Analysis of Elements of Plot in Rodman Philbrick and Lynn Harnett's 'Abduction'.
ABSTRACT
Dalam Tugas Akhir ini, saya menganalisis sebuah novel science fiction
yang berjudul Abduction karya Rodman Philbrick dan Lynn Harnett. Novel ini
menceritakan kejadian aneh yang melibatkan dua karakter yang bernama Luke
Ingram dan Mandy Durgin.
Di dalam Tugas Akhir ini saya bermaksud untuk meneliti bagaimana peranan dan
keterkaitan antara unsur-unsur pembentuk plot yang terdapat dalam novel science
fiction ini. Saya ingin mencoba untuk mengetahui apakah suspense, surprise dan
artistic unity yang terdapat dalam novel ini benar-benar saling memiliki
keterkaitan yang erat yang menjadikan novel ini sebagai novel science fiction
yang baik dan menarik untuk dibaca. Ketika membaca novel ini, orang akan
merasakan adanya ketegangan yang terus memuncak dan kejadian yang tidak
pernah mereka duga sehingga membuat mereka ingin terus membaca cerita
tersebut.
Setelah meneliti unsur-unsur pembentuk novel ini, saya memperoleh hasil bahwa
sebuah novel science fiction membutuhkan elemen-elemen pembentuk plot yang
baik dan saling melengkapi sehingga para pembaca dapat menikmati novel
tersebut.
iii
Maranatha Christian University
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................... i
TABLE OF CONTENTS...................................................................................... ii
ABSTRACT .......................................................................................................... iii
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION ................................................................. 1
Background of the Study .................................................................................... 1
Statement of the Problem .................................................................................... 2
Purpose of the Study............................................................................................ 3
Method of Research............................................................................................. 3
Organization of the Thesis................................................................................... 3
CHAPTER TWO: ANALYSIS OF SUSPENSE, SURPRISE, AND
ARTISTIC UNITY IN RODMAN PHILBRICK AND LYNN
HARNETT’S ABDUCTION ............................................................................. 5
CHAPTER THREE: CONCLUSION ............................................................... 20
BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................... 24
APPENDICES ..................................................................................................... 25
Synopsis of Abduction ....................................................................................... 25
Biography of Rodman Philbrick and Lynn Harnett .......................................... 26
Rodman Philbrick .......................................................................................... 26
Lynn Harnett .................................................................................................. 27
ii
Maranatha Christian University
APPENDICES
Synopsis of Abduction
Luke Ingram is a teenager who lives in Greenfield. He realizes that he has
been abducted by aliens. The same thing happens to Mandy Durgin, Luke’s
close friend. Meanwhile, Quentin, their childhood friend, works with the
aliens by helping them abduct the people of Greenfields to be made their
soldiers.
Quentin helps the aliens to abduct people of Greenfield, included Mandy
and Luke, to become the aliens’ slave. He is very sure that he can make all
people of Greenfield become the aliens’ slave because he has the power to do
it. Moreover, His self-confidence characteristic increases because his
appearance has improved drastically after the aliens help him.
As a matter of fact, the aliens like to help him because Quentin is the only
one who can detect The Others, the sworn enemies of the aliens. Moreover,
Quentin helps abduct people for the aliens because the aliens cannot live with
Earth’s oxygen.
In the end, Mandy and Luke save Greenfield from Quentin’s hand and run
away from the alien spaceship after they put poison in the aliens’ food that
makes their body weak. Because of that, the aliens cancel their mission to
invade Greenfield and the Earth.
25
Maranatha Christian University
Biography of Rodman Phillbrick and Lynn Harnett
Rodman Philbrick
Rodman Philbrick is a famous science fiction and historical fiction author
for teen readers. He was born in 1951 at Boston, Massachusetts. His first career as
the author has begun when he wrote his first novel, Shooting Star, about Ronnie
Garrick who decides to become a rock singer star from rises until receives her
consequences, in 1982. He is also publishing some of his works like Slow Dancer,
a novel that tells about detective Connie Kale, under the pseudonym of William R.
Dantz in 1984.
