Bad Sides of Life: Pleasures of Acknowledging Newness, of Escaping, and
in a context that absorbs their attention
122
”. In other words, children receive the topics adults assume to be difficult very well especially because they are ready with
exploring newness. For the first example, the perfect, happy, middle-class and neat family has
been widely celebrated in children’s books as it has turned to be stereotypical and ideal to have harmonious nuclear family. Altston has observed even separated for 166
years, the english work from 1830s like Holiday House to the 2005’s Charlie in the
Chocolate Factory share a similar rhetoric of family that true happiness seems to be impossible without the love and support of a dedicated family
123
. The depiction of the family in children’s literature remains conservative, ideal, and fixed. It promotes a
specific ideology to instil in its readers certain values which dictate how families should be: loving, respectful, preferably with two parents, contained in domestic
harmony and sharing wholesome home-cooked family meals
124
. Breaking the boundaries burdening kids from knowing difficult life as they
are assumed to live in a typical simplicity, Blume raises sophisticated themes which remain untold in
children’s books. Marital problem, as one of those non-children’s matters, appears in It’s Not the End as the primary issue the young character Karen
has to cope. In Margaret , readers can also find the frictions over Margaret’s vacation
to Florida which is driven by their own marital problem of eloping. Blume’s fictional
parents are depicted to be, instead of constantly harmonious, over conflicted or at
122
Peter Hunt, ed., International Companion Encyclopedia of Children’s Literature. Second New York: Routledge, 2004 557.
123
Ann Alston,The Family in English Children’s Literature New York: Taylor Francis, 2008 1.
124
Alston 2.
least some times conflicted. Karen’s parents fight for everything from foods to the
mode of parenting which turns divorce to be only way to struggle for. Meanwhile Margaret’s parents successfully end the fight with support, understanding, and
solution. The ‘new’ model of parents in Blume’s novel offers freshness in reading
stories by deconstructing the classic and replicated figure of parents which has been long and widely idealized. Like adults, young readers also want stories with the
glorification of change, of novelty, and of discarding the old in favour of something new. In doing so, young readers can enjoy the new world and novelty in providing
diverse perspective, solution, and anticipation of belonging problem of the unpleasant parental relationsh
ip that the previous stories of the similarly typical parents’ relations do not offer.
T he theme of divorce is also considered to be
excluded from children’s matters. E
ven though recent English children’s books have diversity in including
single-parent family, Alston suggests that the family with two heterosexual-parents still constructs the ideological fictional nuclear family in children’s literature in the
twenty-first century
125
. Therefore, in this case, Blume’s novel offers the pleasure of
newness again. Another example of newness can also be found in the presence of issues
related to problems with religion. Since usually children’s life is understood as
naiveté from sophisticated issues such as religious problems from stories, readers are kept away from the pleasure of adding new knowledge and perspective. Especially
125
Alston 5.
because most children acquire the religious views from their parent, it is almost ‘abnormal’ when a kid like Margaret in Margaret questions about the most
appropriate religion she has to belong when her family practices no religion. While related to the pleasure of freshness among the wide number of books
avoiding such darkness in life because of the fear that children can not master issues they are not familiar, Nodelman argues the potentially inexperienced children can
absorb new topics even when they have not experienced losing someone they love including the harm the books are suspected to bring to child readers. Nodelman sees
in a more positive light by recalling that readers do not read everything with the same degree of attention. Like adults, children do not always read closely and analytically.
They know how to skim and they also do not keep reading books they dislike because they feel equally free to stop to read against the texts
126
. Moreover, Avery also suggests
[the child] has his own defence against what he doesn’t like or doesn’t understand in the book…He ignores it, subconsciously perhaps, or he makes
something different from it… [Children] extract what they want from a book and no
more.’ This sums up that children are more open even to genuinely radical thought and the ways of understanding texts
127
. Secondly, in addition to the pleasure of newness,
as designer of childr en’s
books and literature, adults also need to concern about ‘escapism’. For Lesson in Oberstein in Hunt, 1998:26, the good book for the ‘child’ offers not only the ‘child’
back to itself, but also needs to offer the ‘child’ that which is not itself. This is
126
Nodelman The Pleasures 29.
