LLT Journal, e-ISSN 2579-9533, p-ISSN 1410-7201, Vol. 25, No. 1, April 2022, pp. 218-226 LLT Journal: A Journal on Language and Language Learning http://e-journal.usd.ac.id/index.php/LLT Sanata Dharma University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia 218 DEPICTION OF STRUGGLE BY MIRANDA TO REACH LUCIA AGAINST MENTAL ILLNESS IN EVERYTHING HERE IS BEAUTIFUL Afifah Zakia Fattamubina1 and Yeny Prastiwi2 1,2Muhammadiyah University of Surakarta, Indonesia a320170091@students.ums.ac.id1 and Yeny.Prastiwi@ums.ac.id2 correspondence: afifahzakia1616@gmail.com1 https://doi.org/10.24071/llt.v25i1.3802 received 24 October 2021; accepted 12 May 2022 Abstract This research discusses Miranda’s struggle to reach Lucia against mental illness in the novel Everything Here Is Beautiful. Everything Here Is Beautiful novel deals with an issue that is closely related to the individual's role in the extent to which the individual will or must go for the sake of the family. In this novel, Miranda, the older sister of her younger sister, Lucia, who suffers from mental illness, decides to step up to struggle for Lucia against her mental illness. Hence, in this research, the researcher examines Miranda’s struggle to reach Lucia against mental illness. The purpose of this research is to discover struggles by Miranda. This is descriptive qualitative research with an individual psychological approach as the theory. Individual psychological approaches rely on Alfred Adler's "6 Major Concepts of Personality," which include inferiority feeling, fictional finalism, striving for superiority, creative self, style of life, and social interest. This research uses a novel entitled Everything Here Is Beautiful, internet sources, journal articles, and books that are related to the subject matter as primary and secondary data. As a result, the researcher discovered all six Major Concepts of Personality that portrayed Miranda's struggle to reach Lucia against mental illness. Keywords: Everything Here Is Beautiful, individual psychological approach, mental illness, struggle Introduction Even if the individuals consider their self and their life perfect, they cannot be distant from a problem in their life (Psychology Clinic, 2021). One way to face and solve various problems is to raise a struggle. The struggle is an individual's attempt to do, accomplish, or manage something tricky or even problematic in his daily life (Merriam, 2021). Mental health problem is one of the problems that will arise and must be resolved in life (Psychology Clinic, 2021). With the rising prevalence of mental illness, there is often a significant impact on health and social consequences, human rights, and economic consequences in all countries around the world (WHO, 2019). Since the family is an individual's first social environment, family relationships are supreme for families to be the mailto:a320170091@students.ums.ac.id mailto:Yeny.Prastiwi@ums.ac.id mailto:afifahzakia1616@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.24071/llt.v25i1.3802 LLT Journal, e-ISSN 2579-9533, p-ISSN 1410-7201, Vol. 25, No. 1, April 2022, pp. 218-226 219 primary source of care and support for individuals with mental illness (Sapin, Widmer, & Iglesias, 2016). In terms of mental illness, schizophrenia is one of the types of mental illness that needs the involvement of the family to support and take care of them. Individual struggles to solve life's problems, including those of people suffering from mental illnesses such as schizophrenia, are frequently depicted in literary works. Literature is a reflection of reality, an artistic product, and an ideological window because the development of literature and its reaction to human life and reality creates a deep connection. Mira T. Lee's novel Everything Here Is Beautiful is one of the literary works that describe the individual struggle for people with mental illnesses. Individuals can see how a family member struggles for individuals with schizophrenic mental disorders from the literature. As a story about sisterhood, Everything Here Is Beautiful is inadequate at best and misleading at worst (Coldiron, 2018). The way a magnetic woman approaches life with the greatness portrayed by Lucia Bok's character, she is the second daughter of a single mother of Chinese immigrants who grew up in China; unlike Miranda, who is older and more responsible, she departs from a more conventional path (Cha, 2018). Everything Here Is Beautiful not only weaves in the theme of sisterly relationship, but also immigration in America, mental illness, romantic love, and motherhood as prime themes (Coldiron, 2018). So far, the author apparently has not found any researcher who has used Everything Here Is Beautiful as the object of a research. The author, on the other hand, discovered seven relevant researches that used the same theory, namely the individual psychological approach, and the same issue, namely a struggle. The following are the results of these researches. The first research was discussed personal independence reflected in the major and minor characters of the novel The Hunger Games (Yusuf, 2016). The second research was discussed fictional finalism of Ikal in getting a better education in The Rainbow Troops novel (Fajri, 2013). The third