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4. Personality is a dynamic organization within the individual of those
psychological systems that deter mine his characteristics, behavior and thought”
G.W. Allport, as cited in Engler, 2008, p.264. In other words, personality is not only about characteristics, but also behavior and thought. How a character
acts in the story is also a part of personality. 5.
Development refers to changes happening to human being during their lifetime Schiamberg and Smith, 1982, p.5. It has a relationship to some aspects such
as character and attitude. It means that the changes can happen to their character and or attitude.
B. Approach of the Study
One of the best novels by Antoine De Saint-Exupery, entitled The Little Prince, is used as an object to be discussed. A brief explanation on the life of
Antoine De Saint-Exupery can be found in Appendix 1. The Little Prince tells about the adventure of Little Prince in finding life lessons. Little Prince who owns
his tiny little planet lives happily even though there is not any one to talk to. One day, a Rose comes to his planet. He thinks that his Rose is special, the only one in
the universe. They talk about many things in the world they live in. As they talk to each other, there is a doubt in the heart of Little Prince. There are things that Little
Prince could not understand as they argue to each other. He is too naïve and he wants to learn about what grown-ups think. He decides to travel from one planet
to others to experience what he could not understand. He meets many kinds of people in different planets until he arrived on Earth. The Earth is different from
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the planets he visits before; it is very vast. On this planet, Little Prince is stranded in a desert and meets many unexpected events. One of them is that he meets Fox.
They becomes a good friend and Fox teaches many things to Little Prince. Their friendship changes Little Prince
’s life entirely. The summary of the novel can be
found in Appendix 2.
In this study, the Psychological approach is applied to analyze this novel. According to Rohrberger and Woods 1971, “A critical approach to literature
necessitates an understanding o f its nature, function and positive values” p.3. A
general point of view is needed to analyze, criticize and understand a literary work. Thus, Rohrberger and Woods discuss five critical approaches used in
analyzing a literary work; they are Formalist approach, Biographical approach, Sociocultural-Historical approach, Mythopoeic approach and Psychological
approach. From all of those approaches, the Psychological approach is the most appropriate approach to analyze this novel. Rohrberger and Woods explain that,
“The Psychological approach involves the effort to locate and demonstrate certain recurrent patterns. This approach determines the pattern through human social
communication ” p.13. In other words, Psychological approach focuses on the
psychological side of human beings. According to Lester Crow and Alice Crow 1954, “Psychology is often said as the study of human behavior and the progress
of man’s self-development. Human behavior and development are influenced by the environment and the potential th
at man have” p.228-231. The characters’ thought and behavior can be understood by using psychological approach since
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this approach intends to comprehend the patterns of human personality and behavior.
This approach is applied in order to explain Fox behavior pattern as the significant character who influences Little Prince
’s personality development. Personality involves patterns of thought and feeling, but also behavior. The focus
of this study is the influence of the significant character on the main ch aracter’s
personality development as portrayed in the novel. Psychological approach is applied to find out what was going on within the main character and the
significant character who influences his personality.
The method of the study used in this study is library research. The primary source is the novel entitled The Little Prince by Antoine De Saint-Exupery. The
secondary sources are the books related to theory of character, methods of characterization, and theory of personality.
In analyzing this work, some steps are taken. First, the researcher read The Little Prince many times in order to have deeper understanding about the
characters and the story. Second, the researcher attempts to find the problem formulation. Third, the researcher gathers the data and related theories. Fourth, the
researcher analyzes the characters and the findings based on the theories. Those theories are theory of character, method of characterization, and theory of
personality. My analysis is strengthened by discussions with my supervisor. The last, the researcher draws conclusion based on the analysis and give some
suggestions for future researchers and teachers. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
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CHAPTER II DISCUSSION
