“What‟s wrong?” Ma asked me now. She hadn‟t understood any of this. Mr. Al looked concerned. “Don‟t you know?” Sweetheart, everybody‟s
gradually moving out of here. This whole area‟s boomed. “What” I
sounded as confused as I felt. “Ended. No hope left. The goverment‟s going to build the huge compicks here. All the buildings on this block and
across the street are going to be broken down.” p. 31 Kimberly and her mother are very surprised when they know about it.
Kimberly does not understand why her aunt does not tell them about the goverment‟s plan while actually she knows about it. Kimberly keeps thinking why
Aunt Paula does not want them to know that the building will be broken down. In another part of her mind she also thinks what should she and her mother do if their
apartment is broken down. Kimberly is thinking all the bad possibilities about why Aunt Paula let them live in that apartment. The apartment is in a bad shape
and it is not a good apartment to live p. 33. Kimberly experiences the last type of intrapersonal conflicts by Worchel
and Cooper 1979 which is double approach-avoidance. There are two types in double approach-avoidance. The first type has two purposes. Both of them have
either bad or good features. There are also two purposes in the second type but every purpose has two bad and two good features. In this story Kimberly faces
two choices. The first choice is keep staying in the apartment and hope in miracles but if she and her mother still stay in that apartment, the building may be broken
down. The second choice is running away and moving into another apartment. If they move they will not suffer from any bad issues that may happen in their old
block. However, if they look for another place to live it is impossible for them because they still have to pay their debts to Aunt Paula.
3. Accepting or Refusing Luke’s Challenge
The third intrapersonal conflict happens when Kimberly is challenged by Luke to fight
with him. Luke is one of Kimberly‟s friends in the school. He always bullies his friends in the school including Kimberly. One day at the
cafetaria Luke tries to distrub her. However, Kimberly can escape and intentionally she does kungfu style. Looking at
Kimberly‟s kungfu style, Luke becomes very interesting and he dares Kimberly to fight him.
Fighting with Luke is a serious matter for her. Luke is a boy and he also has a big body whereas Kimberly is a small girl. She also has never fought before.
She gets very confused how she will react to Luke. Further discussions of the third intrapersonal conflict are in the following paragraphs.
In Kimberly‟s school there is a naughty kid whose name is Luke. He is taller than other kids in the school. Even Kimberly describes his nostrils like a
bull‟s. Luke‟s hobby is bullying his friends in the school.
At the end of February, the class bully started staring at me in class. His name was Luke and he‟d been left back a few times so he was a head taller
than the rest of us. He had a barrel of a chest covered loosely by the same stained gray top that he wore every day. His nostrils were red like a bull‟s,
and even Mr. Bogart seemed to have given up on him, leaving him alone most of the time. I saw him shove the other kids around p. 34.
Luke not only distrubs the boys but also the girls. Kimberly is also one of Luke‟s targets of bullying. Luke always looks at her with bully eyes. One day
when Kimberly is going through the cafetaria, Luke stops her and tries to trap her but fortunately she can step over it and keep going.
Through all of March and into April, I continued to feel the bully Luke‟s eyes on me but I pretended I didn‟t notice anything. He had started
grabbing girls by their hair and kissing them whenever Mr. Bogart wasn‟t
looking. Finally, one lunch period I was crossing the cafetaria, holding my tray, and I passed the table where he was sitting with some other boys. He
stuck out his foot. I stepped over it and kept going p. 35.
Unconciously Kimberly avoids Luke with her kung fu style. Looking at how Kimberly reacts to Luke, one of Luke‟s friends asks her if she can do kung
fu. Although Kimberly has said “No”, his friends keep saying that she can. It interests Luke so much and he challenges Kimberly to have fight with him after
school. “Hey, Chinese girl.” I didn‟t look around. I had just set my tray down at
my...spot across the table from Annete when I felt his hand on my shoulder. On reflex, I lowered my shoulder and turned at the same time, so
that his ha
nd fell off. “Wow, that‟s kung fu,” one of Luke‟s friends said. “You know karate?” Luke asked, with real interest. “No,” I said. That was
the truth. “She does,” his skinny friend said. “I want to try out your moves. Let‟s fight after school.” He said this as if he were inviting me to play at
his house p. 35.
Kimberly gets frightened when Luke asks her to fight with him. She sits down and her hands are trembling. Annette, her best friend, is also very shocked.
She thinks that Kimberly is crazy if she ac cepts Luke‟s challenge. She advices
Kimberly to tell Mr. Bogart. Annette will also help her by telling her problem to Annette‟s housekeeper so that her housekeeper can help Kimberly. However,
Kimberly thinks that Annette‟s housekeeper looks so dry and serious so that it is impossible to trust her. Therefore, Kimberly refuses Annette‟s advice. She is
afraid of Luke but she is more afraid of the older people such as Annette‟s housekeeper, her mother, and Mr. Bogart. She thinks that probably Annette‟s
housekeeper will try to talk to her mother or Mr. Bogart. Everything she have hidden from her mother such as the forged signatures, the fallen tests, the dental
note, the report cards, the PTA meeting will come out p. 36. Although Kimberly does not agree with
Annette‟s advice, Annette still warns Kimberly to tell somebody else because Luke can do bad things toward her
even he can bring a knife. At this point Kimberly feels so confused. On one side she is afraid of Luke but on another side she does not want to tell everybody else
because she thinks that it will make the situation become worse. According to the situation above, Kimberly faces avoidance-avoidance
intrapersonal conflict. Avoidance-avoidance intrapersonal conflict is the conflict in which a person has to face the situation in which she he has to make a decision
between two unpleasant purposes. Kimberly faces two unpleasant choices. First, she chooses to accept Luke‟s challenge to fight him and she may be killed by him
or she chooses to tell someone else and the bad possiblity is that her mother will meet Mr. Bogart and her mother will know all about her lies.
4. Studying at the Private School or the Public School
The fourth intrapersonal conflict is about choosing the next school. Kimberly is naturally smart. She is always number one in her old school in
Hongkong. However, in America all the things are not the same as in Hongkong. The assignments, the teachers, the friends, and the school system are very
different from her school in Hongkong. Firstly, Kimberly feels very down and many times she tries to escape. Nevertheless, after her quite long struggle she can
