CHAPTER II

HUMAN BEHAVIOR TO OVERCOME AN EXTERNAL THREAT

This chapter deals with the finding and analysis of Human behavior towards any

external force or threat through mental pressure. When a living being is frightened

physically, it depends on the will power of that individual to face and overcome the

situation. It will not always end up in a successful way, sometimes they fail and get hurt

feelings like guilt or anger. But, when someone is targeted emotionally, threatening them

with a fearful or unbelievable information, it might also affect the concerned person’s

dear ones. Only physical pains stay within them and even that hurts their dear one’s

emotionally. Thus, when someone is revealed a secret of their dear ones, will they open it

up straight to them? Will they completely forget the strange secret and move on without

any confusions? Even if they could talk about the secret generously, will their relationship

stay strong as before? We could rise lots of question to state the reactance of a human

mind for a mental threatening rather than physical threatening. So, the main aim of this

research is to find the behavioral change in the minds of victim and the reasons to justify

their statement to react particularly in that situation. The given title will be justified in this

chapter, through the analysis of all the four victim’s reaction to the Stranger’s threat, their

ability and sustenance to manage the shattering of hope and belief.

The novel, I have chosen for the study is The Stranger, a psychological thriller.

The main plot of this novel surrounds around the protagonist, Adam, an Attorney,

struggling to find his missing wife, unknowing that she was dead. The stranger, whose

work is to reveal one’s online secret to their dear ones, approaches Adam and tells him

that his wife had faked a pregnancy. Adam researches and asks about it to his wife,
Corinne the next day. Corinne says that they will talk about it the second day evening and

goes missing. Adam receives only a text message from his wife’s number, that she wants

some break, she will be back and to take care of the kids as, “It was a text from Corinne:

MAYBE WE NEED SOME TIME APART. YOU TAKE CARE OF THE KIDS. DON’T

TRY TO CONTACT ME. IT WILL BE OKAY. Then: JUST GIVE ME A FEW DAYS.

PLEASE” (Coben 104). The stranger also meets other three victims and the second victim

will be murdered after few days. All these incidents are interlinked and ends up breaking

Adam’s family into pieces. Thus, with the help of Psychological Reactance Theory, I

would like to find the possibilities and behavior of any human being to any strange news

or threat and their reaction to them, in this research writing.

The Stranger is a psychological thriller that deepens the theme of American

Dream. The novel induces its interest in the reader from the beginning lines, where a

Stranger meets the protagonist, Adam and suddenly tells, “You didn’t have to stay with

her” (Coben 1). The information given by the stranger completely destroys the illusion of

Adam about his aim to retain his life as living an American Dream. “It was a simple

sentence on the face of it, but there was something in the tone, something knowing and

even caring, that led Adam know that nothing would ever be the same” (Coben 1). The

protagonist takes different leads to find his missing wife and this makes him understand

life to lead with hope and to accept reality. The main objectives of American Dream can

be Family, Friends, Colleagues and then Society. Adam tends to lose his first support of

family, his wife and children. This shatters the hope of Adam, but he sustains to find and

avenge his enemy, ending up in an unbelievable tragedy. This novel deals with family

bond, hope, sustainability, technological hike, suspense and thrill throughout the story.

The stranger fixes the plot by meeting four victims, to reveal the secrets of their dear

ones. The stranger works with a team of five, which finds those who are cheating their
dear ones through online technological resources and blackmails them to pay a certain

amount to enclose that secret from going viral on the web. Among the four, two are

stricken from the list of their targets, since, Dan Molino, father of a famous football

player, Kenny Molino, paid the money to the stranger, requesting them to not reveal his

son’s secret. Kenny was the dear son of Dan, who had taken a drug from Online site to

improve his stamina to win the match. Since, Dan’s status gets spoiled by this secret, Dan

pays off the money, though he felt bad that his own Son hid that from him. Next comes

Michaela Siegel, who is getting married to her boyfriend’s friend. She had broken up with

her boyfriend since he uploaded their private picture on the web. The Stranger meets her

with a big secret that it was her Fiancé, Marcus who uploaded the video and not her

boyfriend, David. Michaela knocks off the Stranger by telling him that it doesn’t matter to

her, since she was already interested and had a crush on her boyfriend’s friend, Marcus.

““But here’s the problem, Mr. Secret Revealer.” Michaela stepped closer to him. “Even

when I was dating David, I had a crush on Marcus. That’s the irony, right?”” (Coben

146). So, the plot mainly focusses only on Adam Price and Heidi Dann. Heidi Dann is the

mother of Kimberly Dann, a teenager who secretly involves in an online prostitution. As

soon as the stranger approaches Heidi to reveal her daughter’s secret, she enquires her

daughter and consoles her not to worry and that she will sort it out. But, the next morning,

Heidi was murdered in her home.

Since, Adam could not find any clues to trace his wife, he himself gets into

finding the Stranger to enquire about her wife. The plot takes an interesting turn soon

after Adam starts his investigation. The novel is set in the towns of New Jersey picturing

the lives of suburban family. Other than the twists set by the team of Strangers, there are

other four characters involved in the main plot of the story. The story unwinds itself from

all the twists and turns after the introduction and evil actions of those four persons. They
are, Tripp Evans and Bob Baime, the colleagues of Corinne in her school and John Kuntz

and Larry Powers, the creators and handlers of the Online Prostitution Website. Once

Heidi Dann starts searching about the website that her daughter is involved, John Kuntz

decides to murder her and kills her the next day at her home. ““If you scream, I’ll finish

you off slowly and then start on your daughter,” Kuntz whispered. “Do you

understand?”” (Coben 124). He also finds out, Ingrid Prisby, another stranger from the

team, through the camera footage where she informed Heidi about her daughter. So, John

Kuntz kills Ingrid too. Soon after the death of Heidi, the Chief Police of Ohio, Johanna

Griffin arrives at the investigation, only since Heidi is a dear friend of her. “Beachwood,

Ohio, Police Chief Johanna Griffin had never been to a homicide scene” (Coben 197).

Johanna connects the incidents happened and starts investing Adam about his wife. Later,

Johanna understands Adam to be innocent and helps him finding the truth. At last, Adam

traces the Strangers Team and finds out that She did not run away from him and her boys,

rather she was killed. Tripp Evans, who took away the Lacrosse Team’s money for his

personal reason, did not put it back and when Corinne insisted on revealing the truth,

Tripp got angry and killed and sent a text message to Adam that she will be back. Adam

confirms that the text was not sent by her wife only at the end, where he notices that the

text had, “Kids”, and Corinne never mention her sons as kids and only “Boys”. “YOU

TAKE CARE OF THE KIDS” (Coben 104). Adam becomes very anxious and kills Tripp

Evans. The story ends with Adam and his sons, Thomas and Ryan hoping to live with a

belief that Corinne will bless them and sees her boys smile.

To begin with the analysis of the novel, it focusses and revolves around the lives

of the suburban families in the town of New Jersey. The author has described all the

detailed points about the selection of the Boys’ Lacrosse Team. “Corinne had made

Adam’s job simple. She had ranked every boy who had tried out for the sixth-grade team,
so he could simply select based on who was left. The real key - the real reason he was

here - was to ensure that Ryan, their sixth grader, made the all - star travel team” (Coben

7). Though the story of Adam and Corinne are not considered by the Team of Strangers to

claim money, Adam is the one mainly involved with all the suspense of the story. Bob

Baime, whom Adam calls ‘Gaston’ develops a hatred towards Adam, since he argued

against his opinion during the team selection of the Boys’ Lacrosse team. So, Bob

informs the Stranger to find out any secret of Corinne, since Tripp Evans lied him that

Corinne suspects him being the stealer of the money from the Lacrosse team. “CBW is

your cousin Daz’s investigation firm. You hired him to dig up dirt on Corinne” (Coben

361). Meanwhile, Tripp Evans, the president of Lacrosse League takes the amount of the

team for his personal reasons and when Corinne enquires about the money, Tripp kills

her. Both the incidents are coincidental and that makes Adam feel guilt of himself being

the reason for his wife to get alone. The plot is framed in such a manner to keep up the

suspense in the reader till the last chapter. Tripp Evans and Bob Baime are the characters

that induce the plot but doesn’t get affected into the consequences. Likewise, John Kuntz

and Larry Powers are also characterized the same, where John kills Heidi and Ingrid and

this stumble both the stranger’s team and Adam. The influence of Online technological

resources that disturb the peace in a family is described in a constructive narration. The

tracking of Corinne from their own home, ““LoveMyFamily,” he said. “All one word.

And you need to capitalize the L, M, and F.”” (Coben 168), hacking one’s IP address to

find their personal satisfactions, involving in online prostitutions “There’s a website

called Find Your SugarBaby. Com,” (Coben 74), and online games are widely discussed

in this novel. Though the narration is Omniscient, the readers can very well relate with

the feelings and emotions of the various characters in this novel. Thus, the author

carefully interweaves the two concepts, a fearsome thrilling plot with a few antagonists
and a few victims who are not so innocent after all. All the characters as victims are

somehow misbehaved or disloyal to their dear ones. In case of Adam, Corinne had

planned to fake a pregnancy just to gain attention from her husband. She tracked that her

husband is in his Assistant, Sally Perryman’s house, late at night and so, Corinne plans to

gain attention and distract him from growing close with his assistant. Likewise, the

Stranger, Chris Taylor wanted to reveal the secrets of those who are cheating their dear

ones, just because he had a past, that could not be forgiven. Chris Taylor, when he was

sixteen years old, comes to know that his dear father was not his biological father and that

he was a son from his Mother’s Boyfriend before marriage. Chris could not accept the

truth and moves away from his family and works with an online website that sells fake

pregnancy kit. “Secrets, Chris believed, were cancers. Secrets festered. Secrets ate away

at your innards, leaving behind nothing but a flimsy husk. Chris had seen up close the

damage secrets could do. When Chris was sixteen years old, his beloved father, the man

who had taught him how to ride a bike and walked him to school and coached his little

League team, had unearthed a terrible, long-festering secret. He wasn’t Chris’s biological

father” (Coben 310 - 311). Only then Chris decides to reveal the secrets of those who

cheat their dear ones. But his companions, force him to do it with the demand for money.

So, both Adam and Chris have experienced the fear of losing their dear ones. In case of

Adam, he did not get a chance to reunite his family after the misunderstanding between

him and his wife. Whereas Chris chose to shatter the lives of those who are disloyal to

their dear ones. It is their own choice to accept and move on or to live with those secrets.

For example, Michaela would have patched up with her innocent boyfriend, after hearing

the secret of Marcus if she was truly in love with David. Likewise, Heidi would have

sorted out the problem officially, with the help of her dear friend, Johanna Griffin.

Unfortunately, she was killed even before realizing the truth. Throughout the novel, the
readers are kept under the guess of the character’s next move. The psychological and

emotional aspects are dealt between every other character. “Chris used the all-

encompassing term secret, but really, they weren’t just secrets. They were lies and cheats

and worse” (Coben 310).

Hope is one of the themes surrounding throughout the novel. As Adam begins to

search for his wife, he always had his hope to find her alive and also, he was the only

hope to their two sons, because Adam knows very well, that Corinne was much important

in their lives. Adam could clearly understand that their life of American Dream is over

but still strongly believes for his wife to return back to her boys. “Their mom is here too.

In that House. In this town” (Coben 379). The importance of hope is employed in a

fascinating manner to reach the emotions of the readers to empathize with the characters.

Other than Hope, influence of Cyber technology and its lack of privacy is mainly

highlighted in this novel. The story is itself set in the world of Internet, where people are

addicted to the popularity and attaining the trending styles into their life. Harlan Coben

has mainly used his story to bring out the consequences of online technologies, the

aftermath of these usages, the leakage of our privacy and also the awareness about these

online hackers. The theme of American Dream is portrayed very well in a fictional town

of Cedarfield. The people might seem to live comfortably with their family in big houses

and a good job, but touching upon a small hole or a lie, can lead into the complete

destroyer of their future. This discovery of secrets might help readers understand that

those live peacefully in a quiet and composed manner, might also have their own secrets

and misbehaviors. This novel brings out the actual transformation of American Dream

from how it was meant to be in its initial stages to the present state of living in an

American Dream. Thus, the perceptions of their life, to take in a desired manner should

be the only goal and there are going to be secrets unrevealed either for the sake of good or
bad. The changeover of Adam’s character with respect to his family relations and the

consequences led to the victims and their dear ones due to the revealing of secrets will be

analyzed in this research writing with the applications and characterizations of

Psychological Reactance Theory.

The theory, chosen for the study is based on the Human Psychology, to analyze

and understand the basic emotions that outpour when a sudden threat or fear is evoked

upon a person who is either mentally stable or unstable in their present life. Some people,

after hiding a truth or someone who is beholding a secret will tend to live in a state of

pressure, which might be clearly visible in their actions, their eyes and in their way of

speaking. Whereas, some people get used to that kind of mischiefs and does not care

about the consequences of the situation they are in. In the chosen novel, The Stranger,

Harlan Coben has given us both the characterization, so, let us analyze with the nature

from their perspectives. In general, Psychological Reactance refers to an unpleasant

arousal, that emerges when a human experience a sudden threat or fear and the loss of

their freedom. It is generally assumed that when a person’s behavioral freedom is

threatened or reduced by a sudden action or discomfort, they become motivationally

aroused. Thus, the fear of losing further freedom will motivate them to re-establish the

threatened freedom. This action is a counterforce of the threatened fear and it is called the

psychological reactance.

The Psychological Reactance Theory was first introduced by an American

Psychologist, Jack Brehm in 1966, in an article published in the journal of ‘Personality

and Social Psychology’. Brehm expanded the reactance theory by focusing on the

freedom and the choices people make when their freedom is threatened. The basic

understanding of the theory is by removing freedom from the choices given. Brehm’s
Reactance Theory can be put into two principles. When the person’s freedom is perceived

to be more important, then the reaction to the removal of threat will be larger. If the

freedom of threat is not so important to the individual, then the reaction will not be larger.

So, the feel of freedom should be stronger to experience larger resistance to the

limitations. The second principle of the theory is when the number of threats to a freedom

increases, then the reaction will also be simultaneously greater.

In simple, Reactance theory states that when people are restricted to certain

actions, they feel a strong need to resist and fight back to regain their lost freedom. Only

based on the magnitude of the threat, the amount of reactance is decided. The threat of

one’s freedom can be either external or internal. Internal threats are self-imposed based

on choosing specific factors and rejecting others. Whereas, the external threats are raised

from impersonal factors, either from social influence targeting a specific individual or by

creating a barrier to an individual’s freedom. Usually, people who are threatened feel

uncomfortable, lonely, angry and frustrated. On the behavioral side, the victim might

exhibit a restricted behavior, that is direct restoration or he/ she might observe a person

who is performing a similar behavior, that is indirect restoration. The victim might force

or plead the threatening person to free him from the threat or they might isolate

themselves in order to burn down the aggression. While on the cognitive side, the victim

might look after to reduce the source of threat or find any change in the imposed action to

upgrade the restricted freedom. The theory considers four important elements with respect

to the arousal of threat, they are Perceived freedom, Threat to freedom, Reactance and

Restoration of freedom. Freedom is in the sense of feeling associated with human

behaviors like emotions, attitudes, anger and actions.

