AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fullfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra
in English Letters
By
ELOK DWI RAHAYU Student Number : 06 4214 006
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
i
THE MAIN CHARACTER’S STRUGGLES TO ACHIEVE
SELF-CONTROL AS A TEENAGER
IN STEPHENIE MEYER’S NEW MOON
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fullfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra
in English Letters
By
ELOK DWI RAHAYU Student Number : 06 4214 006
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
v
Do the best
and
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I dedicate this undergraduate thesis to
My Lord, ALLAH SWT
My Mother, Sri Rahayu
My Grandfather, Achmad Santoso
My Grandmother, Masrika
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First of all, I would like to thank ALLAH SWT, as I have accomplished my undergraduate thesis, for any help, guidance throughout my life and for never leaving me in my hard time. I dedicate this thesis to my beloved parents. They have prayed for me and supported me, especially my greatest mom (Sri Rahayu). My unlimited gratitude goes to my grandpa (Ach.Santoso) and grandma (Masrika): they have raised me up till now, I thank them so much for their love, admitting me as their lovely grandchild. Without them I can not be what I am now. I thank my sister, Ika Riskian Fakih for the happiness, love, laugh, and support to finish my study, even for the fighting all over the time we have spent all along together. I love her so much.
I would like to express my gratitude to my advisor, Drs. Hirmawan Wijanarka, M. Hum., for his advice, time, patient guidance, and revision of this thesis from the beginning of my thesis writing until now. Without his help, I would not be able to finish this thesis. I also would like to thank my co-advisor, Dewi Widyastuti, S.Pd., M. Hum., for her time to read this thesis and help me to make some revisions on it. Thank you for the time, ideas, and energy.
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I am also grateful to my incredible boarding house friends, Niken and Nina,
who always support me to write my undergraduate thesis. Both of them are my crazy friends to share my time and problems with, that I can keep on laughing all the time.
I need to thank “The 3O kwek2”, Me2, D-nald, who always be my super friends. I Thank them for being my only friends who know my stupidity. They are all the best since we are always together from the very 1st semester in English Letters Department, Thanks!
I would like to thank my friends with whom I passed the process of studying in Sanata Dharma University, debesek (DBSK) ’06, Nek sela, Marce, Meme, Arum, and Fin who always stay together from the beginning of the semester till the end; my futsal team, San2, Na2, Yuniar, Lusi, Ester, Jules, Vina, you are all the best team ever, to the only one ’04 brother in Sanata Dharma, Alfa, who always advises me; and to those who belongs to The English Letters of Sanata Dharma 2006 that I could not mention one by one down here.
ELOK DWI RAHAYU
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
TITLEPAGE ... i
APPROVALPAGE ... ii
ACCEPTANCEPAGE ... iii
LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI ……….. iv
MOTTOPAGE ... v
CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION ... 1
A. Background of the Study ... 6
B. Problem Formulation ... 6
C. Objectives of the Study ... 6
D. Definition of Terms ... 7
CHAPTER II: THEORETICAL REVIEW ... 9
A. Review of Related Studies ... 9
B. Review of Related Theories ... 12
1. Theory of Character and Characterization ... 12
2. Theory of Self-Control ………... 16
a. Theory of Motivation ... 17
b. Theory of Emotion………... 18
c. Theory of The Consciousness of Self... 19
C. Theoretical Framework ... 20
CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY ... 22
A. Object of the Study ... 22
B. Approach of the Study ... 23
C. Method of the Study ... 24
CHAPTER IV: ANALYSIS ... 27
A. The Delineation of the Main Character (Bella Swan) in the Story ………... 28
B. Bella’s Struggles in Achieving Self-Control as a Teenager... 43
1. The Revelation of Bella’s Motivation to Achieve Self-Control ... 45
2. The Revelation of Bella’s Emotion to Achieve Self- Control ………. 51
3. The Revelation of Bella’s Consciousness of Self to Achieve ………. 55
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BIBLIOGRHAPY ……… 65
APPENDICES ………. 67
Appendix : Summary of the Stephenie Meyer’s New Moon ……….67
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ABSTRACT
ELOK DWI RAHAYU. The Main Character’s Struggles to Achieve Self-Control as a Teenager in Stephenie Meyer’s New Moon. Yogyakarta: Department of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma University, 2010.
This thesis examines one of Stephenie Meyer’s novels, New Moon. This novel is about a teenage girl, Bella Swan who has different characteristics from the other teenagers of her age. The Novel tells about love achievement in the youth period, but there is uniqueness of the main character’s love journey: It is different from the other story, because the main character loves a vampire, Edward Cullen. Finally, Meyer tells the reader how an 18 year old teenager can struggle against her youth desire in order to achieve self-control.
The study raises two problems to be examined. The first problem is how the main character of Bella Swan is delineated in the story. The second is how Isabella Swan struggles to achieve self-control. This is related to the revelation of Isabella’s motivation, the emotion, and the consciousness of self as a teenager
In order to reach the objectives of the study, the study uses library research method to collect data. The primary data are taken from Stephenie Meyer’s novel entitled New Moon. The secondary data are taken from sources related to the novel and the topic of this thesis.
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Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Sanata Dharma, 2010.
Novel ini mengisahkan seorang gadis remaja yang bernama Isabella Swan yang memiliki sifat yang berbeda dengan remaja seusianya. Novel ini menceritakan tentang suatu pencapaian cinta anak muda. Tetapi ada hal unik yang terjadi pada perjalanan cinta tokoh utamanya. Novel ini akan berbeda dengan cerita lainnya, karena tokoh utama dalam cerita ini mencintai seorang vampir, Edward Cullen. Pada akhirnya, Meyer ingin menceritakan kepada pembaca bagaimana seorang gadis remaja yang berumur 18 tahun dapat berjuang menentang hasrat untuk mencapai pengendalian diri.
Penelitian ini menyajikan dua masalah untk dibahas. Masalah pertama adalah bagaimana karakter Isabella Swan di lukiskan dalam novel. Masalah kedua adalah bagaimana Isabella Swan berjuang untuk mencapai pengendalian diri yang dihubungkan dengan pemaparan motivasi, emosi, dan kesadaran diri sebagai remaja. Untuk mencapai tujuan penelitian ini, digunakanlah studi pustaka untuk mengumpulkan data. Data primer yang diambil dari novel karya Stephenie Meyer,
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CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. Background of the Study
Human beings in this world have their own experiences in their lives. Some people tend to think that the experiences should be kept into their literary works to express their feelings, ideas, and minds. An author or a writter keeps their expressions into written media, such as play, poetry, short story, lyric, and novel. Those kinds of media are formulated as Literature. A literature can deal with human’s thought, feelings, ideas, and their personal experiences.
