I a STUDY of CHRISTOPHER's INTERPERSONAL CONFLICTS AS

PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

A STUDY OF CHRISTOPHER'S INTERPERSONAL CONFLICTS AS SEEN IN MARK HADDON’S THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME

A THESIS Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree In English Language Education

By: Raditya Wahyu Kumara Student Number: 031214111

ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA 2008

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Where there is a will, there is always a way.

(Anonymous)

This thesis is dedicated to my lovely mother

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First of all, I would like to express my greatest gratitude to Allah Swt. I thank Him for His blessing. For that reason I can finish my thesis.

Second, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my major sponsor,

Drs. L. Bambang Hendarto Yuliwarsono, M. Hum. for giving me part of his time reading my thesis and guiding me patiently. I would also like to thank all lecturers of the English Language Education Study Program for their help and guidance during my study in Sanata Dharma University.

Third, I wish to express my greatest appreciation to my beloved parents, Sri widadjati and Suradi, for their endless attention and prayers to support me during my study. I would like to say thanks to my older sister, Upik, for the inspiration and for supporting me. I would also like to thank my lovely Cipluk for her support, patient, love and advice.

Fourth, my special thanks are dedicated to: Melani, Andreas Yoga, Arinto,

Grace, Cherly, Aji, Paul, Ambar, Yuli, Wisnu, Deta, Yoga and Timur for the finest and craziest time we have spent together day or night. And also to

“Canteen” and “Tunggorono” community, especially Boy, Sinta et. al..

Finally, I would like to thank them who I cannot mention them one by one for their supports, time, advice, and prayers.

Raditya Wahyu Kumara

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TABLE OF CONTENT

Page

TITLE PAGE…………………………………………………………………….i

PAGE OF APPROVAL…………………………………………………………ii

PAGE OF ACCEPTANCE……………………………………………………..iii

PAGE OF DEDICATION………………………………………………………iv

STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY…………………………………v

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT…………………………………………………….. vi

TABLE OF CONTENT……………………………………………………….. vii

ABSTRACT…………………………………………………………………….. xi

ABSTRAK……………………………………………………………………… xii

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study………………………………………………………1

B. Objectives of the Study………………………………………………………..4

C. Problem Formulation…………………………………………………………..4

D. Benefits of the Study…………………………………………………………..5

E. Definition of Terms…………………………………………………………….5

CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

A. Review of Related Theories……………………………………………………7

1. Character…………………………………………………………………….7

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a. Definition of Character…………………………………………………. 7

b. Kinds of Character ……………………………………………………... 8

2. Characterization………………………………………………………….... 9

a. Definition of Characterization………………………………………..... 9

b. Methods of Characterization………………………………………….. 10

3. Approaches……………………………………………………………….. 12

4. Conflict………………………………………………………………..……14

a. Definition of Conflict…………………………………………….…….. 14

b. Types of Conflict ………………………………………………..…… 14

c. Theory of Conflict Resolution…………………………………..………15

B. Criticism…………………………………………………………………… 22

C. Theoretical Framework…………………………………………………… 23

CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY

A. Subject Matter……………………………………………………………….. 25

B. Approach……………………………………………………………………...26

C. Procedure……………………………………………………………………...27

CHAPHER IV ANALYSIS

A. The Description of Christopher………………………………………………29

B. Christopher’s Characteristics as an Autistic Boy…………………………….30

1. Christopher’s Learning Disabilities………………………………………..31

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a. Christopher’s Social Learning Disabilities………………………………31

1) Lack of Awareness of Others…………………………………………31

2) Lack of Social and Emotional Reciprocity…………………………...33

3) Lack of Social Imitation……………………………………………...34

b. Christopher’s Communicative Learning Disabilities……………………35

1) Deficits in Understanding Body Language and Facial Expression…..35

2) Deficits in Expressive Body Language and Facial Expressiveness…..37

3) Deficit in Understanding Spoken Language………………………….38

c. Christopher’s non- Social Learning Disabilities………………………...39

1) Lack of Imagination in Play………………………………………….39

2) Stereotyped and Repetitive Interest……………………………….…41

C. Christopher’s Interpersonal Conflict………………………………………….42

1. Christopher versus His Neighbors…………………………………………43

2. Christopher versus The policemen…………………………………………45

3. Christopher versus His Father……………………………………………...49

4. Christopher versus His Mother…………………………………………….55

CHAPTER V CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS

A. Conclusions………………………………………………………………….58

B. Suggestions…………………………………………………………………..60

1. Suggestion for Future Researchers………………………………………..61

2. Suggestion for Teaching-Learning Activity………………………………61

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The Implementation in Teaching Speaking………………………………..62

BIBLIOGRAPHY……………………………………………………………....64

LIST OF APPENDICES

A. Summary of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time………… (1)

B. The Biography of Mark Haddon…………………………………………… (3)

C. Lesson Plan for Teaching Speaking………………………………………… (5)

D. Material……………………………………………………………………… (8)

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ABSTRACT

Kumara, Raditya W. 2008. A Study of Christopher’s Interpersonal Conflicts As Seen in Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of The Dog in The Night-Time. Yogyakarta: English Language Education Study Program. Department of Language and Arts Education. Faculty of Teachers Training and Education. Sanata Dharma University.

This study discusses the life of an autistic boy, Christopher, the main character in Mark Haddon’s novel, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night- Time. This study aimed to find out how Christopher, the main character, is described in the novel, Christopher’s characteristics as an autistic boy, and how he solves his interpersonal conflict as an autistic boy. This is a library research, conducted through reviewing several theories that are related to the study. Those theories are taken from secondary resources while the primary data is the novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time. In this study, psychological approach was applied. The result of the analysis showed that Christopher is the main character in the novel and he is autistic. Christopher, as an autistic boy, also has certain characteristics. He does not like being touched by other people even his parents. He does not like novel object. He has difficulty to interact with other people. It is also hard for him to understand and to use facial expressions and body languages. He has difficulties in understanding spoken language. He has low desire to earn approval of other people. He also has his own way of thinking. Christopher who is autistic also faces many conflicts with other people. First, he faces conflicts with his neighbors. Second, he faces conflict with the policemen. Third, he faces conflict with his father. Fourth, he also faces conflict with his mother. To solve his interpersonal conflicts, Christopher applies some strategies like mediation, avoidance, informal problem-solving discussion, non- violence approach, violence approach. Finally, this thesis provides some suggestions for future researches who would like to study the novel further using other approaches with some other topics. There are also some suggestions for English instructors in implementing The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time in speaking classes.

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ABSTRAK

Kumara, Raditya W. 2008. A Study of Christopher’s Interpersonal Conflict As Seen in Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of The Dog in The Night-Time. Yogyakarta: Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris. Departemen Pendidikan Bahasa dan Seni. Fakultas Keguruan dan Ilmu Pendidikan. Universitas Sanata Dharma.Yogyakarta.

Studi ini membahas kehidupan seorang anak autis, Christopher, tokoh utama dalam novel karangan Mark Haddon yang berjudul The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. Studi ini bertujuan untuk menemukan bagaimana Christoper, sang tokoh utama, digambarkan dalam novel ini, untuk mengetahui bagaimana Christoper digambarkan sebagai seorang anak autis dan untuk mengetahui bagaimana Christopher menyelesaikan konflik antara dirinya dengan orang lain sebagai seorang anak autis. Skripsi ini merupakan studi pustaka yang dilakukan dengan cara memakai teori-teori yang berhubungan dengan skripsi ini. Teori - teori tersebut berasal dari buku - buku yang merupakan sumber sekunder. Adapun yang menjadi sumber primer dari studi ini adalah sebual novel karangan Mark Haddon yang berjudul The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. Dalam studi ini pendekatan psikologis di terapkan. Hasil dari analisis menunjukan bahwa Christopher adalah tokoh utama dalam novel ini dan dia adalah seorang autis. Christopher, sebagai seorang anak autis, juga mempunyai karakter tertentu. Dia tidak suka disentuh oleh orang lain. Dia tidak suka benda baru. Dia mempunyai kesulitan untuk berinteraksi dengan orang lain. Sangat sulit bagi nya untuk memahami expresi muka dan bahasa tubuh. Dia meiliki kesulitan dalam memahami pembicaraan. Dia mempunyai hasrat yang rendah untuk mendapatkan persetujuan orang lain. Dia juga mempunyai cara berpikir sendiri. Christopher yang autis ini juga menghadapi banyak konflik dengan orang lain. Pertama, dia menghadapi konflik dengan tetangganya. Kedua, Dia menghadapi konflik dengan Polisi. Ketiga, Dia menhadapi konflik dengan ayahnya. keempat, dia menghadapi konflik dengan ibunya. untuk menyelesaikan konflik-konfliknya Christopher menerapkan beberapa strategi seperti halnya mediasi, penghindaran, diskusi informal tentang masalah dan solusinya, pendekatan anti kekerasan, dan juga pendekatan kekerasan. Akhirnya, novel ini menyertakan beberapa saran. peneliti lain yang hendak mempelajari novel ini lebih jauh dengan menggunakan pendekatan psikologi dengan beberapa topik yang lain Disamping itu. terdapat pula beberapa saran untuk untuk instruktur Bahasa Inggris dalam menggunakan The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time sebagai bahan pengajaran dalam mata kuliah berbicara.

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CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

This chapter consists of five chapters. They are background of the study, objectives of the study, problem formulation, benefits of the study, and definition of terms. The background of the Study covers the reasons of choosing the novel and the topic. The second section talks about the objectives of the study to answer the problem formulation. The third one is problem formulation, which gives general description of the problem that will be analyzed in this study. The fourth one describes the advantages of the study. Finally, definition of term explains the meaning of some important terms related to the study.

A. Background of the Study

As human beings, we realize that we do not live alone in this world. There are also other people who live in this world. A person can not live without other people. He should interact with other people. He needs to build relations with other people. However, this condition may lead to the fact that he might get into conflict. The interaction between he and other people may cause him to have conflict within himself or with other people.

According to Redman a conflict means the struggle between two opposing forces, ideas and beliefs. There are two terms of conflict: first inner conflict, which means a struggle within the heart and mind of the protagonist and second, external conflict, which refers to a struggle between the protagonist and an outside

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force (363). Worchel and Cooper, in their book Understanding Social Psychology, state that there are two types of conflicts they are interpersonal and intrapersonal conflict (460). Jones and Gerard say that intrapersonal conflict is a conflict within an individual because of incompatibility within himself, whereas Raven and

Kruglanski see interpersonal conflict as tension between two or more social entities, such as; individual, groups, or larger organizations, which arise from incompatibility of actual or desired responses (qtd. in worchel and cooper 460).

Based on the definition of conflict above, it can be concluded that inner conflict and external conflict which are found in literary context have the same meaning as intrapersonal and interpersonal conflict in the context of psychology.