 The key constructs of the Psychological Reactance Theory are the four elements

that are associated with human behaviors. Beginning with freedom, it is the main notion

of Psychological Reactance Theory. Freedom is a belief that individuals may act

accordingly. Every individual possesses a specific freedom to the extent of knowledge

and to perceive that they would act upon freedom. Such freedoms that cannot be

perceived to exist in a defining manner cannot be threatened or reduced and so it cannot

arouse any reaction if it is threatened. In the context of persuasion, threats to freedom are

used to influence social freedom. Every attempt of persuasion can be considered to be

threat to freedom.

Psychological Reactance is the motivational arousal that is found to be occurred

when a freedom is threatened with elimination. Although, any persuasive communication

holds the potential to arouse reactance if it threatens or eliminates a previously held

freedom, then the magnitude of reactance aroused is hypothesized to be positively

correlated with the importance of the threatened freedom. For many years, there had been

a lack in validating measurement of reactance. But the recent research had demonstrated

that the reactance can be measured as a blend of anger and negative cognitions preceded

by the threat of freedom. Highly reactant individuals are characterized by a resistance to

rules and regulations, high desire for autonomy, high defensiveness and low concern for

social norms.

The fourth component of the Reactance Theory is the Restoration of Freedom. As

the name suggests, it is the result of the reaction to the freedom of the threat. It encloses

the potential consequences that occur as a result of the reactance arousal. According to the

Psychological Reactance Theory, when a freedom is threatened or reduced, an individual

will be motivated to reestablish that freedom. So, the theory suggests that the individuals
might act upon the restoration from freedom either directly or indirectly. Direct

Restoration is engaging directly in a reproached behavior or behaving against an

advocated manner. The Direct Restoration can also be referred as the boomerang effect.

Since, the direct restoration effect will not be suitable in all the conditions, the theory

suggests that the individual might behave in a more indirect ways to restore their

freedom. Indirect restoration might include responses of one’s liking of the threatened

choice, aggressively performing the threatened behavior by observing others and acting in

a manner to restore their freedom, completely derogating the sources of the threat to

freedom, by thinking and denying the existence of the threat. Or else, the victim might

exhibit a relative freedom to regain feelings of hope, control and choice of restoration.

With the application of the Psychological Reactance Theory, this study deals with

the hypothesis, selected based on the variable measurements and reactance of the

characters in the chosen novel. And, with the help of the analysis from the finding, the

research question, “How will the psychological nature of human behavior react with

respect to the threat of freedom in an aspect of American Dream?”, will be explained.

To begin with the application of the first characterization or element of the

Reactance Theory, the Freedom, “The principle here is that a freedom is an expectancy

and can be held with more or less certainty. Reactance can be aroused in a person only to

the extent that the individual believes he or she has a freedom or control over a potential

outcome” (Brehm and Brehm 5). I should introduce the setting and background life of

the characters. The novel, “The Stranger” is set in the fictional town, Cedar field in New

Jersey. The main theme of the novel is the American Dream which remarks with the

compatibility of freedom. The main and central character, Adam is someone who was

already living in an American Dream, a big house in the center of the town, a job that is
very much comfortable and well-paid, a wealthy family and an understanding wife. But,

their state of American Dream was soon gone into dust, when the Stranger met Adam.

“The stranger didn’t shatter Adam’s world all at once” (Coben 1). Thus, the first element

of freedom is disturbed even in the beginning lines of the chapter. Also, the other

characters can be taken into consideration of this element to further analyze their behavior

to the threat. Likewise, Heidi Dann was a woman who was very popular among her

friends in social life and she was chosen to involve herself in the freedom of her daughter,

Kimberly Dann. Heidi Dann could have reacted otherwise to her daughter in a harsh

manner for involving in such a behavior, but she was matured enough to solve the

problem by herself, by putting her own freedom into threat. Other two victims of the

strangers were also under the same condition, but their reaction differed from the first two

victims. Michaela Siegel, was about to marry her boyfriend’s friend and she could easily

overcome the secrets told by the stranger, since she was not in the arousal behavior and

her restoration was direct. “Michaela stepped inside and turned to face him. “You didn’t

reveal a secret,” she said. “You just created another one” (Coben 146). Whereas, Dan

Molino was someone who was put into a motivational arousal and his freedom of belief

was shattered in a few seconds. From all the situations put together, the element of

freedom becomes very important to further analyze the other elements of the Reactance

Theory. The relation between psychological thinking and the management to the threat is

measured with the sustenance of freedom from their own life. With respect to Adam, he

was completely shattered on hearing the secret, he lost hope on his life they are living, his

family, his sons, and their whole living was not going to be the same again. This

realization of the victim, motivates the threat to further move stronger and disturb the

victim. So, this was the scenario in the cases of Adam, Heidi and Don Molino. Even the

stranger, Chris Taylor was under the same situation where his own Mother shattered his
freedom of belief. With the considerations of this element, the threat to freedom is

analyzed with the characters of Coben.

