A Portrait of a Mother As an Agent of Change in Some Selected Fiction

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A Portrait of a Mother as an Agent of Change in Some Selected Fiction

A THESIS

Presented as a Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements to Obtain the Magister Humaniora (M. Hum.) Degree in English Language Studies

Deta Maria Sri Darta Student Number: 096332012

THE GRADUATE PROGRAM IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE STUDIES SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA 2011 PLAGIATPLAGIAT MERUPAKAN MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TIDAK TERPUJI TERPUJI PLAGIATPLAGIAT MERUPAKAN MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TIDAK TERPUJI TERPUJI PLAGIATPLAGIAT MERUPAKAN MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TIDAK TERPUJI TERPUJI PLAGIATPLAGIAT MERUPAKAN MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TIDAK TERPUJI TERPUJI PLAGIATPLAGIAT MERUPAKAN MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TIDAK TERPUJI TERPUJI

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

One cannot achieve her goals without lending hands from others, and neither can I. This thesis is a result of my never ending interaction with many magnificent people, including those whose names I do not know. Starting from the must-be-done routine, commuting from Salatiga to Yogyakarta on public buses, to the process of knitting the words into a bundle of thesis, I realize that I could not survive without them. I know that I cannot return their kindness except through my deepest gratitude and prayers for them. It is my pleasure to express my gratitude to my 2009 friends, especially from the Literature class. I thank them for the loving togetherness of the last two significant years in my life. Their contribution through making the room for sharing and discussion have helped me much to make this thesis come true. Let’s hope that all memories will be the sweetest ones to remember. Many thanks also go to the staffs of the English Studies for their kindness and great assistance. I am also indebted to the lecturers of the English Studies Programme who have enlightened me in so many ways. All the knowledge that I have obtained from them helped me in the process of writing. Their guidance also has aroused my sense of awareness of many things in life. I am very grateful to have Dr. F.X. Siswadi, M.A. and Dr. B.B. Dwijatmoko, M.A. as my reviewers and examiners. I am also thankful to have Prof. Dr. Bakdi Soemanto, S.U. as one of my examiners. I thank them for spending time to read and give suggestions for my thesis improvement. My gratefulness also goes to Drs. Ph. Pirenomulyo, M.A. for lending me a little of his worthy time to be my proof reader. My appreciation goes to my persistent supervisor, Dr. Novita Dewi, M.S., M.A(Hons.), who patiently assisted me in the process of exploring and writing my thesis. I owe her for the valuable times and energy that she spent in advising. From her I learnt many different things that I had not comprehended before. Where would I be without my family? As a single parent, my mother gives her very best to support me in life including in the thesis making. I thank her for lending me her ears to listen to me. I also express my thanks to my only sister for her support and encouragement. Words fail me to express my appreciation to my husband whose love and understanding have taken the load off my shoulder. I also owe to my little bear to cuddle for many times that I could not spend with him due to my being away to pursue my study. I promise to pay back every single time I missed. Finally, I would thank Jesus Christ who enables me to do things beyond my reach and to make my dreams come true.

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At once Jesus spoke to them, “Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid.”

(Matthew 14:27)

We gain strength, and courage, and confidence by each experience in which we really stop to look fear in the face... we must do that which we think we cannot. (Eleanor Roosevelt)

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ABSTRACT

Deta Maria Sri Darta. 2011. A Portrait of a Mother as an Agent of Change in Some Selected Fiction. Yogyakarta: English Language Study, Graduate Program, Sanata Dharma University.

Providing an example of a strong mother can help the society to raise their awareness of the existence of non–stereotypical mother in literary works. This study discusses six literary works, i.e. three novels and three short stories. The novels are Maxim Gorky’s Mother, Gabriela Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude, and Emak by Daoed Joesoef. While the three short stories are “Persembahan untuk Ibu” by Dasriel Rasmala, “Sepasang Mata Seorang Ibu” by Gerson Poyk, and “Anakkonhi Do Hamoraon Di Ahu!” by Saut Poltak Tambunan. The main purpose is exploring the depiction of non–stereotypical mother taken from the fiction under study. To do so this study will answer two research questions. The first is to find the portrayal of mother through her struggle, suffering, and self-actualization. The second is to see how the mother analyzed can become the agent of change. In line with Kate Millet and Adrienne Rich’s view that patriarchal society depends on mother to preserve its power, this thesis explores the potential opportunity to make the world a better place. Supported by Bell Hooks, the idea of equity between women and men is the main concern of the recent feminist movement which this study attempts to show. Answering the first research question, it is found out that the mother in the works studied is strong, firm, religious, less educated but tries her best to give her children the best education they can afford, not materialistic, and willing to make a change. Struggling hard for her family (especially children), the mother does not give up her hope and faith. The struggle makes her suffer, but the suffering results in her self-actualization, whereby she makes changes in her children’s future lives. As for the second research question, it is revealed that the mother unconsciously becomes the agent of change. It is because she does not follow the mainstreams and dares to do something that is uncommon in the society where she lives. She might not feel the changes herself, but they do occur in the lives of her children. This study thus has shown that the equity between women and men will not only benefit women, but also men. This idea (of equity) should be introduced and induced since childhood, and it can be done by mother. It is not a harmful situation for men for, as long as women and men respect one another, a new and better world will be created for all.

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ABSTRAK

Deta Maria Sri Darta. 2011. A Portrait of a Mother as an Agent of Change in Some Selected Fiction. Yogyakarta: Kajian Bahasa Inggris, Program Pasca Sarjana, Universitas Sanata Dharma.

Pemberian contoh akan ibu yang kuat dapat membantu masyarakat untuk lebih meningkatkan kesadaran akan adanya penggambaran ibu yang tidak stereotip dalam karya sastra. Penelitian ini membahas enam karya sastra yang terdiri dari tiga buah novel dan tiga buah cerita pendek. Adapun novel yang dipelajari adalah Mother karya Maxim Gorky, One Hundred Years of Solitude karangan Gabriela Marquez, dan Emak oleh Daoed Joesoef. Sedangkan tiga cerita pendek yang diteliti adalah “Persembahan untuk Ibu” oleh Dasriel Rasmala, “Sepasang Mata Seorang Ibu” karangan Gerson Poyk, dan “Anakonhi Do Hamoraun Di Ahu!” karya Saut Poltak Tambunan. Tujuan utama dari penelitian ini adalah meneliti penggambaran ibu yang tidak stereotip dalam keenam karya sastra tersebut. Penelitian ini mempunyai dua pokok permasalahan. Pokok permasalahan yang pertama adalah mencari penggambaran ibu melalui perjuangan, penderitaan, dan actualisasi mereka dalam keenam karya sastra. Sedangkan permasalahan yang kedua adalah mencari tahu bagaimana para ibu dalam karya – karya tersebut mampu menjadi pembawa perubahan dalam masyarakat. Sejalan dengan pandangan Kate Millet dan Adrienne Rich yang mengatakan bahwa masyarakat patriarki bergantung pada ibu dalam upaya melestarikan kekuasaannya, thesis ini meneliti adanya kesempatan yang potensial untuk menciptakan dunia yang lebih baik yang bisa dilakukan oleh para ibu. Didukung oleh Bell Hooks, gagasan mengenai kesetaraan antara perempuan dan laki-laki merupakan pemikiran utama penelitian ini. Dari menjawab pertanyaan pertama ditemukan bahwa penokohan ibu dalam karya sastra yang dipelajari adalah kuat, tegas, religius, kurang terpelajar namun berusaha keras memberikan pendidikan terbaik bagi anak-anak mereka, tidak materialistis, dan mau untuk membawa perubahan. Para ibu ini tidak pernah menyerah, tidak pernah putus asa. Perjuangan yang mereka lakukan membuat mereka menderita tetapi penderitaan tersebut membuahkan aktualisasi diri, dimana mereka membawa perubahan pada dalam hidup anak-anak mereka. Sedangkan dari menjawab pertanyaan kedua ditemukan bahwa para ibu tersebut secara tidak sadar menjadi pembawa perubahan. Hal tersebut karena mereka tidak mengikuti arus dan berani melakukan hal yang tidak lazim ditemukan dalam masyarakat dimana mereka tinggal. Para ibu tersebut mungkin tidak merasakan sendiri perubahan yang mereka buat, namun perubahan itu memang sungguh terjada dalam hidup anak-anak mereka. Kesetaraan antara perempuan dan laki-laki tidak hanya menguntungkan perempuan namun juga laki-laki. Ide tentang kesetaraan sebaiknya dikenalkan dan ditanamkan sejak kecil dan ibu mampu melakukannya. Hal ini tidak akan membahayakan nasib kaum laki-laki dimana sejauh perempuan dan laki-laki mampu menghargai satu sama lain, dunia baru yang lebih baik akan tercipta bagi semua orang. viii

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Lembar Pernyataan Persetujuan Publikasi Karya Ilmiah untuk Kepentingan Akademis ...... iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...... v ABSTRACT ...... vii ABSTRAK ...... viii TABLE OF CONTENTS ...... ix CHAPTER I ...... 1 A. Background ...... 1 B. The Urgency ...... 8 C. The Scope ...... 9 D. The Method ...... 10 E. Thesis Overview ...... 11 CHAPTER II ...... 13 A. Review of Related Theories ...... 13 1. The Nature of Feminism ...... 13 2. On Becoming Mother ...... 15 3. Visionary Feminism ...... 18 4. Struggle, Suffering, and Self-Actualization ...... 20 5. Agent of Change ...... 22 B. Review of Related Studies ...... 22 C. Objects of Study ...... 29 D. Theoretical Framework ...... 35 CHAPTER III ...... 37 A. Struggle ...... 38 B. Suffering ...... 51 C. Self-Actualization ...... 61 D. Concluding Remarks ...... 66 CHAPTER IV ...... 69 A. Agent of Change ...... 69 B. Mother as Agents of Change ...... 73 C. Concluding Remarks ...... 91 CHAPTER V ...... 92 BIBLIOGRAPHY ...... 103 APPENDIX ...... 106 The Summary of Mother ...... 106 The Summary of One Hundred Years of Solitude ...... 107 The Summary of Emak ...... 108 The Summary of “Persembahan untuk Ibu” ...... 109 The Summary of “Sepasang Mata Seorang Ibu” ...... 110 The Summary of “Anakonhi Do Hamoraun Di Ahu!” ...... 111

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CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

"M" is for the million things she gave me, "O" means only that she's growing old, "T" is for the tears she shed to save me,

"H" is for her heart of purest gold; "E" is for her eyes, with love-light shining, "R" means right, and right she'll always be,

Put them all together, they spell "MOTHER," A word that means the world to me. --Howard Johnson (c. 1915)

A. Background

Inspired by the figure of a mother, Howard Johnson expresses his admiration to mother through his poem above. As a male song writer, Johnson was touched by the experience of having such a meaningful mother. This shows that mother is an important figure for her children. As an important figure, mother has the opportunity to challenge the mainstream since her strategic position as closest person to her children, whereby contrarily most people do not see her as a strong character as the following discussion will soon reveal.

Paying a visit to most families across Indonesia, we will see one common thing: they love to watch “sinetron” or soap operas, although they have different local cultural backgrounds and economical status. One of the common features of those soap operas in Indonesia is the depiction of woman, especially mother in two kinds: the powerful mother and the powerless one. The powerful mother tends to over exercise her power. She uses forces to control her family, her

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children; she usually likes to make decisions over family matters, for example on the financial issues; she even likes to decide which women or men should be good for her children to be her wives or husbands. This type of mother usually occupies the position as antagonist in the soap operas. The second type is the weak submissive mother (protagonist) who tends to accept anything that happens to her as parts of her fate. Thus, she will not do anything to make her life better, because she thinks that no matter what she does, it will not make any good. She often pities herself and cries on her misfortune.

On the one hand, we comprehend that literature portrays reality. Meaning that the fiction making is sometimes influenced by the real happening around the author or the real world. Literary works are sometimes made to criticize the condition in the society in the time of making. Janet Wolff in the introduction of her book The Social Production of Art says that “art is a social product”1. Thus, in the making of a novel, for example, the author who is also a member of a society may be influenced by the norm and value within the society where he or she lives.

Or perhaps, he or she uses his or her work as a means to protest against the condition within the society. Therefore we can say that literature is a mirror of life. However, that kind of depiction on mother in ‘sinetron’ as described in the previous paragraph does not mirror the reality; these ‘sinetron’ are exceptions.

One the other hand, we grasp that reality sometimes copies literature. In an article written in the form of dialogue by two characters, “The Decay of Lying”, for example, Oscar Wilde says that life imitates art more than art imitates life2. An

1 Janet Wolff, The Social Production of Art. (New York: New York University Press, 1981) 1.

2 Oscar Wilde, “The Decay of Lying”. (Oscar Wilde Online: The Works and Life of Oscar Wilde, 2010 (1889)). 29 September 2010. < http://www.wilde-online.info/the-decay-of-lying.html > 2

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example is when a person reads a novel and finds out that one of the characters faced a similar problem with hers or his, she or he might model the character’s way of facing the problem. If reality imitates what happens in novels or dramas, the authors of those novels or dramas can use them as “tools” to fight the injustice situation that women have to face.

If we go back to the discussion of ‘sinetron’, as one medium of entertainment and education, it neither portrays the reality nor is imitated by the society, and then we shall question ourselves: is there any literary work, as another medium of entertainment and education, which really portrays reality?

Indeed, there are many, but these kinds of literary work have not found their way to the society; there is no “demand” on the production of such literary work.

These kinds of literary work can educate the society better than the ‘sinetron’ or soap operas, especially when the idea focuses on mother.

Like the stereotyping of mother figure in ‘sinetron’, mother in fiction is mostly rendered into the similar portraits. Mother is never seen from her positive sides. Depicted as an evil woman, Calon Arang in Calon Arang (1951) by

Pramoedya Ananta Toer, for example, is never seen as a mother. Everything that she does, she does it for love to her daughter. And when at the end she is defeated, she is overpowered because of her daughter. Her enemy uses her daughter to find out her weaknesses. Readers might be brought up into conclusion that Calon

Arang is an evil that must be destroyed and her daughter has done the right thing by taking her secret book to the enemy (although without knowing). However if we see it from ‘her-story’, Calon Arang becomes an evil-like because she feels failing to give her daughter happiness.

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The role of a woman as a mother in the Indonesian context is not yet considered as a powerful site to make a change. Many mothers do not realize how powerful they are in terms of educating their children. In some cases, mother tends to give in her life as the weak party, as if it is her ‘fate’. She does not struggle to have a better life even for her children.

The type of mother discussed in the previous paragraph is being introduced and constructed by the society via literary works, making no room for other types of mother in the society, not even in literary works. The portrayal of such mother tends to fill the depiction of mother in literary works, thus making that kind of literary works sold out. It is because the society, our society, still wants to dream about, to fantasize i.e. to ‘reach’ something that they cannot reach through imagination on something they read and watch.

The non-stereotypical depiction of mother is found in literary works which this study attempts to explore, i.e. Mother (1946) by Maxim Gorky, One Hundred

Years of Solitude (1970) by Gabriel Marquez, Emak (2010) by Daoed Joesoef and three short stories taken from the compilation entitled Ibu (1982); they are

“Persembahan untuk Ibu” by Dasriel Rasmala, “Sepasang Mata Seorang Ibu” by

Gerson Poyk, and “Anakkonhi Do Hamoraon Di Ahu!” by Saut Poltak

Tambunan. Although the first two novels are widely known, the non-stereotypical depiction of mother is not discussed or appreciated, while the last four works are not celebrated in their home country, Indonesia. This is quite ironic, since in the stories the non-stereotypical depiction of mother is quite obvious. The reasons why the selected Indonesian literary works are not widely known is that because they have not gained any criticism yet, it can be quite ideological-it depends on

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the authority, the works are not controversial, and it may because the works depict the common view of everyday life.

The literary works which have non-stereotypical depiction of mother are not well known and can only be accepted by the people around the globe through translation. Mother by Gorky and Marquez’s’ One Hundred Years of Solitude have been translated into English from their respective original languages. On the contrary the Indonesian novel Emak and short stories in Ibu have not yet found their way to international awareness, since they have not yet been translated into

English as the international language. The English literary works which have such depiction of mother are not commonly found, thus the existence of the literary works in English which portray mother differently will enrich the collection of the world literature. The inclusion of the not-so-familiar Indonesian literary works is to get another challenge. Even at home these works are not well recognized.

In Joesoef’s Emak as well as in the collection of short stories entitled Ibu, the depiction of mother is different from the stereotypical mother that we more likely to find. The mother figure in Ibu is a strong, heroic mother who has to struggle to save the family, especially her children. She does not give up her faith so that her children can live far better than herself. She tries her best to send her children to school, higher education, which she could not get in her youth, believing that it would be the key to her children’s success in life. And as the plot of the stories goes by, her struggle and suffering are more worthy of note, since she can see that her children live better than she does.

Not only being an important figure for her children, the mother in the fiction studied also becomes a role model for the people around her. It is when

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other people see how her children have better life as a result of their mother’s struggle and suffering. The way the mother interacts with her surrounding also touches the other people. This is what is called being self-actualized.

Those kinds of literary works are explored to see how they represent mother. The discussion will focus on issues of struggle, suffering, and self- actualization as experienced by the mother character in each literary work. The first issue is chosen in order to see how mother tries her best to cope with her problems in life. The second issue, suffering, is dedicated to look at how she suffers in the act of struggling to cope with her daily problems; how she has to suffer in order to achieve her dreams. The last issue, self-actualization would like to discuss how the mother actually touches her children in order to bring them into their success in life. Although she does not realize that her struggle and suffering have made her dreams come true, she does actualize herself through her children’s success in life.

The importance of exploring the works which depict mother differently has been discussed previously. Just as Kate Millet says that family is the important institution for patriarchal society, so does Rich in her book Of Woman

Born: Motherhood as Experience and Institution (1976) say that motherhood means ‘institution’. Thus, it is believed that mother, being an important member of patriarchal institution, can play role as an agent who holds the power to make a change.

Knowing this important role of a mother in shaping individuals and transferring norm and values of society, it would be inappropriate if the mother does not make a positive change to the future of the society. It is a big chance for

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mother to contribute positively by eliminating marginality norm, that the society has, in transferring the norm to the children, the young individuals. Therefore, later on when the young individuals have grown up, they will be able to make the change through their new perspective which is reflected through their actions.

If mother does not use the chance to create a better world, the condition of women, which is also the condition of mother, will not be better. If mother’s complicity to the patriarchal society’s value and norm is strong and deep, she will help the patriarchal society to maintain its power. This situation will make women become even more marginalized, and they will be forever under the power of men. The idea of equality will only remain an idea vapouring into thin air, and it will not be reached. The untrue portrayal of women will become a ‘true’ portrait, if the false picture is not revealed.

Since it is believed that there is a close relationship between literature and reality, the role of mother mentioned at the beginning can be seen through the exploration of several literary works which picture women as mother. We can see how the role of mother can serve as an important agent of change which sometimes is neglected and is not realized by the society and also by the mother herself. By the exploration of literary works which depict mother differently

(meaning against patriarchal ideology), it is hoped that it can serve as an example for mother in real life to actualize their important role in creating a better nation.

In order to see the non-stereotypical depiction of mother in literary works as agent of change that shapes the individuals in the society, the research questions are formulated as follows:

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1. How is mother depicted in Maxim Gorky’s Mother, One Hundred Years of

Solitude by Gabriel Marquez, Daoed Joesoef’s Emak and in three selected

short stories from Ibu: “Persembahan untuk Ibu”, “Sepasang Mata Seorang

Ibu”, and “Anakkonhi Do Hamoraon Di Ahu!” through her struggle,

suffering, and self-actualization?

