Analyzing Racial Discrimination and Coping Strategies in Mohsin Hamid’s The Last White Man

Abstract

Coping refers to the actions individuals undertake in order to minimize the adverse effects of stressful circumstances, term include both cognitive and actions in order to manage specific circumstances that are perceived as either burdens or exceed the individual’s resources. This study is about racial discrimination and coping strategies in Mohsin Hamid’s The Last White Man. The objective of this study is to describe the forms of racial discrimination and to investigate coping strategies employed by the main character. This study used the descriptive qualitative method as the research method. To analyze forms of racial discrimination, the researchers use Fred L. Pincus's theory.  Lazarus and Folkman’s coping strategies theory is used to analyze the coping strategies utilized by the main character in the novel. The result found two types of racial discrimination that occur; individual and structural discrimination.  Individual discrimination includes stereotyping and racial prejudice, while structural discrimination occurs in the context of a community. Furthermore, the main character employed both coping strategies, emotion-focused and problem-focused coping. The first is emotion-focused coping, with the main character utilizing confrontative coping and seeking social support strategies. The second is problem-focused coping, the main character utilizing self-controlling strategies.