An analysis of paton`s social criticism toward the South-African society as reflected in kumalo`s internal conflicts in cry, the beloved country - USD Repository

  

AN ANALYSIS OF PATON’S SOCIAL CRITICISM TOWARD

THE SOUTH-AFRICAN SOCIETY AS REFLECTED IN

STEPHEN KUMALO’S CONFLICTS IN CRY, THE BELOVED

  

COUNTRY

AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS

  Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra in English Letters

  By

  

Novero Ferdinand

  Student Number: 994214166

  

ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS

  

AN ANALYSIS OF PATON’S SOCIAL CRITICISM TOWARD

THE SOUTH-AFRICAN SOCIETY AS REFLECTED IN

STEPHEN KUMALO’S CONFLICTS IN CRY, THE BELOVED

  

COUNTRY

  AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra in English Letters

  By

NOVERO FERDINAND

  Student Number: 994214166

  

ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS

  

Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go

and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you

And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye

shall search for me with all your heart.

  

And I will be found of you, Saith the Lord.

  (Jeremiah 29: 12-14a)

  This undergraduate thesis is dedicated to My beloved family

  My beloved mother and father My awesome God

  And all my supporting friends And my girlfriend

  

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  I would like to express my gratitude to my Father in heaven for his love and kindness through Jesus Christ for giving me a chance to finish this thesis. I thank you for all the forgiveness, faithfulness and blessings in my life.

  I would like to thank my advisor, Dewi Widyastuti, S.Pd., M.Hum for her guidance, corrections, suggestions, and comments on every steps of this thesis. I would like to thank my co-advisor Drs. Hirmawan Wijanarka, M.Hum for the advices to make my thesis better and for helping me to evaluate my Subjects and for everything. I also would like to thank all of English Letters Lecturers and the secretariat staffs for their guidance in all these years. I also wish to express my gratitude to Pak Alip for all the efforts during my last year in Sanata Dharma.

  I would like to thank my beloved father Rolly Kussoy and my beloved mother Dortje Posumah. To my Aunt Jenny and Uncle Dyan for helping me in all the finance during my study in Sanata Dharma. To my girlfriend Pamela Felita for all the prayer and love and care. To my Best Friends Nova, Ibrahim, Michael, Didik, Esti and Henny for always supporting me, may God bless them all. To Bapak Kost and Ibu Kost who were so kind in helping me when I was sick, I would like to thank all of my friends both in Sanata Dharma and in my church that I cannot mention one by one.

  Finally, I would like to dedicate this thesis to my loving memory Aunt Natje for introducing me the novel Cry, the Beloved Country and for all the supports that I cannot mention them all. Thank you so much, Jesus is always with you.

  Novero Ferdinand

  

TABLE OF CONTENTS

  TITLE PAGE……………………………………………………………………...... i APPROVAL PAGE……………………………………………………………....... ii ACCEPTANCE PAGE…………………………………………………………… iii MOTTO PAGE…………………………………………………………………….. iv LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN…………………………………….. v DEDICATION PAGE…………………………………………………………...... .. vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS…………………………………………………...…... vii TABLE OF CONTENTS…………………………………………………………. ix ABSTRACT………………………………………………..………………...……. xi ABSTRAK……………………………………………………………………….. . xii

  

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION……………………………………….……….......1

A. Background of the Study...…………………………………………..........1 B. Problem Formulation………………………………………………….......5 C. Objective of the Study………………………………………………….....5 D. Definition of terms…………………………………………………….......6

CHAPTER II THEORETICAL REVIEW………………………………………...9

A. Review of Related Studies……………………………………………..... 9 B. Review of Related Theories……………………………………………...12 C. Review on South Africa Social Condition in the Early 20 th

  Century…... 23

  D. Theoretical Framework………………………………………………..... 27

  

CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY……………………………………………… 28

A. Object of the Study…………………………………………………….. 28 B. Approach of the Study…………………………………………………. 29 C. Method of the Study…………………………………………………… 31

CHAPTER IV ANALYSIS………………………………………………………. 32

A. The Characterization of Stephen Kumalo………...……………………. 32 B. 1. Stephen Kumalo Conflicts……………..……...…………………….. 34

  a. Afraid of Something Uncertain …..….………………………….34

  b. Sad of Gertrude’s Condition…………...……..………………….35

  c. Desperate of Absalom’s Murder Case..………………………….36

  d. Suffering because of the Treatment of His Family........................36

  b. Absalom’s Crime………...……………………………………....40

  c. John’s Political Intrigue…………..……………………………...42

  d. Ndotsheni Dry Season…...………………………………………44

  C. Paton’s Social Criticism of South African Society as reflected in Stephen Kumalo’s Conflicts……………..………………………………………..45

  

CHAPTER V CONCLUSSION……………………………………………….......50

BIBLIOGRAPHY…………………………………………………………………..53

APPENDICES…..………………………………………………………………..…56

A. Biography of Alan Paton……………………………………..……….…56 B. Summary…………………………………………………………………58

  

ABSTRACT

  Novero Ferdinand (2008). An Analysis of Paton’s Social Criticism toward the

  

South African Society as Reflected in Stephen Kumalo’s conflicts in Cry, the

Beloved Country Yogyakarta : Department of English Letters, Faculty of Letters,

Sanata Dharma University.

  This thesis concerns the novel, Cry, the Beloved Country written by Alan Paton. This novel tells about a journey of a priest looking for his son, brother and sister. Through a long journey, Stephen Kumalo faces conflicts happen within himself. I found this novel interesting because there are some factors that could raise conflicts to someone. This novel becomes more interesting because Paton uses these conflicts to criticize the South African society at that time.

  This thesis is intended to answer three questions, namely (1) how is the character of Kumalo depicted in the novel? (2) what are the conflicts and the causes of the conflicts that are faced by the main characeter? (3) what is Paton criticism toward South African society in the twentieth century as reflected in Kumalo’s conflicts?

  The method used is library research. The data were collected from the novel, criticism on the novel, and other sources realted to the novel. I employed the theory of character and the theory of characterization to answer the first question. To answer the second question, I used the theory of conflicts to explore the conflicts faced by the main character. To answer the third question, I adopted the sociocultural historical approach. This approach was used because I would like to study the socio cultural historical aspect of the story as a reflection of the social condition of the society in South Africa.

  From the analysis, I draw conclussion: (1) Kumalo is a humble man and strong dealing with the situation he faces. Although he is old, he is able to face every circumstances in his life. (2) The conflicts that kumalo has when he has to struggle within himself. The conflicts that Kumalo has made him feel affraid,sad, desperate and suffering. The causes of the conflicts comes from the member of his family and his own village. (3) Paton’s critcism of South African society are social injustice, moral degradation, and descrimination between black people and white people.

  

ABSTRAK

  Novero Ferdinand (2008). An Analysis of Paton’s Social Criticism toward the South

  

African Society as reflected in Stephen Kumalo’s Conflicts in Cry, The Beloved

Country Yogyakarta : Program Study Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Sanata

Dharma.

  Skripsi ini mengenai novel yang berjudul Cry, The Beloved Country yang di karang oleh Alan Paton. Novel ini mengenai perjalanan seorang pendeta dalam mencari anak serta adik dan kakaknya. Melalui perjalanan yang cukup panjang yang di laluinya. Terdapat banyak kendala yang harus dihadapinya yang mengakibatkan banyak konflik terjadi di dalam dirinya. Novel ini menarik karena penulis dapat menemukan beberapa factor yang dapat mengakibatkan konflik-konflik pada diri seseorang. Novel ini menjadi lebih menarik karena pengarang menggunakan novel ini sebagai kritik social terhadap masyarakat Afrika Selatan pada masa pertikaian antara kulit putih dan kulit hitam.