2. How can the mothers in the works under study be the agent of change in

society?

The two research questions formulated above aim to find out the portrayal of each mother in these works to see how she copes with her life in her struggle, suffering, and finally self-actualization by ‘touching’ her children’s life to make them better persons and seek to find ways mother can be the agent of change in society, to create a nation of better generations.

B. The Urgency

This study is conducted because of the need of revealing the everyday portrayal of mother. Nowadays with the various media which display the fantasy of mother figure as in the ‘sinetron’, the common depiction of mother can be forgotten if it is not discussed. Bringing up the topic of the common mother helps readers to look at many good values that a mother has.

In the hope that readers can have a wider perception and understanding about mother’s important role as the agent of change is another urgency of conducting this study. Apart from that, the awareness hopefully will make mother contribute positively in shaping the individuals. If the individuals are shaped

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better with the renewed perspectives, they will be better individuals and, in the long run, create a better condition in the society they participate.

By exploring some literary works that depict mother differently from those that can be found commonly in society, this study would like to make mother aware that she can do more, and that if she does more, life would be better. The exploration of such literary works will provide an insight to make mother aware of the big chances that she has to change the society. The more people who are aware of the existence of these kinds of literary works which depict mother non- stereotypically, it is hoped that, the more people would understand and be inspired to create a better life.

Next, the aim of exploring the Indonesian literature at the same time with that in English is to put the Indonesian literature at the same level as the other literature in English. They are similar in terms of origin, i.e. that they are not firstly written in English. Gorky’s Mother and Marquez’s One Hundred Years of

Solitude are appreciated as the world literature. Having the same quality of story and writing, Indonesian literature also deserves acknowledgement as the world literature. This has become one of the thoughts in conducting this study. Pursuing non-English literature under English Studies will enlarge and enrich world literature.

C. The Scope

To focus the study, the exploration of the literary works will be on some novels and short stories which portray mother as the one who is able to make changes. The analysis will be on the depiction of mother and also the social

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condition in the works and the chances that the mother has in order to change the society. The literary works are taken from different parts of the world to see the portrayal of mother from different cultures.

D. The Method

This study will employ a library study. Exploration of several literary works is the primary way to collect some information on the depiction of non- stereotypical mother. Through reading some books on feminism, the data taken from the literary works are analyzed. Some data are also taken from the Internet, others are taken from blogs on feminism. Several modern mothers use blogs to discuss their thoughts on feminism, especially their role of a mother. This information can also enrich the understanding on the role of a mother.

In order to conduct the study systematically, the following procedure is taken. The first step is finding the depiction of non-stereotypical mother taken from the selected literary works. The next thing to do is classifying the analysis of how mother is portrayed in three different angles: through her struggle, suffering, and self-actualization. The depictions are then compared to the depiction of mother in the Indonesian major literary works, such as Azab dan Sengsara (1920) by Merari Siregar, Abdul Muis’ Salah Asuhan (1928) and Umar Kayam Sri

Sumarah dan Bawuk (1986), and also from an African novel by Tsitsi

Dangarembga Nervous Condition (1989). The comparison is meant to show how the depiction of mother in the fiction studied is different to the one in several other stories. And the next step is discussing the chances that the mother has to make changes. Along with it, the discussion on how mother has become the agent

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of change is presented together with the comparison to the Indonesian major literary works and the African literature. The final step is concluding, suggesting some ways for mother to be the agent of change in the society, and presenting how the study may contribute to the theory of feminism and to the society in general.

Since some of the Indonesian literary works discussed are not yet translated into English, all translation which follows each quotation is my own.

E. Thesis Overview

To ease the discussion, this section gives an overview of the thesis chapter divisions. This first chapter is the introduction where the background of the study, research questions, and significance of the study are discussed thoroughly. Since the study will use library research, methodology used in this study is also outlined here.

The next chapter that follows is the literature review. It will discuss the related studies conducted on the same literary works. The theories used in the analysis of the selected literary works are discussed in this chapter, in the section of related theories. The nature of feminism, the idea of motherhood and mothering, and the thought of visionary feminism which help in understanding the issue on mother in literature are all discussed under the same section. The discussion includes several theses (undergraduate and graduate) discussing

Gorky’s Mother and Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude, and some articles in the journal analyzing the same literary works. In order to familiarize the readers with the selected literary works, short summaries of the works are given in this

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second chapter. The reason for choosing the literary works is also presented right after.

The answers to the research questions will be discussed in the subsequent chapters; each answer would be worth one chapter discussion. Thus, Chapter III discusses the depiction of mother in the works, and Chapter IV discusses how mother can be an agent of change in the society. This study concludes in Chapter

V which becomes the final chapter of the thesis.

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CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW

A. Review of Related Theories

This study will focus on the role of women in the society. One of the roles is becoming a mother; and as a mother, she has become the victim of the patriarchal society, but at the same time possessing the great power to control over the male domination, although many women (mothers) have not yet realized their significant power.

1. The Nature of Feminism

In discussing feminist perspective, it would be wise to start with the discussion of Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own (1919)3, since her work has become a pioneer on the women’s movement. Virginia Woolf is considered as one of the early feminists. The work of this British scholar and teacher entitled A

Room of One’s Own has become a foundation of the feminist criticism. She began her work by exploring the relation between women and fiction. She says that to be able to write, a woman must have a lot of money and a room of her own. She also declares that man is the one who defines what it means to be a woman; and man is also the one who controls political, economic, social and even literary structure.

Talking about woman and fiction, there are three possibilities of relationship. It may mean women and what they are like; or it may mean women and the fiction

3 Virginia Woolf, A Room Of One’s Own. (Adelaide: University of Adelaide Library, 1919). Web edition published by eBooks@Adelaide, University of Adelaide Library.

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that they write; or it may mean women and the fiction that is written about them.

Woolf also gives another possibility that it may mean the mixture between those three possibilities.

Woolf even dares to imagine that if somehow Shakespeare had a sister, as gifted as him, and what have might happen to her. Will she be as famous as her brother? Woolf predicts that Judith, a name given by Woolf to Shakespeare’s imaginary sister, was not able to do as her brother did during the age of

Shakespeare. When Shakespeare went to school, Judith probably just stayed at home doing some house chores. Although she had the opportunity to read books that were taken from Shakespeare’s shelf, still she was not able to express her thoughts on paper. Her gifted talent therefore never grew, for she did not have ‘a room of her own’ just because she was a woman. She did not have the chance to show her ability, and she died unknown.

By predicting what happens to Judith, Woolf tries to show that such loss of personal worthiness is the result of society’s opinion on women. Society views women as intellectually inferior to men. Woolf argues that women should reject this view and should establish their own identity. Women should challenge this false gender assumption and create a female discourse that will give a real portrayal of women in the real world. If women are able to accept this challenge,

Woolf believes that the spirit of Judith will be able to live again in the present life of women.

The thought of feminism proposed by Woolf was quite challenging, therefore it continues to be developed by many other feminists. There are many specific issues that each feminist tries to pursue. One of the issues is on

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motherhood. Some believe that women as mother play a significant role in the society, even though they live in a patriarchal society.

2. On Becoming Mother

Kate Millet is one of the feminists who argues that a female is born and a woman is created4. Therefore, one’s sex, male or female, is determined at birth, while one’s gender, is however a social construct, being created by culture and political norms. Consciously or unconsciously, women and men adapt to the cultural ideas established by the society. That is for example, boys do not cry, they should be more aggressive, domineering, stronger; while girls are weaker, passive, calm, and humble. Boys can yell, while girls must not.

Millet believes that family is the main agent of patriarchal society.

Through family, society socializes the construction of male and female. Family has become the media for the patriarchal society to touch the young individuals with the norm that should be ‘planted’ to shape and make them ready to enter the patriarchal society. If every family still adopts the gender construction held fast by the society, the patriarchal society will live on and survive. As such, the equality that female tries to seek will not come to reality.

The way of adapting the prescribed sex roles created by the society is what

Millet calls “sexual politics”. Women, Millet argues, have to fight against male dominance as the power centre of their culture. To do so, women must establish female social conventions for themselves by creating their own female discourse, literary studies, and feminist criticism.

4 Kate Millet, “Sexual Politics.” Women’s Liberation and Literature, ed. Elaine Showalter. (USA: Harcourt Crace Jovanovich, Inc., 1971) 290 – 291. 15

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Furthermore, the power of mother is discussed by Adrienne Rich’s Of

Woman Born: Motherhood as Experience and Institution (1976). She says that there are two aspects of mother power: the biological potential, that is the capacity to bear and nourish human life, and the magical power invested in women by men, in the form of Goddess-worship or the fear to be controlled by women5. Rich also states that motherhood can serve as an institution whereby the patriarchal society relies on continuing its existence and motherhood as experience or in another word ‘mothering’.

Moreover, she states that every woman should deliver her children to the patriarchal system; she (every woman) is expected to prepare her children to enter the system without rebelliousness and to continue the ‘legacy’ later on when they grow up and have the children of their own. Patriarchy depends on the mother to conserve the patriarchal values for the system to continue living. Here we see that mother actually plays a crucial role in shaping the future of patriarchal society.

Unfortunately, the important role is often neglected by the society and mother as a woman becomes the victim of the system. She otherwise has the chance to deconstruct.

Julia I. Suryakusuma sees motherhood in the perspective of Indonesian government; she terms it ‘the state of Ibuism’6. According to Suryakusuma, mother (wife) plays a significant role in the development of her husband’s career.

In Dharma Wanita (the association of civil servants’ wives), the wives should

5 Adrienne Rich, “Of Woman Born: Motherhood as Experience and Institution.” Feminism: A Reader, ed. Maggie Humm. (London: Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1992) 270.

6 Julia I. Suryakususma, “The State and Sexuality in New Order Indonesia.” Fantasizing the Feminine in Indonesia, ed. Laurie J. Sears. (London: Duke University Press, 1996) 92 – 119.

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approach their superior wives to make ways for their husbands to be promoted to have better position. This is a common view amongst the everyday life in the civil servants environment, because wife is believed to have a big influence to her husband’s decision making, including in the official affair.

In Dharma Wanita, mother is also educated to raise her children in accordance to the government policies, aiming that there will be less rebellious movement done by young people. This shows that the New Order of Indonesian government had seen the potential power that mother has to control over her family. For me it is quite cunning, in order to control its people, the government has to control the most influential person in each family, that is mother.

The New Order government has constructed the role of a mother within her family, that later on will help in maintaining its power. This is similar to what

Kate Millet’s belief that patriarchy depends on mother to preserve its existence.

Believing that it is her role within the society, mother tends to accept and do it without questioning, and sometimes it is because she is constructed to be afraid of the consequents if she does not perform her job well.

The rendering of a mother in Fantasizing Feminine in Indonesia is not always true, therefore I would like to explore the more authentic picture of a mother in the more authentic life. It is to see that the equality or equity, as a better term, between female and male is not only for the sake of female herself, but also for the sake of everybody, as revealed in visionary feminism discussed below.

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3. Visionary Feminism

Supporting Kate Millet and Adrienne Rich’s statements, in the last chapter of Feminism is for Everybody: Passionate Politics, Bell Hooks says that the awareness of the danger of patriarchal society should be comprehended by everybody; that feminism should be understood by everyone, girls–boys, women– men, across class, therefore feminist theory should be written in a comprehensible language or shared through oral communication7. The present feminist theory is usually written in complicated terminology that can be read only by well educated people. It shows that there is a gap between educated and uneducated women, thus there is unequal position between women. There may be other possibility that the distribution of idea of feminism, i.e. the equity between women and men is still controlled by patriarchy to limit the number of women who are aware of the equity. This will make the issue of feminism not widely spread and its movement will not make any progress.

Hooks also observes that when a woman of patriarchal society has reached her goal in being accepted equally to man, she seldom has an interest to dismantle that system. Educated women tend to take the advantage of having good jobs and careers without being motivated to help creating the system based on feminism.

This is not in line with the basic goal of visionary feminism – to create strategies to change the lot of all women and enhance their personal power8.

What is being argued in the last chapter of Hooks’ book is that the lack of mass-based feminist education happens in our society. We find no news,

7 Bell Hooks, Feminism is for Everybody: Passionate Politics (Canada: Cambridge, 2000) 112.

8 Hooks 111.

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television program, nor radio show which highlight the issue of feminism, thus not many people know about feminist issues. It shows that feminist movement is still under the captivity of patriarchal systems. If we do nothing about this problem, the pioneer feminist movement will not make any use to make a better society for everybody.

There is also confusion in stating whether a woman is a feminist or anti- feminist. In line with Rich, Hooks states that when a woman chooses to carry the baby, she is not anti-feminist. It is because the idea of feminist principle that a woman has control over her body, that she has the right to choose; whatever decision she makes as long as she chooses herself she is a feminist. Being a feminist does not mean that a woman should reject her ability to bring life to the world.

Visionary feminists see the importance of altering men. All women in the world can be feminists but if men remain sexist, women’s quality of life would never be increased. To have a better life, the equity between women and men should be created and men should also take part in this movement because, if the hatred between women and men continue to sharpen, the safety and continuation of life on the planet will be in dangerous situation. Therefore we need to educate all people (not only women) across nations, races, and culture on the importance of the visionary feminism. It does not require us to join any organization; we can do it in a simple way starting with our home, place of work, where we live by giving example of equity between women and men. This will also break the false assumption that male is not accepted in the feminist group; in fact the more men

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study feminism the more people will see the beauty of equity between women and men.

As Hooks ends her book with the following statement:

Feminist politics aims to end domination to free us to be who we are–to live lives where we love justice, where we can live in peace. Feminism is for everybody.9

Thus, we need to revisit our idea on feminism: feminism is not exclusively women’s privilege but it also invites men to contribute actively in creating equity between women and men to create a better world.

To create a better place to live needs timeless effort from both parties

(women and men). It will also ask for struggle and suffering from the society member that later on will result on her self-actualization. As an important member of the society, mother is not immune to this process. To make a clear understanding on struggle, suffering, and self-actualization, the discussion below is considered necessary.

4. Struggle, Suffering, and Self-Actualization

To analyze the works studied, some terms to accommodate similarity amongst their differences need to be framed. The terms struggle, suffering, and self-actualization are formulated after reading the fiction studied. They are chosen because through those three terms, the connections between the works can be obtained. To make clear, each of the three terms will be discussed in the following paragraphs.

9 Hooks 118.

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According to Merriam Webster, the word struggle as a noun means a violent effort or exertion: an act of strongly motivated striving. In other words, struggle is a hard work to make every effort, to do all that we can do obtained the goal10.

Going to a struggle, someone also experiences suffering. The word suffering as a noun in Merriam Webster is the state or experience of one suffers, while suffer means to endure death, pain, or distress11. Thus suffering can mean the state or experience of someone who endures death, pain, or distress.

Being able to pass her struggle and endure her suffering, someone is called to actualize herself. Borrowed from Marslow’s the hierarchy of needs, self- actualization, as the highest need in the hierarchy means a desire to become more and more what one is, to become everything that one is capable of becoming.

Morevover, Marslow also defines self-actualization as the need of “what a man can be, he must be”12. So self-actualization also has meaning of self-fulfilment, where someone tries to be what she can be, to reach her limit to be the best she can.

The three processes will make mother become an extraordinary agent who may bring the society into a new direction. Although small, her contribution makes her deserve to be called an agent of change.

10 http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/struggle

11 http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/suffer

12 Abraham Marslow, Motivation and Personality, ( New York: Harper and Row New York, 1954) 91 21

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5. Agent of Change

According to Kate Millet, family is the smallest unit in the patriarchal system, thus making its member as the agent for the system. As a member of a family, mother is an agent who is made used to maintain the patriarchal system to pass on to the next generation.

Thus it makes everything that a mother does which does not follow the tradition can be considered as a change. Although small, any changes done by an oppressed person in such hostile environment are quite significant. What is meant by agent of change is that mother as the agent of patriarchal society can do something to contribute to give more room for women to actualize themselves, no matter how small the contribution is. The change is not only merely for the women only, but also for the better life for everybody.

B. Review of Related Studies

There are some studies conducted on the Mother and One Hundred Years of Solitude, but none on Emak and the collection of short stories Ibu. This section is to discuss the criticisms or previous studies on both novels. While the discussion on Emak and Ibu will be provided to give a wider view on the publication since there is no specific criticism on the last two literary works.

Mother is viewed as one of the successful pieces of work by Maxim

Gorky. Based on true events, Gorky peopled his novel with unique characters.

Since Maxim Gorky is a socialist many critics tend to see Mother from the perspective of socialism.

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An undergraduate thesis by Agustinus Danang Fajar Suryanto, for example, examines Gorky’s Mother by focusing on the influence of socialism to the development of the main characters (Pelagea and Pavel)13. The study concludes that after studying and understanding on the meaning of socialism, being parts of its movements, and willing to make changes in society, the main characters (Pelagea and Pavel) experienced character development. The ideology learnt enabled them to have a sense of awareness, friendship, and equality; the sense that they shared to other people around them.

With the help of Marxism approach, another study entitled Against the

State’s Oppression in Maxim Gorky’s Mother: a Marxist Approach14 looks at the existence of state oppression in Russia shown in the novel. Similar study was also conducted by Kevin Daniel Werbach who studied three Russian literary works which served as models for the alternative social development of Russia. He found that most of Russian historians think that Mother, as the title of the novel, became the mother of many newborn Socialist Realists15. He also stated that the novel represented the social condition in Russia at that time, and that socialism as ideology influenced the process of the novel writing.

The three studies show that Mother represents the historical movement of labour in Russian. The industrial revolution that became the background of the

13 Agustinus D. F. Suryanto, The Influence of Socialism to the Character Development of Pelagea and Pavel in Maxim Gorky`s Mother, Unpublished Undergraduate Thesis (Yogyakarta: Sanata Dharma University, 2006).

14 Dewi Sri Muliadianingsih, Against the State’s Oppression in Maxim Gorky’s Mother: a Marxist Approach, Unpublished Undergraduate Thesis (Surakarta: Universitas Muhamadiyah Surakarta, 2008).

15 Kevin Daniel Werbach, Literary Models for Alternative Social Development in Russia (Barkeley: University of Calofornia at Barkeley, 1991). 25 November 2010. < http://www.werbach.com/stuff/thesis.html#gorky >

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story plot happened at the time of the novel writing. Gorky used his works as a kind of propaganda to fight against the government’s injustice.

Here the prior discussion shows that the studies on Mother with the help of

Marxism are quite many. However those studies only focus on the story line which is believed to criticize what happen to the Russian society at the time the novel was written, while the study on how Gorky put the characters into the story line is rare. This is what will be pursued in this thesis, but it will focus only on one character, Pelagea, as the mother whose character is quite strong and influential to other people around her.

Meanwhile, some critics on the novel One Hundred Years of Solitude say that the novel is influenced by magical realism, for example a professor of English at Harvard, Robert Keily, said that in One Hundred Years of Solitude, Marquez made memory and prophecy blend with each other, and that illusion and reality looked the same. He also stated that “Ursula is the personification of practical endurance and sheer will.”16 She is the one who puts things back in the right order after the messy actions or events happen in the family. This shows that Ursula’s character plays a significant role in the family. Her positions as a mother, grandmother, even great grandmother made her become the most important character who keeps track of her family and takes care of them well. The purpose to conduct the study is to see how Ursula goes through her difficult life and actualize herself in her offsprings.

