READING OSCAR HIJUELOS’ THE MAMBO KINGS PLAY SONGS OF LOVE THROUGH EXISTENTIALISM POINT OF VIEW AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra in English Letters

  

READING OSCAR HIJUELOS’ THE MAMBO KINGS PLAY SONGS OF

LOVE THROUGH EXISTENTIALISM POINT OF VIEW

AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS

  

Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements

for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra

in English Letters

  

BY

RETNO ASTUTININGSIH

Student Number : 994214143

Student Registration Number : 99005112010612143

  

ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS

FACULTY OF LETTERS

SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY

YOGYAKARTA

2007

  

READING OSCAR HIJUELOS’ THE MAMBO KINGS PLAY SONGS OF

LOVE THROUGH EXISTENTIALISM POINT OF VIEW

AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS

  

Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements

for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra

in English Letters

  

BY

RETNO ASTUTININGSIH

Student Number : 994214143

Student Registration Number : 99005112010612143

  

ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS

FACULTY OF LETTERS

SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY

YOGYAKARTA

2007

  

This undergraduate thesis is dedicated This undergraduate thesis is dedicated This undergraduate thesis is dedicated This undergraduate thesis is dedicated to to to to

My beloved mother, My beloved mother, My beloved mother, My beloved mother,

My generous father,

My generous father, My generous father,

My generous father,

And my dear little sister And my dear little sister And my dear little sister

  

And my dear little sister

  

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

  Praise to Allah SWT for His blessing and guidance, at last I could finish my thesis which means the end of my very long study.

  I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Dewi Widyastuti, S.Pd., M.Hum. for being so kind as my advisor.

  Also I would like to express my greatest gratitude to my family, my mother in particular, for your love and support when I am so downhearted and desperate during the writing of my thesis. I truly express my regret for not finishing my study as you expect me for and for wasting my time for something, which at the end I realize, is of no importance.

  I am deeply indebted to my aunt and my cousins for always cheering me up, and also for your tips.

  I do owe a great thank to Drs. P. Yatiman, M.Sc. for his precious advice. Thanks God for having him as a neighbor.

  Finally, I owe many thanks to 99-ers, and everybody whom I cannot point out one by one for their helps. I do feel fortunate to have them as friends.

  I do expect that my thesis may be useful for readers.

  Retno Astutiningsih

  

TABLE OF CONTENTS

TITLE PAGE ......................................................................................................... i

APPROVAL PAGE .............................................................................................. ii

ACCEPTANCE PAGE ........................................................................................ iii

DEDICATION PAGE .......................................................................................... iv

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................... v

TABLE OF CONTENTS ..................................................................................... vi

PERNYATAAN KEASLIAN KARYA ............................................................. vii

LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI KARYA...........

  

ILMIAH UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS ......................................... viii

ABSTRACT .......................................................................................................... ix

ABSTRAK .............................................................................................................. x

  

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION ......................................................................... 1

.................................................................................... A. Background of the Study

  1 ..........................................................................................

  B. Problem Formulation 5 ........................................................................................

  C. Objective of the Study 5 .............................................................................................

  D. Definition of Terms

  6 CHAPTER II: THEORETICAL REVIEW ........................................................ 7 .................................................................................

  A. Review of Related Studies 7 .............................................................................

  B. Review of Related Theories 10 ........................................................................

  1. Theory of Characterization 10 ..................................

  2. The Relation Between Literature and Philosophy

  12 ............................................................................

  3. Theory of Existentialism 14 ....................................................................................

  C. Theoretical Framework

  20 CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY ................................................................... 23 ...........................................................................................

  A. Object of the Study 23 ......................................................................................

  B. Approach of the Study 24 ..........................................................................................

  C. Method of the Study

  26 CHAPTER IV: ANALYSIS ................................................................................ 28 ............................................................................

  A. The Characters in the Novel 28 ....................................................................

  B. Existentialism Ideas in the Novel

  36 CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION ........................................................................... 54 ........................................................................................................

  BIBLIOGRAPHY

  56

PERNYATAAN KEASLIAN KARYA

  Saya menyatakan dengan sesungguhnya bahwa skripsi yang saya tulis ini tidak memuat karya atau bagian karya orang lain, kecuali yang telah disebutkan dalam kutipan dan daftar pustaka sebagaimana layaknya karya ilmiah.

  Yogyakarta, 28 September 2007 Penulis Retno Astutiningsih

  

LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN

PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS

  Yang bertanda tangan di bawah ini, saya mahasiswa Universitas Sanata Dharma : Nama : Retno Astutiningsih Nomor Mahasiswa : 994214143

  Demi pengembangan ilmu pengetahuan, saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma karya ilmiah saya yang berjudul :

  

Reading Oscar Hijuelos’ The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love Through

Existentialism Point of View

  beserta perangkat yang diperlukan (bila ada). Dengan demikian saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma hak untuk menyimpan, me- ngalihkan dalam bentuk media lain, mengelolanya dalam bentuk pangkalan data, mendistribusikan secara terbatas, dan mempublikasikannya di Internet atau media lain untuk kepentingan akademis tanpa perlu meminta ijin dari saya maupun memberikan royalti kepada saya selama tetap mencantumkan nama saya sebagai penulis.

  Demikian pernyataan ini yang saya buat dengan sebenarnya. Dibuat di Yogyakarta Pada tanggal : 28 September 2007 Yang menyatakan Retno Astutiningsih

  

ABSTRACT

  RETNO ASTUTININGSIH (2007). Reading Oscar Hijuelos’ The Mambo

  

Kings Play Songs of Love through Existentialism Point of View . Yogyakarta:

Department of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma University.

  The novel The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love written by Oscar Hijuelos narrates the lives of two mambo musicians from Cuba in New York City, America. Moreover, the novel portrays the ways of the two main characters in leading their lives in their own choice. As a literary work, the novel tries to communicate “knowledge” that widens our understanding of human beings. To find the meaning and the message conveyed in the novel, the writer tries to discuss it through the existentialism point of view which concerns much with the existence of human beings in the world.

  There are two objectives to achieve in this study. First, it is to find out the lives of the two main characters in the novel. Second, it is to find out the issues of existentialism through the main characters which are related to their existence in America. As a consequence, the writer then reveals the meaning conveyed in the novel.

  The Moral-Philosophical approach is considered to be appropriate to apply because of the philosophical teaching which is related to the issues of existentialism existing in the novel. By applying the approach the writer is able to find out the issues that are parts of human’s existence in the world, thus, the writer is able to obtain the total meaning of the work.

  The analysis says that the two characters in the novel are portrayed to have painful, and tragic lives. Since they realize their condition, they choose to lead their lives seeking for happiness, and they seek for it in America. Seeking for happiness becomes their choice of life. This freedom of choice is what Hijuelos tries to reveal in his novel including when characters have to face any consequences that may come from their choice. This freedom of choice is the major thought of existentialism that the writer discusses in the present analysis by revealing some existentialism issues conveyed in the novel: suffering, pleasure, belief of God, and freedom. Through these issues of existentialism the writer find out that the two characters certainly struggle to achieve happiness in their life. At the end the writer sees that Hijuelos implicitly asks his readers to contemplate the meaning of happiness itself in their lives.

  

ABSTRAK

  RETNO ASTUTININGSIH (2007). Reading Oscar Hijuelos’ The Mambo

  

Kings Play Songs of Love through Existentialism Point of View . Yogyakarta:

Jurusan Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Sanata Dharma.

  Novel The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love yang ditulis oleh Oscar Hijuelos mengisahkan tentang kehidupan dua orang musisi mambo dari Kuba di kota New York, Amerika Serikat. Lebih jauh novel ini menekankan pada bagaimana kedua tokoh tersebut menentukan dan menjalani kehidupannya sesuai dengan pilihannya, termasuk menghadapi segala halangan yang muncul karenanya. Sebagai sebuah karya sastra, novel ini hendak menyampaikan suatu “pengetahuan” yang dapat memperluas pemahaman kita tentang manusia. Untuk menemukan makna atau substansi dan pesan yang terkandung dalam novel ini, penulis hendak mengulasnya lewat sudut pandang filsafat existensialisme yang menekankan pada eksistensi manusia di muka bumi.

  Ada dua tujuan yang hendak dicapai dalam studi ini. Pertama, untuk meneliti penggambaran kehidupan kedua tokoh utama tersebut dalam novel. Kedua, untuk mengetahui permasalahan eksistensialisme yang coba dipaparkan oleh pengarang melalui kedua tokoh utamanya yang dihubungkan dengan eksistensi kedua tokoh tersebut sehingga dapat mengungkapkan makna yang terkandung dalam novel tersebut.

  Pendekatan yang dipakai adalah pendekatan Moral-Filosofi karena dalam karya ini terdapat permasalahan filosofi yaitu tentang eksistensialisme. Dengan pendekatan ini penulis mampu menemukan permasalahan-permasalahan yang merupakan bagian dari eksistensi manusia di bumi sehingga dapat mengungkapkan makna yang terkandung dalam novel ini secara keseluruhan.

  Hasil studi menyebutkan bahwa kedua tokoh utama tersebut digambarkan sebagai orang yang memiliki latar kehidupan yang kurang bahagia dan memiliki kehidupan yang tragis serta menyedihkan. Hal tersebut juga terlihat dalam tingkah laku kedua tokoh tersebut. Karena itulah mereka mencoba meraih kebahagiaan di Amerika. Dan meraih kebahagiaan itulah yang menjadi pilihan dalam hidup mereka. Kebebasan memilih inilah yang coba diungkapkan oleh Hijuelos dalam novelnya, termasuk harus menghadapi akibat yang muncul karenanya. Kebebasan menentukan pilihan ini merupakan pemikiran filsafat eksistensialisme yang coba penulis ungkapkan lewat permasalahan-permasalahan eksistensialisme yaitu penderitaan, kesenangan, keyakinan pada tuhan, dan kebebasan itu sendiri. Melalui permasalahan ini penulis menemukan bahwa kedua tokoh menjalani hidupnya semata-mata untuk meraih kebahagiaan. Dan pada akhirnya secara tidak langsung pengarang mengajak pembaca merenungkan makna kebahagiaan itu sendiri.

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION A. Background of the Study The presence of literature in the middle of its readers’ society is not

  without any purpose. Literature has its own special purpose that makes it valuable for human life. The purpose of literature in the life of its readers is to help them to be better persons. Literature aims at enhancing human being’s dignity as a social, cultural, and devout being. Literature help people to be a better person and to enhance his dignity by providing a chance to learn and to comprehend problems of life that are intentionally presented by authors in their works.

  Often it is said that literature is created as result from the reflection of its author about life. Even though it is a reflection, however, literature does not imitate real life. A literary work is used to reflect what an author comprehends about life around him fully. An author expresses his comprehension about life in the form of fiction, in this case a novel. An author can create, manipulate, and approach any problems dealing with the life of human being, and make them as an essential and universal truth in his fiction. Literature portrays experiences of life to enable us taking lessons from the experiences it is depicted. In other words, literature conveys an understanding a life with its own unique way. Thus, through literature we are given a chance to learn and comprehend problems of life that an author intentionally reveals in his works of literature. Literature gains worthy values and respects in human’s life since it provides “solutions” for problems of life through its aesthetic point of view.

  By reading and understanding literature, it is expected that people are able to get lessons from what they read from a literary work. These lessons of course deal much with the “knowledge” of understanding other people. These lessons will enlarge their human mind. Literary works serve to provide a chance to understand and to comprehend the issues that may rise in human life which intentionally revealed by the author.

  The writer believes that this is the essence of literature. People will know how to understand people in every part of the world by reading literary works.

  Readers of literature may understand the suffering, difficulties, wishes, and characters of other people. It obviously widens people’s mind. If people are able to understand each others, there will be no fight, war, prejudice, or intention to destroy others. Peace can be possible to achieve and realize in every part of the world. Human being will be more human by reading and understanding literary works. In addition, the writer assumes that there is no mistake to read and understand literary works from any countries, or from all social, political, economical, and cultural backgrounds.

  Apart from the discussion of the essence of literature, novels in presenting issues of human life differ into four categorizations. To know in what category a novel is will enable readers to grasp the kind of issue that a writer says in his work. In other words, by knowing to which category a novel belongs readers can knowledge” from a literary work they read. Roger. B. Henkle in his book Reading

  

the Novel: An Introduction to the Interpreting Fiction makes four categorization

  of literary works. These four categorizations are social novels, psychological novels, novels of symbolic action, and the last one, modern romantic novels.

  These categorizations have different emphasis on the aspects of issues it is presented. Despite the fact that this inclusion of novels’ categorization may seem awkward, yet it is in accordance with the present study.

  The writer will not explain each category of the novel; in what way a novel can be categorized a social novel, a psychological novel, a novel of symbolic action, or a novel of modern romance. The writer thinks that there is no significant with the study to explaining such. What the writer is interested in is the novel psychological mode since it is the form of which the novel used in the present study is. Roger. B. Henkle says that this each category has a different historical significance, so armed with this knowledge, the writer will be able to find out the sort of issues being revealed in the story. And the issues make a study possible to exist.

  Oscar Hijuelos’ The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love can be included in category of psychological novel. As the writer learn that “the psychological novel, on the other hand, may create a greater tolerance for disorder, or at least for the primacy of individual order. It reflects the Western yearning for personal freedom, and for the power to shape reality to one’s own design (Henkle, 1977:34).” If one reads the novel, he or she may find that the novel has the disorder arrangement. beginning to end by the thought and memory of his main character Cesar Castillo. Since the novel is psychological novel, which is often considered to convey philosophical thought, and relates the existence of human beings, it is inevitably to discuss the existentialism ideas.

  It is mentioned in the book Reading the Novel that such factor reflects the tendency of writers in the nineteenth century to turn to the mode of the psychological novel. “One must say that, of course, that the novel has always been an art form of individual. The Puritan emphasis on self-examination as a means of proving one’s stage of grace and one’s spiritual worthiness influenced the rise to prominence of literary form, the novel, which reflects the dynamic of the process (Henkle, 1977:34). The new philosophical view may arise as the result of the weakening of the puritan’s view in the people’s mind. And the novels of such mode may reflects such philosophical thinking (Henkle, 1977:34).

  Based on the statement above, the writer presupposes that the novel The

  

Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love may convey a philosophical thought. Literary

  works are often regarded to reflect philosophical ideas as they portray issues which human face during their life. These issues often become the issues of philosophical also.

  The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love narrates the two brothers Cesar

  Castillo and Nestor Castillo. The brothers are from Las Pinas, Oriente province of Cuba. They immigrates to America in 1949 to achieve a better chance of life in music that they think it is difficult to get back in their homeland, Cuba. The novel

  York, America. In other words the novel portrays the particular life of the brothers as immigrants in America, their way of life far away from his homeland. In other words the novel portrays the particular life of the brothers as immigrants in America, their way of life far away from his homeland.

  The previous discussion triggers the writer to discuss about the novel in its relation with the philosophical idea that is the philosophical idea of existentialism.

B. Problem Formulation

  Concerning with the discussion above, the writer has set up two problem formulations. The composition of the questions reveals the order of the presentation of the analysis part of the study.

  1. How are characters depicted in the novel?

2. How can the issues of existentialism be revealed in the novel?

C. Objectives of the Study

  Based on the problem formulations previously presented, this study is conducted to reveal how a character is presented by the author in the novel through the first question. In this matter, the first question is proposed to reveal their existence as immigrants. The second question attempts to find out the existentialism issues related to the ways characters lead their life.

D. Definition of Term

  There is one term that the writer needs to clarify in her thesis:

  

existentialism. In order to avoid some misunderstandings which might happen

  later in the future, it sounds wise if the writer explains those terms in a simple and understandable way.

  Existentialism

  Existentialism is a philosophical movement which claims that individuals can create the meanings of their own lives. The term applied to a group of attitude current in philosophical, religious, and artistic thought during and after the Second World War, which emphasizes existence rather than essence and sees the inadequacy of the human reason to explain the enigma of the universe as the basic philosophical question (Holman & Harmon, 1986:192).

