give up and sleep but on another side she does not want to quit. Finally, Kimberly chooses to stay up all night to study for the oral examination.
While Kimberly is studying for the next day‟s oral examination, her mother wakes up. She feels sorry for letting Kimberly help her at the factory. She
thinks that Kimberly should have studied instead of helping her. Her mother also offers her a cup of tea but Kimberly refuses it. She wants nothing but to study.
You shouldn‟t have come to the factory with me,” Ma‟s voice, clogged with sleep, come fr
om the depths of the matress. Then a pause. “ I shouldn‟t have let you come. Your exam tommorow is too important.”
“You couldn‟t have finished without me.” Let me make you some tea.” “Ma, I really need to study. Go back to sleep.” p. 74
Kimberly overcomes her intrapersonal conflict by using the second type of conflict handling skills which is know who is involved. Know who is involved is
the conflict resolution used by the individual who wants to face the conflict rather than escape. Kimberly chooses to face the oral examination rather than to run
away from her responsibility.
9. Conflict Resolution of Keeping Her Baby or Having an Abortion
The last conflict resolution is used by Kimberly when she has to face the fact that she is pregnant. One day Matt and Kimberly have sexual intercourse in
Kimberly‟s apartment. Actually, they have used two condoms but they do not realize that the two condoms are torn. Kimberly never imagines that she will be
pregnant after that incident. She does not know what to do. She gets confused whether she has to have an abortion or she keeps her baby. The first thing that
Kimberly doe to solve her conflict is to come to Curt, her boy friend. Kimberly
tells him all about her problem. After listening to Kimberly‟s story, Curt wants to marry her. Curt also offers to give her some money. However, Kimberly does not
want to marry Curt because she does not love him. She loves Curt as her friend not as a husband. She also refuses to take some money from Curt.
“Curt, I love you,” I paused. “ But not like that. And you don‟t love me that way either. Actually, we‟re friends. Friends who fool around.” He
closed his eyes for a moment, then signed. “Yeah. You want me to give you some money? “You‟re the sweetest guy there is.” I put my hand
aga inst his unshaved face. “ it‟s not that I don‟t need it, but I can‟t take it
from you.” p. 112 Instead of asking Curt to marry her or give some money to her, Kimberly
asks him what should she do. Curt does not exactly give her a suggestion but he asks if Kimberly has told Matt about her pregnacy. Kimberly has not told him and
she also does not know whether she will tell him or not. Even though Curt does
not tell her what should she do but Kimberly thanks him for being a good listener.
I frowned. “Ethical. If you knew the things that were going through my head... Oh, Curt, what am I going to do? “ Have you told the dickhead
yet?” “He‟s not a... No.” “Are you going to tell him?” I don‟t know.” When it was time for me to go, Curt bent over to kiss me on the lips. I held
his face in my hands, then turned so that his kiss landed in my cheeck, to
the side of my mouth. With my eyes closed, I said, “Thanks for listening.” p. 112
Kimberly not only shares her problem with Curt but also with Annette, her bestfriend. Kimberly meets Annette in the bathroom in between classes. She tells
all the stories to Annette and asks her what she sould do. Annette suggests to Kimberly to tell Matt about her pregnancy. However, Kimberly does not want to
tell Matt because she thinks that she will not be a good wife for Matt. For once, annette didn‟t say anything. She just held me in an incredibly
tight grip. Then she spoke. “I‟m here for you.” I took a deep breath. “What do you think?” “You need to tell him.” “I can‟t.” “Why not?” I rubbed my
eyes. “He does. But if I tell him, he‟ll never let me... you know. He‟ll want
