In summary, his inner conflict clearly appears when Alli is sick. At that time, he was praying and he hates his knowledge about the time measurements.
He knew that he could do nothing to stop time. So he keeps on praying until he could not wake his wife anymore. Yet, he is stubborn enough to try and he climbs
the tower to ask for the power. He then realizes in his banishment if he is not living at the moment, instead, he is consumed by the measuring. Therefore, when
he comes back to his era, he leaves his time measures and begins enjoying the moments of life with his wife.
2. Sarah Lemon
Sarah Lemon is one of the characters from the novel who is being e
xamined by Dor. Sarah is described as “a teenager in our day” Albom, 2012: 1. As a common teenager, she lives in a society where most people would judge the
hierarchy based on the popularity. However, she is not one of the popular girls. The story starts when she is finally able to go out with a popular boy,
Ethan. Her story in the novel contains some flashbacks to tell us about her background. Instead of starting from the beginning as the narration describes in
the novel, this analysis would start from her past in order to make the analysis deeper.
She appears as a common girl who wants love from both of her parents. However, her parents divorce two months after her twelfth birthday. Her mother
and she are not in a good relationship since then. They no longer share stories, they never do manicure together, nor do they really talk to one another. They live
together, but they keep everything to themselves. Somehow, they still have some similarities that could be seen clearly in this narration:
After the split, Sarah stayed with Lorraine, who would blame Tom, her absent ex, for every wrong thing in their lives. Sarah would nod
sympathetically. But each of them, in a way, is still waiting on the man: Lorraine to admit he is wrong, Sarah to have him rescue her. Neither thing
happened. Albom, 2012: 14
Even so, they do not understand each other since there is a gap between them since that incident happened. As a girl who is left behind, she wants someone that
also ‘wants her’. But since the divorce, she does not really care about her gaining weight and it made her have a plump body different from the other girls.
In fact, that condition makes her feel as if she is not interesting. She also hates her appearance and always lacks confidence about it. The narrator explains
her feelings clearly in the novel:
Sarah Lemon is really good at science
and how exactly do that help her? She often wondered. What mattered in high school is popularity
—based mostly on how you looked—and Sarah, who could whiz through a biology exam, disliked what she saw in the
mirror as much as she figured everyone else do: the hazel eyes, too far apart, the dry, wavy hair, the gap between her teeth, the doughy flesh she
has never really shed since gaining weight after her parents split up. Albom, 2012: 49
Since she hates herself, she feels that nobody wants her. Nevertheless, she is a smart girl. This quality is described several times in the novel as it was written in
the above narration. But as a teenager nowadays, being smart does not make her popular nor liked by the others. As a result, she chooses to draw herself from the
crowd and elects to be alone most of the time. She ate lunch by herself, walked home by herself, and spent most evenings
in the house with her mother, unless Lorraine have plans with the clacking
women Sarah referred to as “the divorce club.” Then Sarah ate alone by her computer. Albom, 2012: 49
Thus, she grows to be an introverted girl. She chooses to be alone and does not talk about her problems to others, even to her mother, Lorraine. This characteristic
of her makes her relationship with her mother worse, as was explained before. She is also a kind and honest girl. She volunteers at a homeless shelter.
She is there because she wants to fill the essay for her college application honestly. She offers her service and works in the kitchen. People at the shelter
love her and she often offers extra bananas. However, she is not able to see that she is being loved by others because she is blinded by Ethan, a popular boy in her
school who also volunteers there. She never thinks that she would be able to be at the same level with him. But as they work together, she talks more with him. As
they become closer, or at least as she thinks, she gains more confidence and starts to think if it is a fate for them to meet.
Her mind clashes in internal conflict as an incident happened. She meets him at his uncle’s house after one cancellation of a meeting together. This is quite
interesting since she would be able to think twice about another date after Ethan cancelled the date after all of the effort that she had done. She tries desperately to
follow Ethan. She is not a drinker, but she pretends that she had vodka before. As time passes by and they get a bit dizzy because of the vodka, they talk about lot of
things and he praises how easy it would be for her to enter any college she wanted. That compliment makes her feels good. As he kisses her, her mind
becomes blank. It just happens and she almost faints because of it. However, she
tries to push him back again and again as he becomes more aggressive toward her. In the end, they each go to their own home frustrated and confused.
A day after this incident, she wondered whether she did the right thing or not. Because of the internal conflict in her mind, she starts to remember how
much they kissed and how he wants her. Since she always felt nobody wants her, that simple kiss becomes something important for her. “Somebody wanted her.
That is what mattered” Albom, 2012: 96. She finally feels that her existence means something for someone. Blinded by that assumption, she thinks about
giving him a gift, a cool watch from the famous sci-fi movie, Men in Black. When she buys him the gift, her mind is in conflict again. She knows that
her real reason to buy him the gift is not because she is just being thoughtful on Christmas. She knows that she loves him; she adores him. However, she tells
herself that she is just being thoughtful. She knows that deep in her heart she does that because she loves him and she wishes that he would love her back when she
gives him the present. Another inner conflict appears the next week as she realizes that he is not
as attentive as before. She feels something is different, but she tries to reassure herself that probably he is just tired or something. She does not want to consider
any bad possibilities since she is blinded by the thought that he really wants her. “Sometimes, when you are not getting the love you want, giving makes you think
you ,” this narration explained that actually Ethan does not show if he loves her back, but she insisted that she would buy him the watch since she still hopes that
he would love her back Albom, 2012: 112. When she met Dor in the clock shop,
she could not stop talking about him since her mind is full of him. Dor is asking why she is feeling so sad, but she could not understand or feel it.
She brushed back her hair. Her mood suddenly lightened. “I mean, we might get married one day, I guess. But now he’s just . . . my boyfriend.”
She had never used that word before, and she felt a bit self-conscious, as if walking out of a fitting room in a short skirt. But the man smiled, too,
and she forgave him that weird comment about her being sad, because it fit him beautifully, that word,
“boyfriend,” and she wanted to say it again Albom, 2012: 121
As illustrated in the narrative, Sarah’s mind is full of Ethan and she could not think of anything else but him. Even when others are able to see her sadness that
she already feels deep inside because Ethan does not love her back, she tries not to accept that fact and lives in her bad faith.
Her mind is in another conflict when she planned to give the gift. She wants to ‘accidentally’ bumps into him. However, she could not see him at school.
H owever, she is conscious of one thing, a truth: “that she is now, literally, chasing
after him” Albom, 2012: 127. She tries to ignore the fact that he actually has shown some clues that he does not have the same feelings as her.
“I hear ya.” It didn’t sound as if he heard her at all. They settled on Christmas night at the Dunkin’ Donuts—he has a party
to go to near there anyhow —and she hung up and is glad to have
something on the schedule. She tried to ignore his distracted tone, figuring phones are never a good barometer of anything. Besides, once he saw the
watch, he’d be happy. No one else would be giving him a gift that special. She thought back of him kissing her. He wanted her. Someone wanted
her. Albom, 2012: 136 Sarah already recognizes his distracted tone and that he sounds like he does not
really hear what she says. At that moment, her mind actually clashes in conflict for a while. She tries to reassure herself that it is okay. She then tries to think
about how happy he would be when he sees the gift she has bought for him. She
also has the idea that he has wanted her before, so he would want her again. She denies her bad feeling about not being loved back and she tries to replace it with
the idea that someone finally wants her. When she says her feelings toward him, she finally realizes that he does
not love her back. He does not even want to accept her gift. He gives it back to her, still unwrapped. As the result, she is broken hearted. Yet, she still blames
herself. Sarah Lemon is only seventeen, but at that moment, she began to
disengage from life. She felt alone, abandoned. And it is all her fault. How could she has blown something that rare, a boy like Ethan who have never
looked at her before and would never look at her again? They have kissed
and he has wanted her, but she has pushed him off and he’d obviously decided she isn’t worth the bother—which she’d known all along she
isn’t—and why haven’t she just shut up and done whatever he desired, who is she saving herself for, honestly, like someone better is going to
came along? Albom, 2012: 144
As seen, she feels that she is being left alone. She regrets the fact that she has not given him what he wants
—for probably he would still want her if she does. She cries all night, even until the next afternoon.
She starts to fall into desperation. She denies common sense since Ethan is her first love. As she decides to send her regret via Facebook, she sees his status.
“Sarah Lemon made play 4 me.” Her name is on his page.
“Whoa. Ain’t happening.” An unwelcome cat, trying to crawl into his lap.
“That’s what u get 4 being nice.” That is it? He is being nice?
She shivered. She hyperventilated. Beneath his post is a long row of faces, people commenting
—dozens of them “Seriously?” one read.
“U+Sarah=gross” “C movie: he’s just not into u”
“That butt’s too big, bro.”
“Knew she is a skank.” “Run, dude” Albom, 2012: 150
On that moment, another conflict appears in her mind. At this point, she knows that the world sympathizes with Ethan. They would think of her as a loser. She
becomes the unlovable Sarah again who would never be wanted by anyone. Now, she is even confronted with the reputation of “delusional Sarah, crazy stalker
Sarah,” which is because she thought that Ethan wants her Albom, 2012: 151. She has no one to talk with or to comfort her she falls into severe depression. She
does not want to go to that school ever again and she has the thought of killing herself.
On the New Year’s Eve, she tries to kill herself inside of the car with the carbon monoxide that the car engine created. Fortunately, she is saved by Dor. He
shows her about what would happen if she has died. After seeing that she still has people who love her and that her death would make them sad, she learns that she
still has hope. She begins to regret that she would kill herself. She realizes that she could do better for her life and suicide would not make Ethan feel sorry too. Thus,
as the time starts to move again, she crawls out of the car and is saved by the neighbor who calls an ambulance as soon as he saw her.
Sarah’s inner conflicts are mostly because of love. She wants love from her parents, from Ethan, or anyone. She hopes that someone would want her.
Since she does not have that feeling for years, the kissing incident that happened between her and Ethan makes her think that Ethan really wants her, forgetting that
it was really because of the vodka. Deep down, she has known that Ethan does not really want her or love her back. That is why she decided to buy him something,
so that he could love her back. She keeps on believing in that bad faith. When the reality punches her hard, she still believes in her bad faith that probably things
would work out if she gives him something. But she is wrong. Feeling all alone and forlorn, she has no more hope and decides to kill herself. She decides to run
and escape from her problems, since she has no more hope and feels there is nothing else for her to do with no one she can turn to for help.
3. Victor Delamonte
