MESSAGES SEEN FROM THE DEVELOPMENT OF BEN GIVENS IN DAVID GUTERSON’S EAST OF THE MOUNTAINS

  

MESSAGES SEEN FROM THE DEVELOPMENT OF BEN

GIVENS IN DAVID GUTERSON’S EAST OF THE MOUNTAINS

AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS

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

  

By

Maulia Dwiyani

  Student Number : 994214196

  

ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS

FACULTY OF LETTERS

SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY

YOGYAKARTA

2008

  iv

  

“Don’t you ever wish

You were someone else

You were meant to be

The way you are exactly”

  

Joe Mc Intyre

  

This undergraduate

thesis is dedicated to:

My beloved family

And those who cares

about me

  v

  

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  First of all, I would like to say Alhamdulillah, praise to Allah SWT for the blessing given to me, so I could finish this thesis.

  My greatest gratitude is dedicated to Drs Hirmawan Wijanarka, M. Hum as my advisor who has read and given correction of my thesis. My great dedication is also given to Adventina Putranti S.S., M. Hum as my co advisor; her correction gives a big contribution to make a better thesis.

  I dedicate this thesis to my parents, my father Suhartono and my mom Christina Sri Susilowati who always give me support and love. My special thank goes to Fitria Luthfiani, Deasy Natalina and Dimas Wahyu Pamungkas Thank you, for being the best brother and sisters for me. I also thank Afif Milki for being there during my ups and downs.

  I would like also to say great thank to all of my friends, Dina, Harex, Angking, Dira, melon, Yeri, Feri, Dita, Atik, Gogo, Omut, Ria, Inten and Tuituin.

  Finally, yet importantly, I sincerely thank those whose names cannot be mentioned here for the supports and best wishes. God bless you all.

  Maulia Dwiyani vi

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

TITLE PAGE.............................................................................................. i

APPROVAL PAGE .................................................................................... ii

MOTTO PAGE........................................................................................... iii

DEDICATION PAGE................................................................................. iv

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................ v

TABLE OF CONTENT.............................................................................. vii

ABSTRACT ................................................................................................ viii

ABSTRAK................................................................................................... ix

  

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION ............................................................... 1

A. Background of the study............................................................ 1 B. Problem Formulation................................................................. 3 C. Objective of the Study ............................................................... 4 D. Definition of Terms ................................................................... 4

CHAPTER II: THEORICAL REVIEW.................................................... 5

A. Review of Related Studies ........................................................ 5 B. Review of Related Theories ...................................................... 7

  1. Theories on Character ......................................................... 7

  2. Theories on Characterization............................................... 10

  3. Theories on Plot.................................................................. 13

  4. Relation between Plot and Character................................... 14

  5. Theories on messages ......................................................... 16

  C. Theoretical Framework ............................................................ 19

  

CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY........................................................... 20

A. Object of the Study .................................................................... 20 B. Approach of the Study ............................................................... 21 C. Method of the Study .................................................................. 21

CHAPTER IV: ANALYSIS ....................................................................... 23

A. The Characteristic of the Main Character................................... 23 B. The Influence of Cancer ............................................................ 31 C. The Reasons that make Ben Change his Plan not to Commit Suicide ..................................................................................... 37 D. The Messages Revealed by Ben Given’s Development .............. 46

CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION .................................................................. 49

BIBLIOGRAPHY. ...................................................................................... 53

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ABSTRACT

  Maulia Dwiyani. Messages Seen from the Development of Ben Givens in

  

David Guterson’s East of the Mountains. Yogyakarta: Department of English

Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma University, 2008.

  This thesis studies a novel by David Guterson entitled East of the

  

Mountains. The novel tells about someone who intends to commit suicide because

of the colon cancer but cancel not to commit suicide eventually.

  In this study there are three problem formulations to be analyzed. The first is to find the characteristic of the main character, the second is to find the influence of Cancer and other characters to the main character and the last is to find the messages that revealed by the development of the main character.

