Object of the Study

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CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY

This chapter is divided into two parts. They are the object of the study and the approach of the study. The object of the study describes the physical description of the literary works’ studies. The approach of the study elaborates the approach related to the analysis of the Nicholas Sparks’ The Best of Me.

A. Object of the Study

The object of this study is a novel entitled The Best of Me by Nicholas Sparks. This novel is the latest novel of Nicholas Sparks, which was published in 2011 by Grand Central Publishing in New York. The Best of Me is the seventieth published novel from Nicholas Sparks. The Best of Me contains 215 pages and it is divided into 24 chapters including the epilog. The setting of the story takes place in the spring at Oriental, North California in 1984. The Best of Me tells a story about a middle-aged man whose name is Dawson Cole. Dawson is born in a family of criminal. From his childhood, his father always treats him so bad by beating him up without any mercy. Besides, Dawson always knows that he does not belong to his family because he is different from them. Thus, he tries to make a different life from his family without their knowing. Even though Dawson is so clever to hide his differences among his family, he knows that one day his father and or his brothers will find out. Because the fact that Dawson cannot bear his burden to stay near to his family, he runs away fro m his family and ends up staying at Tuck’s place. He lives in Tuck’s house and works for him until the day he meets Amanda Collier. Amanda Collier is his first and true love. They meet when they were senior high students. They begin to get closer to each other until Dawson commit to have a serious relationship with Amanda. The days spent by Dawson with Amanda really changes Dawson’s life. He can spend year by year with joy and happiness. Amanda’s presence simply changes his life’s point of view. He also starts to think about creating and planning his future. However, Dawson’s relationship with Amanda does not last long, but Dawson’s love for Amanda will always be same even though they are not together again. The purpose of the story of The Best of Me is about to tell the readers that love is able to influenc e someone’s life. It is shown on how Dawson’s love to Amanda is capable to make changes into his life. Love also teaches what sacrifice is and how a person should show his or her love in a true way such as being loyal and faithful.

B. Approach of the Study