Conflicts can also be portrayed in literary works, such as a novel, because literary works are other copied versions of human reality in real life. Therefore, they portray realities of human life. Conflicts make a story become more interesting and fascinating to the readers (Hudson 10).

A novel entitled The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night- Time by Mark

Haddon portrays conflicts faced by a boy who suffers from mental disorder. It happens to Christopher, the main character in Mark Haddon’s The Curious

Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. He is an autistic boy who also faces many conflicts in his life. As an autistic boy he has unique behavior which is different from the normal boys. He has his own ways of doing certain actions in his life and the ways he interacts to other people around him are quite different from normal people. He also has certain unique ways in facing the problem. It is challenging to analyze the way he solves the conflict that he faces. It will be interesting to see PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

how Christopher, an autistic boy, solves his conflict with other people around him.

The story tells about a 15 year-old boy named Christopher who is autistic. He lives with his father, a heating contractor. He lives in Swindon, a city in England.

One day he finds his neighbor's dog named Wellington killed. Since he loves it, it is important for him to find the murderer. He decides to solve the mystery.

However his father wants Christopher to stay away from a problem. Although his father forbids him to do the investigation, Christopher still keeps continuing the investigation. He also writes his investigation about the incident of the dog in a book.

In the beginning of the story Christopher has a conflict with a policeman who asks him some questions about the death of Wellington. It makes him confused because the policeman asks him many questions quickly. Finally, he hits the policeman because he does not like being touched by the policeman. He also faces a conflict with his father. One day, Christopher forgets that he has put his book on the table in the kitchen. His father finds and reads the book. He is really angry with Christopher and throws away the book. Christopher searches his book in his father's room. Accidentally, He finds some letters from his mother. He is really surprised to know that his mother is still alive but his father tells him that his mother has passed away. His father also admits that he kills the dog. His confession makes Christopher frightened because for him, a murderer is a bad person and he should be punished. He decides to live with his mother. He starts a remarkably brave experience by going to London to find his mother. Finally he PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

finds his mother and lives with her. But one day, he has to go back to his home town to do his A math level. He goes back to his hometown with his mother because he is still afraid of his father. At the end of the story he succeeds in doing his A math level.

This novel uses the first person “I”. The narrator creates a character in which he puts himself as the autistic boy. From this novel, we can see what it is like to be an autistic boy because by reading this novel it seems that we explore the world of autism by ourselves. We can also see Christopher's perception and feelings about things that happen in his life. I believe that this novel is very interesting to analyze because it does not only show us how an autistic boy behaves in his daily life but also how an autistic boy behaves in solving the conflicts.

B. The Objectives of the Study.

The aim of this study is first to find out the description of Christopher as the main character in the novel. Second is to find out the characteristics of

Christopher as an autistic boy. Third is to find out the conflicts that Christopher faces and to analyze how he deals with his interpersonal conflicts.

C. Problem Formulation

In this section, there are two problems that arise into discussion. They are formulated as follows:

1. How is Christopher described in the novel?

2. How is Christopher characterized as an autistic boy in the novel? PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

3. How does Christopher solve his interpersonal conflicts?

D. Benefits of the Study

There are some advantages of this study. First, analyzing this novel gives me more information about Literature and autism. I know more about the characteristics of an autistic child, how he behaves toward other people and how he solves his intrapersonal and interpersonal conflicts.

The second benefit is for those who are interested in literary work. This study can help them understand how the writer characterizes the character and the message, which the writer is going to present for readers.

The third benefit is for the readers of English Language Education Study

Program of Sanata Dharma University. They can use this study as a reference in analyzing a literary work.

E. Definition of Terms

This section deals with the important terms used in this study to avoid any misunderstanding when reading this study. The terms are described as follows:

1. Character

According to Abrams characters are the person presented in a dramatic or narrative work who are interpreted by the readers as being endowed with moral and disposition qualities that are expressed in what they say (dialogue) and by what they do (the action). (23). In this study, the character refers to Christopher, PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

the main character in Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the

Night-Time

2. Interpersonal Conflict

According to Redman conflict refers to the struggle between two opposing forces, idea and belief (363). There are two kinds of conflict, interpersonal conflict and intrapersonal conflict. Redman also states that Interpersonal conflict refers to a struggle between the protagonist and an outside force (363). In this study, interpersonal conflict refers to Christopher’s interpersonal conflicts, conflicts which happen between Christopher as the main character of the novel with other people around him.

3. Autism

According to Bryna Siegel autism is a disorder in the capacity for social understanding. Along with this there comes to be certain ways that the child with autism also has difficulties with language and how he processes the information coming from that senses (11). Based on this definition, Autism is defined as a disorder which makes a person has difficulty to interact and to communicate with other people. A person who suffers from autism tends to withdraw his self from his social environment. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

This chapter discusses the theories that are used to analyze the topic of this study. This chapter is divided into three sections, namely review of related theories, criticism, and context of the novel. Review of related theories consists of theory of character, theory of characterization, theory of approaches and theory of conflict. Criticism contains some criticism on Mark Haddon’s The Curious

Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. Theoretical framework explains how the theories in review of related theories are employed to answer the questions in the problem formulation.

A. Review of Related Theories

1. Character a. Definition of Character

Character can not be separated from a novel. According to Abrams, in his book A Glossary of Literary Terms, characters are “the person presented in a narrative or dramatic work, who are interpreted by the reader as being endowed with moral, dispositional, and emotional qualities that are expected in what they say in the dialogue and what they do in the action” (23). It means character is the person who is presented in a literary work, such a novel. Characters in a novel have their own characteristics or in another word, each character in a novel has different characteristics.

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Character is a person who does the action in a story. From characters, the reader can enjoy the development of the story from beginning to the end. Fictional characters of a story will lead the reader to imagine or may experience the course and the emotional aspects of the story through their action and their dialogue

(Stanton 17). b. Kinds of Character

Forster states that there are two kinds of characters, flat and round characters.

A flat character is simple and there is not much individualizing detail in this character (74). Forster also says that this kind of character is flat because the readers see only one side of him. Round character is more complex in temperament and motivation and is represented with subtle individuality.

Therefore, it is difficult to describe this kind of character. This character is more or less the same as a person in real life and has the capability of surprising us.

Based on Forster’s statement about kinds of characters, the character can be recognized from their complexity. A flat character does not have a complexity in the sense that there are not much traits or individualizing details in him.

Therefore, general readers can recognize this character without any difficulty.

Furthermore, a round character is more complex than a flat character. Readers do not easily recognize a round character because this character can change his personality into someone that we do not expect before.

Character can also be categorized into two terms. There are major and minor characters. According to Milligan, a major character is the most important character in a literary work. He plays a very important role because he becomes PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

the content of the story. He plays from the beginning till the end of the story and influences the whole story, so his appearance is more often than the other characters. From his action, the idea of the story is conveyed. While minor characters are characters who plays less important role than major characters.

Their appearance supports the main character to develop the story so that they appear only in a certain setting (155).

A major character is the centre of the story because he endures problems, conflict, happiness and sorrow. From his actions, the reader knows the author's messages of the story. A minor character does not play a big role in a story, it is because the minor characters do not play significant roles in the story.

2. Characterization a. Definition of Characterization

According to Rohrberger and Woods Jr. the process by which an author creates a character is called characterization (20). Characterization is an important element in a novel. Murphy states that characterization is “the technique used by the author to make the qualities of the character from his likes and dislikes, how he lives and what he does” (52). It means that characterization is the way that is used by the author in his literary work to make the readers able to recognize the character and to find out the ideas which are conveyed by the character. This statement is supported by Holman and Harmon. They points out “the term characterization itself is understood as the creation of the imaginary persons so PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

that they exist for the readers as lifelike” (81). In other words, characterization is the way the author shows and tries to make his characters alive and understandable for the readers as a realistic in his literary work such as a novel. b. Methods of Characterization

According to Rohrberger and Woods, Jr, there are two principal ways that can be used by an author to describe his characters; they are direct means by which the author uses description of physical appearances, intellectual, and moral attributes, or the degree of character sensitivity and dramatic means which means that the author places his character in certain situations to show who they are from the way they behave or speak (20).

Murphy proposes that there nine ways of describing characters in a story (161–

173). Those are described as follows:

1) Personal description

A character is described through the details of his physical appearance

such as face, skin, body, clothes, and hair cut.

2) Character as seen by another

The author illustrates the character from the point of view of another

character or person.

3) Speech

The readers may interpret or describe a character through what he says. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

4) Past life

The author gives a clue to events, which happened in the characters past

life, that shape a person’s character through direct comment, the readers

thought, or conversation through the medium of another person.

5) Conversation of others

The reader would know the person’s character through the conversation

of the people and the things they say about the person.

6) Reaction

The author also gives the readers a clue by letting us know how the

character reacts toward various situations and events as a way to describe the

character.

7) Direct comment

The author gives comment to the character personality directly.

8) Thought

The author gives a clue about a character’s characteristics through what

the character is thinking about.

9) Mannerism

Mannerism is the way the author tells about a character through the

description of the character’s mannerism, habits, or idiosyncrasies. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

3. Approaches

According to Marry Rohrberger and Samuel H. Woods, Jr, there are five approaches which can be used in analyzing a literary work. They are the formalist approach, biographical approach, the sociocultural – historical approach, the mythopoeic approach, and the psychological approach (6 -15). The description of each approach will be stated as follows; a. The Formalist Approach

This approach tries to examine the literary work without the reference to the fact of the author’s life without reference to the genre of the work or its place in the development of the genre or in literary history, or without reference to its social milieu. The formalist approach concerns about demonstrating the harmonious involvement of all parts to the whole and pointing out how meaning derived from structure and how matters of technique determine structure (6 – 7). b. The Biographical Approach

This approach takes us to the necessity for an appreciation of the ideas and the personality of the author to an understanding of the literary object. The proponents of the biographical approach insist that a work of art is a reflection of a personality that is the aesthetic experience the reader shares the author’s consciousness and that at least part of the reader’s response to the author personality. The readers try to learn as much as they can about the life and development of the author and to apply this knowledge in their attempt to understand his writing (8). PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

c. The Sociocultural – Historical Approach

The sociocultural – historical approach leads the readers to analyze a novel in reference to the civilization that produces the novel. Civilization is defined as the attitudes and actions of a specific group of people. Meanwhile, it is necessary to investigate the social milieu, the cultural and the historical background in which a novel is created (9). d. The Mythopoeic Approach

Using the mythopoeic approach, the readers analyze the novel by trying to discover certain universally recurrent patterns of a human thought. The universally recurrent patterns are those that found first expression in ancient myth or folk rites and are also basic to human thought that they have meaning for all man (11). e. The Psychological Approach

This approach brings us to analyze a novel from point of view of human beings. Freud’s exploration of unconscious area of the human mind led him to the conclusion that it was the area of the wellspring of man’s rich imagination, his capacity for creation, and the complexity of his thought and behaviour, and that the contents of this region of mind found expression in symbolic words, thoughts, and actions. Through the analysis of the structure and content of the dreams, he is led to believe that there exists a set of symbols which are common to all men and which can be interpreted in light of the individual’s experience (13). PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

4. Conflict

This section consists of some theories related to conflict. They are the theory of conflicts, the types of conflicts, and the conflict resolutions. The theory of conflict is needed to analyze the major character's interpersonal conflict psychologically. a. Definition of Conflict

Laurence Perrine defines conflicts as clash of actions, ideas, and desires or wills between two individuals or among people in the society. The conflict can include physical, mental, emotional, or moral aspects. In the real life people try to avoid conflict because they prefer to live without any clash or quarrel. Although people try to avoid conflicts, they will face a conflict, even without wars or large scale of disagreement (44).

