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CHAPTER V CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
This chapter presents two parts. The first part is the conclusions. It deals with the answer of problem formulated in the first chapter. The second part is the
suggestions. This part states the suggestions for future researches and the implementation of literary works in English teaching.
A. Conclusions
In this analysis, the problem which is formulated covers three parts. First is the description about the main and minor characters. Second is the description
of the relationship between Sara and her children. Third is the analysis of the meanings of Sara’s love to her dying daughter. These conclusions wrap up all
those analyzed in the previous chapter. The first conclusion is the description of main and minor characters. Based
on the theory of character proposed by Abrams and by Henkle, there are three main characters in the novel. They are Sara, Kate, and Anna. They are called as
the main characters because the story focuses on their life and their relationship over Kate’s illness. Jesse is described as the minor characters. He appears in a
certain setting and becomes the background for the major characters. The second conclusion concerns with the relationship between Sara, as a
mother and her children. There are three mother-children relationships to be discussed. They are the relationship between Sara and Kate, the relationship
between Sara and Anna, and the relationship between Sara and Jesse. Compared to Anna and Jesse, the relationship between Sara and Kate is more harmonious.
As a masochistic mother, Sara always takes care of Kate’s life, praises, encourages and gives her happiness and feeling of secure living in this world
without expecting in return except Kate’s health and happiness. Thus, Sara becomes the first person for Kate to look for protection and to share her terrible
illness. She always gives Kate encouragement whenever she relapses and feels hopeless.
As in friendship, Kate openly shares and asks her mother opinion when she is falling in love with Taylor. Besides, she asks her mother to help her
choosing a party dress. However, the frictions cannot be avoided in their relationships. Sara’s authoritarianism and the different views between them lead
to the conflicts. The fact is that Sara gets rebellion because she takes care and controls too much over Kate’s condition. The main different view happens when
Sara conceals Taylor’s death. Kate accuses Sara as a liar and stops talking for a week with her. They use compromise and solving resolution to cope with the
conflicts. The more attention Sara gives to Kate has created the envious feeling
among her other children, Anna and Jesse. This leads the relationship between Sara and her other children to the frictions. The different views and Sara’s
authoritarian are other factors that guide to the strain relationship. Both of them think that Sara only takes care about Kate and revolves her life around Kate. The
main conflicts between Sara and Anna happen after her daughter files a lawsuit.
Sara always convinces Anna to withdraw it and give up her kidney. However, Anna refuses. To cope with the conflicts, they apply three conflict resolutions
from Blake and Moulton. They are avoidance, pushing aggression, solving and compromise. Besides Anna, Jesse feels left out of Sara’s attention. He is very
angry when Sara cancels her appointment to accompany him meeting the orthodontist and to buy shoes. Feeling left out, Jesse encounters to the bad
behavior in order to get attention. Sara uses problem solving and pushing aggression to solve their conflict whereas Jesse uses avoidance. However, Anna
and Jesse need her mother’s protection. Deep in their heart, they love each other even tough they are more involved in conflicts.
The third conclusion reveals the meanings of love to her dying daughter for Sara. Love means sacrificing her time, her own life, and her feeling for the
sake of Kate’s health and happiness. She does not want her child to undergo her illness alone that she spends much of her time to accompany and to keep alert on
Kate. Indeed, she gives more attention and thinks about Kate’s health in every single time and wherever she is. Since her love is unconditional and unselfish,
Sara gives everything even her own life without expecting in return unless the best for Kate. She is willing to give up part of her heart and her kidney even all of her
life to replace Kate’s illness. To build Kate’s self confidence, Sara shaves all her hair and makes it like Kate’s head.
She sacrifices her feeling when she feels hurt because of getting a lawsuit petition from another daughter. Sara fights in two fronts. Deep in her heart, Sara
does not want to be an attorney and to fight against Anna in the trial. But she has to do it because there is Kate who is dying and needs her sister’s kidney.
Besides sacrifice, love for Sara also means care and responsibility, struggles, and supports. Sara cares about her dying daughter therefore she worries
whenever Kate feels hurt. She does pay attention to the sign appears on her daughter’s skin. No matter what signs and pains of her daughter illness are, Sara
becomes very anxious when she finds it. To respond to her care, Sara takes responsibility to protect and control her daughter’s health. She has the chores like
a doctor and a nurse at home. She checks Kate’s condition and compares it with the previous days. Because of her extra attention to Kate’s life, Sara always
focuses on her daughter’s need than other children. Thus, all her decisions lays on Kate’s side and these create the frictions between Sara and other children.
Sara also shows her struggle to save her dying daughter’s life. She struggles to get a bodily organ donor by designing Anna to have a perfect genetic
match with Kate. She also has to fight another daughter in the trial. Although it is hard for Sara to battle her own daughter, Sara decides to be an attorney again and
keeps struggling to get Anna’s kidney. In her struggle, Sara has Kate follow the arsenic therapy although Brian refuses it. She will not let her daughter die.
On the other way, Sara proves her great love by giving Kate support. Sara encourages her daughter’s spirit to fight against her illness and instills Kate’s
confidence whenever she feels inferior because of her appearance. Sara always stays with her dying daughter and praises how beautiful she is.
B. Suggestions