Background of the Study
influences her personality. It also tells us about how a young woman like Sister Regina lives in a religious community and how she thinks of the rule within the
community. The setting of time of the novel was during 1950, seen as the exploration of
human personality development. In this story, Sister Regina as the major character is confused whether staying in her religious community or leaving the communal
living to reach what she means as ‘better life’ outside. Her experiences with those doubts lead her to be a mature woman. A new situation that is her attraction to a
man in her environment and her dissatisfaction of her community’s rules also influence her personality development.
To be a nun at young age is not an easy decision to be made. However, Jean Potlocki or Sister Regina has entered the postulate since she was eleven years old.
In Browerville, Minnesota, it is a pride if one of their families becomes a nun or a priest. During her childhood, she grew up in a Catholic community and all of her
family admired her to be a nun. Not all young women had a bravery to enter the postulate, but Jean, an
eleven-year-old girl, did it without any regret. She left her family and joined the community with its vows of obedience, poverty, and chastity. As a nun, she
becomes a teacher in a St. Joseph’s Parochial School and she teaches the third and fourth grade students. She is a committed and fine teacher.
In her twenties, being a teacher makes her close to children’s world. However, the Holy Rule of the Church forbids the nuns from so much as touching
the seculars. In class, she has special students, Anne in the third grade and Lucy in the fourth grade. Anne and Lucy are the janitor’s children, Eddie Ol
сzak. Even PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
though Sister Regina longs to hug Eddie Olсzak’s little girls, she must hold back. Since that time, she has begun doubting her life as a nun. She prays to God, does
retreat and penance in order to solve her problem. She battles within herself to find the highest moral answer for her. At the first, it is very difficult for her to decide to
leave the community since this choice would make a big change in her life later. The change is about her personality that is developed because of the influence of
her special affinity for Ol сzak’s children.
All people’s personality can change all times. Like what happens to Sister Regina, there is a factor or even more than one factor that can influence ones’
personality. Considering those factors, a person may change into the better one or even the worse one, depending on how the person deals with the matters. Hurlock
1976: 7 says that personality development is a stage in growth of a constantly changing and evoking process within an individual. Here, the development of one’s
personality can be said as one’s effort to be a mature person and to find the identity. This study is going to analyze Sister Regina’s personality development in its
relation with the maternal instinct a woman like Sister Regina has. The maternal instinct here, as the factor that influences Sister Regina’s personality, means the
feeling of a mother-to-be that haunts the unassailability of her faith. This is how Sister Regina suddenly feels strange with her routines in the community. Sister
Regina has decided to be a nun since she was eleven years old and tied her life with the Community’s Holy rule since that time. She cannot accept what is said in the
Holy rule anymore; obedience, poverty and chastity. A strong feeling of motherhood comes out of Sister Regina’s heart and the Holy rule cannot prevent her
desire to love and look after children such as giving a hug or helping their personal PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
problems. Every woman should have maternal instincts. Burnett, as cited by Fleming 1974: 234, states that the wish to bear and nurture a child is biologically
anchored in her uterus and breasts, and its fulfillment normally brings a sense of well being, wholeness, and completion that may dispel lingering feeling of
inferiority. It is very difficult for every woman to deny that feeling, especially if it happens to a sister like sister Regina who has never been close to any children
because of her community’s rule. Here, the influences of her maternal instinct and the courage to answer the call of love towards the Olсzak’s family make her
develop and able to face all the consequences she will face after leaving the religious community. She has to face all her family who has expected her to be a
nun. Moreover she could not teach in any Catholic schools anymore because the church frowns on letting former nuns teach in their school. The last but not least,
this study would like to know the values of the novel as seen in Jean’s personality development for people, especially for Protestant community. The community can
see an example of the nun’s inner life. Hopefully, it will give us more respect for those who choose to be priests or nuns.