love, which shows how Dawson falls in love with Amanda for the first time. The second stage is romantic love as the continuation of infatuated love. It is the stage
where Dawson has confessed his feeling to Amanda and how Dawson manages his relationship with Amanda as a lover. The third stage is the final stage of Dawson’s
feeling of love for Amanda that develops through the time, which is consummate love or
complete love. It is a stage where Dawson’s love is in the final development or it is complete, which means that it is everlasting.
C. The Influences of Dawson’s First Love on His Life
In this second subchapter, the writer elaborates the answers of the second problem regarding to the influences of Dawson’s first love on his life. The
discussion is divided into three parts. The first part is the discussion of how a love gives influences to Dawson himself. The second part is the discussion of the
influences of Dawson’s first love on his past life. The third part is the discussion of
the influences of Dawson’s first love on his current life.
1. The Influences of Dawson’s First Love on His Past Life
Dawson has loved Amanda once and all he knows is that he cannot stop loving her even though he knows that Amanda has already had another life without
him. Loving Amanda back then had already given Dawson some influences that were invaluable on his life; however, it did not last long because Dawson had to
live without Amanda. The influences of Dawson’s first love, who is Amanda, eventually change
Dawson’s personality. Before Dawson meets Amanda, he is only a teenager who lives in an environment in which he does not fit in. He comes from a family whose
profession becomes criminal. Meanwhile, Dawson does not possess any thoughts about committing crimes. He is different from his family and the difference makes
him get a lot of trouble with his family. That might have been the world he’d grown up in, but like Oriental, he’d
never really belonged to them, either. Maybe his mom, whoever she was, had something to do with it, but he wasn’t like them p. 11.
Unlike other Coles, Dawson tends to be a good mannered person. He stays away from the drugs and the booze, and he avoids doing any kinds of crime.
He also has good achievement at school. According to Schultz 2009 as cited in Erikson 1977,
“Adolescence, between ages 12 and 18, is the stage at which we must meet and solve the crisis of our basic ego identity” p. 215. From what have
been experienced by Dawson, he is referred to be in a stage called crisis of basic ego identity. It is a stage where a person has to face and resolve the self-image to
find out who the person is and what the person wants to be. Dawson has experienced hard times since he was teenager. During that
time, Dawson did not know about who he is and what he wants to be in future, even though Dawson once had thought about his future of going to college, considering
joining the military, or renting his own place. As the months rolled on, he began to think about the future for the first
time in his life… and he fantasized about going to college, something no Cole had ever done. He considered joining the military or just renting his
own place, but before he could make any decisions his father showed up unexpectedly at the garage p. 14.
Schultz 2009 states that, “…for those who fail to achieve cohesive identity
– who experience an identity crisis, a stage of a failure in achieving ego identity during adolescence
– will exhibit a confusion of roles p. 216”. Dawson’s PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
ego identity experiences a failure because the fact that he is unable to make any decisions about his future that is caused by his family’s influence.
However, by the time Dawson meets Amanda his life eventually changes. Amanda is the person who makes influences to almost entire Dawson’s life. It is
because Dawson is fond of Amanda and the feeling of fond eventually changes to love. By loving Amanda, Dawson begins to find out that it is easy to be himself
when he is being with Amanda and he wants to recreate his future and realize it. According to Schultz 2009, Dawson is on stage of establishing intimate
relationship that is sexual relationship with Amanda or it is called as stage of intimacy. Schultz 2009 states that, “We undertake some form of productive work
and establish intimate relationship – close friendships and sexual unions” p. 217.
Besides, the feeling of love, which is felt by Dawson for Amanda, is the basic strength that should develop in this stage because it is considered important
as it is the period when oneself begins share identity and devotion to another person. Dawson has shared his times together with Amanda and all he can think is nothing
but her. With Amanda’s presence, Dawson also realizes that Amanda is the person who cares him the most for “…he couldn’t help admiring her honesty, an honesty
rooted i n the fact that she cared more about him than anyone else in his life” p. 18.
In addition, Dawson always knows that Amanda will be the very best part of him. “He knew that Amanda would always be the very best part of him, the
self he would always long t o know” p. 23. However, it is not only the reason that
Amanda has an ability to change Dawson’s life, but it also because the fact that PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
Amanda is the only person who cares and even loves him more than anyone else in his life.
And for the next two decades and beyond, he carried those words and the memories of that night inside him, knowing that she had been speaking
for them both p. 20.
Therefore, Amanda who is Dawson’s first love has influenced Dawson’s past life even though in the end Dawson has to be apart with Amanda. Dawson also
realizes his part of his purposes. …he counted the days until he would finally be able to leave Oriental…
He found a job as a mechanic, and in the evenings he took classes in welding at the community college. From there, he made his way to
Louisiana and took a job at a refinery. That eventually led to the job on the rigs p. 45.
He finally can leave Oriental and finds a job as mechanic. He also takes class in welding at the community. Then, he continues works as refinery and that
job leads his way to work on the rigs. Therefore, the writer can conclude two things that show the influences of
Dawson’s first love on his past life. Firstly, by loving Amanda, Dawson is able to start to think and plan his own future and he begins to be more caring to Amanda.
Secondly, Dawson is able to share his feeling and gives his care, love, and kindness to Amanda.
2. The Influences of Dawson’s First Love on His Current Life
