B. Approach of the Study
Rohrberger and Woods in Reading and Writing about Literature offer five types of critical approach that can be used to examine the literary works. They are
formalist, biographical, socio cultural historical, mythopoeia, and psychological approach 1971: 13. The approach which is used in this study is the psychological
approach, an approach to literature that involves the effort to locate and demonstrate certain recurrent pattern, and which refers to a different body of knowledge, that is
psychology. It involves various theories of psychology to explain the personality of the character in the story and that each character’s behavior could be referred to the
psychology of human being. This approach is applied when the attention is focused on psychological interpretation for enhancing the understanding and appreciation of
literature. X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia in Literature: An Introduction to Fiction,
Poetry and Drama state that psychological critics hold the belief that great literature truthfully reflects life and it is a realistic representation of human motivation and
behavior. Psychological critics may choose to focus on the creative process of the artist, the artists motivation or behavior, or analyze fictional characters motivations
and behaviors http:home.olemiss.edu. In this study, the thesis writer focus on the third point which is analyze fictional characters’ motivation and behaviors.
C. Method of the Study
In analyzing Melina Marchetta’s Looking for Alibrandi, the writer conducted library research. It involves identifying and locating sources that provide information
or personalexpert opinion on a research question. The primary data that was used in this study is Melina Marchetta’s Looking for Alibrandi. The secondary data that were
used in this study were the references, the theories and other important information from books, articles and online sources that related to this study.
In analyzing Melina Marchetta’s Looking for Alibrandi, the writer conducted several steps. The first step was to decide the book as the the main object of the
study. The thesis writer decided to choose Melina Marchetta’s Looking for Alibrandi as the main object of the study. The writer searched and read the novel. In this step,
the writer read the novel many times in order to get better understanding about the novel. In the process of understanding the novel, the writer found interesting
elements. The writer also wrote down some essential quotes and underlined those quotes in the novel in order to make data analysis easier. The second step was
searching and collecting the secondary data. The writer found them in books reference and other important information related to this study then read books that
contain necessary theories that can support the analysis. The theories were character, characterization, and maturity. Still in this step, the writer wrote down the
information that were taken from the book and put it in the right order to support the analysis. Furthermore, the writer also searched and read some information and
criticism about the novel on internet. The third step was analyzing the novel by
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