research was discussed abnormalities of Bethany in maintaining her hopes to become a reality in the movie Soul Surfer (Rahmatin, 2013). The fourth discussed Rachel's efforts to prove the truth, her obstacles, and her reasons for approving the truth reflected in the novel The Girl On The Train (Rahayuni, 2017). The fifth research was discussed the life struggle of Mikael Blomkvist in the novel The Girl With The Dragon (Purnomosari, 2014). The sixth research was discussed Bella Swan's love struggle in the New Moon movie (Lestari, 2012). The last research was discussed Mark Watney's struggle to survive and his motivation to fight for his life in the novel The Martian (Purnama, 2018). According to previous researches, this study has the same scope as the others in terms of research issues and the use of the same theory. However, each of the researches mentioned used a different object from this research. Furthermore, the researcher discovered that some researchers placed a greater emphasis on the issues raised by the main character. The researcher realizes that various issues, such as struggle, are not only passed by the main character in the story of a literary work. As a result, this research is structured to provide an overview of the struggle of other characters in the novel, while also highlighting the struggle of the main characters. Using an individual psychological approach, this research examines the struggle to reach individuals with mental illnesses in Mira T. Lee's novel LLT Journal, e-ISSN 2579-9533, p-ISSN 1410-7201, Vol. 25, No. 1, April 2022, pp. 218-226 220 Everything Here Is Beautiful. It seeks to discover struggle by Miranda to reach Lucia against mental illness in Everything Here Is Beautiful. Alfred Adler’ Individual Psychology Approach of Literature Alfred's individual psychological approach conveyed with confidence that every human being possessed a distinct and inseparable personality; he emphasized that the individual does not obstruct the social; the social element is a very important factor, which means that an individual can become an individual because it is in a social context (Ewen, 2014). In achieving a goal, striving for superiority is made by individuals as the main motive in thinking and behaving with the uniqueness of each from their lifestyle to their creativity as well (Britannica, 2017). Alfred Adler’s Major Concept of Personality There are six major concepts of personality, which are inferiority feeling, fictional finalism, striving for superiority, creative self, style of life, and social interest. Inferiority feeling are human feelings about various feelings that are perceived as unfortunate looking, such as lack, smallness, weakness, ignorance, and dependence, which can be larger or less in human life (Griffith & Powers, 2007). Besides, the psychological feature of compensation as the individual's unconscious, subjectively conceived, ever-present goal of success and the self- ideal is referred to as fictional finalism (Griffith & Powers, 2007). In addition, according to Adler, the desire to improve perceptions and gain a better state in one's life was naturally driven by the striving for superiority (Ideas, 2017). Furthermore, Adler believed that the worthwhile human personality was determined by themselves and their creative self, and that humans needed to look ahead if they wondered who they are as well as they were doing now (Wagner, 2010). Then, the movement of individual thoughts, feelings, and actions became one in the movement of style of life, which was uniqueness and self-consistency; it's also an individual's primary beliefs, as well as a world vigorously maintained by an individual, in a prejudiced perception of individual arrangements, the individual's pursuit of perfection, or ideally, also refers to the individual's way of life. Lastly, emphasized by Adler, the overall feeling in each individual to cooperate was social interest; he also desired in the horizontal plane that individuals be equally able to relate and do what was required in certain situations (Slavik & Carlson, 2006). Method This research is categorized as qualitative research. The goal of qualitative research is to gain insight into a specific meaning or behavior through an interpretive approach to the occurrence of a social phenomenon (Palmer & Bolderston, 2006). Because the researcher analyzes the novel using the qualitative method and does not require statistical data, this approach is deemed capable and appropriate for this research. The individual psychological approach is the underprop theory for this research. This research utilizes Mira T. Lee's novel Everything Here Is Beautiful as a primary data source, with secondary data sources including journals, books, and websites. The researcher applies the following data collection techniques: (1) Longer time duration of Mira T. Lee's LLT Journal, e-ISSN 2579-9533, p-ISSN 1410-7201, Vol. 25, No. 1, April 2022, pp. 218-226 221 novel Everything Here Is Beautiful (2018), (2) reciting some articles and journals to collect information, (3) note-taking from the relevant information, and (4) distinguishing based on the data that will be used. Findings and Discussion This section deals with individual psychological approach analysis. The analysis seeks