xiv ABSTRACT
Kristiani, Bekti. 2010. The Meanings of a Mother’s Love to Her Dying Daughter as seen in Jodi Picoult’s My Sister Keeper. Yogyakarta: English Language Education Study Program, Department of Language and Arts Education, Faculty of Teachers Training and Education, Sanata Dharma University.
This study analyzes a novel written by Jodi Picoult entitled My Sister’s Keeper. It is an interesting novel since it pictures about love within family as reflected through the love of a mother named Sara struggling to save her dying daughter named Kate and to do the best for her health and happiness. It also shows a conflicting relationship between a mother and all her children because of mother’s excessive attention to the helpless daughter.
This study analyzes the meanings of a mother’s love, Sara, to her dying daughter, Kate. For that purpose, one problem formulated is “What does love mean for Sara as a mother to her dying daughter?” It covers two parts. They are the description of main and minor characters and the description of mother-children relationship as portrayed in the novel.
A library study was applied to gather the data. The primary source was gained from the novel. The secondary sources were taken from the books of psychology and literature, and the internet sources that were related to the analysis. Theories of character were used to get the description of main and minor characters. Meanwhile, theories of motherhood, mother-daughter relationship, and conflicts were employed to know how their relationships are. Theories of love and the expression of love were applied to find out the meanings of Sara’s love to Kate. The psychological approach was employed in this study because mother’s love and mother-children relationship were parts of psychological aspect.
From the analysis, it can be seen that Sara, Kate, and Anna, Kate’s sister, are considered as the main characters. On the contrary, Jesse, Kate’s brother, is the minor character. The relationship between Sara and Kate is close and warm. In contrast, the relationship between Sara and other children are inharmonious. Further, the analysis shows that for Sara, love means sacrifice, care and responsibility, struggle, and support. To show her love, Sara gives much of her attention to the beloved daughter by sacrificing her precious time, her feeling and her own life for the sake of Kate’s health and happiness. She takes care and is responsible to protect Kate from relapses. She struggles to get a kidney although she has to fight against her other daughter, Anna. Sara always supports her dying daughter.
xv ABSTRAK
Kristiani, Bekti. 2010. The Meanings of a Mother’s Love to Her Dying Daughter as seen in Jodi Picoult’s My Sister’s Keeper. Yogyakarta: Program Studi Bahasa Inggris, Jurusan Pendidikan Bahasa dan Seni, Fakultas Keguruan dan Ilmu Pendidikan, Universitas Sanata Dharma.
Skripsi ini menganalisa sebuah novel karya Jodi Picoult yang berjudul My Sister’s Keeper. Novel ini menarik karena menggambarkan cinta dalam keluarga seperti tercermin melalui cinta seorang ibu bernama Sara yang berjuang untuk menyelamatkan anaknya bernama Kate yang sedang sekarat dan melakukan yang terbaik untuk kesehatan dan kebahagiannya. Novel ini juga menunjukan adanya suatu konflik dalam hubungan antara seorang ibu dan semua anaknya yang disebabkan oleh perhatian ibu yang berlebihan terhadap anaknya yang tak berdaya.
Skripsi ini menganalisa arti cinta seorang ibu, Sara, kepada anaknya yang sekarat, Kate. Untuk tujuan tersebut, sebuah permasalahan yang dibahas adalah “ Apa arti cinta Sara sebagai seorang ibu kepada anaknya yang sakit?” Permasalahan ini mencakup tiga bagian. Bagian-bagian itu adalah deskripsi tentang tokoh utama dan tokoh pembantu, deskripsi tentang hubungan ibu dan anak, dan apa arti cinta kepada anaknya yang sekarat bagi Sara seperti tergambar di dalam novel.
Penelitian perpustakaan diterapkan untuk mengumpulkan data. Sumber utama didapatkan dari novel itu sendiri. Sumber tambahan didapatkan dari buku-buku psikologi dan literature, dan sumber-sumber dari internet yang berhubungan dengan analisa ini. Teori karakter digunakan untuk memperoleh deskripsi tentang tokoh-tokoh utama dan pembantu. Sementara itu, teori keibuan, hubungan ibu dan anak, dan konflik-konflik digunakan untuk mengetahui bagaimana hubungan mereka. Teori cinta dan ekspressi cinta diterapkan untuk menemukan arti cinta Sara kepada Kate. Pendekatan psikologi digunakan dalam skripsi ini karena cinta ibu dan hubungan ibu-anak merupakan bagian dari aspek psikologi.
Dari analisis, dapat dilihat bahwa Sara, Kate, dan Anna dianggap sebagai tokoh utama. Sebaliknya, Jesse sebagai tokoh pembantu. Hubungan antara Sara dan Kate dekat dan hangat. Sebaliknya, hubungan antara Sara dan anak-anaknya yang lain tidak harmonis. Selanjutnya, analisis menunjukan bahwa bagi Sara, cinta berarti pengorbanan, kepedulian and tanggung jawab, perjuangan, dan dukungan. Untuk menunjukan cintanya, Sara memberikan banyak perhatian kepada anak tercintanya dengan mengorbankan waktunya yang berharga, perasaan dan hidupnya sendiri demi kesehatan dan kebahagiaan Kate.
THE MEANINGS OF A MOTHER’S LOVE TO HER DYING DAUGHTER
AS SEEN IN JODI PICOULT’S MY SISTER’S KEEPER
A THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements to Obtain Sarjana Pendidikan Degree
in English Language Education
By Bekti Kristiani Student Number: 041214125
ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA
i
THE MEANINGS OF A MOTHER’S LOVE TO HER DYING DAUGHTER
AS SEEN IN JODI PICOULT’S MY SISTER’S KEEPER
A THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements to Obtain Sarjana Pendidikan Degree
in English Language Education
By Bekti Kristiani Student Number: 041214125
ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA
vi
I dedicate this thesis to:
My Savior, Jesus Christ
and
vii
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
First of all, I would like to express my greatest gratitude to my Savior, Jesus Christ, who always grants me His blessing and guidance throughout my whole life. I thank Him for the unlimited love and strength whenever I fell down in a troublesome life. He has always given me the best and made all the things right on time, although it was hard at the beginning. I realize that without His endless mercy, assistance, and miracle, I cannot accomplish writing this thesis.
My deepest appreciation goes to my major sponsor, Drs. L. Bambang Hendarto Y., M. Hum. who has given his precious time to guide and to revise this thesis. I thank him for his guidance, patience, suggestion, and kindness during my thesis writing process. All his encouragements and contributions mean a lot to me in finishing this work. My sincere gratitude also goes to all PBI lecturers who have taught me valuable knowledge patiently. I am thankful to have their guidance and support my study in Sanata Dharma University. My special thanks also go to all secretariat staffs of PBI and all the librarians for their best service.
viii
I grant my sincere dedication to my beloved parents, Bapak Suharlan and Ibu Sriwidayati for their endless love and support that have strengthened me to fight against this hard life. I am thankful for their prayer, attention, and motivation so that I could finish my thesis. I am so grateful especially to my dear mother due to her patience in preserving me and her sacrifices without expecting anything in return except my success. It is a great blessing to have them in my life.
