Subverting AdultChild Image The Ways of Deconstruction are Used in Wilson‟s The Illustrated

128 children‟s characters in the story, has an ability to give advice to one of the adult characters in the story, Marigold. It is in contrast to the adult character in the conventional children stories who always become the advice giver for the children character. Another datum showing that child image has been deconstructed in The Illustrated Mum is when Star checks her little sister‟s uniform before going to school. She checked herself in the mirror and then fiddled with my dress. „Sweaty or not, it needs a wash.‟ „No, it‟ll spoil it.‟ „It‟s spoilt already. And the hem‟s coming down at the back. Here, I‟ll find a pin.‟ She tucked the wavy hem neatly into place and then stood up Wilson, 1999: 28. In most of the conventional children stories, adults characters such as a mother or a father, a grandmother, an aunty or a maid, is responsible to check children‟s school stuff including uniform. Yet, here, it is seen from the datum above Star is the one who takes adult‟s, especially her mother‟s role in checking Dolphin‟s uniform and making sure it is neat. It can be said that Star overtakes adult‟s image in almost all of the conventional children stories. „I can go round to the corner shop,‟ said Star. „I think it opens early on Saturd ays.‟ „You can‟t go out and do the shopping,‟ said Micky fondly. He looked as if he thought she was too little to shop. I wanted to tell him that Star had done the shopping ever since I could remember. She was much better at it than Marigold Wilson, 1999: 93. Above is another datum showing that children characters take role of adults‟ responsibility. It is told that Star is the one who is always in charge of doing 129 shopping. However, Micky, one of the adult characters found in The Illustrated Mum, thinks that she cannot do the shopping. It indicates that Star, as a child, is not supposed to shop and her mother is the one should do it. The evidence is supported by Dolphin‟s statements saying that Star has done shopping starting from she was very young. In addition, Dolphin thinks, Star is better in doing shopping than Marigold, their mother. Shopping is not a child activity. Society even believes that it is part of a women or mother‟s activity. It is the society itself who constructs that belief, but that belief is overturned by Star who can also have an adult‟s roles which is shopping. There is one more datum that shows Star and Dolphin always look after Marigold . „Then that‟s not our fault. She‟s supposed to look after us. We‟re children. We‟re not supposed to look after her. The way I‟ve always done Wilson, 1999: 121.‟ Star‟s opinion reveals that they have to look after Marigold, an adult character, for many years. As Star says, they are still young and they are not supposed to look after their mother. It is not because they hate her, but society has constructed the belief that children are weak. The society believes that children need to be taken care and looked after by adults. The adults are the ones who take the responsibility to take care of them since children are not knowledgeable enough to know how to look after themselves. However, this belief is overturned by Wilson. She creates Star and Dolphin characters to make the readers believe that children can take care of her mother. 130 Society also constructs the belief that children are very passive. In most conventional children‟s stories, some authors create adults characters or fairy characters to help them to solve their problems. It is because the society has constructed children‟s image that are passive. It believes when children have a problem, they cannot manage to solve it. Nevertheless, Wilson overturns the image of adult who is always seen as active and child who is always seen as passive. She creates active children‟s characters that are smart and know what to do when they are in a trouble. I knew what to do. I knew it was the only thing to do . But I felt I was betraying Marigold as I stood in the phone box and dialed the three numbers. „Emergency?‟ „Yes. Yes, it is an emergency,‟ I said. „I think I need an ambulance.‟ Wilson, 1999: 161 Dolphin in the datum above knows what to do by calling an ambulance when her mother is covered by paints. She knows there is possibility that the paint can damage her mother‟s sights, hearing, or other parts of body. Therefore, she calls an emergency that will send her an ambulance. Her mother will be sent to hospital where doctor and medical team can help her. It is not that she is not smart enough to heal her mother. The fact is that she is not a doctor, not that she is only a child. She is a child, but she can help her mother by calling a doctor, not to be a doctor for her. There is possibility to create the passive Dolphin. She can stay and cry while her mother is in bad condition like that and she can possibly wait for someone else to help her mother. Yet, 131 Wilson creates the active Dolphin to make the readers understand that children can be active if they are given a chance to think and to help. This evidence can subvert the society‟s belief where commonly it thinks children are always passive.

