Background of the Study
Because of the shorter length, short story is usually less complex than novel. The Art of short story and its enchantment placed precisely on the number
of words deliberately restricted. By removing the elements that are usually embodied in the long story like novel, which consists of complex plot elements,
complication, bumpy story line, specific setting, many characters, whereas short story focuses on one plot, one main character with a few additional minor
characters, one central theme, and directly presented the main issue without background, and clear resolution. So, they make short story unique because short
story can appear more natural, realistic and imaginative. Short story is generally a form of writing section and the most widely
published is fiction, like science fiction, horror fiction, detective fiction, and others. Now, short story also includes nonfiction such as travel record, lyrical
prose and variants of post-modern and non-fiction like ficto-critical or new journalism.
Every literary work including short story has its own structure. Structure consists of elements which close in relationship and systematic to form the unity
and the wholeness of literary work. Thus, structure is systems which consist of element. According to Piaget in the Structuralism book, there are three ideas
about the element that contained in the structure.
5
The first is the wholeness, it means that all elements which build a text determine its self significant and
determine all significant in intrinsic norm. Also all elements adapt themselves to
5
Jean Piaget, Structuralism, Jakarta: Yayasan Obor Indonesia, 1995, pp. 4-10.
the other element. So, structure has the intrinsic coherence which is a unity that cannot stand alone in the outside of its own structure.
The second is transformation. It means that every element in the text conducts transformation continuity. Every element transforms its self to build its
self significant, every element has possibility to form the new matter, the element adapts the process changing in the text of story, such as the additional minor
character or the social condition. It intends to build variety interpretation. The third is self regulation. The structure can govern itself toward another
system; it means that structure has the ability to maintain its transformation procedure without helping
from another one. From Piaget’s idea about structure, it can be concluded that structure is the most important element in the story whose
existence are interconnected between its elements and cannot be separated. They are also dynamic since they can undergo transformation and able to govern itself.
So, to comprehend a literary work, we should recognize elements which build the structure.
This research takes the short stories collection written by Rishi Reddi in her book Karma and other stories. It is her first book which consists of seven-
story collection and she was written it since 1996, contains her oldest story, Lakshmi and The Librarian.
6
Rishi Reddi is one of immigrant Indian writers in America, she was born in Hyderabad, India, and grew up in Great Britain and the
United States. Her work has appeared in The Best American Short Stories 2005 and received an honorable mention in Pushcart Prize 2004; she is also a recipient
6
www.rishireddi.netPDFIndianExpress5_11_07.pdf accessed on 25
th
January 2011, 04:00 pm.
of an Artist Grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council. She lives in Brookline, Massachusetts, with her husband and daughter
7
. Most of the themes in Karma
address about the intergenerational conflicts, the tension surrounding traditional gender roles, the differing views on sexuality, which all of these occur
among Indian immigrant communities regardless of geographic locale. From the seven stories in this book, the writer only takes three of them; they are The
Validity of Love, Bangles and Devadasi. Each of the three stories has the same
theme that is the intergenerational conflict that occurs between first generation
8
and second generation
9
. The first story, The Validity of love, explores the concept of an arranged
marriage and a cross-culture relationship in the lives of two young Indian American women. The second story, Bangles, tells about a widow who decides to
return to her native village to flee her sons off-putting American ways. And the last story, Devadasi, is set in India, the modern and the urbane jangling with the
7
http:www.harpercollins.comauthors30744Rishi_Reddiindex.aspx accessed on 26
th
January 2011, 02:15 pm.
8
In the book of New Roots in America‟s Sacred Ground: Religion, Race, And Ethnicity in Indian
America explains that the first generation is parents who can claim they are Indians because they
were born and raised in India, were active members of the Indian society for years or decades, have much of their memories and histories in that s
ociety, “think and act Indian,” relate to the Indian culture more than to the American culture, and in many cases still hope to go back to that
society someday. p. 2
9
The term of second generation encompasses two groups sometimes identified separately by other scholars. The term generally refers both to individuals born in the United States to immigrant
parents and those who arrived here by about age six. Some scholars separately designate a “1.5 generation” or “one-and-a-half generation” of children born abroad who arrived in the United
States after age five but before age twelve. For example, there are research participants who were born in the United States but returned to India so frequently that they have developed strong
transnational relationships with Indian family and family; technically classified as second generation. Likewise, individuals may arrive after age six and travel back to India infrequently;
they may experience language loss and may not form strong relationships with extended family in India, two experiences commonly associated with the second generation. Ibid, p. 7
ugly racial overtones which are far worse than a young dancer from the United States has ever come to fear in the country she has grown up in.
The three stories have the same theme. They can be more interesting if they are known from their structure whether each structure from the stories are
same or not. To know the structure of three stories, the writer uses structural narrative, the theory of A. J Greimas
10
, by analyzing the actant and functional structure in three stories, The Validity of Love, Bangles and Devadasi. According
to Greimas, actantial first model is a generalization of syntactic structure. No matter how many variations of story, there is always a configuration of character
type called actant. The function of actant appears in the basic of story sentence. Greimas not only explained the actantial model, he also showed that there is
another story type as the plot which consists of actions called function. The writer chooses this structuralism model because the structural narrative of Greimas is
considered to have an advantage in presenting the detail of character life from the beginning to the ending of the story. In addition, this structuralism model has
clearly been able to demonstrate and differentiate between protagonist and antagonist character.