Background of the Study

There are two main factors that cause a character’s personality development, namely the internal and external factors. The internal factors are the factors which come from the person himself, such as the individual’s physique and the individual’s mental or psychology. The individual’s physique may be the person’s age and health condition. Whereas the individual’s psychology is the situation in which a person deals with the reality. They can be hopelessness, failure, desolation, loneliness, etc. The external factors are the factors coming from outside the person, such as other characters, social rules, and the society. The influence from other characters encompasses their treatment and behaviour toward the character. Whereas the social rules encompasses social habits and traditions, and the society factors encompasses the status of the character in the society and how the society behaves toward the characters. Novel as a form of literary art is able to show someone’s personality development because a novel reflects ideals that readers see in people’s daily lives. According to Laar and Schoonderwoerd 1963:163, a novel is a work of art in some respects resembling the world we live in, but with an individuality of its own. Based on www.nvcc.eduhomeataorminanovelshistorydefine.htm, a novel is also an imaginary work in prose of a considerable length, which presents as real certain characters living in a given environment and describes their attitudes, fate, and adventures Lubbock, 2006. Based on the explanation above, the study focuses on personality development and entitled: The Influence of a Western Catholic Priest to a 2 Traditional Chinese Woman’s Personality Development as seen in Pearl S. Buck’s Pavilion of Women. The writer chooses to analyze the influence of Priest Andre to Madame Wu’s personality development as seen in Pearl S. Buck’s Pavilion of Women 1946 because the writer wants to show the readers how a Western Catholic Priest can change the personality of a traditional Chinese woman who has many traditions and customs to follow. Considering Christianity in China in the 1940s was considered as a sign of westernization as stated by Enoch Wan 1991 in his article, Christianity in the Eye of Traditional Chinese, and westerners were considered as strangers, it is interesting to see how a Western Catholic priest influences a traditional Chinese woman’s personality development in such a unique way, opening her mind, heart, and changing the way she thinks and behaves. The writer chooses Madame Wu as the object of the study because she is the main character in the novel having a unique characteristic, which is truly different from other characters in the novel, and her personality changes extremely from the beginning of the story to the end of the story.

B. Problem Formulation

Based on the background, the problems of this study are formulated as follows: 1. How is Madame Wu’s personality described related to Chinese culture in 1940s? 2. What are the influences of the Western Catholic Priest? 3 3. How does Madame Wu’s personality develop under the influence of the Western Catholic Priest?

C. Objectives of the Study

This study is conducted to find out the answers to the questions that are formulated in the problem formulation. Therefore the objectives of this literary study are: 1. To find out how Madame Wu’s personality is described related to Chinese culture in the 1940s. 2. To find out what the influences of the Western Catholic Priest are. 3. To find out how Madame Wu’s personality develops under the influence of the Western Catholic Priest.

D. Benefit of the Study

This study is expected to give some benefits for the readers. The first is for everyone who is interested in literary works. They can understand how a character is described in a novel. It leads into an understanding of the ideas in process of the main character’s personality development in the novel. Furthermore, it is expected that they do not only obtain the understanding of the characterization but also they can obtain an understanding of a better life. The understanding of a better life is expected to be able to help them to reflect their lives. Therefore, the study of the literary work is also the study of human life since a novel tells about a story of someone’s life which may teach us a lot of meaningful things. They can use a 4