24 two of Eminem‟s selected song Cleaning out my closet, Without me was included
to top fifteen songs in the world. Besides that some songs were used as the soundtrack of Eminem‟s movie 8 mile which was also released on 2002.
The four songs were closely with Eminem personal life. It was a reflective album from Eminem which made this album different from the previous album.
“White America”was a song about racism in Hip-Hop. This song told about Eminem
‟s experience in being white suburban. He told about his own amazement at his success, and his reception by parents and politicians. “Cleanin‟ out my
closet”was about Em childhood. He told the reason why he hated his mother and being a naughty man at the time.
“Superman”was about Eminem perception about women. Then the last song wa
s “Without me.” It was a popular song which ridicules pop artists and display Eminem‟s wide range lyrical talent.
B. Approach of the Study
Approach of study is very important to apply in a literature research. Rohrberger and Woods 1971 state that a critical approach to literature
necessitates an understanding of its nature, function and positive values p. 3. Generally, there are five kinds of critical approach such as: Formalist approach,
biographical approach, sociocultural-historical approach, mythopoeic approach, and psychological approach. Hence, every reader and researcher can use one or
more approach in understanding a literary work. In this study, the writer applied two combinations of approach, such as: Formalist and biographical approach.
25 Tyson 2011 states that literary text is a complex art object that made of
language p. 39. It is a unique combination between words and figurative languages. The approach which is used to understand a literary work called as
formalist approach. Formalist approach is used to find out the use of figurative language and its meaning in a literary work. In this research, the writer focused
only to find out a certain figurative language which was metaphor. It meant that formalist approach lead the writer to find out the metaphor and its meaning in
Eminem‟s song lyrics. In brief, the song lyrics were the places to find out the metaphor. In addition, this approach was applied to help the writer answered the
first research question. In order to find out the meaning, the additional approach was also needed.
In this case, biographical approach was applied. Guerin, et al. 2011 explain that to see a literary work through biographical approach meant to see work as a
reflection of its author‟s life and time p. 44. In this research, this approach was really helpful to find out the meaning of each metaphor in Eminem‟s song lyrics.
Every m etaphor that used in those song lyrics were the reflection of Eminem‟s
life. In brief, metaphors in those song lyrics were the reflection of Eminem‟s thoughts, feelings, and imagination. Further, this approach was applied to answer
the second research questions.
C. Method of the Study
In this study, the writer applied the library research. The library research was used to find out the related references and sources to this study. There were
