woman because the woman is subordinate. It means that she has no power to face the man. While the man can harm her no matter she feels the pain or not.
The authority that Richie has can cause domestic violence. It is because he dominates over the women. He is the one who is obeyed. From the previous
section, the women obey him. They have no right to choose and to be free. They should grant what Richie wants. He also can injure the women in order to make
them more obedient to him. It can be seen from the women ’s violence experience.
Therefore, the writer tries to find some violence that occurs in the family which the man dominates. The violence that is occurred in the novel is done by
the man. So, the writer sees some categories of violence that indicates domestic violence.
1. Sabrina’s Domestic Violence Experience
Sabrina is the closest to Richie. She experiences the rude treatment that is done by Richie. So, there are some kinds of domestic violence that Sabrina
experiences. a. Physical Abuse
This abuse is when the victim ’s body is injured justice.gov, 2016. It can
be seen when Eleanor sees the bruise on her wrist. “Eleanor had pretended not to
notice the bruises on her mom ’s wrist p.26.” In the novel the incident when
Sabrina ’s wrist is bruised is not described in the novel. Even though the novel
does not explain the event when Richie causes the bruise, it can be concluded that it is from him. The writer sees that it is because the one who is close to Sabrina is
Richie. He can do anything he wants to her. This case is strengthened when Sabrina and Richie are in fight.
In the night, Eleanor hears the sound of shouting and crying. “Underneath
the shouting, her mother was crying. She sounded like she ’d been crying for a
long time – she must be completely out of her head if she was letting them hear
her cry like that. ”p. 48. Those sounds wake the children. All the children are
afraid of the tragedy. Even Mouse pees on Eleanor ’s lap.
When in fight, the mother often cries. Richie yells at her for some reason that is not explained in the novel. Richie is easily angry at her whenever he is not
satisfied with Sabrina. “Their mother shrieked, two rooms away, and they all five
jumped together ” p. 48. Sabrina does not say any words to defend herself. She
just accepts what Richie does to her. Eleanor gets out of her room and sees the situations around after the
shouting last night. She feels relief because her mother is alive. Her mother cooks breakfast for Richie. However, she notices the bruise on her mother
’s face. “You couldn
’t not notice the bruise on the side of her face” p. 49. Eleanor pretends not to see the bruise. After the incident, Eleanor and Sabrina seems worry with the
Mouse ’s pee on the Eleanor’s clothes. So that, they tries to hide Mouse’s mistake
because they are scared that Richie will be angry and rampages. The bruise on the side of Sabrina
’s face can be seen after the fight. Sabrina is an object of Richie
’s anger. As the object of oppression, she often gets the bad treatment from the man.
Those cases prove that Sabrina experiences the domestic violence in the form of physical abuse. She gets those harsh treatments from Richie. As a woman,
she is oppressed and tortured in such way by Richie. The torturing has the impact on the victim
’s body. It damages the victim. It can be seen when the bruises appear on the victim
’s body. The victim also responds by crying and shrieking. Therefore, the victim has marks of abuse. It can be said that Sabrina receives the
violence in a form of physical abuse from Richie. b. Emotional Abuse
This abuse is when the victim experiences the violence in an activity that makes the victim feels not respected. It can be in a form of mocking and giving
sharp comments which makes the victim is not appreciated justice.gov, 2016. When Sabrina serves the Christmas dinner for Richie, he is unsatisfied with the
dessert because it is not like what he expects. He gives complaints to Sabrina that she cannot cook well and she cannot provide good service to him. As he states,
“What the fuck is this?’, ‘Where is the pumpkin pie Sabrina?’ He shouted into the kitchen.
”p. 203. He wants pumpkin pie, but Sabrina does not cook it. p. 203. Richie gives sharp comments on the food that Sabrina makes. It is because he
does not like the dessert. He expects to have pumpkin pie. The case reveals that the victim is not respected well. She is given sharp
comments on what she cooks and serves. She cannot grant the man ’s expectation.