Literature is a vital record of what men have seen in life, what they have experienced of it, what they have thought and felt about those aspects of it which have the most immediate and enduring interest for all of us, it is thus fundamentally an expression of life through the medium of language (Hudson,1958:10).
Somehow it is interesting to read a literary work because the readers do not just get the information and amusement but also get the knowledge and satisfaction as well.
Literature also gives us a special knowledge of life that is not identical with that of real intellectual and critical values. It is actually possible for a well-read person to make mature of life without having great deal experience (Grace, 1965:7).
As we can see from the character involvement, the work of literature can be seen as the part of the author’s expression. The author can arrange the character to create a good story. The work may have the character/characters to show the author’s idea. There are many types of writting methods. The Novel that is analysed is about a fiction and popular literature. The author tries to transfer his/her idea in such a fiction. The fiction and popular literature may be easier to express and connect the main problem in the society, environment, family, etc. It shows that every single of life can be written down into literary works.
An author attempts to make his/her character believable and come alive for his/her reader by nine ways: personal description, character as seen by another, speech, past life, conversation of other, reactions, direct comments, thoughts, and mannerism (Murphy, 1972 :161-173).
The writer underlines some of the nine ways. They are through the explanation of the reactions, thoughts, mannerism, and also the personal description. The character’s reaction toward what happen in their lives could shape the thoughts, personality, and their mannerism, whether it is shown in their speech or conversation of others. One releases one’s feelings and experiences in a written text so that the readers can imagine the portrait of human life. It may be said that the literary works also deal with the human’s experience in their life. Therefore, by reading literary works we can learn how people’s struggle in their lives.
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human struggles basically for life continuity, self-rights, equality, independence, etc. In this thesis, the writer is interested to discuss the struggles of a girl as a teenager to achieve the self control in her life. It can be seen through her life environment, relationship with her parents, friends, and love relationship. The writer is interested in how the struggles to gain the self-control can be so important for her life as a teenager.
Stephenie Meyer as the writer of New Moon, a novel that the writer would like to analyze in this thesis, is known as the young novel writer, and mostly her specification is all about the youth in their life style. Her Success as a writer is due to her belief in her existing idea to be shown off to the other. This implies that she is the teenager’s professional writer. She wants to show and share the other people of the teenager’s life, although she expresses the way of life that the teenager exists as the youth, she also shares the involvement of the parents. In other words, she comes up as the representative of the teenager, on how she is trying to show the struggles, love criteria and the changing happened in the youth itself.
The novel, entitled New Moon, that expresses the love of youth (Bella) is clearly different from usual, which no human loves the vampire and wants to change herself to be vampire too. In a misguided attempt to protect Bella, Edward convinces her that he no longer loves her and moves away with his family, leaving her heartbroken and depressed.
her friend that loves her to skip the feelings to forget Edward. Bella struggles to find her self-control as the best way to change her mind whether she can lose her feeling to Edward. The novel shows to the reader how a teenager girl struggle to achieve self-control. As a teenager, she completely shows her effort to reach what she wants. In her struggle to get the self-control she has to find her self into a great position until she can achieve the self-control. She manages the whole process to achieve it. She did the clumsiness as her habit, she puts the wild game with another guy, and she tries to ruin her feeling with Jacob too.
New Moon as a fiction is coming out in the time of the teenager’s changing. The changing from old generation into modern generation. The period where they comes up as the growing man as the mature or even more mature to conduct their life (http//twilightsaga. com/stepheniemeyer/html).
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According to Grace & Fred M. Hechinger in Teenage Tyranny, teen-age, like birth and death, is inevitable. It is nothing to be ashamed of. Nor is it a badge of special distinction worthy of a continuous birthday party. While teenagers should be afforded mitigating circumstances for some of their actions and views, on the basis of natural immaturity, they should neither be placed in an aquarium tank for purposes of exhibition and analysis nor be put on a pedestal to be extolled for that admittedly enviable condition-youth (Hechinger, 1964: 1). Here the Grace & Fred want to show that teenagers are actually as part of life. They are coming to be the symbol of freedom and immaturity. Therefore, they can be so naïve or even they can be so tough.
The character of Bella in the novel is described as the way of the teenager’s life style. The identity of the teen can be seen through the teenager’s life style. Bella loves a vampire, as a human being that is insane and some say it does not make any sense. She comes to think forward to get what we call as self-control. It happens when Edward, her lover leaves her. For instance, those bad things happening to her are the one that she wants to reach the self-control. All characters also put the big influences in showing the reality of what teens do in their life. The way that they react, feel, love, or even think spontaneously in a risk effect.
freedom to choose, live, and die in their own way as the way to get self-control. And there is no influence from the other side.
Stephenie Meyer’s work New Moon has attracted many writers and critics because of its fame. Therefore, the fluctuation of the character of Bella as the main character attracts the researcher to use the novel and research more deeply about the main character’s struggle that appear in the novel with the main character’s struggles to achieve self-control as teenager as the title to the thesis.
B. Problem Formulation
Regarding to the topic that is discussed above, this thesis will analyze problems that can be formulated as follows.
1. How is Bella delineated in the Novel ?
2. How does Bella struggle to achieve her self-control as a teenager ?
C. Objectives of the Study
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D. Definition of Terms
This part will give some explanation of some terms that are used in the thesis. This is necessary to clarify the terms in order to reveal a better understanding on the novel.
1. Main Character
Holman & Harmon in A Handbook to Literature describe character as a complicated term that includes the idea of the moral constitution of the human’s personality (Aristotle’s sense of ethos), the presence of moral uprightness, and the simpler notion of the presence of creatures in art that seems to be human beings of one sort or another (1986: 81).
Abrams states that characters are actually the persons presented in a dramatic or narrative work,who are interpreted by the reader as being endowed with moral,dispositional,and emotional qualities that are expressed in what they say, the dialogue, and what they do the action (1993: 23).
Barnhart and Hasley state, the term of character is defined as an account or statements of qualities, peculiarities of a person or thing (1956: 156).
2. Struggle
3. Self-Control
According to Blackwell Encyclopedia of Psychology, self-control is the ability to control impulses and reactions, and is another name for self-discipline. It is not some kind of negative and limiting behavior, as some people might think, when self-control is used wisely and with common sense, it becomes one of the most important tools for self improvement and for achieving success (http://www.blackwell reference.com) (23 February 2010).
4. Teenager
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CHAPTER II
THEORETICAL REVIEW
A. Review on Related Studies
Theories and other works are very helpful for the writer to acomplish the study. There are some works that are related to Meyer’s novel New Moon and others to finish the process of the study.
