8
CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
This chapter gives some explanations on the related literature upon the study that have been introduced in the previous chapter. There are some topics
that are going to be discussed in this chapter. The first section of this chapter reviews the related theories or theoretical description. In this section, there are two
topics that are going to be discussed. There will be the definition of literature, theory of character and characterization, and hierarchy of human needs. The
second section in this chapter reviews theoretical framework of this study, which explains the contribution of the theories in solving the problems.
A. Review of Related Theories
1. The definition of Literature
What is the definition of literature? That is the question that some people might ask. Based on oxford dictionary, there are three definitions of literature. The
first definition is writings valued as works of art. The second definition is writings on a particular subject. The last definition, the informal one, is printed material
giving information “literature”.
The word literature has been used for imaginative works of poetry and prose distinguished by the intentions of their authors and the perceived aesthetic
excellence of their execution. In other words, it is a verbal work. It can be both written and oral that is related by subject-matter, by language or place of origin, or
by dominant cultural standards Ali, 2008.
9 Literature that means acquaintance with letters comes from Latin word,
littera “literature”. In Western culture, the most basic written literary types
include poetry and prose, fiction and non-fiction. Wellek stated that literature or letters were understood to include all writing of quality with any pretense to
permanence, while Mc Fadden stated that literature is a canon which consists of those works in language by which a community defines itself through the course
of its history as cited in Ali, 2008.
2. Theory of Character and Characterization
When reading literary work, reader wants to get understand in-depth what he is being read. That is why reader should know the elements that could help
reader to understand the idea in the story. The elements that could help the reader are plot, characters, dialogue, time, and place. In this section of the study, writer
explains the theory of character and characterization so that reader could get a better understanding of the character when reading literary work.
a. Theory of Character
This section is divided into two. The first is the definition of character and the second one is the classification of character.
1 Definition of Character
Character is one of important elements in literary works. Richard Gill in his book Mastering English Literature 1995 stated that characters in books may
have all sorts of links with the people we meet everyday but we only meet them in books p. 127. Based on his statement, it can be concluded that a character is
created to introduce reader to living world.
10 Rober
t Stanton 1965 divided the use of term “character” into two ways. First, character designates the individuals who appear in the story. The number of
characters created in a novel can be the sample of it. Second, character refers to the mixture of interests, desires, emotions, and moral principles that makes up
each of these individuals. p. 17
2 Classification of Character
There are some experts that explain the term “character”. They also classify the term “character” using their own terms that are different one and
another. Here, it will be explained some of them. Based on the role in the story, Stanton, in his book Introduction to Fiction
1965, p. 17- 18, classifies the term “character” into two. They are central major
character and minor character. Central or major character is a character that may dominate the whole story and presented frequently to develop the main story and
it will never be developed without herhim. Minor character is presented to explain and to help the other characters especially the major character. as cited in
Baskoro, 2006, p. 7 Perrine 1974, p. 71 classifies the term “character” into two categories.
They are static and dynamic character. Static character does not undergo any changes in his or her outlook or personalities during the course of story as at the
beginning, while dynamic character is a character that undergoes many changes in some aspects of the character in terms of personalities, ways of thinking, or
outlook from the beginning until the end of the story. as cited in Wijaya, 2008, p. 10-11
11 Forster 1972, p. 18 uses different classification from Perrine’s. He
classifies the term character into flat and round characters. A single idea or quality represents a flat character. It means that a flat character has only a monotonous
event or problem in the story. The representation of flat character does not give too much individuality detail. A flat character can be fairly described in a single
phrase or sentence because in flat character, the personality is not described in details. On the other hand, a round character is complex in temperament and
motivation. A round character is represented with subtle particularly. It is hard for reader to guess such character. Round character usually may change in significant
way when he is facing a conflict. Holman and Harmon use the same terms with Perrine. Holman and
Harmon 1986, p. 81 divide it into static and dynamic character. Similar to Perrine, a static character is a character that has little changes or does not change
at all when a thing happens to herhim. On the other hand, a round character based on Holman and Harmon explanation changes whenever a thing happens as the
result of the action. as cited in Wijaya, 2008, p. 11 In this study, the theory of character is needed to analyze Lynette as the
main character in Some Other Summer.