The violence in form of words is categorized as domestic violence that is called emotional abuse. It is because the victim gets bad statement by the abuser. Then
she feels that she is useless. The abuser makes the victim guilty on herself so that he can have authority to blame on her.
c. Economic Abuse The purpose of this abuse is to make the victim
’s life rely on the abuser. It is when the victim cannot have the right to get some money by herself
justice.gov, 2016. Sabrina is a housewife which means she is unable to get some money. She said,
“Richie is the one who puts food on our table” p. 89. It shows that Sabrina
’s life depends on Richie. It happens because Richie gives the family food.
Sabrina feels that Richie is an important person in order to support the family life. He is the one who feeds the family. Richie is also the one who fulfill
the family ’s needs.
Richie only gives Sabrina money when he wants something. As a woman who does not work, she is also given limited money. Richie does not give all the
money to be spent the domestic fulfill. He rather wastes the money to drink alcohol and go to bar p. 141. It can be seen when Eleanor does not have
toothbrush p. 54. She often wears a ripped jean that is pinned with scraps of silk and velvet p. 78. Sabrina also cannot give delicious food to her children.
However, Richie still can get delicious food. He has the money so that he can easily ask Sabrina to buy everything he wants. Whereas, the children cannot get
what he get because the money that is spent for the family is bound by him. The purpose of this abuse to make Sabrina cannot stand on her own foot.
The money that is limited by Richie makes Sabrina to be dependent on him. It can
be a trick to make Sabrina more obeys him. It means that she always rely her life on Richie. Richie limits the money because he wants Sabrina to depend her life to
him. She has no right to manage all the money in the family. The dependency makes him do whatever he wants to Sabrina. The abuser can control the victim to
be more obedient to him. It can be concluded that the victim depends her life on the abuser. When
she cannot get the food by herself, she feels that the abuser is the life saver. The dependency indicates that the abuser can make the victim powerless. The victim
also feels that she has to obey when the abuser commands her. d. Psychological Abuse
The abuser tries to make the victim scarred of him. Therefore, the abuser can take control the victim
’s psychology. The victim feels that her life is intimidated so that the victim is powerless over the abuser justice.gov, 2016. It
can be seen on the Christmas dinner, he gets angry on the menu deserved is not like what he wants. On the previous category, Richie is angry and gives sharp
comments on Sabrina ’s cook. However in this category, Richie tries to scare
Sabrina by doing harsh action on her. When she cooks rice pudding as the dessert, Richie does not like it. Then
Eleanor thought, “It’s a traditional Danish Christmas dessert, Eleanor thought. My
grandmother made it, and her grandmother made it, and it ’s better that pumpkin
pie. It ’s special.” p.203. It is known that Sabrina purposefully makes the dessert
like that because it is her family tradition. However, Sabrina does not tell the reason why she makes it. It is because she is afraid of Richie. She pretends to tell
that she forgets to buy the pumpkin. Then Richie is mad at her. The following quotation shows that Sabrina does not explain that it is a traditional Danish
Christmas dessert. ‘It’s . . . just that I forgot to buy pumpkin,’ her mother said
‘How could you forget the fucking pumpkin on Christmas,’ Richie said, hurling the stainless-steel bowl of rice pudding. It hit the wall near her
mother and sprayed weepy chunks everywhere p. 203.
The quotation proves that Sabrina tries to make Richie not angrier. She hides the reason why she makes the dessert like that. She knows when she tells the reason,
she and Richie will fight and the situation more complicated. After that, Richie gets out of the house and buys some pumpkin. Inside the house, Sabrina just
cleans the rice pudding. What Richie does to Sabrina is excessive and very rude. It can hurt the
victim ’s mental. From the case above, Sabrina cannot defend herself. The victim
is subservient which means that she just receives it. The writer sees that there is no freedom for Sabrina to deliver the reason
why she makes the dessert. It shows that a woman does not have a right to do that because she knows the result when she delivers the reason. She chooses to be
silent in order to save the situation. She is always blamed when Richie ’s wish is
not granted. She is always wrong. From the situation mentioned before, it can be seen that Richie is easily
angry to Sabrina. He always shouts to Sabrina. Sabrina is the object of Richie ’s
anger. It also shows that a woman is oppressed by a man. She keeps herself not arguing with the man.