According to Perrine conflict in a literary work may consist of one conflict that is stated clearly and the reader can easily identify the conflict. It may also consist of many conflicts that are difficult to be understood by the reader. To understand multi conflicts the reader should analyse the conflicts one by one (44).

According to Redman a conflict means the struggle between two opposing forces, ideas and beliefs (363). Conflict can happen between a person with other people and a person within himself. b. Types of Conflict

Redman states that in literary context there are two terms of conflict: first inner conflict, which means a struggle within the heart and mind of the protagonist and second, external conflict, which refers to a struggle between the protagonist and PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

an outside force. Inner conflict happens when the characters need to do an action but their belief prevents them to do something. The clash between their belief and their feeling will force the characters to choose one of them. Second, external conflict, which refers to a struggle between the protagonist and an outside force, happens when the characters have to face outside forces which are not similar to the character's desire, belief or thinking. The different desire, belief or thinking will create a conflict between the character and people around him. (363).

Jones and Gerard say that intrapersonal conflict is a conflict within an individual because of incompatibility within himself, whereas Raven and

According to Atkinson and Hillgard, psychologically, there are two kinds of conflicts that happen in our daily lives. Those are internal and external conflicts.

External conflicts mean conflicts between us and other people who live around us, such as with friends, teachers, or with families. Meanwhile internal conflicts are conflicts within our selves (424). c. Theory of Conflict Resolution

Conflict can be solved by many ways. In this study, In order to find how

Christopher, the main character of Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the

Dog in the Night-Time, solves his interpersonal conflicts, I apply the conflict resolution theory which is proposed by Moore. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

Moore (23-38) suggests four approaches to be the strategy to achieve resolution of conflict. He divides the approaches into four categories. They are private decision-making by parties, private third-party decision-making, legal

(public) authoritative third-party decision-making and extralegal coerced decision-making. The description of each approach will be stated as follows;

1. Private Decision Making by Parties

1) Avoidance

People sometimes prefer to interact with certain condition, in which they feel it has less potential of conflict. Some people like to keep inside their feeling in order to avoid conflicts. This happens because of the lack of their motivation to face the potential conflict and its resolution. They tend to see a relation based on the potential conflicts than the value of the relation itself. They often leave the situation totally when they see that it might cause conflicts (Moore 23-24).

2) Informal Problem-Solving Discussion

When avoidance is no longer possible and the pressure of the conflict grows stronger that the parties cannot let the disagreement continue, they usually use the informal problem-solving discussion to resolve their differences. The result of these discussion are either the conflicts are resolved more or less to the satisfaction of the people involved or the conflicts are dropped because they are unable and do not have the capacity to make the resolution for it (Moore 24). PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

3) Negotiation

Negotiation is applied when the parties find that the way to resolve their conflicts is by communicating their interest between them. This process may lead to a conflict resolution, in which both sides have the opportunities in achieving what they both want. They voluntarily join in a temporary relationship to transfer each others' needs and interests, so that the process of exchanging specific resources or to resolve their future-form of their own relationship will lead to the resolution (Moore 25-26).

4) Mediation

Mediation is another option for the resolution of a conflict. In mediation, a volunteer is needed to help the parties to find the resolution. The volunteer acts as a source that provides information needed which is helpful for the resolution. The volunteer also negotiate the possibilities of a better relationship. The success of the mediation depends on the degree of emotional status of the parties who have the conflicts. The decision is made by the parties not by the volunteer. The mediation is only needed when the parties find that they cannot resolve the conflicts on their own (Moore 26 -27).

2. Private Third-Party Decision Making

1) Administrative or Executive Dispute Resolution Approach

This resolution is only applied when a conflict happens in an organization. In this process, a third-party who has some distance from the dispute parties but is not necessarily a total stranger can provide a decision toward a conflict. This PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

third-party's integrity and judgment should be trusted by the dispute parties, so that the agreement process can be done (Moore 27-28).

2) Arbitration

Quite different from administrative or executive dispute resolution approach the arbitration process takes a fully impartial and neutral party to make the decision or just to provide the necessary information which can lead to the conflict resolution. This process is a private process which is not open to public

(Moore 29 -30).

3. Legal Authoritative Third-Party Decision Making

1) Judicial Approach

A judicial approach involves the intervention of a party that is seen as the institutionalized authority. In this approach, the resolution process is no longer in a private but more on a public area. In this approach, the parties who have conflicts usually hire lawyer to defend their behalf, the case is presented before a totally impartial and neutral third-party. The decision of the case is not merely considered by the dispute-parties' concern, interest, and arguments but more on the broader society's standard and values. The result of this approach is usually a win-lose condition where one party is declared as the right one while the other one as the wrong. (Moore 32-33)

2) The Legislative Approach

The legislative approach is another public means of solving a conflict by law.

It is usually employed for larger disputes affecting broad population, but it may PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

have significant utility for individuals. In this approach, the decision regarding the outcome is made by another win-lose process. It probably uses voting. The process of legislative approach to the problem solving might take a long time

(Moore 34 -35).

4. Extralegal Coerced Decision Making

This approach deals with using a stronger means of coercion to force an opponent into compliance or submission. There are two types of extralegal approaches.

1) Non-Violence Approach

This approach is applied when there are people or a group of people who do not behave as they should. This approach forces them to behave in a desired manner. Usually this approach can be effectively used when the disputes-parties must rely on each other for their living. For example, a husband should provide his wife with a sufficient amount of support (money, attention, care, etc). This approach involves social norms disobedience and it does not use any kind of physical coercion (Moore 36-37).

2) The Violence Approach

The last approach is violence or physical coercion. In this approach, the party who possesses more power will be able to force the result of the resolution. It often happens that the means of forcing the decision is a physical coercion (Moore

37- 38). PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

5. Autism a. Definition of Autism

According to Bryna Siegel autism is a disorder in the capacity for social understanding. Along with this there comes to be certain ways that the child with autism also has difficulties with language and how he processes the information coming from that senses (11). Based on this definition, Autism is defined as a disorder which makes a person has difficulty to interact and communicate with other people. A person who suffers from autism tends to withdraw his self from his social environment. b. Characteristics of Autistic Learning Disabilities

According to Bryna Siegel autistic children have some characteristic of learning disabilities; they are characteristics of social autistic learning disabilities, characteristic of communicative autistic learning disabilities, and characteristic of non-social learning disabilities (91-99). The description of each characteristic will be stated as follows;

1. Characteristics of Social Autistic Learning Disabilities

1) Lack of Awareness of Others

A child who is unaware of others and what they are doing fails to apprehend a great deal of experiences that feed into the child’s development of how and why people interact in the ways they do (Siegel 93). It means that this child fails to comprehend many things around him that other children might notice. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

2) Lack of Social and Emotional Reciprocity

An autistic child has lack of social and emotional reciprocity. It can be seen when a child is uninterested in doing things to please his parents or others. He is uninterested to learn a new thing to earn attention or approval of other people

(Siegel 91). In another word, an autistic child has low desire to please other people and low response to social praise.

3) Lack of Social Imitation

Usually, children learn new thing by” automatically” copying other children and adults because most things that others do are somewhat or very interesting, merely because someone else is engaged in their activity. An autistic child does not seem to be motivated to copy action from other people (Siegel 92).

2. Characteristics of Communicative Autistic Learning Disabilities

1) Deficits in Understanding Body language and Facial Expression

A child who suffers from autism appears to have poor comprehension of gestures or facial expression such as smile or nods of encouragement, frowning, shaking head “no” (Siegel 94).

2) Deficits in Expressive Body Language and Facial Expressiveness

An autistic child does not use a full or subtle range of facial expressiveness or body language to convey emotion communicatively (Siegel 94).

3) Deficits in Understanding Spoken Language

Most autistic children have “selective hearing” which means an autistic child responds to some thing like a jingle but no to others. For autistic children, words PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

or phrases once heard may not reappear increasingly or ever again. This is why they have difficulties in understanding spoken language (Siegel 94-95)

3. Characteristics of Non-Social Autistic Learning Disabilities

1) Lack of Imagination in Play

Children with autism tend to show little fantasy, limited representation of social situation and limited language use as part of play (Siegel 99).

2) Stereotyped and Repetitive Interest

Children with autism tend to avoid novel objects and actions. They prefer familiar actions to new actions (Siegel 99).

B. Criticism

Mark Haddon's novel, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, is a new novel. The criticism on Mark Haddon and his literary works comes from many sources such as daily news, magazines, and also from the readers. The criticism is used for helping the reader to understand the author’s work deeper.

Mark Haddon is a great British writer especially in children book and television screen-plays. Many people are interested in reading this novel because this novel is easy to read. Therefore, some comments of other people will be presented in this section

The first comment is from Entertainment Weekly. It is said that Haddon's book illuminates the way one mind works so precisely, so humanely, that it reads like both an acutely observed case study and an artful exploration of a different PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

'mystery': the thoughts and feeling we share even with those very different from us.

The second comment is from Arthur Golden, the author of Memoirs of a

Geeisha. He says that he has never read anything quite like Mark Haddon’s funny and agonizingly honest book, or encountered a narrator more vivid and memorable. He advises us to buy two copies, the readers won't want to lend their out.

The other comment comes from Ian McEwen, the author of Atonement, he said that Mark Haddon’s portrayal of an emotionally disassociated mind is a superb achievement. He also states that Mark Haddon is a wise and bleakly funny writer with rare gift of empathy.

The Washington Post Book World states that Mark Haddon is both clever and observant, it makes the effect is vastly affecting. It can be seen from his novel which entitled The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.

C. Theoretical Framework

In analyzing the novel, some theories are applied. The theories are theory of character, theory of characterization, theory of critical approach, theory of conflict, the theory of conflict resolution and the theory of autism.

To analyze the first problem in this study, theory of character is applied. The theory is used to help me to understand what kind of character Christopher is.

Theories of major and minor characters are used to understand the character of

Christopher. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

The theory of characterization is used to analyze the characteristics of

Christopher. The characteristics of Christopher can be identified from his personal description, he as seen by other characters, his speech, his reaction, his thought, and his manner.

