Method of the Study

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C. Method of the Study

A library research was applied to conduct the study. It meant that the data needed were collected from various references and other important sources. The primary source used was the novel Sing to the Dawn, written by Minfong Ho 2005. The secondary sources were books providing the discussions of literature, society, and gender-biased perspectives. In analyzing the questions as stated in the problem formulation, the writer took some steps. Firstly, the writer read carefully the novel to comprehend well the novel. Secondly, the writer decided the topic of the discussion; it was gender-biased perspectives, to formulate the problems. The next step was to find data on socio-cultural in general, rural community, social system of rural Thailand, and gender-biased perspectives, both from books, electronic books, and from other electronic sources compiled from the internet. These data gathered were to support the facts that were wanted to be found. After the supporting data were collected, the writer reread the novel, underlined important parts found in the novel related to the study, and took some important notes carefully. From the rereading, the writer found some facts related to the gender-biased towards the major female characters and the factors enabling those gender-biased behaviour and actions occured in the community where the female characters live as described in the novel. The theory used in this study was socio-cultural because gender-biased behaviour and actions were put into cultural domains. Vygotsky stated that there were interrelationships between the society and the culture. Society and culture 27 were mutual compositions and contributing each other. The culture formed the society and likewise the society formed the culture http:www.gwu.edu~tipvygotsky.html. Gender bias, therefore, were parts of socio-cultural studies as they were phenomena found in a society and its cultural systems. There were several findings from the novel that showed the biased perspectives towards women in the society committed by male characters and the possible reasons why the male characters committed biased treatments towards the major female characters of the novel. The conclusion, at last, was drawn based on the analysis of the problem formulated. Related to the author’s biography and facts about the novel, the writer gathered information from the Internet. 28

CHAPTER IV ANALYSIS