recently, Sarah learns the fact that Ethan likes a watch worn in a movie titled Men in Black. And that the reason why she is in the clock shop now. But she does not
know the fact that her heart will be broken and she will try to end her life because of the boy she adores so much.
B. Approach of the Study
In order to analyze how the alienated characters in Mitch Albom’s The Time Keeper appreciate their given lifetime in different ways and to reveal what moral
lessons are depicted through these characters’ experiences, the writer uses moral philosophical approach. This approach is employed in the study because as stated
by Mary Rohrberger and Samuel H. Woods in Reading and Writing about Literature, “behind every art form there is also a philosophy of life which can be
expressed and viewed in moral terms” 1971:10. This statement is confirmed by Wilfred L. Guerin et.al in A Handbook of Critical Approach to Literature about the
function of literary work, which is “to teach morality and to probe philosophical issues 1979:60.
Since the characters in a novel represent those one in the real world, their experiences also convey moral values which can be learned by the others. This is
as defined by Elizabeth Langland in her book, Society in the Novel, that society consists of people and their classes, together with their customs, conventions,
beliefs and values, their institutions, and their physical environment 1984:6. Referring to Guerin, authors working on moral bent consider figurative
language and other aesthetic aspects of a literary work as secondary aspects of the
work. For them, the most important thing within a literary work would be the moral or philosophical teaching. In revealing implied moral lessons in Albom’s The Time
Keeper, thus, this moral-philosophical approach is the most suitable, as it insists on ascertaining and stating what is taught, rather than the aesthetic aspects of the novel,
as emphasized by Guerin 1979:61.
C. Method of the Study
In conducting the research for this thesis, the writer applied library research as the method of the study. To support the analysis, the writer read and collected
data from books, journals and thesis from the library. However, the writer needed to find more information about the literary work and the author. Thus, the writer
also browsed sources from internet about the author’s biography and the work’s criticisms.
Library research means the research must be conducted by searching and collecting primary and secondary data provided by the library. The primary data is
the fiction novel itself, The Time Keeper by Mitch Albom. The secondary data are the books, journals and thesis taken from both library and internet which support
the thesis analysis. There were some steps done by the writer to answer the problem formulation
in this thesis. The first step was reading the novel The Time Keeper thoroughly to find the important points in the story related to moral lessons. Then the writer found
out that two main characters in the novel were isolated from the society. They were Sarah Lemon who wanted to shorten her time and Victor Delamonte who wanted
too much time in his life. Consequently, the writer chose the moral lessons depicted in Sarah Lemon and Victor Delamonte selves as the topic of the study. Then the
researcher created two problem formulation to make the study more focus and comprehensive.
The second step was to get a better understanding about the two alienated characters in the novel. To do this, the writer needed suitable books as a guidance
for theory on characters and characteristics. They were An Introduction to Fiction by Stanton, A Glossary of Literary Terms by Abrams, A Handbook to Literature by
Holman and Harmon, Introduction to Literature Volume I by Barnet et al, and Understanding Unseen by Murphy. By using these theories, the writer found out
the characteristics from Sarah Lemon and Victor Delamonte. From there on, the writer took theory of alienation from some books, such as Nisbet’s The New
Encyclopedia of Britannica, Karp and Yoel’s Sociology and Everyday Life, and Lowry and Rank’s Sociology. These theories were used to explain deeper about the
characteristic of alienation experienced by Sarah Lemon and Victor Delamonte. The last step was done by the writer by examining the moral lessons through
Sarah Lemon and Victor Delamonte using theory of moral and morality and referring to the moral philosophical approach. The writer found some books related
to the theory, they are Gardner’s On Moral Fiction, and Gonsalves Right and Reason.