New Moon is the second sequel of Twilight of Bella Swan's unusual life in Forks, Washington. Bella becomes a girl in many kinds of changes in her life. It can be shown in her love, life, and environment around her. The character of Bella could be revealed on her struggle to achieve self-control through her teenager’s life (www.accessmylibrary.com/2006/meyer-stephenie-new-moon.html\). ( 20 Oktober 2009)
and always immature, they are barbarians at the gate-and our only hope for a better world. What, then, is this thing called "teenager"-this strong, troubling creature caught somewhere between the rock of youth and the hard place of adulthood (Hine, 1999: 305-314). That shows Bella’s attitude toward her teenager’s life into a great starting point of her struggles. She takes the risk, learning how to survive and thrive in times.
Megan Tingley states in Megan Tingley Books that Stephenie Meyer tries to draw her personal implication to the young novelist’s perspective toward the teenager world is meant to draw Bella’s struggles. Stephenie Meyer is good with feelings. Mind you, she obtained a nice complicated situation. Bella is in love with a vampire who has an especially powerful thirst for her blood, but resists that urge because he loves her. In New Moon, Edward faces the "reality" that he is not good for Bella, and Bella is not good for him. Thus, he leaves her. Meyer captures well how it feels to be left by the love of your life. The unbelievable shock of seeing hard coldness on his face when he says he is leaving. The utter numbness that follows, wondering how to go on, how to face ordinary, day-to-day life in fact of her teen age development (www.accessmylibrary.com/.2006../meyer-stephenie-new-moon.html). (20 October 2009).
Robin Bowman in his book It's Complicated: The American Teenager
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ideas and stereotypes of teenagers with the diversity of individuals in the portraits. This book accompanies about the inside lives of these kids and how they see their reality in their own voices (Bowman, 2007: 30).
Here Bowman has the same ideas that the teenager has the very big contribution in the individual development. Meyer’s ideas of the passion, lust, pain, joy, uncertainty, etc have commonly shown up to the majority happening toward Bella’s developmental character in her adolescence age.
The New York Times Book Review, in the introduction on New Moon gives another perspective as follows :
Stephenie Meyer delivers another irresistible combination of romance and suspense with a supernatural twist. Passionate, riveting, and full of surprising twists and turns, this vampire love saga is well on its way to literary
immortality.(www.wordpress.com/2008/08/.../NewMoon-by-Stephenie-Meyer.html) (22 March 2009).
As it is said, Meyer tries to share another thing to the readers about the different life style that may happen to the people in which the romance and the illogic thing could occur and stand together in the people’s life by showing the continuing love story of the teenager girl, Bella with Edward, who is actually a vampire. And that makes the readers also reflect how life can form up the personal character.
Therefore, in this thesis the writer wants to analyze further about Stephenie Meyer’s works as a young novelist , who is trying to figure out the character of Bella as a teenager in a different way and the attitude toward her surrounding life.
teenager to accomplish the struggles in achieving the self-control. The writer chooses to find the Meyer’s intention to analyze the main character struggles in finding the self-control as a different teenager that will be the point to diverge the thesis from any other studies.
B. Review of Related Theories
The writer needs to use some theories to support the thesis’ writing that are considered relevant to the study. Since this thesis studies the main character’s struggles to achieve self-control as a teenager, the first thing to analyze is the theory of character and characterization, and the second is the theory of self-control.
1. Theory of Character and Characterization.
One of the important elements in a work of literature is character. A character is an important factor in fiction. The term “character” might refer to the persons or figures in a work of literature. The theory of character states that the character brings a story in ways that conducts the emotional qualities, the moral judgment and also dispositional. Characters are also created with certain qualities. They are recognized by readers for their characteristics and characterization by the authors. The character of the work should be very useful to the work itself.
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simpler notion of the presence of creatures in arts that seem to be human beings of one sort or another (1986: 81).
Abrams also states that the characters are actually the presented in a dramatic or narrative work, who are interpreted by the reader as being endowed with moral, dispositional, and emotional qualities that are expressed in what they say, the dialogue, and what they do the action (1993: 23). Therefore, it can make the fiction clear.
E.M. Forster in Aspects of the Novel classifies characters into two types. First, the flat character that is built around a single idea or quality and is represented in outline and without much individuality detail, and so they can be fairly describe in a single phrase or sentence. The flat characters are described by one or two traits. Another type of the character is the round character; characters that are complex in temperament and motivation and are represented with subtle peculiarity. Therefore, those characters are difficult to describe with an adequacy as a person into a real life and like most people, they are capable of surprising us. There is also a static character. The static character is the same sort of person at the end of the story as he or she is in the beginning. The developing or dynamic character undergoes a permanent change in some aspect of his or her character, personality or outlook (Forster, 1972: 18).
perfect way for a novelist to represent his or her characters. The characters are called “the round character”. In contrast, characters represented only or mainly in one aspect are called ‘flat characters or types or caricatures’ (De Laar and Schoonderwoerd, 1963: 170).
Theory of character includes the delineation of character. Delineation of Character, according to Drs. E. Van De Laar and Dr. N. Schoonderwoerd in An Approach to English Literature, delineation is a description of characters in the novel (De Laar and Schoonderwoerd, 1963: 163). The characters can be delineated by showing them in contact with other characters and by showing how they react to other human beings. The interplay of characters may give the description more about the character (De Laar and Schoonderwoerd, 1963: 171).
According to Mary Rohrberger and Samuel H. Woods Jr. in Reading and Writing about Literature, the process by which an author creates a character is called characterization. There are two principal ways an author can characterize.
First, he or she can use direct means to describe physical appearance, intellectual, moral attributes, and the degree of sensitivity of the character. Second, he or she can use dramatic means and place the character in situations to show what the character is by the way he behaves or speaks (Rohrberger and Woods Jr., 1971: 20).
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1. Personal Description, we can find out the nature of the character/s from the author’s description about her/his character appearance.
2. Speech, the character can give us the clue to his/her nature through his/her speaking, conversation with other people and opinion.
3. Conversation as seen by another. We know the character’s nature through the other eyes and also comments on his/her nature.
4. Reaction, the person’s nature can be known by his/her reactions to different occasions.
5. Direct Comments, the author can give comments on the person’s character directly.
6. Thought, the nature of the character can be known from what she/he is thinking.
7. Conversation of others, the conversation of other people can be the way of the author to tell the reader on the person’s character by showing the dialogue among other characters and other utterance on that person.
8. The past life, the author uses to tell the character’s past life, by commenting out directly, describing the person’s mind, person’s dialogue, and the medium among another person.