I would like to present my gratitude to my first brother, Hanang Nuswantoro, S.E. and his wife, Henny Ristiana, S.Kom, who encourage me to complete this thesis. I thank them for their willingness to be a place for me to share especially when I got miserable affliction in my life and for their help to cope with the problems. My great gratitude also goes to my second brother, Prasetiaji Krisnantoro, S.E. for his support, attention, and affection. I thank him for his wise words that lead me to see everything goes on this life from many sides and to teach me how a mature person is.
Further, my warmest gratitude goes to Bambz ndut, who always gives me his love and never ending support. I thank him for allowing me to fill in a space of his heart through the years. I am also thankful for his prayer, care, and patience as well as his willingness to be with me whenever I am in sorrow and need his help.
ix
are nice and loyal friends who have always given me place to release my burden. I thank them for the laughter and tears.
My sincere gratitude also goes to my beloved friend Rita who has faithfully reminded and encouraged me to accomplish my thesis. I thank her for the bright ideas and suggestions that are useful. I also thank for her spare time to accompany me to refresh my mind whenever I was under the pressure. I would also express my gratitude to Erlian, Etza, Yuni, Dudung, Dhee, and Anik for their support and thank my partners in conducting PPL II, KKN, and SPD project for teaching me about friendship and cooperation in team work.
I would like to present a bunch of thanks to my boarding house friends specifically Ita, mbak Thiur, Ida, Taju, Reta, Redy, Nata and Tanti. I thank them for supporting me to work on this thesis and for coloring my days.
Last but not least, I thank everyone who I cannot mention one by one. I am thankful for their support and assistance so that I can accomplish this thesis. God bless us all.
x
TABLE OF CONTENTS
TITLE PAGE ... i
APPROVAL PAGES ... ii
STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY ... iv
LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI ... v
DEDICATION PAGE ... vi
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ... vii
TABLE OF CONTENTS ... x
ABSTRACT ... xiv
ABSTRAK ... xv
CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION ... 1
A. Background of the Study ... 1
B. Problem Formulation ... 5
C. Objectives of the Study ... 6
D. Benefits of the Study ... 6
E. Definition of Terms ... 7
CHAPTER II: REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE ... 9
A. Review of Related Theories ... 9
1. Character ... 9
xi
b. Types of Character ... 10
2. The Critical Approach ... 11
3. Love ... 13
a. Meaning of Love ... 13
b. Kinds of Love ... 14
c. The Expression of Love ... 17
4. Motherhood ... 17
5. The Mother-Children Relationship ... 19
a. The Mother-Daughter Relationship ... 19
b. Types of Mother-Daughter Relationship ... 22
6. Conflict ... 24
a. The Meaning of Conflict ... 24
b. Model of Conflict Resolution ... 25
B. Theoretical Framework ... 26
CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY ... 28
A. Object of the Study ... 28
B. Approach of the Study ... 30
C. Method of the Study ... 31
CHAPTER IV: ANALYSIS ... 33
A. The Description of Main and Minor Characters ... 33
xii
1. The Relationship Between Sara and Her Dying Daughter ... 37
a. The Relationship ... 37
b. The Conflicts ... 40
2. The Relationship Between Sara and Anna ... 44
a. The Relationship ... 44
b. The Conflict ... 47
3. The Relationship Between Sara and Jesse ... 52
a. The Relationship ... 52
b. The Conflicts ... 53
C. The Meanings of Love to Her Dying Daughter for Sara ... 56
a. Sacrifice ... 56
b. Care and Responsibility ... 63
c. Struggle ... 68
d. Support ... 71
CHAPTER V: CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS ... 74
A. Conclusions ... 74
B. Suggestions ... 78
1. Suggestions for Future Researchers ... 78
2. Suggestions for The Implementation of Teaching English ... 78
xiii
APPENDICES ... 84
1. The Cover of My Sister’s Keeper ... 85
2. Summary of the Novel ... 86
3. Biography of the Author ... 88
4. Syllabus of Public Speaking 1 ... 91
5. Lesson Plan for Teaching Public Speaking 1 ... 93
xiv ABSTRACT
Kristiani, Bekti. 2010. The Meanings of a Mother’s Love to Her Dying Daughter as seen in Jodi Picoult’s My Sister Keeper. Yogyakarta: English Language Education Study Program, Department of Language and Arts Education, Faculty of Teachers Training and Education, Sanata Dharma University.
This study analyzes a novel written by Jodi Picoult entitled My Sister’s Keeper. It is an interesting novel since it pictures about love within family as reflected through the love of a mother named Sara struggling to save her dying daughter named Kate and to do the best for her health and happiness. It also shows a conflicting relationship between a mother and all her children because of mother’s excessive attention to the helpless daughter.
This study analyzes the meanings of a mother’s love, Sara, to her dying daughter, Kate. For that purpose, one problem formulated is “What does love mean for Sara as a mother to her dying daughter?” It covers two parts. They are the description of main and minor characters and the description of mother-children relationship as portrayed in the novel.
A library study was applied to gather the data. The primary source was gained from the novel. The secondary sources were taken from the books of psychology and literature, and the internet sources that were related to the analysis. Theories of character were used to get the description of main and minor characters. Meanwhile, theories of motherhood, mother-daughter relationship, and conflicts were employed to know how their relationships are. Theories of love and the expression of love were applied to find out the meanings of Sara’s love to Kate. The psychological approach was employed in this study because mother’s love and mother-children relationship were parts of psychological aspect.
From the analysis, it can be seen that Sara, Kate, and Anna, Kate’s sister, are considered as the main characters. On the contrary, Jesse, Kate’s brother, is the minor character. The relationship between Sara and Kate is close and warm. In contrast, the relationship between Sara and other children are inharmonious. Further, the analysis shows that for Sara, love means sacrifice, care and responsibility, struggle, and support. To show her love, Sara gives much of her attention to the beloved daughter by sacrificing her precious time, her feeling and her own life for the sake of Kate’s health and happiness. She takes care and is responsible to protect Kate from relapses. She struggles to get a kidney although she has to fight against her other daughter, Anna. Sara always supports her dying daughter.
xv ABSTRAK
Kristiani, Bekti. 2010. The Meanings of a Mother’s Love to Her Dying Daughter as seen in Jodi Picoult’s My Sister’s Keeper. Yogyakarta: Program Studi Bahasa Inggris, Jurusan Pendidikan Bahasa dan Seni, Fakultas Keguruan dan Ilmu Pendidikan, Universitas Sanata Dharma.
Skripsi ini menganalisa sebuah novel karya Jodi Picoult yang berjudul My Sister’s Keeper. Novel ini menarik karena menggambarkan cinta dalam keluarga seperti tercermin melalui cinta seorang ibu bernama Sara yang berjuang untuk menyelamatkan anaknya bernama Kate yang sedang sekarat dan melakukan yang terbaik untuk kesehatan dan kebahagiannya. Novel ini juga menunjukan adanya suatu konflik dalam hubungan antara seorang ibu dan semua anaknya yang disebabkan oleh perhatian ibu yang berlebihan terhadap anaknya yang tak berdaya.
