Background of the Study

reader, who will be satisfied by reading stories which contain exciting image of the world or some flattering image of himself, but rather to be the mature reader. Unlike the immature reader, the mature reader is more aware and critical with the issues in the story he reads Koesnosoebroto, 1988:3-4. This study, therefore, is made by the writer since she would like to point out one of the issues she is aware in the novel she read that is Scorpions. It is a teen or children novel which tells the story of a young black man named Jamal. Like the most of Myers’ novel, this novel also gets influence from his experience especially his childhood www.northern.Eduhastingwmyers.Html 8 March 2007. Myers, in this novel, draws an excellent picture of life in urban city. It is recited in the novel that Jamal, who is living in Harlem, is struggling to handle the responsibilities of becoming a man within the conflicting environment of home, school, and now membership in a gang, the Scorpions. His friendship with Tito is jeopardized by the circumstances surrounding his being forced to take a place with the Scorpions and the resultant possession of a gun and involvement with drugs. However for Jamal there is the question of the bail money for his brother, his mother’s anguish, his father’s wish to be a ‘man’. Reading this novel, the reader is able to see that the story is really close to the reality. The conflicts that are undergone by Jamal are more or less also experienced by the other children or people in this real life especially by those who live in urban city. The conflict with family, friends, neighborhood, are common things to meet in the urban city. Criminality is the product of such this area since everyone who lives there will do everything no matter how dangerous it PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI is in order to keep them alive and survive. To commit crime is a chosen, in fact, only a small part of them who is able to survive without committing crime. What Myers depicts in his novel Scorpions is a portray of the urban city and the life inside it then. The children living in an urban city, like Jamal, has accustomed with the hard condition of their surrounding. Each of them has to be able to defense their own self in order not to be influenced by the bad things happen surround them. Meanwhile, the parents are too busy to work or find any kinds of job outside their house to fulfill their needs therefore they can not totally watch their children. The same thing happens to Jamal. He lives only with her mother, who has to work for a whole day, and his only little sister. He is the only male in their home since his mother left his father and his big brother is charged for killing a store owner. By considering this condition, Jamal realizes that he is indirectly demanded to take the responsibility. He has tried to do his best for the family especially his beloved mother. Still, many problems and difficulties happen to him and his families force him to face many conflicts from inside and outside his self. His hesitation to hang around with the gang, Scorpions, is one of the conflicts that come from inside his self. The other conflicts that come from outside his self are the conflict with his father, his best friend, and the gang for instance. Jamal’s figure as a brave and tough young man is created by the author to be able to deal with many kinds of conflicts that is undergone by the other children living in the urban area. It seems that he is a portray of one of the children living in the urban city who is able to survive. Here, the reader admires this main character for his qualities. Apart from the good qualities he has, the PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI writer notices that Jamal’s weaknesses lead him into more difficult condition. It means to say that it is Jamal himself that creates his own conflicts sometimes. The reader probably does not aware with this. The writer, therefore, is provoked to reveal that there is relation between one’s characters and his conflicts since someone sometimes does not realize that he himself who makes the situation and condition difficult for himself. Talking further about Jamal’s personality and his conflicts, there are possible messages the writer tries to reach. By conveying the messages, the readers are expected not only to become aware with the issues revealed in the story but also understand and learn something from this literary work. The literary work, therefore, is not only to entertain its readers then but also to help them grow as Roberts and Jacobs say in their book Fiction: An Introduction to Reading and Writing : “Literature helps us grow, both personally and intellectually; it provides an objective base for our knowledge and understanding; it helps us to connect ourselves to the cultural context of which we are a part; it enables us to recognize human dreams and struggles in different societies that we would never otherwise get to know; it helps us to develop mature sensibility and compassion for the condition of all living things- human, animal, and vegetable 198 9:2.” Actually there are other ways that can be employed to reveal the message of the story; however, the writer tries to offer this kind of analysis as one of the alternative ways. The writer determines that the title The Study of the Main Character and His Conflicts to Convey Messages in Walter Dean Myer’s Scorpions will be appropriate to represent the idea of this study.

B. Problem Formulation

The writer limits the focus of this study on the main character, the conflicts, and the messages revealed after analyzing the main character and his conflicts. Therefore, in this part, the writer formulates the problems as follows: 1. What are the qualities of the main character in the novel Scorpions, Jamal? 2. What conflicts are undergone by the main character? 3. What messages are possible to be conveyed after analyzing the main character and his conflicts?

C. Objectives of the Study

Below are the objectives of this study that are drawn by considering the background and the problem formulation mentioned in the previous part: 1. to describe the main character’s physical characteristics and personalities 2. to reveal the main character’s conflicts, both the conflicts that come from inside and outside his self 3. to convey and explain the possible messages that can be drawn from the previous analysis about the main character and his conflicts

D. Definition of Terms

The writer would like to write the definitions of the key terms related to the title of this undergraduate thesis. They are given in order to satisfy the need of this writing. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI 1. Main Character In general, character may be defined as a descriptive analyzes of a human virtue or vice or of a general type of human character Kuiper.ed, 1985:229. Related to the literature, Abrams in his book A Glossary of Literary Terms specifies this definition. He says: “Characters are persons presented in a dramatic or narrative work, who are interpreted by the reader as being endowed with moral, dispositional, and emotional qualities that are expressed in what they say- the dialogue- and by what they do- the action 1985: 23.” According to Stanton, the term “character” can be used in two ways. First, character refers to the individuals who appear in the story. Second, character also refers to moral principles that make up each of the individuals 1965:17. Hence, major or main character refers to those who become the main focus in the story from the beginning to the end Milligan, 1983:55. 2. Conflict The first definition of conflict is taken from Literature for Composition: Essays, Fiction, Poetry, and Drama by Sylvan Barnet, William Burto, and William E. Cain. It is mentioned there that conflict is a struggle between a character and some obstacle for example, another character or fate or between internal forces, such as divided loyalties 2005: 1375. Another definition is given by Jerome Beaty and J. Paul Hunter in their book New Worlds of Literature. There, they define conflict as the struggle between opposing forces- characters, families, nations, ideas, or ideological systems- that provides the central action and interest in any literary plot 1989:1162. 3. Message Message is any communication sent from one person to another, an errand, an official communication of president, governor, etc, to a legislature or council; the teaching that a poet, sage, prophet, has to communicate to the world Davidson, G.W., M.A. Seaton, J.Simpson, 1994: 604. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI