Research Instruments Data Analysis
CHAPTER IV FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
As has been stated in the previous chapter, this research aims to reveal Western domination in the Muslim world seen through discourses produced by
some Western and Middle Eastern characters who act as narrator in the novel. To begin with, it is worth knowing that Ignatius’ Body of Lies talks about
the effort of American Intelligents in breaking and stopping Islamic terrorism cells. The setting is mainly set in some regions in the Middle East which is later
mentioned as the Muslim world. Derived from Said’s theory, Orientalism mainly deals with the social
condition in colonialism and post-colonialism time revealing the western style of domination, structure, and authority over the Orient or the colonized countries. It
empasizes the aspect of power and authority that come from the West. By having power, the West can control the East and construct the rules which are prevailing
in the colony. Thus, power is the main aspect in the field of Orientalism. The Western domination and power are obviously seen prevailing in the
Muslim world. Although most of the Muslim countries gained their independence since 19
th
century, they have lived under the colonial rule legacy which continues dominating them, meaning that the Muslim countries have lived under Western
neocolonialism. This new type of colonialism can be rationalized by Orientalism through dominating framework, a system of structural ideas which is constructed
to represent and judge the East negatively. The construction is purposely built by the West not merely to represent Islam and the Muslim world as having negative
characters and quality, but it may become political vision of reality to alienate Islam and the Muslim world due to the promotion of the alien Islam and the
Muslim world versus the familiar Christian Western civilization Said, 1978: 44. In Ignatius’ Body of Lies, the domination and power are mostly reflected
in the placing emphasis and the imposing of the Western global standard of civilization over the Muslim world as part of the Western civilization mission.
The novel tells the aspect of Western domination through the War on Terrorism mission as the core problem raised by the novel.
This chapter answers the questions of the research: the Western construction of Islam and the Muslim world as a tool of hegemony and the effects
of the construction in the novel. The Western construction of Islam and the Muslim world is that Islam and the Muslim world are corrupt, backward,
uncivilized, and exotic. This construction can bring effects toward the inhabitants of the Muslim world as it can impose them to be hypocritical.