56 have to be able to forgive someone. He also gives a training program to some
foster parents. He presents a program on working with children who come from abusive backgrounds and how to deal with them.
Wilson 1996, states that children who have experienced of abuse tend to get negative impacts of abuse. Children who once experienced abuse are very
likely to have abusive behavior as well as drug and alcohol problem. They also tend to be abusive parents. In spite of the negative impacts that often happen to
the abused children, Wilson 1996 states that some of those children do better in overcoming their trauma. Dave is an abused child who is able to overcome his
problems and traumas of abuse. He has a good personality and behavior. However, Dave‟s success is influenced by many factors. As stated by Erikson in
Feist 2006, someone‟s personality development is influenced by his social
environment. D ave‟s social environment gives big influence for Dave‟s
personality development. Dave gets encouragement from his environment so that he is motivated to be a better person and forgets his past. He is able to use his past
to motivate him to a brighter future. In dealing with his problems as the victim of abuse, he gets huge motivations from many people around him like his foster
parents, his wife and his son.
1. Foster Parents’ Influence
Foster home is a whole new world for Dave. He gets the love of a real family in the arms of his foster pa
rents. Because of his foster parents‟ love, Dave becomes a real person. The experience of child abuse makes Dave‟s academic
57 ability decreases. Alice
Turnbough is one of Dave‟s foster mothers who always help him in study. She teaches Dave how to speak in front of many people and
write in a good way. It can be proven in the novel: At Alice‟s home I found myself opening up to her about everything, all the
time. Sometimes she and I would gab far into the early morning hours. I never worried about how I talked or what I said. Whenever I became
nervous and began to stutter, Alice would teach me how to slow down my train of thought, and have me pictured myself saying the words before I
spoke them. Within a few weeks, my speech problem disappeared The Lost Boy,
p. 259 Dave also gives his
best regards for his parents, The Turnboughs‟ family. As stated in the novel:
The Turnboughs were a god-send, with something so simple as teaching me how to walk, talk and act like a normal child, while assuring me that I
was worthy and could overcome any challenge that life had to offer The Lost Boy,
p.313 Dave says that he wants to give the highest compliments to his foster mother,
Alice. He says that Alice is his son‟s grandmother. As a foster child, he never forgets his foster parents.
The encouragement from Dave‟s foster parents makes him successful enlisted into the United States Air Force. He realizes that his lifelong search for
love and acceptance finally ended in the arms of foster parents. Before he leaves home to join a basic training, he gives kiss to his foster mother Alice and shaking
Harold‟s hand, his father. As stated in the novel: “I opened my mouth to say something appropriate. But this moment in time needed no words, for we knew
what we all felt- the love of a family” The Lost Boy, p. 297. The love from his
foster parents has motivated Dave to be a stronger and better person.
58
2. Marsha Donohoe
