Voicing the Silenced: Between Pleasures and Therapeutic Effects of Children’S Literature in Judy Blume’S Selected Novels

PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

VOICING THE SILENCED: BETWEEN PLEASURES AND THERAPEUTIC EFFECTS OF CHILDREN’S LITERATURE IN JUDY BLUME’S SELECTED NOVELS

A THESIS

Presented as a Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Magister Humaniora in English Language Studies

Nuraini Fahmawati 116332029

THE GRADUATE PROGRAM OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE STUDIES SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA 2016 PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

VOICING THE SILENCED: BETWEEN PLEASURES AND THERAPEUTIC EFFECTS OF CHILDREN’S LITERATURE IN JUDY BLUME’S SELECTED NOVELS

A THESIS

Presented as a Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Magister Humaniora in English Language Studies

Nuraini Fahmawati 116332029

THE GRADUATE PROGRAM OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE STUDIES SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA 2016

i PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY

I honestly declare that this thesis, which I have written, does not contain the work or parts of the work of other people, except those cited in the quotations and bibliography, as a scientific paper should. I understand the full consequences including degree cancellation if I took somebody else’s ideas, phrases, or sentences without proper references.

Yogyakarta, 13 Mei 2016

Nuraini Fahmawati PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN

PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS

Yang bertanda tangan di bawah ini, saya mahasiswa Universitas Sanata Dharma:

Nama : Nuraini Fahmawati

Nomor mahasiswa : 116332029

Demi pengembangan ilmu pengetahuan, saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma karya ilmiah saya yang berjudul:

Voicing the Silenced: Between Pleasures and Therapeutic Effects of Children’s Literature in Judy Blume’s Selected Novels

Beserta perangkat yang diperlukan (bila ada). Dengan demikian saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma hak untuk menyimpan, mengalihkan dalam bentuk media lain, mengelolanya dalam bentuk pangkalan data, mendistribusikan secara terbatas, dan mempublikasikannya di Internet atau media lain untuk kepentingan akademis tanpa perlu meminta ijin dari saya maupun memberikan royalti kepada saya selama tetap mencantumkan nama saya sebagai penulis.

Demikian pernyataan ini saya buat dengan sebenarnya.

Pada tanggal: 13 Mei 2016

Nuraini Fahmawati PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First and foremost, I would like to thank God for giving me strength to finish this study, for His infinite blessings and love that I receive in my life. I would also like to express my deepest gratitude to my thesis advisor Ibu Dra. Novita Dewi, M.S.,

M.A. (Hons.), Ph. D., for the useful comments, remarks, and engagement as well as her expertise, understanding, and patience through my learning process of writing this thesis and in my graduate experience.

I also acknowledge Bapak Paulus Sarwoto, S.S., M.A., Ph. D., Ibu Dra. A. B.

Sri Mulyani, M.A., Ph.D and Ibu Dr. Widyastuti Purbani, M.A. who have willingly shared their precious time and vast knowledge during the process of my writing. My acknowledgement also goes to the other member of my committee Ibu Dra. Th. Enny

Anggraini, M.A. for the assistance provided at all level of this research. I also send my gratitude to Sanata Dharma University that provides me place and facilities to study, all my lecturers, and the administrative staff of KBI department who have devoted themselves to help me during my study in Sanata Dharma University.

My special thanks go to my loved ones: My husband and my daughters Nina and Jihan, Bapak and Ibuk who supported me throughout entire process, both by keeping me harmonious and helping me putting pieces together. My gratitude is also due to my wonderful friends and classmates of 2011 KBI Sanata Dharma University especially Dyah, Satrio, Mbak Luluk, Christo, Ruslinah and all people that I cannot mention one by one, who have given me supports in finishing my thesis. Thank you. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

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Table of Contents

TITLE PAGE i PAGE OF APPROVAL ii STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS vi ABSTRACT x ABSTRAK xi CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION xi 1. Background of the Study 1 2. Problem Limitations 8 3. Definition of Terms 9 4. Problem Formulations 12 5. Objectives of the Study 12 6. Benefits of the Study 12 CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW 14 1. Review of Related Studies 14 2. Review of Related Theories 26 1.1. The Problems of Generalization and Common Assumptions in Understanding ‘Childhood’ and Children’s Literature 27 1.2. The Other, Colonization, and Children’s Literature 33 1.2.1. Inherent Inferiority, Opposite, Contradictory, and Declined 35 1.2.2. Inherent Femaleness and Danger 36 1.2.3. Inherent Adult-Centered 37 1.2.4. Inherent Silencing 38 1.3. Silencing, Censorship, and the Innocence of Childhood 39 1.4. The Pleasures of Children’s Literature 45 1.5. Therapeutic Effects in Voicing the Silenced in Children’s Literature 47 3. Theoretical Framework 55 CHAPTER III Romance, Sensuality, and Sexuality 57 PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

viii

1. Childhood’s Romance, Sensuality, and Sexuality: Against Childhood Innocence 57 1.1. Romance (Crushes) 58 1.2. Sensuality 58

1.3. Puberty 61 1.3.1. Menstruation 62 1.3.2. Breast Development 63 1.3.3. Wet Dreams 64 1.3.4. Masturbation 65 1.4. Sexuality 67 1.4.1. Teenage Sexuality 67 1.4.2. Birth Control 69 2. Pleasures of Words and Understanding in Romance, Sensuality, and Sexuality 70 3. Romance, Sensuality, and Sexuality: Providing Information and Building Connection 81 CHAPTER IV Bad Sides of Life 99 1. Bad Sides of Life: Disproving Other-ness to Empower Children 99 1.1. Parental Conflicts 100 1.2. Divorce 102 1.3. Uncertainties 104 1. 4. Illness 106 1. 5. Problem with Religion 107 1. 6. Death 108 2. Bad Sides of Life: Pleasures of Acknowledging Newness, of Escaping, and Recognizing Gaps 110 3. The Bad Sides of Life: Coping Difficulties through Literature 120 CHAPTER V Unexpected Manners 139 1. The Unexpected Manners: Children as the Centre 139 1.1. Bullying 140 1.2. Sibling Rivalry 142 PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

1.3. Disobedience 144 1.4. Back Talks and Gazes 146 1.5. Dishonesty: Cheating, Snooping, Lying 150 1.6. Impudent Teases 152 1.7. Swearing 152 2. Unexpected Manners: Building Organized Stories 154 3. The Unexpected Manners: Assisting Children Deal with Problems of Personal and Social Development 163 CHAPTER VI CONCLUSION 176 BIBLIOGRAPHY 187 APPENDICES 191 Synopsis 1: Deenie 191 Synopsis 2: Forever 191 Synopsis 3: Tiger Eyes 192 Synopsis 4: Then Again, Maybe I Won’t 192 Synopsis 5: Blubber 193 Synopsis 6: It's Not the End of the World 193 Synopsis 7: Starring Sally J. Freedman as Herself 194 Synopsis 8: Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret 194 PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

ABSTRACT

Nuraini Fahmawati. (2016). Voicing the Silenced: Between Pleasures and Therapeutic Effects of Children’s Literature in Judy Blume’s Selected Novels. Yogyakarta: English Language Studies, Graduate Program, Sanata Dharma University.

Judy Blume was in controversy that her novels were banned and at the same time were loved for vividly uncovering the silenced issues of sensuality and sexuality, brute realities, and unexpected manners to young readers. As the novels voice the silenced, this study observes, at first, how childhood and its literature are viewed through them. In doing so, this research addresses some children’s literature experts who draw insight from the post-structural and postcolonial for reexamining the common beliefs around silencing in children’s literature. Secondly, post-structuralism is also borrowed to analyze the relation between voicing the silenced and the delights of the novels. Meanwhile, the last aim is to reveal the functions of sensuality and sexuality, brute realities, and the unexpected manners in implying literature’s roles in children’s life by using the cathartic reading perspective. The results of this research reveal that, firstly, through voicing sensuality and sexuality, children are trusted and their innocence is disproved of. This study also finds out that the pleasures of words and understanding are present as the issues are voiced. In addition to this, the practical benefits in giving detailed information and in building connection are found when dealing with such sensitive topics. Secondly, by presenting topics relating to the dark sides of life, this research shows that children are empowered when their other-ness is ignored. At the same time, the pleasures of escaping, newness, and recognizing gaps are performed with the appearance of the issue. Meanwhile, the practical role to help children cope the difficulties signifies the presence of topics about difficult life. The last result shows that children are placed in the center of the stories when the unexpected behaviors are depicted through the fictional characters. As it is, the pleasures of the organized stories are found by the presence of their behaviors. Finally, the role of literature to help readers to cope with the trouble with their personal and social development is found as the texts deal with the unexpected manners.

Key Words: Silencing, Pleasures of Children’s Literature, Cathartic/Therapeutic Reading PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

ABSTRAK

Nuraini Fahmawati (2016). Voicing the Silenced: Between Pleasures and Therapeutic Effects of Children’s Literature in Judy Blume’s Selected Novels. Yogyakarta: Magister Kajian Bahasa Inggris, Program Pasca Sarjana, Universitas Sanata Dharma.

Judy Blume menuai kontroversi dimana karyanya ditolak namun, di saat yang sama, karya tersebut disukai sebab isu dan realita yang dibungkam seperti sensualitas dan seksualitas, realitas pahit, dan sikap tidak terpuji dengan jujur disuarakan di dalam novel-novelnya. Dengan disuarakannya isu tersebut, studi ini memiliki tujuan, pertama, untuk menganalisa bagaimana novel terpilih memahami anak dan sastranya. Dalam hal ini, peneliti merujuk pada para ahli sastra anak yang mendasarkan pemikirannya pada pendekatan poststruktural dan poskolonial guna mengkaji ulang asumsi umum mengenai pembungkaman dalam sastra anak. Kedua, pandangan poststrukturalisme juga diapresiasi dalam menganalisa hubungan antara disuarakannya isu-isu terheningkan dengan kesenangan yang ditawarkan dalam membaca novel-novel tersebut. Di samping itu, dengan menerapkan fungsi katarsis dalam membaca, bagaimana novel terpilih bermanfaat dalam kehidupan pembacanya juga menjadi tujuan terakhir penelitian ini. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa, pertama, dengan menghadirkan isu sensualitas dan seksualitas, anak diberikan kepercayaan dan karakter inosen dikesampingkan. Studi ini juga menemukan bahwa adanya isu sensitif tersebut memperkuat bahasa dan penceritaan; sebagaimana juga bermanfaat dalam memberikan informasi tepat dan membangun koneksi dalam membahas hal yang dianggap sulit dibicarakan. Kedua, dengan menyuarakan tema tentang kenyataan pahit yang dianggap sulit untuk dimengerti anak, studi ini menunjukkan bahwa anak tidak dianggap sebagai Yang Lain. Terkait dengan ini, ditemukan pula adanya kepuasan dalam menemukan hal baru dalam sterotip tema yang beredar dan keluar dari realita serta kesenangan mengisi celah-celah dalam membentuk makna teks. Isu tersebut juga bermanfaat dalam membantu anak mengatasi kenyataan pahit dalam kehidupan mereka. Terakhir, hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa anak ditempatkan sebagai pusat cerita dengan mengangkat isu tentang sikap-sikap yang dianggap tidak terpuji yang mana cerita diterima sebagai sebuah kejujuran dan kesatuan struktur. Ini sekaligus membantu anak menghadapi masalah dengan perkembangan diri dan sosial.

Kata Kunci: Pembungkaman, Kesenangan dalam Sastra Anak, Fungsi Katarsis PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

1. Background of the Study

As one of children’s literature writers, Judy Blume has been an important figure in the United States since 1970s. One of the reasons for bringing her popularity was that she has received plenty of complaint about her books from parents and educators that in 2004, the American Library Association labeled her the second most censored author in the past 15 years1. In the beginning of that decade, Blume was called as a

Communist by one of parents for writing Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret2. In the late 1970s, she had heard anecdotes about people who were offended by her books. There was also a mother who cut the pages of her work Then Again, Maybe I

Won’t3. Her work Deenie4 was taken off from the bookshelf for discussing masturbation and Blubber5 was labeled as “lack of moral tone” while Forever6 was cursed as being a pornographic novel7. Here might be the example of the statement taken from Deenie which has created tension among parents for discussing a girl’s masturbation.

1Mallory Szymanski, “Adolescence, Literature and Censorship: Unpacking The Controversy Surrounding Judy Blume.” NeoAmericanist 3.1 (2007): 1–10. 2Judy Blume, Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. (London: Piccolo, 1980). All subsequent references to this work, shortened Margaret, will be used in this thesis with pagination only. 3Judy Blume, Then Again, Maybe I Won’t. (New York: Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers, 1971). All subsequent references to this work, shortened Then Again, will be used in this thesis with pagination only. 4Judy Blume, Deenie. (New York: Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers, 1973). 5Judy Blume, Blubber. (United States: Dell Yearling Book, 1974). 6Judy Blume, Forever. (United States: Bradbury Press, 1975). 7Elisa Ludwig and Dennis Abrams, Judy Blume, Second Edition (New York: Infobase Publishing, 2009) 74. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

As soon as I got into bed I started touching myself. I have this special place and when I rub it I get a very nice feeling. I don’t know what it’s called or if anyone else has it but when I have trouble falling asleep, touching my special place helps a lot (Deenie, 59).

Censorship or silencing has likely been part of regulation when dealing with children and the media including books and literature. Nodelman connects the censorious attitude when dealing with children’s literature as the result of, at first, the common assumption about children’s books. The assumption believes the world of childhood should be simple, colorful, full of happiness; children’s appropriate books are those appropriate to their age; children can only enjoy stories with typical childhood experience in which sex is excluded; their stories should not describe unacceptable behavior; children’s books should also not contain depiction of frightening things; and children’s stories should contain positive role models8.

As a result, issues related to sexuality, brute sides of life, and the unexpected behaviors are so often absent from books for young people. These common assumptions have led authors, publishers, parents, and teachers to make these ideas becomes ideological and a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy9. These ideas might be inaccurate and incomplete. However, as how ideology works, once they are believed, believers act to help them the whole truth. They assume the ideology to be the way things obviously are.

Another factor leading to adults’ controls toward the books that can be consumed by children likely has something with the tendency of adults’ anti-children attitudes. Borrowing Said’s powerful descriptions of the history and the structure of

8Perry Nodelman, The Pleasures of Children’s Literature (USA: Longman, 1992) 73. 9Nodelman, 67. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

Orientalism, a brilliant investigation of European attitudes towards Arabs and Asians,

Nodelman is astonished by how often they suggest parallel insights into the most common assumptions about children and children’s literature in the sense that what it is called as “the Orient” has little to do with the actual conditions in the East. In similar relation between adults and children, Nodelman sees what it is called as

“Children” is more significantly the adults’ invention that has had a powerful influence of how adults have not only thought about but also acted upon children.

Child psychology and children’s literature can be discussed and analyzed as the corporate institution for dealing with childhood-dealing with it by making statements about it, authorizing views of it, describing it, by teaching it, settling it, ruling over it; in short, Child psychology and children’s literature as an adult style for dominating, restructuring, and having authority over the childhood10.

As well as seeing the object as inferior and incapable of difficult topics,

Children’s Literature is then adult-centered that it is in adults’ hands the decision to determine which books children can read and which cannot with values they approve.

Sarumpaet sees so often books with adults as the center offer problems of shackling and conquering children’s characters in their books.

Writing for children is both about exploring and filling them with adults’ interest. Guiding them from the other side means educating children to gain civilization (maturity) under adults who own the power to define who they are. Then, how child characters are treated? Where are they placed in the Postcolonial theory? They are everywhere because they are the group which is actually investigated, explained, explored, and exploited by adults, the colonizers who need an object: the other11.

10Perry Nodelman, “The Other: Orientalism, Colonialism, and Children’s Literature.” Children’s Literature Association Quarterly 17.1 (1992): 29–35 11 Riris K. Toha Sarumpaet, Pedoman Penelitian Sastra Anak (Jakarta: Yayasan Pustaka Obor, 2014) 112. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

With such views, silencing occurs as the impact of how adults as the definition givers of ‘childhood’ and therefore ‘Children’s Literature’ which perpetuates controls over children’s rights to read or not to read in their books. Frequently, they meet adults’ advantages: the feeling of security by preventing children from the exposures of difficult topics of sexuality or painful life and the easier tasks as well as the maintenance of power relation by displaying only ‘good’ and submissive characters instead of the bad or rebellious ones.

In different perspective, Heins reported the unchecked arguments to say children as uncorrupted, asexual, and psychologically vulnerable have also been the causes12. In her sight through history, children’s innocence is in fact a recent historical phenomenon and culturally invented instead of being naturally inherent. It is not until 17th century that children have been considered asexual. It is also only in the modern era childhood has been seen as peculiarly vulnerable state that their life and freedom is deprived from those ‘troublesome’ themes13.

Unfortunately, as these all unquestioned arguments are massively believed to be applicable to all children, children are then seen as a group of people with general similarities not differing each other. They are a general class without specificities in gender, race, cultural background, or abilities. As a result, the assumptions imply that individual children are generalized to be more like each other than to be individual.

This also means that when children are understood in the term of limitation, they are

12Marjorie Heins, Not in Front of the Children:“ Indecency,” Censorship, and the Innocence of Youth. (New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 2007) 20. 13 See Ariés in Heins, 8. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

all seen as less knowledgeable, less resistance, and less resilient in stereotypical fashion.

Nodelman continues that the most significant effect that common assumptions about childhood has on children’s reading is to deprive children of access to books14.

Many adults are far more interested in determining what children should not read than what and how they should. By using a harmless-sound name of book selection, adults carelessly perform silencing and censorship on children’s books. Blume herself likely realizes that she prevents herself from being a pro-censorship author that she was named by the American Library Association as the second-most censored author15. Yet, as the spokeswoman in the National Coalition against Censorship in

America she views:

I believe censorship grows out of fear, and because fears is contagious, some parents are easily swayed…Book banning satisfies their need to feel in control of their children’s lives. This fear often disguised as moral outrage. They want to believe that if children do not read about it, their children won’t know about it, it won’t happen16.

However, the fact that Blume has become significant writer because she has achieved her fame as a writer from children who became her readers and fans must prove something significant about pleasures for reading honest stories with kinds of existed-yet-silenced problems of childhood. Blume’s works have collectively been sold more than 70 million copies. Fourteen of her books are on the Publisher’s

Weekly Lists of the top-350 all-the time bestselling children’s paperbacks. She also won more than 90 awards and her books have been translated into 26 different

14Nodelman, The Pleasures 85. 15Ludwig, et al., 76. 16Ludwig, et al., 76. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

languages.17 Even after more than 30 years of publication, some of her books still endure today18.

As a matter of fact, with the spirit of liberating young readers, the appearance of the so-called taboo matters in Blume’s novels also provides positive impacts as a therapeutic reading for the readers. An expert like Ethen promotes the approach of bibliotherapy as the beneficial integral relationship between the dynamics of the personality and the nature of vicarious experience19. This can be seen from the valuable representation of Blume’s appreciative and adoring fan base that can be seen from her book Letters to Judy: What Your Kids Wish They Could Tell You (1986) as a compilation of letters from readers of all ages thanking her for addressing difficult issues. Here is one of the letter examples

Dear Judy, My Mom never talks about the things young girls think most about. She doesn’t know how I feel. I don’t know where I stand in the world. I don’t know who I am. That’s why I read. To find myself.

Elizabeth, age 1320

Blume’s controversy since 1970 for being the most banned then becomes the starting point of this research. The reaction of 70s’ toward the obscenity and difficult knowledge in children’s books is as great as what it is in Indonesia where this research is conducted. Moral panic has become the respond of parents and educators when ‘inappropriate’ topics are discussed in media and printed materials. For

17Ludwig, et al., 18-19. 18Ludwig, et al., 21. 19Ethen Newell, “At the North End of Pooh: A Study of Bibliotherapy.” Elementary English 34.1 (1957): 24. 20Judy Blume, Letters to Judy: What Your Kids Wish They Could Tell You (New York: G. P. Putman’s Sons, 1986) 73. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

example, one of second grade worksheets (LKS) created a great furore as parents complain to find a short story entitled Bang Maman dari Kali Pasir mentioning about a mistress21. The labels have been all the same. These are always about inappropriate issue for kids, the psychological effects to children’s future life, and the belief that children are innocent on the issue.

Most of experts of children’s literature in Indonesia like Winarni (2014),

Nurgiyantoro (2013), and even Sarumpaet (1976) exclusively distinguish children’s literature from adults’ by presenting the fixed characteristics about literature for young readers to eliminate prohibited issues (sex, love and eroticism, revenge, negative feeling, evil, death). When they have to exist, the moral values need to be simplified and they end with happy ending. Children’s stories also have to be short and to the point, to be dynamic, and to have obvious cause and effect. They posses clear one-dimensional characterizations which emphasize the bad and the good with black-and-white personalities. Children’s fictions then have to be informative and beneficial for children’s development, knowledge, and specific skills22. This lead the children’s literature authors silence the out-of-category issues even before they write the stories.

Such discourse brings this research to consider the fact that, through Judy

Blume’s novels, there are pleasures behind voicing the silenced is indeed important to observe. In addition, the novels’ practical uses as healing stories also necessary to

21 Ratih Prahesti Sudarsono,“Tarik Buku Bang Maman dan Istri Simpanan!” 12 Apr. 2012. Edukasi. Kompas.com.Website. 26 Mar. 2014. . 22 Winarni, Retno. Kajian Sastra Anak. (Yogyakarta: Graha Ilmu, 2014) 4. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

analyze. By implementing perspectives grounded on the poststructuralist and postcolonial point of views which sees the pleasures in Children’s Literature as the pleasures of all literature, this research tries to relate the pleasures found in Blume’s selected novels to the silenced issues which are voiced through the texts. This research also applies the approach of bibliotherapy in order to see the therapeutic uses of literature implied in her novels to show kinds of healings and helps Blume’s novels can offer to young readers.

2. Problem Limitations

This study mainly focuses on silenced realities often appear in Blume’s novels.

The voicing of the silenced frequently occurs through the intrinsic elements of the novels. It is searchable in characters depiction and the characterization because through the dialogues, the comments, and the appearance of the main characters, the operation of identification can be seen. This also means that it is because in the identification lies the ideology or beliefs in viewing childhood, Children’s Literature, and its silencing.

From the 27 works written by Judy Blume, the researcher makes a selection based on the consideration that the books (or the main characters) are popular as well as controversial. They include Blubber, Forever, Starring Sally J. Freedman as

Herself, Tiger Eyes, Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, Deenie, and It’s Not the

End of the World, and Then Again, Maybe I Won’t23. This selection helps to analyze the pleasures and the importance of voicing the silenced through Blume’s novels.

23Mark I. West, Trust Your Children: Voices Against Censorship in Children’s Literature (New York: Neal-Schuman Publishers, 1988) 3. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

This study also focuses on drawing insight the perspectives of Poststructuralism and post-colonialism to break down the very basic of understanding childhood which also constitute the understanding of CL pleasures. Bibliotherapy which connects fictions to their function to help readers dealing with reality is also employed partially, in which the study highly uses the healing functions or the cathartic effects suggested; however the practical treatment involving readers and trainers to measure the success is out of this research’s purposes.

3. Definition of Terms

In order to have a shared understanding as well as to consistently refer the important definitions, this part of research explains the following terms:

A. Child/Children

There is no single meaning in giving definition of ‘children’ and this influences the constitution of multitude understandings on ‘children’s literature’.

Andrews argues that the portrayal of children and child readers is in fact the social construction of the dominant culture24. As a result, the definition of ‘children’ in a particular culture depends on how it understands ‘children’ in its reign of truth.

Oberstein also suggests that the range of ages of childhood differs from one place to the other and therefore it is barely said that the standard to define ‘children’ can be universally formulated25. According to Travers in Oberstein, the limit between

24 See Andrews in Widyastuti Purbani, Ideologi Anak Ideal dalam Lima Fiksi Anak Unggulan Indonesia Akhir Masa Orde Baru (Studi Kasus tentang Fiksi-fiksi Pemenang Sayembara Penulisan Naskah Fiksi Anak Depdiknas dan Penerima Penghargaan Buku Bacaan Anak Nasional Tahun 1996-2001). diss., University of Indonesia, 2009, 24 25 See Oberstein in Peter hunt, -ed., International Companion Encyclopedia of Children’s Literature. (New York: Routledge, 2005) 19. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

when the childhood is over and when maturity starts is not clear not cut. He adds it is probably true that childhood never ends26.

Even though the limit is blurred, there is one thing confirmed by the experts saying that children are not the miniature of adults or the small version of adults.

Children differ from adults in experiences not in species, in degree but not in kind. In short, it can be said that the definition of ‘children’ is not universally fixed.

Developmentally and biologically, childhood refers to the period between infancy and adulthood. In the legal system of many countries like Indonesia, there is an age of majority when childhood officially ends and a person legally becomes an adult. The ages range from 16 to 21, with 18 being the most common. Therefore, to take a stand, this research refers to the age range of 0-18 yeas old to address

‘children’.

B. Child Reader

The unclear-cut limit when the childhood ends might be the cause why some books intended for adults become children’s books and vice versa. Importantly, Jan suggests that children’s literature is intended for children. However, most importantly, it has to be in children’s side27.

A child reader, as well as the other readers, is then understood as a reader who has specific knowledge, comprehension skills, and tastes as a child. As this readers are usually categorized by the western discourse of human development based on the range of ages to gain inappropriate reading materials; however, in post-developmental

26 Oberstein in Hunt, The Companion 18. 27 See Isobel Jan in Purbani, Ideologi 26. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

point of view, their skills and ages are not classified for thought and intellectuality including the comprehension, tastes, or reading experiences are learned and trained instead of evolutionary.

As a result, in this study, the readers of Judy Blume imply the readers who have taste for exploring bad realities, who take pleasures and have the ability to make sense of the portrayal of bad mannerism, and who are not annoyed by the inexperience to the exposure of difficult knowledge.

C. Children’s Literature

Many experts, in short, believe Children’s Literature is the oral and written literary texts whose implied readers are those who enjoy the pleasures and can make sense to have children point of views. It can be created both by adults and children themselves. Children’s literature is commonly characterized by the fictional characters which are close to children’s life. It does not only use children’s voice, children’s literature can also have adults as its characters. The settings are also taken from the places that children are familiar with as well as imaginative places they want to visit. The themes in children’s literature include the problems and the interests of childhood28.

However, since the difference between ‘adult’ and ‘children’ is understood to be less significant, it is noted that the pleasures of children’s literature are essentially the pleasures of all literature. As well as the adult literature, children’s literature also demands enjoyments, knowledge, and understanding. Therefore, sophisticated or complex themes and issues can be one of the characteristics of this literature.

28 Purbani, Ideologi 22. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

4. Problem Formulations

Based on the background elaborated in the previous sub-chapter, the research focuses the formulation on how the commonly silenced realities including sensuality and sexuality, bad sides of life, and unexpected behaviors are disapproved and silenced by adults yet shown in Blume’s novels; and how those silenced, on the contrary, empowers the book aesthetically and practically. Therefore, the problem formulation is in what way Blume’s selected novels yield pleasures in Children’s

Literature as well as their therapeutic effects in voicing the following silenced issues:

1. Sensuality and Sexuality

2. Bad Sides of Life

3. The Unexpected Manners

5. Objectives of the Study

In the attempt to investigate pleasures and the practical uses of voicing the silenced brute sides of life, sexuality, and the unexpected behaviors, this research has an objective formulated to elaborate how Blume’s selected novels yield pleasures in

Children’s Literature as well as their therapeutic effects in voicing the following silenced issues:

1. Sensuality and Sexuality

2. Bad Sides of Life

3. The Unexpected Manners

6. Benefits of the Study

The results of this study may contribute to share the conceptual understanding about the existence of common but unchecked assumptions about childhood and PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

children’s literature as well as the power relation between adults and children which have led into silencing in creating stories for children so that the single definition about how children is so long understood in society is possible to question and to criticize. Especially in Indonesia, this research is expected to be beneficial as children’s literature is mostly silenced from themes like brute sides of life, sexuality, and unexpected behaviors in childhood and their literature.

While practically, this study is aimed at sharing knowledge to children’s literature critics, writers, educators, and parents (including local and general) about the benefits of being aware of silencing in the production or understanding children’s literary works. This, then, enables the presence of more honest authors and caring adults who put children, their life, and their problems as the subject in their own literature so that pleasurable stories can be achieved to encourage wider number of young readers and the practically useful stories can be used to help children learn about their real life through literature. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

CHAPTER II

LITERATURE REVIEW

1. Review of Related Studies

As one of prominent authors, Judy Blume has her works been studied and analysed in many ways. There are plenty of admirations come to appraise her works despite the complaints. Yet, an interesting constructive critic by Nodelman shows the cultural arrogance in Blume’s Superfudge in a journal article entitled Cultural

Arrogance and Realism in Judy Blume’s Superfudge29. Young readers and students respond to this book that they are reading a realistic novel. Surprised by this fact,

Nodelman explains the objection to label Blume’s novel as a realistic one when he found several oddities which lead the book to be more fantasy instead of realistic.

At first, he argues that the North American soul depicted in Superfudge displays some cultural arrogance and blindness because the novel makes the behaviour and the environment typically North American and thus less realistic due to the inevitable stereotyping: the large houses surrounded by lawns with the typical middle class family and circumstances. Also, in Nodelman’s observation the protagonist Peter is a typical child who does typical things without random experiences. He (Peter) does exactly what eleven-years-olds are supposed to do: claiming to dislike yet love his younger brother, finding modern art to be an example of the ridiculous adults’ pretension, believing his own parents are insufferably stupid,

29Perry Nodelman, “Cultural Arrogance and Realism in Judy’s Blume's Superfudge.” Children’s Literature in Education 19.4 (1988): 230–241. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

and is embarrassed by but beginning to be interested in girls. Nodelman also sees the oddity addressing to the analysis that Peter is supposed to be telling his own story, but he often sounds less like a child than like a middle-aged woman with a keen eye for the cute silliness of kids.

Saying that Blume’s novel is realistic, Nodelman argues, means forgetting millions of children who have diversity life to face problems like what Peter does. In addition, the author is likely to use typicality to replace reality. It means, in order to be identified with, the character must be devoid of any distinguishing characteristics alien to the readers. As a matter of fact, Nodelman sums up books like Superfudge helps to foster personal and cultural blindness - an unconscious but dangerous form of arrogance.

In accordance to Nodelman’s critic discussed above, the writer of this research finds it true to know that Peter the main character is not as real as the other of Blume’s characters. This supports her concern that Peter is not included as the data source though for different reason from what Nodelman suggests. Related to this research, it is because beside taken from the popular books of Blume, the data is also taken from the adorable characters to meet one of the purposes of this study i.e. to see the implication of the voicing the silenced to the pleasures of the books which requires the honest, close, and successfully identified to be loved by the readers. Even though Superfudge remains to be one of popular book, yet the hilarious ‘little brat’

Fudge seems to be the attractive point of this work instead of Peter as the protagonist.

More than that, Superfudge does not share significant controversy for voicing silenced and important issues to defence in this research. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

In a different study, Manning et al. in “Questioning the Self, Questioning

Others, Questioning Relationships: A Qualitative Inquiry into the Pedagogical Value of Judy Blume” observe the responses from on-line message forums focusing on both positive and negative reactions to Blume’s novels30. Differing from this research and with their feminist perspectives, the major themes found to be most discussed are

Blume’s novels play as learning tools and as connection, the issues of religion and sexuality, and the problems with punishment and disdain for reading her books.

The analysis shows that as the learning tool, Blume’s novels do not only share sexual self-awareness. They also share the awareness of the life lesson, especially self-empowerment including self-concept and self-esteem establishing that one can feel good about themselves regardless of how they look and their intellectual level.

The sexuality themes in the novels can be comforting parents, too, as they can be the learning tool to allow them exploring what their children may be facing despite to be the ice breaker of discussing sensitive topics.

Playing role as connection, Blume’s novels become a channel of commonality where people can discuss or share things obtained from her books. Her books enable discussions like sexuality to enter the public realm even though it is not always to be a serious nature.

Sexuality is also the other major theme for discussion among the respondents.

Blume’s novels create depictions of sexuality which falls to be a part of life filled with joy. Even though some called her books as pornography, Manning et al. see that

30Jimmie Manning, et al., “Questioning the Self, Questioning Others, Questioning Relationships: A Qualitative Inquiry into the Pedagogical Value of Judy Blume”. MP: A Feminist Journal Online (2007): 7–15. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

the works, from the feminist viewpoint, are not necessarily simply seeking for pleasure nor degrading women.

The issue relate to religion is also found to be the other issue debatable in

Blume’s novels that is considered having problematic implications for children to read. Even though some parents and educators have been nervous talking about the piety of religions and how sacred it is to be presented in child characters of Blume who question faith, Manning et al. suggests that her works are largely faith-positive since it is not that the character like Margaret in Margaret wants to abandon faith, on the contrary, it is because she needs to understand about it.

