The impacts of alienation towards the characters` life in Michael Ende`s Momo.
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THE IMPACTS OF ALIENATION TOWARDS
THE CHARACTERS’ LIFE IN MICHAEL ENDE’ S MOMO
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra
in English Letters
By
ANNA PALUTE
Student Number: 084214073
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
YOGYAKARTA
2013
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
THE IMPACTS OF ALIENATION TOWARDS
THE CHARACTERS’ LIFE IN MICHAEL ENDE’ S MOMO
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra
in English Letters
By
ANNA PALUTE
Student Number: 084214073
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
YOGYAKARTA
2013
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LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH
UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS
Yang betanda tangan di bawah ini, saya mahasiswa Universitas Sanata Dharma:
Nama
: Anna Palute
Nomor Mahasiswa : 084214073
Demi kepentingan ilmu pengetahuan, saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan
Universitas Sanata Dharma karya ilmiah saya yang berjudul:
The Impacts of Alienation towards the Characters’ Life
in Michael Ende’s Momo
Beserta perangkat yang diperlukan (bila ada). Dengan demikian saya memberikan
kepada Perpustakaan Sanata Dharma hak untuk menyimpan, mengalihkan 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 penyataan ini yang saya buat dengan sebenarnya.
Dibuat di Yogyakarta.
Pada tanggal: 4 Februari 2013
Yang menyatakan,
(Anna Palute)
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STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY
This Thesis entitled ”The Impacts of Alienation towards the Characters’
Life in Michael Ende’s Momo” is purely made by the thesis writer. In other
words, all ideas, all phrases, and all sentences, unless otherwise stated, are ideas,
phrases, and sentences of the thesis writer. The writer understands the full
consequences including degree cancelation if he took somebody else’s ideas,
phrases, or sentences without proper references.
Yogyakarta, February 4th, 2013
Anna Palute
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Time is life itself, and life resides
in the human heart (Michael Ende)
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This work is dedicated to
Whom I call
“Indo’Ambe’ku sia mintu’
siulu’ku”
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I believe that this thesis is one of Jesus’ gifts and I am very grateful since I
have Him in my life. His love is proved by giving the following people to help me
to accomplish this writing. Therefore, I would like to give my great gratitude to
my beloved parents and family for their endless love for me. My deep gratitude is
for my major advisor, Drs. Hirmawan Wijanarka, M.Hum., for his willingness to
guide me and his patience to spare his time in reading and correcting my drafts.
My deep gratitude also goes to my co-advisor, Harris Hermansyah S., S.S.,
M.Hum., for his suggestion to revise this writing.
I would like to appreciate all of my lecturers for sharing knowledge and
wisdom along my study, mbak Ninik for her helpful administration. I also would
like to say thanks to my best friend Doni Agung Setiawan for his willingness to
accompany me and to give some inputs in this writing, Michael Ende for his
unforgettable story, Karl Marx for his precious discourse, Buser for his big love
and support, Ryan La’lang and friends for the truly friendship, Twins (Lintang
and Wahyu) and family, Pak Obed and family, Riris, Pebri, Vita, Emmak, Cicil,
Bang Jep, Koko Gustin, Mbak Winda, Hasmansa makale, Ikapmajaya, Teater
Seriboe Djendela, Sunday School Gki Gejayan, Beo 49’s crews, PPGT Jemaat
Pantan and all of my friends in English Letters 2008 for the bitter-sweet days we
spend together and people whose names cannot be mentioned here but give
contribution in this undergraduate thesis.
Anna Palute
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
TITLE PAGE …………………………………………………………..
APPROVAL PAGE ……………………………………………………
ACCEPTANCE PAGE………………………………………………...
LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI………...
STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY…………………………………...
MOTTO PAGE …………………………………………………………
DEDICATION PAGE ………………………………………………….
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ……………………………………………
TABLE OF CONTENTS ………………………………………………
ABSTRACT …………………………………………………………….
ABSTRAK ………………………………………………………………
i
ii
iii
iv
v
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vii
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ix
x
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CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION………………………………………
A. Background of the Study ……………………………………
B. Problem Formulation ……………………………………….
C. Objectives of the Study ……………………………………..
D. Definition of Terms ………………………………………….
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1
4
5
5
CHAPTER II: THEORETICAL REVIEW ………………………….
A. Review of Related Studies ………………………………….
B. Review of Related Theories ………………………………..
C. Theoretical Framework ……………………………………
7
13
15
19
CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY …………………………………..
A. Object of the Study …………………………………………
B. Approach of the Study ……………………………………...
C. Method of the Study ………………………………………..
20
20
22
22
CHAPTER IV: ANALYSIS ……………………………………………. 25
A. The Description of the Characters’ Experiences which
Lead them into Alienation…………………………………… 26
B. The Negative Impacts of Alienation towards
The Characters’ Life………………………………………… 49
CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION ………………………………………… 70
BIBLIOGRAPHY ………………………………………………………. 73
APPENDIX : Summary of Michael Ende’s Momo……………………… 75
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ABSTRACT
ANNA PALUTE. The Impacts of Alienation towards the Characters’ Life in
Michael Ende’s Momo. Yogyakarta: Department of English Letters, Faculty of
Letters, Sanata Dharma University, 2013.
Momo is one of outstanding fantasy novel which can be read by all ages.
This novel covers the story of time saving system which becomes the metaphor of
capitalist system in Marxism. The characters that commit or live under this system
are analyzed to discuss alienation as well as its negative impacts.
The aim of this study is to answer the two following problem
formulations: firstly to analyze the characters’ experiences which lead them into
alienation and secondly, to identify the negative impacts of alienation towards the
characters’ life according to the previous analysis.
The writer applies the library research as the main method in this study
and the internet research is used to support the main method. Moral-philosophical
approach is used since this study tries to see the negative impacts of alienation.
In this study, the writer finds that each character that becomes the object of
this analysis is being alienated. Alienation of each character is different since it is
based on each character’s experiences in his/her daily life. Alienation also causes
some negative impacts on the character’s life. The negative impacts are the loss of
social relationship, unhappiness and attachment to a certain activity. Alienation
and negative impacts of alienation are two discourses which talk about human
problems. By knowing these discourses, the readers can build their understanding
to handle their life and their alienation. It can be one alternative to raise the
readers’ awareness about the importance of keeping their humanity and their
social relationship in society.
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ABSTRAK
ANNA PALUTE. The Impacts of Alienation towards the Characters’ Life in
Michael Ende’s Momo. Yogyakarta: Jurusan Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra,
Universitas Sanata Dharma, 2013.
Momo merupakan salah satu novel fantasi yang luar biasa yang dapat
dibaca oleh semua kalangan. Novel ini berkisah tentang sistem menabung waktu
yang menjadi kiasan dari sistem kapitalis marxisme. Tokoh-tokoh yang menabung
waktu atau yang hidup di bawah sistem ini dianalisis dengan tujuan untuk
mendiskusikan alienasi beserta dampak- dampak negatifnya.
Tujuan dari studi ini yaitu untuk menjawab dua rumusan masalah sebagai
berikut: Pertama adalah menganalisis pengalaman-pengalaman para tokoh yang
membawa mereka kedalam alienasi dan yang kedua adalah untuk
mengidentifikasi dampak negatif dari alienasi terhadap kehidupan mereka
berdasarkan analisis sebelumnya.
Penulis mangaplikasikan metode penelitian pustaka sebagai sumber utama
dan penelitian internet sebagai penunjang dalam studi ini. Pendekatan moralphilosopi digunakan karena studi ini mencoba melihat dampak-dampak negative
dari alienasi.
Dalam studi ini, penulis menemukan bahwa tiap tokoh yang menjadi objek
dari analisis ini teralienasi. Alienasi dari tokoh-tokoh tersebut berbeda satu sama
lain berdasarakan pengalaman tiap-tiap tokoh. Alienasi menyebabkan beberapa
dampak negatif terhadap kehidupan para tokoh. Dampak-dampak tersebut yakni
hilangya hubungan sosial, ketidak-bahagiaan, dan terperangkap dalam satu
aktivititas tertentu. Alienasi dan dampak negatif dari alienasi adalah dua wacana
yang berbicara tentang permasalahan hidup manusia. Dengan mengetahui wacanawacana tersebut pembaca dapat membangun pemahaman mereka untuk mengatasi
kehidupan dan alienasi mereka. Kisah ini juga bisa menjadi salah satu alternatif
untuk membangkitkan kesadaran pembaca tentang pentingya menjaga
kemanusiaan dan hubungan sosial dalam kehidupan bermasyarakat.
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CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. Background of the Study
Rene Wellek and Austin Warren state in their book that literature
represents life and life is a social reality and this world becomes the object of
literary imitation (Wellek and Warren, 1956: 94). Even though it seems a clichéd
statement, but it still has the truth that literature always represents the social
reality. Literature as a work of art is a medium to retell the reality experienced by
the author using certain expression. Generally, the authors represent reality with
its complexity and give perception into their artworks. One of the artworks which
represent reality is novel. Novel is still needed because it is used to represent the
reality which is the life itself. As James writes in his book, “The only reason for
the existence of a novel is that it does attempt to represent life” (James, 1978: 50).
Novel as one of literary works becomes one alternative for the writer to
narrate his/her experiences. The author writes his/her experiences based on the era
and period in which he/she lives. It is possible for the writers to fill certain
discourse into his/her literary work, as it will be discussed in this study, in the
novel entitled Momo. In a kind of perspective, it is visible the discourse of
capitalism, in worst, capitalist stands to dominate and exploit human under that
system. Therefore, it is possible to examine literary work by using the theory
outside the intrinsic element of literary work. Seeing and examining the discourse
of capitalism, Marxist perspectives towards capitalism are appropriate.
