Intimate Friendship in The Secret Garden

Abstract

This qualitative research is an integration of literature analysis and psychological knowledge of interpersonal relationship. A classic children’s novel written by Frances Hodgson Burnett named The Secret Garden was purposively selected to be the data source. The objectives of this study were to examine the friendship between two children characters namely Mary Lennox and Colin Craven, and to explore the variables of intimate friendship shown by the two main children characters in The Secret Garden. The concept of intimate friendship especially in intimate friendship variables introduced by Sharabany (1974) were relied on as the framework of the analysis. Those eight variables included frankness and spontaneity, knowing and sensitivity, attachment, exclusiveness and privacy, giving and helping, taking and imposing, common activities, and trust and loyalty. The results showed that the intimate friendship between the two studied characters was very close and this interpersonal relationship transforms both children into a desirable way. Moreover, all of the intimacy variables in the framework could be found from the narrative of their actions and conversational dialogues. Of the eight variables, three variables showing high degree of intimate friendship were common activities, attachment, exclusiveness and privacy. It was also found that there were some factors boosting this interpersonal relationship. Those factors included parenting style, their age, and their needs. This study confirms the importance of friendship and roles of parents in developing children’s mental strength and desirable behaviors.