b. Theory of Characterization
What is the difference between character and characterization? This question usually comes up in reader’s mind when he is trying to get an in-depth
understanding when reading literary works. Richard Gill 1995 a character is a person in literary work, while characterization is the way in which a character is
12 created p. 127. In simpler way, it can be said that characterization is a method
and character is the product. According to Rohrberger and Woods 1971, p. 20, characterization is the
process by which the authors create a character, the devices by which he makes us believe that a character is like particular person he is. as cited in Rianda, 2004, p.
15 Through characterization, the author uses some methods to show what the character looks like in the story.
According to Murphy 1972, there are nine methods or devices that are used to describe how an author conveys to the reader about the characters and the
personalities so that the characters understand them p. 161-173. They are: 1
Personal description The author describes a person’s appearances and clothes. Author can
describe clearly, what the characters are like and tell the reader the details of the character’s appearance: the face, skin, eyes, and clothing 1972,
para. 161. It can be inferred that personality of a character can be reflected from the external appearance. Here is the example taken from The Old
Man and The Sea: The old man was thin and gaunt with deep wrinkles in the back of
his neck. The brown blotches of the benevolent skin cancer the sun brings from its reflection on the tropic sea were on his cheeks. The
blotches ran well down the sides of his face and his hands had the deep creased scars from handling heavy fish on the cords. 1953, p.
5
From such description, reader can see the appearance of the person in this story. The man in this story is described as an old man who has blotches on
his cheeks and scars on his hands.
13 2
Characters as seen by others The author describes a character through the eyes and opinions of another.
The appearance and or personalities of a character can be seen from what the other characters in the story tell what they see from that character
1972, para. 162-163. For example: “I see that. Shows how dumb the boy is. You’re twice the girl Debbi is,
twice as pretty, too. ” 1982, p. 60
Based on the quotation above, reader can easily understand the appearance of the person. The girl in this story is described as a pretty girl.
3 Speech
The author can give us an insight into the character of one of the persons in the book through what the person says. Whenever a person speaks,
whenever he is in conversation with another, whenever he puts forward an opinion, he is giving us some clues to his character 1972, p. 164. The
example that is quoted from Dickens’s Dombey and Son is as follow: “Oh Thank you Sir,” said Walter. “You are very kind. I’m sure I
was not thinking of any reward, Sir.” “You are a boy,” said Dombey suddenly and almost fiercely; “and what you think of, or
affect to think of, is of little consequence….” as cited in Murphy, 1972, p. 164
Based on the example given previously, we can understand the character of Dombey. Dombey had little regard of anyone else’s opinions, least of all
for those of a mere boy 1972, para. 164. 4
Past life By letting the reader learn something about a person’s past life the author
can give us a clue to events that have helped to shape a person’s character.
14 This can be done by direct comment by the author through the person’s
thought, through his conversation or through medium of another person 1972, p. 166. In
E. M. Forster’s A Passage to India, Mr McBryde, is described as follow:
He had read and thought a great deal, and, owing to a somewhat unhappy marriage, had evolved a complete philosophy of life ….
as cited in Murphy, 1972, p. 167
The unhappy marriage led McBryde to a philosophical outlook in the present 1972, para. 167.
5 Conversation of others
The author can give clues to a person’s character through the conversations of other people and the things they say about him 1972, p. 167. The
following example is taken from Graham Greene’s The Heart of the Matter. In this quotation, a wife in the company of a younger man is
watching her husband, a police-officer, leave for an urgent official journey up country. The quotation is as follow:
Side by side they watch Scobie cross the road to the police van. He had taken more whisky than he was accustomed to, and
perhaps that was what made him stumble, “They should have sent a younger man,” Wilson said.
“They never do. He’s the only one the Commissioner trusts.” They watched him climb laboriously in, and she went sadly on.
