THE INFLUENCE OF LIFE IN PRISON TOWARD ANDREW’S CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT IN JODI PICOULT’S VANISHING ACTS
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra
in English Letters
By
DYAH EKO PURWANINGRUM
Student Number: 044214134
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
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THE INFLUENCE OF LIFE IN PRISON TOWARD ANDREW’S CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT IN JODI PICOULT’S VANISHING ACTS
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra
in English Letters
By
DYAH EKO PURWANINGRUM
Student Number: 044214134
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
YOGYAKARTA 2011
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LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN
PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS
Yang bertanda tangan di bawah ini, saya mahasiswa Universitas Sanata Dharma Nama : Dyah Eko Purwaningrum
Nomor Mahasiswa : 044214134
Demi pengembangan ilmu pengetahuan, saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma karya ilmiah saya yang berjudul The Influence of Life in Prison toward Andrew’s Character Development in Jodi Picoult’s Vanishing Acts beserta perangkat yang diperlukan (bila ada). Dengan demikian, saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma hak untuk menyimpan, mengalihkan dalam bentuk media lain, mengelolanya dalam bentuk pangkalan data, mendistribusikan secara terbatas, dan mempublikasikannya di internet atau media lain untuk kepentingan akademis tanpa perlu meminta ijin dari saya maupun memberikan royalti kepada saya selama tetap mencantumkan nama saya sebagai penulis.
Demikian pernyataan ini saya buat dengan sebenarnya. Dibuat di Yogyakarta
Pada tanggal: 28 Oktober 2011 Yang menyatakan
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LIFE BEGINS AT THE END OF YOUR
COMFORT ZONE
Neale donald walsch
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This undergraduate thesis is dedicated to:
God Almighty,
My beloved parents, brother and sister
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to say thank you to Allah SWT, for giving me the strength to finally finish my thesis, for giving me the opportunity to study in Sanata Dharma University, for giving me chance to meet great people there.
I would like to express my gratitude to bu Venti as my advisor for the guidance, for the support and advice during this thesis writing. Thank you for your time given to me. I would like to thank bu Luluk as my co-advisor and pak Tatang as my examiner. Thank you for the corrections and suggestions to make the very best of my thesis
My deepest gratitude goes to my family. To my Mom and Dad thank you for the attention to my study and your concern to my health. To my brother and sister, thank you for the support and love you gave me.
I would also like to give my best regards to all my friends. To Iin, Oyo, Dewi, Cherry, Nia, Dini, Ntonk, Fani, Molen, Yuli, and Kadit, thank you for the great times we had and for always be there for me. To Galih, Moko, Wawan, Simbah, and Kipli, thank you for the friendship you gave all this years. To Sapu, Tata, Nisa, BulBul and friends at MITRA, thank you for your support and understanding. In short, to all my friends, thank you for the friendship and memories we shared together.
The last but not least I thank the entire lecturers and staffs of English Letters Departement for their help and cooperation in finishing my study.
Dyah Eko P.
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LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI ... iv
MOTTO PAGE ... v
CHAPTER II: THEORETICAL REVIEW ... 5
A. Review on Related Studies... 5
B. Review on Related Theories... 7
C. Theoretical Framework ... 16
CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY ... 17
A. Object of the Study... 17
B. Approach of the Study ... 17
C. Method of the Study ... 18
CHAPTER IV: ANALYSIS ... 20
A. The Characteristics of Andrew ... 20
B. The Life in Prison ... 26
C. The Influence of Life in Prison toward the Character Development of Andrew ... 35
CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION ... 52
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ABSTRACT
DYAH EKO PURWANINGRUM. The Influence of Life in Prison toward Andrew’s Character Development in Jodi Picoult’s Vanishing Acts.
Yogyakarta: Department of English, Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma University, 2011.
This thesis discusses the novel of Jodi Picoult, Vanishing Acts. The novel tells about a man named Andrew who is arrested because of kidnapping his own daughter. Although only for a while, living in prison gives certain effect toward Andrew. In this thesis, the writer focuses on finding out the influence of life in prison toward Andrew’s character.
The objective of this study is to answer three problems. The first problem deals with the description of Andrew’s character. The second problem deals with the description of the setting in prison to show how the life in prison is. The last problem deals with the influence of the life in prison to major character, Andrew.
This thesis applies Formalistic approach to solve the problems of the study. This approach is appropriate for this thesis because it deals with the intrinsic elements of the novel that is setting and character in the novel.
The result of the study shows that the setting gives influence on Andrew’s character. At first, Andrew is characterized as a discipline person. He is a good role model for the family and the society. He is a kind of person that can be relied on. His character develops inside prison because the condition in prison demands him to. He takes part in the fight inside prison and even decides to help producing and smuggling drugs. The hard and rough condition of the prison forces Andrew to do everything that is needed in order to survive.
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ABSTRAK
DYAH EKO PURWANINGRUM. The Influence of Life in Prison toward Andrew’s Character Development in Jodi Picoult’s Vanishing Acts.
Yogyakarta: Jurusan Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Sanata Dharma, 2011.
Skripsi ini mendiskusikan novel karya Jodi Picoult yang berjudul Vanishing Acts. Novel tersebut menceritakan tentang seorang pria bernama Andrew yang dipenjara karena menculik putri kandungnya sendiri. Meskipun hanya sebentar, tinggal di dalam penjara memberikan efek tersendiri pada Andrew. Dalam skripsi ini, penulis memfokuskan untuk mencari tahu pengaruh dari kehidupan di dalam penjara terhadap karakter Andrew.
Tujuan dari studi ini adalah untuk menjawab tiga permasalahan. Permasalahan pertama berkaitan dengan deskripsi mengenai karakter Andrew. Permasalahan kedua berkaitan dengan deskripsi seting di dalam penjara untuk menunjukan kehidupan di dalam penjara. Permasalahan terakhir berkaitan dengan pengaruh kehidupan di dalam penjara terhadap karakter utama, yaitu Andrew.
Skripsi ini menggunakan pendekatan Formalistik dalam menjawab permasalahan. Pendekatan ini sesuai karena berhubungan dengan elemen-elemen intrinsik yang terdapat di dalam novel, yaitu karakter dan seting.
Hasil dari studi ini menunjukkan bahwa seting memberikan pengaruh terhadap karakter Andrew. Pada awalnya, Andrew digambarkan sebagai orang yang disiplin. Dia adalah panutan yang baik bagi keluarga dan masyarakat. Dia adalah orang yang dapat diandalkan. Karakternya berkembang di dalam penjara karena keadaan di dalam penjara menuntutnya. Dia ikut serta dalam perkelahian di dalam penjara dan bahkan memutuskan untuk membantu dalam pembuatan dan penyelundupan narkoba. Keadaan yang keras di dalam penjara memaksa Andrew untuk melakukan apapun yang diperlukan agar dapat bertahan.
