Review of Related Studies

CHAPTER II THEORETICAL REVIEW

This chapter contains some theories used in this study. This part is divided into Review of Related Studies, Review of Related Theories and Theoretical Framework. The Theoretical Review covers theory in character and characterization, theories of dream, and theory on decision making. Meanwhile, the theoretical framework explains the contribution of each theory toward the analysis to solve the problems formulated in this study.

A. Review of Related Studies

This part consists of the related studies that deal with both the work, For One More Day, and the author, Mitch Albom. The writer uses related studies to get more information about other opinions. These comments, ideas and reviews are called as literary criticism. Through literary criticism, we are able to understand both the author and the work. In this study, criticism is needed to support the idea or topic discussed here. Theories related to this study will be discussed furthermore in this chapter. Related to the work, there is a study done by Rina Liem, student of The English Department of Bina Nusantara University Jakarta in 2009. Her thesis, entitled The Journey of Finding Life Meaning in Mitch Albom’s For One More Day: A Structuralism Analysis Focusing on Main Character, examines the main character’s journey in finding the life meaning. A turning point event that 7 involves the important person to help them to build their lives back together and get the meaning of their existence in this life is necessary. She uses the cause and effect analysis to explain why something happened and the result it caused to show the process of the main character, Charley Benneton, finding his meaning of life. She concludes that love was the reason this story begun 2009: 2. This thesis shows that Albom’s For One More Day presents the opportunity in getting better life that was influenced by the interpretation of the main character’s dream. The power of changing life lies on the mother’s eternal love. Michael S. Franklin, a student of the Department of Psychology of University of Michigan, and Michael J. Zyphur, a student of the Department of Psychology of Tulane University, wrote an article which entitled The Role of Dream in the Evolution of Human Mind in the book Evolutionary Psychology which presents an evolutionary argument for the role of dreams in the development of human cognitive process. They conclude that The experiences that we accrue from dreaming across our life span are sure to influence how we interact with the world and are bound to influence our overall fitness, not only as individuals, but species. These experiments demonstrate that the decisions we make are often based on information that we cannot consciously access 2005: 73. According to B. Anne Frey in his disseration entitled Discerning Life with Dreams: The Triadic Relationship between Dreams, Discernment, and Spiritual Intelegence, there is a relationship between dreams and spiritual intelligence. Her study focuses on the experiences of people who use dreams to make vital decision in a spiritual context or use dreams in discernment or decision making 2007: 6. Charli Welly Robert S. Meliala, a student of the English Letters Department of Sanata Dharma University in his undergraduate thesis entitled Adolescent Risk Taking as Seen in James Joyce’s Eveline shared an Evelin’s risk taking in her decision making process in order to gain for better life 2011: 4. There is also study done by Andreas Priyo Setiawan, a student of the English Language Education Study Program of Sanata Dharma University. His thesis entitled The Second Change in Life Granted to Charley Benneto as Seen in Mitch Albom’s For One More Day shared the writer’s own experience that might be the same to Charley Benneto in the novel. The writer of this undergraduate thesis believes that every people have their second chance 2001: 3. As Rina Liem and Andreas Priyo Setiawan showed that every person has meaningful life, the writer is impressed on the way Charley Benneto changes his mind not to commit suicide because of his dreams about his dead mother. Furthermore, the writer assumes that every person has his or her own characteristics that uniquely presence within oneself. These characteristics may affect on the way a person actualize his or herself. The writer positions in this undergraduate thesis as the progress of Rina Liem’s and Andreas Priyo Setiawan’s opinions. This undergraduate thesis will explore more about Charley’s efforts to make his life meaningful.

B. Review of Related Theories