e. Subverting GoodBad Image

When adults say that a child is good, what they mean is that the child is obedient. Many adults believe that what is meant by a good child is the one who always follow adults‟ command. It happens in the past where children‟s literature was used as a didactic medium. It was hoped to help the adults to tell to the children, as readers, what is good, what is bad, what to do and what not to do. The binary between goodbad is always seen in most of the conventional children stories by presenting obedient children and disobedient or naughty children as the opposite. Obedient children always follow what adults‟ command to them and they are considered as good. On the other hand, disobedient children who always ask and be critical are considered as bad. Wilson deconstructs the image of goodbad by subverting the binary. She creates children characters that are critical and knowledgeable. If readers are well aware, they are not considered as bad only because they have their own opinion about something. Their act of being critical, reasoning, giving opinion, to their mother, teacher, or society is not bad. They are not bad, they 132 are critical. Society needs to rethink about bad term which is given to critical children. Here, Wilson gives privilege to those considered as “bad” children by society by creating critical and knowledgeable children characters. In The Illustrated Mum, Star is a critical child who knows what is good and bad about her mother. She often criticizes her mother for getting drunk, taking someone‟s credit card, breaking promises, going out of till late night, etc. In addition, she knows that her mother is suffering manic depression, thus she criticizes her not for seeing a doctor and having special treatment. „She can‟t help it, Star.‟ Star had impressed this upon me over and over again. It was like a Holy Text. You never questioned it. Marigold was sometimes a little bit mad only you never ever used such a blunt term but we must never let anyone else find out and we must always remember that Marigold couldn‟t help it. Her brain was just weird a different way from other people‟s…. „Of course she can help it,‟ Star said. „She could go into hospital and get treatment .‟ Wilson, 1999: 40 The datum above shows how critical Star is. She always criticizes Marigold and Dolphin who think that hospital cannot help Marigold‟s mental illness. As a child, she knows that there must be a special treatment for Marigold. Critical way of thinking that Star presents is also seen when she finds how ignorant Marigold is. Marigold does not realize that she has made Dolphin worries when she stays out of home. Star hopes she will give some explanation, but she does not. As if she pretended that she did not make any mistake leaving her daughters at home worrying about her condition. She dares to criticize her mother because she knows her mother is wrong. She 133 does it as well to make Marigold understand that what she does can make people around her feel worry. Star hopes Marigold can take a lesson from it. „I‟m not a little kid. How can you do this? You go off, you stay out all night, you don‟t even make it home for breakfast, you crucify Dol all day long at school, and then you bob up again without even an apology, let alone a word of explanation. And you act like you‟re Mega-Mother of the Year making lousy cookies. Well, count me out. You can have my cookie. And I hope it chokes you Wilson, 1999: 37. Marigold and Dolphin also thinks that Star keeps critical as she grows up. It i s proven by Dolphin‟s sentence saying that, “Star was so critical nowadays she made Marigold nervous and twitchy Wilson, 1999: 59.” It shows that Star undergoes some changes from being uncritical to critical. She knows some bad and good things as she grows up and becomes someone better. That is why she knows what needs to be criticized from her mother‟s behaviors. Another datum showing that Star is critical is presented by Star‟s sarcastic opinion about her mother‟s bad habit such as spending money and g etting drunk. Star says, “„She‟s good at spending heaps of money that we haven‟t got. She‟s good at getting drunk. She‟s good at getting completely nutty ideas into her head. She‟s good at getting you think she‟s Ms. Perfect Mumsie-Wumsie Wilson, 1999: 76 .‟” It indicates that Star knows what is bad and what is good about her mother. She sarcastically criticizes by saying that to her mother is good but good at something bad such as spending money, getting drunk, etc. Star understands that her family