There are Honest Sancho, Secretary, Farm Worker, Johnny, Revolucionario, Mexican-American. The last four characters become the ‘models’. Each individual
give different identity within the Mexican race. Every single identity stands for a stereotype given by Mexicans in America.
B. Approach of the Study
In this paper, the researcher will use the socio cultural-historical approach to reveal the racial discrimination in Los Vendidos. The socio cultural-historical
approach describes and evaluates a work in terms of social, cultural, and historical context in which it was produced and published and the facts of its author’s life
Holman, 1986:238. The historical critic attempts to recreate through some historical process the meaning and the values of the work for its own time.
According to Reading and Writing about Literature, “Critics whose major interest is the socio cultural- historical approach insist than the only way to locate the
real work is in reference to the civilization that produce it.” Rohrberger, 1971:9 From the quotation, it is understood that cultural historical approach was produced
because of the reference to the civilization. This approach is needed to analyze the social problem appeared in the play.
Then the writer should understand about the historical background of the story to answer the problem formulation. This approach may help to give a deep
understanding in analyzing the story.
C. Method of the Study
This study is used a library research method in analyzing this play. As other thesis, this thesis uses a primary source and secondary sources. The primary source is
the screenplay itself, Los Vendidos. The secondary sources are taken from some references books of theory, such as, Literary Criticism: An Introduction to Theory
and Practices by Charles E. Bressler, How To Analyze Drama by Christopher Russel
Reaske, A Glossary of Literary Terms by M. H. Abrams, Race Relations third Edition by Harry H.L Kitano, Racial and Ethnic Relations in America second Edition by S.
Dale McLemore, Theories of Race and Racism A Reader edited by Les Back and John Solomos, Prejudice in the Modern World by Richard C. Hanes, Sharon M.
Hanes, and Kelly Rudd, World War II and Mexican American Civil Rights edited by Richard Griswold del Castillo, A History of Mexican American People, and Culture
Contacts in the Modern World by E. Franklin Frazier. The information from the
internet also will be used as a second source. There are some steps in analyzing this play. The first step was reading the
whole play several times in order to get the deeper and better understanding about the idea of the story and then formulated the problems. The second step was finding
references related to the play, Los Vendidos so that we could enrich our understanding about it. The third step was finding the literary theory of character and
characterization, and the history of Mexican American, especially how the Mexican experienced the discrimination by the American. The fourth step was applying the
theory about character and characterization on the characters of the play in order to
see their characteristics. Followed by the fifth step was revealing the form of racial discrimination reflected through the characters. The last step was making a
conclusion based on the analysis.
26
CHAPTER IV ANALYSIS
