lot about Jamie and her wish list of things she hopes to do in her life, such as getting a tattoo and being in two places at once. One day, Jamie meets Landon in his locker in front of his friends, she is asking him about the practice. But Landon answers her sarcastically, pretending as if they were never doing the practice. That afternoon Landon arrives at Jamie's house, hoping that Jamie will still mind to help him with his dialogue. But Jamie slams the door in front of him and tells him about her disappointment. It makes Landon have to practice the dialogue on his own. During the drama play, Jamie surprised everyone who is in the play house, including Landon, with her appearance, beauty and voice. Jamie who usually appears in an old fashioned style with her old sweater and dress, at the moment is changing into such an angel with her beautiful dress and make-up, plus her beautiful voice. Landon is so enthralled of Jamie that he kisses Jamie at the end of the show which is not on the script. Starting from that moment, Landon always tries to find a way to pursue Jamie who always rejects him because she is previously being disappointed by Landon.
Meanwhile, Dean, Belinda, Eric and some other friends of Landon makes a joke about Jamie. They make a poster of a sexy lady of virgin Marie with Jamie face and they spread it all over the school. Landon finds it, he gets angry and punches Dean that makes him have a fight with his friends. He
decides to help Jamie and take her home. He also asks Jamie for having dinner together. And they finally get dinner together. Landon tells Jamie that he wants to go out of Beoufort, but Jamie convinces Landon that she has a faith in him. Days after days, Landon starts to accomplish Jamie’s wish lists like being in two places at once and getting a tattoo. He is also naming a star for Jamie, since he knows that Jamie is interested a lot about stars and planets. And he is truly falling in love with Jamie.
Jamie finally tells Landon that she suffers from leukemia and has stopped responding to treatments. Landon is shocked and getting nothing to do or say. He comes to his father, Dr. Carter, and asks him to examine Jamie. Landon’s relation with his father is never been good since both of his parents decided to divorce. Dr. Carter finally helps Jamie by giving her a treatment in her house. It makes up Landon’s relation toward his father. So does with his friends. They come to Landon for saying their condolence about what happened to Jamie and apologizing about what they have done to Jamie. Landon continues to fulfill the wishes on Jamie's list, such as building her a telescope so she can see a comet that she wished so much to see. Her father, who at first did not approve of him, is helping him out. After Jamie sees the comet through the telescope, Landon proposes her a marriage just like what she wants on her number one wish list. The number one of her wish lists is that she wants to get married in the church when her mother was married.
Jamie passes away shortly after they get married. And Landon will still be Landon that has a faith which he proves successfully by finishing his college and being accepted into the medical school just like what he wishes to be. His meeting with Jamie has changed every single part of his life including his relationship with his father which has never been good since the family is divorced. Jamie teaches him everything, about love, life and faith. Jamie always has a faith to Landon that he finally reaches what he is dreaming of. Moreover, he makes Jamie witness a miracle just like her wish of which the miracle is Landon himself. Based on the previous review, the writer is interested in analyzing the major character, Landon Carter, who is undergoing such personalities development. The research will be analyzed using Sigmund Freud theory of psychoanalysis. The writer entitles the research ”LANDON CARTER’S PERSONALITIES DEVELOPMENT IN ADAM SHANKMAN’S A WALK TO REMEMBER MOVIE: A PSYCHOANALYTICS APPROACH”. B. Previous Study The film of A Walk to Remember is a film that is adapted from novel with the same title which is written by Nicholas Park. There are no other researches that have been conducting to study the movie A Walk to Remember in Muhammadiyah University of Surakarta.
C. Problem Statement The problem statement proposed by the writer is discussing about how the changes of the Landon Carter’s personality system. D. Limitation of the Study The writer will limit the study to the personality’s development of the major character, Landon Carter. E. Objectives of the Study Based on the problem statement above, the writer determines the objective of the study as follow: 1. To analyze the film based on its structural elements. 2. To analyze Landon Carter’s personality based on psychoanalytic perspective. F. Benefits of the Study The writer hopes this research gives some benefits for the writer herself and the readers in general. The research is expected to give benefit as follows:
1. Theoretical Benefits This research can give information and knowledge to the other literary researcher and to reader, especially in the literary study in analyzing both the novel and the film of A Walk to Remember. 2. Practical Benefits This research can enrich the writer’s and the reader’s knowledge and experience concerning with psychoanalytic approach. G. Research Method In this part, the writer presents five points of research method. They can be mentioned as follows: 1. Object of the Study The object of the study is A Walk to Remember movie which is directed by Adam Shankman.
2. Type of the Study
The writer will use descriptive qualitative research in this literary work. Qualitative Research is an inquiry process of understanding based on the distinct methodological traditions of inquiry that explore a social or human problem. The researcher builds a complex, holistic picture, analyzes words, reports detailed views of informants, and conducts the study in a natural setting (Creswell, 1998: 15).
3. Type of the Data and the Data Source
The data in this research is the dialogue or phrase from the film and the script of A Walk to Remember movie. The writer divides the data source into two categories: a. Primary data source The primary data source is taken from the film A Walk to Remember which is directed by Adam Shankman and also the film script. b. Secondary data source The secondary data sources are books related to the film, the review of the film, comments, criticism, homepage and other relevance source. The data were taken from official website, etc. 4. Technique of the Data Collection The method used in this study is library research, which means that the data from both, primary and secondary sources are collected and recorded as a sort document used as evidence. There are some procedures in library research: a. Watching the film several times and determining the character that will be analyzed. b. Reading some related books to find out the theory, data and information required. c. Making notes of important parts in both primary data and secondary data. d. Classifying the data into categories.
e. Drawing conclusion to get the last result. 5. Technique of the Data Analysis The writer uses two techniques in analyzing the data: a. Analyzing the structural elements of the film includes the narrative elements and technical elements. b. Analyzing the personalities development of main character using descriptive qualitative analysis. H. Research Paper Organization The research organization of the research are as follows: chapter one is introduction which includes background of the study, Previous Study, Problem Statement, objectives of the Study, Limitation of the Study, Benefits of the Study, theoretical Approach, Research method and also Research Paper Organization. Chapter two is Underlying theory. It deals with the notion of Psychoanalytic theory, the basic concept of psychoanalysis and theoretical application. Chapter three deals with structural analysis of the film and includes narrative and technical elements. Chapter Four is dealing with the analysis of the major character using psychoanalytic approach. And the last chapter is conclusion and suggestion of the research.