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Clare’s family is quite rich because George wins the pools and invests the money into rented houses. Carmen and the children moves from house to house.
Some of the houses are really nice, with three stories and a large garden. After the separation of Carmen and George, George allows Carmen to collect rent money from
some of the houses. This money is supposed to be enough to fulfill the daily needs of Carmen’s family.
Although living in that sort of proper life, the family itself is not fine at all. Carmen treats Clare badly, unlike the way she treated Clare’s siblings, especially after
George left the family. Clare never gets any new things; everything she received is handed-downs from her sisters. Her mother often treats her as a housemaid. She is
always beaten and scolded. Clare receives both emotional and physical abuse from Carmen. Things go worse for Clare after Eastman moves into their house. Clare
would then be abused not only by her mother, but also by Eastman. In her narration, Briscoe tells of her gloomy childhood and reveals the maltreatment she gets from her
mother and stepfather. She is also sexually abused by a close relative, a man who rents a floor in her
house. This man, named Georgie, is married to Rose and stayed there as husband and wife with her. He often helps Carmen to handle the rented houses, so he is considered
trustworthy. When Carmen went out for her part time job, he is in charge of watching the children. Clare is close with him and she enjoys his jokes. Clare does not realize
that she is abused when it happened, because she is still too young and Georgie is very cunning in approaching Clare. In short, Clare is abused by three people in her
childhood, they are Carmen, Eastman, and Georgie.
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B. Approach of the Study
The purpose of the study is to find out the motivations behind the child abuse by Carmen, Eastman, and Georgie towards Clare. To achieve this purpose,
some approaches to child abuse and its motivation are provided. Since this study deals with literary work, critical approach is required. Rohrberger and Woods, Jr.
1971 propose five kinds of critical approach; they are the formalist approach, the biographical approach, the socio cultural–historical approach, the mythopeic
approach, and the psychological approach p.6 – p.15. In this study, Psychological approach is chosen to answer the problems, because it focuses on
personal matter, personal reasons and motivations. Furthermore, this psychological approach would dig out Carmen’s,
Eastman’s, and Georgie’s personalities by means of looking into their thoughts, actions and behaviors. The answer to the first research question would help in
answering the second and the third research questions. Psychology is expected to uncover the hidden motives of the abusive acts performed by a one of the three
perpetrators.
C. Method of the Study
A literature study is a qualitative research conducted by applying library study. Since this study was a literature study, it was done using references from
various sources on the field of Psychology. There were primary and secondary sources in this study. The primary source was the Brisco’s novel, Ugly. The
33 secondary sources were any related reading materials which were used to analyze
the novel. The initial procedure was done by a careful reading of the novel, surfing
through information and taking important notes which can be used as reliable references to analyze the novel. Because the topic of the study is the motives of
child abuse, the writer searched for sources which are related to child abuse and motivation to help the writer get a better understanding of the topic and the novel.
The writer worked step by step in finishing the thesis. The steps were as follows. First, the writer read summaries of several novels before deciding which
novel to analyze. The writer then read the selected novel several times to gain better and deeper understanding of the novel. After that, the writer decided on a
suitable research topic, which was inspired from her main points of interest in the novel. Having decided the topic, the writer consulted with the thesis supervisor in
order to discuss the validity of the topic. Once it was approved, the writer started working on the first chapter to formulate the problem formulations. These
problem formulations would guide the analysis of the novel. Then, the writer reviewed the books, theories, and researches that are
related to the topic, in order to gather references to help her to answer the problem formulations. The writer visited the university library, searched the internet, and
discussed with students of the faculty of psychology to widen her knowledge of the theories gathered. On top of that, the writer also studied the biography of
Constance Briscoe, the author of Ugly, and read up on the news surrounding the report that Briscoe made regarding her mother’s legal lawsuit against her due to
34 her exposing her experiences being abused as a child on Mail Online and Times
Online. After gaining more understanding regarding the topic and the novel, the
writer then applied the reviewed literature and discussed the novel using the formulated problems.