Theory of conflict is applied to get a better understanding about conflicts that happen in one's life. In understanding what kinds of conflict that Christopher faces during his life as an autistic boy.

In order to know how Christopher solves the conflicts, I apply the theory of conflict resolution. After I find out the interpersonal conflicts that Christopher faces, I will analyze how he solves the conflict based on the theory of conflict resolution. We will see how he solves the conflicts clearly in the analysis. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

CHAPTER III

METHODOLOGY

This chapter is divided into three sections. The first section is subject matter which explains the content of Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time. The second section is approach which explains the approach that I use in this study. The third is procedures which contain series of steps in conducting this study.

A. Subject Matter

The subject of analysis in this thesis is a novel entitled The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night- Time by Mark Haddon. It was written and published in

2003. The novel was originally published in Great Britain by Jonathan Cape, Ltd.,

London. It was reprinted by Vintage Books in 2003. It consists of 226 pages.

The story tells about a 15 year-old boy named Christopher who is autistic. The story tells how Christopher lives in the society and faces many conflicts. One day he finds his neighbour’s dog named Wellington killed. He decides to solve the mystery of the death of the dog. His father forbids him to do the investigation but still keeps continuing the investigation. He also writes his investigation about the murder of the dog in a book.

As an autistic boy, he has difficulties in interacting and communicating with other people, it makes him involved in conflicts with other people. It can be seen when Christopher face a conflict with a policeman who asks him some questions

25 PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

about the death of dog. It makes him confused because the policeman asks many questions to him quickly. Finally, he hits the policeman because he does not like being touched by the policeman.

He also faces a conflict with his father. The conflict happens because when he forgets putting his book about the investigation about the murder of the dog in the kitchen. His father, incidentally, finds and reads the book. He is really angry with

Christopher and throws away the book. Christopher searches his book in his father's room. Accidentally, he finds some letters from his mother. He is really surprised to know that his mother is still alive because his father has told him that his mother has passed away. His father also admits that he has killed the dog. His confession makes Christopher frightened because for him, a murderer is an evil person and he should be punished. After knowing that his father kills the dog, he decides to live with his mother. He starts a remarkably brave experience by going to London to find his mother. Finally he finds his mother and lives with her. But one day, he has to go back to his home town to do his A math level. He goes back to his hometown with his mother because he is still afraid of his father. At the end of the story he succeeds in doing his A math level.

B. Approach

In conducting this study, the psychological approach is applied. It is because this study focuses on the main character’s interpersonal conflicts, which are a part of psychological aspects. So, the psychological approach is applied. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

This Psychological approach leads us to analyze the character from the psychological point of view. The character's behaviour, mind, and appearance must be noticed. By using the psychological approach, we can analyze the detail of the character’s behaviours, mind and appearance. The psychological approach helps me to understand the character's personality better and the character’s personality is related to his social relationship with other people around him.

By applying this approach, we can understand the character’s reasons why he has conflicts with certain people and why he solves those conflicts in certain ways. The reasons behind the conflicts and the conflict resolution are related to the character's personality. Therefore, the psychological approach is appropriate to analyze the problems in this study.

C. Procedure

The procedure of this study was consisted of some steps in analyzing Mark

Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time. First of all, I read the novel several times to get the best understanding about its content. Then, I read it again and I focused on the character’s depiction, and the conflicts that the main character faced.

In the second step, I formulated the problem formulations. In this case, the problem formulations were related to the main character’s characteristics and the character’s interpersonal conflicts.

The third step was looking for information related to the author, Mark Haddon, the novel, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time, and also the topic PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

which would be analyzed such as; conflict and character. The information was used to support the study. The information was obtained from some literature books and psychology books, especially books which were related to conflict and character. I also gathered the data from some sources in the internet. They were important as the guidance and direction in answering the questions in problem formulation.

Then, the fourth step was doing the analysis. I analyzed the characterization of

Christopher as the main character of the novel. The analysis also discussed about the conflicts that Christopher faced and how he solved the conflicts. In this analysis I used the psychological approach and also applied some related theories such as: character, characterization, conflict, conflict resolution and autism.

Finally, in the last step, I concluded the important points of the analysis as a result of the analysis. I also made suggestions for future researchers and for teaching and learning activities. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

CHAPTER IV

ANALYSIS

This chapter will be divided in two parts. The first is Christopher’s

Characterization which gives the description of Christopher’s characteristics as the main character in Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the

Night-Time and the second is the interpersonal conflicts that he faces and how he solves the conflicts.

A. The Description of Christopher

Character is a very important element of a novel. According to Abrams, in his book A Glossary of Literary Terms, characters are “the person presented in a narrative or dramatic work.” (23). It means character is the person who is presented in a literary work, such a novel. A character, in a novel, has his own characteristics or in another word, each character in a novel has distinctive characteristics.

Milligan states that a major character is the most important character in a literary work. He plays a very important role because he becomes the focus of the story. He plays his role in the story from the beginning till the end of the story and influences the whole story, so his appearance is more often than the other character. Through his action, the idea of the story is conveyed (155).

Christopher is the main character in Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. It can be seen from his role in the story; Christopher

29 PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

plays a significant role in this novel. Christopher appears from the beginning until the end of the story. He also becomes the narrator of the story. As the narrator,

Christopher leads the reader to his way of thinking. “My name is Christopher

John Francis Boone. I know all the countries of the world and their capital cities and every prime number up to 7,057.”(2). So, it can be concluded that Christopher is the main character because this novel tells about his life journey.

Christopher is also a round character because it is difficult to describe him in a simple word. He has his own way of thinking which is different from common people and has his own point of view in seeing this world and solving some conflicts that he faces.

B. Christopher’s Characteristics as an Autistic Boy

As presented in chapter two, there are methods to analyze the characteristics of a character. One of them is proposed by Murphy. He states that there are nine ways to analyze the characteristic of a character: personal description, character as seen by another, speech, past life, conversation of others, reaction, direct comment, mannerism and thought (161-173). In order to analyze Christopher’s characteristics, some methods of characterization proposed by Murphy are applied.

To analyze Christopher as an autistic boy, I also apply the theory proposed by

Bryna Siegel. According to Bryna Siegel autism is a disorder in the capacity for social understanding. Along with this, there comes to be certain ways that the child with autism also has difficulties with language and how he processes the PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

information coming from that senses (11). In another word, it can be said that

Autism is defined as a disorder which makes a person have difficulty to interact and communicate with other people. A person who suffers from autism tends to withdraw himself from his social environment.

Christopher who is an autistic has some characteristics which are different from common people. The following are Christopher’s characteristics as an autistic boy.

1. Christopher’s Learning Disabilities

According to Bryna Siegel autistic children have some characteristics of learning disabilities; they are characteristics of social autistic learning disabilities, communicative autistic learning disabilities, and non-social learning disabilities

(91-99). As an autistic boy Christopher also has these learning disabilities. The description of each Christopher’s characteristic as an autistic boy will be described as follows; a. Christopher’s Social Learning Disabilities

1) Lack of Awareness of Others

A child who is unaware of others and what he is doing fails to apprehend a great deal of experiences that feed into the child’s development of how and why people interact in the ways they do (Siegel 93). It means that this child fails to comprehend many things around him which other children might notice. It also happens to Christopher who also has difficulties to interact with other people.

Christopher is an introvert person. It can be seen from some of his statements in the story. Usually, an autistic boy has this characteristic because a person who PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

suffers from autism tends to withdraw himself from his social environment. So, it is not surprising if an autistic boy such as Christopher has this characteristic.

”Talking to strangers is not something I usually do. I do not like talking to the strangers. I do not like strangers because I do not like people I have never met before. They are hard to understand.” (34).

In the statement above Christopher says that he does not like talking to a stranger. He does not like new people around him. He does not like to open himself for new people who come in his life. It indicates that he does not like to interact with people around him. “It takes me along time to get used to people I do not know. For example, when there is a new member of staff at school I do not talk to them for weeks and weeks. I just watch them until I know that they are safe.” (35).

Christopher says that he needs along time to make him open himself to other people. The way he interacts to new people around him indicates that he is a person who is difficult to open himself to a new environment. According to

Byrna Siegel, it happens because an autistic boy is lack awareness of others. It means that they fail to apprehend how people around him do the interaction. For that reason, it is hard for Christopher to interact with new people around him.

Further, Byrna Siegel also explains that an autistic person tends to withdraw himself from his social environment. It also happens to Christopher who also does not open himself to new people around him. So, it can be concluded that

Christopher is an introvert person. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

2) Lack of Social and Emotional Reciprocity

(Siegel 91). An autistic child, generally, has a low desire to please other people and a low response to social praise.

Christopher also has this characteristic, Christopher is a stubborn boy. It can be seen when his father asks him to stay out from the murder case but,

Christopher does not obey his father’s advice. “I decided that I was going to find out who killed Wellington even though father had told me to stay out of other people’s business.” (28).”Christopher decides to continue his investigation about the murder of Mrs. Shears’s dog, Wellington. Even though, his father has warned him not to interfere other people business but he still wants to find the murderer of dog. He knows that his father will be angry if his father knows that he still does this investigation.

Then Father asked,” What the hell you were doing in her garden?” I said,” I was doing my detective work trying to find out who killed Wellington.” Father replied,” How many times do I have to tell you Christopher?” Father said, “I told you to keep your nose out of other person’s business.” I said, “I think Mr. Shears probably killed Wellington.” Father did not say anything (48-49)

The conversation above shows that Christopher’s father knows Christopher’s activities in Mrs. Shear’s garden. He is angry and he asks Christopher to stop his investigation. Christopher realizes that his father is angry because he is not PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

allowed to investigate the murder of the dog. But since he wants to find the murderer of the dog he keeps doing the investigation.

Christopher’s decision to keep continuing his investigation to find out the murderer of the dog, although his father has told him not to do this investigation, obviously shows that Christopher is a stubborn boy. It can also be said that he is uninterested to earn attention or approval of his father. He does not need his father’s approval to continue his investigation. This is one characteristic of an autistic boy which is named lack of social and emotional reciprocity.

3) Lack of Social Imitation

Usually, children learn new thing by copying other children and adults automatically. It is because most things that others do are a bit or very interesting, merely because someone else is engaged in their activity. An autistic child does not seem to be motivated to copy action from other people (Siegel 92).

Byrna Siegel’s theory about an autistic child who has lack of social imitation can also be seen in Christopher. Christopher has different point of view about constellation from common people. He has his own opinion about Orion constellation.

