THE IMPACT OF LACK OF HAVING SEX EDUCATION IN A FAMILY AS SEEN IN MINETTE WALTERS’ THE DARK ROOM A Thesis Presented as Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree in English Language Education

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THE IMPACT OF LACK OF HAVING SEX EDUCATION

IN A FAMILY AS SEEN IN MINETTE WALTERS’

THE DARK ROOM

A Thesis

Presented as Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements

to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan

Degree

in English Language Education

By

Sweet Suzi Maria

Student Number: 991214109

ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM

DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION

FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION

SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY

YOGYAKARTA

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TAK E HOL D OF YOU R OWN L I VES.

M OST OF THE THI N GS THAT D I STRESS YOU ,

YOU CAN AVOI D .

M OST OF THE THI N GS THAT D OM I N ATE YOU ,

YOU CAN OVERTHROW.

YOU CAN D O WHAT YOU WI L L WI TH THEM .

Plato, 400 BC

I dedicate my thesis to my late grandfather.

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STATEMENTS OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY

I honestly declare that this thesis which I wrote does not contain the works or part of works of other people, except those cited in the quotations and bibliography, as a specific paper should.

Yogyakarta, January 26, 2007 The Writer

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First of all, I would like to thank Jesus for the beautiful life which is full of joy and love. His love has given me strength to finish this thesis.

My deep gratitude goes to my parents for being such patient parents for me. I also thank to my brother and my sister for their support and motivation.

I also would to thank to Drs. Antonius Herujiyanto M. A., Ph. D., my major sponsor. His suggestions and advice give a great contribution to my thesis. My sincere gratitude also goes to my co-sponsor, Ag. Hardi Prasetyo S. Pd., M. A., for his help, suggestions, and corrections which make my thesis better.

I also would like to thank Dra. Lanny Anggawati who has taught me about the real life and the real world, Esti Sri Rahayu, S. Pd., who has given me many great advice about teaching English, and all the member of teaching staff of the English Education Study Program of Sanata Dharma University.

I would like to thank all my beloved students, especially Cindy, Chintya, and of course, Andre for the spirit that they give me again and again. They really help me in gaining my spirit back again. I also would thank Daniel and Kevin for praying for me. My deep gratitude also goes to the teachers, Reni, Ika, Lia, and Mamik for supporting me again and again and helping me in many things.

I would like to thank Didik for lending me his computer and sharing many happy moments with me, Luis and David for encouraging me. Their companies strengthen me during my hard times.

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This study intends to examine the impact of the lack of sex education in family as seen in Minette Walters’ The Dark Room. The novel tells about the lack of sex education in the Harris that brings a very big impact to the children. There are two problems to analyze. First, how the Harris gives sex education to their children and the second is the impact of the lack of sex education in family.

This study uses psychological approach to find the answers of all the questions which are presented in the problem formulation. It is because the focus is on the psychological aspects of the Harris’ children as the result of the lack of the sex education that is given in their family. Furthermore, the theories are used in this study are theory of literature, theory of sex and theory of love. This study uses theory of literature as one of the means to answer the problems which are presented in the problems formulation because the main object of this study is a novel, theory of sex are used since they are closely related to the aim of the study, that is to examine the impact of the lack of sex education in a family as seen in Minette Walters’ The Dark Room. Additionally, theory of love is used to help the study define what love really is and how it can be different from sex.

To know the impact of the lack of sex education in family, the analysis was divided into two. The first is how the Harris gives sex education to their children and the second is the impact of the lack of sex education in the Harris’ family to their children. The first finding in the study reveals that Mr. Harris does not give sufficient information about sex to his children while Mrs. Harris gives wrong information about sex to her children. The second finding reveals that the Harris’ ways in giving sex education to their children influences their children personality. Simon, the first child in the family views sex as a degrading exercise and Meg, the second child of the family views sex as the best way in expressing love and that it can be done with anyone she likes. Both Simon and Meg have a wrong perception about love and sex. It leads them into huge problems. Simon only does sexual intercourse with whores and he ends up in killing many whores. While Meg does sexual intercourse with every man that she loves and she ends up becoming a free sex follower. In the end of the story, Simon kills Meg.

There are two conclusions are gained in this study. The first is Mr. and Mrs. Harris give sex education to their children in the wrong ways; those are through debating and never revealing the truth about love and sex. The second is the impacts of the lack of sex education in the Harris, Meg becomes a sex addicted young woman and Simon becomes a priest but in the same time also a prostitute killer.

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ABSTRAK

Sweet Suzi Maria (2007). The Impact of the Lack of Having Sex Education in a Family

as seen in Minette Walters’ The Dark Room. Yogyakarta: Program Studi

Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris, Jurusan Pendidikan Bahasa dan Kesenian, Fakultas Keguruan dan Ilmu Pendidikan, Universitas Sanata Dharma.

Studi ini bertujuan untuk meneliti akibat dari kurangnya pendidikan sex di dalam keluarga seperti yang terlihat pada novel The Dark Room karya Minette Walters. Novel ini bercerita mengenai kurangnya pendidikan sex dalam keluarga Harris yang kemudian membawa akibat yang besar bagi anak – anak mereka. Ada dua masalah yang dianalisa. Masalah pertama adalah cara Tuan dan Nyonya Harris memberikan pendidikan sex untuk anak – anak mereka. Masalah kedua adalah dampak dari kurangnya pendidikan sex di dalam keluarga mereka.

Studi ini menggunakan pendekatan psikologi untuk menemukan jawaban dari semua permasalan yang ada pada rumusan masalah. Hal ini dilakukan karena fokus dari studi ini adalah aspek psikologis dari anak – anak Tuan dan Nyonya Harris sebagai hasil dari kurangnya pendidikan sex yang diberikan dalam keluarga mereka. Teori yang digunakan dalam studi ini adalah teori literatur, teori sex dan teori cinta. Studi ini menggunakan teori literatur sebagai salah satu alat untuk menjawab permasalahan yang ada di rumusan permasalahan karena objek utama dari studi ini adalah sebuah novel.sedangkan teori sex dan teori cinta digunakan karena teori-teori tersebut sangat erat kaitannya dengan tujuan dari studi ini, yaitu untuk meneliti akibat dari kurangnya pendidikan sex dalam keluarga seperti yang tampak pada novel The Dark Room karya Minette Walters.