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CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. Background of the Study
Literature can be read as a pleasurable or serious reading. As a pleasurable reading, people usually read literary works to fill in their leisure time. Meanwhile, when literature functions as a serious reading, it may become means to criticize social conditions or certain issues in society. It is true because literature is not created from empty space, but it embodies idea of culture that produces it (Rohrberger and Woods, 1971: 9). However, we cannot simply say that the facts in literature are the same as the facts in the real world. One of the reasons is because the author sometimes decides to put his own idea in certain social issues to make the work more interesting (Langland, 1984: 29). Therefore, literature is imaginative.
Through literature we can learn about life, how to solve problems and make the decisions in life. The problems that are faced by characters in the literary work may be similar with the problems we faced in the real world. Therefore, literary works can be a good example of human life that can be learned. By understanding the problems that are faced and the decisions that are made by the characters, the readers are taken inside into the character’s mind. This make literary work becomes a valuable thing for people who want to get something to learn from the literary text by reading it.
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Novel is one of the forms of literary genres. A novel always has a central idea that is called as theme. This theme is the control for the author’s selection of characters, plot, setting, conflict, point of view, and style. Those elements interact to each other to form a successful story. Therefore, it is difficult to separate those elements because they cannot stand by itself in order to create a good story (Rohrberger and Woods, 1971: 20).
Character and setting are elements that create a novel. Both of it are related to each other. Character can be defined as person who acts out in a particular time and place or setting (Rohrberger and Woods, 1971: 20). In a novel, each character has a role to perform. When he/she is performing the role, the society responds it. The character then can know what is expected by the society and what is not. In the process of performing and responding the role. The society as the setting might influence the character.
From many novels, finally the writer chooses Vanishing Acts written by Jodi Picoult. Considering that the writer already read the work and find out that there is a clear description on the setting, the writer takes a decision to focus the discussion on the society in prison as the setting and the influence to character.
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In Vanishing Acts the influence of the society on its character is clearly seen. Through the story and the characters we can learn many things. Reading the novel, we are encouraged to contemplate whether or not we can judge someone from what he/she did. More than that, it also teaches us that society can really give influence to us. It is amazing to find out how society can lead us to do something we think we are not capable of doing.
The relation between society and its character is very strong. A character needs medium, which is society, to respond its action (Langland, 1984: 9). Knowing it, the writer then tries to relate the society as the setting to what happens to the character of Andrew in this novel. In other words, this study is intended to show how the society as the setting can influence the character of Andrew.
B. Problem Formulation
1. How is Andrew characterized in the novel? 2. How is the life in prison described?
3. How does the life in prison influence the character development of Andrew?
C. Objective of the Study
The objective of the study is to answer the questions in the problem formulation above as clear as possible. This thesis aims first, to give depiction of how Andrew characterized, second is to give the description of the setting in the novel and the third, to find out the influence of the society as setting toward the character of Andrew.
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D. Definition of Terms
Character is the individual appears in a story, mixture of interests, desires, emotions, and moral principles that make one individual different from the other (Stanton, 1988: 712).
Character development defines as the changing of a character from the beginning until the end of the story (Forster, 1974: 54).
Setting of narrative or dramatic work is the general locale, historical time and social circumstance in which its action occurs (Abrams, 1985: 175). Holman and Harmon mention that there are four elements forming setting, namely:
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CHAPTER II
THEORETICAL REVIEW
A. Review of Related Studies
Vanishing Acts is Jodi’s Picoult’s twelfth novel. The novel tells about a father who loves his daughter very much that he kidnapped her from her drunkard mother twenty eight years ago. He is now extradited back to Arizona to await the trial on kidnapping charge and held in a jail ruled by vicious racial gangs. The writer tries to analyze the character development of father, Andrew, which is influenced by the setting. In order to know more about this research, the writer tries to see some people‘s studies that has similar topic with this research as references.
One of the studies about the influence of the setting towards to the character is written by Dewi Rachmawati entitled The Influence of Setting of Place towards the Major Characters as seen in Edith Nesbith’s The Railway Children. In her thesis, she talks about a family that is forced to live their comfort live in London and moved to the simpler house in Three Chimneys. There are four characters in the family that is analyzed. There are Mother, Roberta, Peter, and Phyllis. All of them experienced character development after they moved to Three Chimneys. Mother used to be an attentive person, but after they move from London; she becomes an introvert, busy and thrifty mother. The children also experienced changes in their characters. Roberta who used to be a stubborn girl becomes an attentive, mature and brave girl. As for peter, from a spoil boy, he turns into a mature, brave and attentive boy. Meanwhile, Phyllis who used to be a
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spoil and spontaneous child also becomes attentive, brave and a little bit mature. When they move from London to Three Chimneys, they get a new experience and make acquaintances with different people. They face harder problems in the new place which make them have to adjust their characters in order to face problems occur (Rahmawati, 2008: 62-64).
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journey, Santiago becomes a wise man. He “gets to see the strength of the desert, understand the Language of the World, meet the woman of his life and even get to the travel with the Alchemist.” Travel from one place to another got Santiago new experiences and many things to learn. All the journeys Santiago have taken made him in to a brave and a wise person (Wijayanti, 2007: 47-49).
Those related studies are very helpful to give description about the topic and the object that the writer is going to analyze. The writer can get information about the description of the character in the novel. More of it, the writer can get to see some reasons that can influence the change or the development of the character when they live in certain setting.
However, this thesis is a little bit different from the previous two studies. The difference lies on the number of the character and setting that are going to be analyzed. The first study analyzed many characters in one setting while the second analyzed a character with many settings. Meanwhile, in this study, there will be only one character and one setting that is going to be analyzed.
B. Review on related theories
Since the aim of this undergraduate thesis is to answer the problem formulated in the previous chapter, it is necessary for the writer to explain some theories are going to be used to support the analysis. The topic of this thesis deals with the influence of the setting to the character, therefore the writer considers that the understanding on theories of character and characterization and the theories of setting is relevant in analyzing the study.
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1. Theory on character
a. Character and Characterization
A character is a mean to create a society, from the character, the picture of society where the character lives can be revealed. In his book, A Glossary of Literary Term, Abrams defines a character as:
Person presented in a dramatic or a narrative work , who are interpreted by the reader as being endowed with the moral and dispositional qualities that are expresses in what they say–the dialogue-and what they do–the action. The grounds in a character’s temperament and moral nature for his speech and actions constitute his motivation. A character may remain essentially “stable” or unchanged in his outlook and disposition, from the beginning to the end of the work, or he may undergo a radical change, either through a gradual development or as a result of an extreme crisis (Abrams, 1985:20).