The fifth or the final theme discussed is about the problem with punishment and disdain in reading Blume’s works. This last theme deals with the negative responses regarding consequences and rejecting ideology. Some respondents express that Blume has crossed the lines. She enters into sacred territories which are commonly unwanted. The rejection towards ideological content of Blume’s novels indeed carries feminist understanding that the works might not be essential, but they are helpful because they provide supports and solace of the issues kids are facing without forcing to engage with such issues in the real life. Most of all, her works suggest it is normal to question things in life from sexuality, racism, to religion.

In a quite similar way to the analysis of Manning et al, this research also wants to find how Blume’s novels which are problematic with their sacred issues are indeed influential in giving practical usages for her readers. The main difference is that the study of Manning et al. is conducted under Feminist viewpoints while this research applies poststructuralist and postcolonial perspective in seeing Children’s PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

Literature especially when dealing with the power relation of adults to children and also censorship in Children’s Literature which causes Blume’s novels to be kept away from the intended readers. The other difference is that this research presents the mechanic of the initial problems why censorship. This research also presents the relation between those ‘sacred’ issues to pleasures and benefits they provide in being existed in children’s books.

It is true a lot has been said about censorship and silencing in Children’s

Literature. “Censorship and Children’s Literature in Britain Now, or, The Return of

Abigail” by Hunt, for example, demonstrates the problem of simplistic censorship in children’s books31. Taking the case on Pirani’s Abigail at the Beach (1988), Hunt claims that the prerequisites of censoring this picture book in Britain was led by the government policies, which have cut school library budgets and school library services, and the selection procedures of those powerful bookselling companies dominating the market. Hunt mentions that the censorship was done as a result of a primitive, simplistic, literalist, cause-and-effect concept of reading and common sense. This implies the simplistic relationship between text and the reader so that when the alcohol or violence is wrong, they should never appear in the books because the readers will be automatically and directly affected. As the consequence, government policy wiped out the excellent School Libraries service that individual teachers in individual schools have no freedom to select books their own; and this means a narrower selection occurred.

31Peter Hunt, “Censorship and Children’s Literature in Britain Now, Or, The Return of Abigail.” Children’s Literature in Education 28.2 (1997): 95–103. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

Hunt also adds that Children’s Literature has been seen as a commodity. Four complaints attacked Abigail at the Beach were found to be enough to take the publisher withdrawing the book from the market. Hunt believes that there have been plenty of books never reached the intended readers because they are censored by the buyers-adults-who put little sympathy to Children’s Literature and merely see it in term of generality and minority.

Working with similar issue of censorship (note: the researcher puts ‘silencing particular issues’ to falls to this term), this study helps to understand how censorship works in the publication of a children’s book. Importantly, it might be used to represent what happens in the books withdrawal from bookstores. This strengthens what this research tries to imply. That is to battle the act of silencing and censorship in children’s books because it creates loss to the rights of authors who create, readers who are the target, and teachers who present.

Not only presenting the case of censorship existence, this study also needs to refer to a previous study which elaborates the strategies to deal with it. Fanetti suggests several points for teachers who are in their effort to walk in the fine line about engaging students with challenging and challenged literature in order to have less fear and make a space for healthy controversy of any book contain

‘inappropriate’ issues or language32.

It is important for, firstly, conceiving children as capable of understanding complex and challenging ideas by encountering the deeply-rooted conception of

32Susan Fanetti, “A Case for Cultivating Controversy: Teaching Challenged Books in K-12 Classrooms.” The ALAN Review 40.1 (2012): 6–17. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

children and childhood which tend to accept children as lack of numbers of capabilities. The second is that teachers need to be aware to differentiate the nature of censorship and controversy. In this case, educators have to be highly confident in discussing controversial issues to their class because so often they are over fearful about censorship that might arise when they present the uncommon topics and eventually decide to teach safely by doing self-censorship even without any trials which makes children’s access for healthy discussion degrade. The third strategy is that it is important to see with clear eyes that the real challenge in cultivating controversy superseded the individual teacher’s ability to combat them. Laws can be used as reasons for some communities to threat or to call names the teachers using controversy to educate. The fourth one is that Fanneti elaborates the appearance of hope through open and genuine discussion or dialogue which can be the space for teachers to answer parental attacks toward controversial issues in their children’s learning materials. In doing so, the comprehension policy and supportive school administrators are necessary in building the mutual trusts between the teacher as the experts in education and parents who are experts about their own children. The last strategy is gaining supports from students’ parents from the start. The ideas on updating parents on current or upcoming events in class can be valuable to connect with them. Teachers can notify them if their children are about to read a controversial book by for example giving reading list for the whole semester with brief summaries and teaching focus. In enabling the involvement of parents, teachers can minimize any sense of disenfranchisement that is so often the root of most parental protests. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

Such study helps this research to put suggestions that there is something can be done in fighting with censorship as this research’s finding implies. They are useful in bringing the implication of the research to be more practical and logical when fighting against censorship is surely not an easy task for authors or educators of children’s literature especially when it regards how experts and Blume herself struggled for defences from those who attacked her novels.

Moving from the discussion about censorship, reviews on Children’s

Literature as a genre is also necessary to address. The first theoretical perspective comes from Rose’s “The Case of Peter Pan: The Impossibility of Children’s

Fiction”33 as one of foundational studies recently significant to the concept of

Children’s Literature. In her writing, Rose uses Barrie’s Peter Pan (1904) to have far argument that rather than addressing children’s needs, children’s literature appears to be a form of seduction. A book like Barrie’s which in fact has been named as classic literature for children does not reflect the desires, interests, or characteristics of actual children. On the contrary, children’s literature perpetuates adults’ fantasies about childhood. For Rose, Barrie’s novel exemplifies the impossibility of children’s fictions because it is neither for nor about children. In this situation she adds authors unconsciously “seduce” or “colonize” children by writing books reflecting the adult ideal of children. Both children’s authors and critics both persist in conceiving of young people as a unified group of people defined by all their simplicity and

33Jacqueline Rose, “The Case of Peter Pan: The Impossibility of Children’s Fiction.” The Children’s Culture Reader. Ed. Henry Jenkins. (New York: NYU Press, 1998) 95–109. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

primitivism. Children’s books are then seen as vehicle which shows innocence not as property but as a portion of adults’ desire.

Importantly, Rose also considers the impossibility of accurate representation through the instability of language. As well as Saussure as mentioned, Rose believes the fact that language does not simply reflect the world suggests but rather the manipulation adults present in the narrative that this lead children’s literature to be problematic. While denying this eliminates any barrier to offering definitions on the nature and perception of childhood and production of children’s literature.

Rose’s idea precedes Nodelman’s argumentation about colonialism in

Children’s Literature in which his approach is used in this study. Though both Rose and Nodelman agree in seeing that there is always a ‘hidden adult’ in children’s literature, the difference lies on the fact that Rose tends to emphasize the seeming innocence and evasion of adult concern in children’s literature texts, while Nodelman considers the adult concerns to be more overt but less negative about the nature of the adult presence. Yet, Rose’s study has proven something important that Children’s

Literature is always problematic with the presence of adults as the writes. However, it does not mean something impossible about that. Nodelman’s argument applied in this research shows the possibility by using Blume’s novels which are written with adults’ mind yet respecting children as the readers.

Necessarily, the other related study is also taken locally from Indonesia in order to give a portrait of the life of Indonesian Children’s Literature so that the results of the research can provide its benefits in advance. It is quite unfortunate that in Indonesian academic studies on children’s literature are rarely produced and also PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

trivially viewed as well as doubted for its significance. Luckily, Purbani as one of critics finds the important fact that the child characters in five best Indonesian children’s fictions (winners of 1996-2001 National Children’s Book) are under several ideologies: perfectionism, paternalism, patriarchy, and instant ideology.

The texts worship perfect heroes who are religious, intelligent, well- mannered, nationalist, brave, environmentalist, and leading. The texts also place children under ideologies that they celebrate freedom for boys but marginalize girls and hinder them from really learning through process. Those ideologies work through employment of adults as narrators and focalizers in the authoritative ways. They also operate using legitimation, fragmentation, and dissimulation strategies in order to make the ideologies appear explicitly and to strengthen the didacticism as the purposes. In doing so, Purbani observes, the texts establish the power relation in which children are seen as inferior beings and treat them more as the objects instead of subjects. The research also finds that building the perfect children is in fact the important agenda of the new Order Government. Even in the late of the era, children were still viewed as tabula rasa or blank sheet of paper which eventually leads them to be always in need of parental guidance. Another prominent view is the way how

Children’s Literature is considered as the source of wisdom that didacticism is more than vital.

Purbani’s dissertation which is entitled “Ideologi Anak Ideal dalam Lima

Fiksi Anak Unggulan Indonesia Akhir Masa Orde Baru” (The Idealized Child in Five

Best Indonesian Fictions Written in the New Order Era) is used to support this research because it uncovers the hidden ideologies, power, and interest behind the PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

common assumptions about childhood which have been long believed in Indonesia as

‘common’ and unproblematic. This research says something important about

Children’s Literature that it is ideological. Therefore, to uncover hidden ideologies becomes necessary to help critics to problematize the common beliefs. In other words, it is used to initiate the problematization of silencing in children’s books.

Since this research also deals with the practical uses of delivering sensitive topics in literature for young readers for their daily life, Bott’s journal article entitled

“Why We Must Read Young Adult Books that Deal with Sexual Content” might explain why conducting this research can be simply significant34. Bott observes several controversial books for young readers including the issues of rape in Speak by

Laurie Halse Anderson, Target by Kathleen Jeffrie Johnson, Inexcusable by Chris

Lynch, and Jailbait by Leslea Newman. He finds the books offer variety of plots and solutions in which the protagonists have to cope by the power of story in which it can validate readers’ special experience and condition and give them hope and comfort in their loneliness and invisibility. This also has relation to the fact that many of young people do not find themselves in the pages of curriculum mainly used. As a result he suggests that it is necessary to consider that those often-controversial books, because such books may exactly what kids need.

Brinda in her journal article “Can you name one good thing that comes out of war?”: Adolescents’ Questions about War and Conflict Are Answered in Nonfiction

Literature” also claims that young people have questions about what is right or wrong

34 C. J. Bott, “Why We Must Read Young Adult Books That Deal with Sexual Content.” The ALAN Review 33.3 (2006): 26–29. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

and what is true or false, and what is really behind wars, ethnic or cultural hatred, and conflict of political and cultural leaders around the world exposed in media, journalists, teachers, parents, and peers35. Yet, they also expect answers from the point of view of those who can tell the truth about it. Brinda names literature as a media to respect, acknowledge, guide, and inspire them with resources that accurately, aesthetically, and authentically address their questions, curiosities, and concerns.

She proves that the answers toward several questions and the concern given by her students about war and conflict can be found in literature ranges from memoirs of Holocaust survivors, comments of Hitler Youth, diaries of a thirteen-year-old girl in Sarajevo, and an eighteen-year old girl in Baghdad, to images and accounts of an author who traveled with children into the more contemporary war zones of Lebanon,

Mozambique, El Salvador, and Washington, DC.

She argues it is due to individual human stories within situations of persecution and genocide has the ability to engage students due to the deeply human aspects including the passions and emotions that are communicated. She adds that in these stories of suffering humanity, readers may at times hear above the cries of despair, the faint, constant murmuring of the compassionate heart that will lead them out of the darkness and toward the light.

White in Brinda suggests nonfiction literature about teenagers, or books with comments from teenagers facing these horrible sorts of conflicts, enables students to

35Wanda Brinda,“‘Can You Name One Good Thing That Comes out of War?’” The ALAN Review 35.2 (2008): 14–23. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

read, hear, and feel the impassioned pleas, rages, and cries of young people like themselves in situations of anger, fear, loss, and hope. Identification leads to empathy, and empathy leads to understanding. The provocative, personal questions of kids are answered in accessible, honest, and relevant ways by people they will listen to because those people matter.

The questions posed were only a glance of how young readers perceive conflict whether in the world or in their community. The books presented were gateways to help young people hear, see, and vicariously experience truths not from the media, websites, or history texts, but from the souls of those who have lived through war. Readers want and deserve answers to their provocative questions that go beyond mere facts, figures, maps, and political rhetoric. They need meaningful words and inspiration from those who have experiences to which they can relate.

The last journal article written by Brinda surely adds the significance of this research since it proves how nonfiction literature can provide information and engagement of feeling at the same time about scarce topic like wars. It confirms the role of literature to address the questions of young people, not only about the specifics of certain topics like war, but how the characters or the survivors found inspiration and support to live, to hope when facing difficult life and envisioned a future in the confusion of their present circumstances.

2. Review of Related Theories

As this study conducts the relation of voicing the silenced to the enjoyment of reading and the practical usage of literature, it is necessary to clarify some terms used as well as to support the research with the related theories. The related theories PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

discussed in this part contribute to be the bases in understanding the factors promoting the act of silencing or censorship in Children’s Literature. The factors include the problem of generalization in understanding children, the common assumptions about childhood, and the colonial attitudes when dealing with them. It is then also important to discuss dulce de utile which is about kinds of pleasures should be met in reading literature and the relevance of having literature read related to the real life.

1.1. The Problems of Generalization and Common Assumptions in Understanding ‘Childhood’ and Children’s Literature

Understanding “children” is inevitably needed to constitute the understanding of ‘Children’s Literature’. Some prominent scientists and psychologists have engaged in laying the foundation for understanding ‘children’. The theorists whom ideas have been widely applied when dealing with giving answers on “who are children” for examples are: Freud, Piaget, and Erikson. The three of them had developed significant studies particularly on children’s developmental stages in their various ways. In a short explanation, Freud (1856-1939) developed a general study of psychological development from infancy to adulthood. Erikson’s psychosocial (1902-

1994) based on Freud’s psychosexual took broader view of the social and cultural components of an individual’s developmental stages. While Piaget (1986-1980) described the development based on children’s cognitive, how children think. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

As well as the other theorists, Piagetian theory on developmental stages has been continually developed and expanded to help literary experts determine the best and the most appropriate education, including literature, for children.

However, Nodelman observes that the empirical study of Piaget seems to lie on the serious underestimation in seeing children which supposed to be misled by his own unconsciousness assumptions about childhood in general: the assumptions that thought develops in an evolutionary process in which what comes later is superior to what comes earlier36. Piagetan theory sees the stages through which childhood thinking pass as imperfect approximations of an ideal adult standard of mental functioning, and assumes that the worlds children invent at earlier stages of development are false and deficient of an objective truth that is only available to mature adults.

It is then unfortunate that such classification leads to the inevitable generalization in which children are understood to be a class of people which are so often seen to inherent inferior qualities which distinguish the imperfect children from the perfect adults. These are contrast to what Purbani believes that children are in fact heterogeneous in personality, interests, characteristics, and talents37. Coles in

Nodelman also demonstrates his disagreement to the generalization in defining children since he reported his experiences with the ‘out-of-categories’ children who are never involved in the Swiss and white middle-class children observed by Piaget38.

36Nodelman, The Pleasures 76. 37Widyastuti Purbani,. "Sastra Anak Indonesia: Kegagalan Memahami Siapa Anak." Yogyakarta State University, Yogyakarta. 2003. Children’s Literature Seminar. 38Nodelman 83. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

It points out that the intensity and maturity of their moral attitudes contrast with the categories of some theorists who have moral development all figured out because life is not always a matter of neatly arranged academic hurdles, with grades given along the way. This implies that some kids have various experiences with life while generalization never applies to all cases because it sees children only to be typical and more like each other of being children than unlike each other in being individuals. In fact, some of them have witnessed ‘adults’ matters’ like violence or sexuality, which according to Piaget do not included in children’s experience.

As how it is not easy to give definition about who children are, defining

Children’s Literature then also becomes problematic. Nodelman strongly criticizes that the developmental stages have led the book selection to almost exclusively and seriously limit children only with literature which fulfils the characterizations

Piagetian stages discovered until these children enter the new stages. For example, children are avoided of treating content which is considered too far removed from the child’s limited horizons, optimistic, and active world. This means that applying

Piaget’s classifications rigidly shackles children from richer literature since they are kept away from them until they enter the suit stages39. Nodelman adds, believing that

‘this is a book that six-year-old will enjoy’ is not only disregarding; but it is also active campaigning against anything distinct or individual in both children’s books and their readers40.

39Nodelman, The Pleasure 78. 40Nodelman 79. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

However, it is also problematical to see the fact that Children’s Literature is understood as ‘literature for children’, crucially, what means by ‘literature for children’ is in question since the educators, experts, authors, and publishers of this literature are adults. Noticing that a border lies between adults and children, children’s literature becomes bias in essence.

Adults read and write Children’s Literature as the observers who are ‘spying’ across the border that divides them from children. Nodelman explains this always means they disengage on how the texts might be read by and thus affect child readers41. Therefore, adults tend to focus on how the events described in a book might teach them to have bad manners or good values or whether the language might be too complex to them. This also means that adults assume to know how child readers generally will respond, that is, creating the themes, characters, or plots, which are assumed to be favourable for children.

On his observation, Nodelman finds it surprising that the university students, parents, librarians, and other adults often agree with each other about such kinds of assumptions. The good children’s books should provide simple texts, bright and colourful pictures, and end happily. Too long and too difficult books frustrate children and ruin their interest in reading literary works. It is also commonly assumed that it is important to do books selection based on age because children can enjoy and understand the books that are appropriate to their age. Children are also generally seen to be always excited to the fantasies about animals acting like human.42.

41 Nodelman, Reading 235. 42 Nodelman, The Pleasure 72. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

The other assumptions also say that children only like the books that they easily relate. Boys like stories about boys and girls are interested in books about girls.

They do not have any interest to the exclusive adults’ life so that they do not understand sexuality and evil because they can only identify with characters they see as typically children. Therefore, “good” books also should not describe unacceptable behaviours which exposing violence because it will encourage their uncontrolled tendencies. It is also avoided to select books which contain the frightening depiction because it might scare them. Indeed, the best children’s books should teach valuable lessons of life. It is because when children read good book with good values, they will be good themselves. On the contrary, books containing bad values will make the readers imitate to be bad. It is clear that the views in seeing children based on the common assumptions and stereotyping influence the book selection for children. So often it is obvious as adults choose particular book as a good book for children, they have avoided, prevented, and silenced topics which do not meet the assumption. Here it can be seen silencing in children’s literature is being performed.

The above ideas might be inaccurate or incomplete, but once it is believed, it will be believed not only true but also the whole truth. The wide society’s concept of

‘children’ as imperfect human beings represents two things. The first is ideology, in which it has affected society’s consciousness to drive people to assume the ways things are obvious and to impose obviousness as obviousness by disappearing. As a result, the assumptions are often taken for granted as the only, whole, and unquestionable truth. The second, the assumptions about children, as part of society’s ideologies, is clearly always a matter of politic. This means that it relates to the ways PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

in which people get and maintain power over each other. Similarly, the common assumptions about childhood and literature express how adults get and sustain the power they wish to maintain over children and control the amount of power adults want children to have over themselves. Throne also suggests that the understanding on children tends to be filtered through adult perspective and interest43. The act of achieving and sustaining control over children by creating assumptions that meet adult perspective and interest has been recently identified as the act of othering and colonialism discussed in the next related theory.

Along with Nodelman who objects the evolutionary process from being children to adults, Oberstein offers an alternative to define Children’s Literature. She argues that it should be unnecessary to differentiate children from adult and therefore children’s literature from adult’s literature because it does not explain why some literary works intended for children are to some cases enjoyed by adults like White’s

Charlotte’s Web and on the contrary, ones written for adults also please children such as Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe44.

By less underestimating childhood, as this research also suggests, the definitions of ‘children’ suppose to support to liberate them: to understand that children are not the miniature of adults. They are different from adults in experience, but not in species, in degree but not in kind45. They are people that have their own race, gender, and problems but not under comparison to anything including to adult.

43Nodelman, The Pleasure 75. 44 Oberstein in Hunt, Understanding 15. 45Rebecca J. Lukens, A Critical Handbook of Children’s Literature. Sixth. (New York: Longman, 1999) 9. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

It is along with Nodelman who criticizes the fixed categorization of children based on ages in facts has created debate among experts as Purbani also observes that to define children varies from different time and different community46.

At least, in understanding ‘Children’s Literature’, it is also necessary to hold the wiser belief that children’s books require the authors who want to write up, not down because White in Oberstein states that ‘Children are demanding… They accept, almost without question, anything you present them with, as long as it is presented honestly, fearlessly, and clearly… They love words that give them a hard time’47. It should not be forgotten that children’s literature has to provide the same enjoyment and understanding as does literature for adults with concerns instead of assumptions because the readers are complex instead of typical individuals so that they need the portrayal of truths expressed in the words constituting literature.

1.2. The Other, Colonization, and Children’s Literature

Some children’s literature experts have noticed the tendency of subjugation and domination in Children’s Literature as it is seen from the adults and children relationship. Sarumpaet for the example points out that as historically children’s books written in the 17th century aimed at giving education, Locke (1632-1704) argued that children’s mind is like blank paper (Tabula Rasa) to write thing done48.

Within his argument, children possess equal ability to learn, and in this case, adults hold the responsibility in the process of their education.

46Purbani, Ideologi 24. 47See Hunt, Understanding 19. 48 Sarumpaet, Pedoman 106. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

Such argument has come when the period childhood was strongly believed as a very short period of human life, in which it determines the intellectuality, knowledge, and behaviour in their future. Therefore childhood was needed to be explored and drilled with abundance of good education, manners, or experiences.

Such concept of childhood has much influenced adults-educators, parents, and writers- for children. Childhood has been taken as the period to fill the ‘blank paper’ and to invest good morality and knowledge that adults are found to work hard to put firmly the disciplines for the virtues that confirming the birth of colonialism and children as the other. Childhood then represents a new world to explore. Children are seen as a group of people needing observation and description (Green 1962: 44-45) with adults’ power to describe who children are, what they should or should not do, and how to build them49.

As Nodelman also recognizes the problematic relation between adult and the child, he finds out a parallel attitude between the European to the East and adults to children.50 Coming upon the original quotations in Said’s Orientalism, in which they reveal that what it is called as ‘the orient’ has little to do with the actual conditions in the East, it is more on European invention that has had a power influence of how

Europeans have not only thought about but also acted upon the East. Generating the same concept of Orientalism, Nodelman sees how often it has parallel insight into the most common assumptions about childhood and children’s literature which conclude the general natures of adults’ dominance upon children.

49Sarumpaet, Pedoman 107. 50Nodelman, The Other 29–35. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

1.2.1. Inherent Inferiority, Opposite, Contradictory, and Declined

Children’s less experience and incapability to speak for themselves becomes the reasons for adults to define and to study what children are. In doing so, as what

Said forces to come to the uncomfortable conclusion, adults define children differently, so often more inferior, from adults. This places children as the other - the people whom adults are not. This implies that adults can see themselves as rational, virtuous, mature, and normal exactly because they have what they call irrational, depraved (fallen), childlike, different children to compare themselves to. Adults need children to be ‘childlike’ to understand what maturity is – the opposite of being childlike. Therefore, children’s literature keeps imprisoning children into their

‘childlike’ so that stories or characters illustrating irrational, depraved, and inexperienced children come to bear because adults, which they call considerably better, do not want to be equalized to children as their other.

Still, because the strong need to colonize the weak to make themselves stronger, the contradictory occurs when seeing the group they observe. For example, in one way, adults believe children inherently imaginative so they should be provided with books which will teach them how to be imaginative. In the other words, children need to learn from books by adults how to act like children. To tell children how to act like children is to restore them to the ‘classical’ texts. The classical texts which address to the written descriptions of children in the earlier times including the classic books and texts of children psychology and adults’ personal memories about their own childhood have led to the discovery of the ideal children. Therefore, through literature and life it is necessary to restore children to the original ‘ideal’ childhood PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

they appear to have lost sight of and declined. Indeed, the depraved ‘childhood’ remains inherently stable in the works of child psychology and literature as the

‘eternal truth’ to confirm adults’ eternal’s differences from the other by forgetting the significant changes the times and cultures might bring toward the representation of the inherent cognitive development of all children previously studied by Piaget to the few individual Swiss children.

1.2.2. Inherent Femaleness and Danger

The other similar concept of Said is that Orientalism explains that traditionally and in the history of arts and contemporary pin-up photography, female are always seen as appropriate subject to gaze at by male as female inherently passive and yielding to the convenient of males51. Nodelman parallelizes that children also always become adult’s appropriate subject to gaze at as they are soft, passive, dependent, and yielding to the convenient of adults. Therefore, the literature implied is rather talking about how charming children in their passive willingness to be gazed at, how cute they are in their endearing efforts to put on a good show for adults. They are told that their true happiness consists in pleasing adults, bending their will, and doing what they want.

The eternal desire and failure to understand the other also confirms something else: its paradoxical attractiveness and danger to the observers. Just like the

Europeans who are attracted to the excesses of Eastern, they blot them out to make the orient more like rational European so that it will not become a danger making

Europeans more like them, and therefore weakening Europeans. In similar notion, if

51Nodelman, The Other 29. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

adults have a secret desire to act childishly for being irrational, lawless, less responsible, or careless, then adults need to protect themselves by making children less childish.

1.2.3. Inherent Adult-Centered

Rose in Nodelman suggests, “we write books for children to provide them with values and with images of themselves we approve of or feel comfortable with.

By and large, we encourage in children those values and behaviours that make children easier for us to handle: more passive, more docile, more obedient and more in need of our guidance and more willing to accept the need for it”52. As a result, children’s books will frequently reflect obedient, smart, diligent, mature, and religious characters of children are created and selected to make adult convenient and easily handle their children. Sarumpaet says further this is based on the concept of children as investment, the belief of the smarter a child, the prouder the adults53. It is clearly seen, in their position as leaders, adults only give priority to their own benefit.

Children are the objects of adults’ pleasures and in children’s life and, in fact, adults are the prior because adults are their owner.

Zornado also elaborates the detachment parenting culturally enforces split between the mind and feeling and the body of a child. In this kind of parenting, infant learns adults’ determination of the rightness and the wrongness. When the child’s needs and feelings are deemed inappropriate by adults, the repression and further cultural production has begun. As a result, rather than reading a child’s behaviour as a

52Nodelman,The Other 30. 53Sarumpaet, Pedoman 107. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

way of reading and supporting her emotional needs, adults instead read the child’s behaviour as ‘misbehaviour’. As a result, children’s anger is disallowed and their emotion is inappropriate. Children are taught to deny their own body in which adults see them as the source of damnation.

The myth of damnation has widely influenced the writers of children’s literature as well as adults as the one who purchase and select to also deny children’s feeling, then to deny felt experiences as a child which implies that children’s books has denied children as the centre of the story. Children’s body and child characters in the story are simply the vehicle and the container and therefore rarely neutral as they are the sites of ideological indoctrination of particular dominant culture. Children’s books therefore keep saying children’s feelings of anger, shame, or longing as bad.

As a result, misbehaved children are not the ‘ideal’ character in stories that they do not need to be existed. If they do, the writers as the creator need to punish them at the end.

1.2.4. Inherent Silencing

Within his arguments, Nodelman describes whether adults keep speaking for children in order to prevent them to speak for what adults call as brute things, even though those brute things, in facts, to certain extend, indeed happen in the children’s lives54. It is adults who write, edit, publish, buy, select, and read for children to keep speaking at the first. As the result, sexuality, teenage pregnancy, divorce, or drugs are frequently absent in children literature as adults never wish children to talk about

54Nodelman, The Other 30. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

those matters. Adults aim at keeping their children to be as pure, ignorant, and innocent of that knowledge as they believe children are supposed to be. Such hard issues often undergo censors and silencing before the texts are received by the implied readers - children.

The dominating adults in childhood development and literature are seen as self-confirming description by Nodelman55. This implies when adults assume children have short attention spans and therefore never let them try to read long books, then do not in fact read the long books, and they will seem to adults to be incapable of doing that. As a matter of fact books adults claim children will not like get unpublished without any chance to try and to know whether they might like the other kinds of books. Children’s literature tends to be a more subtle version of the kind of adult power. Like the case of silencing, describing childhood for children is in the hope that children will accept adults’ version of their life. The fictional children in book are meant to secure the child who is outside the book and to fill the hopes that they will become more like the fictional children adults invented, and therefore less threatening. Children, then, are provided with subtle novels with a description of people and events that insist reality to se the world and themselves in adults’ way.

1.3. Silencing, Censorship, and the Innocence of Childhood

Until recently, when parents and educators are asked what harm they think from violent, sexual, other controversial art and entertainment so that they do not want children to know, the answers range from the broadly moral that kids should not

55Nodelman, The Other 32. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

be robbed of their innocence to developmental and psychological like fear, nightmares, anxiety, over-sexual behaviour to the imitative that they will mimic violence or sexual activities they are exposed56.

Yet, according to Heins, as the history also notes, only since the modern era children and adolescents became the object of purity crusaders. Since the 17th century the youthful sexual innocence has been celebrated especially in Europe. The modern concept of childhood as a peculiarly vulnerable state arose in 17th century is a period of sexual innocence where libidinous thought should not be exposed. Locke, for example, brought the influence to concern censorship for leading the assumption that amoral literature could create “impressions as real to the mind as those made by other experience.”57 The social-purity movements, which also viewed children as carriers of the Original Sin (who must be controlled and indoctrinated into right behaviours) and which viewed sexual desires as sinful, with support from government and professional group have had justified censorship by denying the existence of and maintaining the need to repress the sexual interests of youth58.

In his rejection toward children’s innocence, Davies in Robinson argues that

Children are not inherently innocent and unknowledgeable, but rather are engaged in making meaning in their everyday lives and, as mentioned earlier, actively negotiate competing discourses that they encounter in order to constitute themselves as

56Heins 10. 57Heins 21. 58Heins 26. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

intelligible subjects59. This implies that children, with their struggles and frequently limited knowledge, learn to shape to understand love, sex, and the other knowledge considered as adults’ matters. Therefore, instead of dismissing them as cute and innocent, Robinson argues adults need to learn to respect and admire them as they search for insights into the way the social world works, even while they find themselves trapped in normative versions of identity, gender and human relationships60.

While to say that children are easily-corrupted being, Heins argues that even scientific experiments result in causal relations of media and the harms it causes and the view of explicitly sexual material’s negative impacts on children are still unproven and questionable. She explores the dilemmas of such researches based on their ‘real’ effects the scientists tried to measure when the presentation of sexuality may be frightening or arousing for some children and may be uncomprehending for the other ones. Indeed, Heins also disproves the widely believed imitative theory in the relation between childhood and media by presenting the ambiguities, contradictions, and deficiencies of media effects studies proving psychological effects and imitation61.

Heins also clearly presents the example in which New York’s juvenile delinquents have been related to children’s reading comics and this camouflages the

59 Kerry H. Robinson, Innocence, Knowledge and the Construction of Childhood: The Contradictory Nature of Sexuality and Censorship in Children’s Contemporary Lives (New York: Routledge, 2013) 13. 60 Robinson xi. 61See Heins 237-242. Heins analyzes Bandura’s widely applied experiment on Bobo Dolls proving children’s imitative behavior which results in questioning Bandura’s validity and accuracy. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

fact that 93 percent of all children in the city had read comics and they were not all juvenile delinquents62. Therefore the meaning of statistic too raises problems. When researchers rely on statistical correlations to demonstrate imitative effects from

‘graphic’ or ‘violent’ media, the ‘significant’ results do not mean ‘important’ because they do not likely happen just by chance. Rather, the research’s results are only

‘attributive’ and probabilistic’ instead of ‘deterministic’. For instance, teenage pregnancy occurred long before soap operas portrayed illicit sex and children misbehaved before the appearance of Tom and Jerry cartoon and comics. In other words, trying to tease out the effects of the ‘indecent’ art and entertainment on human behaviour is impossible because human behaviour is complex.

Defining the concept of ‘bad’ or ‘gratuitous’ art or entertainment also suffers from vagueness, variability, and subjectivity. That the depiction of war in Saving

Private Ryan is educational or gratuitous is indeed ‘coloured by viewers’ psychological, emotional, and cultural background that quantitative measurement becomes ludicrous.”63 Even worse, she argues, the conclusions range from non- empirical predictions that the ’obscene’ art or entertainment will lead to the end of literacy to assertion that their very existence is responsible for the increased rates of sexual or violent crimes. The scientific validity can also causes problem when it is only the suggestive and compelling data reported64.

As a matter of fact, many parents and educators have also been driven by the outgrown fear of the effects that they want to prevent children from the exposure of

62Heins 240. 63Heins 238. 64Heins 239. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

pornography and violence. In this case, the parents would prefer to have bad reality not to exist. Unfortunately, one way for them to try to make reality go away, at least in their own mind, is not to allow their children to have access to printed material that affirms that reality. Censorship grows out of fear and parents fear the outside world.