16 Robert Keily, Memory and Prophecy, Illusion and Reality are Mixed and Made to Look the Same (The New York Times Company, 1999). 19 November 2010. < http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/06/15/reviews/marque-solitude.html >

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Next, Suradech Chotiudompant analyzes One Hundred Years of Solitude through the lens of postcolonial criticism17. He discussed the sense of nationality in the novel. He talked about the theme of reality and history as well as how the novel reinscribes the myth of nationhood. Another study was conducted by Jeff

Browitt. He writes an article in the Journal of Comparative Theory and Criticism

Shibboleths, entitled “Tropics of Tragedy: the Caribbean in Gabriela Garcia

Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude”.18 He elaborated on how tragedy operates within the story, among other issues discussed.

Finally, a postgraduate thesis at Sanata Dharma’s English Studies by

Fransisca Purnawijayanti discusses the pride and authenticity of the novel19. In the conclusion part, Purnawijayanti says that “In addition to the portrait ... Ursula– being weak and less important character–is actually a really powerful character”20.

Based on the statement, this study would like to explore further how powerful

Ursula’s character really is.

As for the Indonesian collection of short stories, Ibu has not yet been widely discussed. Sadly, this compilation remains a work which hardly receives appreciation, except being acknowledged when it was published to celebrate the

“Hari Kartini” on April 21, 1982.

17 Suradech Chotiudompant, “Decolinization and Demystification: One Hundred Years of Solitude and Nationhood”, Manusya 5 (2003): 68 – 87. 10 November 2010. < http://www.phd-lit.arts.chula.ac.th/Download/suradech.pdf >

18 Jeff Browitt, “Tropics of Tragedy: the Caribbean in Gabriela Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude,” Shibboleths: a Jurnal of Comparative Theory and Criticism 2.1 (2007): 16 – 33. < http://www.shibboleths.net/2/1/Browitt,Jeff.pdf >

19 Fransisca Purnawijayanti, Pride and Authenticity in One Hundred Years of Solitude and Anak Bajang Menggiring Angin, Unpublished Graduate Thesis (Yogyakarta: Sanata Dharma University, 2006).

20 Purnawijayanti 133 – 134. 25

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Saya S. Shiraisi analyzes the compilation Ibu in her book Young Heroes under the subtitle “Mother and Children in the Family Courtyard.”21 She takes

“Emak” and “Terima Kasih, Mama” as her objects of analysis.

Based on her observation, mother in Indonesian culture means hangat

(warmth) and kasih sayang (unconditional giving). Mother is said to be the source of warmth and unconditional giving. This shows how important the mother figure is.

The compilation however is unexpectedly available overseas in the

National Library of Australia. This fact makes the study on Ibu urgently needed, to show that Indonesian literary works can also be positioned at the same level as literary texts from other parts of the world, meaning that they carry the similar moral value in their content. This thesis will pursue the Indonesian literature equality compared to other non-English literature which has received acclaims from all over the world as to become world literature.

Another interesting fact about Ibu is that the short stories are not known as the authors’ master piece, although the stories are quite inspiring since the stories were written in a lively way. That might be because the compilation was not widely spread nor aimed to be sold in the market22.

There are studies on how patriarchy has been deeply planted in the society.

A book entitled The Politics of (M)Othering: Womanhood, Identity, and

21 Saya S. Shiraisi. Young Heroes (New York: Cornel University, 1997). 22 One of the short stories entitled “Emak” by Daoed Joesoef has its novel version holding the same title by the same author. The story line is the same, as if the short story is the summary of the novel. It is a memoir of his mother’s struggle to send him to school to get higher education. His experiences of having such a wonderful mother have inspired him to write the novel; thus making this novel become his autobiographical novel.

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Resistance in African Literature, edited by Obioma Nnaemeka is one of them23. It talks about feminisms, gender identity, mother and motherhood in African literature. It is a collection of articles written by twelve writers, who are professors, assistant professors, or associate professors and it is introduced by

Obioma Nnaemeka.

This book mostly discusses how African literature does not take side on women. Women are (only) exalted only in their position to conform their gender constructed position. Even in the bed time stories told by mother to their children, the figure of mother is also gender constructed by the society. And by retelling the similar stories over generation, it makes the false construction grow stronger in the young generation. It is as stated by Trinh T Minha in her article “Mother’s

Talk”. The article discusses about the mother’s figure in African culture that is not depicted as a strong character who can make a change. Even, that mother’s figure tends to actively be involved in preserving the false assumption on mother through the folktales that have been inherited from her senior (mother to her daughter).

Another article taken from the same book, “Calixthe Beyala’s ‘femme – fillette’” written by Juliana Makuchi Nfah – Abbenyi discusses on how mother tends to pass down her suffering to her daughter and it has been done from generation to generation. It is told in the article that Tanga [the daughter] is helpless in facing the patriarchal tortures as well as the tortures from her own mother. Thus, from it we can see how mother does not play a positive role in

23 Obioma Nnaemeka, ed. The Politics of (M)Othering: Womanhood, Identity, and resistance in African Literature (New York: Routledge, 1997). 27

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raising her children especially daughters, even the daughters seem to be the victims.

The articles in the book mostly represent the life of African mother as depicted in its literary works. It shows that the idea of patriarchal society is deeply implanted into the life of its people since they are young, from generation to generation chained with the power of mother through their stories. And the power is not realized by the mother studied.

Shortly, there are several studies conducted on the works under study and on the issue of mother. Mother has been analyzed thoroughly through the perspective of Marxism, while One Hundred Years of Solitude has been discussed widely through its idea of magical realism and postcolonial perspective. On the contrary, the Indonesian literary works have not yet earned any criticisms. The

Politics of (M)Othering: Womanhood, Identity, and Resistance in African

Literature contains some articles on the mother figure in African literature, mostly in the eyes of postcolonial perspective.

However, this thesis will stand on ‘seeing’ the fiction written by male authors in their rendition of uncommon mother figure. Unlike the articles found in

The Politics of (M)Othering: Womanhood, Identity, and Resistance in African

Literature, this study would like to open the opportunity of such a strong mother figure to have a place in literary works, in the world of patriarchal society. It shows that there are male authors who are inspired by the mother figure in their lives.

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C. Objects of Study

As stated in the introduction, the purpose of the study is to find out the depiction of mother in some selected literary works taken from three different continents. Three of them are novels, i.e. Mother by Maxim Gorky, One Hundred

Years of Solitude by Gabriela Marquez, and Emak by Daoed Joesoef, and the other is a compilation of short stories entitled Ibu.

Gorky’s Mother, a novel of two parts, is translated from Russian into

English by Margaret Wettlin. It represents the literary work from the European continent. This novel is also translated into Indonesian by Pramoedya Ananta

Toer in 1955 from its Dutch version and it has been reproduced by Kalyamitra in

2002. Written in 1906, this work has been translated into many languages all over the world.

Mother is set against the backdrop of Russia during the industrial revolution. Gorky used written forms as his weapon against the government at that time. Considered as a dangerous enemy by Stalin, Gorky died in 1936; and a police chief under Stalin government admitted that he ordered the murder of

Gorky24.

The main characters of Mother are Pelagea Nilovna (the mother) and Pavel

Vlassov (her son). Pelagea was an ordinary woman (wife and mother) who had to live a hard way and thought that she could not have better life, since her husband

(who was a factory labour) used to torture her with harsh words and actions. After her husband died, she lived with her only son and found out that his son was not an ordinary factory labour. Pavel opened his mother’s eyes about struggling to

24 Maxim Gorky, Ibunda, trans. Pramoedya Ananta Toer (Jakarta: Kalyamitra, 2002) xviii. The information is taken from the prologue written by Melani Budianta.

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have a better life. Pelagea soon learnt that her son was a member, even one of the leaders, of the labour movement in the factory he worked in.

Soon after Pavel was sent to prison, Pelagea took part in the movement actively. She gained courage to fight the injustice. Her actions made her a famous mother among the revolutionists; almost all of Pavel friends honoured her as one of the courageous mother ever. The changes of ideology were experienced by

Pelagea as a mother inspired many other people around her. She became an icon in the struggle against the government at that time.

One Hundred Years of Solitude is another famous novel which is also not originally published in English. It was written in Spanish and translated into

English by Gregory Rabassa. This novel has also been translated to many different languages, one of which is Indonesian (published by “Bentang

Pustaka”25). Because of this novel, Gabriela Garcia Marquez, the author, won several prizes in different countries. The year of the appearance of this novel was an important year for Marquez, since it was at the same time with the birth of his first child26.

The novel tells about the story of love and life of a family, Buendias, for around one hundred years in a village named Macondo. The story line is in cycle and circle, therefore the story does not focus on a certain character’s perspective.

Marquez also named the characters uniquely by naming the characters similar to their ancestor (parents and grandparents). This attempt might cause confusion to

25 Gabriela Marquez, Seratus Tahun Kesunyian trans. (Jakarta, Bentang Pustaka: 2007)

26 Biography of Grabiela Garcia Marquez, 1999 – 2010. 19 November 2010. < http://www.gradesaver.com/author/gabriel-marquez/ > 30

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the readers, but he tried to reduce it by providing the family tree at the beginning of the story.

The female character(s) in the story are quite energetic and usually live longer, especially Ursula Iguaran. She lives long enough to keep the family line.

Although Ursula possessed many virtues, she could not pass all of them to her female descendents. They only posses part of her virtues; thus it makes Ursula become the strongest female character throughout the novel.

Although many critics say that the depictions of the female characters are based on male description, it is believed that Ursula Iguaran played a significant role in keeping the family, as said by one of the critics discussed earlier. The story from Ursula’s perspective was more on how she faced the reality that her family went on from nothing into something and ended into nothing again; how she had to witness incestuous marriage again and again after her own. Ursula struggled to face the difficulties that her family faced and she tried hard to look after the family. She became the witness of the glorious moments as well as miserable periods of her family’s life.

Before the discussion on the objects of the study continues, it would be wise if the reason for choosing the specific Indonesian literary works is presented here. Unlike, the two novels famous novels above, the Indonesian literary works chosen for this study are not considered as major Indonesian literature. It might because the idea of patriarchal society is deeply rooted in the Indonesian culture and the Indonesian major literary works are not immune to it.

However, studies in literature may function to educate the society. It should help to make people aware of the current situation, i.e. ignorance of the

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important role of mother, for example. The selected Indonesian fiction chosen here means to achieve this end. Indeed, awareness is the vehicle that brings us to better changes. As it is, the exploration of precious but unknown or less well known fiction is worth conducting. Thus being said, the novel Emak by Daoed

Joesoef and the short stories taken from Ibu are used as the objects in this study.

Daoed Joesoef’s Emak talks about a mother who lives in the patriarchal society but she does not pass down the negative values she experienced in living in such society. Her way of thinking shows that she is open minded and this kind of way of thinking is supported by the condition of her family.

The story is presented chapter by chapter with specific sub-titles which give details of what Emak has done throughout her life. She is also described not only through her way of raising her children through Joesoef’s eyes, but also through her relationship with other people and through the way she overcomes obstacles.

This novel actually tells the readers about the childhood of Daoed

Joesoef27, the author; thus making the main character of Emak a depiction of

Joesoef’s mother. Emak is the one who enables him to pursue his education as far as Sorbonne, France and becoming the first Indonesian who is graduated from that university. That makes him lead a better life than Emak.

In different ways, the compilation of Indonesian short stories, Ibu, are all stories about mother, about how women as mother play a crucial role in keeping the family and sending their children into their success. The short stories in the

27 Daoed Joesoef was the 16th Minister of Education and Culture in Indonesia. He was born in Medan, Sumatera Utara on 8 August 1926, thus making him almost 85 years old this year. He was the first Indonesian student who was graduated from Sorbonne University in France for his doctoral degree in economics.

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compilation also represent the depiction of mother from various cultural backgrounds in Indonesia. Thus, they show the struggle of mother in their own society. Furthermore, despite the different cultural backgrounds, still these short stories share one similarity, that is, how mothers struggle, suffer, and finally self- actualize themselves through their children’s future life.

Ibu was published in 1982 to commemorate the women’s struggle pioneered by RA. Kartini. The book publication was supported by “Menteri Muda

Urusan Peranan Wanita (“Minister of Women’s Affair”) at that time28.

Unfortunately, although the compilation was supported, it was not reprinted again after 1982. Worse than that, the compilation was not widely spread.

The compilation contains fourteen short stories, based on true stories or just fiction. All of the short stories reflect the life of mothers in Indonesia with different cultural backgrounds, such as Java, Sumatera, Nusa Tenggara; each with their own problems, but mostly financial. Out of the fourteen short stories, only three are chosen and they are “Persembahan untuk Ibu”, “Sepasang Mata Seorang

Ibu”, and “Anakkonhi Do Hamoraun Di Ahu!” The reasons for selecting the three are first, those stories have a clear description on strong mother that is being the central discussion of this study; and second they are written by male authors. The short stories reveal how mother could survive and save their family, especially their children, through their financial problems in different era. The way they struggle is quite different from the stereotypical description of mother in the

28 Ibu (Jakarta: Penerbit Kucica, 1982) 5. The Minister, Ny. L. Soetanto S.H. wrote a welcoming note attached to the beginning page of the compilation, stating that the publication of the book was a significant moment in the history of Indonesian women.

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society, where they tend to be described as weak and helpless creatures, who cannot fight against the difficulties.

Written by Dasriel Rasmala, “Persembahan untuk Ibu” is a story with matrilineal family system background where a family has to experience many sad moments due to the parents’ divorce. Ibu has to let her two sons go away from her arms in order to pursue their education in the hands of their father. Although she has to suffer being away from her two sons, she keeps on struggling to earn money to support their education. When she is asked to remarry again since she has no daughter (a woman usually does it due to the matrilineal system), she refuses the idea. Her only concern is to support her sons that later on they will be together again after her two sons finished their study. The story ends happily when finally she manages to join with her two sons again and that they [the sons] have their jobs and can make the dream of getting together again come true.

Taking the background of Rote Island, “Sepasang Mata Seorang Ibu” by

Gerson Poyk tells about how a mother has to help her husband in raising the family financial income for her two children to have better education. Her life is full of activities of earning money and taking care of the household, but she does it all happily and she never forgets to thank God for every blessing for the family.

Her hard work is not in vain; her two children successfully obtain their education and they get scholarship to continue their study in America. Although Ibu does not enjoy the fruit of her hard working directly, she has made her children have better lives.

The last short story comes from another part of Indonesia. This is the story of a powerful Batak mother written by Saut Poltak Tambunan. “Anakkonhi Do

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Hamoraun Di Ahu!” presents the struggle of a mother both to survive under patriarchal society and to give her best for her son’s education. Even Ibu has to experience a heart break due to her son’s failure to finish his study. She even has to accept the reality that Tambur, her only son, has lied to her saying that he needs money for his education; in fact he uses it for his new family (his wife and the newborn baby). When finally Tambur comes home and admits his mistakes, Ibu gracefully accepts his only son with his new family and asks him to go back to

Jakarta and continue his long abandoned study. She says that she is still able to support his education as long as he is willing whole-heartedly to finish it.

D. Theoretical Framework

In order to answer the research questions, the study is to make use of a feminist approach. There are two questions to answer. The first question will be answered by finding the depiction of mother through struggle, suffering, and self- actualization. Kate Millet’s statement that gender is prescribed is used to see how becoming a mother is constructed and this study shows how the mother figure in the selected fiction makes use of the role. The idea of motherhood as institution and experience as proposed by Adrienne Rich will give a wider understanding on the role of mother in the family. The mother figure in the fiction studied will be analyzed to see how can motherhood becomes a mother’s privilege experience as well as an institution to transfer gender construct to children done by patriarchy.

The second question will be answered after completing the answer to the first question. With the help of the theory from Kate Millet which says that family is patriarchal primary unit and the member of the unit is called an agent, the

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mother figure can be considered as an agent. Being constructed as a mother and having a different way in responding to the role prescribed (as answered by the first question) makes the mother figure is considered as an agent of change.

Adrienne Rich’s statement that patriarchal society depends on mother to preserve its power is used to see the potential power that a mother actually has. Although it is believed that mother is victimized by the patriarchal society, her function within the system is quite significant. This is to provide an example of the way mother is enabled to manoeuvre her role in patriarchal society so that her voice is heard as

Bell Hooks has stated.

Following each discussion, the comparison to African and Indonesian

(major) literary works is attempted to help support my argument that all mothers under discussion are strong mothers who struggle and self-actualize themselves.

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CHAPTER III MOTHER’ STRUGGLE, SUFFERING, AND SELF-ACTUALIZATION

This part of the thesis is to discuss the answer to the first research question, i.e. How mother are depicted in Gorky’s Mother, One Hundred Years of

Solitude by Marquez, Daoed Joesoef’s Emak and in three selected short stories from Ibu: “Persembahan untuk Ibu”, “Sepasang Mata Seorang Ibu”, and

“Anakkonhi Do Hamoraon Di Ahu!” through their struggle, suffering, and self- actualization? There will be three sub-headings presented in this part of the thesis: struggle, suffering, and self-actualization. Each section provides the analysis of the works under study. The analysis is also accompanied by the common depiction in the Indonesian major literary works to see the different depiction of the mother figure. The Indonesian major literary works taken are Merari Siregar’s

Azab dan Sengsara (1920), Salah Asuhan (1928) by Abdul Muis, and Umar

Kayam’s Sri Sumarah dan Bawuk (1986). The portrayal of mother taken from

Tsitsi Dangarembga’s Nervous Conditions (1989) will give clear a description of how the mother figure in the works under study is stronger than the African mother in this novel, for example.

This chapter contains non-stereotypical depictions of mother in these six works. By non-stereotypical, it means extraordinary, uncommon, challenging the main stream. For example, here mother is depicted as being strong and able to fight against obstacles, whereas, mother in most literary works is often depicted as weak, easy to give up, and follows the stream without struggling when facing obstacles.

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The portrayals are taken from the direct description by the authors, the other characters’ description about her, what the character says about herself, what other characters say about her, her actions, how she handles conflicts, etc. It is interesting that these uncommon portrayals of mother here are done by male authors. It shows that there are men who are in contact with such a strong mother; that there is opportunity to alter men not to be sexist by exposing their childhood with gender equity.

A. Struggle

The struggle here includes all activities done by mother in the selected works that reflect their attempts to save the family especially their children. They also show that the mother here is depicted against the mainstream.

To begin with, Pelagea, the character in Mother, is described as a woman who has to face her bad-tampered husband every day. She has to take the curse that comes out of her husband’s mouth. She complains but not aggressively. She keeps serving her husband with meals as he wants, although he asks for the service scornfully. The beginning of the first part of the novel describes the social and family life that Pelagea has. She lives in a labour class family where her husband works as a factory worker. Because of his bad behaviour, he is disliked by other workers. This kind of situation is common in the working class family as shown below:

Their [working class people’s] human relations were dominated by a lurking sense of animosity, a feeling as old as the incurable exhaustion of their muscle. People were born with this malady of the spirit inherited from their fathers, and like a dark shadow it accompanied them to the very grave, making them do things revolting in their senseless cruelty. ...

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They cursed their children and beat them mercilessly, but the fighting and drinking of young people was taken a matter of course; when the fathers had been young they too had fought and drunk, been trashed in their turn by their mother and fathers.29

The quotation above displays fathers’ bad habits of drinking, fighting, cursing and beating their children which are passed from fathers to their sons.

That condition might give no opportunity for people to question and fight against injustice since it is considered a normal way of life. However the fact that Pelagea does not follow the tradition of cursing and beating her only son is something else. She shows that she tries not to be the same as her elders.

