CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
A. Background of the Study
Family is the basic institution which characters are formed.
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Moreover, it was the first place for someone to learn about everything around them, which is started by their nuclear family members then continued with
the surroundings. Family is also having their own rule to manage their members through their surroundings and also the society. Those are known as
family values. Family values could also be defined as the political and social concept
used in various cultures to describe values or norms in the society that are believed to be traditional in that culture and in support of the idea that families
are the basic unit of the culture.
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The concept of ‘family values’ is rooted in each individual culture thus making the values different for different societies.
In addition, culture change overtime in response in economic, political and cultural development. Therefore, family values vary from households to
households, from country to country, and from generation to generation.
1
The Concept of Family Values in America. Accessed on 14 September 2008 at 11 pm. http:www.en.wikipedia.orgwikiFamily_Values_in_America.
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Myron Magnet, “The American Family Values”, Fortune Magazine. Accessed on 17 April 2008 at 8 pm.
http:www.familyvaluesinamerica.com
We can see many family values around us. It can be seen since the early stages of life. Family values could be learnt from the beginning of
childhood because it is one of the most important aspects in our life. Most of the physical and mental development of a person takes place in childhood. It
is the critical period for establishing good habits which can last a lifetime.
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That means childhood has a big influenced in someone’s further life. Every body has different childhood memory. But most of us often
ignored and even forget about it. It seems like something which contains unimportant things in the past. On the contrary, childhood could help us to
find our identity in the future. Childhood is not related only with the family and its values; but also with the social condition, culture and mental
experiences. The concept of childhood itself is also different for each person. Someone could have a good childhood and vise versa.
In short, the family values may seem in the reality and also as a part of the story; both has their unique way to express. In this case, the writer
concerns to the novel; as one of products of literary works. In novel, the esthetical values were also reflected from the intrinsic elements and also the
attractive language which is used. Moreover, one of the cognitive sides from
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http:www.answers.comtopicchildhood with titled the definition of childhood, Accessed on May 14
th
2008, at 6 pm.
the novel is psychological values inside. A linguist said, “The novel can teach you more about human nature than the psychologist.”
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Baby Proof is a family novel, which is written by Emily Giffin’s as the third novel after Something Borrowed and Something Blue. It was one of the
Best New York Times Bestseller in 2006. It tells the story of that uncommon creature—which is the main character, Claudia Parr—the woman who
doesn’t want a child; just because of her traumatic in early childhood. It made her has a fear with all the stuff about family. It is also contains with a
psychological problem which is injured by the main character that built the story. Those things show that how important the family values which can give
a big influence to the main character’s physical development. What happened next in her life was so attractive. Readers were made suspicious with the end
of the story; that makes it challenging to be read. It’s sometimes funny, always thoughtful exploration about how life sometimes has other plans for us
than the ones we make for ourselves. Emily Giffin is one of the best international authors in United States of
America. She was born on March 20, 1972, in Baltimore, Maryland and had a very happy childhood. She grew up with a love of reading, surrounded by
books and making frequent trips to the library with her mother and her older sister, Sarah. She began writing at very young age, and published many of her
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Rene Wellek and Austin Warren, Teori Kesusastraan, ed. Melani Budianta, Jakarta: PT Gramedia Pustaka Utama, 1999 p.30
own stories. Emily’s father was an executive for Sears, so her family moved around quite a bit over the years. In 1986, they arrived in Illinois just in time
for Emily to start high school. During those years, Emily indulged her passion for writing as a member of creating writing club and the editor in-chief of her
high school newspaper. She won several awards for her writing and wrote in journal every day. After college, Emily attended law school at University of
Virginia. She even works in a litigation department, but she realized that writing was her way of life. In 2001, she began creating the world of Rachel
and Darcy. Here is the page from the early draft of Something Borrowed— under its original working title, Rolling the Dice. In 2002 was an exiting one
for Emily. She got married, found an agent, and signed two-book contract with St. Martin’s Press. Although she hadn’t palled to do so originally, she
became interested in Darcy’s side of the story during revisions of Something Borrowed and thus began writing Something Blue. In 2004, Something
Borrowed was released to have reviews and instantly make the New York Times bestseller list. Baby Proof followed its succeeded which produced
around 300.000 in the first printing in the early 2006.
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The main character in Baby Proof is Claudia Parr, single, 35-years- old, a successful carrier woman. She was a kind of ambitious woman who
loves her jobs so much. Her job as an editor in one of the biggest publisher
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Amazon.ca: Baby Proof: A Novel: Emily Giffin: Books, accessed on June 21, 2008 at 1 pm. Retrieved from http:www.amazon .caEmily_GiffinNovelBaby Proof.com
company in New York, her attractive physical appearance, bright future and has a lot of friends made her life seemed so perfect. Overall, she was content
with her life. She told herself that she didn’t need a husband to feel complete and fulfilled.
Then she met Ben who seemed way too good to be true, after she learned that he actually shared her feelings about children. She realized
something during her life. On the flip side, she knew that she could be automatically disqualified for a long-term consideration as she had with so
many guys in the recent past. After all, most people—women and men—view not wanting kids as a deal breaker. At the very least, her risked coming across
as cold and selfish, two traits that don’t top the list of “what every man wants”; because didn’t want to have a kid was a selfish decision.
But Ben was different. He doesn’t want to have a child either. They found many similarities and they were fall in love. In short, they were
married. After two years of their happy marriage, Ben wanted to have a child. Claudia refused Ben’s wishes for having a child in their marriage. She felt
betrayed; Ben betrayed their previous commitment about having a child. Conflicts happened; both of them were stubborn. Finally, they were divorced.
By analyzing the plot carefully, the writer assumes that it seems that there is a relationship between Claudia’s childhoods in her future decision for
not having a child. A terrible childhood created a deep psychological
traumatic for Claudia as a part of her surroundings and that become a trouble for her. The decision itself also influenced the development of her personality.
She identified the character of her mother to herself. Her decision for not having a child made her seemed so selfish.
Therefore, the writer interested to analyze neuroses symptoms which are injured by Claudia’s character related with her trauma in the childhood by
using Sigmund Freud’s Psychoanalysis Theory on Neuroses. Freud believed that “a child was a human’s father”; people’s mental explorations were always
related with their childhood and also their past experience which has the implication of psychological problems, especially Neuroses. Neuroses are one
kind of psychological problems which is caused by a great anxiety and traumatic during the childhood.
B. Focus of the Study
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