much time and one who wanted too little or less time. He then went to search for and to help them. Later in the story, the three characters have to struggle against
their own fate and choose their own ending. The ending of the story is a happy ending since all of them were able to enjoy the time they had and live it to the
fullest. Mitch Albom himself was well known for his books with great reflexivity
points of view. Piehl even said that, “Albom has gained a well-deserved reputation for writing about matters of faith, mortality and the afterlife in ways
that resonate with readers” www.thebookreporter.com. He is a well-known author who published great works. One of his bestselling books is entitled
Tuesday With Morrie1997.That book also offered his signature style of high reflexivity points of view. Therefore, just like his other novels, this novel also
offered the moral and philosophical values for the reader to consider how to live each day to the fullest because it might be the last.
B. Approach of the Study
Because this study uses existentialist ideas to analyze the characters ’
struggle against the absurd in life to find the reason for their existence, it is clear that the approach used in this study is a moral-philosophical approach Guerin,
1999: 25. A philosophical understanding is needed in order to understand how people s
eek answers about their existence. As Camus said, “Judging whether life is or is not worth living amounts to answering the fundamental question of
philosophy” Camus, 1955: 1. Therefore, the portrayal of life can be analyzed by
using the philosophical view. Combined with the philosophical approach, the qualitative analysis research method was used in this study to examine relevant
literatures. In philosophy, we define all values by reasoning. It is the most important
value since it is “the method of rational inquiry” http:www.thesynthesis.info. There are several limitations with the philosophical approach. The first one is the
extrinsic limitations. In this case, the writer chose to rely on a few specific authorities. For this study due to their relevance, the writer focused more on the
philosophies of Camus and Sartre rather than other philosophical authorities such as Marx or Kant. The second was the limitation of philosophy as a social practice.
This limitation examined the relation between subject and object. It focused on the use of words and language to formulate the truth and remove ambiguities. The last
concern is the intrinsic limitation. There were several issues in considering the intrinsic limitation: abstractedness, groundlessness, and speculativeness.
Abstractedness is a common challenge because most philosophers try to create common sense and relate it with ordinary life. Therefore, they focus more on what
ideas are related than the relations themselves. Meanwhile, groundlessness also becomes a problem because some systems might be complex enough to allow
endless combinations and permutations, which can make every view reasonable however unsubstantiated. Thus, sound reasoning needs to be grounded in hard
facts. The last issue is the speculativeness, which occurs because some philosophers tend to deal with universals, but they cannot provide content.
Philosophy tries to combine the best of worlds, the world of ideas and the world
of reality. So drawing from the world of ideas, philosophy becomes the bridge to create the reality.
Lastly, the moral-philosophical approach would be the best method to discuss the existentialism issues in The Timekeeper. According to A Handbook of
Critical Approaches to Literature Guerin, 1999: 25, the moral-philosophical approach is used to illustrate certain philosophical matters such as existentialism.
Using this approach, this research aims to examine the actions and involvements that the main characters did in the novel and relate them with Camus’ and Sartre’s
theories of existentialism to answer the problem formulations.
C. Method of the Study