2. Theory of Self-Control
In The Science of Self-Control Howard Rachlin states that self-control may be seen as the interaction with one's own future self. Rachlin shows that indeed the value of the whole of one's whole life is far greater than the sum of the values of its individual parts (metapsychology.mentalhelp.net/poc/view_doc.php) (23 February 2010).
In Blackwell Encyclopedia of Psychology, Self-control is the ability to control impulses and reactions, and is another name for self-discipline. It is not some kind of negative and limiting behavior, as some people might think. When self-control is used wisely and with common sense, it becomes one of the most important tools for self improvement and for achieving success. Self-control is a concept used by psychologists to explain differences among people in the frequency of engaging in a wide variety of acts that cause harm to others. It is defined as the tendency to avoid acts whose long-term costs exceed their momentary advantages. These theories are distinguished by the assumption that people are rational actors, seeking pleasure and avoiding pain. Basic human needs and desires are seen as fairly uniformly distributed among people (even if access to the means to satisfy these needs and desires is far from uniformly distributed). They include the desire for affection from others, material goods, and pleasurable physical and psychological experiences. In general, people pursue these wants (http://www.blackwell reference.com) (23 February 2010).
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over one's own actions. This exercise may take the form of mental regulation, emotional management, goal setting, self-monitoring and making responsible choices. Self-control becomes a thought process, because of the cognitive processes and mental regulations needed to implement self-control. When self-control is tested by unrelenting pressure or prolonged deprivation, then its continuation depends on internal resources such as character, courage, faith, purpose, endurance. In this case, self-control may be considered a resource, an important part of a cluster of inner resources. An important part of self-control has to do with regulating one's own emotions so that one's behavior is situation-appropriate and socially acceptable. Even though feelings are generally considered uncontrollable, their intensity and expressions can be regulated. Finally, self-control requires motivation. Even when one possesses all of the above, in certain situations, such as a special celebration or an artificial psychology experiment, one may decide to briefly give up self-control for the occasion (www.meaning.ca/.../pres_col_jun_2004_self-control.htm ) (23 February 2010). There are some theories which are related to support the theory of self-control.
a. Theory of Motivation
Motivation is one thing that people actually have in their life. It stimulates to do something that will affect their life or can fulfill their desire. Psychology in Action
and interests) that activate, maintain, and direct behavior toward a goal (Huffman,1997: 364).
In the General Psychology, the motivation can pursue someone to do something to achieve what he wants. To continue the functioning of an urge, in spite of one or two frustrating experiences, is the evidence of a strong push for a person to attain a particular goal. Such kind of persistence that continues until success is achieved is the significant characteristic of motivation (Crow, 1973:132-133). This theory confirms that a person must have a reason behind what he does. There are some urges to some actions in order to achieve their goals and fulfill the desire. They must have a desire that can be called as a motivation so that they do some struggle to achieve it.
We might know that a person is motivated from his/her action to achieve what a person want. People who are motivated usually will do a struggle to achieve their desires, needs, and goals. This theory will be very useful to understand why a person does something, in this case struggles. We also know the goals that a person wants by doing such things. They must have something behind their action and by this theory we can understand why people do that particular thing.
b. Theory of Emotion
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through the behavior that people may have. In the Psychology in Action, emotion is the feelings or affective responses that result from psychological arousal, thoughts, and beliefs, subjective evaluation, and bodily expression (Huffman, 1987: 364-365).
In The Principle of Psychology, an emotional temperament on the one hand, and a lively imagination for objects and circumstances on the other, are thus the conditions, necessary and sufficient, for an abundant emotional life (James, 1983:1088). This theory explains that a person may experience a wide variety of emotions; jealousy, fear, sadness, anger, and differing motives may determine how they act in the situation. On how a person can manage self control, the emotion and how the environment takes a deal inside the human’s emotion. No matter how the emotion deals with the environment, if the imagination poor, the occasion for touching off the emotional trains will fail to be realized. There is a spot where emotion has a very close relation with self-control. It takes a connection when a feeling controls the action of a person or brings the feelings into an action.
c. Theory of the Consciousness of Self
Consciousness in the Psychological in Action becomes as the general state of being aware and responsive to stimuli in the external and internal environment. Consciousness is always about something. It concerns perceptions (of objects and events), thoughts (including verbal thought and mental images, such as dreams and daydreams), feelings, and actions (Huffman,1997:124).
The stream of consciousness may classify the process of the level of awareness. Firstly the controlled processes, it occurs when the mental activities found at the top of the continuum of awareness, they require focused attention and generally interfere with other ongoing activities. Secondly, automatic processes, the mental activities requiring minimal attention, other ongoing activities are generally not affected (Huffman, 1997: 126).
This theory shows that the self-control can be dealt with the main focus of the basic influences of mind or feeling. Then it relates the both criteria with the physic mental processes when the action happens.
C. Theoretical Framework.
Those theories above will be used to analyze the novel. This study uses library research method in collecting and analyzing the data. Besides using the novel,
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The theories consist of theory of character and theory of self control. In the theory of character, there are explanation about the delineation of the character, development of the character, and the characterization. The theory of character especially the theory of character and characterization are applied to identify the character of the main character, Isabella Swan, that is depicted by the author. Theory of character, characterization, delineation character, and development of character are applied to answer the first problem. The writer also uses Murphy’s theory of characterization to understand the characteristic of the main character. This theory helps to know what kind of character Bella is and how her struggles to achieve self-control are seen by her characterization. To answer the second problem, it needs theory of self-control which consists of the theory of motivation, theory of emotion, theory of consciousness of self.
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CHAPTER III
METHODOLOGY
A. Object of the Study
The object of this study is the novel New Moon which was written by Stephenie Meyer, a novelist who was born in 1973. This novel was published originally in September 2006 by Little, Brown and Company, in New York. This novel contains 24 chapters with 522 pages. New Moon is Stephenie Meyer’s novel that gained her place as a novelist with teenager novel specification and won the prestigious MTV movie award as the best teenager novel author and the best teen novel, performed in the movie in 2009.
The novel tells about the struggles of Bella as the main character to achieve self-control. Here, Bella is described to be braver and challenged to move forward her life after the leaving of Edward, her beloved boyfriend. The story starts when the Cullens, including her beloved Edward, leave Forks rather than take a risk that people will know that they are vampires. It is almost too much for eighteen-year-old Bella to bear beacause she wants Edward so much with her. Then Bella tries to figure out the way to control her desire to be a vampire and gets rid of Edward’s life during the leaving of Edward. Then, she finds solace in her friend Jacob until he is drawn into a “cult” and changes in terrible ways.