Living in a house with a spouse who always says bad things is hardly imagined. One might feel that she has enough of such tortures and decides to run away, although it may be a common view. What Pelagea has done shows that she struggles to keep the family, to stay within the family for the sake of love for her only son. She wants him to become a better person than his father, meaning not preserving the tradition of drinking, cursing, beating, and fighting.

The death of her husband does not make Pelagea stop struggling. In her affection to her only son, once again she has to struggle to stay with her son, when sadly she finds that his only son behaves exactly like his father, after his father passed away. Pavel, the son, imitates his late father’s behaviour by coming home drunk, shouting to her mother when he asked for meals. The words like “Supper!”

“Be quick!” (Mother, 15) remind Pelagea of her late husband. Thus it makes her

29 Maxim Gorky, Mother, trans. Margaret Wettlin (Moscow: The Foreign Language Publishing House, 1906 (1946)) 11; All subsequent reference to this work will be used in this thesis with pagination only.

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sad. On the contrary she faces her son’s behaviour with such gentleness and affection.

The similar struggle is also experienced by Ursula in Marquez’s One

Hundred Years of Solitude when she has to face the condition that her husband,

José Arcadio Buendía, is drowned into his experiments, abandoning his wife and family. She has to work hard to keep the family, especially her children. Although

Ursula usually gives in to her husband’s obstinacy30, she is strong enough to run the household and to protect her children from their father’s crazy ideas:

That was the period in which he acquired the habit of talking to himself [José Arcadio Buendía], of walking through the house without paying attention to anyone, as Ursula and the children broke their backs in the garden, growing banana and caladium, cassava and yams, ahuyama roots and eggplants. (OHYS, 4 – 5) ...

“If you have to go crazy, please go crazy all by yourself!” she [Ursula] shouted. “But don’t try to put your gypsy ideas into the heads of the children.” (OHYS, 5)

The above quotation shows how Ursula tries to protect her children from her husband’s ideas, which she does not believe in and considers ridiculous.

Having a husband who does not care about the existence of his family makes Ursula have to be firm and struggle hard to keep the family. She becomes the only one whom the children rely on. If she is not a kind of strong mother, she will see her family in ruin because of having such a husband. Another mother might become stressed out and run away from the problem, knowing that she does not have any other family member to rely on. But Ursula reacts differently: far

30 Gabriel G. Marquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude, trans. Gregory Rabassa (England: Harper and Row Publishers, Inc., 1970) 7; All subsequent reference to this work (abbreviated OHYS) will be used in this thesis with pagination only. 40

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away from her family she tries hard to take care of her children, the closest family she has.

Living in a patriarchal society makes the mother figures have no choice in life. They have to live under the shadow of their husbands; they do not have any power to decide things; their duty is mainly to obey their husbands, take care of the children, and do domestic works. However, the mothers discussed in this thesis struggle in their own ways; they do not surrender to their life condition, in fact they do not want their children to experience the similar condition.

Meanwhile, in the short story “Persembahan untuk Ibu” by Dasriel

Rasmala, one of the short stories from the compilation Ibu, the mother figure has to experience losing a husband due to the third party. She has to face the reality that her husband married another woman and that makes her and her children have to leave Jakarta and go back to their hometown. However this condition does not make her surrender. She tries hard to keep her children well, especially their education. She lets her children go back to Jakarta to their father, without her, in order to continue their study. It is shown when her son rejects his father’s order to go back to Jakarta without his mother:

Akhirnya kuputuskan untuk tidak menuruti kemauan Ayah. Ketika keputusan itu kusampaikan pada Ibu, di luar dugaanku Ibu tidak setuju. Dengan setengah marah Ibu berkata, “Kau tidak usah pikirkan Ibu. Yang penting sekolahmu!” katanya.31

[Finally I decided not to obey Father’s order. But when I uttered my decision to Mother, to my surprise she did not agree. “You don’t have to think of me,” she said half angrily. “The most important is your study!” she said.]

31 Dasriel Rasmala, “Persembahan untuk Ibu” in Ibu (Jakarta: Penerbit KUCICA, 1982) 31; All subsequent reference to this work will be used in this thesis with pagination only.

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The struggle faced by Emak in Emak is something else. It is not about how she has to keep the children without husband, but more on how she has to be firm in deciding the children’s education. It is because at that time (around 1930s) in

Medan, South Sumatra, having higher education is not common especially for girls. Although Emak does not know how to read and write Latin letters, she knows how to read and write in Arabic. Understanding her own lack of education might become her greatest motive to send her children to school, although she has to do it against all odds as shown below:

Dewasa itu pendidikan tradisional yang berlaku di daerah tempat aku lahir dan dibesarkan adalah bahwa anak gadis sebanyak mungkin tinggal di rumah, dipingit, sambil belajar dari ibu dan kakak membuat makanan, menyulam, merenda, dan berbagai seni rumah tangga lainnya. Sejauh mengenai anak laki-laki, sebagian terbesar tidak bersekolah, dapat bermain sepuas hati atau membantu ayah melakukan berbagai pekerjaan fisik. Namun semua anak, baik laki-laki maupun perempuan, belajar di madrasah atau mengaji di surau.

Berlawanan dengan kebiasaan ini, emak mengirim kakak-kakakku [all girls] ke sekolah; ... “Seni hidup yang harus dikuasai oleh kaum perempuan bukanlah seni menyiapkan makanan atau mengurus anak semata-mata,” kata emak setiap kali kepada teman-temannya. “Sekolah akan membantu gadis-gadis kita memperluas pengetahuan mereka dan mempelajari banyak hal lain yang kita sendiri tidak mengetahuinya. Anak- anak kita ini pasti akan memerlukan semua itu bila mereka kelak menjadi ibu rumah tangga.”32

[Those days, the traditional education in the place where I was born and grown up was that the girls must stay at home most of the time, being secluded, while learning from mother and older sisters to cook, to do embroidery and lace, and all household stuff. While boys, most of them did not go to school, they can play and help their father doing physical works. But all children, boys and girls, learn to read Koran in Islamic school or in surau (small prayer-house).

Against these routines, Emak sent my older sisters to school; ... “the art of life which has to be mastered by girls is not only on preparing food and taking care of children,” she said each time to her friends. “School will

32 Daoed Joesoef, Emak, (Jakarta: Penerbit Buku Kompas, 2010) 82 – 83; All subsequent reference to this work will be used in this thesis with pagination only.

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help our daughters enrich their knowledge and learn many things that we don’t know. Our daughters must need all of those things when they become mother in the future.”]

An example from African literature is taken from Dangarembga’s Nervous

Conditions. In the novel the depiction of mother is very different from the portrayal of mother in the work under study. When Nhamo, her son, cannot continue his education because the family does not have enough money to send him to school, she is very determined in struggling to earn more money for her son’s education.

Fortunately, my mother was very determined in that year. She began to boil eggs, which she carried to the bus terminus and sold to passengers passing through ... she also took vegetables – rape, onions and tomatoes – extending her garden so that there was more to sell.33

However unlike Emak in Joesoef’s Emak who thinks that girls should also taste proper education, the mother figure in Nervous Condition does not show the similar interest and eagerness to send her daughter, Tambudzai, to school. She does not listen when Tambudzai states her eagerness to have the same opportunity as her brother has. She discourages Tambudzai by saying that being a woman and black is a double burden, the first because you have to bear children, take care of them and your husband and the second because it makes you poor (NC, 16). It shows that the mother in this novel adheres to the patriarchal system which allows sons to have more privilege to be better than daughters in all affairs.

While, in order to support her children’s education, the mother in

“Persembahan untuk Ibu”, tries to earn a living and tells her children that they can ask for some help whenever they need whenever their father cannot fulfil. She

33 Dangarembga Tsitsi, Nervous Conditions, (Washington: Seal Press, 1989) 15; All subsequent reference to this work (abbreviated NC) will be used in this thesis with pagination only.

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starts to be accustomed to the village way of life and she becomes a trader: “Jika suatu ketika kau membutuhkan uang dan ayahmu sedang tidak punya, kirim saja surat, pasti Ibu kirimkan.” (Ibu, 34) [“If one day you need some money and your father cannot give, send me a letter, I will send some.”]. What she says to her children is true, for example, when one of her sons asks for money for some required books for his study, she sends some. It shows to her children that she is able to support herself and has some more to spend for her children, although she might have to work extra harder.

Mother’s struggle to earn some money for her children’s education is seen also in another short story in the collection. It is in the short story by Gerson Poyk entitled “Sepasang Mata Seorang Ibu”. Mother, in her daily routine to take care of the family and do house chores, tries to get more income to pay for her children school tuition. She makes coconut oil and kue cucur34 to sell: “Untuk mengongkosi sekolahku dan sekolah adikku, ibuku memasak minyak dan menggoreng kue cucur untuk dijual.” (Ibu, 47).

In another short story, “Anakkonhi Do Hamoraon Di Ahu”35, which portrays the life of Batak mother, it is shown that mother have to work hard everyday, while the fathers stay at home and have chit chats with other fathers most of the time. That kind of view is common in the culture of Batak. Mothers become the bread winner for the family although they are less appreciated:

Masih jelas dalam ingatan Tambur, betapa ibunya setiap hari bergelut dengan lumpur sawah serta duri ladang. Sementara sang ayah duduk

34 Fried cake made of flour and sugar.

35 It is written by Saut Poltak Tambunan. The title means “Anakku adalah segalanya bagiku!” or “My child is my everything!”

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bergoyang kaki di lepau tuak, mengulas – ulas obrolan yang tak putus – putus. (Ibu, 149 – 150)

[Fresh in Tambur’s memory how hard his mother has to struggle in the field with mud and torn everyday, while his father is relaxing in food stall – drinking and chatting the endless topics.]

For these mothers, their children are their valuable belonging; they are ready to give up everything they have, to do everything they can in order to see them holding the highest degree (Ibu, 148). Sometimes they also do trading in the harbours; they have to hold back their desire to dress up like other women in order to keep the money for their children (Ibu, 148 – 148).

Mothers in the last two discussions show another proof that although they live in patriarchal society where usually father becomes the bread winner, they still have to work hard to earn money. They usually do it in order to send their children to school. It shows that mothers do not only do the house works, they also have to work outside the house to make money. Thus, the works of mother are quite complicated and hard compared to fathers’, but still little appreciation is given to them.

The firm mother is seen in Emak when she decides that her children must move to a Dutch school to get better education. She shows that she contributes in the decision making and her husband tends to consent to her idea. At that time, most Indonesians saw the Dutch as enemy. People hated anything connected to

Dutch. Emak’s brother is known as a patriot against the Dutch colonial government, hence making people talk behind her back regarding the decision to send her children to a Dutch school. But for Emak it is the only way to fight against the Colonial power. Here, she shares her brother’s opinion on why the

Dutch can defeat the Indonesians for having more knowledge than the natives. 45

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Thus, in order to defeat them, Indonesians must likewise strive to gain some knowledge. This is one of the reasons why she appears firm and strong:

“...saya [Emak] kira si Leman ... benar ketika mengatakan bahwa Belanda sampai menakhlukkan kita bukan karena jumlah manusianya yang banyak tetapi karena ilmunya yang tinggi. Maka kalau kita ingin menghancurkan kekuasaan mereka, kita harus kuasai ilmu mereka itu!” (Emak, 87)

[“...I think Leman is right when saying that Dutch defeated us not because of the massive number of people but because of their high knowledge. Thus in order to defeat them, we need to master their knowledge.”]

Her firmness makes her husband equally tenacious. It seems that Emak is a person who usually struggles to get the things she considers right. She can exercise her ability in speaking personally to other people to influence them in a good way. When she takes her son – who is too young to enter school but she sees that he is eager to join one – to register to one of school which rejects him, she does not give up and tries to speak with the school principle to accept her son as one of the students. We can see her perseverance from the quotation below:

Emak berusaha untuk mendengarkan dengan teliti namun tetap menawar supaya aku [her son] dapat diterima. “Saya kira Engku,” ... “untuk menuntut ilmu lebih banyak diperlukan kecerdasan otak daripada panjangannya tangan ataupun jari.” ... Demikian kulihat mereka berdua bertukar pendapat. Akhirnya penjelasan emak masuk di akal kepala sekolah. Engku kepala sekolah mengubah keputusannya. Aku dapat diterima tetapi sebagai percobaan selama enam bulan. (Emak, 84)

[Emak listened to school principle attentively, while bargaining for my acceptance. “I think Engku (Sir),” ... “to gain knowledge needs intelligence more than the length of arms or fingers.”36 ... Thus, I saw the two were arguing one another. Finally Emak’s explanation makes sense for the school principle. He changed his decision and I was accepted but with six months probation.]

36 It happened due to the test admission was to stretch the middle finger of the right hand over the head to touch the peak of left ear.

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Emak’s firmness in struggling to give her son the best education she can give reminds me to the contradictory portrayal of mother figure in Nervous

Condition. One figure of mother in the story, Tambudzai’s mother, is a mother who gives in her faith in the hands of others, for she does not believe in her own power. She even does not try her best to give her children education. She and her husband, Jeremiah, always give the decision of their children education to their educated brother, Babamukuru. It is seen from the part of story where

Babamukuru tells the family that he will take care of Nhamo [Jeremiah’s son]’s education. Jeremiah accepts Babamukuru decision without question. He and his entire family adore Babamukuru much and they really depend on him. It is shown when the family always say “Thank you, muera bonga37. Muera bonga, we thank you. Would we, could we survive without you! Truly, we could not!” (NC, 47)

Although education has been an issue in Nervous Condition, its position is different from that is in Emak and the three Indonesian short stories. In this

African novel, Babamukuru as the only person in the family who earns high education has been set as the head of the family; he is adored due to his high education that gives him good luck to earn money to help the big family, not only the nuclear family. This fact does not make the rest of the family struggle to get educated or at least to give their children the best education. While in Emak and the three Indonesian short stories, education is considered as the only vehicle to free them from poverty and mother plays an active role to make this dream come true.

37 A term used to show respect when a person has given something to someone else.

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Not only do they have to struggle to support their financial condition – both to fulfil their daily needs and to send their children to school, these mothers also struggle to raise their children well. Pelagea also experiences it: living in industrial revolution era makes Pelagea struggle to understand her son’s way of thinking. Pavel, her son, is one of the leaders in labour movements at that time.

Pelagea, unable to read, does not understand the forbidden books that Pavel read.

Although she is uneducated, Pelagea is bright enough to absorb the knowledge that Pavel tries to transfer. She understands her son’s struggle and is willing to take part in it. Although being frightened to be caught as her son was, she put her courage to help the movement delivering the illegal leaflets to labours in the factory where her late husband worked. She does it as Pavel’s hand extension from the jail where he is now. Her love to her son makes her understand him better and understand the movement that Pavel is involved in; but she considers her action as a means to save Pavel from the jail. The quotation below will explain:

..., she [Pelagea] added ecstatically, “Let them see that Pavel’s hands reach beyond that jail! Let them see that!” ... It was clear to her that if the leaflets kept appearing at the factory, the management could not blame her son for them. (Mother, 81)

Marquez’s Ursula is also a firm mother; one of the situations that shows her firmness is when her husband wants to travel again and leave Macondo, the piece of land that they found. He believes that they will find a better place then

Macondo; he seduces Ursula with promises, but Ursula is quite firm, she does not want to leave. Even when her husband says that people will stay in a place after they have one of them passed away, and the family has not yet any dead, so they

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have to move on Ursula tries to hold on. With her courage she says that: “If I have to die for the rest of you to stay here, I will die” (OHYS, 14). She dares to say that because she thinks about her sons, although usually Ursula is depicted as a wife who is submissive to her husband’s will. It might need a huge courage to struggle against her fear to her husband in order to save her children.

The mothers’ struggles discussed above are the struggles against the financial condition and the social construct on women. Mostly they consider that they have to fight against the situations because of their children; they never think about themselves. These kinds of depictions are quite different to those ordinary depictions of mother, who are usually weak and defeated by the circumstances around them. The ordinary depictions of mother which we commonly see on our

‘sinetron’ are that they are weak and helpless; if they are depicted as strong ones, they might be positioned as the antagonists (the evil sides). The strong mothers that try hard to struggle become the main characters in these selected stories, whereas in other literary works they might serve as ornaments to complete the story lines.

The similar struggles cannot be found either in some known Indonesian novels. Mothers in Merari Siregar’s Azab dan Sengsara, for example, are depicted as submissive: they tend to accept their condition without fighting, not even for their children. Likewise, their husbands are the decision makers and they just follow the order. This is in line with the Javanesse idea of swarga nunut - neraka katut, meaning that no matter what, where a wife would end will just in accordance to what her husband’s deed; that a wife is just a passive companion.

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The figure of mother in Abdul Muis’ Salah Asuhan even does not support her son. She holds the tradition of choosing a wife for her son, regardless her son’s own choices. The way she preserves the tradition and does not struggle against it, later on will bring disappointment in her son’s life. It is proved in the following quotation.

...Tapi yang sangat berarti bagi ibu, sangat susah ibu memikirkannya, ialah karena engkau sudah lama kami pertunangkan dengan Rapiah: kami sudah bertimbang tanda. Dan itulah sebabnya maka mamakmu, Sutan Batuah, suka merugi beratus sampai beribu buat menyekolahkan engkau...38

[...However, one thing that has been my concern, my deep thought, is that we have arranged your engagement with Rapiah for quite long time: we have exchange token for engagement. Therefore your uncle, Sutan Batuah, was willing to lose out hundreds to thousands (rupiah) to send you to school...]

The above illustration is taken from the part when Hanafi’s mother tells her son that his engagement with Rapiah has been arranged since they were children. According to the local custom (Minangkabau), Rapiah’s father has obligation to give financial support as the wedding token for Hanafi. The wedding gift is the bound between the two children, Hanafi should pay the debt by marrying Rapiah. Hanafi’s mother insists her son to pay the debt and she does not like to see Hanafi to have a close relationship with Corrie, the Dutch girl.

To conclude, each mother in the works studied has experienced conditions which make her has to struggle, to fight against her unluckiness for her children’s better future. The conditions that each mother has to face vary, ranging from bad – tempered husband to economical condition. But there is a similarity on the goal of

38 Abdoel Moeis, Salah Asuhan (Jakarta: Balai Pustaka, 1981) 73.

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each struggle that is for the sake of their children. Here we see that children become the reason for mother to fight against such circumstances.

Compared to the mother in the fiction studied, the mother in Nervous

Condition does not show an equal effort to support her son and daughter to have their education. The struggle done by mother in the work under study is also not found in Indonesian major literary works, Azab dan Sengsara and Salah Asuhan, for example.

B. Suffering

Not only the mothers under discussion experience struggle in order to save their family, but also they have to suffer. The suffering experienced by these mother figures is presented below.

Some mothers in the selected works have to suffer for their family and children. Through their suffering, they put hopes that their children will have better lives.

Through her struggle, Pelagea suffers. When she has to face the reality of living with a husband who has cursing and beating habits, naturally she has to struggle to put herself together to stay with her family. But beyond her struggle, she also experiences suffering. She has to suffer from the pain that she receives from the cursing and beating done by her husband.

Pelagea has to suffer for her son too. The suffering starts when Pavel is arrested because he leads a labour strike against the factory management. She has to overcome her fear and lives under pressure to help her son continuing his struggle. At the end of the story, Pelagea seems conquering her fear and dares to

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travel alone and brings the leaflets of her son’s speech to give it to other people who have the similar mission with Pavel.

