PERSONA AND SHADOW OF KEVIN IN LIONEL SHRIVER’S NOVEL WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN

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. John Murphy’s character and characterization theory and Carl Jung’s psychological approach of archetype theory are used. Descriptive qualitative and library research method are used to analyze and describing the quotations based on Jungian archetype theory of persona and shadow, also 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. (2) Kevin’s shadow deals with his manipulative and violent side. By the end of the analysis, 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.