127
See Hunt, Understanding 19.
because literature has power to be an imaginative insight to transport to what another person may be feeling, and the contemplation of possible human experiences which
are not at that moment going through readers’ life. Harahap suggests that there are things people can only learn by facing them
directly like honouring honesty, choosing good or bad, acknowledging God’s affections, solidarities because they can only be achieved by living that life.
Fortunately, he adds, civilization has found a mean which make it possible for people to enter, to feel, to taste, and learn the life without dealing with risks and danger of
having them. The mean is literature
128
. In other words, b esides expanding their
experiences through new things, children are also possibly pleased by the experience of stepping out from reality to be emotionally involved in the fictional characters.
Secondly, as the appearance of brute life offers pleasure of escaping from daily problems, its pleasure of newness builds experiences. Children, too, seek
pleasure of expanding their horizon through vicarious experiences because they can visit new places, gain new experiences, meet new people, as well as learn about a
variety of cultures and life. To enter another person’s experience who suffers certain disease through fictions is one of the example how readers can enrich their
experiences. It is because especially in children’s fiction, one of the idealized child characters is depicted to be normally healthy. Without really suffering scoliosis in
Deenie, young readers are invited to experience the diseases by discovering the
128
Mula Harahap, Tentang Sastra Anak-anak. 16 April 2007. ETSA: Kumpulan Esai dan Tulisan Kreatif Lainnya. Website. 13 July 2013.
https:mulaharahap.wordpress.com20070416tentang-sastra-anak-anak.
common goals and similar emotions found in the characters without taking any consequences and risks for being ill.
Experiencing death vicariously through Davey’s journey of healing herself after her father’s death can also prove that
literature enables readers to escape from one’s daily life to enter a condition needing the distinguished emotion they do not
experience. Yet literature makes readers capable in positioning themselves to see such experience right in front of them without really losing a father. Similarly, as
depicted in the novels analysed, child readers do not need to experience the pain of having their parents divorced or witnessing their battles. It is also not necessary for
them to feel disappointed for the unexpected experiences as well as being confused with their religious choices.
The third pleasu re of presenting brute realities in Blume’s novel is the way
how readers can recognize gaps during reading sophisticated topics. Even though it might turn to be another kind of generalization in understanding children, yet, in his
more optimistic perspecti ve toward children, Hunt says that “Play is a natural part of
their [children] outlook, they will regard language as another area for playful exploration. They are less bound by fixed schema, and in this sense see more
clearly
129
. This can be said that child ren’s books should not be necessarily less
serious than adult books or therefore, simpler in providing issues that children’s literature can deal with them all as well as adult books. Nodelman also believes that it
129
Rederick McGillis,ed. Voices of the Other: Children’s Literature and Postcolonial Context Canada: Oxford University Press, 1996 12.
is pleasurable for readers including the young ones to look for meanings and messages by filling the gaps of the texts
130
. Possessing the expertise in filling gaps, readers can turn small information
into a rich experience. The ‘dissatisfying’ ending of Forever can tell so rich about the messages even though Blume does not clearly says about them. The positive message
indeed lies on the reason why Katherine decides to break up the relationship. Readers know that Theo, the guy formerly mentioned in the camp, contributes to the problem
103. However , Katherine’s objection for Michael’s assumption that she leaves
because she has another sexual relationship suggests that the main character does not approve sexual affair 107. Instead, Katherine holds the belief that sex should not be
done with someone she does not love or no longer love which becomes an important perspective about sexuality as this knowledge is shared in the previous part of the
novel to be reader’s repertoire 16. The novel also tells how the character puts the honour to mean love that it is
not cheaply used for the sake of sexual pleasure 61. This is clearly implied in former reading as Katherine needs a long time to say ‘I love you’ to Michael who
started saying it but Katherine feels unsure saying to the guy she meets only nineteen times 19. Readers also get this message as they go back to the early process of the
sexual intercourses when Katherine keeps telling Michael not to be hurry to be
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Nodelman, The Pleasures 21. By using Reader Response perspective, Nodelman suggests the term gap is understood to
describe the condition in which most written text is capable in building the communication with readers with the minimal information on it. In its process of building the meaning, the
gaps evoke a reader’s knowledge to make them meaningful. In addition, it is also believed that readers’ knowledge of a context which includes the pre-existing repertoire can help
readers how to fill those gaps. Readers do this activity both consciously and unconsciously.
