Background of the Study

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1. INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study

Literature according to Roberts and Jacobs 1995:2 refers to compositions that tells stories, dramatize situations, express emotions, and analyze and advocate ideas. An idea is resulted from general and abstract thinking. In literature, ideas relate to meaning, interpretation, explanation and significance. Literature embodies values along with ideas. Ideas are vital to an understanding and appreciation of literature. Ideas are not as obvious as character or setting. It is important to consider the meaning of what you’ve read and then developed an explanatory and comprehensive assertion. Ideas can be found in any of these: direct statements by the authorial voice, direct statements by a first-person speaker, direct dramatic statements by characters, figurative language, characters who stand for ideas, and the work itself. Literature may be classified into four categories or genres: 1 prose fiction, 2 poetry, 3 drama, and 4 nonfiction prose. This paper has a focus on prose fiction, particularly on novel. Novel according to Hawthorn 1985:1refers to a fictitious narrative prose or tale of considerable long now usually one long enough to fill one or more volumes in which characters and actions are representatives of the real life of past or present times portrayed in a plot of more or less complexity. 2 This paper provides an analysis about unique values in Thomas Harris’s Novel The Silence of The Lambs. The word “unique” is generally defined as position that shares an intelectual as a serial killer that makes the main character become the mastermind of his work. In literature, a man is equal to character or person that takes part in the story of the novel. That is why the focus of analysis in this paper is the main character’s personality which leads him to become a sociopath. The writer could find out in the novel of Thomas Harris such uniqueness where the values are debatable. Dr. Hannibal Lecter is a serial killer who has a mental illness, who is cannibal eating human body parts. He is an expert in psychology and is able to frighten, manipulate, and bend others to his will with mere words. This is the background as well as the reason why the writer chooses the title: The Reason for Dr. Hannibal to kill the 9 people in Thomas Harris’s Novel The Silence of The Lambs.

1.2 Problem of the Study