CHAPTER II THEORITICAL REVIEW A. Review of Related Studies Criticism and opinion of others toward a literary work obviously act as a

  bridge for readers to attain a better understanding of the work of which the analysis is to be aimed. Thus, the criticisms and opinions either toward its author or the work itself should not be concealed in the study of a literary work. In this part, the writer would like to present some evaluations by some experts toward Oscar Hijuelos’ The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love that is being analyzed in this thesis.

  Even though Oscar Hijuelos’ The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love takes its milieu in the one of big cities in the United States of America, New York city, but it is entirely a Cuban Latin novel in the soul. The Mambo Kings Play Songs of narrates the experience of life of two musicians from Cuba in the powerful

  Love

  country America. They immigrate to New York in 1949, the beginning of television era in the United States. The novel richly describes the culture of Cuba; the people way of life, the food, the fashion, and particularly important, the music that although only a little, yet significantly has contributed its color to the American culture of the time. The novel also skillfully draws the contrasts between the Cuban and the American life (http://www.harpercollins.com/catalogue/guide_xml.asp?isbn=006, May, 2003)

  Christina Marie Tourino, the professor of English, United States ethnic minority writing, Latin American literature, and feminist theory at St. John’s University in Minnesota, has Oscar Hijuelos’ The Mambo Kings Play Songs of

  Love as the object of her paper which is in comparison with another Latin writer

  novel El asalto by Reinaldo Arena. In summary, in her paper entitled “Anxieties of Impotence: Cuban Americas in New York City’, Tourino does a comparative study that aims to seeks a basis for comparison between Latin American literature and Latino literature of the United States. Both groups, Latin American literature and Latino literature, have rarely been compared in the past because they are considered part of the same literary “family”. However, Tourini argues that owing to the flows of capital driven by global pressure, literature between and among Latin Americans and Latinos haiedl from such culturally heterogeneous sites and are made over by so many relocations that they do call for comparative projects.

  Instead of comparing text across national or ethnic lines, then Tourino’s projects attends to the text that spring from related but different sorts of departure, dislocations, languages, and constructions of race, gender, sexuality, and class, then seeks what “family” resemblance still obtains. As a test case, Tourino looks at two texts that descent directly from Cuba and are produced in New York. What Tourino discovers is that, despite radical differences in the class, politics, sexuality, language, and political disenfranchisement of the texts’ protagonists (and even their author), both of these texts posit a fantasy of excessive masculinity as the source of all-made family that reproduces itself without women- a fantasy emptiness that seems to be performed in related ways in much Latino and Latin American literature (http://clcwebjournal.lib.purdue.edu/clcweb02-2/tourino, May, 2003).

  Other opinions come from Thomas Mallon and Michiko Kakutani of the New York Times. Thomas Mallon describes the novel as “a propulsive ballad of Cuban-American fraternal machismo.” Meanwhile, Michiko Kakutani found the novel to be “street-smart and lyrical, impassioned and reflective.” There is also another who praised the novel as a warm and vibrant depiction of the family’s experiences in America and noted that the work reflected a departure from other Cuban writers who often focused on the political struggles in Cuba or life in exile (http://www.galegroup.com/freeresouces/chh/bio/hijuelos0.htm, May, 2003).

  Margo Jefferson, a critic who teaches journalism at New York University, wrote an article about the novel in the New York Times, August 27, 1989.

  Jefferson describes that The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love follows a family and a culture from one world to the next in the form of several generations of Latin music. The habanera, the rumba, the son-all made their way from Cuba to America, to be translated, truncated and elaborated for Yankee and Latin immigrant ears and feet. Where the music went the musicians followed, and so in 1949 Cesar and Nestor Castillo (just two of them) came to New York City, on the heels and the beat of the rumba’s intricate, exuberant successor, the mambo”.

  (http://www.princeton.edu/howarth/557/mambo7, May, 2003).

