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A Painted House is a different type of novels which is written by Grisham because usually Grisham writes novels deals with law but this time he wrote about
ordinary people who do not relate with law and murder. This novel consists about 466 pages and this is original version from the author. A Painted House is one of the pop
novels which tell about ordinary people.
3.2. Approaches
The study focuses on the influence of setting upon the main character’s personality changing that revealed in A Painted House. In order to reveal the influence
of setting upon the main character’s personality changing, I will use 2 kinds of approaches. They are sociocultural historical approach and psychological approach.
The writer uses sociocultural historical approach because racism exists not only in the past but also in the present day. Racism is related with social, cultural, and
historical essences. Here the novel explores the society of America during slavery era. The approach helps to understand the history and condition of America before the
declaration of human rights. This becomes the main focus of the study.
The writer uses sociocultural historical approach because the setting of time of the novel is in 1952 and in rural Arkansas where many people still hold their religion
very fervently and every bad behavior is sinful for them. Setting is related with social, cultural, and historical backgrounds.
The psychological approach is used in this study in order to analyze the influences of setting upon the main character’s personality changing. The main focus
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of this study on the theory of psychology is on the theory of personality because the characters in the novels are seen as human beings. Every human being has different
personality and each is unique. The theory tries to explain it in details. The characters’ personality is influenced, either directly or indirectly by setting of place or time in
which shehe grows up. The setting influences the character through the society. Therefore it is appropriate to use the theory to make the reader understand the novel
deeply. Besides using the theory of psychology the writer also uses the theories of
character and characterization in the study.
3.3. Procedures
The process of this study is through several steps. The main step that the writer used was reading and taking notes, which helped the writer to analyze the literary
works. Besides the main steps, the writer also passed several steps during the process of the study. The whole steps from beginning to the end will be described below.
First, the writer searched the novel in library and also in bookshops. A Painted House by John Grisham is one of the bestselling novels in the world so it is not
difficult to find the novel. The writer can know that it is a new novel because it was published in 2001.
Secondly, the writer read the novel A Painted House several times in order to find the theme and message that the writer wanted to convey. When the writer read the
novels for the first time the writer felt that the novel was difficult because the limited vocabulary of the writer. After several times the writer can find the details of events
