T1 112008116 Full text

ID
IDEOLOGY AND HEGEMONY
IN MA YAN AN
AND ORANG MISKIN DILARANG SEKOLAH
H

THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment
off tthe Requirements for the Degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan

Rieka Ayunidya Suci
112008116

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY
Y OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
SATYA W
WACANA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
SALATIGA
2013

IDEOLOGY AND HEGEMONY
IN MA YAN AND ORANG MISKIN DILARANG SEKOLAH

THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirement of the Degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan

Rieka Ayunidya Suci
112008116

Approved by:

Lany Kristono, M.Hum

Suzana Maria L.A.F., M.Hum

_____________________

_______________________

Supervisor

Examiner

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Suzana Maria L.A.F, M.Hum

IDEOLOGY AND HEGEMONY IN MA YAN AND ORANG MISKIN DILARANG
SEKOLAH

Rieka Ayunidya Suci
ABSTRACT
Education is considered an important element that determines one’s social status, although there
are uneducated people who are successful. Such an idea about the importance of education is
also reflected in Ma Yan and Orang Miskin Dilarang Sekolah. This is interesting because the
main characters were still in elementary school. They even believed that education was the only
way to help them get out of the trap of poverty. Therefore this study tried to find out what
ideologies and hegemony were behind the characters’ attitude toward education in both novels.
The analysis revealed that their strong belief about education was rooted in culture, religious

belief, parents’ belief about education as reflected in family upbringing as well as their dream to
get out of the trap of poverty. The findings are expected to make the readers understand why
people may think that education is important and how ideologies are calculated.
Keyword: ideology, hegemony, education
INTRODUCTION
The Indonesian society is characterized by, among others, the contrasting conditions of
the upper and lower classes as reflected in their belongings and life style. The upper class’ better
financial condition makes the group have bigger opportunities to make use of different public
facilities and select the best for them than the lower class. For example, they have more power to
access the best education, because they can afford it easily. In contrast, the lower class should
struggle to get particularly higher-level education because of financial reason. As a result, they
will probably remain in that social class.
Education is considered to be one of the factors which determine one’s social class. It

seems to be the most important one because it enables people to get a better job. A good job
means a high income, which is related to social prestige. In this era of information, education
seems to play a more important role as a determining factor of one’s future. It is generally
believed that the lower class people have to be well-educated to enter the higher social class. The
struggle of children in remote areas, who often have to walk several kilometers, cross a river or
pass a jungle or an emergency bridge, to go to school, reflects what education means for them.

Article 31 of the 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia which states that all children in
Indonesia have the same right to get education, the government program of 9 year mandatory
educational system and the establishment of

“Gerakan Indonesia Mengajar” (Indonesia

Teaching Movement) confirm that education is important.
On the contrary, the world at present also witnesses the success of uneducated people.
Contrast to the phenomenon of parents’ belief about education and the importance of education
is the phenomenon of successful ‘uneducated’ entrepreneurs. Sean Parker, who invented
facebook, earned US$ 2.1 billion. His success in developing facebook is because he likes
technology since he was child. The late Steve Job and Bill Gates, two influential names in
computers and softwares, did not finish their college education. Peter Firmansyah who owns the
international label of clothing, ‘Peter Says Denim’, started his business since he couldn’t
continue his study to the university because of the high tuition. However, the belief that
education is important is still strongly held.
Such a principle is also depicted in Ma Yan and Orang Miskin Dilarang Sekolah. Because
of that, it would be interesting to examine what make education important to the children in the
novels which were selected as the subjects of this study because the protagonists share the same
view about education; i.e. education is important and that education is a guarantee for getting

good job, which in turns makes a better life. Both novels also depict the struggle of the main
characters, which are from the lower class, to be educated. This is interesting since the
protagonist of Ma Yan is a third-grade of elementary school who lived in Zhangjiashu. On the
other hand, the main character of Anak Miskin Dilarang Sekolah is a third-grade and first-grade
elementary school students living in Kampung Genteng, Semarang. It is rather unusual that
young children have such an understanding about education. Therefore, this study would like to
examine what ideologies are behind the main characters’ struggle to be formally educated and
how the ideologies are inculcated.
Through this study, it is hoped that the readers will understand more about the reason(s)
why education is considered important. As prospective teachers, the readers, who are the
students of the Faculty of Language and Literature, Satya Wacana Christian University, may
learn about what education means for some people, particularly those of the lower class. Besides,
the readers are also expected to be aware of how ideologies may be inculcated in people. Finally,
reading the research report, the readers are expected to have a deeper understanding of the
Marxist theory used in this study.
My search for the previous studies done related to this research reveals that there has
been no research discussing ideology and hegemony in Ma Yan and Anak Miskin Dilarang
Sekolah. So far, the results of my investigation are in the form of reader’s review about the
novels.

