36 school, those snakes,’ he said.” p. 153 He spent his playing time to get the
snakes in the forest. “Snake money. He was a boy, eight or nine, and it was one thing he could do.” 153
In his family, he also can be a good brother for his sister. His mother always asks him to take care of his sister, June, and he never rejects it. “That and
protect June. Watch your sister, his mother would caution, looking up from the stove.” p. 153 Besides, he also does a house work. He helps his mother in home
with pleasure because there is no one who helps his mother except him. “Feed the chickens and clean the coop and weed the garden.” p. 153 His father goes to the
town to get enough money to pay June’s medicine because June suffers Down syndrome.
One day when June has dead, his mother live in a grief and she does not do her daily job, he is a good son who replacing his mother to finish her job. “He
fed the chickens and milked the cow. He did these ordinary things ...” p. 154 David also obey what his mother want that he has to learn something that can help
the world. “Davy, his mother said, a long time later, from the shadows where she sat, You go off to school. Learn something that could help in the world.” p. 155
And finally, he decides to be a doctor in his future.
b. David’s Character based on Other’s Opinion about David
Based on other’s opinion, David’s character is described as follow:
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37
1 Protective
David is a good husband for Norah Henry. He cares to Norah and always protect her in her pregnant. “He found himself wanting to protect her instead, to
carry her up flights of stairs, to wrap her in blankets, to bring cups of custard.” p. 5 David also wants to keeps his wife feeling by taking away his daughter who
suffers Down syndrome. He does not want his wife live in a grief so that he decides to send their daughter to an institution in Louisville. He wants take care of
Norah by avoiding a sadness from her. “ ‘Don’t you see?’ he asked, his voice soft. ‘This poor child will most likely have a serious heart defect. A fatal one. I’m
trying to spare us all a terrible grief.’” p. 24 David thinks that by taking away their daughter from their family will
makes their family live hapier and he hopes he do the right action. He will do everything to make his family happy. “ ‘I wish you were happier,’ he said softly.
‘I wish there were something I could do.’ p. 198 Therefore he tells his wife that their daughter was dead. While the fact is different with what he has imagined
before. The fact shows that Norah still live in a grief because she losses her daughter so that David has to think about what should he do to release his wife
sadness “He had wanted to spare her, to protect her from loss and pain; he had not understood that loss would follow her regardless, as persistent and life-shaping as
a stream of water.” p. 139 In the other hand, Norah does not like it. She does not like David’s behaviour in treating her and David’s effort to be a hero for her and
their son. “ ‘No?’ She looked away. ‘I think you are,’ she said. ‘It’s my fault too.
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38 For a long time I wanted to be rescued, I realize that. But not anymore. You don’t
have to protect me all the time now. I hate it.’ p. 156
2 Competent
David is a good orthopedic surgeon in Lexington. As a doctor, he has a good reputation and many people has already knew his ability in treating patient.
“He has known to be a very good doctor, with a talent for diagnosis and a reputation for skillful work.” p. 9 He works in a clinic and is helped by an
assistant named Caroline Gill. His competent is not only can be shown in his specialization but also in general. He helps his wife in their child birth process
because his colleague who is an obstetrician could not come to the clinic because he has problem with his car.
David Henry can help his wife in their child birth because he had learned it before, when he was studying at the medical college. He has ever helped five
births process when he studied in medical school. “He had delivered five babies during medical school, all live births and all successful, and he focused now on
those, seeking in his memory the details of care.” p. 18 Therefore, he has not have difficulty when he helps his wife because he has accustomed to help
someone in birth process. He helps his wife in carefully. “He watched himself make the careful, precise incision for the episiotomy.” p. 19 David can help her
wife based on the procedure that he has learned before and he does it well till the end of the process. “The doctor was intent on delivering the placentas, which
came out beautifully, dark and thick, each the size of a small plate.” p.23
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39 David competent in his job also can be shown when he treats his son, Paul,
as his patient because Paul falls down when he is swinging. David can diagnose his son well while he was nervous and surprise because of Paul. “The damage was
simple enough: clear, straightforward fractures of the ulna and the radius. These bones ran parallel; the greatest danger was that, in healing, the two might fuse
together.” p. 195 He also can treat his son well and carefully. David didn’t answer. He had taken out the materials for the cast, and now
he concentrated on applying the plaster. It had been a long time since he’d done this – usually set the bone and left the rest to the nurse – and he
found it comforting. p. 196
3 Unconfident
David is a popular orthopedic surgeon. He has healed many people with his ability in diagnosing his patient. Many people trust him as a good doctor so
that he has many patients in his clinic. In the other hand, David still unconfident with his ability in healing the patient. Therefore he works carefully so that he will
not make a mistake. “Still, he was young enough and – though he hid it very carefully – unsure enough about his skills that he studied in every spare moment,
collecting each success he accomplished as one more piece of evidence in his own favor.” p. 9
Actually, David becomes unconfident person since he was studying at the medical school. He does not believe with his ability in treating the patient. At the
past, he thought that the senior doctors did not believe with him. Because of his unconfident, finally David chooses to be an orthopedic surgeon. He does not
brave enough to take a risk to be a general doctor. “All these years later, he still
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40 had moments when he sensed the gaze of those doctors and felt himself to be an
imposter, about to be unmasked by a single mistake. He knew his choice of specialities reflected this.” p. 9
4 Traumatic
After his son, Paul, has one year old, Norah asks David to have another baby. She wants another child so that Paul has a friend and he will not lonely. “ ‘I
want to have another baby, David,’ Norah said, sitting up. ‘Paul’s old enough now, and I’m ready.’ ” p. 148 In the other hand, David always refuses Norah
because he does not want to have another baby. He refuses Norah carefully but Norah understands that David refuses her.