  Skripsi ini bermaksud menjawab tiga pertanyaan, yaitu (1) bagaimana karakter dari tokoh utama dilukiskan dalam novel tersebut (2) konflik-konflik apa saja yang dihadapi tokoh utama dan apa penyebab dari konflik-konflik tersebut (3) Kritik sosial apa yang di sampaikan oleh Alan Paton untuk mengkritik masyarakat Afrika Selatan pada masa abad ke-20 yang di refleksikan di dalam konflik yang dihadapi oleh tokoh utama.

  Metode yang digunakan adalah penelitian data yang dikumpulkan berasal dari novel itu sendiri, kritik pada novel, dan sumber sumber lain yang berhubungan dengan novel yang di ambil dari study pustaka. Penulis menggunakan teori karakter dan teori karakteristik untuk menjawab pertanyaan pertama. Teori-teori ini digunakan untuk mempelajari dan menganalisis karakteristik dari tokoh utama. Untuk menjawab pertanyaan kedua, penulis menggunakan teori konflik untuk mempelajari dan menganalisis konflik konflik dan penyebab dari konflik-konflik yang di hadapi oleh tokoh utama. Untuk menjawab pertanyaan ketiga, penulis menggunakan pendekatan sosiokultural-sejarah yaitu dengan mempelajari apa yang terjadi pada waktu pengarang menulis novel tersebut dan mempelajari latar belakang masyarakat Afrika Selatan pada waktu itu.

  Dari analisis yang di lakukan penulis menyimpulkan (1) Kumalo adalah seorang yang rendah hati dan sabar dalam menghadapi tantangan yang ada di hadapannya. Walaupun ia tua namun ia kuat dalam menghadapi setiap masalah yang ada dalam kehidupannya. (2) Konflik-konflik yang di hadapi Kumalo adalah ketika ia harus bergumul dengan dirinya sendiri. Konflik-konflik yang di hadapi oleh Kumalo membuatnya merasakan takut, sedih, putus asa dan menderita. Penyebab dari konflik- konflik tersebut berasal dari anggota keluarganya dan desanya. (3) Kritik sosial yang di sampaikan Paton untuk masyarakat Afrika selatan pada waktu itu ialah ketidakadilan sosial, penurunan moral dan diskriminasi ras antara kulit hitam dan putih.

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION A. Background of the Study A nation usually has norms which exist in society. However, if one of those

  norms fall down or break down, it can cause differences between one society and the

  th

  others. Those things happen in South-Africa in the early of the 20 century which takes Paton’s attention to write about the social condition of South African society in 1946.

  The situation and condition between urban society and rural society are different in many ways such as norms, attitudes or even point of view in a religion.

  Those are some causes which Paton tries to criticize toward the South African society in his novel Cry, the Beloved Country.

  Paton was born at Pietermaritzburg, Natal, in 1903. He attended Pietermaritzburg College, at which he afterwards taught at the Natal University College and he took his B.Sc. degree in Mathematics and Physics and the Diploma of Education. In 1925 he went to Ixopo to teach, where Cry, the Beloved Country opens.

  Before writing this book Alan Paton had written numerous articles on South African problems for national periodical, which he has continued to do (1944: 2).

  During his life he has seen racial discrimination happen in South-Africa and against apartheid and his country’s policy of racial segregation with the memory group of whites in control.

  In this thesis I found some conflicts happen in the character of Stephen Kumalo which becomes Paton’s criticism on the society. At that time there was a huge gap between town and country society. Many people in rural society go to urban society for some purposes but finally found that the circumstances in urban society not as they expected which makes them have to choose a hard way to live. Rural society shown in the novel are poor while Urban society are rich but they work in different ways. Rural society still sticks with their norms and religion while in urban society, there are many intricts, politics, and different point of view about a religion.

  Wellek and Warren in their book A Theory of Literature stated that Literature as a social institution, using as its medium language, a social creation. Such traditional literary devices as symbolism and metre are social in their very nature. They are conventions and norms which would have arisen only in society. Literature which also a social function, or ‘use’, which cannot be purely individual. Thus a large majority of the questions raised by literary study are, at least ultimately or by implication, social questions: questions of tradition and convention, norms and genres, symbols and myths (1956: 42). We can see that literature has a close relationship with society and by using Stephen Kumalo’s character and through the conflict that Kumalo faced in almost all of the story, Paton succeeded to arise the character related to the social condition in the novel and in South Africa at that time will become my focus later in describing the problem formulation.

