51
mother stops her to act further. Although finally she can go into the room, the process to go there takes a long time. Petri’s theory of learning 1981:6 fits to
what happens to Liza. Liza learns from her environment to get the answer of her curiousity.
3. Liza’s Concept of Marriage
When Liza is a little girl, she does not know what marriage is since she never has a father and never attends any wedding party. She does not understand
when her mother looks so unhappy talking about Jonathan Tobias’ marriage, “Mr Tobias is getting married today. This is his wedding day”. Liza who cannot think
about anything just asks, “What’s wedding?” said Liza p.108. That is when her mother starts to teach her about marriage.
‘Were you ever married?’ Liza asked. ‘No, I never was,’ said Mother.
At a quarter past twelve she said it must all be over now and they were man
and wife. Liza said, wasn’t he a man before, and Mother said she was quite
right, it was just an expression and not a very good one. They were husband
and wife. p.109 Liza builds her own understanding about marriage. As her mother acts as a
teacher for her too, she asks Liza to write stories about marriage. Mother had
said she must start
writing compositions-well, stories
really- and asked her to do one about getting married. Liza was already working it out in her head. She was going to have a girl
called Annabel getting married to a man called Bruno who brought her home to his big house in the country by a river. Annabel found
the locked room while Bruno was out riding on his horse and then she found the key to the door in the posket of his dressing gown.
Next time he went out she unlocked the door and inside she found the dead bodies of three women that he’s killed before he married
her because only Moslems could have more than one wife. Liza didn’t know what would happen next but she’d think of something.
p.110 PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
52
Liza’s understanding about marriage is just limited only to what her mother has explained to her. She does not understand that marriage is part of
social norms. She does not know what is the difference between what can be done before marriage and what cannot be done. Since her mother employs serial
monogamy lifestyle, Liza considers that what her mother has done is just like what others do in their lives.
‘This guy Tobias, he slept with your Mum? I mean, they was in the same bed?’
‘They were lovers, they were like us.’ ‘That wasn’t right,’ Sean said very seriously, ‘not with you in the house,
not with a little kid.’ ‘Why not?’
She didn’t know what he meant and she could tell he found it hard to explain.
Well, it’s just not. Everyone knows that. They wasn’t married. Your Mum should have known better, an educated woman like her. It’s one thing just
the two of them but not with a little kid in the house. You got to have principles, you know, love.
She said no, she didn’t know, but she tok no notice. ‘D’you reckon she thought he’d marry her?’ pp.104-105
As she is growing into a young woman, Liza’s concept of marriage is growing too. She understands that marriage is a bond between a man and a
woman who has the intention to live together and raise a family. She knows that to get married needs a lot of things to prepare. That is why she considers Sean’s
intention to marry her as an unwise thing to do because they do not have anything yet.
… ‘Oh, Sean, don’t look like that, don’t be so silly.’ ‘Silly’
‘Well, of course it’s silly talking about marrying and having children and one of those things a what-d’you-call-it, a mortgage. We’ve got our lives
to live first. I’m not even grown-up really. In the law I can’t sign a contract or make a will or anything.’ p.330
From the description we can see that Liza’s concept of marriage is PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
