Isolation The Effects of the Abuses on Tess‟ Personality Development

wish is fulfilled, Tess is being neglected again. So, after Tess‟ daughter is born, Tess tries to give her attention towards her daughter by taking care and nurtures her as a cause of the isolation or loneliness she feels at her previous stage when no one cares about her. Her daughter is a hope for Tess to express her love and attention. Hopefully, her daughter would return Tess‟ love in the future and create a better life together, since Tess did not receive a decent life at her previous age. According to the autobiography entitled Sold, Tess becomes a person who cares for her own daughter. There are several quotation taken from the autobiography to prove and explain how the abuses affect Tess‟ personality development in emerging her generativity after she is feeling isolated. More immediately, there was Angie‟s wedding to think about. I wanted to give her the best wedding ever. It‟d be my pride and pleasure to give h er a day she‟d remember for the rest of her life. Stevens, 2008: 332 The first quotation that proves Tess cares towards her daughter could be seen above. According to the quotation above, Tess‟ daughter, Angie is about to be married and Tess is starting to prepare her wedding. Tess really cares on her daughter‟s happiness and future since she is eager to give the best wedding for her. She wanted Angie to remember her wedding as one of the best days she ever had in her life. There is a reason why Tess gives full love and attention toward Angie; that is because she does not want Angie to feel the painful life that Tess had experienced. If we compare Angie‟s to Tess‟ life in her past, we could see that there is a great contrast in both lives. Tess did not receive much love and attention from her mother, while Angie receives everything. Tess is always being neglected and abused by mother. As an example, at the day when Tess told her mother about her relationship with Victor, mother neglects it and did not seem to care. When I was shacked up with someone and having a terrible time, my friends all meant well. They‟d shake their heads, saying, „Why do you let it happen, Tess? You‟re always so strong. Why don‟t you stand up for yourself?‟ Which was all very well, seeing as how I prided myself on being loud and confident in public, life and soul, all that sort of thing. But inside, the real Tess was having none of it. I‟d walk over hot coals to protect my daughter, but I didn‟t have whatever it took to protect myself from someone once they‟d got their hooks into me. It all comes back to mother. How could she have made such a doormat of me that I couldn‟t resist her even when I was grown up? I realize more and more that sending me out to men was only the most obvious sign of the way she treated me, manipulated me. I was hers to command, like an object, a possession. And while she had a strong right arm and often used it to hit me, the lasting damage was what she said to me, how she used words to persuade me, scare me, give me false reassurance. In short, betray me. Stevens, 2008: 329-330 The second quotation that proves Tess becomes a caring person and develop generativity could be seen above. According to the text above, Tess is willing to sacrifice herself to protect her daughter. She is willing to do anything which benefits and guarantees her daughter‟s safety. Ironically, she cannot protect herself when she has problems with others. Tess does not protect herself, although she is capable in doing so. It is described above that her friends is asking the reason why she does not defend herself against the abusers since she has the capability. Once again, Tess blames her mother for all the problems occurred in life. She stated that she was an object to be controlled and manipulated in order to obey her mother. One of the examples is when her mother sent Tess to the men‟s place where she receives the sexual abuses. Besides getting abused physically, Tess is also being abused psychologically by mother in forms of persuading, frightening, and getting false reassurance. In addition, betrayal also occurs in Tess‟ life. Due to this wrecked life she regrets herself having to live with mother. In addition, due to the bad treatments she receives from her mother, she loses her trust towards her and feels isolated because she has no one to love and depends on. Tess‟ daughter is her only love she has, the only person who she could trust and who trusted on her. Tess wishes that her daughter never experience the similar wrecked life she had. So, she tries to do her best to protect her daughter from any threat. Whatever happened to me, I‟d move heaven and earth to make sure my baby grew up happy and secure, kept save from harm. It‟s the greatest joy of my life that my daughter grew up to be a lovely, caring woman, with a fine, hard-working husband, blessed with beautiful, clever children. What‟s more, she‟s always been respectable and honest, leading a decent life. She wasn‟t going to follow my path, no way. Stevens, 2008: 295 The third quotation that proves Tess becomes a caring person could be seen above. According to the quotation above, Tess prioritizes her daughter‟s safety than her own safety. She wants to do her best to make sure her baby live a decent life and save from harm. When her daughter grew up, Tess is joyful since her daughter grew up to be a lovely, caring woman, with a fine, hard-working husband, blessed with beautiful, clever children. Furthermore, her daughter always been respectable and honest, also leading a decent life. She does not want her daughter to live in a life of vice like herself. A life opens to abuse, neglect, and criminality. Due to the negative things Tess experienced in her life, she cannot live a decent life. It is contrast to her daughter‟s. From this explanation, we could conclude that from the abuses Tess experienced which resulted in isolation or loneliness, emerge the generativity in Tess since she needs love and wanted to give love to her daughter which makes her become meaningful. Tess cares and nurtures her daughter into being a good person. Fortunately, Tess succeeded in guiding her daughter‟s life into a decent life and also able to express her generativity towards her daughter. At this stage, Tess does not feel lonely and isolated anymore because she could share love and attention with her daughter.