reading the novel for several times, I found a great topic to discuss. I was interested in how Carla struggles to find the meaning of life. Then, I decided to
analyze Carla’s quest for the meaning of life and to have a deeper understanding on how she manages to find it.
After deciding the topic, I formulated the problem formulation to discuss. Then, I search and read books and resources that would help me in analyzing the
novel. I read some books discussing theories that could support my analysis. They were theory of character and characterization, and theory of logotherapy. Besides,
I also read some articles from the internet related to the novel. After finding enough data as the basis of the study, I started to analyze the
novel. At first, I analyzed the description of Carla as the main character of the novel. Then I analyze how Carla searches for the meaning of life.
The last step was drawing conclusions and making suggestions. The conclusion and suggestions were made based on the analysis. Besides, I tried to
give implementation for teaching learning activities.
27
CHAPTER IV DISCUSSION
This chapter is divided into two parts. The first part is the answer of the description of Carla, the main character of the novel. The second part concerns the
quest of Carla to find the meaning of life.
A. The Description of Carla
Accor ding to Stanton 17, the word “character” refers to people who are
in the novel. It has very important position and function in a story. In this novel, Carla is the most significant character because she is the key of the novel. Based
on the theory proposed by Henkle 88-97, Carla is considered as the major character since she is the center of the story. Besides, Carla becomes the focus of
any act on the whole story. Based on the theory of character proposed by Foster 46-54, Carla is considered as a round character since she has complexity in
temperament and motivation. She is built around several ideas or traits of human nature.
In order to understand the characters fully, Murphy 161-173 proposes nine methods of characterization. They are personal description, character as seen
by another, speech, past life, conversation of others, reactions, direct comments, thoughts, and mannerism. However, in this analysis there are only some methods
that will be implemented to describe the characteristics of Carla. The use of those
methods is very essential to analyze Carla’s description. Therefore, only some of
them are implemented in this analysis. In this novel, Carla is described as:
1. Self-reproachful
Carla is a self-reproachful person who often blames herself when others feel disappointed on what Carla has done, eventhough she is not actually wrong.
Besides, Carla prefers accepting people’s blame to quarrelling with those people. In the novel, it can be seen that Carla feels guilty to God by keeping her father’s
secret. Carla thinks that she makes a sin since she does not have any courage to admit her mistake to the priest. Carla gradually feels guilty. Moreover, she thinks
that she has hurt Jesus , especially after she listens to story of Jesus’ sacrifice. In
addition, Carla blames herself for causing Jesus’ death as she has made a sin by not confessing her sin to the priest Van Raay 21-22.
Concerning her sin, Carla does not want to die early. She is afraid that she will fall into the hell if she makes any sin in her life. Being anxious, Carla
conspires with the devil to delay her death and to avoid the hell before she relieves herself for her sin Raay 30.
My heinous prayer to the devil came out of the deepest desolation and abandonment. After a while, I felt that my prayers had been answered. I
survived. But the guilt at my betrayal of God was terrible. It stopped me from breathing and eating, and I started to get things wrong, which in turn
meant being derided by my father and the children at school Van Raay 30-31.
At the age of eighteen, Carla enters a convent to be a nun. Then, she leaves
the convent at the age of thirty one. She knows that leaving the convent makes her parents sad and disappointed. Her parents realize that their beloved daughter has
weaknesses. Carla sees the pain in their eyes, a deep sense of having been
