An analysis of maria`s struggle for a better life as seen in paulo coelho`s eleven minutes.

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ABSTRACT

Wiedaninggar, Chatarina Setyastuti. 2008.An Analysis of Maria’s Struggle for a Better Life as seen in Paulo Coelho’s Eleven Minutes. Yogyakarta: English Language Education Study Program, Department of Language and Arts Education, Faculty of Teachers Training and Education, Sanata Dharma University.

This thesis discusses Paulo Coelho’s novel entitled Eleven Minutes. The analysis focuses on Maria, the major character in the novel. She is considered as a woman who struggles for a better life. The aim of this study is to analyse Maria’s struggles for a better life as seen in Paulo Coelho’s Eleven Minutes. Therefore, here are two problems that should be answered in this thesis, namely: (1) How is Maria characterized in Paulo Coelho’s Eleven Minutes? (2) How does Maria struggle for a better life?

To answer those problems, this thesis employed library research. There are two data used in this thesis, namely primary data and secondary data. The primary data is taken from the novel itself, Eleven Minutes. The secondary data is gained from books on psychology and literary theories and internet sources which provide the information related to this analysis. They are theory of character, theory of characterization, theory of critical approach, theory of motivation, struggle for life and theory of human needs. The approach used in this thesis is the psychological approach since it deals with a psychological issue on one’s struggle for a better life.

Based on the analysis, it can be concluded that Maria is a beautiful woman who makes use of her beauty to attract men. However, she always has difficulties in having relationship with men. Maria is also portrayed as a smart, brave, honest and lonely woman. There are some reasons why Maria wants to struggle for her better life. She comes from a low class family. Therefore, she wants to improve her social condition. Moreover, she also has a dream of travelling. She is keen on having adventure by leaving her hometown and having new experiences. Maria’s success in her life struggle can be seen from the way she deals with every job she has. First, she becomes a shop-assistant in her town, Brazil. Then, she has to work as a salsa dancer in Switzerland. Moreover, she wants to try to be a model since she has no other skills but her beauty. Finally, she changes her life by becoming a prostitute. During her experiences, she can fulfil some of her needs.

At the end, some suggestions for the readers are presented. Firstly, this thesis can be a reference for the future researchers if they want to analyse the same novel. Second, this thesis proposes suggestion for the implementation of literature in teaching English especially intensive reading for the second semester students of English Education Study Program.

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ABSTRAK

Wiedaninggar, Chatarina Setyastuti. 2008.An Analysis of Maria’s Struggle for a Better Life as seen in Paulo Coelho’s Eleven Minutes. Yogyakarta: program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris, Jurusan Pendidikan Bahasa dan Seni, Fakultas Keguruan dan Ilmu Pendidikan, Universitas Sanata Dharma.

Skripsi ini membahas tentang sebuah novel yang berjudul Eleven Minutes karya Paulo Coelho. Analisis terfokus kepada Maria, tokoh utama yang ada di dalam novel tersebut. Dia adalah seorang perempuan yang berjuang untuk sebuah kehidupan yang lebih baik. Tujuan skripsi ini adalah untuk mengetahui perjuangan Maria untuk hidup yang lebih baik seperti yang terlihat dalam novel Eleven Minutes karya Paulo Coelho. Ada dua permasalahan yang menjadi pembahasan utama di dalam skripsi ini (1) Bagaimana Maria, tokoh utama dalam novel ini digambarkan? (2) Bagaimana Maria berjuang untuk mendapat hidup yang lebih baik.

Untuk menjawab permasalahan tersebut, skripsi ini menggunakan penelitian perpustakaan untuk mengumpulkan data. Ada dua data yang digunakan yaitu data utama dan data kedua. Data utama adalah novel itu sendiri, Eleven Minutes. Data kedua diambil dari buku-buku tentang teori psikologi dan literature serta sumber dari internet yang menyediakan informasi yang berkaitan dengan analisis ini. Teori-teori tersebut adalah teori tentang karakter, penokohan, teori pendekatan, teori motivasi, perjuangan hidup dan teori kebutuhan manusia. Pendekatan yang digunakan adalah pendekatan psikologi karena skripsi ini berhubungan dengan masalah psikologi dalam perjuangan seseorang untuk hidup yang lebih baik.

Berdasarkan hasil analisis, dapat disimpulkan bahwa Maria adalah seorang perempuan cantik yang menggunakan kecantikannya untuk menarik perhatian laki-laki. Tetapi dia selalu mendapatkan hambatan-hambatan dalam menjalin hubungan dengan laki-laki. Maria juga digambarkan sebagai seorang yang pintar, berani, jujur dan kesepian. Ada beberapa alasan mengapa Maria ingin berjuang untuk hidup yang lebih baik. Dia berasal dari keluarga kelas bawah. Oleh karena itu dia ingin meningkatkan kondisi sosialnya. Dia juga memiliki mimpi untuk traveling. Dia ingin berpetualang dengan meninggalkan kampung halamannya dan mendapatkan pengalaman-pengalaman baru. Kesuksesan Maria dalam perjuangannya dapat dilihat dari cara dia menghadapi setiap pekerjaan. Pertama, dia menjadi asisten toko di kampung di Brazil. Lalu dia bekerja sebagai penari salsa di Swiss. Setelah itu, dia mencoba untuk menjadi model karena dia tahu kecantikannya. Dia tidak mempunyai ketrampilan khusus untuk bekerja. Kemudian, dia mengubah hidupnya dengan menjadi seorang Pekerja Seks Komersil (PSK). Dalam pengalamannya tersebut, Maria bisa memenuhi hampir semua kebutuhannya.

Skripsi ini memberikan beberapa saran untuk pembaca. Pertama, skripsi ini bisa menjadi sebuah referensi bagi peneliti-peneliti lain apabila mereka ingin menganalisa novel yang sama. Kedua, skripsi ini memberikan saran untuk implementasi mengajar bahasa Inggris terutama membaca intensif untuk mahasiswa PBI semester dua.

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AN ANALYSIS OF MARIA’S STRUGGLE FOR A BETTER LIFE AS SEEN IN PAULO COELHO’S ELEVEN MINUTES

A THESIS

Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements to Obtain theSarjana PendidikanDegree

in English Language Education

By:

Chatarina Setyastuti Wiedaninggar Student Number: 02 1214 127

ENGLISH EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM

DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION

SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA

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AN ANALYSIS OF MARIA’S STRUGGLE FOR A BETTER LIFE AS SEEN IN PAULO COELHO’S ELEVEN MINUTES

A THESIS

Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements to Obtain theSarjana PendidikanDegree

in English Language Education

By:

Chatarina Setyastuti Wiedaninggar Student Number: 02 1214 127

ENGLISH EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM

DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION

SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA

2008

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ASarjana PendidikanThesis on

AN ANALYSIS OF MARIA’S STRUGGLE FOR A BETTER LIFE AS SEEN IN PAULO COELHO’S ELEVEN MINUTES

Chatarina Setyastuti Wiedaninggar Student Number: 021214127

Approved by:

Drs. L. Bambang Hendarto Y., M.Hum. June 12, 2008 Major Sponsor

Ch. Lhaksmita Anandari, S.Pd., M.Ed. June 12, 2008 Co-sponsor

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ASarjana PendidikanThesis On

AN ANALYSIS OF MARIA’S STRUGGLE FOR A BETTER LIFE AS SEEN IN PAULO COELHO’S ELEVEN MINUTES

B. Chatarina Setyastuti Wiedaninggar Student Number: 021214127

Defended before the Board of Examiners On ………

and Declared Acceptable

Board of Examiners

Name Signature

Chairperson : __________________________ ___________ Secretary : __________________________ ___________ Member : __________________________ ___________ Member : __________________________ ___________ Member : __________________________ ___________

Yogyakarta, June 12, 2008

Faculty of Teachers Training and Education Sanata Dharma University

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BE THE BEST OF WHATEVER YOU ARE

IF YOU CAN’T BE A PINE IN THE TOP OF THE HILL, BE A SCRUB IN THE VALLEY

BUT BE THE BEST LITTLE SCRUB BY THE SIDE OF THE RILL BE A BUSH IF YOU CAN’T BE A TREE

IF YOU CAN’T BE A BUSH BE A BIT OF THE GRASS AND SOME HIGHWAY HAPPIER MAKE

IF YOU CAN’T BE A MUSKIE THEN JUST BE A BASS BUT THE LIVELIEST BASS IN THE LAKE

WE CAN’T ALL CAPTAINS; WE HAVE GOT TO BE CREW THERE’S SOMETHING FOR ALL OF US HERE

THERE’S A BIG WORK TO DO AND THERE’S LESSER TO DO AND THE TASK YOU MUST DO IS NEAR

IF YOU CAN’T BE A HIGHWAY THEN JUST BE A TRAIL IF YOU CAN’T BE THE SUN BE THE STAR

IT ISN’T BY THE SIZE THAT YOU WIN OR YOU FAIL BE THE BEST OF WHATEVER YOU ARE

DOUGLAS MALLOCH

I dedicate this thesis for my family

and for my boyfriend

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ABSTRACT

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ABSTRAK

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First of all, I would like to devote my gratitude to my Almighty Godfor His blessing and His mercy. He gives me faith and hope to write this thesis. I thank Him for the love, blessing and guidance along the hard path of my life. I realized that because of His blessing through people around me in mysterious ways, I am able to finish this thesis.

I would also like to give my deepest gratitude towards my major sponsor Drs. L. Bambang Hendarto Y., M.Hum.for his help, advice and his patience in helping me finish this thesis. I am very happy that I can share about life with him and he gave me many things about the meaning of real life. My great thanks is also given to my special co-sponsor Ch. Lhaksmita Anandari, S.Pd., M.Ed.for her suggestion, correction and her assistance for every page of my thesis writing process.

I am sincerely grateful to my parents. I thank them for their prayers. I beg a big forgiveness for making them worried about my thesis. I thank my father, Ign. Bambang Mulyadi for giving me advice and his financial support and my mother, D.M. Kurniati who has given her attention, her accompanying and her prayer for me every night. I thank my brother, Danny who has helped me to correct my thesis and gave me a lot of support. I also thank my little sister,Irma for cheering up my day.

My deepest love goes to my lovely partner in life, Hendrik Buesing. I thank him for his support during my writing process and his patience toward me.

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Those whom I could not forget are my best friends, Dewi, Lissa, Nath, Rury, and Cicil who always asking me about my improvement. They are really my very wonderful friends.

My special thanks go to the members of Carpathia “Lissa, Nath, Cicil, Rury and Ook”. We have spent our time together to find the bloody difficult clients. Luckily, we made it! I also thank my partners in EXSA English Camp “Galih, Bunga, Cecil, Dedi, Gede, Gaby and the supervisor Mr Bismoko”. Thanks for helping me face the working world. Now, I know how to work in a professional way.

My gratitude goes to all my lecturers of the English Education Study Program in Sanata Dharma University who have been willing to share their valuable knowledge, lessons and experiences during my study in Sanata Dharma University, to all staffs in the secretariat of English Language Education Study Program and all of the librarians who deserve to get special appreciation in arranging the book needs.

The last but not least I would like to thank my PBI ’01, PBI ’02, PBI 03 friends, Dusun Jogja Village Inn, Progo Adventour Tours Magelang, Colorado School, SD Kanisius Gowongan Jogjakarta, SMU 7 Jogjakartaand all people who have not mentioned above. I thank them for their help, ideas, energy, times, support and prayers to my life.

Wieda

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

TITLE PAGE ... i

APPROVAL PAGE ... ii

DEDICATION PAGE ... iv

STATEMENT OF WORK ORIGINALITY ... v

ABSTRAK ... vi

ABSTRACT ... vii

LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI... viii

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ... ix

TABLE OF CONTENTS ... xi

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION ... 1

A. Background of the Study ... 1

B. Objectives of the Study ... 4

C. Problem Formulation ... 5

D. Benefits of the Study ... 5

E. Definition of Terms ... 6

CHAPTER II: REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE... 8

A. Review of Related Theories ... 8

1. Theory of Character ... 8

a. Definition of Character ... 9

b. Kinds of Character ... 9

2. Theory of Characterization ... 11

a. Definition of Characterization ... 11

b. Methods of Characterization ... 12

3. Critical Approach ... 14

4. Motivation ... 15

5. Struggle for Life ... 16

6. Hierarchy of Needs ... 18

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a. Physiological Needs ... 18

b. Safety Needs ... 18

c. Belongingness and Love Needs ... 18

d. Self-Esteem Needs ... 19

e. Self-Actualization Needs ... 19

B. Criticisms ... 19

C. Theoretical Framework ... 20

CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY... 22

A. Subject Matter... 22

B. Approach ... 23

C. Procedures ... 24

CHAPTER IV: ANALYSIS... 26

A. Maria’s Characterization ... 26

1.Beautiful ... 27

2.Smart ... 29

3. Brave ... 31

4. Honest ... 33

5. Lonely ... 34

B. Maria’s Struggle for a Better Life ... 36

1. Causes of Maria’s Struggle for a Better life ... 36

a. Social Condition ... 37

b. Traveling Desire ... 39

2. Maria’s Struggle for a Better Life ... 40

a. Becoming a Shop-Assistant in Brazil ... 41

b. Becoming a Salsa Dancer in Switzerland ... 42

c. Becoming a Model ... 44

d. Becoming A Prostitute ... 45

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CHAPTER V: CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS ... 55

A. Conclusions ... 55

B. Suggestions ... 57

1. Suggestion for Future Researcher ... 58

2. Suggestion for Teaching-Learning Activities ... 58

BIBLIOGRAPHY ... 60

APPENDICES ... 62

Appendix A: Cover of Eleven Minutes ... 63

Appendix B: Summary of Eleven Minutes ... 64

Appendix C: Biography of Paulo Coelho ... 66

Appendix D: Lesson Plan to Teach Intensive Reading ... 71

Appendix E : Questions to Teach Intensive Reading ... 72

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CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

This chapter consists of five elements. Those are background of the study, problem formulation, objectives, benefits and definition of terms. The background of the study highlights the reasons for choosing the topic and the need for analyzing it. The problem formulation presents the general description of questions dealing with the major character that would be analyzed in this study. The objectives explain the struggle of the major character in detail. The benefits of the study give theoretical benefits for the development of applicable theories. The last element is definition of terms. In this part, some key words which are related to the study would be defined based on valid references.

A. Background of the Study

Life is beautiful. This sentence is usually said by young people as they hardly find problems in their life. However, we know that life is not only full of beautiful things and happy moments but also difficulties. People, as human beings cannot avoid them. There are so many problems that exist in our life and we need to struggle to overcome our problems so that we can find our happiness and targets of life.

People face problems in their life. Sometimes, it is not easy for them to accept the problems. Sometimes problems affect people’s mind. Problems can influence their way of thinking. At this starting point, they have to choose how to

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overcome their problems. For example, since the economic crisis in 1998, people cannot maintain their incomes and expenses. Many people, especially women have worked as labors in factories to support financial problems. However, their salary as labors is still less than the standard money for living. Nowadays, the condition is getting worse. Because of the increasing price of fuel, many factories are closed and most of the workers are laid off. Lia, one of the labors who has been laid off decided to be a prostitute. She said that she has dilemma in her choice. However, she realizes that being a prostitute is the best solution she can find to cope with the financial burdens. (http://www.hartford-hwp.com/54/212.html)

We cannot avoid our destiny. However, once we have problems in our life, we still must continue our path. We cannot stay in the same place. People need to struggle and survive their own life. Sometimes, people can survive in their life because they have dreams. They want to make their dream come true. Therefore, dream can help them to survive. In Lia’s case, one of the causes for her choice was because she wants to feed her children at home and be able to send them to school.

Such a condition can also be found in a work of literature such as a novel. According to Hudson, literature is the expression of life through the medium of language. It can be regarded as something essential since it portrays real life, experiences, people, thoughts and people’s feeling about life (10). A novel can arouse our feelings and emotions since what exists in a novel are portrayal of human’s real experiences. This is why the most often used word to describe the

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novel is “realistic” (Rohrberger and Woods Jr. 29). Therefore, it is clear that characters and struggle of life in a novel are realistic and can exist in our daily life.

One of the authors who has tried to portray human’s life experiences in a novel as described above is Paulo Coelho. His novel entitled Eleven Minutes tells us a taboo, shocking and difficult subject, namely sex. The story tells about Maria, a young girl from the interior Brazil whose dream is to find a charming prince in her life to help her overcome all her problems. In the beginning of the story, it is described that Maria comes from a low class family whose father is only a traveling salesman and her mother is a seamstress. Then, she falls in love with several men. However, her adolescence gives her bad experiences towards love relationship and sex relationship. Therefore, she tends to see love as the most painful thing in the world which only brings sadness.

Then, her struggle of life begins. She works in a draper’s shop to help her parents’ financial condition. Then she goes to Switzerland to search for her fortune by chance. She tries all she can do to prove that she can have a better life. During her journey of life, she works as a prostitute. Furthermore, she finds some crucial things that should be achieved in order to get a better life. Therefore, in her journey she struggles to find her better life in dealing with her needs.

The story is interesting to me because I can see Maria’s problems in life. From the excerpt of her diary, I can understand Maria’s struggle for her survival. The way she reacts to each problem makes me interested in analyzing Maria’s struggle for a better life.

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Secondly, the way Paulo Coelho, the author, creates some problems which are usually faced by people is interesting to discuss. He describes the story in such a way that Maria, the major character, should deal with her social condition, herself and surroundings. He puts forward some essences of each problem in Maria’s life.

In general, by reading and analyzing this novel, one can learn and understand how to view the world and behave to oneself. Moreover, Maria, the major character says whether she wants to be the victim of life or become an adventurer who is searching for treasure. Her choice proves that she wants to struggle for a better life.

B. The Objectives of the Study

There objectives of the study is to find out Maria’s struggles for a better life as seen in Paulo Coelho’s Eleven Minutes. Therefore, there are two problems need to answer in this study. The first question is to reveal Maria’s characteristics as the major character in the novel. The second is to find out how Maria struggles for a better life in Paulo Coelho’s Eleven Minutes. There are many values that we can get from her action.

From the portrayal of Maria in the story, we can assume that we cannot avoid problems we are facing. What we can do is to face them bravely. We are equipped with many kinds of skills that help us to anticipate and face the

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problems and difficulties in our life. Thus, we can still survive and continue our journey of life.

C. Problem Formulation

In analyzing the novel, there are two problems related to the topic of the study. They can be formulated as follows:

1. How is Maria, the major character, described in the novel? 2. How does Maria’s struggle to have a better life?

D. The Benefits of the Study

This study deals with Maria’s struggle for a better life as seen in Paulo Coelho’s Eleven Minutes. The first benefit goes to the readers, especially the students of English Education study program of Sanata Dharma University. Hopefully, this study will deepen their understanding of life through literary work especially in Paulo Coelho’s novels. Moreover, it can be a good way to introduce them Paulo Coelho’s literary works. The readers can implement the important values in the novel into their real life.

Secondly, it is hoped that this study will help the teachers of English because it gives them a good source in teaching literature especially “Eleven Minutes” to the students. The third benefit is for other researchers who want to analyze this novel. Hopefully this study will be useful for them. This study will provide them with a helpful source and a relevant reference for conducting their study on the novel.

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Finally, for me as the writer, it is interesting to know one’s struggle in dealing with one’s own life, especially in the work of literature because it reflects the real life. I can see other’s experience in dealing with life. This convinces me that I have to struggle to achieve my targets of life.

E. Definition of Terms

Clarifying the important terms related to the study is obviously needed in order to avoid misunderstanding. For that purpose, some related terms are defined and presented as follows:

1. Struggle

According to McKechnie (367), struggle is a task or goal requiring much effort to accomplish or achieve. Moreover, Webster states that struggle means to try very hard to deal with a challenge, problem or difficulty (1430). In this study, struggle refers to human’s effort in dealing with any difficult condition to gain a better life.

2. Character

The word character has two meanings. The first meaning of character refers to the person who appears in the story (Stanton 17). The second meaning of character refers to the person who is presented in dramatic or narrative works who are interpreted by readers as being endowed with moral dispositions qualities that they are expressed in what they say through their dialogues and what they do (Abrams 20). In this study, a character is a person who is created by an author to form a story through his or her action, feeling and expression.

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3. Better Life

According to Hornby, life is described as a way in which somebody lives or condition of an individual’s existence (1120). While Webster states that better means in a more acceptable, appropriate or effective way (133). In this study, a better life can be defined as a situation in which a person has achieved his or her targets of life after dealing with all his or her problems so that he or she feels more comfortable and settled than before dealing with all his or her problems.

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CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

This chapter consists of three parts. The first part presents a review of related theories that contains of theory of character, characterization, theory of critical approach, struggle for life, theory of motivation and hierarchy of needs. The second part presents the criticism and resources. It provides some criticisms about Paulo Coelho and his works. The third part is the theoretical framework.

C. Review of Related Theories

This section presents relevant theories that are used as the basis in analyzing the novel. They are theory of character and theory of characterization, which help me to find out the description of the main character. Theory of critical approach is an important element in this section to make a better understanding on the work of literature. Struggle for life, motivation and hierarchy of needs help me to find out the struggle dealing with the main character.

1. Character

The existence of characters in a literary work especially a novel is considered significant. Forster states that a novelist can reveal problems in the novel if he or she can describe characters gently and naturally (30-31). Therefore, characters play an important role in the story.

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a. Definition of Character

Character is one of the most important things that appear in the novel. Here, the author creates the character and uses it as an instrument to voice what he or she wants to convey in the story. Barnet (71) says that there are two definitions of character. Firstly, character is a figure in a literary work and secondly, character is the personality, that is, the mental and moral qualities of a figure as when we say that a character is strong or weak, moral or immoral.

Abrams states that character is a representation of a person in narrative and dramatic works as a result of the readers’ interpretation (20). His or her words and acts express their moral and dispositional qualities that are expressed in what they say – the dialogues and what they do – the action. Traits and the relationships among them are vital in our understanding of the character. It is not easy to examine the character in term of their traits. However, the difficulty we may experience in such an effort contributes to a deeper understanding of the fictional character as well to a greater understanding of what it is to be a real person.

b. Kinds of Character

According to Henkle (92-93), character is divided into two namely, major and secondary characters. A major character is the most important and complex in a literary work or novel. He or she can be identified by looking into the complexity of his or her characterization. Thus, the readers’ fullest attention is completely given to the major character for the sake of the understanding the story of the novel. It is also the major character that performs structural key function;

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upon his or her, the readers build expectations and desires. To some extent, as he or she undergoes changes, the reader’s values can be changed or set up.

The secondary characters are those who appear in certain scenes. Generally they are used to become the background of the major character. Basically, secondary characters are to live in the world in the novel. Secondary characters can function as a ‘point of reference’ if they act as if they were to see the major character’s great intensity (Henkle 94-95). Their role is less important than the major character because the story of the novel usually deals with the major character.

Forster (46-51) in Aspect of the Novel divides the character of the novel into two kinds, namely flat characters and round characters. A flat character is created around “a single idea or quality”. It is snatched under one aspects and a particular angle. Usually, a flat character is characterized only by one or two traits. One great advantage of a flat character is that he or she is recognized easily whenever he or she comes. They usually stay the same. They are static. In other words, it will be easier for the reader to obtain the description of the characters entirely only by seeing one side of a person’s character. The other advantage is that the reader can easily remember a flat character. It is because the character will remain the same despite his or her moving through circumstances. On the other hand, the circumstances are not likely to change the character so that he or she stays in the reader’s mind as unalterable.

A round character cannot be categorized in a single phrase or sentence. Yet, he or she is represented with subtle drawing. A round character is varied in

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temperament and motivation. The readers can only remember his or her in connection with the great scenes by which he or she is modified since he or she passes through them. It means that it is difficult for the readers to remember him or her so easily because he or she may have many individual and unpredictable human traits. Moreover, he or she is also capable of surprising the reader in a convincing way since he or she has the incalculability of life about it.

2. Characterization

Understanding theory of characterization is important to know the novel deeper. There are some different definitions about characterization by some authors. Each has his or her own statement in delivering the theory of characterization.

a. Definition of Characterization

According to Rohrberger and Woods Jr., the process in which an author creates a character is called characterization. Basically, character and characterization are connected and they cannot be separated. A character is recognized by what is appearing in the story (20).

Moreover, Holman and Harmon state that characterization is the creation of an imaginary person in the story so that she exists for the reader as a living character (81). The author usually reveals the character as an imagery person in the story.

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b. Methods of characterization

According to Murphy in his book Understanding Unseens (161-173), there are nine ways of characterization to make the characters understandable to and come alive for the readers.

1) Personal Description

Here, the author attempts to describe a person’s appearance and clothes. Therefore, the reader knows one’s character directly by the way she dresses and the appearance. For example, a long and blonde hair young woman is considered as a spoil woman and beauty-oriented.

2) Character as Seen by Another

Instead of describing a character directly, the author describes her through the eyes and opinion of another character. Therefore, based on the other characters’ judgment, the reader gets a reflected image.

3) Speech

Here, the author gives the details of the character in the novel through what the person says. It means that whenever the person says, whenever she is in the conversation with another, whenever she puts forward an opinion, she is giving a clue to her character. Briefly, through her daily speech in the novel, the reader knows about her character.

4) Past life

The author gives the reader a clue to events that have helped to create a character by giving some description and stories about a person’s past life. The

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reader can find them by direct comment from the author, the person’s thought, the person’s conversation or through the medium of another person.

5) Conversation of Others

The author gives a clue to the reader about a person’s character through the conversation of other people and the things they say about her. People do talk about other people and the things they say often give the reader a clue to the character of the person spoken about.

6) Reactions

The author can give the reader a clue to a person’s character by letting the reader knows how that person reacts to various situation and events.

7) Direct Comment

It is quite different from personal description. Here, the author can describe or comment on a person’s character directly.

8) Thoughts

The author gives the reader direct knowledge of what a person is thinking about. In this case, the person is able to do what we cannot do in real life. Therefore, the reader will know the character of the person simply by knowing what is in her mind.

9) Mannerism

Here, the author describes a person’s mannerism, habits or idiosyncrasies, which may also tell the reader something about the character. Therefore, the reader can get a clue of a person’s character from the way she behaves and acts in her daily life in the novel.

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3. Critical Approach

Literary work has an aesthetic value. It is very common for the readers to response after reading a literary work. Knowing and understanding critical approaches are very important to give aesthetic response to the literary work. According to Rohrberger and Woods Jr. (6-15), critical approach involves five approaches. They are:

a. The Formalist Approach

The proponents of this approach concentrate on the aesthetic value of literary work. This approach concerns on the total integrity of literary piece. In determining the structure and meaning of literary work, demonstrating the harmonious involvement of parts and pointing out the technique are used.

b. The Biographical Approach

The proponents of this approach tend to apply the author’s background of life and his or her idea to dig out the understanding of literary work. Therefore, biographical approach uses the biography of the author as the basic of analysis. As a consequence, the readers attempt to learn about the life and the development of the author as much as they can in order to understand his or her writings.

c. The Sociocultural-historical Approach

The proponents of sociocultural-historical approach attempt to find the idea by emphasizing to learn the culture which exists in the civilization. The proponents believe that social and historical condition of the author can influence his or her literary work. Therefore, the proponents convince that the only way to

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locate the real world into literary work refers to the civilization that creates the culture.

d. The Mythopoeic Approach

The proponents of this mythopoeic approach understand the literary work by finding particular recurrent patterns of human though which are considered sharing the same universal belief to certain community mind. They are found expressed in ancient myths and folk terms. Therefore, the mystical relationship found in a story can be explained by the use of this approach.

e. The Psychological Approach

The proponents of this approach use the theory of human psychology as the references to analyze the character’s behavior, motivation and personality pattern that can be interrelated into the psychology of human beings. Through this approach, the character’s thought, idea and behavior can be analyzed deeper.

Each approach has its own strength, weaknesses, values and limitations. It also has its proper insight and this will be the duty of the readers to figure out the approach that would guide to the better understanding and comprehension to the works of literature, as we know that not all of the approaches would be suitable to be applied in every study.

4. Motivation

In the novel, motivation is an internal process that controls Maria’s behavior in order to gain the goals. Maria’s motivation to change her life makes her able to think about the way she should behave in her surroundings. In fact, her

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behavior cannot be separated from her emotions because her emotion influences her to have certain goals to be achieved. Therefore, I will review the theory of motivation to know Maria’s motivation to struggle for better life.

Usually, people think that emotion is another term for motivation. In fact, they are quite different. According to Buck as quoted by Worcher and Shebilske (417), actually motivation and emotion may be related but they are not the same thing. They define motivation as arousal or energy that directs behavior. According to Murray (7), motivation is desire. It is related to behavior because it is involved in all kinds of behavior; learning, performing, perceiving, attending, remembering, forgetting, thinking, creating and feeling.

In addition, Smith (282) states that motivation is categorized as an internal process that influences the direction, persistence and vigor of goal directed behavior. Motivation comes from Latin word, “moveo” which means as an internal factor that moves human beings and animal toward the goal that is to be achieved. Motivation makes human beings keep their effort and keep them on their goal to prevent from loosing their way to attain the goal. Motivation also makes human beings behave in a specific behavior that support them in the process of attaining the goal. Therefore, motivation usually influences someone’s behavior.

5. Struggle for Life

People face problems in life. Braun, Linder and Asimov (478-480) state that everybody always has problems in their life. The problems can be simple or

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difficult. Sometimes, they affect their way of thinking in facing life. Therefore, they need to struggle to overcome their problems. Struggle can be one of the reasons why people want to protect their life. According to Bernard (64), “Individuals also may consciously and rationally implement strategies that enable them to cope with stresses and problems in life”.

According to Braun, Linder and Asimov (478-480) how people will react to all the stresses and problems is one aspect of the process called adjustment. Adjustment is the process for people to cope with the difficult situations in their struggle. There are three aspects of adjustment. The first is problem solving. We must deal with the problems and try to find the solution whether it is a bad or good solution. If we have to deal with many situations, our problem solving skills will be developed. The second is acceptance of situation. We do not need to response too much toward our problems. It is better for us to accept the problem and its consequences. However, we still must be careful about unconsidered acceptance. The third is the use of defense mechanism to cope with stress and anxiety.

Bernard (64) states that human uses some strategies to protect his ego. He can fight by his repression, perceptual, denial and intellectualization. He can learn the positive things from his struggle. Each person realizes that he needs to struggle because he will be satisfied by his effort. Therefore, struggle for life is needed to attain the target of life and overcome the problems of life.

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6. Hierarchy of Needs

There are some reasons which cause people to conduct an action. Schultz (62) quoting Maslow says that people conduct action to fulfill their needs. The needs are interrelated. It means if a person thinks he is hungry, he may actually feel lack of love or secure of some other needs.

According to Maslow as quoted in Schultz (62-64), there are five basic needs. They are the physiological needs, the safety needs, the belongingness and love needs, the esteem needs and self-actualization needs. The description of the needs is as follows:

a. Physiological Needs

The most important of all basic needs are the needs for physical survival. These needs are the needs for food, liquid, shelter, sex, sleep and oxygen (qtd in Schultz 62). When a person is extremely hungry she thinks only about food. He dreams of food, he remembers food, he thinks about food and he wants only food. These needs must be fulfilled first before fulfilling the other needs.

b. Safety Needs

This fits in with our general notion of human development from childhood into adulthood. It is the needs to be secured and out of danger. People always try to avoid the dangerous thing especially related to physical violence.

c. Belongingness and Love Needs

When the physiological and safety needs are satisfied, the other needs such as needs for love, affection and belongingness also emerge. According to Maslow, love involves a healthy, loving relationship between two people which include

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mutual trust. Everybody needs love; therefore, the lack of love can stop the individual growth and his developmental of potential (63).

d. Self-Esteem Needs

According to Maslow in Schultz (63), there are two esteem needs. They are self-esteem and self-respect from other people. Self-esteem includes desire for confidence, competence mastery, adequacy, achievement, independence and freedom. Self-respect from others includes prestige, recognition, acceptance, attention, status, reputation and appreciation. A person who has self-esteem is more confident and capable in doing his work. Without self-esteem, one will have the feeling of inferiority and helplessness which can cause discouragement and possible neurotic behavior.

e. Self-actualization Needs

Maslow in Schultz (64) states these needs as the desire to become more and more what one is, to become everything that one is capable of becoming. “What a man can be, he must be”. In short, it deals with the identification of the psychological need for growth, development and utilization of potential. This needs emerge after satisfaction of the love and esteem needs.

