5 not matter for them. They can still be friends. Moreover, they can live together in
Danny‟s house. Therefore, the researcher wanted to analyze the reasons of some characters for building their friendship. The researcher chose to reveal Pilon
‟s and the Pirate
‟s reasons for building their friendship because they have a close relationship although they just met recently. That is why the researcher was eager
to reveal the reasons why Pilon and the Pirate become close in a short of period.
B. Problem Formulation
Based on the background of the study, there are two problems formulated as follow:
1. How are Pilon and the Pirate described in Tortilla Flat?
2. Why do Pilon and the Pirate build friendship in Tortilla Flat?
C. Objectives of the Study
The aim of the study is to answer the questions formulated in problem formulation. The first intention is to reveal Pilon
‟s and the Pirate‟s description in Tortilla Flat.
The second one is to find out the motivations of Pilon and the Pirate for building their friendship in Tortilla Flat.
D. Benefits of the Study
The study provides benefits for the researcher, the readers, and also the future researchers. For the researcher, it helps the researcher to analyze literary
6 work especially a novel. Besides, it makes the researcher understand the
characters of Pilon and the Pirate in Tortilla Flat. The last, it makes the researcher understand the motivation of Pilon and the Pirate for building their own friendship
in Tortilla Flat. For the readers, this study is able to enrich their vocabulary. This study
can also help them to widen their knowledge about novel. Moreover, they can understand deeper about someone‟s motivation for building a friendship as
depicted in Tortilla Flat. Finally, for the other researchers who plan to conduct a study on John Steinbeck‟s Tortilla Flat, it hopefully can be a reference to write a
thesis on literature regarding friendship.
E. Definition of Terms
There are some terms that should be clearly defined to avoid misunderstanding the content of the study. The terms are character, friendship and
motivation.
1. Character
Character is defined as “the person presented in a dramatic or narrative work, which is interpreted by the reader as being endowed with moral and
dispositional qualities that are expressed in what they say-the dialogue-and by what they do-
the action” Abrams 1981, p. 20. Thus, character in this study means someone‟s characteristic that is reflected in what he says and what he does.
7
2. Friendship
Baron and Byrne 1997 define friendship as “a relationship in which friends spend a great deal of time together, interact in variety of situations,
exclude others from the relationship, and provide emotional support to one another” p. 278. Making friendship is a matter of spending good or bad times
with people who we choose. Thus, in this study friendship refers to a relationship
between Pilon and the Pirate who live together in Tortilla Flat. 3.
Motivation
According to Huffman, Vernoy, and Vernoy 1997, motivation refers to “factors within an individual such as needs, desires, and interests that activate,
maintain and direct behavior toward a goa l” p. 364. In this study, motivation
deals with the factors within Pilon and the Pirate that direct their behavior in building their own friendship.
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CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
The chapter is divided into three parts, namely review of related study, review of related theories, and theoretical framework. Review of related study
presents some findings by other researchers who had conducted studies on the same novel. Review of related theories gives a brief explanation of the theories
employed in this study. Theoretical framework provides an explanation of how those theories are applied in the analysis.
A. Review of Related Study
There have been some studies on Steinbeck‟s novel entitled Tortilla Flat. There are five researchers that have conducted researches on Tortilla Flat. An
English Letters student batch 1999, Sari, wrote a thesis using Tortilla Flat. The title is
The Significance of Danny’s House to the Characters in John Steinbeck’s Tortilla Flat.
Based on her study, there are three things that can be drawn. First, it discusses the unique characters in the novel and exposes the theme of the story.
Second, it explains the characters‟ ability to live side by side. The last, it explains that based on the connection of the data, Danny‟s house signifies the characters.
She employed objective approach in her study. The second research was conducted by a PBI student, Ashadi, in 1999. He
9 wrote a thesis entitled
The Role of Character Development in John Steinbeck’s Tortilla Flat to Reveal his Idea towards Private Property
. He analyzes some major and secondary characters to reveal relationship between the characters in
the novel with the author‟s idea toward private property. Besides, he examines the way the author expresses his idea towards the characters. The writer used
biographical and sociocultural-historical approaches. The third is Capricorini of PBI batch 2000 who wrote a thesis entitled An
Analysis of the Characters and the Ironies of Situation to Reveal the Theme in John Steinbeck`s Tortilla Flat.
Based on her study, there are three points that can be drawn. The first one is the description of six main characters. Then, it discusses
the ironies of situation used by the author of the novel. The last is the revelation of the theme through the description of the irony and the characters in the novel. The
writer used objective approach in her study. The writer gave some suggestions for the future researchers that give good contributions to this thesis. The writer
suggested the future researcher to discuss the motivation of each character that maybe reveal other themes.
Next is Wahyuningtyas of PBI batch 2005 who wrote a thesis entitled A Study of the Changing Personality as Seen in Danny the Main Character of
Steinbeck’s Tortilla Flat. There are two points that can be drawn from her study. First, it discusses how Danny‟s personality is described. Second, it studies about
how Danny‟s personality changes. The writer used psychological approach namely the Freudian Psychoanalysis. She gave suggestion for the future
10 researcher to discuss the effect of Danny‟s changing personality towards his
friendship with other characters. The fifth study was conducted by Tirtaningsih from English Letters batch
2008. She wrote a thesis entitled The Message of Friendship Seen through the Major Characters and Plot in John Steinbeck’s Tortilla Flat. Based on her study,
there are three things discussed. They are the characterizations of the major characters described in the novel, the plot of the story, and the message of
friendship seen through the major characters and plot of story. She used liberal- humanism approach in her study.
Different from the studies mentioned above, this study discusses motivation in friendship as portrayed in Tortilla Flat. It focuses on the motivation
of two characters: Pilon and the Pirate, for building friendship as seen in the novel. In this case, the researcher analyzes the motivation of Pilon and the Pirate
for building their friendship using psychological approach to conduct the research.
B. Review of Related Theories
