The influence of western education toward the main character`s characteristics and conflicts as seen in Chinua Achebe`s No Longer At Ease - USD Repository

  

THE INFLUENCE OF WESTERN EDUCATION TOWARD

THE MAIN CHARACTER’S CHARACTERISTICS AND

CONFLICTS AS SEEN IN CHINUA ACHEBE’S

  

NO LONGER AT EASE

AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS

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

  By

LUCIANA MARLIN SORITON

  Student Number: 064214012

  

ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS

FACULTY OF LETTERS

SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY

YOGYAKARTA

  Impossible is not a word It’s just a reason for someone not to try

  You will find your way if you keep believing

  

(KUTLESS, “What Faith can Do”)

  Give thanks for what you are now, and keep fighting for what you want to be tomorrow. ~Fernanda Miramontes-Landeros Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.

  

(1 Timothy 4: 12)

Have a FAITH,

and you will reach your dreams!!!!

  For those who always give me

the biggest love, sacrifice, and support

  My Great Lord and Mother, JESUS CHRIST & St. MARY My Beloved Parents, Max Soriton & Natalia Idawati

  My Beloved Brothers, Martin Yopie, Paulus Yansen, Boby Ruben

  

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  First of all, I would like to express my greatest gratitude to Jesus Christ for blessing me and giving me the strength to pass all problems in my life. He guides me when I cannot find the way and He always opens my mind to write this thesis. I also thank St. Mary for praying for me every time.

  I would like to give my appreciation to Dewi Widyastuti, S.Pd., M.Hum as my advisor for being patient in answering all my questions, for guiding me to finish this thesis, and for everything. I thank Elisa Dwi Wardani, S.S., M.Hum as my co advisor for guiding me in revising this thesis. I also thank all lecturers and staffs of English Letters Department of Sanata Dharma University for their help and support during my study.

  My deepest gratitude is for my family, my father, Max Soriton, my mother, Natalia Idawati; and my brothers, Martin, Yansen, Boby. I thank them for their support, prayers, and most of all, thanks for their big sacrifice that makes me promise to do my best and make them smile and proud of me. And, I would like to thank my big family for their support and help.

  I really thank God for giving me the best friend in my life, Rhurhu, who always supports and prays for me and she never feels bored to remind me about our promise to show to the world how amazing Jesus works in our life. I thank my best “PAL”, Siska, Magda, Hanna, and Santi. I am very blessed to have them. I thank them for every moment we laugh and cry together and for their support when I want to give up. I thank Sefia, Loliek, Yuli, Sumi, Yona, Chica, Wara,

  

Thingthing, Sasa, and others for giving me so many beautiful moments in Puri

  Agung Lestari. My big appreciation is to Mba Marsih, Pak’e, Tole, Hudha because they make me feel like in my home and thanks for being my family when I stay there.

  I thank Nana for her support and advices on my problems, and give thanks for accompanying me when I feel bored and sad. I am so glad to have Yuniar in my difficult times and thank her for the advices when I do the mistakes. I am also really thankful to stay close to Sansan since we were in Junior High School.

  Hopefully, we can still support each other for the next struggle. I am sincerely grateful to my best classmates, “BFI”, and “After 20”, Vina, Via, Esther, Juli,

  

Elok, Marcel, Sella, Meme, Damay, Arum, Fin, Atom, Dhika, Handoko,

Sammy, Ryo, Andry, Adit “Aconk”, Adit “Fat Brother”, Helfi, Denal,

Sanam, and others. I thank them for giving me support and making me enjoy

studying here.

  I also thank De Anna, Ko Vincent, Edwin, Didin, Kathrine, and Rani for praying and supporting me in finishing this thesis. I never forget to thank my friends in “PD Yohanes” and “BPM Yogyakarta”, Lia, Samuel, Fanny, Sisi, Ci

  

Lina and others, for their prayers and our shared experiences that always

  strengthen my faith. And for all people who have supported me in finishing this thesis, I would like to thank them and hope it can make them all happy.

  Luciana Marlin Soriton

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

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

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

ACCEPTANCE PAGE .............................................................................. iii

LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI .................. iv

MOTTO PAGE …………………………………………………………... v

DEDICATION PAGE …………………………………………………… vi

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ……………………………………………... vii

TABLE OF CONTENTS ………………………………………………... ix

ABSTRACT ………………………………………………………….........xi

ASBSTRAK ………………………………………………………………. xii

  

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

A. Background of the Study ………………………………………….. 1 B. Problem Formulation ……………………………………………… 3 C. Objectives of the Study …………………………………………….4 D. Definition of Terms …………………………………………….......5

CHAPTER II: THEORETICAL REVIEW ……………………………. 7

A. Review of Related Studies ………………………………………… 7 B. Review of Related Theories ………………………………………..10

  1. Theories of Character and Characterization …………………....10

  2. Theories of Conflict …………………………………………... 13

  3. Theories of Western Education ………………………………...16

  C. Theoretical Framework …………………………………………….20

  

CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY…………………………………….. 22

A. Object of the Study ……………………………………………….. 22 B. Approach of the Study ……………………………………………. 23 C. Method of the Study ………………………………………………. 24

CHAPTER IV: ANALYSIS …………………………………………….. 25

A. Characterization of the Main Character ……………………………25 B. Conflicts of the Main Character ……………………………………35

  1. Internal Conflicts ……………………………………………… 36

  2. External Conflicts ……………………………………………... 40

  a. The Main Character’s Conflicts with Clara ……………….. 41

  b. The Main Character’s Conflicts with His Father …………..44

  c. The Main Character’s Conflicts with His Mother ………… 46

  d. The Main Character’s Conflicts with Joseph ………………47

  e. The Main Character’s Conflicts with Christopher …………48

  f. The Main Character’s Conflicts with the Interviewer …….. 49

  g. The Main Character’s Conflicts with Umuofia

  h. The Main Character’s Conflicts with Ibo Society ………… 50

  C. The Influence of Western Education toward the Main Character’s Characteristics and Conflicts ………………………….52

  1. The Influence toward the Main Character’s Characteristics ………………………………………………….53

  2. The Influence toward the Main Character’s Conflicts …………55

  a. The Conflicts about the Marriage …………………………. 56

  b. The Conflicts about the Bribes ……………………………. 61

  

CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION …………………………………………. 65

BIBLIOGRAPHY ……………………………………………………….. 68

APENDICES ……………………………………………………………... 71

Appendix 1 …………………………………………………………….72 Appendix 2 …………………………………………………………… 74

  

ABSTRACT

LUCIANA MARLIN SORITON. The Influence of Western Education

toward the Main Character’s Characteristics And Conflicts As Seen In

Chinua Achebe’s No Longer At Ease. Yogyakarta: Department of English

  Letters, Sanata Dharma University.

  No Longer at Ease talks about a man who is an Ibo and gets a

  scholarship in London for four years. After coming back to his country, Nigeria, he becomes a person who has changed following the western perception. Mostly, the story is about the marriage and the bribes related to western and African perception.

  There are some objectives that the writer wants to achieve through this thesis. The first is to describe the characterization of the main character in No

  

Longer at Ease in order to understand which the characteristics of the main

  character that are influenced by western education and which one that are not influenced by western education. The second is to describe the conflicts that happen to the main character whether it is internal or external conflicts. The last objective is to see the influence of western education toward the main character’s characteristics and conflicts.

  This undergraduate thesis is a library research. The main data were taken from the novel No Longer at Ease written by Chinua Achebe. The secondary data were taken from some supporting books and articles from the internet. In order to analyze the problems, the writer applied socio-cultural approach. Socio-cultural approach is considered appropriate to be applied to this topic because the discussion in this work is about the life of the main character as an Ibo who has been in England for four years.

  The writer’s conclusion is the main character in the story is Obi Okonkwo who has the characteristics of being smart, educated, nationalistic, loving and caring, temperamental, and idealistic. Besides, as the main character, he experiences conflicts with himself and other characters in this story. He becomes educated and idealistic after he gets education in London. He thinks that all people are same while his society still holds the caste system that an osu is outcast. The conflicts he gets related to the marriage and bribes. He opposes the caste system because he wants to marry Clara, an osu, but other people around him do not accept it. He also has promised not to take the bribe although he is in civil service because he studies law and he knows that giving or taking a bribe is prohibited. Although in the end of the story he does not marry Clara because she leaves him, and he takes the bribes that force him to the court as what the author shows in the beginning of the story, the western education makes him change and experience the conflicts.

  

ABSTRAK

LUCIANA MARLIN SORITON. The Influence of Western Education

toward the Main Character’s Characteristics And Conflicts As Seen In

Chinua Achebe’s No Longer At Ease. Yogyakarta: Jurusan Sastra Inggris,

  Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Sanata Dharma.

  No Longer at Ease adalah sebuah novel yang menceritakan seorang pria

  dari suku Ibo dan kuliah di London selama empat tahun. Setelah kembali ke negaranya, Nigeria, ia telah berubah mengikuti persepsi budaya barat. Sebagian besar, novel ini berkisah tentang perbedaan persepsi barat dan Afrika mengenai pernikahan dan penyuapan.

  Ada beberapa tujuan yang ingin dicapai penulis dalam menyusun karya tulis ini. Yang pertama adalah untuk mendeskripsikan penggambaran karakter tokoh utama pada novel No Longer at Ease dengan tujuan untuk memahami karakteristik yang dipengaruhi oleh pendidikan barat. Tujuan kedua adalah untuk mengetahui konflik – konflik yang dialami oleh tokoh utama baik konflik internal maupun konflik eksternal. Tujuan terakhir adalah menunjukkan pengaruh pendidikan barat terhadap karakteristik dan konflik yang terdapat pada tokoh utama.

  Skripsi ini merupakan studi pustaka. Data utama diambil dari novel No

  

Longer at Ease , sedangkan data lain diambil dari buku – buku pendukung dan

  beberapa artikel yang diambil dari internet. Untuk mengatasi masalah, penulis menggunakan pendekatan sosial-kebudayaan. Pendekatan sosial-kebudayaan dirasa tepat untuk diaplikasikan dalam topik ini karena skripsi ini membahas mengenai kehidupan tokoh utama sebagai orang Igbo yang menetap di Inggris selama empat tahun.

  Kesimpulan penulis adalah tokoh utama pada novel yaitu Obi Okonkwo yang digambarkan sebagai orang yang pintar, berpendidikan, nasionalis, pengertian dan peduli, bertemperamen buruk, dan idealis. Selain itu, sebagai tokoh utama, ia mengalami permasalahan dengan dirinya sendiri dan juga tokoh – tokoh lain dalam cerita ini. Ia menjadi seseorang yang berpendidikan dan idealis setelah ia mendapat pendidikan di London. Ia berpikir bahwa semua orang adalah sama, meskipun masyarakat di sekitarnya tetap memegang prinsip kebudayaannya bahwa osu adalah suku yang terbuang. Permasalahan yang ia hadapi berhubungan dengan pernikahan dan kasus suap. Ia menolak sistem kastanya karena budaya barat mengajarkannya untuk tidak membedakan orang lain, karena menurut masyarakat di negara – negara bagian barat, semua orang adalah sama. Ia juga telah berjanji untuk tidak menerima suap meskipun ia memiliki jabatan di pemerintahan karena ia mempelajari hokum dan ia tahu bahwa memberi dan menerima suap itu dilarang. Meskipun pada akhir cerita ia tidak menikahi Clara karena Clara meninggalkannya, dan ia menerima suap yang membawanya ke pengadilan seperti yang pengarang ceritakan pada awal cerita, pendidikan barat telah mengubah karakteristiknya dan menimbulkan berbagai konflik.

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION A. Background of the Study Reading literary works is easy, but understanding the literary works is not

  easy. Readers can understand what the story tells about, but they can not understand what the implied meaning of the story without reading a criticism about the literary works. Sometimes readers have some questions what the situation can be like that as in the story. To answer the questions, it must be criticized. It can be criticized by looking at the history, social relationship, or psychology. It depends on what they ask about.

  There are many literary works, like prose, drama, and poetry. The way to analyze each of them may be the same, but the way to understand the story may be different. According to Abrams, the form of drama is designed for performance in the theater, and there are some actors who take the roles of the characters.

  Abrams also adds that a closet drama is written in the form of a drama, with dialogue, indicated settings, and stage directions, but is intended by the author to be read rather than to be performed in the theater (1993: 18).

  Novel is a great variety of writings that have in common only the attribute of being extended works of fiction written in prose. There are many kinds of novels, such as tragic, comic, satiric, or romantic. There are also social novels, historical novels, and regional novels. The difference of them is in the author’s way to emphasize the plot. The social novel emphasizes the influence of the social and economic conditions of the characters and events, for example Stowe’s

  

Uncle’s Tom Cabin . The historical novel emphasizes the historical events and an

issue crucial for the central characters, for example Dicken’s A Tale of Two Cities.

  The regional novel emphasizes the setting, speech, and social structure and customs, and their ways of feeling, thinking, and interacting (Abrams, 1993: 130- 134).

  The literary works can be a picture of situation that happened when the literary works is written. Most people like reading literary works because by reading literary works they can also learn about life itself. Literary work is “an illustration of human life because the literary works present the literary of human situation, problems, feelings, and relationship” (Wellek and Warren, 1956: 96).