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In the book entitled Beginning Theory (An Introduction to Literary and
Cultural Theory), Barry states that the beginning and the basics of Marxism is
started from the history of class struggle caused by the competition for economic,
social and political advantage. In that struggle, one social class is exploited by
another in modern industrial capitalism. This condition then makes that exploited
class becomes alienated (Barry, 1995: 106). Engaging this idea, the writer finds an
interesting fact in the novel of Michael Ende namely Momo, that most of the
characters experience alienation. Based on the understanding of the writer after
reading Momo and Marxism theory, the writer finds similarities of systems in
both; time saving system found in Momo is a metaphor of capitalist system in
Marxism.
In Momo, time saving is a system which is made by the time thieves that
pretend to be the time banking agents. This system involves the time thieves as
the banking agents and Momo’s friends or the society as the clients. The time
thieves have power over the society because they create a system to dominate the
life of the society by situating people to spend their time only for works. The
society is the victim of life exploitation through time. Just like in the perspective
of Marxist, there are always two components in Capitalist system. The first one is
the Capitalist or the owner of wealth and the second is the proletariats or the
workers.
The proletariats are live under the rule and system made by the Capitalist
and they become the victim of exploitation. The situation which is created by the
system of capitalism puts the workers in a condition that the workers spend most
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of their time to work. This situation resulted in their loss of humanity, “Workers
are deskilled should doing repetitive task without having grasp. They are regarded
as the ‘hands’ of capitalist and because of that, they lost their humanity because of
the goal of the capitalist” (Barry, 1995: 106).
In this research, the writer chooses Michael Ende’s Momo as the object of
this study because in Momo occurs the representation of the problem of human
alienation. The forms of alienation are different for each class. It depends on
individual’s position and style of life but the most severe and afflicted is
experienced by the proletariat (Ollman, 1971: 132).
Momo is a fantasy fiction listed in Puffin book, a children library. It is a
children novel but it delights readers in all ages. This novel was written in 1972
but the content of this novel criticizes the modern world. Momo is not only
offering the readers a great fantasy and imagination, but more than that this novel
can read the future and make it relevant with the problems experienced by human
today. If the topic in this novel brought into readers’ daily life, it will be found the
relevancy and the relation.
The reason on doing research on the topic of alienation is challenged by
the statement written by Ollman, “One of the manifestations of alienation is that
‘all is under the sway of inhuman power’, and adds, ‘this applies also the
capitalist’ (Ollman, 1971: 132).
According to that statement, it is obvious that all human and even the
capitalist are being under the inhuman power and all are being alienated. Thus,
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this study is challenging because it gives us the discourse that human
unconsciously or consciously are under control.
This study is relevant to human’s life today and it is appropriate to be
elaborated in this research to share knowledge that possibility, it can be used to
improve the awareness of human towards their life. It elaborates some life values
related to human life as a social being. The knowledge about alienation can be
used to open up human mind to consciously handle their alienation. The negative
impact of alienation towards characters’ life in Momo also can be the reflection of
human’s life situations of today. When human has deeper understanding about
this kind of condition, then they perhaps will have another alternative ways of
living with others in their society.
B. Problem Formulation
In this study, there are two problem formulations to be analyzed. The first
problem is aimed to examine the experiences of the characters that lead them into
alienation and the second is to examine the impacts of each character’s alienation
towards his/her life. Here these problems are:
1. How are the characters’ experiences which lead them into alienation
described?
2. What are the impacts of the alienation towards the characters’ life in
Michael Ende’s Momo?
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C. Objectives of the Study
Based on the problem formulation, this study has two objectives. The first
objective is to find out the detailed descriptions of the characters’ life experiences
which lead them into alienation throughout the story. The characters are namely
Mr. Figaro, Nino, Beppo, Guido, Franco and Momo. The examination of the
characters’ life experiences is purposed to see the description on how those
character are alienated by their experiences. And the last problem formulation is
to identify the impacts of alienation towards the characters’ life in Michael Ende’s
Momo.
D. Definition of Terms
There are some terminologies listed to be clarified to avoid
misunderstanding in this study. The definitions of those terminologies are taken
from APA Dictionary of Psychology, Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy,
second edition and The Young Karl Marx, German Philosophy, Modern Politics
and Human Flourishing.
1. Life Experience
Based on APA Dictionary of Psychology, the term experience is defined as
a conscious event: an event that is lived through, or undergone, as opposed to one
that is imagined or thought about (2007: 354). According to Cambridge
Dictionary of Philosophy, life is the characteristic property of living substances or
things; it is associated with either a capacity for mental activities such as
perception and thought (mental life) or physical activities such as absorption,
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excretion, metabolism, synthesis, and reproduction (physical life) (1999: 537).
Based on those two definitions, life experience in this context is defined as an
event that is lived through, or undergone, as opposed to one that is imagined or
thought about in mental life and physical life.
2. Alienation
Alienation is a concept used to suggest a kind of dysfunctional relation
(for example an unnatural separation or hostility) between entities or the loss or
the lack of natural connectedness or harmony between the relevant entities
(Leopold, 2007: 67).
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CHAPTER II
THEORETICAL REVIEW
A.
Review of Related Studies
In reviewing the related studies, the writer states two others’ point of view
towards the work of Ende namely Momo. These related studies are different from
the way of each observer sees the issue in Momo. The observers elaborate their
views in different ways too. Those elaborations are used to emerge other
perspectives towards the same work and to see the differences between those
observers’ studies and the writer’s study. At the end, all of these perspectives are
used to support (discourse, idea and point of view) the writer’s analysis.
1.
Self, Other and Other Self: Recognizing the Other in Children’s
Literature by Roderick McGillis (The Grey Eminence of Politics:
Otherness and Sameness)
McGillis is a Professor of English at the University of Calgary, one who
did investigation towards Michael Ende’s work, Momo. In his analysis, he finds
that Momo which is written under the theme of time and social has connection
with his theme, otherness. The connection is stated as follows;” To put this in a
way closer to my theme, I simply point out that these grey men represent the drive
to oneness, the desire to wipe out difference, "otherness." That which is "Other" is
a threat to these men. Based on this quotation, McGillis finds that the men in grey
in the work of Ende are the representation of his theme. The men in grey in the
story try to uniform the society by putting them under one system, the system of
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time saving bank. This context is related to McGillis’ study which says about the
desire to make people similar and try to eliminate the diversities. The similarity
between those two studies is also explained by Ende by connecting the theme of
the otherness and time. He notices that the desire to wipe out difference in
McGillis study has something to do with the desire to control time in Momo
(McGillis, 1997: 7).
McGillis examined the men in grey or the time thieves are a band of men
which is trying to influence the society in Momo. The statement that strengthens
his study is “The men in grey make it their business to promote desire, for as long
as we desire we are vulnerable to the authority and control of those who produce
objects of desire. In effect, what the men in grey produce is nothing other than an
ersatz desire, a manufactured desire, one that disrupts natural desire” (McGillis,
1997: 7). By following those desire, the society loss of their natural desire. “What
I mean by "natural desire" is quite simply the desire each of us feels for unity,
oneness, for that lost innocence we think we remember from our childhoods”
(McGillis, 1997: 7).
McGillis notices the men in grey have one goal to control over the lives of
the societies by persuading them to be the timesavers. By being the timesavers,
societies will only focus on one activity. This activity will remove the societies’
other desires. The desires such as the willingness to build a good relationship and
to do other activities as normal people have. From this explanation, it can be seen
that the grey men are the representation of his study.
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From the setting and the story itself, Momo is classified as a fantasy story.
Even though, a fantasy story is outside human real world, it still has relevancy
towards human life as McGillis says that; “Of course events in a fantasy have
never happened, will never happen, and yet have already always happened. The
thing to insist on when we speak of fantasy is its "otherness." Fantasy presents
things as other than they are; in this otherness lays fantasy's very familiarity”
(McGillis, 1997: 7). It is indeed, that the story of Momo is only imaginary and the
readers already know that. However, the author tries to imitate the character of
real human and the society and try to put some issues of human life in his work to
make his work believable and acceptable.
Momo as a fantasy book found as a children book that still has relevancy
towards human’s life. One of the relevancies is shown by the founded topic which
depicts human’s problems in life, “Momo, then, is a book about the destruction of
"otherness," and the consequences of this destruction. Once the "Other" is
controlled, even negated, then individual liberty is lost. The people in this story-Guido the storyteller, Beppo the roadsweeper, Nino the innkeeper, the children
who once played with Momo--find their lives controlled by the grey-suited time
thieves. The world becomes colorless once difference disappears” (McGillis,
1997: 8).
According to McGillis’ analysis, it can be seen that one issue of human’s life
is represented by the men the men in grey in Momo. The men in grey represent
one destructive power that are trying to control the society and trying to eliminate
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the difference between them. The issue to limit the societies’ freedom as it
happens in reality. They make them to submit the sameness without interrupting.
Reviewing this study, the writer wants to show that the writer’s analysis is
different from Roderick McGillis’s examination. McGillis sees this study from the
point of view of the men in grey or the time thieves who represent his theory. He
depicts the power that he calls the grey eminence of politic through analyzing the
men in grey, while the writer’s study focuses in examining the negative impacts of
the alienation towards characters’ life in Michael Ende’s Momo.