D. Criticism

In analyzing the novel, I gather some criticism on Paulo Coelho’s Eleven Minutes. Through the criticism, I am able to understand the novel better and know what the world’s opinion about Paulo Coelho’s work.

The novel gives the readers insight to deal with feeling than act. It reflects on our daily life when we face trouble and do not know what to do. Usually, feeling plays an important role. The same opinion can be seen from El Periodico

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"Eleven Minutes deals more with feelings than with acts, and strays from the marginal docudrama cliché. It is a hard novel, with moments that capture the reader’s attention with perfect expertise. Deeply personal and tender”. (http://santjordi-asociados.com).

Swan says that Eleven Minutes is an important and brave book about sexuality and love, the crucial and unsolved problem of contemporary culture, everyone’s problem (http://mouthshout.com/review/swan.html). As we know that sexuality and love are very important for most people in dealing with their life. Therefore, this novel could be a good book to learn about those two things without thinking and imitating the negatives aspects.

Notre Temps Magazine in France agrees that the novel also convinces all the readers to listen to what our heart is saying and to follow our dreams (http://santjordi-asociados.com). In this story, Paulo Coelho emphasizes on Maria’s belief of following her heart and do what she thinks is right.

E. Theoretical Framework

There are two problems to answer in this study. The first one is to find out the description of Maria and second is to dig out how Maria struggles for a better life. In order to answer the problems, there are some theories applied in this study. The theories are useful to analyze the novel. Firstly, I use the theories of character and characterization applied to answer the first problem. The theories of character from Henkle and Foster are used to find out what types of character the major character is in the novel. Then, I apply the methods of characterization from

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Murphy to find out the complexity of the character in this case Maria.. This can help me to analyze the description of Maria’s character.

Moreover, I apply the theory of struggle for life, motivation and hierarchy of needs from Maslow. The theories are used to analyze the human motivation and needs in life. Therefore, the theories would help me understand more about motivation and the needs of the character in having a better life.

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CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY

This chapter presents the methodology of the study, which can be divided into three parts. The first part is subject matter. Subject matter describes the novel Eleven Minutes and the focus of my analysis in the study. The second part is the approach. I highlight the approach that is applied in conducting the study. The third part is the procedure. It explains the steps taken in analyzing the novel.

A. Subject Matter

The subject matter of this study is a novel entitled Eleven Minutes written by a Brazilian author, Paulo Coelho. This book is an English version translated from Onze Minutos, the Portuguese original edition, published in Brazil by Editora Rocco Ltd. It was published in 2003 by Paulo Coelho. This novel consists of 269 pages and is divided into 32 chapters. After achieving success, the novel has been reprinted in 39 languages by Harper Collins Publishers.

The story tells about Maria, a young girl from the interior Brazil whose dream is to find a charming prince in her life to help her overcome all her problems. Maria comes from a low class family whose father is only a traveling salesman and her mother is a seamstress. Her struggle of life begins when she has an offer from a Swiss man to work abroad. Realizing about her social condition at that time, she accepts the offer. She tries all she can do to prove that she can have a better life. During her journey, she finds some essences in dealing with her love and sexual relationships. She finds some crucial things that should be achieved in

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order to get her better life. Therefore, in her journey she struggles to find her better life in dealing with her needs.

The author of the novel, Paulo Coelho wrote this novel because actually he wanted to write such a different ordinary novel. Eleven Minutes is very different from his other novel. The idea behind the novel is about his trajectory. He thought that writing a book about sexuality came to be a priority to him because he has experienced sex in many different and contradictory ways. He has been living in a half-conservative era when sex has a different meaning to different people

However, the novel does not only talk about sex. It also concerns about sacred sex and love, where actually sex is only as an encounter when two persons meet and fall in love. Deeper, the reader can see the problems that are faced by the major character along the story. Here, the author created in such a way so that the novel does not only talk about sex.

B. Approach

According to Rohberger and Wood Jr. there are five approaches that can be applied to deal with the literary work. They are the formalist approach, biographical approach, sociocultural-historical approach, mythopoeic approach and psychological approach. In conducting the study, I use the psychological approach to analyze the novel since this study is related to psychological aspects. The psychological approach involves effort to locate and demonstrate a certain recurrent pattern. I use the psychological approach in order to find out how Maria, the major character in Paulo Coelho’s Eleven Minutes survives for her life. Rohberger and Woods Jr state that psychological approach will obviously give more understanding of the character’s behavior and thought (15).

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C. Method of the Study

This part explains about the steps taken in this study. Here, I analyzed the novel by using library study. It means that the main procedure that I used to gain data was reading and taking important notes, which helped me in analyzing the novel. Using this method, I collected some valid resources and used them to analyze the questions presented in the problem formulation.

The primary data in this study were taken from Paulo Coelho’s famous novel, Eleven Minutes. While the secondary data were books and some articles about his works, especially Eleven Minutes. In this study, I used some books to find the theories that could support my analysis in the novel, such as theory of character and theory of motivation.

There were some steps used in analyzing the novel. First was choosing the novel that would be the object of the study. The title of the novel in this study was Eleven Minutes. After reading the novel, I found some important points that were interesting to discuss deeply. For example how Maria, the major character in the novel struggles for her own life. How an innocent girl can turn out into a high-class prostitute.

This interesting novel, then, brought me to search further for the author of the novel. I found that there were some reasons why Paulo Coelho created that kind of theme and character. Paulo Coelho’s works were also influenced by his background and view of life.

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Those important findings, then, were compiled to build the topic of the study and after that, I formulated them into some problem formulation. In the next step, I looked for and read many books that were related to the literary research.

After collecting the data, I began to analyze the topic. At the first time, I analyzed Paulo Coelho’s description of Maria’s character. After that, I analyzed Maria’s struggle for better life in relation with her needs. Then, I searched for the power of attraction in this novel that made it so interesting. Finally, I could discover Maria’s struggle for better life and find out what Paulo Coelho wanted to say to the readers through his work.

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CHAPTER IV ANALYSIS

This chapter describes the answers of two problems formulated in chapter one. The first analysis deals with the characterization of Maria. The second analysis is the struggle of Maria for a better life. In answering the question, I will use the theories presented in chapter two.

A. The Description of Maria

Character is one of the important things that should exist in the novel. It is a character that makes the novel interesting from the beginning until the end. There are various types of character. According to Henkle (92-93), there are two kinds of characters namely major and secondary character. A major character is a character that becomes the focus of the novel. He or she plays an important role in the novel. A secondary character is a character that less appears in the novel and helps to support the major character. According to Henkle’s theory, Maria is categorized as a major character because she plays an important role in the novel. She is the focus of the novel.

Forster proposes another theory. He divides character into two, namely flat characters and round characters (46-51). Referring to the theory, Maria is considered as a character who has round character. She has complex and dominating traits. She also undergoes some changes after she experiences many things during her journey of life.

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In order to find out how to characterize a character, Murphy proposes nine ways to characterize (161-173). There are personal description, character as seen by another, speech, past life, conversation of others, reaction, direct comment, thought and mannerism. However, in analyzing the character of Maria, I only use some of them. They are personal description, character as seen by another, speech, reaction and thought.

1. Beautiful

In the novel, Maria is considered as a beautiful girl in her adolescent age. She has a good physical appearance. Her beauty attracts people and obtains other girls’ envy. It can be seen from the personal description given by the author.

And so Maria’s adolescent years passed. She grew prettier and prettier, and her sad, mysterious air brought her many suitors (Coelho 15).

Maria’s beauty is also seen by the minor characters. One of them is Roger. He is a Swiss man whom Maria meets during her vacation in Rio de Janeiro. He describes Maria as a beautiful woman.

For some time, they kept up this comfortable, meaningless conversation-a smile here, a smile there-until the man took a small red dictionary out of his pocket and said, in a strange accent: “Bonita” – “pretty” (Coelho 20). Roger also comments on Maria’s physical appearance. He describes Maria as a potential Brazilian girl who will create a great income for his club in Swiss.

On the eve on their departure for Europe, they went to a nightclub, and when Roger saw her dance, he felt pleased with his choice; he was clearly in the presence of a future great star of Cabaret Cologny, this lovely dark girl with her pale eyes and hair as black as the wing of the grauna (the Brazilian bird often evoked by local author to describe black hair (Coelho 34).

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The interpreter, Malson, also comments on Maria. He says that Maria is a lucky woman. Maria is born as a beautiful Brazilian girl. This luck continuously happens in her life.

Of course, he hasn’t seen you sing or dance, but you could learn all that, whereas beauty is something you’re born with. These Europeans are all the same; they come over here and imagine that all Brazilian women are really sensual and know how to samba (Coelho 23).

Another minor character who comments on Maria’s beauty is an Arabian who works as an agent for a fashion show in Swiss. However, he tends to consider Maria’s beauty as a symbol of sex. He uses Maria as an object to fulfill his need in sex. “You’re very pretty, said the man. If you come up and have a drink with me in my hotel room, I’ll give you a thousand francs” (Coelho 52).

Then, there is Ralf Hart, a painter who sees Maria’s beauty from different point of view. He realizes Maria's inner beauty. He shows that Maria has something strong inside her. He catches something good from the inside not only Maria’s physical appearance.

“You have a glow about you. The light that comes from sheer willpower, the light of someone who has made important sacrifices in the name of thinks she thinks are important. It’s in your eyes-the light is in your eyes.” (Coelho 105)

Through her personal description and character as seen by another, it is obvious that she is a beautiful and lucky woman. She also has an inner beauty, which is spread out through her. Her beauty attracts people and her surroundings.

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2. Smart

Outside from Maria’s physical appearance, she has complex and dominating traits, motivation and conflicts. Readers can see her character through the way she thinks and her interaction with people. The most obvious character that can be seen is her smartness.

Maria never makes mistakes like she did before. She always learns from her previous experience and tries not to make the same mistake. It can be seen from her experience in dealing with love and relationship. At the first time, she never dares to start a conversation with the boy she loves. Until she finds out that she will not have the second chance because the boy has gone. Then, she realizes her mistake and tries different way in reacting with men.

When she had just turned fifteen, she fell in love with a boy she had met in a Holy Week procession. She did not repeat her childhood mistake: they talked, became friends and started going to the cinema and to parties together (Coelho 7).

From the description given by the author, it is clear that Maria wants to know everything. Her curiosity also challenges her to learn anything new. She learns that there are some activities that cannot be done in front of a lot of people.

She used to do this when she was a child and she liked the feeling, until, one day, her father saw her and slapped her hard, without explaining why. She never forgot being hit like that, and she learned that she shouldn’t touch herself in front of other people … (Coelho 11)

Maria is smart in knowing how attractive she is. Therefore, she tries to put her beauty as her strength to attract men. She knows how to maintain the surroundings with her beauty and her strength.

She knew how attractive she was, and although she rarely listened to her mother, there was one thing her mother said that she never forgot:

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“Beauty, my dear, doesn’t last.” With this in mind, she continued to keep her boss at arm’s length, though without putting him off completely, and this brought her a considerable increase in salary … (Coelho 17)

In her job as a salsa dancer, for example, she realizes that she works as a slave because she only gets a small amount of money. Therefore, she tries to find justice by going to Roger’s office and talking about the law which leads her freedom not to work in that club again.

Maria might be young but she was not fool, especially once her Arab lover had told her that Swiss employment laws were very strict and, since the night club kept back a large part of her salary, she could easily allege that she was being used for slave labor. She went back to Roger’s office, this time speaking reasonable French, which now include the word ‘lawyer’. She left with few insult and five thousand dollar in compensation-a sum money beyond her wildest dreams-and all because of that magic word ’lawyer’. Now she was free to spend time with her Arab lover, buy some presents, take some photos of the snow and go back home in triumph (Coelho 44-45).

On the first day working as a prostitute, she reviews everything related to what she has done the whole night with the clients. She is glad that she can pass through it. She knows what she faces and how to handle it. Therefore she tries to do the best she can do in serving the clients, as life was teaching her-very fast-that only the strong survive. To be strong, she must be the best, there’s no alternative (73).

As a prostitute, Maria does not always count on her body to satisfy her clients. She realizes that she must serve her clients better than the other. Therefore, she has to learn more that her clients do not merely need sexual satisfaction but also accompany.

… She sought out self-help books, because her clients nearly asked for her advice. She read studies of the human emotions, because all her clients were in some kind of emotional pain. Maria was a respectable, rather

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unusual prostitute, and after six months, she had acquired a large, faithful, very select cliente, thus arousing the envy and jealousy, but also the admiration of her colleagues (Coelho 82).

Also, people, especially in the club where she works, consider her as an intellectual person among all because she always read books about different subjects.

Before it got busy, Maria could always be seen with a book in her hand and she soon became known as the intellectual of the group. At first, they wanted to know if she was reading a love story, but when they saw that the books were about dry-as-dust subjects like economics, psychology and recently-farm management, they left her alone to continue her researches and her note-taking in peace (Coelho 170).

From her thought, mannerism and character as seen by another, it can be seen that Maria is smart, she wants to learn everything which leads her into smartness.

3. Brave

In her life, Maria falls in love many times. She is brave to start a new relationship even though she always had bad experiences in her love relationship. She does not have a traumatic side even her relationship always goes wrong and ends with disappointment because she went out with one boy and with another, and she dreamed and suffered-despite her promise to herself never to fall in love again (Coelho 15).

Maria’s bravery can be seen from the way she makes decisions in her life. She does not mind to take risk in every step that she does. She believes that life is full of decision and she has to choose the best according to her. She realizes that

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she will not get the second chance to make the right decision. Therefore, she knows that she should take its risk. It can be seen from her diary when she has a chance to work abroad and she should leave her hometown. “I’ve realized that sometimes you get no second chance and that it’s best to accept the gift the world offers you” (Coelho 25-26).

Four weeks after she arrives in Switzerland, she realizes that things are not as simple as she thinks. She has a dilemma in choosing which way to do, when she has some choices. She can be a victim of the world or an adventurer who searches for treasure. She chooses the second one, as an adventurer who search for treasure.

Maria chose to be an adventurer in search of pleasure-she put aside her feelings, she stopped crying every night, and she forgot all about the person she used to be; she discovered that she had enough willpower to pretend that she had just been born and so had no reason to miss someone. Feelings could wait, now that she needed to do was to earn some money, get to know the country and return home victorious (Coelho 39).

In Switzerland, after knowing about her real condition, she does not want to give up. She is brave enough to face life to survive there and back home in triumph. She dares to adapt with the new environment, as she says, I will die here. But before I die, I want to fight for life if I can walk on my own, I can go wherever I like (41).

Through personal description, it can be seen that Maria is a brave woman who dares to take risk in every step she takes no matter what. She does not give up easily.

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4. Honest

Maria is an honest woman. She tries to tell what she is supposed to tell. She says what she thinks that it is right. She never hides her feeling when she does not feel comfortable. She is not ashamed of asking of something that she does not know or she needs to know. Maria’s honesty can be seen when she is invited to go to the restaurant to have a meeting with the Swiss man, Roger. She does not know what to wear. Therefore, she directly says that she does not have proper clothes to go there. “I’ve just arrived from the northeast and I haven’t got the right clothes to wear to a restaurant” (Coelho 22).

Another Maria’s honesty can also bee seen when she meets a person from the agency model. An Arab tries to impress her by showing some famous arts from the restaurant. Maria directly says that she knows nothing about arts. “I’m not going to spend the evening pretending to you. I can just about tell the difference between coca cola and Pepsi, but that’s all about it. I thought we came here to discuss a fashion show” (Coelho 51).

When Maria wants to start working in Rue De Berne, she is asked by Milan, the owner of the club to talk to some girls in the club about the job and the situation. However, she just sits in the bar without knowing what to do. Then, there is a Brazilian woman comes over to her and asks why she decides to work in the club. Maria answers the question directly without thinking and her honest answer shocks the Brazilian woman. “To be honest, I don’t know where to start or if I want to start” (Coelho 65).

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As a prostitute, accidentally she meets a painter who asks her to stay because he is interested to paint her face. After the painting time, they discuss everything until the painter knows about her profession. Thinking that Raft speaks negatively about her profession, she begins to feel uncomfortable with it.

Listen, Mr. Hart, I may be a Brazilian, but I’ve lived in Switzerland for nine months now. I’ve learned that the reason the Swiss are so discreet is because they live in a very small country where almost everyone knows everyone else, as we have just discovered, which is why no one ever asks what other people do. Your remark was both inappropriate and very rude, but if your aim was to humiliate me in order to make yourself feel better, you’re wasting your time. Thanks for the anisette, which is disgusting, by the way, but which I will drink to the last drop. I will then smoke a cigarette, and finally, I’ll get up and leave. But you can leave right now, if you want; we can have famous painters sitting at the same table as a prostitute. Because that’s what I am, you see prostitute. I’m a prostitute through and through, from head to toe and I don’t care who knows. That’s my one great virtue: I refuse to deceive myself or you. Because it’s not worth it, because you don’t merit a lie (Coelho 103 – 104).

From the text above, it is obvious that Maria is an honest person. It can be seen from her speech and her reaction in responding to everybody. She is not afraid of giving any direct answer of anything whether it is good or bad.

5. Lonely

Maria is a lonely woman. In her life, Maria always thinks that she is a lonely person. She feels nobody around her. She does not feel comfortable talking with her mom because her mom cannot give her reasonable explanation in the conversation. Therefore, Maria always feels lonely at home because she has nobody to talk to in the house.

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Maria wondered what the connection was between the blood on her legs and her becoming a young woman, but her mother wasn’t able to give her a satisfactory explanation: She just said that it was normal, and that, from now on, for four or five days a month, she would have to wear something like a doll’s pillow between her legs (Coelho 4).

In her past life, Maria cannot find the Prince of her life. Every time she has a relationship with boy, it always ends in the wrong way and leads to disappointment. She needs someone to be able to share life together. However, she feels like nobody wants to do that with her. It can be seen from her writing in her diary that she wants love but it seems that love is just a dream.

Although my aim is to understand love, and although I suffer to think of the people to whom I gave my heart, I see that those who touched my heart failed to arouse my body, and that those who aroused my body failed to touch my heart (Coelho 16).

Living in Switzerland, she meets a librarian who she thinks she can talk to. She realizes that the woman is as lonely as she is.

Maria became a regular visitor to the library, where she would chat to the woman, who seemed as lonely as she was, ask her to suggest more books and discuss life and authors-until her money had nearly run out (Coelho 50).

In doing her job as a prostitute, Maria is not only working with the body. She also does any consultation with her clients to make them feel better in their own life. One night she meets an executive who feels lonely. She does not trust the man who is success in his life and still thinking that he is the loneliest person in the world. She realizes about the fact that she is a lonely person actually. “No, that man wasn’t the loneliest person in the world. Maria knew the loneliest person on the face of this earth: herself “ (Coelho 81).

In conclusion, it is clear that Maria is a beautiful, smart, brave, honest and lonely woman. She can attract men easily by her beautiful looks without being

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used by them. She is smart in dealing with all the problems in her life. She is brave enough to take chances that pass her life. She is an honest girl in conveying everything that makes her uncomfortable. She is a lonely woman who never has real friends and fells nobody beside her since her experience in having any relationships is always ended in a wrong way. In her character, it is obvious that basically, she is a woman who really wants to change her life into better.

B. Maria’s Struggle for a Better Life

As we know that people always have problem in their own life. In this case, Maria has many problems and obstacles to achieve her dream. Thus, she always has motivation behind the dream. Worcher and Shebilske (417) say that motivation is arousal or energy that directs behavior. However, sometimes problem can cause depression or stresses. Therefore, we need to find a good way to deal with it. The novel describes Maria’s struggle for a better life. She has to face many things in order to survive. In her struggle, she experiences many things that change her into a different person, whether it is a good or a bad person.

1. Causes of Maria’s Struggle for a Better Life

Maria is an innocent girl who becomes a high-class prostitute. In her journey to a better life she has to face problems. Usually, people try to cope with stress and anxiety since they know how to implement strategies in dealing with the problems (Bernard 64). Therefore, Maria knows and has to deal with every problem she has. Moreover, her motivation to have a better life makes Maria keeps her effort and the goal to avoid loosing her way to achieve the target of life. According to Smith (282), motivation is an internal process that influences the direction, persistence, and vigor of goal directed behavior. That is why Maria

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wants to survive especially when dealing with her social condition and her traveling desire.

The following are the causes of Maria’s struggle: a. Social Condition

Maria, the major character in the novel, comes from a low class family whose father is a traveling salesman and her mother is a seamstress. She lives in the backlands of Brazil where people can find poverty everywhere. Based on Maslow’s theory (qtd. In Schultz 62), the first important needs are the physiological needs where we have to deal with food, air, water, sleep and the drives for sex and activity. Therefore, Maria’s parents have to work hard to fulfill their daily needs. Realizing about her family condition, little Maria has a dream of having a great family, a nice house and a rich husband who can help her escape from poverty.

Like all prostitutes, she was born both innocent and a virgin, and, as an adolescent, she dreamed of meeting the man of her life (rich, handsome, intelligent), of getting married (in a wedding dress), having two children (who would grow up to be famous) and living in a lovely house (with a sea view) (Coelho 1).

Maria is the only daughter in the family. Since her father is a traveling salesman who is hardly at home and her mother is a busy seamstress, Maria grows in loneliness. She has nobody to talk to at home. According to Maslow’s theory (qtd in Schultz 63), people need love and belongingness from others. In this case, Maria has lack of love from their parents because they are busy by themselves and never tell everything about life to her. However, Maria always needs answers for every question of life which unfortunately her parents cannot make a proper

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explanation. She rarely talks to her parents and never has any discussion with them. Therefore, Maria always tries to find out everything by herself. Until one day, in her nineteen, she decides to work in a draper’s shop. She realizes that she has to earn a lot of money to support her family living. Maria tries to make use of her boss because she knows that her boss is interested in her beauty. Maria learns through her mother that her beauty can attract men. She uses her beauty to get an increase of her salary. She even gets some additional money to work overtime.

She knew how attractive she was, and although she rarely listened to her mother, there was one thing her mother said that she never forgot: “Beauty, my dear, doesn’t last.” With this in mind, she continued to keep her boss at arm’s length, though without putting him off completely, and this brought her a considerable increase in salary (she didn’t know how long she would be able to string him along with the mere hope of one day getting her into bed, but at least she was earning good money meanwhile). He also paid her overtime for working late (her boss liked having her around, perhaps worried that if she went out at night, she might find the great love of her life) (Coelho 17-18).

As Maria’s mother is a typical seamstress who always considers that money is the most important thing in life, she does not want her daughter to suffer because of money. Therefore, she asks Maria to get married with a rich man to keep her and her family up. According to Maslow (qtd. In Schultz 63), self esteem is one of the important needs to be achieved. Maria’s mother thinks if Maria marries a rich man then she is able to fulfill her family’s basic needs. Moreover, the neighborhood will respect her family since it will increase her family’s dignity.

Therefore, it is clear that social condition becomes one of the main reasons why Maria wants to struggle for a better life. She wants to improve her family’s financial condition. Moreover, it can be seen that being rich is one of the best

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things in her neighborhood. Therefore, she wants to increase the dignity of her family also.

b. Traveling Desire

Young Maria experiences “love” when she is eleven years old. However, she has to deal with her broken heart because of her stupidity action for not responding to the boy and being so passive (Coelho 2-3). After some time, Maria comes to the conclusion that men cause only pain, frustration, suffering and a sense of time dragging (Coelho 13). After that she forgets everything about love and decides to travel.

Maria realizes that there is a good place far away. She knows that she has to leave the city because she thinks that the most interesting people always leave. “Nevertheless, looking at the dusty streets of the town where she lives, she decides that one day she will follow in the boy’s footsteps” (Coelho 5). She begins to think about her life, her family and her desire to have a better life. She considers leaving her town for bigger cities to experience new things in life.

Then, the idea of traveling emerges in her mind. According to Smith (282) motivation is categorized as an internal process that influences the direction, persistence and vigor of goal directed behavior. Her dream to see Rio de Janeiro, the capital of Brazil motivates her to earn a lot of money and go traveling. It concerns with self-actualization. Maslow says that this need is the desire to become more and more what one is, to become everything that one capable of becoming (qtd in Schultz 64). To realize her idea, Maria works in a draper’s shop

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to earn money. After working for two years, she saves enough money and then travels to Rio de Janeiro.

She worked two years solidly, paid money each month to her parents for her keep, and, at last, she did it! She saved up enough money to go and spend a week’s holiday in the city of her dreams, the place where film and TV starts live, the picture postcard image of her country: Rio de Janeiro! (Coelho 18)

During her vacation, she meets a Swiss man, Roger, who offers her to become an artist abroad. Realizing that she will not get the second chance, she decides to accept the job. Moreover, she wants to travel and experiences something new. She believes that this is a good way to realize her dream. She tries to convince her parents that the job is something she needs to have a better life. Then, with the blessing of her parents she goes to Swiss with Roger.

2. Maria’s Struggle for a Better Life

Maria has to struggle for the things she wants. She realizes that she is only a poor girl from the backland of Brazil. Therefore, she tries to struggle for a better life. In this part, the theories of motivation, struggle for life and human needs are applied. According to Maslow (qtd in Schultz 62-64), there are five basic needs. They are physiological needs, safety needs, love and belongingness needs, self-esteem needs, and self-actualization needs.

In her journey of life, Maria has to struggle to achieve her better life. She has to deal with life problems. According to Bernard (64) individuals also may consciously and rationally implement strategies that enable them to cope with stresses and problems in life. Furthermore, she also needs adjustment to overcome

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the stresses and problems in her life. Based on Braun, Linder and Asimov (478-480) there are three adjustments namely problem solving, acceptance of the situation and defense mechanism. Maria applies all the three adjustments.

Maria’s struggle can be seen through her jobs as a worker in Brazil, a salsa dancer, a model and a prostitute. How she deals and copes with the jobs is analyzed as follows:

a. Becoming a Shop-Assistant in Brazil

Maria, the major character in the novel, realizes that she comes from a low class family. Therefore, she decides to take a job in a draper’s shop after finishing her secondary school. Smith (282) states that motivation is categorized as an internal process that influences the direction, persistence and vigor of goal directed behavior. At that time, for Maria, earning money is the biggest motivation since she has to support her family financial condition. They have to fulfill their physiological needs. According to Maslow (qtd in Schultz 62), physiological needs are the most important needs among all.

In the shop, Maria realizes that the owner falls in love with her because of her beauty. Since she knows how to use her beauty, she tries to make use of her boss to get a higher salary and extra money.

After working for two years, Maria gets enough money to help her parents to meet their daily needs. She gives some of her money to solve their financial

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problems since her father is only a traveling salesman and her mother is a seamstress. Moreover, she uses the rest of the money to go to her dream city, Rio de Janeiro (18). It is clear that after working as a shop-assistant in Brazil, she can fulfill her physiological needs and realizes her dream to have a holiday in Rio de Janeiro.

b. Becoming a Salsa Dancer in Switzerland

During her holiday in Rio de Janeiro, Maria gets an offer to work as an artist abroad by Roger, a Swiss man. Realizing that she may not have a second chance, she decides to accept the offer. According to Smith, motivation is categorized as an internal process that influences the direction, persistence and vigor of goal directed behavior (282). Thus, fame and fortune become Maria’s biggest motivation to accept the offer. Therefore, with the blessing of her parents, she goes to Switzerland with Roger.

The need of shelter, food and liquid emerge when Maria arrives in Switzerland. Roger takes her in a small and cheap hotel together with the other workers. By that time, she realizes that Roger cheats her. Braun, Linder and Asimov (478) say that there is a process that people cope with the difficult situation in their struggle. It is called adjustment. One of the aspects of adjustment is acceptance of situation. In this case, Maria cannot do anything because she is completely dependent on Roger. She knows that problem and tries to accept the consequence by working as a salsa dancer in Roger’s club every night so that she can pay for her stay in that hotel.

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I got paid yesterday, barely a tenth of what we agreed, the rest, according to the contract, will be used to pay for my flight and my stay here. According to Vivian’s calculation, that will take a year, which means that during that time there’s no escape (Coelho 37).

At the first time, Maria does not feel any pressure at all. She tries to enjoy her new job. She knows that she has to adjust herself by accepting her current condition.

And what’s the point of escaping anyway? I’ve only just arrived. I haven’t seen anything yet. What’s so awful about having to dance seven nights a week? I used to do that for pleasure, now I do it for money and fame; my legs don’t ache, the only difficult things is maintaining that fixed smile (Coelho 37).

However, there is always a limit of everything. Maria knows that she cannot stay in her current condition for the rest of her life. She decides to struggle for her own right. She tries to escape by learning French in order to know the country better. Her self-esteem emerges because she wants to be respected by Roger. Therefore, she goes to Roger’s office and speaks about law in a good French. Then, she gets five thousand dollars in result.

Maria might be young but she was no fool, especially once her Arab lover had told her that Swiss employment laws were very strict and, since the nightclub kept back a large part of her salary, she could easily allege that she was being used for slave labor.

She went back to Roger’s office, this time speaking reasonable French, which now included the word ‘lawyer’. She left with few insults and five thousand dollars in compensation-a sum of money beyond her wildest dream-and all because of that magic word ‘lawyer’ (Coelho 44). Her profession as a salsa dancer becomes one important step for other steps to follow. She wants a better job than a salsa dancer. She searches for it and she does not want to give up. She tries to survive until the last day. She works to

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fulfill her physiological needs. She learns how to deal with the problems and response in proper ways.

c. Becoming a Model

After having a difficult time as a salsa dancer, Maria wants to get another job in Switzerland. She tries to use her beauty to work as a model. She rents a small room, buys a mobile phone and spends most of her money to make excellent photographs. She sends them to some agencies. Maria is not afraid of taking risk, spending most of her money because she knows that her dream is not cheap. She has to sacrifice to achieve her target. She also sends some pictures to her parents to show herself off but wonders about what she will be after becoming a model (Coelho 46).

However, Maria is tired of waiting for a model agent to call her. Therefore, she becomes a regular visitor to the town library since she has nothing to do and avoids buying expensive magazines. Then, there is an agent who offers her to take a part in a fashion show. Unfortunately, it is ended by an invitation to have sex with him for one thousand francs (Coelho 52). She gets shocked and doubtful but she realizes that she is running out of money. Therefore, she decides to take the offer.

Maria needs an adjustment. According to Braun, Linder and Asimov (480) one type of adjustment is problem solving. It is described in the novel that Maria has to deal with her difficulty in financial condition and tries to find the best solution to overcome it, that is by giving her body to the man. Maria knows that

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Appendix E Pre-Activity

1. Are you happy with your profession as a student? 2. Do you know what pain is?

3. What are the differences between sadness and pain?

Difficult Vocabularies

(The students have to find the meaning of the following words by checking them on the dictionary and discuss it with their friends)

1. pain 2. salvation 3. uncharted 4. sacrifice 5. scrawl 6. accustomed 7. sacred 8. somnolent 9. hospitality 10. divinity 11. tavern 12. delinquency While Activity

Answer the following question!

1. What is the setting of the story?

2. “Pain is frightening when it shows its real face but it’s seductive when it comes disguised as sacrifice or self-denial”. What does it mean? 3. What is the meaning of the sacred sex based on the text given?

4. What happens after Maria reads the ancient lyrics given by Ralf Hart? 5. Why does Maria come to the conclusion that she hates her profession

as s prostitute?

Post Activity

The teacher and the students discuss the answer together in class.

71 PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

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72 PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

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4 75 PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

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An analysis of maria`s struggle for a better life as seen in paulo coelho`s eleven minutes.

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Board of Examiners

I dedicate this thesis for my family

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An analysis of maria`s struggle for a better life as seen in paulo coelho`s eleven minutes.

ABSTRAK

Board of Examiners

I dedicate this thesis for my family

and for my boyfriend

ABSTRAK

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Dokumen yang terkait

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