Skripsi ini menganalisa arti cinta seorang ibu, Sara, kepada anaknya yang sekarat, Kate. Untuk tujuan tersebut, sebuah permasalahan yang dibahas adalah “ Apa arti cinta Sara sebagai seorang ibu kepada anaknya yang sakit?” Permasalahan ini mencakup tiga bagian. Bagian-bagian itu adalah deskripsi tentang tokoh utama dan tokoh pembantu, deskripsi tentang hubungan ibu dan anak, dan apa arti cinta kepada anaknya yang sekarat bagi Sara seperti tergambar di dalam novel.
Penelitian perpustakaan diterapkan untuk mengumpulkan data. Sumber utama didapatkan dari novel itu sendiri. Sumber tambahan didapatkan dari buku-buku psikologi dan literature, dan sumber-sumber dari internet yang berhubungan dengan analisa ini. Teori karakter digunakan untuk memperoleh deskripsi tentang tokoh-tokoh utama dan pembantu. Sementara itu, teori keibuan, hubungan ibu dan anak, dan konflik-konflik digunakan untuk mengetahui bagaimana hubungan mereka. Teori cinta dan ekspressi cinta diterapkan untuk menemukan arti cinta Sara kepada Kate. Pendekatan psikologi digunakan dalam skripsi ini karena cinta ibu dan hubungan ibu-anak merupakan bagian dari aspek psikologi.
Dari analisis, dapat dilihat bahwa Sara, Kate, dan Anna dianggap sebagai tokoh utama. Sebaliknya, Jesse sebagai tokoh pembantu. Hubungan antara Sara dan Kate dekat dan hangat. Sebaliknya, hubungan antara Sara dan anak-anaknya yang lain tidak harmonis. Selanjutnya, analisis menunjukan bahwa bagi Sara, cinta berarti pengorbanan, kepedulian and tanggung jawab, perjuangan, dan dukungan. Untuk menunjukan cintanya, Sara memberikan banyak perhatian kepada anak tercintanya dengan mengorbankan waktunya yang berharga, perasaan dan hidupnya sendiri demi kesehatan dan kebahagiaan Kate.
1 CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
This study intends to analyze the meanings of a mother’s love to her dying daughter. To illustrate what the study is about, this chapter consists of five parts. They are background of the study, problem formulation, objectives of the study, benefits of the study, and definition of terms.
A. Background of the Study
According to Hudson (10), literature is an expression of life through the medium of language. The source of literature lies on what men have seen in life, what they have experienced of it, what they have thought and felt about those aspects of it and their imagination. Literature is one of several means of communication where we can share our experiences with other people. It reflects and expresses life.
Marjourie Boulton (72) in The Anatomy of the Novel states that characters’ life experiences educate people to be wiser, humbler, more perspective or how it may break their problems. Through reading a literary work, we can learn many things and make it as our reflection to face the real world. Literature enriches human’s knowledge since human beings can communicate their experiences, ideas, hopes and point of view of their life through it.
separated from love because everyone experiences this feeling. We might sacrifice everything as well as our life to the one we love. Fromm in his book The Art of Loving (18) defines that “love is an activity, not a passive affect; it is a standing in and not a falling for.” Love is a primary activity of giving, not receiving. It does not mean giving in the sense of reflecting it back, but giving of oneself in order to show what are alive in him or her to others such as strength, wealth, power, and humor. One enhances the other’s sense of aliveness by enhancing his or her own sense of aliveness.
Love gives us strength to face unexpected things which happen in this life. Others’ love will support and give us courage to pass this life. It never lets us give up in everything we do. Love leads us to do and to give the best for people we love especially in getting happiness. It raises people’s awareness to help each other, to understand each other, to care each other and to do the best each other.
Fromm defines that mother’s love to her child is the highest kind of love and the most sacred of all emotional bonds (42). There is inequality between a mother and a child because one needs all the help, and the other gives it without getting anything in return from the child. True motherly love lies on caring for the child’s growth. Since love is the power to raise and to maintain relationship with others, love of mother will influence her relationships with the children.
Noller and Fitzpatrick (267) state that the strongest parent-child relationship seems to be between mother and her daughter. Every mother and daughter has a relationship that leads them so close to each other. Without this relationship, the mother cannot share anything to her daughter and the daughter cannot share hers to the mother. Mother is the one who has the most intimate contact with her child.
A work of literature such as novel can portray such life experiences as mentioned above. A novel is a beautiful art that has a power to arouse our feelings and emotions because it trains us to explore the senses of life, such as happiness, sadness, goodness, badness, victory and failure. We can obtain many lessons through reading a novel.
to save Kate from her illness. Knowing that Jesse, the oldest child, does not have genetics matched with Kate, Sara and her husband, Brian, decide to have another baby with a perfect combination of genetic elements matched with the genetics of Kate. This is the best way to keep her dying daughter alive.
Sara’s love to her dying daughter is proved by her care of Kate’s life and her struggle to provide a bodily organ even if it endangers her youngest daughter. All her decision lies on saving Kate. She uses Anna’s body to serve as spare parts to keep her dying daughter alive. She asks Anna to donate her blood, bone marrow, kidneys, and other bodily parts through medical procedure. As she devotes most of her attention to the suffering daughter, her other children feel envious and left out. This inequality leads their relationship to friction especially with Anna.
Sara’s excessive love to her dying daughter leads her to struggle against her youngest daughter who hires an attorney to get the rights to her own body. Sara decides to be an attorney again for herself when Anna sues her in the court. It is clearly described that motherly love means loving for the growth of child without expecting anything return to herself. Sara always takes a purposeful action which lies on Kate’s side. She loves all her children but she pays more attention to her dying daughter.
her brain die and she has no expectation to live again. Conducting with this situation, Alexander, Anna’s medical attorney, has the doctor take her kidney. Then Sara gives her husband a command to turn off the respiratory. Finally, Anna dies and Kate lives. However, Kate’s life cannot be separated from Sara’s sacrifice, care and responsibility, support and struggle to fulfill her health needs even if those things involve Anna’s bodily organ donor.
This novel is interesting for me to analyze because it gives so many lessons about life. It is related to love, one’s existence and also a struggle of a mother who wants to give the best to the beloved child. As a woman who will be a mother, I am interested in mother’s love. A mother will always love her child through many impediments in life. Thus, she will do anything to ensure her child’s safety and happiness. In this study, Sara never gives up in trying to save her dying daughter although she has to battle against her youngest daughter. Her love to the helpless daughter makes her do everything possible to her dying daughter. That is why I will focus on analyzing the meanings of a mother’s love to her dying daughter.
B. Problem Formulation
description of Sara and her children relationship. Based on their relationship, we can also know the meaning of Sara’s love.
C. Objectives of the study
The objectives of the study are to analyze and to find out the meanings of love to her dying daughter for Sara, as a mother. Related to this problem formulation, the description of main characters and mother-children relationship are important to be analyzed. By analyzing their relationship, we can know the meanings of Sara’s love to Kate, her dying daughter.