2. Momo, Dogen and Commodification of time by Goodhew and Loy (Ende’s
View of Time in Momo and the Buddhist Perspective on Time Particularly
as Expressed by Japanese Zen Master Dogen)
Goodhew and Loy are two researchers who doing an analysis on the work
of Michael Ende namely Momo. Their study is an elaboration of Ende’s view of
time that is shown in his novel and Buddhist’s Perspective of time which is
particularly expressed by Japanese Zen Master Dogen. These researchers want to
give a deep understanding of time. To strengthen this sight, they use point of
views from Ende which occurs in Momo and from Dogen’s perspective based on
Buddhism. This knowledge is used to give a profound insight about time and to
give understanding to how we experience time today.
In their study, these researchers try to relate the issue of time in Ende’s
work to the society of U.S by showing the 1992 survey by the U.S. National
Recreation and Park Association. They found that:
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38 percent of Americans report “always” feeling rushed, up from 22
percent in 1971. In The Overworked American (also 1992) Juliet Schorr
argued that Americans are working much longer hours, and more
recently Joe Robinson in the Utne Reader (Sept.-Oct. 2000) claims that
the United States has now passed Japan as the most overworked land in
the industrialized world. He says that the husband and wife of an average
US household are now working an average of 500 more hours a year than
they did in 1980 (Goodhew and Loy, 2002: 2).
It is one of the facts how people in reality, especially Americans spent
their time by working. Being overworked is one case shown in the quotation and
it also occurs in Ende’s novel, namely Momo. Loy and Goodhew show that the
issue implied in Momo is not getting loose from human’s life in reality. Ende’s
writes the novel of Momo under the influences of the environment, the age, and
the experiences that he gets from his life. In different ways this issue is explained.
A statement that Loy and Goodhew find in Momo; “The grey men teach
Momo’s friends that their time is a commodity that can be saved and invested”
(Loy and Goodhew, 2002: 5). Those researchers view that Momo presents a
human problem related to time. Time is regarded as money which is can be saved
and invested, while Loy and Goodhew argue that; “Such time cannot be saved
because we are it. To treat it as a commodity is to be caught up in a delusion that
makes us hurry up in order to have the time to slow down - the trap that Momo’s
time-thieves encourage” (Loy and Goodhew, 2002: 6). These two researchers
argue that time cannot be treated as money since time is the life itself. Time
thieves in Momo deceive the societies as if time can be saved, but it is only a
delusion. That is the issue of time which is these two researchers find in Momo.
The issue about the commodification of time and the treatment towards time
which is regarded as something, that can be treated as a commodity.
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Even though Goodhew and Loy work on the same novel with the writer,
but the topic and analysis in their study are totally different from the writer’s
study. Goodhew and Loy focus on the perspective of time, while the writer’s
analysis focuses on the negative impacts of alienation towards the character’s life
in the context of the novel, Momo.
3. Alienation as a Fictional Construct in Four Contemporary British Novels
by Burgert Adrian Senekal
Burgert Adrian Senekal is the one who examines the topic of alienation.
His study is about the application of the theoretical contribution to the literature
that is stemmed from the alienated British society to find out and have a deeper
understanding about the manifestation of alienation in four contemporary British
novels. He chooses four authors as the object of his study in which those authors
have their own unique way to depict alienation. Those authors become the central
of contemporary British canon. Using the theory of alienation, Senekal
reinterprets the topic alienation on those four works.
In his study, he finds that Seeman’s theory of alienation is more
applicable than Marx’s theory, “Seeman's classification of powerlessness,
meaninglessness, normlessness, social isolation, and self-estrangement are as
applicable in the post-modern context as they were when Seeman first published
On the Meaning of Alienation (Senekal, 2008: 189). Although, Marx also
classifies the term of alienation into three aspects, but Seeman’s insight is more
useful in this study.
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He finds what kind of alienation that exists in the contemporary western
British, the forms of alienation that are experienced by the inhabitants, and the
contribution of alienation in literature works at that time. He finds the appropriate
theory of alienation which is applied in his study is within the discipline of
psychology. It is stated that,” All of the novels studied have manifested aspects of
Seeman's alienation, foregrounding some and moving other aspects to the
background, but the novels in general reflect the findings of alienation research by
Seeman, Geyer, Neal & Collas, Kalekin-Fishman and others that alienation is as
prevalent in the contemporary world as it was when Marx first identified the
phenomenon, albeit in different ways” (Senekal, 2008: 189). Under the discipline
of psychology, Senekal uses supportive theory of five researches. Finally he
concludes that those novels reflect those researches’ theories and that alienation is
already familiar in contemporary world.
It is indeed, that Senekal’s study and the writer’s study analyse the same
topic that is alienation. However what makes this study different from the writer’s
study is this study relies on Seeman’s theory under the discipline of psychology,
while the writer applies Marx’s theory of alienation which is philosophical.
B.
Review of Related Theories
1. Theory of Character
Character is one of the elements in fiction which is combined in such a
way with other elements in order to build the body of literary works. Character as
an intrinsic element may occur in fiction, drama and narrative poem. Character in
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fiction especially, has a big role in creating the narration. Character has a role to
act in order to create an action; ”if there is action there must be someone to act, a
character” (Beaty, 1973: 604). Therefore, without character the narration will not
alive. Character should be occur as someone “….who act out in a particular time
and place (SETTING) some kind of conflict in a pattern of events” (Rohrberger
and Woods, 1971: 20). If character is not exist , there will be no action and there
will be no story, while the most fundamental of novel is telling story as Forster
says that ”the basis of a novel is a story, and a story is a narrative of events
arranged in time-sequence” (Forster, 1974: 20).
Character has been defined into various definitions. As Beaty defines it as
“In its most common usage with reference to literature, character simply means a
person (or personified or anthropomorphized animal, object, or deity) who acts,
appears, or is referred to in a work” (Beaty, 1973: 604) . Character is not only in a
sort of human being but it can be animal, object and deity which are personified.
Abrams adds Beaty’s definition by stating that “characters are the persons
represented in a dramatic or narrative work, who are interpreted by the reader as
being endowed with particular moral, intellectual, and emotional qualities by
inferences from what the persons say and their distinctive ways of saying it, the
dialogue and from what they do, the action (Abrams, 1999: 33) or in short
Holman and Harmon write characters “It is a brief descriptive sketch of personage
who typifies some definite quality” (Holman and Harmon, 1986: 81).
Each
character presented in a narration has particular moral as human has. These moral
are divided into vice and virtue. The quality of character in a story resembles the
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quality of human in real life. This quality then used as evidence to show that
character in a story is an example of human in reality. These theories then used
by the writer to point to a certain person whom is chosen to be identified and to be
the object of this study.
2. Theory of Alienation
The term of alienation is first derived from Marx’s view as an impact of
capitalist production on human beings on social processes that they live in. But
then this term has been broadened and applied in many fields. Ollman, the author
of the book “Alienation: Marx Conception of Man in Capitalist Society” is one of
the researchers who try to develop Marx’s view of alienation. In his book, he
explains four main elements in alienation.
The first form is man’s relation to his productive activity. In activity, Marx
sees that there are three qualities found in relation to man’s power: first, it is the
most important example of combined operation; second, it gives new possibilities
to the fulfillment of man’s ability through transforming the nature and the third, it
is a main means to develop man’s potential. In Man’s alienation from productive
activity, these three qualities are failed. Capitalism reverses the qualities that
should be gained by man in productive activity. In capitalist system, the repetitive
and specific task limits the man’s expression because their abilities are not
suitable with their operation. Worker who lives under the system of the capitalist
is undeveloped, since her/his power is spent by the repetitive task.
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Instead of developing the potential inherent in man’s powers, capitalist
labor consumes these powers without replenishing them, burns them up as
if they were fuel, and leaves the individual worker that much poorer
(Ollman, 1971: 138).
In the second relationship, results slums, wastelands, dirty factories,
contamination, etc. Hence, nature can’t provide them some new possibilities to
increase the fulfillment of man’s power. And the last relationship is capitalism
diminishes man’s qualities and leaves them without any means for recovery.
Man’s relation to his product is the second form of alienation. In this
alienation, man produce commodity which is alien to the producer himself and
even it becomes a power that controls him. The worker is alien to his works
because he only can make the product but he cannot consume it. The worker has
no control over it because it belongs to someone else. He should buy his own
works by spending all of his wages for his labor if he wants to have it. The
product even confronts its producer because the worker’s life depends on the
product. He needs product to work in order to get money to live. This product is
always needed in process of exchange which keeps rotating. Thus, the worker
spends most of his time to produce in order to keep this exchanging process. Thus,
he does not have any control over it, but this exchange of product which confronts
him.
The third alienation is man’s relation to his fellow men. In this alienation,
workers’ position is under the owner of wealth. The workers work to produces
products and they are owned by someone else. As Ollman states in the following
quotation:
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The hostility of the worker’s product is due to the fact that it is owned by a
capitalist, whose interests are directly opposed to those of the worker. The
product serves Marx as both the mask and the instrument of the capitalist’s
power (Ollman, 1971: 148).
Man is alien from his fellow men means the workers are alienated from
the capitalist. This alienation occurs when the product they produce is belong to
someone else who is alien to him. In short, this is the workers’ alienated relation
to the capitalist.
And the last is Man’s relation to his species. The process in capitalist
society has removed man’s qualities as a species being from other living
creatures. Worker as a human being as well as social being has no time to
socialize. His/ her qualities to make and to maintain good relationship are erased
by the activity to produce product. It means that worker spending his time in
productive activity and has little time even no time to do activities as a normal
person.
Doing the unfinished repetitive task, the worker has no time to improve
himself in order to be an ideal man. In capitalist society, survive is the most
motivation in working. Life becomes a means to work not as a chance to do work,
“Work has become a means to stay alive rather than life being an opportunity to
do work” (Ollman, 1971: 153). And since it happens in the worker’s life, the
worker cannot be himself but be something else.
Leopold in his book “The Young Karl Marx” states his deep study towards
Marx’s early writings. He elaborates alienation as a condition where someone
lacks or loses his relation between a certain entity and something value in his/her
life.
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Alienation as a concept used to suggest a kind of dysfunctional relation
(for example an unnatural separation or hostility) between entities. As
such, alienation would always seem to involve the loss or the lack of
something value (in the present formulation, the loss or the lack of natural
connectedness or harmony between the relevant entities (Leopold, 2007:
67)
Derived from this quotation, his viewpoint of the term of alienation as it is
stated as a dysfunctional relation is divided into two, subjective and objective.
Leopold says these two divisions of alienation can be applied separately or
conjointly in the lives of particular individuals. It is said subjective when it based
on personal feeling, people feel alienated when they do not feel comfortable and
they cannot enjoy the modern social life.
Alienation is said to be subjective when it consists in a presence (or
absence) of certain beliefs or feelings. For example, individuals are
sometimes characterized as alienated, either when (negatively) they do not
feel “at home” in the modern social world or when (positively) they do
feel estranged from that world (Leopold, 2007: 68).
In contrast to the previous explanation, the objective alienation is not
dealing with beliefs or feeling anymore, but rather than that it more talks about
alienation as a failure of individuals to develop the potentialities as a human.
The loss of individuals’ chance to improve and explore their abilities is
characterized as objective alienation.
Individuals are sometimes characterized as alienated when they are unable
to develop and deploy their essential human capacities (whether or not
they experience that lack of self - realization as a loss) (Leopold, 2007:
69).
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C. Theoretical Framework
This study has two problem formulations as it is mentioned before and
there are two theories that are chosen to answer those problems. The first theory is
the theory of character by Abrams. This theory is only used to explain the
characters that are chosen in the first problem, but it is not applicable in solving
the life experiences of the characters. Applying the theory of alienation is used to
solve the second problem formulation in this study. This theory is needed to
examine how the characters become alienated after the coming of the time thieves
and to identify the impacts of the alienation towards characters’ life in the story.
This theory is applied to identify which condition that is claimed to be alienated
and the impact towards characters’ life that occurs as a result of this condition.
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CHAPTER III
METHODOLOGY
A. Object of the Study
This study chooses the novel entitled Momo as the object of the study. It is
written by a German writer, Michael Ende, the author of the novel of Neverending Story. Even though, Ende is first becomes famous because of his
Neverending Story, but Momo is also one of his phenomenal work. Momo is a
children novel which is listed as the Puffin Books and placed in Puffin library.
This novel is first published in 1973 by Thienemann Verlag, Stuttgart/Wien and
the publication is supported by a grant from the Goethe- institute.
Michael Ende’s Momo wins the Deuctscher Jugendbuchpreis or in English
is called German youth literature prize at the years of 1972. He is granted an
award for his outstanding work by the Germany’s only state-funded literary
award. Momo is the one which represents the bronze statuette designed by Detlef
Kraft and it is translated into forty languages. Besides that, this novel inspires
people in making its movie under the title of Momo. The movie is made into
various versions and various languages too. Momo is the title of the novel, all at
once as the name of its main character. As it is written before that Momo is a
children fiction novel but at same time it also categorized as youth literature. Ende
doesn’t point only to one age but this novel appropriate for all ages.
Momo as the object of this study is elaborated into three parts. Part one
with the title of Momo and Her Friends includes five subchapters. Each
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21
subchapter has its own subtitle. The subtitles are The Amphitheatre, Listening,
Makebelieve, Two Special Friends, and Tall Stories. At the beginning of this part,
it describes the setting of the story. The old and abandoned amphitheater where
Momo lives and the place for Momo’s friends to gather. This part introduces and
describes Momo, the main character in this fiction novel. It also describes each of
Momo’s friends, especially Momo’s close friends; Beppo and Guido. In part one,
the author shows the beginning of Momo’s life with the society nearby the
amphitheater. The situation and condition when Momo begins to involve in the
society is also depicted in this part.
The Men in Grey is the title of the Part two. The Time Saving Bank, The
Visitor, The Demonstration, The Trial, More Haste Less Speed, The Conference,
and Nowhere House are the subtitles which are elaborated in this part. The Men in
Grey chapter focuses on the condition after the coming of the time thieves, their
systems, their actions and how they change the society. The conflict between the
time thieves and Momo is also highlighted here. Momo’s friend which comes to
save her, named Cassiopeia is also presented in this part. Cassiopeia is a kind of
turtle sent by Professor Hora to accompany Momo to escape from the time
thieves.
The last part entitled The Hour-Lilies is narrated by nine subtitles. They
are a Year and a Day, Three Lunches No Answers, Found and Lost, Loneliness,
The Square, The Pursuit, Under Siege, Pursuing the Pursuers, and An End and a
Beginning. Momo and Cassiopeia come back again and find her friends are all
have change. The climax of the story appears in this part and the solution is also
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explained. How Momo saves the society and gives them back their stolen time
until the condition back to the normal are the points shown in this part.
B. Approach of the Study
The approach that is used in this study is moral-philosophical approach.
As Guerin states in his book that the basic assumption of this approach is to teach
morality and to probe philosophical ideas (Guerin, 1999: 25). The focus is not on
the work’s aesthetic and form, but on the moral and philosophical teaching.
The prominent theme discussed in this study is alienation. The term of
alienation is applied in many fields. It has been developed into various definitions,
where moral and philosophical can be used to approach the work and bears what
the study needs; the negative impacts of alienation towards the characters’ life in
Michael Ende’s Momo.
C. Method of the Study
Library research is the method of the study which is applied in this
undergraduate thesis. The sources of this study are collected from the library
research and internet research. The library research provides the novel of Michael
Ende entitled Momo, the object of this study. Moreover, the theories are gathered
from the library research. The internet research, in addition, is used to support the
analysis.
Momo is the primary source and to support this primary source, there are
some secondary sources. These sources are such as the theories, criticism, related
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
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theories, related studies and other references. They are in the form of printed and
on-line. The printed sources such as M. H. Abrams’ A Glossary of Literary Terms
and Guerin, Earle Labor, Lee Morgan, Jeanne Reesman and JohnWillingham‘s A
handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature, fifth edition, while the online
sources such as Ollman’s Marx’s Conception of Man in Capitalist Society,
Goodhew and Loy’s Momo, Dogen and The Commodification of Time, and
Roderick McGillis’ Self, Other and Other Self: Recognizing the Other in
Children’s Literature.
The writer did close reading towards the novel before doing the analysis.
This close reading was aimed to get profound understanding of the story. After
that, the writer determined the topic and the problem formulations. Under the
guidance of the problem formulations, the analysis was begun.
In conducting the analysis, there were some steps to be overstepped. The
first step was the examination of the life experiences of the chosen characters such
as Mr. Figaro, Nino, Beppo, Guido, Franco and Momo. All events in the whole
story which lead the characters into alienation were described in this first step.
The second step was the identification of the impacts of alienation towards the life
of the characters. Using the theory of alienation under the discipline of moral
philosophical, it tried to identify how those characters were alienated. After
answering the two problem formulations, the last step which was taken was
drawing the conclusion.
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CHAPTER IV
ANALYSIS
In the novel of Momo, there are some experiences that are undergone by
the characters which lead them into alienation and this alienation bestows some
impacts upon their life. These two issues then formulated into two problems. The
two problems are divided into two subchapters, and each subchapter possibly has
several smaller sections. The first part is the description of the characters’
experiences which lead them to the alienation. Those characters are namely Mr.
Figaro, Nino, Beppo, Guido, Franco and Momo.
To point the characters, the writer used the theory of Abrams which says,
“characters are the persons represented in a dramatic or narrative work, who are
interpreted by the reader as being endowed with particular moral, intellectual, and
emotional qualities by inferences from what the persons say and their distinctive
ways of saying it, the dialogue and from what they do, the action (Abrams, 1999:
33). Experience is categorized as action since it is a conscious event that is lived
by the characters. If there is an experience there must be someone who experience
something, as it is stated that, ”if there is action there must be someone to act, a
character” (Beaty, 1973: 604)
The characters’ experiences are described in detail. The answers of the
first problem lead this examination to enter the second problem. The second
problem is the description of the impacts of alienation towards the characters’ life
in Michael Ende’s Momo. In this analysis, it is described that some of the
characters experience the same impacts of alienation.
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In this chapter, the descriptions of some events which are undergone by
the selected characters, which make them experience dysfunctional relation
between entities, are stated as alienation. Based on Leopold, alienation is a
concept used to suggest a kind of dysfunctional relation (for example an unnatural
separation or hostility) between entities or the loss or the lack of natural
connectedness or harmony between the relevant entities (Leopold, 2007: 67).
Supported by theory of Ollman, alienation is stated as a devastating effect
experienced by human beings as a result of capitalist production on their physical,
mental states and on the social processes of which they are a part (Ollman, 1971:
131). Ollman encompasses his theory into several categories of alienation. The
categories of alienation are man’s relation to his productive activity, man’s
relation to his product, man’s relation to his fellow men, and man’s relation to his
species.
According to that theory, this chapter starts to examine the experiences of
the characters which lead them into alienation in the novel of Michael Ende,
Momo. The experiences which lead the characters into alienation that are
examined in this study are described below:
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A. The Description of the Characters’ Experiences which Lead Them into
Alienati
THE IMPACTS OF ALIENATION TOWARDS
THE CHARACTERS’ LIFE IN MICHAEL ENDE’ S MOMO
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra
in English Letters
By
ANNA PALUTE
Student Number: 084214073
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
YOGYAKARTA
2013
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
THE IMPACTS OF ALIENATION TOWARDS
THE CHARACTERS’ LIFE IN MICHAEL ENDE’ S MOMO
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra
in English Letters
By
ANNA PALUTE
Student Number: 084214073
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
YOGYAKARTA
2013
i
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ii
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
iii
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH
UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS
Yang betanda tangan di bawah ini, saya mahasiswa Universitas Sanata Dharma:
Nama
: Anna Palute
Nomor Mahasiswa : 084214073
Demi kepentingan ilmu pengetahuan, saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan
Universitas Sanata Dharma karya ilmiah saya yang berjudul:
The Impacts of Alienation towards the Characters’ Life
in Michael Ende’s Momo
Beserta perangkat yang diperlukan (bila ada). Dengan demikian saya memberikan
kepada Perpustakaan Sanata Dharma hak untuk menyimpan, mengalihkan 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 penyataan ini yang saya buat dengan sebenarnya.
Dibuat di Yogyakarta.
Pada tanggal: 4 Februari 2013
Yang menyatakan,
(Anna Palute)
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STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY
This Thesis entitled ”The Impacts of Alienation towards the Characters’
Life in Michael Ende’s Momo” is purely made by the thesis writer. In other
words, all ideas, all phrases, and all sentences, unless otherwise stated, are ideas,
phrases, and sentences of the thesis writer. The writer understands the full
consequences including degree cancelation if he took somebody else’s ideas,
phrases, or sentences without proper references.
Yogyakarta, February 4th, 2013
Anna Palute
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Time is life itself, and life resides
in the human heart (Michael Ende)
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This work is dedicated to
Whom I call
“Indo’Ambe’ku sia mintu’
siulu’ku”
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I believe that this thesis is one of Jesus’ gifts and I am very grateful since I
have Him in my life. His love is proved by giving the following people to help me
to accomplish this writing. Therefore, I would like to give my great gratitude to
my beloved parents and family for their endless love for me. My deep gratitude is
for my major advisor, Drs. Hirmawan Wijanarka, M.Hum., for his willingness to
guide me and his patience to spare his time in reading and correcting my drafts.
My deep gratitude also goes to my co-advisor, Harris Hermansyah S., S.S.,
M.Hum., for his suggestion to revise this writing.
I would like to appreciate all of my lecturers for sharing knowledge and
wisdom along my study, mbak Ninik for her helpful administration. I also would
like to say thanks to my best friend Doni Agung Setiawan for his willingness to
accompany me and to give some inputs in this writing, Michael Ende for his
unforgettable story, Karl Marx for his precious discourse, Buser for his big love
and support, Ryan La’lang and friends for the truly friendship, Twins (Lintang
and Wahyu) and family, Pak Obed and family, Riris, Pebri, Vita, Emmak, Cicil,
Bang Jep, Koko Gustin, Mbak Winda, Hasmansa makale, Ikapmajaya, Teater
Seriboe Djendela, Sunday School Gki Gejayan, Beo 49’s crews, PPGT Jemaat
Pantan and all of my friends in English Letters 2008 for the bitter-sweet days we
spend together and people whose names cannot be mentioned here but give
contribution in this undergraduate thesis.
Anna Palute
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
TITLE PAGE …………………………………………………………..
APPROVAL PAGE ……………………………………………………
ACCEPTANCE PAGE………………………………………………...
LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI………...
STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY…………………………………...
MOTTO PAGE …………………………………………………………
DEDICATION PAGE ………………………………………………….
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ……………………………………………
TABLE OF CONTENTS ………………………………………………
ABSTRACT …………………………………………………………….
ABSTRAK ………………………………………………………………
i
ii
iii
iv
v
vi
vii
viii
ix
x
xi
CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION………………………………………
A. Background of the Study ……………………………………
B. Problem Formulation ……………………………………….
C. Objectives of the Study ……………………………………..
D. Definition of Terms ………………………………………….
1
1
4
5
5
CHAPTER II: THEORETICAL REVIEW ………………………….
A. Review of Related Studies ………………………………….
B. Review of Related Theories ………………………………..
C. Theoretical Framework ……………………………………
7
13
15
19
CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY …………………………………..
A. Object of the Study …………………………………………
B. Approach of the Study ……………………………………...
C. Method of the Study ………………………………………..
20
20
22
22
CHAPTER IV: ANALYSIS ……………………………………………. 25
A. The Description of the Characters’ Experiences which
Lead them into Alienation…………………………………… 26
B. The Negative Impacts of Alienation towards
The Characters’ Life………………………………………… 49
CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION ………………………………………… 70
BIBLIOGRAPHY ………………………………………………………. 73
APPENDIX : Summary of Michael Ende’s Momo……………………… 75
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ABSTRACT
ANNA PALUTE. The Impacts of Alienation towards the Characters’ Life in
Michael Ende’s Momo. Yogyakarta: Department of English Letters, Faculty of
Letters, Sanata Dharma University, 2013.
Momo is one of outstanding fantasy novel which can be read by all ages.
This novel covers the story of time saving system which becomes the metaphor of
capitalist system in Marxism. The characters that commit or live under this system
are analyzed to discuss alienation as well as its negative impacts.
The aim of this study is to answer the two following problem
formulations: firstly to analyze the characters’ experiences which lead them into
alienation and secondly, to identify the negative impacts of alienation towards the
characters’ life according to the previous analysis.
The writer applies the library research as the main method in this study
and the internet research is used to support the main method. Moral-philosophical
approach is used since this study tries to see the negative impacts of alienation.
In this study, the writer finds that each character that becomes the object of
this analysis is being alienated. Alienation of each character is different since it is
based on each character’s experiences in his/her daily life. Alienation also causes
some negative impacts on the character’s life. The negative impacts are the loss of
social relationship, unhappiness and attachment to a certain activity. Alienation
and negative impacts of alienation are two discourses which talk about human
problems. By knowing these discourses, the readers can build their understanding
to handle their life and their alienation. It can be one alternative to raise the
readers’ awareness about the importance of keeping their humanity and their
social relationship in society.
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ABSTRAK
ANNA PALUTE. The Impacts of Alienation towards the Characters’ Life in
Michael Ende’s Momo. Yogyakarta: Jurusan Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra,
Universitas Sanata Dharma, 2013.
Momo merupakan salah satu novel fantasi yang luar biasa yang dapat
dibaca oleh semua kalangan. Novel ini berkisah tentang sistem menabung waktu
yang menjadi kiasan dari sistem kapitalis marxisme. Tokoh-tokoh yang menabung
waktu atau yang hidup di bawah sistem ini dianalisis dengan tujuan untuk
mendiskusikan alienasi beserta dampak- dampak negatifnya.
Tujuan dari studi ini yaitu untuk menjawab dua rumusan masalah sebagai
berikut: Pertama adalah menganalisis pengalaman-pengalaman para tokoh yang
membawa mereka kedalam alienasi dan yang kedua adalah untuk
mengidentifikasi dampak negatif dari alienasi terhadap kehidupan mereka
berdasarkan analisis sebelumnya.
Penulis mangaplikasikan metode penelitian pustaka sebagai sumber utama
dan penelitian internet sebagai penunjang dalam studi ini. Pendekatan moralphilosopi digunakan karena studi ini mencoba melihat dampak-dampak negative
dari alienasi.
Dalam studi ini, penulis menemukan bahwa tiap tokoh yang menjadi objek
dari analisis ini teralienasi. Alienasi dari tokoh-tokoh tersebut berbeda satu sama
lain berdasarakan pengalaman tiap-tiap tokoh. Alienasi menyebabkan beberapa
dampak negatif terhadap kehidupan para tokoh. Dampak-dampak tersebut yakni
hilangya hubungan sosial, ketidak-bahagiaan, dan terperangkap dalam satu
aktivititas tertentu. Alienasi dan dampak negatif dari alienasi adalah dua wacana
yang berbicara tentang permasalahan hidup manusia. Dengan mengetahui wacanawacana tersebut pembaca dapat membangun pemahaman mereka untuk mengatasi
kehidupan dan alienasi mereka. Kisah ini juga bisa menjadi salah satu alternatif
untuk membangkitkan kesadaran pembaca tentang pentingya menjaga
kemanusiaan dan hubungan sosial dalam kehidupan bermasyarakat.
xi
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CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. Background of the Study
Rene Wellek and Austin Warren state in their book that literature
represents life and life is a social reality and this world becomes the object of
literary imitation (Wellek and Warren, 1956: 94). Even though it seems a clichéd
statement, but it still has the truth that literature always represents the social
reality. Literature as a work of art is a medium to retell the reality experienced by
the author using certain expression. Generally, the authors represent reality with
its complexity and give perception into their artworks. One of the artworks which
represent reality is novel. Novel is still needed because it is used to represent the
reality which is the life itself. As James writes in his book, “The only reason for
the existence of a novel is that it does attempt to represent life” (James, 1978: 50).
Novel as one of literary works becomes one alternative for the writer to
narrate his/her experiences. The author writes his/her experiences based on the era
and period in which he/she lives. It is possible for the writers to fill certain
discourse into his/her literary work, as it will be discussed in this study, in the
novel entitled Momo. In a kind of perspective, it is visible the discourse of
capitalism, in worst, capitalist stands to dominate and exploit human under that
system. Therefore, it is possible to examine literary work by using the theory
outside the intrinsic element of literary work. Seeing and examining the discourse
of capitalism, Marxist perspectives towards capitalism are appropriate.
