Review of Related Theories .1 Character

CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

This chapter discusses the theories that are used to analyze the topic of this study. This chapter consists of three sections, namely review of related theories, criticism, and theoretical framework. Review of related theories consists of theory of character, theory of characterization, theory of approaches, and theory of motivations. Criticism contains some criticism on Jon Krakauer’s Into The Wild. Theoretical framework explains how the theories are employed to answer the questions in the problem formulation. 2.1 Review of Related Theories 2.1.1 Character Character can not be separated from a novel. According to Abrams, characters are “the persons presented in a narrative or dramatic work, who are interpreted by the reader as being endowed with moral, dispositional, and emotional, and emotional qualities that are expected in what they say in the dialogue and what they do in action” 23. It means that character is the person who is presented in a literary work, such as novel. Characters in a novel have their own characteristics or in another word, each character in a novel has different characteristics. Character can be determined into two terms. There are major and minor characters. According to Milligan, a major character is the most important character in the literary work. He plays a very important role because he becomes 6 PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI the content of the story. He plays from the beginning until the end of the story and influences the whole story, so his appearance is more often than the other characters. From his action, the idea of the story is conveyed. While minor characters are characters who plays less important role than major characters. Their appearance supports the major character to develop the story so that they appear only in certain setting 155. A major character is the centre of the story since he endures problems, conflict, happiness and sorrow. From his actions, the readers know the author’s messages of the story. A minor character does not play big roles in the story because they do not play significant roles in the story as the major character does. Meanwhile, Forster states that there are two kinds of characters, flat and round characters. A flat character is simple and there is not much individualizing detail in this character 74. Forster also says that this kind of character is flat because the readers see only one side of him. Round character is more complex in temperament and motivation and is represented with subtle individuality. Therefore, it is difficult to describe this kind of character. This character is more or less the same as a person in real life and has capability of surprising us. According to Forster’s statement about kinds of characters, the character can be recognized from their complexity. A flat character does not have a complexity in the sense that there are not much traits or individualizing details in him. Thus, general readers can recognize this character without any difficulty. Furthermore, a round character is more complex than a flat character. Readers do not easily 7 PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI recognize a round character because this character can change his personality into some one that we do not expect before.

2.1.2 Characterization a. Definition of Characterization

In order to know Chris’s characterization in the novel, I use the theory that is related to characterization. Rohrberger and Woods say that characterization is a process by which an author creates a character 20. Characterization is an important element in a novel. Meanwhile, Murphy states that characterization is “the technique used by the author to make the qualities of the character from his likes and dislikes, how he lives, and what he does” 52. It means that characterization is the way that is used by the author in his literary work to make the readers able to recognize the character and to find out the ideas which are conveyed by the character. This statement is supported by Holman and Harmon. They say that the term characterization is “the creation of the imaginary persons so that they exist for the readers as lifelike” 81. In short, characterization is the way the author shows and tries to make his characters alive and understandable for the readers as realistic ones in his literary work.

b. Methods of Characterization