Untuk mengetahui dampak dari kurangnya pendidikan sex dalam keluarga, analisa ini dibagi menjadi dua. Yang pertama adalah bagaimana Tuan dan Nyonya Harris memberikan pendidikan sex untuk anak – anak mereka dan yang kedua adalah dampak dari kurangnya pendidikan sex dalam keluarga Tuan dan Nyonya Harris bagi anak – anak mereka. Penemuan pertama dalam studi ini adalah bahwa Tuan Harris tidak memberikan informasi yang cukup tentang sex untuk anak- anaknya. Sedangkan Nyonya Harris memberikan informasi yang salah mengenai sex bagi anak – anaknya. Penemuan kedua adalah pendidikan sex yang diberikan Tuan dan Nyonya Harris bagi anak – anak mereka berpengaruh terhadap kepribadian anak-anak mereka. Simon, anak pertama mereka memandang sex sebagai aktivitas hina, sedangkan Meg, anak kedua memandang sex sebagai cara terbaik dalam mengekspresikan cinta dan ini dapat dilakukan dengan siapapun yang dia sukai. Baik Simon mau pun Meg mempunyai persepsi yang salah mengenai cinta dan sex. Persepsi yang salah ini kemudian mengantar mereka pada masalah besar. Masalah – masalah besar tersebut antara lain: Simon hanya melakukan hubungan sex dengan pelacur – pelacur yang pada akhirnya, beberapa di antaranya ia bunuh. Sedangkan Meg menjadi pengikut sex bebas dan ia melakukan hubungan sex dengan semua orang yang ia cinta. Di akhir cerita, Simon membunuh Meg.

Terdapat dua kesimpulan dalam studi ini. Kesimpulan pertama adalah bahwa Tuan dan Nyonya Harris telah memberikan pendidikan sex kepada anak-anak mereka dengan cara yang salah, yaitu melalui debat dan pertikaian. Terlebih lagi Tuan dan Nyonya Harris tidak pernah mengungkapkan hal yang sebenarnya mengenai cinta dan sex. Kesimpulan kedua adalah dampak yang ditimbulkan akibat kurangnya pendidikan sex dalam keluarga Harris, yaitu: Meg menjadi seorang wanita yang haus akan sex sedangkan Simon menjadi pastur yang juga menjadi pembunuh pelacur pada waktu yang bersamaan.

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CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

This chapter presents the introduction of the study. It is divided into five parts. The first part is the Background of the Study. It gives some ideas why the study is conducted. The second part is the Objective of the Study. The third part is Problem Formulation. The fourth part is the Benefits of the Study which explains the benefits that can be taken from this study. The fifth part is the Definition of Terms used in the study which explains some important terms that are used in this study to help the reader understand this study better and to avoid misunderstanding.

1.1. Background of the Study

According to Freud (1938:1), sexual needs reveal in the forms of sexual instinct. This kind of instinct is considered equals to other human needs, such as instinct to feed the human being and to protect themselves. If it is so, then why do some people still consider sex as a taboo thing to be talked about or to be learnt?

It is believed that the right concept of love and sex education is needed in our society. Families should also be the first place for a child to learn about it.

Unfortunately, many parents still feel awkward to discuss it with their children. They tend to think that children do not need to know about it and that children will know it later by themselves when they are “ready” enough. Some parents think that it is important for children to learn about sex but they feel too ashamed to talk about it, so they let the formal institution, for example school, to talk and explain it to their children.

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about their children’s sex education. It may because they do not have enough time to discuss it with their children and let the children to learn it by themselves or they feel awkward to talk about it and let the children know it from other sources, such as school, mass media, and friends.

The polling result in the daily newspaper Kedaulatan Rakyat; March 19th, 2005 is quite shocking. There is only less than 20% students of Senior High School that learn about sex in their family while the rest learn it in school and from their friend and mass medias.

School, as a formal educational institution, of course will give appropriate information about sex. But how if the school does not provide a satisfying answer for the children or youngsters? They will tend to satisfy their eagerness about love and sex by themselves in their own way. Friends and mass media are things that can be chosen as optional sources about sex. If the children are not selective in absorbing the information, then the information may lead them into a latent danger. Sex before married and sexual abuse are just the two results among the many. A person who does not have a right perception about love and sex is believed to have a bigger chance to be the conductor or the victim of it.

Conducting sex before they get married becomes a trend among the teenagers. Many of our teenagers conduct it. Some others become the victim of it. Either the victims or the conductors, they are just the product of the insufficient sex education that we give in the family (Wijayanto, 2003: 41).

Furthermore, the number of prostitutes is increasing every year. Some of them are children and teenagers. It is so ironic since we know children are the hope of our nation. Some people believe that it is also a reflection of our degrading moral.

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are men and the victims are women. ‘Love’ is the men’s most common weapon to persuade women to do the sexual intercourse and ‘love’ is the women’s most common reason to accept the persuasion. Recently, there are many sexual problems occur in this world, such as promiscuous behaviour, sex before married, raping, prostitution and sex abuse. There are many reasons behind it. For example: a couple of lovers do sex before married because they consider sex is just same as love. Therefore they conduct sex before married. Some may consider conducting sex with many people can increase their values among their community and that is why they conduct promiscuous behaviour. Some other cannot control their sexual desire and then they end up with raping other people.

From the explanation above, we can conclude that many of our youngsters do not know much about what love really is and what sex really is. They cannot differentiate between love and sex, while love and sex are totally different.

Walters’ The Dark Room talks a lot about how important the right perception of love and sex was given in a family. The main characters of this novel are described as the people who have a lack of knowledge of love and sex since they do not get a sex education in their family. Some insufficient and inadequate information about love and sex from their parents even lead them into a huge sexual problem. These terrible influences of their parents’ point of view about sex on them are expressed in this novel.

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1.2.Objectives of the Study

This study intends to describe the impacts of having lack of sex education in a family as seen in Simon and Meg characters in The Dark Room.

1.3. Problem Formulation

Based on the background of the study mentioned, there are two problems that this study would try to solve. They are:

1. How does the Harris give sex education to their children?

2. What are the impacts of the lack of sex education in the Harris as seen in Minette Walters’ The Dark Room?

1.4. Benefits of the Study

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1.5. Definition of Terms

There are four terms that must be clarified in this novel. These terms hopefully will help the reader during the discussion of this novel to have a better understanding of it.

1. Sex Education

Sex is an organic pleasure or excitement that closely related with genital stimulation (Chaplin,1968: 458). while the word education means a process of training and instruction especially of children and young people which is designed to give knowledge and develop skills (Roger, 1974: 16).

In this study, sex education is a process of training and instruction especially of children and young people which is designed to give information and knowledge about sex.

2. Sexual Behaviour

Chaplin (1968: 652) defines sexual behaviour as any kind of physical action that involves a sexual desire. In this study, sexual behaviour refers to any kind of physical action which is the influence of sexual desire.