She even suffers before she finally dies in order to help her son to reach other people from jail. She is in doubt whether to run before she is caught, but finally she decides to speak up and throws the leaflets to the crowd in the station where she gets caught. Although they beat her, they choke her, and treat her badly; she keeps delivering the message through her last words.

They [the spy and gendarme] pushed her in the back, in the neck, neat her on shoulders and head; everything flashed and whirled in a tornado of shouts and wails and whistles, something dull and deafening struck her ears, filled her throat, choked her, the floor sank, her knees gave way, she winced under lancet thrusts of pain, her body grew heavy, swayed helplessly. (Mother, 383)

The above quotation shows the suffering that she has to endure because she wants to help her son. Her love to her only son has defeated her fear; she even dares to receive such punishment that brings her to death.

Not many mothers could stand on that kind of physical suffering. Pelagea actually could run away from the situation; as a common human being, she is in doubt whether or not to run away in such condition. She has to choose between abandoning her son’s speech and saves her life or being caught in order to keep her duty, as the following quotation proves:

... She realized she was being shadowed. There could be no doubt about it. “Maybe not yet,” she answered with a shudder. “Caught!” she declared a moment later, forcing herself to face the truth. She glaced about without seeing anything, while thoughts, like sparks, flashed through her mind. “Ought I to leave the suitcase and go away?” This was replaced by a brighter spark. “What? Abandon the words of my son? Give them over into such hands?” She cluthced the suitcase. “Ought I to go off with it? Run away?” Such thoughts were enemies, forced on her from outside. ... 52

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Suddenly, in one supreme effort, she threw off her thoughts, stamped out all these mean, feeble little sparks and said to herself imperiously, “Shame on you!” (Mother, 378 – 379)

The suffering that Pelagea experienced is not only physical. She is quite tortured when she knew her beloved son is caught and sent to jail for unlimited time. Pavel is her spirit to stay with her bad tempered late husband, thus his absence in Pelagea’s daily life makes her sad. Some readers might find that

Pelagea joins the movements because she is aware of the importance; but for me it is firstly because of her love to her son. She tries to understand Pavel and listens to what he says. Pavel is her life spirit.

Pelagea is seen as a submissive woman in Pavel’s eyes: “She was all softness and sadness and submissiveness ...” (Mother, 17), but he does not realize the actual power that his mother has. Enduring such suffering by her husband and fear from being caught when trying to deliver her son’s speech, Pelagea shows that she has a strong character both physically and mentally, a characteristic that is mostly attached to male character.

The similar suffering is also experienced by Ursula. It is when she has to struggle to keep her family (her children) while her husband abandons his duty as a father due to his love of experiments. Ursula actually suffers from inequality of parents’ duty to raise children, since her husband does not do his part in raising the children. Ursula has to be a kind of single parent although she still has her husband around. It shows that she has strong characteristics; if she is not strong she would probably leave the family or go crazy or not care of her family and not do her responsibilities as a mother.

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Another suffering faced by Ursula is losing her belonging because of her husband. He asks several of her valuable belongings to be sold to run his experiments; they are the money from the gold coins that she inherited from her father to spend for a proper occasion.

...two magnetized ingots and three colonial coins in exchange for the magnifying glass. Ursula wept in consternation. That money was from a chest of gold coins that her father had put together over an entire life of privation and that she had buried underneath her bed in hopes of a proper occasion to make use of it. (OHYS: 3)

Ursula also loses some of her gold coin again to be melted for her husband’s experiment as seen in the novel on page 8.

Ursula also experiences suffering when she has to take care of her two sick girls, who have weird behaviours like eating earth and locking in the bathroom and writing letters which are never sent; both are suffering from loneliness. It is said that Ursula barely has enough strength to take care of the two girls at the same time (OHYS, 70).

The two mothers (Pelagea and Ursula) have to suffer in their duty as parents: to protect and take care of their children. The figure of mother in Emak also experiences the similar suffering. Emak is willing to stay in the house which has become narrower since there is a road development project which reduces the house area. She does not want to move to another place, the place that her husband promised, because in the new place going to school is difficult. She used to live in a big house, but tries to be accustomed to the smaller house for the sake of her children’s education:

...Namun emak tetap ingin menetap di kampung pinggiran kota ini. ... Alasan emak adalah supaya kami, anak-anaknya, tetap mudah bersekolah. Di luar kota tidak ada sekolah. (Emak: 88)

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[...However, Emak insisted to stay in this suburban village. ... Her reason was to make it easier for us, her children, to go to school. There was no school out of town.]

Ibu in “Persembahan untuk Ibu” has to suffer being away from her two sons, because their father, her ex-husband, asks them to go to Jakarta to continue their study without their mother (Ibu, 31). When she says goodbye to her children in Teluk Bayur, the harbour, she tries hard not to cry. But after seeing her youngest cries, she could not stand crying.

Ketika akan naik kapal, Ibu memelukku dan adikku erat. Aku tahu Ibu menahan tangis. Matanya merah. Suaranya agak serak. ... Ibu yang sejak tadi menguatkan diri meledak juga. Ibu memalun adikku dalam tangisnya. (Ibu, 33)

[While we are about to get into the ship, Ibu holds me and my brother tide. I know that she holds her tears. Her eyes are red. Her voice is hursky. ... Ibu who tries hard to manage herself not to cry, bursts into tears. She holds my brother in her tears.]

It is quite difficult for a mother to be away from her children, especially when they are still young. But the pain she suffers is for the sake of her children’s future life, thus she tries hard to overcome it. It is natural for a mother to experience such a loss because, according to Rich, it is an issue of motherhood as experience; i.e. mothering, as a natural experience39.

The mother figure in “Anakkonhi Do Hamoraon Di Ahu!” has to suffer from heartbreak, since her son, Tambur, cannot fulfil her hopes of having an educated son. Tambur lies to his parents; he has got married and has a baby without his parents’ knowledge. Knowing the truth of her son’s failure, she does not give up on him. She believes that Tambur can start and succeed in his study if

39 Adrienne Rich, “Of Woman Born: Motherhood as Experience and Institution.” Feminism: A Reader, ed. Maggie Humm. (London: Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1992) 270. 55

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he has given another chance. She is willing to take care of Tambur’s new family, his wife and baby: “... Ibumu bilang kepada Ayah bahwa ia tetap ingin kau meneruskan kuliah. Istri dan anakmu biar sajalah tinggal di sini menunggu sampai kuliahmu selesai.” (Ibu, 154) [“ ... Your mother said to me that she wants you to continue your study in a college. Your wife and son can stay here while waiting for you to finish your study.”]

Suffering from heartbreaking, Bawuk’s mother in Umar Kayam’s Sri

Sumarah dan Bawuk also wisely accepts her daughter’s decision or choice.

Although Bawuk has involved in a dangerous situation that can make her become the enemy of the state, she encourages her to do what she feels the best of being a wife. Seeing this through the lense of feminism, Bawuk’s submissiveness in searching and following her husband, Hasan (who is the leader of PKI), without question as analyzed in Bakdi Sumanto’s Sri Sumarah, Pariyem, dan Bu Bei40, is not in line. It is because Bawuk does not have any right to choose due to her position as a wife who should look for her missing husband.

By letting her go, Bawuk’s mother preserves the patriarchal value that a wife should obey her husband and should follow him no matter it is right or wrong, good or bad. This kind of depiction forms a kind of structure of how a good wife should be. Most of the time, this dangerous situation is not realized by the society, especially by its female members because it is wrapped nicely under the name of culture, specifically named Javanese culture. But we must remember that Indonesia is a plural nation whereby it has many different customes colour its culture. To create a solid Indonesian culture we need to have the right recipe

40 Bakdi Sumanto, Sri Sumarah, Pariyem dan Bu Bei (Yogyakarta: Kepel Press, 2008) 43 – 46.

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consisting of many different good ingredients from each local tradition. Thus, we need to take positive values from each local culture and leave the non-beneficial ones behind for the sake of a better society.

Although not quite obvious, Ibu in “Sepasang Mata Seorang Ibu” also has to suffer from the hard working. But she does not accept that as a suffering, she enjoys being busy in doing her housework as well as in earning more money for her children’s education. Because of her love to her children, she is willing to work hard to help her husband raise extra money to send their children to school.

Ibuku juga demikian sibuknya setiap hari. Kalau tiba musim menanam, ia menanam. Kalau tiba musim menuai, ia menuai. Kalau tiba musim memasak gula, ia sibuk mencari kayu bakar dan memasak gula. Jika semuanya selesai, ia sibuk menganyam dan menenun. (Ibu, 47)

[My mother is also busy everyday. When planting season comes, she plants. When harvest season comes, she harvests. When the season of cooking palm sugar comes, she will be busy looking for firewood and cooking palm sugar. When everything has been done, she will be busy plaiting and weaving.]

The above quotation shows how mother is busy with many things to do throughout the year.

From the discussion, it can be inferred that the suffering that each mother experienced accompanies the struggle that she does in an attempt to save her family life. The suffering that those mother face does not make them give up in struggling for their family. The struggle that they do and the suffering that they experience have led them to actualize their existence through the life of their children.

In contrast, the mother in the two Indonesian novels previously discussed,

Azab dan Sengsara and Salah Asuhan, do not face suffering as those found in the works under study. The suffering is there in the novels, but it is not faced by the 57

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mother; it is more likely faced by their children. If these mothers suffer, they suffer from the male domination, from the gender role constructed by the society.

And because the suffering is not the result of struggling, therefore the suffering does not result in any changes in their lives. Hence, their children will have to suffer the similar unequal conditions as well.

Actually in Salah Asuhan, Hanafi’s mother has to suffer but the suffering is different. Here, Ibu has to suffer from facing the reality that Hanafi, her son, is not a good boy and not a good husband for the wife that she has chosen for him. It is proven when Hanafi scorns his wife, Rapiah, and his little son, Syafei, in front of his friends: “Sambil merentakkan anak itu ke tangan ibunya, dikatailah istrinya di muka kawan-kawannya dengan segala nista dan penghinaan...”41 [While giving the child with a sudden movement to the hand of his mother, he (Hanafi) humiliates his wife in front of his friends]. Rapiah cannot do anything except crying and knowing it, Ibu does not do anything better than crying and hugging her daughter in-law and her grandson: “..., lalu dipeluk dan ditangisinyalah menantu dan cucunya yang malang itu.”42 [..., then she (Hanafi’s mother) hugs her daugther in-law and grandson and cries taking pity to them].

It is quite in a contradiction to the fiction discussed in this thesis. Usually the mother in the works struggle for their children, then they are the ones who have to suffer because of struggling, and later on the children will get a better life.

In Nervous Condition, in contrast to the works studied, suffering is faced by the educated mother, Maiguru, who is highly educated but she cannot let

41 Moeis 95.

42 Moeis 96.

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herself out of the circle of patriarchal culture; although ironically, her husband,

Babamukuru, is also highly educated. Maiguru still preserves the patriarchal value that man (husband) should be put in her first concern. It is shown in the ritual of eating, where Maiguru always takes Babamukuru cold meal whenever his eating is stopped although he has not yet finished: “Maiguru said that Babakumuru’s old meal was no longer fresh. She said she would eat it herself, that Babakumuru should serve himself another portion of food” (NC, 81).

She also has difficulties to speak out her mind to her husband, she never has courage to say that she disagrees with her husband in some cases, until one day she feels she has enough and she lets her thoughts come out of her mouth to her husband and she flees from home. At first, she makes Nyasha, her daughter, believe that it is the turning point where she can also do the same and escape from the cage:

“I’ll tell you why, Tambu,” she [Nyasha] explained. “Sometimes I feel I’m trapped by that man, just like she is. But now she’s done it, now she’s broken out, I know it’s possible, so I can wait.” (NC, 174)

But Nyasha’s happiness does not stay long. She is disappointed knowing that her mother runs to Chido, her brother: “Nyasha was unhappy that Maiguru had gone to her brother. ‘A man! She always runs to men,’ she despaired.” (NC,

175). Then, she becomes even more frustrated because Maiguru comes home again showing that she still needs to be governed by man. Her action makes

Nyasha disappointed because she shows to her that she cannot break the chain of patriarchy. It breaks her heart knowing that her mother has failed to provide examples of how to break free from the condition: “’There’s no hope, Tambu.

Really, there isn’t.’” (NC, 175)

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Being an educated woman, Maiguru suffers; on the contrary Tambudzai’s mother although uneducated, she does not suffer. Education has opened

Maiguru’s mind over the inequality between women and men, but she experiences nervous condition where she cannot do anything about the injustice. Meanwhile, believing that a woman should obey her fate, Tambudzai’s mother does not feel the pain of being oppressed since she does not even know that the male domination does exist.

In conclusion, along with the struggle, these mothers also suffer. The suffering is mostly because these mother fight against the situation. Their sufferings is in line with their struggle, thus making the situations similar to the conditions discussed under the topic of struggle. They are family situation, financial condition, and children’s education. The mothers in the literary works discussed are the ones who suffer in order not to make their children suffer. This is an act that we call altruism. Coined by Aguste Comte in 1851, altruism means self-sacrifice for the benefits of others. The mother figures under studied are willing to suffer, to sacrifice themselves for the sake of their family especially their children. They feel happy when their children thrive and sad when their children suffer.

On the contrary, the mother figures in the Indonesian major literary works do not suffer, but their children do. Their children have to suffer from the decision that their mothers made for them, from not properly being supported by their mothers. While the mother’s suffering in Nervous Condition is something else.

Maiguru, one of the mother figures, being the most educated mother among her

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big family does not guarantee her happiness. In fact she has to bear agony in her life. Her misery grows worse since she cannot voice her mind freely.

C. Self-Actualization

With all deeds that have been done by these mothers, although unable to see the fruit by themselves, they have actualized themselves through their children and the people connected in their lives. Their hands have touched the lives of their children and other people around them, therefore they set the figures of mother as their example. These facts show that these mothers have modern points of view since it is described that those mothers do not come from middle to high class society and they even do not know how to read and write; they are not lucky enough to taste formal education.

To actualize oneself is to demonstrate one’s ability in certain aspects of life without being too proud of having it. Sometimes this action is done unconsciously, and the result of the action is not seen in the person doing it, but through other people around whose lives have been touched.

Pelagea touches Pavel’s friends with her love, strong will, and courage.

She makes people love her easily just because of her affection to her son and the tenderness that she shows to Pavel’s friends. Even one of Pavel close friends,

Andrei, considers her as the mother that he longs for sometimes. He even calls her nenko, an affectionate term for ‘mother’ used in the Ukraine: “When he called her

“nenko” it was as if an infant’s soft hand had caressed her cheek.” (Mother, 43)

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Does not want to make her hands idle, Pelagea makes use of anything she can to help her son’s movement. She gets rid of her fear to distribute leaflets in the factory. The following quotation proves it.

Then she added with sudden inspiration, “Give them to me! I’ll do it. I’ll find a way. I’ll ask Maria to take me on as a helper. I have to earn my bread somehow. I’ll take dinners to sell at the factory. I’ll manage.” ... “Let them see that Pavel’s hands reach beyond the jail! Let them see that!” (Mother, 80 – 81)

Then Pelagea proudly tells Andrei the things that she has done:

“Guess what I did today!” she exclaimed, and launched on an excited description of how she had taken the leaflets into the factory, slightly enhancing the tale in her enthusiasm. (Mother, 96)

When finally she can visit Pavel in jail, she tells him the things that she has done in a clever way: ‘“Oh, I’ve been taking all those things to the factory,” she said with a mischievous gleam in her eye.’ (Mother, 113). It shows that she feels happy because she is able to do something useful, this what is called self- fulfilment.

Similarly, Ursula, with her endless love for her children and grand children, becomes a role model for them. She actualizes herself through her way of keeping her family line. She does not keep herself from not taking care of the family. She does everything she can do to unite the whole family. By making herself useful as a mother, she actualizes herself.

Emak in Emak has inspired Daoed to continue his study. She says that books are the doors to the world: “Buku adalah pintu ke dunia... Dan bahasa asing adalah kunci penting pembuka pintu itu.” (Emak, 78) And she says that foreign language is the key to those doors, thus her children must master it. Although she cannot prove her own words, her son Daoed has done it for her. Through learning 62

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Dutch, he learns more books and gathers more knowledge. Her spirit has lead

Daoed Joesoef to be the first Indonesian who is graduated from Sorbonne, France.

(Emak, 1)

Living in a society which does not give an equal opportunity to women does not make Emak give up on her dream. Though in her age it is not common for a woman to ride a bicycle, she is eager to learn, ignoring the gossips around her activity of learning to ride bicycle. This action is a kind of protest against the condition of women at that time, and her lack of education does not hinder her to do so. But she does not do it only for herself; after she is able to ride the bicycle, she teaches her children to ride. Daoed dedicates one chapter of his novel to narrate how his mother learnt to ride bicycle.

Ibu in “Sepasang Mata Seorang Ibu” also actualizes herself through her children. Her two children are able to continue their study abroad (America) and become lecturers there. Although she cannot live in the society where her children live, she does not regret it; she is even proud of her two children, that she can give her best to make them continue their study. At the end of the short story, her son compares her to a legendary America, and she has defeated America:

Hitung-hitung, ibuku seorang yang tidak terpelajar telah bersaing dengan Amerika. Negeri ini memerlukan kurang-lebih 200 tahun untuk sampai kepada keadaannya sekarang. Akan tetapi, ibuku telah bekerja keras sehingga kedua anaknya, aku dan Bungsu dalam waktu 20 tahun telah “mengejar” Amerika! (Ibu, 57).

[My mother, though uneducated, has competed with America. This country needs about 200 years to be in the condition now. But, my mother has worked hard so that my sister and I, her two children, have pursued America in only 20 years.]

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Similarly, Ibu in “Persembahan untuk Ibu” has actualized herself through her children success in getting job and bringing them to meet and live together again:

Air mataku [the eldest son] menetes haru. Akhirnya mimpi itu terwujud juga. “Berkumpul kembali!” Betapa indahnya kalimat itu. Lebih indah lagi ketika aku bisa mewujudkannya secara nyata. (Ibu, 42)

[I am touched and my tears fall down. Finally that dream comes true. “Together again!” How beautiful that sentence is, moreover if I can make it true.]

Ibu in “Anakkonhi Do Hamoraon Di Ahu!” also makes herself useful by working hard to earn for a living and to send her only son to higher education.

Although she has to face bitter facts that Tambur [her son] has failed in finishing his study and comes home with wife and son [her grandson], she still puts hope for him to continue his study, to restart what he has left before. By not giving up her hope on Tambur, Ibu has to work harder again to earn more money for him to continue his study, although she has a daughter in – law to help, still in her old time she is willing to work hard again to pay her only son’s education. We can see it from the following quotation:

Tambur tertegun. Ditatapnya ibunya. Dilihatnya sorot mata orang tua itu berbinar penuh harap....Terasa benar oleh Tambur, betapa nyala api pengharapan masih tetap bernyala dalam dada ibunya yang sudah tua itu. (Ibu, 154)

[Tambur is silent, while looking at his mother. He sees the light from that old woman’s eyes which shine full of hopes. ... He truly feels how the flame of hopes is still burning in his old mother’s chest.]

These kinds of self-actualization cannot be found in Azab dan Sengsara and also Salah Asuhan, because the mother in those two literary works do not

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make use of their ability to raise their children better; thus they do not actualize themselves.

As for Tambudzai in Nervous Condition, the term self-actualization is not in her dictionary. Although she is properly educated, still she cannot make herself useful for her society, since the patriarchal system is deeply planted in the society.

She actually has the key to open the door to new perspective but she fails to bring her kind to step into the new world beyond the door; therefore, in my opinion, she does not actualize herself fully.

Most highly educated than Tambudzai, Maiguru has not actualized herself as a mother either. She earns her master’s degree, but she fails to employ her education to enlighten other people, especially other women around her. She even cannot make use of her chances in edifying her children so that they are open to any progress for better future. No matter how clever someone is; how rich a person might, be if that she/he does not make use of her/his capability for others, she/he has not yet fulfilled her/his self-actualization. If a person has not yet actualized her/himself, as a human being who cannot live without others, she/he is not yet complete.

Knowing how these two educated women – one of them is a mother, cannot make use of the knowledge they have to build a brand new family which may promise a new land for their future offspring; it is a paradox compared to the uneducated mother like Pelagea, Ursula, Emak, and the three Ibu who are breaking their backs just to put their children feet on the right ground. Especially

Emak and the three Ibu, they win in the competition over Maiguru in terms of raising their children well.

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Thus, it can be concluded that even though Pelagea, Ursula, Emak, and Ibu in three short stories do not reap a nice profit from all of their struggles and sufferings, they are said to actualize themselves through other people around them, especially their children. This is to say that these mothers have devoted their lives for the sake of their children and the people around them.

Sadly, mothers who are capable of doing something better do not do anything at all. They do not actualize themselves. Just like the common picture in our society where many of educated mothers fail to educate their children better.

D. Concluding Remarks

The mother figures in literary works under study are portrayed as mothers who are strong, firm, willing to face difficulties, and not self-centred. They are full of determination when they want to achieve a certain goal. They are not afraid of facing difficulties in life as long as their children have better lives than theirs.

Through their struggle, suffering, and self-actualization, mother here are represented in contradiction to the stereotypical mother in other literary works.

The way these mothers struggle, suffer, and actualize themselves shows that they have the unstereotyped quality. Djajanegara as quoted in Model

Penderitaan Tokoh Perempuan dalam Novel-Novel Populer Indonesia differenciates female and male characteristics43. Female is said to be dependen, passive, weak, non-aggressive, unable to compete, inner orientated, emphatic, caring, sensitive, subjective, intuitive, easy to give up, easy to accept, unwilling to

43 Yeni Mulyani S., Nantje Harijatiwidjaja and A. Sofian, Model Penderitaan Tokoh Perempuan dalam Novel-Novel Populer Indonesia (Jakarta: Pusat Bahasa Departemen Pendidikan Nasional, 2003) 7.

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take risk, and emotional. While male has characteristics of independent, aggressive, able to compete, leadership, task orientated, inovative, discipline, active, objective, analitical, brave, rational, certain, and non-emotional. From the list, we see that the mothers in the works studied also have the quality of male, that is independent, leadership, task oriented, discipline, active, analitical and brave. They are also equipped with their female characteristics of being emphatic, caring, sensitive, and intuitive. It shows that the stereotyped characteristics prescribed to women are not true.

The mothers discussed are not aware of their struggle, suffering, and self- actualization. They do things that they consider good for the sake of their family and children. They can be compared to salmons which have to struggle against the stream to reach the upper course of a river to lay eggs to continue their generation and have to sacrifice their life to do so. Not knowing what they have done for their children, the mothers studied sacrifice themselves to continue their existence in the future life through their children; it is their intuition as a mother. The title of one of the short stories describes the reason why a mother can do anything for her children. It is because “Anakonhi Do Hamoraun Di Ahu!”, in Bahasa Indonesia

“Anakku adalah segalanya bagiku!” or “My child is my everything!” as in

English. Children are the future of every mother to continue her legacy in order not to be vanished.

The actions that the mothers in works discussed make in their daily lives are the acts of feminism. As what Rich has highlighted, for them mothering has become an experience that they do whole-heartedly. Not knowing the meaning,

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they have also use it as a means of institution, not to preserve the patriarchal dynasty but to teach their children a better lesson that is equity.

Unfortunatelly, the fiction studied is not of readers’ favour. By contrast, the popular literary works which are sold out do not picture the strong mother.

Especially for the Indonesian literary works; most of them (particularly those of

Javanese culture) describe women who are firm in their submissiveness. These kinds of literary works seem to construct the idea of being a good wife and mother. By being a wife and mother, a woman should possess virtues of being patient, tenacious, passive, submissive to any conditions she faces. She also hopes to transfer those virtues to her daughter(s) who will pass them to her daughter(s).

Since the mother in literary works under study have struggled, faced suffering, and finally actualized themselves, they bring changes in their lives, especially in their children’s future lives. That discussion will lead into the discussion of their role as the agent of change which is presented in the next chapter.

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CHAPTER IV AGENT OF CHANGE – BREAKING THE CHAIN

"The hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world." -- William Ross Wallace

A. Agent of Change

As Kate Millet says that family can be considered as an institution in patriarchal society, thus every member of the family can be called as an agent44.

Each agent serves a certain role in the institution and each institution is important in the patriarchal society. Moreover, Rich also in her work Of Woman Born:

Motherhood as Experience and Institution says that

Patriarchy depends on the mother to act as a conservative influence, imprinting future adults with patriarchal values even in those early years when the mother-child relationship might seem most individual and private; it has also assured through ritual and tradition that the mother shall cease, at a certain point, to hold the child-in particular the son-in her orbit. Certainly it has created images of the archetypal Mother which reinforce the conservatism of motherhood and convert it to an energy for the renewal of male power.45

From the quotation above, it is clear that the role of mother is set by the patriarchal society as the agent to preserve the existence of its society. Patriarchal society depends on mother in building and developing its power. Even, mother is the one who prepares her sons to enter patriarchal society and to successfully lead women (including their mother).

44 Kate Millet, “Sexual Politics.” Women’s Liberation and Literature, ed. Elaine Showalter. (USA: Harcourt Crace Jovanovich, Inc., 1971) 299.

45 Adrienne Rich, “Of Woman Born: Motherhood as Experience and Institution.” Feminism: A Reader, ed. Maggie Humm. (London: Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1992) 273. 69

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Mother has a role as an agent of the patriarchal society; she is an extension of the patriarchal society to preserve its patriarchal value. It is because mother who is very close to her children has a task to socialize the role of being a woman and a man within the patriarchal society. She is to ensure that the children will be ready to enter the patriarchal society without rebellion.

According to Saya S. Shiraisi, there is a difference between mature daughter and son46. A daughter is considered to be matured if she can accept the resposibility to take her mother’s place whenever she is away or could not perform her tasks for the family. A mature son, on the contrary, cannot replace his mother’s role. He even needs another mother figure whenever he cannot find or he losses his mother, it is when Emak passed away, he finds that his wife can can fill the empiness of his heart (Emak, 290).

Here Joesoef is quite lucky since his marriage is supported by her mother

(Emak). Emak even fonds of his wife much. This makes it easier for Joesoef to ease his pain of loosing mother figure when Emak passed away, since he can find the new and similar mother figure through his wife.

“Aku bangga mempunyai Nak Sri Soelastri sebagai menantu. Seharusnya dia diberi nama intan dan cucuku yang dilahirkannya disebut mutiara ...” (Emak, 290)

[“I (Emak) am proud to have Sri Soelastri as daughter in-law. She should be named diamond and my grand daughter who is born from her is called pearl ...”]

This shows that the role of mother figure is very important in the male world. Men always in need of mother to take care of them and to give them the

46 Shiraisi 68 – 73.

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sense of warmth that heals every wound that they have. The search for a mother will give safety and security senses that they looked for.

The importance of mother in everyday life is proved by the terms connceted to the word ‘mother’ from many different culture across the world. We can find the similar term for the English ‘mother tongue’ in the Indonesian

‘bahasa ibu’, Dutch ‘moedertaal’, and ‘madre lingua’ in Italian. The term ‘mother land’ in English, is similar to ‘ibu pertiwi’ in Indonesian, ‘moederland’ in Dutch,

Italian ‘madrepatria’, Pilipino ‘inang-bayan’, and ‘matrubhumi’ in Sanskrit. In

Indonesian even more mother terms such as ‘ibu jari’ (thumbs) and ‘ibu kota’

(capital city) are found. These terms have confirmed that somehow mother has a significant place in the world.

Knowing the important role of mother in the patriarchal society as the agent of preserving the life of patriarchal society, it is also believed that mother can be an agent of change. If only mother is willing to tell the children the equal role between women and men, she will help women to gain more position within the patriarchal society; and if many mother are willing to do it, a change will take place. Women will gain more respect from the society.

We need to see that the imbalanced role between woman and man within the patriarchal society is not only due to the oppression done by men, but also because mother who has a role to socialize the social norms lets the inequity happen. She passes the bias role between woman and man on and on without thinking what might happen to the next generation. If mother does this from time to time, the fear of being inferior to man will not be erased from the woman’s mind.

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If only mother realize their power they have in the system of patriarchal society, it is not impossible that the patriarchal society will lose its control over women without violence. The condition that will bring the world peace between women and men is not only on behalf of women’s existence but also for the men’s life improvement.

Although this dream would seem impossible to reach, but we need to belief on any small changes that we can make to have a better society to live. Of course the changes would not be an extreem change (for example the downfall of patriarchal society), at least we do not continue to preserve its power in our everyday life.

The change is possible to happen; it does not require extraordinary activities, but it can start from every small unit in the patriarchal society, that is the family. Mother does not have to socialize the change to the whole society, but she must socialize the change to her children, boys and girls. And that the children will later on inspire other people to make the change.

To sum up, patriarchal society depends on mother, as one of its members, to preserve its existence; thus it rewards mother with such power to indirectly control the society through her activity of raising her children. But this powerful gift is not realized by her; she is not aware that she can help her and other women to leave the mud hole of patriarchal society and create a better life’s atmosphere for her children’s future. Being the closest person to the young generation, i.e. the children, mother is the right person who can make a change, since she is the first person to socialize gender roles. If mother socializes the equal gender roles, it will

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help the children to have a different perspective about the roles of woman and man in society.

B. Mother as Agents of Change

The idea of exploring how mother can be agents of change as seen in the work under study is to give examples to mother in real life to act the same thing; thus changes will take place in the real life of patriarchal society. Just like Bell

Hooks says in her book Feminism is for Everybody: Passionate Politics that it will not give significant contribution if feminism is understood only by those women who have the opportunity to study for their higher education.47

Being an agent of change does not require mother to work on a huge project to alter her children’s opinion about creating a brighter future. By only doing simple things like treating her children (daughter and son) equally and giving them the same chance, opening their perspective of what a strong mother can do and being a true example for their children is enough. As Hooks says that it does not require us to join any organization but we can start it right here, right now: “We can begin to do the work on feminism at home, right where we live, educating ourselves and our loved ones.”48

Pelagea in Mother serves as agent of change through her actions and words she says. By not surrendering to the condition of having a husband who bet and cursed her everyday, she shows her quality of making the change happen. She reacted differently to those of other women around her, who experience the

47 Hooks 112.

48 Hooks 116.

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similar conditions. With her love and tenderness she raises her only son by herself and by trying to understand him, she prevents him from becoming the same man like his father. It is seen when after Mikhail [Pelagea’s husband] passed away, Pavel begins to act like his father; he gets drunk and orders her mother around to do things for him:

“Supper!” His mother sat down next to her son, put her arms about him, and pulled his head down to her breast. But he held her off. “Come, Mother! Be quick!” “Foolish boy,” said his mother sadly and affectionately as she removed his hand. “And I’m gonna smoke! Gimme pa’s pipe,” muttered Pavel, moving his thick tongue with difficulty. (Mother, 15 – 16)

With her gentleness, Pelagea tries to give understanding to Pavel that he should not be like his father; although she realizes that the neighbourhood around them is not supportive because everybody used to drink and a son would imitate his father: “His mother stroked his damp, tousled hair. “You shouldn’t have done this,” she said quietly.” (Mother, 16)

When Pavel insists that he will continue drinking and everybody in that area drinks, Pelagea says:

“But you mustn’t,” she said. “Your father drank more than enough for both of you. Didn’t I suffer enough at his hands? Couldn’t you take a little pity on your mother?” (Mother, 16)

This time, her words are dipped into his heart and he remembers how her mother suffered when his father was still alive:

As he listened to the soft sad words, Pavel realized he had scarcely been aware of his mother’s existence during his father’s life time, so silent had she been, so fearful of being beaten. He himself had stayed away from home as much as possible to avoid meeting his father, and so he had grown apart from his mother. Now, as he gradually sobered, he watched her intently. (Mother, 16) 74

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Realizing that he has been giving less attention to his mother, Pavel notices his mother’ suffering. This is the starting point where Pavel is gradually lessen his habit of drinking and that makes the life in his house becomes different: “The life on Vlassov’s little house flowed on more calmly and quietly than before, and somewhat differently than in the other houses.” (Mother, 17)

Living in a condition where she cannot utter her minds makes every little thing she does become meaningful. The way Pelagea tries to survive in her marriage life and advise her son for not becoming like his father gives her an extra credit as a mother compares to other mothers around her. Becoming an agent of change does not mean that Pelagea has to change her surrounding instantly, but what she does in such pressure is significant enough to make her an agent of change.

Even through the suffering she faces when she has to deliver the leaflets of her son’s speech, being caught and accused as a thief, and being beaten to death shows that Pelagea has done something meaningful for the labour movement that is lead by her son. Thus, Pelagea deserves to be called an agent of change.

Pelagea used to be able to read but due to her condition she then was illiterate, but she, at her age, tries to break herself free from the cage that kept her from knowing nothing all this time. She began to learn to read from her son’s friend, Andrei Onisimov, who considers her as his own mother. He is the one who lights Pelagea’s spirit to learn reading.

“The people are sorry they don’t know how to read,” she [Pelagea] said to Andrei. “When I was young I knew how to read, but I’ve forgotten.” “Why not learn?” suggested the khokhol49 [Andrei].

49 Russian nickname for a Ukrainian. – Trans.

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“At my age? Just to make a laughing – stock of myself?” But Andrei took a book off the shelf and pointed to one of the letters on the cover. “What’s that? He asked. “ ‘R’,”, she answered with a smile. “And that?” “ ‘A’.” .... Having drawn the curtains over the windows, she took a book off a shelf and sat down at the table again. In spite of her precautions, she could not help glancing furtively about before she bent over the book and began moving her lips. At every sound coming from outside she started, covered the book with her hand and strained her ears. Then she began to whisper to herself again, opening and closing her eyes. “’L’ for letter; ‘b’ for box. ...” (Mother, 101 – 103)

Pelagea, being supported by Andrei, raises her curiosity in reading. In her spare time, when she used to knit something, she is tempted to open a book and begins to read. On the age of forty, it was very uncommon for a woman to learn to read; but although at the beginning she was ashamed of learning, she finally cannot help herself of not learning.

Emak, similarly, is not able to read and write Roman words, but she can read and write Arabic words. It can be seen from the beginning of chapter 8 of the novel: “Sama halnya dengan bapak, emak tidak dapat membaca dan menulis huruf

Latin. ... Mereka mampu menulis huruf Arab dan lancar membaca kitab suci Al-

Quran...” (Emak, 81). But, she does not want her children to experience the similar condition. She always says about the importance of education for her children, especially for her daughters. She also gives advice to other families to give their best for the children education. Similarly, when Menur and her family come to say thank you (since Daoed helps her when she was bulled by another student) and notice that Menur will not go to school any longer due to the incident, Emak gives advice not to let Menur stay at home and drop her study.

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... Mendengar hal ini emak memberi nasihat supaya si Melur terus saja bersekolah karena Engku Azhari, selaku kepala sekolah, sudah menangani dengan baik kenakalan si Manap. Kata emak, anak-anak gadis kita perlu bersekolah agar tidak ketinggalan jaman. (Emak, 104 – 105)

[... Listening to it, Emak gives advice to Melur’s parents to keep Melur go to school. It is because Engku Azhari, the headmaster, has handled the situation and Manap [the naughty boy] well. Emak says that our daughters need to go to school in order not to be left behind.]

From these two mothers, we can see how they can make a change on the life of their children. By not wanting their children to experience the similar condition, they become agents of change that later on can inspire other people around them.

But unlike Emak in Joesoef’s Emak who thinks that girls should also taste proper education, the mother figure in Nervous Condition does not show the similar interest and eagerness to send her daughter, Tambudzai, to school. As told in chapter 2 of the novel, Tambudzai thinks that financial matter is the thing which forbids her to go to school; therefore she is then willing to earn her own. To do so she needs some seeds from her father to grow in her own piece of land.

Although her mother helps her to reassure her father to allow her growing her own maize to sell, she is actually doing it without any hope that Tambu will succeed, in fact she is quite sure that Tambu will fail. It shows that the mother in this novel adheres to the patriarchal system which allows sons to have more privilege to be better than daughters in all case.

Furthermore, Emak is also a mother who has a nice way of talking to other people. Her ability to utter her mind in a good manner has smoothened several issues that her children have to deal with. For example, when one of her daughters

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has to deliver a baby in the hospital and she is afraid of not being accompanied by her mother, Emak with her elegant manner speaks to the doctor so that she is allowed to accompany her daughter in her labour time, although the hospital regulation forbids her to do so at that time.

Karena penasaran emak lalu pergi menghadap dr. Pirngadi. Kami tidak tahu apa – apa yang persis dibicarakannya dengan dokter ini, tetapi kulihat wajahnya ceria sekali di saat kembali ke tempat kami menunggu. “Beres,” katanya dengan nada gembira. “Emak boleh menunggu si Nani setiap malam, mulai malam ini, selama dia dirawat di sini. Sudah saya duga dokter Jawa ini penuh pengertian, berperikemanusiaan tinggi.” (Emak, 56)

[Curiously, Emak goes to see Dr. Pirngadi. We do not know exactly what is being discussed by her with this doctor, but after the talk she walks toward us in waiting room and smiles happily to us. “Done,” she says happily. “I can accompany Nani [her daughter] every night, starting tonight, as long as she is nursed here. I have guessed that this Javanese doctor is an understanding and humanist person.”]

Emak’s habits of using communicative approach in gaining her ‘victory’ in dignified way has become one of the value to make her an agent of change.

Emak is said to be the agent of change when she dares to fight against the common tradition to gain development. At that time no woman has learnt to ride bicycle, but she insists on learning it, so that she can give an example for her children. She is not shy to show her ability to ride the bike all around her neighbourhood although many people are gossiping about it. It starts when she says she wants to learn to ride bicycle, her husband and children are surprised:

“Saya mau belajar naik kereta angin50,” tutur emak di tengah-tengah keasyikan makan malam. “Haaa?!” bapak terhenti mengunyah; kami juga. (Emak, 107) [“I want to learn to ride bicycle,” says Emak in the middle of a nice dinner. “Haaa?!”

Bapak [father] stops chewing; we do too.]

50 Kereta angin is the local name for bicycle.

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She even insists on learning to ride a bicycle although her husband shows a little disagreement: “...Tapi reaksi dari orang-orang kampung kita sendiri.”

(Emak, 108) [“... But the reaction from the people in our village.”]. But after a little discussion and listening to her arguments, her husband gives her permission to learn riding bicycle.

“Ah, saya paham sudah.” Emak menangkap apa yang ada di benak bapak. “Biarlah perempuan-perempuan sini menggunjing di belakang saya. Heran, kok mereka begitu benci pada kemajuan. Picik bagai katak di bawah tempurung.”

“Baiklah, asal kita hati-hati saja,” nada suara bapak sudah lebih merendah. (Emak, 108)

[“I see now.” Emak gets what is in Bapak’s mind. “Let those women gossip at my back. I wonder why they do not like development. Narrow- minded people.”

