4.2.2 Intelligent
The writer applies the technique of seeing someone’s character through the eyes and opinions of another in analyzing Esther’s character Murphy 162. In
here, it is applied through the narrator’s opinion. She is Esther, thirty years old, the winner of two international prizes for journalism, and married. My wife 4.
To be a journalist is not an easy work. It needs deep thought and creative language so the writing will be useful and understandable for the readers. A
journalist is someone who writes news reports for newspapers, magazines, television, or radio. Esther is a journalist, the best one since she has a degree and
wins prizes for it. This shows that Esther is an intelligent woman. Esther is also able to speak in four different languages, although it is not
mentioned in the novel what languages they are. This is a quality that is not mastered by all people; a quality that shows her intelligence.
Carpets My wife ex-wife, please, do try and get used to it, who had all the money she could possibly need, had degree in journalism, spoke four
languages, was now obliged to making a living weaving carpets and giving French lesson to foreigners? I must get a grip to my self 94.
4.2.3 Risk Taking
Esther is a risk taker. This can be seen from her speech Murphy 164. Esther’s job is the proof that she is a risk taking person. She is actually a journalist
and from it she already earns good money. One day, she tells her husband that she wants to be a war correspondent. Her husband disagrees with the idea. It is a risky
job. Esther mentions that she wants to be a war journalist not because she wants to earn a lot of money, but to be alone.
“What are you saying?” “That I want to be a war correspondent.”
“You are mad. You don’t need to do that. You’re already doing the work you want to do now. You earn good money – not that you need that money
to live on. You have all the contacts you need in the Favor Bank. You have talent and you’ve earned your colleagues’ respect.”
“All right then, let’s just say I need to be alone.” “Because of me?” 33.
Her disappearance is actually also a risky action to save her marriage. She decides to disappear in order to make her husband understand he himself and their
marriage. By leaving her husband, she can get two results; her husband will find her and will bring her back to him or he will never come to her and their marriage
is just history. This shows that she is risk taking and it can be seen from her reaction to the conditions around her Murphy 168. She realizes that, but she
realizes too that to fix it there must be changes. She believes that when her husband comes to her, he must be a different person.
“I’ve waited for you in so many ways,” she said, when she saw that my tears were abating. “Like a desperate wife who knows that her husband has
never understood her life, and that he will never come to her, and so she has no option but to get on a plane and go back, only to leave again after
the next crisis, then go back and leave and go back....” 293.
4.2.4 Adaptable
Her jobs as a journalist and a war correspondent force her to deal with many people with different background and characters and also different
situations. She has to be able to adapt to any conditions. That she has the quality PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
to adapt to many different people and situations is proven by the number of people who know her.
In the journey of finding Esther, the narrator meets Mikhail who once was Esther’s translator when she went to Kazakhstan. “Mikhail insisted: I had to meet
the beggars; they were part of his life and part of Esther’s life too.” 161. The conversations of other people and the things they say about Esther can give clues
of her character Murphy 167. The conversation between the beggars and the narrator below shows that the beggars know Esther well and that she is adaptable.
“So you’re the husband of the journalist?” “Are you Esther’s husband?” asks a female beggar, wide-eyed; she is
dressed garishly, in a green hat and a purple coat. I don’t know what to say.
“Why hasn’t she been back here?” ask someone else. “I hope she isn’t dead. She was always going to such dangerous places. I often told her she
shouldn’t. Look what she gave me” And she shows me a scrap of bloodstained fabric, part of the dead soldier’s
shirt. “No, she’s not dead,” I say. “But I’m surprised to hear that she used to
come here.” 166.
Esther makes friends with people from a lower economic background though she is a wife of a famous novelist. She can adapt to people who have
different background from her. Surprisingly, the doctor who treats the narrator when he gets an accident knows Ether as well. Esther also makes friends with
people who have a different educational background and profession from her. “…A brush with death always helps us to live our lives better; that’s what
your wife told me when she gave me a bit of bloodstained fabric, which I always carry with me, even though, as a doctor, I see death, close to, every
day.” “Did she say why she gave you the cloth?” 190.
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