3. Sexual Misbehaviour

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CHAPTER 2 REVIEW ON RELATED LITERATURE

This chapter presents the related theories that support this study. The chapter is divided into three parts. The first is Theoretical Review, the second is Review on Related Studies and the third is Criticism.

2.1. Theoretical Review

The Theoretical Review includes the theory of critical approach, the theory of literature, the theory of character, the theory of characterization, and the relation between the literature and the society. This part also contains: theory of love, the theory of sex, the theory of personality development, and the factors forming one’s values. The second part is The Criticism part that includes the criticism on The Dark Room.

2.1.1. Theory of Critical Approach

According to Rohrberger and Woods Jr., (1971: 6-15), there are five approaches of studying literature. Those five approaches are Formalist approach, Biographical approach, Socio cultural- historical approach, mythopoeia approach, and psychological approach.

The formalist approach concerns with demonstrating the harmonious involvement of all the arts to the whole and it is pointing out how meaning is derived from the structure and how matters of technique determine structure.

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appreciate the literary object. The next approach is the Socio cultural- historical approach. This approach is about the traditional history approach to literature that usually takes as its basis in some aspects of the socio-cultural frame of reference. It also combines with an interest in the biographical as well as knowledge of and interest in literary history. Two factors are presented here: first is accuracy in the presentation of historical facts; second is a work of literature might have historical significance.

Critics who make use of the mythopoeia frame of reference seek to discover certain universally recurrent pattern of human thought, which they believe to find expression in significant works of arts.

The last is Psychological-approach. This approach is like the mythopoeia approach, which involves the effort to locate and demonstrate certain current patterns. The differences with the mythopoeia approach are on the body of knowledge.

Of many approaches mentioned above, none can be claimed as the most useful in analyzing and understanding the work of literature since each of them has its own values and limitations, as Rohrberger and Woods Jr. state that “no single approach will serve for every piece of literature” (197: 15).

2.1.2. Theory of Literature

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some others have a mission to learn about life from it. Admitted or not, a novel is not merely a book to be read but it has some moral values that the author tries to reveal through the characters and the events in it.

A novel is an imitation of human being’s real life. An author tries to show the readers some phenomena in our life including the character’s anxieties in facing them. It seems real because it is part of our reality. It shows us the facts in our real world. Human’s being’s life is not a smooth path to be followed.

There are a lot of anxieties in facing the facts. There are a lot of choices that we can make in our life and sometimes it is confusing because the choices are all good or even all are bad. Whether it is a good or a bad choice, human beings are always forced to make some choices in their life. A novel becomes a “little world” for the readers since in a novel we can see the complexity of life of the characters in making some choices in their life.

Since it shows us the “little world” in which we seldom living, a novel can open our understanding of the contradictory sides of our life. There is a possibility that a novel raises a controversial point of view from others because of its content.

The double sides of values or facts in which the author tries to explore through his novel can lead different opinions from the public especially when the novel breaks the mainstream values or styles at that time. A novel can give some corrections of what is wrong in the society through the presence of the characters or events as Camus wrote (1998: 17) that a novel’s world is a correction of our own world.

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fundamental changes in my own time. You must face facts.’ A novel can give an inspiration about courage and braveness.

2.1.3. The Relation between the Literature and Society

The relation between the literature and the society is usually discussed by starting with the phrase, derived from De Bond “literature is an expression of society.” But what does the axiom really mean?

Wellek and Warren (1956: 94) explain that literature is a social institution which uses a social creation as its medium language. Such traditional literary devices as symbolism and meters are social in their very nature. They are conventions and norms which could have arisen only in society. Furthermore, literature represents ‘life’ and ‘life’ is a socia l reality. Indeed, literary has usually arisen in connection with particular social institution.

Furthermore, Wellek explains that literature, at any given time, mirrors the current social situation. If it assumes that literature, at any given time, mirrors the current situation ‘correctly’, it is false.

He states that the most common approach to the relation of literature and society is the study of works of literature as social reality. Nor it can be doubted that some kinds of social picture can be abstracted from literature. In addition, he explains that the social situation determines the possibility of the realization of certain aesthetic values.

The question how far literature reflects the society is actually determined by or dependent on its social setting, on social change and development, on one which, in one way or another, will enter into all the three divisions of our problem: the sociology of the writer, the social content of the works themselves, and the influence of the literary on society.

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Jung (1972: 86) states that psychology, being a study of processes can be brought to

bear on the study of literature. Conflicts, conversation and other action s in the stories obviously show the psychological aspects. The writers in their works to men’s problems often use the psychological approach. This is perhaps the one nearest to the empirical way of looking at life (Strauman, 1965: 820). There is a line which connects psychology and literature, in which a writer usually tries to disclose what he experiences or what he sees as closely related to the truth. It does not mean that the story that he writes is like what he experiences, but it has a context of universal truth that is the same as the actual happening. Thus, it is not at all an artificial story written through the writer’s imagination through his imagination. He uses his imagination to attach every event into a story until it becomes an integral combination between imagination and truth.

2.1.4.1 Sigmund Freud’s Psychoanalysis

This study employs a psychological theory name Psychoanalysis to analyze the impact of lack of having sex education in the Harris. It is a method which is developed by Freud and others. The method is about treating neuroses and some other disorders of the mind. It is based on the assumption that such disorders are the result of the rejection by the unconscious mind of factors that then persist in the unconscious as the dynamic repression, causing conflict that may be resolved by discovering and analyzing the repression through the use of such techniques as free association, and dream analysis.

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behaviours. Finally, unconscious motives and feeling people experience when they were children have an enormous influence on adult personality and behaviour (Kasschau, 1995: 270).

According to Freud (1995: 137) the true of his perception of unconscious is to be differentiated from the dynamic sense, and the defining preoccupation of psychoanalysis is with the dynamic unconscious. The dynamic unconscious is the foundation of motivation, particularly motivation that is potentially a source of mental conflict. Unconscious appears at the stage of mental as approximately coextensive with something repressed.

James (1982: 88) states that mental states are empirically analyzable compounds. He adds that the unconscious is such a mental confusion and it appears in many types, such as: the element of suffering in desire and disquiet, unattended sense-awareness, where something is sensed but not noticed. Freud differentiates the levels of conscious and unconscious mental activities. He states that the oldest and the best meaning of the word unconscious is the descriptive one. Unconscious states are insensitive toward reality and do not cause action in such a way as to reflect reality. They are not brought together with external states, nor are they brought together indirectly in the way that it is desired. Unconscious, however, is a locale of pleasure and displeasure (Neo, 1992:136).

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are accidental. The last is jokes. However, Freud underscores that whatever route that is taken into the unconscious are almost always about sex, the desires which have been repressed. Every pleasure is sexual pleasure. People’s first experiences with their bodies are organized through sexual pleasure: erotogenic stages, those are oral stage, anal stage and phallic stage.

