Eleanor’s Domestic Violence Experience

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

In this part, Eleanor experiences the violence that categorized as domestic violence. The violence is done by her stepfather. There are some categories of domestic violence that is explained. a. Emotional Abuse This abuse when the victim is not appreciated by the abuser. It can be in form of mocking and giving sharp comments at her. It attacks on the victim ’s self esteem justice.gov, 2016. Eleanor often receives this treatment from Richie. As a stepchild, she is always mocked by Richie. Richie who is easily angry says bad words to Eleanor. It can be seen from the quotation “I know what you’re up to,’ he said, raising his voice, just as the door closed. ‘Nothing but a bitch in heat.’ p. 68. The quotation shows that Richie says bad word to Eleanor. The word inflicts a feeling of unappreciated to the victim. The victim is not respected. She is abused by the rude words that the abuser says. The rude words that are expressed by the abuser affected the victim ’s self - esteem. She is not considered as precious. The abuser attacks the victim by mocking her. Therefore, there is no appreciation to the victim ’s self – esteem. On the other case, when Eleanor types song lyrics, Richie is mad at her. The sound of type writer disturbs Richie. “Eleanor was too shocked to make out what he was shouting at her. FAT and FUCK and BITCH. ” p. 156. Those words should not be said to Eleanor. However, because of Richie is angry at her, he mocks her by the rude words. Richie often says bad words when he is angry. Richie repeats those words to Eleanor, ‘FAT and BITCH and BEGGING FOR IT, JUST FUCKING BEGGING FOR IT. ’ p. 156. It is because he is mad at Eleanor. However, Eleanor responds those words, ‘I hate you,’ Eleanor said louder. ‘I hate you, I hate you, I hate you.’ Eleanor also said, ‘Fuck you.’p.156. Then, Richie gets angrier on Eleanor. He repeats again the rude word ‘STUPID BITCHES. ’p. 156. Eleanor is too afraid of Richie so that she runs away from the house. Form that incident, Eleanor is kicked out for one year by Richie. Those words make Eleanor ’s self – esteem is not valuable. Richie also repeats the rude words for many times. The taboo words show that Eleanor is mocked harshly by Richie. He considers that Eleanor is dishonorable. Besides, he also attacks Eleanor by saying the shape of Eleanor ’s body. He also raises his voice. He says the rude words with shouting to Eleanor. Richie snaps Eleanor which affects toward Eleanor ’s mental. Those things make the victim feels that she is not appreciated and treated as a useless child. The mockery also makes the victim feels be subordinated. By those words, the victim ’s self – esteem is not respected. The victim is underestimated by the abuser. Because of that, the victim feels that her self – esteem is not precious. The experience when Eleanor is not appreciated is a cause of Richie ’s utterance. As a teenager, she absorbs something in her environment. From the statement in the novel, ‘Before Richie moved in, Eleanor only knew that word from books and bathroom walls. Fucking woman. Fucking kids. Fuck you, you little bitch – who the fuck touched my stereo?’ p. 155. The quotation means that before knowing Richie, Eleanor only sees those words in the bathroom walls and some books. However, when she lives with Richie, she can recognize those words from Richie. She becomes more familiar with some rude words. It shows that Richie influences Eleanor to those kinds of words. Richie frequently says the harsh words so that Eleanor is used to it. Richie is too often saying the harsh words toward Eleanor and in front of Eleanor so that Eleanor identifies those words from Richie. ‘It was bad enough that, thanks to Richie ’s influence, she went around mentally calling everyone she met a ‘motherfucker’.’ p. 53. It show that how bad Richie’s impact to Eleanor. She is a teenager that has bad habit to call everyone she meets in that term. Those cases prove that how often Richie says harsh words to Eleanor. A teenager is used to those bad words because of the stepfather ’s effect. Richie influences something bad to his stepchild. Besides, those harsh words that Eleanor hears make her to call everyone ‘motherfucker’. Richie makes Eleanor does something bad and understands the harsh words. It can be concluded that the abuser often mocks at the victim by saying cruel words. He also often attacks the victim by saying that the victim is not precious. Besides, because of the abuser too often saying those words, the victim becomes more familiar with that. Thus, the victim which is still a teenager is used to call somebody else ‘motherfucker’. In this abuse, the victim gets the violence in a form of harsh words. Those harsh words attack on the victim ’s self – esteem. Her self – esteem is