She sighed. “I knew you’d say no.” “I’m not saying no,” david replied carefully. She didn’t answer.
“The timing seems wrong,” he said. “That’s all.” “You are saying no. You’re saying no, but you don’t want to admid it.” p.
148
David refuses Norah because he gets traumatic to have another baby. He still remembers his daughter, Phoebe, who still alive with his nurse, Caroline, in
other countries because Phoebe suffers Down syndrome. Down syndrome is inherited diseases in David’s family. In his teenage, his sister, June, also suffered
Down synrdrome that leads her into her death. It makes David feel guilty to his own family because he causes Phoebe suffers down syndrome. Therefore when
Norah asks him to have a baby, he refuses her because he does not want to have a child who suffers Down syndrome like his sister and his daughter. He cannot
imagine his wife grief if they have Down syndrome child.
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41 As a doctor, David knows that he will not has a Down syndrome child
anymore but he still gets traumatic to have another child. “It was statistically unlikely that they’d have another child with Down syndrome, but it was possible,
anything was possible; and he couldn’t take the risk.” p. 149 David thinks that have a normal son is enough for him so that he convinces Norah to postpone her
want.
5 Fragile
Since June has dead, David changes to be a fragile person because he feels deep sadness. He has a responsibility to do what his mother want in David’s life.
His mother wants David to be someone who can help other people in this world. He cannot choose his own dream and he has to obey it so that he decides to be a
doctor. David’s experience makes him to be careful because he does not want his lovely family have the same experience as him. Therefore, when he has a Down
syndrome daughter, he takes her daughter away to avoid the same experience. At first, he wants to protect his wife and his son, Paul, from sadness but the fact
shows that what he does is just to protect himself. “This thought, and the force of its bitterness, shocked David. He wanted to
believe he’d done the right thing when he handed his daughter to Caroline Gill. Or at least that he’d had the right reason. But perhaps he had not.
Perhaps it was not so much Paul he’d been protecting on that snowy night as some lost version of himself. p. 144
David is fragile also can be shown when he cannot do nothing after he knows that Caroline does not do his command. Caroline brings Phoebe away
without confirming him and he cannot find them. Therefore, he cannot tell the
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42 truth to his family so that he keeps it by himself. He keeps his problem and his
secret in all of his life because he unable to tell them. Until he gets heart attack and then he dead, he does not tell the truth to his family.
6 Introvert
His secret about her daughter that is hidden from his wife makes David Henry to be an introvert. He becomes an introvert because he wants to keep his
secret so that no one knows about his secret, especially his family. He does not want his family know the truth about his daughter. In the other hand, many people
think that David becomes an introvert because his daughter dead in her birth so that David wants to hide his sadness from others. “... but David’s just shutting
himself away, locking up every feeling.” p. 55 Norah also feels the same thing like other people. She thinks that David to
be more introvert. He never tells his feeling to her. One day when Norah tells David about their daughter burial ceremony, Norah just see David’s expression
and she does not know about his opinion. “His expression made her hesitate; it was as if he’d been unmasked, and she was talking now to a stranger whose
reactions she couldn’t anticipate. His eyes were darker than she’d ever seen them, and she could not tell what was going on his mind.” p. 64
David’s secret makes him to be an introvert. He likes spend his time for his job as a doctor or works in a darkroom. It makes the relation in his family is
inharmonius. His son, Paul, also feels David’s characteristic and he thinks that he has a secret in his life so that it makes him does not open-minded. “His father had
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43 secret too, a life that happened at work or in the darkroom and Paul had figured it
was all normal, just the way family were.” p. 261 Different from Paul, Norah feels that David is introvert because many times she talks to David, he like a
stranger for her. She does not accustome to David anymore. She has felt that David has already change. He is different from David who is in the beginning of
their meeting that is open-minded and does not introvert. “In that moment Norah felt she knew him as she knew herself. Yet everything had changed. David had
changed. Evenings, when he sat beside her on the couch, browing through his journals, he was no longer really there.” p. 99
7 Emotional
As a good husband, David never angry to his wife. He treats his wife wisely. Moreover, everything is change after their children birth. His wife, Norah,
feels that David’s characteristics is different from the beginning. He becomes an emotional husband, especially when they are talking about Phoebe. David looks
does not like if Norah asks him about their daughter. “She isn’t here.” David’s voice raw. “That’s why. There’s a cemetry on Bentley’s family farm. In
Woodford County. I asked him to take her. We can go there, later in the spring. Oh, Norah, please. You are breaking my heart.” p. 48 His emotion also can be
seen when his wife makes an announcement about a burial ceremony for their daughter without confirming him first. Then he is angry to his wife.
“But damn it, Norah,” he said, his voice low and harsh, a tone he had never used before. It frightened her, the anger underlying his words. “Why
do you have to be stubborn? Why, at least, didn’t you tell me before you called the papers?” p. 64
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44 David still can control himself every time when Norah talks about their
children, both Paul and Phoebe, he can easily angry. “He didn’t answer, struggling against a sudden surge of anger.” p. 145 While Norah usually still wants to
remind David about their daughter. “ ‘Don’t get angry, David. That’s just some kind of strategy, isn’t it? So, I won’t talk about her anymore. But, I won’t back
down. What I’m saying is true.’” p. 145 Phoebe is a reason for David getting angry easily. He is not only angry to Norah but also to himself. He realize that he
makes a mistake by giving her daughter to Caroline. ... and David felt a sense of panic, almost vertigo, at all he didn’t know; at
all he knew and couldn’t mend. And anger: he felt that too, suddenly, in a great rush. At himself, but also Caroline, who had not done what he’d
asked, who had made an impossible situation even worse. p. 156
3. Juxtaposition