  Daily newspaper, The New York Times wrote about the novel, “A beautiful novel, rich, firm and moving… its writing is so fresh, its projection of character so immediate and full, its events so compelling, and its understanding so compassionate that to read the book is to share intimately, even to the point of catharsis, in the grave human experience treated.” (http://archives.obs- us/obs/english/films/mx/cry/aboutb.htm). The quotation above shows that Cry, the

  

Beloved Country is able to move the reader’s compassion and to share the intimate

  feeling because Paton use many aspects in life in describing the character and the social condition in the novel.

  Cry, the Beloved Country soon become famous after its first publication and

  invite many comments from other country. Many newspapers from other country put a comment about Paton’s novel and some of them admires Paton’s work as one of the best novel at that time. Another quotations written in The New Republic said that, “The greatest novel to emerge out of the tragedy of South Africa, and one of the best novels of our time.” (http://archives.obs- us.com/obs/english/films/mx/cry/aboutb.htm).

  The novel sold well both in North America and in Great Britain. It was soon translated into 20 languages, and made into a film in England (1952) and a musical in edition, dedicated to Jan Hofmeyr, came out three months before Hofmeyr’s death at age 53 in December 1948. Book sales in South Africa were second only to those of the bible, and Paton became famous. (http://archives.obs- us.com/obs/english/films/mx/cry/aboutb.htm). Paton became famous after the first edition of Cry, the Beloved Country not only in South Africa but also in Europe because the novel soon translated into 20 languages.

  Paton knew the area around Ndotsheni well. He taught school there when he was a young man. It is here where most of the main character in the novel was born.

  Paton wants to write a literary work because he wants to reveal his minds and ideas, which concern with his environment. We can learn many things in literature, such as the characterization of the main character, the conflict faced by the main character, the setting of the story, and the ideas or criticism that the author wants to show, and through the conflict, we can see that the author describes his ideas of social criticism and fate by using a language that the reader may understood. Basicly, the internal conflicts happen in the story faces by the main character Stephen Kumalo wants to show the people of South-Africa against the discrimination of races and the injustice at the time when Paton lives.

  B. Problem Formulation

  This part discusses three problems which I formulate to give a brief definition of my study. The problems are formulated as follows:

  1. How is Stephen Kumalo depicted in the novel?

  2. What are the conflicts and the causes of the conflicts faced by Stephen Kumalo?

  3. What are Paton’s criticism of the South African Society in the early 20th century as reflected in Stephen Kumalo’s conflicts?

  C. Objectives of the Study

  This study aimed to answer the questions in problem formulation. First, the study discusses the characterization of Stephen Kumalo as the main character of the novel. Second, the study discusses the conflicts and the causes of the main character’s conflicts. This discussion will reveal other characters and condition which causes the main character having conflicts. Third, the discussion will be focused on the conflicts faced by the main character. This study will connected the problem formulation one and two to answer problem formulation four. Four, the discussion will reveal the author criticism toward the South African society at that time. This study will reveal the conflicts of the main character to show what Paton criticizes toward the South African society at that time.

D. Definition of Terms

  To get a clear understanding about the study, I try to explain some important terms or definition related with the topic of the discussion. Those terms are as follows:

1. Conflicts I would like to give a little brief definition about what the meaning of conflict.

  Conflict is the struggle that grows out of the interplay of two opposing forces in a plot (At least one of the opposing forces is usually a person, or, if an animal or animate object is treated as though it were a person, a protagonist). There may be involvement in conflicts of four different kinds (1) a struggle against nature (2) a struggle against another person (3) a struggle against society (4) a struggle for mastery two elements within the person (Holman and Harmon, 1986 :107).

