Background of the Study

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study

Human beings have dreams when they are sleeping. A person’s dream may be different or similar to others’. The dreams may contain happiness, sadness, and good things even bad things. The contents of dream can shift suddenly, from happiness into sadness or good things into bad things or the opposite. The contents of dream represent an idea, concept or emotion that is difficult to put into words. The symbols are one reason why dreams appear mysteriously and even nonsensical to the waking mind. Dream is influenced by any unconscious impulse that appears during the day. The fact that often occurs is that human beings have to face problems of life, such as economic problems, social problems, family problems, and personality problems. These kinds of problem, sometimes, can affect the content of dreams that human beings have. The content of dreams can be so rich and compelling that makes people believe that there must be some meaning in that. Sigmund Freud in his book The Interpretation of Dreams stated: There is a psychological technique which makes it possible to interpret dreams and that on the application of this technique every dream will reveal itself as a psychological structure, full of significance, and one which may be assigned to a specific place in the physic activities of the waking state 1913: 3. 1 Since dream is full of significance, it means that the content of dream will give influences to the dreamer. Human beings considerably have different thoughts and ways of living because there are differences in the condition of living. They may have different ways to respond to their condition of living. The difference ways of thinking make human beings have different interpretation on their own dream. How they interpret their dreams can appear in their manner and lead them into actual world. What human beings get from their dream’s interpretation, sometimes, gives direct or indirect influence to their life. Commonly, human beings will remember the content of their dreams and then they will try to find the meaning. The content of dreams can also help human beings to make decisions. The decision-making will appear after the dreamer succeeded to interpret his or her dream. Everyone comes from a particular background of life. As an individual, a person deserves to reach his or her own goal in life. When she or he acquires to carry out choices and believe that she or he is able to make choices, he or she is free to choose the way to go. Sarah Cirese in Quest: A Search for Self shows that every person is free in making decision, having commitments, taking risks within the bound of his or her own value system 1984: 62. Making choices is the potential factor of every person. Every day, people are inundated with decisions, big or small. People are making decision about many things. They make political decisions; personal decisions including medical choices, romantic decisions and career decisions; and financial decisions, which may also include some of other kinds of decisions and judgments. According to the true story of Charley Benneton, a former baseball player, who lived in Pepperville Beach Village, the author, Mitch Albom is interested to make it into a novel. Charley was forced by his father to choose who he wanted to be: mama’s boy or daddy’s boy. He later grows up as a man that is so full with rejections that has turned him to alcohol. He reached the lowest point when he discovered that his own daughter has shut him out of her wedding. He decided to commit suicide. He took a midnight ride to his small hometown, intended to end his life where he began it. Unfortunately, he had a car accident before he reached his hometown. Charley’s hardship allowed the spirit of his mother came into his dream when he was dying. Jung in his book Contribution to Analytical Psychology stated: One of the essential determinants of a belief in spirits is the dream. The appearance of the dead and a dream is a particularly strong argument for the primitive belief in spirits. As such troubles arise out of psychological conflicts, mostly of an unconscious order; they appear to the naive mentally as though caused by certain persons. Living or dead, who are in some way connected with the individual’s conflict 1931: 253. The meeting between Charley and his dead mother that finally avoids Charley from committing suicide makes the writer interested to analyze it because the writer wants to know the causes deeper. The title has also intrigued the writer to analyze the novel. James McBride, author of The Color of Water wrote in the back of Albom’s book : “if you had the chance, just one chance, to go back and fix what you did wrong in life, would you take it?........”. This sentence is also attracted the writer to go deeper to analyze this novel. In order to identify the ideas revealed in the literary work from the important element within, the role of the characters is usually very significant in revealing the idea inside. The writer tries to understand the main character’s descriptions to reveal what the author wants to share. The writer chooses the character of Charley because his characterizations are very appropriate to reveal the relation between Charley and his mother, his father and his dream itself. This study is made to point out the dream that can influence the decision-making through the main character in the story that Albom wants to reveal in his work.

B. Problem Formulation