Allegory Definition of Terms
utopia is not possible. Koon-ki argues that Akutagawa attributed nearly all miseries in life to the faults of human nature 1993:48
In Akutagawa‟s conviction, a genuine utopia is impossible, for human nature is fundamentally incompatible with any utopian order and will therefore
thwart any effort for utopian ends. However, he believed that the plot of the story, therefore, highly resembles a typical utopia under the analysis that after tiring life
in Kappaland, the main character then disillusioned by the human society to which he returned. When the main character eventually decided to settle in Kappaland
and was prevented from doing so, he was caught on his way there and kept in a mental hospital thereafter Koon-ki, 1993:48.
Not only Western influence of Swift, Akutagawa is hypothesized to be influenced by the Chinese literature, for he was not only an avid reader of Chinese
literature, but also had made use of Chinese materials in writing his stories. His Kappa story has something in common with The Story of the Peach Blossom
Spring which contains utopian paradise as the setting. In his study, Koon-ki argues that
What marks the utopian and dystopian fiction is really the continuity, the implied connection between the imaginary world described in the fiction
and the actual society to which the author belongs, whereas science fiction often projects new heavens and new hells based upon certain fantasy out
of the genres need to recast the physical reality. Kappa as belonging to the utopian genre is established by the mirror-image relationship between
Kappaland and Japan 1993:51.
In his analysis Koon-ki compares the similarities between Kappa and Jonathan Swift‟s Gulliver’s Travels. He finds that the possible influences from
Swift are the protagonist feeling of abhorrence at human appearance after he PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
returned to the human world, his unconscious dropping back to „Kappanese‟, and the themes of femme fatale in which the story brings about.
After comparing the utopian and dystopian fiction, he then asserts that Kappa belongs to the utopian genre. It is really the continuity that marks the
utopian and dystopian fiction, the implied connection between the imaginary world described in the fiction and the actual society to which the author belongs,
whereas science fiction often projects new heavens and new hells based upon a certain fantasy out of the genres need to recast the physical reality Raymond
Williams in Koon-ki, 1993:50. At the end of his analysis, Koon-ki stated that no matter which
interpretation is correct, the prediction and warning characteristics of the dystopian genre still exist in the novelette 1993:62.
The third related study, which is a discussion about allegory, is written by Widiharyanto in a thesis entitled
The Function of Allegory in Hemingway’s The Old Man and The Sea. He mentions some functions of allegory, as a literary
device in the novel, which he claims as a simple but actually beyond what is said. He believes that this novel is an alle
gory of the author‟s life. Widiharyanto analyzes the reason why The Old Man and The Sea is an
allegory, specifically the allegory of the Earnest Hemingway‟s life. He also
develops his arguments to the function of the allegory. Through the approach the wr
iter uses, such as considering the author‟s biography, background, perceptions, thoughts, and feeling he tries to prove some of his claims.