The Context of the Novel

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D. The Context of the Novel

This biographical novel tells about the true life story of John Forbes Nash, Jr. , the mathe matical genius who was a legend by the age of thirty when he slipped into madness. A Beautiful Mind itself sets in America in the 1950s. It brings up two main issues at the moment. One is a vivid portrait of the world of top- level mathematics in post war America and the other is the mental illness experienced by the genius. The 20 th century was the age of changing in America. It was a time when the old and the new, the traditional and modern met. Besides, they were expected not to express their ideas directly in public. Woman should understand that their role was not in public sphere but private sphere. Since the industrialization developed, women had to leave house to fulfill their household needs such as food, goods, and clothing. These needs placed them in an awkward and contradicting position because they were needed to provide the house with food, goods, and clothing, but when they were out to get the things the family needed, they had to be back to the household. This ambivalent message in the society had caused a lot of women in the 20 th century diagnosed of hysteria and neurasthenia. The mental condition and nervous disorder the women experienced in the 20 th century in America grew in line with the development of urban industrialization in the United States of America http:www.geocities.comAthensacropolis6998gilman.html., accessed on November 23, 2007. The 20 th century in America was a time when the people were in mixed feeling of the wonder what the next century offered for them. Industrialization couldn’t be stopped because it was progressing fast and it led to urbanization since PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI 34 country men went to city to find better jobs. Industrialization and urbanization brought the changing of social norms. Fathers and husbands had the legal right to control women’s income. In the meantime, the middle class and upper class women were still at hone to run the house well as the symbol of the success of the husbands http:www.vcu.eduengwebeng384nealwyatt., accessed on November 23, 2007. Marriage in the 20 th century meant that wives should obey their husbands and the husbands’ right was protected by law. The submission was only in the part of wives. The wives had no right of custody of the children if their marriage ended in divorce. The wives’ personal properties became the husbands’ properties after they got married. Not only did wives need husbands’ agreement in making contact, they also didn’t have the right to vote, sue or own properties. The wives also became the husband ambassador in making business relation by organizing dinner and parties with their expectation that the prestige of the husbands can be achieved http:www.en.wikipedia.orgwikivictorian., accessed on November 23, 2007. Women were so dependent to men that they had to enter marriage to be financially fulfilled and happy. Women needed to be domestic because at home, they had to provide moralistic, stabile, and peaceful environment for their husbands after they came home from working in the cruel world. Women were also the sick- nurse of the family. Meaning to say, they had to nurse the sick member of the family. They had to maintain the house very well and keep the adornment of the house beautiful. No academics job were available or women because these kind of job were considered abnormal for women. The jobs that were available for them are teachers, servant, nurse, author, or governess. 35 Meanwhile, this novel was made within the beginning of 21st century which is recognized as the modern era. In America, everything has been up to date. The technology and industry, the economic, the press, and the social condition are very modern. From the culture as well, American people have their own characteristics. Since we talk about American people or culture, we deal with American values. An American value is a general idea that American people share about what is good or bad, desirable or undesirable. There are four American basic values which practically influenced Nasar in writing the biographical novel A Beautiful Mind. They are namely individual freedom, self-reliance, equal opportunity, and hard working. About the background of the writer itself in making this biographical novel, Nasar stated in her interview with Maximum Crowe on January 10, 2002 that she first heard about John Nash while working on an economics piece for the Times, about a year and half before Nash got the Nobel. She heard a rumor that a mathematical genius who had suffered from schizophrenia for three decades might be on a short list for the prize. Afterwards, she was sure other people would find his story life fascinating, too. Nash’s miraculous remission is so inspiring. Next, Nasar started to make an article “The lost Years of the Nobel Laureate” before making A Beautiful Mind biographical novel in 1998. She made this novel by getting a picture of the life required some 1,000 interviews, letters and emails with people who had known Nash at different points. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI 36 CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY This chapter describes the subject matter which explains the novel I explore in this study, the approach that contains the type of approach I use in analyzing the nove l, the procedures which explain the steps I conduct in doing this study, the sources which supply the basic information and foundation for the study, and organization of the study that notifies all the chapters of this study.

A. Subject Matter