of society over centuries and still relevant until this era. Besides, “We and You” is less popular than others Gibran’s poems so that the study or deep analysis about
“We and You” is rare. Because of that, the researcher is interested to analyze this poem by using Marxist theory and Marxist approach.
The use of figurative language and allusions in “We and You” is really important to make the readers’ imagination arise. Through the figurative language
and allusions used in Kahlil Gibran’s poems, the readers can imagine the every single scene of struggle the proletariat or the lower class people face. Thus, the
reader can understand the values and message that Kahlil Gibran wants to tell. “We and You” can be considered as a criticism toward the tyrannical government
as the capitalist who discriminates and exploits the working class. This study is important and worth to be analyzed because this study
focuses inhow the existence of figurative language and allusions used in Kahlil Gibran’s “We and You” can show the struggle among the proletariat or it is
usually called working class people against the capitalism which is dominated by the bourgeoisie. As Peter Barry 2002: 157 explains in Beginning Theory: An
Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory , “Marxist sees progress as coming
about through the struggle for power different social classes”. Therefore, through this analysis, the idea of class struggle which is shown figurative language and
allusions can be revealed.
B. Problem Formulation
From the background above, there are two questions which have been formulated in order to analyze the poems of Kahlil Gibran, “We and You”?
1. What do figurative language and allusions mean in Kahlil Gibran’s “We and
You”? 2.
How do the figurative language and allusions show the idea ofclass struggle?
C. Objectives of the Study
Based on the problems that have been formulated, this study has some aims to achieve. The first aim is to identify the figurative language and allusions
used in Kahlil Gibran’s poem “We and You”. It is important to figure out the meaning of each figurative language and allusions in Kahlil Gibran’s “We and
You”, thus the idea of class struggle can be revealed. The second aim is to analyze the contribution of the figurative language and allusions in revealing the class
struggle by interpreting the findings figurative language and allusions and relating them with the theories.
D. Definition of Terms
There are three important terms which appear in the beginning of the study. They are class struggle, figurative language, and allusions. Therefore to
understand these two terms, the researcher presents the definition of them. The first term is class struggle. According to Josef Wilczynski in An
Encyclopedic of Marxism, Socialism and Communism, definition of class struggle
or Class War is “one of the cornerstones of Marxist ideology, explaining the course of history in terms of the struggle between conflicting social classes in
antagonistic social-economic formations slavery, feudalism and especially capitalism” Wilczynski, 1981: 80. In a simple way, class struggle is about the
conflict between two different classes, proletariat as the labour and bourgeoisie as the capitalist.
The second term is figurative language. Thomas R. Arp and Greg Johnson have a simple definition of figurative language. According to them, “figurative
language‒ language using figures of speech‒ is language that cannot be taken literally or should not be taken literally” Arp and Johnson, 2009: 705. In other
words, figurative language is a kind of language that is used to describe another meaning of something.
The third term or the last term is allusion. ”Allusion is a passing reference, without explicit identification, to a literary or historical person place, or event, or
to another literary work or passage” Abrams and Harpham, 2009: 11. In short, allusions can be simply defined as a reference that has similarity with the text
which the authors allude to.
8
CHAPTER II REVIEW OF LITERATURE
This chapter presents the review of some studies which are related to support the topic of this study and the review of some theories which are related to
the analysis of this study.
A. Review of Related Studies
There are many studies concerning the social issues which are found in literary works, such as novels, short stories, and poems. One of the studies, which
focus on the social issue, is Hardian Putra Pratama’s under-graduate thesis entitled Class Struggle as The Impact of Oppression Seen in Clifford Odet’s Waiting for
Lefty: A Marxist Study . In his thesis, the social issue that he emphasizes is the
class struggle of the proletariat people in lower class as the impact of the economic and political oppression. As Pratama states in his Objective of the
Study, “the third aim is to find out how the class struggle as the impact of oppression experienced by the oppressed characters can appear to the surface”
Pratama, 2009: 4. Through Marxist theories and Marxist approach, he elaborates the impact of oppression done by capitalist toward the proletariat. The object of
his study is a novel by Clifford Odets’s Waiting for Lefty. Another study that is related to this study is a journal written by N. Naimy
entitled The Mind and Thought of Kahlil Gibran. In this journal, Naimy tries to understand the message of Kahlil Gibran’s works by focusing on the background
of Kahlil Gibran’s life. This journal does not only use one book of Kahlil Gibran
as the object of the study. There are several books with many poems on them which are analyzed.
Those two studies are relevant and related to this study. This study can be considered as the combination of those studies. Comparing to the study by
Hardian Putra Pratama, this study is quite similar to Pratama’s study in which class struggle is the main focus. However, in revealing the idea of class struggle,
Pratama’s study uses the characterization of some characters in Clifford Odets’s Waiting for Lefty,
who are being oppressed of the bourgeoisie. While in this study, the researcher concerns the contribution of figurative language to reveal the idea
of class struggle. The second study, a journal written by N. Naimy, is also quite similar to
this study since Kahlil Gibran’s works are the object of the study. Nevertheless, the approach of this study and the Naimy’s study are different. This study uses
Marxism approach to reveal the idea of class struggle in Kahlil Gibran “We and You”, while Naimy’s study uses biographical approach to interpret some books
of Kahlil Gibran such as The Prophet, Jesus Son of the Man, Broken Wings, and so on. Naimy’s journal explains about the interpretations of Kahlil Gibran’s works
by relating it to the biography of Kahlil Gibran. It can be seen in this following quotation,
It is easy to label Gibran in this early stage of his career as a social reformer and a rebel, as he was indeed labeled by many students of his
works in the Arab world. His heroes, whose main weapons are their eloquent tongues, are always engaged in struggles that are of a social
nature Naimy, 1947: 58.
