CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
1.1 The Background of Analysis
The word literature is derived from the Latin ‘literera’ letter which primarily refers to the written or printed words. Literature refers to compositions
that tell stories, dramatize situations, expresses emotions, an analysis, and advocate ideas.
Literature may be classified into three categories: prose fiction, poetry, and drama. Prose fiction or narrative fiction, includes myths, parables, romances,
novels and short stories. Novel is the longest of all literary forms, which more popular because it represents human activities in daily life through the characters
and setting. Psychology is the study of human mind and behavior. Mind deals with
person. Person is character. In Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English, the word ‘character’ defined as person in a play, novel, etc. Every
character has mind and action. Action is the behavior form. Behavior deals with judgment. Judgment here means to point the person’s attitude whether it is good
or bad. In Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English, the word ‘good’ defined as morally right or acceptable and the word ‘bad’ defined as
wicked, immoral. In the novel The Lovely Bones, character Mr. Harvey rapes and kills children. People judged Mr. Harvey’s attitude is immoral, wicked that called
bad.
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In this thesis, I would like to discuss one of Alice Sebold’s novel’s The Lovely Bones through psychological approach. I choose psychological approach in
analyzing this novel because in this novel the author focuses on sense of psychology that is showed by the character Mr. Harvey. The character expresses
psychological disorder, he rapes and kills children. The novel draws the character that is suspected as murderer because of his psychological disorder.
“Psychological disorder can be defined as a psychological dysfunction associated with distress or impartment in functioning that is not typical or
culturally expected response.” Barlow Duran, 1995:2 Disorder or behavior that can be associated with distress or impartment is that would be case if the
individual with the disorder were extremely upset, or if the disorder were negatively affecting the person’s ability to function. It occurred infrequently or
rarely. The character Mr. Harvey in the novel has distress or impartment that
occurred infrequently. Mr. Harvey rapes and kills girls. He has been killing girls for a long time and has never been caught for his deeds. Mr. Harvey has the
horrible childhood that molded him into a murderer. He has sexual disorder that called pedophilia. In psychology, sexual attraction to children or very young
adolescents called pedophilia Barlow Duran, 1995:451 because his sexual attraction to children, he rapes and kills girls. Rape is sexual intercourse by use of
force, fear between individuals of the same sex or the opposite that can cause biologic effects and psychological effects Sadoff
The Lovely Bones is a novel of an American novelist named Alice Sebold that appeared in 2002. The novel draws from the authors personal experiences
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from when she was raped during her freshman year at Syracuse University. The novel received a great deal of critical praise and became an instant bestseller. It is
the story of a teenage girl about a 14-year-old who, after being brutally raped and murdered by a man named Mr. Harvey. She watches from heaven as her family
and friends go on with their lives, while she herself comes to terms with her own death. Mr. Harvey is a sexual predator, a rapist, a serial killer. He is the 36-year-
old neighbor who rapes and murders Susie, within minutes of her own home. The main reason why I am interested in choosing Alice Sebold’ The
Lovely Bones as the focus of analysis because the novel presents the complexity of human relationship among the members of the family in a household after a death
of a daughter that has been raped and killed by a man that has sexual disorder. He has the horrible childhood that molded him into a murderer and cause sexual
disorder that called pedophilia. In psychology, sexual attraction to children or very young adolescents called pedophilia Barlow Duran, 1995:451 because his
sexual attraction to children, he rapes and kills girls. The reason why I choose psychological disorder as my analysis because I want to know deeply about
psychology. It is so interesting to study. I could study to understand about people’s mind and action after studying it. In this case, I could know and
understand deeply about psychological disorder.
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1.2 The Problems of Analysis