Theoretical Framework Children Desire and Adults Knowledge

Little House in the Big Woods as a work of children’s literature is about how children see themselves and their lives. The theory on children desire and adults knowledge in children’s literature by Perry Nodelman is used as the main theory to support the focus of this analysis. The focus of this study is to discuss about a certain concept based on the characterization of children and adult in a literary work. By using the paradigm of structuralism, a discussion that is based on the two main sides in the novel can be done. The two main ideas are adult and children. Peter Barry in his analysis on Structuralism states, “Concrete detail from the story are seen in the context of a larger structure, and the larger structure is then seen as an overall network of basic ‘dyadic pairs’ which have obvious symbolic, thematic, and archetypal resonance like the contrast between art and life, male and female, town and country, telling and showing, etc.” 1995:46. The concept of dyadic pairs brings an understanding about concrete details in a story are which mostly in a form of pair. This specific pair is put in its relation with the wider network of a literary work. The particular structure brings a discussion with the bigger scheme, as Barry says, “This is the typical structuralist process of moving from the particular to the general, placing the individual work within a wider structural context” 1995:46. According to Guerin, structuralism “identifies structures, systems of relationships … , and show us the ways in which we think” 2005:369. Levi-Strauss, one of the critics in structuralism, offers the concept of binary oppositions. It is a paired opposites or abstractions that are embedded within the text 2005:372. In this study, the writer examines one of intrinsic aspects in the novel which is characterization. The writer uses the concept of binary opposition that is provided by Nodelman. Perry Nodelman, a children’s literature critic, has conducted a research on children books by using several approaches. One of the used concepts is the concept of binary oppositions, which can be seen in his book, Pleasures of Children’s Literature 2003. By that concept, Nodelman concludes his analysis that one of the significance ideas in children’s literature is the position and the relation between some opposition points in children’s literature. His analysis was done at several works of children’s literature, and the discussion on the binary oppositions resulted in some pairs such as adult-child, home-away, clothing-nakedness, and wisdom-ignorance. The binary oppositions bring a further discussion about the subject self identification and the relation. The concept of binary oppositions works in the same way with the dyadic pair. This thought leads us to the discourse in a concept of structuralism especially the idea about the dyadic pair. Nodelman’s analysis has a capacity as the wider network and this analysis contained with the specific pair. The specific pair in this undergraduate thesis is two different groups of characters in the story, and Nodelman’s theory provides the network. In conclusion, structuralism is a suitable approach to be applied in this research.

C. Method of the Study

In conducting this research, the method used was library research. The primary data is the novel, Little House in Big Woods. Then, the secondary data are books, articles from journals which support the theories and criticisms, such as the articles from Children’s Literature Association Quarterly, the books Little House Long Shadow , Who Wrote That? Laura Ingalls Wilder, and other sources. Information about the author, the novel, children’s literature, and also about children desire and adults knowledge in children’s literature were obtained from the articles and books from the web. Several steps are taken to conduct this study. Firstly, the writer read the novel thoroughly in order to point out the most important aspects in the novel. This led the writer to the second step to find more data about the novel including other related studies on that novel. The third step guided the writer to make the study more specific and comprehensive by formulating the problems and paving the way of the data. In this step, the writer also started the analysis of the data to answer the problem formulation. The writer answered the first problem formulation by applying the theories of character and characterization. The second problem formulation was answered by applying the concept of children desire and adults knowledge in children’s literature proposed by Nodelman. Then, the last step was drawing the conclusion. In this step, the writer made the summary of the process of analyzing the data and also concluded the result of the research.