Background of the Study
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usu. relating to politic or society, or to the conduct of a class or group, and regarded as justifying
action….” In society, ideology is a common sense or universal truth that is unconsciously accepted and agreed. It also happens in
children‟s literature that often brings ideology on gender, race, class, and even children‟s images. Based on Hollindale 1988, 8-17, ideology can be
presented in children‟s book in three ways. The first is explicitly told as a
didactic medium, just like children‟s literature in the past that is used to be didactic media. The second one is by hiding it implicitly; and the last is by
unconscious way that even the writers are not aware of the ideology‟s existence inside their stories. This ideology brings conventional children
‟s images which are often depicted as weak, innocent, dependent, selfish, and
unknowledgeable. Conventional image is derived from the word conventional and image.
Based on Oxford English Dictionary 2006: 320, conventional is “tending to
follow what is done or considered acceptable by society in general; normal and ordinary.” Therefore, conventional image is defined as someone or
something that is widely accepted in a society or something related to a convention. It is considered as acceptable since society agrees. The examples
of conventional images can be: a a bride that wears white on her wedding b people wearing black for funeral c women who are depicted as weak and the
second class in society and d children that are perceived as inferior, incapable and innocent human beings. It means that conventional images are perceptions
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that have unconsciously been taken for granted by society. Martalock 2012: 3-4 says that conventional images of children refer to what people and society
believe, understand, and assume about children‟s role in society. The images include how society thinks about children‟s development, motivation, and
purpose. The conventional images of children also include incapability of speaking for themselves.
The conventional images of children have been presented in most children‟s stories where society sees children as inferior and as the “second
class” that are ruled by the “first class”, adults. As stated before, the first possibility is that children are controlled by adults in the way that they are
depicted as weak, dependent, innocent, and unknowledgeable characters. The other possibility is that they are not introduced to the stories that expose
complexity of life. What they receive in the stories is only a nice, good, and beautiful plot. Sensitive issues, such as sexuality, divorce, diversity, racism,
etc, are forbidden to be introduced to children as adults believe that those issues are not appropriate for children.
Nevertheless, if they are not introduced to these sensitive issues, they will „depend‟ their curiosity on adults and it makes them defined themselves as
innocent and unknowledgeable. This situation is in line with Nodleman‟s
statement, as he 1992: 30 states that “…we produce children‟s literature that is almost totally silent on the subject of sexuality, presumably in order to
allow ourselves to believe that children truly are as innocent as we claim….”
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This statement affirms that adults hide those sensitive topics from children‟s stories as adults thought that children are really innocent.
People, including parents, who are not well aware about the danger of these situations might simply agree and will hardly question how and why
those conventional images can be created. This case will create problems for children since, compared to adults, they are lack of experiences in reading. If
it happens, the absorption of any ideology to their mind will be easier. Some conventional images even contain discrimination on race, gender, and class.
To make it even worse, both for children and parents who do not have awareness in reading children‟s stories, conventional images of children in
children‟s stories can perceive a misleading perception about those conventional images
since children‟s literature plays roles in developing child‟s character and lead young readers to the new ideas and concepts. It can
create unconscious “truth” that will be penetrated deeply in their mind and later will be agreed by them as society does.
Related to the sensitive issues in children‟s stories, people must understand that children have opportunity as well as need to read and learn
more about literature. Children need to read literature to get and learn about life lesson including the complexity of life. However, the form of literary
works intended for children must be different from the ones for adults. Lukens 1999:
9 clarifies “children are not little adults. They are different from adults in experience, but not in species or to put it differently, in degree but not in
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kind.” It means that just like the adults, children also need to know about love, laugh, happiness, sadness, death, divorce, mental illness, loss, pain, etc.
Nevertheless, the author has to use different ways to tell the story to the children.