Referring to that, a character acts in certain way because he has a motivation. The character may be dynamic or stable. The dynamic character changes through times and is unpredictable while the stable character remains the same in performance or characterization from the beginning until the end of the story.
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A character has a complex personality that is influenced by the environment or society where he lives. The motivation owned by a character to do the action is started from the society‘s demand. In order to be a part of the society, the character has to adapt to the environment whether he likes it or not (Langland, 1984: 12).
De Laar in An Approach to English Literature stated that “The interaction with the environment such as nature and society’s moral values influences the character’s idea and their moral values. The norms and moral values in society can make a change on the character’s idea on life” (De Laar, 1963: 20)
Rohrberger and Woods in Reading and Writing about Literature define characterization as “ the process by which an author creates a character, the devices by which he makes us believe a character is like particular type of person he is” (Rohrberger and Woods, 1971: 20).
Meanwhile, characterization according to Perrine is a representation of characters in the story. In other way, characterization is the way in which character is represented. Thus, the character is the result, while characterization is the process.
Perrine in his book Literature: Structure, Sound, and Sense, says that characterization must also observing three other principles. First, the characters must be consistent in their behavior. Second, the characters must be clearly motivated in whatever they do, especially when there is any change in their behavior. Third, the characters must be plausible and lifelike (Perrine, 1974:69).
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Abrams stated that someone’s characterization can be seen from his emotional qualities that are expressed in their dialogues and their actions (Abrams, 1985:23). Meanwhile, M.J. Murphy in his book, Understanding Unseen: An Introduction to English Poetry and English Novel for Overseas Students (Murphy, 1972: 161-173) explained how to characterize the character’s characterization. He exemplified that there are nine ways of how the author makes his or her character understandable:
1. Personal description
The author explains the physical appearance of the characters to the readers to introduce his character. Sometimes, the physical appearance can also reflect the character’s psychological condition.
2. Speech
The author can give us insight into certain character in the book through what the persons says. Whenever a person is speaking, he or she is giving the readers some clues to his or her character.
3. Character as seen by another
Instead of describing a character directly, the author describes him or her through the opinion of other characters. Other characters will give explanation about what the character is like. Other’s thought about a certain character can be a significant factor to build an understanding of that character.
4. Past life
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helped to shape person’s character as he or she is now. It can be done by direct comment by the author, through the thoughts of the person, through the person’s conversation or through the medium of another person.
5. Conversation of others
In a fiction, there are dialogues spoken by some characters about other character in the story. Therefore, the readers may refer to this conversation to know about a character in the story.
6. Reaction
The author may also mention the personality of a character by letting the readers known how that person reacts to various events of situation.
7. Thoughts
When reading the description of what the character thought, we will find a personality of a character. In reality, to know what in people’s mind is impossible without asking them. On the contrary, we will find much easier to know what the character in fiction is thinking about. The author can give us direct knowledge of what a character is thinking about. Then, we can follow the inner life of the character’s mind which reveals his or her thoughts inside.
8. Mannerism
The author may describe a person’s mannerism that may also tell the readers something about the characters.
9. Direct comment
Direct comment is given by the author in describing the character.
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b. Character Development
According to E.M. Forster in his book Aspect of the Novel character development is the changing of a character from the beginning until the end of the story. A character is developed if he or she experiences a change in aspects of disposition, personality, or outlook. He is not the same person as he was at the beginning of the story. He changes into the new character. The changing depends on the condition and experiences as it is in the story (Forster, 1974:54).
In Literature: Structure, Sound, and Sense, Perrine states that all the fictional characters can be classified as static or dynamic character. The dynamic character or developing character undergoes a permanent change in some aspects of his or her character’s personality or outlook. It can be big or small change; and it can be better or worse (Perrine, 1974: 71).
Holman and Harmon in A Handbook to Literature add that dynamic characters are modified by the actions and experiences, and one objective of the work in which the characters appear is to reveal the consequences of this action. In the most of great dramas and novels, dynamics characters are considered as protagonist (Holman and Harmon, 1986: 83).
2. Theory on Setting
a. Setting and its Elements
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usually presented through descriptive passages, which demands the readers to give a careful and thoughtful look “out of the possibilities, the author has chosen just this background and stressed out just these details.” From the certain details the author make for the setting we can get the idea of what the story is about. Therefore, setting is considered important to help the readers knows the story better. It sometimes influences the characters, reveals the theme and evokes a definite emotional mood or tone surrounding the characters.
Wellek and Warren put forward the function of a setting. It functions to express characterization and will and have to have a close relationship with human and nature (Wellek and Warren, 1962: 220-221). Setting is important as the background of character’s life. It can influences the personalities, actions and way of thinking of the characters (Murphy, 1972: 141).
Rohrberger and Woods stated that the setting aids in establishing credibility, it can help to explain both characters and situation; it can contribute to the atmosphere or predominated mood; it can be active in foreshadowing; it can be symbolic (Rohrberger and Woods, 1971: 22). In other words, we can say that setting can give complete information to the readers and help to find out what the author wants to reveal in his work.
Koesnobroto quotes Lostracco and Wilkerson’s statement that the setting is use to enrich the meaning of a story. For them, it depends on the author’s authority whether to present setting in a specific or general way. If the author wants to show the particular effect of setting on the story, he or she usually sets a setting in specific and detailed way. Meanwhile, the setting will be deliberately
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vague if the author does not intend to provide a certain effect (Koesnobroto, 1988: 81).
Abrams in his book A Glossary of Literary Terms stated that the setting of narrative or dramatic work is the general locale, historical time and social circumstance in which its action occurs (Abrams, 1985:175). The setting of place (general locale) refers to the place where the action in the novel happens. The place can refer to the actual place with certain name, an initial name or perhaps a certain place without a clear name. The description of the place should reflect the conditions and geographical circumstance of that place. The setting of time refers to the time the events in the story occur; it is usually connected to the factual time, which has a relationship with historical events. Social setting or society refers to the people in the novel, the social behavior, such as the habits, traditions, beliefs and moral values, and the social status of the characters. Society is used to reveal human relationship, characters patterned interactions and common expectations (Nurgiyantoro, 1955: 233).
According to Holman and Harmon, setting is the physical and sometimes spiritual background against which the action of narrative (novel, drama, short stories and poem) take place (Holman and Harmon, 1986: 465). They also stated that there are four elements making up settings. They are listed as follows:
(1) the actual geographical condition, its topography, scenery, and such physical arrangements as the location of the windows and doors in a room.
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(3) the time or period in which the action takes place, for example, epoch in history or season of the year.
(4) the general environment of the characters, for example religious, mental, moral, social, and emotional conditions through which the people in the narrative move (Holman and Harmon, 1986:465).
b. Society as Setting
An author is a part of society since he lives in a certain group. As the consequence, directly or indirectly, the work of an author will be influenced by the social, cultural, political, economics and historical aspects around him.
According to Langland in Society in the Novel, society is “an animation of an outside world which has tended to obscure the formal variety of social presentation in the novels.” (Langland, 1984: 4) So the society in a real life and in a literary work is almost the same because usually the author describes the society of his work based on the society in a real life.
Langland mentions that society is not merely a concept and a construct in fiction but also in life. Society in novels does not depend on points of absolute fidelity in an outside world in details of costume, setting and locality because a novel’s society does not aim at faithful mirror of any concrete, existent thing (Langland, 1984: 5).
It shows that there is an intersection of art and life which is important, Langland says that the absolute literary realism may be impossible, but art cannot help making claims to something beyond itself. It means that literature can mean something besides itself (Langland, 1984: 5).
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In Society in the Novel, society is understood not only people and their classes, but also their medium and physical environment. The medium of a society in a fictional work can be expressed as a house, a city, a country, an institution, an object, or a group of people. She adds that society “may also be revealed through human relationship, through characters patterned interactions and their common expectations of one another.” (Langland, 1984: 6)
C. Theoretical framework
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CHAPTER III
METHODOLOGY
A. Object of the Study
The type of literary work that is analyzed in this paper is a novel, it is entitled Vanishing Acts. The novel is written by Jodi Picoult and published in 2005 by Hodder and Stoughton, London. The novel consists of 418 pages and it is divided into ten chapters. The novel was written in the first person point of view of several characters.
Vanishing Acts tells a story about a man named Andrew Hopkins. He took his own daughter and separated her from her mother when she was four. He took her from Arizona to New Hampshire and lives a new life there. Andrew is a respectable member of the councilman in New Hampshire. Everything was well until the police accidentally found out about his case. He was arrested and extradited to Arizona to wait the trial.
B. Approach of the Study
This thesis applied the formalistic approach to solve the problem of the study. Rohrberger and Woods in Reading and Writing about Literature, stated that the extreme formalist critic examines the literary piece without reference to the fact of the author’s life, without the reference to the genre of the piece or to its place in the development of the genre or in literary history, and without reference to its social condition in which a work was created (Rohrberger and Woods, 1971: 7).
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This approach is appropriate for the analysis, because in analyzing this topic or in answering the questions in the problems formulation, the writer did not relate the analysis to the environment, event, and society outside the novel or other extrinsic elements. The writer only dealt with the intrinsic elements of the novel. The intrinsic elements of the novel are character, plot, setting, theme etc. In this study, the writer only focused on two intrinsic elements, those are character and setting without even relating it to the extrinsic elements such as environment, society, author’s backgrounds or persons outsider the novel.
C. Method of the Study
This undergraduate thesis used a library research in analyzing the work. The primary source of this study is the novel Vanishing Acts by Jodi Picoult. The secondary sources used were some books on literary theories, especially theory of character and characterization, theory of setting and the relation between society as the setting and the character and characterization.
In conducting the analysis, the writer applied some necessary research procedures, which were divided into some steps. First, the writer read the whole novel. By doing this, the writer could explore the important points that were needed in analyzing the problem of study.
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that is society in prison. Moreover, the writer paid attention to the words that are said by the narrator about the description of a situation of the society or about the characteristics of the character.
The second step was collecting the data which has the relationship with the problem of study. The data were important to support the analysis. The third step was the writer tried to compile data to analyze the character of Andrew. Next is the writer classified and arranged the data to answer the problems of formulation. To answer the first question that is the characteristics of Andrew, the writer used the theory of character and characterization. To answer the second question, the writer used the theory of setting. Then to answer the third problem, the writer tried to relate between the character and the setting to find the influence of society as the setting towards the character development of Andrew. Last but not least, the conclusion was made at the last step.
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CHAPTER IV
ANALYSIS
In this chapter, the writer tries to answer the problem formulation in the previous chapter. There are three problems to answer; therefore the writer divides this chapter into three sub-chapters. First of all, the writer is going to give the depiction about the characteristics of Andrew as the subject analyzed in this thesis. Second to discuss, the writer gives the description of the setting in prison. Finally, the writer tries to see the relationship about character and how the setting influences the character of Andrew.
A. The Characteristics of Andrew
As Abrams mentions that characters are the persons presented in a dramatic or narrative works, who are endowed with moral and dispositional qualities (Abrams, 1985: 20), then the writer treats Andrew, the character analyzed in the novel as a person who has the characteristics and life as human.
In describing the characteristics, the writer applies the theory of characterization by M.J. Murphy. According to Murphy, there are nine ways to characterize the character. It is through the personal description from the author, speech of the characters, character as seen by another, past life, conversation of others, reaction, thought, mannerism and last is direct comment (Murphy, 1972: 161-173).
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“At nearly sixty, my father is good looking-ageless, almost, with his salt- and-pepper hair and runner’s build. “ (Picoult, 2005: 10)
The narrative informs the physical appearance of Andrew, although he is old he still looks handsome and ageless, his body is lean and muscular like a runner with hair colored like salt-and-pepper.
Andrew Hopkins’s real name is Charles E Matthews. Before living in Wexton, Andrew and his daughter are staying in Arizona. Back then, Andrew is student of chemistry.
I close my eyes and I am a too-serious, overachieving grad student again. All my life I’ve gotten good grades; all my life I’ve done what my parents have asked...until now. It is their great shame that instead of becoming a doctor, I have chosen pharmacology; never mind the fact that I can’t stand the sight of blood. (Picoult, 2005: 207)
He is smart student and always gets good grades. From the quotation above, we can also see that Andrew is a persistent person. He refuses to do what his parent told him. Instead, he chooses his own way by taking pharmacology in college.
He meets his wife accidentally in a bar. He is looking for a phone to call the workshop to fix his car when he met his wife, Elise for the first time. He sees her being bothered by few bikers. It turns out that it was just a misunderstanding because they are regular customers who are playing games with the bartender.
The very first time I met your father, he tried to rescue me. I was working in the middle of nowhere, at a bar frequented by bikers—not clean-cut college boys with axle grease on their hands who wandered in, dazed, after their cars broke down. He saw me pinned against a wall by two Hell’s Angels while a third threw darts at me, and he launched himself at the big man. (Picoult, 2005: 159)
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Another explanation on the physical description can be seen in them quotation above. Andrew is described as a tidy young college boy who seems to not fit in to be in a bikers bar where he meets his wife.