He married to Lynn Harnett, the author. Together they have created some
works like Abduction, The Haunting, and Children of the Wolf. His famous novel
is Freak the Mighty, got Judy Lopez Memorial Award Honor. This novel is
inspired by the young boy, who lived as his next neighbor, died because of
Morquio Syndrome. Then, he sparked a sequel, Max the Mighty, which was
published in 1988. The Fire Pony and The Young Man and the Sea are some of
another famous of his novel works for teen readers. In Fire Pony, he uses
Montana as its setting and features a young man as its narrator. Meanwhile, The
Young Man and the Sea has clear parallels to early twentieth-century writer Ernest
Hemingway’s classic, The Old Man and the Sea. After he collaborated with his
wife to create some works, he returned to solo projects like The Last Book in the
Universe.
Source: http://biography.jrank.org/pages/1818/Philbrick-W-Rodman1951.html#ixzz1KMVlCyj1
26
Maranatha Christian University
Lynn Harnett
Lynn Harnett was born on September 27, 1950, in Brooklyn, New York.
She was grown up and educated in East Meadow, Long Island. In 1972, she
graduated from State University of New York at Oneonta with a degree of
literature. Not long after that, she works as a full-time editor and photojournalist
in the Exeter News-Letter. She had a long career included worked as Assistant
Editor for Business Digest. Then she married with Rodman Philbrick in 1980. In
the early '90s, she began to write novels for young readers and published ten
books with Scholastic, Inc with her husband, like Abduction, Things, The trilogy
of Werewolf Chronicles, and Strange Invaders. Things itself is a novel about
Nick, Jessie, and Frasier which must fight the aliens by tracking down the source
of the aliens’ energy. Meanwhile, the Werewolf Chronicles consists of three
novels. They are Night Creature as the first novel, Children of The Wolves as the
second novel, and The Wereing as the third novel. These three novels are about a
male toddler who abandoned in the woods, taken in by a wolf mother, and can
transform himself into a werewolf. Lynn never published her own novel works
like her husband did. She died peacefully at her home in the Florida, on March 15,
2012 because of cancer disease.
Source: http://www.seacoastonline.com/articles/20120317PUBLICRECORDS04-203170322
27
Maranatha Christian University
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
Science fiction, which is “highly imaginative fiction typically involving
actual or projected scientific phenomena” (English Dictionary 373), has been
regarded as “a distinct literary genre” that insistently occurs as “a social
phenomenon”. Sociologists, psychologists, historian of ideas, and political
scientists began to turn to it on the assumption that it was an important aspect of
the “sign of the times” (Parrinder xiv). People can find science fiction in literary
works dealing with “scientific topics, space travel, aliens, and recognizably Earthvariant worlds or life forms that have not been touched by magic” (Introduction to
Science Fiction). For example, there are novels which have future characteristic in
science fiction genre like scientific topics in Carl Sagan’s Cosmos, alien in H.G.
Wells’ The War of The World, space travel in Alastair Reynolds’s Pushing Ice,
and Earth-variant worlds or life forms that have not been touched by magic in
Orson Scott Card’s The Memory of Earth.
1
Maranatha Christian University
Rodman Philbrick is an American science-fiction author whose works are
famous among teen readers around the world. Meanwhile, Lynn Harnett,
Philbrick’s wife, is an author and journalist who collaborates with her husband in
writing some novels like The Haunting and Strange Invaders. The Haunting is a
horror novel about twelve-year-old Jason, and his little sister, Sally, who
terrorized by a series of ghostly occurrences that target children. Meanwhile,
Strange Invaders is a science fiction novel about Nick and his twin sister Jessie.
Both of them saw the strange glow hovering over Harley Hills.
I like science fiction because there are many elements of suspense and
surprise in it. This is the reason for me to choose Philbrick and Harnett’s novel,
Abduction, for my study. This novel concerns the mystery of alien existence and
unlike other works by Philbrick, the major character in this novel is not a detective
but two teenagers, Luke and Mandy.
I am going to analyze the suspense and surprise, two important elements in
this science fiction novel. In addition, I am also going to reveal how the suspense
and surprise create the artistic unity in the story. Suspense is “when reader’s
curiosity is combined with anxiety about the fate of some sympathetic character”
(Perrine 45). It also “makes the reader ask ‘What’s going to happen next?’ or
‘How will this turn out?’ and impels him to read on to find the answer to these
questions“ (45). Perrine says that suspense can be achieved by introducing
mystery, which is “an unusual set of circumstances for which the reader craves an
explanation, or to place the hero or heroine in a dilemma” (45). Meanwhile,
surprise is an element that is “proportional to the unexpectedness of what
happens; it becomes pronounced when the story departs radically from our
2
Maranatha Christian University
expectation” (47). Finally, artistic unity is “the various stages of the story (which)
are linked together in a chain of cause and effect” (Perrine 49). In other words,
there is “nothing irrelevant that does not contribute to the total meaning; nothing
that is there only for its own sake or its own excitement” (Reuben).
Statement of The Problem
Based on the Background of the Study previously explained, the statement of
the problem is formulated as follows:
1. Which events in the novel contain elements of suspense?
2. Which events in the novel contain elements of surprise?
3. How do the suspense and surprise create artistic unity in the novel?
Purpose of the Study
The Statement of the Problem reflects the purposes of the study, which are
1.
to identify the elements of suspense in the novel.
2.
to identify the elements of surprise in the novel.
3.
to show that the suspense and surprise create artistic unity in the novel.
Method of Research
I used library research in writing my thesis. Firstly, I read Abduction, which I
chose as the primary text. Then, I searched for references from printed and on-line
sources to support my analysis, which was on suspense and surprise elements of
the novel. After this, I collected the data from the novel to support my analysis of
suspense and surprise. I also tried to find out how the suspense and surprise had
created the artistic unity in the novel. Finally, I drew the conclusion and wrote the
thesis.
3
Maranatha Christian University
Organization of the Thesis
This thesis consists of three chapters. The first chapter is the Introduction,
which consists of the Background of the Study, Statement of the Problem,
Purpose of the Study, Method of Research, and Organization of the Thesis. The
second chapter is the Analysis of the Elements of Suspense and Surprise, which
involves an explanation on how the suspense and surprise create the artistic unity
in the novel, which is Rodman Philbrick and Lynn Harnett’s Abduction. The third
chapter of the thesis presents the Conclusion. Finally, the thesis ends with the
Bibliography and the Appendices, which contain the Synopsis of the novel and
the Biography of the authors.
4
Maranatha Christian University
CHAPTER THREE
CONCLUSION
After having analysed the elements of plot in Abduction, I can conclude
that Rodman Philbrick and Lynn Harnett are skilful science fiction authors due to
the fact that they succeed not only in producing a good story which makes the
reader feel satisfied but also in creating the elements of suspense, surprise, and
artistic unity so perfectly that these elements make the story become interesting to
read. They succeed in producing a good story because they have put a right
connection between the suspenses and surprises in the right places so that the
reader can feel the tension when they are curious about how something can
happen and they will also feel surprised when they know the answers.
Most of the elements of suspense in Philbrick and Harnett’s Abduction are
full of mysteries, which make the reader wonder and ask a question about the fate
of the two main characters, Luke and Mandy. In the novel, the first suspense
occurs when Luke and Mandy experience blackout and lose four hours twice. This
makes the reader ask about what happens to Luke and Mandy during their losing
20
Maranatha Christian University
four hours. Not long after that, the second suspense happens when Mandy gets a
bad dream so that she cannot sleep well at night. The next day, Quentin talks to
her that he knows that Mandy cannot sleep well at night. This surprises her and
makes her question herself how he can know that. Later, Luke finds that he cannot
control his body. Then, another event occurs: Quentin appears in Luke’s dream.
