44 space to move and all senses need the space to optimize their ability. The dark and
silent room makes those senses dull. … the black material that upholstered every surface, densely woven and
without sheen, soaked up the beam of the flashlight. Modified sensory deprivation. They had said it was a tool for discipline,
not a punishment, a method to focus the mind inward toward self- discovery a technique, not a torture. 239
The learning room designed by Anson’s parents has taken Anson’s
freedom to see, to listen and to speak. This room has limited the space to get interaction with others. Furthermore, it has relationship with the psychological
abuse. The physical abuse happens to Anson is not directly physical contact. In this discussion, physical abuse is the method applied by his parents. This method
limits the body movement and the interaction with his society. This is the unforgettable experience, which cannot be erased from his mind. Therefore, in
this study, physical abuse happens to Anson gives effect in his psychological adjustment, especially in personality development.
b. Psychological Abuse
Anson’s parents use learning room to control or demand their children. However, his parents do not follow this control with good responsive.
Emotionally, they cannot build harmonize relationship between parents and children. Anson is the oldest brother in the family. Therefore, his parents have
high expectation that the method of child rearing applied to him gives good achievement. It appears from the novel that Anson is the first child who is used by
his parents as an experiment, in order to prove whether the method applied to him
gives good result or not. There is big burden on Anson’s shoulders.
45 Learning room has isolated and corrupted his normal social experience
which reinforces him to be a deviant. Child-rearing method applied by Anson’s parents has abused and destructed his childhood. “He had only lived here but had
also been home schooled here from first grade through twelfth. More hours of his life had been spent in this house than out of it” 117.
Anson has spent twelve years to study at home. He has no chance to express his imagination. He is like living in the jail. His house becomes his
important place in his childhood. Almost all of the activities he spent there.
Daniel has an intention to limit Anson’s space so that Anson can focus his mind in academic world.
Daniel Rafferty always emphasizes on academic world and its achievement. The rational and logical are needed in his theory. He always asks to
his children to have confidence and erase shame. In his opinion, the shame is the
obstacle to develop life. Shame will influence the mind. The feeling of being shame is the beginning of irrational mind. He argues that people who have
rational are the people who are not controlled by shyness. Therefore, to overcome the shyness, he must educate his child.
Mitch’s father believed that shame had no social usefulness, that it was a signature of the superstitious mind, and that a person of reason, living a
rational life, must be free of it. He believed, as well as, that the capacity for shame could be expunged by education 126
In childhood, Anson and his siblings spend much time in learning room.
Unaware, it makes them accustom to keep silent. Each child in Rafferty family has ever studied in the learning room. Therefore, they are difficult to build
communication, because they are rare to spend the time to chat. Daniel has
46 designed this room to isolate his children from the outside world. Therefore,
together, Anson and Mitch prefer silent to speak too much. When together, they were comfortable with silence, perhaps because each
of them, as a kid, had separately and alone spent much time in the learning room. That chamber was better sound proofed than a radio-station studio.
No noise penetrated from the outside world. 157
Anson cannot enjoy his childhood. As a child he has a lot of imagination and curiosity but he cannot express his imagination, because his father always
forbids and controls his social contact. Daniel forbids Anson to read such kind of fairy tale, because in Daniel’s opinion this story will destruct the children’s mind
and give bad influence to the children development. Daniel forbids Anson to read Charlotte’s Web because this is the story of an animal which can speak.
Rationally, animal cannot speak as a human. Daniel has never thought about the moral value of the story. He just concerns about rationality and education system.
“Remember when I got caught with the copy of Charlotte’s Web?” “You were almost nine. You spent twenty days in the learning room.”
Anson quoted Daniel: “’Fantasy is a doorway to superstition.’” “Talking animals, a humble pig, a clever spider”
“’A corrupting influence,’” Anson quoted. “’The first step in a life of unreason and irrational beliefs’” 158
The conversation between Anson and his brother indicates that both of
them feel that their father has corrupted their childhood. Psychologically, his father has abused Anson. His way in rearing child has attacked Anson’s emotion.
Actually, Anson and his siblings need protection from Child Protective Services. Therefore, they will get the protection from the formal institution. However, they
cannot get it, because they cannot prove to this institution. Physically, Daniel has never injured his children, but psychologically Daniel has isolated and corrupted
47 the children from normal social experiences and has prevented the child from
forming friendships. Anson cannot prove that his parents have abused him and cannot report it to the Child Protective Services.
