Secularity Eve’s Lifestyles

35 Mother said she didn’t want to see the world. She had seen enough of it for a lifetime, enough for ever, it was all horrible. Nor did she want the gate- house done-up and bathroom put in. she didn’t want him wasting his money on her. Luxuries of that kind meant nothing to her and Liza. p.86 When Liza is still a little girl, she sometimes asks her mother about the world outside Shrove. However, she is not too interested in seeing it herself because she never has a picture of it. ‘Have you seen everywhere in the world?’ Liza asked, carefully combing Annabel’s hair. ‘Near enough,’ Mother said mysteriously. ‘I have seen more than enough of people. Most people are bad. The world would be a better place if half the population were to perish in a huge earthquake. I have seen more than enough places. Most places are horrible, I can tell you. You have no idea how horrible and I’m glad you haven’t. that is the way I want to be. One day, when you have grown up the way I want you to, you can go out and have a peep at the world. I guarantee you’ll come running back here, thankful to be restored in heaven.’ p.92 When Liza asks Eve why Jonathan Tobias does not have the same thinking as Eve does about the outworld since he loves to travel a lot and move from one place to another, Eve replies in a short answer that ‘Perhaps because I have seen more dreadful things than he has or just that I’m wiser.’ p.92. Liza still does not understand why her mother chooses to live a simple life, even until she is grown up and able to think more clearly. However, she knows that her Mother has a bad experience in the past. ‘You said the world had treated her bad. I mean, like what? What had it done to her?’ ‘You won’t believe this but I don’t know. That is I don’t know the details. She’d had me without her husband, there was that, she hadn’t got Shrove when she thought she was going to, she told me a lot more about that later but she never told me what made her- well, bury herself and me down there. When she took me out of that room and locked the door again I hadn’t any idea why she didn’t explain. I only knew it had something do with the box with the glass front.’ p.116 36 Learning is the motive that is learned through observation Petri, 1981:5. In Eve’s case, she learns a lot through her experiences. Her bad incidents in her past teach her a great life lesson. From her parents’ life she learns about the difficulties of being poor. Then, she finds ways to get out from poverty. From her experience of being a single parent in big city, she learns that modernity is not everything that a child needs, and from her raping exeperience she learns not to trust strangers and these what lead her to her solitary life. Petri 1981:6 explains that our behaviour is motivated by our interaction to other people surround us. We are motivated by the presence of other alters. Family, friends, acquintances, and even strangers influence our behaviour. In this case, the way Eve chooses her lifestyle is obviously influenced by many persons, especially those who appear in her past. The three strangers who rape her apparently influence Eve’s life. If she never meets them, her life would not be the same. The next person who influences her choice most is Jonathan Tobias, the man to whom she is in love with. The other person who influences Eve significantly is Liza. Her appearance to the world changes everything in her life. Trevor Hughes, the man who tries to rape her, is also one of the persons who make her choose her lifestyles. Bruno, her boyfriend, and people in the town whom she does not know well also have roles in her life. Safety needs correspond to a need for safety or security. Higher needs become unimportant when one’s life is endangered Maslow in Franken, 2002: 14. Thus, in the novel, the basic motive of her choosing this kind of lifestyle can be rooted from her sociogenic motive; that is the competence. Her wish to fulfill