Implications CONCLUSIONS, IMPLICATIONS, AND SUGGESTIONS

63 In the field of education, Toru can be seen as a representative of a student. Each student has different character, whether it is positive or negative. Some examples of negative characteristic are loner, self-doubt, and low self-confidence. Besides, loneliness as the theme of the study can also be found at school and experienced by the students. Loneliness is a psychological problem which can be experienced in our daily life and it can happen among the students at school as well. Teachers’ roles are highly needed to overcome loneliness at school or classroom. Thus, a teacher is expected to master not only about the learning material but also the various characteristic of the students as well. There will be probabilities for teachers to have students with the same characteristic as Toru Watanabe who is loner, unconfident, and self-doubted. Loneliness in the classroom which is experienced by the students can be a big problem and it will affect student s’ learning process. According to Perlman and Peplau 1984, factors that can cause loneliness are moving to a new school or neighborhood, losing of an important person through death or breaking up, and experiencing the divorce of parents. Students also will experience loneliness when they have less social contact than they have expected before. They might also feel lonely because of being ignored or rejected by their friends in school or college. Moreover, Perlman and Peplau 1984 also state that shyness, low self-esteem, introversion and lack of social skill are the characteristics which associated with loneliness. Those characteristics lead to loneliness because it makes a person incapable of making and keeping friends. 64 Students who are lonely usually express low self-esteem and often believe that they are unworthy of the attention. Those who are having low self-esteem usually will focus on their weaknesses rather than their positive qualities and they are likely to be self-doubting. They are also unable to respect themselves and it makes them believe that they are not valuable. As a result, students will have low self- confidence as well which can affect the students’ way of having interaction with others. Besides, students with low self-confidence are incapable of interacting well and making friends. Therefore, they will have fewer friends, distance themselves from others, and reluctant to take part in group activities. Students who are not confident will be reluctant to be active in the classroom besides having difficulties in making and keeping friends. Their academic performance will also be unsatisfying because low self-confidence can lessen students’ motivation to learn and willingness to take a risk. Thus, they might be afraid of making mistakes during the learning process and they will not make progress in their study. Lonely students and unconfident students need teachers’ help and guidance. Teachers can ask them to tell about their problems in order to know the reasons or causes why they tend to be lonely. Listening to students’ problem and giving advices will ease the pain of loneliness. If the children lack of confidence and social skills, teacher can make them to be involved more in peer activities in order to gain their confidence and social skill. Besides, teacher can also use some creative activities such as drawing, writing, crafting, or others to help students in 65 expressing their feeling of sadness or loneliness. Students will ease the pain of loneliness as well by expressing their unhappy feeling. Understanding about loneliness at school is important for teachers since it gives some benefits. Teachers will get information about the causes of loneliness and the effects which later on can affect students’ academic performance. Besides showing unsatisfying academic performance, lonely students will also have incapability to make friends and socialize well. By understanding about loneliness and the characteristics which associated with loneliness, teachers are expected to be able to cope with it in order to create good academic performance and good social skills among the students. In the context of English Language Education Study Program, students of ELESP need to study about students characteristic and how to give the suitable guidance for students through psychological courses. The psychological courses help the student to learn and explore about psychological condition, such as behavior, thought, personality, and motivation. As teacher candidates, the students of ELESP are expected to take psychological courses offered, for instance: Psikologi Remaja, Psikologi Belajar dan Pembelajaran, and Dasar-Dasar Bimbingan dan Konseling. Those psychological courses offer knowledge about adolescence as transition period where changes happen among adolescent, teaching and learning concept, factors which affects teaching and learning process, effects of the various characteristic of students towards learning process and the achievement in learning, and the concept of guidance and counseling at school. Therefore, studying those psychological courses help ELESP students as 66 teacher candidates to solve problems which might happen in the classroom by giving the suitable guidance. Besides, as teacher candidates, ELESP students are expected to have awareness about the problems which might happen among the students and other issues in education field.

C. Suggestions

The suggestions are divided into two parts. The first part is the suggestions intended for future researchers. Meanwhile, the second part of this section is intended for lecturers who use literary works in the learning process.

1. For Future Researchers

In this study, the writer only explores the characteristics of Toru Watanabe as the main character and discusses the causes of loneliness as experienced by Toru Watanabe. However, this study is not yet perfect and it still needs improvements. For future researchers, there are some topics related to this novel which can be discussed. The first topic is about the causes of loneliness as experienced by Naoko. Since in Norwegian Wood there are some notable characters who commit suicide namely Naoko, Hatsumi, and Kizuki, the future researchers can discuss about the meanings of death as seen by Toru Watanabe. Moreover, there are two important characters in Norwegian Wood which can be explored as well, such as Naoko and Midori Kobayashi. In addition, future researchers can explore about Naoko and her schizophrenia which appears after Kizuki’s death. 67

2. For English Lecturers

Literature has an important role in the language teaching and learning process because it helps students to learn English and improve their English proficiency by reading literary work, for instance: novel. Moreover, novel can be used as an interesting source of learning materials since the students are able to comprehend the topic or theme of the novel and enhance their vocabulary as well. Therefore, the writer recommends English lecturers to use this novel as one of references in a Prose class. Prose class is chosen because this course focuses on developing students’ ability to read and analyze literary works. Besides, students who take this course have already had adequate vocabulary and capability to read a novel. Teacher can select some parts of the novel or present the summary of the novel and make some questions about the theme or provides some topics to be discussed.