People say that Orion is called Orion because Orion was a hunter and the constellation looks like a hunter with a club and a bow and arrow, like this PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

But this is really silly because it just stars and you could join up the dots in any way you wanted, and you could make it look like a lady with an umbrella who is waving or the coffee maker which Mrs. Shears has, which is from Italy, with a handle and steam coming out, or like dinosaur. (125)

The Quotation above explains Christopher’s opinion about constellation

Orion. People say that constellation Orion is called Orion because Orion is a hunter with a club and bow and arrow. He criticizes this public opinion about

Orion constellation. He said that everyone can join up the dots in any way they wanted. So, it does not always look like an Orion but it can be a lady with an umbrella or coffee maker which Mr. Shears has.

His logical thinking is obviously seen in this case. This fact also proves that he seems not interested to copy what other people say. This fact is appropriate to

Byrna Siegel’s theory about autistic person who seems not interested to copy other people’s action.

b. Christopher’s Communicative Learning Disabilities

1) Deficits in Understanding Body language and Facial Expression

A child who suffers from autism appears to have poor comprehension of gestures or facial expression such as smile or nods of encouragement, frowning, shaking head “no” (Siegel 94). It is described in the novel that Christopher as an autistic boy also has difficulty in understanding body languages and facial expressions. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

… then she drew some other pictures

But I was unable to say what these meant. I got Siobhan to draw lots of these faces and then write down next to hem exactly what they meant. I kept the piece of paper in my pocket and took it out when I didn’t understand what some was saying. But, it was very difficult to decide which of the diagrams was most like the face they were making because people faces move very quickly (3).

Christopher asks Siobhan, his teacher, to explain the meaning of some facial expressions because he does not understand the meaning of facial expressions she has drawn. He says that it is very difficult to decide which of the diagrams most like the expressions that people make. It is because people’s faces move very quickly. This fact shows that he has a problem in understanding facial expressions.

Christopher says that he is confused when he tries to understand people who are talking without using any word but using facial expression. It is because

Christopher is not able to understand some facial expression’s meaning. “I find people confusing. This is for two main reasons. The first reason is that people do a lot of talking without using any words. “Siobhan says that if you raise one eye brow, it can mean lots of different thing. it can mean ”I want to do sex with you” and it can also mean” I think that you just said was very stupid”.” (14). Then his teacher, Siobhan, explains to him the meaning of several facial expressions. This fact is a proof that shows an autistic person is hard to apprehend the meaning of facial expressions. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

Christopher does not like people laughing at him. Even though, the person who laughs at him does not always mean insulting him. Christopher is a little bit angry when Rhodri laughs at him, “I don’t like when Rhodri laughs at me a lot. Father says it is being friendly.” (67). Then his father explains to him that Rhodri’s laughs do not mean insulting him. This fact indicates that he is not able understand well the meaning of laughing and it can be concluded that Christopher who suffers from autism is hard to understand other people’s facial expression.

2) Deficits in Expressive Body Language and Facial Expressiveness

An autistic child does not use a full or subtle range of facial expressiveness or body language to convey emotion communicatively (94). In another word, it means that an autistic person usually communicates with other people without using any facial expressions because they have problem in using body language and facial expression. Christopher has an unusual way in expressing body language.

I stepped outside. Father was standing in the corridor. He held up his hand and spread his finger out in a fan. I held up my left hand and spread my fingers out in a fan and we made our fingers and thumbs touch each other. We do this because sometimes father wants to give me a hug, but I do not like hugging people so we do this instead, and it means that he loves me (16).

Christopher is an untouchable person. He does not like being touched by other people including his parents. He does not like being hugged by his father so they have unusual way instead of hugging. They spread their fingers in a fan until their fingers touch each other. Based on this fact, it can be interpreted that Christopher has difficulty in expressing body language. The way he expresses love is different with common people. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

On one occasion, Christopher hits the policeman because the policeman asks many questions about the murder of the dog. These questions make Christopher get confused and not able to answer the questions from the policeman. Because

Christopher can not answer the question, the policeman decides to hold

Christopher’s arm and it makes Christopher angry and hit him. “The policeman took hold of my arm and lifted me onto my feet. I didn’t like him touching me like this and this is when I hit him.” (8). His response toward the policeman action shows that he has difficulty in expressing body language. So, it can be concluded that Christopher has difficulty in expressing body language.

3) Deficits in Understanding Spoken Language

Most autistic children have “selective hearing” which means an autistic child responds to some thing like a jingle but no to others. For autistic children, words or phrases once heard may not reappear increasingly or ever again. This is why they have difficulties in understanding spoken language (Siegel 94-95).

This audio disorder also can be found in Christopher’s characteristic. The following proves that Christopher suffers from this disorder.

He was asking too many questions and he was asking them too quickly. They were striking up in my head like loaves in the factory where uncle terry works. The factory is bakery and he operates the slicing machines. And Sometimes a slicer is not working fast enough but the bread keeps coming and there is a blockage. And I sometimes think of my mind as a bread-slicing machine (7)

The way he compares his mind to a machine is a proof that sometimes he thinks imaginatively. He describes the way his mind processes something, is similar to the way the bread slicing machine processes something. This quotation is evidence that Christopher is hard to understand what someone says to him. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

When the policeman gives him too many questions quickly, he says that it is like a slicer which is not working fast enough but the bread keeps coming out and there is a blockage.

So, he tries to comprehend the question from the policeman but before he understands it, the policeman asks him another question. It makes him unable to answer all questions from the policeman because he needs a lot of time to understand a sentence before he continues thinking other sentences. That

Christopher has difficulty in understanding spoken language is obviously seen in this case.

c. Christopher’s Non-Social Learning Disabilities

1) Lack of Imagination in Play

Children with autism tend to show little fantasy, limited representation of social situation and limited language use as part of play (Siegel 99). It is described in the novel that Christopher can not tell jokes because he can not understand them. “This will not be a funny book because I can not tell jokes because I do not understand them.” (8).

His statement clearly shows that he has limited language use as a part of play.

Jokes are a part of play which uses language so when he states that he does not understand joke, therefore he has limited language use as a part of play.

Christopher also has difficulty in using metaphors language feature because he has a little fantasy and also limited language use as a part of play. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

The second main reason is that people often talk using metaphors …. And when I try and make picture of the phrase in my head it just confuses me because imaging an apple in some one’s eye does not have any thing to do with liking some one a lot and it makes you forget what the person was talking about (14)

He says that it is confusing to envisage an apple in some one’s eye. It is clearly seen that he has problem in using metaphor. So, it can be interpreted that

Christopher has lack imagination of play.

Christopher is a critical person. It can be seen when he criticizes the utterance

“Be quiet” he considers that this utterance is not clear enough. He suggests that it should be clearer such as “Be quiet for five minutes etc”. So that, people clearly knows how long to be quiet

For example, people often say” Be quiet,” but they don’t tell you how long to be quiet for or you see a sign which says KEEP OFF THE GRASS but it should say KEEP OFF THE GRASS AROUND THIS SIGN or KEEP OFF ALL THE GRASS IN THIS PARK because there is lots of grass you are allowed to walk on. (29

Based on the way he criticizes the utterance “Be quiet”, it can be interpreted that Christopher has limited representation of social situation. A normal person who has good understanding of social situation will understand that sign well.

Another evidence that shows he has limited language use as a part of play is seen when Christopher’s father admits that he has murdered the dog. Christopher is surprised and he thinks that it is a joke but since he realizes that it is not a joke he starts to be afraid of his father. “I wondered if this is a joke, because I don’t understand jokes, and when people tell jokes they don’t mean what they say.”

(120). PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

In the quotation above, He repeats his statement that he does not understand jokes. Based on the fact that he does not understand jokes, it can be concluded that Christopher has he has limited language use as a part of play.

2) Stereotyped and Repetitive Interest

Children with autism tend to avoid novel objects and actions. They prefer familiar actions to new actions (Siegel 99). Christopher does not like new people around him. It also can be interpreted that he does not like novel object around him.

Christopher says that he always likes things in a nice order. It can be interpreted that it is part of his Repetitive interest.

Mr. Jeavons asked me whether this made me feels safe, having things always in nice order, and I said it did. Then he asked if I didn’t like things changing. And I said I wouldn’t mind things changing if I became an astronaut, for example, which is one of the biggest changes you can imagine, apart from becoming a girl or dying. (25).

He also states that he wouldn’t mind things changing if he becomes an astronaut. The implicit meaning of his statement is that he actually does not like something changing but if it is good for him he will tolerate that changing. To be an astronaut is his dream, so it will be good to change if he becomes an astronaut.

In the statements above Christopher also says that he does not like talking to stranger. He does not like new people around him. He does not like to open himself for new people who come in his life. “Talking to strangers is not something I usually do. I do not like talking to the strangers. I do not like strangers because I do not like people I have never met before. They are hard to understand.” (34). Based on Christopher’s statement that he does not like the PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

stranger around him, it can be concluded that he tends to avoid novel objects and actions.

According to Byrna Siegel, children with autism prefer familiar actions to new actions (99). It also happens to Christopher. He prefers familiar actions to new actions or object. New people around him can also be meant new object for him and he does not like this. Then he states that he needs along time to get used to people he does not know. “It takes me along time to get used to people I do not know. For example, when there is a new member of staff at school I do not talk to them for weeks and weeks. I just watch them until I know that they are safe.”

(35).

It can be seen when there is a new member of staff at school he does not talk to them for weeks and weeks. He just watches them until he knows that they are safe. It means that he will accept new people around him after they are familiar to him. It proves that Christopher prefers familiar actions to new actions.

C. Christopher’s Interpersonal Conflicts

According to Redman external conflict, psychologically called interpersonal conflict, means a struggle between the protagonist and an outside force. It happens when the characters have to face outside forces which are not similar to the character's desire, belief or thinking. The different desire, belief or thinking will create a conflict between the character and people around him (363). Raven and

Kruglanski see interpersonal conflict as tension between two or more social PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

entities, such as; individual, groups, or larger organizations, which arise from incompatibility of actual or desired responses (qtd. in Worchel and Cooper 460).

Christopher as the main character of Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time faces conflicts with the some people around him. As an autistic boy, Christopher has his own thinking which is different from common people. The fact that he has difficulties to interact with other people in his social life leads him into some conflicts with people around him. The conflicts are between him and his father, him and the policemen, him and his mother, him and his neighbors. The following are some interpersonal conflicts that Christopher faces and how he solves the conflict.

1. Christopher versus His Neighbors

The conflict happens when Christopher finds Mrs. Shear’s dog is murdered by someone. Christopher is trying to see what happens to the dog. But suddenly Mrs.

Shears sees him and she thinks that Christopher has killed her dog, even though

Christopher does not murder Wellington.