  Conflict may be divided into two kinds, internal and external conflict. Internal conflict is between two desires within a character; external conflict is between characters or between a character and his environment (Stanton, 1965 : 62). I can conclude that internal conflicts is the condition where the character have to struggle inside himself while external conflicts is the struggle between the character and the force outside the character which could be anything. This internal conflicts makes the character shows certain feelings such as fear, suffer, depressed, angry or even sad.

2. Social Criticism

  The definition of Social Criticism in this section I divided into two. First I try give the definition of Criticism itself then Social, and then I try to draw conclusion from both definitions. The definition of the word “criticism as Paul Procter states in

  

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English is “the act of forming and expressing

  judgements about the good or bad qualities of anything, especially artistic work, work of a critic” (1978:263).

  In the Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literature Terms edited by Chris Baldick, “Criticism is an activity which one of them is judgement of its worth by comparison with other work”. Baldick also adds more specific explanation that “criticism is concerned with revealing the author’s explanation (sometimes called ‘expressive’ Criticism) (1991: 48).

  While Society, used by a novelist, sometimes refers merely to the high or fashionable class. However, ‘society’ can be wider in sense, not only comprehending merely people and their class but also their customs, conventions, beliefs and values, their institutional-legal, religious and cultural and their physical environments (Langland, 1984: 6). I can conclude that society is a group of people who live together with their own values, beliefs and customs.

  A society in this study refers to the South African Society. There are many aspects I can learn through the South African society such as their customs, how they

  I conclude that Social Criticism is an act of expressing judgment toward a group of people that live in one area, and that judgment could be toward anything such as values, norms or even politics.

CHAPTER II THEORETICAL REVIEW A. Review of Related Studies Cry, the Beloved Country as one of Alan Paton’s works was written in 1948. It is the story of Zulu Christian Pastor’s journey from quite Natal province to a

  modern, sinister Johannesburg in search of his son, his sister and his brother-all whom have disappeared into an urban life, sin and political intrigue. By tragic circumstances his son Absalom, has accidentally killed the social reformer son of a leading Natal farmer. The novel deals with social condition in South-Africa where Paton used to live and spent most of his work and life there.

  There are many opinions about the theme of this novel. Some critics said that the theme of Cry, the Beloved Country is about the tension between urban and rural society. In this novel, Paton presented rural society as a united family a religious person and having good morality and stability, while urban society as broken family, hedonism and atheism. It can be seen that the tension is a comparison of living between Johannesburg as a place of urban society and Ndotsheni as a picture of a place where rural society live. Other critics said that the theme is about social disintegration and moral restoration (Ross, 1997: 8).

  Cry, the Beloved Country may be longer remembered than any other novel of creates rather than follows a tradition. It is at once unashamedly innocent and subtly sophisticated. It is a story; it is a prophecy; it is a psalm. It is passionately African, as no book before it had been; it is universal (Lewis Gannett, 2005: 1).

  According to Gannet, Cry, the Beloved Country is a sophisticated novel. It is a combination of a story, a prophecy and a psalm. It is a fiction that includes Christian values as the dominant influence of the characters. Dealing with Paton’s interest in the race relation in South Africa, Gannet had an opinion that Cry, the Beloved

  

Country is a story, which tries to offer a solution to the problem of South Africa,

which is based on Christian values, such as love and kindness (2005: 1).

  Randoph Vigne stated that Cry, the Beloved Country was the book that enabled Paton to say, when campaigning against the Group Areas Act 1957: ‘Having a voice which, by God’s grace, can be heard beyond the confines of South Africa, I use it to speak for people who have no voice at all’. The novel, Cry, the Beloved

  

Country is well known in many countries outside South Africa. It means that Paton’s

  voice for the injustice in South Africa also reaches to other country and to other people outside South Africa (2006: 1).