Marxism
Marxism emphasizes the idea that social life is based upon conflicts of interests. The
most fundamental and important of these conflicts is that between the bourgeoisie; i.e. those who
own and control the means of production in society, or the rich and the proletariat; i.e. those who

simply sell their labour power in the market place of capitalism, or the poor. Marxists divides a
society into two big categories; i.e. the poor (proletariat) and the rich (bourgeoisie) (Tyson 54).
The aim of Marxism is to bring about a classless society, based on the common
ownership of the means of production, distribution and exchange (Barry 158). Marxism sees
progress as coming about through the struggle for power between different social classes. To
Karl Marx, people’s social class membership is determined by their relationship to the means of
production, that is, by what they do within a society’s way of producing goods and services.
Marx sees two classes, capitalists and workers. Capitalists own the means of production
(factories, businesses, etc.) and workers labor in them. So there is a big difference in the social
class between the higher class as a capitalist and lower class as a worker (“Culture and Social
Class” 2).
All the same, Marxist literary criticism maintains that a writer’s social class, and its
prevailing “ideology” (outlook, values, tacit assumption, half-realised allegiances, etc) have a
major bearing on what is written by a member of that class (Barry 158). Marxist theory uses the
notion of ideology to describe the process through which the dominant ideas within a given

society reflect the interests of a ruling economic class (Stoddart 192).
Ideology
Karl and Engels defines ideology as "The ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the
ruling ideas … The class which has the means of material production at its disposal, has control
at the same time over the means of mental production” qtd. in Brooker. Ideology itself represents
the "production of ideas, of conceptions, of consciousness," all that "men say, imagine,
conceive," and include such things as "politics, laws, morality, religion, metaphysics, etc."
(Felluga 47). Similarly, Engels maintains that:

“Ideology is a process accomplished by the so- called thinker, consciously indeed
but with a false consciousness. The real motives impelling him remain unknown to him;
otherwise it would not be an ideological process at all. Hence he imagines false or
apparent motives. Because it is a process of thought he derives both its form and its
content from pure thought, either his own or that of his predecessors.” (qtd. in Williams
65).

Some Marxists use the concept of false consciousness to explain how the Proletariat is
co-opted by a ruling class into the values of Capitalist society (a member of the working class is
falsely conscious of their true class position when they fail to see themselves as a member of an
exploited, oppressed, class). False consciousness is a concept derived from Marxist Theory of

social class. It refers to the systematic misrepresentation of dominant social relations in the
consciousness of subordinate classes (workers, peasants, serfs).
Ideology itself is idea that comes from the society that serves the interest of a class in the
society. As Nielsan says, “An ideology . . . is a system of ideas, theories, beliefs, attitudes,
norms, and social practices that (a) is characteristic of a class society or of a class or other
primary social group in a class society and that (b) serves principally the interests of a class,
typically a class in that society, or other primary social group while typically at least, putting
itself forward as answering to the interests of the whole of the society” (98). What makes ideas
exist in a society is the influence of the dominant people within that society. Similarly Richard
says that an ideology “is systematically distortive and reflects reified powers of domination”
(109).
As Campbell and Kean explain, ideology is “those modes of feeling, valuing, perceiving
and believing that exist within and inform our everyday lives and connect us to wider structures
of power in society in ways that contribute to the maintenance and reproduction of social