“Isn’t he the typical second man? The man who always does the work.” as cited in Murphy, 1972, p. 167
In this story, from the conversation of Scobie’s wife we can gather the character of Scobie. He was a hard-working, trustworthy man. Scobie is
the sort of man who will never get to the top of his profession – he is a
15 ‘second man’ who does the work for those already at the top. 1972, para.
167 6
Reactions The author gives a
clue to a person’s character by letting the reader know how that person reacts to various situations and events. 1972, p. 168 the
quality of a character might be expected to be shown when a character deals with various situations and events that he encounter. The following
example is taken from E. M. Forster’s A Passage to India. In the following
quotation, there is an incident where Aziz, an Indian doctor, is arguing with a servant at the door of a European official’s house when some people
came out. The example is as follow: While they argued, the people came out. Both were ladies. Aziz
lifted his hat. The first, who was in evening dress, glanced at the Indian and turned instinctively away. as cited in Murphy, 1972, p.
168
We can see that the doctor, A ziz, was polite, from the word ‘instinctively’
we learn that she was used to considering Indians, no matter who they were, as unimportant and was prejudiced against them. 1972, p. 168
7 Direct comment
In this method, the author describes or comments on a p erson’s character
directly. 1972, p. 170 It means that author might give comment explicitly on the characters and opinion about the characters in the story. Usually, the
comment from the author is written in the story. Murphy 1972 gives an example on this method. The example that is taken from Dombey and Son
is written in the next page.
16 The following example is:
He had imagined that the proud character of his second wife would have been added to his own
– would have merged into it, and exalted his greatness. He had pictured himself haughtier than ever,
with Edith’s haughtiness subservient to his. He had never entertained the possibility of its arraying itself against him. And
now, when he found it rising in his path at every step and turn of his daily life, fixing its cold, defiant and contemptuous face upon him,
this pride of his, instead of withering, or hanging down its head beneath the shock, put forth new shoots, became more concentrated
and intense, more gloomy, sullen, irksome, and unyielding, than it had ever been before. p. 171
In this quotation, Mr. Dombey’s characters are proud, haughty, unyielding, and sullen, and his nature is clearly drawn for us. 1972, para. 171
8 Thoughts
The author gives reader direct knowledge of what a person is thinking about. In this method, he is able to do what he cannot do in real life. He
can tell reader what different people are thinking 1972, p. 172. There is a quotation from The Heart of the Matter that can be used to help the reader
to understand this method. The following quotation is: … He thought to himself, poor Louise, if I had left it to her, where
should we be now? And he admitted straight away that they wouldn’t be here – somewhere far better, better climate, better pay,
better position. as cited in Murphy, 1972, p. 172 Based on the previous quotation, we know that in Scobie was sorry for his
wife. 9
Mannerism The author describes a person’s mannerism, habits or idiosyncrasies which
may also tell us something about his character. 1972, p. 173 In this method, the author shows character’s habit both positive and negative.
17 Murphy 1972, in his books gives an example on the application on this
method. In Lawrence Sterne’s novel, Tristam Shandy, we meet that
marvelous old character Uncle Toby. Uncle Toby is an old soldier living in retirement. However, his peculiarly is that he cannot forget
the days when he fought in the great battles of the European wars. He has maps and plans of all the battles and behind his house he has
an open space where with the help of his manservant, he refights the campaigns of his young days with model soldiers and toy cannons.
Nearly all his talk and all his references are to these battles. He is a lovable old eccentric living in the past. p. 173
3. Motivation
Petri 1981, p. 3-4 in his book Motivation: Theory and Research states motivation is the concept we use when we describe the forces acting on or within
an organism to initiate and direct behavior. He mentions that people often use the concept of motivation to indicate the direction of behavior. For example, when
someone is hungry, he directs his behavior in ways to get food. Similar to Petri, Robert Beck states that motivation is broadly concerned with the contemporary
determinants of choice direction, persistence, and vigor of goal-directed behavior as cited in Larasati, 2009, p. 10.
