3 protagonist in Lees novel. He is not only young, but also physically small and
ignorant of the American culture. Kai Ting is a seven-year-old boy. He is originally a Chinese since his parents
are Chinese heritage. However, his family moving to America during the cataclysmic war causes him to be born in California. Despite his living in America,
his mother treats and educates him about the Chinese beliefs, values, and language, which makes him ignorant of the American culture.
When Kai’s mother passed away, his father marries to a woman named Edna Madalyn McGurk. She often
forces Kai to be an American and to forget his past experience. However, his past identity makes him find difficulties to deal with a new environment where he lives
now, Panhandle. This condition makes him experience culture shock when he is treated to be an American boy by the society. According to Pedersen 1979,
experiencing new culture is a sudden and sometimes unpleasant feeling causing a person to reevaluate both the new host and their own home culture.
Living in Panhandle, he needs to throw away his Chinese identity. As a result, Kai finds some difficulties to socialize and gather with his friends.
Everything in Panhandle is different and none of the children on the city cares about him but they bully him. He is not good at English and his accent is special, which
makes it difficult to communicate with the society. The presence or degree of culture shock depends on prior intergroup relationship, cognitions, and situational
factors Pedersen, 1995. The relationship between individuals and the society takes a role to determine the degree of culture shock that is experienced. The relationship
between Kai and the society is not good. With all characteristics he possesses, he
4 has to be a good fighter and has proficiency in English to be accepted as an
American boy. Thus, all of things that happen to Kai make him face intrapersonal and interpersonal conflicts. The intrapersonal conflict appears when he has to deal
with himself to adjust to the new culture and the interpersonal conflict appears when he is expected by his stepmother and the society to be an American boy. Discussing
the intrapersonal and interpersonal conflicts is interesting because it presents the difficulties to be a stranger in a foreign country.
Based on the issues the researcher found in the novel, the purposes of this study are to describe
Kai Ting’s characteristics as a response to a culture shock phenomenon and culture shock conflicts.
The relation between Kai’s characteristics and the culture shock conflicts can indirectly give readers certain understanding of
what characteristics should and should not be possessed in responding to culture shock experiences as a way to successfully address them. The researcher also
conducts this study to give readers understanding about the novel. Moreover, by describing Kai’s experience on the intrapersonal and interpersonal culture shock
conflicts, the researcher hopes that readers can understand the sources of the conflicts and the strategy to deal with them. Furthermore, this study is expected to
be essential knowledge for readers who want to avoid and prepare for possible causes of culture shock. Those are the underlying reasons why the researcher
conducts this study.
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B. Problem Formulation
Based on the background of the study, the researcher formulates two
research questions below to specify the aims of this study.
1. How are the major character
’s characteristics described through the way he responds to the culture shock experiences?
2. How does the major character experience intrapersonal and interpersonal
conflicts in dealing with his culture shock experiences?
C. Objectives of the Study
In relation to the two formulated research questions, the researcher focuses on the major
character’s characteristics in responding to culture shock experiences. By finding out the responses that can be perceived from thoughts, utterances, and
actions, the researcher can identify the major character’s characteristics when
dealing with culture shock experiences. Moreover, the second focus is to discover the intrapersonal and interpersonal conflicts faced by the major character in dealing
with culture shock experiences.
D. Benefits of the Study
This study is expected to have some benefits for readers, development of English Education, and future researchers. Through this study, readers will have
better understanding of the novel entitled China Boy. By understanding the story including the characteristics and culture shock experiences of the major character,
readers can avoid and prepare for culture shock. The second benefit refers to the
6 development of English Education. Learning a language means learning a culture.
Thus, this novel is a good source to learn about the culture as well as the language. In addition to learning the language, the researcher believes that it can be used to
design reading materials for students regarding the culture shock experiences. Therefore, it can be a good material to teach students about Cross Cultural
Understanding. The third benefit is directed to future researchers who will conduct the same study. This study can give some inputs or ideas when conducting their
study in terms of characterization and culture shock.
E. Definition of Terms
In this section, the research gives some definitions of frequently-occurring terms in this study. This section aims to provide clear definitions of some terms in
order to avoid misunderstanding and ambiguity. Therefore, there are some definitions that are described, which include character, major character, conflicts,
and culture shock.
1. Character
Abrams 1993 states characters are the persons presented in a dramatic, or native work who have moral, natural tendencies, and emotional qualities presented
through their speeches and actions. Beside, Holman and Harmon 1986 note that a character is a complicated term that includes the idea of the moral condition of the
human personality, the presence of moral virtue, and simpler concept of human presentation as the creatures in art. In other words, characters are the persons who
are included in a story and have different qualities of human presentation.
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2. Major Character
Major characters are important in the story as the center of the story DiYanni, 2001. Thus, the major character will be the focus of the story because it
dominates the story. According to Perrin 1998, there are two types of major characters, namely protagonist and antagonist as cited in DiYanni, 2001. Henkle
1977 states major character is the figure of the novel that has the significant of the experience of the book. A major character has an important role in conveying the
theme of the story by focusing on the major character’s experiences.
3. Intrapersonal and Interpersonal Conflict
According to Insenhart and Spangle 2000, conflict is an exposed struggle between at least two independent parties that perceive incompatible goals and
inadequate resources and intrusion from another party in obtaining their goals. Beside, Hocker and Wilmot 1985 state conflict is a felt struggle between two or
more interdependent individuals over perceived incompatible differences in beliefs, values, and goals, or over differences in desires for esteem, control, and
connectedness as cited in Borisoff, Victor, David, 1989, p. 2. According to
Ghaffar and Khan 2012, there are four types of conflict, two of them are intrapersonal and interpersonal. Intrapersonal conflict arises because of
multifarious reason within the individual while interpersonal conflict occurs between two individuals p. 333.
4. Culture Shock
According to Malpass and Lonner 1994, culture shock is the failure in adjusting oneself to a different culture or disability to successfully perform basic