power”. The statement about social power is supported with Althusser idea who said that
ideology represent the imaginary relationship of individuals to their real conditions of existence.
For example, in a religious society, a human being knows about his duties but he does not know
about his right, because the religious ideology establishes a kind of imaginary consciousness
which distances a human being from his real conditions.
Hegemony
Hegemony is a concept which at once includes and goes beyond culture as a whole social
process. Hegemony is not only the communicative upper level of ideology, nor are its forms of
control only those ordinarily seen as manipulation or indoctrination (Williams 108-110). It also
goes beyond ideology. It means that hegemony is a concept or idea that influenced not only by
culture but also the circumstances. What is decisive is not only the conscious system of ideas and
beliefs, but the whole lived social process as practically organized by specific and dominant
meanings and values (William 109). Gramsci also states that hegemony appears as the “common
sense” that guides our everyday, unexciting understanding of the world. According to William, it
is a view of the world that is “inherited from the past and uncritically absorbed” and which tends
to reproduce a sort of social homeostasis, or “moral and political passivity” (333).
For “hegemony” is a concept which at once includes and goes beyond two powerful
earlier concepts: that of “culture” as a “whole social process‚” in which men define and shape
their whole lives, and that of “ideology,” in any of its Marxist senses, in which a system of
meanings and values is the projection or projection of a particular class interest (William 108).
William understands that culture also has a contribution in hegemony. But the important thing is
the process and experience in that system.

"A lived hegemony is always a process. It is not, except analytically, a system or
a structure. It is a realised complex of experiences, relationships and activities, with
specific and changing pressures and limits. In practice, that is, hegemony can never be
singular. Its internal structures are highly complex, as can readily be seen in any concrete
analysis. Moreover (and this is crucial, reminding us of the necessary thrust of the
concept), it does not just passively exist as a form of dominance. It has continually to be
renewed, recreated, defended, and modified. It is also continually resisted, limited,
altered, challenged by pressures not at all its own" (William 112).

The concept of hegemony goes beyond the ideology and it is not only the conscious
system of ideas and beliefs but also the social process that organized by specific dominant
meanings and values. Ideology also a kind of normal sense and articulated system of meaning,
values and beliefs (William 106).

The importance of education
Education is understood differently by the characters in both novels. If the main and
secondary characters in Ma Yan (hereafter MY) consider education important, the secondary
characters in Orang Miskin Dilarang Sekolah (hereafter OMDS) consider the opposite. The
characters in both novels have the same background of life, i.e. they are poor. However, the
characters in MY believe that education can help them eradicate poverty. In contrast, most
characters in OMDS believe that education is not important because it is better for them to work
hard to fulfill their daily needs rather than going to school.
This is reflected in the efforts they make to go to school. Ma Yan, a Chinese girl who was
born on March, 6 1988 and lived in Zhangjiashu, the poorest district in China, had to spend
around four hours walking 20 kilometers to go to school. Every day, she saw how hard her
parents, who were farmers, worked to pay for her tuition. Her father sometimes worked as a
labor in a building project to earn more money. The first time Ma Yan needed a pen, she had to

save her pocket money for two weeks to buy the pen, although it only cost two Yuan (China
currency). Every week, Ma Yan got one yuan to buy extra food or stationery at school but she
saves all the money so that she could buy the pen (Kuncoro 65). This means for two weeks she
only had a bowl of rice for breakfast at school. This shows how much she wants to study and
how determined she is to be able to go to school. The only reason why Ma Yan thinks that
education is more important than having meals is what she thinks she will enjoy in the future if
she is educated. She believes that education drives her to a better life. It is reflected in MaYan’s
note that says about her hope. She has to study hard so that she can enter to the university
someday and get good job so their parents will not be have a miserable life (Kuncoro 66).
In Anak Miskin Dilarang Sekolah, only one protagonist, Faisal, a third-grade elementary
student, considers education significant, as reflected in what he said to his good friends, Yudi,
Pepeng and Pambudi. These three boys did not go to school because they had to help their
parents work. Their parents worked in Yok Ben farm. They had to look for the grass for the
cows, cleaned the farm and toke care all cows everyday (Prasetyo 17). What Faisal says to his
good friends about going to school expresses his idea about education.
“Banyak hal yang bisa kita dapatkan dengan sekolah, selain untuk masa depan
yang lebih baik, sekolah bisa mengendalikan imajinasi-imajinasi liar ke kehidupan
Kampung Genteng yang begitu menggoda”. (Prasetyo 68)
“We can get a lot of things by going to school. Besides giving a better future,
school can also control the wild-imaginations to the Kampung Genteng which is so
tempting”. (My own translation)

