never surprises”.
12
It means, flat character is constructed round single idea or quality
without much individualizing detail from the character. While
round character is a complex individual incapable of being easily defined because round character’s physical, emotional, and intellectual dimension
change. When a play is performed by round character, the character must change, both central and subordinate actors are necessary.
4. Static and Dynamic Character
Static character is usually a flat character. It means that character who remain stable in his attitude throughout a work. While
dynamic character is like to be a round character, because a character undergoes personal development and change
through a gradual process or a crisis.
B. Culture and Identity
Culture is something will influence the level of knowledge and includes the system idea that contained in man’s mind and applies in man’s life. Culture is a
whole complex which includes of knowledge, belief, arts, morals, laws, and any other capabilities acquired by man as a member of a society. One of the best ways to
understand culture is to learn something about how it began and how it grew
.
Whereas the realization of culture is object created by human cultured, such a behavior and all of the real objects like a language, life equipment, social
12
E. M. Forster, “Flat and Round Characters,” Essential of the Theory of Fiction, ed. Michael
Hoffman and Patrick Murphy Durham and London: Duke University Press, 1988, p.40.
organization, religion, art, and etc. All of it addressed to help a human in order to lead a societal life.
According to Drs. Supartono W., M.M.’s book, to understand more about the culture need to know about the cultural element. Because of it presence, the culture
will have a total meaning. In Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia¸ cultural element is the
cultural that can be used as certain unit analysis. C.Kluckhohn’s opinion tells in his masterpiece
Universal Categories of Culture, there are seven cultural elements; the system of religion, the system of
social organization, the system of science, the system of livelihood, the system of technology and tools, language, and art.
13
In studying culture, many people are interested to analyze the features of the society. Sometimes anyone is curious to know the custom, social life, and many more
to be distinguished of what kind of identity they are. All of it is because of everybody lives in different countries in the world, with different cultures, religions,
personalities, and ethnicities. These differences will be their identity. With the identity, people can represent themselves in society when they interact with another
people. Identity is used to know the social status such a races, ethnicity, sexual orientation, marital status, etc. Judy Giles and Tim Middleton said in their book
Studying Center, a Practical Introduction that:
13
W, Supartono, Ilmu Budaya Dasar Bogor, Penerbit Ghalia Indonesia, 2004, p.33
“Identities are the differences between a private sense of self that includes conscious and unconscious feelings, rational and irrational motivations,
personal beliefs and values and those factors that constitute the social context in which we experience those feelings and motivations for example age,
ethnicity and sex, if our deepest desires and our most personal experiences constitute an individual consciousness, then identity is the way we may
choose to represent ourselves and act out our thoughts, beliefs and emotion in the social word”.
14
Quotation above explained the identity is the way we present ourselves to be known by world society. Besides, the identity told “the identities that individuals
adopt in order to define themselves are produced, at least in part, from the cultural and social context in which we find ourselves and from which we draw certain
assumptions about human nature, individuality, and the self”.
15
Based on Studying Culture, a Practical Introduction book, the categories of
identity can be divided as follows: 1. Social aspects include sex, age, occupation, ethnicity, sexual orientation.
2. Physical appearance aspects include hair color, eye color, skin color, body shape, physical disabilities, height, kind of clothes worn, etc.
3. Personality aspects include lively, quiet, shy, concerned for others, morose, a loner, gregarious, etc.
4. Nationality aspects include Irish, Chinese, American, Nigerian, Korean, England, Australian, etc.
5. Religion aspects include Muslim, Jewish, Catholic, Confucian, etc. 6. Family relationship aspects include mother, father, daughter, son, etc.
14
Judy Giles and Tim Middleton, Studying Culture, a Practical Introduction Massachusset :
Blackwell Publisher, 1999, p. 32.
15
Ibid. p. 30
7. Occupation aspects include teacher, waitress, manager, etc. 8. Cultural aspects include interested in music, a film, football-mad, etc.
16
These categories of identity above related one to another. However, these categories are not the only way to know someone’s identity. These categories do not
tell the real of who they really are. Someone who can define the identity properly is refers to ourselves. Judy Giles and Tim Middleton write in their book
Studying Culture, a Practical Introduction “However we describe ourselves and however
many categories we draw upon social, personal, biological, cultural etc. we tend to and want to believe that there is a ‘real me’ in which resides the essence or core of
our nature.”
17
In this book, Frank Parkin also has developed a theory of meaning system.
The theory discusses three potential responses to a media message: dominant, negotiated,
or oppositional.
A dominant or preferred reading of a text accepts the content of the cultural product without question. A negotiated reading questions parts of the content
of the text but does not question the dominant ideology which underlies the production of the text. An oppositional response to a cultural product is one in
16
Judy Giles and Tim Middleton, Studying Culture, a Practical Introduction Massachusset :
Blackwell Publisher, 1999, p. 31.
17
Ibid. p. 32
which the recipient of the text understands that the system that produced the text is one with which shehe is fundamentally at odds.
18
From this definition, the writer concludes a dominant is disposed to totally
accept one of hisher identity. If heshe prefers to be an American, heshe would run
all of activities based on American culture, ethnic, and society. While a negotiated
would not accept whole of two cultures, such Indian or American cultural identities,
but negotiate both. Last, an oppositional is disposed not to respond and reject one of
cultural identity heshe has run in which heshe is not comfortable to present the identity.
C. American Identity