D. Benefits of the Study
This study deals with Sara’s love to her dying daughter as seen in Jodi Picoult’s My Sister’s Keeper. We can gain a lot of lessons from reading the novel because it presents a mother’s struggle and love and the values of morality.
Secondly, for future researchers, I hope that this study provides important information about the novel. Besides, it also presents beneficial information about the relationship between Sara and her children and the meanings of her love to Kate, her dying daughter.
Finally, for the writer, analyzing a novel can help me reinforce my skills in interpreting a literary work. It enlarges my literary knowledge and vocabularies. As a woman who wants to be a mother, I can take a lesson on how a good mother should be. I can grasp important values from Sara’s struggle to care her oldest daughter. It teaches me that life is a complicated matter and it is full of choices. It is not easy to take a decision because there are so many considerations that should be noticed.
E. Definition of Terms
In order to avoid misunderstanding and to give clear explanation to the readers, there are some terms that might need to be defined. Those terms are: 1. Character
2. Love
According to Hauck (16) in How to Love and be Loved, love is a powerful feeling one has for another person, animals, or things that has satisfied, is satisfying, or will satisfy our desires and needs. Thus love is a constellation of emotions and experiences related to a sense of strong affection or profound oneness. In this study, the term love refers to motherly love. That is love of a mother for caring and giving preservation of the child’s life and her growth. 3. Mother - Daughter Relationship
According to Webster’s New World Dictionary (630), the word relationship has two meanings: “the state or an instance of being related” or “the connection by blood or marriage; kinship”. This study focuses on a mother-daughter relationship. It means that the relationship is connected by blood.
4. Care and Responsibility
9 CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
This chapter consists of two sections, namely review of related theories and theoretical framework. The review of related theories consists of character, critical approach, love, motherhood, and mother-daughter relationships. Meanwhile, the theoretical framework explains the contribution of theories in the review of related theories in solving the problems of this study.
A. Review of Related Theories
This section deals with suitable theories used to analyze the work. The theories that will be presented in this study are theory of character, critical approach, love, motherhood, and mother-daughter relationships. These theories are very useful to find out the description of the main characters, their relationships and the meanings of Sara’s love toward her dying daughter.
1. Character
a. Definition of Character
moral, dispositional, and emotional qualities that are expressed in the dialogues and the action in the story.
Meanwhile, Rohberger and Woods Jr. (20-21) define character as a person who involves and acts out in a story in a particular time and place. It means that a character in a story is a person who thinks, feels, does, acts in a certain time and place and has some characteristics like real human being.
b. Types of Character
In a novel, there is more than one character created with the conflicts like real human beings facing their life. Not all the characters play important roles in the story, but at least one character holds the most important role. Some characters might be the center persons who have complicated problems in the story than others.
Henkle (88-97) differentiates characters into two categories. They are major characters and secondary characters. The major characters are the central and the most important characters in the story. The major characters can be identified from their complexity; their intensity appeared in the story and the amount attention given to them by the other characters and the readers. They become the fullest attention because of the dramatizations of the human issues of the book lay on them. While, secondary characters are characters who have limited functions in the novel. Their function is to populate the world in the novel as in the real life.
appear in a certain setting and become the background for the major characters. Their actions are less important because they are not fully developed characters and their roles in a story are just to support the development of the main character. 2. The Critical Approach
According to Rohrberger and Woods, Jr. (3) in their book, Reading and Writing about Literature, every literary work has an aesthetic value. After reading a literary work, the readers will be able to respond to its aesthetic values. The response to literature as an art form is called as esthetic response. To find out the aesthetic value, a critical approach has role to help the reader understand the nature, function, and positive values of the literary work. It facilitates the readers to give reasonable judgment of the literary work.
Rohrberger and Woods, Jr. (6-13) propose five critical approaches. They are formalist approach, biographical approach, sociocultural-historical approach, mythopoeic approach, and psychological approach. The first approach is the formalist approach. It focuses on the total integrity of the literary piece itself and its esthetic value. This approach also concerns with the harmonious involvement of all the parts to the whole and pointing out the derivation of the meaning from its structure and the determination techniques of the structure.
The third approach is the sociocultural-historical approach. In this approach, social, cultural, and historical aspect have contributions to the author in producing the work. By using this approach, we will know the social condition and historical background at that time.
The fourth approach is the mythopoeic approach. It emphasizes on discovering certain universally recurrent patterns of human thoughts in the work of art. They often concern about death and rebirth, guilt and sacrifices, primitive rites, and theological aspect of Christian doctrine, which are found in the ancient myth and folk rites. Through this approach, the mystical relationship in a story can be explained.
The fifth approach is the psychological approach. This approach focuses on the human psychology. It is used to identify any aspects of psychology underlying a certain element of a literary work. It involves efforts to locate and to demonstrate certain recurring patterns drawn from psychological knowledge. Therefore, this approach gives a deeper understanding in analyzing character’s thought and how it influences the behavior pattern.
3. Love
The term of love has important roles in this study because it is used as a means to discuss the formulated problem. This is used to find out the meanings and kind of love performed by Sara to her dying daughter.
a. Meaning of love
Love is very important in our life. We need to love and to be loved in order to make our life complete and to raise our spirit in bringing out the best in each of us. There are many possibilities in giving the meaning of love in this world. Every one has different interpretation and expression of love. According to Pieper (19-21) in his book About Love, the basis of love signifies approval. This approval refers to one’s existence that it is good that you exist in this world. It also deals with the expression of will in which loving means a mode of willing. In this theory then, a lover is willing to do action on the basis of motives and inspires. Marcel as quoted by Pieper (23) states that “To love a person means to say: You will not die. This is the partisanship for the existence of the beloved.” Thus, a lover concerns on one beloved’s life and happiness.
b. Kinds of Love
Fromm in The Art of Loving (6-69) categories love into three parts. They are:
1) Love as the answer to the problem of human existence
The existence of human life is based on love. Since their first existence, human beings want to overcome the term of separateness. One way they do to avoid this separateness is by gaining union. However love becomes the way to create the experience of union. Without love human are meaningless.
2) Love between parents and child
They are two kinds of love between parents and children. They are fatherly love and motherly love. Mother is the home a child comes from and therefore there is a special relationship between a mother and her child. This relationship starts at the child’s earliest age and it will continue along the child’s development. Motherly love is unconditional. It means that mother loves the newborn infant because it is her child. Thus, the experience of being loved by mother is a passive one. The child has nothing to do to get his or her mother’s love (Fromm 35).
The second type is fatherly love. It is the opposite of motherly love. It can be categorized as conditional love. To get father’s love, we have to do our duty and fulfill his expectation (Fromm 36). He has the function to teach, to guide the child in coping with the society, and to lead the child to be disciplined. 3) Love based on the object of love
There are various types of love based on the kind of object which is loved. They are brotherly love, motherly love, erotic love, self-love and love of God. Brotherly love is the most fundamental kind of love that underlies all types of love. It is love for all human beings which has the principal that we all are one with responsibility, caring, and respecting each other. In brotherly love, human beings are in need of help. Thus we must have the experience of union with all people to help each other (Fromm 39-41).
one’s health, growth, stability, and welfare. It is like sharing the beloved one’s feeling. We feel joy in the loved one’s joy and pain when the loved one feels hurt. Meanwhile, responsibility means responding to the beloved one’s need (qtd. in Warga 314).