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2
In the book entitled Beginning Theory (An Introduction to Literary and
Cultural Theory), Barry states that the beginning and the basics of Marxism is
started from the history of class struggle caused by the competition for economic,
social and political advantage. In that struggle, one social class is exploited by
another in modern industrial capitalism. This condition then makes that exploited
class becomes alienated (Barry, 1995: 106). Engaging this idea, the writer finds an
interesting fact in the novel of Michael Ende namely Momo, that most of the
characters experience alienation. Based on the understanding of the writer after
reading Momo and Marxism theory, the writer finds similarities of systems in
both; time saving system found in Momo is a metaphor of capitalist system in
Marxism.
In Momo, time saving is a system which is made by the time thieves that
pretend to be the time banking agents. This system involves the time thieves as
the banking agents and Momo’s friends or the society as the clients. The time
thieves have power over the society because they create a system to dominate the
life of the society by situating people to spend their time only for works. The
society is the victim of life exploitation through time. Just like in the perspective
of Marxist, there are always two components in Capitalist system. The first one is
the Capitalist or the owner of wealth and the second is the proletariats or the
workers.
The proletariats are live under the rule and system made by the Capitalist
and they become the victim of exploitation. The situation which is created by the
system of capitalism puts the workers in a condition that the workers spend most
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3
of their time to work. This situation resulted in their loss of humanity, “Workers
are deskilled should doing repetitive task without having grasp. They are regarded
as the ‘hands’ of capitalist and because of that, they lost their humanity because of
the goal of the capitalist” (Barry, 1995: 106).
In this research, the writer chooses Michael Ende’s Momo as the object of
this study because in Momo occurs the representation of the problem of human
alienation. The forms of alienation are different for each class. It depends on
individual’s position and style of life but the most severe and afflicted is
experienced by the proletariat (Ollman, 1971: 132).
Momo is a fantasy fiction listed in Puffin book, a children library. It is a
children novel but it delights readers in all ages. This novel was written in 1972
but the content of this novel criticizes the modern world. Momo is not only
offering the readers a great fantasy and imagination, but more than that this novel
can read the future and make it relevant with the problems experienced by human
today. If the topic in this novel brought into readers’ daily life, it will be found the
relevancy and the relation.
The reason on doing research on the topic of alienation is challenged by
the statement written by Ollman, “One of the manifestations of alienation is that
‘all is under the sway of inhuman power’, and adds, ‘this applies also the
capitalist’ (Ollman, 1971: 132).
According to that statement, it is obvious that all human and even the
capitalist are being under the inhuman power and all are being alienated. Thus,
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4
this study is challenging because it gives us the discourse that human
unconsciously or consciously are under control.
This study is relevant to human’s life today and it is appropriate to be
elaborated in this research to share knowledge that possibility, it can be used to
improve the awareness of human towards their life. It elaborates some life values
related to human life as a social being. The knowledge about alienation can be
used to open up human mind to consciously handle their alienation. The negative
impact of alienation towards characters’ life in Momo also can be the reflection of
human’s life situations of today. When human has deeper understanding about
this kind of condition, then they perhaps will have another alternative ways of
living with others in their society.
B. Problem Formulation
In this study, there are two problem formulations to be analyzed. The first
problem is aimed to examine the experiences of the characters that lead them into
alienation and the second is to examine the impacts of each character’s alienation
towards his/her life. Here these problems are:
1. How are the characters’ experiences which lead them into alienation
described?
2. What are the impacts of the alienation towards the characters’ life in
Michael Ende’s Momo?
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C. Objectives of the Study
Based on the problem formulation, this study has two objectives. The first
objective is to find out the detailed descriptions of the characters’ life experiences
which lead them into alienation throughout the story. The characters are namely
Mr. Figaro, Nino, Beppo, Guido, Franco and Momo. The examination of the
characters’ life experiences is purposed to see the description on how those
character are alienated by their experiences. And the last problem formulation is
to identify the impacts of alienation towards the characters’ life in Michael Ende’s
Momo.
D. Definition of Terms
There are some terminologies listed to be clarified to avoid
misunderstanding in this study. The definitions of those terminologies are taken
from APA Dictionary of Psychology, Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy,
second edition and The Young Karl Marx, German Philosophy, Modern Politics
and Human Flourishing.
1. Life Experience
Based on APA Dictionary of Psychology, the term experience is defined as
a conscious event: an event that is lived through, or undergone, as opposed to one
that is imagined or thought about (2007: 354). According to Cambridge
Dictionary of Philosophy, life is the characteristic property of living substances or
things; it is associated with either a capacity for mental activities such as
perception and thought (mental life) or physical activities such as absorption,
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6
excretion, metabolism, synthesis, and reproduction (physical life) (1999: 537).
Based on those two definitions, life experience in this context is defined as an
event that is lived through, or undergone, as opposed to one that is imagined or
thought about in mental life and physical life.
2. Alienation
Alienation is a concept used to suggest a kind of dysfunctional relation
(for example an unnatural separation or hostility) between entities or the loss or
the lack of natural connectedness or harmony between the relevant entities
(Leopold, 2007: 67).
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
CHAPTER II
THEORETICAL REVIEW
A.
Review of Related Studies
In reviewing the related studies, the writer states two others’ point of view
towards the work of Ende namely Momo. These related studies are different from
the way of each observer sees the issue in Momo. The observers elaborate their
views in different ways too. Those elaborations are used to emerge other
perspectives towards the same work and to see the differences between those
observers’ studies and the writer’s study. At the end, all of these perspectives are
used to support (discourse, idea and point of view) the writer’s analysis.
1.
Self, Other and Other Self: Recognizing the Other in Children’s
Literature by Roderick McGillis (The Grey Eminence of Politics:
Otherness and Sameness)
McGillis is a Professor of English at the University of Calgary, one who
did investigation towards Michael Ende’s work, Momo. In his analysis, he finds
that Momo which is written under the theme of time and social has connection
with his theme, otherness. The connection is stated as follows;” To put this in a
way closer to my theme, I simply point out that these grey men represent the drive
to oneness, the desire to wipe out difference, "otherness." That which is "Other" is
a threat to these men. Based on this quotation, McGillis finds that the men in grey
in the work of Ende are the representation of his theme. The men in grey in the
story try to uniform the society by putting them under one system, the system of
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8
time saving bank. This context is related to McGillis’ study which says about the
desire to make people similar and try to eliminate the diversities. The similarity
between those two studies is also explained by Ende by connecting the theme of
the otherness and time. He notices that the desire to wipe out difference in
McGillis study has something to do with the desire to control time in Momo
(McGillis, 1997: 7).
McGillis examined the men in grey or the time thieves are a band of men
which is trying to influence the society in Momo. The statement that strengthens
his study is “The men in grey make it their business to promote desire, for as long
as we desire we are vulnerable to the authority and control of those who produce
objects of desire. In effect, what the men in grey produce is nothing other than an
ersatz desire, a manufactured desire, one that disrupts natural desire” (McGillis,
1997: 7). By following those desire, the society loss of their natural desire. “What
I mean by "natural desire" is quite simply the desire each of us feels for unity,
oneness, for that lost innocence we think we remember from our childhoods”
(McGillis, 1997: 7).
McGillis notices the men in grey have one goal to control over the lives of
the societies by persuading them to be the timesavers. By being the timesavers,
societies will only focus on one activity. This activity will remove the societies’
other desires. The desires such as the willingness to build a good relationship and
to do other activities as normal people have. From this explanation, it can be seen
that the grey men are the representation of his study.
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9
From the setting and the story itself, Momo is classified as a fantasy story.
Even though, a fantasy story is outside human real world, it still has relevancy
towards human life as McGillis says that; “Of course events in a fantasy have
never happened, will never happen, and yet have already always happened. The
thing to insist on when we speak of fantasy is its "otherness." Fantasy presents
things as other than they are; in this otherness lays fantasy's very familiarity”
(McGillis, 1997: 7). It is indeed, that the story of Momo is only imaginary and the
readers already know that. However, the author tries to imitate the character of
real human and the society and try to put some issues of human life in his work to
make his work believable and acceptable.
Momo as a fantasy book found as a children book that still has relevancy
towards human’s life. One of the relevancies is shown by the founded topic which
depicts human’s problems in life, “Momo, then, is a book about the destruction of
"otherness," and the consequences of this destruction. Once the "Other" is
controlled, even negated, then individual liberty is lost. The people in this story-Guido the storyteller, Beppo the roadsweeper, Nino the innkeeper, the children
who once played with Momo--find their lives controlled by the grey-suited time
thieves. The world becomes colorless once difference disappears” (McGillis,
1997: 8).
According to McGillis’ analysis, it can be seen that one issue of human’s life
is represented by the men the men in grey in Momo. The men in grey represent
one destructive power that are trying to control the society and trying to eliminate
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10
the difference between them. The issue to limit the societies’ freedom as it
happens in reality. They make them to submit the sameness without interrupting.
Reviewing this study, the writer wants to show that the writer’s analysis is
different from Roderick McGillis’s examination. McGillis sees this study from the
point of view of the men in grey or the time thieves who represent his theory. He
depicts the power that he calls the grey eminence of politic through analyzing the
men in grey, while the writer’s study focuses in examining the negative impacts of
the alienation towards characters’ life in Michael Ende’s Momo.
