Analysis on the Effects of Divorce to Adolescent and Pre-

Adolescent Boys in The Squid and The Whale

Vema Novitasari

120810020

According to Freud’s theory, family places a vital position in determining one’s

behavior. It supports the statement that divorce and family problems always give
significant effects on child’s personality development. The biggest effect is
noticeable on the adolescent and pre-adolescent child’s behavior, also on their
affection and sexual maturity. This paper aims to analyze the effect by looking
closely at the film The Squid and The Whale (2005) and analyzing the characters of
the children; Walt and Frank Berkman and figure out how divorce affects their
behavior using psychoanalytic tools.

Keywords: divorce, adolescent, pre-adolescent, psychoanalysis approach.

Introduction

Divorce is one of the most stressful occurrences in a family life after death
and financial problems. Not only hurting the parents, it also hurts the
children which become the part of the family. The biggest impact of divorce
on children shows on the adolescent and pre-adolescent age. The reason is
because they are still in the developing age and they need a role model of
how a family or relationship should be.

The impact to them can be seen in many ways. It can be affected on their
behavior; their openness toward people around them, emotional or sexual
maturates or even determines the way they find person who becomes their
spouses.

In this article I’d like to analyze the effects of divorce on adolescent and pre-
adolescent boys and how it affects them, by looking closely at the characters
of The Squid and The Whale; Walt Berkman as the adolescent boy and Frank
Berkman as the pre-adolescent boy. The characters will be analyzed using
psychoanalytic approach.

Discussion

The core issue of The Squid and the Whale is parents’ divorce and how it
affects their children, since the director emphasizes on the lives of the
children than the parents’ life after the divorce. Walt and Frank are the
victims of this incident and some changes happen to their behavior. Based
on Tharney (2008) psychoanalytic approach to personality assumes that
one’s personality is the end product of its own history; that past acquisitions
continue to effect further psychological development; while in this case, the
historical events are their parents’ divorce, their mother’s affairs and the
memories about the family before the divorce.

The events affect differently toward Walt and Frank because they are in
different psychological stages. Walt is about seventeen while Frank is an
elementary school student. Based on Freud, much of the personality and
character structure are formed by the age of five or six years, it must also be
noted that the full development of the personality continues through young
adulthood.

The first character to analyze is Walt Berkman. He's the adolescent; he is a

teenager in the age of seventeen. As well as his parents, Walt is also a
talented writer. He adores literature and Bernard is a sort of man who
becomes his role model and influences him in writing, he even likes what his
father suggests to be liked. Obviously, based on the similarity and interests
in literature, Walt has a tendency to be fond of his father rather than his
mother. The tendency is also affected by his acknowledgment about Joan’s
affairs. Walt knows that Bernard never cheats on Joan but Joan is not
satisfied with that, because she keeps cheating on many guys include Walt’s
best friend’s father.

The historical events formed several acknowledgment for Walt; 1) he

believes that his father is an ideal husband because he never cheats on his
mother though he had so many opportunities to do it, 2) he believes that his
mother is monstrous, an inadequate model because no matter what his
father does, his mother keeps cheating on him so that’s why they got
divorced, 3) based on these preceding acknowledgment, Walt perceives sex
as a sacred and essential thing, and he can’t do it casually. If he does, he
should do it with someone’s special.

Walt’s experience and acknowledgment formed his unconscious. He

unconsciously tends to desire girls who do not bear a resemblance to Joan
because he doesn’t want to re-enact the feeling he feels about Joan. The
most irritating fact is not the affair itself, but it’s because the affair is done
by his mother – a person he respects and love. Because of his wounds, he
unconsciously categorized Joan as inadequate representation of a mother. He
also repressed the feelings that he missed Joan very much, because when he
hates to look into Sophie’s freckles, the freckles remind him of his mother.
However, differs to Frank, Walt has been in genital phase when his parents
divorced and it makes him becomes more liable to substitute love objects
(members of the opposite sex) rather than his mother.

In doing sex as I mentioned above, Walt becomes very careful in selecting

his sex partner. It is probably because he sees his father is so selective in
doing sexual intercourse. It creates a mindset that sexual encounter should
be done with a strong reason. It’s not because you want it, but it’s because
you need it. He’s so careful until at the end of the story he does no sexual
encounter, probably because Sophie is somewhat resembles his mother and
because Lili is more interested in his father than to him.
It shows that Walt imitates and internalizes his father’s value and rejects his
mother’s value.

Secondly is Frank Berkman. Frank’s character is the most interesting subject

to analyze. He’s the model of a child with Oedipus complex. To begin with, I
classify Frank as pre-adolescent because he is below 12 when his parents get
divorced.

Frank is the second child of Bernard and Joan. Differs to his brother, Frank is
not interested in literature and wants to be a professional tennis player. He’s
emotionally attached to Joan because Joan understands him better – or
probably because he has an Oedipus complex. His parents’ divorce put him
on Joan’s side. He dislikes Bernard because he thinks that Joan makes affair
because Bernard treats her wrong.

Living separated to his mother makes him very lonely. He’s long for his
mother’s affection. He doesn’t blame his mother’s guys because he believes
that is Bernard who separates him from his mother, not them. He becomes
very opposition toward his father and he even cried to see that he has his
father’s bone structure. On the other words, he sees his father as a horrible
person and he doesn’t want to be look like him.

Since Frank has an Oedipus complex and the divorce decreases the intensity
to meet his mother, he tries to fulfill his need of affection by alternative
ways. He does frequent masturbations and drink his mother liquor probably
because he doesn’t know how to deal with his loneliness. His mother is now
acquainted with Ivan, his tennis trainer, and just because he likes Ivan better
than his father, he can’t blame Ivan for the lack of affection. He keeps
blaming his father over and over again. It’s probably because he’s too young
to understand the matter or maybe because he’s controlled by his
disappointment.
Those characters' behavior can be explained using Freud's psychoanalysis.
Both Walt and Frank are products of their family's circumstances. The way
they act, their unconscious and their repressions are formed by the core
incident; their parents' divorce. It is clear that whatever happens to family
will give impact toward the member, especially the children. In divorce they
become the causalities, they feel the impact even though it's not them who
initiated the divorce. They'll feel emotional instability and the level of the
impact depends on their psychological state, age and the circumstance itself.

Conclusion

As I mentioned before, Freud believes that family places a vital position n a

child’s personality development. In this case, Bernard and Joan's divorce
gives a big impact toward their children. Walt is an adolescent boy and Frank
as a pre-adolescent boy. They both feel a great sadness and disappointment
toward the decision, but there's nothing they can do. Finally, they split into
two parts to Walt who stands for Bernard and Frank who stands for Joan.
Frank probably has the Oedipus complex and that's why he hates his father
because he thinks that his father has separated them. He doesn't even care
about his mother's affairs. On the other hand, Walt who passed tends to be
on Bernard side because he hates his mother's affairs. His hatred also affects
the way he chooses his sexual interest, is he tends to choose a girl who
doesn't look like nor has the quality like his mother.

To sum up, divorce usually gives negative impact to children.

Works cited

Tyson, Lois. Critical Theory Today. Routledge: 1999,

Tharney, Thaddeus R. Overview of Psychoanalytic Theory. 2008.