  Many literary works tell about something or someone’s life that is not really far from the reality. Readers may learn how to solve the problems, how to communicate with other people, how to become a kind person, how to accept life whatever they are. They can learn all of them by seeing the characters perform the play, or by imagining what the story tells about.

  There are many famous authors in each country. African has Chinua Achebe, Buchi Emecheta, Christopher Okigbo, Ben Okri, Osonye Tess Onwueme, Ken Saro-Wiwa, Wole Soyinka, etc. The famous African author, Chinua Achebe, wrote literary works which showed social culture. Albert Chinualumogu Achebe was born on November 16, 1930 in Ogidi, Nigeria. His parents are Isaiah Okafo, a Christian churchman, and Janet N. Achebe. He attended Government College in Umofia from 1944 to 1947 and University College in Ibadan from 1948 to 1953. He then received a B.A. from London University in 1953 and studied broadcasting at the British Broadcasting Corp. in London in 1956.

  One of his works is No Longer at Ease. In this novel, Chinua Achebe figures out an Igbo people with the character Obi Okonkwo who got the scholarship in London from Umuofia Progressive Union (UPU). The life of Obi Okonkwo in No Longer at Ease has some similarities with Achebe’s life. They were born in Nigeria and had education in London. Achebe emphasizes how Europeans thrust their ways, traditions, and values.

  There are many conflicts there, especially about western education that influences Obi Okonkwo’s life. He is a young man from Eastern Nigeria who has to develop his career in the midst of all his problems. He is pressurized by the men of his tribe, the Umuofia Progressive Union, not to forget his traditions and to pay his dues to help him to be educated.

  The writer deals with No Longer at Ease to write this thesis because the writer wants to show the influence of western education toward Okonkwo’s characteristics and conflicts. It is because there are some changes in the characteristics of Okonkwo after he got the education in London. He struggles to adapt to a Western lifestyle and against the changes brought by the English.

B. Problem Formulation

  There are three problems that the researcher is going to analyze. The problems can be formulated as follows.

  1. How is the main character characterized?

  2. How are the conflicts described?

  3. How does western education influence the main character’s characteristics and conflicts?

C. Objectives of the Study

  The research aims to answer the three problems stated in the problem formulation. The first aim is to know the characterizations of the main character, Obi Okonkwo. The writer will collect the characterizations of Obi Okonkwo based on Obi Okonkwo’s experiences, thought, and attitude. The characterization of Obi Okonkwo is useful for knowing the Obi Okonkwo’s ways to face his problems and interact with other characters.

  The second aim is to know the conflicts that Obi Okonkwo has. There are so many conflicts that Obi Okonkwo has. There are internal conflicts related to Obi Okonkwo himself, and external conflicts that happen between Obi Okonkwo and other characters. Obi Okonkwo also has cultural conflicts that happen because he has been in London for many years. He learns Western culture when he gets education there, and after he comes back to his country he cannot accept the whole tradition that he thinks nonsense.

  And the last one, the research aims to relate how western education influences the main character’s characteristics and conflicts. The writer gives comparison among the idea or point of view of the main character about both cultures, African and Western. The writer also gives some reasons why western education influences the main character’s characteristics and conflicts.

D. Definition of Terms

  1. Western Education

  Chinnammai in his article entitled “Effects of Globalisation on Education and Culture” states that the effects of globalization on education bring rapid developments in technology and communications that are foreseeing changed within school systems across the world as ideas, values, and knowledge.

  Education should treat each unique culture and society with due respect, realizing that global education is not only learning about the West, but also studying different cultures of the world, using different approaches, ways of teaching and different media (http://www.openpraxis.com/files/Article% 20252.pdf).

  2. Conflict

  Hugh Holman and William Harmon in A Handbook to Literature (1986: 107-108) states that conflict is the struggle that grows out of the interplay of the two opposing forces in a plot. Conflict usually happens with the protagonist.

  Conflict can be divided into four different kinds and one additional possibility of conflict: a struggle against nature, a struggle against another person, a struggle against society, a struggle for mastery by two elements with the person, and the struggle against fate or destiny. Conflict not only implies the struggle of protagonist against someone or something, but also implies the existence of some motivation for the conflict or some goal to be achieved thereby.

3. Character

  According to Perrine in Literature: Structure and Sense, there are two kinds of characters, static character and dynamic character. In dynamic character, the character has some changes whether over or underdeveloped, undergoes a permanent change in some aspects of his or her character, personality, or outlook.

  Thus, character development is the changing of the character in thought, feeling, behavior, point of view, mental, or religious quality through some environments and a period of time (1974: 71).

