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disgust to anything since she never learns that from her mother. Her environment does not show that also because she does not socialize with others who might
show her that some things are good and some are bad. She smiled at him. ‘I suppose it is normal for me. Dead bodies don’t upset
me. I know I was sick when Bruno’s hair came off in my hand but that wasn’t me, it was a sort of reflex. I expect even doctors do that when they
first start.’ p.261
And when she thinks about the dead body of Bruno, she expresses what she thinks to Sean logically. She does not feel anything, while Sean feels troubled
with her statements. They talked for hours about his marriage. They forgot I was there, I didn’t
have to listen outside the door. She was always asking him about Victoria and the divorce but I never heard him say a word about Bruno. And all the
time Bruno’s car was up in his stables and Bruno’s dead body was lying in his wood. Rotting in his wood and the worms eating him.’
‘Liza,’ said Sean warningly. ‘Do you mind?’ p. 256
From the description we can see that Liza builds a rational concept about death. She considers deaths nothing but a creature losing his soul. A human’s
death and an animal’s death sound the same to her “Dogs died, so why not people?” p.128. She is influenced by her mother’s view of seeing things
logically. Petri’s theory of learning and social interaction also fits here. Since she has witnessed people die before because of her mother’s criminal acts, she is not
afraid of dead bodies.
5. Liza’s Concept of Love
Liza grows with only her mother’s love and she does not have a good perspective about her mother’s love to her. She only thinks that her mother loves
Shrove, not her. This is what makes her think that her mother loves Shrove more than her.
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‘She loved him and she thought she’d lost him, you got to pity her.’ ‘I don’t know about being in love,’ Liza said. ‘Maybe a bit. She wanted
Shrove House for herself, to make sure she’d never be parted from it. That was the only way. If she married Mr. Tobias it’d have been hers.’ p.105
Liza’s negative concept about love remains until she is growing into a young woman. Her mother’s way of educating her influences her way of thinking.
She becomes used to think logicaly and reasonably. She can not accept Sean’s way of thinking that lovers’ property belongs to both of them.
‘They were my books.’ ‘They were ours, love. We’ve been through that before. OK, so you
bought them with the money you earned. How would you like it if i said that Coke you’re drinking was mine because it was my money paid for it?
It’s the same thing.’ It was illogical and Eve had taught her to be logical, to be reasonable. Eve
must have felt like this when Bruno pretended to have social conscience to cloack his need to possess her utterly. She must have felt like this when,
after seventeen years of striving and repudiation, of hope and humiliation and desertion, Jonathan had at last asked her to marry him. p.333
From the description we can see that Liza builds a negative concept about love. It is because she has witnessed her mother neglects of love and she
learns from it. Besides, her mother’s way of educating her to always to think reasonably makes her think more with her logic than her heart so it causes a
negative concept of love to her. Again, Petri’s theory of learning and social interaction fits in Liza’s life. She is influenced much by her mother’s lifestyle and
way of thinking.
6. Liza’s Appreciation of the Nature
As her mother employs an environmentalist lifestyle, Liza is also an environmentalist, that is a person who takes concerns about the nature. She has a
big admiration of the nature. She is used to living close to the nature. She feels hurt if the nature that she always accustomed with is broken. Her love of nature
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and its content is showed in the way she disagrees with what rich people always do with the animals. She does not like the way they have fun by killing animals in
the hunting session. … Next
day Jonathan
started shooting
and Victoria
did too.
There was a
pair of
partridges used
to strut about. I’d got fond of them , red legs and a
beautiful pattern on their backs. She shot them both. I wish I’d had a gun, I’d have shot her…’
p. 172
Since she is used to living in a poor situation, she knows how to survive in the worst condition. When the hurricane comes and destroys many things in
Shrove, she can handle it by herself. Liza is not scared although no one who helps them. Her hard life at Shrove also teaches her to be strong in a way that she can
survive over any minimum facilities she has had. After moving with Sean, things are not even better. Sean, who is poor,
cannot afford any luxurious things for them. However, she never complains because she is used to such a situation where anything is less at the gate-house.
Though life is still not easy for her, she can survive. When they find out that the place to park Sean’s caravan is only a piece of waste ground which has no water
supply near, Liza does not loose her ways. She goes far up the lane to find a stream which tumbles over rocks. Liza who never joins any scouts before knows
how to survive in such situation. Her hard life at Shrove teaches her to do so, because ‘She was full of plans. Of much the world she might be ignorant, but she
know how to manage’ p. 131. Petri writes 1981:6 that we learn through observing, and observation
leads to assimilation. From the description, we can see that Liza has a good appreciation of the nature because her mother always teaches her to love the
