The Contribution of Literary Appreciation to Moral and character Building

83 Konferensi Int ernasional Kesusast raan XXII UNY-HISKI, 2012

C. The Contribution of Literary Appreciation to Moral and character Building

Any literature has double characteristics namely dulce et utile Welle, 7, 1977. I t means that literary gives enjoyment and usefulness. I t is important to question why literary teaching is potential material in moral and character education. Since the role of literary work in life covers three aspects, namely,1 literary work as the image of life 2 as the caricature of reality 3 as the spiritual experiences literary teaching is potential material in moral and character education. Saini K.M 1988. Literary work is the reflection of reality. I t is the result of the mixture between reality and imagination. Literary Appreciation is one of the activities in literary teaching. The beneficial aspect of this teaching is that the students are able to enjoy, understand, receive, give a meaning to the work. I n addition students obtain the significant values of the work and learn the life experiences presented in it. Hopefully the students are able to compare between the valuable values to the reality that they face in daily life. I t is also to encourage the students to be an open-minded, creative, dynamic human being. Education through literary teaching has the potential effort to change the student’s behavior. I t has the important role to reach various aspects of educational goals such as, moral, social, feeling, behavior, self-evaluation and religion Yus Rusyana;1978 in H.E Suryatin. Literary works deal with beautiful and deeper experiences of a human being and makes it possible for the students to enjoy and learn from it. The students learn the valuable moral lesson that come up from their discussion. As Thomas Lickona says that to build character one must know moral and lead to moral feeling and then moral action. Literary Appreciation invites students to the ongoing debate about the values and the beauty of literary works in the literature classroom. I n this stage, moral knowing is occurred among the students. There has been a process of moral knowing such as moral awareness, knowing moral values, perspectives taking, moral reasoning, decision making and self – knowledge. The following is short story used in literary appreciation as the example how moral knowing can be implemented in the discussion. Appendix 1 The short story entitle A Job on the side by Freeman J. Wong. I t tells us about tricky person. I n the discussion the questions used to invite the students to have a lively discussion to find a valuable message of the work. Look at the following questions, 1 What do you think of the narrator had been done to Robert?,2 Can we say that he is a good guy or a bad guy? Please discuss,3 Suppose you were in Robert’s position, would you like to do the same thing as he did, why? Why not?,4 What does the writer of the short story intend to tell us? Please discuss. The teacher should create others questions which is able to uncover the moral lesson inside of the work of art. The other short story is Windows by Freeman J. Wong. Appendix 2. The short story gives the reader moral lesson too. To uncover the moral lesson the teacher gives leading questions such as, 1 What comes to your mind the moment the words “neighbor” is mentioned?,2 Do you believe that a woman was ready to help neighbor all year round only ready the purpose of seeing an opportunity to brea into her neighbor’s house with an out –of – date wooden window that had been used for 40 years?,3 What do you think of the narrator and his neighbor based upon the dialogue between them?,4 Do you think the narrator rude, domineering unjustifiable, or over bearing?,5 Do you agree that the neighbor was passive, helpless, self- controlled, for bearing, or submitting to humiliation? I f yes, why? I f no, why not?,6 84 Konferensi Int ernasional Kesusast raan XXII UNY-HISKI, 2012 Do you think the woman is strong or weak in character? Why and why not?,7 Use your imagination and tell why she decided to replace his old wooden window with a new , modern one since it was not her fault at all?,8 What influence would what the narrator did have on his child?,9 Do you think his child will follow it when he grows up?,10 Do you believe that the narrator got a free- of- change new window actually at a cost of his moral quality? How?,11 Do you think what the narrator lost was far more than what he got? I n what way?. The above questions are the example to dig up the moral lesson inside of literary work. I t shows that literature has the contribution for moral and character building in the stage of moral knowing. I t is very important start to lead another stage moral feeling and moral action. As the unknown author says Watch your thought because they lead to attitudes Watch your attitudes because they lead to words Watch your words because they lead to actions Watch your actions because they lead to habits Watch your habits because they lead to character Watch your character because it determines your destiny A good character started with knowing the good and then loving or desiring the good and finally acting the good. Literary Appreciation teaches students knowing the good. Hopefuly, after knowing the good , students desire or love the good and then they bring in their daily activities as acting the good.

D. The Strategy of Character Education Development through Literary Appreciation