  According to Vigne, Alan Paton allowed politics to interfere his literary works: For Paton, as he makes clear several times, politics was a duty, interference in his life as a writer. To literature he owes always an equal, perhaps a higher duty. Nowhere, however, does he examine the failure of his hopes for political change

  Maris Kobe in his review on the novel says, “In language both simple and eloquent, Alan Paton has created a masterpiece of symbolism, compassion and understanding. This book is a must read as a modern rendering of Greek tragedy.” (1997: 2)

  From those criticisms, I can conclude that Cry, the Beloved Country is a novel but it contains with some values and critics about the society of South Africa. Paton succeeds to a remarkable degree in portraying a segment of South African life during period immediately following the end of World War II. He succeeds, to an even more remarkable degree, in endowing this regional portrait with universal significance. He accomplishes this by incorporating into the actualities of South Africa’s physical and social setting a fundamental theme of social disintegration and moral restoration. This theme is worked out through two complementary, or counter pointed, actions: Stephen Kumalo’s physical search for his son Absalom, and James Jarvis intellectual search for the spirit of his son Arthur. In each case, the journey, once undertaken, leads to an inner, spiritual awakening.

  Another criticism stated by Rooney said that Cry, the Beloved Country is a great novel about racism, since it shows the injustice without any violence. It is intended to evoke and summon the readers compassion to the effect of the injustice (2005: 1). Through this novel, Paton tries to show the reader what is really happen in South Africa at that time. Paton tries to realize the readers about the effect of the

  Paton himself stated in his note of this novel, that Cry, the Beloved Country is a compound of truth and fiction. The story is not true, but the social condition is a record of the plain and simple truth. It is not only a portrait of social condition of South Africa, but it also conveys Paton’s feelings and opinions about racism. It seems that through this novel, Paton tries to fight against the practice of racism, especially racism in South Africa (1974: 5).

  In this study, I focus on the main character’s conflicts and the author’s criticism toward the South African society in the novel. As I stated above, there are some opinions and critic about the novel. Most of them are to show social condition of the South African society at that time. Using the fact that the author was live in South Africa at that time, I compare the society with the society of South Africa where the author lives at that time. Although the novel is not real, the fact of social condition in South Africa at that time is real. The conflicts of the main character show the criticism of the author toward the South African society.

B. Review of Related Theories

1. Theory of Character

  According to Abrams (1981: 20) in his book, A Glossary of Literary Terms, characters, the basic of the word characterization, are “the persons presented in a dramatic or a narrative work, who are interpreted by the readers as being endowed what they do-action.” The ground in the character’s temperament and moral nature for his speech and action constitute his ‘motivation’. A character may remain essentially ‘stable’ or unchanged in his outlook and disposition from beginning to the end of work, or he may undergo a radical change, either through a gradual development or as the result of an extreme crisis.

  According to Holman and Harmon (1986: 81), character is a complicated term that includes the idea of the moral constitution of the human personality, the presence of the moral uprightness, and the simpler notion of the presence of creatures in art that seem to be human beings of one sort or another. I conclude that within a character we can see moral constitution that usually exits in society, the moral constitution express the human personality.

  A main character can be either static or dynamic. A static character is one who changes little if at all. Things happened to such character without things happening within. The pattern of action reveals the character rather than showing the changing in respond to do the actions. A dynamic character is one who is modified by actions and experience. One objective of the work in which the character appears is to reveal the consequences of these actions (Holman and Harmon, 1986: 83).

  According to Forster, characters can be divided into two terms. First, a flat character. It is build around ‘a single idea or quality’ and is presented without much individualizing detail, and therefore can be fairly adequately described in a single motivation and is presented with subtle particularly. Thus, he is as difficult to describe with any adequacy as a person in real life, and like most people, he is capable of surprising the reader (1974: 46-48).

2. Theory of Characterization

  Abrams in his book A Glossary of Literary Terms states that characterization must have three principles, they are as follows: (1981: 6).

  a. The characters must be consistent in their behavior. In other words, the characters’ way remains essentially stable or unchanged in their outlook and disposition from the beginning to the end of the work

  b. The characters must clearly be motivated in whatever they do, especially when there is a change in their behavior.

  c. The characters must be plausible or lifelike, credible, realistic, and probable.

  Abrams states in his book, A Glossary of Literary Terms, there are two methods of characterization namely showing and telling. In Showing method (called `dramatic method), the author only presents his characters to talk and act and leaves the readers to infer what motives and dispositions lie behind what they say and do.