“Okay, as long as we do it carefully,” says Bapak with his voice lowered.]

With all the negative talks behind her back, Emak successfully learns to ride the bicycle and she teaches her children to learn it one by one. Thus, she changes the perspective that not only the Dutch ladies who can learn to ride the bicycle; native

Indonesian (ladies) can also learn one.

Emak is quite lucky living in a house which supports her well. She has a husband who is not patriarchy. Bapak is an open minded person who thinks that

Emak, as a wife, shares the same tasks and contributes equally in earning for a living. We can see it from the quotation below:

“... Dalam keberhasilan berladang harus saya [Bapak] akui bahwa jasa dan tenaga perempuan paling sedikitnya sama banyak dengan yang telah disumbangkan oleh laki-laki. ...” (Emak, 154)

[“... In the success of farming, I must admit that women share the equal contribution to men ...”]

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Having the similar background of living in Sumatra, Emak is more open minded than Hanafi’s mother in Salah Asuhan in terms of education for women.

Emak says that a girl should also experience higher education for the sake of educating her children, but Hanafi’s mother says that:

“Anak-anak perempuan yang berpelajaran tinggi tak akan mudah dikerasi dengan tak berkehiliran. Perkara yang kecil-kecil akan menjadi racun di dalam pergaulan suami istri. Sebab sama-sama pandai, sedang lidah pun memang sama-sama tidak bertulang. Jika kurang-kurang berbudi salah seorang, hidup bersuami-istri serupa itu seolah-olah membawa neraka ke dalam rumah.”51

[“Girls who are higher educated cannot be treated hard in a long term. Small problems will become poison in the life of husband and wife, because both are equally clever and able to give arguments. If one of them is not patient enough and lack of understanding, the husband and wife would live in the house of hell.”]

Thus, Hanafi’s mother chooses Rapiah to become Hanafi’s wife, since she is patient and humble, so Hanafi can ‘teach’ her as he pleased. Here it can be inferred that Hanafi’s mother is so patriarchy.

Ibu in “Sepasang Mata Seorang Ibu” is another story of an agent of change. She is a hard working mother. She works extra hard for her children.

Education is a must for her, although she is uneducated. Just like the other two mother that have been discussed, Ibu in this short story considers her children education as her main concern. The way she thinks that education is the key to a better life and tries to make her children pursue higher education, while she could not, makes her as agent of change.

Although she does not know that she is an agent of change, her love to her children brings her to be a strong mother that help her husband in financial

51 Moeis 77 – 78.

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matters to support her children’s education. Her spirit of never giving up to the condition makes her become a role model of becoming a person who can change her society’s way of thinking through her children’s success in life because of having sufficient education.

Suami istri yang berpendidikan sangat rendah itu ternyata bekerja keras untuk kami. Setiap tahun, kalau kami berlibur, masing-masing membawa dua batang emas hasil penjualan kopra dan domba-domba mereka. Dengan demikian, atas perlindungan Tuhan, kami berdua terus naik tingkat.

Begitu aku lulus, aku mendapat beasiswa untuk belajar ke Amerika Serikat. (Ibu, 54)

[The low educated husband and wife work hard for us. Every year, when we have holiday, each of us bring two bars of gold from the selling of their copra and sheep. Therefore, with God’s protection, the two of us always move to the next grade.

Soon after graduated, I get scholarship to continue my study to the United State.]

Similar to the character of Ibu discussed in the previous two paragraphs,

Ibu in the short story “Anakkonhi Do Hamoraun Di Ahu” also works hard for her only son’s education. The setting of Batak culture which provides no room for women to stand as equal as men makes mother in this culture usually work hard to earn for living for their family, while their husbands tend to chit-chat and do unnecessary things.

Ibu is a common woman who has to fulfil her family’s necessities.

Although she also has a common feeling like other women when she sees beautiful dress and accessories, she puts her personal feeling aside and puts her son’s education as the main goal of working hard. Her dream of having fancy clothes and make up is replaced by her dream of seeing her only son become a scholar and hold an academic degree.

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Inang-inang52 ini tidak beda dengan wanita lain. Mereka punya naluri. Akan tetapi, mereka hanya mengelus dada, menguras kesabaran, jika naluri kewanitaan mereka sejenak tergiur oleh pakaian bagus, selop mahal, perhiasan, dan yang semacamnya. Mereka tak pernah berniat untuk menggunakan sedikit pun dari keuntungan mereka untuk berfoya – foya. Selalu, selalu, dan selalu demi pendidikan anak! (Ibu, 149)

[These Inang-inang are not different to other women. They also have feelings. But, they just sigh and hold on to their patience whenever they are eager to have nice clothes, fancy shoes, jewelery, and that kind of things. They never want to use their profit (money), even a little for such a waste. Always, always, and always it is for their children’s education!]

During the setting of time of the short story, having children who hold academic degrees is something that makes mother proud. The success of being a mother is valued by having children who can have a higher education. The people there think that becoming a scholar is a golden ticket to find a good job that will change their life condition.

In a matrilineal society, a woman as a mother faces the same reality to those who are in the patriarchal society. The mother is the object of domination done by her husbands. It also happens to Ibu in “Persembahan untuk Ibu”. She is helpless when her husband divorces her and marries another woman.

Living in a matrilineal society does not make Ibu have power to change her life condition easily. She has to struggle to have a better life, thus making her an agent of change; especially when she does not put her personal needs at the top of her list. In her marriage life, although being hurt by her husband who divorces her, she does not use her position as a woman in matrilineal society to have more power over her husband. After the divorce, she says to her children to still love

52 It is a term for Bataknese mothers who work as traders between harbours of Singapore – Tanjung Pinang and Tanjung Priok, Jakarta.

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their father and give him respect. For her children, she put aside her ego in order that her children have the opportunity in getting higher education.

Ibu is not afraid to break the traditional custom of Minangkabau which says that a mother must have a daughter. Because she has divorced and not yet had a daughter, according to the traditional culture she should get married again in order to have one. It is because in matrilineal society a daughter is everything, she will be a child which her mother can relies on when she becomes old.

“Tidak!” jawab Ibu, seperti yang diceritakan Mamak kepadaku kemudian. “Anakku sudah cukup dua. Aku tidak mau kawin lagi!” (Ibu, 37 – 38)

[“No!” Ibu answers, like what is told by Mamak [uncle from mother’s side] to me then. “It is enough for me to have two sons. I do not want to remarry!”]

But for the sake of her two sons, she does not want to get married again.

She says that she has enough children, because she has already had two sons. Her way of raising her children is not exactly like being the custom of her culture, but she has made the children love her and promise her that they will take care of her and after they had finished their study they will bring their mother to Jakarta and reunite again (but without their father, since their father has got married again).

Thus, she has no worry about her future life, since their sons do not follow the traditional custom.

Although the figure of Emak and Ibu in the three short stories might be seen as a social construct written by male thought on how a good mother should be, these mother figures have taught us something else. Not knowing that what they do can be considered as a break-through in the feminist movement, they serve as a role model.The depiction of mother in these fiction is to redicule the depiction mother in Tiga Orang Perempuan by Maria A. Sardjono (2002) for 83

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example, where it is told that as the second generation, the mother figure, is depicted as a feminist mother, but she failed to transmit her idea of equity due to the oppression that she experienced and that her effort is not supported by her own mother53.

Ursula in One Hundred Years of Solitude, with her tenaciousness and willingness to accept and do her duty as a good mother can also be considered as an agent of change. The way she takes over her husband’s responsibilities is able to maintain the whole family together. If she is not firm enough to handle the obstacles, she would neglect her family and live her own life, ignoring her family, especially her children’s necessities. One example is when her son, Jose Arcadio, went to the gypsy camp and did not return afterwards, Ursula is the first who realizes that he is missing. She searches for him through the village and finds the gypsy camp was left. And then she says to her husband:

... “He’s become a gypsy!” she shouted to her husband, who had not shown the slightest sign of alarm over the disappearance. “I hope it’s true,” Jose Arcadio Buendia said, grinding in his mortar the material that had been ground a thousand times and reheated and ground again. (OHYS, 34 – 35)

Ursula then, decides to search for her son, she leaves her family to pursue the route that the gypsy probably takes. But she cannot find her son; instead she finds the route that her husband is unable to search during his attempt to find great invention (OHYS, 37).

Women in a patriarchal society do not have any rights to determine or make any decisions. Ursula, although living with patriarchal values, does not

53 Yeni Mulyani S, Nantje Harijatiwidjaja and A. Sofian 42 – 43.

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follow rules. Her husband’s inexistence (although physically he is around) has made Ursula take over her husband’s duties, including earning for a living and making important decisions for her family. Ursula’s disobedience to the patriarchal values makes a different effect to the Buendias, the family. If Ursula relies on her unreliable husband all the time, she would not able to save her family. The change that she has made keeps the family together. She is the one who faces the reality of having many grandchildren from several different women when her son (Colonel Aureliano Buendia) was in a prison.

... In less than twelve years they [Ursula and her family] baptized with the name of Aureliano and the last name of the mother all the sons that the colonel had implanted up and down his theater of war: seventeen... “We’ve done our duty by baptizing them,” Ursula would say, jotting down in a ledger the name and address of the mother and the place and the date of birth of the child. “Aureliano needs well-kept accounts so that he can decide things when he comes back.” (OHYS, 155)

Although her attitudes, which are different from the common mothers’ attitudes in the patriarchal society, are not followed by other women in her family,

Ursula serves as an important (role model) character in Buendia family. In fact until her old time, she has tried hard to keep the family together.

Pelagea, Ursula, Emak, and the three Ibu have unconsciously acted positively in the feminist movement. They do not write any books on feminism or join any feminism groups or give speeches on feminism theory, but they perform the act of feminism in their daily lives during their interaction with their children and other people around them. These mother figures give examples of feminist actions as Hooks refers to.

Different from the mother figures discussed above who do many things to change their (and their children’s) life condition to be a better one, the mother in 85

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Azab dan Sengsara changes her child’s life condition from bad to worse. It can be seen from the story that this Ibu tends to spoil her child and does not prepare him to face his future life. It is because the setting of the story is a rich family:

Orang tua Sutan Baringin masuk golongan orang yang kaya di antara penduduk Sipirok. Hanya ia sendirilah anak orang tuanya yang laki-laki. Sebagai acap kali kejadian akan tabiat anak tunggal itu, adalah amat manja dan nakal pada waktu ia masih anakanak, karena barang apa kesukaannya selamanya dituruti orang tuanya...54.

However her way of raising her son does not make her son’s life become better than his parents’ life, because in the novel it is said that Sutan Baringin, her son, becomes a person who is arrogant and likes to waste his parents’ wealth. The story ends up with Sutan Baringin becomes poor, thus making the character of mother not to be considered as an agent of change.

Another character of mother in the same novel is also similar to the previous mother discussed above. This mother is the mother of Aminuddin who is powerless and unable to do something to help her son. When Aminuddin would like to marry woman of his choice, his father rejects the idea and his mother can not do anything to help him. She and her husband goes to a shaman to see whether the marriage would bring good or bad luck for them, and when the shaman says that it will bring bad luck, she believes it and agrees with her husband to find other women for Aminuddin to marry:

“... Kamu [the mother] mengatakan Mariamin juga yang baik menantu kita; kalau demikian baiklah kita pergi mendapatkan Datu Naserdung, akan bertanyakan untung dan rezeki Aminu'ddin, bila ia beristrikan Mariamin. Datu itulah yang masyhur sekarang fasal hal faal. Pekerjaan ini janganlah dilengahkan lagi. Kalau pertemuan mereka itu tiada baik menurut faal, baiklah kita carikan yang lain."

54 Merari Siregar, Azab dan Sengsara (Jakarta: Balai Pustaka, 2009) 36.

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... "Maksud itu kurang baik. Awalnya laki-istri selamat dan beruntung. Lepas dua tahun, lahir seorang anak laki-laki, tetapi baru ia berusia tujuh tahun, ayahnya meninggal dunia," kata Datu itu lambat-lambat tetapi terang dan nyata suaranya.55

[“... You said that Mariamin is a good girl to be our daughter in-law; then we should go to see Datu Naserdung, we need to ask the future life of Aminu’ddin if he marries Mariamin. That Datu is very famous on his ability to see signs. We need to do it as soon as possible. If their marriage brings no good according to the sign, then we need to find another girl for our son.” ... “It is not a good intention. At the beginning the couple will be save and prosperous. After two years, they will have a son, but only after he is seven years old, his father passed away,’ says the Datu slowly but clear.]

This results in lifetime sadness for Aminuddin. Thus the character of mother does not bring her child to have a better future.

Similarly, the character of mother in Salah Asuhan also brings her son’s life into a miserable one. This mother figure does not support her son’s choice to marry a Dutch woman that he loves. Instead, she chooses a woman whom she considers good and appropriate for her son, it can be seen in chapter 8 of the novel entitled “Istri Pemberian Ibu”56. At the beginning of the chapter shows that Hanafi marries the woman of his mother’s choice:

Dua tahun sudah berjalan, setelah jadi perundingan Hanafi dan ibunya tentang beristri itu. Sebelum ia membenarkan kata ibunya, iapun sudah dinikahkan dengan Rapiah.57

[Two years are passing by after Hanafi and his mother reach an agreement about taking a wive for him. Before he says yes to her mother, he has been married to Rapiah].

55 Siregar 91 – 92.

56 Moeis 81 – 90.

57 Moeis 81.

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Even though the woman (Rapiah) is indeed a good wife, Hanafi (the son) does not love her and tends to ignore her. The story is also ended sadly, where Hanafi has to suffer the grief of not living with the one he loves; Rapiah, the wife of his mother’s choice, also has to suffer from his husband’s ignorance. Even if Hanafi later on marries Corrie, the woman that he loves, they do not live happily and their marriage ends up with the death of Corrie because of illness and Hanafi suicides, he admits: “...sublimat, bukan...terminum dengan...kesalahan...tapi...sengaja...”58 [“...sublimat (a kind of drug), drunk not by accident but on purpose..”].

One mother figure in Nervous Condition, Maiguru, gives her daughter an opportunity tobe equal with her son through education. She gives freedom for both of her children to experience education like what she had. This makes

Nashya, her daughter to have a wider perspective on the equality between woman and man. But Maiguru fails to be a good example for Nashya. Unable to speak out her mind freely, Maiguru is like a bird that is kept in a golden cage; she cannot freely spread her wings and soar across the sky. Although other people see her as a happy woman, she is actually not.

The fact that Maiguru cannot be as Nashya’s role model makes Nashya become sad and disappointed of her mother. She feels that there will be no way for women to be equal to men. Her frank attitudes in voicing her mind to her father have been marked as bad behaviours that a daughter should not do to her father.

58 Moeis 281.

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Without realizing the power that she has, Maiguru does not give her best shot to change her family. The name of ‘Maiguru’ is actually a term of honour and respect to older women. It shows that she is one of the respected women within the family. If only she is persistent enough to bring a gentle brisk to the family, she would be a good role model for the females in the family, at least for her daughter, Nashya.

It would be very interesting if the stories also tell about the marriage lives of the children, but unfortunatelly the story ends without ellaborating the further life of the children in details. However, having influenced by such extraordinary mother, they have different standard when looking for a future wife: they also look for the extraordinary woman. It can be concluded from the following illustration.

... Isteri dan anakku baru saja kembali dari taman rupanya. “Enak belajarnya?” tanya Soel ketika menggantungkan mantelnya di gantungan baju dekat pintu. Aku mengangguk. Pada rupa istriku membayang wajah emak yang anggun dan molek. (Emak, 290)

[... Apperently my wife and daughter have just come back from the park. “Did you enjoy studying?” asked Soel [Joesoef’s wife] while hanging her coat at the clothes hanger by the door. I nodded. On my wife’s face I found the graceful and beautiful Emak’s face.]

When Joesoef’s mother passed away, he felt that he lost his way without her, but in the state of being sad, he finds her mother figure in the face of his wife. Thus, it proves that when looking for a wife, he refers to her mother figure as a role model.

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In his own way, Pavel in Mother also does not look for a common woman to win his heart. Although not ending up with marriage, Pavel has kept a feeling on Natasha and his close friend Andrei knows this.

“I like that Natasha,” exclaimed the khokhol [Andrei] suddenly. “I know it,” answered Pavel after a pause. ... “You must have a clear idea of what you want, Andrei,” said Pavel slowly. Suppose she loves you – I doubt it, but just suppose – you get married. A fine match! She an intellectual, and you a workingman...” (Mother, 46 – 47)

From the illustration above, it can be concluded that Andrei knows that Pavel falls in love with an extraordinary woman, an intelectual woman, that is not common in the neighbourhood at that time. He mocks Pavel by pretending that he loves her, not because he does not agree but more because he wants Pavel to have courage to tell Natasha his feeling. Although not exactly similar to his mother,

Natasha has common features that Pelagea has that are determined and not easy to give up.

By way of conclusion, the mother figures in the work under study have become agents of change in their own ways, although they do not realize it. All things that they do for their family and children lead them to live in a better life.

Some mothers have managed to drag their children out of the pond of poverty by working hard to give them higher education. They have high expectation in their children’s future life and they support their children materially and mentally; by earning more money to send them to school and by lighting the flame of spirit for their children to study.

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C. Concluding Remarks

Being an important member of patriarchal society, a mother can play her role as an agent of change. Through her duty to socialize the gender roles for her children, she can manoeuvre it and make a change so that her children will not have false assumptions on the gender roles.

The mother figures in the works under study are willing to face difficulties and to act beyond the ordinary, to challenge the mainstreams for the sake of their family and children. Although it is quite difficult for these mothers, their children’s better life are the proofs to admit mother as agents of change.

The mothers become agents of change by breaking the chain that shackles them. Although small, the things that the mothers do have shown that they do not surrender to the condition and they do something to break free from the invisible pressure of the patriarchal society.

It does not require being an important person in the society to be an agent of change; the mothers in the fiction studied can be the role models of doing so.

Indeed there is no such immediate result to this action, but it is believed that little by little our world will become a peaceful place to live in. If most mothers are eager to contribute positively, they will transfer this positive attitude to their children and the people around them. Thus, the goal of visionary feminism to end sexism-as stated by Hooks-will soon be attained.

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CHAPTER V CONCLUSION

This study has two aims. The first is to find out the depiction of mother in

Gorky’s Mother, One Hundred Years of Solitude by Marquez, Joesoef’s Emak, and three selected short stories from Ibu: “Persembahan untuk Ibu”, “Sepasang

Mata Seorang Ibu”, dan “Anakkonhi Do Hamoraon Di Ahu!” through her struggle, suffering, and self-actualization. The second is to seek the ways in which mother can be the agent of change in society as seen in the respective works.

The fetter of patriarchal tyranny which has shackled women’s legs all over the world will not be opened if mother do not realize their existence. The ideology of the patriarchal system has deeply rooted in the society and thus making no room for women including mothers to realize their powerful roles within the system itself.

If all mothers start to think of their grandchildren’s future, the misled mothering will be changed into a more balanced and better mothering. Just like

Rich has stated in her book that women should not deny the biological potential to bear human beings (to bring life to the world), and that they should use that natural ability as one way to fight for better conditions.

I have shown how the mother figures in the literary works under study can demonstrate how they can change their life and that of other people. There are several similarities found in these works although they were written by different authors with different social backgrounds and come from different countries. All of the works come from the society which adopts the patriarchal system, except for one short story “Persembahan untuk Ibu”. Nevertheless, still the matrilineal 92

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system does not put women in the same position as men, although women are considered having the power over men. This society cannot avoid putting women as victims.

