Subject Matter Approach METHODOLOGY

21

CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY

This chapter contains three parts, namely the subject matter, an approach, and research procedures. The subject matter explains the novel briefly and reviews the object of the study. An approach discusses the Psychological approach in analyzing the study. Research procedures describe the milestones of method which are applied to accomplish the analysis of the study.

3.1 Subject Matter

The primary subject of this study is Minfong Ho’s Rice Without Rain. The novel used in this study was published by Marshall Cavendish Editions. The novel is divided into 15 chapters. It contains 206 pages. It is a novel which is written by Thailand writer; Minfong Ho. Minfong Ho spent most of her childhood in Thailand, and then studied in Taiwan and at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. Now she lives with her husband and three children in Ithaca, New York. Minfong Ho presented the tension that Thailand women experience in best-selling novel like Rice Without Rain. Rice Without Rain crowned The New York Times best-seller list. Minfong Ho’s novel gives an interesting and at times absorbing glimpse of class struggle in the Thailand of the 1970s. Basically the main theme of the novel is the Thailand woman, Jinda, with her powerful emotions and love, heroically faces the challenges of holding on to PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI 22 who she is as the world around her revolves in what seems to be never –ending change. Although Jinda feels anger at injustice and sometimes face sorrow, but she still is hopeful for a better future, both for herself and Thailand. Jinda, as the main character, is especially well-drawn, although the others are stereotypes. However, the novel is not only about the motivation inside the main character, Jinda. The novel can reflect the Thailand farmers’ life that lives under government authority and they have to pay more land-rent for the land they used.

3.2 Approach

According to Mary Rohrberger and Samuel H. Woods, there are five approaches that could be applied in analyzing literary works. They are the formalist approach, the biographical approach, the sociocultural-historical approach, the mythopoeic approach, and the psychological approach. However, there is only one approach applied in this study. The only approach applied in this study is the Psychological approach. This approach was to analyze the research questions related to the theory of motivation, a branch of psychology theory. This approach brought us to analyze the novel from the psychological point of view of human beings Rohrberger and Woods 9. The approach guided the writer in analyzing what was the motivation of Jinda to change the government law of land-rent system. Since this approach involves various kinds of psychological theory, the writer can apply the theory of emotion, theory of human needs, and also theory of PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI 23 human motivation to present the explanation of Jinda’s emotion which influence her motivation to struggle against poverty, which becomes the focus of this study.

3.3 Research Procedures