Independent The Characteristic of Hannah

the bonds of her patriarchal society and define herself if she wishes to become a significant human being in her own right and defy male classification as the other. Women must realize that they have freedom to be significant human being not inferior human being Madsen, 2000: 182. The first characteristic of Hannah that shows the idea of freedom from patriarchy is her being critical. Living in patriarchal society makes Hannah sceptical and curious about her life, which is not inappropriate. She criticizes something that she thinks is not true and illogical for her. It happens when she criticizes the condition between men and women in her society. Hannah uses her own right to be free from patriarchal society. Being part of western society, it makes Hannah to be more critical. Humm states that women become more aware of herself and her society. The struggle against patriarchy begins as the voice of women is found. By becoming conscious women find the chance and use the chance to speak against injustice. Struggle against patriarchy starts after women becoming conscious of themselves and criticizing their symbolic misinterpretations in society 1990: 3. She likes to compare her life to others. Here, Hannah compares her belief system to other belief systems to get a better life, which lets Hannah to be liberated. When she joins her western friends, Hannah feels the freedom is very close to her and she compares it to her society and the routine that she faces everyday. Hannah also wants to be free because her Pakistani friend inspires her in terms of how to face life. One of her friends who inspires her to get the sense of freedom is Sonia. Sonia’s family towards women is completely different from PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI Hannah’s. According to Sonia’s society, it is normal and expected for women to get educated, employed, and be independent. Sonia’s life has more sense of freedom than Hannah’s. Sonia is allowed to go down town, meet her friends, hang out and get dressed in western clothes. By comparing these two conditions of society that are totally contradicting to each other, just like Sonia, Hannah wants to use her freedom and right to live her life to the fullest. She gave me the freedom and support I needed to make my own way, to make my own religious choice, to follow my own free will – and to make my own mistakes if necessary. I had been rigidly controlled and punished for so long. Now, at least, I had the freedom to discover who and what I wanted to be. I was learning to become my own person 2009: 105 Based on the quotation above, it indicates that Hannah used to be controlled and punished for so long by her family. After escaping from her house, she is given freedom and support to live her own life to convert her religion, follow her own free will, and make her own mistake. As being a critical person, Hannah finds the truth about what her father has taught in Islamic religious scripture called Quran. She starts to read the Quran in the language that she understands. Hannah learns what the Quran actually means and it assists her to start fighting for her freedom. By being a critical person, Hannah leads herself to the state of freedom which is in line with the idea of feminism, it can be indicated by Hannah’s thought below: There was something in my nature that opened my mind, and made me curious and searching. One thing that I really started to question was why I had to pray in Arabic. In the school library I had seen an English translation of the Quran, but I knew Dad wouldn’t allow me to read it. Dad insisted that the Quran as rendered in Arabic was the exact recording of Allah’s word. Translation corrupted the word of God, and the Quran didn’t have any ‘spiritual truth’ in other languages. The fact that none of PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI us – Dad, the Imam, included – understood Arabic didn’t seem to concern him 2009:62. Being critical is a form of freedom. By doing so, Hannah finds her new freedom to be herself, right to be loved, and feels an inner peace because she constructs a newborn mindset that debunks the expectation of patriarchal system. In actualizing her freedom from patriarchy, Hannah converts her religion based on her consent because she does not want live under her father’s dark shadow. She finds a freedom and happiness from her new life after escaping from her family. She wants to live her life to the fullest, be independent and be liberate which is proven by her thought: For the first time, I felt truly free. I didn’t want my father ‘s dark shadow cast over me again, even if it was just memory. Whenever I was at the Jonese’s home on Sunday and they set off to church I would go with them. Week after week, I sat quietly in my pew and watched and listened. The care and the love that I experienced in the Jones family, and at their church, had to come from somewhere, I reasoned. If it come from their God, then perhaps I should try to get to know him, I started attending church youth group, where I met a girl called Rachel. She helped ease me into the process of being a free young woman. Toward the end of my gap year I decided to get baptized. It was something I felt I had to do, to both celebrate and reaffirm my conversion. It was another step towards growing in my faith and celebrating my free choice as a free person in a free society 2009:116. Hannah uses her right to choose what she wants to believe. Then she converts her religion as a process of being a free woman. Based on the quotation above, it can be seen that, through her critical mind, Hannah supports this idea of feminism. By being critical, Hannah contests the expectation from patriarchy that shapes a “taken for granted” mindset to women. For instance, women need to take the obligation of being submissive for granted, or take oppression for granted. Getting oppression by her father makes Hannah realize the necessity for a change. She cannot accept the unfair treatment by her father. Throughout rejection of her father’s unfair treatment, she criticizes the oppression and unfairness instead of taking them for granted. Therefore, she plans to escape and prove that she has a right to be free of her life which is emphasized by her thought “It was another step towards growing in my faith and celebrating my free choice as a free person in a free society” 2009: 67. Freedom here means that, as women, they have their rights to make a decision for their happiness and live their life to the fullest. The second characteristic of Hannah that supports this idea of feminism is her being independent. Freeman states hat, women have to realize that they are not inferior beings, and should stop of being dependent on men. Women have the right to live, therefore, they are free to decide what they want and what they to do. To be independent, women should be able to choose, state arguments, and make decisions in their lives 1999: 18. Hannah never lets men of her society control her own life. She loves her freedom as an independent woman to choose every single choice that life gives to her without any control from men. Hannah feels happy that she is able to reach the freedom by her own self after escaping from patriarchal society. She is happy with her own choices: to convert her religion and change her identity. She manages to escape because she does not want to be trapped in forced marriages and abusive relationships. She believes that living a life to the fullest is better than being trapped in slavery. She uses her chance as well as she can to find out what her rights are 2009: 68. Hannah is an independent person which shows the ways of being free in living her own life. It shows her freedom of choice in her life when she escapes from her house to PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI