Character Traits Research Design

The antagonist is the character with who the protagonist is in conflict, generally not a sympathetic character. This is the character driving the story forward; the one leading the charge towards the Story Goal. This character may or may not be the main character of the story. Either way, the main function of the protagonist is to pursue. The antagonist doesn’t necessarily have to be a person antagonistic force. It could be death, the devil, an illness, or any challenge that prevents the main character of virtue in a literary work where the protagonist represents evil.

2.4 Character Traits

According to Roberts and Jacobs 1993:132, a trait is a quality of mind or habitual mode of behavior, such as never repaying borrowed money, or avoiding eye contact, or always thinking oneself, the center of attention. Sometimes, of course, the traits we encounter are minor and therefore negligible. But often a trait may be a person’s primary characteristic not only in fiction but also in real life. Thus, characters may be ambitious or lazy, serene or anxious, aggressive or fearful, thoughtful or inconsiderate, open or secretive, confident or self-doubting, kind or cruel, quite or noisy, visionary or practical, careful or careless, impartial or biased, straightforward or underhanded, and humorous, stubborn, caring, carefree, selfish, unselfish, generous, self-confident, respectful, inventive, creative, intelligent, honest, mischievous, friendly, hard-working, shy, dainty, busy, patriotic, fun-loving, successful, responsible, helpful, dreamer, happy, disagreeable, conceited, leader, demanding, bossy, gentle, loving, proud, wild, messy, neat, joyful, cooperative, loveable, winner or loser, and so on. UNIVERSITA SUMATERA UTARA

2.5 The Way of Character Disclosed in Novel

Roberts and Jacobs 1993:132 tell that an author use five ways to present their characters in the novel. As the readers, we must use our knowledge and experience to make judgments about the qualities of characters being revealed. 1. Actions What characters do is our best way to understand what or who they are. As the ordinary human beings, fictional characters do not necessarily understand how they may be changing or why they do things they do nevertheless, their actions express their characters. Action may also signal qualities such as naiveté, weakness, deceit, a scheming personality, strong inner conflicts, or a realization or growth of some sort. 2. Descriptions, both personal and environmental Appearance and environment reveal much about character’s social and economic status, of course, but they also tell us more about character traits. 3. Dramatic statement and thoughts Although the speeches of most characters are functional-essential to keep the story moving along-they provide material from which we can draw conclusions. Often, characters use speech to hide their motivates, though we as readers should see through such a ploy. 4. Statements by other characters By studying what characters say about each other, we can enhance our understanding of the character being discussed. Ironically, the characters doing the talking often indicate something other than what they intend perhaps because of prejudice, stupidity, or foolishness. UNIVERSITA SUMATERA UTARA 5. Statement by the author speaking as story teller or observer What the author says about the character is usually accurate, and the authorial voice can be accepted factually. However, when the authorial voice interprets actions and characteristics, the author himself or herself assumes the role of a reader or critic, and any opinions may be questioned. For this reason, authors frequently avoid interpretations and devote their skill to arranging events and speeches so that readers may draw their own conclusions. UNIVERSITA SUMATERA UTARA

III. METHODOLOGY

3.1 Research Design

According to Webster’s New World Dictionary, research is a careful, systematic, patient study and investigation in some field of knowledge, undertaken to establish facts or principles. And according to Supranto 1997:1, research basically is an activity to acquire the datainformation which is very important to know something, to break a problem, or to develop a science. This definition makes clear that each research need a data to obtain the result. According to Webster’s New World Dictionary, data is a thing known or assumed. Supranto 1997:1 divides the data into two, qualitative data and quantitative data. Qualitative data is the data which is not formed of numerical matters; on the other hand quantitative data is the data which is formed of numerical matters. In this thesis I use the qualitative data, because I will interpretation a novel as the source. In completing this thesis, I use library research. Library research means that I collect my data from written text. Supranto 1997:39 says “Rancangan riset ialah suatu pengaturan syarat- syarat untuk mengontrol pengumpulan data di dalam suatu riset sedemikian rupa dengan tujuan untuk mengkombinasikan segala informasi yang relevan dengan ada hubungan sesuai dengan tujuan riset. It means that research design can be interpreted as entire planning and procedures for research and the method of data collection and analysis. Supranto 1997:40 divides the research design into four categories: exploratory, descriptive, experimental, and predictive. In doing this thesis I use descriptive method, according to Whitney in Nazir 2005:54 descriptive method is searching for the fact through right interpretation. Interpretation is concern with clarifying the meaning of the work by analyzing its language. Wellek 1985 in Budianta 1989:77-155 says that there are two ways to interpretation a literary work, UNIVERSITA SUMATERA UTARA interpretation through extrinsic approach and interpretation through intrinsic approach. In doing this analysis of course I use intrinsic element, focus to characters although entire elements actually connected one with other. Besides, literary theories and approaches are also very helpful in this literary analysis. According to Gill 1985:234-235, there are five approaches to interpretation of literary work; interpretation through characters, interpretation through society, interpretation through ideas, interpretation through literary forms, and interpretation through history. I use these approaches to analyze this novel, but I give priority to interpret through characters. Gill 1985:235 says that approach through characters is very popular. It finds the meaning of work in what they show about characters’ thoughts and feelings, the views they have of themselves, the way they change and grow, and the way they establish, maintain or break relationship.

3.2 Data Collecting