They fear the influence of the world on their children so that they want to control so tightly that they constantly feel threatened. In a sort of false hope, adults are trying to make all the ‘bad’ things in the world simply disappear. They assume that things like premarital sex will not occur if kids never read about it65.

Heins adds, this also presents the ignorance it might make toward Aristotle’s catharsis – the therapeutic or “drive reduction” effects of entertainment or the attitude of the audience of tragic dramas which responds to depictions of even the most appealing events not with anger or frustration, nor by imitating the characters’ gruesome deeds, but by identifying with their sufferings and emerging exhilarated and emotionally drained.

Aristotle in Heins also argues that catharsis not only permitted feelings that in real life contain a morbid and disturbing element’ to find relief, but produced a

‘distinctly aesthetic satisfaction’ whose effect was to ‘purify and clarify’ the emotions66. Heins explores by giving example in which reports in the early 1990s presented that adolescents who like heavy metal music –commonly associated with aggression – listen to it especially when they are angry, that the music has the effect of calming down and dissipating their anger and that adolescents generally favour

65West 147. 66Heins 229. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

music as an aid in coping with their problems67. “We will not be led into fascism or rape or child abuse or racial expression through aesthetic experience”. On the contrary, “the more practiced we are in fantasy the better we will master its difference from the real”, Steiner writes68.

Dealing with this, Heins argues that youths are not endangered by explicitly sexual material and therefore argues that there is no simple causes might be taken by government to censor material without violating their rights. She asserts that censorship is not the best way to prepare youngsters for their adult life. Censorship may also frustrate young people’s developing sense of autonomy and self-respect, and increase their feelings of alienation69.

Heins provides solutions that beside being sure the real, not just symbolic, harm results from youthful pursuit of disapproved pleasures and message before mandating indecency laws, internet filter, and the other restrictive regimes, it is better to socialize children, training in media literacy and critical thinking skill, comprehensive sexuality education, literature classes that deal with difficult topics rather than pretending they do not exist, and inclusion of young people in journalism and policy making on this very issue of culture and values70.

In short, it can be said that how the strict regulation of children’s knowledge, often in the name of protection or in the child’s best interest, can ironically, increase children’s prejudice around difference, increase their vulnerability to exploitation and

67Heins 236. 68See Heins 253. 69Heins 12. 70Heins 11. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

abuse, and undermine their abilities to become competent adolescents. Therefore, it is important to be aware of the censorship and being too handy to make books as scapegoat for the human social problems.

1.4. The Pleasures of Children’s Literature

The problematic Children’s Literature lies in the fact that it has the implied readers [read: children]. This means the writers [read: adults] imply a reader who takes pleasures they offer in order to attract most of their attention. Nodelman further adds that each text written for children frequently implies a child reader with specific knowledge, comprehension skills, and tastes71. Nevertheless, when the study of concept of childhood is no longer highly distinguished, this research takes its stand to agree that the pleasures of children’s literature is in essence the pleasures of all literature.

Nodelman suggests that there are several kinds of pleasures in literature, which also address to the pleasures of children’s literature. The pleasures lead to one basic pleasure, that is, the pleasure of conversation or the dialogues between the texts and the readers; and between readers and other readers about the texts.

This relates, at first, to the ways in which pictures, words, and ideas allow the readers to visualize people and places they have never actually seen or thought before, even though some of them are only the unfamiliar versions of similar life experiences. In her discussion about setting, Lukens argues, if setting is essential to the readers’ understanding of story, the writer must make them see, hear, touch, and

71Nodelman, The Pleasure 18. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

even smell the setting. It is as much the writer’s task when writing for children as for adults to evoke setting, described either in paragraphs or in phrases woven into action, by the details of colour, sound, figurative comparisons, and other stylistic means. As well as in visualizing people, Lukens suggests, in increasing readers’ belief in the characters’ reality, readers need to come to know them through the words they say, through the words they look and how they act. Readers are eager to believe in the characters’ experiences in the chosen words72.

The readers are also pleased with the words themselves. It is about the way their patterns can make sounds and can combine with each other to express beauty or even fears. Skilful authors know what to do with words. They add, subtract, experiment, and substitute words to create the style that best tells their stories. The skilled writer also chooses words to become setting, plot, character, and theme to make good writing.

Kids, like all literature readers, like to have their emotions evoked: laughing or feeling the joy and the pain that the characters experience. With the organized emotional involvements, the delays of the suspense, the climaxes and resolutions, and the coincidences that create challenging plot, readers also get pleasure in the reading process. This includes the way in which the readers accept or deny the structures of words, pictures, and events consciously form meaningful patterns and wholeness.

The pleasures that might satisfy readers are also about the finding of mirror for their selves. Readers like to identify themselves with the fictional characters, even though sometime it is also pleasurable to have literature as a place to escape, in which

72Lukens 196. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

readers can step outside of their selves at least imaginatively and experiencing the lives and thoughts of others’. In doing so, creating characters makes the same demands of how readers respond to other human beings. They need to see similarities to their selves, or if not similarity, recognizable traits and responds. Readers may say they ‘identify with’ someone. It is true, Lukens argues that not that every character be exactly like readers’ self, but that a character should be credible73.

Further, readers find it more enjoyable to give comments and to consider the meaning on literary works and then to discuss it with the others and their various or similar responses. It is also important to note that all readers are delighted when they recognize gaps and when they learn to fill them in their reading. Readers then deserve pleasures on the formula-repeating the familiar experiences of stories they have enjoyed before and even newness which means experiencing different ones; and the last but not the least, readers also fond of gaining insight into history and culture through literature.

The elaboration of kinds of pleasures in Children’s Literature becomes necessary to relate to the issue of silencing because so often the act of censorship in children’s books prevents writer from being honest so that this weakens the texts to be logical and therefore prevents reading of gaining literary pleasures.

1.5. Therapeutic Effects in Voicing the Silenced in Children’s Literature

Hunt claims that children’s literature brings some very fundamental concerns of its existence. The concern is about what children’s reading is for. The dulce et utile

73Lukens 83. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

philosophy has been inherent when Children’s Literature is discussed. The books for children have to be pleasant, and in the same time, they essentially have to be useful74.

Children’s books have been used for different purposes at different times because they are related to the primary concern of what ‘good’ books are for. Some books are ‘good’ because they are time-passers, others are for acquiring literacy, others are ‘good’ for expanding imagination and ‘good’ for enforcing certain social attitudes, others are good for dealing with issues and coping with problems, and most books do several other things.

However, Post-structuralism reminds that knowledge as well as ‘good’ is constituted through discourse partially and politically shifts and changes according to the power relation. This offers multiple positions and viewpoints to construct the

‘good’ literature. One of the old certainties about ‘good’ literature suggests that the texts are good because they are worth studying for two main reasons: they are wise, and they are beautiful.

Nodelman invites to question this on who decides what wise or beautiful is as well as the reason why we should trust their judgement. He also invites to criticize the possible vested interests of the decision maker in identifying the desirable beauty75.

When in fact many people, including literary experts, disagree about the difference between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ literature, then there is an alternative to see Blume’s condemned works for being inappropriate for children as a work of literature which

74Hunt, Understanding 11. 75 Nodelman, The Pleasures 5. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

can also be good to be useful to assist readers dealing with social and personal development problems by employing Bibliotherapy approach.

When related to its application in helping children in facing hard times in their growing up personality and behaviour (recently in life that is now full of risks), bibliotherapy, coined by Samuel Crothers in 1916 in formulating the use of texts in treatment is not supposed to be a new approach to be the practical outcomes of reading children’s books even though the systematic use of the treatment is relatively recent76. Texts cover ones that have the power to soothe, awaken, probe, and inspire like fiction, poetry, drama, or biography77. It enforces the belief that there is relationship between the vicarious reading and personal emotional and behavioural development of a child as reader.78 As it is combined with the variety of issues addressing rich problems and difficult times of young people like the issues frequently silenced from Blume’s novels including sexuality, bad realities, and misbehaviours, bibliotherapy can become an innovative approach to help children deal with them.

By using text (biblio-) as medium through which the helping/healing (- therapy) is considered to occur, Pardeck formulates, bibliotherapy has major goals as follows: (a) to provide information on problems which are experienced or may be experienced in the future, (b) to provide insight into problems, (c) to stimulate discussion about problems because books help verbalizing reader’s thoughts and

76John T. Pardeck and Martha J. Markward, “Bibliotherapy : Using Books to Help Children Deal with Problems.” Early Child Development and Care 106.1 (1995): 75. 77Newell 24. 78Newell 23. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

feelings leading to therapeutic resolutions, (d) to communicate new values and attitude (d) to create an awareness that others have dealt with similar problems to prevent a person feeling alone, isolated, and different, and (f) to provide variety and alternative of solutions to problems to be generated in the real life79. Indeed, it can be applied not only for helping clients with emotional problems but also helping them understand basic development needs for all ages and for dealing with many different kinds of issues.

Helps from books indeed include two general kinds. The first is the slow and steady growth into a deepened self from the experiences of reading literature with timeless values. The second is the immediate first-aid for emotional illness which may be found in the here – and – now books with a mission, not lasting literature, but as necessary as a shot of penicillin for a particular infection.

Basically, bibliotherapy works in three major steps. At first in the identification process, a child with problem, for example, must be able to identify with the character in the book which experiences similar problem to his or her own.

He or she first needs to recognize the character’s anger, frustration, or expectation.

When needed, a counsellor can play role as helper in interpreting the motives of the story characters and understanding the relationships among the various characters in the story. At this stage, too, the child makes inferences regarding the meaning of the story and to apply the meaning to the problem confronting him or her. The assistance of identification can be through questions like “How are you like or unlike the boy or

79John T. Pardeck, “Bibliotherapy: An Innovative Approach for Helping Children.” Early Child Development and Care 110. 1 (1995): 83. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

girl in the story?” or “How is what’s happening with you like or unlike what happened in the story?” can help clients to see commonalities.

As reader is able to identify with the story character, he or she (is helped to) move(s) into the catharsis stage in which he or she must experience an emotional release and involvement in the story. As a counsellor might be needed, he or she can monitor the reader’s reaction to the literature, the degree of similarity between the reader’s own emotional experience and the problem being considered, and the emotional experiences of the reader through the identification with the story character. Question like “When is the problem not a problem?” assists identifying and expanding effective coping and problem solving methods already in place.

The last step is insight where the reader begins to recognize solutions to a problem through the texts. This enables him or her to come up with new ways of dealing with problem. At this stage, the reader needing guidance can also be helped by practitioner(s) by delivering questions such as “Did you like the way the problem was handled in the book?”, “Do you think it would work if you tried it?” and “Is there anything you would do differently to make it work better for you?” would likely prompt further exploration of solutions.

Even though bibliotherapy can be used as a self-help, it is important to note when bibliotherapy process is guided by practitioner(s)’ intervention, there are several points to consider in the book selection for guiding the clients in having the treatment. According to Schrank it is necessary to consider: (a) problems or situations that are of interest or relevance of the client; (b) characters development to allow for sufficient identification; (c) story depth that enriches the meaning of life; (d) for PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

children, situation in the story that are appropriate for their developmental level (e) reading levels that are appropriate to the readers (f) stories that are well written (g) opportunities for the readers to offer alternative solutions to situations or problems and (h) stories that are free of sexist language and racial bias. In addition to that, practitioners have to develop trust with the client so that treatment can run well.

However, considering the appropriate stories when it is based on developmental level can create biases since appropriateness is very subjective that it might prevent particular issues not being taken simply because they are regarded as ‘inappropriate’.

It is also important to note that in doing book selection, it is necessary to consider that the object of bibliotherapy is not to overwhelm the child as client with his or her feelings or concerns. Instead, practitioners can tell that the book is enjoyable and discussion can be available for sharing. Again, the child’s right to refuse to read the book or not to finish it must be respected. Such a refusal may indicate that the child has found the book too threatening or simply uninteresting.

Beside with one person, bibliotherapy might also be implemented either with small or large groups. The benefits increase when it is applied to a group since it creates a sense of belonging among members and provides the sense of security. The group dynamic allows members to share common experiences and this will lessen anxieties. Working in a group, as Pardeck & Pardeck argues, may lead an individual to develop a different perspective and a new understanding of problems.80

80Carla Vale Lucas and Luísa Soares. “Bibliotherapy : A Tool to Promote Children’s Psychological Well-Being.” Journal of Poetry Therapy 26. 3 (2013): 142. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

Since bibliotherapy is not simply the activity of reading, but the combination of reading with a method of reflecting on the reading, many researchers have discussed activities to engage in during bibliotherapy. The activities especially for group setting might include creative writing, art activities, discussion, or role playing81.

In this study, however, bibliotherapy is not understood to be an absolute way of gaining the result proving that texts like Blume’s novels might successfully help the young readers coping with their problems and difficulties in their real life. It is because despite the multitude benefits of bibliotherapy mentioned in the early discussion, there are also drawbacks that must be considered that are admitted by the experts in this field. The first is because the treatment is influenced by availability of books or other materials on certain topics. Also the client may have no motivation for reading, may be defensive when discussing the characters or may also project their own motives on to characters, thus reinforcing their own perceptions and solutions.

Many books are also too message-driven, focusing too heavily on the problems experienced by the characters instead of the plot. Other limitations can also be pointed dealing with the facilitator who has limited knowledge of human development and developmental problems, and inadequate knowledge about appropriate literature. As a result, Gladding & Gladding in Pardeck & Markward say the limitations can be overcome through the regular implementation of it and the use

81See Pardeck 85. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

of group discussions and other activities and therefore, facilitators need to be properly trained which can cause another problems82.

Because bibliotherapy takes several forms and can be used in many setting, judging its effectiveness is also admitted difficult. Pardeck notes that numerous studies have been completed reporting the inconclusive evidence on the effectiveness of bibliotherapy even though studies have found positive changes in mood and behaviour in study participants after receiving treatments83. Riodan and Wilson claim measuring the effectiveness is hard especially because the therapy is subjective and individual in nature84.

It is also important to acknowledge that bibliotherapy should not be used as separate therapy but rather what, when, and how it should be used as a part of a treatment plan85. This means bibliotherapy is not effective or desirable as a standalone treatment, and recommends that it be combined with other types of therapy.

As a matter of facts, silencing difficult or ‘inappropriate’ knowledge from young readers prevent them from having the opportunity to gain the advance benefits of bibliotherapy as this study implies. However, the last but not least, this thesis needs to say that bibliotherapy approach here is partially adopted through Judy

Blume’s novels for their process how the texts can heal and create their cathartic effects without any observation on the guided reading needing the involvement of

82See Lucas & Soares 140. 83Pardeck & Markward 75. 84Richard Riordan, et al., “Bibliotherapy : Does It Work?” Journal of Counseling & Development 67. 9 (1989): 506-508. 85See Pardeck & Markward 76. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

particular reader(s) as clients and of trainers or practitioners in practical treatment of therapy using the novels aiming at measuring the effectiveness.

3. Theoretical Framework

In answering the research questions listed in chapter one, it needs to employ several concepts to be the framework of thinking and to help the analysis. In finding the voiced silenced-issues in Blume’s novels, it is necessary to understand the factors influencing the silencing. In doing so, this research is conducted under several approaches. At first, by questioning the validity of some ‘truth’ and facts about the definitions of childhood and children’s literature, drawing insight from Post- structuralism helps to uncover the common beliefs and the problems of generalization in understanding children’s literature in which children are seen as a group of homogenous people with their innocence, happy life, and fragility . Then, Post- colonial approach is, too, borrowed in this research to dig out the power relation between adult and children which leads to adults’ determination for children’s book selection, silencing, or censorship.

While in finding the relations between the presence of those voiced realities and the literature pleasures they can provide, a concept in the pleasures of children’s literature is used like how post-structuralisms question the certainties about the pleasures of children’s literature. It is also based on the argument breaking the boundaries differing children’s literature to adult’s literature that the concept of pleasures in children’s literature here is then the pleasures of all literature. It includes how the intrinsic and extrinsic elements of a literary work embody pleasurable texts PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

and how children’s right to gain the same kind of pleasures with adult’s texts is well considered. In addition, to relate them to the practical uses of literature, a concept about the practical use of literature is then partially applied with bibliotherapy as its approach. By using its ability to connect fictions to their function to help readers dealing with reality, this method is partially employed; however, this research does not take its technique for the practical application of treatment by presenting real reader(s) as the clients to measure the efficiency. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

CHAPTER III

Romance, Sensuality, and Sexuality

Childhood innocence is mobilized to regulate children’s access to certain knowledge, with sexual knowledge as the most controversial area according to

Robinson86. This observation leads this thesis to examine how sexuality and sensuality appear in the selected novels of Judy Blume as well as the kinds of pleasures and the uses of her books for young readers as they deal with the most frequently absent topics among the other silenced areas. The reference is to the sexual-related issues found in the novels includes romance, puberty, teenage pre- marital sex, and the birth-control. In voicing those silenced-issues, this research finds that the novels offer some pleasures of reading: the pleasures of words and the pleasures of storytelling. More than that, this chapter also elaborates how voicing sexuality in children’s books can be therapeutically beneficial to answer the mystery of taboo areas as well as to spark discussion on difficult matter like sex especially when authors appear to be one of trusted adults for the disconnected kids.

1. Childhood’s Romance, Sensuality, and Sexuality: Against Childhood

Innocence

Coming as the author who wanted to write something she knew to be true in her pre-teen perspectives about growing-up characters, Blume has been at the center of controversial battles to ban or censor for scaring parents with controversial issues perceived as corrupting children’s innocence and increasing children’s sexual

86 Robinson 18. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

promiscuity when the knowledge of sexuality and sensuality is exposed. Despite the reasons to ban her books, through the data analyzed below, the outlook of Blume’s novels towards childhood sexuality and sensuality is clarified in inviting readers to begin thinking against those normative taken-for-granted clichés about children innocence and asexuality by presenting characters who are, instead of innocent and asexual, constructing the knowledge of sexuality, who have desire for the knowledge, and who are sexually active subjects.

1.1. Romance (Crushes)

Boys and girls romance with the idea of love has been silenced in children’s books for their innocent state to fail defining love which leads to the sexual and romantic attraction between two people. However, crushes, as a kind of relationship in which kids have strong but temporary feeling about liking someone, are pictured in almost all of the analysed novels as part of children’s life that boys and girls are getting interested to each other.

The depiction appears in almost all novels include the sixth grader Margaret who admires Phillip and Moose in Margaret, Tony to Lisa in Then Again, the seventh grader Deenie to Buddy in Deenie, the sixteenth years old Davey to Wolf in Tiger

Eyes, and the seventeenth years old Katherine to Michael in Forever as well as the fifth grader Sally to Peter in Staring Sally. Here is the example taken from Margaret.

I sat next to Moose. He smelled very nice. I wonder if he shaved because the nice smell reminded me of my father’s after-shaved lotion. I got to touch his hand a couple of times because he was a lefty and I’m righty so now and then we’d bump. He said he always has that trouble at round tables. (91) PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

Blume makes romance relevant to young character as Margaret has a rule to name one of boys in class to like in her secret club with three other girls. Yet, she also narrates that the character actively constructs the knowledge about romance. In this case, Margaret has to keep Moose’s name for herself “He was definitely number one in my Boy Book, even if nobody knew it but me.” (91) because even though she

‘like(s) the way he sang as he worked and his clean and white teeth (38), Margaret is not brave enough to list his name and share it to the other club secret for she know what the leading girl, Nancy, would think for “she hated him”(38). Later, Margaret comes to a complete understanding that liking somebody should not depend on whether somebody else likes or dislikes our own choice. As a result, when Nancy objects who Margaret likes and asks how come she likes, Margaret is mad for Nancy does not ask the other member then why Margaret has to tell the reason. Therefore, she ‘raised my (Margaret) eyebrow at Nancy, then looked away. She got the message.” (44)

1.2. Sensuality

The reference to sensuality which relates to giving or expressing pleasure through the physical senses is also another absent issue in children’s books.

Especially in Deenie, it is mentioned about the female major character’s romance relationship to a boy. Deenie’s relationship with Buddy Brader is special one because she falls in love when Buddy just touches her hair,

“Listen,” Buddy said, “I’ve got to eat my lunch now. Don’t forget the mixer... I’ve got a solo and all.” “I won’t forget”. He finally took his hand off my hair. I may never shampoo it again. (122) PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

The more special relationship is shown when they are watching a movie that they are holding hands,

He reached down for my hand instead. I never held hands with a boy before. At least, never like that, in a dark place where you don’t have to hold hands because you need a partner for any special reason, like dancing or something. It felt very nice too. Buddy’s fingers were warm... (66)

The other example is taken from Starring Sally when Sally expresses her feeling to Peter which she does in Peter’s brother’s wedding day.

When the three of them reached the side yard Peter said, “Okay…we’re in private now.” “Well…” Sally said, taking a deep breath, “in honor of your brother’s wedding, congratulation!” She leaned over and kissed him on the mouth. He turned bright red. “What’d you do that for?” Sally blushed too. “I told you… It was in honor of your brother’s wedding…” She chewed on her bottom lip and pulled at her midriff. Peter leaned over and kissed Sally back. “What’s that for?” she asked. “For letting me copy off you on our last spelling test.” (192)

Not only in Deenie and Starring Sally, Blume also creates the kissing scenes in most of her novels. Margaret and Philip kiss while playing Two Minutes in the

Closet (80) while Davey were kissing Hugh in the night of her father’s murder (198).

Besides showing the relevant experience of youth through sensuality, the novels also shows how those kids negotiate the discourse of sensuality as well as the other knowledge that are available to them. Deenie, for example, negotiates her perspective about Buddy Brader for her friend, Midge, once says after the movie that it is cheap to let boys sit next to her in the movies. Midge adds that boys are just interested in what they could get in the dark (68). With this opinion, Deenie finds to prove whether Midge is right about Buddy. At the end, Deenie gladly knows that PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

Buddy is not that kind of person. It is shown when he respects Deenie’s decision for not taking her Milwaukee brace off her body while they are kissing.

Later Buddy grabbed my hand and led me into the part of the basement where Janet’s mother does the laundry. It was dark and kind of damp in there and it smelled like Clorox. Buddy said, “Couldn’t you take off your brace for a little while? I thought about the shopping bag I’d left upstairs. “No,” I told Buddy. “I have to wear it all the time.” “Oh well...” Buddy said. This time when he kissed me I concentrated on kissing him back. I hoped I was doing it right. (159)

It is understood when the idea of romance and sensuality involving love and kissing are too scary for adults to accept as part of their children’s life. It is especially because there is intention to protect them from being innocence corrupted and to prevent them from being exposed to commonly said to be adults’ prerogative. Adults are afraid that children include the issues before they are adult enough by imitating as described in the novels. Yet, though might be shocking, as Robinson reports, from the early age, children have strong sense of desire, wish to act on that desire, and are actively engaged in constructing their sexual subjectivities as the novels try to say87.

1.3. Puberty

The perceived loss of innocence in childhood has been used to view and treat children in the family, schools, and in society more broadly. Constituted in the name of protection toward the loss of innocence and in the best interest of the child, children’s subjectivities toward sexuality and the terms related have been rejected intensively. Graphic description of sex, the pictures of nude male and female bodies,

87 Robinson 87. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

and the use of proper names for anatomical parts are associated to be harmful and aged-inappropriate for children.

As well as discussing sex education, talking about puberty is also difficult.

Through her books, Blume presents the issues related to puberty. The novels explain much about children’s body changes as well as the feelings they might feel during the process. They also portray how children make meaning and are eager to understand their sexual reproduction development. The novels appear to believe that kids and sexuality are developing together and sexuality is not only adults’ stuffs.

1.3.1. Menstruation

In Margaret, Blume deals with a girl who longs for her period. Margaret has been terribly waiting and requesting it to God. For one reason, she feels worrisome as her friends have got their period while she has not. It is especially because she and her group PTSs create rule that one who gets the first period should tell the other member all about it. Therefore, as Gretchen, one of the members has got it, Margaret begins worrying and shares her feeling to God.

Are you there God? It’s me, Margaret. Gretchen, my friend, got her period. I’m so jealous, God. I hate myself for being so jealous, but I am. I wish you’d help me just a little. Nancy’s sure she’s going to get it soon, too. And if I’m last I don’t know what I’ll do. Oh, please, God. I just want to be normal. (86)

Margaret’s concern in relating her menstruation to the sign of normalcy makes her worry to become the last person in the club who gets the period. Later, as she searches for insight in her understanding, Margaret acknowledges that there is something she can not do but patiently wait. This is portrayed as she finally realizes PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

that her friend Nancy, who is also dying to be the first to get period, makes up a story about her menstruation.

Nancy washed her hands and face. I handed her two paper towels to dry herself... I felt kind of sorry for Nancy then. I want my period too, but not enough to lie about it. (91)

From the example, it can be seen that the character Margaret represents childhood in which the period is also about having the active engagement in constructing children’s sexual subjectivity.

1.3.2. Breast Development

Also in Margaret, another girls’ puberty which receives primary concern from Blume as one of physical developments is on female’s breasts. Blume portrays the main character Margaret as a girl who is eager to see her breasts grown when her new friend Nancy expects that city girl from New York should be very grown up.

Surely because Margaret wants to look normal as a girl, she makes struggles for it, starting from asking and praying to God to putting cotton to fill her bra.

Are you there, God? It’s me, Margaret. I just told my mother I want a bra. Please help me grow, God. You know where… (36)

In her other pray, Margaret also wishes.

Are you there, God? See how nice my bra looks now! That’s all I need – just a little help. I’ll really be good around the house, God. I’ll clear the table every night for a month at least! Please God… (72)

Blume does not seem to display difficult issues like breast development in girl without significance. Here we can see that the appearance of Margaret’s eagerness of her breast development represents Margaret’s willingness to feel and to be normal PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

girl among her friends. Similar to menstruation, the knowledge of breast development leads Margaret to redefine normality.

1.3.3. Wet Dreams

Blume breaks that barrier by presenting sexual issues which actually belong not only to adults but also to children. Tony, the male character of Then Again, is allowed to tell the readers about his panicking first experience on wet dream.

However, not only being panic on his first wet dream, Tony has initial conclusion that the pain on his stomach is actually the reason why he gets the wet dreams.

That night I dream about Lisa. My dream went on and on. It started out at the football game where Lisa put her arm around me. Only in my dream she didn’t stop there. And Corky was in it too. She was sitting on the football field and Lisa kept saying, “You see, Corky.... here’s what to do...to do...to do...” I woke up suddenly. It was morning. I felt wet and my pyjamas were sticky. Oh God! There is something wrong with me. Really wrong. Dr. Holland doesn’t know what he’s talking about! I am so sick. This proves it. (92-93)

In the other passage, readers can also find that Tony feels ashamed about his first experience on wet dream as he thinks that it is because he thinks too much about girls and his father would be angry at him.

I had an awful day. I couldn’t concentrate on my school work and I got yelled at in English for not paying attention. How could I pay attention? I kept thinking that when I get home the whole family’s going to be there. Mom and Pop, Grandma, Ralph and Angie, Vicki, Maxine, even cousin Ginger! They’ll know about me. Maxine will show them the sheet and my mother will say, “I don’t buy the best sheets for you to mess up, Anthony!” I’ll say, “It was an accident Mom...a mistake...it won’t happen again.” And Ralph will say, “If you hadn’t been thinking about that girl this never would have happened.” Then Pop will say, “I expected great things from you, Tony... And this is what I get!” (94) PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

Considering that Blume’s inspiration in writing novels comes from her own childhood and from her daughter and son’s experience, talking about wet dreams happening to a sixth grader shows that she depicts a real portrayal of a character. This confirms that believing children are innocent is absolutely only general and false assumption. Robinson reports two major studies on children’s sexual thinking and experiences by Goldman and Goldman. Based on their findings, they argue that if information about sexuality is not made available to children early, they tend to complete the picture of sex differences, sexual relations and other sexuality information from their imagination or by shared ignorance with friends in which this serves worse than providing the accurate and correct knowledge even in fictions88.

1.3.4. Masturbation

As one of sexual activities, masturbation is of course absent from kids’ life and from their literature. As parents are also fearful that children will do what they read about in books, Klein claims that these parental fears are based on the false belief that children would never have had the thought without the books.89 For example, kids would never have thought about masturbating. Then when they read about it, adults assume that that is all they will do.

The discourse that children are asexual, immature, vulnerable, and innocent has impacted in how children are continuously viewed and treated. Especially when related to sexual pleasure like masturbation, myths to label the activity as distortion, abnormality, and sins even seem to appear to give fears of doing it, and furthermore

88See Robinson 17. 89See West 25. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

to give psychological punishments in order to avoid this sexual activity. The myths related to physical effects start from the bone deformity, the stop of height grows, infertility, going insane, to the blindness90. Regardless to those myths, Blume makes masturbation relevant to her character Deenie. This can bee seen by the way how

Deenie describes in the novel,

I started touching myself. I have this special place and when I rub it I get a very nice feeling, I don’t know what it’s called or if anyone else has it but when I have trouble falling asleep, touching my special place helps a lot. (59)

In the other part of the novel, it is also said,

I got out of my brace and into the tub. At first I was bored just lying there. Usually I take showers and out of fast as possible. But the hot water was very relaxing and soon I began to enjoy it. I reached down and touch my special place with the washcloths. I rubbed and rubbed until I got that good feeling. (148)

Like in the real childhood development, masturbation here is present for

Deenie tries to understand about her sexual life. She questions about if it is normal, if everybody masturbates, and, most importantly, if it has something to do with her scoliosis. Deenie’s half and misinformed knowledge on her masturbation is later answered by the gym teacher.

As one of sexual developmental stages, masturbation has difficult access to be discussed with children because of the assumption that children and sexuality are separated issues. Though Sigmund Freud was one of the first to offer a different

90Lena Sullivan, "Myths and Facts About Masturbation." 20 January 2011. Georgia Newsday. Website. 7 September 2013. . PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

perspective that children’s initial feelings connecting them to the world were sexual in nature, and upheld that the repression of children’s sexuality could result in various psychoses in adulthood, accepting childhood sexuality remains difficult.

1.4. Sexuality

Again, Children’s Literature inherits silencing on its own. The silencing has turned to be in various kinds. Even it has started before a writer writes his or her book. Some go after the writing, during editing, and in the publishing. Considered as adults’ matter, sex and sexuality is for sure absent in children’s books to believe and indeed to confirm that children are not yet adults

Why Blume was frequently protested is obvious. Her characters are not portrayed as innocent. Her argument says that ‘children might be inexperienced, but they are not innocent’.91 The idea did not yet exist that references to sexual matters could soil children’s innocent because nobody thought that the innocence really existed. It was only toward the end of the 16th century that certain pedagogue –

Puritanism – refused to allow children to give indecent book any longer92. The young characters of Blume found in this study constantly negotiate the discourse of sexuality available to them, and constantly try to understand themselves as sexual beings.

1.4.1. Teenage Sexuality

If the issues related to sexuality are even hard to talk, the issue of teenage sex can be scary for adults to find in books for young readers. That is why the other

91West 11. 92Heins 19. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

of Blume’s novel containing sexual matter which has made parents and educators terribly upset is Forever. The catching content which has been the focus of the book burning is about the sexual intercourses done by the ninth grader as the main character, Katherine and her boyfriend Michael.

We got into his bed and fell asleep for an hour and when we woke up Ralph was hard again. This time Michael made it last much, much longer and I got so carried away I grabbed his backside with both hands, trying to push him deeper and deeper into me—and I spread my legs as far apart as I could—and I raised my hips off the bed—and I moved with him, again and again and again—and at last, I came. I came right before Michael and as I did I made noises, just like my mother. Michael did too. While he was still on top of me, catching his breath, I started laughing. "I came …” I told him. "I actually came." (76)

Sexual intercourse depicted in Forever has been used to condemn the book as a pornographic novel especially because Blume decides to bring Katherine to eventually and regularly have sex after her reluctance to do it like how it is told in the early part of the novel. Meanwhile, Reynolds claims Michael and Katherine are good adolescent role model. This is due to the responsibility Katherine tries to hold in learning to make decision on her own sexual life. Reynolds argues despite the fact that especially in Britain and in the United States young people are sexually active by the time they are sixteen, there is an urgent need to combat the high level of teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases by every possible means, including novels93. About this, she considers sexual education positively implied in Forever later discussed in the next part of this research.

93Kimberley Reynolds, Radical Children’s Literature (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007) 121. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

1.4.2. Birth Control

The idea of taking birth control pills by Katherine has led educators to consider Forever as the manual of sex before marriage to young readers. In her effort to have safe sex, Katherine decides to conduct a consultation in a Planned Parenthood clinic for planning the regular sexual intercourses with Michael.