Not long after they met, they get married and have Delia as their first child. Everything is well until Elise got pregnant her second child. However, they lost him and it makes Elise depressed. Because of that situation, Elise starts drinking and Andrew does not care anymore, finally they got divorced.
Elise got custody for their daughter Delia, and Andrew gets only one day in a week to see his daughter. He seems feeling very sad and unsatisfied about this situation. Especially when he finds out that his ex-wife does not take care of his daughter well. She spends her days drinking and forgets her obligations as a mother. That is what made Andrew angry and suddenly take away his daughter form the mother.
Andrew took her daughter during a custody visit twenty eight years ago. He is supposed to take her for one day only and gives her back to her mother’s arm. Instead, he took his daughter and run away with her. He even set up new identities for himself and his daughter. Their former names were Charles and Bethany Matthews. He takes her away when she was four years old. He lies to his daughter and tells her that her mother has died in a car accident.
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The white church and the town green and even the benches with the little brass plaques dedicated to old schools principals. It all seemed like a movie set, like a place where there could be a happy ending. (Picoult, 2005: 124)
Andrew’s first job in Wexton is a janitor at the senior center. Not only works as a janitor, he also works as a pharmacist for the elderly. They never ask for references because they are desperate to find a pharmacist all this time.
Andrew is known as a good and caring person in Wexton City. He ended up running the senior center there, a place where active old people actualized themselves. Since coming, to Wexton, he has been dedicated his life to manage and run the senior center.
Eric sighs. “Mr.Baumschnagels,” he says, rising to his feet. “How long have you known Mr. Hopkins?”
“Almost thirty years, “Irving says proudly. “We were on the planning committee together in Wexton. He got the senior center up and running just about the time I was ready to using it.
“How does he contribute to the community?”
“He always puts other people first. He sticks up for causes that most people would rather forget,“ Irving says. “Like old people. Or poor families—we have our share in Wexton. Where most folks in town would prefer to pretend they don’t exist, Andrew will run food and clothing drives.”
“Do you know Delia Hopkins?” Eric asks. “Sure “
“In your opinion, what lessons did Delia learn from her father?”
“Well, that is easy,” Irving says. “Just look at what she chooses to do for a living: search and rescue. I doubt she would have picked that if she hadn’t seen her farther putting other people first his whole life” (Picoult, 2005: 366-367)
The quotation tells us that Andrew is a person with high dedication toward his work. It shows that he is a hard worker. He successfully runs the senior center by himself. It can be seen that Andrew is proactive person by taking care of things that many people would rather not care. By doing that, Andrew also shows that he
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is a good role model for his daughter, otherwise, she may not decide to take career on search and rescue field.
Because of his dedication to the senior center, one of the seniors in the senior center submits Andrew’s name for election of the Wexton Town Council. At first, he is hesitated to take the position to be a councilman. He is afraid that he will get caught because someone might recognize him, but then he realizes that public space is the best place to hide since no one would feel suspicious if it seems like he has nothing to hide. As a councilman, Andrew is always taking a serious responsibility towards his job. He is a reputable and “a valuable member of the Wexton community (Picoult, 2005: 45).” By now he has been performing his duty as the councilman for five years.
If this were any ordinary Thursday, I would have gotten to my office by eight-thirty. I would have called over to Wexton Farms—the assisted living community—to see if there was anything I needed to know about— recently hospitalized people, delays in the transit shuttle, dietary restrictions. I would have checked with the kitchen to see what was on the menu for the day and welcomed the day’s entertainment—a lecturer from Dartmouth or a watercolor artist, sharing his or her passion with the seniors (Picoult, 2005: 192).
Although busy with his work, Andrew always put his family first above everything. During twenty eight years he has taking a role as father and a mother at all once. Though it is hard, he managed to do it well. Besides his dedication for his work, he also dedicates his life for family.
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“Parenting Sophie—with or without Eric, depending on the year—has been much harder than I ever expected. Whatever I do right, I chalk up to my father‘s examples. Whatever I do wrong I blame squarely on fate (Picoult, 2005: 12).
He really loves and adores his daughter very much. Everything he does is for his daughter. As a single father, he always tries to provide support for his daughter, both financially and emotionally. For twenty-eight years of his life in Wexton, Andrew never remarried. He focuses his life only to his daughter and his works.
Eric passes by me, stands in front of the jury. ”What does your father do for a living?”
“He runs a senior high center in Wexton, New Hampshire” “Did he make enough money to provide for you as a child?”
“We did not live in luxury or anything,” I admit, “but we certainty had enough.”
“Your father provided for you emotionally, too, didn’t he?” Is there right answer to this question? Can you quantify love?
“He was always there for me. No matter what I needed to talk about” (Picoult, 2005: 361)
Andrew Hopkins is a perfect father a child could have. He has always been a good person to look up to. Not only for his own daughter, but also for other children. He is a discipline person. That can be seen in the quotation below.
Indicting Andrew Hopkins for kidnapping is like charging Mother Teresa with heresy. As far as I know he’s never even gotten traffic ticket, much less been implicated in criminal behavior. He’s been a model father – attentive, devoted–the parent I would have killed to have when I was growing up. (Picoult, 2005: 32)
The police came to look for Andrew. They say that they have a warrant to arrest him. The police then arrest him and took him to prison. Andrew does not fight or refuse when the police took him which led a surprise and confusion to his daughter. It turns out that he is accused of kidnapping his own daughter twenty eight years ago.
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Originally, the warrant is issued by the court in Arizona. However, the warrant is considered to be an outstanding warrant because the police can never find the suspect. That made Andrew being a fugitive for twenty eight years.
Because the case happened in Arizona, therefore Andrew is extradited to Arizona to face the trial. He is taken to Madison Street Jail in Phoenix, Arizona.
Being caught by the police after twenty eight years hiding was kind of relief to Andrew. He admits to his lawyer that he is guilty and wants to take responsibility for what he did. He tells his lawyer to enter a guilty plea. It tells us that Andrew is a responsible person. He is ready to take punishment for everything he did.
B. The life in Prison
In Society in the Novel, society is understood not simply people and their classes, but also their medium, that is, their custom, conventions, beliefs and values, their institution legal, religious, and cultural-and their physical environment, such as a house, a city, a country, an institution, an object or a group of people. Anyone or several of these may constitute fictional society in the novel (Langland, 1984: 6).
According to Abrams, setting is the general locale, historical time, and social circumstances in which its action occurs (Abrams, 1985: 175). Meaning to say, setting is not only when and where the action occur, but also the condition of society in a certain place.
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behavior of the person, especially if the new society has a big difference from the society where someone comes from. In Jodi Picoult’s Vanishing Acts the major character Andrew, lives in Wexton City , New Hampshire. Being arrested because of kidnapping case, Andrew is brought to Arizona to wait for his trial. During the time, he was kept in Grafton County Jail in New Hampshire and Madison Street Jail in Phoenix, Arizona.
