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CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION
There are five parts in this chapter. The first part is background of the study, the second part is objectives of the study, the third part is problem
formulation, the fourth part describes benefit of the study and the last part of this chapter is definition of terms. The background of the study explains the reasons of
choosing the City of Joy as the subject of the study. The objectives of the study aim to describe the reasons why this study is conducted. The benefit of the study presents
the expected benefits of the study, and the definition of terms clarifies the important terms used in this study.
1.1 Background of the Study
Poverty is one of issues which usually happen in the third world. This poverty issue often appears in some authors’ works. One of the authors who interested in
writing about poverty is Dominique Lapierre. In his work, Lapierre tries to reveal the life of poor people in one of the third world countries, India. In his novel, he has
succeeded to portray the life of the poor who live in a slum in different way. Lapierre shows not only the bad sides of India and the people but also the good sides. A friend
of Ronald Segal, the author of The Crisis of India, criticizes the people in India as a dirty and submissive lot. He says those people have no flame or fight in them. The
rich are ravenous corrupt, while the poor have no will to survive Segal, 1965: 13- 14. However, Lapierre has a different opinion from Segal’s friend. In his book, The
City of Joy, Dominique Lapierre shows the readers the uniqueness of India and the
people especially the poor.
The City of Joy is a novel which tells about people who live in a slum area
called Anand Nagar. Anand Nagar is located in the capital city of West Bengal, Calcutta. Like other slums in Calcutta, people in Anand Nagar have to live without
facilities such as ventilations, toilets, drains and permanent houses. Most of the people live in a room for ten to twelve people while the other live on pavements.
People in Anand Nagar are newcomers from villages near Calcutta. Although they come from different places, they have the same hope which is to make a better life.
They have no hope if they still stay in their hometown because disasters often strike their villages. Cyclone, long dry season, flood, earthquake are some disasters that
cause exodus of many villagers from villages to big cities. In the new place, life is also not easy for them because once again they have to face the poverty. Therefore if
they still want to survive, they have to struggle in this new place. The struggle of those poor people in order to survive is the interesting part
throughout the story especially because the novel is based on a true story. The story is written by Dominique Lapierre after his two-year research in Calcutta. The City of
Joy is a reflection of Indians real life during 1960s-1970s. Lapierre took villages in
West Bengal, Calcutta, and Anand Nagar as the setting of this novel. He described how in the years during 1960-1970 the exodus of people from villages had to
struggle for survival in Calcutta yet they still looked after the others. Poverty did not make them selfish and individualist. Although they came from different religions and
regions until now, they had high tolerance among themselves. Tolerance is significant in Calcutta, especially in the slums, because there are many religions
which are professed by the people. Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, Moslem and Christian are several religions whish are professed by Indian people. One of religions
which has the biggest followers in India is Hinduism. Since Hinduism has the biggest followers, Hinduism gives the biggest influence to the law, the culture and the
tradition, and also to the people thinking. One of Hinduism doctrines which has influenced people thinking is karma.
Karma is “deeds” or “actions” in the sense of the consequences of human acts. Karma is useful in identifying people actions which deserve of moral merit and
those which do not 1992: 677. People who do good deeds will get good karma or reward from their actions and people who do bad things will get bad karma or
punishment. Poor Indian believes that what they get and face in the present is part of their karma. This is interesting because in every action people commonly think about
karma. After reading the City of Joy, readers can realize that karma also influences Hindu people’s struggle for survival in Calcutta.
Therefore, the influence of karma on the struggle for survival of poor people will be chosen to be the topic of the study. This topic is worth discussing since these
poor Hindu people have to struggle for survival while continuously thinking of a way to get a better karma despite that the latter case, in reality, require a lot of sacrifice.
For those people, their belief in the law of karma always remains them to be careful with their act. No matter how hard their life, they try to avoid bad deeds which result
bad karma.
1.2. Objectives of the Study
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