Each and every attempt of persuading someone against their mental pressure or

threatening them to lose fear is the threat to freedom “A second principle concerns the

importance of the freedom that is threatened or eliminated” (Brehm and Brehm 5). In the

chosen novel, “The Stranger”, the character, Chris Taylor is the stranger, who evokes the

threat of freedom among all the four victims. The other characters who attempt to

persuade the freedom of sustenance are Adam’s wife Corinne, Larry Powers, the manager

of the online prostitution website and Bob Baime who indirectly plots against the freedom

of Adam and Corinne. Corinne puts herself into trouble, just because she could not stay in

the measured borders of freedom. She manipulates Tripp Evan’s threat to freedom by

demanding him to put the Team’s money back. This broke the patience of Tripp Evans

and he killed Corinne. So, the threat to freedom is evoked mainly due to the mental

pressure led to the person who threaten the victim. Only due to the personal reason or the

effect of their past put them in such a situation to threat one’s freedom. Coben has moved

his plot in a detailed manner, without any pieces left hidden or unexplained. First of all,

the Stranger, Chris Taylor’s justice to get into this practice of blackmailing someone with

their dear one’s secret was an effect of his own reaction from knowing that his dear father

was not his biological father. That moment, when he came to know the truth, he was

sixteen years old and the right moment he heard the news, he ran away from their home

and never returned. This is the reason why; Chris Taylor chose to work under the team of

online hacking and blackmailing. Coben brings an unusual trait of blackmailing in his

novel, where the stranger goes straight into the victim without any face mask. It was

Taylor’s own idea to reveal the secrets with an open face, because the victim should

believe the stranger with only one meeting, and to make this possible, Chris Taylor feels
that the direct contact only brings the fear or arousal in the eyes of the stranger. “Eduardo

had wanted to do everything online. Make the threat online. Reveal the secret via an

untraceable e-mail. Keep it completely anonymous. But Chris didn’t agree. What they

were doing, like it or not, was devastating people. You were changing lives in a flash.

You could dress it up all you wanted, but the person was one thing before his visit, and

something entirely different after. You needed to do that face-to-face” (Coben 312). On

the other hand, Bob Baime, was equally greedy on Adam’s happy family and wealthy

life, which was still a dream for him. So, he opts to inform the stranger to find any secret

about Adam and Corinne. Since Corinne had bought the Fake pregnancy kit, the stranger

himself chose to reveal it to Adam, to shatter their family life. Larry Powers, is the one

who found the Online prostitution website called ‘Find your SugarBaby.com’. John

Kuntz was the partner in his online business, and since he was badly in need of money for

his son, Robby’s medical issues, he did not want to get caught by any of the stranger’s

victims. So, he kills Ingrid Prisby and Heidi Dann. So, it was also the threat to freedom of

his family struggle, to bring back his son better and to save his partner. From all the

perspectives of the victims and the characters who were under the threat to freedom are

somehow a victim in their past and they develop the habit of bringing a change in the

society through eradicating the practice of hiding any important issues or secrets from

their concerned human beings. When comparing this element of Threat to freedom, Adam

realizes his own mistake of not caring his wife and concentrating more on his work life.

“So, I ask myself: Did the stranger kill my wife? Or did her own decision about faking the

pregnancy? Or did I, by not realizing how insecure I’d made her?” “And that person is

dead. I killed him” (Coben 380). Being a woman, Corinne could not resist herself from

thinking ill about her husband, since he was beginning to visit his Assistant in her home,

which was very unusual. Thus, she thought of gifting herself a fake pregnancy kit to gain
attention from her husband, but she doesn’t want her husband to know that she felt bad

about his behavior and so She hid the truth of fake kit. After the stranger’s meet, Adam

feels very guilty of himself being a disloyal husband to his wife, who was deeply in want

of his and their son’s love and affection. So, Adam was very much in want of his wife, to

start a new life and that is the reestablishment of the lost freedom. The threat to freedom

was as important to Adam and his sons, so he was hoping a lot even after all the disasters

discovered. In the case of Dan Molino, he does not want the secret to become viral as

well, also he does not want his son to know that he knew the secret of him taking online

hormonal injections to improve his stamina. Thus, he was immediately looking for the

reestablishment of the stranger’s threat to his freedom in the societal status. “Eduardo sat

back. “Were there any issues with Dan Molino or his son?”. “Yes and No”. “We go the

Money”, Merton said” (Coben 254). Dan’s behavior was not a restricted behavior rather,

he was the only one among the four victims, who paid money to hold back the secrets.

