The Depression of The Main Character in I Was Here byGayle Forman

Abstract

Illness called depression can attack people every time. Even they are teenager or old
people. Depression can make people loose their mood to do daily activity. It also makes their
life change. Novel I Was Here by Gayle Forman depicts a teenager who has depressive
disorder since sophomore year of school. The depression makes her life changed. The
research studies depression depicted by the novel. The objectives of the research are to study
about (a) symptoms and (b) the causes factors of the main character’s depression depicted in I
Was Here by Gayle Forman.
Depression is everyone occasionally feels blue or sad, but these feelings are usually
fleeting and pass within a couple of days. When a person has a depressive disorder, it
interferes with daily life, normal functioning, and causes pain for both the person with the
disorder and those who care about him or her. Depression is a common but serious illness,
and most who experience it need treatment to get better (National Institute of Mental Health,
2015).
The researcher applies close reading technique. The object in this study is a novel
entitled I Was Here by Gayle Forman that published in 2016. The data of the study in
sentence form are derived from the narration, the main character’s speeches and acts, and
from other characters who describe about the main character’s depression. The techniques
used to collect the data are 1) reading the novel I Was Here carefully and intensively, 2) mark
the data that relate to the symptoms and the causing factors of the main character’s
depression, 3) reading and searching the sources, some articles to support the analysis, 4)
analyze the data, 5) make the conclusion as the result.
The result of the research is that people who have depression will show the symptoms
of depression. In I Was Here, the main character shows four symptoms of her depression,
such as feeling of hopelessness, decreased energy, oversleeping ,and though of suicide or
suicide attempts. Feeling hopeless of the main character already leads her to do suicide.
Because of decreased energy, she gets oversleeping. Depression also has causing factors
which cause depression. The causes of the main character’s depression are genetic and
situational. Someone who has family memberssuffers depression, they also has a chance to
get the depression too. The main character had depression inherited by her mother. It clear
that the main character’s depression genetically by her mother. The situational of depression
in this novel is trauma. The main character has a trauma when she has at sophomore year of
school. After an accident, the main character shows the depression symptoms. The causes are
the reasons why the main character gets depression.
Keywords: main character, depression, symptoms, depression-causes