Subject Matter Approach of the Study

CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY

This chapter will cover three main parts. The first part is subject matter which is about the subject of the study, the novel The Good Earth itself. The second part is approach of the study which explains the use of the approaches in analyzing the novel. In this study, the writer uses the psychological approach. The last part is method of the study which contains the steps taken in doing the analysis.

A. Subject Matter

Pearl S. Buck began her carrier by publishing her first novel in 1930, East Wind: West Wind. Then, in 1931 she wrote The Good Earth which is considered to be Buck’s most famous novel. The Good Earth, a story of a peasant farmer made her won the Pulitzer Prize in 1932 and William Dean Howells Medal in 1935. Besides writing novels, Buck also published collections of stories, biography and autobiography, poetry, drama, childrens literature, and translations from the Chinese. This study analyzed the novel, The Good Earth. This novel was written by Pearl S. Buck and published in 1959. This study used the cardinal edition novel published by Pocket Books, Inc. This novel contains of thirty four chapters and 344 pages. In this study, the writer attempts to analyze the conflict faced by O-Lan, who is Wang Lung’s wife. O-Lan is one of the strong characters found in The 25 PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI Good Earth. In order to analyze the conflict, the writer started by analyzing the character of O-Lan. Then, by knowing the characteristic, the writer investigates the conflict felt by O-Lan and how she solved the conflict. Buck created O-Lan as a slave who marries to a farmer and lately in her old age she became a wife of landowner. Buck created an atmosphere of conflict felt by the poor people as a farmer and the rich as a landowner. Buck gave a sense of irony in her novel, The Good Earth.

A. Approach of the Study

In order to analyze a novel deeper, in this study, the writer preferred to use the psychological approach to get a better understanding of the character in the novel. In analyzing someone’s characters, the approach can also show his or her personality and his or her relationship with others. By using the psychological approach, the character’s mind, behavior, and appearance can be noticed well. Besides the character’s behavior, mind and appearance, psychological approach also leads to the analysis of the character’s relationship with others. When having a relation with other, the character may face conflicts. For that, the psychological approach is suitable to be applied. C.G. Jung states, “The psychological mode works with material drawn from man’s conscious life with crucial experiences, powerful emotions, suffering passion, and the stuff of human fate in general” 1972: 89. From the statement mentioned before, it can be said that the personality of men can be seen through the experiences they have had. Because of that reason, the psychological approach is appropriate to be applied to analyze the conflict and the resolution of the PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI conflict.

B. Method of the Study