I had been hugging the dog for 4 minutes when I heard screaming. I looked up and saw Mrs. Shears running toward me from the patio. She was wearing pajamas and house coat. She was shouting at me. It makes me scared that they are going to hit me or touch me and I do not know what is going to happen. “Let go of the dog”, she shouted. “Let go of the dog for Christ’s sake.” I put the dog law on the lawn and moved back two meters. She bent down. I thought she was going to pick the dog up herself, but she didn’t. (4)

Knowing that Mrs. Shears is angry Christopher decides to put the dog, on the law. In this case, Christopher tries to avoid conflict with Mrs. Shears by putting PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

the dog on the law and moves back two meters. This means Christopher wants to reduce the tension between him and Mrs. Shears, so that Mrs. Shears stops her shouting.

According to Moore, avoidance is usually preferred to be applied in solving a conflict if the parties related in conflicts like to keep inside their feeling to avoid conflicts. This happens because of the lack of their motivation to face the potential conflict and its resolution. They often leave the situation totally when they see that it might cause conflicts (23-38).

Another conflict between him and his neighbor happens when he tries to collect information about the murder of the dog by asking Mr. Wise. But, he is disappointed because Mr. Wise laughs at him and it makes him angry.

I asked Mr. Wise if he knew who had killed Wellington on Thursday night. he said,” bloody hell, policeman really are getting younger, aren’t they.” Then he laughed. I don’t like people laughing at me so I turned and walk away. (39)

Christopher does not like Mr. Wise when he laughs at him. He decides to leave him because he does not like someone laughing at him. The different thought between Christopher and Mr. Wise has created a conflict between them.

According to Bryna Siegel, an autistic child has difficulty in understanding body language and facial expressions (94). Christopher who also suffers from autism also has this characteristic. He has difficulty in understanding body languages and facial expressions. It can be seen when he is angry with Mr. Wise just because he does not like that Mr. Wise laughs at him. The fact that

Christopher does not like someone laughs at him can be interpreted as his PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

difficulty in understanding facial expressions. So, it can be said that autism disorder also has a role in creating conflict which happens between Christopher and Mr. Wise.

Christopher decides to leave Mr. Wise in order to avoid the worse situation.

So, it can be concluded that Christopher applies avoidance as the conflict resolution between him and Mr. Wise. He applies the same conflict resolution when he faces the conflict with Mrs. Shears.

Based on the conflicts between Christopher and his neighbors, it can be seen that he tends to apply avoidance when he notices that the situation is getting worse. And, it seems that avoidance is Christopher's best solution to face the conflicts with his neighbors.

2. Christopher versus the Policemen

The conflict between Christopher and the policeman is a sequel from the conflict between Christopher and Mrs. Shears. A policeman and a police woman arrive after Christopher faces the conflict with Mrs. Shears. The policeman asks many questions which make Christopher confused and can not answer the questions from the policeman.

Why were you holding the dog? “I like dogs,” I said “Did you kill the dog?” he asked I said,” I did not kill the dog” “Is this your fork?” he asked I said,” No” (7)

The policeman asks the questions to Christopher quickly. He does not know that Christopher is suffering from autism which makes him hard to understand PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

spoken language. What the policeman says to Christopher makes Christopher stressful and he does not know what to say to the policeman because he needs a lot of time to understand what the policeman says.

Bryna Siegel explains that most autistic children have “selective hearing” which means an autistic child responds to some thing like a jingle but no to others.

For autistic children, words or phrases once heard may not reappear increasingly or ever again. This is why they have difficulties in understanding spoken language

(94-95). Christopher can not quickly understand what the policeman says. It is because he has difficulty in understanding spoken language. Then, it can be seen that Christopher’s difficulty in understanding spoken language leads him into a conflict with a policeman.

The policeman took hold of my arm and lifted me onto my feet. I didn’t like him touching me like this And this is when I hit him. (8)

Because Christopher can not answer the question, the policeman decides to grasp Christopher and it makes Christopher angry and hit him. The policeman decides to arrest Christopher for assaulting him. In this case, it is obviously seen that Christopher can not control himself. So, he hits the policeman and it makes the tension between them is getting worse.

According to Moore there is a conflict resolution that is called non-violence approach. This approach is applied when there are people or a group of people who do not behave as they should. This approach forces them to behave in a desired manner. This approach involves social norms disobedience and it does not use any kind of physical coercion (37-38). PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

The policeman looked at me for a while without speaking and then he said,” I am arresting you for assaulting a police officer.” This made me fell a lot calmer because it is what policemen say on television and films. Then he said I strongly advised you to get into the back of the police car, because if you try any of that monkey business again, I will seriously loose my rag. Is it understood?” I walked over to the police car, he opened the back door and I got inside. (9)

We know that policeman has an authority to arrest Christopher for assaulting him. He decides to arrest Christopher. Christopher realizes that he must accept this decision because it is guilty for assaulting the police. Christopher must behave in desired manner. So it can be said that in this case, the conflict between

Christopher and the policeman is solved by applying non- violence approach.

Christopher is arrested in the police office for a while before his father comes to the police office. His father tells the policeman that Christopher is an autistic boy and he does not like being touched.

He said,” I have spoken to your father and he says that you didn’t mean to hit the policeman. I did not say anything because this was not a question he said,” Did you mean hit he policeman?” I said,” yes” He squeezed his face and said,” but you didn’t mean to hurt the policeman?” I thought about this and said,” no. I didn’t mean to hurt the policeman. I just wanted to stop him touching me.” (17)

Finally the policeman lets Christopher leave the police office because

Christopher does not mean to hurt the policeman. He just tries to stop the policeman touching him. Based on the quotation above, it can be concluded that mediation approach is applied to solve the conflict between Christopher and the policeman in the police office. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

Mediation is another option for the resolution of a conflict. In mediation, a volunteer is needed to help the parties to find the resolution. The volunteer acts as a source that provides information needed which is helpful for the resolution. The decision is made by the parties not by the volunteer. The mediation is only needed when the parties find that they cannot resolve the conflicts on their own (Moore

26 -27).

In this case, Christopher’s father is the volunteer who gives information to the policeman about Christopher personality. Christopher does not ask his father to come and to help him. However, his father logically will not let his child get into trouble or in another word it can be said as a form of a responsibility of a father towards his son. The policeman can understand why Christopher hits him. The mediation process is among Christopher, the Policeman, and Christopher’s father as the volunteer.

Another conflict between Christopher and another policeman happens when

Christopher decides to leave his father and to go to London by train. He meets a policeman in the railway station. The policeman is trying to stop Christopher to go. It is because Christopher’s father has called the police station and he asked help from the policemen to find Christopher.

And then I thought he was going to take me back to father and that was frightening because he was policeman and policemen are meant to be good, so I started to run away, but he grabbed me and I screamed. And then he let go. and he said,” OK, lets not get overexcited here.” and then he said,” I’m going to take you back to the police station and you and me and your dad can sit down and have a little chat about who’s going where.” And I said I’m going to live with my mother, in London.” and he said,” not just yet, you’re not.” PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

and he said,” well, we can talk about that as well.” and then he said,” Right young man, I think you have done enough adventuring for one day.”(159)

There is a different desire between Christopher and the policeman which creates a conflict between them. Christopher wants to leave his father whereas the policeman tries to take Christopher back to his father. In this conflict, informal problem-solving is applied by Christopher and the policeman to reduce the tension of the conflict between them.

Informal problem-solving happens when avoidance is no longer possible and the pressure of the conflict grows stronger that the parties cannot let the disagreement continue, Christopher and the policeman use the informal problem- solving discussion to resolve their differences. The results of this discussion are either the conflicts are resolved more or less to the satisfaction of the people involved (Moore 24). Even though Christopher and the policeman do not find the best solution for the conflict between them, the discussion between them can reduce the tension between them.

3. Christopher versus his father

Christopher also faces conflict with his father. Christopher’s father wants

Christopher to stay out of other people’s business. It means that Christopher should not try to find the murderer of the dog. However, Christopher has a plan.

He wants to investigate the murder of dog. He considers that the dog is important but his father has a different opinion. It makes Christopher involved in a conflict PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

with his father. The conflict between them can be seen from the conversation between Christopher and his father below.

then he said,” Christopher you have to stay out of trouble, OK?” I said, “I didn’t know I was going to get into trouble. I liked Wellington and I went to say hello to him, but I didn’t that some one had killed him.” Father said” just try and keep your nose out of other people business.” I thought for little and said,” I am going to find out who killed Wellington.” And father said were you listening to what I was saying Christopher?” I said,” yes, I was listening to what you were saying but, when some one gets murdered you have to find out who did it so that they can be punished.” It’s a bloody dog, Christopher, a bloody dog” I replied,” I think dog are important too” He said, “Leave it” and I said,” I wonder if the police will find out who killed him and punish the person.” then father banged the steering wheel with his fist and the car weaved a little bit across the dotted line in the middle of the road and he shouted,” I said leave it, for god’s sake” I could tell that he was angry because he was shouting so I didn’t say anything else until we got home. (20-21)

Knowing that his father is angry, Christopher decides not to say anything until they get home. It can be seen that what Christopher does is to avoid a worse situation between him and his father. So, it can be concluded, avoidance is the conflict resolution that Christopher chooses in this conflict. He knows if he keeps continuing the debate between him and his father, the situation will be worse.

Therefore, he does not say anything to reduce the tension between them.

The conflict between Christopher and his father continues. Christopher decides to continue his investigation about the murder of the dog. His father knows that Christopher keeps investigating in Mrs. Shears’s garden and it makes his father angry because he has warned him to stay out of other people’s business. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

Moreover, Christopher says that he suspects Mr. Shears as a person who kills

Wellington. This statement makes his father angrier.

Byrna Siegel states that an autistic child has lack of social and emotional reciprocity. It can be seen when a child is uninterested in doing things to please his parents or others. He is uninterested in learning a new thing to earn attention or approval of other people, an autistic child tends to has low desire to please other people and low response to social praise. (91).

Christopher who is autistic also has this characteristic. It can be seen when he ignores his father’s message to stay away from other people business.

Christopher’s decision to keep investigating the murder of the dog shows that he has lack of social and emotional reciprocity. He seems not interested in earning approval from his father. Based on this case, it can be interpreted that

Christopher’s lack of social and emotional reciprocity plays a role in the conflict between Christopher and his father.

Father banged the table with his fist really hard so that the plate and his knife and his fork jumped around and my ham jump side ways so that it touched the broccoli, so I could not the ham or the broccoli anymore. Then he shouted “I will not have that man’s name mentioned in my house I asked,” why not?” And he said that man is evil and I said,” Does that man might have killed Wellington?” Father put his head in his hands and said,” Jesus wept.”(49)

His father gets angrier because he knows that Mr. Shears has a love affair with Christopher’s mother. Christopher’s mother leaves Christopher and his husband. She goes to London and lives with Mr. Shears. Therefore, this fact makes his father angrier when Christopher mentions Mr. Shears’s name in front of him. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

I could see that father was angry with me, so I said,” I know you told me not to get involved in other people business but Mrs. Shears is our friend.” and father said,” well, she’s not a friend anymore.” and I asked,” why not” And father said,” OK Christopher. I’m going to say this for the last time. I will not tell you again. Look at me when I’m talking to you. You are not to go asking Mrs. Shears about who killed that bloody dog (50).