1. Grafton country Jail
The Grafton County Jail is located in the end of Route 10 in Haverhill, New Hampshire. The entry way is made of heavy wooden door with an officer guard the front desk. It is located next to the Wexton District Courthouse.
The Grafton country jail correctional facility hunches like a sleeping bear at the end of route 10 in Haverhill , yoked at the neck to its sister building, the courthouse. (Picoult, 2005: 67)
The jail is connected by an underground corridor to the courthouse. The sheriff’s department is also located in the same building as the courthouse.
First time someone enters the prison as prisoner, he will be given some kind of uniform to be worn inside. They are given “a baggy orange jumpsuit (Picoult, 2005: 52)” in return for their clothes and other properties given to the officer.
The inmates in Grafton country Jail are kept in their cell for twenty–three hours a day. The remaining one hour they are given a chance to go to the exercise yard or to take shower. The inmates are fed inside the jail. They are given “an unappetizing array of blots on plastic that blend together like a Venn diagram
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(Picoult, 2005: 56).“ The jail is never dark and never quiet. There is no chance to find the calmness inside the jail.
The sound is symphony ;the wheezing snore of the guy one block down ; the crack of door being opened. Rain on the roof and the viper hiss life the radiator. The ping-ping-ping of metal as the corrections officers walks down the corridor side by side with his attitude, hitting his keys giants the bars of cells to wake up the nearby occupants. (Picoult, 2005: 53)
2. Madison street Jail
Madison Street Jail is a maximum security jail. Maximum security jail means a place where a people get convicted for serious crime they did. The prisoners of Madison Street Jail are people who done all kinds of crime, from small crime like looting, robbery, until serious crime like murdering, raping, drug dealing, etc.
The place is described as “large and gray,” intimidating (Picoult, 2005: 86).“ Since it is a maximum security kind of jail, there are many officers everywhere to take care of the prisoners and supervise them.
There are echoes: steel striking steel; a man screaming; an intercom. An inmate holding a washcloth up to his eye walks by in the company of two officers, who step into the elevator we vacate. More officers sit inside a glass booth, monitoring our progress as we are led to the visiting room. (Picoult, 2005: 86)
“The intake area of the Madison Street Jail in Phoenix is called the Horseshoe (Picoult, 2005: 94).” The prison is rarely quiet, especially in daylight. There are always many officers in charge, many prisoners doing their routines like cleaning the jail.
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inmate’s shoes on the floors as he mops; the hum of an air exchange fan; the Christmas jingle of chains as a line of men are shuffled down hallway. (Picoult, 2005: 95)
There are certain procedures the first time prisoner taken to the Madison Street Jail. Before the prisoners taken to the cell, they must pass the medical check and they also have to go through strip search. The officers tell to them to undress and check every parts of their body to see if there is something hidden inside the rectum or any other possible body parts. After that, their finger prints are taken by the officer as part of the procedures. All the procedures are done in the pre-intake area.
After passing the strip search the prisoners then brought to courtroom to have their hearing. “There is a courtroom right in the curve of the Horseshoe, one that meets several times a day (Picoult, 2005: 99).” They are taken to T-3 cell after that. “T-3 is the cell where we wait to be given our placement in jail system (Picoult, 2005: 100). Afterward the prisoners are taken to the maximum security pod. They are stripped search for one more time before entering the cells.
Two detention officers escort me upstairs to the second floor of the Madison Street Jail, the maximum security pod. The elevator opens up into a central control area. I am stripped–search again, and then given a tooth brush a size of my pinky finger, toothpaste, toilet paper, golf pencils, erasers, a comb and a soap. I’m handed a towel, blanket, and mattress and sheet. (Picoult, 2005: 100)
Getting inside the prison, it says that “The house consists of four pods— cages, each with fifteen cells inside. A central guard booth looms in the middle of the space, communicating by intercom. In each cage, a handful of men sit downstairs at tables, playing cards, or eating or watching TV (Picoult, 2005: 100).
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Beside the cells, “there is communal area where some of the inmates are playing cards or watching television. The toilet facilities are in the cells, but there is a room with showers off in the rear of corner (Picoult, 2005: 104).
The placement of inmates is determined by the race. The whites go with the whites, the black put in one cell with the blacks, and so do the browns. Putting inmates with the different race inside one cell might cause a trouble.
The maximum security pod is made of fifteen cells—five white, five Hispanic, four black and the one hold Concise and me. Considering themselves at a disadvantage, the black begin a campaign to get me traded for someone with the right color skin. They stand at the entrance to the dayroom, waiting for an officer to come on his habitual twenty-five-minutes walk, to plead their case. (Picoult, 2005: 190)
Every inmate in jail usually joins some kind of racial affiliation. They do that for the reason of brotherhood and to get support or back up whenever something bad happen inside the prison. Each affiliation is not always getting along well. They call people from other affiliation using names that meant to mock each other. The prisoners in jail generally never used their real name inside. They called each other using new names they create for themselves.
In jail, a black inmate will call a white inmate peckerwood, cracker, honky, redneck. He’ll call a Mexican a spic.
A white inmate will call a black inmate a nigger, a monkey, a spook, a toad. He’ll call a Mexican a beaner.
A Mexican will call a black inmate miyate, which means a big black bean; or yanta, tire; or terron, shark. He’ll call a white inmate a gringo.
In jail, everyone comes with a label. It’s up to you to peel it off (Picoult, 2005: 190).
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(Picoult, 2005: 99).” It is part of the Sheriff‘s policy to keep the inmates from stealing the underwear when they get out of jail. In the afternoon, the inmates of Madison Street Jail will get their ‘ladmo’. Ladmo means their lunch. So instead of gathered the inmates in some kind of a big hall to eat, their lunch was given inside a plastic bag called ‘Ladmo’. They usually get “six slices of white bread. Two pieces of cheese. Two rounds of questionable bologna. A cookie. A juice container (Picoult, 2005: 98)” for the lunch. In Madison Street Jail, inmates are required to pay for their lunch every day. They are charged one dollar per day for the lunch they get.
Even though they are in prison, the inmates do not spend their whole time of the day staying in the cell. They are also given time to go outside the yard, go to the clinic, the church and the court. When they are outside in the yard, the same rules play there. “On the red yard, we sort by color, two or three men per group. The blacks play basketball; the whites stand at the far wall; the Mexicans huddle diagonally across form them (Picoult, 2005: 197)“. The yard is not really a yard, it is more like an enclosed paved square with holes in the wall that let the air and the sun stream in. It has ceiling that kept the inmates from the fierce heat during the summer.