not respected by the abuser. Besides, the abuser also raises his voice when he says the harsh words. He snaps and says that the victim is a bad girl. He also makes the victim feels that she is not precious to him. This kind of violence indicates that the victim receives the domestic violence in the category of emotional abuse. b. Psychological Abuse This abuse is when the abuser does everything to make the victim scared of him. He wants to take control over the victim ’s psychology by intimidating or doing something to damage victim ’s mental justice.gov, 2016. Eleanor also experiences this abuse by Richie who always tries to make Eleanor scares of him. It can be seen when the night when Eleanor hears the back door slam open. She also hears the gun shots. Even though she never hears it directly, she is sure that it is gun shots. She thinks that there is something wrong in the house. Therefore, she calls the police to make sure whether she really needs a help or not. She wants to save the family. When the police come to the house, Richie gets angry instead p. 149 - 152. Then he shouts and says to Eleanor, ‘Are you trying to get rid of me? ’ he shouted. ‘Did you think you could get rid of me?’ p. 152 Richie thinks that Eleanor wants to make Richie does not live with them anymore. Eleanor is frightened to what happen in the night. She thinks that she saves the family. In the other hand, Sabrina tries to calm Richie. She said, ‘It was a mistake. ’ Her mother said gently. ‘She was trying to help.’ Sabrina protects Richie from his anger. But then, he still rampages to Eleanor. He is also mad at Sabrina. “And then he shouting, ‘I can get rid of all you.’ He slammed the door behind him. ” p. 153 The incident above shows that Eleanor gets cruel treatment from Richie. Richie tries to make Eleanor powerless in front of him. He snaps her and makes her afraid of him. Even though Eleanor thinks that she wants to save the family, Richie does not like it. He intimidates Eleanor instead by shouting to Eleanor. She is very shocked to Richie ’s anger. In this case, the abuser tries to weaken the victim by shouting and threatening. The abuser threatens that he gets rid of her. The abuser makes the victim to be afraid and has no bravery to face him. Therefore, the victim does not have power. She also cannot do something to defense herself. However, the abuser still can do something that can injure the victim ’s mental. Besides, Eleanor thinks that Richie is an evil person because he acts violence behavior toward her. She even supposes that her stepfather wants to kill her. ‘Because my stepdad would kill me.’ p. 111. The abusive treatment and the threatening that he does to Eleanor influence her point of view toward him. She only sees the bad side of Richie. When Park asked, ‘Why does he care?’ p. 111. She rather says, ‘He doesn’t care. He just wants to kill me.’ p. 111. Eleanor ’s thought about Richie shows how cruel Richie’s treatment toward her. She is often oppressed by him in order to restrain her so that she cannot do what she wants to do. Richie who easily gets angry is often to make Eleanor is terrified. Therefore, her presumption about Richie shows that she gets the harsh treatment from him. Eleanor gets panic when her sister, Maissie and her brother, Ben know that she has a boyfriend. She worries if they tell to Richie about this. Eleanor does not want get in trouble when Richie knows it. She realizes the bad punishment that Richie will do. “He’ll make me leave, you know.’ Eleanor said fiercely. ‘If I’m lucky, that ’s the worst that’ll happen.” p. 232. The quotation explains that she assumes he can do cruelty to her. She tells to her siblings that he can do something worse than kicking her out. From the previous section, when she gets in trouble with Richie she is kicked out. Therefore, in this case, she assumes of she is in a trouble with him, she can be kicked out again. She is afraid of Richie because he has the authority to punish her. The fear shows that the victim has no power to defense herself. Besides, the abuser can do something that makes the victim ’s mental worse. The oppression by threatening toward Eleanor proves that she receives the domestic violence in a form of psychological abuse. The purpose of this abuse is to make the victim afraid of the abuser. It can be seen from some cases that Eleanor gets the harsh treatment from Richie. She is oppressed and scared of Richie. The victim is snapped when she tries to save the house even though it is a mistake. She is also fear when her siblings know she has a boyfriend. She has an assumption that she will be kicked out. She has trauma of her past. It is because she experiences when Richie kicks her out. Those fears indicate that the victim experience the domestic violence in a form of psychological abuse.

C. The Struggle of Sabrina and Eleanor