2.1.5 Theory of Sex

Since this study also focuses on the sexuality, it is necessary for the writer to elaborate some theories on sex. It covers some theories adopted from several sources.

Freud (1938: 89) gives a clear description about sex. According to him, in biology science, sexual needs reveals in sexual instinct. This kind of instinct is considered as equal as other human needs, such as instinct to feed themselves and to protect themselves. A popular conception has made some assumptions about the characteristics and the quality of sexual instinct. It is assumed that this instinct has not appeared yet during the childhood. This instinct will appear when the children have already experience puberty. However, a deeper research has proven that those assumptions are not accurate.

According to Freud (1938: 89), sexual instinct has to struggle against resistance factors those are: ashamed and disgusted. The purpose of this resistance factors is to limit the sexual instinct in a proper way. This factors leads to a sexual instinct development.

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word, overvaluation. In overvaluation, the person is not just focusing on genital organ, but he or she will also explore other parts of the body such as anus, hair, foot, or an unanimated object such as the clothes and underwear. The second is fixations on former aims. The examples of this sexual misbehaviour are: touching peeping, sadism, and masochism.

There are some things that can evoke this sexual misbehaviour, such as: impotent, an expensive sexual object, and the risk in doing sexual intercourse. It is believed that most of the sexual deviation the result of the sexual impression that is given in the childhood. Furthermore, Freud (1938: 111) explains that the influence is persistent or in another word, the influence stays forever in the person. This study also uses Hatfileld definition to enrich the understanding of sexual desire. Hatfileld defines sexual desire as a longing for sexual union. She further says that although sexual desire might be intimately linked in nature, in reality, culture surely has a powerful impact on how likely young couples are linked to passionate love, sexual desire, and sexual expression (1996: 90).

Bleier (1984), a biologist, states the following two points related to sexuality. First, sexuality can be seen as a survival mechanism,; a trading of needs and desires, a desire to be liked, needed, wanted, indispensable, the highest priority in someone else’s life. Further, Bleier states that sexuality can be perceived as a measure of one attractiveness’ to other people, as a route of intimacy, as the way to be entrusted with another’s innumerability (1996: 112).

According to David Buss and Schmitt (1993), men and women are genetically programmed to desire different things in brief sexual relationship. Men have more creative and sexual fantasies than women do. They find erotica more tempting than women do. In sexual encounter, men are eager to engage sexual relation with a wide variety of woman, in wide range of circumstances. Women are more cautious.

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relationship. However, in a serious monogamous relationship, men’s and women’s sexual desire and behaviour should be similar (1996: 92-93).

2.1.6. Theory of Love

This study also elaborates some theories about love since love is the focus of my study. This study uses Schutz’s and Fromm’s books as the main sources and some other books as the additional sources.

Liebman, (1984: 17) describes: and they lived happily ever after is one of the most tragic sentences in the literature. It is tragic because it tells a falsehood about life and has led countless generation of people to expect something from human existence that is not possible in this fragile, failing, imperfect life. On the contrary, some people consider love as a very beautiful gift in their life. Someone will feel incomplete if they do not have or feel love. Schutz (1989: 38) in her book I Love You illustrates the importance of love. She says that we must be the richest person in the world, but if we do not have love or someone to love, we have nothing at all. We need to love as we need to be loved. This study will use this statement to explore Mr. Harris’ and Meg’s point of view about sex.

According to Fromm, love is not primarily a relationship to a specific person; it is an attitude, an orientation of character, which determines the relation of a person to the world as whole, not toward one object of love.

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God. Related to my study on The Dark Room, this study only wants to analyze how the characters involve in erotic love and self- love.

Erotic love is the craving for complete fusion, for union with another person. There is an explosive experience of falling in love between two strangers. After they have intimacy, the loved person becomes as well known as oneself. Their intimacy is established primarily through sexual contact (Fromm, 1954: 44). Love can inspire the wish for sexual unio n without greediness but tenderness.

The important factor in erotic love is a will. It is a decision, a judgement, and a promise. Love should be essentially an act of will, of decision to commit life completely to that of one other person. Fromm (1956: 47) says: “if love were only feeling, there would be no basis for promise to love each other forever. A feeling comes and it may go. How can I judge that it will stay forever, when my act does not involve judgement and decision?”

In addition, Fromm (1956: 22-24) describes four basic elements that are common to all form of love beyond the element of giving. They are care, responsibility, respect and knowledge. Love that implies care is the active concern for the life and the growth of the object of love. Care and concern implies responsibility. In its true sense, responsibility is entire voluntary act to be able and ready to respond to the needs of each other human being expressed or inexpressibly.

Respect is the ability to see some person as the way he is, to be aware of his unique individuality. Respect means the concern that the other person should grow and unfold as he is. It exists only on the basis of freedom.

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without any passionate and intimacy, he calls that kind of relationship as ‘empty love’. If the relationship is only based on passionate, it is called infatuation. This theory will help this study in exploring Meg’ point of views about love and sex.

Furthermore, if the relationship is only based on the intimacy and commitment, it is called ‘compassionate’. The relationship is called desire if it only involves passionate and commitment; if it only involves passionate and intimacy, it is called ‘romantic’. Stern Berg (1967: 26) calls a relationship as “love” if it involves all those three elements as the base of the relationship. This study uses this theory to explore more about Mr. and Mrs. Harris’ point of views about love and how their point of views influences their children.

2.1.7. Theory of Human’s Sexual Behaviour

Since this study is closely related to humans’ sexual behaviour, this study will, then, elaborate some theories on humans’ sexual behaviour. This study uses Lord’s opinion (1947: 20) as the main sources of the theory of human’s sexual behaviour since he is a priest and his opinion on human’s sexual behaviour is adequate.

According to Lord (1947), at the age of ten to thirteen, some reach is earlier and some reach it later, boys become interested to girls and vice versa. Maybe they had played “kissing games” when they were kids, but the games were silly things and accompanied by much giggling. Now, when they play it, there is self-consciousness and a little embarrassment and less laughter and more reluctance or eagerness.

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The kiss they exchanged as children is now charged as with electricity. Girls start to dress up nicely and pay much attention on how they look. While boy starts to comb their hair tidily and take a bath longer than they used to. Lord (1947: 88) says that the boys impulse toward sexual expression tend to be concentrated in his sexual organs. The girls do not have this experience, for they are more interested in general manifestations of affection; in them the sensations are scattered.

In most normal cases, the boys are more fiercely tempted than are the girls. Boys find goodness and self-control much more difficult than girls do. The seeds within boys’ organs are constant and often insistent.When they get older, they will become braver in expressing and satisfying their desires. Kissing, embracing, necking, and petting easily grow to be habits.

Kinsey, a psychologist, describes human’s sexual behaviour in different way. According to him, humans being, male, and female have a wide range of sexual behaviour. How wide is the range? It may begin with masturbation to orgasm, and end with heterosexual intercourse to orgasm. We may not like some of that behaviour, we may not approve of it, we may think it should be condemned or even punished, but the fact remains do these things and have done them ever since humans learned how to record his impressions of things seen, done, and heard.

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(heterosexual and pre- marital for male, pre- marital for female), Pre- marital Intercourse for male and Pre- marital Coitus for female, Marital Intercourse for male and Coitus for female, Extra Marital Intercourse for male and Coitus for female, Homosexual Outlet fo r male and Responses and Contacts for female, and animal contacts.

Kinsey (1999: 22) provides evidence that there is a difference between the sexual behaviour of females and males in connection with Nocturnal Sex Dreams. Females have sex dreams as a result of psychological or physiological stimulation, and apparently their dreams are mainly tenanted with actual experiences. Males have such dreams more frequently than female. However, the causes and contents of Nocturnal Sex Dreams appear to be the same. Possibly the most interesting Kinsey’s data is that which shows that females have more dreams of this nature, resulting in orgasm, during their forties, whereas male reach their peak during their teens and twenties. This corresponds to the sexual capacities of males and females. The males being definitely on the decline in the twenties while the females are reaching the long plateau of their interests and abilities. Among teenagers, there seems to be a distinct difference between necking and petting. Necking is considered to be anything from neck up. Necking, according to Kinsey’s observation to young people, is nice, while petting is not. This is not surprising in the view that the mouth is, next to genitalia, the most erogenous zone of the human body. Arousal can be started, if not affected, by necking.

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This study uses this theory to explore more about Simon’s and Meg’s sexual behaviours as the results of the wrong sex education given in their family.

2.1.8. An Overview about Sex Education in a Family

The meaning of sex education is not only the giving of certain facts about sex or body anatomy like what we learn in biology class. We cannot also define sex education as a kind of training in relevant skills. According to Harris (1990, 18), sex education is just as same as other areas of education whose aim is to achieve the maximum possible degree of knowledge and understanding concerning sexual behaviour.

Sex education should enable people to be aware of the full range of possible sexual behaviour and values, so that they can meaningfully choose how they themselves will behave. Things which are learnt in sex education may vary. It depends on how old the child is. According to Blank, the sex knowledge that can be given to children under 11 are about their body anatomy, the meaning of sexy, privacy, masturbation, sexual organs, love relation ship between a male and a woman, and touching. As they grow up, the parents can explain some things deeper and more complicated, such as sexual intercourse, pregnancy, fertilization, menstruation, venereal diseases, abortion, condoms, and prostitution.

Kinsey (1956, 12) says an adequate sexual adjustment in early childhood is a prime factor in later adult sexual adjustment, as healthy attitudes toward self and sexuality are the foundations of adult adjustment. Blank (1983: 20) also has a same opinion about it. He says that sex education should be given in early ages of children. Children can start learning about sex by knowing their part of bodies. They, then, can learn about the parts of the body of their opposite sex.

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satisfy the children eagerness about sex for some extents. Those including desire, genital organ and its function, and sex diseases.

This study uses this overview to analyse the sex education that is given in the Harris’ family.

2.2. Theoretical Framework

In designing this study, this study uses psychological approach to analyze that novel since it is an excellent tool for reading beneath lines, which has limitation in psychological interpretation. It can provide many profound clues toward solving a work’s thematic and symbolic mysteries.

The approach has a crucial role in the relation to the problems, which are mentioned in the problem formulation. The factors forming one’s values is used to see how Meg’s and Simon’s personality developed and formed in relation with the sex education in their family.

2.3. Criticis m

Sometimes, when people talk about the work of an author, people refer to the critics who have criticized the work. Therefore, through the critics, this study tries to understand more about Minette Walters’ The Dark Room.

One of the famous novels written by Minette Walters, The Dark Room has been analyzed and criticized by those by those who are interested in this amazing story. In this part, this study quotes the criticism from several sources. The first source is the introduction part of

The Dark Room and the second source is some web-sides those are taken from the internet.

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books, she has claimed the highest accolades the crime-writing world can bestow. She is a seduc tive writer with an imagination that makes her dangerous to know.

Daily Mail wrote that Minette Walters’ The Dark Room shimmers with suspense, ambiguity and a deep unholy joy. While The Times describes the novel as a brooding novel of high quality. The compliment also comes from Sunday Telegraph and Daily Telegraph which view the novel as a top-class crime fiction and guaranteed to burn midnight oil. The author agrees with this opinion since the author also has a big curiosity about the story that makes the author reads the story continuously.

Another compliment comes from Manchester Evening News that considers The Dark Room as a contemporary crime-writing at its absolute peak.

Sunday Express describes Walter as a seductive writer that makes her dangerous to know.

According to the Amazon.com, Walters knows how to spin a fine web of terror and psychological deception out of the most familiar ingredients. Furthermore, the Library Journal wrote that the award-winning author Walters (The Scold’s Bridle, 10/1/94) has another hit in this riveting, intricately woven tale of murder, jealousy, and sexual obsession. Furthermore, as readers of The Echo have already discovered, Walters knows how to spin a fine web of terror and psychological deception out of the most familiar ingredients. This brooding and engrossing book, just out in paperback, begins with that slightly frayed item of genre linen, the heroine waking up in a hospital and not remembering how she got there. But Walters quickly sets a lively, inventive table: not only has Jinx Kingsley forgotten her auto accident, but also the murders of her fiancé and her former best friend that preceded it.

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further lure his readers. Too bad that halfway through the 350-plus pages of “did she or didn’t she” the story loses momentum. Even though Walters pulls things back together with a slam-bang ending, the book is not her best effort.

In addition Frances Fyflied in Daily Mail wrote that:

“Violence may be offered to anyone who tries to part you from this marvellous, dramatically intelligent novel. It shimmers with suspense, ambiguity and a deep unholy joy”.

Furthermore, Sunday Express described Minette Walters as a seductive writer with an imagination that makes her dangerous to know.

Publishers Weekly also writes about Walters. British suspense writer Walters, each of whose previous books (The Ice House, The Sculptress and The Scold's Bridle) has won an award, now has a new publisher and a big promotional push behind her. Unfortunately, the new book is her weakest to date? It is over plotted and rather unconvincing. It rests on an interesting premise, however: its heroine, Jinx Kingsley, who has been found drunk and disoriented on an abandoned airfield in Wiltshire after apparently trying to kill herself by wrecking her car, is suspected of several murders?

