Sings. Besides, there are many other interesting points that can be the matter of discussion but I only focus on the perception of Marguerite as a black woman.
B . Problem Formulation
After reading the novel, I found some interesting problems to discuss in this study. This study focuses on the perception of Marguerite about life as a black
woman in the novel. The problems of the study are formulated as follows: 1.
How is Marguerite’s life as a black woman portrayed in the novel? 2.
What is Marguerite’s perception about life as a black woman?
C. Objectives of the Study
The objectives of the study are to understand and realize that someone’s experiences in facing reality can build some perception about life. Thus
perception that is built depends on the events or experience from someone’s life. Some perception may be different with the other.
To find out the answer to the questions put forward in the problem formulation, the first is dealing with how Marguerite’s life as a black woman
portrayed in the novel and the second is dealing with Marguerite’s perception about life as a black woman.
D. Benefits of the Study
There are at least two groups of people who will gain benefits from this study. There are the readers in general and the students. Hopefully, by reading this
study the readers will be able to enrich their knowledge about literary works
especially American literature and Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.
For the students of English language Education study program, this study hopefully may give them knowledge about American Literature and give them
understanding of Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. For the teachers of English Education study program, this study could be used as one of
teaching references. The novel can be used as teaching material for teaching literature classes.
This study is also beneficial, especially for me because I have had experiences of how to analyze a novel and have had an understanding about
perception of life from books of references for the study.
E. Definition of Terms
There are terms that need clarifying before I discuss the topic further. Some misunderstanding and ambiguities of terms will be avoided by giving a
definition. 1.
Perception According to Borger and Seaborne perception is an awareness of the
environment, through which a person processes incoming sensory data in some way in order to arrive at useful impressions of his surroundings 105. So there are
processes happening in the mind before someone can get an image of something in hisher surroundings.
So in this study perception is defined as a result and an idea that appear during the processing of someone’s life after they face and get an image of their
surrounding. 2.
Racism
According to Arnold M. Rose racism is defined as the unfair treatment of people who belong to a difference race: violence behavior toward them and also
the belief that some races of people are better than the other 962. So in this study racism is defined as an unfair treatment of people to
people of a certain race that is considered lower than their. 3.
Character Abrams says that character is the person in a dramatic or narrative work,
endowed with moral and disposition qualities that are expressed in what they say the dialogue and what they do the action 20. It means the person presented a
dramatic or narrative work who is interpreted by the readers as being endowed with moral and dispositional quality that are expressed in what they do the action.
Holman says that a character is defined as “a brief descriptive sketch of personage who typifies some definite qualities” 163. It refers to the types of
person; therefore, one person is different from the others. It is the author model that processes certain characteristics so we can recognize a personification of real
characters in the real world. Based on those definitions, in this study characters are defined as people
who exist in the story with their dialogue and act. The existence of the characters make the story alive and we can imagine that the characters exist in the real world.
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CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
