According to Kenney‟s description, elements of setting usually consist of place, habit, time, and background of the character in a fiction. These
elements are important parts to build a fiction, in this case a novel. This quotation also explains that the elements of setting can be used as sources to
analyze a novel, especially a novel which is related with social conditions in a certain time and place. The writer can comprehend and use these important
elements to analyze the novel. By using the theory of setting, the writer can learn and comprehend
the period in time or the place in which the events of a story are said to occur and the character exists. It is because the setting compiles many elements that
build a fiction. The writer can understand the social conditions in the society by observing them from the elements that are illustrated by the setting in the
novel.
2. The Relationship between Literature and Society
The final theory necessary for the analysis in this study is the relationship between literature and society. Using this theory, the writer can
see the connection between literature and society, like what create them; why they are important; and how they support each other in order to answer the
main problems by using this theory. This theory is used because the social conditions that are experienced by the author happen inside a society. By
understanding the experiences represented by the author in his novel, the
writer can comprehend the social conditions that occur in a certain time and place in this novel during the Second Sino-Japanese in China.
The first quotation about this theory is described by Wellek and Warren. They describe the relationship between literature, imagination, and
experiences of human beings. They write, At its finest, this conception of „literary history‟ requires an effort of
imagination, of „empathy‟, of deep congeniality with a past age or a vanished taste. Successful efforts have been made to reconstruct the
general outlook on life, the attitudes, conceptions, prejudices, and underlying assumptions of many civilizations 1942: 41.
From the preceding quotation, literary history, or literature that contains history, takes effort for its comprehension. The comprehension is the
imagination of empathy about a deep congeniality with a past age or a vanished taste. It means that to understand about the concept of literary
history, the writer shall have an imagination. This imagination is necessitated to form empathy. From the empathy, the writer can establish the deep
comprehension about the condition. If the writer‟s efforts are successful, the writer can reconstruct the general outlook from the work of literature that is
created by the author. Some general outlooks that can be seen are life, attitudes, conceptions, prejudices, and assumptions of civilization society
that are represented by the author in the novel and analyzed by the writer. The last quotation by Wellek and Warren describes literature as the
representation of life. They write, But, furthermore, literature „represent‟ „life‟; and „life‟ is, in large
measure, a social reality, even though the national world and the inner or subjunctive world of the individual have also been objects of
literary „imitation‟. The poet himself is a member of society,
possessed of a specific social status: he receives some degree of social recognition and reward; he addressed an audience, however
hypothetical 1942: 94.
The previous quotation explains literature “represent life”. It means that literature is a mirror or reflection that is required by the author to distribute
his ideas or experiences. Life in this context is the social reality social condition. Life also takes the individual as the object of imitation in literary
work. The literary work possesses or contains a specific social status that is established in a certain time and place, such as society. This literary work
obtains some recognitions and rewards because of what contains inside of it, even though it is abstract at first, like idea or experience. According to Wellek
and Warren‟s explanation, the writer comprehends that novel is an imitation of the real world. It represents the real world in the other forms, like a literary
form. Though the literary work is consisting of ideas or experiences that represent by the author, the writer can understand about the author‟s certain
conditions that want to be shared to the readers through his work. By using this theory, the writer can comprehend that work of literature
is a representation of t he author‟s ideas or experiences. The writer can
perceive and comprehend the social conditions that occur in a certain time and place from the ideas or experiences that are illustrated in his novel.
C. Review on the Society of China, the Chinese Civil War, and the