What Faisal said to his friends cannot purely his own idea because a third grade
elementary school student, who is generally eight or nine years old will not have such an idea
about going to school. He must have got the idea from the adults around him, especially his

parents and teachers, or what he reads. This is ideological since the idea itself reflects the process
of production idea in social life (Eagleton 1).
Similarly, since Ma Yan, is also still in the third grade of elementary school, what she
thinks of education cannot be completely her own idea. Ma Yan seems to be inspired by what her
parents do to send her to school. To fulfill the daily needs, pay the school tuition and give the
pocket money, Ma Yan’s parents worked very hard. Her father went to Yinchuan (the capital of
Ning Xia) or to Hohhot in Mongolia or Sansu and Shaanxi to get more job in order to earn more
money. Her mother also went to Ning Xia to work in fa cai farm as a fa cai; i.e. a terrestrial
cyanobacterium, a type of photosynthetic bacteria that is used as a vegetable in Chinese cuisine)
picker. That shows Ma Yan parents struggle to earn money for their family.
It is her family’s financial condition that makes Ma Yan think that she has to get a good
job, as stated in the following quotation:
“Ayah dan ibu rela mengorbankan segalanya agar kami bisa tetap bersekolah.
Aku harus belajar super giat untuk masuk universitas suatu hari nanti. Setelahnya, aku
akan mendapat pekerjaan yang bagus. Ibu dan Ayah tidak akan lagi hidup sengsara.
Itulah tujuan hidupku. Itulah pengharapanku”. (Kuncoro 66)
“Dad and mom have sacrificed everything so that we can go to school. I have to
study very hard to go to the university someday. Afterwards, I will get a good job. They
will not have miserable life. That’s the purpose and wish in my life”. (My own
translation)

Her parents’ struggle and attitude seems to shape Ma Yan’s determination to study as
best as she can and her opinion about education. If her parents struggle hard for something, it
must be precious. Their attitude motivates Ma Yan to study very hard and to dream for studying
in the university to earn much money and show her gratitudes for what her parents have done to
her. The above quotation also reflects how much the idea that education is significant is

dominating Ma Yan’s family so that it becomes ideological. As Campbell and Kean explain,
ideology is “those modes of feeling, valuing, perceiving and believing that exist within and
inform our everyday lives and connect us to wider structures of power in society in ways that
contribute to the maintenance and reproduction of social power” (9). Ma Yan’s parents’ hard
work to pay for their children’s tuition and Ma Yan’s belief that education is the only way to
earn much money show that they are victims of the hegemony of the ideology that education is
significant.
At school, Ma Yan sees that her friend, whose parent work as a government officer
always give their children pocket money. When her friend asks her to accompany her to the
market, she saw that her friend can buy anything she wants, such as candy, bread, pencil and
handkerchief (61). As a government officer, they get fixed salary so they can give their children
pocket money every season. On the contrary, Ma Yan cannot buy anything.
Besides, a song entitled “Ketika Harus Kau ucapkan Selamat Tinggal” (“We have to say
good bye”) that her mother taught her reminds her of her parents’ endeavor to earn money to pay
for her school tuition. The song is about parents’ advice to the children that someday the children
will have their own life and they do not need to worry about their parents and home.
“Ingatan (tentang lagu) ini membuatku ingin terus bersekolah dan bisa masuk
universitas sehingga memungkinkan aku mendapatkan pekerjaan yang hebat. Pekerjaan
yang hebat itu akan memberiku penghasilan besar dan tetap sehingga bisa kubelanjakan
untuk segala keperluan hidup. Maka ibuku akan memiliki kehidupan yang bahagia”.
(Kuncoro 52)
“These memories make me want to continue the school and be able to enter the
university which will enable me to get a great job. That job would give me a great
income to fulfill our daily needs. Then my mother will have a happy life”. (My own
translation)

The song makes Ma Yan remember her mother’s struggle because her mother was the
first person who taught her that song, so that she always remembers her when she sings that
song. Ma Yan seems to have been moved, remembering that she will leave her parents and
hometown later. She may have a much better life than her parents, who have had a lot of
difficulties for her future. Ma Yan may think that she has to do something to express her
thankfulness for what her parents have done for her and it becomes her motivation to study hard.
Ma Yan’s attitude reflects Bornstein, Tal and Tamis-LeMonda’s statement that parents in
collectivist cultures, such as Japan and China, encourage children to obey rules and to behave
conforms to norms; i.e. obedience and proper behavior, with respect for the elder. This means
how Ma Yan thinks of and perceives her life is a part of her culture. In other words, Chinese
culture considers it is natural for children to pay for what their parents have done to them. As a
result, Ma Yan’s determination to study hard in order to make her mother have a happy life
reflects how culture influences the hegemony.
On the other hand, OMDS relates education, social status and God as reflected in what
Faisal said to his friends in the quotation below:
“Maksudnya, dengan sekolah, Allah akan mengangkat derajat kalian. Ilmu akan
membuat orang disegani, tetapi orang bodoh akan selalu terhina di mana pun berada”.
(Prasetyo 72)
“I mean, if we school, God will raise your status. Science will make people be
respected, but stupid people will always be insulted anywhere they are”. (My own
translation)

