SIMON’S MOTIVATION IN SOLVING HIS PROBLEMS AS THE VICTIM OF A BROKEN  FAMILY AS REFLECTED IN FINE’S FLOUR BABIES

TITIK ANDARWATI. C1305542. Simon’s Motivation in Solving His Problems as the Victim of a Broken Family as Reflected in Fine’s Flour Babies. Thesis: English Department. Faculty of Letters and Fine Arts. Sebelas Maret University. This thesis analyzed Simon Martin’s motivation in solving his problems as the victim of a broken family. Simon was a 14 year old adolescent who was angry inside that it gave effect to his behavior. He became one of the students of class 4C which was a class for the underachievers and those who had behavioral problems. His father walked away when he was only six weeks old. There were disappointed moments and events that he had to experience because of his father’s absent. Once, he got a project from his school as the contribution to the school’s Science Fair. It was flour babies – sacks of flour that had to be treated as a real baby. It taught the students about the responsibility and being parents. The project made Simon opened the years wound rooted on his father’s absent. During the period of caring the flour baby, he found the reasons why his father walked for good. He finally got the answer and started to understand his father’s decision. It made him able to continue his life without a burden he had inside. This research employed psychological approach to answer the problem statements. In this research, the source of the data was the novel Flour Babies by Anne Fine. The data in this analysis could be grouped into two categories: the primary (which were the narrations and dialogues between the characters and also the monologues that described the characteristics of the character, Simon Martin) and the secondary data (which consisted of several criticism and articles about the novel and the author that gave relevant information to the analysis). The problems that became the main concern of this research were to know what motivated Simon Martin to solve his problem and how did he solve his problems. The objectives if this research were to describe Simon Martin’s motivation and to describe his ways in solving the problems. After conducting the analysis by using Abraham Maslow’s theory of Human Motivation, the researcher found that there were some needs that were not able to be fulfilled which, then, became the motivations in Simon’s life. These needs, especially the deep desire of being protected (Safety Needs), being loved (Love and Belongingness Needs), and being proud and appreciated (Self Esteem Needs) encouraged Simon to finish his problems and continued his life. On the other hand, the fact that Simon was in an adolescence period also influenced him to solve his problems as the victim of a broken family