he or she tries to adapt his pattern behavior and his attitudes, beliefs, values, and aspiration to theirs, changes in his or her personality pattern are inevitable. These
changes may not be marked, nor are they always permanent. Changes in social pressure encourage changes in certain aspects of the personality. Traits, which are
likely to lead to social rejection, such as shyness, bossiness, aggressiveness, and greed, are more subject to change than those, which are usually admired, such as
affection, ambition, cooperativeness, and generosity. Changes in role bring status changes within the group. One’s role may
change because of a change in age. A change in one’s role may also come from changes in economic conditions. A change in role may also be due to affiliation with
a new group. Strong motivation will gives changes if the motivation to improve the personality pattern is strong enough. Ordinarily, people are most strong motivated to
change those traits, which they believe will improve their social relationship and earn them greater social acceptance.
Changes in the self-concept will bring about a change in the entire personality pattern. Changing one’s self-concept requires tremendous self-insight.
This means that a person must be able and willing to see himself as he actually is, not as he would like to be or others perceive him. Use of psychotherapy helps a
person to gain better insight into the reasons for his unrealistically favorable or unfavorable self-concept, to realize how his self-concept affects the quality of his
behavior, to achieve both the motivation and know-how to change his self-concept, to secure the guidance necessary to make his change, without upsetting the entire
personality pattern, and to change the condition in the environment which contribute to an unfavorable self-concept.
2.2 Criticism
The criticism about Alice Hoffman and her works come from many sources like daily news, magazines, and from the readers.
Alice Hoffman is an author who came from Long Island. She started to write novel at the age of twenty-one. Some of her writings are Practical Magic, Here on
Earth, and Blue Diary. Her novel has received mention as notable books of the year by The New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, The Los Angeles Times, Library
Journal, and People Magazine. Caryn James in his review of the novel says, “If Alice Hoffman had set out
to write a calculated novel, she could have done better that At Risk, the story of an 11-year-old girl, from a perfectly average middle-class family, who has AIDS.”
Based on that statement, the writer can see that the novel is interesting and the novel become popular in the reader’s community.
Jayebirck, a teacher from Dallas, Texas says, “Another winner by Alice Hoffman Every book I read of hers convinces me that she is one of our best
storytellers. Hoffman tells this story with light moments and a lot of heart. I am placing this book in the basket in the teachers lounge.”
:www.bookcrossing.comjournal, accessed on September 24, 2006. Publishers Weekly says, “With this moving novel, Hoffman has written a
story about a family attacked by tragedy, and has given it a larger relevance by confronting one of the most frightening issues of our times. This will be a book that
people will talk about and recommend.” :www.bookcrossing.comjournal, accessed on September 24, 2006.
From the reviews above, the writer has a conclusion that At Risk is a favorite literary work, the novel that tells about an interesting issue in the society. The
readers are able to apprehend the feeling of the victim and the family by reading the novel. The story builds the reader’s attention from the beginning and leaves the end
to the reader’s hand.
2.3 Theoretical Framework
The writer would like to analyze two problems in this study. The first one is the description of Polly’s characterization. The second is the changes of Polly’s
personality. In analyzing the characterization of Polly, the writer would like to employ some theories.
The first one is the theories of character and characterization. The theories present some methods to understand the character. Those theories help the writer
depicting Polly’s character by her actions, and dialogue. The writer also applies the criticism towards the novel and Hoffman’s work in order to reach a greater
understanding about the theory. The second is the theory of personality changes. The writer uses the theory of personality changes proposed by Hurlock. The theory
helps the writer to analyze and observe the changes of Polly’s personality. In addition, to make the analysis complete, the writer chooses to apply the
psychological approach. This approach guides the writer to observe Polly’s personality changes caused by her daughter’s illness.
CHAPTER 3 METHODOPOGY
This chapter consists of three parts, namely the subject matter, the approaches, and the procedure. The subject matter concerns the object of this study. The approaches
contain of the approaches that the writer uses in the analysis. The procedure explains the steps of analyzing the novel.
3.1 Subject Matter
The subject matter of this study is At Risk, a novel written by Alice Hoffman in 1988. The novel takes place in Morrow, Cape Ann, Massachusetts. The novel contains
219 pages and consists of 13 chapters. Hoffman’s seventh novel grew from her own fears bout AIDS, and mirrors the world of family and children. The novel was printed in
1989 by Berkley Books. The novel is about the illness of Amanda, Farrell’s daughter. It tells the
conditions of the Farrell family in facing the illness. The family consists of Ivan Farrell, an astronomer, Polly, a photographer, 8-year-old Charlie, a smart boy interested in
science, and 11-year-old Amanda, a champion gymnast. The main theme of this novel is the reaction of the family on Amanda’s illness.
Slowly, the illness changes the atmosphere of the family, the personality of the family members. The writer will focus on Polly’s personality changes.
