related to people’s ability to make decisions or to solve problems. The second
support called as moral support can make people believe in themselves and recognize their strength. The third one is called mentoring. It is important to
provide the role model to support them to be empowered. The mentor ought to be those who have faced the same experience like them.
3. The Impacts of Empowerment
According to Parsons in Sadan, 2004: 76, empowerment can result in external and internal changes. Internal changes may occur in the inside of the
children. These changes refer to their sense and belief in their own ability to make decisions and to solve their own problems. These changes may refer to
their psychological changes. External changes can be seen through their ways to act and to implement their knowledge. Different from internal changes,
external changes refer to political ones. Those changes impacted on child empowerment are formulated into four kinds of personal growth proposed by
Saxby 1991: 8-9. Those changes are explained in the following.
a. Cognitive aspect
This change refers to what Saxby 1991: 8 says as “the „hard’ knowledge
of fact and data and the „soft’ knowledge of the human heart”. The researcher believes that empowering children in children’s literature can be a medium to
give both hard and soft knowledge for them in a better and proper way. The knowledge may guide them to understand the world more and better.
b. Social aspect
This change is seen from their awareness with the social values existing in their surroundings. As what Saxby 1991: 8 says
, children’s literature is able to provide and grow the awareness of social values. In addition, by giving
them empowerment through child characters in children’s literature, they are
able to face the world bravely. It happens because they know their identity and understand that they are not inferior.
c. Ethical aspect
Child empowerment allows them to see the world better. Children may see that the world is not between good and evil. According to Saxby 1991: 8-9
children may understand that there are the dark side of hero figure, the grey area of human behavior and the possibility of the rats to inherit the earth in the
world they live in. Thus, there is no representation of one-hundred-percent good or bad characters in the story. They may have their own goodness and
badness.
d. Spiritual aspect
Child empowerment in children’s literature may guide them to take a
journey into their human spirit and action. They may face problem as Saxby 1991:
9 states that “the great dilemmas are those of the human spirit”. The empowerment may influence them on the way they face the problem and find
the solution by their own or by the help of others.