  While in Telling method (called `direct method), the author himself becomes a kind of narrator in order to describe and evaluate the motives and disposition qualities of the characters.

  According to Barnet, Berman and Burto in their book Literature for

  

Composition there are some important factors that must be considered when we want

  to see the character involved in a story. Those are: (1988: 2)

  1. What the character says What the character says can give a clue how the author describes him, for example whether he is a kind or bad person, educated or uneducated person.

  2. What the character does We are to know whether he is from upper or lower class, and he is a kind bad person from what the character does.

  3. What other characters say about the character It is needed to get additional information and clear description about some characters that will be described in the story.

  4. What others do The action of others may help indicate what the character could do but he does not do. It is very important to know his characteristics such as lazy, or careless.

  I also used M.J. Murphy, Understanding Unseen: An Introduction to English

  

Poetry and the English Novel for Overseas Students. Murphy mentions nine ways in

  which an author attempts to make his characters understandable and come alive for his readers. The following ways are as follows: (1977: 23)

  1. Personal description Personal description means that the author can describe a person’s appearance and clothes in the story.

  2. Character as seen by another Instead of describing a character directly the author can describe him through the eyes and opinion of other characters.

  3. Speech It is an important way that may be used to describe a character. The author can give us an insight into the character of one person in the book through what the person says. Whenever a person speaks, whenever he is in conversation with another, whenever he puts forward an opinion, he gives us some clues to his character.

  4. Past Life By letting the readers learn something about a person’s past life, the author can give them a clue to an event that has helped to shape a person’s character. This can be done by direct comments by the author, through the person’s thought, through his conversation, or through the medium of another person.

  5. Conversation of Others We can take clues of a person’s characteristics through the conversation of other people and the thing they say about him. People do talk about other people and the things they say often give us a clue to the character of the person spoken about.

  6. Reactions Through the person’s reaction to various situation and event, the author can also give us a clue to know the person’s characteristics.

  7. Direct Comment The author can describe or comment on the person’s characteristic directly.

  8. Thoughts The author can give us direct knowledge of what person is thinking about. In this respect, he is able to do what we cannot do in real life. He can tell us what different people are thinking.

  9. Mannerism The author can describe a person’s mannerism and habits, which may also tell us something about his character.

3. Theory of Conflict

  Conflict happens in our life, whether it is unpleasant thing but it can bring a positive or negative effect and can change our point of view of something. Sometimes people do not realize the meaning of conflicts itself and sometime event tries to avoid a conflict so they do not trap in the situation which the conflict exist. Meredith and Fitzgerald define that conflict is something which is unpleasant, which has happened or to be experienced by the character, if the character has free choice to choose, he

  Sometimes, people do not realize that conflict can bring a positive effect, and then people usually avoid confronting conflict. Beaty and Hunter (1989: 778), in their book, say that most people try hard to avoid conflict. People prefer living without complication. Nevertheless, no one escapes conflict for long, even without war or large-scale disagreement. If people are given a choices between livings without problems or living with problems, they will choose living without problems. But as human being, we should realize that in daily live, man must face some problems willingly.

  According to James W. Vander Zanden in his book, Social psychology, conflict is a form of interaction in which people (individually or in group) perceive themselves as being involved in a struggle over resource or social values. People in conflict find themselves at odds. They feel separated by incompatible objectives.

  They see one another as competitors or threats, and thus their interaction is antagonistic. (1984: 314).

  Conflicts are not always restricted to two parties. At times, three or more individuals have an interest in a competitive outcome. By forming an alliance with one or more others, people can combine their resources in order to advance their own individual interest. However, as sociologist have long recognized, situations involving three or more persons are quite different from those involving two people (Zanden, 1984: 314).

