Background of the Study

1

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

This chapter consists of background of the study, problem formulation, objectives of the study, benefits of the study, and definition of terms. The background of the study gives the explanation about the topic of this study. The objectives of the study state the purpose of the writer in writing this thesis. The problem formulation describes the problems that will be analyzed. The benefits of the study give the explanation of who may get benefits from the study. The definition of terms gives some explanations about several terms that are related to the study to avoid misunderstanding about it.

1.1 Background of the Study

Everybody in this world experiences failure. No body can say that he has never tasted failure in his life. Failure in one‟s life happens in many kinds of aspects. For the example, a student experiences failure when he cannot pass the exam, an adult experiences a failure when he cannot get a job to support his life, and a parent experiences failure when he cannot educate his children. Someone who quits when facing failure, he has allowed failure to dominate him. But, when someone who learns from failure and gets stronger, he has used failure to refine himself. Failure may be a fear that a person should overcome to be motivated to learn new things. Actually, failure is not a bad thing if a person always keeps trying after they fail. It can be a guidance for a person to discover something new. In order to discover something new and learn from failure, a person should have a motivation within him. A person tries to struggle for something new when his PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI 2 goalsneeds are not achieved. He will motivate himself to do and try harder to achieve his goals. According to Petri 3, motivation is the concept we use when we describe the forces acting on or within an organism to initiate and direct behavior. The concept of motivation is also used to explain differences in the intensity of behavior. In the other word, motivation makes someone wants to do something. They become a reason for doing something or behaving in a certain way. Works of literature may portray human life experiences as described above. Literature is said to have a close relationship with human‟s life. One of literature work like novel reflects human life and it contains many messages about every aspect of human life namely failure, love, ideal, and so on. According to Bressler 10, a novel as a work of literature is a text whose certain qualities contain some elements, such as plot, character, tone, symbol, conflict, that often represents the author‟s life and has major action to teach good values and clearly to entertain the readers. Seize the Day is one example of work of literature that portrays the issues about the internal life of human being, especially about failure that may happen in someone‟s life. Seize the Day tells about the life of an American man named Tommy Wilhelm who finds himself of being stuck in depressing situations. He feels so tired because he has to deal with failure in whole of his life. Wilhelm ‟s first failure happens when he discontinues his study at the college and chooses to start his career as an actor. Wilhelm meets with Maurice Venice, a person who works as a talent seeker for Kaskaskia films. Maurice tells Wilhelm that he sees a talent in Wilhelm and asks him to take casting as a prerequisite to be an actor. Maurice tells that there is a big chance for Wilhelm to be a big actor someday. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI 3 Sometimes he told people, “I was too mature for college. I was a big boy, you see. Well, I thought, when d o you start to become a man?” After he had driven a panted flivver and had won a yellow slicker with slogan on it, and played illegal poker, and gone out on Coke dates, he had had college. He wanted to try something new and quarreled with his parents about his career. And then a letter came from Maurice Venice. Bellow 19 Wilhelm tells his parents about his plans to move to California, trying to realize his dream of being an actor. But, his plan is rejected by his parents because at that time Wilhelm is still a student. Wilhelm prefers to drop out from his college education and moves to California, against his parent warning. His decision makes his parents disappointed. From that time, Wilhelm has a strain relationship with his parents, especially with his father. In California, Wilhelm finds nothing but a failure. Maurice rejects Wilhelm because Maurice thinks that Wilhelm does not have talent in acting. It forces Wilhelm to find another job. After he takes decision to stop acting, Wilhelm continues his life by doing different jobs. But, anytime he gets a new job, soon he decides to leave it. Finally, Wilhelm has a steady job at Rojax Corporation as a sales representative. But, his success in his career at Rojax Corporation is followed by another interruption. Wilhelm has to share his position with the son-in-law of the owner of the company. It makes Wilhelm upset and takes a decision to quit from his job. His decision to leave his job at Rojax Company is one of mistakes he makes in his career. Wilhelm finds himself jobless and gets a financial problem since he has to support his children and wife. Then, Wilhelm meets with Dr. Tamkin, a person who lives in the same hotel with him. Dr. Tamkin persuades him to invest his last dollar. Tamkin told Wilhelm about his optimistic expectation that Wilhelm will PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI 4 be rich. But, the fact is Wilhelm lose all of his last money. Dr. Tamkin disappears, leaving Wilhelm alone when he knows that Wilhelm has lost all of his money. Here, Wilhelm ‟s failure in his career is the root of his others failure. This novel is chosen because it tells about burdens of a modern man. It tells a great lesson about internal life of human being, especially about failure in someone‟s career. The reader can melt into the character of Wilhelm and feel the problems he had in his life. Wilhelm ‟s problems are the reflection of problems which can happen in our daily life.

1.2 Problem Formulation