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CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY

This chapter is divided into four main parts. They are subject matter, approach, procedure, and sources. In subject matter part this study will explain about the focus of the study. While in approach this study will explain about the approach that will be used. The procedure will talk a lot about the step that is employed in analyzing the problem formulation. Sources, then, will talks about the sources that will be used in this study.

3.1. Subject Matter

The subject matter of this study is a novel by Minette Walters entitled The Dark Room. The cover of the novel is designed with a picture of a wounded woman who is lying on a bed. The cover implies that there is a conflict that involves a physical violence offered in this novel. The novel contains 22 chapters, 514 pages includ ing the prologue, which is the initial part of this novel, and epilogue, which is the last part of this novel.

There are three topics that come in my mind after I read this novel, they are: what Mr. and Mrs. Harris’ point of view of sex education as seen in Minette Walter’s The Dark Room

are, how Mr. and Mrs. Harris give information about love and sex to their children, what the importance and the impacts of the sex education given in a family as seen in the Minette Walter’s The Dark Room are.

The discussion and answers of those three ideas above are represented in Chapter IV.

3.2. Approaches

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approach to answer the formulated problem because every human being during his or her life is related to his or her psychological development while literature, at any given time, mirrors the current social situation (Wellek). Additionally, Rohberger and Woods (1971: 13) state that psychological approach is an approach to analyse the literature which “involve the effort to locate and demonstrate certain recurrent pattern” and which refers to a different of knowledge, which is psychology.

Therefore, this stud y uses this approach in order to analyze the main characters’ way of thinking and behaviour since this approach offers explanation of personality of the main character in the literary work and this study is emphasizing on the character. To find out what truly happens in the central characters this study looks from the psychological point of view.

3.3. Procedures

There are some steps that are taken in the process of conducting this study. First is deciding to take Minette Walter’s novel The Dark Room as the main source. I search and read the novel. I read it several times in order to find out the theme and the message that I wanted to convey. Then, I found some interesting elements in the novel, such as the character of each person in the novel, and the society’s view toward love and sex issue that is presented in the novel. While reading the novel, I noted down Mr. and Mrs. Harris conversation about love and sex. I also do the same thing with Simon and other characters’. I wrote down some quotations with pages where I took the quotations. I obtained the information from the direct comment of the author, from the dialogue, from the behaviour of the main characters in life and from the reaction of the main character toward the situation around them.

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some information about the novel The Dark Room from the internet. All the investigation was attained through reading books.

Therefore, this study does library research. Finally, I made a conclusion on my analysis and some suggestions about how to give love and sex education and also suggestions for the further researchers who want to have an analysis on Minette Walters’ The Dark Room

and for the English teaching- learning process.

3.4. Sources

This study used two kinds of sources in conducting this study. The first is primary source and the second is secondary source. The primary source is the novel written by Minette Walter, The Dark Room. The secondary sources are books used to support the study; literary theory books, psychology books and books on love and sexuality. This study also uses the Internet websites to find related information.

3.5. Organization of the Study

In order to make this study well organized, this study divides the thesis into five chapters. Chapter one is introduction. This chapter includes the background of the study, the aim of the study, the problem formulation, the benefit of the study and the key words of the study. In the background of the study, this study describes the need of analysing the topic and reason in choosing the topic.

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Chapter two is Theoretical review. This chapter presents the related theories that support this study. The chapter is divided into three parts. The first is Theoretical Review, the second is Review on Related Studies and the third is Criticism. The Theoretical Review includes the theory of critical approach, the theory of literature, the theory of character, the theory of characterization, and the relation between the literature and the society. The Review on Related Studies includes the theory of love, the theory of sex, the theory of personality development, and the factors forming one’s values. The Criticism part includes the criticism on

The Dark Room.

Chapter three is Methodology. This chapter presents the methodology that is used in this study. This chapter is divided into five parts which are Subject Matter, Approaches, Procedures, Sources and Organization of the study. The object of the study is discussed in the first part. The first part also contains the summary of the novel and the focus of the study. In the second part the study mentions the psychological approach. The third part mentions the step those are taken in doing this study. Finally, in the last part, the whole chapter of this study are explained briefly.

Chapter four is analysis. In analysis, this study analyzes Mr. and Mrs. Harris point of views about love and sex, and how they give sex education to their children, Simon and Meg. Furthermore, this study analyzes Simon and Meg’s misbehaviour as a result of the wrong sex education given in a family.

Chapter five is Conclusion and Suggestion. In this chapter, this study presents the conclusion of the analysis and the suggestion for a further study as well as for the teaching-learning activities using The Dark Room.

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The last part is appendices. It consists of the implementation in teaching speaking and reading using the novel The Dark Room, the summary of the novel, and the picture of Minette Walters.

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CHAPTER 4 DISCUSSION

This chapter is divided into three sections. This chapter focuses more on the problem formulations exposed in the first chapter. Therefore the first section is to see Mr. and Mrs. Harris Point of View of Sex Education as seen in Minette Walters’ The Dark Room. The second section is to find out the way Mr. and Mrs. Harris give the information about love and sex to their children. The last is to find out how the information about love and sex that Meg and Simon get from their parents influences their point of view and behaviour toward sex and love.

4.1. How the Harris Gives Sex Education to their Children

Mr. and Mrs. Harris have different ways in giving sex education to their children. Their ways in giving sex education to their children are mostly influenced by their ways in viewing sex and love. This study will use Kinsey’s and Lord’s theories to explore the sexual expression in each character.

4.1.1. Mrs. Harris’ Way in Giving Sex Education to her Children

Mrs. Harris is a conventional woman. She strictly obeys the society values and norms. Moreover, she has a strong belief to her religion, Anglo-Catholic. Her background has formed her point of view about sex and love.

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She believes by never talking about sex in her family, she has already saved her children from temptation of having sex before marriage or other sexual misbehaviour. Furthermore, she never expresses her love to her husband by kissing or embracing in front of her children.

She tries so hard to keep her children away from any temptation of doing sex activities before they get married. By acting like this, she wants to show her children that people can always express their love to other people without any sexual activities, such as kissing, embracing, necking, and petting.

She does not want her children to express their love to others by doing those things because in her opinion, those things will lead them to the action of having sexual intercourse before the y get married. To her, having sexual intercourse before marriage is totally wrong.

Furthermore, Mrs. Harris views sex as something degrading and disgusting. She considers sex as an innate animal passion. Since human is not an animal, they cannot use sex as any other means but a tool for creating babies. It is in line with what Bleir (1984: 33) states about sex as a survival mechanism.

There are two points related to sexuality. First, sexuality can be seen as a survival mechanism,; a trading of needs and desires, a desire to be liked, needed, wanted, indispensable, the highest priority in someone else’s life. Second, sexuality can be perceived as a measure of one attractiveness’ to other people, as a route of intimacy, as the way to be entrusted with another’s innumerability (1996: 112).

Meg says that her mother only has one reason for having sexual intercourse, which is having babies. She even describes her mother as a prude who could not bear the thought of anyone enjoying sex.

Simon nodded, “Meg said Mum was a frigid prone who couldn’t bear the thought of anyone enjoying sex. Meg said she’d told her about the abortion to prove there was at least one woman who didn’t see babies as the only reason for having intercourse. “He caught the look of interest that flashed in Fraser’s eyes”

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Meg’s opinion about her mother is supported by her brother, Simon. On page 236, Simon also says that his mother is a prude woman and that she deplores modern sexual practises.

“But in a way they are both right, you know.” She felt very tired suddenly. “Meg’s never been comfortable in the role of vicar’s daughter, and she’s far too raunchy for your mother.” Her eyelid dropped in exhaustion as memories whirled effortlessly across her mind. “It’s your fault as much as anyone’s.

His voice came across vast stretches of space. “Why?”

Jinx says, “She couldn’t compete with a saint, Simon, so she became a sinner” (Walter’s, 1999: 62)

From the description above, it is shown that Jinx describes that Mrs. always acts as if she is a vicar or a martyr. Jinx’s description is not exaggerated at all. It is true that Mrs. Harris sees almost everything in a religion point of view. Even Simon, his son, also supports Jinx’s description about his mother. He also describes her as a very strait- laced woman. It is shown in the quotation: “My mother is a strait- laced” (Walters, 1999: 234).

It shows that Mrs. Harris is a conventional woman with an old point of view. She obeys the entire religion’s and society’s norm strictly. On the other words, she obeys every value that she considers right and she does not allow herself to be opened to new values that arise in her community.

As mentioned before, Mr. and Mrs. Harris have a very different point of view about love and sex. Moreover, each of them stands to their own opinion strictly. Every time they talk about it, the conversation turns into a long debate. Sometimes, Mrs. Harris yells to her husband. She says many dirty words to her husband. She does it because she does not agree with her husband’s opinion.

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“How dare you deny it? Did you think I didn’t know how you lusted after her? She couldn’t wait to get out of this house, couldn’t wait to get away from you. You made her what she was and you dare to accuse now of weakness. You disgust me. You’ve always disgusted me. You’re a sanctimonious hypocrite who lusted after anything in a skirt, including her and Jinx” (Walters, 1999: 297).

Usually, Mr. Harris remains silent. He lets her wife to say anything that she wants to say about him. However, there are times when he could not control his emotion. Once, he says that she is an old frigid woman who knows nothing about love and how to express it. His opinion about his wife actually reflects his true feeling about her. This kind of debate happens very often in their family. They accuse each other for doing something or being something that they do not know for sure whether it is true or not. This kind of conversation is often heard by their children.

He leaned forward, staring at the floor. “You think you know a person and then something like this happens. She wasn’t even remotely apologetic, just said these are the facts, stick them in your pipe and smoke them. It is caused the most unbelievable bitterness between the folks. Mum’s blaming Dad for trying to force religion down Meg’s throat for years, and he’s blaming her for her frigidity” (Walters, 1999: 61) That quotation is an absolute proof that Mr. and Mrs. Harris let their children hear and then unconsciously adopt and imitate their values through the debate.

Debating, arguing, and attacking each other are the only ways for them to describe how they feel about sex and love. They do not realize that their children adopt their views about love and sex through their daily debate.

The quotation below shows us that actually Mrs. Harris’ way in expressing her point of view influences her son, even though she does not realise it. “Her mother clearly has a problem in that area but I doubt she sets out deliberately to destroy her son” (Walters, 1999: 492)

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Mrs. Harris knows that Meg has many boyfriends and that she likes to hang out with them but she pretends as if she does not know about it at all. She never asks Meg about her relationship with those men and what they do when they spend their time together.

She always pretends that Meg is a nice and innocent girl while she realises, somehow, Meg has a problem with her sex life. Mrs. Harris just does not have the nerve to face the truth. It makes her losing a lot of important information about Meg’s personal life. She would rather see anything swept under the carpet than have it aired in public.

Mrs. Harris ignorance about Meg is described clearly by Simon:

He rested his hands on the table and toyed with the glasses. “The reason Dad didn’t want Mum listening to this is that she never really knew what Meg was like. She knew Meg has a lot of boy friends but she assumed the relationship were fairly casual.” He corrected himself immediately. “Well, of course, they were casual, but casual in Meg’s terms, not in my mother’s” (Walters, 1999: 233).

From the quotation above, we can conclude that Mrs. Harris does not really know the truth about her daughter. Mrs. Harris assumes that the relationship that her daughter, Meg, has with her boyfriends are fairly casual.

That is because she thinks and believes her daughter will never do such a disgusting thing. She does not want to find the truth about her daughter’s relationship. It is not that she does not care about Meg. It is simply because she is too afraid to see the truth.

Meg, then, feels awkward to come to her mother again to talk about her love and sexual problem. The quotation below provides the proof of it:

Frank glanced at him. “You said she was secretive.”

“Very. She didn’t want anyone to know about her life, least of all Mum or Dad. Particularly Mum, in fact. She knew how much Mum hated sex so she didn’t tell her until recently how many men she slept with, and she only did that because she angry” He closed his eyes to avoid looking at his mother’s pain. “She loved sex, saw it as a healthy expression of life, love, and beauty, and couldn’t bear to have it treated as something dirty and disgusting” (Walters, 1999: 303).

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hatred of sex has blinded her. She does not realize the latent danger that she unconsciously creates. The same thing happens if Simon comes to her and asks her about her opinion of sex and love. She does not want to explain those at all. She considers that Simon is too pure to talk about things like that. She is afraid that kind of conversation will pollute Simon’s pure mind. She does not want Simon, his beloved and adored son, to be tempted to do those things. Those are the reasons why Mrs. Harris always avoids discussing things that have any relations love and sex with her children.

Mr. Harris also never talks about either love or sex with his children in personal. His frustration about his wife has made him become an introvert person. He only says that sex is the one of the many ways in expressing someone’s love to another. And among those many other things, it is the best and deepest way. Unfortunately, he does not explain it any further. Mr. Harris prefers his children to know it from any other sources but him. He is too tired to be asked about. He believes that sooner or later his children will know about what love and sex really are.

