Background of the Study

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study

Literature becomes an important thing in human life. It has many contributions in human civilization. The human development from time to time cannot be separated with literature. With some of its genres, literature portrays human life in some aspects too. Human experience is an interesting part in writing a literary work for some authors. According to Mary Rohrberger and Samuel H. Woods in Reading and Writing about Literature, there are four modern literary genres. They are the short story, the novel, the poem, and the play drama. Each genre has its own form 1971: 19. By these genres, it’s expected that readers can get some learning and values in human life, especially positive values. Novel is one of the literary genres. In this study, novel is the main source to analyze. Through reading the novel, the readers will focus on human living in social life. Living in society and building a social relationship with other people in society is a part of human life. It is the essence of a human as a social creature. All members of the society are involved in the social interaction. A lot of literary works describe the society. Social life is a basic for some authors in writing their literary work, especially novel. 1 PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI Some aspects of human life in a society, such as birth, death, marriage, crime, kindness, friendship, love, and etc. become the interesting topic in writing novel. Graham Little stated in his book, Approach of Literature that literature functions “as a representation of the situation and thoughts happening in a certain setting time and place,” 1963: 1. Elizabeth Langland, in her book of Society in the Novel, gave her opinion about society. The way society is structured – how it is depicted, how its elements are organized – defines its formal role. So, when we speak of the formal role of society, we are speaking of the ways in which structural elements of a particular depiction are combined and evaluated to make society itself an integral part of a novel’s form, a significant element in the principles generating a particular work Langland, 1984: 9. So literature has an important role in helping us to understand about the social happenings, how people in society are treated, how they meet the problem in their life, and what their struggle to solve their problem. Based on the discussion about the literature above, this thesis is going to analyze the novel of Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton, one of the South African writers. Historical background of the writer became an essential part of this novel. Society in South Africa, especially the black people’s experience, is the focus in this novel. Family is told in this novel. Every individual starts their social life from their family. Relationship and interaction among father, mother, and children in family are very important for every person. Before making interaction with other people in society, every person must experience PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI living in a family. People can learn a lot of things in their family. So family is a smaller circumstances in a society in which individuals are able to learn social life. Family and society are related each other. The way of social life in family can also influence people’s way in living with other people in society. Not only family is told in the novel, but also about family problem. Every person certainly has problem in their family. Every family also has their own problem. Family problems occur almost every day. It is common for every member in a family life. No one can avoid the problems. These problems can be different based on the age or position in a family. For example, parents’ problem is definitely different with children’s problem. Parents’ problem usually relates on their responsibility to get income for the family, while children problem is about how they get parents attention. The situation in the family can also be the influence of the problem in a family. It is stated by Ross Stagner and Hjalmar Rosen in their book of Psychology of Union-Management Relations that the first factor influencing individuals personality is the family situation, namely the treatment received from parents, in terms of affection, authority, and discipline 1965: 48. Family problems can be both on the family itself and with other people from other families. The problem can also disturb a couple relationships beside parents-child problem. Problem in couple relationship is usually very complicated. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI There are some family problems that are very difficult or complex to solve. Sometimes there are multiple problems. While some of those family problems are not so complicated. Unlike any other social group, families are able to provide the close emotional support needed to produce self-confident and well-adjusted children and adults http:pubs.ext.vt.edu350350-090350-090.html. Lack of communications, closeness, sexual problem, or economical problem can be a problem for a family. The problems can be caused by members of the family itself, for example, a problem caused by parents or child. It can disturb and destroy a harmonic situation in family. Family relationship gets worse because of these family problems. Bad relationship in a family appears as the effect of the problem either in the family itself or one family with others. Separation and divorce are the worst risk of family problem. There are some problems in this novel, such as racial discrimination in South Africa. It is a problem about different treatments between black and white people. It is also the problem that makes Kumalo separate with his son, brother, and sister. A separation between father and son, or a brother and sister is told in this story because of the racial discrimination. Social breakdown and racial injustice are described in this novel. Social problem in a community happens in the story. Black people in South Africa are always in bad situation. A big difference appears in their life. Treatments for black are worse than for white people there. For PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI example, blacks are forced to leave their tribal villages, where there is no work, and go to the city. In cities like Johannesburg, white businesses depend heavily on black labor, for which they pay little. There is an ironical thing about Kumalo’s position in his society. He is a kind, wise, humble, and generous man in his village, but his sister is a prostitute and his son is a troublemaker and murderer. He is also called Reverend by people in Ndotsheni. Failure in educating family members is also a problem for some parents. It is experienced by Kumalo himself. It is related to the role of parents to teach all good things for their children. There are some interesting things for the writer from this novel. Topic about family problem of Stephen Kumalos son and sister is chosen by the writer in the research. Based on the Kumalo’s family problem, the writer is going to research about what problem that is in Kumalo’s family and what Kumalo’s struggles to solve his family problems are.

B. Problem Formulation