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approach and theories, then the answers to the problems could be found out. The last step was adding some suggestions on teaching learning process using
the story of the novel If I were You as the material, which is aimed to teach the fourth semester students of English Language Study Program in Sanata Dharma University,
and to recommend the related topics for the future researchers.
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CHAPTER IV ANALYSIS
This chapter discusses the two questions mentioned in the problem formulation. First, it deals with the characteristics of the two main characters, Sophie
and Natasha, as described in the novel of If I were You. Second, it discusses the factors that influence Sophie and Natasha’s decision to search for their self-identity.
A. Sophie and Natasha’s Characteristics in If I were You.
From reading the story of the novel, the writer can figure out the significant and important characteristics of the two main characters, Sophie and Natasha. Their
characteristics re[resents the real human characteristics that can be analyzed by applying the theory of the relationship between psychology and literature. In
psychology a person is seen as a unique being with his or her personality realized in his or her characteristics. And in literature, one’s personality is reflected in one
character’s characteristics seen from his or her actions and thought. Here, both characters have similar and different characteristics. Sophie is described as an
ambitious, dreamer, attentive, compassionate, attractive person, and talkative. Meanwhile Natasha is described as an independent, attentive, workaholic, lonely,
introvert and dishonest person. Those characteristics can be figured out from Sophie and Natasha’s thoughts, speeches, desires, what other characters say about them, and
from Sophie and Natasha’s behavior. The deeper explanations of the two main
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characters’ characteristics are as follows:
1. Sophie’s Characteristics a. A Dreamer
From the novel, it is considered that Sophie is a dreamer because she always dreams about happiness, pleasure, and popularity. In the story of the novel, she
always dreams to have a wonderful future life, a great work, and she also dreams to be popular that everyone will turn their head on her. Those can be known from what
Sophie thought and said and also from what other characters said. When she was a child, Sophie lived in a wealthy family in which her mother
married a rich man. From the marriage, Sophie got a stepbrother named Marcus who had been her best friend. In her puberty, she used to play game called “If I were You”
with her friends, Natasha, Marcus, and Andy who later became her boyfriend. There, Sophie stated her dream of marriage.
“…., then you might as well all know that I plan a huge wedding on midsummer’s eve in Betterton church followed by a massive reception in the
Betterton arboretum,” Sophie said. “As many people as possible. A band. Loads of food. Everyone legless. And a photographer from Tatler.” 3
That was Sophie’s dream of her future marriage when she was a teenager and that still became her dream even when she had grown up. Being adult, Sophie dreams to
have not only a great wedding party, but also a happy family with her beloved boyfriend.
“…., as she could remember she had wanted to get married, hold cozy dinner parties, have babies and create the perfect family life she had never had. She
still would do that, everything would still come out all right. It had to.” 92 40