This raises three questions: how Quentin can know that Mandy cannot sleep well
at night, what happens to Luke’s body and how Quentin can appear in Luke’s
dream. The third suspense happens when Luke and Mandy see the aliens for the
first time when they wake up inside the spaceship. At the same time, they also see
that the aliens make an agreement with Quentin and they wonder about what the
aliens do with Quentin. Then, the fourth suspense appears when they find out that
there are implants inside their head. This raises a question about how they can be
free from the implant’s influence. Finally, the fifth suspense occurs when Quentin
explains to Mandy about his plan to invade Greenfield, which creates a question
about whether Greenfield can be saved or not from the aliens’ invasion. Not only
does the suspense make the reader feel anxious about what will happen next, but it
also raises tension in the readers’ minds. They make the reader feel that they are
brought into the story and experience the story as though they are the main
characters in the story.
The second element is surprise. First of all, the first surprise answers the first
suspense. The story tells that the aliens are behind Luke and Mandy’s losing four
hours. The second surprise is when the relationship between the aliens and Quentin
is revealed. In return to Quentin’s help of providing food for them, the aliens let
21
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Quentin use their technology. The third surprise is answering the third suspense and
it tells that they are abducted by the aliens in order that the two teenagers become
their experimental objects. The fourth surprise answers the fourth suspense by
telling that Luke and Mandy can be freed from the implant’s influence. Finally, the
fifth surprise answers the fifth suspense by telling that Greenfield is saved after
Luke and Mandy struggle to fail the aliens’ invasion.
Based on my analysis on suspense and surprise above, I can say that
suspense and surprise are linked together to make artistic unity. Firstly, the first
artistic unity has a connection with the first surprise and the first suspense. It tries to
explain that the aliens have a connection with Luke and Mandy’s losing hours. The
second artistic unity has a connection with the second surprise and second suspense.
Through it, the reader can realize that Luke’s body movement is controlled by
Quentin with the help of the aliens. This also answers how Quentin can control
Luke’s body. The third artistic unity shows a connection between the third surprise
and the third suspense. From this connection, the reader can know that the aliens
abduct Luke and Mandy to be the experimental objects by putting the silvery needle
into their heads.
Further, the fourth artistic unity has a connection with the fourth suspense
and the fourth surprise. It explains how Luke and Mandy can be free from the
implant’s influence. Finally, the fifth artistic unity has a connection with the fifth
suspense and the fifth surprise. It explains how Luke and Mandy can save their
town, Greenfield, from the aliens’ invasion. Through this novel, Philbrick and
Harnett have put suspense as well as surprise in the right order and interestingly
give the reader unexpected events so that the reader will enjoy the novel and they
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will not feel bored in reading to the end of the story. In other words, the three
elements in Abduction are related to one another to make the story easier to be
understood.
In a science fiction novel, suspense is the most important element because
the purpose of this kind of novel is to make the reader feel the tension and curiosity
in their minds. Then, when readers are trapped in the suspense, they unexpectedly
get the results which make them feel surprised. As a result, the artistic unity appears
due to the strong connection of suspense and surprise in the story, which makes the
story successful. The connection of the two elements can be seen through the novel,
Abduction. In the end, all the mysteries are answered, and the readers’ tensions are
over.
I feel satisfied and surprised when I read the novel. The mystery elements in
the novel are good to make me or the reader to imagine about the two main
characters that experience blackout problems. Moreover, I feel the suspense and
surprise have created a good plot to make the story entertaining to be read. In my
conclusion, Abduction is a good novel to be read by all readers who love science
fiction.
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Maranatha Christian University
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Primary Text
Philbrick, Rodman and Lynn Harnett. Abduction. 1998. New York: Scholastic.
References
Harnett, Lynn. “Lynn Harnet.” N.D. Web. 5 December 2012.
Parrinder, Patrick. Science Fiction: Its Critcism and Teaching. 1980. New York:
Methuen & Co. Ltd. Print.
Perrine, Laurence. Literature: Structure, Sound and Sense. New York: Harcourt
Brace Jovanovich Inc, 1974. Print.
Philbrick, W.R. “(W.) Rodman Philbrick (1951-) Biography – Personal, Career,
Honors Awards, Writings, Adaptations, Work in Progress, Sidelights.”
N.D. 22 April 2009. Web.
Reuben, Paul. “PAL: Appendix G: Elements of Fiction.” N.P, n.d. Web.
24
Maranatha Christian University
Dalam Tugas Akhir ini, saya menganalisis sebuah novel science fiction
yang berjudul Abduction karya Rodman Philbrick dan Lynn Harnett. Novel ini
menceritakan kejadian aneh yang melibatkan dua karakter yang bernama Luke
Ingram dan Mandy Durgin.
Di dalam Tugas Akhir ini saya bermaksud untuk meneliti bagaimana peranan dan
keterkaitan antara unsur-unsur pembentuk plot yang terdapat dalam novel science
fiction ini. Saya ingin mencoba untuk mengetahui apakah suspense, surprise dan
artistic unity yang terdapat dalam novel ini benar-benar saling memiliki
keterkaitan yang erat yang menjadikan novel ini sebagai novel science fiction
yang baik dan menarik untuk dibaca. Ketika membaca novel ini, orang akan
merasakan adanya ketegangan yang terus memuncak dan kejadian yang tidak
pernah mereka duga sehingga membuat mereka ingin terus membaca cerita
tersebut.
Setelah meneliti unsur-unsur pembentuk novel ini, saya memperoleh hasil bahwa
sebuah novel science fiction membutuhkan elemen-elemen pembentuk plot yang
baik dan saling melengkapi sehingga para pembaca dapat menikmati novel
tersebut.
iii
Maranatha Christian University
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................... i
TABLE OF CONTENTS...................................................................................... ii
ABSTRACT .......................................................................................................... iii
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION ................................................................. 1
Background of the Study .................................................................................... 1
Statement of the Problem .................................................................................... 2
Purpose of the Study............................................................................................ 3
Method of Research............................................................................................. 3
Organization of the Thesis................................................................................... 3
CHAPTER TWO: ANALYSIS OF SUSPENSE, SURPRISE, AND
ARTISTIC UNITY IN RODMAN PHILBRICK AND LYNN
HARNETT’S ABDUCTION ............................................................................. 5
CHAPTER THREE: CONCLUSION ............................................................... 20
BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................... 24
APPENDICES ..................................................................................................... 25
Synopsis of Abduction ....................................................................................... 25
Biography of Rodman Philbrick and Lynn Harnett .......................................... 26
Rodman Philbrick .......................................................................................... 26
Lynn Harnett .................................................................................................. 27
ii
Maranatha Christian University
APPENDICES
Synopsis of Abduction
Luke Ingram is a teenager who lives in Greenfield. He realizes that he has
been abducted by aliens. The same thing happens to Mandy Durgin, Luke’s
close friend. Meanwhile, Quentin, their childhood friend, works with the
aliens by helping them abduct the people of Greenfields to be made their
soldiers.
Quentin helps the aliens to abduct people of Greenfield, included Mandy
and Luke, to become the aliens’ slave. He is very sure that he can make all
people of Greenfield become the aliens’ slave because he has the power to do
it. Moreover, His self-confidence characteristic increases because his
appearance has improved drastically after the aliens help him.
As a matter of fact, the aliens like to help him because Quentin is the only
one who can detect The Others, the sworn enemies of the aliens. Moreover,
Quentin helps abduct people for the aliens because the aliens cannot live with
Earth’s oxygen.
In the end, Mandy and Luke save Greenfield from Quentin’s hand and run
away from the alien spaceship after they put poison in the aliens’ food that
makes their body weak. Because of that, the aliens cancel their mission to
invade Greenfield and the Earth.
25
Maranatha Christian University
Biography of Rodman Phillbrick and Lynn Harnett
Rodman Philbrick
Rodman Philbrick is a famous science fiction and historical fiction author
for teen readers. He was born in 1951 at Boston, Massachusetts. His first career as
the author has begun when he wrote his first novel, Shooting Star, about Ronnie
Garrick who decides to become a rock singer star from rises until receives her
consequences, in 1982. He is also publishing some of his works like Slow Dancer,
a novel that tells about detective Connie Kale, under the pseudonym of William R.
Dantz in 1984.
