ACTIVITY 5

ACTIVITY 5: IDENTITY CRISIS IN POPULAR MEDIA

We examine adolescence identity from a film called “SUTUN.” It is one of the films about how to find ourselves when we grow up.  The stage of adolescence is a crucial time in which an person transitions between childhood and adolescence. This stage usually takes place within the age range of 11  to 19 or 20 years. In this time, there are numerous processes in which young  people undergoing significant changes in mind and body that involve physical,  cognitive, social, sexual and emotional changes. (Allen, for 2019).

Synopsis of the movie

This movie is about a high school student name Adik which his personality just like a girl. His father, a military pensioner and had high hopes for him to continue his dream of becoming a man of hope in the family. although hated by his father and the surrounding community, Adik received the support of his mother and a good girl friend. Things changed when Syuk moved to Adik’s school following his sister who taught there. As a result of being seen alone with Adik, Syuk is confronted by a schoolmate and decides to stay away from Adik. The decision of Syuk and his increasingly hostile attitude made him easily influenced by a “Nyah” who invited him to town. There, he learn about the reality of real life.

Erikson’s View

Erikson’s view on identity crisis versus role confusion are the psychosocial struggle that are commonly faced by adolescents As adolescents it’s natural to go out for ourselves on a “hunt” during this time. It’s by senses, personal experience, characteristics of personality, behaviour, principales of self, goals and beliefs. In no doubt time that teenagers are searching for a culture to fit into as a sense of belonging during the puberty period (McLeod, 2108).

 From the movie we can see that Adik always been bullied by the villager and his schoolmates even his own father didn’t like how Adik behave like a girl. This happened because when he was still baby, his mother always wore him girl’s shirt.

She doesn’t even know that, her action can misleading her son to behave like a girl one day and she feels that is fine by wearing girl’s shirt while he is still a baby, and when he grown up he will know how to dress or behave like a boy or a man. When Adik has grown up and he behave more likely like a girl. This make his father can’t stand with the words that come from his father’s friend that insult him have 3 children in the house because Adik have a girl personality in a man’s  body, then his father gets angry and beat Adik with lots of anger. This is because his father wants Adik to be a real man that’s why his father can’t accept his son behave like a girl.

Then, Adik getting more confused when he meet with Abang Khalid who convince him to be “Nyah” and do some make up for Adik and asked to follow his steps luckily when he followed Abg Khalid for the first time, he realise that his action was wrong and went back to the village and back to their home and he will accept it if his father will get angry with him again because he ran away from home without his parent noticed. As time goes by, his father slowly accept that Adik behaviour can change, because that is him. He just becoming himself and his father rarely scolding him anymore.

Adik managed to develop and mature better after going through different experiences and downpours that lead to fidelity. when they have a sense of conviction and faithfulness, they adapt and evolve to embrace others and given the religious differences, commit to themselves.

Marcia’s identity

James Marcia came up with four distinct identity crisis creation that borrowed from the work of Erik Erikson, namely identity achievement, eviction, moratorium and misunderstanding of identities. Marcia also claimed that identity crisis is not really a misunderstanding of identity, nor a resolution of identity, but rather the degree of discovery and engagement that one has made from a variety of domains in life. (David, 2014)

Identity achievement is considered to be the condition where a person has gone through identity crisis and is now committed to setting goals. This can be seen when Adik try to save one of his friend who is almost drown at the river, there he prove that he is brave and a man too. Because he have been bullied with those words from people who called him “pondan”.

Foreclosure is a status whereby a person is able to commit to something which will set expectations for the future. A adolescent is said not to have undergone identity crisis yet. As  we can see that when Adik try to get back to his parents after Abang Khalid offer him to be “nyah” in KL because he love his parents so much that he really need in his life.

Moratorium refers to the concept of where the teenager is in a crisis but still needs to commit. Just like what Adik did when syuk and the other boys are fighting at the “sampan” and one of the boys fell to the river then, without future ado Adik jumped to the river and safe the boy who is almost drown.

Sexual Behaviour

Adolescent sexual activity is a stage in which a diverse collection of biological experiences from physical, emotional and psychosocial development involved. It is a continual cycle of growth and development undergone by teenagers, affected by several such as biology, personality traits and behaviors, and sociocultural values. (Sieving, Oliphant, Blum, 2002)

For Adik case, he has a feeling towards boy because he had that girl feeling inside him. As we can see if he is with syuk, he will be blush and feel comfortable with him. But there is not much scene or information in this movie  on sexual behavior or sexual interactions among the teens.

Relationship with Parents and Siblings

In this movie, as we can see Adik and his father have lots of conflicts because his father can’t accept his behaviour like that and always affected with what the villagers bad words that described his own son. If he heard something bad about his son he will definitely went back home with anger and release his anger towards Adik and punished Adik until Adik badly hurt. His mother always support adik whatever did he did and always comfort him if his father done punished him and always be there for him. As for his little sister, adik always teach his sister to do homework and be good to his little sister.

Friendship

As we can see Zita was Adik’s best friend. She will always be there when Adik are down. She motivate Adik and gave him his confidence back just like when Adik’s hair have been cut by his father because he is distracted by that hair. Moreover, Adik family know about Zita too. We can know that Zita was really a good friend. Zita always give Adik good vibes and always protect Adik from bullied at school.

Adik, is a  friendly boy. This we can see when he talk to Syuk when Syuk first enter the school. Syuk also can be defined as a good friend to Adik although they have misunderstanding at first because people thought that they were gay and have a relationship.

Cikgu Intan who is Syuk’s sister that teaching where Adik studied. She also have been good to Adik because she is pity with Adik because he always been beaten by his father because his behaviour. Cikgu Intan asked his father to take as it is. We can see it when Adik back from Abg Khalid’s house and back with wearing a makeup on his face, there his father lost his tempered and took Adik’s umbrella and beat him until he fainted.