I told her, "I think it's my responsibility to make sure I don't get pregnant." She nodded and said, "Do you have one special boyfriend?" "Yes." "Have you discussed this with him?" "Not really." "How do you think he'll feel about it?" "I'm sure he'll be very happy. He approves of birth control." "But coming here was all your idea?" "Yes … absolutely." (68)

Taking the birth control pills as well as condom taken by Katherine is told as her way to build the knowledge of responsible and safe sex from having the unwanted pregnancy and the efforts of preventing herself from the venereal diseases spread by the sexual activities she might not expect to have for contraception is implied by Blume as one way to the free-consequence sex among teenagers.

Picking novels illustrating childhood sexuality may be considered as dangerous for children when protectionism has been the major motive when dealing with children. However, by disapproving the discourse that children are naturally asexual and that their innocence is perceived as normal rather than constructed,

Blume’s de-mythologizes childhood innocence and asexuality. They are seen as the undesirable and imposed ignorance. Sexuality here is viewed as equally important to young people’s identity and subjectivity as other components like ethnicity, gender, and social class. More than that, this study will also explore how the existence of PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

these ‘inappropriate’ issues can lead readers to enjoy honest storytelling as well as to build a connection to the caring adults to talk and to get information about the issues.

2. Pleasures of Words and Understanding in Romance, Sensuality, and

Sexuality

Presenting honesty and details in children’s books suggests that several pleasures can be gained. For the example, the pleasure of words covers the patterns their sounds can make. It is the interesting ways in which they combine with each other and their ability to express feelings and to picture images or ideas about romance, sensuality, and sexuality. The pleasure of understanding can also be achieved with such difficult topics like sensuality and sexuality as readers see how literature not only mirrors life but also a share of the authors’ comments on it and this makes readers consider the meaning of their own existence.

As the first discussion, literature offers the pleasures of words in which the word itself becomes the most significant tool. This implies how language can express pictures and ideas. Through it, readers want to see how words can combine each other to describe what a character feels about love, fear, and also anger94.

In the portrayal of childhood romance or crushes for example, Blume depicts how wonderful and sometime problematic kids can feel to like another person, a classmate, or a friend during their emotional growth. In Margaret, Margaret shares her feeling about liking Moose Freed. She describes her admiration about the boy by telling the readers everything Moose does is lovable:

94Nodelman, The Pleasures 20. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

I liked the way he sang as he worked. I also liked his teeth….They were clean and white teeth and white and one in the front was a little crooked. (38).

Margaret is also excited to ride all the way to the city with him in the same car though she gets a little disappointment to find that he sits in the back while she and

Nancy are in the middle.

It was pretty exciting riding all the way to the city with Moose Freed in the same car, except the Wheelers used their station wagon. The boys sat in the back and Nancy and I were in the middle, so if I wanted looking to see Moose I had turn around and if I ride looking backwards like that I get car sick.” (89)

Here, readers can portray how much Margaret wants to be with him by sitting next Moose while they go to Radio City Music with Nancy’s family. (89).

It is the same thing with the crush between Margaret and Philip who get involved in the sensual activity in Two Minutes in the Closet game in which all of the people in the party get a number and somebody calls a number to be the partner to go in a dark closet for two minutes and kiss. Since Philip, the boy Margaret adores in the class calls her number, Margaret is depicted to be so nervous that she does not even know how “I’d never able to make it across the recreation room to the bathroom, where Philip Leroy was waiting to kiss me” (79). She starts giggling until Philip says he can not kiss if Margaret does not stop laughing that soon Margaret realizes Philip is going to kiss her on the mouth instead of cheeks. Blume depicts the kissing scene by writing that Philip puts his hands on Margaret’s shoulders and he leans close before he kisses Margaret with fast kisses for several times described to be not the kind in the movies where boys and girls cling together for a long time (79-80). The kissing ensures Margaret that Philip is the one she likes most among the boys in the class. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

The clear pictorial of those kids’ romance in the novels indeed successfully express that in their young age, such feelings are important and genuine. The words enable Blume to send this message to readers so that they can feel what the characters feel about having crushes with someone they like a lot. On the contrary, when their romantic relationships are silenced from the book, those characters’ feelings may flaw.

Also in the description related to puberty especially menstruation, even though menstrual process is not depicted mainly to be informative in the novel like commonly found in encyclopaedia, readers are pleased to be able to visualize the imaginative experience of the sexual growth in which the character Margaret shares the excitement of welcoming the first period as her best moment in her life.

I started to laugh and cry at the same time. “My period. I’ve got my period!” My nose started running and I reach for a tissue. (122)

The tear and the laugh are what come to Margaret as previously she has to worry about being the last member of her group who gets period. It is because previously she is narrated angry and disappointed when God has not answered her pray to soon menstruate like the other girls. Margaret tells her mother about it enthusiastically while both of their noses start running and sniffling for the happiness.

The sexual development of menstruation makes her mother now accept that she is not her little girl anymore and that Margaret also feels she is now growing for sure and she is almost a real woman.

From an honest perspective of a girl who is badly eager to menstruate in order to meet the girls’ standard of normalcy, readers are able to portray Margaret’s PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

experience in their mind as if they come alive. Readers might have different point of view and personal experience about welcoming menstruation. Yet, knowing other’s distinguish experience about the same thing is inevitably pleasurable.

As the subject of Margaret’s puberty caused the majority of controversy, breast development in Margaret also shares the exhilaration in which readers can visualize the feeling of a pre-adolescence. Margaret is depicted to impatiently wait to see her breasts grow like what her friend Nancy expects that girl from big city like her should have been growing faster. The novel presents the prays Margaret sends to

God about how much she wants him to start hers to develop so that there is something to put in her new bras95. It is portrayed the "I must—I must—I must increase my bust!" exercises she does thirty-five times a day by making fists, bending her arms at the elbow and moved them back and forth sticking her chest way out (44). It is also clearly described that her hope about it is told to be her pleasure to see the way she looks as she stuffs socks and cotton to see if they are really grown like the ones Laura

Danker, the pretty, blonde, big girl in her class has (42).

With the other character, the portrayal of wet dreams and the erection might also give the pleasure of words to laugh as well as to give sympathy. It creates awkward moment when an adolescent boy has no idea about the experience and shares laughter as well as panicking feeling when it appears in a story book like Then

Again. This emotional involvement is well actualized by the clear depiction of how the characters’ experience is described or narrated by the author to create the words pleasures. Figuring that boys also have to go through difficult times when it comes to

95 See page 57. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

puberty with insecurity with same emotional and physical changes as girls also provides some kind of new pleasing perspectives for the other gender.

Importantly, readers can get pleasures in reading to picture a wet dream clear enough as Tony describes it:

I woke up suddenly. It was morning. I felt wet and my pajamas were sticky. Oh God! There is something wrong with me…I am so sick. This proves it. Wait a minute. Wait just a minute. Maybe I had a wet dream. Yeah . . . I'll bet that's it. …I thought a lot more stuff would come out. ….. When I went back into my room I sat down on my bed. There was a spot on my sheet. I touched it. It was damp! Oh no! Does that stuff stain? I grabbed some tissues and wiped it up. (93).

Not only its physical condition, is it pleasurable to be able to feel what the character feels about the experience. Readers can sense the panicking situation when

Tony does not know what he supposes to do to face the fact that Maxine the maid will know what happens from the damp spot on his sheet or that she will think he wets his bed like a little kid (94). In this kind of situation, the writer leads readers to get involved in Tony’s thoughts that cause him nervous to think about how everybody will know what happens to him, how his mother will be angry to find the mess, how his father also gets disappointed for the great things he expects from him and that is all he gets. While he also shares the awkward feeling to think about his brother Ralph who might know that he too much thinks about a girl he likes (94).

The comical situation can also be visualized when Tony unexpectedly gets his penis erected as he finishes writing the answer of a math problem on the class board.

Tony has to do something to when the teacher asks him to turn around to explain his reasoning to the class because he does not want everybody in the class laughs and points to his pants (84). In this embarrassing moment, Tony plans to pretend to be PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

sick and run out of the room or refuse to turn around and ask to go to the bathroom.

Eventually, readers can also feel relieved from that uncomfortable time as Tony successfully covers his pants with his math book with his left hand and the chalk in his right and quickly explains his answer as fast as he can.

The pleasures of words can also be found in Forever which presents the experience of entering sexual activity. The concretization offers some kinds of pleasure unlike anything readers might have imagined before reading the texts. It is delightful that the author shares to enrich readers’ reading and life experience. As the protagonist Katherine is presented to be sexually active, readers are not simply dragged to the indecent scene of pornographic text. Yet, the specific process of those young people’s sexual experience is well depicted to share the readers the visualization of particular sexual activities might feel and look like.

The clear description illustrating sexual process can be seen through the main character. The first includes the sexual stimulation Michael gives to Katherine by moving his hands trying to get under her sweater as they kiss (11). On the other part of the novel, readers can also visualize the stimulation as Michael gives Kath kisses on her lips, ears, and neck followed by the failed fumbling with the snap of

Katherine’s jeans (14). The later days Michael slides his hands around to her breasts

(22).

The second sexual activity Blume also explains is the further and more intimate sexual activity in Katherine and Michael has more private room in Vermont for three days that they are involved in a mutual masturbation. It starts with Blume’s portrayal that as Katherine and Michael put off their clothes, Michael rolls over PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

Katherine and they move together. It is told to feel good that Katherine does not want to stop until she comes to her orgasm. While with Michael, the inexperienced

Katherine is led to hold his penis and to move her hand up and down according to his rhythm until he moans and Katherine feels him come with his orgasm with a pulsating, throbbing feeling. In this part, readers are also led to the visualization of the wetness or the sperm ejaculation (41-42).

As Katherine is sure to be mentally ready, she wants to do everything with

Michael and to feel him inside her until the time she tries to have the sexual intercourse, Katherine is asking for a towel for she worries that she creates stain that she might bleed when the intercourse happens (55). Katherine is also depicted as quite nervous about her first sexual intercourse especially since she considers about the unwanted pregnancy that she asks for a rubber as her method of contraception

(56). Beyond the prediction, as Katherine feels Michael’s penis is against her thighs,

Michael comes to his orgasm, not even before it gets in (56).

In their second trial, the same premature ejaculation occurs right after it is told that the his penis is pushing against Katherine’s thigh and told to have difficulties since he found it to be very tight in there. At the same time Katherine feels a big thrust followed by a quick sharp pain that makes her suck in her breath (57).

Katherine then realizes she is no longer virgin that she is glad the first-time business has been through and it is over. Yet the spot of the blood is only few unlike what she expects. This tells readers that the bleeding is not always with a lot of blood (58).

Still with Forever, the detail pictorial of taking birth-control process can please readers to the lively image of a particular process they might never experience. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

It starts with Katherine’s consideration about pregnancy when she is going to have sexual intercourse. Her reason is that she does not want to take any chances as every woman has different cycle of pregnancy. This leads her to take more specific action which is going to Planned Parenthood clinic to ask for information about birth control. In her writing, Blume explains about how Katherine gets the clinic number

(63), how she makes the appointment (65), the requirements, and the body check related to her decision in having sex as a teenager which is suggested to have special session even though parental permission is not required. In the Personal Counselling session, readers can come to know that it is important for a clinic as well as the person to know the reason why someone takes birth control and that the decision is the result of approval of the couple and it is done without any pushes from one or another.

The next session appears to be more personal since Katherine is asked some questions to determine the most suitable birth control method (68-69). The questions involve whether or not Katherine has had sexual intercourse and kind of birth control device she has used. The questions are also related to the plan to have regular (about once a week) intercourse. Katherine is also interviewed to acknowledge that her decision is not spontaneous but in advanced planning.

The medical history is also required in the birth-control method. It involves the start of menstruation, its regularity, its period, the bleeding case, the vaginal discharge, its colour, the cramps, and her mother’s birth-control method. It also requires gonorrhoea test and physical like weight and blood pressure, a routine breast PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

exam, and pelvic examination before finally a doctor can decide the best method of birth-control for the individual patient.

Not only it is delightful to realize how language operates to visualize feelings and experiences of the fictional characters in Blume’s novels, the way how they bring the perspective about sensuality and sexuality suggests the delight of understanding, too. From the case of Margaret’s experience with menstruation, for example,

Margaret is uniquely created as a kid who worries about her period as the result of the self-image and normalcy of being teenager. The story eventually ends with

Margaret’s personal development in which waiting patiently is much better than being too much worry especially as she catches her best friend, Nancy, lies about her own period, that even though Margaret longs for it but it is not enough to lie about it

(92). It is also menstruation that returns her faith to God for never missing anything about Margaret’s life.

With the wishes of grown breasts of the main character, the novel also presents the pleasure of the readers to know the particular comments about breasts development that even though it is great to see girls with grown up body, yet, in the case of Laura Danker, it is necessary to consider that some people also judge appearances that the awareness to respect others not by how they look is shared.

Laura, who has grown breasts, has to suffer from her classmates’ insult because of its large size (98). Through Margaret, it is acknowledged that self-image should not be defined by appearance such as breasts size.

While from Forever, pleasing thing from the presence of sexual activity in the novel can be essentially noted. At first, it is written that a person should not be PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

pushed into sex or she has to do it to please someone else (61). As a result, Katherine is not depicted to easily fulfil Michael’s willingness to have sex even though he wants her so bad. Katherine is also careful in choosing a boyfriend like Michael because in her eyes, Michael can meet her request to go slowly with her in deciding to make love.

Secondly, the novels say that sex should be done when the person is “mentally ready” (27). A person has to think and has to be sure of what she does. Even though the body might be ready to have sex but a person has her mind to control the body.

This is why Katherine tells Michael that he should not take any chance when she knows Michael has laid to a girl in a beach even without knowing her name.

The third thing the novel tells readers that doing sex needs practice therefore it is hard to imagine what will it be when a person do it with someone she does not love

(58). Through Katherine, it is also shown a disagreement on Katherine’s best friend’s

Erica who plans to get laid before collage. For Katherine, sex should be along with love because sex is more than a physical thing as well as simply a way of expressing love (16).

Yet it also explained saying love to a person is not an easy and cheap. In

Katherine’s case, Blume depicts her character to have not enough reason to say love to a person whom she has just met only nineteen times. It is also implied as how

Katherine finally says she loves Michael forever. She feels something so final about it that she knows this means she is ready to what her mother says that it is about commitment, “when a couple is involved in sex, she cannot go back holding hands PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

and when someone gives herself mentally and physically, she is completely vulnerable” (44-45).

Beside the details the novel says about birth-control, it is also interesting to get involved in certain perspectives about it. At first, Blume implies that it is the responsibility of a woman to make sure whether she is going to be pregnant or not

(68). That is the reason why Katherine goes to the clinic. In the other part of the novel, when Katherine’s friend Sybil gives birth at her age and decides to give the baby to her adoptive parents, it is emphasized that a woman has to acknowledge in advanced the reason of having a baby at the first place and has to make sure that she can keep the baby so that sending it to adoptive parents is not simply because she is not ready (78-79).

By the discussion above, it is then clear that the words used by the author in depictions of childhood romance, sensuality, and sexuality enrich and increase young readers’ understanding by forming mental pictures in imagining what is being described as the words allow them to do the concretization or visualization about them. This provides pleasure of creative act which refers to the process of turning words into pictures or sounds. This also means making pictures come alive inside readers’ minds allowing readers to visualize people, places, objects they have never actually seen or think before. Those ‘inappropriate’ issues also allow readers to see that they are part of the real life and to enjoy perspectives or comments shared by the novels toward the issues which can make readers consider, enrich, or criticize their own views on the similar issues. The second pleasure is closely related to the next PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

discussion on how the existence of romance, sensuality, and sexuality brings more practical uses for the young readers.

3. Romance, Sensuality, and Sexuality: Providing Information and Building

Connection

It is good to know bibliotherapy offers several goals especially in providing young readers with factual information about the problems they are experiencing or may experience in the future. With rarely-mentioned issues like childhood romance, sexuality, and sensuality, this approach is helpful to answer the mysterious areas taken away from children’s life when their caregivers, on the contrary, consider those sensitive topics can bring them closer to harms. According to Lowe, when children are not informed, or misinformed about such issues, they are left to draw their own conclusion and to some cases this can be detrimental to their knowledge and their esteem. As a result, it is important to utilize children’s knowledge when dealing with such topics96.

In addition, Manning et al. suggest Blume’s novels became a channel of commonality where people can discuss, share humour, and form bonds based on knowledge obtain from the texts.97 They argue, Blume’s analysed texts allow discussions of sensitive topics like sexuality to enter public realm. The discussion might not involve serious nature, but they allow the breaking of silence on the issues considered awkward. Lowe adds, even though with bibliotherapy parents and

96 Danielle F. Lowe, “Helping Children Cope through Literature.” Forum of Public Policy (2009):3. 97Manning et al. 11. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

educators like teachers might not be qualified to conduct psychotherapy, they are qualified to discuss their feelings about problems they might be experiencing98.

Robert and Crawford also adds educators and caregivers can provide annotated bibliographies of appropriate books on a variety of topics to support them in unspoken matters and to help them identify books that might fit the needs of specific situations. Even though life does not give dress rehearsal to deal with difficult times but through books and discussion children get the opportunity99.

Beside that, as well as movie and music stars who have become places to write and communicate, authors play the same important roles that kids send them letters or emails reacting to their books. The authors who write the books the readers ask for, the books they need to survive or succeed, the authors who reach out readers into their individual, share insight and wisdom, and offer solutions the readers might not have thought or considered before. The authors who use the power of books to connect with kids, to educate, comfort, support, inform, and amuse them share through the reality portrayed and trusted information to tell the truth100.

Presenting a theme like crushes in childhood, for example, helps readers to understand that just as their bodies grow as children get older, so do their feelings.

Though the feeling is exciting for children begin to understand how it feels to like another person, a crush can be confusing because they are new to children that they can have mixed feelings. Experts say that kids commonly have their first crush when

98 Lowe 3. 99See Lowe 7. 100 Joni Richards Bodart. “Young Adult Authors as Trusted Adults for Disconnected Teens”. The ALAN Review (2010): 20. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

they are 5 or 6. When experiencing their crushes, children might feel embarrassed, strange, giddy, shy, and might want to run and hide. Another part of them also might imagine their crush notice and share the same feelings101.

However, in having it, children and teenagers might be trapped in serious problems like making the crushes feel uncomfortable with their chases, teases, calls in order to get attention. Even though it is less problematic in Staring Sally, as for identification stage, Sally also receives kinds of teases from a boy named Peter

Hornstein to attract her attention by sending her a letter to make fun on Sally (155), and annoyingly, by dipping Sally’s hair in his inkwell (71). However, she finally knows all of those teases mean that Peter likes her as Barbara, her friend, tells her.

“Peter Hornstein likes you,” Barbara said. “He does?” Yes...otherwise he wouldn’t dip your hair in his inkwell.” “Really?” This was certainly news to Sally. Yes... my sister’s an expert on that stuff and she told me that if a boy teases you it means he likes you.” (73-74)

What Barbara says makes Sally is the cathartic effect that Sally understands what happens. At this point, young readers or girls like Sally can gain the insight that they can answer what might happen to them when boys tease them. This finally brings

Sally to kiss Peter to congratulate his brother’s wedding. At that time, Sally is really sure that Peter likes her, too, as he kisses her back and says it is for copying off her during the test (196).

101D’Arcy Lyness, “Crushes.” Kids Health. N.p., 2013. Web. 30 Sept. 2015. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

Yet, Sally also has to face a trouble when dealing with the crush of her friend,

Andrea. She once talks to the boy Andrea calls as Georgia Blue Eyes as they swim in a same pool. However, Sally feels too excited to keep the meeting as a secret from

Andrea that one day, in a perfect time, Sally will tell Andrea and be proud that she is the one who speaks to Georgia Blue Eyes. This brings problem as Andrea knows that

Sally once talked to him by accident and never told her. Andrea is mad and Sally has to deal with it (166-167).

Experts observe the more serious problem can cover the hurt feelings when the crushes declare he or she does not want to hang out anymore. While it is also problematic whenever kids are confused with the sexual feelings and whether they are going too far with sexual exploration which might hurt them whenever they are failed in the complicated relationship in the sexual intercourse. Examples from

Sally’s stories about crushes indeed share insights for the readers who might or might not experience the same thing.

One letter from a kid sent to Blume might also become a proof that the author who shares insight, wisdom, and solutions about crushes in almost all of her books can possibly be places to write and communicate about crushes.

Dear Judy,

I wish someone would write a book about what I’m going through. My name is Courtney. I’m eleven years old and in sixth grade. I knew that I would hate school this year and I’m right. The guy that I had crush on since third grade is in a different school now because he’s a year older than me. So I never get to see him. One of my best friends hates me now. She thinks I’m trying to steal her boyfriend just because I’m always talking to him. Another problem that I have is that I cry easily. I get so angry! I don’t know what it is that makes me angry. I don’t know what it is that makes me cry either. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

Courtney, age 11102

Since it is important for adult to always open the gate of communication with their kids about crushes, as well as it is important that kids share and ask for information about it from their trusted adults instead of from their friends who might even confuse them, the open discussion about crushes is necessary to manage. One of the ways is by sharing books that have those expression outlets in particular issues which can play as a conversation starter.

As well as in the themes of puberty like menstruation in Margaret, readers can make concretization or identification in the story about Margaret and her period.

Besides helping child readers to begin to consider their own experience, presenting issues like those Margaret experiences may lead readers confidently discuss about it with the other readers to know their personal view about the same issue. As the example, it can be seen from the way Margaret worries to know that her mother got her period in her fourteen while Margaret cannot wait that long. Margaret feels so upset when Nancy, one of the girls’ club members, tells that she has her period. She privately talks to God in her fear wishing that she grows normally because she will become the last one in the girls’ club who has not gotten the period yet.

Are you there, God? It’s me, Margaret. Life is getting worse every day. I’m going to be the only one who doesn’t get it. I know it, God. Just like I’m the only one without a religion. Why can’t you help me? Haven’t I always done what you wanted? Please… let me be like everybody else. (86)

However, as she realizes that Nancy, one of the group members lies about getting period, Margaret comes to understanding as the cathartic experience that she wants

102Judy Blume, Letters to Judy: What Your Kids Wish They Could Tell You (New York: G. P. Putman’s Sons, 1986) 200. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

her period, too, but lying is not the solution. Later she prefers to positively look forward to instead of to wish for. Margaret’s experience indeed can probably add an insight for young readers to cope with similar problem with menstruation.

Are you there, God? It’s me, Margaret. Nancy Wheeler is a big fake. She makes up stories! I’ll never be able to trust her again. I will wait to find out from you if I am normal or not. If you would like to give me a sign, fine. If not, I’ll try to be patient. All I ask is that I don’t get it in school because if I had to tell Mr Benedict I know I would die. Thank you, God. (92)

Besides the awful feeling of a teenager for willing to be normal, Margaret also shares readers about some important information about menstruation. The novel says the facts as the insight for readers who, through identifying Margaret, do not have idea how the first period would come: ‘How did it happen?’ (84).Then, the novel provides the information that when it comes at the first time, a girl might feel

‘like something dripping’ from her. It is also said ‘it doesn’t hurt coming out’ even though it is followed by cramps, which is ‘not bad. Just different…Lower down, and across (my) back’ (85). It is also informed that a girl should start washing face with soap and told that a girl may not get her period every month yet because sometimes it takes a while to get it regular (85).

Margaret also answers young readers’ worrisome when they might not yet experience their period. This can be identified from Margaret who worries to know that her mother got the period in her fourteen, which is too long for her, her mother explains that some girls menstruates earlier than the others and there is nothing can do about that (85). In the other part of the novel, Blume also narrates how Margaret tries out to put the pads on her underwear to know how it feels (114). In the same time readers are informed how to deal with the first time they get their period so that they PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

will feel less panicking or get shocked through the different experience of the characters as discussed above.

Indeed, such book is important as kids also want their questions answered especially to reassure that with the body changes, they are still normal. This letter represents children’s demand on the knowledge about their body which is sent to her trusted adult, Blume.

Dear Judy,

I’m nine years old and in fourth grade. I think I might get my period soon. I have twenty-four-inch breasts and hair under my arms. Is that weird? To tell the truth I don’t want it! I’m afraid to get my period very much. I don’t want to be the first. My best friend says I probably will be. She says that she has hair between her legs. Well, so do I. My mother got her period when she was ten.

Stephanie, age 9103

About puberty, children ask for explanation they wish their parent would talk about sex honestly and to the point. However, according Blume, some parents become nervous as their children approach puberty. Some even get angry when their children begin to ask questions sending out message that they do not discuss such topics104. As they can sense their parents’ discomfort and fear, kids might then go to somewhere else. Instead of having them wind up with misinformation, the caring authors are then needed to help kids to tell the truths.

Reading about breast development also opens the opportunity to open discussion and information, too. Some adolescence grow with too small or too large

103Blume, Letters to Judy 164. 104Blume, Letters to Judy 157. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

breasts and get problems with that just like it is found in a letter from Meredith (12 years-old) sent to Judy Blume.

Dear Judy, I am flat and the boys make fun of me but I can’t help it. They tease me so much I get stomach-ache. They call me “Carpenter’s Dream (flat as a board) or “Pirate’s Dream” (sunken treasure). One boy even calls me “Rolaids”. They hurt my feelings so bad but I’m not going to cry in front of them. I don’t want to tell my mom because I don’t want to hurt her because of this.105

Understanding such problem may occur, Blume shares her perspective through

Margaret. In writing about Margaret who is impatient waiting for the growth to be identified by readers, Blume presents an odd girl out in the class Laura who contributes significantly in Margaret’s understanding about her wishing for grown breasts. While the PTS meets to worry about whether they will ever have real breasts like ones in the Playboy magazine and get their periods, Laura is in the opposite of such condition that Margaret first describes her as “very tall (that's why I thought she was the teacher) with eyes shaped like a cat's. You could see the outline of her bra through her blouse and you could also tell from the front that it wasn't the smallest size… (27).

As a matter of fact, Laura has been outcast because her body develops earlier than the other kids’. She spends a lot time alone even though all girls want to be like her and the boys are in awe of her. As being standing out is not bad, Nancy has provoked her group including Margaret to believe that Laura did nasty things with

Moose and Evan behind the A&P, called her with ‘The big blonde with the big you know whats!” (31) even though Margaret thinks she is very pretty. Nancy has also

105Blume 173. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

suggested her group that it is shameful for Laura to wear a bra since fourth grade and to get her period and prejudiced that Laura’s grown breasts make Mr Benedict the teacher and all of men cannot help looking at her (98).

Margaret believes Nancy’s stories about Laura until she finds herself partnered with Laura for a group project and accidently spills the beans. Margaret makes Laura mad for knowing the nasty rumour about her and makes her cry for picking her up. Laura also strongly demands Margaret to ever think of her feeling to have to wear a bra in fourth grade that everybody laughed and have to cross her arms in front of her and also of the feeling when the boys called her dirty names just because how she looks. When Margaret empathically admits to Laura that she wishes she looked more like pretty and grown Laura than like herself for having small chest,

Laura says that she would gladly trade with Margaret (98-99). Laura’s statement helps Margaret to understand that after all, she is the best in her own condition. From

Margaret’s case, it is hoped that readers can get a kind of alternative perspective in seeing the breasts development.

Besides discussing about girls’ concern in puberty, Blume also presents boys’ puberty through Tony Miglione in Then Again in his first embarrassing experience with wet dream or nocturnal emission. Tony finds himself in his wet and sticky pyjamas that he turns to be nervous and panic about what is happening to him. So often, uninformed boys like Tony associate their wet dreams with sickness that they are afraid to think about. In Tony case, he relates his wet dream with the nervous cramps that attack him every time he gets tenses. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

Oh God! There is something wrong with me. Really wrong. Dr. Holland doesn’t know what he’s talking about! I am so sick. This proves it. (93)

As he has heard little notice that there would be a time when boys wet dream, Tony soon half realizes he is having one uncertainly. Yet, Blume also understands boys worry about the stains on their bed clothes and sheets from the semen.

When I went back into my room I sat down on my bed. There was a spot on my sheet. I touched it. It was damp! Oh no-does that stuff stain I grabbed some tissues and wiped it up. Will Maine know? I suppose I could change my sheet…but that would look worse, wouldn’t it? Then she might think I wet my bed like a kid. (94)

Tony has an awful day. He could not concentrate on his school work for keeping his mind on the time when he gets home and the whole family is all there.

Tony is frightened to think that the wet dream is the result of his becoming a sex maniac because he too much thinks about the beautiful neighbour Lisa Hoober.

Thanks to the author who cares in giving answer that there are no indications that a boy who wets dream has sexual dream like Tony who does not necessarily dream about sexy things but basketball game. The wet dream is not influenced by his sickness either since he figures out that his sickness relates to the way he manages his upset feelings. These need to be understood by boys to reassure them that they cannot prevent wet dreams from happening. It is just part of growing up.

Blume also breaks the silence of masturbation in Deenie by giving an opportunity for Deenie, probably for many other kids, to have any question in the gym class that she writes ‘Do normal people touch their bodies before they go to sleep and is it all right to do that?’ (91). The taboo topic like masturbation is depicted when Deenie feels she almost died when Mrs Rappoport reads the question loud so PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

that she tries hard to smile a little and hopes her expression on my face looks like she was also trying to figure out who had asked such question.

So often, kids who masturbate feel lonely with their lack of honest information and feel guilty as well as confused with the myths spread among them.

Susan Minton, one of Deenie’s classmates assumes that ‘I heard that boys who touch themselves too much can go blind or get very bad pimples or their bodies can even grow deformed.” (92). Heard about such statement, Deenie suddenly gets nervous and afraid if it is possibly true for girls, too. She relates to her own condition frightened that her scoliosis has something to do with her masturbation. By the time

Mrs. Rappoport explains that Susan Minton is misinformed, as well as Deenie, many other kids would take a deep breath and get relieved (93).

Through Deenie, it is clarified that masturbation is normal and harmless for male and female. It does not give anyone acne or make anyone insane or deformed like the myths say. The novel also says that it is very common for girls as well as boys to masturbate in the beginning of adolescence. Importantly, the book relieves kids to find out through fictional characters that they are not alone.

Dear Judy,

I have read all of your books. They help me not to be afraid and they answer my questions. I thought I was different but I’m not. In your books are things I would never bring out in the open with my mother. Like in your book Deenie- she touches her special place. Well, I do that too, but I always thought I was the only one.

Jonele, age 13106

106Blume, Letters to Judy 185. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

It is also implied that human being should be comfortable in their own body and their own skin and even to discuss about them.

“And it’s not a word you should be afraid of. Let’s all say it.” “Masturbation,” We all said together. (92)

In the case of most banned books, it is too superficial to look to the issue behind the controversial topic to see what the novel is really saying. Deenie clearly says that it’s okay to talk about our bodies, that it is normal. Therefore many people also defence the book with the reason that it is too sad that it gets shamed and banned when it presents importance.

Yet, it is true that talking about sex to children is also never easy especially when it deals with sexual intercourse like what Forever says. In fact, kids want to know about sex, relationship, and all the things that Blume uncovers openly and honestly in the novel. It depicts honestly the first experience of sexual intercourse. It shares the sexual stimulation, the masturbation, penetration, the finding of the right position, the bleeding, the body parts including the appearance of male and female genitals, the erection, the orgasm, and the wetness. One more important point Blume shares the depiction and the emotions, nervousness, and fear that come with them.

As children grow, sexuality will be their choice to deal with. Forever,

Blume’s candid portrayal of a teenage sexual relationship can be practically important to share essential points about having pre-marital sex in teenagers’ life through a high school female character Katherine. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

Without being judgmental, what Blume wrote helps kids to understand that sexual intercourse should not be used to prove that someone is lovable and worthy as well as to please somebody they love or to be under pressured. It is important to be able to say “no” as easily as “okay” and to feel good about their decision. This is why when Michael asks Katherine to have sex, Katherine reasonably waits until she feels ready for sex because she believes that sex cannot be done to anybody but to person somebody loves while she has not felt certain about her love to Michael for seeing him only nineteen times.

“No…” I pushed his hand away and sat up. “I’m talking about mentally ready.” “Mentally ready,” Michael repeated. “Yes”. “How does a person get mentally ready?” he asked. “A person has to think… a person has to be sure…” “But your body says you want to…” “I have to control my body with my mind.” “Oh, shit…” Michael said. “It’s not easy for me either.” (27)

It is only as Katherine is sure about her love to Michael will last forever, she agrees to get involved in it. While the first sex does not always work right, it ensures Katherine that sex should be done with beloved person.

I can’t imagine what the first time would be like with someone you didn’t love. (58)

It is unfortunate that the book has been condemned as manual for teen sex because in the novel, Katherine commits sexual intercourse with Michael. Blume argues that today kids have to make more decision on their own. It is important for PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

parents to help them learn to make those decisions wisely107. In fact, there are significant values shared by Katherine’s mother about having pre-marital sex. Once her mother says,

“But you have to be sure you can handle the situation before you jump into it…sex is a commitment…once you’re there you can’t go back to holding hands. … And when you give yourself both mentally and physically…well, you’re completely vulnerable” (45)

While in the other time, she gives her article from The New York Times that asks the following questions:

1. Is sexual intercourse necessary for the relationship? 2. What should you expect from sexual intercourse? 3. If you need help, where will you seek it? 4. Have you thought about how this relationship will end?

