Background of the Study

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CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

This chapter contains five parts, namely, Background of the Study, Problem Formulation, Objectives of the Study, Benefits of the Study, and Definition of Terms. Background of the Study will present a description of the topic and reasons for its selection. Problem Formulation will formulate the problem to be discussed or analyzed. Objectives of the Study will state the purpose of the study undertaken in relation to the problem formulated. Benefits of the Study identify which parties will benefit from the conducted study. Definition of Terms will elaborate on the key words used in order to avoid misunderstanding and misinterpretation.

A. Background of the Study

In this part, the writer elucidates the reason the novel is chosen as the object of this study, the reason Assef is analyzed in this study, and the reason Horney’s Psychoanalytic Social Theory is used in this study. Hapsari, in her thesis titled The Discriminations toward Hazara People as seen in Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner, has explained about the characteristics of Hazara, one of ethnic groups in Afghanistan. It includes how Afghanistan people commonly react to them. Then, she explains how those matters prove the existence of discrimination towards Hazara people. Having reading the novel and Hapsari’s thesis, the writer realizes that there is a character 2 representing the discrimination—even, Hapsari asserts that the character has done the most inhuman action as a form of discrimination to Hassan, as a Hazara: a rape. The character is Assef, a bully who always confronts Hassan, Amir’s closest friend. Assef is not the main character, though he plays a significant role in the story. He controls the plots. He rapes Hassan. Amir, the main character in the novel, witnesses this incident, but he does not have guts to reveal himself and stop that incident. Later, that situation leads to Amir’s guilty feeling. Furthermore, this feeling serves Amir’s actions in saving Sohrab, Hassan’s only child. Therefore, it is bright that Assef has done something that controls the plots in the story. Assef is a monstrous figure. He has done many evil actions subjected to Hazaras. The actions represent the discriminations towards Hazaras. When Assef was a child, he always mocks and insults Hassan. He also rapes Hassan and urges his two friends to rape Hassan. In his adulthood, Assef becomes a Taliban leader. He leads many massacres of Hazaras, including Hassan and his wife. Even, he uses Sohrab, Hassan’s only son, to be an entertainer in a Taliban mansion. There, a little and innocent Sohrab experiences many kinds of harassments, including sexual harassment. Assef treats Hazaras inhumanly. He wants to free Afghanistan from Hazaras. He has an opinion that Hazaras make the country of Afghanistan dirty. He believes that Afghanistan is the land of Pasthuns. Ridiculously, Assef is not a pure Pasthun. He is a mix between Pasthun and Germany Aryan. 3 Abovementioned details Assef’s role in the story, his hatred to Hazaras, his decision to be a Taliban leader, his honor to Pasthuns though he is not a pure Pasthun—added with Hapsari’s assertion—propel the writer’s curiosity to conduct a study on him. Discrimination that is followed by actions of violence and killing exists in The Kite Runner, a novel written by Khaled Hosseini, which becomes the object of this study. The writer chooses this novel because the novel is unique: the novel is written by an Afghan who has grown up in the United States and the setting of the novel is Afghanistan. Besides, the novel is interesting. The novel is about redemption as a payment for guilty feeling. The story tells about Amir who risks his life to find Sohrab. This action is a form of redemption. Amir has done something wrong to Hassan, Sohrab’s father. He betrays Hassan—that makes Amir feel guilty along his life. The writer of this study has often experienced a guilty feeling. The writer knows how devastating it is. The writer believes that, though, human beings cannot turn back the time, there is still a possibility to fix mistakes which have been made. It is by redemption. The same case exactly happens to Amir. He has made a mistake. He realizes his mistake, and then he regrets his mistake. Nevertheless, the mistake has been made, the time has been passed by, and there is noting can be done to haul back the time. Consequently, he feels guilty. Then, it appears a chance to fix everything. It is as Rahim Khan, a character in the story, tells Amir “There is a way to be good again” Hosseini, 2. 4 Amir does not ravage the chance. It is indeed he wants to repay his past mistake, so he bravely takes the chance, though taking the chance means putting his life in peril. Aforementioned explanations are subjective subjects in the novel which make the novel is interesting to study. Before going further, the writer is going to exemplify the story of the novel. This novel is about the friendship of two Afghan boys: Amir and Hassan. However, as it is written on the back of the book’s cover, this is 1970s Afghanistan, and Hassan is a low-caste servant who is often mocked at in the street. Meanwhile, Amir is a high-caste boy who is also Hassan’s master. Hassan is a Hazara, a minor ethnic group in Afghanistan which suffers from discrimination. Amir is a Pasthun, the largest ethnic group in Afghanistan. Although, Hassan has natural courage, loyalty, and honesty which makes Amir jealous of him, the difference of social status takes control. Although Amir’s father, Baba, loves Amir and Hassan equally, the social conform has its own destiny. Discrimination plays a significant role in Hassan’s life. It influences Hassan’s life. Later, it is told that Sohrab, Hassan’s only child, also suffers from injustice resulting from discrimination. Sohrab has to experience hostile life because of the discrimination. In the writer’s opinion, discrimination is the root of the problems in the story—the one that determines the plots. If the discrimination did not exist, Baba would not feel worry of admitting Hassan as his son. Then, the story would be significantly different. 5 This study uses two approaches: the psychological approach and the sociocultural-historical approach. With regard to the psychological approach, Karen Horney’s Psychoanalytic Social Theory is chosen. Karen Horney is one of psychoanalysts who concerns with building the assumption that social and cultural conditions are largely responsible for shaping someone’s personality. Karen Horney’s psychoanalysis is exerted because the writer infers that this kind of psychoanalysis is an appropriate tool to analyze the problem. Besides, there have not been many students of the English Language Study Program at Sanata Dharma University using this kind of theory. To finish this part, the writer explicates a very brief and short biography of Karen Horney. Karen Danielsen Horney was born in Eilbek, a small town near Hamburg, Germany, on September 15, 1885. As a psychoanalyst, she does not track the mainstream of Freudian psychoanalysis. She believes that culture, not anatomy, is responsible for psychic differences. Feist and Feist state that Horney published her most important work, Neurosis and Human Growth, in 1950. This book sets forth theories that are no longer merely a reaction to Freud but rather are an expression of her own creative and independent thinking 163. From the previous explanations, it makes sense to employ Horney’s theory in this study. The theory is employed in order to explain the figure of Assef in Hosseini’s The Kite Runner. 6

B. Problem Formulation