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writing has been published for many times in many different countries. Besides, her writings, including New Moon, have been translated into many languages. New Moon
is actually known as the second sequel of Twilight Saga. Twilight is the first book, and New Moon brings the story into various problems occurring in teenager. The proof is the novel will next be filmed, starring the teenager actors and actress such as Robert Pattinson , Kirsten Stewart, and Taylor Lautner. All casts represent the novel story and the youth spirit.
B. Approach of the Study.
The writer uses Psychological Approach to examine the novel. Psychological approach is the most suitable approach to this study because it deals with the character’s struggle and the topic which is choosen The Main Character’s Struggles to Achieve Self-Control as a Teenager. It is more over to cover up the basic understanding on how the main character of the literary work can reveal the self-control and show the struggles through the main character’s teenager life.
As quoted by Hall in Theories of Personality, he states that personality formed by some related situations happened in one’s life reccurently. It manifests certain behavior that will carry throughout his relationship with other people (1957: 111). Therefore, it will make the characters of the literary work believes that the situation of the environment around influence the life point of view and try to search something new or the best for their life. And those will come up the certain behaviour of the charater’s personality to achieve something. Bella tries to establish the way to figure out the self control, related to her personality as a teenager.
The psychological approach helps the writer to interpret the psychological aspect of the main character in the novel. In the relation with the two significant parts above, first, the study explains the character’s psychology that involves the patterns of behavior, thoughts, and feelings. Second, the study relates it with the personality of the character. Therefore, this approach helps the writer to reveal the issue of this study since it views character, self-control, and teenager.
C. Method of the Study
The writer employed the library research as the method of the study. There were two types of sources used in this method. The first is the primary sources. For the study, the primary source was taken from Stephenie Meyer’s New Moon,
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relation with the novel New Moon from the internet. The theory of character, the theory of self-control , and the ideas related to the character of Bella were taken from some books and books review.
There are several main sources that the writer used, such as: An Approach to English Literature by Drs. E. Van De Laar and Dr. N. Schoonderwoerd, An Introduction to English Poetry and The English Novel for Overseas Student by Murphy, American Teenager by David Plotz, The Rise and Fall of the American Teenager by Thomas Hine, Theory of Self-Control by Howard Rachlin, The Principles of Psychology by William James.
There were several steps used to answer the problems on the problems formulation. Firstly, the writer read the novel, New Moon as the primary data. The writer read the novel several time in order to get a deep understanding of the story itself.
Secondly, the writer decided to formulate the topic, the main character’s struggle was related to the personality. Then, the writer drew the problem formulation.
Thirdly, the writer searched books related to the studies and theories, and the writer read some books on the theory related with the study, the theory of character and characterization and theory of self-control.
Fifthly, the writer tried to answer the first problem. The characteristic of the main character and how the character delineated in the novel. Then, the writer examined the second problem, How are the main character’s struggles to achieve self-control as an teenager.
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CHAPTER IV
ANALYSIS
The novel New Moon by Stephenie Meyer talks about the life of a teenager who has unusual love with a vampire. The novel also talks about the struggle when she tries to find the self-control, since her beloved vampire boyfriend leaves her.
This chapter consists of two parts based on two problems of this study. This first part is the delineation of character Bella Swan in the story. It presents the description of Bella and the interaction with other characters. The interaction includes the attitude and the way of thinking of Bella toward something around her, many things that happen in her life and the way she deals with people will be depicted in the study.
A.The Delineation of the Main Character (Bella Swan) in the Story.
Isabella is an Arizona girl who lives in Forks, Washington. She is only a teenager of 18 years old. She has parents who have already divorced. Previously, she lives with her mother, Renee, in Jacksonville, America. Then she moves to Forks. In Forks, she lives with her father, Charlie. She lives in her simple life by only doing her daily activity. She does not have a close relationship with her father. It is because she does not really know him as well as she knows her mother. She feels as a stranger at first. That is why she and her father, Charlie, have never talked intimately to each other. She never takes a chat frequently with her father, because she is not really close to her father, as previously, she used to live and spent lots of fun with her mother, Renee, but she loves and cares her father. She never wants to make her father worries about her life. “ If he took me to the hospital, there would be no way to keep this from Charlie” (p.31). She is not a rich girl. She comes from an ordinary family. Her father only works as a sheriff in a small town in Forks. Her mother was working as a kindergarten teacher and now she is only a housewife who is married to a baseball coach. But as a teenager, she can manage and handle her needs by herself. She is an independent girl in her age. She can fulfill her school tuition and the preparation for her college payment by working in a store.
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As the above description indicated, she is a tough girl and who always acts the thing as she wants. Her friends, even her parents, can not interfere her action. She is a bright girl that she could find a job for sharing the wage due to her payment for the college. She is a free young girl. She can find the way of life with the consequences. She can be said as the hard worker too. She acts that she has responsibility to take. She works and she will get the money. She is not taking from other hand’s effort but she gets it from her own effort. “ I have to work. I had to trade with Mrs. Newton to get yesterday off” (p.56). The point is that she dare to do and she dare to get the risk. She does not work at first so she has to change it.
She has a friend, Jacob. She feels better with him. She has also friends in her new school in Forks. She is actually not a kind of having a few close friends. Sometimes she can go with her friends or not at all. Somehow, she spends her time with her friends at school.
We sat at our usual table for lunch. My other friends, Mike and Jessica (who were in the awkward post-breakup friendship phase), Angela and Ben ( whose relationship had survived the summer), Eric, Conner, Tyler, and Lauren (though that last one didn’t really count in the friend category) all sat at the same table (p.14).
She is a kind girl. She never tries to think to hurt the others feelings. She controls her life as well as she can. Thus, she can be very flexible with a new one around her. She is a very easy going person. She can go along with them.
wants to avoid problems. “ How do you feel ?” Perfect,” I lied, cringing as the sound of slamming door echoed in my head” (p.54).
In her life journey, her private life is going to be the topic to be discussed a lot. The journey of Isabella Swan begins when she finally meets Edward. She still does not know how to continue her desire. Even, she may be sure that she will give her whole life to Edward and for the sake to be a vampire. Bella wants to live along with Edward even she wants to transform her life to be the same as Edward, as a vampire. She wants to challenge herself without any interruption of other people even her family. She decides to be a vampire. “ I’m one hundred percent serious”(p.540). This action shows that she starts to think about something that is more important than only about school or going to college.
She is actually not different from the other teenager, she has something much to tell toward her love story so that love and romance are going to deal a lot with her life. In her life, she loves a boy, Edward, who is actually a vampire. She is different from the other teenager in her age. She falls in unusual love. She finds someone that she really loves so that she can not let him go. Desperate not to lose him, Bella vows to stay with Edward, even if it means change herself to be a vampire.
