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CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
A. Background of the Study
Literature is a medium to express the imagination of human beings through a work that can be appreciated by public in general. Most of authors
express their experiences, feelings and imaginations by making a literary work. They can express those aspects and share it in literary works such as novel, prose,
poem, and song lyrics. Sometimes, the literary work represents the reality of humans in their daily
lives. Wellek and Warren‘s Theory of Literature also said that literature is about human‘s reflection about their feeling towards their life.
Literature is the reflection of human feeling toward his life. It is closely related to human experience through which we can learn the image of
human beings that is expressed in the written way. It can also be defined as the work of arts which represents human life 1956: 94.
This statement emphasizes that literature does not only has the function as a medium to express human‘s life, but literature also can give a reflection or
introspection about human‘s life in order to have better life. Therefore, hopefully humans can learn their mistakes and learn a lesson from it.
Another statement that is similar with the quotation above can be seen in Marlies L. Danziger and W. Stacy Johnson in An Introduction to Literary
Criticism which states PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
Perhaps the oldest and most venerable way of describing literature as an art is to regard it as a form of imitation. This defines literature in relation
to life, seeing it as a way of reproducing or recreating the experiences of life in outline and color. 1961: 8
It can be concluded from the statement above that there is a connection between
literature and real life. Literature and life have a close connection because literature is the medium between life and work of art which is illustrated through
words or text. From both quotations above, we can conclude that literature is not only
becoming a medium to express humans‘ experiences, feelings, and imaginations
but also becoming a bridge for humans‘ life. Then, literature can give a lesson,
reflection, moral value, etc in order to make them realize or aware of their life, so that they can be prepared and anticipate every single thing which will happen in
the real life. The Maze Runner is a great example of modern fiction novel that contains
several moral messages. Then, with message contained in the literary work, the reader can enjoy reading the literary work and getting a better understanding
which author tries to give to the reader. Message also can make the readers prepare their steps and also motivate them in order to face and also solve their
problems. The reason why the writer chooses The Maze Runner as the object of this study is because he novel not only entertains the reader through word by word
or plot, but also it gives several moral messages which can become reflection to the reader.
The Maze Runner tells about some people who live in a place called Glade. The novel tells about the struggle of the people who live in the Glade.
They try to find out the reason why they are in the Glade because when they come to the Glade, all of the characters lose all of their memories. However, the only
thing that they can remember is just their names. This story also has some conflicts experienced by the main character
whose name is Thomas and also the other characters. Most of their conflicts are happening when they have to make a decision whether they want to stay in the
Glade or to leave the Glade and to solve the Maze in order to find out the way home. The rising of conflict starts when Thomas arrives in the Glade. Since
Thomas arrives in the Glade, he persuades all of people in the Glade to think twice that they would stay safe in the Glade or try to solve the Maze outside the
Glade. It is because Thomas thinks that there must be a reason why all of them are being sent in to the Glade and there must be a person behind all of this.
From the conflict in the story, there are several messages that the reader can get and learn. Those become the reason why the writer chooses this novel as
the object of this paper because the messages of the story are reflecting human‘s life. There are a lot of messages which are very suitable with this modern era even
thou gh it is not the reality but just the author‘s imagination. This study will focus
on the messages which are revealed through Thomas‘ conflicts. Therefore, the reader can get the messages which the author tries to give in this novel.
B. Problem Formulation
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