2. Momo, Dogen and Commodification of time by Goodhew and Loy (Ende’s
View of Time in Momo and the Buddhist Perspective on Time Particularly
as Expressed by Japanese Zen Master Dogen)
Goodhew and Loy are two researchers who doing an analysis on the work
of Michael Ende namely Momo. Their study is an elaboration of Ende’s view of
time that is shown in his novel and Buddhist’s Perspective of time which is
particularly expressed by Japanese Zen Master Dogen. These researchers want to
give a deep understanding of time. To strengthen this sight, they use point of
views from Ende which occurs in Momo and from Dogen’s perspective based on
Buddhism. This knowledge is used to give a profound insight about time and to
give understanding to how we experience time today.
In their study, these researchers try to relate the issue of time in Ende’s
work to the society of U.S by showing the 1992 survey by the U.S. National
Recreation and Park Association. They found that:
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11
38 percent of Americans report “always” feeling rushed, up from 22
percent in 1971. In The Overworked American (also 1992) Juliet Schorr
argued that Americans are working much longer hours, and more
recently Joe Robinson in the Utne Reader (Sept.-Oct. 2000) claims that
the United States has now passed Japan as the most overworked land in
the industrialized world. He says that the husband and wife of an average
US household are now working an average of 500 more hours a year than
they did in 1980 (Goodhew and Loy, 2002: 2).
It is one of the facts how people in reality, especially Americans spent
their time by working. Being overworked is one case shown in the quotation and
it also occurs in Ende’s novel, namely Momo. Loy and Goodhew show that the
issue implied in Momo is not getting loose from human’s life in reality. Ende’s
writes the novel of Momo under the influences of the environment, the age, and
the experiences that he gets from his life. In different ways this issue is explained.
A statement that Loy and Goodhew find in Momo; “The grey men teach
Momo’s friends that their time is a commodity that can be saved and invested”
(Loy and Goodhew, 2002: 5). Those researchers view that Momo presents a
human problem related to time. Time is regarded as money which is can be saved
and invested, while Loy and Goodhew argue that; “Such time cannot be saved
because we are it. To treat it as a commodity is to be caught up in a delusion that
makes us hurry up in order to have the time to slow down - the trap that Momo’s
time-thieves encourage” (Loy and Goodhew, 2002: 6). These two researchers
argue that time cannot be treated as money since time is the life itself. Time
thieves in Momo deceive the societies as if time can be saved, but it is only a
delusion. That is the issue of time which is these two researchers find in Momo.
The issue about the commodification of time and the treatment towards time
which is regarded as something, that can be treated as a commodity.
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Even though Goodhew and Loy work on the same novel with the writer,
but the topic and analysis in their study are totally different from the writer’s
study. Goodhew and Loy focus on the perspective of time, while the writer’s
analysis focuses on the negative impacts of alienation towards the character’s life
in the context of the novel, Momo.
3. Alienation as a Fictional Construct in Four Contemporary British Novels
by Burgert Adrian Senekal
Burgert Adrian Senekal is the one who examines the topic of alienation.
His study is about the application of the theoretical contribution to the literature
that is stemmed from the alienated British society to find out and have a deeper
understanding about the manifestation of alienation in four contemporary British
novels. He chooses four authors as the object of his study in which those authors
have their own unique way to depict alienation. Those authors become the central
of contemporary British canon. Using the theory of alienation, Senekal
reinterprets the topic alienation on those four works.
In his study, he finds that Seeman’s theory of alienation is more
applicable than Marx’s theory, “Seeman's classification of powerlessness,
meaninglessness, normlessness, social isolation, and self-estrangement are as
applicable in the post-modern context as they were when Seeman first published
On the Meaning of Alienation (Senekal, 2008: 189). Although, Marx also
classifies the term of alienation into three aspects, but Seeman’s insight is more
useful in this study.
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He finds what kind of alienation that exists in the contemporary western
British, the forms of alienation that are experienced by the inhabitants, and the
contribution of alienation in literature works at that time. He finds the appropriate
theory of alienation which is applied in his study is within the discipline of
psychology. It is stated that,” All of the novels studied have manifested aspects of
Seeman's alienation, foregrounding some and moving other aspects to the
background, but the novels in general reflect the findings of alienation research by
Seeman, Geyer, Neal & Collas, Kalekin-Fishman and others that alienation is as
prevalent in the contemporary world as it was when Marx first identified the
phenomenon, albeit in different ways” (Senekal, 2008: 189). Under the discipline
of psychology, Senekal uses supportive theory of five researches. Finally he
concludes that those novels reflect those researches’ theories and that alienation is
already familiar in contemporary world.
It is indeed, that Senekal’s study and the writer’s study analyse the same
topic that is alienation. However what makes this study different from the writer’s
study is this study relies on Seeman’s theory under the discipline of psychology,
while the writer applies Marx’s theory of alienation which is philosophical.
B.
Review of Related Theories
1. Theory of Character
Character is one of the elements in fiction which is combined in such a
way with other elements in order to build the body of literary works. Character as
an intrinsic element may occur in fiction, drama and narrative poem. Character in
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14
fiction especially, has a big role in creating the narration. Character has a role to
act in order to create an action; ”if there is action there must be someone to act, a
character” (Beaty, 1973: 604). Therefore, without character the narration will not
alive. Character should be occur as someone “….who act out in a particular time
and place (SETTING) some kind of conflict in a pattern of events” (Rohrberger
and Woods, 1971: 20). If character is not exist , there will be no action and there
will be no story, while the most fundamental of novel is telling story as Forster
says that ”the basis of a novel is a story, and a story is a narrative of events
arranged in time-sequence” (Forster, 1974: 20).
Character has been defined into various definitions. As Beaty defines it as
“In its most common usage with reference to literature, character simply means a
person (or personified or anthropomorphized animal, object, or deity) who acts,
appears, or is referred to in a work” (Beaty, 1973: 604) . Character is not only in a
sort of human being but it can be animal, object and deity which are personified.
Abrams adds Beaty’s definition by stating that “characters are the persons
represented in a dramatic or narrative work, who are interpreted by the reader as
being endowed with particular moral, intellectual, and emotional qualities by
inferences from what the persons say and their distinctive ways of saying it, the
dialogue and from what they do, the action (Abrams, 1999: 33) or in short
Holman and Harmon write characters “It is a brief descriptive sketch of personage
who typifies some definite quality” (Holman and Harmon, 1986: 81).
Each
character presented in a narration has particular moral as human has. These moral
are divided into vice and virtue. The quality of character in a story resembles the
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15
quality of human in real life. This quality then used as evidence to show that
character in a story is an example of human in reality. These theories then used
by the writer to point to a certain person whom is chosen to be identified and to be
the object of this study.
2. Theory of Alienation
The term of alienation is first derived from Marx’s view as an impact of
capitalist production on human beings on social processes that they live in. But
then this term has been broadened and applied in many fields. Ollman, the author
of the book “Alienation: Marx Conception of Man in Capitalist Society” is one of
the researchers who try to develop Marx’s view of alienation. In his book, he
explains four main elements in alienation.
The first form is man’s relation to his productive activity. In activity, Marx
sees that there are three qualities found in relation to man’s power: first, it is the
most important example of combined operation; second, it gives new possibilities
to the fulfillment of man’s ability through transforming the nature and the third, it
is a main means to develop man’s potential. In Man’s alienation from productive
activity, these three qualities are failed. Capitalism reverses the qualities that
should be gained by man in productive activity. In capitalist system, the repetitive
and specific task limits the man’s expression because their abilities are not
suitable with their operation. Worker who lives under the system of the capitalist
is undeveloped, since her/his power is spent by the repetitive task.
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Instead of developing the potential inherent in man’s powers, capitalist
labor consumes these powers without replenishing them, burns them up as
if they were fuel, and leaves the individual worker that much poorer
(Ollman, 1971: 138).
In the second relationship, results slums, wastelands, dirty factories,
contamination, etc. Hence, nature can’t provide them some new possibilities to
increase the fulfillment of man’s power. And the last relationship is capitalism
diminishes man’s qualities and leaves them without any means for recovery.
Man’s relation to his product is the second form of alienation. In this
alienation, man produce commodity which is alien to the producer himself and
even it becomes a power that controls him. The worker is alien to his works
because he only can make the product but he cannot consume it. The worker has
no control over it because it belongs to someone else. He should buy his own
works by spending all of his wages for his labor if he wants to have it. The
product even confronts its producer because the worker’s life depends on the
product. He needs product to work in order to get money to live. This product is
always needed in process of exchange which keeps rotating. Thus, the worker
spends most of his time to produce in order to keep this exchanging process. Thus,
he does not have any control over it, but this exchange of product which confronts
him.
The third alienation is man’s relation to his fellow men. In this alienation,
workers’ position is under the owner of wealth. The workers work to produces
products and they are owned by someone else. As Ollman states in the following
quotation:
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The hostility of the worker’s product is due to the fact that it is owned by a
capitalist, whose interests are directly opposed to those of the worker. The
product serves Marx as both the mask and the instrument of the capitalist’s
power (Ollman, 1971: 148).
Man is alien from his fellow men means the workers are alienated from
the capitalist. This alienation occurs when the product they produce is belong to
someone else who is alien to him. In short, this is the workers’ alienated relation
to the capitalist.
And the last is Man’s relation to his species. The process in capitalist
society has removed man’s qualities as a species being from other living
creatures. Worker as a human being as well as social being has no time to
socialize. His/ her qualities to make and to maintain good relationship are erased
by the activity to produce product. It means that worker spending his time in
productive activity and has little time even no time to do activities as a normal
person.