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make her ashamed to be with Edward. She feels an embarrassment to be older than her boyfriend. And the age will have a distance between the two of them.
In fact, she has so many people that love her. Edward’s family included, Alice is one of the Cullens who really care about her. Her birthday as the most remembered by Alice. She is noticed as the part of them, The Cullens. She never thinks further about being a better girl, but how she could be a better girl for herself first. “Happy Birthday, Bella! Do you want to open your present now or later?” (p.8). It shows that Alice cares about her.
However, the care and love from people around her does not make her happy. She even is not happy in her birthday. She ignores it as much as she can. She becomes a stubborn girl, as the truth itself. She comes up as a tough girl in keeping her point of view. “No presents,” I protested in a mumble” (p.8). She is also described to have her own willingness to conduct the things.
“Oh, be fair, Bella!” She complained. “You aren’t going to ruin all our fun like that, are you?”
“I thought my birthday was about what I want” (p.11).
does not think that her act is definitely wrong. She has never felt that she may miss the atmosphere with people and things around her. “Funny how it didn’t seem sinister like it used to. I realized I would miss this, the green, the timelessness, the mystery of the woods. All of it”(p.63).
Being an ordinary person does not mean that she is never interested in anything. It is proved when she gets her dream to be with Edward as a vampire too. She actually never imagines becoming a vampire at all and living immortally.
And I supposed… if I could be sure of the future I wanted, sure that I would get to spend forever with Edward, and Alice and the rest of the Cullens (preferably not as a wrinkled little old lady)… Then a year or two one direction or the other wouldn’t matter to me so much (p.10).
She actually knows that Edward has a lot of money. She will not be worried to think about money, but she does not want to think about that much. She thinks that she can manage herself without Edward’s help “Money meant next to nothing to Edward or the rest of the Cullens” (p.13). She tries to believe that she can have her own effort without Edward’s money. She has a pride of her self in front of Edward. She knows when she loves someone; there is nothing to get back in return, even for money. In case of that she tries to be a mature girl in her age as teenager. Bella is delineated not to be a materialistic girl. There is no time to think about something else except Edward.
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unfathomable reason, wanted to be with me. Anything he gave me on top of that just threw us more out of balance” (p.13).
In considering her criteria of a boy she loves, it does not mean that she does not have a real criterion of a boy she likes to be with. She has her own boy type. She likes Romeo’s criteria as her favorite. As a favorite man and a figure of a man, although Romeo was a fictional character. She has also an interest to think about something else besides Edward’s figure. She tries not to focus only in one type of man. “Romeo was one of my favorite fictional characters. Until I’d met Edward, I’d sort of had a thing for him” (p.17).
She eventually can be a person who is not confident when she has to be with Edward in his side. She can be very pessimistic. She just sees of what she thinks from the appearance, even when she has to acknowledge her picture with Edward. As a teenager it will be a usual thing but for her it even makes her embarrassed so much.
The last picture of Edward and me standing awkwardly side by side. Edward’s face was the same as the last, cold and statue-like. But that wasn’t the most troubling part of this photograph. The contrast between the two of us was painful. He looked like a god. I looked very average, even for human, almost shamefully plain. I flipped the picture over with a feeling of disgust (p. 65). It shows that when she goes a long with Edward, she feels pessimistic. On how she pictures and describes Edward so dramatically awesome in every part of his physics and personalities.
brings out her weak side as a teenager. She can be seen as a dependent girl. Her close relationship with Alice proves it all. She tries to take Alice’s advise and care too. She needs someone who supports and knows her wants. And those all seems that Alice fulfills those criteria.
It was hard to even remember the reason for all this mess. My birthday already felt like the distant past. If only Alice would come back. Soon. Before this got any more out of hand” (p.66).
Bella’s characteristic can also be seen from her reaction’s toward something different from her understanding. And that reaction toward her life and love is shown when Edward leaves her. Instead of not hurt Bella’s life future, the Novel seeks out the dramatic love of Bella, the way she loves Edward in her way. Bella was in danger suffering when Edward decides to leave her alone. Bella is left by Edward in her satisfaction of her love to Edward. This gives evidence that she starts to suffer a lot of the leaving.
I promise that this will be the last time you’ll see me. I won’t come through anything like this again. You can go on with your life without anymore influence from me. It will be as if I’d never existed. (p.71)
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She follows him that she can not even stand for sure. She is too weak to maintain her shock and sadness toward his word to her. It is too hard for her to realize him gone.
With shaky legs, ignoring the fact that my action was useless. I followed him into the forest. The evidence of his path had disappeared instantly. There were no foot prints, te leaves were still again, but I walked forward without thinking. I could not do anything else. I had to keep moving. If I stopped walking for him, It was over. Love, life, meaning (p.73)
The above description indicate that Bella is labeled as a stubborn girl and tough girl but in fact she had no strenght to uphold her suffering, since she keeps in struggling to reach Edward. This implies that if she loses Edward in that time, she will get into deep suffering and depress to her love to Edward.
Bella who suffers from Edward’s leaving then stimulates her characteristic that is also very careless to her life. It is shown from what Edward’s last words to Bella. She always makes something stupid and reckless. And it will ruin everything around her.
Don’t do anything reckless or stupid,” he ordered, no longer detached. “Do you understand what I’m saying?” I nodded helplessly. His eyes cooled, the distance returned. “I’m thinking of Charlie, of course. He needs you. Take care of yourself for him (p.71).
perfectly angry and disappointed. But she still defends a good point for Edward. She defends him in front of her father, Charlie.
I want to know if Edward left you alone out there in the middle of the woods, “Charlie insisted”. His name sent another wave of torture through me. I shook my head, frantic, desperate to escape. “It was my fault. He left me right here on the trail, in sight of the house, but I tried to follow him” (p.83).
She is nothing without Edward. She feels like she will not be able to go through her life. So when Edward leaves her, she becomes very weak and depressive.
I felt the smooth wooden floor beneath my knees, and then the palms of my hands, and then it was pressed against the skin of my cheek. I hoped that I was fainting, but, to my disappointment, I didn’t lose consciousness. The waves of pain that had only lapped at me before now reared high up and washed over my head, pulling me under. I did not resurface (p.84).
Time passes through the days and months. From October until January, she has no longer interactions with her family, friends, and her environment as frequent as she did before. She misses the time to share, to make some fun, to gather, etc. She is too shocked to face the truth, the truth that Edward will not come to her life anymore.
