CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
A. Background of the Study
Digital Fortress is the first of techno thriller novel that was written by American author, Dan Brown. Besides, he also writes the other novels such
as; Angel and Demons in 2000, Deception Point in 2001, The Da Vinci Code in 2003, and The Solomon Key in 2008. Digital Fortress was published by St.
Martin’s Press in 1998. The amount pages of this novel are consists of 128 chapter and 429 pages. Dan Brown is the American author of numerous
bestselling novels. He was born on June 22, 1964 in New Hampshire, United States. In 1986, he was graduated from Philips Exeter Academy and Amherst
College with double major in Spanish and English, then, he spent time as an English teacher before turning his efforts fully to write until now.
Digital Fortress tells about Susan Fletcher who is brilliant mathematician and works in National Security Agency NSA. NSA is secret
intelligence agency of United States which is responsible for collecting and analyzing the foreign communication and protecting United States
government communication, which involves a significant amount of cryptography. The NSA has recently been directed to help monitor United
States federal agency computer networks to protect them against attacks. Here, Ms. Fletcher works as the head of NSA cryptography division. It is a part of
her job to save the code breaking machine of NSA. Once upon time, Ms. 1
Fletcher finds unbreakable code named “Digital Fortress” that TRANSLTR machine cannot break. TRANSLTR is the NSA’s supercomputer or
description computer that is capable of breaking any code in a short amount of time. The code of Digital Fortress was written by Japanese cryptographer,
Ensei Tankado. He is a fired employee of the NSA who is displeased with the agency’s instruction into people’s privacy. He threats NSA that he will post a
copy of Digital Fortress on his website and asked his accomplice “the North Dakota” that will release the key word for free if Ensei Tankado dies. Tankado
was found dead in Seville, Spain. This condition is very dangerous, not only for the future of Susan Fletcher’s agency but it would be cripple for the United
States intelligence, because every people in around the world, especially the criminal organization terrorist can access the databank and open all the
secret data from her country, United States. In the novel Digital Fortress, Dan Brown creates Susan Fletcher as the
major character. Brown develops the personality of woman. Susan Fletcher is the female protagonist. She is a head of cryptography divisions in NSA who
finds herself unbreakable code and feels that this code is very dangerous and will threat her country. As protagonist, Fletcher must overcome the novel’s
major obstacle, which is to break the secret keyword that has been made by ex-employee of NSA, Ensei Tankado. Ms. Fletcher who is helped by her
fiancé David Becker and her team must find a solution to stop the spread of the code. This duty was done not only for protecting the national security, but
also to protect the individual’s right to privacy because every people need virtual ethics in their lives, especially in cyber world.
There are many responses on Digital Fortress novel, in pros and contras. The data of reader responses shows that most of the readers like this
novel, it can be seen such as in amazon.com. Besides, there was someone suggests that Digital Fortress is interesting story because the writer involves a
lot of technology and deals with some of the current issues like privacy, government, and technology Priyankvira, 2006. Eli, comments on January
30, 2005, said that this novel will guarantee to capture the reader’s interest even if they are not computer enthusiast, because the writer made the story
easy to be understood by the readers although it has close relation with encryption techniques. She also said that it has a good story with a lot of twist
and intrigues. Some characters are clueless who are their allies or foes, which adds up to the mystery of the story Eli, 2005. The other comments was come
from Chris on September 24, 2008, who said that Dan Brown has done a fantastic job of writing about techno thriller, he can mix a technological
aspects in modern literature Chris, 2008. Not only the good comments, but also they are critics this novel. They
think that this novel had a great deal of repetition of certain phrase and words. They think it could have been shorter and just as effective to make the readers
not to boring when reading this novel. There was someone said that this novel has weak characters, because uses very short chapters. Some of them are half
page long and while for the most of the book it is rather annoying Adult,
2004. The other comments also came from lifeloom.com, it shows that most of the people who did not like the novel argued that it is amateurishly written,
but most complain about the logical and mathematical errors. Based on the rating of this novel in www.amazon.com, this novel is
popular enough. It is proven by the selling of this novel and being the America’s 1 best selling, although this is the first Dan Brown literary work.
This novel has been translated into more than 25 languages, including Indonesian languages and many people like Dan Brown’s Digital Fortress
novel. There are many fascinating aspects of Digital Fortress novel. First,
this novel not only entertains but also offers the readers knowledge in the form of information, such as technology. Besides, the story of these novel is very
interesting, because the author gets success for mixing the technology aspect in literature work and makes the situation in this novel become clearly
delineated, although it is the techno thriller novel. Second, the story of Digital Fortress, the major character, Susan Fletcher shows her responsibility to solve
the solution for breaking the keyword of Digital Fortress code. She also uncovers the astounding truth about the NSA’s deputy director, Trevor
Strathmore who wants to expose the code to the world. Third, this novel has something that very interesting to be discussed, it is about the controversial
issues of national security and civil rights and privacy from government. Four, this novel tells about a lesson life of women with her fiancé and her team
effort for fighting to save their country and to protect something that very
important, that is about the civil right to privacy. The last of fascination aspect of this novel describes about need for virtual ethics for people, because the
developing of era make people easy to get information of the world, so as a freedom human it is very important and should be fought.
The need for virtual ethics in Dan Brown’s Digital Fortress novel is one aspect which is interesting. If we read this novel, we can see that he also
wants to discuss about it. Virtual ethics here, means that every human need to get civil right to privacy, although every people can access the data from
around the world, they also should give appreciate for others to have area of privacy. These reflected in the sociologist studies in one or more specialities,
such as social organization, social stratification, ethnic relations, education, etc.
Dealing with literature, sociology then reflects the way of literature interacts with society and there is a close relationship between literature and
sociology. The relationship between literature and society in generally is unlimited and it requires a theory of history and society. Especially,
sociological itself explain the particular social structures to find expression in individual literary works and what functions these works perform in society.
Shortly talking Digital Fortress is very interesting, in order to know the need for virtual ethics in this novel, the writer applies sociological
approach. In this study the writer encourages herself to give a title: “The Need for Virtual Ethics in Dan Brown’s Digital Fortress: Sociological Approach”.
B. Literature Review