Either Mr. or Mrs. Harris do not give a right perception about love and sex to their children. They almost never discuss the real facts about love and sex in their family. And even if they talk about love or sex, they do not talk it in the right way. They give very little information about sex to their children. The information is not adequate at all. It is clearly seen that either Mrs. or Mrs. Harris does not give the ir children an adequate information and knowledge to know the real thing about love and sex.

4.1.2. Mr. Harris’ Way in Giving Sex Education to his Children

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Mr. Harris is a person who adores love. He thinks that people are created to love each other. He loves his family, he loves people around him, including his children’s friends and he loves them in a positive way. In other words, his love to each person is different from one another. It depends on those people’s position in life. In short, Mr. Harris surrounds himself with love to others. This is in line with Fromm (1956: 20) that love is not primarily a relationship to a specific person. Love is an attitude, an orientation of character, which determines the relations of a person to the world as whole, not toward one object of love.

Mr. Harris’ point of view about love is also in line with Schutz’s statement about the importance of love. Schutz (1989: 38) in her book I Love You illustrates the importance of love. She says that we must be the richest person in the world, but if we do not have love or someone to love, we have nothing at all. We need to love as we need to be loved.

Mr. Harris also thinks that he will be the richest person in the world, if he has much love in his live, and he will be the poorest person in the world if he does not have love. Therefore, Mr. Harris has nice relationships with people around him. He loves everyone around him and they love him back.

Mr. Harris expresses his love to people around him in much kind of ways. In the novel, we will find out that he loves his wife very much that he does not hate her wife for all the mistakes that his wife has done related to their children’s sexual misbehaviour. He also loves his children and he tries to be the best parent he can ever be. The fact that he fails in doing his role as a good parent does not mean that he does not love his children. In addition, he has a good relationship with almost all of his children’s friends. Therefore, he is angry when he finds out that his daughter, Meg, has stolen her best friend’s boyfriend and the fact that Meg has already done it twice. It can be seen from the quotation below:

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“I’m sorry,” she said inadequately, “but I don’t expect she meant to hurt anybody” (Walters, 1999: 61).

Mr. Harris is an open minded person. He does not view sexual act as something disgusting and degrading (Walters 1999: 482). In fact, he considers sex as the best thing in expressing one’s mutual love to another. Through sexual activity, someone can express how deep his or her love is to his or her partner and how he or she wants and needs to be united with his or her partner (Fromm, 1956: 44).

In his point of view, sex is very human. It is one of humans’ basic needs. Sex is not only a tool for making babies. Sex is also a tool to reach a pleasure and an enjoyment in a love relationship. It is not clear whether or not he agrees with sex before marriage since it is not mentioned or implied in the novel.

Mr. Harris’ ways in expressing his love to people around him makes his wife get jealous. It is shown on page 297:

“How dare you deny it? Did you think I didn’t know you lusted after her? Did you think she wouldn’t tell me what you did to her? She couldn’t wait to get out of this house, couldn’t wait to get away from you. You made her what she was and you dare to accuse her now of weakness. You disgust me. You’ve always disgusted me. You sanctimonious hypocrite who lusted after anything in a skirt, including Meg and Jinx (Walters, 1999: 297).

However, Simon defends his father. Based on Simon’s opinion, his father is extremely fond of Jinx because she shares his interest in the classics, but he does not lust after her. Furthermore, Simon explains that his father has never abused anyone in his life, and certainly not Meg. It is his mother’s opinion about his father which is completely untrue. However, Mr. Harris does not give a clear explanation about what he really feels about the situation

4.2. The Impact of the Lack of Sex Education in the Harris

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co-operation for their children will make their social interaction hindered. Kalish (1973: 55) also describes the importance of parents’ role in shaping their children values and attitude. Kalish states that parents and other significant figures probably have the greatest influence on the formation of values and attitude. Besides, parents also provide model that their children consciously or unconsciously copy. Therefore, children tend to internalize their parents ideas without much conflict. In line with that, this novel also describes how strong parents’ ideas can be in influencing their children.

Mr. and Mrs. Harris never expect that their ways in giving the information about love and sex to their children will bring a huge impact to them. Both Meg and Simon have a problem in defining what love is and how its relationship with sexual activity. They try to adopt values that they get either directly or indirectly from their parents. In other words, Simon and Meg adopt the values of love and sex through their parents’ action and reaction about love and sex. They imitate some of their parents’ sexual behaviour. But since they do not have any clear and adequate information about love and sex, they, then try to figure it out in their very own ways. However, what Simon adopts about the love and sex values are completely different to what Meg adopts. Even though, they adopt them from the same sources.

4.2.1. On Meg

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“At least Meg thinks I’ve something sensible to say,” was her stepmother mother’s aggressive refrain whenever she was deep in her cups and being ignored by everybody else. The irony was that Meg couldn’t her own strait- laced mother for more than a couple of hours. “You and I should swap,” she often said. “At least Betty doesn’t play the martyr all the time(Walters, 1999: 19).

From that quotation we can conclude that Meg is a good friend to some people around her. She gives a good respect to Betty; someone that is disrespected by other people around her. Meg is also a very nice person in Jinx’s opinion. Even though Meg has betrayed her twice, Jinx still considers Meg as a nice person. Jinx does not blame Meg for stealing her fiancés, Leo and Russel. To Jinx, Meg is a good friend.

“Look, I don’t care. They can shag each other to death as far as I’m concerned.” Tears flooded her throat. “It’s no big deal. I’d had to lose Meg because of it. She is my friend, Simon” (Walters, 1999: 59).

Leo’s father, Sir Anthony also likes Meg. He has a very positive description about Meg. He and his wife are happy that, finally, Leo chooses to marry Meg instead Jinx. To Sir Anthony, Meg is much better than Jinx in many ways.

“She came here once, “Said the older man slowly, ”dropped in for lunch on her way back to London When Leo and Jinx were down for the weekend. Philippa took to her immediately. She was a nice girl, clearly besotted with Leo, a far better prospect in very way than Jinx. Good family, decent background. Philippa and I were pleased as punch when the boy phoned to say he was planning to marry Meg instead. The gamily comes from Wiltshire, I believe. A pretty girl, dark hair, slim, always smiling. “He lapsed into silence (Walters, 1999: 20).

Simon gives a clearer description about Meg and the quotation below shows that.

“Yes,” said Simon, “all of those. She loves life, Superintendent.” He wiped his eyes with the sleeve of his shirt, than put his glasses back on. “She had a very happy personality, people always enjoyed being her.”

Frank twisted his chair against the sunlight. “that’s how your mother described her” (Walters, 1999: 232).

THE IMPACT OF LACK OF HAVING SEX EDUCATION IN A FAMILY AS SEEN IN MINETTE WALTERS’ THE DARK ROOM A Thesis Presented as Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree in English Language Education