Theory of Message Review of Related Theories

17 http:www.biography.compeoplekurt-vonnegut-9520329later-years . January 23, 2017. In God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater, or Pearls Before Swine the story no ony centers on the title character, an eccentric philanthropist, but also introduces the writer Kilgore Trout, a fictional alter ego of Vonnegut who appears throughout his work. Furthermore, the story of the novel is a satirical story of a millionaire Eliot Rosewater, the president of a fabulously rich Rosewater Foundation, who suffers from total love for all humanity. He decides to go his own way and moves with his money to Rosewater, Indiana. There he becomes a volunteer fireman one of his obsessions and opens an office where he helps all people who need help http:www.nytimes.com20070412books12vonnegut.html . December 12, 2016. In this study, the researcher focuses on the character and searches for the message of the novel so that the reader understands the messages can get . Therefore, by the explanation about the novel above, the researcher intends to focus on the main characters ’ thoughts and acts towards humanity to reveal the message.

B. Approach of the Study

In this study, the researcher uses a new criticism approach because it is appropriate for this study, as the analysis of this study deals intrinsic elements of a literary work such as characters and messages. Harmon and Holman state that new criticism is generally concerned with finding the intrinsic worth of literature. It focuses on “the work of art as an object in itself” 2009: 337. 18 Green and LeBihan state that new criticism rejects the claims of the author and focuses on ‘the words on the page’. The ‘meaning’ of a text is to be found in the arrangement of the words of the text and not in other factors such as the reader’s psychology, the author’s intention or the historical context 2001: 186. Furthermore, Selden, Widdowson, and Brooker give their opinion about new criticism. They explain that issue as follows: But whatever the socio-cultural explanations for its provenance, New Criticism is clearly characterized in premise and practice: it is not concerned with context – historical, biographical, intellectual and so on; it is not interested in the ‘fallacies’ of ‘intention’ or ‘affect’; it is concerned solely with the ‘text in itself’, with its language and organization; it does not seek a text’s ‘meaning’, but how it ‘speaks itself’ 2005: 19. The researcher chooses the new criticism approach because messages, characters and characterization are parts of the intrinsic elements. The researcher does not deal with extrinsic elements such as the social-historical backgrounds of the literary work or the life of the author.

C. Method of the Study

There were many steps in analyzing this novel. In order to complete the analysis, the researcher used access from the internet and the library. There were two kinds of resources used in this study, the primary source and the secondary source. The primary source of this study was the novel God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater, or Pearls Before Swine by Kurt Vonnegut. Meanwhile, the secondary source of this study was obtained from books and the internet related to the theory of character, theory of characterization, theory of humanity, theory of messages,