Time passes. Even when it seems impossible. Even when each thick of the second hand aches like pulse of blood behind a bruise. It passes unevenly, in strange lurches and drugging lulls, but it pass it does. Even for me (p.93). She argues her father, Charlie. She can not accept her father wants for her own sake. She will not leave Forks to Jacksonville, a place where her mother and her step-father live. Bella and her step-father have a typical relationship between step-father and daughter. Her father has different wishes for Bella, but Bella has her own needs and wishes.
“I’m sending you to Renee, to Jacksonville,” he clarified.
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“What did I do?” I felt my face crumple. It was so unfair”. (p.94).
She tries to argue his father by saying and asking that she is fine, and he does not need to worry about her. “I’m not moping around” (p.95). But her father is still with his belief that his daughter is not going to be alright then. She tries to excuse everything that her father says to her. “Moping would be better that would be doing
something. You’re just lifeless, Bella. I think that’s the word I want” (p.95). Here Bella seems to be very stubborn in surviving her argument. She tries to maintain her opinion to do something that she wants to do. She ignores her father comment and denies it as well.
But in fact she may not win one hundred percent in front of her father. In that case, she does not want to argue any longer with her father. She ends it up. She makes an approval of one thing that she will interact with other people, her friends, her environment of course. “Look,” I said in flat voice. “ I’ll go out tonight, if you want. I’ll call Jess or Angela” (p.97). Then, the arguing keeps in continue. Charlie actually does not expect that Bella should hang out with her friends at first. She should leave Forks. Every ways to refuse her father’s forces do not influence her belief. She makes so many excuses for that. She actually has a strong reason why she insists not to move. And her father knows that at the end. She still wants to wait for Edward.
I pretended to be dense, looking down at the table. I don’t understand, dad. First your’ mad because I’m not doing anything, and then you say you don’t want me to go out”.
“I want you to be happy, no, not even that much. “I just want you not to be miserable. “I think you’ll have a better chance if you get out of Forks.”
My eyes flashed up with the first small spark of feeling I’d had in too long to contemplate.
“Why not?” he demanded.
“I’m in my last semester of school, it would screw everything up. “You’re a good student - you’ll figure it out.”
“I don’t want to crowd Mom and Phil.” “Your mother’s been dying to have you back.” “Florida is too hot.”
He took a deep breath. “It’s been months. No calls, no letters, no contact. You can’t keep waiting for him.” (p.97)
From that conversation with her father, she keeps up to struggle to maintain her point of view. She lies to her father when answering his question about her problems. She does not think that she has to tell her father what the truth is all about. She actually hides all facts to keep in secret to avoid sadness. That is why Bella is depicted as a smart, intelligent, and consistent girl, even when she is in a bad feeling. She images it in playing the words, hiding the feeling, or even she shows it up through her marks at school and the way she collects every word from her mind set. In her school she gets A marks for the subjects she has taken up. The point is that she tries to force herself to do something better to get the best result. “As a result, I was managing to keep in the range of a low A”(p.98).
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As she never interacts with her friends at all, because of her suffering, she has no time to make any social-interaction, until her friend says that she is an anti-social person. She makes her relation with Jessica breaks up. She does not want to face her father again without some kind of social interaction to report.
It had been weeks, maybe months, since Jess had even greeted me when I passed her in the hall. I knew I had offended her with my antisocial behavior, and she was sulking. It wasn’t going to be easy to talk to her now, especially to ask her to do me a favor. I weighed my options carefully as I loitered outside the classroom, procrastinating (pp.99-100).
After a long bad time, she tries to recover her friendship’s relation with her friends; especially she keeps in touch the relation with Jessica, one of her friends at school. She asks her to watch a movie in town, although, it seems that she just camouflage it. Instead of making her father believes and shows to her father that she is fine. She thinks to avoid Charlie. She knows that Charlie will ask her so many questions and things that she should do. That is not what she has expected at all.
She has done of what her father wants. In fact, she wishes that her father will not notice her disguise. She goes out with Jessica and there is nothing special of that. She does not really enjoy it. She tries to make some changes into her life. She finds out to think about it. She drives through the road at Forks. In the middle of her steps, she finds something wild and challenging. It is actually something that her father will reject it. She is interested in race, so that she buys bikes. She is very careless; she knows that the bikes will do much for her. The bikes do not work well at all. But, she takes the risk to fix it. She dares to buy without thinking about money. It is actually shows that she does not think carefully. But, she does it. Bella is described to be a very clumsy girl, she does the thing without thinking the result.
How much do you want for the bike?” I panted, jerking thumb over my shoulder toward the sales display. “Are you serious?” he demanded. “Of course I am. They don’t work. I sighed impatiently; this was something I’d already inferred from the sign.“ How much? (p. 127-128).
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The life of Bella is getting suffered, when Edward leaves her. She never laughs as she has ever done before. She never hangs out with her friends at all, she is only keeping her soul and body in her room alone. She really gets her life over. She reacts the leaving as the hell for her. But she has a friend, Jacob. Jacob, who also loves her, supports her into happiness. From the lesson above, Bella needs someone beside her. She is not one hundred percent stand in her point of view without any supports. She is going to see what she can do to change the bad times, when Edward leaves her. She even feels better; Jacob can recover her bad feeling. She slowly can manage the nightmare that appears every night when she goes to sleep. She enjoys every time with Jacob. It may be strange for her. She never thinks that she enjoys herself with him. She comes up to be a weak girl. She also needs love and care from other people.
It was a strange kind of day. I enjoyed myself. Even at the dump, in the slopping rain and ankle-deep mud. I wondered at first if it was just aftershock of losing the numbness, but I didn’t think that was enough of an explanation (p145).
The delineation of the main character of Bella Swan, can be seen through her personal description, conversation as seen by another, reaction, thought, conversation of others, and mannerism, as quoted from Murphy in Understanding Unseen: An Introduction to English Poetry and The English for Overseas Student. In short, from those criteria and delineation above, Bella is described as an independent teenager girl at her age. That she can manage herself to get her own money. She works as her need to pay her own college tuition, she is completely not dependent to her parents. She is also one of a bright girl. Besides she can find a job by herself, she also can get a better mark at school.
She is described as a teenager that different is with other teenager girl at her age. She rarely makes an interaction with other people, in this case is friendship. She does not have a lot of friends. She becomes an ordinary girl in her new school, but she comes up as the main attention for her friends, because she is personally characterized as a beautiful girl, smart, and mysterious girl to know. Her manner at her daily life is very mysterious one. She comes as the tough girl, that she dares to do and she dares to get risk for those attitudes.
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is getting older than Edward. That is why she wants to be a vampire too, to become immortal.
