| Summary: | Alienation has been repeatedly studied in the works of Hegel, Marx, Weber and Fromm.
This study applies Seeman's Social-Psychological Alienation Theory to examine
Orwell's 1984, Camus's The Stranger and Chopin's The Awakening through their three
protagonists (Winston, Meursaul t and Edna). It aims to apply the concepts of
'powerlessness, meaninglessness, and normlessness' based on the protagonists. Since
this study offers an understanding of these three concepts, it provides a clear discussion
about the portrayals of social-psychological alienation in the selected novels, the causes
of social-psychological alienation onto the protagonists and their effects, and the
effectiveness of their efforts to overcome alienation. Without discussing the exact
reasons for alienation, people will develop a false sense of alienation. Thus, neglecting
this will have drawbacks on people, keeping them immature of their social integrity and
will distort understanding of avoiding feeling alienated. The study adopts the qualitative
approach that goes along with the philosophical premises of the study that is
constructivism. This study adopts the thematic analysis approach, combined with
Seeman's Theory of Social-Psychological Alienation. It follows the six phases of the
thematic analysis as its research design, including the familiarity with the texts,
generating codes, searching for themes, reviewing themes, defining themes and
producing a report. The study investigates only three concepts of Psychological
Alienation Concepts coined by Seeman, they are powerlessness, meaninglessness and
normlessness. The study exposes many points and findings from the thematic analysis
made. Major findings reveal that the protagonists develop a sense of alienation due to
several reasons, including Totalitarianism, Absurdity, and Feminism. The findings also
show that the major reason behind the sense of alienation in Orwell's 1984 is the
suffering from Totalitarianism. Findings show that the real reason behind the sense of
alienation in Camus's The Stranger is Absurdity. Similarly, the findings reveal that the
reason behind the sense of alienation in Chopin's The Awakening is Feminism. These
reasons entrap them in situations such as fear, rejection, and suicide. Accordingly, these
situations, along with the protagonists' sense of alienation, lead them to pay efforts to
overcome their dilemma, including helplessness, suicidal, and escapism through Art.
The study concludes that many reasons, including the Totalitarian regimes, Absurdity,
and Feminism, lead to creating three images of social-psychological alienation, which
are powerlessness, meaninglessness, normlessness, respectively. The findings from thi s
study benefit not only scholars but also enthusiasts and readers who are aware of the
circumstances and factors that could lead to the sense of powerlessness,
meaninglessness, normlessness. Finally, this study contributes to the awareness that the
world today lives the same circumstances as shown in the selected novels where people
in some areas still suffer from totalitarian regimes, as women still suffer from male
dominancy and other people still suffer from the sense of Absurdity due to the illogical
world in which they live in.
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