Erotic love deals with physical desires which inspire the wish for sexual attraction or union. Meanwhile, self-love has several considerations based on one’s conception. It will be considered as selfishness when a person is interested only in himself. Freud as quoted by Fromm (48) says that self love is the same as narcissism which wants everything for oneself, feels no pleasure in giving, but only in taking. On the contrary, self love is love for and understanding of one’s own life and others. It means that when we love our self, we also love other persons as well as we love our self. Last is love of God. It is the religious form of love.
c. The Expression of Love
True love does not merely lay on nice words of the lover but it needs one’s approval. To prove his or her love, the lover needs some expressions. Thus, the expression of love plays important role as a means to show how the lover loves the beloved one.
Davieslove in his article Time: The Best Expression of Love defines that the essence of love lays on how much one gives herself to the beloved one. Love is focused on attention that the lover forgets his or her own life because the lover concentrates so intently on the loved one. To prove lover’s attention, the lover gives most of his or her precious time. Whenever the lover gives it, she or he makes a sacrifice and sacrifice is the essence of love. Thus, love means giving up, yielding the lover’s preference, comfort, goal, security, money, energy or time for the benefit of one loved (http://gleez.com/articles/relationship/love-harmony/time-the-best-expression-of-love).
4.Motherhood
According to Deutsch (18-19), motherhood refers to the relationship of the mother to her child as a sociologic, physiologic, and emotional whole which extends throughout the physiologic processes of pregnancy, birth, feeding and care. While the motherliness is the quality of character that stamps the women’s whole personality. It is the emotional phenomena which is conducted with the child’s helplessness and need for care. The motherliness of women divides into two elements. They are narcissistic tendencies and masochistic. A narcissistic motherly woman wishes to be loved and considers herself absolutely and exclusively indispensable to her child. A narcissistic mother demands her child’s kind fate and refuses normal human frustration in child’s case. The masochistic of motherliness reveals the mother’s readiness for self-sacrifice without asking for return from the child. Deutsch states that the masochistic mother is willing to undergo pain for the sake of her child as well as to renounce the child’s dependence upon her when the child’s liberation comes (19).
5. The Mother-Children Relationship
According to Allers (245), the most intimate all of forms association between two people is found in the relationship between mother and children. A mother is the one who has the most intimate contact with the children. The closeness of their relationship can not be compared even with the greatest love between a man and a woman. The unique nature of mother-child relationship is reflected in the fact that the term “mother-love” is commonly known better than “fatherly love” which sounds uncommon.
a. The Mother – Daughter Relationship
Noller and Fitzpatrick in their book, Communication in Family Relationship propose that the strongest parent-child relationship seems to be between mothers and their daughters. Their bond tends to be more involved in maintaining family relationship because much of the intergenerational contact is initiated by woman to woman. Daughters communicate more with their mother than sons. It can be the discussion about sexual attitudes, interest, and relationship with others.
“In one study, daughters reported more frequent discussions between themselves and their mother about sexual attitudes and relationship than did sons, and more disclosure to her about interest, family sex roles, relationship with others, sexual information, sexual problems, and general problems” (Noller and Fitzpatrick, 209)
appreciation, and high stresses and strains. However, a daughter still seems to be involved with her mother and concerned about them even when their relationship is not close and warm (Troll and Bengsten in Noller and Fitzpatrick 267).
The relationship between a mother and a daughter can be positive and negative depends on the mother’s nurturing role. The positive relationship refers to close, warm, happy and comfortable relationship. Mother does not interfere her daughter’s life too much but supports and gives rights to be an independent person who can leads her own life when she is adult. The negative relationship directs them to inharmonious and rival relation. In this case, the mother treats her daughter as a dependent child who needs mother’s help and protection in her whole life time.
in control. Parents accept and allow children to regulate own activities and to take their own decision.
Besides parenting styles, communication also influences parent – children relationship. According to Gouran in his book’s Mastering Comunication (259), he states that in communication, parents give messages in the sense of support and control. Supportive messages include praising, approving, encouraging, displaying affection, and giving help. These messages lead to positive relationship and lessen the existence of conflict between them. It is so because the child feels more comfortable with their parents. In this positive interaction, the child will feel secure with the caregiver. On the other hand, control messages include the threats of punishment, revoking privileges, lecturing on consequences action, love withdrawal, and generally showing love disapproval of the child’s behavior. Thus, control behavior leads to the negative relationship and increases conflicts between them. In this negative interaction creates insecure individuals. Noller and Fitapatrick(199) state that secure individuals are able to trust others, in this case is their mother. Meanwhile, insecure individuals lead them to mistrust and to avoid their caregiver. They also tend to have negative view of themselves, others or both.
academic achievement. The more parents control their children, the more they get rebellion from them.
However, poor communication between parents and children brings negative effect on their relationship. This makes the child feel uncomfortable and rejected in the family. Norem Heisen, Johnson, and Anderson say “Increasing use of drugs by adolescents in grade 9 and 11 seems to be related to perception of disapproval and rejection from parents” (qtd. In Noller and Fitzpatrik 208). It means that for adolescents who have poor communication with their parents and feel rejected and uncertain about their love and support, tend to involve themselves in the behaviors prohibited by their parents (Noller and Fitzpatrick 208).
b. Types of Mother-Daughter Relationship
mother should be balance in being a friend and a parent.
Secondly is sisterhood. The bond between a mother and a daughter in this relationship is not as strong as in the friendship. The sisterhood involves the warmth of love to each other and competitiveness. This relationship is also characterized by rivalry and competitiveness. The competition can be positive since the mother and daughter are idolizing each other and dealt with delicately. On the other side, it can create frictions between them but it can be solved by trying to be helpful and respecting each other than fanning the competition further.
Thirdly is diverging personalities and characters. The personality of the mother and daughter is not complementary. What the daughter sees on her mother’s control and protection are different from mother’s perspective. As the mother employs to fulfill her responsibility of helping her siblings survive, the daughter sees it from different angle. She thinks her mother is all too harsh and always contrary to her while the mother believes her daughter is disrespectful and totally out of control. It leads their relationship to the conflicts.
Fourthly is the mother’s role changing interactions. In this relationship, the daughter takes up the role of the mother. Such a relationship creates the perfect environment for them by making the daughter feel needed while mothers will have the sense of being loved and cared by her daughter.
Without her daughter’s consent, she will do nothing. The daughter also does the same.
