Review of Related Studies

CHAPTER II THEORETICAL REVIEW

A. Review of Related Studies

In this review of related studies, the writer shows criticisms or comments about the novel from the internet since information on printed media is very rare on this novel. In an article called A Beach Vacation Goes Horribly Awry by Sarah L. Courteau, she explains that O’Rourke in the story is a very complex character, as she stated: Sarah, meanwhile, has a life that invites envy: a whip-smart husband, an adorable son, a satisfying adulterous affair and a glamorous career; the full story is more complex, though, and Cleave gives it to us with unpitying sympathy. http:www.washingtonpost.comwp- dyncontentarticle20090224AR2009022403232.html?sid=ST20090225011 65 From the quotation above, O’Rourke is a character with a lot to handle in her life. She has a smart husband but she can not have the relationship she had with him in the start of their marriage as she cheats on him with another man. She has a beautiful son who is in the age where he likes to ask many questions. O’Rourke has a huge career that she has to handle to keep being top in the markets. Though she deals with a lot in her life, the author writes her as character that has a lot of sympathy to think about and do good to others. 9 Courteau also analyzes the life Little Bee and when she had met O’Rourke for the first time. For O’Rourke, the first time meeting Little Bee was in a situation that was unusual for her because she had to make a disgraceful decision. On a beach in Nigeria, the lives of Little Bee, a teenager from a small village, and Sarah ORourke, editor of a posh British womens magazine, are brought into brutal conjunction. Little Bee and her older sister have the misfortune to live on valuable Nigerian oil deposits, for which their family pays a deadly price. Sarah and her husband, heedless tourists out for a walk in the sand, are confronted in an instant with a choice: Save the girls at great personal cost or ignore them. http:www.washingtonpost.comwpdyncontentarticle200902 24AR2009022403232.html?sid=ST2009022501165 Little Bee is a strong teenager who has an unfortunate life compare to the life of O’Rourke. For her, scars that are left on her body don’t make her sad, but they are symbols that represent survival, that she made it without meeting death. As she meets O’Rourke, she was in the arms of the men that would kill her unless O’Rourke’s husband would cut the middle finger of his left hand. O’Rourke’s husband Andrew failed to do it as O’Rourke herself grabbed the knife and cut her own finger to save Little Bee. It is seen in this situation that O’Rourke has the courage and bravery to do something so painful to save someone’s life who she had not known before A graduate student from Sanata Dharma, Krisentia Anita Ayu Kartikasari, uses The Other Hand as the object of her research. In her research, she analyzed the relationship between Little Bee and Sarah O’Rourke that was revealed in her undergraduate thesis, Little Bee’s Motivation to build a Relationship with Sarah Seen in Chris Cleave’s Little Bee. In her research, she stated that Since she receives love from Sarah and she gives her love to take care of Charlie, Bee feels her love needs are fulfilled only by Sarah 2013: 44 From the above quotation, the writer can se e that O’Rourke and Little Bee give love to each other in order to build warmth to their relationship. Ever since Little Bee met O’Rourke, even before they had the chance to know each other’s name, O’Rourke had already helped Little Bee from the men that were going to kill her in Nigeria. From there, Little Bee thought she had to give back what was taken from O’Rourke for helping her. She came to England and gave love not only for O’Rourke, but also for Charlie, O’Rourke’s son. …fully Sarah helps and supports Little Bee to get a legal status. In every step, Sarah has a role to teach and guide her from tracking down the caseworker until revising the British Citizenship Exam. What she does is only save Little Bee from deportation. Thus, Sarah is the only person who can make safe because she saves and protects her life from the oil company and even deportation 2013: 44. Kartikasari explains in her research that O’Rourke helps Little Bee for a legal status too. In any way possible, O’Rourke had to make it possible for Little Bee to be there in England with her. O’Rourke needed to make Little Bee’s life happy because of the sadness she had been through all her life from running away from getting killed. Even though the legalization did not succeed and Little Bee was caught by the authorities before the papers were managed to be dealt with, O’Rourke still did not give up in helping Little Bee. O’Rourke flew to Nigeria with Little Bee as she got deported. The help from O’Rourke was unlimited and O’Rourke would not stop before Little Bee can receive her freedom O’Rourke becomes very precious to Little Bee after she helps Little Bee save her life from the hunters that were going to kill her. Pawestri Sukmajati writes in her undergraduate thesis titled Reavealing Moral Messages Through the Character of Little Bee in Chris Cleave’s The Other Hand that: Sarah becomes very important for Bee because she hopes Sarah will help her and to meet Sarah means survival for Bee. Bee thinks that when she meets Sarah, she will be safe. She believes that Sarah will help her like she did in Africa. Her string effort brings fortunate, she can reach Sarahs house and meet her. 2010: 31 Little Bee came all the way from Nigeria to England just to see Sarah again. Little Bee only had Andrew’s I.D card that was left in the beach that she had picked up in order to find their address in England one day. Even though Little Bee did not meet O’Rourke as soon as she got to England, Little Bee enjoyed her stay in a detention center where she learned British English for 2 years. When she meets O’Rourke, Little Bee could only hope that O’Rourke could help her. Little Bee would do anything just to be b eside O’Rourke because she only had O’Rourke to rely on. Bee tries to convince Sarah that she will give any help if Sarah allows Bee to live with her. Bee really needs Sarah because Sarah is the only person she knows in England and she is also the only person who might understand Bees situation. In fact, she is not sincere to Sarah. She does not tell Sarah about the problem between Andrew and herself. 2010: 49 As Little Bee turns up in front of O’Rourke’s doorstep, she expects O’Rourke to let her stay in her house. O’Rourke was scared at one moment but thought that it was hard for Little Bee as it was for her to recall back the memories so she decided that it was fair to help Little Bee again. Sukamajti states that Bee was not sincere to O’Rourke. This is because Bee she does not tell O’Rourke the truth about why Andrew started to get depressed and decided to commit suicide. Bee was in their house all along in those 5 days but she had kept that a secret to O’Rourke because she did not want to think it was Bee who made Andrew kill himself. Bee thought that this was the idea because she wanted to gain trust to O’Rourke. As many readers comment about books and as they have their own opinions, not everyone will agree to someone’s thought all the time. As for this book, the same thing happened and not all comments of this book were positive. Some agreed that this book was written appallingly. Anne Brooke stated: He should have written a factual account, or – better if he could have managed it – subsumed his righteous indignation to the demands and life of the novel and the characters in it. https:vulpeslibris.wordpress.com20090804the- other-hand-by-chris-cleave-but-on-the-other-hand Brooke was disappointed about how Cleave writes the characters and how he could nott handle them. Brooke stated that he should have thought about the traumas of the Nigerian refugees that they had to face. The comments above are mainly about the intrinsic elements of the story. They are also about the characters of the story and what is taught to readers through the stories. By revealing and signifying the symbols in this novel, this study can be considered as a reference to future studies.

B. Review of Related Theories