Belitong. It interestingly shows the struggle of a young and strong teacher to fight for the rights of her students to an education and fascinatingly tells about an
endless struggle of ten poor students in reaching their dream.
B. Approach of the Study
In this study, formalist approach is applied to analyze symbols in Andrea Hirata’s The Rainbow Troops. This approach is seen to be the most suitable
approach of the study because it analyzes the text itself aside from its psychological, sociological, biographical, and historical elements. Rohrberger and
Woods 1971 explain the following: The extreme formalist critic examines the literary piece without reference
to facts of the author’s life, without reference to the genre of the piece or to its place in the development of the genre or in literary history and without
reference to its social milieu. A vigorous movement, the New Criticism was a revolt against the traditional scholarly approach to literature, which
was concerned with the ideas, personality, and development of the author and with the conception and dissemination of ideas through literary pieces
in historical context p. 7.
Other researchers have studied the work by using sociocultural-historical, moral, and also psychological approach, however, it cannot be denied that the
work is a part of literature. Therefore, formalist approach is the most suitable approach since it focuses on the elements inside the novel itself.
C. Method of the Study
In the completion of the study, library study was used as the method in collecting data. All data in this study were in the form of words, expressions, or
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
sentences in Andrea Hirata’s The Rainbow Troops. They were all gathered by reading and taking the important notes from the novel.
In this study, the sources of the data were classified into primary and secondary source. Primary source is the original source of data used by the
researcher for study needs. The primary source of data in this study was the English version of Laskar Pelangi written by Andrea Hirata which was translated
into The Rainbow Troops by Angie Kilbane and published by Bentang Pustaka, Inc, Yogyakarta, in 2009. Meanwhile, secondary source is all data collected by
people other than the researcher. The secondary source of data in this study included all internet sources, journals, and books which had relevance with this
study. This study applied document analysis as its technique. The first step of
collecting the data was to read the whole novel The Rainbow Troops several times. The first purpose was to understand the story and after that was to start
noticing and finding the symbols. The second step of this study was to find information and references
related to the theories of literature. The theories were used as the basis of the study in order to reveal symbols implied in The Rainbow Troops. The theories
were gathered through books, internet sources, and journals which explained about symbols in literature.
The third step of this study was to analyze the novel. First, the writer needed to observe the novel carefully and accurately to get the important data
needed in the study. After that, the writer recorded the data from the observation.
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
Here, the writer started to answer the problem formulated previously. The theories of symbols were used to help the writer answering the problem.
The last step of this study was to draw conclusion. It was done after the writer answered the problem formulation. This conclusion became the findings of
this study. As a qualitative study, the result of this study was analyzed descriptively by using formalist approach.
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
19
CHAPTER IV ANALYSIS