Maslow also developed a motivational theory that emphasizes the striving to reach one’s full potential as basic to human motivation and includes additional
motives besides self-actualization 1981, p. 301. According to Maslow, human behavior is related to the needs as cited in Akrani, 2010. It can be described that
when someone needs something, he will direct his behavior to fulfill his need. Maslow classifies human needs in a hierarchy running from basic
physiological needs to self-actualization needs as cited in Petri, 1981, p. 301.
18 B
ased on Maslow’s observation, there are five levels of human needs – physiological needs, safety needs, belonging needs, esteem needs, and self-
actualization. The following levels of human needs based on Abram Maslow are: 1
Physiological Needs This is the starting point for motivation theory developed by Abraham
Maslow. In simple way, physiological needs include need for food, water, and sex as cited in McClelland, 1985, p. 41. Maslow states that there are customary
notions about these needs: first, the development of the concept of homeostatis and second, the finding that appetites preferential choices among foods are fairly
efficient indication of actual needs or lacks in the body 1987, p.15. Based on Maslow’s explanation, homeostatis refers to the body’s automatic efforts to
maintain a constant, normal state of the blood stream 1987, p. 15. Cannon 1932 described this process for the water content of the blood, salt content, sugar
content, protein content, fat content, calcium content, oxygen content, constant hydrogen-ion level, and constant temperature of the blood. as cited in Maslow,
1987, p. 15 Young 1941, 1948 summarized the work on appetite in its relation to body needs. If the body lacks some chemical, the individual will tend to
develop a specific appetite or partial hunger for that missing food element as cited in Maslow, 1987, p. 16.
This level of human need, actually, is the most prepotent of all needs. Maslow states that it means specifically is that in the human being who is missing
everything in life in an extreme fashion, it is most likely that the major motivation would be the physiological needs rather than any other 1987, p. 16. Based on
19 what has been stated by Maslow, we can conclude that a person who is lacking of
safety, love, and esteem would most probably hunger for food more strongly than for anything else. When these needs are met, the next need of the hierarchy
emerges as a dominant force in controlling and directing behavior as cited in Petri, 1981, p. 303.
2 Safety Needs
Safety needs, based on Maslow’s explanation, include security, stability, dependency, protection, freedom from fear, anxiety, and chaos, need for structure,
order, law and limits, strength in the protector. Maslow describes that whole organism is a safety-seeking mechanism 1987, p. 18. People who live in
peaceful, stable, good society are safe enough from wild animals, chaos, and criminal assault. In these circumstances, someone no longer has any safety needs
as active motivators in his life. Maslow states that the need for safety is seen as an active and dominant mobilize of the organism’s resources only in real
emergencies, such as war, disease, crime waves, or chronically bad situations 1987, p. 19. Based on the previous explanation, we can conclude that the safety
needs can become very urgent on the social scene whenever there are real threats to law, to order, to the authority of society.
Maslow states that the threat of chaos or of nihilism can be expected in most human beings to produce a regression from any higher needs to the more
prepotent safety needs 1987, p. 19. It seems to be true that people who are living near the safety line are particularly disturbed by threats to authority, to legality,
and to the representative of the law 1987, p. 20.
20 3
Love or Belongingness Maslow explains that the love needs involve giving and receiving
affection. When they are unsatisfied, a person will feel keenly the absence of friends, mate, or children and such person will hunger for relations with people in
general. 1987, p. 20 It can be assumed that a person who is living in this condition will strive with great intensity to fulfill the need of love as the main
goal. Maslow stress that love is not synonymous with sex. 1987, p. 21 As what has been stated previously, sex is studied as physiological need. It is determined
not only by sexual but also by other needs, which are love and affection. There are only few explanation from Maslow related to belonging needs.