engaged in sexual activity until she is mentally ready, which in fact refers to the feeling of love 14. This is why when the love is gone Katherine eventually rejects
the invitation of her sexual partner Michael to make love pretending to want it. She finds it unfair to do sex by pretending to like her partner. In this part, readers
previously are presented the knowledge that both Katherine and Michael have made promise to be honest when something goes wrong in the relationship 27. These
values are in fact the positive points about sexuality shared in Forever. In fact, dealing with the jump up conclusion will commonly assume that
Forever does not teach teenagers the consequences of pre-marital and teen sex because it does not end with the bad life like pregnancy, suicide, being isolated, of
getting venereal diseases, and the fact that the protagonist does not appear to regret of what she has done. Blume
’s novel enables readers to learn the other ways as the protagonist’s belief about ‘forever’ is shaken. Katherine realizes she is too careless to
define the forever commitment 109. Both Katherine and Michael are depicted to get hurt for the separation. Yet, in the case that Katherine does not regret is understood
by readers that what she has passed through with Michael is special that this evokes readers to receive it tru
e that Katherine’s love journey mentions something romantic about their relation 110.
Sex here can be recognized as expressions of love instead of sex that people can do with anyone because the protagonist suggests careful mental and physical
arrangement in her decision. Obviously, Blume leaves the gaps in gaining the values with less manipulation because she leaves the messages openly that only by reading
the whole text strategically and closely readers can obtain what Blume wants to say. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
In addition, in the case of Blubber ’s immorality, it might be clearly seen that
Jill the protagonist has learnt about the pain she feels to be disliked by the whole class because she is then
in Linda’s shoes after she does not follow Wendy’s order to conduct an unfair trial to the former bully target Linda. However, the value indeed
does not lie in readers’ expectation that Wendy, too, should get herself into Linda or Jill’s shoes. Otherwise, Blume departs the important ending through Jill’s eyes. Jill
gets the key of th e problem by ruining Wendy’s authorities as Jill messes up the
loyalty of the gang’s members Caroline and Linda to get disbanded. By this chance the bullying is over and Jill explains the change in the lunch time,
Nobody called me Baby Brenner during lunch. Donna and Caroline moved their desks together and Wendy invited Laurie to eat with her. Linda sat alone
at her desk, the way she used to. 125
Without dictating and manipulating her readers to prevent them doing bullying by accepting that bad behaviour will lead anyone to his or her bad luck and
ugly reward as reality does not say so, the readers are allowed consciously and unconsciously to analyse and
appreciate the protagonist’ insight and development in order to catch up the significance of her actions.
It is clear to say that the ‘new’ and ‘distinguished’ topics in Blume’s novels
frequently become topic of debate. Blume’s novels seem to be breaking the common
beliefs in choosing subjects in children’s literature. It is because the topics might not probably new but it is Blume who dares to open the gate to welcome the newness.
Besides expanding their experiences through new things, children are also possibly pleased by the experience of stepping out from reality to be emotionally involved in
the fictional characters. While when they are considered to be lack of skills of dealing PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
with bad sides of life, the analysis of this research has showed that it is also pleasing to fill in the gaps found in the stories.