In the last stage of the story, Empu Rencak lives alone in his little shack. He does not live in the palace. Siti Fari continued her journey. Living alone as a
characteristic of Tragedy becomes the fate of Empu Rencak. In a general view and as a recap, this sad ending is caused by the big desire of Empu Rencak to marry Siti
Fari, the one who does not belong to the same social status to Empu Rencak.
Therefore, this story and the plot want to emphasize that the custom is an obligation to the members of a society.
4.1.1.3. The Mesa Itch
The Mesa Itch employs a plot, different from the previous two stories,
namely Voyage and Return in More importantly, the ideology of submissiveness to custom by employing supernatural power exists through the plot. The custom being
delivered is about eating Ikan Layar. The supernatural being in the story in the form of Ikan Layar is being used as the tool to give reasons not to eat this kind of fish.
The based of the custom is the causal relationship in the plot that Ikan Layar has helped human beings to overcome the miserable itch. It is also mentioned that the
people of Mesa island do not eat Ikan Layar until now.
6 “But the ikan layar remain sacred to the people of Mesa and none will let its meat pass their lips
” A12366
The use of supernatural being in the story also shows the powerless state of human being before the supernatural being. The captain in the story bears the
terrible itch since he disobeys the condition sets by the supernatural being. In other words, the society should not eat Ikan Layar for two reasons. First,
the society should be thankful to the Ikan Layar for the help that it has done in the
past. The captain might not able to survive both the physical and the mental itch without the help from the Ikan Layar. Second, the society might take a respect to
the supernatural being or otherwise they will get cursed. The captain suffers from the itch because he disobeys the condition set by the supernatural Ikan Layar.
The plot tells the voyage of the main characters and by the time the characters are successful to go back home. Interestingly, in the development of the
plot, a form of supernatural being is used as a messenger in delivering the custom.
Table 4.4. The Plot Development in The Mesa Itch
No. Stages
Highlighting Events
1. Anticipation Stage and Fall
into Other World The main character is introduced as a high
skilled captain. The ship is sabotaged and the damage is
unrepairable. A djinn in a form of fish help the captain
surviving from being sunk and finding a land.
2. Initial Fascination of Dream
Stage The djinn introduces the land and says the
warning to the captain. The captain sets his feet on the land and
explore the island forgetting the warning given by the djinn.
3. Frustration Stage
The captain feels the consequences that he feels the unbearable itch physically.
4 Nightmare Stage
The itch goes mentally that the captain cannot forget the island. The captain remembers the
djinn and goes to ask for help.
5. Thrilling Escape
The djinn tells the way to get rid off the itch and the captain does what the djinn says.
The anticipation stage of this story contains the description and the life of the captain. The captain is a famous captain. He is famous of being a skillful sailor.
Sailing is his daily life. This description sets the condition that with such skill the ship led by him will never meet any problems. However, a sabotage by an unknown
thief damages the ship and it makes the ship and its crews in trouble. From that moment, the stage continues to the phase of falling into the other world.
The captain falls into the other world after the ship is broken into parts and he gets helped by a supernatural being in a form of Ikan Layar. Because he is
exhausted, he surrender to the wave. The Ikan Layar drags him into near the shore of an island called Mesa. The island presents the other world. Some adjustment to
the plot should be made since the other world in this story might be physically similar to the character’s home. However, what makes it the other world is the state
of being unknown by the character. In other words, the otherness is more to the cognition and feeling of satisfaction and safety that the character might have in the
island. Moreover, the Ikan Layar states a condition that the captain should obey in the island. The condition is somehow unfamiliar to the captain in his home.
The initial fascination initiates the break of the condition set by the supernatural being. The break is totally humane since the captain gets exhausted
and thirsty. The condition prohibits the captain to venture the island. Having a terrible circumstances, the captain forgets the condition and tries to find water. The
fascination is in terms of the dream that the captain might find a source of water. This fascination might help him to overcome his thirst and exhaustion but it leads
the captain to the next stage of the plot, the frustration stage. The frustration stage is caused by the itch as a curse for breaking the
condition. The captain suffers from a terrible itch as soon as he sets foot on the ivy. To exagerate the impact of the curse, the itch stays although the captain has done
several efforts. The captain almost goes mad because of the itch. The itch is finally gone as the captain goes aboard to a passing ship. The crew of the ship tells the
captain that the story of Mesa island and the itch has been popular and common among them.
The frustration stage develops into the nightmare stage when the physical itch becomes mental. The captain is relieved from the itch physically but the picture
of Mesa island remains in the captain’s mind. This mental itch drains the colors of
the captain’s life. The captain always wants to go back to Mesa although he knows that if he goes there, he will suffer from the unbearable itch. Desperately the captain
goes to ask for help to Ikan Layar. He remembers that the supernatural being once gives him a warning. He believes that by asking the help from the supernatural
being, he might overcome the misery. In the end of this stage, the supernatural Ikan Layar
tells the captain the way to overcome the itch. The thriling escape and return stage shows the efforts of the captain to get
relieved from the itch, specifically the mental itch. After asking for help to the Ikan Layar,
the captain is told by the Ikan Layar the way to break the curse. The efforts are very hard. He needs to take down all the ivy in the island. He succesfully takes
down all the ivy and burns them. The itch is finally gone.
4.1.1.4. The Pirates of Gili Montong
The story about The Pirates of Gili Montong delivers a custom of the society in terms of its moral teaching. However, different from the stories discussed
previously, it does not employ supernatural being in the story. Instead the story highlights the careless characteristic of human beings. This characteristic brings
misfortune to them. This might support the ideology that human being is powerless and reckles. Though, this ideology does not directly mention the status of being
powerless before supernatural beings.
The story employs Tragedy as the plot. Thus, the stages in the story are in line with the stages in the tragedic stories before. The end of the story might show
the fate of human being as a result of causal relation of the events.
Table 4.5. The Plot Development in The Pirates of Gili Montong
No Stages
Highlighting Events
1. Anticipation Stage
The characteristics of the pirates community, including the desires, are introduced.
2. Dream Stage
The pirates go sailing in order to attack other communities to get supplies.
3. Frustation Stage
The pirates slay the communities and eventually they realize.
4. Nightmare Stage
The pirates sail to the sea to go nowhere. 5.
Destruction or Death Wish Stage
The pirates live in Komodo island and become quite members of the community.
The anticipation stage of tragedy mainly presents the characteristics of the main characters and the desires. The characteristics and the desires will lead the
flow of the plot throughout the story. The main characters are a pirate community. They are characterized as a fierce community. They prefer pirating to keeping goats
and farming or even fishing and sailing. This characteristic becomes a habit of the pirates. Further, the habit becomes their desire. To be clear, their desire is to pirate
and to kill their victims. For instance, that desire becomes the motive in solving their problem.The
main problem in this plot is that the pirates are running out of supplies. This problem appears since they are infamous of being the most fierce pirates in the
ocean. No ship wants to pass by near the base of the pirates. Being unable to cultivate the land or to fish, they need to find a solution of their expertise. The
solution, which comes to their minds, is driven by the desire. This might be the initial of the the stage, the dream stage, in which the pirates find the gratification to
conduct their evil desire.
The dream stage starts by the introduction of the options that the pirates have to solve their problem. The pirates, then, opt to follow their desire. They need
to sail and find a ship to pirate. This option comes from the leader of the pirate.
7 “He gathered together his most trusted and remoseless men and told
them, ‘my brothers, we shall either starve to death or destroy ourselves with pointless in fighting
unless we act now’” A12419
The one of the options is related to fighting, an action that they are desired to perform. The previous option does not seem to be an option. The option seems to
be rethorical that the leader expects, as a question, the option is not considerable. Thus, the remaining options are to fight each other or to act something else.
8
“...‘Then we must go abroad and seek the ships that no longer pass
nearby,’ their leader declared.”A12421
The action that they take is a gratification of their thirsty desire. They dream to kill and to slaugther others. They find that the option might satisfy their desire. The
dream stage ends when they think they have found the land to pirate. The frustration stage of the story seems to be very obvious. The pirates
conduct the slaugther and the killing once they set their feet on the island.
8
“Screams and cries filled the air, then began to subdise until, just the last soul was murdered
, ...” A12434
They might satisfy their lust by killing and slaughtering. They do actions remoselessly. They killed all the people there.The stage moves into the next stage
just in time the pirates realize that they killed their own people.
