Objectives of the Study
Mardiana worked on many focuses such as revealing the satire on Japan‟s
imperialism, ultra nationalism, gender issues, and capitalism. Mardiana uses socio-historical study as the basic analysis of the novel. She
gives a standpoint that her thesis is merely about Akutagawa‟s criticism toward Japanese cultural society during 1920s. In accordance with her standpoint,
Mardiana then highlights the condition in Japan 1920s during the novel was written. The issues that are identified are the political condition, the economic
condition, and the social order as she puts in her description about Japan In a brief, in the year 1920s, Japan was in a period of economic crisis as
the glimpse of World War I and of the isolationism politics, which had been taken place during two decades. To go forward as the Western has
done, Japan started to develop her industries in various sectors 2008:19 The analysis is divided under two headings. The first is the level of
prosperity and later the development of the industry. She assumed that Kappaland society is similar to Japanese society without giving any satisfactory explanation
on why Kappa is the representation of Japanese society. Moreover, some of her arguments are inadequate to show the similarity between Kappa and Japanese
society as the object of criticism. She stated that politically Kappaland is stable and thus it results in welfare
and prosperous living of kappa. The evidence that she gives is merely on the portrayal of shops that provides everything the society needs, a street in
Kappaland that is similar to Ginza in Tokyo and some cars which pass by. “This stable condition merely can be seen from the well arrangement of the beech trees
on each side of the road, the crowds of cars a a lot of shops that provide ev
erything” Mardiana, 2008:31. Yet, this explanation is not comprehensible as a PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI