Background of the Study

1 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study

In the modern society, people try hard to have be better condition in their lives, especially their economic lives. People are influenced by their invorentment. People want to have more practical and efisient lives. In other words, people want to enjoy their lives, capable of doing want they want and to go where they want. In short, it is called the way of consumerism and materialism. In this thesis the writer writes about thestruggle of Andrea to reach higher class. This young woman comes from ordinary class in the society and her friends are from labour class such as cooker, worker in a gallery and other lower class job. She is a fresh graduated from university and wants to find a job. She becomes second secretary in Runway magazine, where is a famous fashion magazinein New York. Andrea as a protagonist shows her effort to be a woman has dedication in doing her job to reach a high level in her social life. Improving social stratification can be emphesized in some experts’ theory such as Karl Marx and Max Weber. Since social stratification is commonly found in developed societies, wherein a dominance hierarchy mayvalue social harmony more than wealth or status.It looks like modernism. Living in the period of modernism gives her oppurtunities to improve her knowledge and skill. Modernism is the way of thinking and way of movement where we can find a social class that we want. Through modernism and globalization, America shows us the style like dinamic song, strong power and 2 modern life. The novel of The Devil Wears Prada where the famous fashion magazine is creating the style of clothes, dresses, skirts by using the famous brand and it can be consumed by all of the world as international style of clothes. Lifestyle shows the different social classes. People in the same social status try to make friend with the same social class so that they can communicate well. Even they are willing to sacrifice their time, money, and energy to create or follow the lifestyle. The novel of The Devil Wears Prada shows the life image of a woman that can enjoy her lifestyle. Based on her lifestyle appear social stratificasion unconsiously. In Runway, Andrea faces so many problems, the problem of the manager to get the position, the problem of the competition to be the first secretary in the company, the problem with the close friend and the problem of managing time because she is always busy doing her jobs. The theme of this novel is impact of social stratification as the struggle of woman to get higher class so it’s related to the ideology of social life which emphesized the freedom of women to find the way of living and to find socially and economic independence woman. Self awareness is a big part of The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger. In the novel, the main character, Andrea Sachs obtains a job as the junior assistant to Miranda Priestly, the Editor in Chief of Runway Magazine. Runway is a fashion magazine, and though Andrea has no real interest in fashion, she accepts the job because she has been told that anyone who work for Miranda for a year and does their job without being fired will have the opportunity to be promoted to the position of their dreams. As Andrea longs to be a writer for The New Yorker. She hopes to work for Miranda for a year and then with Mirandas contacts can be able to obtain her dream job.Andrea discovers that working for 3 Miranda is an all-consuming position, one that takes all of her time and usually most of her energy. The problem of the main character includes the problem in the company and her private problems. She tries hard to solve all the problems so that she can be succesfull. In this global era women may have fortunities to get better jobs as long as they can improve their skills. In Indonesia there are many woman who have been succesfull but there are many other who are still living in misery and poverty. The result of this study is expected to useful for readers of literature, because it gives the inspiration, opinions and new ideas for better life. The writer hopes that this paper will give the knowledge from the struggle of women especially here from the main character of the film. I hope more students feel interested in studying literature. Finally writer hopes that this can be useful for students in literary department.

1.2 Problem of the Study