Christopher tries to reduce the tension between him and his father by opening a discussion about Mrs. Shears. He says that Mrs. Shears is their friend but his father says that she is not a friend anymore. He warns Christopher once again not to investigate the murder of the dog. Then, his father asks Christopher to make a promise to stop his investigation about the murder of the dog.

Father said,” I’m going to make you promise and you know what it means when I make you promise.” Father said promise me you will stop doing these things. Promise that you will give up the ridiculous game right now, OK?” I said, “I promise” (50)

Christopher finally promises that he will stop the investigation. It also ends the conflict between him and his father at that time. It can be concluded that

Christopher and his father apply informal problem-solving discussion as the conflict resolution in order to solve the conflict that they face.

According to Moore, informal problem-solving discussion is applied when avoidance is no longer possible and the pressure of the conflict grows stronger that the parties cannot let the disagreement continue, they usually apply the informal problem-solving discussion to resolve their differences. The result of these discussions are either the conflicts are resolved more or less to the satisfaction of the people involved or the conflicts are dropped because they are unable and do not have the capacity to make the resolution for it (Moore 24). PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

This conflict resolution is applied by Christopher and his father because

Christopher agrees with his father to promise that he will not do the detective work again. It means that both of them are successful in making an agreement to end the conflict between them for a while by discussing their conflict.

The conflict between Christopher and his father still continues since

Christopher promises to stop his investigation of the murder of the dog. To his surprise his father finds Christopher’s diary.

… then father repeated the question,” what else did I say, Christopher?” I said, “I do not know” and he said,” come on you are the fucking memory man.” But I couldn’t think. And father said not to go around sticking into other people business. (82)

The diary tells Christopher’s father that Christopher keeps continuing his investigation after he promises to stop the investigation. This fact makes his father angrier with him. Christopher tries to explain to his father, but his father can not tolerate Christopher’s explanation. It is because he has warned Christopher several times. However, Christopher still breaks his warning.

But father interrupted me and grabbed hold of my arm really hard. Father had never grabbed hold of me like that before. So I was very surprised when he grabbed me. … I don’t like it when people grab me. And I don’t like being surprised either. So I hit him, like I hit the policeman when he took hold of my arms and lifted me onto my feet. But, father didn’t let go, and he was shouting. And I hit him again. And then I didn’t know what I was doing anymore (82-83)

The situation is getting worse when the father grabs Christopher. Both of them can not control themselves. At the moment, Christopher decides to hit his father because he does not like being touched. They are involved in a fighting and the PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

result is Christopher looses his consciousness. According to Moore this conflict is solved by the violence approach. In this approach, the party who possesses more power will be able to force the result of the resolution. It often happens that the means of forcing the decision is a physical coercion (Moore 37- 38). And, in this case Christopher’s father is the party who has more power.

Another conflict between Christopher and his father happens because

Christopher finally knows that his mother is still alive. His father tells him that his mother has died because of heart attack. However, the fact is that his mother is still alive. Incidentally, he reads several letters from his mother which are kept secretly by his father. His father also makes a confession that he has murdered

Mrs Shears’s dog. Christopher is really surprised when he knows this fact. His father tries to explain the reason why he tells lies to Christopher but Christopher still can not accept any explanation from his father.

Father said,” we all make mistake, Christopher. You, me, your mum, and everyone sometimes they are really big mistake.” Then he held up his right hand and spread his fingers out in a fan But I screamed and pushed him backward so that he fell off the bed and onto the floor. He sat up and said, “Ok Christopher. I’m sorry. Let’s leave it for to night, Ok? I’m going to go downstairs and you get some sleep and we will talk in the morning.” Then he said,” it’s going to be all right. Honestly. Trust me. ”(122)

Knowing that Christopher is really upset, the father chooses to leave

Christopher. It can be said that what the father does is a conflict resolution which is called avoidance. According to Moore, avoidance is applied because people like to keep inside their feeling in order to avoid conflicts. This happens because of the lack of their motivation to face the potential conflict and its resolution. They tend PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

to see a relation based on the potential conflicts than the value of the relation itself. They often leave the situation totally when they see that it might cause conflicts (Moore 23-24).

It is also applied by Christopher when he decides to leave his House. He chooses to live with his mother because he is afraid of his father who has killed the dog.

I had to get out of the house father had murdered Wellington. That meant he could murder me, because I couldn’t trust him, even though he said,” trust me,” because he had told a lie about a big thing. (122)

Christopher finally leaves his father and goes to London to live with his mother.

In this case, avoidance is the best conflict resolution that Christopher chooses, in order to avoid another conflict which may happen between him his father

4. Christopher versus his mother

Living with his mother does not mean that Christopher can avoid conflict with people around him. Christopher also faces conflicts with his mother. The conflict happens because Christopher wants to do his A math level exam soon and it means that he has to go back to Swindon, a city where his father lives. But, his mother has a different opinion. His mother wants to postpone Christopher’s examination until the following year. It is because the situation is really complicated. If she accompanies Christopher back to Swindon, it means that she has to leave her job in London.

And mother said,” I had rung Mrs. Gascoyne and told her that I was going to take my math A level next year, so I threw my red ice lolly away and screamed for a long time and the pain in my chest hurt so much that it was PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

hard to breathe and a man came up and asked if I was OK and Mother Said,” well, What doest it look like to you?” and he went away. (206)

This fact makes Christopher upset but he cannot do anything to realize his dream to do his A Math Level examination this year. It makes him feel painful.

His mother also has no solution that can solve the problem between them.

According to Bryna Siegel, an autistic child has lack of social and emotional reciprocity. An autistic child is uninterested in doing things to please his parents or others. He is uninterested to learn a new thing to earn attention or approval of other people (91).

An autistic child has low desire to please other people and low response to social praise. Christopher also has this characteristic. It can also be seen when he persists to do his A math level test, even though his mother has told him to do it the following year. Christopher’s persistence to do his A math level test shows that he ignores his mother decision. But, since he is in London, it is difficult for him to realize his desire to do his A math level test in Swindon, Christopher’s hometown. So he really needs his mother approval and help to realize his desire. It can be said that Christopher’s lack of social and emotional reciprocity has a role in the conflict between Christopher and his mother.

And mother said,” I told you. I rang your head mistress. I told her you were in London. I told her you’d do it next year.” And I said, “But I’m here now and I can take it.” And mother said,” I’m sorry Christopher. I was trying to do things properly. I was trying not to mess things up.” And my chest began hurting again and I folded my arms and I rocked backward and forward and groaned. And mother said,” come on this isn’t going to solve anything. (209-210) PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

Christopher’s mother has tried to use informal problem – solving discussion as an approach to solve the conflict between her and Christopher. It can be seen when she discusses the problem with Christopher. Even though, this approach cannot solve the problem between them. “The next day mother drove me to school in Mr. Shears’s car because we missed the bus.” (210). Christopher’s mother finally gives up and accompanies Christopher to his school in order to do his A math Level test.

This decision automatically ends the conflict between her and Christopher.

According to Moore, this conflict resolution is called non violence approach. This approach is applied when there are people or a group of people who do not behave as they should. This approach forces them to behave in a desired manner. Usually this approach can be effectively used when the dispute-parties must rely on each other for their living. Christopher and his mother are relying on each other. As a mother, child is everything and Christopher’s mother realizes this fact and finally she decides to fulfill what Christopher desire. As a result, it can be concluded that this conflict is solved by applying non-violence approach. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

CHAPTER V

CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS

This chapter consists of two sections, namely conclusions and suggestions.

The conclusions concern the answer of the questions stated in the problem formulation. The suggestions contain suggestion for future researcher and recommendation for English teaching and learning processes through The Curios

Incident of the Dog in the Night- Time.

A. Conclusions

There are three main points that can be concluded from the analysis. They are

Christopher’s characterization in the novel, the characteristics of Christopher as an autistic boy and the interpersonal conflicts that Christopher faces and how he solves them. Based on the analysis, it can be said that Christopher is the main character in the story. He becomes the focus of the story. It can be seen from his role in the story; Christopher plays a significant role in this novel. Christopher appears from the beginning until the end of the story. He also becomes the narrator of the story. As the narrator, Christopher leads the reader to his way of thinking. So, it can be concluded that Christopher is the main character because this novel tells about his life journey.

Christopher is also a round character because it is difficult to describe him in a single phrase or word. He has his own way of thinking which is different from

58 PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

common people and has his own way to see this world and to solve some conflicts that he faces.

Christopher as an autistic boy also has certain characteristics. He does not like being touched by other people even his parents. He does not like novel object. He has difficulty to interact with other people. It is also hard for him to understand and to use facial expressions and body languages. He has difficulties in understanding spoken language. He has low desire to earn approval of other people. He also has his own way of thinking. It makes him unable to copy other people’s action and thinking.

Christopher who is autistic also faces many conflicts with many people. It can be found in some conflicts that Christopher faces, autism disorder also plays a role in creating the conflict. First, he faces conflicts with his neighbors. Second, he faces conflict with the policemen. Third, he faces conflict with his father. Fourth, he also faces conflict with his mother. To solve his interpersonal conflicts,

Christopher applies some strategies like mediation, avoidance, informal problem- solving discussion, non- violence approach, violence approach.

Christopher applies avoidance strategy as a conflict resolution when he faces conflict with Mrs. Shears and Mr. Wise. He tends to avoid conflict with Mrs.

Shears. He applies avoidance as the conflict resolution, so that the tension between them is reduced. It also happens when he faces conflict with Mr. Wise, he decides to leave him because Mr. Wise laughs at him when he tries to collect information about the dog’s murder case. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

The mediation strategy is applied when he faces conflict with the policeman in the police office. His father becomes the volunteer between Christopher and the police man. His father convinces the police that Christopher does not mean to hurt the policeman. Christopher hits the policeman because he does not like being touched by other people.

Other conflicts that Christopher faces happen between him and his father. To resolve conflict with his father, Christopher applies informal problem-solving discussion. But, when both of Christopher and his father cannot control themselves violence approach is the final conflict resolution that they choose to end the conflict between them. Christopher finally decides to leave his father and live with his mother in order to avoid another conflict which may occur between him and his father. Living with his mother does not mean that he will not face other conflicts. He and his mother are involved in conflict because the different desire between them. Christopher wants to do his A math level soon but his mother wants Christopher do it the following year. His mother’s decision makes him disappointed and angry with his mother. In order to solve this conflict they apply informal problem-solving discussion and the result is Christopher can do his

A math level because his mother finally agree with Christopher.

B. Suggestions

This section consists of two parts. The first is suggestion for future researchers who may conduct studies on the same novel. The second is suggestions for PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

English teaching-learning activities using Mark Haddon’s The Curios Incident of the Dog in the Night- Time.