Children need to know about sensitive issues such as death, divorce, pain, loss, mental illness, sadness, etc. Mostly in the past, children are only
provided with one topic of literature which is very limited. They are only introduced and provided with stories about kingdom, princess, prince, magic
and happy ending things. Those topics are good, but children need to be introduced to various kinds of topics, too, such as fantasy, realistic story, and
many more genre. By giving children various kinds of topics to read, their capability of reading and thinking critically will be improved since they have
abundance of different things to discuss. They also will have a wide horizon that life is not that simple and easy. Thus, they have to struggle to gain a better
life. However, nowadays, children and their perception have developed as
culture develops, too. There are unconventional images of children that are strong, independent, responsible, and knowledgeable and those new images
can be introduced to the children in order to strengthen their characters. Jacqueline Wilson as
one of the greatest children‟s literature writers in U.K shows those positive images of children in her stories. Mostly, she writes
about the reality of life and sensitive issues that can be possibly experienced
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and faced by children in today‟s era. There are some novels that she has produced, for example, The Suitcase Kid which portrays the life of a child
who has to be separated from her parents because they have divorced; Vicky Angel that discusses
about death and children‟s response on it; and The Story of Tracy Baker which is focusing on the issue of abandonment. In her novels,
Wilson introduces emotional and sensitive issues that were once considered as taboo by the society.
Another example of Wilson‟s well-known novel is The Illustrated Mum
which was published in 1999 in Great Britain. This novel has been filmed by Film4Schools in 2003. It was directed by Cilla Ware and starred by Michelle
Colins as Marigold Westward, Allice Connor as Dolphin, and Holliday Grainger as Star. Though The Illustrated Mum is considered as the darkest and
the most depressing novel, according to a review from Jill Murphy 2014 in The Book Bag, it is also perceived as the best work of Jacqueline Wilson. It
even won some awards, such as, the Annual Guardian Children‟s Fiction Prize that is judged by a panel of British Childr
en‟s Writers, the 2004 BAFTA Award for the best School Drama, the Winner of Children‟s Books of the Year
in British Book Awards 2000, the Winner of the Highly Commended for the Carnegie Medal in 1999, and was voted as “The Book I Couldn‟t Put Down”
in the Bleu Peter Book Awards. Starting from 2001, The Illustrated Mum has also been translated into many languages such as Italian, Spanish, Finnish,
Hungarian, Indonesian, etc.
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The Illustrated Mum is a story about a dyslexic girl named Dolphin and her sister, Star, who have to deal with a bipolar mother named Marigold.
Every day, they have to cope with many difficulties and problems of life caused by their mother. It happens because, as a parent, especially as a single
parent, Marigold is not responsible enough to take care of her daughters. Dolphin and Star have to protect their mother from society and authorities,
they have to provide their needs by themselves, and indirectly, they have to switch the role
as „parents‟ for their mother. The main characters, Dolphin and Star, are different from other children
characters in most children stories. Although in several children stories there are children characters who are strong, smart, independent and
knowledgeable, the characters of Dolphin and Star do not only possess those positive traits, but also significant roles of being
“adults” while they are only 10 and 14 years old. It can be said that they are more mature than children
commonly. This novel shows new images about children and it has deconstructed the conventional images of children that are unconsciously
accepted and agreed by society. It captures things that many children today live with. Although this story seems so desperate, it is told in smooth and
funny ways to make children interested in reading it. At the end of the story, the readers are given hope, too, after struggling against problems that seem
impossible to solve. This story teaches without preaching children how to cope with difficulties in the real life. This kind of realistic story needs to be
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introduced to children in order to make them understand that life is not that easy.
Children‟s story like The Illustrated Mum is a good example of a literary text which introduces deconstructed pattern especially the one which is related
to children images, and how the writer deconstructs the conventional images of children‟s stories. By presenting deconstructed images of children in a
novel, an alternative way of reading a text can be accepted in smooth ways by people who are not aware of the importance of seeing from another
perspective. Thus, The Illustrated Mum ‟s story is an interesting novel to be
read, not only for children but also for adults since it offers new ways of reading for readers by deconstructing the conventional images of children.
Therefore, the researcher uses Derrida‟s deconstruction theory to reveal
the unconventional images of children in the novel. In addition, the researcher intends to show how deconstruction is presented in Wilson‟s The Illustrated
Mum in order to see and offer a new perspective in reading children‟s stories,
especially for children. Deconstruction is the best approach to analyze this novel because by using this approach, readers, especially nowadays children
can be more aware that they can be strong, independent, and knowledgeable in solving their problems where there is not too much adults‟ interference.
Deconstruction is a method which makes a new foundation to see a story and an attempt to unveil the unseen to be accessible to be seen. Children‟s
literature theory is used to show how deconstruction is presented in the
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intrinsic elements of children‟s literature. It is hoped that readers, especially children, can be more aware that there is a new perspective in reading
children‟s stories in which children are not always depicted as weak, innocent, dependent, and unknowledgeable.