  In a novel, Holman and Harmon point out that conflict plays an important role, conflict is the struggle that grows out of the interplay of the two opposing forces in a plot. It provides interests, suspense and tension (1986: 107). In other words, a conflict is the basis of all fiction; the structure of any given piece of fiction is determined by the way in which the conflict is developed (Brooks, 1952: 27). A conflict could create the tension and also the plot to be more interesting. The story could be more complex and interesting, when the authors could develop the conflict.

  Most authors write a story based on conflicts. Holman and Harmon state clearly about conflict, conflict can be a struggle against another person, a struggle against society, a struggle for mastery by two elements within the person (1986: 107). Here, Holman and Harmon want to say that conflict is caused by two different forces. It could be within person or between two persons. It is clearer as I put the statement from Redman (1964: 363), which divide conflict into two, “Inner or internal conflict and external conflict. The inner or internal conflict means a struggle within the heart and minds of protagonist, while the external conflict means a struggle between the protagonist and an outside force.”

  In this novel, Paton presents conflicts that are faced by Stephen Kumalo in order wants to show the author criticism toward the South African society in his time.

  In the novel, Paton presents Stephen as a priest who is struggling with himself and with the society around him. Stephen has conflicts dealing with the circumstances

4. The Relation between Literature and Society

  There are many opinions about society in life between analyst. However, the general view of society refers to the human relationship. Rose (1977: 87-89), in the study of society says that the basic fact of human behaviors is oriented in so many things in the world. Not only do men live together and share common opinions, values, beliefs and customs, they also continually, interact, responding to one another.

  According to Staub (1978: 5), there is very strong relationship between values, beliefs and personal goal and behavior in the society. The primary focus of a person in an action. A person is helped by action not by beliefs that one ought to act. Values and empathy are important as motivation of social action.

  From Rose’s and Staub’s statements, I can conclude that society is the interaction between people. People live together and they also interact each other.

  They share their beliefs, opinions, values and customs in their interactions. They do their activities in society based on their personal goals, beliefs, and values.

  Literature is a social institution and traditional literary device, it may symbolize society. In a literary work, there are convention and norms, which could have arisen only in society. Further, literature represents life and life itself is a social reality, though the natural world and the inner or subjective world of the individual have also been object of literary intuition. Thus, the topic which is raised in literary study is the problems in the society (Wellek and Waren, 1956: 94).

  Wellek and Warren also gives a comment in their book that Literature as a social institution, using as its medium language, a social creation. Such traditional literary devices as symbolism and metre are social in their very nature. They are conventions and norms which would have arisen only in society. Furthermore, literature `represents` ‘life’; and ‘life’ is, in large measure, a social reality, even through the natural world and the inner or subjective world of the individual have also been objects of literary ‘imitation’. Literature which also a social function or ‘use’, which cannot be purely individual. Thus a large majority of the questions raised by literary study are, at least ultimately or by implication, social questions: questions of tradition and convention, norms and genres, symbols and myths. (1956: 94).

  It can be seen from Wellek and Warren’s statement above, that literature has a close relation with society because literature `represents` ‘life’; and ‘life’ is, in large measure, means social. Wellek and Warren in their book, theory of literature, state their argumentative opinion about those relationships as follows.

  The relation between literature and society is that literature is an expression of society, but if it assumes that literature, at any given time, mirrors the current social situation correctly, it is also, its vogue if it means only that literature depicts some as poet of society reality. To say that literature is mirror of expression life is even more ambiguous. An author in edibility expresses life is total conception of life, but it would be manifested untrue to say that he expresses the whole of life even the whole life of a given time completely and exhaustively (1956: 95).

  Dealing with the analysis, Literature represents the novel, Cry, the Beloved Country

  Wellek and Warren also give three actual relations between literature and society, which are explained in descriptive way. The descriptive relations between literature and society can be classified as follows.

  First, there are the sociology and the profession of the author and institutions of literature. The problems appearing in this case are the economic basic of literary production, the social provenance and status of the author, his social ideology, which may be found in extra literary pronouncement and activities. Second, there are the problems of the social content, the implications and the social purpose of the works of literature themselves. Third, there are the problems of the audience and the actual social content of works themselves and the influence of the literature on society (1956: 95-96).