The fourth question makes Katherine angry to think about why the relationship should end when her relation with Michael has just begun. Yet, she realizes that she should have considered about this point when she finally breaks up the forever business with Michael.

Forever affirms that it is normal for teenagers to fall in love with somebody that they think the relationship is very precious. It is also wonderful that they begin to discover sexual attraction. However, many of them are still lack of talking about the issues early enough. This is why kids have unclear understanding what teen sexuality really means emotionally. They need to understand that romantic life can possibly end like in Katherine’s relationship with Michael as they get separated for a summer camp for seven weeks.

107Blume, Letters to Judy 211. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

By depicting the disappointed Michael, it is also important to ask themselves about their feeling when it does not last by looking at Katherine and Michael’s heart break and loss. It is also necessary to think about how they might feel if the next day they see their couple with someone else, like what happens to Katherine and Theo, and whether they will still feel it worth or regretful.

If parents do not talk about these things either because it is impossible to talk about sexuality to kids or because today they are with their own life working and relieved to be free from caretaking responsibility, kids have no one to go to help them grow and learn and no one to go to with their questions. They will not know if the feelings they have for realizing that they are sexual beings are normal or not. This is why authors through their works of literature can provide solutions in giving information, emotion, and sharing valuable stories about teen sexuality as what really happened to Blume to get a letter of a disconnected kid about her sexual life,

Dear Judy, It was the same way for my boyfriend, Don, and me as it was in your book Forever... As it is, we will be getting married next month. I read parts of your book to Don, the parts I didn’t quite understand. It made it easier for us to talk about sex.

Tanya, age 19108

The issue of birth control also becomes Forever’s significant message that teenagers can discuss with people they trust since it represents teen sexual activity done responsibly. Katherine is depicted to be a smart and mature decision maker toward her commitment in sex. Blume sends a valuable message that to any age,

108Blume, Letters to Judy 216. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

sexuality needs to be committed in a safe, secure, and responsible way. Especially kids today have to make decisions about their sexuality and too many of them still lack the information they need to decide intelligently.

When Katherine thinks she has felt and the readers can also sense that her love and romance to Michael is special and will last forever, she decides to take precautions avoiding the unwanted pregnancy by taking birth controls. This is done after she takes gynaecological exam at Planned Parenthood to avoid sexually transmitted diseases mentioned as Hepatitis and AIDS as the act of being responsible to her commitment to do regular sex with Michael.

Through Katherine, Blume implies that kids need to use their intelligence when they have to face sexual life. Teenage unwanted pregnancy and venereal diseases have been global problems. It is ironic when those problems occur because of kids are lack of information and remain innocent about parenthood and pregnancy economically and emotionally. In fact, some girls did not even know they could become pregnant the first time they had intercourse. Sybil, as depicted in Forever to be one of sexually active friends of Katherine, uses abortions and adoption as her method of birth control. Yet Blume implies such kids are not thinking responsibly about sex and most of the time adults are not talking with them about the issues early enough.

To some extent it can be said that Katherine is lucky because Blume narrates her to be very careful in her sexual life so that she does not have to end up with having abortion or giving her baby to an adaptive parents. She does not have to be dropped out from the school because of pregnancy or to have her life ruined. Even PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

that so, readers are provided by the implied lesson that both boys and girls should be responsible for preventing the unwanted consequences of sex. When they only worry about romance and about letting whatever happens, Blume argues these kids are not mature enough to handle intercourse109. Readers are led to understand that it is their body and it is their life. It is up to them to take the control, but it does not mean they can not think and consider about the consequences anymore.

In some ways, Blume provides clear information about how to get birth control. She rightly informs kids that it is a must to go to a doctor or to a family- planning clinic before they decide to use it. In some other way, the character in this book may be accepted for not making the "right" decision to have sex. However, since it is not easy to set rules toward sexual behaviour because it so much depends on family values, emotional maturity, and life experiences, through Forever’s main character, readers can understand the fact that she chooses to protect herself becomes the stronger message than to become the abstinence.

From the data analysed through this chapter, it can be obviously seen that the depiction of the detailed romance, sexuality, and sensuality in Blume’s novels offer particular pleasures in enjoying them as children’s literature for they are depicted in detail and honest ways. In addition, readers are able to reflect their own perspectives in the real life about such sensitive issues after their reading.

Not only providing pleasures, the appearance of those issues has empowered

Blume’s novels to be therapeutic in enabling difficult topics to be possible to share.

Through her novels, that the young people are growing up with and interested in their

109Blume, Letters to Judy 218. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

sexual life is accepted. More than that, the books also initiate communication and give information which becomes the important starter of finding solution when dealing taboo and difficult topics and kind of help for kids to feel less alone.

Importantly, her writing talks about how censorship and silencing has violated children’s right to understand parts of their life and to sharpen their ability to accept facts from fictions as well as to enrich the cathartic experiences from the vicarious reading of literature. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

CHAPTER IV

Bad Sides of Life

This chapter aims at elaborating and explaining how the silenced bad sides of life are voiced in the texts analyzed and how they are able to support the works to be pleasing and at the same useful books in healing. The issues of dark realties found in

Blume’s novels include parental conflicts, divorce, uncertainties, illness, problem with religion, and death. They are classified as bad realities in regard to Nodelman’s study on power relation between adult and children which places the subjugated children as The Other with their lack of capability to deal with difficult realities for they are assumed to be inferior in the opposition to adults110. It can be seen from the following discussion that by presenting the bad sides of life, Blume’s novels offer the pleasures of escaping, acknowledging newness, and recognizing gaps. While practically, the presence of those issues helps children to cope with difficulty life through literature.

1. Bad Sides of Life: Disproving Other-ness to Empower Children

In talking about childhood and child psychology, where the child is placed is obviously seen: as the object of adults’ observation or as the other; the thing that the observers are not, the declined, and the opposites. The act of observation by itself sees the object for not being able to describe and analysing themselves that they need to be defined and described. Along with this notion, adults speak for children because children are presumably incapable to do so. This leads to the silence of dark sides of life in children’s books because unlike adults, children have no ability and concern

110 Nodelman, The Other 32. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

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about difficult life and matters. As a result, so often children’s literature provides few numbers of topics elaborated below which are assumed to only fit the maturity.

To Zornado, viewing children as the opposites of the ‘perfect’ adults represents adult narcissism promoting children to learn to believe in adults’ hierarchy and superiority. Children need to accept it in the need for civilization to ‘progress’111.

The ‘immature’ children need to be kept away from the topics that they are assumed to be incapable to handle because they belong to the experienced adults. Yet, Blume as the author whose novels are analysed in this research depicts children more in their sameness instead of the differences when compared to adults’ topics. This implies

Blume disregards kids as the other, the primitive, the deprived, and the difference. In her writing, Blume portrays those ‘adults’ matters in her children’s books. They include parental conflicts, divorce, uncertainties, illness, problem with religion, and death.

1.1. Parental Conflicts

The novels analysed can infer that Blume likely believes children are not supposed to be weak in nature. As speaking about the weakness of childhood, seeing children as a group of people who have general and similar characteristics will lead to forget to view them as individual. As a matter of facts, when Blume portrays various conflicts in all of the novels analysed is her agreement that not all kids are living in a neat and happy life. More importantly, it is sometime problematic that in writing, adults forget what it is like to be young. What children have to face out can be so hard since they have to cope with situation they do not create. This reality is portrayed like

111Zornado, The Invention 7-10. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

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in the following example which shows a great conflict Karen witnesses between her parents which is the result of the constant fights in It’s Not the End:

My mother shouted, “I should have listened to Ruth a long time ago. I should have listened the first time I brought you home. She saw you for what you are. Conceited, selfish—“ “One more word and I’m going to take the kids away from you!” “Don’t you dare threaten me!” Mom screamed. “I mean it. So help me. I’ll have you declared incompetent.” “You rotten bastard...” (134-135)

Another conflict between parents also occurs in Margaret even though compared to what happens to Karen, Margaret’s parents argue for more common disagreement that exists in their household only as a way of negotiating. One of the examples can be seen when after fourteen years of never sending letter, Margaret’s mother Barbara gives address to her parents which makes her husband upset.

My father hollered. ‘I can’t believe you, Barbara! After fourteen years you sent them a Christmas card?’ “I was feeling sentimental. So I sent a card. I didn’t write anything on it. Just our names.” My father shook the letter at my mother. “So now, after fourteen years – fourteen years, Barbara! Now they change their minds?” “They want to see us. That’s all.” “They want to see you, not me! They want to see Margaret! To make sure she doesn’t have horns!” “Herb! Stop it! You’re being ridiculous---“ “I’m being ridiculous! That’s funny, Barbara. That’s very funny.” (101)

Beside children are assumed not to be ready with such horrible view about their parents’ relationship, it is also the assumption saying that children are not supposed to be acknowledged and exposed to ‘adults’ business’. It is because their world is ideally and homogeneously playful and happy, while Blume’s novels do not strengthen the common belief by even disregarding children’s otherness. Unless, as

Nodelman claims, the world in children’s books can only become forever PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

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‘nonfictional’ in the sense that the books available for them claim to be true as the writers try to communicate knowledge accurately for the representations of reality in those books have almost the same status as the ones in fiction: both are always slanted or only partial version of the truth112. Writers select which facts to provide and which ones to leave out and they still interpret those facts in order to make them meaningful for child readers. In their claims to be nonfictional, there is strong potential for readers to accept those facts as ‘truth’ as they persuade young readers to live in a world that is described in surprisingly consistent ways: simple, happy, homogeneous, and hopeful.

1.2. Divorce

When the rate of divorce globally increases, Blume deliberately picked the issue as the main theme in a family to argue that children might cope with a very hurting situation. Divorce can create impacts to every member of a family, not only to kids but also to parents themselves. This entails that not because they are kids that the divorce can hurt them. Then, it will not be a surprise if in It‘s Not the End Blume states clearly the idea of separating of Karen’s parents,

Mom took a deep breath and said, “Daddy and I are separating.” “I knew it!” Jeff said, looking at me. I felt tears come to my eyes. I told myself, don’t start crying now Karen, you jerk. Not now. I sniffled and took a long swallow of Coke. I guess I knew it all the time. I was just fooling myself—playing games like Amy. “What’s separating?” Amy asked. “It means your father isn’t going to live at home anymore,” Aunt Ruth explained. (30-31)

112Nodelman, The Pleasures 99. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

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Through the book, the kid’s sadness is explored a lot considering the grief of the character Karen in facing that reality. It can be seen in the beginning of the book, in which Karen is told that her mother and father are separating.

Then I started crying for real and I jumped up from the table and ran through the restaurant. I heard Aunt Ruth call, “Karen…Karen… come back here.” But I kept going. I didn’t want to hear any more. I went to the front door and stood against the sign that said Red Bull Inn, letting the tears roll down my face. Soon Aunt Ruth came with my coat. “Karen,” she said, “pit this on. You’ll freeze to death.” “Go away,” I told her. Aunt Ruth wrapped the coat around my shoulders. “Karen…Don’t be like that. This is even harder on your mother than it is on you. She’s very upset…if she sees you like this it’s going to make her feel even worse.” (32)

Blume’s novels allow her young readers to be involved in what adults see as their matter because there is probably never adults’ and children’s matters until adults construct to separate them. Nodelman adds, perhaps children are always more like adults than adults are ever able to see113. The dualism of adults’ world and children’s world disappears as the novels voice the life experiences associated only to the superior adults.

Blume also consciously understands that situations adults approve for children to deal are absolutely the mere utopia in the adults’ mind. When such dream world is created to protect children from the real world, Sendak argues that children’s texts should not be idealized and simplified; rather, they need to honestly offer up the

113Nodelman, The Pleasures 33. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

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mysterious confusion of the ‘adult’ world because children know everything. They are living it all the time.114

1.3. Uncertainties

Common assumptions about childhood have led the books to draw attention because kids are desired to be intellectually weak, illogical, and unable to make right decision without adults’ presence, the uncertain realities can be confusing for them.

The clear black-and-white facts as well as the conclusive life are the only choice given to children.

Therefore, as it is generally spoken about children’s literature in which looking for the meaning and messages from texts remains the most important and classical purpose of reading, this implies that children’s books should end with an explicit statement of moral.

As a result, it becomes a problem when so often Blume leaves the messages to hunt and so often it is open-ended. She barely ends the stories with obviousness which leads to multi-interpretable conclusions that parents fear the educational function of reading literature in teaching values might get distorted. That is why clear positive messages should be ones of the requirements of a children’s book.

The ending of Blume’s Forever upsets parents and educators because after the main character Katherine decides to have sex with her boyfriend Michael, the relation has to end that she cannot keep her promise to hold her forever love with Michael.

"Are you saying it's over, then?" "You said it … just now." "Couldn't we sit on it a little while and see what happens?"

114See Zornado 171-172. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

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"You can't have it both ways." "Then it's really over, isn't it?" Suddenly question number four popped into my mind. Have you thought about how this relationship will end? "I guess so," he said. I took off my necklace and held it out to him. My throat was too tight to talk. "Keep it," he told me. "I don't think I should." Our fingers touched as I handed it to him. "What am I supposed to do with a necklace? "I don't know." He picked up my pocketbook and dropped the necklace into it. Neither one of us said anything on the drive back to camp. (109)

Even worse to these parents, the novel ends with Katherine running her normal life with the appearance of Theo as the guy who becomes the reason for both teenagers Michael and Katharine to end their ‘forever’ love.

Blubber, is also contested by the critics to contain immorality. It is assumed to tell kids they can do wrong (peer cruelty) and not be punished for it115. Parents were upset that Blume did not present solutions especially because by the end of the story, she did not punish anyone for bad behaviour. The bossy Wendy who is depicted as the cruel bully never gets punishment for what she has done. No teacher catches her doing the bullying actions until the end of the story.

Seeing children in a more positive way will make it possible for not considering the close ending with clear messages as a must. From the data it is clear to say instead of believing in the common assumption that children are incapable as an absolute truth, Blume offers the alternatives to view children in a more empowering manner. From a different angle, she argues about Blubber,

115 Gay Andrews Dillin, "Judy Blume; Children's Author In A Grown-Up Controversy." 10 December 1981. Christian Science Monitor. Website. 13 March 2015. . PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

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“It’s life. It’s open ended. It shifts from one child to another child. I think it’s far more important to present characters and situations and leave it open- ended…But that’s [to punish anyone for bad behaviour] not the way life is. So you have to learn your lessons another way, by becoming sensitive and by putting yourself in someone else’s shoes. “116

1. 4. Illness

The truth is the ‘ideal’ life represented in children’s books is really a form of generalization. Indeed, what adults assume about the ‘ideal’ reinforces the idea about

‘normal’, and it assumes that ‘normal’ equals desirable. This means not only disregarding but also rejecting anything individual in children as readers117. If

‘normal’ kids refer to the happy, comfortable, healthy, or innocent, then children’s literature will exclude the experiences of many children who physically or sexually abused, or who go through painful diseases or trauma. The data supporting this is taken from Blume’s novel Deenie, in which the main character, instead of lives healthily and normally, suffers from scoliosis.

“Deenie has adolescent idiopathic scoliosis.” ... “It means she has a structural curvature of the spine which has a strong tendency to progress rapidly during the adolescent growth spurt. Let me show you something,” Dr. Griffith said, taking an X-ray out of the folder. He stuck it up on some kind of screen on the wall and when he turned a switch it all lit up and the X-ray looked like a skeleton. He tapped a pencil to the X-ray. “You see here...” he said. “This is Deenie’s spine. It demonstrates the curve and confirms my clinical diagnosis.” (53)

The ill and healthy-impaired characters appear in Blume’s novels like Deenie is in fact against the ideal protagonists when they are mostly personalized as fit and

116See Dillin. 117Nodelman, Reading 237. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

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having good and normal physical shapes. The binary relation between adults and children as the other in which children are seen as a group that has been in opposition to the idealized adults has been disqualified and subjugated by presenting the ‘equal’ level of problems.

1. 5. Problem with Religion

Disapproving the prohibition of kids from knowing difficult life as they are assumed to live in a typical simplicity, Blume’s novels raise sophisticated themes which remain untold in children’s books. At its first publication, Margaret was met with both criticism and admiration. Arthur argues that Margaret was a very funny book but damaged by the insufferable self-conscious and arch private talks with

God118. The choice of religion as well as sexual matters two of the main themes in

Margaret were regarded as out of kid’s concern.

The ‘adult’ topic such as religion is one of the perfect examples to say that this area is excluded from children’s life. The faithful child in God and in His religion is assumed to be related to maturity so that before reaching the appropriate age, they have no obligation to be faithful to God. Here is the example how Margaret is portrayed as a young girl who seems to bother her youth to think of religion because she does not belong to any religion.

I want to be like everyone else. You know God, my new friends all belong to the Y or the Jewish Community Centre. Which way am I supposed to go? I don’t know what you want me to do about that. (36)

On the contrary to her agnosticism, Margaret is also depicted to have strong faith to God in which she can feel Him in her heart without holding any religion. She

118See Ludwig, et al. 40. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

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manages a private talk every time she needs God as part of human needs to shelter and to believe to his power in her life.

Are you there, God? It’s me, Margaret. I did an awful thing today. Just awful! I’m definitely the most horrible person who ever lived and I really don’t deserve anything good happen to me. I picked up Laura Danker. Just because I felt mean I took it all out on her. I really hurt Laura’s feelings. Why did you let me do that? I’ve been looking for you, God. I looked in temple. I looked in church. And today, I looked for you when I wanted to confess. But you weren’t there. I didn’t feel you at all. Not the way I do when I talk to you at night. Why, God? Why do I only feel you when I’m alone? (100)

It can be seen that the impossibility kids’ have to consider about religion indeed becomes one of the main topics that Blume encourages to exist in their books.

In fact, it is not simply to make the readers acknowledged but also identified with the childhood experiences in religion.

1. 6. Death

Even in the real life, talking about death to children is considered uneasy.

Parents hardly believe children will understand the concept of losing someone from their life which can be painful that the reality is so often postponed until adults assume the kids are ready. Yet, Blume’s novels imply that unhappiness does not come from books. They come from life. In Tiger Eyes, Davey is fictionally created to experience a great lost of a father. Tragically, she is also narrated to witness the bloody murder of her dad.

We ran to the store. I remember the sound the sound of my screams when I saw my father on the floor. He was still alive. He said, Help me…help me, Davey. And I said I will… I will, Daddy. I held him in my arms while Hugh phoned for help.’… I don’t know how long it took before the police and the ambulance got there. I heard the sirens from a long way off. And then the flashing lights made a PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

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pattern on the walls and ceiling of the store. By then my father is unconscious. I didn’t want to let go of him. The police had to pry me loose. They let me ride to the ambulance with him. But when we got there, Daddy was already dead. (199)

In missing her father, Davey is also characterized as a kid who mourns that she rejects to eat, to take a bath, and to go to school days after the funeral. Davey thinks her sadness is too deep that it is not enough only to know that she is sad.

“I don’t feel very well,” I tell her. “I might be coming down with something.” I get into bed and lie back on the clean pillowcase. Mom sits down on the edge of my bed. “I remember my first day of high school,” she says, tossing her hair away from her face. “I had violent stomach cramps. I didn’t want to go either. She takes my hand in hers. “It’s not that,” I say. “It’s…” “I know, Davey.” Tears well up in her eyes. “Don’t you think I know?” “Yes,” I tell her. “But having you know isn’t enough.” (20)

Such described world in children’s literature suggests that children should not be exposed to situations upsetting them like sadness, fear, disappointment, and under pressured because this world goes contradictorily to the ideology persuading children of the typical life of the joyful world. It is then understood that broad books intended for babies in fact show the world as nothing but bright and clean and new and that the flaws, marks, and holes do not even exist. Nodelman observes that such pictorial even continue to be intended to the older children119. Therefore, if children were not already the optimistic beings, then the fictions would encourage them by insisting that the world is uncomplicated and blissful like in adults’ utopia. To support this, surely, it is done by never giving any information that would suggest

119Nodelman, The Pleasures 98. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

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anything else about the world. Children are kept away from the access in which books tell them that their life is far from easy, perfect, and harmonized ones.

The data taken says that voicing the silenced brute realities in Blume’s novels results in ways that the attempts to speak for and about children is not about confirming their difference from and inferior to adults. In the other words, Blume makes it possible to understand that brute realities do not only belong to mature adults, but also to kids; and that children fictional characters through the stories are not about stable depiction of young people’s incapability and naiveté in facing the problems.

2. Bad Sides of Life: Pleasures of Acknowledging Newness, of Escaping, and

Recognizing Gaps

Indeed, Nodelman observes that so many children’s books are achingly, boringly, and mind-numbingly familiar and similar to one another and to countless thousands of books provided in the past: stories about cute delicate fairies, cute bumptious gnomes, cute talking animals in human clothing, cute princesses with cute strange powers, and cute sad-middle class children with sibling or parent problems, or cute and incorrectly happy middle-class children. Ironically, the new books are just the replica versions and variations of the old ones120. Beside the library budget and the profit, the false claims about children prevent kids from enjoying newness in their

120Nodelman, Reading 236. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

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books. Nodelman also declares that reading literature with their lack of knowledge; in fact, should not prevent children from enjoying the pleasures121.

On the contrary, in this discussion, this thesis elaborates the pleasures achieved in Blume’s novels in voicing the brute realities. The pleasures cover the one of escaping, which is understood as stepping outside readers’ self imaginatively and experiencing the lives and thought of different people’s lives. Meanwhile the pleasure of newness relates to experiencing startlingly different kinds of stories. Pleasure of recognizing gaps refers to the use of strategy to learn and fill the information in order to develop readers’ further mastery.

For the first pleasure which is related to the pleasure of acknowledging newness in reading children’s books, the stereotyped depiction about what belong to children’s problems can prevent readers from one of the enjoyments in reading literature to find unpredictably different newness. It includes newness in language like vocabularies and expression, in its cultural or historical settings, in perspectives of seeing things, or in stories like new themes, characters, plot, and all new things might be written in a literary work. When it comes to know that children’s literature has offered same old stories which vary the themes of friendship, family, schools which end to similar conclusions that home is the safest place, Blume’s novels proves that the belief children’s life is homogeneous is in fact only a kind of simplification.

White in also agrees that “some writers for children deliberately avoid using words [and topics] they think a child does not know. This emasculates the prose and bores the readers… Children love words that give them a hard time, provided they are

121Nodelman, The Pleasures 34. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

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in a context that absorbs their attention122”. In other words, children receive the topics adults assume to be difficult very well especially because they are ready with exploring newness.

For the first example, the perfect, happy, middle-class and neat family has been widely celebrated in children’s books as it has turned to be stereotypical and ideal to have harmonious nuclear family. Altston has observed even separated for 166 years, the english work from 1830s like Holiday House to the 2005’s Charlie in the

Chocolate Factory share a similar rhetoric of family that true happiness seems to be impossible without the love and support of a dedicated family123. The depiction of the family in children’s literature remains conservative, ideal, and fixed. It promotes a specific ideology to instil in its readers certain values which dictate how families should be: loving, respectful, preferably with two parents, contained in domestic harmony and sharing wholesome home-cooked family meals124.

Breaking the boundaries burdening kids from knowing difficult life as they are assumed to live in a typical simplicity, Blume raises sophisticated themes which remain untold in children’s books. Marital problem, as one of those non-children’s matters, appears in It’s Not the End as the primary issue the young character Karen has to cope. In Margaret, readers can also find the frictions over Margaret’s vacation to Florida which is driven by their own marital problem of eloping. Blume’s fictional parents are depicted to be, instead of constantly harmonious, over conflicted or at

122Peter Hunt, ed., International Companion Encyclopedia of Children’s Literature. Second (New York: Routledge, 2004) 557. 123Ann Alston,The Family in English Children’s Literature (New York: Taylor & Francis, 2008) 1. 124Alston 2. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

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least some times conflicted. Karen’s parents fight for everything from foods to the mode of parenting which turns divorce to be only way to struggle for. Meanwhile

Margaret’s parents successfully end the fight with support, understanding, and solution.

The ‘new’ model of parents in Blume’s novel offers freshness in reading stories by deconstructing the classic and replicated figure of parents which has been long and widely idealized. Like adults, young readers also want stories with the glorification of change, of novelty, and of discarding the old in favour of something new. In doing so, young readers can enjoy the new world and novelty in providing diverse perspective, solution, and anticipation of belonging problem of the unpleasant parental relationship that the previous stories of the similarly typical parents’ relations do not offer.

The theme of divorce is also considered to be excluded from children’s matters. Even though recent English children’s books have diversity in including single-parent family, Alston suggests that the family with two heterosexual-parents still constructs the ideological fictional nuclear family in children’s literature in the twenty-first century125. Therefore, in this case, Blume’s novel offers the pleasure of newness again.

Another example of newness can also be found in the presence of issues related to problems with religion. Since usually children’s life is understood as naiveté from sophisticated issues such as religious problems from stories, readers are kept away from the pleasure of adding new knowledge and perspective. Especially

125Alston 5. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

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because most children acquire the religious views from their parent, it is almost

‘abnormal’ when a kid like Margaret in Margaret questions about the most appropriate religion she has to belong when her family practices no religion.

While related to the pleasure of freshness among the wide number of books avoiding such darkness in life because of the fear that children can not master issues they are not familiar, Nodelman argues the potentially inexperienced children can absorb new topics even when they have not experienced losing someone they love including the harm the books are suspected to bring to child readers. Nodelman sees in a more positive light by recalling that readers do not read everything with the same degree of attention. Like adults, children do not always read closely and analytically.

They know how to skim and they also do not keep reading books they dislike because they feel equally free to stop to read against the texts126. Moreover, Avery also suggests [the child] has his own defence against what he doesn’t like or doesn’t understand in the book…He ignores it, subconsciously perhaps, or he makes something different from it… [Children] extract what they want from a book and no more.’ This sums up that children are more open even to genuinely radical thought and the ways of understanding texts127.

Secondly, in addition to the pleasure of newness, as designer of children’s books and literature, adults also need to concern about ‘escapism’. For Lesson (in

Oberstein in Hunt, 1998:26), the good book for the ‘child’ offers not only the ‘child’ back to itself, but also needs to offer the ‘child’ that which is not itself. This is

126Nodelman The Pleasures 29. 127See Hunt, Understanding 19. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

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because literature has power to be an imaginative insight to transport to what another person may be feeling, and the contemplation of possible human experiences which are not at that moment going through readers’ life.

Harahap suggests that there are things people can only learn by facing them directly like honouring honesty, choosing good or bad, acknowledging God’s affections, solidarities because they can only be achieved by living that life.

Fortunately, he adds, civilization has found a mean which make it possible for people to enter, to feel, to taste, and learn the life without dealing with risks and danger of having them. The mean is literature128. In other words, besides expanding their experiences through new things, children are also possibly pleased by the experience of stepping out from reality to be emotionally involved in the fictional characters.

Secondly, as the appearance of brute life offers pleasure of escaping from daily problems, its pleasure of newness builds experiences. Children, too, seek pleasure of expanding their horizon through vicarious experiences because they can visit new places, gain new experiences, meet new people, as well as learn about a variety of cultures and life. To enter another person’s experience who suffers certain disease through fictions is one of the example how readers can enrich their experiences. It is because especially in children’s fiction, one of the idealized child characters is depicted to be normally healthy. Without really suffering scoliosis in

Deenie, young readers are invited to experience the diseases by discovering the

128Mula Harahap, "Tentang Sastra Anak-anak." 16 April 2007. ETSA: Kumpulan Esai dan Tulisan Kreatif Lainnya. Website. 13 July 2013. . PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

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common goals and similar emotions found in the characters without taking any consequences and risks for being ill.

Experiencing death vicariously through Davey’s journey of healing herself after her father’s death can also prove that literature enables readers to escape from one’s daily life to enter a condition needing the distinguished emotion they do not experience. Yet literature makes readers capable in positioning themselves to see such experience right in front of them without really losing a father. Similarly, as depicted in the novels analysed, child readers do not need to experience the pain of having their parents divorced or witnessing their battles. It is also not necessary for them to feel disappointed for the unexpected experiences as well as being confused with their religious choices.

The third pleasure of presenting brute realities in Blume’s novel is the way how readers can recognize gaps during reading sophisticated topics. Even though it might turn to be another kind of generalization in understanding children, yet, in his more optimistic perspective toward children, Hunt says that “Play is a natural part of their [children] outlook, they will regard language as another area for playful exploration. They are less bound by fixed schema, and in this sense see more clearly129. This can be said that children’s books should not be necessarily less serious than adult books or therefore, simpler in providing issues that children’s literature can deal with them all as well as adult books. Nodelman also believes that it

129Rederick McGillis,ed. Voices of the Other: Children’s Literature and Postcolonial Context (Canada: Oxford University Press, 1996) 12. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

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is pleasurable for readers including the young ones to look for meanings and messages by filling the gaps of the texts130.

Possessing the expertise in filling gaps, readers can turn small information into a rich experience. The ‘dissatisfying’ ending of Forever can tell so rich about the messages even though Blume does not clearly says about them. The positive message indeed lies on the reason why Katherine decides to break up the relationship. Readers know that Theo, the guy formerly mentioned in the camp, contributes to the problem

(103). However, Katherine’s objection for Michael’s assumption that she leaves because she has another sexual relationship suggests that the main character does not approve sexual affair (107). Instead, Katherine holds the belief that sex should not be done with someone she does not love or no longer love which becomes an important perspective about sexuality as this knowledge is shared in the previous part of the novel to be reader’s repertoire (16).

The novel also tells how the character puts the honour to mean love that it is not cheaply used for the sake of sexual pleasure (61). This is clearly implied in former reading as Katherine needs a long time to say ‘I love you’ to Michael who started saying it but Katherine feels unsure saying to the guy she meets only nineteen times (19). Readers also get this message as they go back to the early process of the sexual intercourses when Katherine keeps telling Michael not to be hurry to be

130Nodelman, The Pleasures 21. By using Reader Response perspective, Nodelman suggests the term gap is understood to describe the condition in which most written text is capable in building the communication with readers with the minimal information on it. In its process of building the meaning, the gaps evoke a reader’s knowledge to make them meaningful. In addition, it is also believed that readers’ knowledge of a context which includes the pre-existing repertoire can help readers how to fill those gaps. Readers do this activity both consciously and unconsciously. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

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engaged in sexual activity until she is mentally ready, which in fact refers to the feeling of love (14). This is why when the love is gone Katherine eventually rejects the invitation of her sexual partner Michael to make love pretending to want it. She finds it unfair to do sex by pretending to like her partner. In this part, readers previously are presented the knowledge that both Katherine and Michael have made promise to be honest when something goes wrong in the relationship (27). These values are in fact the positive points about sexuality shared in Forever.

In fact, dealing with the jump up conclusion will commonly assume that

Forever does not teach teenagers the consequences of pre-marital and teen sex because it does not end with the bad life like pregnancy, suicide, being isolated, of getting venereal diseases, and the fact that the protagonist does not appear to regret of what she has done. Blume’s novel enables readers to learn the other ways as the protagonist’s belief about ‘forever’ is shaken. Katherine realizes she is too careless to define the forever commitment (109). Both Katherine and Michael are depicted to get hurt for the separation. Yet, in the case that Katherine does not regret is understood by readers that what she has passed through with Michael is special that this evokes readers to receive it true that Katherine’s love journey mentions something romantic about their relation (110).

Sex here can be recognized as expressions of love instead of sex that people can do with anyone because the protagonist suggests careful mental and physical arrangement in her decision. Obviously, Blume leaves the gaps in gaining the values with less manipulation because she leaves the messages openly that only by reading the whole text strategically and closely readers can obtain what Blume wants to say. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

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In addition, in the case of Blubber’s immorality, it might be clearly seen that

Jill the protagonist has learnt about the pain she feels to be disliked by the whole class because she is then in Linda’s shoes after she does not follow Wendy’s order to conduct an unfair trial to the former bully target Linda. However, the value indeed does not lie in readers’ expectation that Wendy, too, should get herself into Linda or

Jill’s shoes. Otherwise, Blume departs the important ending through Jill’s eyes. Jill gets the key of the problem by ruining Wendy’s authorities as Jill messes up the loyalty of the gang’s members (Caroline and Linda) to get disbanded. By this chance the bullying is over and Jill explains the change in the lunch time,

Nobody called me Baby Brenner during lunch. Donna and Caroline moved their desks together and Wendy invited Laurie to eat with her. Linda sat alone at her desk, the way she used to. (125)

Without dictating and manipulating her readers to prevent them doing bullying by accepting that bad behaviour will lead anyone to his or her bad luck and ugly reward as reality does not say so, the readers are allowed consciously and unconsciously to analyse and appreciate the protagonist’ insight and development in order to catch up the significance of her actions.

