Tracing the Personality Development in the Protagonist of Home is Not a Country by Safia Elhillo
Keywords:
incongruence, Self-acceptance, Self-awareness, ideal self, real self, personality distortion, congruence, self-concept, personality developmentAbstract
This paper explores the personality development in the protagonist of Home is Not a Country by Safia Elhillo. This paper aims to delineate the difference between the ideal and the real selves. Reality is explored to show the effects of a changing surrounding world on the individual’s personality. Nima, the novel’s protagonist, undergoes conflicting circumstances and finds herself in a state of incongruence; however, it is argued that in the course of the novel, she recognises her worth to develop a congruence with herself. This research uses the Humanistic approach to discuss the personality development of the protagonist. The Humanistic Theory of Personality Development by Carl Rogers maintains that psychology embraces an individual as a whole, which is predisposed to self-actualisation and is fundamentally good. Each person’s purpose is to seek congruence in three areas of life, i.e., self-image, self-worth, and ideal self. When our thoughts about our real selves align with the ideal selves, this indicates the congruence, which in turn, indicate that our self-concept is solid and accurate.
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