  The writer applies library research as the method of this study. This research employs theories of character, theories characterization, theories of plot, the relation between character and plot and theories of message to answer the three problem formulations. This research conducts objective approach because is suitable with this thesis which intends to analyze some of intrinsic elements which are plot and character to reveal the messages.

  The result of the analysis shows some characteristic of the main character which are a good doctor, an adventurer, brave enough to express his idea, has a strong self stand and a person who really love his so much. And it is also resulting some influences which resulting the main character’s development. How cancer may influences the main character, how other characters and moments influence the decision not commit suicide eventually. From this development, the novel wants to tell us some messages which are always help others, value the memories, the importance of home and family, courage, violence is not good, life is valuable, and the last is the meaning of true love. viii

  

ABSTRAK

  Maulia Dwiyani. Messages Seen from the Development of Ben Givens in

  

David Guterson’s East of the Mountains. Yogyakarta: Jurusan Sastra Inggris,

Universitas Sanata Dharma,2008.

  Skrpisi ini meneliti sebuah novel karya David Guterson yang berjudul East

  

of the Mountains. Novel ini menceritakan tentang seseorang yang ingin bunuh diri

karena menderita kanker usus tetapi pada akhirnya tidak jadi bunuh diri.

  Dalam penelitian ini ada tiga permasalahan yang akan dibahas. Yang pertama adalah menjawab tentang karakteristik dari pelaku utama, yang kedua untuk mencari pengaruh kanker dan karakter lain pada pelaku utama dan yang terakhir adalah untuk mencari pesan-pesan yang terungkap lewat perkembangan karakter tokoh utama.

  Penulis menggunakan metode studi pustaka sebagai metode dalam penelitian ini. Dengan metode ini penulis menggunakan teori–teori karakter, pelukisan karakter, teori-teori alur cerita, hubungan antara alur cerita dan karakter dan teori-teori pesan. Penelitian ini menggunakan pendekatan objektif karena sesuai dengan skripsi ini yang bertujuan untuk menganalisa beberapa unsur-unsur pokok seperti alur cerita dan karakter untuk mengungkap pesan pesan.

  Hasil dari analisis ini menunjukkan karakteristik dari pelaku utama yaitu seorang dokter yang baik, seorang petualang, berani mengekspresikan ide, berpendirian kuat dan sangat mencintai istrinya. Selain itu juga menghasilkan beberapa pengaruh yang menghasilkan perkembangan karakter, bagaimana pengaruh kanker terhadap tokuh utama, bagaimana karakter-karakter lain dan beberapa peristiwa mempengaruhi keputusan untuk tidak bunuh diri pada akhirnya. Dari perkembangan tersebut, novel ini ingin menyampaikan beberapa pesan seperti saling membantu sesama, menghargai kenangan, pentingnya keluarga dan rumah, keberanian, kekerasan adalah setan, hidup itu berharga dan yang terakhir adalah arti cinta sejati. ix

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION A. Background of the Study Death is a horrifying thing to most people. Separated from the one we

  love, could not do anymore things that we like the most in this world also an imagination to be buried in the damp, cold wormy land in a scary graveyard all alone is rarely pathetic. That is people usual feeling about death.

  Death according to Webster’s Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of English Language has several similar literal meanings. It is the act of dying, the end of life, termination of life, or the termination of life or the termination or extinction of something (p.37).

  Meanwhile according to Michael Montaigne quotes in Satyavati’s book death is a natural process to all of human being, just like we were born in this world and everybody will experience death in a time and there is nothing we can do to stop it no matter how hard we try to fight because it is a part of life in this universe. (Satyavati, 1998:1)

  Death can be caused by several ways such as predation, disease, habitat destruction, senescence, malnutrition, accidents or injury, oldness, violence, get killed and also by suicide.

  Smith states that suicide is the act of intentionally destroying oneself, a violent self inflicting destructive action resulting in death or the act of killing oneself. (1982:129)

  1

  2 People who commit suicide are types of people who lack of solution in dealing with problems in life. The lack of solution might be caused by the lack of faith in religion. Moslems and Christian regard suicide as a sin. (Coleman, 1976: 613)

  East of the mountains is novel written by David Guterson. The novel is

  about an old man’s journey to death by suicide. The main character, Ben Givens is a 73 retired heart surgeon and a widower who turned out to have a colon cancer lately, because he doesn’t want to be dying with suffer and pains, he decides to end his life by suicide. His plan on suicide will be arranged as neat as he could, because he does not want his daughter and his grand son know that his death is already planned so he make it appear accidental, by planning a hunting trip to the eastern Washington canyons and kill himself by shoot himself somewhere uphill in the desert, hoping that no one found him until he get rotten and eaten by flies and maggots.

  In that journey that he expected as his last, indeed he experience a lot of things that he never guessed before, on the way to the east, his car crushed that make Ben injured and have to accept a ride by a young couple to continue his journey, from a ride to another, hitchhike, and sometimes on foot. Because the journey is over the place where he spent his most life, each step remains him of his past, his beautiful, bad and sentimental moment in his memory recall his brain to the nostalgic time. Also along his journey out there he meets many new different characters that make him thinking over and requestion his decision to commit suicide. All of these make Ben Givens more difficult to run his plan.

  3 The reason why the writer chooses East of the mountains to analyze because is really interesting to explore human’s feeling and characters, Ben

  Given’s feeling as the main character, how dying can be so frightened a surgeon doctor who used to face that situation, how suicide become a solution to solve the problem. Here the existence of Ben givens as an ordinary man takes part, how first he handle his disease desperately and finally change his mind respectively.

  The writer wants to know how and in what aspects does the main character experience a development decision to commit suicide firstly and not to commit suicide gradually. In the novel it can be seen that there are some aspects which influence Ben’s feeling toward his cancer diagnose until he decide to commit a suicide such as fear, pain and suffer. Also there are some aspects, which contribute on the development of Ben’s decision on suicide such as bad or good memories, moments and other characters in different ways.

  Also the writer wants to find out the possible messages expressed by the development of the main character in the story that the author wants to say and reveal.

B. Problem Formulation

  In this thesis there are three problems to be analyze

  1. What are the characteristic of Ben Givens?

  2. How does cancer influence Ben, and why does Ben finally decide not to commit suicide?

  3. What are the messages revealed by Ben Given’s character development?

  4

  C. Objectives of the Study

  This thesis is aimed to answer the three problems stated previously. The first is to find the characteristic of Ben Givens as the main character. Secondly how cancer influences the main character to commit suicide, and why Ben Givens finally decide not to commit suicide, and the last is to find the messages revealed by Ben Given’s character development.

  D. Definition of Terms

  In order to avoid a misunderstanding in the terms, the writer gives the definitions of the related terms. The first term is development and the second is message.

  According Craig in her book Human Development states that development is the change in thought or behavior of a person that occur as a function of biological and environmental influence (1979:9). Meanwhile according to Lemme (1995:95) development is a systematic change in behavior over the resulted from interaction between the individual and the internal or external environment.

  According to Beaty and Hunter in New World of Literature, message is the real meaning or some easy conclusion that can be simply stated or summarized inside a work of art (1989:899). The term leads to simplification and gives the illusion that a work of literature exists for its statement that tempts the readers with sweetness of a story to get the real meaning.

CHAPTER II THEORITICAL REVIEW A. Review of Related Studies Since East of the Mountains brings Guterson to win some awards, some critics give their criticism on it. According to Sunmeilan, the character of Ben Givens who is 73 years old

  and too old to be a hero is kind of an uninteresting person to the readers, in the beginning of the story Ben seems to be a desperate person who wants to commit suicide so much, as the story develop that character finally become more interesting, Ben’s past life that follow him wherever he go make the readers understand more his past and his characters clearly.

  “The older Ben Givens is not of great interest to the reader. He has lost the will to live and as such, can only concentrate on his pain and the desire to commit suicide. Even this did little to inspire sympathy in me. However, as the story develops, and Ben begins to look back into his past, he becomes a much more interesting character. The son of a fruit orchard owner, his objective in life was to take over ownership of the orchards from his father, alongside his brother. But the war conspires against him. Joining the army, he witnesses much death and injury, which gives him great respect for the work of his then girlfriend, a military nurse and he eventually decides to become a doctor.” (http://www.ciao.co.uk/East_of_the_Mountains_David_Guterson__Revie w_560574) Robert Sullivan thinks that East of the Mountains is like a long short story. The novel about an old man’ plan on suicide is not interesting plot; it is just like a long short story. Every steps which taken by Ben that suppose to be his last step

  5

  6 resulting some effects which widen the story in every chapter in the novel. The description of the landscape is too much.

  “Unfortunately, the story of a man setting out to kill himself doesn't lend itself to a captivating plot; each step Ben takes feels as if it's set up to be his last, and he takes a lot of steps. As a result, ''East of the Mountains'' sometimes feels like a short story gone long. The question ''Why go on?'' is posed and weakly wrestled with nearly as often as the landscape is described with a surgically mystical appreciation, and the answer seems to be ''Because life here is so beautiful.'' (http://www.nytimes.com/books/99/05/09/reviews/990509.09sullit.html) Chitra Divakaruni gives a credit to the novel and at the same time compares East of the Mountains with Guterson’s previous novel Snow Falling on

  

Cedars. She thinks that East of the Mountains description about war is not good

enough compares to Guterson’s previous novel.

  ``East of the Mountain'' is a fine novel, but it lacks the historical sweep, the dramatic, stormy battles of the spirit from Guterson's first novel,

  ``Snow Falling on Cedars.'' Its flashback scenes of war are not as precisely

  and heartbreakingly rendered as the internment camp scenes in the earlier book. But in its quiet understanding of the autumnal state of life, the questions and fears we all will come to someday, it is a compassionate and masterful achievement.” (http://www.sfgate.com/cgibin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/1999/04/ 25/RV54143.DTL) Ann Skea also gives her comment on David Guterson and his novel East

  

of the Mountains. She says that that the character of Ben Givens is unbelievable,

  since Ben is an old man, and dying of cancer may survive from a fatal accident, involve with some violence actions, still continue his journey with a wounded dog from a ride to another, uphill on foot somewhere night and day. She doubts that an old man can handle this kind of events without having a shock.

  7 “Guterson is a fine writer and, mostly, his story and his characters are interesting and believable. I say 'mostly', because I had difficulty believing that Ben Givens, seventy-three years old and a sick man, could survive a near-fatal car accident with a badly gashed head and then walk for a night and a day through rough country, in foul weather, dragging a wounded dog on a makeshift sledge, and getting involved in a terrifying encounter with hunting Wolfhounds on the way. Didn't those medical experts, who are thanked by Guterson in his Acknowledgments, mention the effects of shock to him?”(http://www.eclectica.org/v3n2/skea_east_mountains.html)

B. Review of Related Theories

1. Theories on Character

  In a Glossary of Literary Terms, M.H. Abrams says that characters are people that are presented in a dramatic or narrative work. Character is a distinctive type of person that the moral and the dispositional qualities of him are expressed in the dialogue and in the actions. Abrams says that the characters temperament and moral nature for his speech and his action build the motivation of the character. Abrams also states that a character may remain to be unchanged in his outlook and his disposition from the beginning to the end of a work or he may undergo a change.

  “A character may remain essentially “stable”, or unchanged in his outlook and dispositions, from beginning to end of a work (Prospero in The

  Tempest, Mickwaber in Dickens’s David Copperfield), or he may undergo

  a radical change, either through a gradual development or as a result of an extreme crisis (Shakespeare’s King Lear, Pip in Dickens’s Great

  Expectations)” (Abrams,1981:20).

  The development of a character in a story is also noted by Forster. Through his categorization of characters into flat and round characters, he stated that the difference between flat and round characters lay in terms of their

  8 development. Flat character is always be the same while round character is kind of character that develop (Forster, 1974:48).

  Perrine in Literature, Sound, and Sense says that character can be developed or not developed. Most stories contains a certain character which is relevant to every event in the story, usually the events cause some change either in him or our attitude toward him. Based on the development of the characters, character can be static or dynamic. Static character is the same of sort of person at the end of the story as how was at the beginning, meanwhile dynamic character is the developing characters undergoes a permanent change in some aspects of his character, personality, our outlook. The change maybe a large or a small one; it maybe for better or for worse; it is more that a change in condition or a minor change in opinion (1974: 71)

  In a Handbook to Literature, C. Hugh Holman and William Harmon also give a theory on character. According to Holman and Harmon, character is the form of human personality. They say that character is a description of a personage and the person is described as some vice ore virtue or type.

  “The person is described not as an individualized personality but as an example of some vice or virtue of type, such as busybody, a glutton, a pop, a bumpkin, a garrulous old man, a happy milkmaid, etc.” (Holman and Harmon, 1986:81) Stanton ( 1965:17-18) says that the term of character is commonly used in two ways: it designates the individuals who appear in the story, and it refers to the mixture of interest, desires, emotions and moral principles that makes up each of these individuals. Most stories contain a central character, which is relevant to every event in the story, usually the events cause some change either in him or in

  9 attitude toward him. A character’s reason for behaving as he does in his motivation is an aspect of his general character: it is the continuing desire or intention that governs him throughout the story. These are evidence that we can get to understand the characters. Firstly, we can recognize the character through its name, for example: in Hawthorne’s Young Goodman Brown, the meaning is clear that the character is a good man. Secondly, the minor ones can describe the central character and usually, their attitudes toward a major character are important to define the right personality of the central character. The point is that through our knowledge of the characters we understand their actions and through their actions, we understand the characters.

  In a Handbook of Literature Terms, Yelland also has a theory on character. According to Yelland, character is a person in the literary work and character is also a description of a type of a person, meaning that a character in a novel is just the same with alive character in a real world who has type of personalities, attitudes, and behavior which may represent a person in this world (Yelland, 1953:29).

  Rohrberger and Woods state that the character in a story is different from one another because they have certain personalities and “physical attributes” (1971:20). They refer characterization as a process or way used by the author to create a character. In describing the character, the author seldom tells us everything directly. Therefore, the readers have to involve themselves in reading the work in order to understand the characters.

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2. Theories of Characterization

  Rohrberger and Wood in Reading and Writing about Literature said that the process by which an author creates a character is called characterization.

  “There are two principle ways that an author can characterize. The first is through a direct way. It describes the physical appearance. The second, he uses a dramatic event. It means that he places in situation where he should react in particular way. His action must be motive in term that a reader can accept (1971:20-21) It means that the way to show about characterization can be direct or indirect. In direct ways the author describe the physical appearance. Secondly is through indirect ways, where the author describes the character by how the character behaves and speaks we can see the character implicitly.

  According to Holman and Harmon in A Handbook to Literature (1986:61) characterization is divided into three fundamental methods: a. The explicit presentation is presented by the author of the character through direct exposition, other in introduction or more often through out but the development of the story, which is illustrated by actions.

  b. The presentation of the character in action with little explicit comment by the author, in expectation that the reader will be able to deduce the attribute of the author from the action.

  c. The presentation from within a character without comment or the character by the author, of the impact of actions and emotions on the character itself with the expectation that the reader will come to clear understanding of the attribute of the characters. Character and characterization are always the part of it, as the character cannot separate from its characterization. The characterization

  11 makes the reader easier to understand the character, and it can help us to analysis of the literary work.