Their father saw no mystery in nature, just a green machine. Mitch said, “It would have been better if they hit us.”
“Much better. Bruises, broken bones-that’s the kind of things that gets the attention of Child Protective Services.” 158
Garbino and Eckenrode as quoted in Crosson and Tower, “psychological
maltreatment is rooted not only in dysfunctional family communication patterns but also the societal pressure impacting on the family” 219. As the parents,
Daniel and Kathy Rafferty do not give their children time to share what they want. Anson’s family has communication problems. Mitch, Anson’s brother, also does
not have chance to speak up. Daniel’s children realize that Daniel’s intention and methods are disparity. However, they cannot do anything.
The last explanation resonated with Mitch. He had often thought about what he would say to his parents if the opportunity arose to question the
disparity between their intentions and methods, or the cruelty of trying to strip from children their sense of wonder. 158
Isolation can provide an atmosphere for the type of maltreatment. Anson’s parents not only try to isolate him, but also force him to do the shame game. It has
injured him. He has never forgotten this bad treatment from his parents. “For me, the learning room wasn’t the worst,” Anson said. “What I’ll
never scrape out of my mind is the shame game.” Memory flushed Mitch’s face. “’Shame has no social usefulness. It’s a signature of the
superstitious mind.’” 162
According to O’Hagan cited in Pritchard defines that inappropriate behavior which often happens to the children can reduce and damage the moral
development. In this study, psychological abuse, which happens to Anson, has
48 relationship with the repetitive physical abuse which happens to him. Anson’s
parents ask him to do the shame game for eleven times. It is inappropriate behavior, which damages the mental process development. This perpetual
inappropriate behaviors provide degradation moral development. “They put me through it eleven times that I remember the last when I was
thirteen.” Mitch grimaced. “Man, I remember that one. You were given a full week
of it.”162
Anson has bad experience in his childhood. His father eliminates his emotion of being shame. He forces Anson to be naked for twenty hours in a week.
His father seizes his privacy. He never permits Anson to have secret, even the most embarrassing and intimate questions. Anson should tell what he thinks and
his activities are always monitored by his family. He should restrain his shame feeling when his sister in the lavatory watches him.
“Living naked twenty-fourseven while everyone else in the house remains clothed. Being required to answer in front of everyone the most
embarrassing, the most intimate questions about your private thoughts and habits and desires. Being watched by two other family members at every
toilet, at least one of them a sister, allowed no smallest private moment…” 162
Anson begins to plant hatred seed to his parents from childhood. He expresses his hostility in his joke. He begins to have bad intention to his parents,
especially his father. He thinks that his father is not reasonable to get anything from his children after he makes bad treatment to him.
“Damn if we’re getting him anything for Father’s Day.” “Not even cologne?” Mitch asked.
This was a jokey routine from childhood. “Not even a pot to piss in,” Anson said… 163.
49 Learning room and shame game shape him as a man who has insensitivity.
In his childhood he has never learnt about how to love and appreciate each other. He becomes favorite son in the family because of his achievements. Their parents
are proud of his intelligent. This is like a reward and not a symbol of love relation ship between parents and children. Anson tries to fulfill his parents’ expectation to
get his parents’ attention. His parents only value the children who show the rationality and good achievement in academic world.
“I’m proud of you, Mickey. You beat ’em. It didn’t work with you the way it worked with me.”
“The way what work?” “They broke me, Mitch. I have no shame, no capacity for guilt.” From
under his sports coat, Anson with drew a pistol. 163
The situation in the learning room is figured out as an isolation room. The child has no contact to the world outside. They spend long time just silent. The
more a child stays there the more he will feel under pressure. The room, which is expected to make the children focus, becomes the room which makes them
selfish. They make them difficult to socialize with their community. It is because of the limitation of social intercourse.
Sometimes as a child in the learning room, when you have spoken to no one for a long time, nor heard a voice other than your muffled own, and
when you have been denied food-though never water-for as much as three days, when for a week or two you have seen no light except for the brief
daily interruption when your urine bottles and waste bucket are traded for fresh containers, you reach a point where the silence and the darkness
seem not like conditions any longer … 232
Daniel’s ambition and his belief about his theory make his children so depressive. The silence and darkness are the ground of learning room. This place
corrupts children’s right, the right to get freedom and to enjoy their childhood.
50 This room makes the children’s sensibility blunt, because the condition, which is
created in learning room, forces and presses in the hard condition.
C. The Influence of Child Abuse to Anson’s Personality Development
