Object of the Study Approach of the Study

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CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY

Research methodology is a way in achieving the objectives of the study. This chapter consists of four sub-chapters including the object of the study which deals with the issue to be discussed, followed by the approach used in this study, and the last is the method containing the procedure in conducting the study.

A. Object of the Study

The object of this study is a novel written by Andrea Hirata entitled The Rainbow Troops which was first published in 2005 by Bentang Pustaka. This novel is the first novel of The Rainbow Troops Quartet before the other three books: Sang Pemimpi The Dreamer, Edensor, and Maryamah Karpov. The novel was first written in Bahasa Indonesia entitled “Laskar Pelangi”. It has been translated into many languages and was translated into English by Angie Kilbane in 2009. Andrea Hirata’s The Rainbow Troops has been sold for more than five million copies and has been adapted into movie by Miles Production in 2008. The Rainbow Troops consists of 470 pages. It is divided into 48 chapters. The first 43 chapters are about their childhood memories while the rest 5 chapters are about twelve years later memories. It tells about life portrait of ten poor students of Muhammadiyah Elementary School and their beloved teacher, Ibu Muslimah. It inspirationally portrays the irony of life, chronic poverty and educational discrimination in a fabulously-rich-in-natural-resources island named PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI Belitong. It interestingly shows the struggle of a young and strong teacher to fight for the rights of her students to an education and fascinatingly tells about an endless struggle of ten poor students in reaching their dream.

B. Approach of the Study

In this study, formalist approach is applied to analyze symbols in Andrea Hirata’s The Rainbow Troops. This approach is seen to be the most suitable approach of the study because it analyzes the text itself aside from its psychological, sociological, biographical, and historical elements. Rohrberger and Woods 1971 explain the following: The extreme formalist critic examines the literary piece without reference to facts of the author’s life, without reference to the genre of the piece or to its place in the development of the genre or in literary history and without reference to its social milieu. A vigorous movement, the New Criticism was a revolt against the traditional scholarly approach to literature, which was concerned with the ideas, personality, and development of the author and with the conception and dissemination of ideas through literary pieces in historical context p. 7. Other researchers have studied the work by using sociocultural-historical, moral, and also psychological approach, however, it cannot be denied that the work is a part of literature. Therefore, formalist approach is the most suitable approach since it focuses on the elements inside the novel itself.

C. Method of the Study