Essay Instructions: Please write the personality analysis of Landon Carter according to Erikson's theory. You only need to analyze stage 8 and make a conclusion for the whole paper. For the conclusion, please focus on the fact that Landon has found his self-identity. The conclusion should summarize what you found and why it matters, so in some ways, it should mirror the introduction, but should also highlight the important details you identified in your paper. So here is the introduction. Erik Erikson was an American developmental psychologist who was born in Germany and went on to organize eight stages of psychological development. He developed a model that talked about the eight stages every human passes through as he grows. These stages depict and analyze a person?s life from when they are baby until they die. It mentions how in every stage a person is presented with problems and challenges. Every stage depicts a crisis, which has to be resolved or else it will create problems in the next stage. Thus, for a person to attain a positive personality, they need to attain positive goals of that stage and progress smoothly to the next one (Rosenthal, Gurney, & Moore 2).
A Walk to Remember is a popular romantic drama released in 2002. With the setting in North Carolina, the movie revolves around the life of a school heart throb Landon Carter and Jamie Sullivan, who is the complete opposite of Landon. The movie starts with a prank ending up wrong with Carter having to take part in the school play. Where Carter is not very serious about his life, Jamie is a much more focused and determined student. Preferring to stay alone and do her own thing, Jamie actually has plans for her life. Wanting to improve, Landon decides to ask Jamie for help and hopefully become a better actor. The play becomes the reason for their interactions to increase. In spending time with her, Landon changes as person and finds his own identity. Over the course of meeting Jamie and loving her, Landon evolves as a person to a great extent, specially demonstrating the fourth stage (identity versus role confusion) of development in Erikson?s eight stages theory.
Here is the analysis of stage 8 and conclusion. But Im not satisfied with them. Some of the analysis is inconsistent with the theory. Stage 8 is ego identity versus despair. The virtue that is being developed is wisdom. You may argue that he develops ego identity instead of despair.
STAGE 8
Landon: I'm sorry she never got her miracle.
Reverend Sullivan: She did. It was you.
In this whole movie, Landon?s character is trying to evolve into something better and into the best person for Jamie . It is seen that even after he has found his social identity and Jamie, he still tries to finish off things on her list. He makes the telescope for her, learns how to dance and in the end marries her in the same church she wanted to get married in. The one thing missing out of Jamie?s wishes was that she wanted to see a miracle. Even though this stage is one that comes after the man has turned 60 and till death, it is one of regret or wisdom. The dialogues mentioned above shows that Landon will always have that regret that he didn?t give her the miracle. His queries are settled by the Reverend?s answers when he tells them it was him all the way long.
Even though Landon had not reached that age in the movie, it is clear that he would have seen this as a goal not achieved. After the Reverend tells him that, this stage will later go on to alter his reflections on his life. When Landon looks at this later in his life, he will know that the one thing he wanted to do regarding Jamie, he had accomplished it.
Landon?s closing dialogue: ?Jamie saved my life, she taught me everything. about life, hope and the long journey ahead. I?ll always miss her. but our love is like the wind. I can't see it, but I can feel it.?
These words at the end of the movie sum up the journey Landon took all throughout the movie. The stages he went through in life were unhealthy in the start. Landon lacked hoped, will, purpose and competency. It was in stage five of his life that he discovered all the lost virtues of his previous stages. With a demanding but comforting father and irrational friends, Landon was lost in trying to be someone he wasn?t. Starting out as a rude and discourteous high school boy, Landon evolved into a groomed doctor at the end of the movie.
These lines show that at the end, Landon had figured out his life and what he wanted to be. Jamie helped him find the answers to all the questions he had from life. It was because of her that he let go of his attitude of wanting to be above people and he stopped treating others with disrespect. She taught him about faith, hope and brought him closer to the culture and religion. It was the interactions with her that made him let go of his ego. This theory fits well with Landon?s character because it illustrates how an unhealthy childhood upbringing can lead a reckless adolescence. It also shows that interactions and relationships a person has in the adolescence largely affect the sort of person they will go on to be.