  The other theory of characterization is presented by Beaty and Hunter in their book New World of Literature. According to them, the way in which the author describes character and process of defining characters is usually called characterization. There are also two ways in describing characters in the story, namely direct and indirect ways. It is called direct way when the author describes the way the characters look (their physical appearances and their clothing, bearing, make up, and so on); the way they speak; they way they think; and what other people say about them. While, it is called indirect way when the author describes the character’s language and action (1989:231-232)

  M.J. Murphy in Understanding Unseen: An Introduction to English Poetry

  

and English Novel for Overseas Students shows a few ways in which the author

  tries to make his characters understandable to the readers. They are:

  1. Personal description The author can describe his character through a character’s appearance and clothes.

  2. Characters as seen by another The author can describe the character through the eyes and opinions of another. The reader gets a reflected image.

  3. Speech The author can give us an insight into the character of one of the persons in the book through what the person says. Whenever a person speaks,

  12 whenever he is in conversation with another, whenever he puts forward an opinion, he is giving us some clue to his character.

  4. Past life By letting the reader learn something about a person’s life, the author can give us a clue to events that helped to shape a person’s character. This can be done by direct comment by the author, through the person’s thoughts, through his conversation or through the medium of another person.

  5. Conversation of others.

  The author can also give us clues to a person’s character through the conversations of other people and the things they say about him.

  6. Reactions The author can give us clue to person’s character by letting us know how that person reacts to various situations and events.

  7. Direct comment.

  The author can describe or comment a person’s character directly.

  8. Thoughts.

  The author can give us directly knowledge of what a person is thinking about the person’s character.

  9. Mannerism The author can describe a person’s mannerism, habits or idiosyncrasies which may also tell us something about his character (1972:161-173) While Graham little in his book Approach to Literature: An Introduction

  

to Critical Study of Content and Method in Writing, offered three ways in

  studying a character through:

  13

  1. His or her basic characteristic. This can be seen from the physical condition, the social relationship, and the mental qualities.

  2. His or her appearance from various points of view, this includes: how a character sees him or herself, how other characters see him or her, and how he or she develops, or fails to develop during the course of the story.

  3. His or her place in the work such as the treatment of the author, his or her place in the story (a leading character or a minor one), and his or her relation to the theme (Little, 1981:93).

3. Theories of Plot

  Another element in the literary work that is closely related to the characters is called plot. Abrams states that the plot has a unity if it is perceive by the readers a complete and ordered structure of actions, directed toward the intended effect, in which none pf the component parts of incidents is unnecessary (1981:140).

  Related to the characters, plot cannot be separated from characters indeed, De Laar and Schoonderwood stress that plot is what happens to the characters.

  Plot and characters cannot really be separated. A plot is nothing without characters; characters are nothing without plot (1963:167).

  Stanton in An Introduction to Fiction states two important elements of plot those are conflict and climax. Every work of fiction contains obvious internal conflicts between two desires within a character, or external conflicts between

  14 characters, or between a character and his environment. Stanton also mentions a central conflict in a work. According to him, central conflicts is always between fundamental and contrasting qualities of forces, such as honesty and hypocrisy (1965:16)

  Perrine said that plot is the sequence of incidents or events of which a story is composed. It may include what a character says or thinks, as well as what he does, but it leaves out description and analysis and concentrates ordinarily on major happening. Furthermore, he says that every story must have some actions, but for a worth while story. It must be significant action. Physical action by itself meaningless. He adds, in a good story a minimum of physical may be used to yield a maximum of insight (1974:43)

  Forster in Aspect of the Novel and Related Writing explains the difference between plot and story. He says that a story is a narrative of events arranged in their time sequence. A plot, however, is also a narrative of events but it emphasizes on causality. He gives example to make the different become clearer; “the king died the queen died of grief” is a plot. From the example above, it can be seen that plot needs causality while story merely tells the chronological events (1974:60).

