Child's Determination in Helping Parent to Cope with Depression in Elizabeth G. Bedia’s Balloons for Papa

Abstract

Mentally being pressed down and having something heavy that is burdening a person’s desire to live are accentuated feelings that common people often describe as depression (National Institute of Mental Health, 2014). Depressed people coincidentally also have the quite same explanation of what they feel, such as having zero energy throughout the day, always feeling down, and simply always feeling sad (National Institute of Mental Health, 2014). Having an understanding of what depression undoubtedly matters in comprehending the story of the picture book that is researched here. Balloons for Papa: A Story of Hope and Empathy (Bedia,2021) tells a story about a child named Arthur who wants to cheer his father up (henceforth, called Papa). Papa does not seem to act normally as any other parent would do because his wife (henceforth, called Mama) has fallen ill, and because of that fact, Papa cannot seem to hide his sadness away. The story of this picture book basically revolves around Arthur trying his best to make Papa smile again. However, it is not as easy as how it sounds. It takes Arthur a whole lot of his determination in order to do what he needs to do in regaining Papa’s happiness again. Children’s determination to chase something that they want often arrives with some motivation that grows within them. The motivation that the children have is often associated with their target, and at the same time, it is frequently linked with pleasant perceptions of psychological need fulfillment (Sebire, Jago, Fox, Edwards, and Thompson, 2013). These factors in psychology may be the cause of increasing children's efforts to pursue everything that they have an interest in. DIGITAL REPOSITORY UNIVERSITAS JEMBER DIGITAL REPOSITORY UNIVERSITAS JEMBER ix In order to do the research on this picture book, theories need to be applied as tools. They are consisted with the theory of representation by Hall which focuses on the constructionist approach and the semiotic approach. Representation connects with meaning and language to culture, it is a process to produce and exchange meaning between the members of a culture (Hall, 1997). The qualitative research method is utilized in this thesis because it allows the researcher to gain a more in-depth understanding of the issue being researched, to clarify how meanings are made through culture, and to offer a much more practical method for this thesis. The main determined goals of this thesis is to find out the representation of depression and a child’s self-determination. However, come the following goals that are also as important as the previous one, which are discovering the author’s ideology and her critical position through her background, then after that, investigating the correlation of all the pieces of information between the author with the representation of depression and child’s self-determination that she wants to portray in the book. Based on the discussion in the fourth chapter, the analysis that has been done to determine whether or not Papa suffers from depression has substantially shown otherwise. As a result of the absence of information about how long Papa has been feeling depressed, the depiction of Papa cannot be considered an accurate portrayal of depression. Though, the result of the analysis in seeking the representation of the child's determination on Arthur has unmistakably suggested that he does, in fact, have a profound mental awareness. It has resulted in his unwavering determination to restore Papa's smile which has been missing since Mama got hospitalized. In seeking the critical position of the author, the result is, Bedia supports the theme of the discussion which is about depression’s awareness and a child’s determination. Arthur's arduous struggle to reclaim Papa's smile in the midst of adversity is based on Bedia's real-life experience, in which she too had to deal with heartbreakingly sad emotions while dealing with various obstacles.