  Moreover, Margo Jefferson added that “ … one of the best things about into the American Dream; it leads us across the dream instead.” Also Jefferson stated that Hijuelos in his novel The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love is engaged in literary archeology, sifting through the remains of vanished musical and ethnic heritage traced back to Oriente province in Cuba, from which his parents emigrated (http://www.princeton.edu/howarth/557/mambo7, May, 2003).

  The writer sees that the story of immigrants as in the novel is always interesting to discuss. In her opinion, being an immigrant who has to live away from his native land and has to adjust himself with a new culture and society is not a matter of duty, instead, it is more or less a matter of individual choice.

  Starting from this, the writer is interested to discuss about it and to relate it with the philosophy of existentialism that the writer sees it is conveyed in the novel.

B. Review of Related Theories

1. Theory of Characterization

  Characterization is the creation of these imaginary persons so that they exist for the reader as lifelike (Holman & Harmon, 1965: 81). Characterization is the process of how authors attempt to make their characters understandable to, and come alive for, the readers. This process of portraying people in fiction aims at making readers get to know and understand what sort of people they are (Murphy, 1943: 161)

  Richard M. Eastman in his A Guide to Novel mentioned that a novelist makes a similar choice as a painter in creating people in fiction. He may choose to and to work still other into a background mass (Eastman, 1965: 61). And this choice leads toward what is called “flat character” and “round character”.

  Flat character and round character differ in the level of complexity by which they are depicted. The need to create whether a character is flat or round depends much on their function in the plot. Flat character is often defined as who has only one outstanding trait or feature or at most a distinguishing mark. The such character is often presented as a type rather than an individual. Round characters, however, present us with many facets since their author portray them in greater depth and in a more generous detai. Round character reveals an individual rather than a type (Kennedy & Gioia, 1999:65). Flatness is used by an author to turn the readers’ attention away from character toward some other narrative value such as idea or plot. While the roundness serves to bring the readers close to character.

  In real life we first get to know with people by their appearance, by the way they dress and so on. We can know something about his opinion, his manner or his voice if we are able to talk to them. If we know a person for some length of time and through personal contacts we can get to know about his past life, how he behaves toward others, and how he reacts to events or situations. Just like the way we get to know people in real life, characterization makes us able to know people in fiction. In Undersatnding Unseen M.J. Murphy proposes a few ways to make readers understand people in fiction. We can get to know a fictional people through personal description, the eyes and opinions of others, what the person reaction towards situation and events, the author’s comment, his thoughts, and his manner. It is just to note that an author does not employ all the ways that have been mentioned before (Murphy, 1943: 161-167).

  An author may present the devices in two ways; telling and showing (Abrams, 1935: 21). With this knowledge of characterization, it is expected that the readers are able to understand characters in fiction. To understand the character means to understand his or her life. To characterize a fictional people can mean to relate about a fictional people’s life.

2. The Relation Between Literature and Philosophy

  There are diverse ways to conceive the relation between literature and philosophy. Frequently literature is thought of as a form of philosophy, as ‘ideas’ wrapped in form; and it is analyzed to yield ‘leading ideas.’ Meanwhile, the opposite view denies any philosophical relevance to literature. As most of literary works that are well-known for their philosophical thought frequently concern with commonplaces as man’s mortality or the uncertainty of fate (Wellek & Warren, 1956: 110 ).

  To be sure, literature can be treated as a document in the history of ideas and philosophy, for literary history parallels and reflects intellectual history.

  Frequently either explicit statements or allusions show the allegiance of a poet to a specific philosophy, or established that he has had some direct acquaintance with philosophies once well known or at least that he is aware of their general

  The value for the exegesis of a poetic text of a knowledge of the history of philosophy and of general thought can scarcely be overrated. Besides, literary history has constantly to treat problems of intellectual history. Hence, literary works are often used to elucidate ideas of philosophy. English literature can also be shown to reflect the history of philosophy. In Shakespeare, for example, there are many traces of Renaissance Platonism (Wellek & Warren, 1956: 112).