Faisal explicitly states that education makes people be respected. However, by relating
education to religion, Allah in particular, Faisal’s opinion about the importance of education is
rooted in Islamic teaching. As Al-Mujadalah:11 states, Allah will exalt those who believe among

you and those who is given knowledge This is one factor which may shape Faisal’s idea about
education as well as differ him from Ma Yan, who learns about the importance of education from
her daily experience. By quoting Al Mujadalah verse 11 to make his friends realize the
importance of education, Faisal is using the verse as a means of hegemony (Gramsci qtd. in
William 333).The verse becomes ideological because it shapes an idea as if education is the only
way for one to get a higher social status so that it is a false consciousness.
Pepeng, Pambudi and Yudi do not realize that education is important because their
parents do not ask them to go to school and talk about it. They think that working and earning
money is the important thing than education (Prasetyo 53). Their poor condition makes their
parents and they believe that they have to work and earn money to continue their life. Their
parents have such an opinion because the poverty itself so to them what is important is to be able
to eat. It is also stated as Faisal thought in page 167. In the quotation above, Faisal realize that
money is important, of course with the high education and it is different with his friends who
think that they can get money even though they uneducated.
“Aku belajar satu hal lagi, kehidupan yang aku tinggali ini semua serba materi,
semua diukur dengan uang, semua berbau uang, semua tak bisa dipisahkan dari uang.
Konon, tanpa uang kita tak bisa apa-apa. Banyak nilai yang telah tergerus dan hanya
menjadi petaka, karena ketergantungan mereka dengan uang.” (Prasetyo 167)
“I learned one more thing; the life I live in is all about material. All things
measured with money, cannot be separated from money. It was said that without money
we can’t do anything. All the value lost and become a catastrophe, because of their
addiction in money.” (My own translation)

What makes Faisal learn about this one thing is when his father called a psychiatrist to
listen to his story. He was diagnosed to suffer from amnesia when he was sick due to the
accident when Yok Ben’s farm was closed (Prasetyo 155). Faisal thinks that it is easy as

psychiatrist to get money, just sit and listen the patient story and the reason of it is education
(166). Education makes people get a better job and of course a high salary and good life. The
psychiatrist absolutely has a high education so she/he can get money easily. In this case, Faisal
also learns from his experience.
It is interesting that the parents in both novels view education differently. In OMDS, the
parents, except Faisal’s parents, do not think that education is important. On the other hand, Ma
Yan’s parents do what they can to send their children. The parents in OMDS may not think that
education can change their life because they accept their life, including the poverty. This attitude
may be rooted in culture. In Javanese culture, people are supposed to be submissive, to accept
things as they are. As Mulder said, that ethnic behaviour has lead to the nrimo attitude, because
people have to pursue the ensuing 'slamet, tentrem, lan ayem', i.e. blessedness, quietness,
peacefulness (Mulder 1996).
In terms of social stratification, the Javanese distinguish between two broad social levels,
wong cilik (or common people), consisting of peasants and the urban lower classes, and the
priyayi (or high-class society), comprising civil servants, intellectuals, and the aristocracy
(Koentjaraningrat 1957). It shows that wong cilik always obedient to the priyayi. In this case, the
Faisal’s friend’s parents are the wong cilik and Yok Ben is the priyayi. It also influences their
children thinking. Wong cilik idea influences the children thinking because the culture makes
them obedience to the priyayi so the only thing they should do is working to them. In OMDS
novel, Faisal’s friend’s parents who determine as a wong cilik doesn’t like the three boys who go
to school. The reason is if they go to school and be smart, they cannot be a slave.
“Ah, sialan, rupanya anak-anak itu sekarang sudah sekolah, gawat, benar-benar
gawat, kalau mereka sekolah, kemudian menjadi pintar…” (Prasetyo 128)

“Ah, damn, they go to school now, it’s so serious, if they go to school and be
smart…” (My own translation)