The similar depiction of the mother figure that can then be seen from her struggle, suffering, and self-actualization detailed as follows.

a. All mothers in the works under discussion are religious. These mothers hold

on to the value of their own beliefs, no matter what religion they embrace. By

holding on to these beliefs, these mothers survive from the suffering that they

experience.

b. These mothers are also either uneducated or less educated. They come from

society which constructs their roles in the family and which makes them

unable to taste high education.

c. But all of these mothers think that education or at least knowledge is the key

to a better life. Therefore, they do their best to support their children to have

high education.

d. They are not materialistic like the common depiction of mother in ‘sinetron’.

They use the money they get not for satisfying their own pleasure, but they

save that for their family and children, especially their children’s education.

e. They also put their children first. No matter what their children be, they

always accept them the way they are. The most important thing is that they

have given their children the best education that they can afford. They do not

really care any occupation their children will have as long as it is good and

can make their children live a better life.

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f. The most important value is that these mother are willing to make a change,

even though through others (for example their children). They also actualize

themselves through the way they interact with their children and other people

around them.

These mother’s virtues are not only seen by women, but also by men. It is proven that all the authors of the works under study are all male authors. These authors do not depict women stereotypically. They admit that mother are also strong characters and able to have an important role in the family; that they are not the second player but the main one who is usually covered by the male domination in patriarchal system.

These literary works are the evidence because they are written by male authors who are inspired by their own mothers. Ursula in One Hundred Years of

Solitude, for example, is inspired by Marquez’s own mother. Marquez has been touched by his magnificent mother and these memories echo in his life as well as his master piece, as stated in his book Living to Tell the Tale59. Emak by Daoed

Joesoef is also a kind of memoir of his own mother. From these two examples, we see that the virtue of a strong mother will stay in her children’s memory and will affect their life in the future.

In answering the second question, I have shown that the mother discussed can be considered as agents of change, since Kate Millet says that family is a unit in the patriarchal system and each member of the family is an agent. Mother who is an agent of the patriarchal system can be said the agent of change if she edifies her children in such a way and not in line with the value of the patriarchal society.

59 Purnawijayanti 5 – 6.

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The mother in the works under study is also the agent of change. It is presented in more details below.

a. Pelagea in Mother is considered as an agent of change because she does not

give up to her condition; she does not act as what parents would do in her

surrounding at that time. The way she severs the chain of suffering makes her

son have better life. She does not beat and curse her son as other parents do in

the society where she lives. Thus, she breaks the chain of the common habits

done by other parents around her at that time.

She is also an agent of change because she is willing to learn to read

again in her forties, although at the beginning she hesitates of doing so since

it is not common for an old woman to start to learn in those days.

b. The mother figure in Joesoef’s Emak is an agent of change because Emak

insists on giving her children education as high as possible although she is not

highly educated and she also encourages her daughters to savour education as

equal to boys. This shows how she acts againts the mainstream.

The way she communicates her idea makes her win every argument

that she has with other educated people. Therefore, she changes the

perspective that low educated people cannot talk in a good manner and that

they cannot get what they want since they are not able to enunciate it.

Similar to Pelagea who neglects what is common in her society, Emak also

breaks the common norm that native women should not follow the Dutch

ladies’ way of life. She learns to ride bicycle in order to give an example for

her children. Although many people gives disclaim look when she rides her

bicycle, she is very determined to learn to ride.

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c. In “Sepasang Mata Seorang Ibu” and in “Anakkonhi Do Hamoraun Di Ahu”,

the mother figure is an agent of change since she works hard to raise income

to support her children’s education. She believes that through better

education, her children will have better life.

d. As an agent of change Ibu in “Persembahan untuk Ibu” does not follow the

tradition to remarry after she is divorced just because she wants to focus on

her two sons’ education. She does not want to put her things first, instead she

puts her children’s education above all.

e. Ursula in One Hundred Years of Solitude is an agent of change, since by

accepting the extra duties when her husband cannot be relied on, because she

loves her family, especially her children, much.

Those mothers do not comprehend consciously that they are agents of change, but the way they transfer knowledge to their children have made them have different lives. The brisk of change that is blown by these mothers has become a light in the dark of their children.

From the analysis it is found that the depiction of mother in the Indonesian literary works Emak, “Persembahan untuk Ibu”, “Sepasang Mata Seorang Ibu”, and “Anakkonhi Do Hamoraun Di Ahu!”; is stronger than that in Mother and One

Hundred Years of Solitude. Emak and Ibu in three short stories focus their attention more on their children’s education, believing that education will bring their children to their brighter future.

The comparative technique with African and Indonesian (major) literary works is attempted here to help support the analysis that all mothers under discussion are strong mothers who struggle and self-actualize themselves.

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To compare with the African novel Nervous Condition, the mother figure here is not as strong as the mother in Indonesian literary works. Based on the article entitled “Mother’s Talk” by Trinh T. Minha, the mothers in African culture tend to accept their condition as part of their life. They are also submissive; they do not struggle to fight against what is considered common in their society, not even for the better life of their children. Although living under the similar type of society; i.e. patriarchal society, mothers from different cultures react differently.

(Indeed, in one of the short stories is from matrilineal society. The figure of mother in that society here in still has to struggle for her children). This shows that the patriarchal society in African culture is deeply rooted in its people, because the liaison between the society and the young generation tends to follow the order and does not do anything to fight against it.

It is described that in the African culture getting education for girls is very difficult and mothers do not fight against this condition for they consider it as a common thing that happens in their society. In fact, even after one of the female characters obtains higher education, she, nevertheless, still lives under the male’s shadows.

Like what is described in the novel, getting education for female is very difficult in African culture and the one who deserves to have it is male (the sons in the family). This makes me proud of the depiction of Emak in Joesoef’s Emak who struggles to give her daughters’ education. Although having the similar condition of being poor and experienced colonization, the urge of getting education is stronger in Indonesian literary works. This is what makes the mother discussed in this thesis extraordinary and not common. And as an extra account,

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they, especially in the Indonesian fiction studied, are more ‘potential’ then, say,

African mother.

Actually, mother has become an important figure in the society world wide. But this potential power is not understood by many people, including mother. The existence of the terms: ‘mother tongue’ (English), ‘bahasa ibu’

(Indonesian), ‘moedertaal’ (Dutch), ‘madre lingua’ (Italian); ‘mother land’

(English), ‘ibu pertiwi’ (Indonesian), ‘moederland’ (Dutch), ‘madrepatria’

(Italian), ‘inang-bayan’ (Pilipino), ‘matrubhumi’ (Sanskrit) and even more in

Indonesian such as ‘ibu jari’ (thumbs), ‘ibu kota’ (capital city), etc. has illustrated that mother has her own place in the society across the world. Unfortunatelly, this honour place is just an ornament. Or might it be just a kind of a lullaby song for mother not to realize her vital power.

If it is true that art imitates life, the works under study are evidences to the statement. The works are heavily influenced by the personal life of each author.

As such, what Wilde has stated that life imitates art is even more true. The educational process of the society can also come from non formal education. For example novels, movies, as well as ‘sinetron’ which is very popular in society can also serve as media of positive socialization for the society. If those media are filled by gender constructed issues which is dramatized and unreal story, it is possible that the society will mirror their life from those that they see from TV or read from novels. And it is very dangerous because the same false message is introduced and induced on and on so that they start to believe that it is true.

It appears that the liked literary works are the ones in line to patriarchal system and that construct the gender roles. In this kind of literary works it is

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clearly represented that the character that will win at the end of the story is the one who is passive and submissive. Just like the figure of strong mother in ‘sinetron’, she is usually the antagonist character who is bad and not a good wife or mother.

This kind of mother will get punishment and difficulties at the end of the story.

The depiction is quite dangerous, because I think it is similar to the brainwashed activities done by a group of people to get more followers just like being discussed in the news recently. It is so ironical, since many of us are busy arresting and condemning people who do such activities, but we are not aware that we live in a washing machine which is ready to wash our brain since our childhood.

There might be some arguments stating that the prescribed roles of women and men that should be transferred by mother should be in line with the culture where they live and we should not forget that culture has become the main part of our lives. It is true that preserving culture is important but if the culture hinders us from development why cannot we modify our culture a little bit? I am sure that it will not bring any harm to it as long as we do it for the sake of better future, to create a nation of all tribes in Indonesia.

Mothering is a wonderful gift given by the Creator of life. Having the privilege to bring life to the world, women as mother should enjoy the endowment. They should do it because it is their choice, thus they will carry it out with fun. When they enjoy what they do, they will perform their best and they can nurture their children well without the burden structured by the patriarchal society. As one of God’s creation, mother is also His agent in the world. Through mother God speaks to His people as Mulyani says “Pada mulanya adalah Kata

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maka Yesus pun ber-Sastra.”60 [In the beginning was the Word thus Jesus turns into Man of letters]. Thus, anything that a mother does to create a better life is significant.

Feminist mothering can be an alternative in feminist movement, that radical feminism is no longer suitable in some cases. As Hooks says that feminism is for everybody, feminism is not only the right for elite women who study feminism. It means that educating mother to make them aware of their power and to eliminate their exposure to the misleading figure of good mother, can be an act of feminism. Feminism education from mother to their children can be a new mode of guerrilla against the patriarchal system and to attain the goal of feminism where human all over the world stops to be sexist.

The analysis on the selected fiction has confirmed some theories on feminism mentioned in Chapter II, i.e. Millet’s Sexual Politics, Rich’s Of Woman

Born: Motherhood as Experience and Institution, and Hook’s “Visionary

Feminism” in Feminism is for Everybody: Passionate Politics. Unfortunately carrying thick moral values, the selected Indonesian works are not popular even in their home country. However, it does not mean that these works are not worth analyzed. The exploration hopes to open the path to a wider recognition.

Yet, we need to open our mind into another possibility. Given the fact that the works studied are written by male authors, they might follow the mainstream, i.e. they are patriarchy. It is probable that these literary works are written by male authors not to celebrate the memories of their mother and childhood, but to serve as another social construct. Therefore, these works would like to educate the

60 Sri Mulyani, “Sastra: Parabel yang Membebaskan?”, Basis March – April 2005: 35.

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mothers (who are oppressed by the patriarchal system) not to fight against it but to do something more moderate for the sake of their children. However, the fact that the male writers are influenced by their own mother makes their works become the more authentic portrait of the mother figure.

The male authors’ imagination of making suffering mothers appear as natural is not deconstructed here, since it is based on the authentic understanding experienced by the authors. The depiction done by the authors reveal the more authentic description, rather than fantasize the actual condition. The works studied take the readers to see the unseen, because the mothers in the works have been covered by the dream that common literary works have offered.

This study also figures out that the works under study come from the third world countries. These mothers represent the resurrection of the third world countries from their deterioration.

Taken from the last two lines of the poem from the introductory chapter, the statement: “...’MOTHER’, a word that means the world to me” seems fair enough to describe a child’s feeling and admiration to her/his mother. Since mother is the first person that a child met on her/his very first moment coming to this planet, her/his dependency to mother figure is acceptable without any doubt.

But a good mother will not make use of her child’s helplessness to have an absolute control over her/him. Instead, she will prepare her/him well to be an independent human being. She would also well equip her/him with proper understanding of gender roles (for example) to enter the society and participate in it to change to world to be a better place to live.

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Having opened with Johnson’s poem about how the important meaning of mother in someone’s life, I would like to close this study with a restatement of the potential power that mother should realize and make use of for the sake of a brighter future.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Burstrem, Jessica. Thoughts from a Feminist Mother. 2007. Web. 11 May 2010.

Biography of Grabiela Garcia Marquez, 1999 – 2010. Web. 19 November 2010.

Chotiudompant, Suradech.“Decolinization and Demystification: One Hundred Years of Solitude and Nationhood”, Manusya 5 (2003): 68 – 87. Web. 10 November 2010.

Damrosch, David. What is World Literature? New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2003. Print.

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“A Feminist Review of Parenting Literature”. Mothering in the Margins. 1 December 2009. Web. 11 May 2010.

Gorky, Maxim. Mother. Translated into English from Russian by Margaret Wettlin. Moscow: The Foreign Language Publishing House, 1906 (1946). Print.

Gorky, Maxim. Ibunda. Translated into Indonesian by Pramoedya Ananta Toer. Jakarta: Kalyamitra, 2002. Print.

Graddol, David. English Next. UK: British Council, 2006. Print.

Hooks, Bell. Feminism is for Everybody: Passionate Politics. Canada: Cambridge, 2000. Print.

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Keily, Robert. Memory and Prophecy, Illusion and Reality are Mixed and Made to Look the Same. New York: The New York Times Company, 1999. Web. 19 November 2010.

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APPENDIX

The Summary of Mother

Maxim Gorky wrote this novel based on an actual event: a demonstration by factory workers near Nizhni Novgorod. The “mother” is Pelagea Nilovna, widow of a rude factory worker, and the action in the novel is generally seen through her eyes. Her son, Pavel is found to be the leader of labour movement among the factory workers.

Pelagea used to live under her husband’s tortures. After his death, she promises herself that she does not want her only son Pavel to have bad attitudes as his father did. At that time, among the working class society, cursing and beating to wife and children is a common scene. But, Pelagea is a unique mother. She does not want the bad habit to run on and on, thus she never beats and curses her son.

With her love and affection, she manages to save Pavel from becoming like his father, she stops his habit of getting drunk. And in fact, Pavel becomes more educated than most people in their neighbourhood. He becomes the leader of the factory workers.

Being not well trained to read, Pelagea is eager to know the knowledge that Pavel tells her about. She then learns to read again and cannot help herself not to read. She is also willing to understand the movement that her son tries to lead.

She also wants to make a change.

When Pavel is put in jail because he leads the workers’ strike, Pelagea has to live with her son’s friend. Staying with a fellow revolutionary makes her understand more about the movement. She then participates in smuggling the 106

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radical booklets into the factory and the people on the country – side. She becomes the active member of the movement.

Separation from the one that she loves, Pavel, makes Pelagea become a strong mother even for Pavel’s friends. They love to talk to her and consider her as their own mother.

Pelagea main concern is to help Pavel’s voice reaching out of the jail.

Thus she is willing to risk her life to bring his speech to other people. She is beaten to death in her last attempt to smuggle the copies of the speech. But

Pelagea does not die in vain, she is a brave mother who wants to sacrifice her life in order to make a change for others’ future life.

The Summary of One Hundred Years of Solitude

One Hundred Years of Solitude is the history of the isolated town of

Macondo and of the family who founds it, the Buendías. It is written by Gabriela

Marquez and has been translated into several languages.

It is started when the Buendías found a piece of land and stayed there.

Having husband whose most of the time spent his time in experimenting, Ursula

Iguaran has to work hard for her children. Throughout her long life, she has to keep the family line and to suffer from the hard work that she has to do for her family life.

Owning a strong and firm character, Ursula manages her family daily needs. She takes care of the house chores, grows plants for their food, and takes care of her children as well as their education. She is even brave enough to travel the unknown area to seek her missing son, where her husband cannot do anything.

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During her life, she has to lose her valuable belongings since her husband asks them in order to be traded with experimental material. Although cannot do anything to refuse her husband’s will, she is in charge of all family matters. She accepts the extra duties that are given to her.

Ursula is the one who brings the success in the family. She is the bond that keeps the big family together despite of all their differences. Although at the end of the story, she has also have to witness the downfall of her beloved family, still

Ursula as a mother figure can play as a role model of a tenacious mother should be.

The Summary of Emak

The novel is a memoir that is written by Daoed Joesoef for his mother,

Emak. His admiration to Emak is very clear in the novel.

Not well educated, Emak is a modern mother that thinks education is for everybody. She never differentiates her children. She gives her children, girls and boy, the same opportunity to learn. She is lucky because her husband, Bapak, is not a conservative husband.

She is treated equally within the family, she is good in giving arguments and she loves to discuss things with her husband, children, and other people. Her ability in communicating her ideas has made Daoed to be accepted in school although he is not yet in the proper age. It also has made her to win an argument with the hospital rules stating that nobody can stay with the patient during the night.

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She is not afraid of breaking the custom as long as it is good for the sake of development. At that time it is strange to send children to the colonial government’s school, especially when you do not like them. But Emak, having her own agenda, she insists in sending her children to the Dutch’s school, aiming to get better education.

She also learns to ride a bike, although at that time no native woman who learns to ride bicycle, only Dutch lady can. But against all odds, she earns money by sewing to buy a used bicycle for her to learn. After she is able to ride one, she teaches her children, Daoed and his sisters, to ride the bicycle. It shows that Emak has developed her thoughts and is able to follow the modernity era.

Everything that Emak does to keep her children’s education results on her pride of having Daoed as the first person who got scholarship and graduated from

Sorbonne University. That later on will bring another glory of having Daoed as

Indonesian Minister of Education.

The Summary of “Persembahan untuk Ibu”

This short story is written by Dasriel Rasmala taking the setting of

Minangkabau family and culture. It starts with the disaster to a family, where the parents are divorced and the father remarries another woman. Thus making the mother, Ibu, and her two sons have to move from Jakarta to their homeland,

Minangkabau.

Being left by her husband, Ibu does not want to remarry again although she does not have any daughter. According to the local tradition, a mother has to

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stay with her daughter in her old age. Because of her love for her two sons, she refuses that idea and devotes herself for her sons’ education.

In order to have better education, she supports her two children to go to

Jakarta to live with their father. Although it is a painful situation for her since they have never been apart before. She even earns some money to send to her children, in case their father cannot fulfil their needs.

Her struggle and suffering result on the success of her children’s education and in their attempt of finding jobs. She finally is able to go back to Jakarta to stay with her two sons since her sons are able to earn money to live outside their father’s house. They rent a house and send money to their mother so that she can go to Jakarta to stay with them like they used to be.

The Summary of “Sepasang Mata Seorang Ibu”

Written by Gerson Poyk, this story is set in Rote, NTT. It tells about a mother who struggle for her two children’s education. Her days are full of working, either doing domestic chores or earning extra money for her children’s school fee.

As religious parents, she and her husband also teach their children good things about being religious. Less educated, these husband and wife work hard to give their children higher education. They, especially Ibu, do not want the children to experience the similar condition. They send their children to study in the university in Jakarta.

Her hard work shows good results. Her son is graduated and earns a scholarship to continue his study to America. A few years later, her daughter also

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gets a scholarship to study in America. Ibu is very proud of her two children; even she is willing to accept daughter and son in – law who are not from the circle of their culture. Her children marry Americans, stay and start their family there.

Although their children want to make her happy by bringing her to stay in

America, she does not stay there long because she misses the beauty of Rote

Island where she can make use of her skill in making kue cucur and doing house chores.

The Summary of “Anakonhi Do Hamoraun Di Ahu!”

The last story is written by Saut Poltak Tambunan. Ibu in this story is a hard working mother since she lives in Batak culture, where the income is earned by wives. Having a child who can continue her or his education to become a bachelor is a proud thing for Ibu. Thus she works hard, ignoring her own needs just to give Tambur, her son, opportunity to study.

However, Tambur misuses the good opportunity. He lies to his parents about his education. He has been dropped out of his study for quite sometimes and he even starts his family. Not knowing the truth, Ibu keeps working hard to send some money for Tambur’s education and living cost in Jakarta.

When Tambur goes home bringing his wife and baby, Ibu whole heartedly accepts him and his new family. She does not lose any hopes for Tambur. She even has an idea that Tambur should restart his study again. And she will take care of his family if they are willing to stay in Medan, Tambur’s hometown. She says that she is still strong enough to earn money to support Tambur’s education for another four years.

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