According to Rohrberger and Woods 3–15, there are two kinds of approach to literary works. The first approach is impressionist approach. It refers
to subjective responses to literary works. The readers response based on their feeling. The second approach is the critical approach. It refers to objective
responses to literary works. In the literary research, the researcher applies critical approach to comprehend the literary works deeply. The critical approach is
categorized into five approaches. The first is The Formalist Approach. This approach focuses on the
importance to comprehend the total integrity of the literary object. The esthetic value is the main concern. This approach tries to demonstrate the harmonious
involvement of all the parts to the whole by pointing out how meaning is derived from structure and how matters of technique determine structure. The extreme
formalist critics merely the literary work without reference to the fact of the author’s life, the genre of the places in which the literary object was created, and
reference to its social milieu. The second approach is The Biographical Approach. This approach is used
when we want an appreciation of the idea and personality of the author to an understanding the literary work. The critics of this approach emphasize that a
work of art is a reflection of a personality. Therefore, they attempt to learn as much as possible about the life and development of the author and to apply the
knowledge to understand the literary work. It can be denied that biographical material provides useful facts that could put the reader in a better position to
understand and appreciate the literary work. 11
The third approach is The Sociocultural-Historical Approach This approach believes that it is necessary to investigate the social milieu in which a
literary work was created and which is necessarily reflects. They assert two things that literature is not created in a vacuum and the literature embodies ideas
significant to the culture that produce it. The examination is not only the literary works of art itself but also the work in relation to others by the same authors in the
same periods. This knowledge might enrich the experience of reading. The fourth approach is The Mythpoeic Approach. This approach is used to
discover certain universally recurrent patterns of human thought, which they believe that they find some expression insignificant works of literary. The
recurrent pattern, they assert are those that found first expression in ancient myths and folks rites and basic to human thought that they have meaning for all them.
The fifth approach is The Psychological Approach. This approach involves the effort to locate and demonstrate certain recurrent patterns. Unlike the
mythpoeic, the psychological approach draws on a different body of knowledge. Sigmund Freud’s exploration area of the human mind came to a result. It is an
area of the wellspring of man’s rich imagination. His capacity for the creation, the complexity of his thought, behavior, and the contents of this region of the mind
found expression in symbolic words, thoughts and actions. Since there are two aspects in my study; socioculture-historical and
psychology aspect, the writer applies two different approaches in order to discuss the research question in the problem formulation. In this study, the writer would
12 PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
like to use the sociocultural-historical approach and the psychological approach to analyze the Amy Tan’s Novel The Kitchen God’s Wife.
2.1.1. The Sociocultural-Historical Approach to Literature
According to Welleck 94-109, Literature is really not only a reaction of the social process but also the essence in the abridgment and summary of all
history. It represents life and a social institution which uses language as medium presenting a social creation.
Literature also has a social function to describe the influence of society, prescribe and judge the position of literature in society. It is an expression of
society. It means that literature depicts some aspects of social reality. An author conveys historical and social truth through literary works.
However, the author is not only influenced by society. The author can influence the society. People may model their lives upon the patterns of character
relied on the literary work. The characters of novel afford interesting indications of such social attitudes. Basically, literature occurs in a social context as part of a
culture in a milieu. There are three classifications of the relation between literature and
society. First, it is obvious that there is sociology of writer which is included in the literary works. Second, there is a problem in the social content of literary
works. At last, the problems of the readers and social effects of literature. The social effects involves the cultural integration happened in the literary works.
13 PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
2.1.2. The Psychological Approach to Literature
The theories and practices of Sigmund Freud provide the foundation for psychoanalytic criticism. He believes that a work of literature is the external
expression of the author’s unconscious mind. The literary works must be treated like a dream, applying psychoanalytic techniques to the text to uncover the
author’s hidden motivation and repressed desires Bressler 149–153. According to Freud, an author’s chief motivation for writing any story is
to gratify some secret desire; some forbidden wish that probably developed during the author was suppressed and dumped in the unconscious. By using Freud’s
psychoanalytic techniques as they are used in dream therapy, psychoanalytic critics believe the reader can unlock the hidden meanings contained within the
story. Then the reader can have an accurate interpretation of the text Bressler 159–160.
Basically, psychoanalytic criticism deals with a work literature primarily as an expression, in fictional form, of the state of mind and the structure of
personality of the individual author. The work of literature is correlated with its author’s distinctive mental and emotional traits: 1 reference to author’s
personality in order to explain and interpret a literary work; 2 reference to literary works in order to establish, biographically, the personality of the author;
3 the mode of reading a literary work specifically as a way of experiencing the distinctive subjectivity, or consciousness, of its author Murphy 263.
According to Welleck 81, psychology and literature is the psychological study of the writer, as type and as individual, or the study of creative process, or
14 PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
the study of the psychological types and laws present within works of literature. It is also the study in the literature effect upon its readers.
Psychology obviously can illuminate the creative process. For some conscious artist, psychology may have tightened their sense of reality, sharpened
their powers of observation or allowed them to fall into hitherto undiscovered pattern. Psychology help to uncover the author’s do with the literary works
Welleck 90–93.
2.2. Theory of Motivation
Amy Tan’s novel The Kitchen God’s Wife reveals Winnie Louie’s motivation as a Chinese-American to preserve her Chinese Culture. This part will
describe the meaning of motivation based on some theories proposed by psychologists.
According to Beck 24, 144-145 motivation is broadly concerned with the contemporary determinants of choice direction, persistence, and vigor of
directed behavior. Motivation is the grounds in characters’ temperament, desires, and moral nature for their speech and actions Abrams 24. It comes from the
word motive refers to an inferred state of the organism which arouses activity and directs the organism’s behavior toward certain object or conditions called goals
Aiken 110–111. Other psychologist Jung 4-5 defines that motivation must be able to include terms such as desires, wishes, plans, goals, intents, impulses, and
purposes. In general, when we speak of motives we are referring to the causes or
reasons that underlie a given behavior. Motivation is the concept used to describe 15
the forces acting on or within an organism to initiate and direct behavior. The concept of motivation is also used to explain differences in the intensity of
behavior. Additionally, we often use the concept of motivation to indicate the direction of behavior Petri 4.
Human are continually interpreting the complex pattern of behaviors they observe in others as well as in themselves. We try to explain our actions in terms
of motives that are regarded as causes of behavior. Similarly we try to infer the underlying motivational causes of the behaviors of others.
In the field of industrial psychology, a distinction is commonly made between intrinsic motivation and extrinsic rewards. The intrinsic motivation refers
to factors that make certain activities rewarding in and of them. Almost anything could potentially be intrinsically motivating for some individuals. Extrinsic
rewards refer generally to the kinds of reinforcement situations. It is reinforced by some external agents. Other psychologist states that extrinsic reward is commonly
called extrinsic motivation Weiner 257. The concept of intrinsic motivation is defined as the value or pleasure associated with an activity as opposed to the goal
toward which the activity is directed. The extrinsic motivation emphasizes the external goals toward which the activity is directed. It is possible two kinds of
motivation interact such that extrinsic motivation reduces the degree of intrinsic motivation for a task Jung 140.
Beck states that there should be an interaction of intrinsic motivation and external rewards. If the individual sees himself as the causal factor for desirable
outcomes, then the behavior producing those outcomes is intrinsically motivating 16
