Ballard grew up in Shanghai and was interned with his family in a Japanese camp during the Second World War. His recollections were
the basis for Empire of the Sun. He moved to Britain, and by the 1960s had become a full-time author www.guardian.co.uk, 27 March 2012.
From the foregoing quotation, J. G. Ballard as the author of Empire of the Sun really encountered the experiences when he and his parents were placed in a
prisoner camp by the Japanese during the Second World War in China. After the Second World War was over, he moved to Britain and worked as a full-
time author. In his work as an author; he wrote about his childhood experiences in China, especially in Shanghai and created a novel entitled
Empire of the Sun .
B. Problem Formulation
There are two questions to be answered in this study. The two questions are formulated as follows:
1. What are James “Jim” Graham‟s experiences that seen through the settings
in the novel related to the Second Sino-Japanese War in China? 2.
How do James “Jim” Graham experiences reveal the social conditions in China during the Second Sino-Japanese War?
C. Objectives of the Study
There are two objectives in this study. The first objective is to perceive the experiences based on the settings in the novel from Jim‟s
perspective as the main character of the novel. The second objective is to
reveal and develop the social conditions in China during the Second Sino- Japanese War as seen in the experiences of Jim in the novel Empire of the Sun.
D. Definition of Terms
With the intention for comprehending this study, the writer delineates some terms essential to analyze the study. There are three essential terms
which are social condition, experience, and the Second Sino-Japanese War. 1.
Social condition The word “social” means having to do with the reciprocal relations of
interacting human beings, either as individuals or groups. A comprehensive term, including all the phenomena which are the subject matter of sociology
Fairchild, 1970: 275. From the preceding quotation, social has a meaning related to mutual relation of interacting human beings about their origin,
development, and structure as individual or group in society. It also can be explained as the relation to the phenomena which becomes the main subject in
sociology, a science that study about human beings and society. The word “condition” means a situation that must exist in order for
something else to happen Hornby, 2005: 316. From the previous quotation, condition is described as a situation that exists or initiates to construct
something happens. From that, a condition happens because something is impacted by others which initiate a change in some area.
From the commencing definitions overhead, social condition is a circumstance that occurs because of the reciprocal relations of interacting
human beings, either as individuals or groups, including all the phenomena which are the subject matter of sociology. The main point of social condition
is human beings‟ relationship with the conditions around them, in this case the society. From the social condition, the writer can comprehend many aspects
which happen on certain time and place politic, economic, social and culture. 2.
Experience Experience is the living through or participation in any incident or occurrence
Deuter, 1941: 117. From Deuter‟s quotation, experience is described as something that directly occurs, in this case is remembered in the brain
memory because it happens, encounters, feels, and involves by the subject. It means every living creature has experiences in their mind. From the
preceding quotation, experience is created if the subject is using hisher sense when an incident occurs in hisher area.
3. The Second Sino-Japanese War
The Second Sino-Japanese War is a grand scale in the bloody though undeclared war of 1937-1941, and the final merging of this conflict with the
world conflagration that began with Pearl Harbor Clyde, 1958: 594. The term “Sino-” is combining form in nouns and adjectives Chinese Hornby,
2005: 1426. This term come from Late Latin Sinae, Arabic aş-şīn, Sanskrit cina, and Mandarin qín.
Based on Clyde‟s passage, the Second Sino-Japanese War is a military conflict in order to resist the aggression of
the Empire of Japan to over dominate China by the Republic of China.
7
CHAPTER II THEORETICAL REVIEW