Thus, the indirect restoration of Dan Molino’s attitude is in a similar way of most of the

persuaded victims. Whereas, Adam was led into the emotion of anger and that kind of

motivation can be called an Approach motivation. This approach reveals an angry,

impulsive and anti-social approach to life. The threats to freedom can be free behaviors

and they are the main notions of Reactance Theory. Free behaviors are specific in

freedom and not general freedom. If a threatened freedom is between the concerned two

persons and if they are aware that they exhibit it, then it is called a free behavior. Thus,

from the analysis of the characters with the second element of chosen theory, it is the

perception that some event has increased the difficulty of exercising the freedom into

question. From this novel, the source of threat is major from the external side as social

pressure, economic credibility and stress. So, the amount of reactance aroused by a given

threat will be the direct function of the number of freedoms threatened. The element of
threat to freedom becomes the most important function to disturb the freedom of the

individual and to symbolize the restoration of the threat in the Psychological Reactance

Theory.

With respect to the amount of threat given to disturb the freedom, the arousal of

reactance depends. “A third principle holds that the amount of reactance aroused by a

given threat is a direct function of the number of freedoms threatened” (Brehm and

Brehm 5). Here, the Reactance of the victims may be directly restored with anger or

aggression. But the reaction is identified to be emotional, shock and disastrous to the

victims, since their hopes and beliefs are getting destroyed with the threat given to the

freedom. The victims did not react in an aggressive manner, because the given threat was

set in public and to maintain their Family status in the society, the victims remain calm

and doubtful. Also, the mentality of not having complete faith and belief in their loved

ones is one of the reasons to remain calm and confused. The team of strangers chose the

public setting, just to ignore the psychological arousal of the victims. In the case of

Michaela Siegel, she was not affected by the secret and so, her reaction was quite

different from the other victims. The author has differences in characterization which

helps us to distinguish different psychological aspects and also the narration aids the

reader in developing their empathetical emotions. The element of Reactance is the main

and most important section to define the reactance theory.

Analyzing the reaction of Adam, the threat is quite confusing but he could believe

that there can be chances of the secret to be possible. This becomes evident with the lines,

where Adam’s thinking of his life is completely shattered from then on. Later, when he

finds Corinne’s payment for the fake kit, Adam had no other option, than to hide the

secret or directly ask Corinne about the kit. Adam chose the second option, to hear from
Corinne directly, but after all the consequences revealed, Adam realizes that it was his

own mistake which led to the death of his wife. The coincidence of two events, changed

the life of Adam and his sons, losing Corinne, a major support of their family. Adam

could not react obviously, because he did not want his sons to know the secret of their

mother. But the arousal of reaction is modified from the beginning to the end. In the

beginning, when Chris Taylor, the stranger revealed him a secret, Adam was confused

and thinking if his wife, Corinne would do such a thing. But, in the end, the reactance is

motivationally blamed upon himself, he understood that Corinne wanted only his love

and the affection from the boys. This made Adam arouse in anger, and without knowing

how to react to such a condition, every human mind serves to put a blame on the person

who is involved directly or indirectly on the other side of the action. It is Tripp Evans,

who Adam chooses to avenge his loss, and kills him. Here, the restoration of the freedom

is almost Direct, because Adam just took revenge on Tripp Evans by killing him, for

killing his wife. Thus, it is the direct functioning of the Psychological element of

reactance and restoration.

Reactance, on the other hand can resist indirectly on the individual’s surrounding.

Though the restoration will be directly helping the victim, in such a case, Heidi Dann,

who chose to help her daughter, was murdered but the victim involved in the mischief is

indirectly escaped from the threat and reactance. Also, Dan Molino’s involvement in his

son’s secret is the notion of the stranger to implement target and strain money from him.

If it was Kenny Molino, the strangers would not have succeeded in blackmailing for the

exchange of money. Kenny Molino’s decision would have been serious attempts of

emotional attack, he might even attempt suicide to escape the criticizing world. The

behavior of Dan Molino before knowing the secret and after hearing the secret is

completely ridiculous, where Dan lost the complete faith on his son. But, the Stranger,
Chris Taylor’s choice to take up blackmailing as their team profession is the approach of

Direct restoration, where Chris involves in eradicating the business of cheating, especially

online, though his own nature was not due to online technologies. When analyzing the

perspectives of Michaela Siegel and Dan Molino, both are the complete opposites of each

other. The stranger carries over a new secret from Michaela, where she was already

interested in her Boyfriend’s friend and that she does not care about him uploading her

video on the internet. While, Dan Molino is burdened with a heavy secret to carry along

with him until his life time. So, the reactance hindered upon the individuals will vary

according to the amount of importance rested upon the freedom of the individual. The

reaction of John Kuntz, is due to the motivational arousal induced by Larry Powers, who

was frightened by discovering that there is a new login from Kimberly’s account. This

made John Kuntz, overlook the idea of murdering the two who talked secretly with Heidi

and also killed Heidi Dan in her house.

From the analysis of the element of reactance, the various perceptions of

emotional arousal can be brought out. But, the efficiency of the reactance can be

understood with the element of Restoration of the threat. When a freedom is lost or

reduced, every individual reacts in various ways possible, according to the level of

importance of the threat to freedom. Based on the importance of the threat, the approach

of restoration modifies from direct to indirect. Before dealing with the restoration of

freedom, the reactance of the threat can sometimes be slow and the attitude changes

according to the aftermath of discovering the threat to be true. Such effects are called,

“sleeper” effects. As we analyzed with the change of reactance in Adam, it can be called

the change of attitude, when the persuasion of the threat becomes effective. One of the

assumptions in this theory is, it creates two kinds of forces in any reaction, it can be a

positive change or might end up towards resistance. In most of the cases, as mentioned by
J. W. Brehm, when a threat of freedom is followed by the restoration of freedom, then

most probably the notion of the attitude will be positive.

So, the fourth component of the reactance theory is the restoration of freedom. As

discussed earlier, the individual might seek for the reestablishment of the threatened

freedom to regain their lost freedom. Such restoration of the freedom can be through

direct or indirect attitudes. The direct restoration is the attitude of following up the same

procedure used as threat to freedom, and regaining the initiation to develop the force of

attitude to restore the freedom. Or else, it can indirectly induce by several ways to justify

their lost freedom, hope, life, and reestablish the lost freedom. Most common methods to

restore the freedom is direct but it is not assured to be completely successful. It depends

on the motivational approach of the victim to carefully choose between the threat and

freedom to reestablish or regain the lost phases of freedom. All the elements of freedom,

threat to freedom, reactance to threat are inversely dependent on the source of the

restoration of the lost freedom. Because, only the choice of restoration helps the victim to

develop the aspect of motivation, when it is due to the arousal of fear or threat.

Heidi Dann and Kimberly Dann lost the approach of reestablishing their lost

freedom, not because of their selection of restoration process, but also due to the external

threat and involvement of the third person, other than the threat and the victim. This act of

the third dominant, confused the team of the strangers and also Kimberly Dann, since the

approach of her mother was quite confident the previous night. Whereas, Adam’s method

of restoration of freedom can be called the sleeper effect. Adam was tracing through

indirect ways at the beginning of the novel, but slowly his approach turns to avenge the

individual who was behind the threat. So, the attitude of Adam is varying from the other

characters. Thus, we could analyze the vice versa approach of Tripp Evans and Adam,
where Tripp Evans chose to follow the indirect restoration of the element, to escape from

the murder of Corinne. Whereas, Adam chooses the direct approach of Tripp Evans,

through which he murdered Corinne. Though the main notion of the stranger, Chris

Taylor was to get rid of all the secrets of the individuals to bring it to light, Adam and

Johanna Griffin had to carry the secret of Tripp’s murder for the rest of their life, they

both share their feelings as, “It was all about secrets. That was the whole thing with Chris

Taylor and his group. They wanted to rid the world of secrets. And now you and I have

been forced to keep the biggest secret of all” (Coben 382). So, the direct restoration was

used to reestablish the use of indirect restoration. While analyzing the reactance and

restoration of Michaela Siegel, her persuasion of freedom to threat is not so important to

her arousal of feelings, thus the reaction is not so tempered and also the restoration is

direct, where she had to deliver a new secret to the stranger, who came to reveal her a

secret.

The fourth victim, stranger has chosen is Dan Molino, whose choice of restoration

is indirect, where he could relate himself with the same persuasion of interest. Thus, the

threat to freedom was highly important to reestablish the lost freedom and so, he agrees to

pay the demanded money to the stranger. So, from the analysis of all the four elements of

the reactance theory, it is evident that, every individual act according to their situation or

to the approach of the stranger. The reaction stimuli of the individual do not depend upon

the importance of the matter of threat, but on the importance of the threat itself to

manipulate the establishment of freedom. Hope is the important theme immersed upon all

the characters chosen to be victims. Every victim believes that their dear ones would

never cheat them or act evil to their wish. But the situation of individuals and their own

state of mind, becomes the deciding factor to choose between the right and wrong.
 From the application of the theory, the psychological behavior and its ability to

sustain an external threat can be analyzed. Basically, it is understood that every individual

will not react alike in all the situations or scenario, but the state of mind and expressing

their emotion will be static and more or less the same, in almost every individual. “In

general, the theory holds that a threat to or loss of a freedom motivates the individual to

restore that freedom” (Brehm and Brehm 4). The exceptions are the people, who are very

strongly confined to the threat of freedom and readily available with the possible

restorations of lost freedom. For example, Michaela Siegel, though she misunderstood

that her boyfriend uploaded the video on the internet, she did not react much, when the

stranger revealed that it was her boyfriend’s friend, whom she has decided to marry,

uploaded the video to misuse the chance. Because, even before the issue, Michaela was

interested in her boyfriend’s friend and when situation turned better, she chose to marry

him. So, the lost freedom is gained or increased immediately and upon the direct

restoration of the approach, the individual escapes the threat. Likewise, the individuals

might act upon certain serious situations, to prove the statement or the matter that they

read are not true or wrong. Such situations are measured in our minds, to not getting

persuaded from the threat or freedom. Let us consider, Corinne, when Adam asks her