It is clear to say that the ‘new’ and ‘distinguished’ topics in Blume’s novels frequently become topic of debate. Blume’s novels seem to be breaking the common beliefs in choosing subjects in children’s literature. It is because the topics might not probably new but it is Blume who dares to open the gate to welcome the newness.

Besides expanding their experiences through new things, children are also possibly pleased by the experience of stepping out from reality to be emotionally involved in the fictional characters. While when they are considered to be lack of skills of dealing PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

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with bad sides of life, the analysis of this research has showed that it is also pleasing to fill in the gaps found in the stories.

3. The Bad Sides of Life: Coping Difficulties through Literature

Believing that the childhood in the real life offers absolute happiness is indeed error knowledge because recently, children are exposed to a much higher level of stressful factors. As a result, providing kids with the issues related to the dark side of life in their books will help them through their personal tribulation.

To assist children through the difficult times, Lowe suggests, it is best to provide them with an outlet of expression like what they can find through literature.

Reading stories helps children relate to fictional characters and therefore cope with their emotions to find solution to their own personal life situation. In other words, through literature, children can learn the coping skills needed to successfully handle the difficult times in their own life to emerge a sense of self-control, hope, and resilience.

Through the process of universalization or known as identification, young readers can acknowledge that the other children experience similar anguish. While in catharsis they connect with the character in the story. In this stage, the empathy and problem solving are exhibited. Finally, insight helps readers to self-reflect or to apply their knowledge to others and society131. By using bibliotherapy, readers unknowingly encompass all of those characteristics because it is natural for readers to analyse, emphasize, and internalize story attributes.

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For the first example, the ugly conflicts in Karen or Margaret’s family can practically help children to cope the difficulties through the shared experiences in the novels. It is considered normal for a kid to experience or witness the high degree of her parents’ hostility and anger frequently that might get them depressed and upset about situation which is out of their control.

By building the identification in the universalization process through Karen, readers who might and might not experience the family conflict are able get involved to revive and reappraise their previous experience through the vicarious experience in reading since Karen gets very upset about the conflicts and is terribly worried that the conflicts would lead to her parents splitting up.

What will happen to me if they get divorced? Who will I live with? Where will I go to school? Will my friends laugh? I want a mother and a father and I want them to live together-right here-in this house! I don’t care if they fight. I would rather have them fight than divorced. I’m scared…I’m so scared. I wish somebody would talk to me and tell me it’s going to be all right. I miss Daddy already. I hate them both. I wish I was dead. (14)

For a while, it seems to be true that for Karen, like for some other kids, being together is so much better than being away from one of her parents. Yet, kids then also meet the catharsis when every struggle Karen makes to get her parents stop from divorce all turns to be failures. First, when Karen tries to put some cocktail napkins that say Ellie and Bill, her mother rejects the idea by calling it funny (51). Then, it is also a disappointing respond from her parent to remind them the anniversary so that the parents would feel bad about the divorce plan (97). From her dad, the unexpected response is received when she tries to describe how pretty her mother with her new haircut is now in order to attract his attention (70). Moreover, her plan to show her PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

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diorama which is hoped to enable her parents meet and the panicking situation of her brother Jeff’s runaways would make both parents ‘look at each other and touch hands... kiss her and they’ll never fight again…” and ‘see that they belong together.

That we’re a family. Any minute now Daddy will tell her he’s sorry he left” (131-

132). Yet, the plan ends up in a greater crash for fighting over Jeff’s runaway. Once

Karen realizes that even a crisis will not prevent their parents from fighting, she begins to accept the inevitable result.

Through Karen’s case, readers are brought to their insight that among the conflicts which have been so painful to her, Karen learns that conflicts are needed to resolve instead of to keep. With the greater tenses growing each day and the messy feeling she feels upon her parents, brother, and sister, Karen begins to change her mind believing that having her mother and father apart is not bad because being together is much more impossible and hurting everybody in the house.

Up to these three stages of therapeutic reading, experts believes young readers can benefit from the fictional characters’ emotion, experiences, and solution that it is possible to generate them in their own problem or at least to believe that there are more than one alternatives in dealing with difficult moment like parental conflicts to try as young readers are allowed to gain variety of stories with this issue.

The second issue of divorce brings significance, too. It is of course sad to see children cling to any evidence that their family was a happy and then they have to see that it breaks up. In the situation of divorced family, Johnson, et al explains that as PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

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well as adults who need to have their own accounting about why the marriage failed, children also need to understand clearly what happens, why, and how132.

Presenting divorced parents in children’s literature like in It’s Not the End indeed delivers more benefits in fulfilling children’s need about divorce. Beside that it can help them to respond to children’s pain and to heal their emotional hurt through identifying the similar problems and life of Karen, it is also useful to use the story to uncover the mystery of divorce that might become despair for children that Blume in detail provides answers kids of divorce question.

Starting from Karen’s assumption that her mother is going to marry another man, the lawyer Mr Hague because she now looks happier than before (66), Karen also thinks that the divorce is caused by her mother’s way in cooking as she often hears her father tells that she should try more recipes (67), or because her mother likes antiques while her father has different interest that he sells modern furniture

(67). Struggling to find the reasons in order to help her parents reconcile, all of the possibilities coming to Karen and to many children are so often truly frightening. So many gaps Karen has to fill in answering her own questions to understand her parent’s decision. She does not easily get the point believing that if her mother is miserable without her daddy and that if her father is so miserable away from the kids then Karen asks why the parents are getting separated.

Here the presence of imaginative story like It’s Not the End can help children to understand what is happening that this drives young readers to the cathartic

132Janet R. Johnston, et al., “Through the Eyes of Children: Healing Stories about Divorce.” Family Advocate 21.1 (1998): 17. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

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experience to feel relieved with answers of their confusion. When in the real life children are not sufficiently supported by the situation, Blume can present Jeff as the brother who know more about divorce than Karen, Val as another divorced kid who is more or less experienced to deal with parental separation, the grandfather who understands and supports Karen’s idea to get her parents back together, the implicit recommendation of the writer to read The Boys and Girls Book About Divorce, and parents who even sometime unsatisfying, are willing to make Karen’s confusion clear

(142).

Jeff, even though knows a little more, is the nearest source for Karen to ask when she wonders what is happening. She desperately wants to know whether her mother has money or they would be starving after the divorce so that Jeff explains that ‘I think they make some kind of deal when they get divorced. Dad pays a certain amount of money to Mom every month.” (p. 63) in which in the other page, her father makes it clearer by saying that the lawyer will arrange for her support and alimony for her mother (71). Blume also explains that there will be regular meeting that can be arranged by the moving-away parent and the children after the divorce in which somehow relieves children’s fear that divorce means the end of the parents’ love to the children.

Blume also presents Garfa to have similar view to Karen that they both are willing to get the couple back. The existence of Garfa seems to understand part of children’s dream to always want to see their parents live side by side happily and ever after. This kind of combination results in making the book more realistic because PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

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Blume does not put aside Karen’s important feeling just to deliver the message that having the parents divorced is not the end of the world.

While the parents also have sufficiently well reference about divorce, Karen’s mother also clearly says that people do not get divorced over simple things like what

Karen assumes (67). She mentions that the only reason they get divorced is that because they do not enjoy being together. They do not love each other anymore, yet they still love the kids just the same, but not each other (68). That according to her mother, living in a house without constant fighting will be happier for Karen. Karen is also explained by her mother that her thought about her dad who wants to marry somebody else is not true because the quick process of divorce indeed will relieve both her mother and father to get everything settled. Moreover, her mother believes that Karen’s father would not run off and simply get married during the divorce process as that is not the main problem of the marriage (115).

The fictional characters with fictional problems may not really reflect the truth of the varied condition of children in divorce and the diversity reasons of parental separation. Yet, It’s Not the End delivers an optimistic perspective in seeing divorce in order to help children dealing with anger, sadness, and being uninformed about what is happening. Blume’s novel implies that sometime divorce is the best thing that can happen to a family which can be a tool to readers gaining the insight. At the same time, divorce might be upsetting and mourning. Yet, the novel excellently illustrates the character to realize that divorce does not mean the end of the family. She recognizes that the mother is much happier even though she cries as she remembers the marriage. Blume is likely to say that it can be better, especially for Karen, to grow PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

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up in a peaceful single-parent home than with a tense of two-parents full of constant fighting. Though some parts of the book are sad, but without being depressing, the story may uplift and inspire the young readers to be the insight by the way Karen and her family pick up the pieces, rebuild them, and eventually they know they are still family.

The third analysis relates to the open story-ending of Blubber which is problematic because the bullies do not get punished. It can be figured out that there is useful contribution that can practically help children cope the unsettled realities.

Children who once witnessed or did bullying know that the real bullies do not always win, even few of them get punished or realized they were wrong and later on became better people. Cormier asserts that in real life, children know that the right and the good guy do not always win and that life is not always happy ending.133

Kids also can learn from the insight implied to understand that it is also few of the bullied get pounded for it in the end and accepted for who they are. Many adults object to the ending as it is painful read and the reason is that because the reality tells them so. Presenting the uncertain results in having a process of kid’s life can help them preparing themselves to accept that the good do not always win and the bad must meet their unfortunate.

Even though some readers are upset and disappointed because Wendy, the meanest girl in the class, does not suffer anything for what she has done to Linda, the target, they are in the other way helped to understand that so often the case of bullying does not have a clear resolution in the real life, while Linda stays all alone

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after her friendship with Wendy in bullying the protagonist Jill ends. Readers come to the conclusion that Jill, too, is alone. Yet, it is a catharsis because it is not sad ending to her. At lunch she invites the neutral Rochelle to eat in the same table as well as to be her partner for the class trip.

By lunch time it was easy to tell that Wendy and Laurie were going to be best friends so were Donna and Caroline. Some people are always changing best friends. I’m glad me and Tracy aren’t that way. Still it’s nice to have a regular friend in your class, even if it’s not a best friend. I ate lunch with Rochelle again. She’s kind of quite but I get the feeling that a lot goes on inside her head. So later, when it was time to go home, and we all run for our lockers, I said, “Hey Rochelle…you want to be my partner for the class trip? She put on her jacket, closed her locker door, and said, “Why not?” (127)

Here, readers can acknowledge the values can be taken by being good friend

(even regular friend like her and Tracy) is somehow better than making fun of them only to please a best friend like Wendy.

This accommodates children to face the realities and all the unfairness it provides to their life. Yet, surprisingly, Blubber enables readers to learn a lesson in fighting against bullying in a different way, in which it does not necessarily end up with punishment to the cruel characters, but making bullies respecting others especially honouring the meaning of friendship.

Forever also delivers its surprising ending since the commitment of being forever with Michael finally breaks up. Katherine who has fallen in love to Michael and has thought that the love will be forever has to give new meaning what is meant by ‘forever’. After a hurtful separation with Michael to identify, readers find that

Blume narrates Katherine to have relieved feeling to remember her memory with

Michael as the ones she does not need to regret. It is said, PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

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I wanted to tell him that I will never be sorry for loving him. That in a way I still do—that maybe I always will. I'll never regret one single thing we did together because what we had was very special. Maybe if we were ten years older it would have worked out differently. Maybe. I think it's just that I'm not ready for forever. I hope that Michael knew what I was thinking. I hope that my eyes got the message through to him, because all I could manage to say was, "See you around …” (110)

Indeed, at the end of the story, Katherine and Michael both generally live their life like an ordinary college students as Blume implied. Sexuality, especially, in dealing with children has been strongly associated with sin and strongly related to harms and damages. Without being judgmental, Forever delivers the truth and values about sexuality by making the readers feel less fearful and sinful. Yet, it is more in full of hopes and solutions that things about sexuality run well whenever one who commits it can be responsible in his decision. With such non-judgmental fashion, stories with sensitive topics like Forever will help young readers to feel free to express and share their hidden problems.

The next practical uses of delivering bad side of life is that beside known as one of the most frequently challenged novels; Deenie is also popular as an informational novel about scoliosis. Sharing the medical terms, the definition, and the treatment about it has been beneficial to answer children’s curiosity all about it. Both for those who suffer and those who do not, Deenie helps them to acknowledge to such topic to make it more familiar and accessible discussion. It is, too, beneficial for kids with scoliosis to be less afraid and less alienated so that they can be involved in the cathartic reading that their loneliness and fear is solved by reading the other’ experiences. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

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From the very start of the novel, it is shown that scoliosis has identified symptoms when the teacher Mrs Rappoport finds Deenie the protagonist has her skirt longer on one side than the other when bending to touch her hands to the toes (35).

As she is diagnosed to have scoliosis, Deenie starts looking up the encyclopaedia and dictionary to find the definition to have general idea about the illness (57). Blume also writes a detail process of the treatment, including the consultation with the doctors (72-78), the measurement using X-Ray (52-53), the process of making the mould for the brace (79-86), and also how to wear it (98-103). Kids who are inexperienced in dealing such medical are helped by the way Blume uses the language which almost closed to seventh grader. This is one of the examples of the explanation about how Scoliosis is described.

I looked up scoliosis. It said: Skoh lih OH sihs, means a side-to-side curve or bend of the normally straight spine or backbone. Scoliosis may occur in any part of the spine. It may be single (curved like a C) or double (curved like an S). Scoliosis starts in childhood or the teens. It has strong familial tendency. Treatment includes exercises, braces or surgery. (57)

The information runs smoothly through the story. It naturally appears from looking up encyclopaedia and dictionaries to the conversation with the doctors that

Deenie records and utters transformed to be dialogue and narration. Yet, the thing which is not less important about this book is that Deenie provides beside the information about Scoliosis, it also presents the feeling about having it.

Deenie helps children with scoliosis to cope with the emotional problem of wearing Milwaukee brace and other stressful changes dealing with the lifestyle.

Especially because Deenie the protagonist is characterized as a teenager whose PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

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circumstance highly demands normalcy, Deenie also deals with body image or social rejection. Deenie depicts how an eighth grader firstly faces the fact that she has to wear the brace for the next four years. She can not imagine wearing the brace and going through her life normally. Indeed, the brace has taken over her life dominatingly.

I went up the stairs as fast as I could, slammed my bedroom door and tried to flop down on my bed. But I couldn’t even flop anymore. So I cursed. I said every bad word I knew…. Even a stupid ordinary thing like sitting on the toilet wasn’t the same for me now. The brace made everything different. (106)

The novel also understands the way how the brace is very painful. It describes through Deenie that the plastic jabs the body almost feels like a cage and the purple bruises it creates if worn without the special undershirt (146). It becomes more problematic when her mother obsesses much in her to be a model even though Deenie does not even know that she really wants to be one.

Her mother’s notice that Deenie is gifted with a beautiful face has turned her to a great pressure to say that Deenie has to use not to waste that face. This makes her feels like the one who should be blamed for the curved spine that so many model agencies refuse her. Deenie realizes that she is born not only with a face to regard because she is a complex person who also has mind and feeling.

“I’m not just a face!” I shouted. “I’m a person, too. Did either one of you ever think of that?” I ran past them and up to my room. Ma yelled after me. “Don’t be ungrateful, Deenie! Aunt Rae was only trying to help.” “Ha! I’ll bet you’d both like to trade me in for some girls with a straight spine!” I shouted downstairs. “Then you wouldn’t have to wait four years!” I slammed my door shut. (134) PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

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As how readers can identify that wearing Milwaukee brace is mentally and physically hurts and uneasy, Deenie helps to child readers to know that after all, it is not that important to think about the brace. In fact, there will always be people or family who forget that she is wearing it. For most of the time, in family and friendship appearance does not become the reason why people love each other. It does not prevent Deenie to go to the prom night and to hold hands with Buddy (159) as well as be friend with Midge and Janet. This rejects the idea that as a teenager who eager to find normalcy, a girl does not need to much consider what others might say about the brace. It does not define them. It becomes important to Deenie to question the body image, to stand up for herself, and finally to create healthier relationship with everyone around her.

The fifth issue of religious problem also has healing contribution. Children who were born with parents from different religious beliefs might find it a relief to connect with character that has the same problems. Appearing with the exploration of a half-Jewish and a half-Christian girl facing the problems with finding her own organized religion, Margaret offers the candid and the intimate insights of the dilemmas of practicing no religion in her family to avoid complication. When some parents might not have any clue to how confusing such situation can be for those children, Margaret also provides a wake-up call for the parents to consider about the issue.

However, as a newcomer in the new town, New Jersey, Margaret has to face a situation in which going to religious schools has become a real and practical social problem. It is because every kid in town belongs to a certain religion, while Margaret PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

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is nothing. For the American adults, it may not be a profound identity problem, but for a twelve-year old girl like Margaret, it is a dilemma in her existence (81). With such pressures, Margaret manages a research paper for her school project on religion.

She starts her struggles to find the suitable religion to hold.

Are you there, God? It’s me, Margaret. What would you think of me doing a project on religion? You wouldn’t min, would you, God? I’ll tell you all about it. And I won’t make any decisions without asking you first. I think it’s time for me to decide what to be. I can’t go on being nothing for ever, can I? (49)

The book shares that toward the end, Margaret is so buffeted by the pressures all around her. Her first step to go to synagogue with her Jewish grandparent who is thrilled with Margaret’s intention to find the religion on the contrary seriously disturbs her liberal mother, who sees religion only as a source of turmoil,

“That’s ridiculous!” My mother said when I told her. “You know how Daddy and I feel about religion.” “You said I could choose when I grow up!” “But you’re not ready to choose yet, Margaret!” “I just want to try it out,” I argued. “I’m going to try church too, so don’t get hysterical!” “I’m not hysterical! I just think it’s foolish for a girl of your age to bother herself with religion.” (51)

Margaret also tries the local Presbyterian Church with her friend Janie but the prayer book does not make sense to her and the sermon by the minister is hard for her to follow. Margaret also takes a try to give confession in a catholic church but she also fails to feel him the way she has the private talks to God every night,

Are you there, God? It’s me, Margaret. I’ve been looking for you, God. I looked in temple. I looked in church. And today I looked for you when I wanted to confess. But you weren’t there. I didn’t feel you at all. Not the way I do when I talk to you at night. Why, God? Why do I only feel you when I’m alone? (100) PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

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It turns to be very ironic when her own dilemma of having to choose the Y and the

Jewish Community Center indeed makes her forsake her personal feeling about God as she has private talks to God every night. Through her wishes Margaret expects God will give her clue but He never does. She gets angry and stops talking to Him especially after the bad fortunes come to her life like a lying best friend, getting troubled for being easily provoked, and being involved in her parents and grandparents’ dispute of what religion she has to belong (111).

As readers are allowed to get the identification of an agnostic girl with the problems, in the end of the story, young readers are dragged to the cathartic experience where Margaret does not come to her fixed choice to a certain organized religion. She explicitly says her conclusion of the religious experiment in her letter instead of a booklet to be handed in to her teacher as the report of the school project.

Margaret in fact does not enjoy the experiment as she comes up to an understanding that choosing a religion is not an easy job.

I don’t think a person can decide to be a certain religion just like that. It’s like having to choose your own name. You think about it a long time and then you keep changing your mind. If I should ever have children I will tell them what religion they are so they can start learning about it at an early age. Twelve is very late to learn. (118)

Margaret understands it is hard to be different from the pals when it is young.

As kids question about the distinguished religious identity, it seems that Margaret does not significantly satisfies her own searching because Blume does not find the most suitable religion for her at the end of the story.

However, Blume implies another alternative in facing such dilemma to be readers’ insight. She offers hopes as it is a good start for the agnostic kids motivated PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

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by parents’ decision to see religion to begin exploring themselves so that they will know what religion they want to be when they grow up. It is true when Margaret says it might be too late to decide religion as people should be inherited one as they are born. However, without blaming and alienating the present condition of Margaret and many other agnostic kids, Blume also helps them to understand it is important to underline that such experiment need time and patience. Yet she knows that such process is always possible to manage.

Finally, the topic of death in Tiger Eyes also offers important issues to be taken as a healing story. It is necessary to know that Blume’s Tiger Eyes focuses on a family’s struggle to recover emotionally after a member of the family is murdered by armed robbers. The book is told from 15-years-old Davey, who needs to deal with her own growing-up issues as a teenager as well as with her grief.

In dealing with bereavement in children, Tiger Eyes addresses the relationship between the attachment and the loss from the point of view of Davey. It depicts to serve readers’ identification about how much it hurts to face a sudden death of a father. She stays in bed (5) and stops eating (7). She does not even want to start school in the fall (82). Davey also feels nervous to meet people. She cannot sleep without a bread knife under her pillow (74) and she hyperventilated when she saw blood or a gun (37). She avoids discussion about to anyone including her friend about the murder because it is too painful for her (89). In this point, the book helps young readers to know that it is okay to be scared, angry, and sad when losing someone they love by sharing similar difficulties that this also reduces the feeling of loneliness PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

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because there are others who feel the same. Those kids can also they realize that their problems and emotions are a shared experience.

With such identification, the readers can gain new insight about their own problems, which can lead to a therapeutic resolution and new outlook to them. Here, bibliotherapy offers the idea that literary works can teach problem solving that may not have occurred in the children’s real life. After the murder, Davey hardly finds her relief because her own mother, the place she wants to rely on and she wants to keep her safe, has to face her own struggles in facing her husband’s death by consuming regular medicine for the headache (86).

In such helpless condition, Blume presents Aunt Bitsy and Uncle Walter as the caring relatives who want to help Davey’s family going through the hard time by taking them move to Los Alamos to have new sight while adapting the grief. They support Davey’s family financially and emotionally and take care of Davey’s mother to a psychiatrist. In Los Alamos, Davey also begins to dare passing through the reality as she meets a guy in a canyon introducing himself as Wolf. Even though it is only by being a friend, Wolf helps Davey to only remember her father with good memories and to forget the pain (167-168). In this part, Davey learns to speak up by writing letters to Wolf about her sadness and anger even though the letter is returned back labelled as ‘moved’ (169-171).

As her mother gets better, Blume also leads Davey to see her mother’s psychiatrist. She is encouraged to speak up for real about what makes her upset about the murder. Telling everything about the night her father died, Davey recalls that she was there unable to help her father who is dying of being shot (197-199). The silence PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

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has been broken. Davey starts remembering her father with full of life and full of love. The writer shows young readers how family support, time, and therapy can help people recover from the most traumatic loss in the novel. Not less important, the supports are significantly gained if children want to speak up in order to help themselves cope the difficult time and then move on.

Many children are dealing with fears like death, crime, and war at their early ages. The events like the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 or the Persian Gulf

War in 1880s have heightened the fears of adults as well as children and made them more vulnerable. With the constant exposure of the media in the aftermath of the events, Nicholson and Pearson argue that children’s fears of death have been influenced134. As a result, they argue, parents, teachers, and school counsellors have to face with the task of identifying and implementing strategies which enable kids to cope with the fears.

In a review of recent studies, Tarifa and Kloep concluded that children strongly respond to the world and local events. This leads to the increase of children‘s fears as well as their anxieties about the inability to make the place they live safer.

Nicholson and Pearson add as how United States continues to deal with the uncertainty of the terrorism, school counsellors can anticipate children’s fears from being heightened that its impacts on children about growing up too tired and too insecure in learning can be reduced.

134Janice Nicholson I., et al., “Helping Children Cope with Fears: Using Children’s Literature in Classroom Guidance.” Professional School Counseling 7.1 (2003) 15. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

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Finally, to conclude this chapter, it needs to say again that from the data analysed, Blume as the author depicts children more in their sameness instead of the differences when compared to adults’ topics. She embraces variety of tough topics such as parental conflicts, divorce, uncertainties, illness, problem with religion, and death which rarely appear in children’s books for believing that children should be happy and healthy in their portrayal. Her ways of writing implies that she disregards kids as the other, the primitive, the deprived, and the different when compared to adults. At the same time, the empowerment of the child characters in her works has led them to be enjoyable as well as important to read by young readers.

It is delightful because young readers are served with issues which are frequently avoided from their books. Yet, this newness and escape indeed create pleasures in reading. More than that, child readers are also given opportunity to use their skill to fill the texts’ gaps when those ‘adults’ topics are silenced for being too hard and difficult.

Indeed, entering the world described in the pages and being involved with the characters makes possibly gaining new insight and ideas for reading stories with difficult issues they may or may not experience. This way, the works can be therapeutic for assisting them with their problems as well as the emotional turmoil.

The stories can serve as a springboard of resolution of the dilemma they might suffer.

By mutual sharing or self-help, good books ease feelings of alienation as readers recognize characters with feelings, thoughts, and conditions which are similar to their own condition as they are able to objectify their own experience, and come to better PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

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understanding, and is hoped to move on to more positive attitudes and relationship in the real life.

That is why embracing various issues including the ‘adults’ matters’ can be beneficial to give opportunity to everyone to be included in literature. It also becomes the reason why dealing with the rarely-mentioned topic will be helpful in giving therapeutic effects as well as pleasures to child readers. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

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CHAPTER V

Unexpected Manners

Silencing some attitudes adults consider as misbehaviors and bad manners including bullying, sibling rivalry, disobedience, back talks and gazes, dishonesty, impudent teases, and swearing is the reaction for children’s literature is inherently adult-centred. Nodelman argues in children’s books, children are provided with values and images adults approve of or comfortable with in order to make them easier to handle for becoming more passive, more obedient, more docile135. The contradict attitudes to the desirable behaviors mentioned above in Blume’s selected novels are analyzed in this part of research in order to scrutinize how Blume brings those silenced topics into her works to place children in the center of the story. At the same time, this chapter also deals with kinds of pleasures readers can get from having the honest depictions of those silenced as well as the bibliotherapic uses of them to cope the trouble with personal and social development.

1. The Unexpected Manners: Children as the Centre

After all, beside the facts that children are naturally perceived as wicked and therefore their imitative behaviour can revive their evil nature in permeating the hierarchical power relation between adults and children, the marginalized children need to be stuffed with the values and images which meet adults’ approval and comforts. As Nodelman tries to criticize, in child psychology and children’s literature, the primary benefits when dealing with them is of adults, even though it is

135 Nodelman The Other, 30. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

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always claimed for the benefit of children136. Writing books for children is always a matter of how the books influence children to behave and act in making adults easier to handle them. This is why, with such common belief, of course stories which expose bad manners and impoliteness are barely presented. Rather, the ‘ideal’ children are frequently exposed in children’s books, especially the one subjugates, pleases, and comforts adults.

Yet, Blume’s novels surprisingly show the contrast perspective toward the discourse about children’s wickedness and subjugation. The novels present the

‘misbehaviours’ inseparably from childhood. Indeed, Blume seems to highly understand and accept the ‘misbehaviours’ as inevitable impacts of conditions in which kids struggle to face their life. Child readers of her books find their selves in the centre of the stories and the fact explains why her books have been memorable to those kids. Therefore this part of research elaborates the ‘misbehaviours’ objected by some parents and educators yet appear in her works as well as their aesthetic and practical uses.

1.1. Bullying

No parent is comfortable with the idea of bullying, either in the real life or in the books. Especially in a children’s book, creating a main character as a bully will be too hard to accept. Beside preventing children to be exposed to cruelty, Nodelman argues that our choice is often to believe that children are irrational, lawless, careless, less responsible, less mature, and less adult has led us to avoid those potential

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brutality growing137. Not surprising, Blubber is also listed as contested book because of the portrayal of some mean girls.

The main character Jill takes part in bullying of one of their classmates

Linda. The bullying happens for several times throughout the book verbally by using plenty of bad names like ‘Blubber’ (10), ‘Big Bad Wolf’ (24), ‘flubsy’, ‘carnivore’,

‘bestial’ (77), and ‘the smelly whale’ (109). Even worse, Linda is also mentally bullied by stripping her, making her to say “I am Blubber, the smelly whale of class

206” and to kiss a boy named Bruce Bonaventura, and to show the boys her underpants (76). Here is the example of the psychological bullying.

"No!" Linda said. "Don't you dare strip me!" Caroline and Wendy grabbed hold of Linda's arms and held her still. "Do your job," Wendy said. "Prove what a good flenser you are." "Okay," I said, pulling off Linda's cape. She had on a regular skirt and shirt under it. "Strip her some more!" Wendy said, yanking up Linda's skirt. "Hey … Blubber wears flowered underpants." "Let go of me!" Linda squirmed and tried to kick but Caroline grabbed her shirt and tugged until two buttons popped off. "She wears an undershirt!" Caroline said. Linda started to cry. (29)

Even more, Jill and friends force Linda to kneel to Wendy and to kiss her foot.

"Curtsy to the queen," Wendy said. Linda tried to tuck her shirt back into her skirt. "Didn't you hear me, Blubber? I said, curtsy to the queen." Linda curtsied to Wendy. "That's better," Wendy said. "Now kiss my foot." "I don't want to," Linda started sniffling. I raised my sword. "Do whatever Queen Wendy says, Blubber." Linda bent down and kissed Wendy's sneaker. (30)

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In the example above, the physical bullying continues to happen since there are defences from Linda like grabbing, tugging, making fists. The worse of everything she makes, Jill gets involved in making Linda eat chocolate covered-ants.

Linda mashed her lips together and moved her head from side to side, all the time making noises that sounded like she was smothering to death. Wendy handed me the candy. Then she said, “Grab her hands, Caroline.” It’s good that Caroline’s so strong because Linda was really wiggling around. Once Caroline had Linda’s hands behind her back, Wendy pinched Linda’s nose which made her open her mouth. As soon as I did I shoved in the chocolate. “Now chew and swallow!” Wendy told her, putting one hand over Linda’s mouth so she couldn’t spit anything out. Linda kept her eyes shut and we could see her chewing, the swallowing the candy. Wendy let go of her then an sang, “Blubber ate an ant... Blubber ate ant...” (78)

Majorly written from the point of view of a bully, Blubber uniquely tells about bullying among fifth graders in realistic and honest way in which adults’ intervention in dealing with bullying is almost absent. Some parents say it is a painful book because the children in the novel are so cruel to one another. Yet, by the believable characters and logical story, Blubber proves a reliable source for insight into the kid’s world that is also discussed in the later discussion.

1.2. Sibling Rivalry

Among their siblings and peers, kids tease each other. In the adults’ eyes, this unexpected manner is likely prevented for being exposed in books since it is adults’ wish to see their kids in warm relationships with any of the siblings and friends.

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compete with one another, they can push themselves to excel138. Blume understands that kids feel it is exciting to tease their brothers or sisters as a form of competitions among them. Here are the examples taken from Blubber.

“Bye, chicken...watch out for the wolf-man... he just loves Halloween!” I snorted and jumped away as Kenny tied to slug me. (35)

That is what Jill tries to scare her brother for deciding to stay at home waiting for Trick-or-Treaters instead of going out doing tricks on a Halloween night. In addition, as it is shown her brother Kenny likes to tease her, Jill does the same thing when Kenny has no idea about a flenser. Instead of immediately giving the real answer, Jill teases Kenny’s curiosity by insulting his ability to give world’s facts he gets from The Book of World Records.

“Oh...I’ve been thinking I might like to be a flenser.” “What’s that?” Kenny asked. “You mean you don’t know?” I said. “Never heard of it.” With all your facts in The Book of World Records you never learned about the oldest flenser and the younger flenser and the flenser who did the best job and all that?” “Dad...” Kenny said. “She’s starting in again.” I absolutely love to tease Kenny. “Jill, that’s enough.” my father said. “Tell Kenny what a flenser is.” (15)

In a part of It’s Not the End, Karen also exposes the unwillingness to shove her seat over with Jeff in their car. Considering that Jeff’s request annoys her comfortable position, Karen does not react for him. Little frictions come to happen between them as they tease each other,

138Edward L. Schor, Caring for Your School-Age Child, Ages 5 to 12: The Complete and Authoritative Guide. (New York: Bantam Books, 1996) 344.. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

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“Shove over, Karen,” Jeff said. “No, I like it here.”. I told him. “Get in on the other side.” “I said shove over!” Jeff repeated. When I didn’t, he climbed across me and stepped on my foot. I kicked him as hard as I could. He gave me an elbow in the ribs and my ice cream landed in my lap”. (33)

Teasing frequently appears in almost all novels that portray the protagonists with sibling(s). The appearance goes along with the perspective that such communication grow together as kids learn.

1.3. Disobedience

Sarumpaet asserts that adults need to build in the story the images as the giver, the caretaker, the financial supporter, and the place to rely on so that children would compulsorily accept their responsibility to honour, to respect, and eventually to do what adults want139. Simultaneously, the depiction of children who disobey their parents and adult people will be automatically silenced. To emphasize this, it is not surprising that books for children expose punishments as the characters become disobedient. Based on Sarumpaet’s study on the Indonesian traditional folktales, punishments are intended to lead kids to learn to a lesson that disobedient kids will be neglected, hit, thrown away, cursed to be stone or ape, pleased for their death140.

