Opal's Unhappy-Childhood Stemmed from Asperger's
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OPAL’S UNHAPPY-CHILDHOOD STEMMED FROM ASPERGER’S SYNDROME AS SEEN THROUGH THE PERSONIFICATIONS IN JANE BOULTON’S THE JOURNAL OF AN UNDERSTANDING HEART AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra in English Letters By DONI AGUNG SETIAWAN Student Number : 054214025 ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS FACULTY OF LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA 2011 i ii iii Tomorrow is coming today Lies between the space of every single breath Do you mind to stop dreaming and calling yesterday? -Doni Agung Setiawan- iv To whom I call ‘Ibuk’ and ‘Bapak’ v vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This is the most tighten home assignment that I can finish during my study in Sanata Dharma University. Nothing is perfect, of course, but in this long work, I try to do to make it better. There are many supports and helps in doing this work, therefore I would like to express gratitude to my beloved parents, mbak Endah, and mas Koko. I also would like to say thanks to my brothers, Agaton, Fred, Tj, and Gedhek for the entertainment in this pressure, I thanks to the big family of Teater Seriboe Djendela for the greatest work we’ve done together, to my unique friends; Bayu and Antok, Natan, Grek, Wahmuji for the interesting ideas, and all of my beloved friends for the nice friendship in this long study. I would like to thanks Ibu Elisa Dwi Wardani, S. S., M. Hum. and Bapak Tatang Iskarna, S. S., M. Hum. for the guidance, ideas, support, and the patience during the writing process of this work. The last, I would like to give my special thanks to Anna Palute, for the colorful life she paints on me. Doni Agung Setiawan vii TABLE OF CONTENTS TITLE PAGE ………………………………………………………………. i APPROVAL PAGE………………………………………………………… ii ACCAPTANCE PAGE ………………………………………………......... iii MOTTO PAGE …………………………………………………………….. iv DEDICATION PAGE …………………………………………………….... v LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN........................................... vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ………………………………………………... vii TABLE OF CONTENTS …………………………………………………... viii ABSTRACT ……………………………………………………………….... x ABSTRAK …………………………………………………………………... xi CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION …………………………………………. 1 A. Background …………………………………………………………... 1 B. Problem Formulations ………………………………………………... 5 C. Objectives of the Study ………………………………………………. 6 D. Definition of Terms …………………………………………………... 6 CHAPTER II: THEORETICAL REVIEW ……………………………… 9 A. Review of Related Studies …………………………………………… 9 1. Steve Mcquiddy’s The Fantastic Tales of Opal Whiteley…….. 9 2. Stephen H. Williamson’s Mental Health Report on Opal Whiteley. 11 B. Review of Related Theories…………………………………………... 14 1. Theory of Personification………………………………............. 14 2. Theory of Asperger’s syndrome in Girl…………………………... 14 3. Loneliness and Unhappiness in Young Girl……………………… 17 C. Theoretical Framework ………………………………………………. 20 CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY ………………………………………. 22 A. Object of the Study …………………………………………………... 22 B. Approach of the Study ……………………………………………….. 24 C. Method of the Study ………………………………………………….. 25 CHAPTER IV: ANALYSIS ……………………………………………….. 27 A. The Examination of Personification in The Journal of An Understanding Heart………………………………………………. 27 B. Opal’s Unhappy-Childhood Seen Through the Personification in The 69 Journal of An Understanding Heart…………………………………. a. The Intensity of the Interaction between Opal and the 69 Personified Objects………………………………………….. viii b. Opal’s Behavior Disorder……………………………………. 85 c. Opal’s loneliness…………………………………………….. 104 d. Opal’s Unhappy-Childhood…………………………………. 108 CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION …………………………………………… 115 BIBLIOGRAPHY…………………………………………………………... 121 ix ABSTRACT DONI AGUNG SETIAWAN. Opal’s Unhappy-Childhood Stemmed from Asperger’s Syndrome As Seen through the Personifications in Jane Boulton’s The Journal of An Understanding Heart. Yogyakarta: Department of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma University, 2011. Opal Whiteley, a lonely girl who is adopted by Whiteley family after losing her true parents in the age of four, has amazed many people after her childhood diary is published in her age of twenty. The diary records Opal’s daily life including her interaction with animals, plants, and the nature surrounding her. The interaction between Opal and those objects is interesting because she treats them as human being. In the scope of poetry, however, the endowment of human attributes addressed to those objects is stated as personification. The personifications written in some stanzas in The Journal of An Understanding Heart show Opal’s Unhappy-childhood. There are two objectives to be attained in this study. The first objective is to show the personifications in The Journal of An Understanding Heart. The second objective is to see Opal’s unhappy-childhood through the personifications. The writer used library research in this study to get most necessary references, while the approach applied here is psychological approach. The analyses are sequenced into, first, examining the personifications and, second, examining the interaction between Opal and the personified objects to see Opal’s unhappy- childhood. This study finds that there are personifications in some stanzas in The Journal of An Understanding Heart. The interaction between Opal and the personified objects shows that Opal has behavior disorder. That disorder is stated as Asperger’s syndrome. Asperger’s syndrome in girls are difficult to diagnose because their behavior seem like normal girls. Thus, Opal’s behavior disorder is not known by her parents, therefore she does not get any special treatment for her condition. The result is that she feels alone along of her childhood as her syndrome disables her to make relationship with other people, especially children around her age. Escaping her loneliness, Opal has more intense interacted with the objects that are considered as humans. Her intense interaction with the personified objects makes her more and more has difficulty to communicate with other. This condition makes Opal often feels alone along and being unhappy during her childhood. x ABSTRAK DONI AGUNG SETIAWAN. Opal’s Unhappy-Childhood Stemmed from Asperger’s Syndrome As Seen through the Personifications in Jane Boulton’s The Journal of An Understanding Heart. Yogyakarta: Department of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma University, 2011. Opal Whiteley, gadis kecil kesepian yang telah diadopsi oleh keluarga Whiteley setelah ia kehilangan kedua orang tua aslinya ketika ia berumur empat tahun, telah membuat banyak orang terkesan setelah buku harian masa kecilnya diterbitkan di usianya yang ke dua puluh. Buku harian tersebut merekam kehidupan Opal sehari-hari, yang meliputi interaksinya dengan banyak binatang, tumbuhan, dan alam di sekelilingnya. Interaksi antara Opal dengan obyek-obyek tersebut menjadi hal yang menarik karena dia memperlakukan obyek-obyek tersebut seperti halnya manusia. Dalam ruang lingkup puisi, penambahan atribut ke-manusia-an kepada obyek-obyek tersebut merupakan personifikasi. Personifikasi-personifikasi yang tertulis dalam bait-bait di buku The Journal of An Understanding Heart menunjukkan masa kecil Opal yang tidak bahagia. Ada dua tujuan yang akan dicapai dalam penelitian ini. Tujuan pertama adalah untuk menunjukan personifikasi-personifikasi yang ada dalam The Journal of An Understanding Heart. Tujuan kedua adalah untuk melihat masa kecil Opal yang tidak bahagia melalui personifikasi-personifikasi tersebut. Penelitian ini merupakan penelitian pustaka yang mengambil beberapa sumber dari buku dan dokument-dokumen dari jaringan internet, sedangkan pendekatan yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah pendekatan psikologis. Urutan pembahasan dalam penelitian ini adalah, pertama, meneliti personifikasi- personifikasi dan, kedua, menunjukkan masa kecil Opal yang tidak bahagia melalui interaksi antara Opal dengan obyek-obyek yang terpersonifikasi. Penelitian ini menemukan bahwa ada beberapa personifikasi pada bait-bait di The Journal of An Understanding Heart. Interaksi antara Opal dengan obyek-oyek yang terpersonifikasi menunjukkan bahwa Opal memiliki perilaku yang menyimpang. Penyakit tersebut dinyatakan sebagai sindrom Asperger. Sindrom Asperger pada anak perempuan sulit untuk diketahui karena perilaku mereka seakan-akan normal. Demikian, perilaku Opal yang menyimpang tersebut tidak terkenali oleh kedua orang tuanya, oleh karena itu ia tidak mendapatkan perlakuan khusus atas kondisinya. Akibatnya, ia meresa kesepian di sepanjang masa kecilnya sebagaimana sindrom tersebut membuatnya sulit untuk menjalin relasi dengan orang lain, terutama dengan anak seusianya. Sebagai pelarian atas kesepiannya, Opal semakin intens berinteraksi dengan obyek-obyek terpersonifikasi yang telah ia anggap seperti manusia. Interaksi yang semakin intens tersebut membuat ia semakin kesulitan untuk berkomunikasi dengan orang lain. Kondisi tersebut membuat Opal sering merasa kesepian dan tidak bahagia di sepanjang masa kanak-kanaknya. xi CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION A. Background Rene Wellek and Austin Warren say in his book that the natural and sensible starting point for work in literary scholarship is the interpretation and analysis of the work it self. After all, only the work itself justifies the interest in seeing the life of an author (Wellek and Warren, 1956: 139). It is, indeed, also happened in the study of poetry. True poetry, Guerin quotes Crane’s statement, is always a direct outpouring of personal feeling; that its values are determined by the nature of the emotion