  Even though literary works intentionally or unintentionally reflect philosophical thought, yet how far do mere echoes of philosophers’ thought in the poet’s work define the view of an author, whether poetry is better because it is more philosophical, is judged according to the value of the philosophy which it adopts or by criteria of philosophical originality, by the degree with which it modified traditional thought, or are philosophical standards of this sort criteria of literary criticism reflect the intellectualist misunderstanding, a confusion of philosophy and art, and a misunderstanding of the way ideas actually enter into literature have never been answered properly. These questions are very significant in revealing the relation between literary work and philosophy (Wellek & Warren, 1956: 114-115). These questions can avoid such prior of misunderstanding of literary work that will result in the violation of their artistry and uniqueness.

  Rudolf Unger rightly argues that literature is not philosophical knowledge translated into imagery and verse, but that literature expresses a general attitude towards life, that poets usually answer, unsystematically, questions which are also themes of philosophy but that the poetic mode of answering differs in different between attitude of fiction writer and ideas which does not take its clear and obvious formulation offers and aid to elude the assumption that intellectually literary works state ideas of philosophy.

  Instead of speculating on such large – scale problems as the philosophy of history and the ultimate integral of civilization, the literary student should turn his attention to the concrete problem not yet solved or even adequately discussed: the question of how ideas actually enter into literature. The question arises only when and if these ideas are actually incorporated into the very texture of the work of art, when they become ‘constitutive’, in short when they cease to be ideas in the ordinary sense of concepts and become symbols, or even myths (Wellek & Warren, 1956: 122).

  Sometimes in the history of literature however there are cases, confessedly rare, when ideas incandesce, when figures and scenes not merely represent but actually embody ideas, when some identification of philosophy and art seems to take place. Image becomes concept and concept becomes image (Wellek & Warren, 1956: 123). Poetry is not substitute-philosophy; it has its own justification and aim. Poetry of ideas is like other poetry, not to be judged by the value of the material but by its degree of integration and artistic intensity (Wellek & Warren, 1956: 12).

3. Theory of Existentialism

  Existentialism is a philosophical movement which claims that individual traditional philosophies, such as rationalism and empiricism, which sought to discover an ultimate order in metaphysical principles or in the structure of the observed world (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Existentialism#Literature, July 2007).

  Existentialism is a term applied to a group of attitudes current in philosophical religious, and artistic thought during and after the Second World War, which emphasizes existence rather than essence and sees the inadequacy of the human reason to explain the enigma of the universe as the basic philosophical question. The term is so broadly and loosely that an exact definition of existentialism may not possible (Holman & Harmon, 1986:192). In short, existentialism challenges the Western thought which says that rational is as the supreme guide to conduct and takes “existence precedes essence” as its central idea.

a. Background of Existentialism Thought

  The theses of existentialism found a particular relevance during the Second World War, when Europe found itself threatened by material and spiritual destruction. Consequently, the situation brought an impact within existentialism that to think romantically about the condition is useless. In the point of view of existentialism, people have to face the facts about the condition. Thus, a kind of romantic inspiration can not defended in existentialism (Abbaganano, 1983: 74).

  Western ethical tradition has generally assumed that the rational individual pursuing the rational life is the essence of “the good life,” while existentialism argument that Western thought has been occupied by the idea of regulating the life of the world by reason. The tragic and absurd aspects of life or it may called as the negative aspect of existence (such as pain, frustration, sickness, and death) become the essential features of human reality (Rentz, 1992: 294).

  The existentialism thought get the source from some thinkers who attempt to interpret the existence of human beings as Soren Kierkegaard, Frederich Nietzsche, Martin Heidegger, Jean Paul Sartre, Albert Camus, Abbagnano, and many others. Each of them has different emphasis about existentialism, yet basically they have common ground. The common ground seems to be their assumptions that existence precedes essence, that the significant fact is that we and things in general exist, but these things have no meaning through acting upon them (Holman & Harmon, 1986: 193).

  b. Some Common Existentialism Themes Existentialists generally regard freedom, responsibility, suffering, and commitment as the highest of human values. Consequently, they tend to have a pessimistic or despairing view of the human condition. The existential movement emphasizes the freedom and responsibility of the individual as the wellspring of all considerations. It also states that as the consequence people are free to choose how they will live, no system can guide them; the highest is in the struggle to be one’s authentic self (Rentz, 1995: 294).