Doing the unfinished repetitive task, the worker has no time to improve
himself in order to be an ideal man. In capitalist society, survive is the most
motivation in working. Life becomes a means to work not as a chance to do work,
“Work has become a means to stay alive rather than life being an opportunity to
do work” (Ollman, 1971: 153). And since it happens in the worker’s life, the
worker cannot be himself but be something else.
Leopold in his book “The Young Karl Marx” states his deep study towards
Marx’s early writings. He elaborates alienation as a condition where someone
lacks or loses his relation between a certain entity and something value in his/her
life.
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Alienation as a concept used to suggest a kind of dysfunctional relation
(for example an unnatural separation or hostility) between entities. As
such, alienation would always seem to involve the loss or the lack of
something value (in the present formulation, the loss or the lack of natural
connectedness or harmony between the relevant entities (Leopold, 2007:
67)
Derived from this quotation, his viewpoint of the term of alienation as it is
stated as a dysfunctional relation is divided into two, subjective and objective.
Leopold says these two divisions of alienation can be applied separately or
conjointly in the lives of particular individuals. It is said subjective when it based
on personal feeling, people feel alienated when they do not feel comfortable and
they cannot enjoy the modern social life.
Alienation is said to be subjective when it consists in a presence (or
absence) of certain beliefs or feelings. For example, individuals are
sometimes characterized as alienated, either when (negatively) they do not
feel “at home” in the modern social world or when (positively) they do
feel estranged from that world (Leopold, 2007: 68).
In contrast to the previous explanation, the objective alienation is not
dealing with beliefs or feeling anymore, but rather than that it more talks about
alienation as a failure of individuals to develop the potentialities as a human.
The loss of individuals’ chance to improve and explore their abilities is
characterized as objective alienation.
Individuals are sometimes characterized as alienated when they are unable
to develop and deploy their essential human capacities (whether or not
they experience that lack of self - realization as a loss) (Leopold, 2007:
69).
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C. Theoretical Framework
This study has two problem formulations as it is mentioned before and
there are two theories that are chosen to answer those problems. The first theory is
the theory of character by Abrams. This theory is only used to explain the
characters that are chosen in the first problem, but it is not applicable in solving
the life experiences of the characters. Applying the theory of alienation is used to
solve the second problem formulation in this study. This theory is needed to
examine how the characters become alienated after the coming of the time thieves
and to identify the impacts of the alienation towards characters’ life in the story.
This theory is applied to identify which condition that is claimed to be alienated
and the impact towards characters’ life that occurs as a result of this condition.
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
CHAPTER III
METHODOLOGY
A. Object of the Study
This study chooses the novel entitled Momo as the object of the study. It is
written by a German writer, Michael Ende, the author of the novel of Neverending Story. Even though, Ende is first becomes famous because of his
Neverending Story, but Momo is also one of his phenomenal work. Momo is a
children novel which is listed as the Puffin Books and placed in Puffin library.
This novel is first published in 1973 by Thienemann Verlag, Stuttgart/Wien and
the publication is supported by a grant from the Goethe- institute.
Michael Ende’s Momo wins the Deuctscher Jugendbuchpreis or in English
is called German youth literature prize at the years of 1972. He is granted an
award for his outstanding work by the Germany’s only state-funded literary
award. Momo is the one which represents the bronze statuette designed by Detlef
Kraft and it is translated into forty languages. Besides that, this novel inspires
people in making its movie under the title of Momo. The movie is made into
various versions and various languages too. Momo is the title of the novel, all at
once as the name of its main character. As it is written before that Momo is a
children fiction novel but at same time it also categorized as youth literature. Ende
doesn’t point only to one age but this novel appropriate for all ages.
Momo as the object of this study is elaborated into three parts. Part one
with the title of Momo and Her Friends includes five subchapters. Each
20
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21
subchapter has its own subtitle. The subtitles are The Amphitheatre, Listening,
Makebelieve, Two Special Friends, and Tall Stories. At the beginning of this part,
it describes the setting of the story. The old and abandoned amphitheater where
Momo lives and the place for Momo’s friends to gather. This part introduces and
describes Momo, the main character in this fiction novel. It also describes each of
Momo’s friends, especially Momo’s close friends; Beppo and Guido. In part one,
the author shows the beginning of Momo’s life with the society nearby the
amphitheater. The situation and condition when Momo begins to involve in the
society is also depicted in this part.
The Men in Grey is the title of the Part two. The Time Saving Bank, The
Visitor, The Demonstration, The Trial, More Haste Less Speed, The Conference,
and Nowhere House are the subtitles which are elaborated in this part. The Men in
Grey chapter focuses on the condition after the coming of the time thieves, their
systems, their actions and how they change the society. The conflict between the
time thieves and Momo is also highlighted here. Momo’s friend which comes to
save her, named Cassiopeia is also presented in this part. Cassiopeia is a kind of
turtle sent by Professor Hora to accompany Momo to escape from the time
thieves.
The last part entitled The Hour-Lilies is narrated by nine subtitles. They
are a Year and a Day, Three Lunches No Answers, Found and Lost, Loneliness,
The Square, The Pursuit, Under Siege, Pursuing the Pursuers, and An End and a
Beginning. Momo and Cassiopeia come back again and find her friends are all
have change. The climax of the story appears in this part and the solution is also
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explained. How Momo saves the society and gives them back their stolen time
until the condition back to the normal are the points shown in this part.
B. Approach of the Study
The approach that is used in this study is moral-philosophical approach.
As Guerin states in his book that the basic assumption of this approach is to teach
morality and to probe philosophical ideas (Guerin, 1999: 25). The focus is not on
the work’s aesthetic and form, but on the moral and philosophical teaching.
The prominent theme discussed in this study is alienation. The term of
alienation is applied in many fields. It has been developed into various definitions,
where moral and philosophical can be used to approach the work and bears what
the study needs; the negative impacts of alienation towards the characters’ life in
Michael Ende’s Momo.
C. Method of the Study
Library research is the method of the study which is applied in this
undergraduate thesis. The sources of this study are collected from the library
research and internet research. The library research provides the novel of Michael
Ende entitled Momo, the object of this study. Moreover, the theories are gathered
from the library research. The internet research, in addition, is used to support the
analysis.
Momo is the primary source and to support this primary source, there are
some secondary sources. These sources are such as the theories, criticism, related
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theories, related studies and other references. They are in the form of printed and
on-line. The printed sources such as M. H. Abrams’ A Glossary of Literary Terms
and Guerin, Earle Labor, Lee Morgan, Jeanne Reesman and JohnWillingham‘s A
handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature, fifth edition, while the online
sources such as Ollman’s Marx’s Conception of Man in Capitalist Society,
Goodhew and Loy’s Momo, Dogen and The Commodification of Time, and
Roderick McGillis’ Self, Other and Other Self: Recognizing the Other in
Children’s Literature.
The writer did close reading towards the novel before doing the analysis.
This close reading was aimed to get profound understanding of the story. After
that, the writer determined the topic and the problem formulations. Under the
guidance of the problem formulations, the analysis was begun.
In conducting the analysis, there were some steps to be overstepped. The
first step was the examination of the life experiences of the chosen characters such
as Mr. Figaro, Nino, Beppo, Guido, Franco and Momo. All events in the whole
story which lead the characters into alienation were described in this first step.
The second step was the identification of the impacts of alienation towards the life
of the characters. Using the theory of alienation under the discipline of moral
philosophical, it tried to identify how those characters were alienated. After
answering the two problem formulations, the last step which was taken was
drawing the conclusion.
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CHAPTER IV
ANALYSIS
In the novel of Momo, there are some experiences that are undergone by
the characters which lead them into alienation and this alienation bestows some
impacts upon their life. These two issues then formulated into two problems. The
two problems are divided into two subchapters, and each subchapter possibly has
several smaller sections. The first part is the description of the characters’
experiences which lead them to the alienation. Those characters are namely Mr.
Figaro, Nino, Beppo, Guido, Franco and Momo.
To point the characters, the writer used the theory of Abrams which says,
“characters are the persons represented in a dramatic or narrative work, who are
interpreted by the reader as being endowed with particular moral, intellectual, and
emotional qualities by inferences from what the persons say and their distinctive
ways of saying it, the dialogue and from what they do, the action (Abrams, 1999:
33). Experience is categorized as action since it is a conscious event that is lived
by the characters. If there is an experience there must be someone who experience
something, as it is stated that, ”if there is action there must be someone to act, a
character” (Beaty, 1973: 604)
The characters’ experiences are described in detail. The answers of the
first problem lead this examination to enter the second problem. The second
problem is the description of the impacts of alienation towards the characters’ life
in Michael Ende’s Momo. In this analysis, it is described that some of the
characters experience the same impacts of alienation.
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In this chapter, the descriptions of some events which are undergone by
the selected characters, which make them experience dysfunctional relation
between entities, are stated as alienation. Based on Leopold, alienation is a
concept used to suggest a kind of dysfunctional relation (for example an unnatural
separation or hostility) between entities or the loss or the lack of natural
connectedness or harmony between the relevant entities (Leopold, 2007: 67).
Supported by theory of Ollman, alienation is stated as a devastating effect
experienced by human beings as a result of capitalist production on their physical,
mental states and on the social processes of which they are a part (Ollman, 1971:
131). Ollman encompasses his theory into several categories of alienation. The
categories of alienation are man’s relation to his productive activity, man’s
relation to his product, man’s relation to his fellow men, and man’s relation to his
species.
According to that theory, this chapter starts to examine the experiences of
the characters which lead them into alienation in the novel of Michael Ende,
Momo. The experiences which lead the characters into alienation that are
examined in this study are described below:
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A. The Description of the Characters’ Experiences which Lead Them into
Alienati