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According to the theory of characterization from Murphy 1972, Sheila’s personal trait can be seen through the personal description from the author and
through Sheila’s mannerism. Torey described that Sheila had become friends with the other children. Her communicative manner was showed when she got a gift
from Chad and it made her not afraid of Chad.
c. Curious
The Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary defines curious as “interested in learning about people or things around you”. On that March, the
crocuses and daffodils bloomed at the school. Sheila was fascinated by the flowers. She had never seen such kind of the beautiful flowers in the migrant
camp. One morning, Torey bought a huge bouquet from her garden into class. Sheila was surprised and so excited to the flowers. She told her teacher that she
only had ever seen the flowers in a book. Sheila proposed many questions about the flower to Torey. She wanted to have one of the flowers.
“What them things be?” she gurgled through the toothpaste. “... Them be real flowers?”
“Sure they’re real. Touch them.” Putting down her toothbrush, she cautiously reached out, touching the
edge of one flower with her fingertip. “Oooooh” ... “They do be so soft. Let me touch them.” ... “I wanna hug them.”
... “I can have one?” ... “Could it really be mine?” pp. 194-195.
According to Murphy 1972, the author gives clues about the character’s personality through the reaction of the character. From Sheila’s reaction in dealing
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with her curiosity of something which is interesting, she is considered as a curious girl. Sheila was curious about the flower that she had not ever seen before.
Before Sheila was taught by Torey, she was an uncontrolled child. Sheila expressed her unpleasant feeling through anger. After Sheila was getting closer to
Torey, Sheila never showed the uncontrolled behavior. The uncontrollable of Sheila changed into curiosity because she was a child who could not be calm in
everywhere. She could control herself through asking to Torey if she did not understand about something or situation.
d. Responsible
Hurlock 1972 states that the teacher affects the child’s self-concept by her attitude toward his academic work and his school behavior directly. The
students in Torey’s class had never been forced to finish their work. Whenever they wanted to finish, it was all up to the students. Sheila was one of the students
who showed a personality development. Sheila was a smart child actually. She got 182 for her IQ test. Yet, she never wanted to do the paperwork, writing, or
exercised math. After a few days learning in that class, she became excited if she was given many tasks. She loved exercise math. She had ever asked Torey to give
a paper to do paperwork. She was able to finish written assignments. Academically Sheila sailed. She willingly did almost anything I gave her
to do p. 185.
The class had an event on a Mother’s Day. They prepared for having a play performance. The children were all excited about the event. Sheila was one
