Emotional maturity plays a significant role in the behavior of individuals. A contemporary novel entitled The Summer I Turned Pretty written by Jenny Han is a work that portrays emotional maturity through its character. This thesis aims to analyze the minor characters’ influences on the main character’s emotional maturity.

Two research questions are formulated in this study. The first question is, “How is Belly’s emotional maturity described in Jenny Han’s The Summer I Turned Pretty?”. The second question is, “What are the influences that the minor characters bring toward Belly’s emotional maturity?”. To answer the research questions, the writer uses the theories of major and minor characters to analyze the characters’ roles, and emotional maturity to identify the levels of emotional maturity experienced by the main character that are influenced by the minor characters.

This study uses the New Criticism approach along with the close reading method to analyze the issue as this study deals with emotional maturity theory. The data were gathered by using the library research technique where the novel is the primary source and supporting books, journals, and articles are the secondary sources.

The findings of this research reveal that Conrad, Jeremiah, and Susannah significantly influenced Belly’s emotional maturity. Belly undergoes five levels of FitzMaurice’s emotional maturity. Those are emotional responsibility, emotional honesty, emotional openness, emotional assertiveness, and emotional understanding. Those five levels of emotional maturity experienced by Belly were influenced by Conrad, Jeremiah, and Susannah. By knowing the development of Belly’s emotional maturity, the readers could reflect on themselves and implement Belly’s positive behaviors.