6.Conflict
a. The Meaning of Conflict
According to Noller and Fitzpatrick in their book Communication in Family Relationship, conflict occurs in a family because family members hold a difference between them. They do not agree with the events and situations in their lives, such as one’s behavior, one’s opinion, and one’s decision. They differ about what is appropriate behavior in a given situation, who take family tasks, how resources should be managed, and how decision should be made (Noller and Fitzpatrick 99). Thus, a conflict is a situation when one has his or her own behavior, opinion, and decision. Based on Baron and Byrne (276), when the child turns into adult, the parent-child relationship will be less pleasant and more conflicts in their interaction. The parents can fully control their child. But, when the child is growing to be adult, parents can not exercise dominance because they will get rebellion from their child. Thus, the quarrel happens because parents control their child too much.
daughter. Thus, the mother uses authoritarian power over her daughter’s life and becomes over protective. Thirdly is the influence of mother’s bad memory in her own youth. The mother tries to protect her daughter from repeating the same fate. Her over protection usually leads to the rebellion and conflict in their relationship.
b. Model of Conflict Resolution
Noller and Fitzpatrick present three models of conflict resolutions which are proposed by Blake and Mouton, Pruitt and Rubbin, and Rusbult. This study only concerns on the model of conflict resolution proposed by Blake and Mouton.
B. Theoretical Framework
There are some theories applied in order to answer the problem formulated in this study. In this part, I would like to explain which theories used and how they are applied in the analysis.
The main aim of this study is to find out the meanings of love to Kate for Sara. However, analyzing the main and minor characters and analyzing the relationship between Sara and her children are necessary as means to look into the deep meaning of Sara’s love to her dying daughter. To find out the main (major) and minor (secondary) characters, I use the theory of character proposed by Abram and Henkle. The two proponents have same idea of the character types. As their theories are correlated, those are useful to analyze the character.
In analyzing the relationship between Sara and her children, it is better to know whether Sara is a masochistic or a narcissistic mother. Since the types of motherliness have influences on a mother – children relationship, I use theory of motherhood proposed by Helena Deutsch. To analyze the relationship between Sara and her children, I also use some theories from Noller and Fitzpatrick, Gouran, and Mark. I include Gouran’s Mastering Communication because relationship is closed to the interaction within the family. Thus, it facilitates to describe their relationship. Mark’s Mother Daughter Relationship – Reaping Its Positive Benefits is used to find out the types of Sara and her daughters’ relationship.
theories of conflict in relationship from Noller and Fitzpatrick. Since this study includes the cause and model resolution of the conflict, I apply Blake and Mouton’s conflict resolutions as quoted by Noller and Fitzpatrick. The theories proposed by Baron and Byrne, and Helena Deutsch also help me to dig out the causes of the conflict in Sara and her children relationship.
28 CHAPTER III
METHODOLOGY
This chapter consists of three parts. The first part is object of the study. It describes the novel, My Sister’s Keeper, as the focus of the study. The second part is approach of the study. It explains the approach applied in this study. The third part discusses the method of the study which tells the steps in doing this study.
A. Object of the Study
The object of this study is My Sister’s Keeper, a novel by Jodi Picoult, an American writer. She has written sixteen novels dealing with family tragedy and the tangle of relationships. My Sister’s Keeper is her eleventh novel. The political and scientific discussions over cloning and DNA became the inspiration for My Sister’s Keeper. The setting of time portrays the time when stem cell research and designer babies were the current issues in the medical and political community in United States. This novel was published twice, firstly in 2004 by Atria Books. Secondly, it was published in 2005 by Washington Square Press. This study uses the first novel published by Atria Books. My Sister’s Keeper contains 500 pages and was awarded as “The New York Times” best seller. In each chapter, the characters narrate and share their own story. There is only Kate who narrates one chapter in the epilogue.
trying to save her dying daughter, Kate. She is diagnosed with acute promyelocytic leukemia at age two. In order to save her dying daughter, Sara is willing to do everything even if it means risking the happiness of her self and the rest of the family. As she knows that Jesse, her son, cannot be a donor because he is not a perfect match with Kate, Sara decides to have a baby who is designed to be a perfect match donor. Thus, Sara and Brian, her husband, go to a geneticist to conceive a baby, Anna, who can be a bodily organ donor for Kate.
To prove how much Sara loves her dying daughter, Sara always takes care of Kate’s health and concerns on her life. She tries to fulfill what her daughter’s need and be optimistic that there is a way for each problem. Sara does everything to see Kate growing healthily and getting happiness like other children even though it endangers Anna’s life and causes inequality among her children. When Kate needs blood, bone marrow, stem cells and other bodily organ, she has Anna donate them for Kate.
against Anna’s party. She tries to instills an understanding of the consequences will be if Anna does not give her kidney.
This novel has a surprised ending. The Judge declares that Anna has her own decision for her medical emancipation. Meanwhile, Alexander becomes the one who helps her take a decision for bodily organ donation. In a trip to the hospital, Anna gets an accident that makes her brain die. Anna’s lawyer takes a decision to have the doctor take her kidney. Finally, Anna dies and Kate sirvives.
B. Approach of the Study
In order to have a better understanding of a literary work, applying critical approach is required. Rohrberger and Woods, Jr. (6-15) propose five kinds of critical approaches namely the formalist approach, the biographical approach, the socio cultural-historical approach, the mythopeic approach, and the psychological approach. Since psychological approach focuses on identifying any aspect of human psychology which involves pattern of behavior, thought, and feeling underlying a work of literature, I use it as the basis of the analysis.
Sara’s love to Kate, her dying daughter and how love influences her behavior to her other children.
C. Method of the Study
This section presents the procedures that were used in analyzing the novel. In conducting this study, I used library research method. The main procedures that I used to gather the data were reading and taking important notes from many written resources which were related to the object and the topic of the study. The primary data was My Sister’s Keeper, a novel written by Jodi Picoult. The secondary data were taken from some books and other resources from the Internet which were beneficial to analyze topic of the study.
The second step was formulating what I found after reading the novel into a formulated problem that covers the description of main and minor characters, the description of mother – children relationship and the meanings of Sara’s love to Kate. In the next step, I collected and read the secondary data that were related to this analysis. I took literary and psychology books that were useful to analyze the novel. They were theory of character, theory of love, theory of motherhood, and theory of mother-children relationship.
In order to gain better understanding about the novel and more information of the theories used to investigate and answer the problems, I also looked for and took the data from the internet. I also would like to take notes of quotations and useful information from many sources. After collecting and reading the data, I started to analyze the formulated problem by applying those theories. At first, I tried to find out the description of main and minor characters. Then, I analyzed the relationship between Sara and her children. After finding those things, I analyzed the meanings of Sara’s love to her dying daughter.
33 CHAPTER IV
ANALYSIS
This chapter analyzes the problem formulated in the first chapter. In order to know the mother’s love toward her dying daughter, the description of main and minor characters and the relationship between Sara and her children are important. Thus this chapter is divided into three parts. The first part concerns with the general description of characters: Sara as the mother and her children, Kate, Anna and Jesse. The second part describes the relationship between them. The last part describes the meaning of love toward Kate, her dying daughter for Sara.