The yard becomes a place where the inmates interact with each other. It also becomes one of the places where the transaction going on. “Cigarettes are brought surreptitiously—both real stuff and makeshift: lettuce leaves or potato peels rolled up in pages of the bible (Picoult, 2005: 198).
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Every guard is given responsibility to watch over thirty men. He cannot always see everything. Therefore, a drug transaction is often happen in the yard.
The inmates who have a drug trade going to make their pitches out here, too. Drugs are the only reason the colors have to interact; looking for speed is called “chasing the dragon.” (Picoult, 2005: 198)
Besides a place for transaction, the yard also becomes a place where riots usually happened. Whenever a big clash happened, planned or unplanned, it mostly happened in the yard.
In order to survive inside the jail, many prisoners join into gangs. There are three major gangs ruled the prison, they are the Aryan Brotherhood, the Mau-Mau and the Mexican Mafia. But before somebody being considered as a gang member, he must pass the probation. “Probates are subject to a background check—no crimes against children, no being source for anyone in law enforcement—and you are given a sponsor, a member who takes you under his wing ( Picoult, 2005: 291).”
For the Aryan Brotherhood, the probation took two years. The probates must do whatever they told to do. They will be asked to keep weapons hidden with him, he will be asked to fight, will be expected to deliver drugs from one place to another place, will be asked to supply drugs if he had any connection. If they make money from any of it, they must share it with everyone in the gang.
At the end of two years, you will be assigned a hit—a murder sanctioned by the governing force of your gang. For the Aryan Brotherhood, that’s three particular inmates in the Special Management Unit of the Arizona State Prison. (Picoult, 2005: 291).
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The sponsor plays role as witness so that the probates will not squeal. After the murder is done, the probates will be allowed to put on a tattoo. The tattoo is a gothic letters—AB—which scraped into the skin of the arm, chest, neck or back. They can only be tattooed inside the prison. If any probates fail the mission given to them, “it’s a mistake punishable by death at the hands of his own kind (Picoult, 2005: 292).”
It is important to have someone you can trust in order to survive I prison. “You have to mesh into a group to survive, even if you are surrounded by people who have cheated and stolen their way into position beside you. You have to find someone worthy of watching your back (Picoult, 2005: 304). “Because being loner in jail is not an alternative at all.”
Being in a jail can be very dangerous, especially when you are alone. The new inmates oftentimes became a victim of bullying by the stronger inmates who stayed there before. At last they are offered protection for some price. New inmates like that are called as a punk. “You get called a punk, and you either gotta fuck or fight (Picoult, 2005: 106).”
Beside people for backup, money also plays important roles in prison. To have their lunch, every inmate is charged one dollar per day. There is nothing come form for free in prison. Even to use a public telephone they are charged five dollars per minute. Everything will be hard when you do not have money in jail.
If you pay Sheriff Jack thirty dollars up front, you are allowed the privilege using the canteen. Funds of these luxury items are deducted from your account. A dollar-fifty, for example will buy you either a bottle of shampoo or a twenty-ounce soda. You can buy soap that is like lye and rubs your skin raw. You can buy Moon Pies and Paydays and Pop-Tarts and trail mix. Tuna, toothbrushes, a thesaurus. (Picoult, 2005: 193).
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With so many people inside the prison, it is almost imposable to avoid clash. Clash between cellmates, between prisoners, or among affiliations often happened. Therefore the prison system set up other form of punishment. Whenever inmates do a serious violation, they might be taken into the Disciplinary Segregation. “Disciplinary segregation is on level three, house two, in pods A and D (Picoult, 2005: 188).“ Put in Disciplinary Segregation mean locked up in a smaller cell alone, with nobody to talk to. The Detention Officer is close by to watch over the inmates.
Being in disciplinary segregation is like being a ghost, something at which I’ve actually had a fair amount of practice. The officers get right into your face, yet don’t seem to really see you. For one hour each day, you are allowed into the dayroom by yourself, to shower and to haunt a greater space. You go for hours without using your voice. You live in the past, because the present stretches out so far it hurts to glimpse it. (Picoult, 2005: 206)
Being in Disciplinary Segregation could mean two things for the inmates. It can be place for punishment or it can mean as preservation. It is punishment for those who get caught doing violation such as starting fight. However, it can be a temporarily sanctuary for those who avoid oppress from the ruler in the jail.
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C. The Influence of Life in Prison toward the Character Development of
Andrew
The social factors or environment can influence someone’s character or personality. It is said that setting is considered important to help the readers know the story better. It sometimes influences the characters and how someone acts and reacts. Wellek and Warren also state that setting functions to express characterization. Murphy said that society has a great effect upon the personalities, actions, the way of thinking of its character. It is important as the background of the character’s life. This theory is applied in this analysis. Society in this novel really influences the character.
In the beginning of the novel, the character of Andrew is characterized as a man who is good and caring person. Before spending his time in prison, Andrew lives in city called Wexton in New Hampshire. He is one of the town council there. He also runs the senior center in Wexton. In doing his job, Andrew is known as a dedicated and discipline person. In Wexton, Andrew lives with his daughter, Delia and his granddaughter Sophie. As a father and a grandfather, Andrew is known as a responsible and supportive person. He is also described as a good role model for people in his surroundings.
1. Andrew as a new prisoner
The first development that Andrew experienced happens not long after he is extradited to Arizona. After spending few days in Grafton County Jail, Andrew is finally extradited to Arizona. He is put in Madison Street Jail in Phoenix, Arizona to wait for the trial.
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Before being taken inside the jail, Andrew has to go through some standard procedures. He is taken to the pre-intake area and leads to the medical assistant. Andrew gets his blood pressure checked. The medical assistant also asks few questions. He is asked whether he is on medication or not, when is the last time he visits doctor, whether or not he consumes any alcohol during the past twenty-four hours and whether or not he is feeling suicidal.
The cinder-block walls are still cold against my shoulder blades when I lean back against them; the mug shot area is locked into a small alcove beside the pre-intake booth; the smell of industrial cleaner seeps through the air every time a detention officer opens the door to lead another man inside (Picoult, 2005: 94).
Other people in the pre-intake area are starring at Andrew. Different from them who are arrested off the street and still wearing their own clothes, Andrew comes from a different jail and is wearing a jumpsuit the color of a hazard sign. Unlike them either, he has no property in his pockets because it is already put in a bag carried by the deputy.
Andrew does not like being treated that way. He feels like everybody sees him as a criminal who did a really awful thing. However, he keeps his thought inside his heart and does not dare to utter it. He is led to the intake area to get a strip search.
He leads me into a room to the left of a metal plate that is bolted to the wall and tells me to undress. I turn my back, which is all the privacy I’m allowed. Through the window I see a female guard watching absently (Picoult, 2005: 95).
