5 about the contribution of irony to the plot of story. It is also expected that the
readers may deepen their knowledge of the many functions of irony as used in The Rainmaker
story. By knowing the functions of irony as analysed, the readers could then, comprehend and adopt the important things, related to both irony and the
story, into real life situation. Most importantly, by adopting the hidden values of the story, it may help the students of ELESP to find out proper behaviour as role
models of their students when they become English teachers.
E. Definition of terms
There are terms used in the research which need to be elaborated more. The elaboration of the terms serves to associate similar perceptions of the researcher
and the readers of the research.
1. Irony
In A Glossary of Literature Terms, irony is defined as the root sense in making discepancies, or of a dissembling, what is revealed and what the case really is
Abram, 1989 p. 89. According to Gibbs 2008 in The Cambridge Handbook of Metaphor and Thought
, “irony emphasizes the difference between two states of affairs, making plain which is true
” p. 458. It is called ironic whenever the appearance of something is different from what actually is. However, by
showing the different sides, the purpose of using irony is to emphasise which side is actually true.
6
2. Verbal Irony
Burgers, Mulken and Schellens 201 1 conclude verbal irony as “an utterance
with a literal evaluation that is implicitly contrary to its intended evaluation ”
p. 190. In other words, there is another intended meaning behind one
statement spoken by the character in the story. 3.
Situational Irony
Situational irony is the result of actions done by character in the story that falls out of
readers’ expectation Pettineo, 2012 p.7. It is also called situational irony when unexpected scenes occur which are different from what the readers
expected. The readers’ expectation also include how they interpret certain
points of the story. Thus, when some events in the story are interpreted differently from what they expected previously, it becomes situational irony.
4. Plot
According to Perrine 1974, plot is the sequence of incident or events which the story is composed and it may include what character says or thinks as well
as what he does. It leaves out description and analysis and concentrates ordinarily on major happening p. 43.
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CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
In this chapter, the researcher discusses three parts. The first part discusses the review of related studies. This part explains briefly how this research
differs from other studies. The second part represents literary theory which are relevant to this research directly. The last part is theoretical framework. It
summarizes on how the presented theories are used in solving research problems throughout the research.
A. Review of Related Studies
There are many studies concerning John Grisham’s books, which consist
of more than thirty different titles raising legal cases, conducted by English department students of Sanata Dharma University.
On discussing John Grisham’s books, there are various things pinpointed to be the main focus of the studies. His
first book, A Time to Kill 1992 telling about a struggle of a black man fighting the practice of racism which existed at that time, was analysed by Ningrum 2011.
She discusses about how the practice of racism experienced by the characters reflect the real condition on American society.
In 2008, Saliro discusses the intrapersonal and interpersonal conflicts of character in The Pelican Brief 1992. Saliro discusses on how conflicts build up
the characteristics of Darby Shaw through the story. Analysing that Saliro PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
8 experiences intra-personal and interpersonal conflicts in the story, he also
determines how the character solves her conflicts. Both of the work focuses on the characters of the novel, although they use different light to raise the focus. On her
study, Ningrum discusses the practice of racism and how it reflects the real social condition of American at that time, while Saliro raises conflicts to describe the
characteristics of Darby Shaw. However, there has not been a single study analysing The Rainmaker novel.
Pringle 2007 also reviews the work of John Grisham in Revisiting John Grisham: A Critical Companion
, a follow-up to John Grisham: A Critical Companion
published by Greenwood in 1997. Though briefly, Pringle discusses that John Grisham focuses on heroes in a chaotic and meaningless modern world.
Like much so- called serious modern literature, several of John Grisham’s
novels —especially A Time to Kill, The Firm, The Rainmaker, and now The
Brethren —lend themselves to existentialist readings. In The Rainmaker, Grisham
targets corporate greed of a medical insurance company p. xx. By the time Grisham published The Rainmaker 1995, he seemed less assured that a single
hero could put a dent in the world’s wickedness or bring down evil institutions. Discussing irony is not a new thing in the ground of English department,
both in education or literature department. The latest study of irony is presented by Suzanna 2007. Raising the topic of Irony in the Main Characters Seen from
Feminist Perspective to Reveal the Theme in Philippa Gregory’s Perfectly
Correct , Suzanna raises the relation between the main characters, ironies and the
theme of the novel. As for plot which the researcher will relate to the irony to, PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