4. The Relation between Plot and Character

  The context of events and time can show the character in the story. The readers know the presence of the characters through the character’s experience in the character’s live or plot is one of important elements in a story. Plot applies its

  15 role as the method to understand the character’s personalities and lives. Character and plot then become the most closely related elements. De Laar and Scoonderwoerd (1963:167) describe how desperately the two elements need one another. They say that plot is what happens to the characters. Plot and characters can not be really separated. A plot is nothing without characters: characters are nothing without plot. Plot is regarded depart from character, but actually the two elements is omitted, it does not create a story.

  Reaske points out the relationship between plot and character. The relationship between them may be the most important aspects of the plot. This means that in a dramatic or narrative work things should happen because the characters in a dramatic or narrative work are the way they are. In this case, every incident, action, events, or episode in the plot with its complications and simplifications happens because the characters in a dramatic or narrative work are presented as human beings who are able to act and to react towards various problems which have happened to them well. Referring to this fact, it can be said that there is nothing in a dramatic or narrative work which is not the product of character’s motivation because in a dramatic or narrative work which is not the product of character’s motivation because in a dramatic or narrative work plot translate the essence of the character’s ideas into appropriate actions (Reaske, 1966:36-44). Meanwhile, Meredith and Fitzgerald (1972:34-25) explain that both plot and a story line in a traditional novel are a chain of casually related events that give a novel continuity, peace, and thematic significance. Discussing events

  16 in a dramatic or narrative work means discussing things that finally have some effects on the characters.

  Therefore, to create believable characters, a novelist should plan the plot of his or her novel carefully. The novelist should clearly pose some conflict and resolve them. From the readers’ point of view, the relationship between plot and characters cannot be clearly distinguished in most stories, for the plot including the dialogue amounts simply to knowing how characters, act, and react. Referring to the explanation above, it can be concluded that characters in a novel should not be static. There must be development. While the plot or the story goes forward, the characters should go forward too and vice versa. Action and incident spring out of characters and having occurred, they change it, so that at the end of a novel a character should have changed, have developed, should be different from what he or she was at the beginning of the novel (De Laar & Scoonderwoerd 1963:171)

5. Theories of Message

  Every work of literature consists of and offers moral message. Of course there are many types of moral lesson conveyed. Fiction, especially novels, sometimes may have more than one message. Moreover they have been involved by the interpretations come from many other readers. The type of message occurs in a literary work depends on the author’s belief, wish and interest.

  According to Beaty and Hunter in New World of Literature, message is the real meaning or some easy conclusion that can be simply stated or summarized inside a work of art (1989:899). The term leads to simplification and gives the

  17 illusion that a work of literature exists for its statement that tempts the readers with sweetness of a story to get the real meaning.

  The model of literary communication, the way the author communicate to the reader is by, the author encodes a message that the readers receive, or the author sees a great truth that he teaches the readers by example. Usually, message seeks to inform or convince even though it is impossible that it seeks to have the readers comprehend and empathize so that the ideas are more broadly accessible.

  Meanwhile Nurgiyantoro also shows a similarity on the definition of message. He states that moral in a work of art is called a message (1995:332).

  This element actually is the idea that provides the basis for literary work. In other words, it is the idea that forms the background of creating a work.

  Message likewise theme is an important element in a work of literature. Nurgiyantoro defines message as something that an author wants to convey to the readers. It also can be the meaning within a work or the meaning suggested through the story. (1995: 321).

  Sometimes, message is considered identical with theme though it does not always refer to the same thing. Both message and theme can be interpreted as two elements that have kind of similarity. Nevertheless Kenny in his book How to

Analyze Fiction (1966:89) says that theme has more complexity than message.

  Message becomes one of the elements that make or forms a theme. But it has no direct value as suggestion aimed to the readers. According to him, message can be seen as one form of the theme in simple form, but not all themes are considered a message.

  18 When ones are talking about message, they are also discussing moral. It can be said briefly that generally moral means teaching of good and bad (Kenny,

  1966:89). But this lesson in some case has relativity. It means that people’s view about moral about moral and values from one place are not always the same as the people’s view from another.