He married to Lynn Harnett, the author. Together they have created some
works like Abduction, The Haunting, and Children of the Wolf. His famous novel
is Freak the Mighty, got Judy Lopez Memorial Award Honor. This novel is
inspired by the young boy, who lived as his next neighbor, died because of
Morquio Syndrome. Then, he sparked a sequel, Max the Mighty, which was
published in 1988. The Fire Pony and The Young Man and the Sea are some of
another famous of his novel works for teen readers. In Fire Pony, he uses
Montana as its setting and features a young man as its narrator. Meanwhile, The
Young Man and the Sea has clear parallels to early twentieth-century writer Ernest
Hemingway’s classic, The Old Man and the Sea. After he collaborated with his
wife to create some works, he returned to solo projects like The Last Book in the
Universe.
Source: http://biography.jrank.org/pages/1818/Philbrick-W-Rodman1951.html#ixzz1KMVlCyj1
26
Maranatha Christian University
Lynn Harnett
Lynn Harnett was born on September 27, 1950, in Brooklyn, New York.
She was grown up and educated in East Meadow, Long Island. In 1972, she
graduated from State University of New York at Oneonta with a degree of
literature. Not long after that, she works as a full-time editor and photojournalist
in the Exeter News-Letter. She had a long career included worked as Assistant
Editor for Business Digest. Then she married with Rodman Philbrick in 1980. In
the early '90s, she began to write novels for young readers and published ten
books with Scholastic, Inc with her husband, like Abduction, Things, The trilogy
of Werewolf Chronicles, and Strange Invaders. Things itself is a novel about
Nick, Jessie, and Frasier which must fight the aliens by tracking down the source
of the aliens’ energy. Meanwhile, the Werewolf Chronicles consists of three
novels. They are Night Creature as the first novel, Children of The Wolves as the
second novel, and The Wereing as the third novel. These three novels are about a
male toddler who abandoned in the woods, taken in by a wolf mother, and can
transform himself into a werewolf. Lynn never published her own novel works
like her husband did. She died peacefully at her home in the Florida, on March 15,
2012 because of cancer disease.
Source: http://www.seacoastonline.com/articles/20120317PUBLICRECORDS04-203170322
27
Maranatha Christian University
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
Science fiction, which is “highly imaginative fiction typically involving
actual or projected scientific phenomena” (English Dictionary 373), has been
regarded as “a distinct literary genre” that insistently occurs as “a social
phenomenon”. Sociologists, psychologists, historian of ideas, and political
scientists began to turn to it on the assumption that it was an important aspect of
the “sign of the times” (Parrinder xiv). People can find science fiction in literary
works dealing with “scientific topics, space travel, aliens, and recognizably Earthvariant worlds or life forms that have not been touched by magic” (Introduction to
Science Fiction). For example, there are novels which have future characteristic in
science fiction genre like scientific topics in Carl Sagan’s Cosmos, alien in H.G.
Wells’ The War of The World, space travel in Alastair Reynolds’s Pushing Ice,
and Earth-variant worlds or life forms that have not been touched by magic in
Orson Scott Card’s The Memory of Earth.
1
Maranatha Christian University
Rodman Philbrick is an American science-fiction author whose works are
famous among teen readers around the world. Meanwhile, Lynn Harnett,
Philbrick’s wife, is an author and journalist who collaborates with her husband in
writing some novels like The Haunting and Strange Invaders. The Haunting is a
horror novel about twelve-year-old Jason, and his little sister, Sally, who
terrorized by a series of ghostly occurrences that target children. Meanwhile,
Strange Invaders is a science fiction novel about Nick and his twin sister Jessie.
Both of them saw the strange glow hovering over Harley Hills.
I like science fiction because there are many elements of suspense and
surprise in it. This is the reason for me to choose Philbrick and Harnett’s novel,
Abduction, for my study. This novel concerns the mystery of alien existence and
unlike other works by Philbrick, the major character in this novel is not a detective
but two teenagers, Luke and Mandy.
I am going to analyze the suspense and surprise, two important elements in
this science fiction novel. In addition, I am also going to reveal how the suspense
and surprise create the artistic unity in the story. Suspense is “when reader’s
curiosity is combined with anxiety about the fate of some sympathetic character”
(Perrine 45). It also “makes the reader ask ‘What’s going to happen next?’ or
‘How will this turn out?’ and impels him to read on to find the answer to these
questions“ (45). Perrine says that suspense can be achieved by introducing
mystery, which is “an unusual set of circumstances for which the reader craves an
explanation, or to place the hero or heroine in a dilemma” (45). Meanwhile,
surprise is an element that is “proportional to the unexpectedness of what
happens; it becomes pronounced when the story departs radically from our
2
Maranatha Christian University
expectation” (47). Finally, artistic unity is “the various stages of the story (which)
are linked together in a chain of cause and effect” (Perrine 49). In other words,
there is “nothing irrelevant that does not contribute to the total meaning; nothing
that is there only for its own sake or its own excitement” (Reuben).
Statement of The Problem
Based on the Background of the Study previously explained, the statement of
the problem is formulated as follows:
1. Which events in the novel contain elements of suspense?
2. Which events in the novel contain elements of surprise?
3. How do the suspense and surprise create artistic unity in the novel?
Purpose of the Study
The Statement of the Problem reflects the purposes of the study, which are
1.
to identify the elements of suspense in the novel.
2.
to identify the elements of surprise in the novel.
3.
to show that the suspense and surprise create artistic unity in the novel.
Method of Research
I used library research in writing my thesis. Firstly, I read Abduction, which I
chose as the primary text. Then, I searched for references from printed and on-line
sources to support my analysis, which was on suspense and surprise elements of
the novel. After this, I collected the data from the novel to support my analysis of
suspense and surprise. I also tried to find out how the suspense and surprise had
created the artistic unity in the novel. Finally, I drew the conclusion and wrote the
thesis.
3
Maranatha Christian University
Organization of the Thesis
This thesis consists of three chapters. The first chapter is the Introduction,
which consists of the Background of the Study, Statement of the Problem,
Purpose of the Study, Method of Research, and Organization of the Thesis. The
second chapter is the Analysis of the Elements of Suspense and Surprise, which
involves an explanation on how the suspense and surprise create the artistic unity
in the novel, which is Rodman Philbrick and Lynn Harnett’s Abduction. The third
chapter of the thesis presents the Conclusion. Finally, the thesis ends with the
Bibliography and the Appendices, which contain the Synopsis of the novel and
the Biography of the authors.
4
Maranatha Christian University
CHAPTER THREE
CONCLUSION
After having analysed the elements of plot in Abduction, I can conclude
that Rodman Philbrick and Lynn Harnett are skilful science fiction authors due to
the fact that they succeed not only in producing a good story which makes the
reader feel satisfied but also in creating the elements of suspense, surprise, and
artistic unity so perfectly that these elements make the story become interesting to
read. They succeed in producing a good story because they have put a right
connection between the suspenses and surprises in the right places so that the
reader can feel the tension when they are curious about how something can
happen and they will also feel surprised when they know the answers.
Most of the elements of suspense in Philbrick and Harnett’s Abduction are
full of mysteries, which make the reader wonder and ask a question about the fate
of the two main characters, Luke and Mandy. In the novel, the first suspense
occurs when Luke and Mandy experience blackout and lose four hours twice. This
makes the reader ask about what happens to Luke and Mandy during their losing
20
Maranatha Christian University
four hours. Not long after that, the second suspense happens when Mandy gets a
bad dream so that she cannot sleep well at night. The next day, Quentin talks to
her that he knows that Mandy cannot sleep well at night. This surprises her and
makes her question herself how he can know that. Later, Luke finds that he cannot
control his body. Then, another event occurs: Quentin appears in Luke’s dream.
This raises three questions: how Quentin can know that Mandy cannot sleep well
at night, what happens to Luke’s body and how Quentin can appear in Luke’s
dream. The third suspense happens when Luke and Mandy see the aliens for the
first time when they wake up inside the spaceship. At the same time, they also see
that the aliens make an agreement with Quentin and they wonder about what the
aliens do with Quentin. Then, the fourth suspense appears when they find out that
there are implants inside their head. This raises a question about how they can be
free from the implant’s influence. Finally, the fifth suspense occurs when Quentin
explains to Mandy about his plan to invade Greenfield, which creates a question
about whether Greenfield can be saved or not from the aliens’ invasion. Not only
does the suspense make the reader feel anxious about what will happen next, but it
also raises tension in the readers’ minds. They make the reader feel that they are
brought into the story and experience the story as though they are the main
characters in the story.
The second element is surprise. First of all, the first surprise answers the first
suspense. The story tells that the aliens are behind Luke and Mandy’s losing four
hours. The second surprise is when the relationship between the aliens and Quentin
is revealed. In return to Quentin’s help of providing food for them, the aliens let
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Quentin use their technology. The third surprise is answering the third suspense and
it tells that they are abducted by the aliens in order that the two teenagers become
their experimental objects. The fourth surprise answers the fourth suspense by
telling that Luke and Mandy can be freed from the implant’s influence. Finally, the
fifth surprise answers the fifth suspense by telling that Greenfield is saved after
Luke and Mandy struggle to fail the aliens’ invasion.
Based on my analysis on suspense and surprise above, I can say that
suspense and surprise are linked together to make artistic unity. Firstly, the first
artistic unity has a connection with the first surprise and the first suspense. It tries to
explain that the aliens have a connection with Luke and Mandy’s losing hours. The
second artistic unity has a connection with the second surprise and second suspense.
Through it, the reader can realize that Luke’s body movement is controlled by
Quentin with the help of the aliens. This also answers how Quentin can control
Luke’s body. The third artistic unity shows a connection between the third surprise
and the third suspense. From this connection, the reader can know that the aliens
abduct Luke and Mandy to be the experimental objects by putting the silvery needle
into their heads.
Further, the fourth artistic unity has a connection with the fourth suspense
and the fourth surprise. It explains how Luke and Mandy can be free from the
implant’s influence. Finally, the fifth artistic unity has a connection with the fifth
suspense and the fifth surprise. It explains how Luke and Mandy can save their
town, Greenfield, from the aliens’ invasion. Through this novel, Philbrick and
Harnett have put suspense as well as surprise in the right order and interestingly
give the reader unexpected events so that the reader will enjoy the novel and they
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will not feel bored in reading to the end of the story. In other words, the three
elements in Abduction are related to one another to make the story easier to be
understood.
In a science fiction novel, suspense is the most important element because
the purpose of this kind of novel is to make the reader feel the tension and curiosity
in their minds. Then, when readers are trapped in the suspense, they unexpectedly
get the results which make them feel surprised. As a result, the artistic unity appears
due to the strong connection of suspense and surprise in the story, which makes the
story successful. The connection of the two elements can be seen through the novel,
Abduction. In the end, all the mysteries are answered, and the readers’ tensions are
over.
I feel satisfied and surprised when I read the novel. The mystery elements in
the novel are good to make me or the reader to imagine about the two main
characters that experience blackout problems. Moreover, I feel the suspense and
surprise have created a good plot to make the story entertaining to be read. In my
conclusion, Abduction is a good novel to be read by all readers who love science
fiction.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Primary Text
Philbrick, Rodman and Lynn Harnett. Abduction. 1998. New York: Scholastic.
References
Harnett, Lynn. “Lynn Harnet.” N.D. Web. 5 December 2012.
Parrinder, Patrick. Science Fiction: Its Critcism and Teaching. 1980. New York:
Methuen & Co. Ltd. Print.
Perrine, Laurence. Literature: Structure, Sound and Sense. New York: Harcourt
Brace Jovanovich Inc, 1974. Print.
Philbrick, W.R. “(W.) Rodman Philbrick (1951-) Biography – Personal, Career,
Honors Awards, Writings, Adaptations, Work in Progress, Sidelights.”
N.D. 22 April 2009. Web.
Reuben, Paul. “PAL: Appendix G: Elements of Fiction.” N.P, n.d. Web.
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