Theoretical Framework REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

19 Further, the elements of form – in which irony as one of the figurative language is included – become the particular interest of this approach. In addition, the purpose of this approach is relevant to this study. The purpose of this approach is to determine how the analysed certain elements work together with the content in shaping effect upon readers. According to The Virtual Theorist 2013, the formalist approach focuses on “grammatical, rhetorical, and logical connections within texts”. A formalist approach will generate technical terms to examine a piece of literary work. “The form, tone, language, characterization, figures of speech, point of view, setting and theme of a text ” constitute a really wide range of aspects within an internal order. Formalists are well aware of the text or art-object or subject matter as a construction created to generate particular responses despite that the response of readers is beyond the control of any artist. Thus, formalists prioritize the medium used to convey the meaning over the content or the meaning itself. Since the researcher investigated intrinsic elements of the novel, which are irony and plot, without correlating the use of them into either the meaning or content, formalist approach was a great help to determine the answers to the problems. Focusing on the plot structure, the researcher applied formalist approach to isolate the scenes based on the classification, then to classify the scenes into the plot structure. The same also was applied to answer the questions related to irony, where the researcher had to find the acceptable forms that fit in the definitions and types of irony. In classifying the types of irony which were found in the story as well, the researcher had to classify them into the most appropriate one without PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI 20 correlating them into other aspects aside from the ones in the novel. By isolating the certain elements which were to be analysed, the formalist approach was applied. Thus, formalist approach was the most appropriate approach to be used in conducting the study.

C. Method of the Study

The data and references needed for the analysis were gathered from printed and electronic books, articles, encyclopaedia, journals and some on-line references. Because the sources basically were information gathered and there was no additional data gathered from other sources, the researcher applied library research method to gain the findings. The primary source of this study was the novel entitled The Rainmaker . The secondary sources were any information from written sources related to theories of irony and plot. Some steps were taken in conducting the study. First, the researcher read the English version of the novel many times in order to get deep understanding about the novel, both content and the elements. Second, the researcher decided which aspects to be analysed from the novel. After knowing which aspects to analyse, the researcher found sources from printed and electronic books, articles and journals about plot structure, irony and the relation between irony and plot. Third, the researcher analysed the story based on the structure of the plot. It was done to specify the data of research. Fourth, the theories were applied to analyse how irony influences the plot of the story. In this step, the researcher identified which irony was appropriate to be analysed. Then the irony was classified based on 21 the characteristics and definitions shown in the story. The analysis of irony was carried out by showing the presumed intended meaning hidden behind the verbal irony and by contrasting the readers’ presumed expectations toward the reality happens in the story hidden in situational irony. The researcher tried to formulate the intended meaning in verbal irony, expectations and reality in situational irony based on the interpretation of characters’ intention, the situation which the characters are in, and what the readers would expect out of certain analysed scenes. Relating some evidences found in the primary source and secondary source was the sixth step done to gain what functions irony have towards the plot. The last step was drawing conclusion remarks. The conclusion in the end of this study contains the findings of analysis presented in this study.