However, the man can do everything he wants to the woman. It can be seen from the quotation below.
When it was worse than bedsprings, when it was shouting or crying, they
’d huddle together, all five of them, on Eleanor’s bed. Maisie sat at Eleanor
’s right hand then. When Mouse cried, when Ben’s face went blank and dreamy, Maisie and Eleanor would lock eyes p. 27.
He shouts to Sabrina until the children hear it and they all scared. Richie ’s anger
to Sabrina disturbs the children. They worry about the situation. It is like Richie does not care whether the children disturbed or not. It shows when he gets angry,
he will not think whether the children know it or not. Eleanor also explains why Sabrina is very obedient to Richie. She said,
‘I don
’t know, never. This is one of those things that don’t make sense. My mom doesn
’t want to do anything that could possibly irritate my stepfather. And my stepfather gets off on being mean…’ p. 115. That quotation proves that Sabrina
always acts carefully. She keeps her behaviors in order to make Richie calm. She does not want Richie to rampage. She is afraid of Richie because Richie easily
gets angry on things. Those cases prove that the violence can inflict the fear to the victim. The
victim cannot do something that invites the abuser ’s anger. She is afraid of the
abuser so that she just receives the contumely by the abuser. The victim ’s fear that
occurs by the abuser makes him to have power to control the victim. From Eleanor and Park conversation, they talk about how Sabrina and
Richie ’s relationship goes.
‘He hates everybody, I think.’ ‘Not your mom.’
Especially to her. ’
‘Is he mean to her?’ Eleanor rolled her eyes and wiped her cheek with her sweater sleeve.
‘Uh. Yeah.
’ p. 201
The quotation above shows that Sabrina is hated by Richie. He is mean to Sabrina. He often does something evil to Sabrina. Eleanor thinks that Richie hates Sabrina.
It is because what Richie does not treat Sabrina gently. He treats Sabrina badly instead. Because of the bad treatment, it makes Eleanor thinks that Richie does not
like Sabrina so much. ‘Park took her hands again. ‘Why doesn’t she leave?’ She shook her head.
‘I don’t think she can . . . I don’t think there’s enough of her left.’ p. 201. It is not easy to get out of the chaotic family. Eleanor thinks it is almost impossible to
run away from Richie. It is not safe if Sabrina gets out of the relation with Richie. It is because she is not brave enough.
‘Is she scared of him? He asked. Then Eleanor said,
‘Yeah . . .’ p. 201. Sabrina does not bravery to face Richie. She cannot escape easily from the chaos of the family. Richie is already successful to
make Sabrina feels scared of him. Besides, the goal of this abuse is to make the victim afraid so that the abuser can take the control to do what he wants to do. As
an abuser, he can intimidate or make the victim wary. Thus, the goals this of abuse is clear that it can make the victim afraid of
the abuser. The abuser has ability to have power over the victim. He can do injury to the victim in order to make her feel powerless. Besides, emotional abuse is
affected by the crude action of the abuser. When the abuser throws the food that the victim makes is a kind of activity that hurts the victim
’s feeling. He also curses the victim that she cannot grant his wish. He also thinks that the victim is
worthless. Therefore, the abusive action by Richie has impact to the victim ’s
mental. She is powerless and helpless in front of the abuser. So, the abuser
dominates to take the control of frightening the victim. It is used to make the victim grants his wish.
2. Eleanor’s Domestic Violence Experience