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Being strip-searched by the officer, Andrew feels embarrassed. It feels like he loses all his freedom and his privacy. He turns his back as his last effort to keep his privacy when the officer tells him to undress.
After that Andrew is taken to the court to do the hearing. Then the inmates are given their “Ladmo,” or their lunch. For every lunch they get every day, they are required to pay one dollar per day to the Sheriff. After that they are given clothes to wear in the jail. The inmates who have not been released on bail must have their hearing before they enter the prison.
Nothing comes for free in jail. That is why money plays important rule there. Having money is an absolute inside prison. Inmates who do not have money will have to figure out other ways to survive the life in prison.
When they are already inside, they are stripped search again and also given their daily equipment like toothbrush, toothpaste, toilet paper, golf pencils, erasers, a comb and soap. They are also given a towel, blanket, mattress and sheet.
Arriving at his cell, Andrew is alone. Suddenly he feels that all of his feeling of fear and panic bursts out at that moment.
Now that I’m alone, all of the fear that’s been building up inside me during the intake process—all the panic I’ve been pushing out of my mind and covering with utter silence—presses down on my chest so hard I cannot breathe. My heart is thundering. I am sixty years old and in jail. I am the easiest target (Picoult, 2005: 101).
Andrew is feeling afraid. Andrew realizes that being an old man is a disadvantage to him, especially when he is in jail. At any moment, someone might make use of his weakness for their own advantage.
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Inside the Horseshoe, Andrew is put in one cell with an inmate named Sticks. Sticks is “tall and beefy, he has devil horns tattooed on his head and is carrying a Bible (Picoult, 2005: 101).” Once he sees Andrew occupying what he says to be his cell, he gets angry. He tells Andrew to get out of the cell. It is stated before that everything in prison is based on hierarchy and privilege. Because Sticks feels he is stronger and already stays longer than Andrew, he feels that he has the right to force Andrew to get out. However, Andrew insists to stay.
“What are you, a punk?”
A punk, as I remember it, is a guy who rolls cigarettes up in his T-shirt sleeve and tries to act like a James Dean. “Okay,” I say. “Sure. Whatever. I’m a punk. You’re a punk. We’re all punks.” (Picoult, 2005: 101)
Everything is hierarchically valued in jail. What happens to Andrew is frequently happen inside prison. The weaker inmate is being bullied by the stronger one. Sticks is already there before Andrew, in jail it means he gets to decide whether to accept Andrew in his cell or not.
Andrew’s persistence to stay in the cell is the trigger to all problems he gets inside the jail. Sticks considers himself as a ruler in the Horseshoe. He cannot accept if there is someone says no to his order, especially new inmate like Andrew.
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Andrew is considered as an enemy because he has the courage to defend himself in front of Sticks. What Andrew did makes Sticks angry and therefore, he tries to do a payback toward Andrew.
When Andrew is in the shower room, Sticks and his friends follow Andrew to the shower. “Sticks is there, surrounded by a brace of men as large as he is, their tattooed arms folded and their bodies blocking the exit (Picoult, 2005: 104).”
Other inmates who are in the shower room hurried themselves out. They do not want to involve in a fight which is not their fight. That is how everything goes inside prison. Everybody minds their own business. They will not care when they see people needing help if it is not their own friend. Even though they know exactly that back up is needed, they will not care to help.
Andrew is too late to realize what happens. He is suddenly splayed on the floor by Sticks’ crony. He loses his balance and falls. His head is ringing from a blow and he feels that someone is trying to rip down his pants. Knowing what they meant to do to him, Andrew reacts by trying to curl up his body like a ball. But then Sticks starts hitting Andrew’s face. Andrew is of course trying to yell for help. He starts kicking anywhere and trying to do anything to prevent what he knows might happen. He insists that he will never let Sticks do the sodomy to him. Andrew is scared, but he is also feels so furious that he keeps on fighting.
I start sewing together all the fury I’ve been gathering since the moment the police took me out of my kitchen in Wexton days ago. I let loose the panic I’ve stored for the twenty-eight years, about being found out. So when his arms anchors me at the waist, when his hips are parenthetical to mine, I reach out for the bar soap on the shower floor. I twist; shove it into his grinning mouth (Picoult, 2005: 104).
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Being very angry, Andrew tries to look for something that he can use as a weapon. Surrounded by big men who laugh at him rises his courage. He finds a bar soap and pushes it into Sticks’ mouth. What Andrew does is successfully surprised Sticks and his friends. Sticks lets go of Andrew immediately. Andrew rolls to the side and grabbing at his clothes. It comes to Andrew to realize that it is not going to be as easy as the previous. He must learn how to survive. Because people like Sticks will never leave him and do his own business even though he tries not to bother them.
Although knowing that he is weaker compared to Sticks and his cronies, Andrew keep insists on fighting. Although he is alone in jail, he plans not to let anybody, especially Sticks, make use of him or his body. That is why he fights Sticks although he knows that Sticks will never let him go.
First day coming to prison, Andrew is alone, without anyone that he knows inside prison. Yet he already makes enemies of himself. He dares to stand up for whatever Sticks going to do to him. This means, not only Sticks who is against him, but also all inmates who have association with Sticks.
Being a new inmate could be very dangerous, especially when he does not have friends to back him up. Mostly, they will only become a bullying target just like Andrew.
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a “punk” does not fight back, he will be given protection inside the jail in return for his willingness to be the object of sexual harassment.
2. Andrew as a fighter
After the incident of the fight in the bathroom, the officers move Andrew to another cell. This time they put him in one cell together with an African American inmate. His name is Concise, although he is short his body is muscular. Usually the officers avoid mixing inmates with different race in one cell. But Concise’s cell is the one that left.
“Don’t be getting comfortable. No way are you stayin’ here for good. They didn’t want to mix races at all, but I was all they got open.” (Picoult, 2005: 106)
Both Andrew and Concise are put in the maximum security pod. There are fifteen cells to keep the inmates. The placement of the inmates are based on the race. There are five cells that hold white inmates, five for Hispanic, four for blacks and one that holds Andrew and Concise. The blacks disagree with the race mixing. They want the Detention Officer to move Andrew from Concise’s cell because he is white. Even Concise himself does not want to have relation with Andrew at first. That makes Andrew feel lonelier.
Inside the cell, Andrew finds out that Concise himself is making alcohol to earn money. Concise is making what so called Moonshine using bread, oranges and hard candy. With his background as a graduate of chemistry, it is not hard for Andrew to know what reaction Concise is aiming for. Concise puts the Moonshine inside the shampoo bottle. He sells it to other inmates who need it in order to earn money.