to discover the depiction of struggles by Miranda in reaching Lucia against the mental illness in the novel Everything Here Is Beautiful by Mira T. Lee. Miranda’s Struggle to Reach Lucia against Mental Illness Miranda, since she and her pregnant mother emigrated from Shanghai to America, she has been the guardian of her sister. Lucia started hearing voices as her clarity started to deteriorate, it was after her mother's death. Miranda then had to find a way to save her sister without losing herself in the process from that day on. She had been responsible because she had no other alternative. Inferiority Feeling The first principle was an inferiority feeling. Miranda's inferiority feeling while trying to reach Lucia against mental illness was discovered by the researcher, as evidenced by the following dialogue: In the hospital when Lucia will be discharge Miranda trying to made a small talk. Have you eaten lunch yet? What did you do in Group today? Have you been going outside. Her answers, curt, though intelligible. By the time we left the building, I was on the verge of tears. “That’s not her, Stefan.” “What do you mean?” he said. “That’s not her. That’s her illness. And did you hear that social worker? She didn’t even give a shit. What the fuck are they thinking, giving his Risperdal?” I slumped to the curb, face in my knees. Stefan knelt down beside me, an arm around my shoulders. (Lee, 2019, p 38–39) Miranda clearly expressed her inferiority feeling in the preceding dialogue. Miranda had always demonstrated her struggle to reach Lucia against mental illness, even in minor matters. Miranda's attempts to create an atmosphere with Lucia were frequently thwarted by her. Miranda's inferiority feeling was caused by sadness. Sadness was a temporary sense of despair or sorrow that appeared in individuals when they lost something, but it did not result in a significant decrease in self-esteem (Parker, Paterson, & Hadzi-Pavlovic, 2015). Miranda was dissatisfied with Lucia's response, prompting her to display her low self-esteem, as evidenced by her complaining to Stefan with tears streaming down her cheeks and dropping her knees into the street. Miranda was sad about the loss of the real Lucia because she was possessed by a mental illness that caused her to behave strangely. LLT Journal, e-ISSN 2579-9533, p-ISSN 1410-7201, Vol. 25, No. 1, April 2022, pp. 218-226 222 Fictional Finalism The second principle was fictional finalism. Miranda's fictional finalism while trying to reach Lucia against mental illness was discovered by the researcher, as evidenced by the following dialogue: “I’d like to speak with the doctor,” said Miranda. “Dr. O’Hara is very busy,” said Charo. “He’s only here in the mornings, and then he’s busy seeing patients.” Busy. Miranda was used to this, socials shielding the docs, running interference. “Nurse Bob, please, my sister is stubborn, but one she’s back on her meds, she’ll be fine. The meds really work for her. She has insight. Properly stabilized, she’ll be fine.” She kept repeating it, as if unaware she spoke the words aloud: She’ll be fine. (Lee, 2019, p102–3) In the dialogue above, Miranda distinctly demonstrated her fictional finalism to Mr. Bob. Thus according Adler, fictional finalism occurs when people act as much from "as if" as they do from reality (Durbin, 2002). Miranda believed that if Lucia returns to the proper medication, she would regain her insight and stability. Miranda was unconsciously swept away by a fictitious goal. She was confident that if she could talk to Dr. O'Hara and discuss Lucia's treatment with him, she would be able to accomplish her goal. Miranda desired to reinstate Lucia's mental stability. Striving for Superiority The third principle was striving for superiority. Miranda's striving for superiority while trying to reach Lucia against mental illness was discovered by the researcher, as evidenced by the following dialogue: “Lucia is still not taking her medicine.” “What do you mean?” he said. ᴥ “She needs help. And support. Someone responsible. Someone who understands her illness.” ᴥ “My situation, it’s not easy either,” he said. (Lee, 2019, p132–33) Miranda's striving for superiority in reaching Lucia against mental illness in the dialogue above was seen in her encouragement to Manuel. Lucia was sometimes lucid when she decided to take her medication, but she also resists taking it due to a lack of understanding about her illness, which caused her to resist taking the medication (Debann6354, 2018). Once Lucia refused to take her pills, Miranda demonstrates her superiority in the dialogue by explaining Lucia's condition and encouraging Manuel to come to the hospital. Miranda advises him that someone with a mental illness, such as Lucia, requires assistance, support, and accountability. Manuel, on the other hand, did not accept Miranda's persuasion because he perceived his own situation to be difficult at the time. Creative Self The fourth principle was creative self. Miranda's inferiority feeling while trying to reach Lucia against mental illness was discovered by the researcher, as evidenced by the following dialogue: LLT Journal, e-ISSN 2579-9533, p-ISSN 1410-7201, Vol. 25, No. 1, April 2022, pp. 218-226 223 She packed a small suitcase that evening. Her two sharpest work outfits, including her pearls, everything else for warmth. From her file cabinet she fetched a folder full of notes and clinical papers, pamphlets and guides. Despite their uninspiring titles (Treatment Options, FAQs 4 Caregivers, Bipolar Symptoms and Signs) she’s read every one of them multiple times, had 25 Tips for Coping with Schizophrenia practically memorized. 