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all of a sudden without knowing where to go rushes his mind to feel like being the only person left in the world 139.
4. Changing of Attitude
The problems Luke mostly encounters at home and school put himself on such deep pressures, which eventually distract his psychological life as a
whole. The effects grow much further along with the changing of attitude the boy experiences.
Having such negative self-esteem and being burdened by the pressures out of him, Luke is on his effort to find a sort of acknowledgement from his
society, namely social acceptance. According to Parsons, in addition to acceptance, the adolescent needs to feel “prized” and valued, and quite often they
bring to an interpersonal encounter feeling of negative worth and minimal self- esteem 17.
Since Luke sees himself as valued, prized and respected only under the conditions of fulfilling others’ expectations, in this case is his parents and
teachers; he becomes rebellious then, trying to fight against the authority at which they put those expectations.
It is firstly shown from the way he forcefully enters The Hamiltons’ house for an uncertain reason 9. And as a result, Luke has to drag himself into
the consequences he never expects for; Mr. Stringer accuses him of being a trouble-maker, skipping a class and trespassing on private property 18. His
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being obedient is again seen as he steps out of Stringer’s command, refusing to see and talk to Mrs. Lewis 20, 102.
Luke’s story about his being expelled from his two previous schools, Riversdale and St Crispin’s, due to the stupid things he did, reaffirm that Luke is
a rebellious child 40-41. Nevertheless, the trouble he made in St Crispin’s towards an old wicked teacher named Gosser precisely brings his name into a
legend who is admired by kids 148, 170. Another proof is then portrayed as he was determined to break through the station, which was closed and locked up,
only to reassure whether or not the night train is real 166. Luke used to be such a clever child in the past 45. He was good at
writing poems. It had once been his favorite thing, and he even wrote it for the school magazine 59, 75.
Back in Primary School he’d been in the top reading group right from the very first grade, in Year 6 he’d won the English prize, and he’d
been good at all his other subjects too. He’d done well at Riversdale, before he’d been chucked out 57.
Luke’s high intelligence is also described through his good mind in having a conversation and his critical attitude towards something once he was a kid 104,
161. As distinct from his cleverness in the past, however, Luke is found to
have lots of problems at school. He often skips classes, not to mention his unsatisfactory marks and the bad record he made 13. Luke’s poor performance
at school, which is shown from his black record, including two times expulsion
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and failing the HSC, has built such negative assumptions towards his teacher and parents that he has never made any effort 17, 64.
It was at St Crispin’s that the thing had started happening, and it had begun with Math. He must have missed something, Luke thought now,
some small, essential step along the way, without which nothing could make sense. He might have missed it because he hadn’t been paying
attention, like they’d said in his report. Dad had been furious when he’d seen the word ‘inattentive’ 57-58.
However, Luke still keeps trying to work on his Writing Folder, though in fact the padlock feeling hinders him to at last make it finished 119.
According to Hufman, Verney and Vernoy, there must be any motive underlies one’s behavior, which is called motivation. Referring to the kinds of motivation,
Luke seems to be extrinsically motivated as what he does in such case is not for his own sake; yet merely he tries to please his parents and get back their love, care
and attention 377.
5. Psychological Disturbance
The deep pressures Luke experiences from the people living around him truly put such considerable effects on his psychological life as well. As
Parsons obviously explained, in the case of adolescent development, social pressure is one chronic problem to confront, particularly in the face of family and
peers. These pressures, furthermore, can lead to such unavoidable stress and depression 15.
