Charley’s characterizations give big contributions to the content of his dream. His being rude and indifferent to his mother, make him regrets and misses
his mother so much. His being weak also puts him in the desperation that finally leads him to commit suicide. These characterizations, indirectly, makes his late
mother comes to his dream. The author, Mitch Albom, divides the novel into four main parts. They are
midnight p.1, morning p.19, noon p.101 and night p.147. Charley’s unconsciousness is revealed in the second until the last part of the novel. Later,
the writer finds that each part reflected Charley’s life. These representations below also can help the writer to analyze Charley’s decision making process.
1. “MORNING” as Representations of the Starting Point in Charley’s Life
Soon after he reaches his old house, he takes the key under a phony rock in a flower box. His house is musty and clean that makes him thinks just like
someone lives there all these years. He opens the refrigerator and the cabinet in the kitchen to find something alcoholic. Then suddenly he hears his mother’s
voice shouting his name from upstairs p.37. So he runs out from the kitchen knowing nowhere to go. He just stands there, and then the door opens and his
mother is standing in front of him saying, “What are you doing out here? It’s cold” p.41.
He, again, is really confused at this time. He thinks that his brain has been already damage. “Was I hallucinating? Should I move toward her? Was she like a
bubble that would burst? Honestly, at this point, my limbs seemed to belong to
someone else” p.42. After everything goes around in his mind, finally Charley runs toward his mother and hugs her as if he will never go.
He sits on the kitchen table and his mother comes in the kitchen with antiseptic bottle and a washcloth. Then she begins to clean the wounds all over his
arm and his face. The feeling that comes up in his heart is that he feels like a little boy who misses somebody. He tries hard to call her mother “mom” after he has
not said for long. His mother only says “Charley”, she sighed “The trouble you get into” p. 49-50.
Next, his mother makes him a breakfast and asks him a question, “So can you stay all day?” p.55. Again, Charley does not believe what happens to him.
He says nothing. Some questions come through his mind which finally makes him to say “Mom,” “this is impossible” p.55.
Freud said that the character of wish-fulfillment in dreams is often undisguised and recognizable, so that one may wonder why the language of
dreams has not been understood Freud, 1913: 103-104. It explains what happens to Charley when he recognizes his mother but he cannot explain why he can talk
to his late mother. After he has finished his breakfast, his mother asks him to go with her to
do hair and make up for homebound elderly women. She has three appointments on that day. While they are walking along the road, her mother begins to tell him
the stories that he never knows and indeed this is the starting point of how his questions about his life are answered and revealed one by one. His mother starts it
from the first three years after the marriage. The young couple writes a word on a
tree and his mother shows him and says the word that is carved on the tree is a wish of the young couple to get a child and that child as the wish granted is
himself. His mother continues, “Now you know how badly someone wanted you, Charley. Children forget that sometimes. They think of themselves as a burden
instead of a wish granted” p.73. The first thing that comes out of his mind when he hears what his mother
explains to him was that he feels very ashamed because he wants to end up his life, while a long time ago hos parents carved a prayer to have him born. After
they stand in front of the tree and reveal the history of the word carved on the tree, they begin to walk down the road to reveal another mystery in Charley’s life,
which is the reason why he is should stay alive. The first appointment that his mother has on that day is with an old lady
named Rose. When his mother tells Rose about Charley’s daughter Maria, his mother then asks him what happens to him and Maria. Charley answers “Maria is
ashamed of me” p.88 and his mother tells him not to think like that. His mother tells Rose that Charley always refuses when she wants to cut his hair. Rose
answers “Children get embarrassed with all their parents have in every aspect” p.89. His mother then explains the conditions when once a long time ago
Charley did the same thing to her, “Remember, Charley. Sometimes, kids want you to hurt the way they hurt” p.89. Then, the questions which rise in Charley’s
mind are what he has done to Maria and what makes Maria hurt. Charley remembers his childhood when he does the same thing to his mother.
Both Jung and Freud have the same opinion that dreams may look backward to the past experience. What the writer tries to explain before shows
that Charley always remember his past time and relates it with his recent time. From the first part, which is the morning, the writer can see the relationship
between Charley Benneto and his mother in his childhood is revealed, including the questions dealing with his daughter, Maria.
2. “NOON” as Representations of Charley’s Quest to Find Answer about
