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CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
This paper investigates the motivations of Jodee Blanco of writing her book about bullying;
Please Stop Laughing At Me . . . One Woman’s Inspirational Story. This chapter presents the background of the study, research problem, the
significance of the study, the objectives of the study, and the approach used in this study.
A. Background
Novel is a long story written in prose, using appropriate rhythms and sound patterns to create an oral art. In the middle ages, prose was written in
formal Latin, the universal language of learning and religion. In the late medieval romances, prose had begun to enter continental literature. These stories about
knights and their adventures were written in Romance languages spoken by their first readers. In the early renaissance, Italian Boccacio experimented with the
common language in telling tales of current life. Such stories came to be called novella
or “new things”. Thus arose the English word novel A Guide To The Novel, 1965, p.89.
In another literature, there are also autobiography and memoir. The story almost the same as novels, but there are differences in the background of the
story. Autobiography is written based on the author’s memory of hisher own experience and can be changed into a story, then it is written in a form of prose. In
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the other hands, a memoir is like an autobiography, but it is written with the original feelings and emotions of the writer.
As the world proliferated toward the twentieth century, so does the subject matter in the literature. The age which discovered biological evolution, also
discovered a novelist Zola who would translate that knowledge into fiction. The depth psychology of Freud and others was attended by the corresponding
psychological fiction of Dostoevski, Joyce, and D.H. Lawrence. Every new crisis of Western culture found its fictional mirror. Imperialism was reflected by Joseph
Conrad, modern warfare by Stephen Crane and Mikhail Sholokhov, race friction by Alan Paton and William Faulkner. The modern novelist has had more subject
matter to work with and a more complicated subject matter than ever before A Guide To The Novel, 1965, p.117.
There is also a subject matter inside education; bullying. Even though education seems harmless, there are negative causes in the process of educating,
one of it is bullying. Bullying is repeated verbal, physical, social or psychological aggressive behavior by a person or group directed towards a less powerful person
or group that is intended to cause harm, distress or fear. Bullying in a school, first it can be a form of verbal abuse, for example is to give targeted name-calling or
jokes. Second it can be a form of violence; the examples are threats or giving the victims violent treatments. Third it can be a form of sexual harassment; the
example is conduct of a sexual nature, which could reasonably be expected to cause offence, humiliation or intimidation. The last is discrimination, treating
people badly because of their identity. The examples of discrimination are
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students who think that they have more influence in the society discriminate them who influence less in the society.
From the subject matter above, the writer wants to analyze the motivations of Blanco in writing her book about bullying Please Stop Laughing At Me . . . One
Woman’s Inspirational Story. The content of the book is about the memoir of Blanco’s personal experience in her daily life when she was still in her school
days. When Blanco decided to write about the book, she never imagined that the book could become a New York Times best seller and it could become the trigger
for Blanco to be an anti-bullying activist. Writer knows that the reason of Blanco of writing this book is that she was the victim of bullying, but the writer wants to
analyze the motivations instead of the reason why Jodee Blanco wrote the book. The writer himself was also a victim of bullying in his childhood until his
teenager days. The writer was bullied for 10 years since the writer was 6 years old. The forms of bullying the writer got were physical and psychological, but
psychological was the most often. This personal experience of the writer has become one of the reasons why the writer chose to do this study.
Based on the background of the study, writer divided the research question into two questions, which will become the subject to be analyzed deeper in this
paper. The questions are 1 How did Jodee Blanco build the motivations of writing her book? 2
What were Jodee Blanco’s motivations of writing her book? The study is to analyze the motive of Jodee Blanco as the writer of her
book about her personal experience in defending herself against bullying. The study is limited to analyze what kind of motivations that drove Blanco to be able
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to decide that she would write a book about her personal experience against bullying and Blanco
’s purpose of writing her book. The results of this study can be useful in improving the quality of
educators in the education system nowadays. Educators like teachers, lecturers, tutors, or even parents can learn the knowledge found in the results of the paper’s
discussion and apply the knowledge in teaching their pupils how to adapt in the society. The discussion of Blanco’s motivations of writing her book includes the
analysis of motivations and its variety, what cause the motivations to be existed, and the influence of the cause of motivations
in Blanco’s life in the present, which can make the readers feel the experience of Blanco in the past when she was still
struggling against bullying. The study is related to psychology and education rather than literature.
This study is valuable to be read for anyone, the study is not only for literature major, it emphasizes the psychology and education above literature. The
study is valuable to they who work in education or psychology environment. From this study those who work in education environment can educate better in
order to create better education environment for the students. They who work in psychology environment can also study some of the cases happened in education
and how to handle them contextually. Readers can also share the information through other people so that the message of this study can be conveyed and can be
applied in the society. There are four benefits of this study, the first one is for English Learning
Education Study Program, which is for an example of a case study that can be
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applied in Psikologi Remaja, Psikologi Belajar dan Pembelajaran, and it can also be an example of a result study to be discussed in classes like Introduction of
Literature, Prose, and Book Report. The second benefit is for educators like teachers, tutors, lecturers, or even
parents. This study is analyzing about motivations of someone who became a victim of bullying, for they who have education background will get knowledge
of how to defend their pupils against bullying and how to act based on real incidents. For the educators like teachers, tutors or lecturers, it is important to get
involved with the students who get bullied. Educators can give students what they need in defending themselves, but in the other side educators must take the action
to make things better for the students; so the bullies could understand the negative effect caused by bullying, and the victim could feel safe.
The third benefit is for students, whether they are children or teenagers. Bullying is a serious matter for students, some can survive and tell the story, some
are failing and there are a lot of suicide cases of students who cannot survive. Those students are oppressed, and choose the wrong way to end their problem.
Through the result of this study, writer hopes that students who read this paper would find the way to defend themselves against bullying.
The fourth benefit is for readers. They who read this paper might find knowledge and inspiration for themselves, about bullying, about
Blanco’s past in struggling to defend herself against bullying, about how a motivation can trigger
Blanco in writing her book and inspire people.
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B. Approach of the Study
