Kimberly is so surprised when she sees other girls underwear. They wear colorful and expensive underwear and it is so different from hers. She only wears
her mother‟s handmade underwear. All the things under her clothes have been made by her mother. Hence, it is badly sewn. A pair of thick cotton shorts
unevenly decorated in red for good luck, a marked and pilling long-sleeved undershirt p.53. Therefore, it does not look like other girls underwear.
Moreover, in that changing room the girls are checking out one another. Her handmade underwear becomes a matter for her because she is afraid
of being insulted by her friends. She has already told her mother about her problem but as usual her mother still thinks that a nice girl should change in a
place which cannot be seen by everybody. Her mother does not understand they way of changing clothes in Kimberly‟s school.
Later it becomes a more serious matter for her because her friends look at her handmade underwear as something funny. It happens when she is changing
her cloth in the toilet stall. Suddenly Kimberly sees shadows which are moving from a large skylight. One of her friends says that the it is the shadow of the boys.
Kimberly also hears the sound of laughter and footsteps. Nevertheless Kimberly does not realize what is going on until the next day. When Kimberly is passing by
the hall, she is riduculed by Greg, her friend, for her underwear in front of their friends.
A few weeks later, I had just finished dressing in the toilet stall when I
heard a noise from above. There was a large skylight in the ceiling and I saw shadows moving in it. One of the girls shrieked, “Boys” There was
the sound of laughter and footsteps above our heads, and then the shadows disappeared. Instead of being upset many of the girls seemed pleased by
this event and there was a great deal of whispering. The next day, Greg
yelled down the hall as I passed by, “ Are those boxing shorts comfortable?” p. 56.
That makes the kids around Greg burst into laughter while Kimberly keeps walking in embarrassment. From the situation above Kimberly gets avoidance-
avoidance intrapersonal conflict. She faces two unpleasant things. If she keeps wearing the handmade underwear she will be laughted and embarassed by her
friends but if she tells her mother perhaps her mother will give the same answer that she does not want to buy new underwear for her.
6. Questioning Whether Matt Likes Kimberly or Not
The sixth intrapersonal conflict is about Kimbely‟s love story. In the factory Kimberly has a close friend whose name is Matt. Their everyday meeting
and also Matt‟s personality makes Kimberly falls in love with him. However, the problem is that Kimberly does not know whether Matt has the same feeling as her
or not. One day she hears the conversation between her mother and Matt‟s
mother. Her mother and Matt‟s mother think that Matt and Kimberly like each other. That conversation causes conflict in Kimberly self. Thus, the writer will
discuss intrapersonal conflict of Kimberly in dealing with her feeling to Matt. Kimberly and her mother work in Uncle Bob‟s factory. Uncle Bob is Aunt
Paula‟s husband. They work in the finishing station. In the factory there are also some kids like Kimberly who help their parent finishing the work. Among those
kids there is a kid who is close with Kimberly. His name is Matt. They met when Kimberly and her mother worked in the factory for the first time. It happened
when Kimberly was reading a chinese newspaper that was found by her in the trash can.
Something mingled with the stink of polyster in my nostrils. I turned around. A boy was standing next to me. He was about my size, dressed in
an old white T-shirt, but there was a tension in his shoulders and arms that told me he was a fighter. His eyebrows were thick, crossing his face
in one line, and underneath them, his eyes were a surprising golden brown p. 13.
After that meeting, Kimberly and Matt become closer because they meet everyday in the factory. Kimberly did not realize that she falls in love with Matt
until She grows up as a teenager. She likes Matt but she does not tell Matt at first because she does not know whether Matt has the same feelings as her or not. One
day Matt asks Kimberly to give his precious necklace to his mother, Mrs. Wu. Usually Chinese parents give their children gold and jade jewelry to be used
underneath their cloth to protect them from evil. Kimbely gives that necklace to Mrs Wu as soon as she meets her. When Kimberly gives it to Mrs. Wu, she looks
at Kimberly with disgusting look. She thought that Kimberly was a boy. However, Kimberly‟s mother comes and talks to Mrs. Wu. Mrs. Wu says that Matt is a good
boy and she doubts Kimberly. Kimberly mother replies her and says that Kimberly is a good girl. She also says to Mrs. Wu to give Matt and Kimberly a
time to know each other. Kimberly run back to the workstation but the conversations between Mrs. Wu and her mother sparkle on the walls of her mind.
Kimberly begins to ask some questions to herself. From Mrs. Wu words, she guesses that Matt probably likes her even though it is just a little bit. She feels an
extreme excitement in her thought, but the feeling is also strangely painful, like an ache her lungs p. 72
In this case Kimberly faces approach-avoidance. It means that she has to face unpleasant and pleasant things. When she hears the conversation between
Mrs. Wu and her mother she jumps into a conclusion that probably Matt has the same feeling as her. If Matt has the same feeling as Kimberly, she will be very
happy. However, if Matt does not like her, it will hurt Kimberly very much.
7. Staying in the Exhausting Life Cycle or Escaping
In the seventh intrapersonal conflict Kimberly faces the problem of her life cycle. Since she lives in America she experiences many difficulties in her life. All
things are different from her old place. She has to study harder than her friends because of her lack of English ability and her poverty. She also has to work in the
factory everyday after school to pay her f amily‟s debts to Aunt Paula. Moreover,
she has to face other problems in her school. Every day she faces those problems and she feels exhausted. Therefore, in this seventh intrapersonal conflict, the
writer will discuss what exhausting life cycle experienced by Kimberly and why it
causes the conflict in herself.
After her moving to America, Kimberly has to face many difficulties. She and her mother live in the country where everything is different from their old
country. Kimberly has to adapt to a new enviroment there. She has to learn English because all of her subjects are in English. Learning English is not an easy
matter for her even her mother does not have enough money to facilitate Kimberly
