15 5. Judgment
By following those first four steps can guarantee individuals to have a better life. When individuals dare to follow their own taste, they can feel that they
already make a good judgment for their own. They will find a better choice about what is right or wrong for him or her.
6. Self-development Self-actualization is also an ongoing process developing individual’s
potentialities. It means that working to do well the thing that one wants to do 46. It is a never ending process to make real the potentials in life.
7. Peak experiences Peak experiences are transient moments of self-actualization 46. At
this moment, individuals are already aware of their own potential and where their good at. Individuals can think clearly, have better understanding to others, and
have less conflict with their selves. 8. Lack of ego defenses
This is the hardest thing to do. Individuals have to be able to make defenses although sometimes it hurts to make a defense to something unpleasant.
When individual has to make a defense, individual must be aware to the other defense the society.
This novel tells about Totto-chan’s childhood experiences. Therefore, from those eight ways in leading to self-actualization, I will only focus on the first
way about direct experiences that can help someone to actualize herself or
16 himself. It helps me in analyzing the manifest of seven principles of Bushido in
Totto-chan self-actualization.
2.1.3 Characteristics of the Self-Actualized Person
In Hebert L. Petri 305, Maslow makes a list of characteristics self- actualized person. Those characteristics are more efficient perception of reality
and more comfortable with it, acceptance of self, others, and nature, spontaneity, problem centering, detachment need for privacy, independence from culture and
environment, continued freshness of appreciation, mystic experience or oceanic feeling, sympathy of humankind, interpersonal relations, democratic character
structure, means and ends, philosophical, unhostile sense of humor, and last is creativity. From those characteristics, I will only apply some of those
characteristics which can support me to analyze the main character, Totto-chan. 1. Acceptance of self, others, and nature
Self-actualized individuals were also analyzed as accepting themselves and their own foibles without guilt or extremely anxiety 305. They will accept
people for what the way they are. 2. Spontaneity
Self-actualized person has spontaneity, simplicity, and naturalness in their actions and thoughts. They will follow their intuition in their acting and
behaving. They will do what they think it is right to do. However, they will behave based on the code of ethics they have and it makes them look
unconventional.
17 3. Sympathy for humankind
Self-actualized person has feeling for the others. They also tend to have a feeling of togetherness, aware, and sensitive to their surrounding.
In the novel Totto-chan: The Little Girl at the Window, the influence of the culture toward the main character’s self-actualization is very interesting to be
analyzed. It is because the culture that Japanese believe as their moral value can reflect the power of the society in controlling Totto-chan’s life and behavior.
Those three characteristics are appeared toward Totto-chan’s self-actualization experiences as a process to develop Totto-chan personality. Based on the
descriptions from the author of Totto-chan, self-actualization will be analyzed.
2.1.4 Theory of Character
In this study, I use the theory of character and characterization in understanding Japanese culture through Totto-chan character in the novel.
Japanese culture deals with the society and the historical background of the environment. Because of that reason, I mostly use the socio-cultural-historical
approach to analyze the novel. The theory of character and characterization is used when I want to examine Totto-chan’s character as the main character in the
novel. I apply this theory by relating the theory with their behavior and action. According to Abrams 23, characters are the person’s described in a
literary work, who have the moral and natural qualities that can be identified by seeing what they say as in the dialogue and what they do as in the action.
Characters have emotion, temperament, moral, and social values that become the
18 basic motivation of his or her speech and actions. During the story, a character can
have some changes or in stable. The experiences that are happened to the character can affect their thoughts, ideas, or their environment or society.
Meanwhile, according to Hugh Holman 81 in his book says character is a brief draft that describes a personage who has definite quality. This quality
relates to the idea of moral construction of human personality. Each character has his own value, thus represents a sort of human being.
All definitions above try to say that the moral principle is represented through the character. In this novel, Totto-chan is presented in dramatic and
narrative way with dialogue and actions. Furthermore, those dialogue and actions are meant for Totto-chan to express herself. Through the dialogue and actions,
readers can understand more about Totto-chan thoughts, ideas, and feelings. Her behavior, as represented in the novel, expresses her emotion, her temper, and even
moral principles. Using this theory, I can analyze those behavior, dialog and actions, and get the fact beyond the moral principles.
2.1.5 Theory of Characterization
Based on Abrams definition of character, it is obvious that what the characters say and do is very important in analyzing the character. Through the
actions and dialogues, readers can see the interaction of the character to other characters in a literary work. Moreover, they can determine what kind of person
he or she is. This theory is seeing from how character is revealed by those aspects.
19 Meanwhile, Hugh Holman 81 explains characterization in three ways.
The first is the explicit presentation, which means that the author gives direct exposition of the character. The second is the presentation of character in action,
which means there is no explicit comment from the author, and the readers examine the character’s characteristic from the action. The last is the
representation from within a character, “without comment on the character by the author, of the impact of actions and emotions on the characters itself”. The
purpose is the readers can understand the attitude of each character clearly. Holman adds that a character can be the static or dynamic character. Static
character is a character who the changes not really significant. A static character is more about how the action reveals the character than how the character response
to the action and change the character. In the other hands, the dynamic character is a character who the changes by the experiences and actions.
Based on those experts, I find that characters in novels ‘live’ and ‘act’ in the stories. Therefore, in this case, characterization is important. Characterization
is a process in which characters are portrayed in the novel as real people in real life. I use the theory of characterization to analyze Totto-chan’s character deeper.
Using this theory enables me to reveal a character’s description.
2.2 Reviews on Japanese Culture
Since this study is using the socio cultural-historical approach, I will discuss on the Japanese Culture. During the 12
th
century until the 19
th
century,
20 Japan used the feudal system in rolling their government. Feudal system was a
way of the lord or the king made obligations with the vassal.
2.2.1 Japanese Culture in the 12
th
– 19
th
Century
Feudalism in Japan happened since the 12
th
to 19
th
centuries. Japan divided the society into different classes. Unlike the European feudal system in which
farmers or slaves were at the bottom, Japan placed merchant on the lowest class. Japan divided the society based on their productivity. That is why farmers had
higher status
than shopkeeper
in Japan
www.regentsprep.orgRegentsglobalthemespoliticalsystemsfeudalism.cfm. According
to The
Four-Tiered Class
System of
Feudal Japan
http:asianhistory.about.comodjapanpShogJapanClass.htm, Japan
was divided the society into four classes. Those classes had their own contribution to
the country. The four classes were the Emperor as the first class, the second class was the farmers, the third was the artisans, and the last was the merchants. There
were not only the farmers in the second class but also the fisherman. Both of them had a very important role for Japan. They produced the food so all the society
depended on them. Although they were considered an honored class, they still had to pay the taxes which burdened them.
Japan feudalism is very interesting to be discussed. It was the Emperor in the first class but the Japan Emperor had a little power in role the country.
However, there was the Shogun, as the minion of the Emperor, who took control of the country for the political and military situations. The Shogun ruled the
