Background of the Study

6

CHAPTER 2 REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

This chapter presents a review of related literature. It consists of the theory of character and characterization, the theory of conflict and the theory of conflict resolution.

2.1 Review on related theories

This section is used as a basis to analyze the novel. It consists of the theory of character and theory of characterization, which help to find out the description of the main character. The theory of critical approach is also an important element in this section to make a better understanding on the work of literature. 2.1.1 Character and Characterization 2.1.1.1 Definitions of Character A novel contains many characters. The characters are presented by the author with physical or psychological appearances and through their behaviors and ways of thinking to make them like ordinary human beings. Stanton 1965, 17 states that a character is a person who does the action in a story. From the character itself the readers can enjoy the development of the story from beginning to the end. Fictional character of a story will lead the readers to imagine or may experience the course and the emotional aspects of the story through their action and their dialogues. 7 Abrams 1981, 20 defines characters as people established in a literary work that have “moral and dispositional qualities that are expressed in what they say –the dialogue-and what they do –the action”. He also adds that the character in the novel has similar disposition with the real human beings that can be found on their moral and temperaments, which become the base or the reason of their actions and their discourse. The characters in the literary works are created as living characters in the fictional world.

2.1.1.1.1 Types of characters

According to Milligan 1983, 155 character can be categorized into two kinds based on their roles in a story, namely major and minor characters. The story usually focuses on a major character because she he is the center of the story. Whereas a minor character is character that appears only once or twice in the story and their roles are less important than the major character. A major character in the novel performs an important role, so the readers’ expectation depends on it. The minor characters are those who appear in a certain setting, just necessarily to become the background of the major characters. Their role is less important Milligan 1983, 55 According to Foster in Abrams 1981, 85, there are two types of characters that can be found in literature. Firstly type is “flat or simple character” that is built around “a single idea or quality” and presented without much individualizing details. Flat characters generally have a dominant characteristic and are not developed. 8 Because they are not central to the plot, they do not change or grow. The term stock character is used to refer the characters that perform in repeating situations. Secondly, a round or complex character is the one who is complex in temperament and motivation and is represented with subtle particularly. Such a character is difficult to describe with any adequacy as a person in real life and like real people. Round characters are more complex, many sided and life like than the flat characters. Round characters are also complex and difficult to understand as individual living people. Abrams 1981, 20 states that to some degree a round characters posses many individual and unpredictable human traits. They may be considered as dynamic; that is, they demonstrate their capacity to change or to grow. Furthermore, a major character could be static or dynamic. A static character is the one who changes little or not at all. Meanwhile, a dynamic character is a character that undergoes any changes. The circumstance where the character lives gives significant influences on their personality development.

2.1.1.2 Characterization

Sometimes a character cannot easily be understood if we do not know what characteristics inside the character are. To help us understand a character in details, we have to know how the author characterizes them. It is important to understand the process of revealing the character in order to figure out the description of the main character. Character and characterization are tightly connected and they cannot be separated. Characterization is a process by which an author creates a character Rohberger and Woods. Jr. 1971, 20. Therefore, to understand the character well, 9 readers have to read the whole story and draw a conclusion from that. The author usually just presents a brief description of the character. The rest is given to the readers to increase their imagination about the character through the story. According to Perrine, to be convincing, characterization must also observe three principles 1974, 69. The first principle is consistency in behavior that is characters must not behave one way on one occasion and a different way on another unless there is a clearly sufficient reason for the changes. The second is motivation; characters should be motivated in whatever they do especially when there is any change in their behavior. Readers must be able to understand the reason for what they do if not immediately or at least by the end of the story. The last principle is plausibility; characters must be plausible or lifelike. They must be relevant to the readers. Characters must have some traits which are the same as those of human beings in the real world. According to Murphy 1972, 161-173, there are nine ways of how an author may reveal the characters’ personality. These methods will give significant contribution to the readers in understanding the characters through characterization. Those methods are personal descriptions, character as seen by another, speech, past life, conversation of others, reactions, direct comments, thoughts, and mannerisms. The first is personal descriptions in which the author can describe a person’s character from the appearance and clothes. The description is focused in our mind’s eye and what is the physical appearance we see.