Maslow has a believe that the tremendous and rapid increase in training groups, personal growth groups, and intentional communities may in part be motivated by
unsatisfied hunger for contact, intimacy, and belongingness. 1987, p. 20 4
Esteem Needs It cannot be denied that people have a need for a stable, firmly based, for
self-esteem, and for the esteem of others. Maslow classifies esteem needs into two subsidiary sets. The following subsidiary sets are:
a the desire for strength, achievement, adequacy, mastery and
competence, confidence in the face of the world, and independence and freedom. 1987, p. 21
b the desire for reputation or prestige, status, fame and glory,
dominance, recognition, attention, importance, dignity, or appreciation. 1987, p. 21
21 Satisfaction of self esteem need leads to feelings of self-confidence, worth,
strength, capability, and adequacy, of being useful and necessary in the world. 1987, p. 21 Maslow states that the most stable and therefore most healthy self-
esteem is based on deserved respect from others rather than on external fame or celebrity and unwarranted adulation. 1987, p. 22
5 Self-Actualization
Maslow states the behavior of the self-actualized person is motivated by a new set of needs, which are values such us truth, honesty, beauty, and goodness.
as cited in Petri, 1981, p. 305 Petri says that self-actualized individual is no longer motivated by deficiencies but is motivated to grow and become all that he
or she is capable of becoming. 1981, p. 305 This level of need stimulates people to test their abilities and expand their horizon. The term “self-actualization” is,
actually, developed by Kurt Goldstein 1939. It refers to people’s desire for self-fulfillment, namely, the tendency for
them to become actualized in what they are potentially. This tendency might be phrased as the desire to become more and more what one
idiosyncratically is, to become everything that one is capable of becoming. as cited in Maslow, 1987, p. 22
There are some characteristic of the self-actualized person. Maslow states 14 characteristics of self-actualized person. They are more efficient perception of
reality and more comfortable with it, acceptance of self, others and nature, spontaneity, problem centering, detachment need for privacy, independence
from culture and environment, continued freshness of appreciation, mystic experience or oceanic feeling, sympathy for humankind, interpersonal relations,
22 democratic character structure, means and ends, philosophical, and creativity. as
cited in Petri, 1981, p. 305-309 There are some exceptions in the hierarchy of human needs. Maslow states
that there are 7 exceptions in the hierarchy of human needs. The exceptions are as follows:
1 There are some people in whom, for instance, self-esteem seems to be
more important than love. 1987, p. 26 2
The innate creativeness of a person might appear not as self-actualization released by basic satisfaction, but in spite of lack of basic satisfaction.
1987, p. 26 3
In certain people, the level of aspiration may be permanently deadened or lowered. 1987, p. 26
4 The so-called psychopathic personality is another example of permanent
loss of the love needs. 1987, p. 26 5
Another cause of reversal of the hierarchy is that when a need has been satisfied for a long time, this need may be under-evaluated. 1987, p. 26
6 Another partial explanation of apparent reversals is seen in the fact that we
have been talking about the hierarchy of prepotency in terms of consciously felt wants or desires rather than behavior. 1987, p. 27
7 Perhaps more important than all these exceptions are the ones that involve
ideals, high social standards, high values, and the like. 1987, p. 27 Theoretical discussion on hierarchy of human needs developed by Maslow
may given the impression that the five sets of needs are somehow as follows: if
23 one need is satisfied, then another emerges. Maslow states that such statement
give the false impression that a need must be satisfied 100 percent before the next emerges. 1987, p. 27
This theory is associated with human motivation. One of the exception states that hierarchy of prepotency in terms of consciously felt wants or desires
rather than behavior. In this exception, Maslow states that there are many determinants of behavior other than the needs and desires. 1987, p. 27 Though
Maslow states it so, needs and desires still become the determiner factors of behavior. In association with motivation, the act to initiate and direct behavior is
the concept to describe motivation. In this term, the emergence of needs or desires directs one’s behavior to fulfill the needs of that person. In simpler way, it can be
said that the desire of someone to fulfill the need will be the reason why someone is motivated to behave in particular way.
B. Theoretical Framework
In this section, writer mentions the theories that are used in this study and its contribution in solving the problem of this study. The writer has given a bit
description of the contribution of the theories in chapter one. The first theory is theory of characterization. Theory of characterization is applied to answer the first
problem formulation of this study. The methods that are used by the author are analyzed in this step. There are nine methods of characterization that can be used
by an author to give a description or to tell the personalities of a character in a story. Each method will give a contribution in analyzing the character of a person
in the story.
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