refuse with something, this person could also be said to be in resistance against something McKean, 2003: 1283.
Eric Selbin also said in Revolution, Rebellion, Resistance that ―resistance
can also refer to a form of insurgency denoted by the refusal of people to cooperate actively with, or express support for, the current regime or authority
figures Selbin, 2010: 11 .‖ It means that resistance is the act of people refusing to
cooperate with their current authorities figures. The next term is discrimination that is defined
as ―the behavioral manifestation of racism Moore, 2007: 76.
‖ In other words, when an act is performed to make differences that certain races are more superior to the other
races is discrimination. Finally the last term is the ―White People‖ which also refers to the people
who are categorized into the white race, according to Johann Blumenbach‘s
classification that was published in 1795, as it is mentioned in the Encyclopedia of Race and Ethnic Studies, are the people originated from Caucasus, the mountain
range in Eastern Europe. Blumenbach argued that these people are the most handsome compare to the Mongolians and Ethiopians Cashmore, 2004: 450. In
other words, according to Blumenbach, the Caucasians who are white are better than any other race. They might be considered the most handsome by
Blumenbach compare to any other race because of the physical appearance that perhaps in his opinion is better than any other race.
Therefore, people that belong to the Caucasian race are also known with the term ―the whites‖ or ―white people‖. In this study, the term ―white people‖
refer to the white Australians because the setting of events in the autobiography took place in Australia.
9
CHAPTER II REVIEW OF LITERATURE
A. Review of Related Studies
In this part, the writer would include some related studies that are connected to the autobiography When the Pelican Laughed by Alice Nannup. The
first study is the undergraduate thesis written by Risang Baskara entitled The Indigenous Struggle of Aborigines in Western Australia in the 19
th
Century as Reflected in Alice Nannup’s Life in When the Pelican Laughed. In his
undergraduate thesis, Baskara‘s focus was to see how the indigenous struggles in Western Australia in 19
th
Century are reflected through Alice Nannup, the major of the character.
However, in this analysis, the writer will focus on the indigenous struggle in Western Australia in 19
th
century, the writer believes those struggles existed in the Aborigine society and influence the author to write the novel
When the Pelican Laughed Baskara, 2010: 69. Baskara‘s thesis is mainly to reveal the indigenous struggle which is
reflected through the character of Alice Nannup. Baskara, in his thesis, presented some problems that are faced by the Aborigines through Alice‘s experiences as
the representation of the indigenous struggle. Since his focus was on the indigenous struggle, Baskara explained all the things that are related to the
indigenous struggle that are found in the autobiography through the major character, Alice Nannup.
What makes Baskara‘s thesis different from the writer‘s is that the writer‘s focus is more in digging up on how Alice resists the
discrimination and does not focus on the general struggles of the indigenous. So
the writer‘s focus is only narrowed down to the discrimination issues and not the general struggles such as identity, struggle to survive, and other kinds of struggles
outside the discrimination struggle issu es. Other than that, Baskara‘s paper tries to
point out that the autobiography When the Pelican Laughed is part of the postcolonial work by showing the indigenous struggle during the white
occupation through the representation of the major character‘s experiences. Baskara described every struggle in detail and points out the struggles of the
indigenous people as a community. The writer, on the other hand, does not really pay attention to other issues that can be found in the autobiography other than the
discrimination issues experienced by Alice and how she resist the disscrimination. Another study is the undergraduate thesis that is written by Refrita
Indraswara entitled Racial Discrimination towards the Aborigines in Australia Seen through the Conflict in Alice Nannup’s When the Pelican Laughed. In her
undergraduate thesis, Indraswara‘s main focus was on the racial discrimination
that can be seen through the conflicts found in the autobiography. Indraswara described the conflicts in the autobiography and through the conflicts she revealed
the racial discrimination based on each conflict. She also categorized the racial discrimination into two parts in her analysis as first the legal discrimination and
the second institutional discrimination. The racial discrimination is revealed by looking at the external conflict
which the white people insist that cleaning is the Aborigine‘s job. Even though that is just a simple thing, like wiping the water on the floor. The
white people think that it is an Aborigines job to do cleaning job, or any job as a servant Indraswara, 2013: 39.
As stated above in one part of her analysis, it can be see n that Indraswara‘s
analysis focused on the racial discrimination revealed through the conflicts in the autobiography.
While Baskara‘s undergraduate thesis focuses on the indigenous struggle revealed through the major character, the writer would focus on Alice reactions in
resisting the discrimination by the whites. The difference lies on how the writer is more focused in describing every action of Alice whenever she faced the
discrimination rather than focus on other indigenous struggles that are found in the autobiography as it had been explained by Baskara. As for
Indraswara‘s undergraduate thesis focuses on the racial discrimination as seen through the
conflicts in the autobiography, the writer‘s study is focused on how Alice,
through some discrimination conflicts, resist the discrimination acts she received from the white people in order to withstand the situation and to survive in the
midst of the unequal treatments that she experienced.
B. Review of Related Theories
In this part the writer will refer to some theories that will be used in this study. The theories that would be used are as follows:
1. Theory of Character and Characterization
The theory of character and characterization is used as to find out the character of the major character Alice Nannup. As Mary Rohrberger and Samuel
Woods stated in Reading and Writing about Literature that, ―Characters have
particular personalities
and physical
attributes that
distinguish
