20 CHAPTER 3
METHODOLOGY
This chapter is divided into four parts, which are: subject matter, approach, procedures, and data collection. The subject matter focuses on the major subject of the
study. The approaches concern with the literary approaches that have been mentioned in chapter 3 and it is used to analyze the novel. The third subchapter deals with the
steps which are used for completing the research. Finally the data collection concerns
with the sources that give information that is used to analyze the novel.
3.1. Subject Matter
The subject of this study is A Painted House by John Grisham, which was published in 2001. This novel describes a sevenyearold child who lives in Arkansas.
The main character in this novel is Luke Chandler who has unusual experiences during harvest time. There are many events that change Luke’s personality.
When the harvesttime comes, each family in the plantation has to hire labors. The Chandlers hire workers because they cannot pick the cotton by themselves. The
labors are from Mexico and Hill people. The Mexicans came from their country using boats full of labors. On the other hand, the Hill people are from high ground and they
do not have plantation. The main purpose of the workers is money which they can earn from picking cotton. Luke fells that this time is different from the last harvest time
because he finds experiences that he has never felt before.
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A Painted House is a different type of novels which is written by Grisham because usually Grisham writes novels deals with law but this time he wrote about
ordinary people who do not relate with law and murder. This novel consists about 466 pages and this is original version from the author. A Painted House is one of the pop
novels which tell about ordinary people.
3.2. Approaches
The study focuses on the influence of setting upon the main character’s personality changing that revealed in A Painted House. In order to reveal the influence
of setting upon the main character’s personality changing, I will use 2 kinds of approaches. They are sociocultural historical approach and psychological approach.
The writer uses sociocultural historical approach because racism exists not only in the past but also in the present day. Racism is related with social, cultural, and
historical essences. Here the novel explores the society of America during slavery era. The approach helps to understand the history and condition of America before the
declaration of human rights. This becomes the main focus of the study.
The writer uses sociocultural historical approach because the setting of time of the novel is in 1952 and in rural Arkansas where many people still hold their religion
very fervently and every bad behavior is sinful for them. Setting is related with social, cultural, and historical backgrounds.
The psychological approach is used in this study in order to analyze the influences of setting upon the main character’s personality changing. The main focus