  Message in a work of art usually reflects the way of the related author. He wants to convey his opinion about the values of truth. Message in a story is intended as suggestion related to practical moral lesson that can be taken by the readers through the story. They are closely related to problems in life, such as attitude, behavior, and so on. The readers can find them in real life, in the same manners as they are reflected in the story through its characters.

  Hudson says that a good message is a message that discloses new a large possibility they do not realize, a writer would try to tell and to show those possibilities themselves. A good message does not tend to follow general pattern or norm but it creates new patterns based on human values (1958:23)

  The type of the moral lesson itself, we may say, includes an endless problem. It involves all problems in life, especially those that are related to human right and dignity. In broad line, problem of human life is divided into three problems, namely: The problem in the relationship between a man and himself, a man and his fellowman including his relationship with his surrounding, and between a man and his God (Nurgiyantoro, 1995:325). A novel of course may consist of or offer one, two, or three of them at once with their detail forms.

  19 Beside that, a work of art contains several messages that can be classified into major and minor messages.

C. Theoretical Framework.

  The purpose of this thesis is to answer the problems stated previously. To help the writer answer the problem formulation, the writer took some theories.

  Theories of characterization and character were used to analyze the main character described in the story.

  Theory of plot which is used to answer the first and the second problem is also important to reveal the actions taken by the main character. Plot is kind of method to understand character. There we can understand easily the movement of the characters.

  The last theory is theory of message. This theory is taken to guide the writer’s understanding about what the author exactly wants to say through the actions and movement of the main character.

CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY In this chapter, the concern is on the method of the study. It is divided into

  three parts. The first part is the object of the study, which deals with David Guterson’s East of the Mountains. The second part provides the approach that is used in conducting this study. The last part is the method of the study which is the procedures that concern the steps that are taken in analyzing the novel thoroughly.

A. Object of the Study

  East of the Mountains was first published in 1999 in Great Britain. The

  edition that the writer is using for this thesis was paperback edition published in 2000 by the Bloomsbury Publishing Plc. It was copyright 1999; this novel was printed in Great Britain by Clays Limited St Ives plc. This novel was composed of 278 pages and built of 12 chapters. In this thesis I only analyze the main character and plot to reveal the messages.

  East of the Mountains is a novel about a journey that set up by an old man

  to suicide, but on the way, he wrecks his van badly, from there, he meets other different characters who contribute indirectly to Ben’s changing decision on commit suicide eventually.

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  B. Approach of the Study

  According to Abrams (1981:36-37), there are four types of traditional approaches concerning the analyzing and evaluating of literary works, and one of them is objective.

  Objective criticism approaches the literary work as independent object or a self-sufficient object, which stands free from poet, audience, and the environment world. The analysis is on the intrinsic element of the work itself by using intrinsic criteria such as setting (place and time), theme, character, plot which build the story of the novel. In other words, the objective criticism criticizes a work as something that is standing on a work itself.

  The writer chooses the objective criticism to analyze the novel. The reason why the writer chooses this approach is based on the idea about the approach itself. It is suitable with the work which intends to analyze some of intrinsic elements which are plot and character to reveal the messages. Concerning on the subject, this work focuses its analysis on the characters and plot without including other aspect outside the work of analysis

  C. Method of the Study

  In this study, the writer conducted library research as a primary source and internet research as a secondary research. This meant that the data needed to support the analysis were obtained mostly from some books and references, which are available in the library. The support data were taken from the internet.

  22 In completing this thesis, there were some steps that the writer took. Firstly, the writer read the main source, the novel East of the Mountains thoroughly and reread again to get a deeper understanding. The following step was choosing the topic and stating the problem formulations. The next step was finding the theories and criticism on East of the Mountains related to the problem formulations.

  After the theories and criticism were collected, they were used to answer the problem formulations in the analysis. The last step to take was drawing a conclusion.

CHAPTER IV ANALYSIS The first part of this chapter presents the description of the main character,

  

because it is very important to find out the characteristic of the main character

first. The second part, the writer will look at the factors that influence the main

character wants to commit suicide and not to commit suicide eventually, and the