Instead of going to school, Pambudi, Pepeng and Yudi have to help their parents earn a
living (Prasetyo 64-65). That is their struggle to get education beside the poverty.
“Ya, aku sih iri Sal, tapi mau bagaimana lagi, aku harus bekerja membantu ayah.
Mengangkati rumput-rumput untuk makanan sapi-sapi,” kata Pambudi sambil
menundukkan wajahnya... (Prasetyo 64)
“Yeah, I’m jealous Sal, but I have to help my Dad. Lifting the grass for the cows,
said Pambudi.”
“Aku sendiri setiap sore harus berkeliling kampung menjual pisang goreng ke
rumah-rumah di Kampung Genteng,... Kali ini Yudi yang bicara. (Prasetyo 64)
“Me too. I have to walk around sell the fried banana door to door every afternoon,
said Yudi.”
“Kalau aku, setiap malam diajak ayah untuk mengangkuti kelapa-kelapa dari
pelabuhan ke pasar-pasar malam dengan becak sejauh 25 kilo... Pepeng yang bicara.
(Prasetyo 65)
“And me, my Dad asked me to lift the coconut from the port to the night
market use the pedicab as long as 25km every evening.”
“Aku dan kamu hidup dalam dunia yang lain, Sal. Hidupmu enak, semua
kebutuhanmu tercukupi, tetapi aku... aku harus berjuang untuk menyambung nasibku
agar tidak kelaparan”. (Prasetyo 65)
“You and I have different life. Your life is nice, all your needs fulfilled, but I …
I have to work hard to continue my life so that I am not hunger.” (My own translation)

All the above quotations tell about the obedience of the children and about having no
choice. In Javanese peasant families in economically poor villages, very young children are
actively involved in housework, care of younger siblings, and some agricultural chores children's
direct contribution to income is limited until about the age of 10 (White 1975). The different
views of education depicted in the two novels show that parents’ attitude influences their
children’s attitude. Ma Yan considers education important; while Pepeng, Pambudi and Yudi do

not think that education is important because they reflect their parents’ beliefs in education.
In effect, Faisal has to talk a bit rudely to make his friends realize the importance of
education.
“Apa kau ingin jadi pencari rumput selamanya, apa kau juga ingin menjadi
penjual pisang goreng dan kuli pengangkut kelapa selamanya, seperti orang tua Kalian
yang membanting tulang begitu kerasnya, tetapi hasilnya... apa? Mereka tetap seperti
budak...,” kataku begitu keras dan mengena di ulu hati.” (Prasetyo 70)
“Do you want to be a grass seeker, a fried banana seller, and a coconut carrier
forever? Like your parents who work very hard, but the result... they remain as a slave, I
said rudely.”
“Aku juga bosan dengan keadaan ini terus menerus Sal, aku ingin keluar dari jerat
kemiskinan ini. Yudi albino membuang kekesalan itu dari dalam hatinya.” (Prasetyo 71)
“I’m bored with this condition Sal, I want to go out from this poverty. Said Yudi
in a disappointment.” (My own translation)

What Faisal says reflects his belief about education. Just like Ma Yan, Faisal believes that
education is a tool to have a comfortable life. Moreover, Faisal thinks that hard work without
education cannot improve one’s life. In other words, education is the only way to go out of
poverty. Faisal’s idea is supported by Yudi’s statement that he is bored living in such a
condition, which implies that all his life, he is poor. Because his parents are not educated, his
family is poor.
It is interesting that elementary school students like Ma Yan and Faisal think that
education will free people from poverty. Even they consider education as the only way to get
out of poverty. This idea is ideological because in reality education does not guarantee a
comfortable life. For example, there are university graduates who are unemployed or work as
vendors. Therefore, believing that being educated means having a high salary and a good life
actually “represents the imaginary relationship of individuals to their real condition of

existence” (Althusser 167). The idea is also ideological because it reflects a false consciousness
(Eagleton 69).
Ma Yan puts her hope in education so much so that she dares to express her disagreement
with her parents. When Ma Yan’s parent decided to stop her schooling because they don’t have
enough money to pay for Ma Yan and her brother’s school fees, Ma Yan refused her mother’s
asking her to quit school because of her belief in education.
“Tapi zaman sekarang tidak mungkin orang bisa hidup tanpa pendidikan.
Pendidikan memberikan pengetahuan. Bahkan petani memerlukan pengetahuan tentang
cara bercocok tanam yang tepat untuk mendapatkan hasil panen terbaiknya.” (Kuncoro
136)
“In this era, people can not live without education. Education provides
knowledge. Even farmers need the knowledge about how to farm to get the best crop.”
“Mendapatkan pendidikan adalah hak setiap anak. Adalah kewajiban orang tua
untuk memberikan pendidikan yang layak bagi setiap anak-anaknya tanpa kecuali.”
(Kuncoro 126)
“To be educated is the right of every child. It is the duty of parent to provide
education for all children without exception.” (My own translation)

