Going back to the campus with his father

42 bothered me more, being the son of this new word, or no longer being the son of the old ones Albom 67. Chick has to get accustomed to his new nickname “divorcee kid ” although he never likes to be called that way. Chick also has bigger responsibility to look after his mother and his sister since he is the only man left in the family. Therefore, the first time Chick meets his father again, he has a mixture of feeling that haunts him since his father’s leaving. Chick misses his father but he also feels disappointed with him. Unfortunately, Chick cannot release his feeling to his father although he has met the father in the baseball field several times. After several games that Chick plays and his father’s presences in the game to watch him, his father finally waits him by the team bus and offers him a ride back to his campus. Chick experiences conflict at that time; it can be seen from this quotation. These are the first words he says: “Ask your coach if I can drive you back to campus.” I could do anything at this moment. I could spit. I could tell him to go to hell. I could ignore him, the way he ignored us. I could say something about my mother Albom 119. In this time, the conflict experienced by Chick belongs to the double approach-avoidance. According to Worchel and Cooper, double approach-avoidance conflict is a conflict which involves a person in choosing between two goals, each of which has positive and negative aspects Worchel and Cooper 461. Chick has to choose whether he has to be nice to his father and ignore his feeling or shows him what he truly feels. The first choice, that is being nice to his father, has positive and negative aspects. The positive aspect is Chick can have a chance to win his father’s PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI 43 heart while the negative aspect is he cannot release his burden of what he feels about his father’s deed to his family. It means that he also ignores his family’s feeling if he treats his father nicely. The second choice, that is showing his father about what he truly feels, also has positive and negative aspects. The positive aspect is Chick can release his burden and get relieved from what he feels. The negative aspect is his father will ignore him again since he does not regard his father anymore. This following quotation shows how he ends the conflict. Instead, I do what he asks me to do. I seek permission to skip the bus ride home. He is respecting the authority of my coach, I am respecting the authority of my father, and this is how the world makes sense, all of us behaving like men Albom 119. To solve this conflict, Chick applies avoidance as the conflict resolution. Blake and Mouton explain avoidance as lack of concern for either the self or the relationship and involves physically or emotionally retreating from the situation or being unwilling to talk about the situation qtd. in Fitzpatrick and Noller 106. Thus, Chick chooses to avoid the goal that is revealing what he truly feels when his father leaves the family. Instead, he follows his father’s command and ignores his feeling again. Chick is willing to follow his father command because deep in his heart, he is afraid of loosing his father again, so Chick tries to get his father’s heart on him.

4. Continuing his study or playing baseball

Since his father’s leaving, unconsciously, Chick shifts his “role” from ‘daddy’s boy’ into ‘mama’s boy’. Thereafter, he tries to fulfill his mother’s demands 44 although he still has the passion to pursue his father’s. Playing baseball is his father’s passion while studying in the college is his mother’s passion. He keeps on changing the focus of his life between them. So, year after year, I pulled on new team uniform – red socks, gray pants, blue tops, yellow caps – and each one felt like I was dressing for a visit. I split my adolescence between the pulpy smell of books, which was my mother’s passion, and the leathery smell of baseball gloves, which was my father’s Albom 112. Chick keeps on playing baseball because when he plays the game he can picture the father and it can cure him from his lost. However, he also wants to follow his mother’s wish because since his father has gone, his mother always tries to fill up the missing part with her love. He always stays between them and it makes him weak. He does not even have his own self-determination. Thus, when his father suddenly comes back into his life and asks him to focus on baseball again, he experiences interna l conflict whether he should continue his study in the college and make his mother proud of him or follow his father’s command. In his second year in the college, he has taken part in several tournaments which include some potentials baseball recruiters based on his father’s urging. Until one day, there is a talent-seeker who comes to them after the game and offers Chick to join their club. His father supports Chick and directly sets the plan for him. However, at that time Chick is still confused whether he has to follow his father’s plan or his mother’s.