A. The Description of Main and Minor Characters
Based on the theory proposed by Abrams and Henkle, there are two types of characters. The first type is main character that becomes the focus of the story. The second type is minor character that plays less important role. Sara and Anna are categorized as the main (major) characters. They appear from the beginning until the end of the story. Kate is also described as the main character. Even though Kate does not present as many as Sara and Anna, she stays holding important role in the story. She is the focus of the story events. Without her presence, the story will not be created and developed. She becomes the primary reason for the raising problems in the story and gets the amount attention from others.
in the story. He just appears in a certain time and place. However, Jesse has a role for the story development.
In the novel, Sara is considered as a loving and caring mother. She gives her attention and cares about her family especially for her dying daughter, Kate. Her love and care can be seen through her reaction when something happens to Kate. She immediately brings Kate to the hospital whenever her daughter shows the symptoms of her illness. When Kate gets fever, she announces to carry her to the hospital. She spends the night in the hospital sitting beside Kate’s bed. She smoothes the cover over Kate’s leg and compares her own temperature with Kate’s (Picoult 80-82).
only focuses on Kate’s health and decides everything from Kate’s side without thinking about other children’s need and feeling (Picoult 24).
Kate is portrayed as a weak, sensitive, and inferior person. Getting leukemia causes her to be a weak person who needs others’ help. Kate does not have strength to get rid of her sick even it is just an infection. Because of her weaknesses, Sara has Anna give her sister white blood cell (Picoult 231). When Kate gets kidney failure, she feels tired of her pity life that is like waiting her death. Thus, she convinces her sister to kill her (Picoult 461). She becomes a sensitive person whenever others talk about her illness and people look at her appearance. Kate is angry because a saleswoman looks at her scarf that covers her bald (Picoult 379). Further, she feels inferior to show herself in public. She is ashamed with her appearance that it is not as beautiful as other girls at her age. Thus, she does not want to go to mall and other public places (Picoult 288-289). Because of her weaknesses and inferiority, she gets support, excessive protection and attention from Sara. However, Sara’s excessive protection and attention creates friction in her relationship with all her children.
body” (Picoult 21). Besides, Anna fights against her mother whenever Sara asks her to call off the lawsuit. Anna’s envious feeling and her bravery to sue her mother create conflicts between them. Anna is also a smart person. She masters medical vocabularies that make her succeed convincing Alexander to be her lawyer (Picoult 24). Anna also has a good talent in playing hockey so she gets a scholarship to join a hockey camp and to practice with the goalie on USA team (Picoult 322). Her smartness has influenced the inharmonious relationship with her mother.
B. The Relationship between Sara and Her Children
There are three relationships that will be analyzed in this part, namely the relationship between Sara and Kate, the relationship between Sara and Anna, and the relationship between Sara and Jesse.
1. The Relationship between Sara and Her Dying Daughter, Kate
a. The Relationship
According to Noller and Fitzpatrick (267), a mother-daughter relationship is the strongest mother-children relationship. She is a very important figure and has a strong bond with her daughter. Based on the theory of motherhood proposed by Deutsch, in the novel Sara is described as a masochistic mother. A masochistic component of motherliness involves the mother’s readiness for self-sacrifice in order to undergo her child’s pain without expecting anything from the child (Deutsch 19). She does whatever Kate asks without asking for return. Because of her love toward her daughter is the greatest thing in her life, she wants to make her child secure in life and to give her happiness. Thus, her relationship with Kate is described as close, warm and comfortable relationship.
and long needle. In her fairness, Kate lays great expectation on her mother’s help. Thus, Sara convinces her that the needle is small and the injection will not hurt.
My daughter, who trusts me to tell her when it’s safe to cross the street, to cut her meat into tiny pieces, and to protect her from all sorts of horrible things like large dogs and darkness and loud firecrackers, stares at me with great expectation. “Only a small one,” I promise . . . “It’s just going to be a tiny pinch” (Picoult 34).
Their relationship becomes warm and makes Kate secure because of her greatest love. She will not let her dying daughter endure her pain alone. She always accompanies and gives encouragement whenever Kate relapses. When Kate gets fever, she spends the night in the hospital sitting beside Kate’s bed. Sara smoothes the cover over Kate’s leg and compares her own temperature with Kate’s (Picoult 80-82). In her effort to calm Kate, Sara tends to make her dying daughter feel secure. She always encourages her daughter’s spirit.
Her eyes slit open. For a moment she struggles, unsure of where she is. “Kate,” I whisper. “I’m right here.” As she turns her head and focuses on me, I lift her palm to my mouth, press a kiss in its center. “You are so brave,” I tell her, and then I smile.” When I grow up, I want to be just like you.” (Picoult 82-83).
After Kate’s health is getting better and allowed to go home, Kate is not strong enough to face the situation outside the hospital. She is aware that everything will change when she steps her foot outside. Sara holds Kate’s hand and promises to walk together with her. It is obvious that Sara always tries to protect and to give the secure feeling with her presence.
Based on the types of mother-daughter relationship proposed by Mark, their relationship tends to be considered as the friendship type of mother-daughter relationship. It is characterized by the open communication between them. As a friend, they share and ask for opinion. Kate shares her feeling when she is falling in love with Taylor. She asks her mother whether Taylor will call her or not after getting her number. She also has her mother give an idea where they will go for a date (Picoult 371).
After getting a call from Taylor, Kate looks excited. She looks at herself in the mirror, pursuing her lips and raising her brows. Then, she openly asks her mother to give comments on Taylor’s impression on her. She tells about her feeling and Taylor’s cure rate of his Acute Myeloid Leukemia. She expects her mother to convince that her feeling is a part of love.
“What do you think he sees when he looks at me?” Kate asks.
“I think he sees a girl who knows what he’s been through,” I tell her honestly.
“I got on the internet and read up on AML,” She says. “His leukemia’s got a pretty high cure rate.” She turns to me. “When you care more if someone else lives than you do about yourself . . . is that what love’s like?”
It is hard, all of a sudden, to pull an answer through the tunnel of my throat. “Exactly” (Picoult 372).
It can be concluded that the relationship between Sara and her dying daughter is a positive one. They are close to each other. Sara never lets her dying daughter undergo her illness by herself. She loves and takes care of her. Thus, Kate feels secure and comfortable with her mother’s presence in coping with her terrible life. They also have an open and good communication.
b. The Conflicts
According to Helena Deutsch (322), one of three factors that creates conflict between a mother and a daughter deals with an authoritarian mother. Although Sara and Kate have a close relationship, they are not always in harmony. There are some conflicts happening between them. Their conflicts are more often caused by Sara’s over protection and different thoughts between them. While Kate is sick, her mother is afraid of losing her and becomes over protective. She controls Kate’s life too much and asks her to follow all treatments the doctor suggests. For Kate, Sara’s action looks like an authoritarian mother.
than problem-solving (qtd. Noller and Fitzpatrick, 105-106). In this relationship, Sara and Kate use compromise and solving resolution.
First of all, the conflict happens in this relationship because of Sara’s demand for her daughter, Kate, to undergo all medical treatments. Deutsch (322) says that an excessive nursing that outlasts the period of the child’s helplessness and need for the mother’s care will lead to the child’s rivalry. In line with this case, Sara wants to completely take care of her dying daughter. Thus, she controls her daughter’s life and makes a decision for her medical treatments. However, Sara’s excessive care directs her relationship with Kate to the conflict.
On one occasion, Kate is going to undergo the stem cell transplant and needs to be hospitalized for the chemo. Sara has Kate follow that but she refuses to be hospitalized. She does not want to lose her time with Taylor if she spends her day in the hospital.
At first, I can’t get Kate to agree to undergo the peripheral blood stem cell transplant. She refuses because she doesn’t want to be hospitalized for chemo, doesn’t want to have sit in reverse isolation for the next six weeks when she could be going out with Taylor Ambrose. “It’s your life,” I point out to her, and she looks at me as if I’m crazy.
“Exactly,” she says (Picoult 374).
Another conflict occurs when Kate refuses to undergo kidney transplant. Her mother wants Kate to get kidney transplant from her sister, but Kate tells that she does not want any medical treatment again.
Before I could ask any of this, Kate spoke. “I’m not doing it again, all right? I’m sick of it. The hospitals and the chemo and the radiation and the whole freaking thing. Just leave me alone, will you?”
My mother’s face went white. “Fine, Kate. Go ahead and commit suicide!” . . .”It’s not sucide,”she said, ‘if you’re already dying” (Picoult 448). Feeling sick of all the medical treatments and of waiting for her relapse at anytime cause Kate trying to commit suicide. She also asks her sister, Anna, to refuse giving her kidney (Picoult 460-461). After knowing that Kate has tried to kill herself, Sara talks and says sorry for the entire situation. Kate tells that asking Anna to stop to be a donor is a good decision. Moreover, Sara agrees with Kate that it is the best decision and supports her daughter (Picoult 468). In this case, Sara solves their conflicts again by discussing the problem with Kate and saying sorry for what she has done.
Referring to the problem that Kate cannot find a proper dress for performing her beauty, Sara decides to sew it by herself. She asks her daughter to design the dress she wanted. It shows that Sara has applied the problem-solving.
“We’ll sew something,” I suggest. “You can design.” You don’t know how to sew,” Kate sighs.
I”ll learn.”
“In a day?” She shakes her head. “You can fix very time, Mom. How come I know that, and you won’t?” (Picoult 380).
The different perspective also happens when Sara decides to keep Taylor’s death in secret. She thinks that it is better for Kate not to know about the news since her daughter is admitted for stem cell transplant. Sara is afraid that her daughter’s health gets worse when she knows that her beloved boyfriend dies. Thus, Sara conceals the news until the day Kate is well enough and feels better to live without him. Precisely, Kate becomes angry and accuses her mother as a liar when she finally knows the truth (Picoult 384-386).
Dealing with this conflict, Sara tries to talk and clarify Kate’s misunderstanding by explaining her reason. She says sorry for being dishonest and explains that she does not want the news breaks her spirit to fight against her illness. Again, Sara applies the solving resolution.
“Kate,” I say, “I’m so sorry.”
Kate’s face crumples. “But I loved him,” she replies, as if this should be enough.
“I know.’
“And you didn’t tell me.”
“I couldn’t. Not when I thought it might make you stop fighting back, yourself” (Picoult 385).
Kate communicates openly when she is falling in love. Since Sara loves her very much, she takes care of Kate’s health and does everything to make her feel secure and happy living in the world. However, the frictions between them cannot be avoided. The conflicts happen because Sara controls too much over Kate’s life and there are different points of view between them. Dealing with the cases, Sara uses compromise and solving resolution.
2. The relationship between Sara and Anna
a. The Relationship
The relationship between Sara and Anna is not as close and warm as her relationship with Kate. They tend to have a negative relationship in which conflicts between them cannot be avoided. According to Deutsch (322), a daughter’s rebellion toward a mother can be caused by the mother’s authoritarian power. Moreover, Baumrind as quoted by Noller and Fitzpatrick (135) points out that in an authoritarian parenting style, parent tends to shape, control, evaluate the child’s life. Thus, obedience is regarded as a prime virtue. In this relationship, there are two primary causes of their inharmonious relationship. First is the authoritarian of parenting style. Second is about the inequality of mother’s love.
8). Beside that, the way Sara takes care too much about Kate and takes a decision for the sake of her health indirectly has inhibited Anna to enhance her achievement in playing hockey (Picoult 322-323). This clearly describes that their relationship is not too warm. Her mother’s control and purpose of using Anna’s bodily organs make Anna feel inferior and decrease her achievement.
Although their relationship is not in harmony, it does not mean that Sara lacks of love and hates Anna. In fact, both of them love each other. This shows that they can also build positive relationship.
Sara does not hate her daughter even though she has been sued. One night, Sara goes to Anna’s bedroom and convinces her how much she loves her. She holds Anna tightly and makes sure to fix the problem.
“I think…I think you must hate me.”
Even in the dark, I can see the shine of her eyes.”Oh, Anna,” my mother sights, “how can you not know how much I love you?”
She holds out her arms and I crawl into them, as if I’m small again and I fit there. I press my face hard into her shoulder. What I want . . .
My mother holds me tighter. “We’ll talk to the judge and explain it. “We can fix this,”she says. “We can fix everything.” And because those words are really all I’ve ever wanted to hear, I nod. (Picoult 68).
herself and her sister. Thus, she lies to her mother that she has called off the lawsuit (Picoult 105).
Based on Troll and Bengsten’s theory, though Anna often finds more conflicts in her relationship with the mother, Anna still loves and needs Sara. It can be proven when she is going to endure bone marrow withdrawal. Anna slips her hand into Sara’s hand and asks her mother not to leave her. In response to her daughter’s demand, Sara stays to accompany her till her grip slackens. Then, she gives her a kiss before leaving the room (280-281). This shows that whatever their relationship is, Sara becomes the first person for Anna to release Anna’s fear.
Anna’s need for her mother’s preservation can also be seen when she is conscious after undergoing the operation. She shows her mother how painful it is and wants Sara to be with her. Sara, then, gets a nurse to give Roxicet, Tylenol with codein or Naproxen in order to reduce her daughter’s illness. Even Sara has to argue with the nurse, she still wants her to ask the doctor whether one of those medicines can be used (Picoult 282). It is obvious that Sara’s effort to get medicine shows her care that she does not want Anna to get more illness.
b. The Conflicts
According to Baron and Byrne (276), when a child becomes an adult, the parent-child relationship will be less pleasant. There will be more conflicts in their interactions. The parents who dominate and control their children’s life and action will get rebellion. According to the styles of parenting proposed by Baumrind, authoritarian parents attempt to shape, control, and evaluate the behavior and attitudes of the child in accordance with behavior and words of parents (qtd in Noller and Fitzpatrick 135). Roolin and Thomas add that the more parents control their children, the more they get rebellion from them (qtd. in Noller and Fitzpatrick 202). In this relationship, there are two main cases that lead them to the conflict. First is the authoritarian power from Sara. Second is the different perspective between them which forms a thought in Anna’s mind that her mother does not love her very much except wanting her bodily organ.