Ma Yan’s mother’s decision to ask her daughter instead of her son to quit school reflects
the hegemony of Chinese culture, which traditionally values sons more than daughters. Her
decision shows that she is a victim of the hegemony, which appears as the “common sense” that
guides every day, mundane understanding of the world. It is a view of the world that is “inherited
from the past and uncritically absorbed” and which tends to reproduce a sort of social
homeostasis, or “moral and political passivity” (Gramsci 1971).
“Bila sebuah keluarga menghadapi kemiskinan, maka anak-anak laki-lakilah yang
akan mendapatkan kesempatan terbaik terlebih dahulu, sementara anak perempuan akan
menjadi pilihan untuk menanggung penderitaan.” (Kuncoro 24)
“When a family faces poverty, boys will get the best opportunities; while girls
will have to bear the suffering.” (My own translation)

Ma Yan’s mother’s decision may also be influenced by what she experienced as a child.
Because she obeyed her mother, she did not go to school. Instead, she just the housework and
worked on the farm to earn money for the family (Kuncoro 19). To her, a girl should be obedient
and dedicate her life to her family as stated in the following quotation:
“Yang dimiliki perempuan itu hanyalah apa yang pada umumnya dimiliki
perempuan desa, yakni kepatuhan dan kesetiaan untuk mengabdi. Bayang-bayang itu
adalah aku.” (Kuncoro 22).
“What a girl has is what the village girls generally have; i.e. loyalty and obedience
to serve. That shadow is me.” (My own translation)

Therefore, to Ma Yan’s mother, a girl does not need to go to school. Her opinion reflects
the ideology which gives priority and opportunity to boys, which is the result of an ideology she
“inherits from the past and uncritically absorbed” (William 333).
Ma Yan’s determination to study at school makes her mother’s change her belief about
education. Because of her daughter she realizes that education is important and she thinks that it
is not fair for her daughter to quit school. The following quotation represents her changed ideas
about education:
“… pendidikan adalah alternatif terbaik untuk melepaskan diri dari takdir
kemiskinan, bahwa pendidikan adalah sebuah pintu yang membuka jalan untuk
mendapatkan kehidupan yang lebih baik daripada sekadar menjadi peladang dan buruh
tanpa kepastian masa depan yang jelas (seperti yang selama ini kami jalani), maka
kukuatkan hati untuk melepaskan anak-anakku menempuh jalur perjalanan itu demi
meraih ilmu bagi masa depan.” (Kuncoro 128).
“…education is the best alternative to escape the fate of poverty, education is a
door that opens the way to get a better life rather than just being a farmer and laborers
without certainty, so I change my mind and let my children take the journey to get the
education they need for their future.”
Ma Yan ingin tetap sekolah. Aku tidak akan membiarkan anak-anak kita berhenti

sekolah, karena itu akan membuat mereka bernasib seperti kita, tercengkeram
kemiskinan tanpa batas waktu. Maka kita harus melakukan apa pun juga, supaya anakanak kita menjadi orang-orang terdidik, karena itulah cara untuk melepaskan diri dari
kemiskinan.” (Kuncoro 160)
“Ma Yan wants to stay in school. I’m not going to let our children drop out school
because it will make them have the same fate as us, trapped in endless poverty. So we
have to do anything to make our children educated because that is the way we can
escape from poverty.” (My own translation)
It is clear that Ma Yan’ strong will to be educated is the only reason why her mother
changes her mind. Besides, her decision to let Ma Yan continue her study and to do anything to
pay for the tuition shows that the hegemonic ideology of woman culture, that woman comes
second after man, does not work on her anymore. This fits William’s statement that, “a lived
hegemony is always a process …it has continually to be renewed, recreated, defended, and
modified. It is also continually resisted, limited, altered, challenged by pressures not at all its
own” (112).
“Ma Yan ingin tetap sekolah. Aku tidak akan membiarkan anak-anak kita berhenti
sekolah, karena itu akan membuat mereka bernasip seperti kita, tercengkeram
kemiskinan tanpa batas waktu. Maka kita harus melakukan apa pun juga, supaya anakanak kita menjadi orang-orang terdidik, karena itulah cara untuk melepaskan diri dari
kemiskinan.” (Kuncoro 160)
“Ma Yan wants to stay in school. I’m not going to let our children out from the
school because it will make them same with us, stay in poverty without the time limit.
So we have to do anything to make our children educated because that is the way how
we escape from the poverty.” (My own translation)
Ma Yan’s parents’ principle about education is reflected in the quotation below:
“Orang tuaku ingin menjadikan sekolah itu sebagai sebuah pintu untuk beranjak
dari kehidupan lama pada kehidupan baru dengan berbagai harapan positif di dalamnya.”
(Kuncoro 118)
“My parents want to make the school as a door to move to the new life with the
positive expectation on it.” (My own translation)

