AN ANALYSIS OF CHILD ABUSE IN KEVIN LEWIS’S
“THE KID MOVES ON “
1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Analysis
Literature, derived from the word littera (Latin), can be defined by its lexical meaning as anything in print. However, this definition seems less adequate to explain the meaning of the term which most people put in their senses. Literature in the true sense of the term is that kind of writing which is charge with human interest, and characterized by permanence, coloring of imagination, and artistic embellishment (Shinha, 1977:1). Literature is the expression of feeling, passion, and emotion caused by a sensation of the interestingness of life. A literary work has an elements of entertaining. It can move our feeling and emotions. A literary work gives more lessons through them aspect of human life such as social, cultural, moral, and religious aspect. According to Wellek and Warren in theory of literature (1956:94), literature represent “ Life “ and “ Life “ in a large measure, is a social reality, even though the natural world and the inner or subjective world of the individual have also been object of the literary imitation. It means that literature expresses reality without ignoring the environment, which influences the writing. From the explanation above it can be summarized that literature is a summary of human life experience. This experience is embodied in Child Abuse in family life as expressed in Kevin Lewis’ “The Kid MOVES ON”. The term Child Abuse is commonly defined as unfair or violent way. In this point, it is referred to Kevin who is portrayed as a Child and suffers much under his selfish parents, Gloria and Dennis.
Kevin is always treated badly emotionally, verbally, sexually, and even psychically. He becomes the object of his parents’ angers in which he has nothing to do with it. He is still a kid and does not really know what’s wrong with his parents’ family relationship. It is happening more than after that makes Kevin isolated and dumb for he has lost his own identity. He likes to be alone as he if he were alone in afraid to have friends as naturally happens in his age. The disharmony husband-wife relationship is also another reason why Child Abuse happens in a family. The dominance of having authority based on economic and education superiority has resulted sense of degradation from a wife to a husband and nice versa. This in explicable gap makes the family relationship seems far from harmony and makes things up-down. So, child becomes the target of Abuse to satisfy blind anger which is not morally and socially accepted. Those terrible situations are clearly portrayed in the novel. That is reason as well as the background why choose my thesis title An Analysis of Child Abuse in Kevin Lewis’ “THE KID MOVES ON”.
1.2 The Statement of the Problem
Lewis’ “THE KID MOVES ON “is a fictitious narrative writing or novel whose story is dominantly about family life. It tells about Gloria and Dennis who are parents to Kevin. Kevin becomes the object of abuse only because he is a powerless kid. He tends to be treated violently when his parents are disappointed to fulfill their needs, both spiritually and materially. In reference to this, I made up to raise problem as follows:
1) What kinds of Child Abuse Kevin has experienced under his authorized parents?
2) What are the effects of Child Abuse to Kevin’s’ personality that reflected in a rather broken family background?
1.3 The Object of the Analysis
There are two objectives that can be found in this thesis writing. Firstly, I described kinds of Child Abuse in term of emotional, verbal, sexual, physical abuses as described in the novel. Secondly, I tried to identify the effects of ChildAbuse in the change of personality in relations to family broken home background.
1.4 The Scope of the Analysis
Child Abuse is a rather deviant behavior of parents to their children or child, this tendency is commonly related to ‘doing’ forces upon the child or children as victim of anger or disappointment of their parents. It may happen because parents are supposed to have power, strength and authority upon the powerless children or child. They think they own their kids and they may do the way as they like. In this thesis I restricted my analysis in Child Abuse in terms of emotional, verbal, sexual, and physical abuse described in the novel “THE KID MOVES ON”. It is focus on family life of Gloria and Dennis who becomes parents to Kevin. Their unloving deed has made Kevin totally destroyed in developing his personality only because of his parents’ abuse. This is the points wanted to analyses in this thesis.
1.5 The Method of the Analysis
Child Abuse analysis sounds the core of understanding of psychological matter. This matter can be found in literature such as novel because it has some characters. Characters are persons who are doing their wishes based on their minds order. But, those wishes are not always completely done which effect the character’s personality psychologically. That’s why it is saw that physiology is that study of human mind.
Since this thesis, provides an analysis of Child Abuse in the novel “the Kid Moves On”, I did read the novel several times. My focus was directed to the characters of what they say and do as written down in it. In so doing, I selected the character and the meaning of the words they say and underscored their individual behavior through what they had done. This way would make me much easier to find out the psychological elements in the work.
After having selected the characters through reading, I decided to list quotations as my data are interpreted in doing the analysis. Therefore, I described the psychological problem in terms of “Child Abuse” as reflected in the novel. Such method is better known as described method of analysis, By the method applied in this thesis, it is reliable to say that the kind of research is library research. It is so because I mostly focused to analyses the data through the help of books or references to complete it.
1.6 Review of the Related Literary
Wellek and Austin Warrent (1977) have brought an understanding about the relation of literature and psychology. They did emphasize three important points of how psychology enters the real in of literature. Firstly, in the work must after the elements of psychology to study, secondly, the psychology of the writer himself in writing his literary work. Thirdly, it is the psychology of the reader whose attention is manifested in the way she or he reads the work. In this thesis writing the first element is dominant for the analysis is directed in the characters. The focus of analysis is Child Abuse which is psychologically having side effects to the development of character’s personality. That’s why psychological elements such as emotion, behavior, and way of mind are embodied in the actions physical, emotional, verbal, and sexual abuses. Santrock, John. W (2003) also gives great help for me to understand basic psychology terms. The fundamental explanations of those terms above are clearly of personality of Child Abuse through characters as found out in the novel “The Kid Moves On”. Besides Santrock, Maslow (1970) also has explained about motivation. He further explained that the fulfillment of basic needs of human being may effect the personality of a person. The tendency of breaking the norms by having deviant behavior is basically connected to the failure of satisfying basic needs. These basic needs manifested in belonging, safety, material success, work atmosphere, home dwelling, to say same. In that point, the person as explained in the book refers to character as found in the novel.
The clear explanation of literary elements can be seen in Sinha (1977). He simply stated same understandings of literature both is element and definitions. It direct the points out which elements are related to present thesis analysis.