about the fake pregnancy kit, she simply procrastinates the situation and moves forward

telling in a soft voice, that they could discuss the matter, next evening. Corinne thought

that it was Tripp Evans who has tried to blame something on her, to remark it bad, since

she urged Tripp Evans to put back the money. From this analysis of different perspectives

of human nature and external behavior, we could only understand that, according to the

evolution and establishment of their relationship, stands the measurement of hope and

belief to regain their lost freedom, from any extent. So, when an individual decides to

reestablish their lost freedom, they understand the importance of the threat to freedom and
then take forward their notions of restoring their lost freedom. Thus, the extent of

sustainability and management of stress and to cope up with the refinement are all

corelated and when an individual sustains to reestablish, they will manage to react and

resolve the threat to freedom.

Other than the theme of hope and American Dream, Harlan Coben stresses much

importance on the influence of Online Technologies. The twist of this theme is that the

stranger opts to take Blackmailing as his full-time profession, because he could not

tolerate Women, buying Fake pregnancy kit through one of the online websites, that he

was working in. This annoyed Chris Taylor personally, because of his past, where, at his

age of sixteen, his mother reveals a truth that his father was not his biological father. So,

Chris runs away from his parent and starts with the website called, “Novelty Funsy”,

which sells fake pregnancy Kit. Later, Chris Taylor joins with four more people and starts

blackmailing for the exchange of money, as insisted by Eduardo, one of the teammates.

So, all their missions are done online through IP address and it was Chris Taylor’s own

idea to reveal the secret of the victim, to their loved ones, without any masks on, to

manipulate fear and anger. The team of strangers, remain in online conversations with the

victim and Chris Taylor alone visits the victim to reveal the secret for only once and

remains secret.

The use of online technologies is the highlight of this novel, where most of the

significant twists are identified with the help of those sources. Adam and his sons trace

the location of Corinne’s mobile, where it was last active, through an application installed

by Corinne in all their mobile phones to trace them if they went missing. Adam was not

aware until then, that there was that application installed on his phone. Also, the other

victim’s secrets are found with the help of online hacking, where the users think that to be
personal and not aware that with the help of their IP address, all the details are retrieved.

Kimberly’s Online Prostitution, Kenny’s Hormone injection, Michaela’s private video,

Suzanne Hope and Corinne’s Fake pregnancy kit are some of the privacy lacking

technologies of the modern world, as mentioned in the novel. Though there are many

possible availabilities offline, people prefer to stay anonymous and to hide their secret,

they chose online websites. But online websites are still more dangerous in hacking our

payment details and imposing more on our interests or by misusing the card details and

transfer money to their accounts. Thus, the psychological behavior of four different

characters and situations are analyzed and brought into the conclusion that the

reestablishment of the lost freedom is strictly based upon the importance of the threat to

freedom and not their approach.

To essentially state the analysis of all the elements with the characterization of

Coben’s novel, The Stranger, the reactance theory brings in the psychological behavior of

the characters discussed in this story. When a particular character is brought into

persuasion of freedom, the reaction and restoration might differ in the sense and amount

of threat. But, when all the characters are taken into consideration, it is not applicable to

conclude with a single argument or restoration of freedom. According to the importance

of the approach, the arousal and the threat, the reestablishment of the freedom can be

decided.

To conclude with the application of the Psychological Reactance Theory, it deals

with the individual’s arousal or feeling towards any stress or threat. So, applying this

theory in the selected novel, The Stranger, I had chosen to analyze the various aspects of

human behavior and their variations and measurements in exhibiting emotion due to

stress or anger with the help of four basic components of the theory. the Freedom, the
Threat to freedom, the Reactance and the Restoration of freedom. With the application of

these elements, the characters and their emotions observed during the threat given by the

stranger is analyzed and compared with each other to derive the conclusion. So, the

sustainability and management of external threats is invariable and independent on the

individual’s ability to cope up with the hope and belief of the threat given to them. Every

individual inhibits different characters and so, their response stimuli varies according to

their mental ability and strength. The discussion of Motivational Approach and ‘Sleeper’

effect are also applicable in certain characters like Adam and Chris Taylor. The Sleeper

effect in this context, simply shows that the characterization of the victims might exhibit

different characters from the beginning and change abruptly at the end. Both Adam and

Taylor had a past which took their lives in a different turn and threw away the happiness

or loneliness that prevailed in their life. In case of Adam, it is the present which

threatened his freedom and changed over his emotions and feelings from the beginning of

the novel, till the end. Whereas, Chris Taylor, had a threatening past and reestablished his

life to be free from any threats.

The theme of American Dream plays a major role in the plot twists of the novel,

as discussed, the reactance of the individuals was almost suppressed due to the life of

American Dream. They had society and social status as their main priority in almost all

the cases. Reacting odd to the situation in public might destroy their public life, becomes

the primary thought of every victim of the stranger. Also, the strangers use this valid

theme to bring the victims under their control. Other themes discussed in the novel are

Hope, Influence of Online technology and lack of privacy which aiding in connecting

with the theory of the paper.