it because he wants that her mother just acts the same as other mothers in the neighborhood. He sees that mother’s identity is different from the others in the
society. It makes role confusion for him. When his mother reprimands him, he replies, “I don’t care” I glare at her. “And why do you have to dress like that?
You make me sick Albom 85” Moreover, at an age of being a teenager usually children become more
independent and begin to look at the future in terms of career, relationships, families etc. Here, Chick Benetto is ashamed if his mother wants to be close to
him by asking for a kiss, letting her to cut his hair, sitting next to him and accompanying him to the college.
It was true, as a teenager. I had pushed my mother away. I refused to sit next to her at movies. I squirmed from her kisses. I was uncomfortable
with her womanly figure and I was angry that she was the only divorced woman around. I wanted her to behave like the other mothers, wearing
housedresses, making scrapbooks, baking brownies Albom 89.
Chick thinks this is not a time anymore that he should do those things with his mother. Chick wants to explore his own possibilities and begin to form
his own identity. Moreover, he hates that his mother is a divorced mother. He thinks that it makes him uncomfortable because his mother is not the same with
other mothers in his town. It makes him confused of his role in the family and society.
4.3.2 Posey’s Influence on Chick Benetto’s Adulthood
Posey Benetto still has big influence during Chick’s adulthood. Some of the influence is indirect but it also shapes Chick’s personality.
4.3.2.1 Young Adulthood
The name of this stage is intimacy versus isolation. The sign of this stage is children develops with the achievement of being able to share themselves with
others to avoid a sense of isolation, self-absorption and the absence of love Bukatko, 26.
One of the sign of this stage on Chick is the feeling about the absence of his father. Chick Benetto wants to avoid the isolation feeling because of the
absence of love. While his sister feels the lonely feeling because of the absence of father’s figure, Chick does not feel the same as he already meets his father.
Furthermore, he really has different willing to his sister about their mother. She was fifteen. I was twenty. She had no idea about my father. I had seen
him and talked to him. She wanted my mother happy. I wanted her to stay the same. It had been nine years since that Saturday morning when my
mother crushed the corn puffs in the palm of her hand. Nine years since we’d all been a family Albom 127.
It happens when Chick is twenty years old. He has different understanding about the family with his sister, Roberta. While she has not met her father, Chick
already meets and talks to him. About his mother, Roberta sees that their mother must be happier if she gets married again. However, Chick does not agree with
this view. He wants his mother stays the same. Rather than thinking about his
mother, Chick, as he enters the young adulthood stage, prefers to share himself intimately with others. He starts to explore the relationships leading toward longer
terms of commitment with others. He gets the understanding about divorce, too. For him, all of the divorce
do is just separating the family and leaves the discussion or disagreement about their mother. He thinks it is better that his mother does not get married again. We
can understand this view because Chick loves his father very much and he still hopes that his father will go back to the family and continues their life with a
happy ending family. All divorce does is divert you, taking you away from everything you
thought you knew and everything you thought you wanted and steering you into all kinds of other stuff, like discussions about your mother’s
girdle and whether she should marry someone else Albom 128.
4.3.2.2 Middle Adulthood
During his adulthood, after Chick establishes career, settles down relationship, begins his own families and develops a sense of being a part of a
bigger picture, his mother’s influence seems to disappear. However, it becomes the major influence seen in the later stage.
There are only some occasions written in the novel that shows his relationship with his mother in this stage. He just meets her in some occasions
bringing his wife and daughter. The one that is important is when he meets his mother when he wants to open a sport bar. At that time, he argues with his wife
about it. His wife, Catherine, does not want him to make that kind of business