1. Suggestion for Future Researchers

Mark Haddon’s The Curios Incident of the Dog in the Night- Time is an interesting novel to read and analyze because it portrays an autistic boy’s life. It tells about the life of an autistic boy in facing problems. It describes how he tries to deal with the conflict that he faces with people around him.

This study focuses on the main character in the story, Christopher, his characteristics and his intrapersonal conflicts. This study opens opportunities for other researchers to conduct further analysis in the future. Other researchers may conduct studies on Christopher's intrapersonal conflicts. They may also explore more about the influence of his parents on Christopher's personality development in the novel.

2. Suggestion for Teaching-Learning Activities

Literary works such as novels, dramas and short stories portray human life experiences. Common readers usually think that literary work is written to give pleasure for its reader. However, literature has an important role in the language study. Moreover, literary works can help people to improve their English skill. A novel also portrays human values such as moral values, social norms or certain customs which the reader may learn. So, literary work is able to be used as a material source of teaching-learning activities. Through English literature the PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

students can increase their fluency in speaking in the target language. They can use the English literary text as a material of the discussion.

Therefore, literature is an important media of teaching a language because the teacher can us literary work as a material source to in teaching language. In the implementation of teaching-learning activity, I focus on speaking in a form of debate activity. The further explanations are presented as the following. a. The Implementation in Teaching Speaking

Speaking is one of the language skills that students have to master. It is important to encourage and challenge the students to speak actively. So that, the students can speaks fluently and accurately. In order to make the students actively involved in the activities, the material must be interested so that it attracts the students to participate in the activities. A material that can give stimulus to the students will challenge them share their ideas and opinions

Mark Haddon’s novel entitled The Curios Incident of the Dog in the Night-

Time is suitable to be used as the material in a speaking class, especially in a debate. The novel contains psychological ideas that are challenging to debate. A debate encourages the students to share and defend their opinions. It leads them to have critical thinking and gives them the opportunity to practice speaking in the target language. Some procedures that can be used by the teacher in the debate activity are:

1. The teacher distributes the literary text completed with the question for the

debate a week before the class. Then, asks students to comprehend the text

and answer the questions. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

2. Before the debate starts, the teacher tells the students that they are going to

debate the issue of human’s reason in telling lies related to moral values.

3. The teacher explains the rule of the debate to the students.

4. The teacher divides the class into two groups. One is the pro group and the

other is con group. The pro group is the group who stands for the related issue,

while the con group is the group that is against the issue. The teacher gives

some necessary instructions and then he assigns the groups to prepare their

logical arguments and opinion.

5. The teacher starts the debate by giving the first turn to the pro side to share

their arguments and opinion for about five minutes.

6. The next turn is given to the con group for about five minutes.

7. The pro have to argue the con’ arguments and the con also have to argue the

pro’s argument by presenting their logical reasoning and also defending their

opinion.

8. Teacher stops the debate after a period of time and makes sure that each group

has taken the same opportunity in debating.

9. To close the debate, each group has to conclude their ideas. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Abrams, M.H. A Glossary of Literary Terms Fourth Edition. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston Inc, 1981.

Atkinson, Rita L, et. al. Introduction to Psychology. San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Published, 1983.

Forster, E. M. Aspects of the Novel. London: Harmondswordth: Penguin Book. Ltd, 1974

Haddon, Mark. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. London: Jonathan Cape, Ltd, 2003.

Hudson, William Henry. An Introduction to the Study of Literature. London: George G. Harrap, 1960.

Milligan, Ian. The Novel in English: An Introduction. London: The Macmillan Press, Ltd, 1983.

Moore, Christopher W. The Mediation on Process. Washington: Mount Blank Press, 1999.

Murphy, M. J. Understanding Unseens: an Introduction to English Poetry and the English Novelfor Overseas Students. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1972.

Perrine, Laurence. Literature: Structure, Sounds, and Sense Second Edition. New York: Oxford University press, 1974.

Redman, Crosby E. A Second Book of Plays. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1964.

Rohrberger, Mary and Samuel H Woods Jr. Reading and Writing about Literature. New York: Random House Inc, 1971.

Siegel, Bryna. Helping Children with Autism Learn. New York: Oxford University press, 2003.

Stanton, Robert. An Introduction to Fiction. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc, 1965.

Worchel, Stephen and Joel Cooper. Understanding Social Psychology. Ontario: The Dorsey Press, 1979.

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The Internet Source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Curious_Incident_of_the_Dog_in_the_Night- time. Accessed on friday, 11 april 2008 at 11.00 a.m. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Haddon. Accessed on friday, 11 april 2008 at 11.00 a.m. http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://zeoffline.files.wordpress.com/200 8/04/mark_haddon.jpg&imgrefurl=http://zeoffline.wordpress.com/2008/04/1 0/o-curioso-incidente-do-cachorro-morto/. Accessed on Monday, 8 september 2008 at 03.00 p.m. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

APPENDICES PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

Appendix A

Summary of the Novel

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is a story of a 15 year- old boy named Christopher who is autistic. He lives with his father, a heating contractor who works long hours. One day he finds his neighbor's dog is killed, he holds the dog and the policeman comes. The policeman asks so many questions to

Christopher which can not be answered by him. The questions are stuck in his head. The policeman tries to grasp Christopher to get the answers. But, since

Christopher does not like being touched, he hits the policeman.

Christopher loves the dog. So, he decides to investigate the murder of the dog and it is not allowed by his father. His father warns Christopher to stay away from other people’s business. Although his father does not allow him to investigate, Christopher keeps continuing his investigation. Christopher also writes the investigation in a book. It is because His teacher, Siobhan, asks him to write his own book to read. Christopher likes to read mystery novels. Therefore, he decides to write about the murder of the dog. He has to ask his neighbors to obtain the information about the murder of the dog. Talking to stranger is something that he does not like. However, if he stops the investigation, it means he will not finish writing the book. So, he keeps doing the investigation of the dog’s murder case.

One day, Christopher forgets putting his investigation book on the table in the kitchen. Accidentally, the book is found and read by his father. Knowing that

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Christopher ignores his message to stay away from other people business makes him angry with Christopher. That thing does not stop his investigation. He knows that his father keeps his book in someplace. He begins to search his book in his father's room. Unintentionally, he finds some letters from his mother. He is really surprised to know that his mother is still alive because his father tells him that his mother has passed away. His father is surprised knowing Christopher reads the letter from his mother. Then, father apologizes to Christopher and promises that he will say the truth about everything started from that time. His father tells him that his mother is still alive and now lives in London with Mrs. Shears. He also admits that he kills the dog. His confession is frightening Christopher because for him a murderer is an evil person and he should be punished. Knowing that his father kills the dog makes him even more frightened. He decides to leave his father and lives with his mother. He starts a remarkably brave experience by going to London using train to find his mother. Finally he finds his mother and lives with her. But one day, he has to go back to his home town in order to do his A math level. He goes back to his hometown with his mother because he is still afraid of his father. At the end of the story Christopher succeeds in doing his A math level.

Adapted from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Curious_Incident_of_the_Dog_in_the_Night- time. Accessed on Friday, 11 April 2008 at 11.00 a.m.

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Appendix B

BIOGRAPHY OF MARK HADDON

Mark Haddon was born on

September 26, 1962 in Northampton. He

is a novelist and poet. He is best known

for The Curious Incident of the Dog in

the Night-time. He Studied at

Uppingham School and Merton College,

Oxford, where he studied English. Between in 1983-1984, Mark returned to study for an M. Sc in English Literature at Edinburgh University.

Haddon is a vegetarian. He describes himself as a 'hard-line atheist'. In an interview, Haddon said that he is atheist in a very religious mould. His atheism might be inferred from The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time in which the main character declares that those who believe in God are stupid.

His first book for children, Gilbert's Gobstopper, appeared in 1987 and was followed by many other books and picture books for children, many of which he also illustrated. In 2003, Haddon won the Whitbread Book of the Year Award and in 2004, the Commonwealth Writers' Prize Overall Best First Book for his novel

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, a book which is written from the perspective of a boy with autism. Haddon's knowledge of autism comes from working with autistic people as a young man. This was the first book that Haddon wrote intentionally for an adult audience; he was surprised when his publisher suggested marketing it to both adult and child audiences

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He has written 2 episodes for the children's TV series Star street and most recently, has been involved in a BBC screenplay adaptation of Raymond Briggs’s,

‘Fungus and the Bogeyman'. All of these still do not make Mark's career successful as an author. Since then he has gone to write and illustrate numerous children’s books including the popular 'Agent Z' series for Bodley Head. In 1994,

Mark was short listed for the Smartest Prize for 'The Real Porky Philips' published by A & C Black.

Now, he lives in Oxford with his wife, Sos Eltis, who is a fellow in English

Literature at Brasenose College and their two young sons.

Adapted from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Haddon Accessed on Friday, 11 April 2008 at 11.00 a.m.

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Appendix C

Lesson Plan (Teaching Speaking)

Subject : English

Topic : Morality

Level : 5th semester of the English Education Study Program Students

Material : Page 102 -115 of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-

Time

Time : 2 x 50 minutes

Basic Achievement Learning Form of

Competence Indicators Experiences Evaluation

- Performing a - Expressing their - The students read Student’s Oral

debate to ideas orally in a a story given a Performance

achieve debate based on week before the

speaking a story or a debate

fluency and motion given. - The students

improve their - Defending their answer the

speaking skill opinion orally questions from the

by stating and with logical teacher related to

defending reasons to the story

opinions with convince their - The students make

Logical reasons opponents. a group consisting

in accordance - Expressing their of three students.

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to a written opinion - The students

passage given. confidently with discuss the motion

logical reason in given by the

good English. teacher with their

friends.

- The students

debate by stating,

defending, and

arguing their ideas

and friend’s ideas

- The students

conclude their

ideas and debate

Pre- Speaking Question:

1. What truth means to you?

2. Is it right or wrong to tell lies in order to protect someone’s felling? State your

own opinion.

Motions for debate:

The pro group: You are the group that does not agree with the father who tells lies to his son that his mother has died. Actually his mother has a love affair with her neighbor and she decides to leave her husband and her son and stays with another man. As a good father you must tell the truth to your son, because you are

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a model for your son. Telling lies is not a good behavior, so by telling lies to your son means that you teach a bad habit to your son. State and defend your arguments based on the story

The con group: You are the group that agrees with the father who tells lies to his son that his mother has died. But, actually his mother has a love affair with her neighbor and decides to leave her husband and her son and stays with another man. The father tells lies to his son because he does not want to hurt his son’s feeling. He does not want his son to be involved in his household problem. He knows that his son will be upset if he knows that his mother has gone with another man. So, to protect his son’s feeling, the father is forced to tell lies. State and defend your arguments based on the story.

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