On the contrary, Blume so often represents her children characters for disobeying their parents. Regardless the moral messages whether this is right or wrong, such representation implies that in their books, too, kids should be seen as subjects and individuals who can have heir own logics to make decisions. In Deenie, for example, Deenie disobeys her mother and her aunt to keep trying the dresses they

139Sarumpaet, Pedoman 111. 140Sarumpaet 122. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

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want to purchase in order to hide the brace. She feels enough with the things she has got and it is not Deenie’s dream to be a model. Moreover, Deenie does not like the style of the dress that she wants to be appreciated for her own choice.

“I don’t want anything new. I like what I’ve got.” “But what you’ve got doesn’t fit, Deenie,” Ma said. “So I’ll wear Helen’s old clothes. Just let’s go home.” We’re all trying to help you,” Ma said. “But if you won’t help yourself there isn’t much we can do.” “I just don’t want to try any more on, that’s all.” Aunt Rae rushed back into the dressing room. I’ve found it,” she told me. “The perfect dress.” ... Here…try this on.” She handed me the dress. “The high neck will hide the brace.” “I don’t like it,” I said, looking at the white ruffles on the sleeves. “It’s too babyish.” “Try anyway,” Ma said. “No!” “Deenie, you’re being stubborn!” Ma said. “I’m old enough to choose my own things. Don’t you think I know what I like by now?” (113-114)

In the other work of Blume like Margaret, the disobedience toward parents is shown during Margaret’s preparation of her first day of school. Margaret plans to wear no socks and her mother disagrees with such idea.

“Margaret, you have to walk three-quarters of a mile.” “So?” “So, you know you get blisters every time you go without socks.” “Well then, I’ll just have to suffer.” “But why suffer? Wear socks!” .... I told her, “Nancy says nobody in the sixth grade wears socks on the first day of school!” “Margaret! I don’t know what I’m going to do with you when you’re teenager if you’re acting like this now!” (26) PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

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Katherine, too, shows her rebel when she knows that she has to go to a summer camp which means she has to be away from Michael the boyfriend for several weeks. Since she previously acknowledges that her father has objected to permit her having skiing together with Michael for three days, Katherine relates this time plan has something to do with her parents who try to separate her away from

Michael.

“I can’t go to Jamie’s camp, ‘I said, spearing an egg yolk. “He’ll pay you $350,” Dad said. “I don’t care if it’s $3000... I’m not going to New Hampshire.” ... I told Fox I was sure you’d be interested in the job...” “Well, you can tell him you were wrong?” “Daddy went to a lot of trouble to find you a good job.” “Who asked him to?” My mother put down her knife and fork. “I can’t say I like your attitude.” I fought back tears. “Do you think I’m stupid...do you think I can’t see what you’re trying to do...” “This had nothing to do with Michael,” My father said. “Don’t lie...please!” (81)

In Blume’s novels, kids being disobedient or those who do not present a good show on adults’ will not always result in punishment and their bad lucks. It is simply because the author presents them as the inevitable outcome of particular condition of children.

1.4. Back Talks and Gazes

When critics are made inclined to judge and to evaluate the merits and faults of adults by children, it would endanger adults’ authority and perfectness. They also create flaws on adults threatening their authority upon their object of study: children.

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Blume senses such depiction of gazing adults back might present in children’s books as in the reality as it actually happens to prove that a child should be seen as a complex individual instead of as a typical group of people. Rather than creating charming characters in accepting what adults want them to do and to be, Blume’s novels present repulsion, unhappiness, and critiques from children to gaze at adults.

Talking back scene is well portrayed in Tiger Eyes in which Davey gets no permission to take Drivers Ed. by Walter, Davey’s uncle whom she lives with after the death of her father. Walter frequently has strict views on anything Davey wants to do: starting from climbing in the canyons, riding in hot air balloons, skiing, and driving. Opposing Davey’s adventurous self, Walter and Davey are too often involved in debates that she explodes,

“I'm sick of hearing how dangerous everything is… Dangerous...dangerous....dangerous....Stay out of the canyon, Davey...you could be hit by a falling rock. Don't forget your bicycle helmet, Davey...you could get hit by a car. No, you can't learn to ski, Davey....you might wind up a vegetable!" I am really yelling now. ….. "Some people have lived up here so long they've forgotten what the real world is like," I shout. "and the idea of it scares the..." "You can just stop it, right now," Walter says, before I have finished. He says it slowly, making every word count. "You're a good one to talk," I tell him. "You're the one who's making the bombs. You're the one who's figuring out how to blow up the whole world. But you won't let me take Driver's Ed. A person can get killed crossing the street. A person can get killed minding his own store. Did you ever think of that?" I kick the wall and stomp out of the room. I am crying hard and my throat is sore.” (161)

For more data, Blume’s Deenie, too, has dialogues presenting her repulsion to agree her mother to make her become a model. Like the one below, judging that making her a model is a pressuring ambition of her mother, Deenie criticizes her PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

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mother for being regretful that scoliosis becomes the obstacle of her dreams to see

Deenie as a perfect model. Deenie feels her mother does not accept her as the way she is.

“But I don’t even know if I want to be a model!” “Of course you do!” Aunt Rae said. “Isn’t it that what we’ve always planned?” She turned to Ma. “Thelma...what’s wrong with her?” “She’s just upset,” Ma told Aunt Rae. “She’s not used to the brace yet.” “You wouldn’t let her waste that face, would you?” Aunt Rae asked Ma. “I’m not just a face!!” I shouted. “I’m a person, too. Did either one of you ever think of that?” I ran past them and up to my room. Ma yelled after me. “Don’t be ungrateful, Deenie! Aunt Rae was only trying to help.” “Ha! I’ll bet you’d both like to trade me in for some girl with a straight spine!” I shouted downstairs. “Then you wouldn’t have to wait four years!” I slammed my door shut. (134)

In the other part of the book, Deenie also views her mother as unfair.

Witnessing the conflict between her sister Helen and her mother, Deenie concludes that their mother has made mistakes about making their father fire Joe from their gas station so that Helen cannot be together with Joe whose the mother considers him as

‘throwing away your (Helen’s) life” (150) and as a ‘stupid boy with dirty fingernails’

(151). Knowing that her mother puts the reason that “Daddy had to let him go because we need the extra money.” (149) and “We have doctors’ bills to pay” (150) addresses to her, Deenie involves herself to the conflict to talk back about her mother’s wrong perception on Joe and on her.

Ma’s not being fair. I thought. Joe does write poems. I know because I found one inside Helen’s math book last Wednesday. I couldn’t tell that to Ma though. Then Helen would know I’d been snooping, so instead I said, “Everybody gets dirty fingernails from working in a gas station... Even Daddy!” “Be still, Deenie!” Ma yelled. “This has nothing to do with you.” PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

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“It does too! You just said Daddy fired Joe because of doctors’ bill and I’m the one who’s always seeing doctors!” (152)

In It’s Not the End, such rebellious character also appears in Karen when she thinks the changes and the divorce in her family’s life are led by her mother’ selfishness. Responding to her mother’s decision to get a job or a college during the divorce process, Karen finds out that her mother dream of working and going to collage has been the reason of the divorce.

“What you really want to do?” “I don’t know yet. But I’m going to try to find out.” My mother is grown up. So how come she can’t decide what she want to go to work or does she want to go to college? “I sure hope you find out soon,” I told her. “It has nothing to do with you, Karen. It isn’t going to change your life one way or another.” “That’s what you say!” “Look... someday you and Jeff and Amy will grow up and leave home. Then what will I have?” “You see!” I raised my voice. “That proves it! All you care about is yourself! You never think about me.” “That’s not so and you know it!” Mom said. “Oh, yes, it is so! You never ask me what I think or what I feel or what I want... I wish I was never born!”(90-91)

It is true to say that the voice of children who gaze adults back hardly appears in kids’ books. Blume’s presentation of kids’ disapproval and objection of adults’ willingness and their superiority are even followed by the integrated plots which shows that those kids are not inherent to inferiority and that adults can also make mistakes. It is clear that in writing children’s books, it is important to question how children are viewed. To see them as an object instead of as a subject, writers might forget what kids want to say when they have to accept the reality they do not want. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

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By silencing children’s voice about their unhappiness or repulsion toward what adults want in the books, adults cannot simply assume that those voices would never be heard in the real life.

1.5. Dishonesty: Cheating, Snooping, Lying

In a similar pattern, behaviour problems like cheating and stealing apparently come rarely in children’s books without punishments so that child readers would not do those bad behaviours. On the contrary, Blume can deliver her writing which portray these bad attitudes as the unavoidable reactions toward the surrounding high and impossible pressures or expectations so that they lie and become dishonest. For examples, it happens when Margaret and her PTS club is discussing about Gretchen who promised not to get naked in front of anybody. Arguing this, Nancy bets that she will want everybody to see her when she is grown, just like the girls in Playboy to discuss further about the magazine, Margaret is asked to take his father’s. Yet, because she knows that the magazine is inappropriate for kids at her age, Margaret takes it secretly.

Although lately I think he’s been hiding it (Playboy magazine) because it’s never in the magazine rack where it used to be. Finally, I found it in his night table drawer and I thought if my mother caught me and asked me what I was doing I’d say we were making booklets and needed some old magazines to cut up. But she didn’t catch me. (64)

At the other part of the story, Margaret also asks Janie to lie to her mother if she asks about what they have bought. It is not because it is forbidden to buy sanitary napkins, but it might be a crazy idea for keeping them even before they know when their menstruation comes. As a result, Margaret suggests Janie and herself to lie to their mothers. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

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“Buy it for what?’ Janie asked. ‘Just in case,’ I told her. ‘You mean to keep at home?’ ‘Sure. Why not?’ ‘I don’t know. My mother might not like it,’ Janie said. ‘So don’t tell her.’ ‘But what if she sees it?’ ‘It’ll be in a bag. You can say it’s school supplies,’ I said.” (112-113)

While in Deenie, Blume, too, has one of its parts to bring the character to her dishonesty as her mother has a plan to make her becoming a model and asks

Deenie to be cooperative in this. However, Deenie has another dream of being a cheerleader that she keeps practicing without her mother’s approval.

Me and Janet have been practicing our cheers in her garage for two weeks. My mother doesn’t know anything about it. She’d kill me. A lot of the games are on Saturdays and if i make the squad she won’t be able to drag me around to any more modelling agencies. I’m counting on Daddy to make Ma understand...I’d really like to be a cheerleader and a famous model. If only getting to be a model wasn’t so much trouble. It would be fun to see my face in some magazine, if it could get there without my going through all of dumb interviews! (13)

Not only in those novels, Blume also puts the same issue on her other book like in Then Again in which Tony lies to his parents the reason he asks binoculars for the Christmas present.

This time I looked at her. “What? Oh, binoculars... “I had my answer carefully planned. I knew they’d ask why I wanted them, but I had to be really casual about it or they might get suspicious, “Watch birds,” I said. “Birds?” my mother asked. “Yes,” I told her. “This spring. I want to find out all I can about birds.” (97)

Tony answers his parents’ question about what he is going to do with the binoculars with a lie of watching birds. Indeed he knows exactly that binoculars will help him watching Lisa, the neighbour, getting undressed. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

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1.6. Impudent Teases

Troublesome kids also appear in Blume’s novels like in Blubber. Jill and

Tracy did a mean trick to Mr Machinist in Halloween because they think that Mr

Machinist hates kids and therefore deserves a mean thing. Above all, that is the best way to have fun in the Halloween night. Yet, it is not uncommon to see children engage in teasing behavior because they may perceive it as being the “cool” thing to do that Jill and Tracy “started to laugh” as they finished cracking six rotten eggs in the grumpy Mr. Machinist’s mailbox.

Tracy cracked her egg and threw it inside the box too. We looked at each other, then reached for two more eggs and did the same thing again. When we came to the last eggs we didn’t bother cracking them first. We just tossed them into the mailbox, shell and all. After that we picked up our things and ran as fast as we could (37).

When obedience is celebrated as an absolute good and when the detached child appears to be ‘ideal’ child in stories, Zornado suggests children ultimately fail to connect themselves in satisfying way141. This explains why in child readers, Blume has been famous to be an honest writer.

1.7. Swearing

As children is commonly understood as lawless, irrational, irresponsible, evil, and being uncivilized is danger for adults to behave childish and lawless, adults put them values to be more like adults who know well manners and behaviours; therefore, to be civilized. That things like swearing dirty words or four letter words might be impossible to exist in children’s books, so often it is accused to provoke children’s evil-ness that they barely come in books for children.

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On the contrary, Blume voices these profanities in her books for young readers. Not worrying to the assumption that children would imitate, she wrote those bad language along with the characters’ development in showing their desecration of someone or something. Here are the profanities used by the characters.

First by Deenie when she has got a brace put on her body. She says, “Damn you!” I shouted at my reflection. “Damn you crooked spine!” (105). Karen is also found to use swearing words more than Deenie. For example when she acknowledges that her parents get divorce at the first time she speaks to herself, “I felt tears come to my eyes. I told myself, don’t start crying now Karen, you jerk” (30). In the other moment she calls her teacher ‘witch’ to give a D for her book report (46).

Tony, too, curses a cashier in his imagination for being unaware of a stealing, while Tony himself can do nothing because the person stealing is his own best friend Joel, “Call the principal, stupid!” (72). Being so upset to know that his brother Ralph who acts like a high class person instead of like the way he was in the old days in New Jersey Tony said to himself, “Hey Ralph...You stink! You’re a sell out. You’ve gone soft-just like Mom-just like Pop-just like Angie!” (129).

Jill in Blubber is probably a girl swearing more frequent than the other characters. As her teacher Mrs Minish asked her to do her math paper over to do it the right way, Jill feels so mad that she says, “Mrs Minish is such a bitch!” (27). Jill, too, calls the costumes judges “dumb” to win Fred’s fried-egg costume in the Halloween

Parade (27). As part of the bullying to Linda, Jill also swears to her friend Michael to toss out her shoe landing in the bushes, “”You jerk! You absolutely idiot!” (48). To her brother Kenny, so often Jill curses him like what she does when he gets into her PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

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business of getting a big trouble with their neighbour, Mr. Machinist. She said, “Oh... shut up, you dumb ass, before I bash your face in!” (84) or when Kenny teases Jill with her inability to eat anything except peanut butter, “Shut up, you little brat!” (89) and “butt out!” (94)

Swearing is almost universal in people’s lives. For its cathartic nature, swearing is beneficial in freezing someone’s feelings of anger and frustration that are hold and allowing expression for them. It sometime can be a useful substitute to physical violence. Blume understands, no matter adults or children, virtually people swear throughout their lifetime. It is natural part of human speech development. Yet, some people as well as children learn which words are taboos and which are not so that some consider other’s people approval even though some do not.

From the data it can be seen that instead of denying children’s feeling or felt experiences as a child which imply the denial of children’s books in placing children as the centre of the story, Blume shows her disapproval to see children’s body and child characters in the story are simply the vehicle and the container. Rather than keeping saying that children’s feelings of anger, shame, or longing as bad or that misbehaved children are not the ‘ideal’ character in stories, Blume accept children as the way they are.

2. Unexpected Manners: Building Organized Stories

Surely it is gratifying to find a story with the organized patterns in which emotion is involved, the suspense is well delayed, the climax and resolution is nicely presented, and the pattern of chance and coincidence is intricate to make up a well- PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

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structured plot. Nodelman argues literature enables readers to meet the delight as they are aware the ways in which all elements of a work seem to fit together to form a whole142. As readers of realistic fictions are spoiled with self-reflective characters, the pleasure of story comes from characters whose actions are logical to take and are three-dimensional in which their decisions and actions are respected so that the wholeness are well enjoyed as a meaningful structure143. As a matter of fact, respecting how a character copes with his or her problem by using their best and available solution serves readers’ satisfaction even though they know the solution decided might not meet the ideal image of children yet best applied in the character’s situation.

It is acknowledged by parents that Blubber is found to be offensive because of the harsh bullying. Even as it was published, critics took aim at Blume’s description of the students’ mean behaviour could be used as a manual for bullies144. Yet,

Blubber’s enjoyable story’s plot starts from the existence of bullying as one of its big theme. Blume dragged it into an ordered sequence of actions that readers accept it as what the characters are mostly going to deal. However, it is necessary to note that a good story must afford a logic cause and effect in its plot so that the structure of the story from the beginning to the end of the book should be essentially considered. This means that every event in a story should be arranged in a logical unity. No unrelated and incidental event can follow or prior to the other event as well as no unreasonable and careless censorship can be managed to prevent the unrelated cause and effect

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story plot. This is why Blume did not have any choice to silence any part of it, including the cruel depiction of the bullying.

The pleasure of the story then is related to the fact that the characters cannot display him/herself as interesting person with his or her good and bad sides without the movement of the events. In Jill’s case, it can be seen that her prior personality as a bully is a result of Wendy’s influence. With Wendy and the gangs, Jill is involved in the cruel actions. Then, readers get the point that it is the sequence of the events which lets a character to develop as the last bullying for Linda brings Jill move away from Wendy’s leadership. In this part, Blume turns the bullying to be a boomerang for Jill to get bullied at last. Especially after Jill realizes that Wendy takes the control over her by ordering whatever Wendy pleases and gets insulted when Wendy calls her best friend Tracy as ‘chink’. As Blume puts Jill in Linda’s shoes that she now becomes the bullying target to learn a lesson, readers find the complete personality of

Jill through the whole story.

Once readers realize how often depictions of bullying throughout the book, they build the consistency by probing the implications of the pattern they create.

Nodelman states that when the repeated words or images occur frequently, readers can enjoy the rhythmic pattern and can build the consistency by seeing how the make the book meaningful145. That is why this will make them accept that bullying is the central of the novel or the major theme.

It is obvious bullying does not appear without any significance. Therefore if the books ignorantly simplify children’s reading process into such reading-imitation-

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doing process, it is hard to imagine the harass is absent or edited into another less harmful actions in order to keep kids away from being exposed to the violence. In fact, without any of this element, the story would simply not meet the plot and would only provide flaw characters who lie to be a good girl with desired behaviours for the sake of adults’ satisfaction.

The presence of sibling rivalry in Blume’s novels also has important role in building the wholeness when reading Blubber even though it might not be the primary theme. The frictions so often happen over Kenny’s habit for reciting related topic being discussed from Guinness Book of World’s Records. Especially because

Kenny’s facts makes Linda, the bully target in Jill’s class, interested (67). Then when there are only Kenny, Jill, and Linda in a party, it is Jill who turns to be verbally bullied by her own brother and even worse, by her target of bully in the class. Even though what happens to Jill does not simply shift her attitude about bullying Linda in her class, readers accept that Jill deserves those less harmful verbal bullying after all of the cruel things she gets involved in the class’ gang to bully Linda.

The pleasure of structure can be found in the appearance of disobedience kids of Blume’s novels, too. As a plot enables things in a story to move and to happen, an author has to think about the sequence of events that shows characters in action.

According to Lukens, the sequence is not accidental but chosen by the author as the best way of telling his or her story146. Then it is acceptable to figure out that small part of a novel should satisfy readers’ expectation from a plot. This includes the

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action, happenings, questions that need answers, answers that fit questions, glimpses of happy or unhappy outcomes, and discovery how events grow and turn.

As one of her privilege, a writer can reorder and rearrange the events so that a narrative order can be performed. In dealing with the issue of high parental expectation, Katherine’s disobedience in Forever can be seen as an even that relates to create the chronological narrative order. Katherine’s personal conflict, that is her inability to get away from Michael opposing her parents demand to take a summer job in New Hampshire, forces her to take action in a person-versus-person type of conflict, causing her to face her parents’ expectation to make Katherine to give it a try. Katherine’s refusal to follow her parents’ plan reflects the peak and turning point of her conflict or the climax of the sub plot in which she struggles for her own relationship management. Readers call this part as one of the most exciting part in which they might get clues how Katherine would solve the pressure from her parents about her commitment with Michael.

From Tiger Eyes, the main character’s attitude in talking back to her uncle can become the other example why an honest expression of the main character is significant in building an organized story. It is told when Davey’s acceptance toward dangerous situations reduces since she meets a boy in the canyon named Wolf who revives her bravery to accept reality about her father. She fights against the external conflicts, Walter and Los Alamos and their strict views about dangers by taking to them back as a form of rebellion of what have pressured her so long and by keeping keep riding and climbing the canyon conquering them. Davey and her mother, who has been recovered from her own trauma, finally move back to their hometown PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

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Atlantic City with a new development on her characterization by believing that when people worry about how they will die, they will never enjoy being alive.

In addition, Davey learns something even more subtle: that although people think preparing for death is being responsible, it is also ducking a greater responsibility: one's responsibility to live. Up to this point Davey starts to let her father go. Davey’s back talks toward Walter have shown how she can finally overcome the crises in her life.

The presence of dishonesty is also important in building the story’s structure.

Lukens argues the properly motivated action that grows out of character provide inevitability147. The inevitability means that readers can feel there is no other way for an event to happen. While in the character, a skilful writer shows them by means of actions and speech in which character, incident, an outcome seem interwoven and finally inevitable. In doing so, readers have been prepared for the outcome by foreshadowing. This occurs when Margaret in Margaret snoops her father’s Playboy

Magazine, readers accept this bad attitude as inevitable action of Margaret since the discussion of body development with her girls club requires the image of the naked woman. As she tries to get it, Margaret’s comment foreshadows the readers that her mother might not approve what she does for his father has been hiding it in the night table drawer. The result is Margaret prefers not to ask her mother about it and prepares the answer if her mother catches her, she would answer that it is for making booklets and that she needs some old magazines to cut up.

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The similar thing also occurs to Margaret when she understands it might be too ridiculous to try to attach a pad just to know how it feels to get menstruated. To avoid the awkward comments, Margaret decides to prepare lies when asked by her mother to answer her curiosity. As well as Tony who wants to see Lisa from a closer view needs a binocular, yet knowing that the idea might upset others, especially his parents, he prefers to keep his real reason asking for the binocular.

Depicting child characters as troublemakers like Jill in Blubber also holds readers in creating suspense which refers to a state that makes them read on. With her bravery Jill breaks six rotten eggs in the old, mean, and grumpy neighbour with no sense of humour Mr. Machinist’s mailbox to prove that a person gets what he deserves in an Halloween night. An electrifying moment occurs when both Jill and

Tracy successfully run away from Mr Machinist’s house without being caught up. As they meet Wendy and are asked to prove that they really do it, they get into Mr.

Machinist back to check that the rotten eggs are there.

However, as the excitement wear off, readers’ worries revive especially when

Mr. Machinist gets the picture of Margaret and Tracy with his camera. Even that so, new hope is still there because the protagonist uses costumes when doing the trouble that it might be hard to identify until somebody tells on them. Up to this part, the suspense as the emotional pull keeps them wanting to read as they get involved in conflict up to the climax because what is going to happen to Jill and Tracy is uncertain. Readers are led not only to be curious but also concerned for the outcome.

Blume indeed controls the suspense peaking and levelling by sending Mr.

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suggesting the parents to contact him immediately. It gets more panicking as Tracy keeps crying of being afraid to be jailed. Yet Blume can build the story so that nowhere is the ending too predictable that readers may lose interest or too panicking that they may give up. By giving both solutions that Mr. Machinist asks them to admit and say they are sorry, Blume leads Mr. Machinist to requests the girls to rake the leaves in his yard in which they are all agreed with the consequences.

Meanwhile, beside its controversy to be the book which has been accused to be immoral dealing with the dirty words usage, those novels, especially Blubber remains to be lovable fictional books as Blume successfully creates sympathy for every action and decision her characters make. The author tells everything to the readers how her characters are angry, even when it comes to the time for them to say or to think of curses. Blume does not miss the details so that this creates a credible fictional figure. In this point, young readers concretize. When it comes to how words can give readers pleasure, Mansbach declares sometimes that four letter words is the best expression they cannot eliminate148. Surely this explains that an author can not easily replace the word ‘shit’ with ‘sugar’ to express hatred and anger as it is meant.

The result can be different when silencing books prevent dirty words coming up in them because they are believed to revive children’s wildness or un-civilization.

The character’s expressions on their senses are potentially limited. Since adults do not want the portrayal of children to be angry, it probably will not be believable that Jill

148 See Kathryn Schulz, "Ode to a Four-Letter Word." 5 June 2011. New York Magazine. Website. 25 August 2014. . PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

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feels fine to respond Kenny’s annoying teases relating to the punishment she suffers as the consequence for putting rotten eggs in Mr. Machinist’s mailbox. It is said

“Oh…shut up, you dumb ass, before I bash your face in! (84) after the readers get the idea that Kenny hopes Jill like raking up leaves and says in a making-fun way that she would not be in the mess if she had stayed home like him. Ameliorating the profanities Jill uses to express her vexation when Kenny continuously annoys her only results in the inaccurate feeling of an upset character. From the stated dialogue, replacing the profanity for the sake of ‘morality’ reason like ‘dumb ass’ into ‘stupid’ can not better represent Jill’s unpleasant feeling about her brother.

From the analysis above, it is clear the child characters’ bad manners and impoliteness come to their importance as their presence contributes to shape the wholeness and the structure of the texts that they offer enjoyment to readers. Those actions are selected by the author as her best way of telling the stories. In fact, in considering plot development, it is necessary to note without sufficient conflict and tension, accompanied by suspense foreshadowing, and inevitability, a story is plain, uninteresting, and flawed. As a result, silencing them leads to the dull stories in which as well as adult who want to read honest stories. More important, their existence help the young readers to cope their personal and social growth explained in the next discussion. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

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3. The Unexpected Manners: Assisting Children Deal with Problems of

Personal and Social Development

Each year during the middle childhood, children grow and develop, find their place in the world and evolve to be the persons in their own right. Relating to this, the self-esteem, the way in which an individual perceives him or herself in ways that are important for him or her is seriously challenged. Self-esteem is constructed not only by a child’s own perceptions and expectations, but also by the perceptions and expectations of significant people of the kids’ life like the way how the kids are thought and treated by their parents, teachers, or friends. The closer the kids’ perceived self comes to their ideal self, the higher their self-esteem149.

Bibliotherapy indeed is understood as a process of dynamic interaction between the personality of the reader and literature. It is interaction which may be utilized for personality assessment, adjustment, or growth. That is to say, that through emphasizing with a character, the plot, a relationship, or a piece of information of readings, a kid comes to a better understanding of his or her own motivations or achieves an awareness of something applicable to his own life.

When Blume writes about young characters with personalities many adults receive to be the disturbing behaviours, she was condemned to offer manuals for kids to behave mean and bad. However, unlike many books which punish kids for behaving bad, her novels present the perspectives of those ‘troubled’ kids without judging them. Instead, she seems to acknowledge that the bad manners need to occur

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in order to display their struggles in dealing with normalcy and being ideal as one of the way how they will have better self-acceptance and esteem.

Majorly written from the point of view of a bully, Blubber uniquely explains that a bully may have typical traits as one of the reasons why they pick up someone for fun. Especially like the main character in Blubber, the school children like Jill is increasingly independent from their parents. Schor explains that kids are highly involved with school and their peers. It cannot be denied peers turn to be children’s primary source of values150. They are faced with new challenges to learn how to deal with surrounding powerfully influenced by the peers who contribute significantly to take the acceptable and therefore normal ways of coping problems.

The identification as a bully happens when Jill is going around the bossy ringleader Wendy who is also the head of the bully. Jill appears to believe that

Wendy has right to rule the whole class. According to Jill it is because she is “a very clever person. Besides being class president, she is also group science leader, recess captain and head of the goldfish committee.” (4) Besides Jill knows that “you don’t cross Wendy” (31). As a result, in bullying Linda, Jill does whatever pleases Wendy to keep herself going around with her151.

Yet, by the end of the book, Jill realizes how much she depends on Wendy’s approval and how much she is afraid when she is mad and how happy she is when

Wendy is no longer angry. When Jill notices that Wendy never respects her as a

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friend, she dares to challenge her authority and therefore pays the price by being the target of the class’ teasing.

Up to this point, Blume tells the readers that it becomes a worth point to notice that fitting to the peers should not be the reason to be bad. It is also confirmed by Linda’s characterization that previously gets bullied then turns to be Wendy’s best friend when the target of bullying shifts to Jill. Jill learns to be independent at the end of the story. Jill’s catharsis gives insight to readers to understand that Jill certainly will not blindly go along with whatever the class ringleaders tells her to do just to measure that she is accepted by her peers.

It also does the same thing with the depiction of sibling rivalry. It can also be practically used to help children acknowledge the causes of the aggressive rivalry in order to have a better stand about it. When there are more than one factors leading to sibling rivalry such as the power struggle and self-efficacy, kids battle with their sibling because they compete for parents’ attention and love. Therefore, as their parents always consider Kenny’s facts to be very interesting, as for identification, Jill has to show that she is never interested. She calls her brother ‘a little computer’ (59)

‘dumb ass’ (58) ‘carnivore’ (81) and ‘little brat’ (61) in cynical tone. In addition, when she notices Kenny does not know anything about what a flenser is, she teases him by emphasizing his lack of information when he masters the facts in the

Guinness Book (9). Jill also needs to use Kenny’s absence from going out in every

Halloween night to be the reason for her to call her brother ‘chicken’ (23). Yet from all of those reasons why Jill teases Kenny, it is also because Kenny himself is a teaser to his sibling. As a result, to ask for equality, the siblings keep insult each other. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

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However, it is not until Jill the class bully finally experiences bullying, the name-calling and teasing from her classmates that she realizes it feels bad when somebody calls with bad names and teases. Jill never admits that she has done bad things to her brother. She neither promises that she will not tease Kenny. Yet, readers knows that there are a lot of lessons she get from the bullying she has involved and then experienced by her own to bring new perspective to her. Therefore, at the end of the novel, she decides to responds positively to Kenny’s fact about the longest earthworm as the cathartic part by saying,

“I’m really glad to hear that… His mother must be very proud.” (129).

From the story kids indirectly gain the insight to accept the sibling competition in a more positive attitude which results in a respectful relationship of a brother and a sister so that they can play a better role as a sibling to attempt at keeping harmony in the family and to provide championship and serve as playmates.

Besides creating enjoyments in readings, voicing the silenced disobedience, too, gives importance in helping readers to deal with their development. As kids grow, most of them defy their parents’ wishes and expectation. Not to see it as a trouble, Schor argues disobedience is part of growing up and testing adult guidelines and expectation152. He adds, it is one way for kids to learn and to discover their own selves, to express their individuality, and to achieve the sense of autonomy especially because kids grow independent and engage in minor interaction with parents so that they discover the boundaries of parental rules and of their own self-control.

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Like what have been analysed above, so often in her novel, Blume presents characters that are defiant to submit what their parents ask them to be. When kids grow to learn about themselves, sometime they see the problems they face do not match to their parents’ expectation. As identification, for example, readers can understand Margaret in Margaret does not go to school with socks because in the club she joins has rule for wearing loafers without any socks unless they will look like a baby153. The fear that she might not be anyone’s friend in the school because she will look weird can appear to be more important than doing what her mother asks her to wear socks.

It also happens similarly to Deenie in Deenie who struggles to achieve her self-esteem. When she has to wear a body brace for four years, she has her own problem about facing how she looks and how this affects her school and friendship.

In the same time, it seems to be harder for her mother to accept Deenie’s condition because it ruins her plan to make her daughter to be a professional model. She is busy finding the best way to cover up Deenie’s brace. At this moment, Deenie refuses her mother as she already accepts her own condition154. Readers can see obviously that the main character’s disobedience does not represent a kind of defiant girl, yet they may get the point that she wants to gain autonomy about her own body.

While Katherine finds her parents’ plan to send her to a summer camp is impossible as they know that she is dying when she has to be apart from Michael, her boyfriend. She believes that she is not a baby anymore that she demands for

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individuality. Therefore, whenever Katherine notices that the summer camp is her parents’ idea to take her away from Michael, she refuses her parents’ request155.

Katherine who learns to discover her stand and identity in dealing with sexual relationship with her boyfriend objects her parents’ involvement.

The presence of disobedience reflects the young characters’ reluctance to be intervened by parents in making their own decision or in determining the right from wrong. Margaret then finds it true that her feet hurt as she gets the school. She admits that her mother is right. Margaret then realizes it is okay to wear socks as “half the girls had on knee socks anyway” (27). As a matter of facts, it is only the rule of a small club she joins so that she feels relieved to be normal. Katherine’s relationship also gets influenced by the summer camp that her relationship turns to be plain that she questions about her promise to be forever with Michael. Katherine finds her lesson not in an instant way that she struggles for herself. Differently, Deenie’s disobedience in fulfil her mother’s wish, on the contrary, leads to achieve her self- image back as she realizes that wearing brace does not bother her with isolation from friends, family, and the activities.

Dealing with talking back kids, as well as adult, children also sometimes argue and talk back in order to make their ideas to be heard. They want to prove that they are right and everyone else is wrong. In many cases, the normal back talk is a matter of power-seeking. These power seekers do not like to be told what to do because they themselves want to make the rules and to determine how things are

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going to be done. As a matter of fact, presenting talking back characters in stories can help young readers to generate valuable perspective.

