M. J. Murphy gives nine ways of how the authors make their characters understandable or interesting 1972: 161-173:
a. Personal description Here, the author can give clear and details description about his or her
character’s appearance: the face, body, clothes of the character, etc. It is important because somehow it gives clues to the readers to know the character.
b. Character as seen by another Sometimes the author of the story gives the description of his or her character
not in a direct way. The author describes the character from another opinion in addition, point of view towards that character. The author let his or her
readers to conclude the image of the character. c. Speech
In describing his or her character, the author can gives clues about the character from what he or she says.
d. Past life Giving information about his or her character’s past life, the author wants the
readers to know from what kind of situation and condition the character grows. This information can be stated by the author, from the dialogue in the story, etc.
e. Conversation of others The author is trying to give the readers the description of his or her character
from the dialogues among them. Believe that the readers can imagine the character is.
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f. Reactions The author describes the character through how the character reacts in many
kinds of situations and conditions in the story. g. Direct comment
The author is giving direct comment on the character that he or she creates. h. Thoughts
The author enriches the readers with knowledge of what the character is thinking about, and what is the burden in the character’s mind.
i. Mannerisms The author is giving the description of the character’s habits in every single
situation and condition. In this work, the writer wants to analyse the main character namely David
Lurie, whether he is a round character or a static character. The qualities of David Lurie, then, can be the way to find the idea in J. M. Coetzee’s Disgrace.
2. Theory of Postcolonialism
The term postcolonialism is still in ongoing debate. The debate is divided in two parts: it is about the word post and the word colonialism. It is believed that
colonialism itself lies within a concept of imperialism and some theorists have their own assumptions about what imperialism is and how the acts of colonialism
come out from it. The lack of consensus among postcolonial theorists on how colonialism is structured in imperialism and what post means becomes
problematic issue in postcolonial study Slemon, 2001:101-103. But somehow all
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concepts presented by postcolonial theorists enrich the postcolonial study itself. Several concepts grow under the name postcolonial and these concepts have their
own positions in relation with methodology or social object or political goal. Thus, this work only contains postcolonial theory that is appropriate to analyse the
object of study. In the book of Postcolonial Theory, according to Ashis Nandy quoted by
Leela Gandhi there are two types of colonialism. First, colonialism that focuses on physical conquest of colony, and the second is colonialism that focuses on the
purpose to conquer minds and cultures of the colonised. The era of the first kind of colonialism is over but the second kind is still found in colonised societies
1998: 15. It seems that there is no liberty because the colonised societies still live in the shadow of colonialism. The coloniser never gives up to spread the
colonial values, the customs, and the life styles to the target societies. It is done through active persuasion, for examples: language, music, sciences, technology,
and other possible things. Therefore, postcolonial studies exist. It fights against the hegemony of the coloniser in the attempt to set the basic values of the
colonised 1998: 44. Frantz Fanon in his book of The Wretched of The Earth notes that the
colonialism describes the local society is a society, which lacks of values. It is better for the local society not to have their own values; it is better if their values
never exist in this world. The local is the barbaric, the enemy of values. Colonialism puts the idea into the locals’ minds, which before the colonialism,
they were already dominated by barbarism. The local society is nothing without
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