Their new belief about education matches William’s idea that “What is decisive is not

only the conscious system of ideas and beliefs, but the whole lived social process as practically
organized by specific and dominant meanings and values” (109). Poverty, which is their reality
of life, the dominant value that education brings a good future and their daughter’s determination
to go to school has changed their system of ideas and beliefs.
In contrast, Pambudi and his friends don’t think that education is important because their
parents themselves don’t educated and force them to go to school. The poverty and the culture
also influence them about it. Their parents still believe that working is more important than going
to school. On the other hand, Yudi’s parents support their son’s desire to go to school. However,
they immediately mention that they cannot afford it (Prasetyo 77).
Conclusion
The discussion reveals that most characters (Ma Yan, her parents and also Faisal and his
three friends) in both novels believe that education is important. Even the protagonists of both
novels consider that education will rescue them from poverty. That they have such a strong belief
about education is interesting since they are elementary school students. As children, they must
be influenced by adults, most probably their parents. Ma Yan’s parents believe that their children
should be educated and they work very hard to realize it. Faisal’s parents are not described as
ones who have similar principle as Ma Yan’s parents. However, Pepeng, Pambudi and Yudi’s
parents are described as ones who think that their children had better help them earn for a living
than going to school. Their belief, which represents Javanese peasant custom, proves to affect
their sons. In short, family upbringing plays an important role. In addition, Faisal’s opinion of
the importance of education is affected by his religious belief.
Besides, a song entitled Ketika Harus Berpisah, which is a cultural product and reflect

the children-parents relationship, which says that children must be obedient to their parents, also
motivate Ma Yan to study hard to get a good job later so that she will be able to make her mother
have a good life. Her dream to make her mother have a happy life is also caused by her daily
experience as she sees her parents work very hard to pay for her school fee. Similarly, the
characters in OMDS later would like to go to school to have a better future. Therefore, it can be
said that in both novels, the ideologies about education are indirectly inculcated through culture,
religion and the dream to get out of living poverty. Similarly, the hegemony that include in the
culture also influence the ideology indirectly.

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Acknowledgement
I’m so thankful that I have finally finished my thesis on time and successfully. I would like show
my gratitude to Allah S.W.T who always bless me, so that I can finish my thesis and study. I
wish to express sincere appreciation to, Ibu Lany Kristono, M. Hum for her invaluable
supervision, advice and guidance in helping me finishing my thesis; and also Ibu Suzana Maria
L.A.F, M. Hum as my second reader. Without whose knowledge and assistance this study
would not have been completed. This thesis would have never been completed without the
encouragement and devotion of my family, especially my Dad as my hero, my Mom, my
Brother and my big Soewarto family. Thanks for their endless love and pray through the
duration of my study, they are my life. The biggest thank is for my partner in crime in campus,
Andhini Silviana, Aulia Febriana, Rut Arsari and Maria Astri Wanda. Thank you so much
for the craziness guys! To my Gank, Venty Gustiranie, Anes Tejaningrum, Siti Kusndayani
and Cingkrex for the friendship for many years. Then, I would like to say thank you to Irene
Silooy, Kristina Chandra, Aprilia Reny and Anastasia Dewi for being my new family in
Salatiga. I would not forget to say thank you to Salatiga and my friends there (I can’t mention
one by one) that give me a wonderful memories. Special thanks go to Septian Hermawan in
heaven; it’s for you my beloved brother. The last but not least, I would also like to convey thanks
to ED 2008ers. We are gr08 coz we are united!