Background of the Study

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CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study

Studying a novel is very interesting. It is interesting because literature especially novel sometimes can reflect the condition of society and people that live in certain place and time based on what are told in the novel itself. A novel is interconnected with human relationships. We can see in a novel, a story about family relationship, friendship, love affairs, etc. Those kinds of story are made almost similar like what usually happened in the real world. Sometimes, we can also feel the emotions of the characters presented in a novel. By knowing and learning the personality of the character in the novel, we can also indirectly understand the personality of the people surrounding us. It happened because like what is told before a novel is made not far away from the condition in reality. Since the writer has seen that learning the personality of the character in the novel is interesting, therefore, the writer has decided to analyse the personality changes with a novel as the object of the study. The writer realizes that in our daily life, many things can give influence and give an opportunity toward our own personality to change. The novel that one of its characters would be analysed is The Journey written by Jiro Osaragi. The Journey told about the life of Okamoto’s family after World War II in Japan. There are two major conflicts in that story. The first is the conflict of Taeko and her relationship with Tsugawa as her lover. The second is about her uncle, Soroku Okamoto, whose life had changed because of the changing situation in his surrounding as the result after the World war was ended and also American Occupation. The story began when the major character, Taeko Okamoto wanted to visit her uncle Soroku Okamoto in Kamakura. Unfortunately, she did not meet with her uncle. According to his uncle’s maid, Soroku was doing a vacation at that time. Taeko thought that it was not her uncle’s behavior to do a journey far away from his house p.18. Later, beginning from his journey, it can be seen some changes in his personality which were later can create a new image for Soroku. After reading the novel, the writer is interested with Soroku Okamoto’s character. The writer wants to know more deeply about the character of Soroku Okamoto, the cause of his personality changes and what contributions given by the other characters toward his personality changes. Because of the above reasons, the writer had decided to make an analysis toward the personality changes in Soroku Okamoto. Some theories related with character and psychology would be used in this analysis.

B. Problem Formulation