Accepting the Death Sentence

69

4.3.2.3 Accepting the Death Sentence

The higher level of esteem needs is the needs for freedom qtd in Petri 304. In her life, men always control Firdaus life. It seems that Firdaus fails to fulfill her needs of the higher level of esteem needs, namely the need of freedom. However, Firdaus gets her freedom by accepting the death sentence for killing her pimp namely Marzouk. After killing Marzouk, Firdaus does not want to ask a pardon. Although Firdaus is called as a criminal El-Saadawi 100, for Firdaus a woman like her cannot be a criminal. To be a criminal, someone must be a man El- Saadawi 100. Firdaus also thinks that what she has done is not a crime. This can be seen from Firdaus statement: “I am a killer, but Ive commited no crime... ” El- Saadawi 100. Firdaus’ killing her pimp makes people afraid of her. Firdaus says that they know that as long as she is alive, they are not safe. Since Firdaus kills a man, she may also kill them. Firdaus life means their death while Firdaus death means their life. Since they want to live, they put Firdaus in jail and do not want Firdaus to be free El-Saadawi 100. By realizing this, Firdaus does not want to be released. Firdaus knows that she can finally have a freedom and able to control her own life El-Saadawi 101. Therefore, she refuses to sign an appeal to the President. For Firdaus, she is free to choose whether she wants to die or not. She is the one who decides her death, not the President. Moreover, if she agrees to sign an appeal for the Presidents forgiveness Firdaus will be mens slave El-Saadawi 101. Firdaus does not want to be mens slave anymore so that she refuse to sign an appeal send an appeal to the President asking for the forgiveness for killing her pimp. She prefers to die by her own decision upon what people call it as a crime. For Firdaus, PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI 70 it is better to die because of the crime she has committed rather than to die because of the crimes done by men around her El-Saadawi 101. According to Warbungton, there are two basic types of freedom. They are negative and positive freedom. A negative freedom is a chance of someone to do something while a positive freedom is more than only having the chance to act; but also an action that a person can actually do 5-10. Firdaus searching for freedom finally reaches the positive freedom; a freedom which she can actually have. It is shown by her becoming of a free prostitute, her ability to defend herself from a man, and her decision to accept the death sentence. Firdaus feeling toward her freedom is stated through her statement: “I want nothing. I hope for nothing. I fear nothing. Therefore I am free.” El-Saadawi 101 It shows Firdaus’ feeling toward the freedom that she finally has. Through her life, Firdaus has a strong hope to get freedom. Meanwhile, her fear of men which is caused by their domination upon her is unable her to get her freedom. Finally, Firdaus can get the freedom as she hopes for. Then, Firdaus is free from men’s domination, hopes, and fear of something. She is free. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI 71

CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS

The conclusions and suggestions are presented in this chapter. The first section presents the conclusions of the analysis in the previous chapter and contains the answer to the problem formulated. The second section presents the suggestions for further research and the implementation of teaching by using this novel in Basic Writing class.

5.1 Conclusions

Islam is a religion which speaks about equality. Hence, it is ironic that the discrimination of women in a certain Islamic country like Egypt still exists. This issue becomes the background of my study on the novel entitled Woman at Point Zero which was written by a famous Egyptian writer namely Nawal El-Saadawi. In this study, I use the psychological and the sociocultural-historical approaches. In this study, Firdaus’s motivation in seeking freedom is analyzed. Human motivation is a part of human psychology which can explain more about motivation behavior. Therefore, the psychological approach is needed to be applied to answer the problems formulated in this study which is related to a psychological field. The sociocultural-historical approach is needed to analyze the background reasons related to her society in why Firdaus wants to get her freedom. How the societys condition and the society’s treatments toward women at that time are parts of sociocultural-historical element which can be explained deeply through this approach. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI