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influenced mainly by her mother’s choice of lifestyle. Her mother who employs serial monogamy lifesyle in her life causes a lack of understanding about marriage
to Liza. It happens because Liza’s observation is restricted only in their limited life. Besides, Liza only has her mother as her model that she fails to build a good
undertanding about marriage. Petri 1981:6 writes that social interaction is one factor that motivates one’s actions. Here, Liza who does not have a wide social
interaction fails to build a positive concept of marriage because she does not have many people to be her models.
4. Liza’s Concept of Death
As Liza lives with no other people, she knows little about the cause of death. She sees death only when she sees birds dead because Jonathan Tobias
shoots them in his hunting at Shrove and when she sees Eve shoots the man who is trying to attack her with a shotgun. She does not have any idea that it is a
dreadful thing to do. So when Jonathan Tobias explains to her how Rudi dies, she makes a remark that might be shocking for others.
Liza said, ‘Where are Rudi and Heidi?’ ‘I’m afraid Rudi’s dead,’ he said.
He looked more awkward than ever and tried to explain it away., as if it wasn’t important., a dog dying. Rudi was old, he lost his appetite, he’s got
a thing called a tumour growing inside him, and the kindest thing was for him to die a peaceful death.
‘Did you shoot him with a gun?’ Liza asked. Mrs. Tobias screamed out when she said that. ‘Oh, my God, where does
the child get these ideas?’ p.112
It is proper to say that children tend to immitate adults near them. Finnbogason and Guillaume’s theory of imitation 1962 fits to what happens to
Liza. Children are learning unconsciously from her environment. Sometimes what PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
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they learn is showed in the form playing of their toys. Children love creating plays. They pretend to be people they like, most
likely to be their parents because parents generally be the first idols and models for children. Sometimes they pretend to be like someone they like best. For
example a little girl loves to pretend as a mother taking care her baby, a fruit- seller selling her goods, or a pop-singer singing in the podium.
Liza does it too. She does plays with the dolls she has got from Jonathan Tobias. However, the play she does is far from what is called as a good-happy-
ending story. Instead, she works on a play that is violent for a girl as her age. … That was the week Mother smacked her, for the first and the last time
this happened. Mother found her playing with the husband and wife dolls and came upon her just as the rag doll was killing Annabel with a gun
made from a twig. p.114
When Liza finds the dead body of Bruno, she is not afraid at all. She tells Sean about it as if she finds a toy in the wood. Liza tells Sean that she is not
afraid. Although she smells something bad from the dead body, she does not think it is a disgusting thing.
‘It was Bruno?’ Sean said. She nodded.
‘You poor kid. A kid might never get over something like that.’ She wished he wouldn’t say ‘somefink’ but there was nothing to be done
about it. ‘Well, I did. I got over it. I didn’t even dream about it. It’s a funny thing,
you know, but you can’t help being sick. It’s not what your mind does, it’s your body. I was curious, I really wanted to know, I
suppose you could say I was interested. I knew it was Bruno’s hair, I knew it was Bruno dead in there, and I hadnt liked Bruno, I’d
hated him, I was glad he was dead, but I threw up just the same. Weird, isn’t it? p. 242
Liza’s statement makes it clear that she does not feel troubled with dead bodies. She thinks it is normal for her because she is never conditioned to feel
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disgust to anything since she never learns that from her mother. Her environment does not show that also because she does not socialize with others who might
show her that some things are good and some are bad. She smiled at him. ‘I suppose it is normal for me. Dead bodies don’t upset
me. I know I was sick when Bruno’s hair came off in my hand but that wasn’t me, it was a sort of reflex. I expect even doctors do that when they
first start.’ p.261
And when she thinks about the dead body of Bruno, she expresses what she thinks to Sean logically. She does not feel anything, while Sean feels troubled
with her statements. They talked for hours about his marriage. They forgot I was there, I didn’t
have to listen outside the door. She was always asking him about Victoria and the divorce but I never heard him say a word about Bruno. And all the
time Bruno’s car was up in his stables and Bruno’s dead body was lying in his wood. Rotting in his wood and the worms eating him.’
‘Liza,’ said Sean warningly. ‘Do you mind?’ p. 256
From the description we can see that Liza builds a rational concept about death. She considers deaths nothing but a creature losing his soul. A human’s
death and an animal’s death sound the same to her “Dogs died, so why not people?” p.128. She is influenced by her mother’s view of seeing things
logically. Petri’s theory of learning and social interaction also fits here. Since she has witnessed people die before because of her mother’s criminal acts, she is not
afraid of dead bodies.
5. Liza’s Concept of Love
Liza grows with only her mother’s love and she does not have a good perspective about her mother’s love to her. She only thinks that her mother loves
Shrove, not her. This is what makes her think that her mother loves Shrove more than her.
