NATHAN ALGREN’S PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT IN JOHN LOGAN’S MOVIE SCRIPT THE LAST SAMURAI

Abstract

The Last Samurai is one of Logan’s works in 2003. Mostly, this script tells about Nathan Algren as the main character. Algren is described as traumatized US Army Captain after massacring Native American in Indian war. Later, he is hired by Omura to train Japanese Army in order to kill the samurai rebellion. Unfortunately, in the first assault Japanese Army are defeated and Algren is captured by the samurai rebellion. Furthermore, after his captivity Algren’s personality is developing. The goal of this thesis is to give a clear description about the causes and the process of the main character’s personality development. Algren feels guilty and ashamed after killing Native American and that incident gives him traumatic experience and a nightmare. Further, he becomes a drunkard in order to reduce his guilty feeling. Later, he is not addicted to alcohol and settles his traumatic experience after being captive by Katsumoto. In addition, this thesis uses psychological approach to analyze the fictitious character. The theory of personality is used in this thesis. The theory is proposed by Sigmund Freud. The theory explains about personality structure; they are id, ego, and superego. Id is irrational, ego is rational and superego is a society rule about right and wrong. Furthermore, the method is used to analyze data is inductive method. It means that the discussion of the thesis goes from particular ideas to a general conclusion. In applying this method, the analysis begins with a study on Algren’s personality and behaviour. His personality is changing from a bad into good one. He feels guilty and ashamed after killing the Native American. He becomes a drunkard in order to reduce the anxiety from his superego. Then, the general conclusion drawn is that Algren experiences his personality development. He is not addicted to alcohol and settles his traumatic experience.