Bella becomes a stubborn girl but in the other hand, she is a kind girl too. It can be seen through her reaction, thought, and mannerism. She becomes a stubborn girl, when she does not want to hear the other’s opinion. She maintains her own point of view, and ignores ideas. But, those reactions and thoughts do not mean that she is not a kind girl. Through her mannerism, she becomes a nice girl. It can be seen, when she will not be able to hurt others’ feeling, especially her parents. Bella is a kind of nice girl in the novel. She can not lie perfectly, because she does it with no bad purpose. She develops her character, when Edward left her. And those interactions and reactions are basically coming out, in order to achieve self-control through her life’s journey. And the love journey as a teenager is the main point to reach the struggles.
B.Bella’s Struggle in Achieving Self-Control as a Teenager
Self-Control signifies Bella’s struggles to be achieved as a teenager. It makes the explanation of the struggles that she wants to gain. The self-control can be used to see her life as in the eyes of teenager. Some parts of her life will show the significance of achieving self-control. Thus, the struggles of searching self-control are significant to be a starting point for this explanation.
something usual, teenager is dynamic. So, it may just happen for its phase of life. There are many things that influence her struggles in achieving self-control.
As a teenager, she must face it all. It can be seen through her development process of creating characteristic, creating relationship with the other, friendship, love’s story, even parents and children’s relationship. Bella tries to achieve it. The spirit to struggle actually comes out to her when she was left by Edward. Bella receives many things to be controlled. She gets it from the people and environment in her journey to search her self-control.
She wants to be able to control the impulses and reactions, and says in another name for self-discipline. She dares to do it, in fact that it is not some kind of negative and limiting behavior, as some people might think. She finds the self-control that is wisely used with common sense. So she can use it as the most important tools for her self-improvement and for achieving success. She is seeking pleasure and avoiding pain, a pain when Edward has left her alone. But, she does not think to seek only the pleasure but also the pain as self-proof. She needs the desires to form the struggles, the desires for affection from others, needs, the mindset changing and psychological experiences.
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trying to control, when she has to forget about Edward’s existence, her love to him, her wish to be a vampire, to be free and her identity as a teenager. To formulate them all, she has the motivation to have what she calls as self-control.
She must put the emotion of what she feels in her motivation to achieve self-control, whether she should do it in sad, mad, obsessed, or happy feeling. The other thing that she has to do with the struggles is when she has to deal with an awareness of her mind. She conducts the thing without any interference and influence from others. Later on the revelation of motivation, emotion, and the consciousness of self will be explained along with the struggle to achieve self control as teenager as the starting point.
1. The Revelation of Bella’s Motivation to Achieve Self-Control
The motivation of Bella to achieve self-control starts when she was left by Edward. That was the beginning of her spirit to struggle. She makes a strategy to do it step by step. She struggles to achieve the self-control from the very little things to be conducted. She links her action to one action to other actions even the way may be different. Even she dares to do in an extreme way. She starts to do something that will affect her life or can fulfill her desire to struggle.
remove her desire to be a vampire, not to negative actions, forget about Edward, and not to be an introvert person.
Her motivation to control herself, when she feels so bad, her desires to be with Edward even to hear only his voice, and her interests to be a vampire. She directs and keeps those behaviors in order not to control her life. Thus, she can reach the goal. She is even in her haste to get away from Charlie, she ends up being one of the first ones at school. Because, Charlie will ask her condition and it will remind her to Edward. Charlie is very worried about that. The positive thing is that she gets a really a better moment to avoid any think about Edward. As a teenager, it is not easy to manage hard time and hard feeling, especially as a girl in her age. But she forces herself to keep it up until she can find the goal. She motivates herself to get many things to do, even she has to spare her time to work. “Bella, why don’t you take off,” Mike suggested”. “ I don’t mind staying, I said” (P.120). The conversation between Bella and Mike shows that Bella is really serious to what she needs to get. She makes herself busy.
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minutes think about Edward. She has not bargained for something about love and romance at all because that is one of her method of self-control.
To face the reality is not an easy thing for her. It really makes her down, until she thinks to break up her promises to Edward. She may not actually do something reckless and stupid. But she ignores that promise. Regarding to her motivation to search and reach self-control, she dares to cheat and manages a senseless thing to do. That she never does before. She puts aside her good manner previously without caring for her life. All of the decisions are only to achieve her motivation to reach her self-control.
In finding her self-control, she finds every way out to be able to control her bad time, especially after Edward has left. She acts like she has no time to think anything besides how to struggle to achieve her self-control. Then, she buys motorcycles. She knows that is not good for her life safety. She brings the motorcycles to Jacob, she brings them without her father and Jacob’s father’s awareness. She asks for Jacob’s help. Jacob is the only one friend that she believes in. She has no reason not to do it, especially she wants to fulfill her desire. She buys the motorcycles instead of making her time valuable. She denies doing the negative things but tries to do the challenging things. And for her riding motorcycle is challenging to ignore Edward and her desire to be a vampire.
She uses it to motivate herself to control the bad impulses. She may not think about him at first. Then, she finds herself to do very busy things, even she thinks that Sunday is the bane of her existence. There is never enough homework to keep her busy. She hopes she has it. It can be seen, when she forces herself to keep studying until the parking lot is full, and she ends up rushing to English. She does not mind to learn about communism, rather than she has to keep learning about love and romance for the whole semester. She controls herself, not to think about romance. Time moves easily while she was in school. She can spend the time without think deeper toward her bad memory. A teenager likes her must be very different from other kind in her youth time. She supposed to have fun with her friends in her age, gets many vacations with family, and even plays a lot with a boy, “human” of course.
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depressed or not. She keeps seeing the men who were watching her with amused, curious eyes. The situation feels like she is going to be in a danger position. But she finally sees no reason for fear. She can not imagine anything in the world that there is left to be afraid of, not physically at least. One of the few advantages of losing things to have, even when she hears the voice of Edward, she is exceptionally careful not to think his name and she is surprised that the sound of it, does not knock her to her knees, does not curl her onto the pavement in a torture of loss. But, there is no pain, none at all. She can control herself. She has no time to think too further toward the voice.
Besides, she has to manage herself in order not to put herself into danger, something bad for her family and friends who love her. She has to recognize her parents’ existence when she tries to struggle. She tries to keep the good thing in front of her parents. So when she acts negatively, she can remind her family to react the impulses. There are so many things to be thought about. She loves her parents, Charlie and Renee, and for the promise to be kept in good. She has a responsibility to live as well as she can for the sake of her parents. She has parents who love her. She considers that thought to be her motivation to live and struggles. To acknowledge her parents’ existence is one of her motivation to keep struggle in order not to hurt and forget her parents and friend.