  c. Existentialist Knowledge Existentialist writers believe that what is essential about ethics is not that authentically. It means that ethics cannot merely theoretical discipline; it is also a moral and actual activity. Therefore, existential ethics attempts to turn to reality itself, to actual life. One’s identity and values emerge from one’s choices, not from some essence of human nature that was given to one at birth. It is also implied from the previous statement that actually people do not have some “given” morality that will serve to guide their choices (Rentz, 1992: 295).

  d. Existentialism View on Pleasure According to the existentialists, actually a hedonistic individual, who believes that pleasure is the chief goal, is bound to fear for his or her happiness and the happiness of others. Thus, they agree to give up pleasure or happiness as a criterion of action. This renunciation needs courage to make a decision (Rentz, 1995: 296).

e. Existentialist View of Human

  Probably, the next statement will be confusing because it says that even though humans are endowed with reason, they are irrational beings. Irrational according to them is that actually human being is a wounded creature who is afraid of emptiness which makes him filled false and illusions. At the same time, each person is sick being divided within and influenced by a dark subconscious. Human are irrational beings who may long for suffering rather than happiness because happiness is meaningless (Rentz, 1995: 296).

  f. Existentialist View of Suffering

  Anguish is an emotion common to all men as they confront the problem of life (Bridgewater & Sherwood, 1950: 646). Kierkegaard notes two kinds of suffering: the redeeming suffering which leads to life and the dark suffering which leads to death. An individual may go through life suffering and as a result of it he may be born into a new life. All the suffering, such as the death of the dearest, illness, poverty, humiliation, and disappointments, may purify and regenerate an individual. Nevertheless, it depends on the attitude that the individual faces them. Victor Frankl, an existentialist, says that the individual can go through suffering if he or she sees the meaning in it. In other words it can be said that the attempts to avoid suffering only create more suffering, therefore such an escape is one of the mistaken belief of life (Rentz, 1995: 296). In brief we can say that we may find two contrasts opinion here: suffering which is believed to be a way to light and renewal can be seen also as the tie to alienation and despair.

  g. Existentialist View toward Society and Individual

  Existentialists say that man always acts individually, and everyone must act differently. It means that human behavior should be original from itself, not determined by social influences (Rentz, 1995: 296).

  The power of society over individual has been found everywhere in history. The existentialists have been outspoken, according to them the society’s norms are useless. Existential ethics tend to place individual above the law. They have some reasons such as a person is a value and that a living human being is higher value than any abstract idea even the idea of the good (Rentz, 1995: 296).

h. Existentialists View toward Death

  Existentialists, whether atheistic or theistic, agree that one’s attitude will be more authentic if one regards all people as though they were dying and decides his relationship with them in the light of death; both their death and his death (Rentz, 1995: 226).

  In other words, one realizes that death is one of the possibilities which belongs to man. To understand this possibility means to decide for it, man has to be ready to live for death (Abbagnano, 1983: 77). Heidegger argued that human being can never hope to understand why they are here; instead, each individual must choose a goal and follow it, aware of the certainty death and the meaningless of his life (http://members.aol.com/Caz...ate/Philo/existentialism/zKdaexist).

i. Existentialist View toward Freedom

  As it is implied in the previous explanation about existentialism, we may find that actually existentialism, we may find that actually existentialism suggests one major theme that is a stress on individual existence and as the consequence it also stresses on individual freedom and choice. Freedom of choice is a way through which each human being creates his own nature. Because individual is free to choose his own path, therefore they must accept the risk and responsibility of this action (http://members.aol.com/Caz...ate/Philo/existentialism/zKdaexist, July, 2007).

  Existentialism protests against intellectual and social forces which are destroying freedom. It drives us back to the most basic, inner problems: what it means to be a self, how we can find courage to face death, and how we ought to use our freedom (Roberts, 1956: 4).

  j. Existentialism and Religious Belief The stress upon freedom can lead toward either faith in God or atheism.