Review of Related Studies

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CHAPTER II REVIEW OF LITERATURE

A. Review of Related Studies

There are many people who have analyzed the human struggle against the absurd. Since this is a matter of human existence, the study does not only cover the concept of the absurd, but also some other issues related with existentialism. By doing that, this research addresses specific questions about how the human struggle against the absurd affects the search for the reason of existence. One of the studies of existentialism related with this research is Purnawan’s 2007 undergraduate thesis entitled, “Individual Choice as a Way to Show The Freedom on Human Existence Seen in Graham A Burnt-out Case and Iwan Simatupang`s Ziarah. ” In this research, Purnawan shows that people actually have the individualism that allows them to choose what they want to be. Man is able to get the freedom without any help from others as they make their own choices. He analyzed two literary works in his study. The comparison between those two literary works then became the basis to strengthen his argument if man’s individual choice is a way to find freedom. The first story that he analyzed is in English but the second one is in Bahasa Indonesia. He also provides the translation of the second story from Bahasa Indonesia. In the first story, Purnawan analyzes Querry, the main character. This character is described as the person who follows his own free will. He wants to be an independent man who is able to decide about his own life. In the second novel, there are two characters analyzed, the Artist and the Cemetery Supervisor. The Artist made a choice that he would leave his occupation as an artist and that he would start painting the cemetery wall. His individual choice shows that he has the freedom to choose. For the cemetery supervisor, he had known that his choice to stay in the cemetery is his freedom. Purnawan states that the novels “are nationally and linguistically different” but they share the same idea Purnawan, 2007: 3. This idea strengthened his argument if the individual choices were able to show man’s freedom. He also mentioned about the responsibility that followed as the choices are taken. However, he does not emphasize about the responsibility that then could become anguish in man at the root of the absurd in life. The second study related with this research is another undergraduate thesis by Jonatan 2008 entitled “Existentialist Ideas of Freedom and Responsibility Seen in The Main Character of Kate Grenville`s Lilian`s Story ”. He tries to show the philosophical concepts of Sartre’s freedom and responsibility in Lilian, the main character. Lillian in the story is described as a girl who was a bit different from other girls because of her philosophical thought. This characteristic of her made her understand better about the freedom and responsibility that she had as she grew older. In the process of maturity, Jonatan focuses on the development of the character. The development is separated into three parts, Lilian as a girl, Lilian as a young lady, and Lilian as a woman. He then shows the revelation of freedom and existence in Lilian’s development. In this part, Jonatan also separates the revelation into three different parts. However, Jonatan illustrates more about Lilian’s attitude toward life in the story without showing which existentialists ideas by Sartre that are clearly reflected. Even on the theoretical ground, he just merely states about the freedom and responsibility generally without exploring about human anguish, forlornness, and despair, which are the basis of the existential problem. There are no specific ideas of Sartre mentioned in the further analysis which then focuses more on the moral values that Lilian has rather than the existentialist ideas portrayed in her character. Even though this analysis from Jonatan is supposed to provide a view on how freedom and the responsibility relate to the existential dilemma, he does not explain how these two aspects are related in a more specific explanation. Those are the studies that also have concerns in existentialists’ issues and are related to human existence. As we can see, those studies are still related with the concept of the absurd, as those issues are able to be the trigger or the result of the absurd. Next, the following studies examine the specific existentialists’ issue, absurdity. The study by Soriano 2009 entitled “The Idea of Absurdity Reflected in the Characterization of Characters in Samuel Beckett`s Endgame ” is a study which analyzes the absurdity of the characters in an absurd work. Samuel Beckett 1986 himself is well known for his famous novel entitled, Waiting for Godot. Just like the novel, Endgame also portrays the idea of the absurd so Soriano tries to analyze the reflection of the absurd on the Endgame in this study. Since it is a play, Soriano then analyzes the characters and Beckett’s characterization in order to see how those things are related with the absurdity concept of Camus. The study examined how this was portrayed in the communication that the characters did in the play. By examining the expressions the characters used, he found that actually there are three ideas that reflect the existentialism and he reached conclusions that life has no meaning at all. His thesis ends there. He does not need to mention about how man should live their life after they understand this fact because that is all of the ideas that he could conclude from the play. The analysis in the character and characterization are indeed a good portrayal of absurdity since it is impossible to know what the characters’ inner conflict without being said by the characters. The absurd can be better understood when we analyze what someone is struggling against inside of him or herse lf. As Camus said, absurdity is “the confrontation between ourselves” Audi, 1999: 296. Therefore, the most suitable way to analyze the absurd is to analyze hu man’s inner conflicts. This approach has been done by Sanditama 2008 in her study entitled, “The Concept of Absurdity seen in John Steinbecks Of Mice and Men ”. In this study, she tries to show the revelation of Camus’ philosophical idea, the absurd, by examining how the vulnerable major character is strengthened by the minor character’s conflicts. She analyzes the character and characterization basically before she moves to the conflict that each character has. By doing this, she is able to conclude that indeed this literary work reflects the absurd idea of Camus since the main characters were fighting in the imperfect reality. In the end, she suggests that actually the author of the novel then portrays the character living with the absurd in life instead of running from it. This moral is then applied to human life which she then explains as, “the way man has to deal with absurd; not by escaping from it but by living in it” Sanditama: 87. The study by Sanditama indeed already covers the concept of the absurd by examining the inner conflicts of the characters. Essentially, this research tries to look further into how people are living in the absurd and how they struggle against it to find the meaning of life. While the last two papers suggested that life has no meaning and man should live in the absurd, an article entitled, “A Tragedy of Existence: an Existential Analysis of Giles Winetrborne in The Woodlanders ” by Yanjuan Chen 2010 shows one of the results from hu man’s struggle against the absurd. Giles Winterborne is the main character than Chen analyzes in order to show the concept of the absur d. She analyzes “the world in which Winterborne is living, his alienation and bad faith” p.1. His place of living, or the setting, is placed in an area surrounded by woods and remote from most places. Winterborne himself is depicted as a man who is madly in love with a woman who is out of his league. He is rejected and he chooses to hide from the crowd, so that he is alienated from people. Even so, when the woman needs his help, he believes that he could get her heart and he sacrifices himself and dies in the attempt to help her. This action of love then Chen states is an example of bad faith. The character, Winterborne, a name that already indicates a struggle to survive, denies the fact that he would never win her heart and instead accepts living and dying in his false imagination, his bad faith. This article shows the example of hu man’s struggle against the absurd. He is running away from the reality of his life and he chooses to continue in his bad faith, which then leads him into his tragic end. Chen provides an interesting analysis of the human struggle against the absurd, which is also one of the objectives of this research. The last study used for this research is a dissertation by Margaretha Aletta van der Colff 2007 entitled, Douglas Adams: Analyzing the Absurd. In this study, she is trying to analyze and apply three philosophical dimensions to Douglas Adams 1995, a famous British absurdist and author of the popular absurd novel, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Universe. These dimensions are the “psychological function of fantasy, philosophical exploration of Existentialism and Adam’s satirical observations” Colff, 2007: 7. The view of the absurd in Douglas Adams is analyzed in the philosophical exploration of Existentialism. She uses a wide range of theories to cover her analysis and to make her study deeper. This research focuses on the existential theory of Camus and Sartre since the objective of this research is to find the meaning of human existence by examining the character’s struggle against the absurd in their life. It is similar with Colff since it also focuses on the absurd and human existence. The difference with this research is that this research tries to see the absurd in human life through Albom’s characters in the novel.

B. Review of Related Theories