Analytical Construct RESEARCH METHOD

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CHAPTER IV FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

A. Findings

This chapter contains the findings as well as the discussion from the findings. The findings of this research are formulated after the researcher collected the data that are relevant to the objectives. As this research has two objectives, there are two parts of the findings. The first part shows the data supporting the unconventional images of children which have been deconstructed in Wilson‟s The Illustrated Mum. The second part is the ways that Wilson uses to deconstruct the conventional images of children and children‟s stories.

1. The Unconventional Images of children in Jacqueline Wilson‟s The

Illustrated Mum Conventional images of children are often depicted as “negative” in most conventional children‟s stories. Commonly, in conventional children‟s stories, their traits are not presented as good traits. One image of children characters is that they are depicted as human beings that are ignorant, innocent, dependent, selfish, and irresponsible. It happens because of the unconscious “truth” which has been constructed in society. Moreover, the 76 ones who are believed to have positive traits are only adult characters. It is as if children were the ones who had always bad or negative traits. To make it worse, when the children‟s characters in a story have bad traits, they rarely become better people at the end. That kind of depiction is intended to be put in the story to influence society in seeing children in the real life. The ones that are given positive traits are only adults. This situation is problematic since people are often unaware that children can have positive traits, even their traits sometimes can be better than adults. It is not only the traits of children that are depicted in the conventional children‟s stories, but also the roles of children themselves. Commonly, children characters are “dead”. The ones who do the action more are adult characters, fairy godmother, or any wise creature such as animals. When children do something bad, they will be helped by an adult or a fairy to solve their problem. People cannot deny that children indeed have some naughtiness. In Wilson The Illustrated Mum, the children characters have some naughtiness. One example of children‟s naughtiness is that Dolphin hates to go to school. There is laziness in herself that, she hopes, she does not need to go to school when she is in a bad mood. Another example is that when she is scolded by her teacher, Miss Hill. She makes fun of Miss Hill by drawing some funny and silly illustrations of her. Dolphin also shows how children actually are when she feels so hungry when she has a long trip to Brighton. Just like 77 children in general, she whimpers to her mother to go home and have lunch. Another trait that children usually have and is possessed by Dolphin is that she often has quarrel with other friends in her school. She is often mocked by her friends and to defense herself, she takes revenge by hitting them. Dolphin also has childish traits in which she feels afraid of ghost when she is alone at home. When Star leaves her alone or when she worries about something, she often imagines bad things or ghosts coming in her flat. Star, as another child character in this story also shows some naturalness of children. At Star‟s age, children shows naughtiness by being a rebel and this is what Star shows to the readers. She becomes a rebellious girl by having a relationship with Mark while Marigold does not know that. Those facts which are taken from Wilson‟s The Illustrated Mum shows that Wilson does not want to force all the traits and roles of children to become too positive. However, Wilson‟s The Illustrated Mum proves that the logocentrism about children‟s traits and roles in the society can be seen from different angle. Children can possess positive traits just like the positive traits believed by society possessed only by adults. In addition, they can be active to be the ones who do action in solving their problems. In this novel, there might be some naughtiness and childish traits from the children characters and this fact is normal. Nevertheless, what makes the children characters here are special and different is that they have positive traits and roles which are dominant.