by letting the readers know how that person reacts to various situations and events.
g. Direct comment. The author can describe or comment on a person’s character
directly. h.
Thoughts. The author can give us direct knowledge of what a person is thinking about. In this respect he or she is able to do what we cannot do in life.
The author can tell the readers what different people are thinking. These are some of the ways in which an author makes his or her readers
aware of the personalities and the characters of the people that he or she writes about in his or her books. By knowing about the characterization the readers will
understand why the character does the thing and the emotional feeling of the readers will also be involved when they read the story.
2. Theories of Feminism
a. Feminism in General
The first idea that is likely to occur in the course of any historical thinking about feminism is that feminism is a social force Humm, 1992:1. The
emergence of this social force is because the awareness of feminists to understand that in all societies which divide the sexes into differing cultural,
economic or political spheres, women are less valued than men. Humm states that feminism also depends on the premise that women could consciously and
collectively change their social place. The word feminism could stand for a belief PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
in sexual equality combines with a commitment to eradicate sexist domination and to transform society 1992:1. In the other word it can be said that feminists
desire to restructure the patriarchal society, not to replace it with matriarchy, they only struggle to get equality. The goal of feminism is to change the degrading
view of women so that all women will realize that they have the same right with men in all fields. Feminist theories reveal the rights that women should have,
women’s oppression and also women’s struggle to get the equality toward men. According to Maggie Humm, in general, feminism is an ideology of
women liberation since intrinsic in all approaches is the belief that women suffer in justice because of their sex. It is also stated that feminism is defined as the
principal that women should have political, economic and social rights equal to men. Maggie Humm argues that feminist approach aims to redress the portrayal
of gender stereotypes and gives the appropriate value to ignore women’s writing 1992: xi.
Feminism appears because there is an unfair treatment toward women in society. The basic assumption of feminism is a movement that starts from the
women’s awareness to be free from discrimination, oppression, exploitation and to try to end these treatments. Feminism is a women’s movement to be free from
oppressions, discriminations, and to get the same rights and dignity with men. Feminism believes that women have the same right as men. They have
the rights to live, to work, to get education, to get freedom and so on. Women, are the same with men, have their own rights and freedom to do whatever they
want. Women are born free and equal to men in the sense of human rights. Unfortunately, in this male-dominated world, women’s rights are not fully
appreciated, because what women do is restricted due to their sex. There is a belief in the patriarchal society that men are superior and women are inferior.
The misconception of women stereotyping that women are weak, dependent, passive, submissive and receptive makes women seen as inferior to men. It is
clear that from time to time people assume that women are nothing compared to men because people themselves believe it and do not want to try breaking that
wrong assumption about women. Feminism also notices that women are always regarded as inferior to men
because they are never given equal opportunities to show their intelligence and to prove their capabilities. Their potentialities to develop their abilities are narrowed
by the gender stereotypes system built by the patriarchal society. Related to the gender stereotypes, according to Butler, gender identity is
the same with a cultural performance, matrix of signifiers that enables members of a cultural group to ‘read’ the signs of gender and to be read as gendered
subject, that the basic ‘to search for the origins of gender, the inner truth of female desire, and a genuine or authentic sexual identity that repression has kept
from view 1990: viii. It is clearly seen that what feminists’ desire are equal rights and equal
opportunities for women. Feminist theory reveals the importance of women’s individual and shares experiences and also women’s struggle, their struggle for
equal opportunities and equal rights. They realize that they have the same right as men, and because of that, women try to fight against the condition and strive for
their rights. In relation to marriage, Stanton says that marriage is only one of a range
of choices men may make about how to live their lives; and how women have no individual sovereignty. She recognizes that women are educated and socialized to
expert only marriage as the structuring principle of their lives. “Personal freedom is the first right to be proclaimed, and that does not and cannot now belong to the
relation of wife, to the mistress of the isolated home, to the financial dependent”. The married women surrenders all her rights, including the right to control her
own body, though her husband gives up nothing, she becomes an unpaid domestic drudge, robbed of her labor; and when women are paid to work outside
the home they are paid not according to the value of their labor but according to the value of their gender. Stanton identifies the lack of legal status as a citizen as
the root cause of women’s dependence within marriage. That situation also can cause the economic and sexual oppression on woman 1969: 70.
As Stanton has expressed it, we must reject every conception that makes women an instrument of men. Both men and women have the same rights and
dignity as human being. They complement each other through their differences. Within a marriage, women have the same rights as men. In marriage, women
should be free, respected and sovereign in proportion to the stability of the family, since women have the dignity of being a wife and mother 1969: 70.
Feminist movement also focuses on women’s consciousness about their disadvantageous positions that is regarded as the second class citizen, the
purpose is to correct the labeling on women and to restructure the society in order to get the equality in gender. The basic goal of feminist movement is to
correct the misconception of women stereotyping and to get the equality toward men.
b. Values of Feminism