As for the identification, facing a strict uncle, an ambitious or selfish mother drives those kids to their willingness to express their power that they believe they can do something. Karen criticizes her mother when she notices her mother only thinks about her own self156. Davey argues that life should not be full of worries like her uncle’s and Deenie stands up for her independence157.

As their emotion released, most importantly, Blume implies the reduction of the back talks of the kids in which goes along with the reduction of the family tenses as the catharsis. As Karen’s family gets settled after the separation, the healthier family is consciously achieved. The emotional health of the members, too, recovers.

Karen finally marks her day “I had a B+ day today” after for months she gets C- during her parents’ disputes (169). In other words, the back talks are less found in the novel because they are no longer important to use to support the more positive emotion of the characters.

It happens to Davey, too. As she meets Miriam, the psychiatrist, to share what she feels upon the rigid Walter with all of his fears and overprotection, she finally can manage her anger to Walter.

“Bitsy and Walter give me a digital watch. I didn’t expect anything so grand and I am really touched. I kiss Bitsy on the cheek. And then I have to thank Walter. I haven’t said a word to him since the night he insulted my parents and slapped me. Now I face him. “Thank you very much.’ I say it formally. “You’re welcome,” he answers in the same tone. “Enjoy it.” He doesn’t look at me. I get the feeling he is uncomfortable about that night as I am. (190)

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It can be said to be the insight that talking back is normal part of how children make their communication. Blume offers ways to deal with such behaviour so that young readers can manage their own anger and disappointment.

Blume’s dishonest character is also significant. This is along with to Schor who argues in many cases, children lie when they are under significant stress to meet impossible demand158. In the characters analysed above, it is clear that Deenie,

Margaret, and Tony are dishonest to prevent themselves from parental disappointment. They want to try to save face as they know that they do something their parents may call as wrong. In such difficult situation and in her guilty, they decide to hide things from others.

Books with such depiction help readers to see themselves honestly portrayed and therefore to successfully identify with the characters with shared and similar possible actions. Through them, Blume suggests dishonesty is not written to be verified. Instead, she promotes the understanding that lies never appear with no reasons. Almost all of the characters lie because they know their parents will not approve what they do. When Margaret finally snoops to take her father’s Playboy magazine, she has a logical argument to do things even though she does not want to make negotiation with her parents’ about what is right and what is wrong.

“...I didn’t want to ask my mother. Not it was so wrong to show it (Playboy) to my friends. I mean, if it was so wrong my father shouldn’t get it all, right?” (64)

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Deenie also has similar condition in which she wants to do thing contradicting her mother’s expectation. That is why Deenie secretly practice cheerleader and try out. Yet, Deenie feels that her mother’s makes too much pressure on her for being a professional model and she considers it wrong.

“My mother’s going to kill me. She’ll say I’m slouching on purpose.” “So don’t tell her.” Don’t worry... I won’t. But Mrs. Rappoport’s going to call. She said she’d be in touch with my parents.” “Maybe she’ll write them a letter.” “Maybe... but either way my mother’s going to be plenty sore. You can’t be a model if you don’t have good posture.” “So you can be something else.” “Try and tell that to my mother!” (37)

Tony, in Then Again is also being dishonest to his parents about getting the binocular. He says it is for watching birds but in fact it is used to get clearer sight of his neighbour Lisa in getting undressed. The reason he lies is of course because he does not want her parents get suspicious. However, Tony believes it is no problem to use the binoculars to watch Lisa.

“I go to confession once a month, same as in Jersey City. I’ve thought a lot about tell him about Lisa. But I decided that watching her at night isn’t really sin. As long as it doesn’t hurt anyone what’s so wrong about it?” (111)

In fact, children also learn to make meaning in valuing things as good or bad.

Inviting readers to acknowledge those reasons and perspectives, Blume, through the books also presents a wakeup call for children’s caregivers to open the gate of communication and to be non-judgmental in dealing with lies, especially when they are done by children.

The therapeutic use can also be found in the voiced impudent teases.

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see children engage in teasing behavior because it may help them feel part of a group.

The need to belong may be so strong that a child may tease others to be accepted by the popular kids.159

As for identification, Jill senses a great pride when she is done teasing Mr.

Machinist and then proudly tells and shows it to Wendy, the popular and bossy girls in her class.

“Me and Tracy put six eggs in Mr. Machinist’s mailbox.” “You did not.” Wendy said. “We did too.” “I don’t believe you.” “We can prove it, can’t we, Tracy?” “Yeah… we’ll show you.” ….. We raced to Mr. Machinist’s house and when we got there I pulled his mailbox open while Tracy lit it with her flashlight. “Well,” I said, “there’s the evidence!” “You really did it.” Wendy sounded surprised. (39-40)

As the story goes on, Jill’s effort to please Wendy turns to be bad luck for her because Mr. Machinist gets the picture of the girls he correctly identifies as Jill and

Tracy. Wendy convinces Jill that nobody else has reason to get them and tell on them to Mr. Machinist but Linda. Soon, they hold a trial to make Linda confess which turns to be the act of bullying. However, Wendy’s willingness to forcefully make Linda admit what she does is too strong. This makes Wendy does not want to follow Jill’s request to provide a lawyer for Linda. Since then, their relationship is ruined. Jill no longer hangs out with Wendy. She begins to wonder that it is Linda who tells on her.

159Judy S. Freedman, "Easing the Teasing: How Parents Can Help Their Kids Cope." n.d. The Alliance for Early Childhood. Website. 12 May 2013. . PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

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“Tracy… do you think it was Linda who told on us?” “I’m not sure… it could have been…if she was mad enough.” I nodded. “Or it could have been Wendy and Caroline.” “Yeah… I guess you’re right.” I said. “It could have been.” “Or maybe somebody else.” (113)

To be the insight for her readers, Blume says that pleasing a best friend should not prevent somebody from being logical

Finally, for the pre-adolescence like Blume’s characters, swearing, as the next misbehaviour can be understood as the way how they should behave as they are at the age where they begin to be ‘oppositional’ and want to shock adults. It is then not surprising to see the fifth grader Jill in Blubber swears about her Math teacher Mrs

Minish for marking all her math problems wrong. Jill assumes it supposes to be all right to have her equations backwards if she gets all the answers right. While the strict Mrs Minish stays on her argument so that Jill feels that swearing represents her disappointment. It is interesting that Jill shares her perspective particularly in swearing in her family that can be the insight for some readers even though not for some other. Cursing or swearing is acceptable in her family as long as it does not insult anybody. She says,

Then she (Jill’s mother) cursed a couple of times. My mother’s not shy about cursing. She doesn’t even care if me and Kenny use those words around the house as long as we understand there are some people who don’t approve of them. I think that’s the reason most of the kids I know love to curse. It’s because their parents make a big deal out of those words. With me it’s different. I don’t have to yell and scream them on the school bus everyday since I can say them any old time I feel like it. (81)

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discussed to their caregivers that swearing appears to be a way to alleviate pain, anger, and frustration. Karen in It’s Not the End swears for her anger and disappointment along with her parents’ conflict and the divorce process. Everything goes wrong for Karen especially because she fails to keep her parents get together.

Deenie in Deenie also curses her scoliosis because it brings her to face physical and emotional problems by wearing body brace. Tony, too, swears every time he witnesses his friend Joel stealing the stores and to his brother Ralph for being a jerk as the family turn to be very rich.

However, when the cathartic experiences are reached by the characters, curses are not significantly needed to express. As finally Karen can accepts her parent’s separation, or when Deenie can also respect her own condition as well as Tony can deal with his anger, the swearing words are no longer used because the characters’ emotion has been positively settled. Therefore, it can be said that swearing does not come without reasons. Blume understands and portray this through her young fictional characters to lead an insight for the readers that it is not wrong to curse when they feel they need them. Yet, more importantly is that Blume invites readers to identify the existed problems and then fix them.

It is clear that the data and the analysis show that as the author of the novel,

Blume, implies her disapproval to the assumption toward childhood’s revival of wicked natures when presented in texts. This confirms that the unexpected behaviours representing her disinterest of embodying the hierarchical relation between children and adults brings Blume to have no burdens to portray children characters with their human natures for not being forever perfect and ideal as desired. Such honest writing PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

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is not only the reason why her novels are admired by the readers for their logical organization for the successful identification, but they also assist children to learn values about those bad behaviours to be generated to their real life. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

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CHAPTER VI

CONCLUSION

The first chapter of this thesis gives the idea that despite vast praise and popularity, Judy Blume has received harsh criticism for frankly addressing silenced issues like sex, death, depression, or cruel bullying in her children’s books. The contrasting reaction suggests that her books have been frequently banned by parents and educators but adored by children as the intended readers. Her books, too, have been widely considered as important books and must-read books for their practically therapeutic uses.

As how it is explained in chapter two, under the perspectives of poststructuralism, silencing tough issues like sensuality and sexuality, brute realities, and unexpected manners during writing, selecting, publishing, and reading books for young readers is found to be the outcome of how adults understand and treat children under the unchecked beliefs permeated. They construct children to be naturally innocent and imitative so that the knowledge on sexuality is deprived from childhood.

In addition, by using post-colonial point of view, children are also socio-culturally defined mainly on how they are lack of abilities which are used to differentiate them from adults. This makes the dualism between adults and children turns obvious in hierarchy. As a result, children are prevented from being exposed to brute realities - the adults’ matters - in their books. The power relation between them, too, is the reason to support the hegemonic discourse to keep children subjugated, marginalized, silenced, denigrated, and defined. Therefore, children’s books mainly reject the portrayal of children’s bad behaviors disapproved by adults. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

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The way how the widely persisted discourses understand and treat children has become the restlessness of this thesis writer. The impact has been vastly weakening children in their real life in general. Specifically, those unquestioned concepts about childhood have determined limited enjoyments and pragmatic roles of reading literature. By using Blume’s phenomena in which her books has been challenged but loved by and useful for the young readers, this thesis has shown the relations between Blume’s perspectives deconstructing the common beliefs about childhood and the delights they can offer. In addition, it also deals with the benefits that practically can be gained by implementing particular concepts of bibliotherapy which accept the relation between fictions with silenced issues and their important practical function to readers facing them in the real life.

In the third chapter, it can be seen that from the selected texts analyzed,

Blume’s preference to oppose silencing in her books can be implicitly seen in the way how they present sensuality such as romance and crushes in childhood, puberty

(menstruation, breast development, wet dreams, sexual thoughts, and masturbation), and sexuality like teenage pregnancy and birth control as the implied disagreement on the ideological practices believing that children are naturally innocent.

Blume puts aside the fears of talking about sexuality to children and prefers to trust them to deny children’s naiveté and fragility even though to some extent they might have fewer experiences compared to adults in being exposed to what they call as harmful issue. All characters suggest that childhood is not naturally asexual that their interest, curiosity, and thought about their sexual life as young people are portrayed in their high list as well as their problems and how they cope with them. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

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The texts also suggest that with the tough issues like sexuality and sensuality,

Blume offers struggles in understanding childhood and their literature in a more empowering attitude instead of seeing children as a group of people which typically lack of experience, skills, and intelligence. It is due to their low level of understanding that such matters like sensuality and sexuality are possible to appear in the texts for young readers.

Through the analysis, it is also important to see that some pleasures in reading texts are able to gain when authors of books prevent themselves from being censorious writers. It is true that no other but honest writer can serve best in the realistic novels. Blume’s texts offer several significant enjoyments as they portray the issues of sexuality and sensuality in details since these details heighten emotion and lead readers to stay in the moment. The texts appear to be honest, authentic, and clear so that they work their best in expressing and visualizing the author’s imagination through the shared experiences between the fictional characters and the readers.

The delight of storytelling is also provided in the analyzed texts because

Blume shares her comments about sexuality and sensuality through the stories. The way how she understands and accepts those two matters in her memory of childhood combined with her own perspective as adults presents pleasing reading experiences.

Young readers who might have no experiences but curious in sexuality, who have similar concern with the issues appearing fictionally, and who might try to find solution for their own sexual problems are spoiled with the unique or perhaps new perspectives of the author. It is always delightful to be enriched by similar or different point of views in reading fictions. It is then more enjoyable since the author also uses PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

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the young characters’ perspective so that her comments never sound judgmental or frightening and therefore satisfy and secure the readers.

Not only providing pleasures, practically, the voiced sexuality and sensuality of the texts gives beneficial contribution to the young readers when they are seen from their therapeutic usage. As a point of controversy, voicing the silenced sparks discussion and dialogue by simply existing. Examining their journey of publication history, the texts have been impactful to open the issue for young readers, with their mothers, journalists, each other, media, and even with the author of the fictions.

Especially when the topical attitudes and feelings about sex and sexuality is mystifying and taboo, the appearance of such issues in children’s books helps that remarkably difficult issues to be opened in the public sphere as well as to be incredibly important outlet and source of information.

While in chapter four, this thesis also wraps up its finding that the texts used in the analysis demonstrates the novels’ author is in opposition to the common definition that childhood is assumed to be inferiorly different from adults. The texts indeed are evidences for not giving children the absolute natures of immaturity, incapability, and inferiority. These leading-to-colonial-attitudes perspectives are not found in the analysis because the comparison between adult and children which places children to be unstable and less experiences are not illustrated in the books.

The texts stand in their rejection toward children and their otherness. They promote the facts that children are granted with skills and intelligence not differing from adults. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

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On the contrary, the texts depict childhood to experience what commonly said to be adults’ matters for their difficulties and complexities such as the bad sides of life including parental conflicts, divorce, uncertainties, illness, problem with religion, death, and violence. Children’s businesses are not significantly distinguished from adults’ matters so that writing for children is not about presenting the bright and happy life as how child life is assumed and desired, but it also enables them to be exposed to darkness of realities.

The brute realities drawn in the texts are discussed in this thesis to provide gratification in the literature reading. Knowing that the fictional characters tell their stories facing the brute life is found to be a way for young readers to escape from the realities they do not really deal. The novels might be enjoyable as they are the ones that are far-flung from readers’ own realities with different types of issues they might never meet. They transport readers to another world and life fictionally to show the characters struggling against thing they hope and they know they will never have to face.

When those dark sides of realities have been absence for winning the expectation and beliefs playful and joyful period of childhood, voicing those realities is then delightful when most of the texts provided in the markets are silenced with such matters. The novels analyzed appear to break the boredom of variety of the same old stories. The ‘ideal’ life of children is deconstructed as the texts offer the ‘non- children’ issues and therefore the willingness to gain newness expected by every reader can be fulfilled. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

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Not only making the newness available in children’s books, the silenced terrible realities found throughout the texts are proven to enable readers to play with their repertoire while reading by identifying and filling gaps. When children are believed to be distracted with difficult matters as they are assumed to have no capability to understand, some experts see the way how children welcome and are ready any new things regardless the complexity as playground to explore that they are also possible to creatively fill the gaps during reading books containing difficult topics.

Importantly, the presentation of those silenced awful experiences in the books analyzed shares their therapeutic advantages in which by their fictional existence, young readers can gain helps by learning the shared vicarious experiences of the characters in order to cope their real life difficulties. Especially because today children are exposed to a much higher level brute realities like one found in this thesis including violence, instability, and death than in previous years, to assist them through these difficult times, it is best to provide them with an outlet of expression.

Bibliotherapy, or therapeutic reading, aids children relate to characters and therefore cope with their emotions. This is because most readers are looking for a solution to their own personal life situation and feel more at ease when they learn that they are not the only ones dealing with particular life crisis.

Finally, in chapter five, from the texts studied, it can be inferred that the author’s standpoint about the assumption that children are commonly accepted as simply influenced by whatever exposed to them for they are also deemed to be great imitators is clarified through the texts that she chooses to recognize childhood to be PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

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blessed with self-filters. Therefore, exposing behaviors adults never expect supposed to be no problem. Implying lesser threatened, the author’s belief can be implied that it is necessary to trust children and to refuse to belief that children are a class with typical and similar people sharing commonalities without significant differences to acknowledge that they are heterogeneous individuals.

From the analysis, it is clear that bad manners indeed are depicted through the child characters that they show bullying, sibling rivalry, disobedience, back talks and gazes, dishonesty, impudent teases, and swearing words in the texts observed. This also says something else about the author’s perspective related to the confirmation that to a great level, Children’s Literature fulfills the need adults’ interests instead of children’s that literature for children appears to be the benefits of adults. When children’s books only supply the ideal characters adults approve, describing honest childhood period with problems of social and personality is seen as a way to decline adults’ interest and domination.

This thesis furthermore reveals the joy of reading when those ‘misbehaviors’ are truthfully rendered in the texts. Placing children’s characters as subject of stories helps the texts’ elements fit jointly to shape a whole. It is gratifying for readers to be spoiled with self-reflective characters. Characters whose actions are logical and three- dimensional have the best place in the readers’ heart to be respected by the young readers even though their decision and actions may seem unexpected and far from being ‘ideal’ by adults. In this sense, the texts’ logical elements create meaningful and united structure of their plot development. Without those reasonable actions, the PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

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texts might lose their organized plot and would only be flawed with corrupted characterization.

Besides constructing enjoyment, having such ‘bad’ behaviors leads readers to be able to take the practical therapeutic usages when reading the texts. Dealing with their social and personal development, the characters in the texts provide learning of coping problems with the concepts of normalcy and self-acceptance that can be generated by readers to help them dealing with their own real development as kids and pre-teens.

Examining the sensitive, difficult, and unexpected issues in Blume’s novels provides evidence that not only are her novels entertaining, but they function more as a mode of education, especially about things that young people cannot find adequate answers. As a result, it is also necessary to wonder the reasons to strongly oppose their presence and what makes it dangerous about children finding a way to access their life through literary works.

Besides taking the physical aspect, the novels analyzed provide an arena for seeking pleasures for honest discussion about difficult and sensitive issues in childhood. They also take the emotional side through fictional figures. They present characters and problems that young readers are able to relate to. Ultimately, the novels serve to assuage this young people’s fears, anxiety, and curiosity about growing up. As readers get to know the characters, perhaps they can no longer feels alone, and after reading, might realize that their life are indeed normal.

It is then necessary to acknowledge that the analysis in this research is inseparable from the context in which this thesis is written, Indonesia. It is expected PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

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that conducting research in silencing by using Blume’s novels as the American children’s novels can be beneficial to become reflection of the Indonesian Children’s

Literature. It is especially because moral panic has been so strong that censorship as well as silencing occurs frequently when dealing with children in books and media supported by government and community organizations.

In the late year of 2012 in Purworejo, for example, the final examination for the fifth grader elementary students had been contested for containing questions dealing with the reproduction, wet dreams, menstruation, and pregnancy. In one of junior high schools in Aceh, a survey on students’ reproduction health also appeared to be a controversy in the mid of 2014 for asking students’ reproduction sizes and shapes, which was considered as too obscene.

While about graphic violence, some animations on television like Bima Sakti,

Tom and Jerry, and SpongeBob Square pants have been used to blame of promoting violence to the aggressive behaviour in childhood that KPAI, the Indonesian child protection commission, suggests withdrawal from being broadcasted under the belief that children will imitate what they see in the media.

The recent issue occurred in Kolaka as Penguin’s colourful encyclopaedia with 3D illustration WHY also got banned of exposing naked human bodies regarded as the act of pornography and therefore as unreasonable topic to discuss with children. Some educators and fundamentalists also protest that it contains the verification of gay’s life.

KPI, the Indonesian broadcasting commission, recently demonstrates its stand by doing censorship in many ways. It blurs blood, female body, cigarettes, alcohol, PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

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and violence, homosexuality in movies and animations in television. Government, too, gets stricter in making regulation of children’s knowledge often in the name of protection or in the child’s best interest.

With such moral panic, children’s literature in Indonesia then is naturally silenced from the taboo and difficult topics. Even worse, writers of children’s literature have already held the silence even before they write. It is because they know how publishers, markets, parents, educators, and government would react.

However, with the stricter regulation, ironically, the opportunity to talk to children about tough issues gets smaller, too. This prevents children from being informed and can increase the abuse and exploitation as well as prevent them from the ability to be the competent adults. In addition, this also prevents the creation of pleasurable and at the same time useful children’s literature for their real life.

Therefore, instead of attacking and silencing children from such access from books, parents and the caregivers with their silencing act like censorship must begin to view them as a positive initiation of a conversation about difficult life and growing up and how to fit in. Surely, children will continue to struggle with questions and uncertainty about their life and body and it is only through talking and lessening the taboo and the fear around the issue that they will begin to be concerned about just being themselves. In short, reading and writing about issues that are difficult is the first step towards acceptance, understanding, and education.

The writer of this thesis acknowledges there are weakness and limitations in the process of writing. One of them is the limitation in the knowledge on the censorship historical context taking place in Blume’s era in 1970 which can only be PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

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gained from the documentation from books like biography and from website articles.

This makes this research difficult to represent the real condition influencing the books banning as silencing of Judy Blume.

It also becomes theoretical weakness when this study on children’s literature is not supported by the involvement of children as the data source so that the analysis of this thesis is simply conducted based on theoretical knowledge generated from the researcher’s (adult-red) assumptions. Ideally, research in children’s literature needs to consider children’s perspectives, opinion, and reception as data source so that the analysis can come closer to the truth in understanding children and their literature. As a result, the weakness and limitation mentioned are left for other researchers to pick up. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

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APPENDICES

Synopsis 1: Deenie Deenie is an attractive seventh-grader. Her mother determines that her good looks should not be wasted that she pushes her toward professional modeling even though Deenie is not sure she really wants it. For several times, she has to lie to her mother when trying out for her real dream to be in a cheerleading team because she knows her mother will not let her. In one of the try out, Deenie's gym teacher notices her slightly crooked posture and refers her to an orthopedist who diagnoses adolescent idiopathic scoliosis. Even worse, it is because the doctor assures her that wearing a Milwaukee brace for four years is the appropriate treatment. Wearing the brace becomes a source of her embarrassment, frustration, and anger. She needs to adjust every physical movement that even attaching a pad is not easy to do. For some times masturbating makes Deenie relaxed. Yet, she gets the fear that it is masturbating that makes her spine crooked as she has heard. However, her gym teacher clarifies that both case are unrelated. During the hard time of wearing brace, Deenie are connected to people with handicaps which create sympathy. Her relationships within the family and among friends shift because of this new self- awareness and of others' varied capacities to accommodate to her new limitations. Through many times debates with her mother who hardly accepts her daughter’s condition, Deenie declares that wearing a brace does not define her. Later she also discovers that the boy with whom she has been developing a first romance does not find the brace a barrier either to friendship or to the tentative intimacies of early love. In fact, the family, friends, and she herself begin to forget about the brace.

Synopsis 2: Forever Katherine, heading for her senior year in high school, finds herself strongly attracted to Michael, in a friend's friend, after a party. As their relationship unfolds, the issue of sex comes up early on. Michael has been sexually active, Katherine has not. Their sex relationship progresses slowly as Katherine says she is not mentally ready so that she rejects Michael’s invitation to have sex on their early dates. On a ski weekend, Michael and Katherine are involved in mutual masturbation. She learns about male’s body as well as the premature ejaculations. As the times go by, Katherine wants to do more than that with Michael that she prepares for safe sex by taking birth control program. She finally makes the sexual intercourse through some unsuccessful processes. Katherine realizes that sex should be done through practices. Only with someone who loves, a person can take this practice patiently as what Michael does to her. In this stage, Katherine finds something so final about love that she declares for really loving Michael forever. However, separated for the summer by work that takes them to two different states, Katherine finds herself aware of the limitations of the relationship and ultimately attracted to a tennis instructor, Theo. She rejects Michael’s invitation to sex as she feels the love has gone as the reason she gets involved with Michael PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

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sexually. Katherine takes her responsibility for breaking the news to Michael when he comes on a surprise visit and the ‘forever’ business is forsaken. Her sexual experiences do not bring miseries to Katherine’s life for all is properly set. Yet, the pain for letting Michael go is so clear that she wants to keep the special moments with him in her mind but never regrets to ever love him.

Synopsis 3: Tiger Eyes Davey Wexler has just attended the funeral of her father who was shot to death in his store in Atlantic City. After lying in bed for days on end and not eating, Davey starts her tenth year of school, but ends up passing out on her first day from anxiety. The night when her father died remains in her mind so that she longs for her father so much. Being in a great trauma, Davey's mother, Gwen decides they need to get away for a while. They take up an offer from Adam's older sister, Bitsy, and her husband Walter, to come and stay with them in Los Alamos, New Mexico. While there, Bitsy and Walter, who do not have children and were never able to have them, start treating Davey and Jason like their own, which eventually creates tension between Davey and the two of them. They do not let her do a number of things because of fear of her getting hurt or killed, and more so when her mother just sits back and allows it to happen. Meanwhile, as Davey explores the town on her aunt's bicycle, she goes to a canyon and after climbing down, she runs into an older boy who calls himself Wolf. Davey calls herself Tiger when they introduce each other. She also becomes a candy striper at the hospital and meets a cancer patient who turns out to be the father of Wolf. The inspiration from Wolf and his father changes Davey for the better. Her meetings with Mirriam the psychiatrists also brings Davey to decide to remember her father in happiness not in sadness or trauma of the night she witnessed her father dying asking her for help.

Synopsis 4: Then Again, Maybe I Won’t Eleven-year-old Tony Miglione likes living with his family in Jersey City. He has hard-working parents, a brother and a sister-in-law with a baby on the way, and a grandma living together. The Migliones' financial worries end suddenly when the father sells his invention, an electrical cartridge, to an electronics company. Tony, his parents, his brother’s family, and his grandma move to a large home on Long Island. In his new days arriving, Tony meets Joel, who lives next door. As days pass, Tony discovers he can watch Joel's 16-year-old sister, Lisa, through his window and hers, as she changes her clothes. Tony's voyeurism becomes his favorite activity. He lies to his parents as he asks for binoculars for watching birds for he knows the real reason is to get closer look of Lisa in getting undressed. Overall, life on Long Island makes Tony anxious. Mom becomes increasingly concerned with appearances and social standing. She defers to the new maid who insists Grandma who joyfully cooks stay out of the kitchen. Grandma becomes PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

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depressed and rarely leaves her bedroom. Ralph, the brother, quits his teaching job to work for Dad, which Tony sees as "selling out." Joel repeatedly shoplifts in front of Tony, and Tony wrestles with his conscience about whether to report the boy. On top of everything else, Tony's hormonal changes plague him. He starts having wet dreams and getting erections, even in class. Overwhelmed with unanswered questions and unspoken concerns and anxieties, Tony begins to have stress-induced stomach problems. He assumingly relates his wet dream to the activity of watching Lisa and to the stomach problems. As finally Tony's stomach pains cause him to collapse on the sidewalk after witnessing one of Joel's shoplifting sprees, Tony is hospitalized and tested for medical problems. The physicians find nothing like Tony assumes and refer him to a psychologist named Dr. Fogel. With him, Tony is finally able to speak openly about his stress and confusion. He begins to learn to deal with his anxiety, stresses, and the changes in life and manage his anger to eventually reduce the stomach pain.

Synopsis 5: Blubber Blubber delivers a relevant view of bullying, from the perspective of fifth grader, Jill Brenner. As the pudgy Linda presents a classroom assignment on the whale, she is nicknamed “Blubber” by Wendy, the most popular girl at school. Starting from that day, a daily ritual of abuse begins. When Wendy first writes a note using the name Blubber, Jill smiles, not because she thinks it’s funny but because Wendy is watching her. After that, she participates wholeheartedly. Over the next few weeks, most of the kids laugh at Linda, call her names, spit at her, and trip her. They even physically hold her down to mess with her clothes and later, to force her to eat something unappealing. Linda lets it happen, doing very little to resist or fight back. In the end, they lock her in a closet and declare that she’s on trial to find out who tells on Jill about the vandalism she does in a Halloween night. Wendy is the judge. She forces Linda to admit. Yet, Jill, who initiates the trial, requires it to be fair. This disagreement leads to the ruined relationship with Wendy. Unfortunately, Wendy decides that Jill is now in Linda’s shoes. For the next weeks, Jill is the target of the bully. However, different from Linda, Jill does not let other people decide what is going happen to her. She stands for herself by getting Wendy’s gang disbanded and that is how the bullying ends.

Synopsis 6: It's Not the End of the World Karen Newman has soured on the idea of marriage. In her diary, she gives each day a letter grade. Yet, her days have not been graded higher than a C-minus. They have been bad days for her. Her parents, who have been quarreling more and more each day, announce that they are splitting up. The father moves out of the family home and plans to go to Las Vegas to file for divorce, much to Ellie's delight and Karen's worry. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

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. With the support from her grandfather, Karen tries every possible way she can think of to stop the divorce from happening, including sending anniversary cards and feigning illness, but her efforts are ultimately fruitless. Even with her brother’s case of runaway, instead of bringing her father closer to her mother, Karen’s parents quarrel more violently than before. At this point, Karen begins to learn about divorce through The Boys and Girls Book about Divorce as well as to learn about accepting it. In the end, Karen decides that, in spite of her parents' impending divorce, things will get better. The last diary entry in the book has Karen giving the day a B-plus.

Synopsis 7: Starring Sally J. Freedman as Herself Sally J. Freedman moves from New Jersey to Miami, Florida with her brother and their mother and grandmother at the end of World War II. In her new school, she meets new friends for example Barbara, who teaches Sally all about the school. Later, she meets Andrea, a sixth grader, and Shelby, a girl in a different class than Sally. Sally has a difficult first day at school, but after a while, she begins to make more friends. There, she meets Peter Hornstein, a so-called 'Latin Lover', who seems to like Sally, but Peter ignores Sally when Jackie, a new girl, arrives at the school. It troubles Sally that Peter is going after a different girl, and she begins to like Peter back. Sally kisses Peter at their teacher's wedding at the end of the story. A central part in the story is when Sally meets a man named Mr. Zavodsky, who lives in her building in Miami. He offers Andrea and her candy. Sally refuses the candy even though Andrea accepts it, which makes Sally upset. Sally, who is Jewish, notices that Mr. Zavodsky looks similar to Adolf Hitler and comes to believe (because of her active imagination) that he is actually Hitler, in disguise and retiring in Miami. Sally frequently narrates stories about Hitler’s cruel attitudes. Sally writes (but never mails) a lot of letters to Mr. Zavodsky, always saying she will get him someday. She spies on him, secretly listening to their phone conversations on a party line. She worries at one point Mr. Zavodsky killed her friend Shelby, and she believes the rock candy he offers is actually poison. In the end, Mr. Zavodsky dies of a heart attack.

Synopsis 8: Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret

Margaret Ann Simon is an eleven year old who is entering sixth grade. Though she has been raised with no organized religion, she talks to God on a regular basis. Her family moves from New York City to Farbrook, New Jersey, the week before Margaret begins school. Margaret’s first friend is Nancy Wheeler, another sixth grader who lives six houses away. Nancy immediately recruits Margaret to join her secret club that includes two other girls. The club decides to make rules about always meeting on Mondays, wearing bras, writing weekly entries in the “boy book” of crushes, and reporting the moment when they get the first period. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

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At school, Mr. Benedict, the teacher, assigns the class a yearlong project to research any topic they would like, as long as it is meaningful to them. Margaret decides to do her project about finding a religion, since she has been raised without one and wants to decide if she should join the YMCA or the Jewish Community Center like anybody else in the town. As Margaret quickly becomes acquainted with the role of the students, she meets Laura Danker, the tall, beautiful, developed girl who is the source of bad- reputation rumors of going behind a store to make out with a boy Margaret likes, Moose Freed. Through the novel, Margaret is told to have trouble finding God to decide the religion. She becomes increasingly frustrated in her search. The days get worse when Margaret’s estranged grandparents pay a visit, her disdain for organized religion grows. Her grandparents, whom Margaret has never met before, are focused only on Margaret being a Christian and attending Sunday school. The rift the argument causes in Margaret’s family puts distaste in her mouth toward aligning herself with any religion, so she gives up her search and are mad to God. The madness is also strongly driven by the emotional turmoil in understanding her pre-teen sexuality and individual voice in the book. Like her friends, Margaret is desperate to start her period and develop breasts. She asks her mother for a bra, exercises to make them grow bigger, and stuffs her bras with cotton balls in a party. She also purchases sanitary pads for herself to try. Importantly, she even prays to God to let her, again, be like anybody else to ensure that she is normal. Yet, she does not notice God’s answer to her prays. It is not until the days when Margaret learns from the facts how Nancy has led rumors about Laura just because how she looks should not define one’s appearance. Margaret also comes to understanding that waiting patiently for her period is much better than lying about it like what Nancy does. Her mother also helps a lot to answer questions about getting period. As the school year ends, Margaret has emerged a more confident, self-assured twelve-year-old with excitement about starting junior high school. In the final pages of the book, Margaret gets her period as well as gladly acknowledges that a story about Moose Freed is another Nancy’s lies. First she tells her mother about the period. Then she goes to God with the good news, saying that she knows he was there because he wouldn’t have missed it.