Background of the Study

5 before she goes to work with the help of her mother. Even though she has a weak memory, she tries harder to remember what is ordered by her boss. Based on the fact above, the writer chooses the topic about dyslexia. The writer wants to analyze the reaction of the society and the people who suffer from dyslexia. In this research, the writer uses a psychological approach. The writer chooses the psychological approach because the writer wants to look deeper through this research how the people are accepted in their society although they try to make them acceptable in society with the limitations. Besides, the writer wants to show kinds of bad treatment of the people against dyslexic. The writer chooses a novel related to psychological a term that is Rick Riordan’s work, in which the content is related to the issue of symptoms of dyslexia syndrome. The novel Percy Jackson and The Olympians: The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan is categorized as fantasy fiction story. Rick Riordan tells about a child who has dyslexia and Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder ADHD. The main character itself is Percy Jackson. He is twelve years old, but he is always getting trouble with his dyslexia syndrome and ADHD. In the novel, Percy always cannot be accepted by his society or community in his school. He always gets troubles with his friends and teachers. Besides that, in the novel, Percy Jackson also has been claimed by himself as a dyslexic. The writer focuses on the main character who has the dyslexia disorder and how the main character struggles and survives in his society. Besides, the writer wants to show the impact of dyslexia to his society. The main character PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI 6 that the writer tries to analyze in this research is Percy Jackson. The writer also tries to identify what kind of symptoms that appears of the character in the novel.

B. Problem Formulation

1. What are the characteristics of Percy Jackson as a dyslexic? 2. How is Percy Jackson as a dyslexic treated badly by society in the story? 3. How does Percy Jackson as a dyslexic bring about the struggle against the social bad treatment?

C. Objectives of the Study

The writer focuses on three problems that are stated above as the objectives of study. First, the writer wants to see what kind of characteristic of Percy Jackson as a dyslexic is. Second, the writer wants to identify how Percy Jackson as a dyslexic is discriminated by his society. Third, the writer wants to find out how Percy Jackson struggles against the social bad treatment.

D. Definition of Terms

In this part, the writer gives the explanation of three important and related terms in the study that are stated in problem formulation. The terms are explained in the following paragraphs. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI 7

1. Struggle

In book The Struggle of Recognition, struggle is defined as “affective motivational basis that is represented by the negative emotional reactions accompanying the experience of disrespect” Honneth, 1996: 135.

2. Bad Treatment

In Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, bad means “unpleasant and causing difficulties or harm” 2001: 81. Then, treatment means “the way you deal with or behave towards someone or something” 2001: 1541. Therefore, the meaning of bad treatment is a way of behavior or actions that is performed by the person or community or society. The actions can lead the problems such as bullying, causing hostility and discriminating. Moreover, the bad treatment also refers to practice of treating someone or a particular group in society less fairly than others, based on their behavior syndrome.

3. Dyslexic

Dyslexia is a kind of developmental learning disabilities learning disabilities that is characterized by the difficulty in learning to read. Some dyslexic children are also likely to have difficulty in writing, and sometimes in speaking or numeracy Aaron, 1994: 2-3. 8

CHAPTER II REVIEW OF LITERATURE

A. Review of Related Studies

The first related study is A Study Of Dyslexia Among Primary School Students In Sarawak, Malaysia. This thesis written by Rosana Bin Awang Bolhasan from Education Department Batu Linta ng Teachers’ Training Institute. Rosana determine the degree of dyslexic reading problem among primary school students and the relationship between the degree of dyslexia and some factors. The factors meant by Rosana were gender of age, class, parents’ income, parent education, and parents’ occupation, students’ position in the family and the number of brothers and sisters in the family. The second related study is Sanata Dharma University; English Letters Program Undergraduate thesis written by Erlita entitled The Causes of Narrator’s Schizophrenia in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Paper”. The writer takes Erlita’s work because the topic that she takes has a similar focus with this study that is a character with a particular condition with the writer’s analysis which is about “abnormal”syndrome. Erlita’s works in novel “The Yellow Paper” analyzes the n arrator’s characterization, the symptoms of schizophrenia suffered by the narrator through the characterization, and the factors that cause the n arrator’s schizophrenia. From the Narrator’s description, the writer is able to know the symptoms of the Narrator’s schizophrenia, such as hallucination, delusions, and experiences of control. Based on these symptoms, the PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI 9 writer can conclude that the Narrator suffers from schizophrenia. Then, the writer finds the factors that cause the Narrator’s schizophrenia. The factors are the social life and life events. The social life factor is the Narrator’s condition which she has to be isolated in the rented house without being able to see her relatives, added by the lack of communication between her and her husband, John; and life event factor is the condition which she experiences a trauma after giving birth her first child that cause the Narrator becomes a schizophrenia sufferer Erlita, 2012: 9. Based on the quotation above, Erlita wants to analyze how the narrator gets schizophrenia. Then, she also tries to look the problem why the narrator gets the schizophrenia symptoms. As it can be seen that Erlita concludes that the narrato r of the short stories “The Yellow Paper” suffered the schizophrenia symptoms because of the social life factor and the lack of communication between her and husband who is John. In Erlita’s thesis, the character suffered schizophrenia while in this thesis the character of Percy Jackson in the novel “Percy Jackson and The Olympians: The Lighting Thief” suffered dyslexia. Schizophrenia and dyslexia are not the same condition. Then, in Erlita’s analysis, we learn the characteristics and the impact of the cond ition to the characters’ relationship with other people. In the writer analysis, the writer tries to look and analyze what kind of the characteristics of Percy Jackson as a dyslexic is, how the relationship of Percy Jackson in the society is, and what kind of bad treatment that Percy Jackson gets in the novel is. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI 10

B. Review of Related Theories 1. Theory of Character and Characterization

In order to analyze the characteristics of the main character in the novel, the writer uses characterization theories. In Glossary of Literary Terms, it is stated that: Character is the person presented in a dramatic or narrative work that are interpreted by the reader as being endowed with moral and dispositions qualities through their dialogue and their action Abrams, 1981: 20. Based on the quotation above, it is stated that the character is the person who can give the readers the plot of the story. Through the plot, the character shows the characteristics of his or her that bring many values and morals through everything that the character does in the story. Abrams also divides the characters into two categorizes; the main or major characters and minor characters. The major character always becomes the center of the story. He or she is the most important character in the story and the conflict of the story is focused on the main character from the beginning until the end of the story. To analyze further about character in the plot, the writer uses theory of characterization from Understanding Unseen: An Introduction of English Poetry and the English Novel for Overseas Student by Murphy. The writer uses six ways to identify the character because in these six ways to identify the character of Percy Jackson because only six that can help the writer to answer the problem formulation: