4.2 Emma Bloom
4.2.2 The Man of Meaning
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sure that Jacob is not a wight (hollow in human form). Here, the writer noticed that the animus personality that is shown by Emma Bloom is also the characteristic of
“the man of power” since she is indicating her strong will.
As it is mentioned by Jung in the characteristic of animus in “the man of power”, it says that woman shows not only her strong physical strength, but also her strong will which means that a woman is not able to be interrupted mentally when she is decided to do something regarding to her will. Thus, regarding to the explanation, the writer found that the character of Emma is indicating as the person who has strong will in survive and she is also a person that can be rely on by others since she is very aware in order to look each other for every peculiar.
In addition, when Emma says “Oh, all right,” Emma sighed, “but don’t say I didn’t warn you.”, to Miss Peregrine, it is indicated that Emma just want to make sure Miss Peregrine to stay aware since wights are able to transform themselves into other human forms so that Emma warns not to always believe what she sees even though Emma realized that Miss Peregrine is highly aware to her surrounding, especially when there is hollow or wight approaching.
animus is known as “the man of meaning”. Jung stated that “the man of meaning”
means that a woman will have learned to criticize and evaluate her own opinions, to stand firm in her decisions after they have been made. In other word, in this characteristic, a woman is able to criticize her own act and evaluates her judgement.
Further, the quotation can be noticed as follow:
“I just came to tell you I’m going, whether she wants me to or not. I won’t be held prisoner, and I won’t bury my head in the sand while my own father might be in real danger.”
“Then I’m coming with you,” Emma said.
“You ain’t serious,” replied Bronwyn.
“I am.”
“What you are is three-quarters stupid,” said Enoch. “You’ll turn into a wrinkled old prune, and for what? Him?”
“I won’t,” said Emma. “You’ve got to be out of the loop for hours and hours before time starts to catch up with you, and it won’t take nearly that long, will it, Jacob?”
…
“Headmistress won’t like it,” said Bronwyn, stating the obvious. “She’ll kill us, Em.”
Emma stood up and shut the door. “She won’t kill us,” she said, “those things will. And if they don’t, living like this might just be worse than dying. The Bird’s got us cooped up so tight we can hardly breathe, and all because she doesn’t have the spleen to face whatever’s out there!”
“Or not out there,” said Millard, who I hadn’t realized was in the room with us.
“But she won’t like it,” Bronwyn repeated.
Emma took a combative step toward her friend. “How long can you hide under the hem of that woman’s skirt?”
(Riggs, 2016: 278)
On the quotation above, it shows a scene where Jacob is trying to investigate hollow that seems already arrived at the village outside the time loop of the peculiars time
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zone. Unfortunately for him, Miss Peregrine actually forbids Jacob to leave her mansion so that he and other peculiars still can be supervised by Miss Peregrine in there. Jacob however, feels so worried about his father because he is afraid that hollow is already entering the village where he and his father, Franklin Portman stay. Yet, all of sudden, without hoping any supporting commentary from other peculiars, Emma is the first person who are responding Jacob’s statement by saying,
“Then I’m coming with you,” which of course make some other peculiars are asking Emma’s decision.
As it seen, both Bronwyn and Enoch are trying to warn Emma about the consequences that she will deal after leaving the time loop which in this case the peculiars will grow old in an instant. However, instead of fear or terrified about the consequences, Emma calmly explains to Enoch by saying, “You’ve got to be out of the loop for hours and hours before time starts to catch up with you, and it won’t take nearly that long, will it, Jacob?” which in this case, somehow, Emma starts to believe and support Jacob. In that case, the writer considered that the characteristic of animus personality shown by Emma Bloom at this situation is categorized as “the man of meaning”.
Jung stated that “the man of meaning” means that a woman will have learned to criticize and evaluate her own opinions, to stand firm in her decisions after they have been made. In other word, in this characteristic, a woman is able to criticize her own act and evaluates her judgement. Here, the writer found that the decision that is made by Emma Bloom is considered as “the man of meaning” itself since after Enoch mentioned the consequences of leaving the loop, Emma knew and
realized that it will happened but only if they are staying for quite long time (as in for hours). Thus, Emma is showing her own critical thinking by saying that they will not instantly become old if they only spend time outside the loop for a while just to check whether there is a monster in Jacob’s time loop or not.
Further, one of the peculiars, Bronwyn also mentioned another obstacle that they will face if they are leaving the mansion which is the rage of their headmistress, Miss Peregrine. However, once again, Emma shows another critical judgement of her mind by saying, “She won’t kill us, those things will. And if they don’t, living like this might just be worse than dying. The Bird’s got us cooped up so tight we can hardly breathe, and all because she doesn’t have the spleen to face whatever’s out there!” which in this case, it is indicated that Emma knows for sure that even though they are staying or leaving, both options did not gives them any benefit.
Thus, Emma in that situation shares her thought that the worst thing that they will get when Miss Peregrine knows they are leaving that they only get detentions, but if they did not leave to check the hollow, they also never knew whether the island is save from hollows or not. Therefore, Emma in this case took action and evaluates her judgement before she eventually helps Jacob to leave the mansion and go to his time loop to check the existence of hollow. In addition, the writer also found another act of Emma Bloom that is related to the personality of animus which can be seen as follow:
“I told you, I’ll kill them,” he said, drawing the cage to his chest.
She took a step toward him. “I’m eighty-eight years old,”
she said. “Do I look like I need a pair of babysitters?” Her
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long we’ve been dying to get out from under that woman’s wing. I swear, you’d be doing us a favor.”
Golan swiveled his head back and forth, nervously sizing us up. Is she serious? For a moment he seemed genuinely frightened, but then he said, “You’re full of shit.”
Emma rubbed her palms together and pulled them slowly apart, drawing out a noose of flame. “Let’s find out.”
I wasn’t sure how far Emma would take this, but I had to step in before the birds went up in flames or were sent tumbling over the rail.
(Riggs, 2016: 321)
The quotation above shows at the climax of the plot where Emma and Jacob finally able to cornered Baron, a wight (hollow in the human form) at the edge of the lighthouse. Unfortunately, Baron also takes Miss Peregrine and Miss Avocet as his hostages (in a bird cage) in case Emma is trying to kill him with her fire. However, instead of feel threatened, Emma moves slowly to Baron and successfully grip the cage but Baron also does not want to loosen the cage as well. In that case, Emma is making a scene by saying that she is going to kill them so that Baron will feel insecure since Emma does not care with the hostages.
However, even though Emma seems showing her ignorance to both Miss Peregrine and Miss Avocet, actually it was her plan to make Baron insecure so that he feels that there is nothing he can use as his shield or media to protect him. Thus, related to the act done by Emma, the writer considers that the characteristic of animus personality possessed by Emma in this situation is also as “the man of meaning”.
As it is stated by Jung that the characteristic of “the man of meaning” is that a woman is able to criticize their own act and evaluate their own judgement. Here, the action done by Emma is only a threat since she is making prediction where when
Baron is being cornered, so that the last thing that only can save him or at least protect him from death is the hostage. Yet, if the hostage is not at his side or between died or he is loosening it, then he got nothing left to protect himself.
Thus, in the sentence, “Her expression was steely, unreadable”, it refers to Emma’s act when she wants to make Barron confused by convincing him that Emma does not even care about the Ymbrynes. However, all those acts are just tactics, a mind game to trick Barron so that he will defenseless and of course while doing the conversation, Emma realized the consequences.