1. You cannot cure a mental disorder for a family member. She put it away, sighed. (Lee, 2019, p98) The data presented above was shown to Miranda's creative self. Because the creative self is indeed a dynamic concept that implies movement with a purpose based on the goal of life, every human being had her creative self to survive in circumstances (Rahmatin, 2013). Adler believed that human beings used to have the capabilities to provide their own fate in his creative self-concept (Canada’s University, 2019). Miranda's creative way to overcoming Lucia's mental illness was to take notes and collect clinical papers to memorize, as well as pamphlets and guides, for example, 25 Tips for Overcoming Schizophrenia. Miranda uses these 25 tips for overcoming schizophrenia as a guide in her struggle to reach Lucia. Style of Life The fifth principle was style of life. Miranda's style of life while trying to reach Lucia against mental illness was discovered by the researcher, as evidenced by the following dialogue: The voice, slightly accented―Russian, perhaps?―the tone professional, yet kind. A doctor. A doctor? Miranda Bok rose from her chair. Doctors never called. This one was calling Switzerland. She was touched. “My sister has a history,” she said. “I’ll fax it to you.” She was prepared, this time. But the doctor worked emergency. It was the end of her shift. Lucia would be transferred to Crote Six, one of the behavioral health units upstairs “I’ll be there. Please don’t let her out. Tell them I’ll be there. Tell them she has a baby now.”(Lee, 2019, p97) In the preceding dialogue Miranda’s style of life was proven. Individuals actively participate in the development of lifestyles, as Adler said that individuals construct a collection of attitudes and reactions they have about life and the place in it or often called private logic (Slavik & Carlson, 2006). Miranda’s style of life showed when she had a chance to sleep but ruined by a phone call from a doctor. Miranda immediately informed the doctor that her sister had a history of mental illness and that she would fax the doctor. Unfortunately, the doctor's shift was coming to an end. Lucia was transferred to Crote Six, an upstairs behavioral health unit. Miranda requested that the doctor from Crote Six keep Lucia under control, and she pledged to go there right away. Miranda's vigilance in responding to these situations is her way of life, and it reflects her determination to reach Lucia against her mental illness. LLT Journal, e-ISSN 2579-9533, p-ISSN 1410-7201, Vol. 25, No. 1, April 2022, pp. 218-226 224 Social Interest The sixth principle was social interest. Miranda's social interest while trying to reach Lucia against mental illness was discovered by the researcher, as evidenced by the following dialogue: She said, “I am Lucia’s sister. Is Lucia here? Where is Lucia?” ᴥ I said, “Lucia is in Ecuador.” She nodded. Raised one hand to her chin. I could tell she didn’t believe it. “Is she alright?” she asked. “I think so.” “Has she been acting strange?” “I don’t think so.” (Lee, 2019, p49) Social interest of Miranda was proven by the dialogue above. Miranda's social interest manifested itself as attention. The ability of an individual to actively process specific information in an environment while ignoring the details is referred to as attention (Cherry, 2019). Miranda went to Lucia and Manuel's house that day. Unfortunately, Miranda hadn't seen Lucia, and only Manuel had greeted her. She inquired as to what Lucia was doing to Manuel and whether Lucia was acting strangely. Miranda's action was motivated by her social interest in Lucia. Miranda expresses concern by paying a visit to Lucia to see her situation firsthand as part of her struggle to reach Lucia against her mental illness. Conclusion The researcher comes to the following conclusion. According to the findings and discussions, there are six principles from Alfred Adler's individual psychological approach that reflect Miranda's struggle to reach Lucia against her mental illness in the novel Everything Here Is Beautiful, including inferiority feeling, fictional finalism, striving for superiority, creative self, style of life, and social interest. It is possible to conclude that Miranda's struggle was coloured by sorrows, conceptions of the mind, the striving for superiority in many Lucia's medications, the creativity she created, the attitude she developed when confronted with Lucia's psychotic episode, and attention. References Britannica, T. E. E. (2017). Individual psychology. Britannica. Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/science/individual-psychology. Canada’s University, Athabasca University. (2019). Adler, Alfred (1870 - 1937). Retrieved from https://psych.athabascau.ca/html/History/demo_glossary.cgi?mode=history& term_id=959&color_id=3. Cha, S. (2018). 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