Character and Characterizations Points of View

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CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHOD

As what has been mentioned in the first chapter, this research has two objectives, namely to show the natural problems of nature that Karana faces in O’Dell’s Island of the Blue Dolphins and the interdependence between nature and human beings in the novel. The researcher divided this chapter into several parts, they are, the research design, data and the source of the data, the research instruments, the data collecting technique, methods of data analysis, analytical construct and trustworthiness of the data.

A. The Research Design

According to Vanderstoep and Johnston 2009: 7, qualitative research is a research which produces narrative or textual descriptions of the phenomena under study. It means that the phenomena which can be classified as narrative or text are analyzed using the qualitative research. As this research used words, phrase, sentences and paragraphs in O’Dell’s Island of the Blue Dolphins as the data, this research applied the qualitative approach. In other words, this research was a descriptive qualitative study based on the phenomena. In addition, the data or phenomena in this research were explained further in the narrative and descriptive way.

B. Data and the Source of the Data

The main source of the data was Scott O’Dells Island of the Blue Dolphins which is one of teenage novels. This novel was written in 1960 based on the true research of an Indian girl in Ghalas-at tribes, the primitive dwellers along the seashore of the Island of the Blue Dolphins. This island was named Blue Dolphins since its shape was similar to the Blue Dolphins. The story was predicted occurred in 2000 B.C and found by white men in 1602. Meanwhile, all the words, phrases, sentences and paragraphs related to the interdependence between nature and human beings and nature problems, that is faced by the most prominent figure in Island of the Blue Dolphins —a girl named Karana-- who finally could not speak since there was no one to talk to. Furthermore, the researcher also used other secondary sources such as books and articles from journals to support her research. In order to scrutiny the meaning related to human being’ interdependence toward nature and in turn, the researcher used eco- criticism study, especially by Glotfelty and Garrard’s theories, such as: ecology, wilderness, biology, geography, ethnography, history and so on. The studies are mingled and cannot stand alone. It is correlated to each other. Thus, the researcher read several articles or book as she states before, such as Garrard’s Eco- Criticism and The Ecocriticism Reader Landmarks in Literary Ecology edited by Cheryll Glotfelty and Harrold Fromm.