CHAPTER II THEORETICAL REVIEW A. Review of Related Studies Chinua Achebe is a famous African writer who has written many books

  about African, such as Things Fall Apart (1958), The Sacrificial Egg and Other

  

Stories (1962), Arrow of God (1964), A Man of the People (1966), Chike and the

River (1966), etc. In his novels, Achebe describes most African and European

  people, especially he wants to describe the differences of culture and point of view of African and European. Achebe also wants to break up the style, attitude, and dominations of European.

  According to Ayittey in Africa Betrayed, For most Africans, independence did not bring a better life or even greater political and civil liberties. Many are troubled by this comparative statement because they misinterpret it as a veiled justification of colonialism. Nothing could be further from the truth. Africans overwhelmingly rejected colonial rule. Colonialism was invidious and Africans expected the quality of their lives to improve markedly after independence. They were sorely disappointed (1992: 9).

  Achebe also uses his novels as a mean of his resistance toward any practices of colonialism. During colonialism, European brought many bad images of African people and culture. He shows the thought of European toward African. As seen in his novel, No Longer at Ease, Achebe shows how the European thought that African liked to corrupt, especially who worked in the government.

  Ayittey also adds, Western ethnocentrism prevented a recognition of the capabilities of the African people. The European colonialists generally held African culture in contempt, contending that the savages of Africa had no viable institutions and were incapable of developing them. Allegedly, indigenous African society was chaotic and barbaric, and Africans had no value systems (1992: 17).

  No Longer at Ease is a story of an Igbo (also spelled Ibo) man, Obi

  Okonkwo, who leaves his village for a British education. He gets a job in the Nigerian colonial civil service, but he must struggle to adapt to a Western culture and end up taking a bribe. He receives a European-oriented education that buries his culture, forcing him to loose sight of where he comes from and where he's going. It is a sequel novel of Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, which concerns the struggle of Obi Okonkwo's grandfather against the changes brought by the English. No Longer at Ease is the legacy for African cultures of colonial domination by Europeans. Achebe emphasizes how Europeans thrust their ways, traditions, and values.

  Even as he pokes fun at the remaining English bureaucrats and their condescending ways, he honors their tradition of relatively honest civil service. Meanwhile, he questions whether this first generation of natives who are replacing the departing Europeans are truly prepared to meet the same standards or a slide into corruption is nearly inevitable. Achebe draws the situation between the traditions and expectations of his village on the one hand and the modern ways (http://brothersjudd.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/reviews.detail/book_id/18).

  Obi Okonkwo is also faced with the conflict to the Christian principle, his father, Okonkwo, a Christian, raising him with and the seduction of the so-called “evil Western influences” on the younger Nigeria generation. When he falls in because she is an osu, his parents don't approve of his engagement to her and he has to choose between his love or pleasing his family and tribe.

  According to Uzoma Onyemaechi in “Igbo Culture and Socialization” (http://www.kwenu.com/igbo/igbowebpages/Igbo.dir/Culture/culture_and_sociali zation.html),

  The Igbo family structure expands the range of consanguine relationships, or membership by blood, and affinity relations, or membership by marriage. The marriage is patrilineal. There is much emphasis placed on compatibility of the couples and social standing within the kinship community. In the Igbo marriage more emphasis is placed on arrangement than on love in the marriage. There is much screening for hereditary illness, for insanity, and sanctions are placed on incest rules. Achebe tells that these outcasts were among the early Christian converts.

  

Osu were the lowest class in Ibo society. They were slaves (ohu) and the free born

(amadi) . An osu could never change his or her status.

  By focusing on the conflicts and the characterization of the main character, the writer aims to reveal the influences of western education. This discussion is about the influence of western education toward the characteristics and the conflicts of the main character. There are some changes about the characterization of the main character after he gets education in London. Because of the changes, the conflicts happen. Moreover, the writer wants to relate the influence of western education that the main character has with the conflicts and characteristics of the main character itself.

B. Review of Related Theories

1. Theories of Character and Characterization

  Robert Stanton in An Introduction to Fiction states that the most important evidence of all is the character’s own dialogue and behavior. Every speech or action is not only a step in the plot, but also a manifestation of character (1964: 18).

  Hugh Holman and William Harmon in A Handbook to Literature (1986: 81) states that character is a complicated term including the idea of the moral constitution of the human personality, the presence of moral uprightness, and the simpler nation of the presence of creatures in art. Characters are divided into two; static character which gives the appearance of changing simply because our picture of the character is revealed bit by bit; and dynamic character which is one who is modified by action and experiences, and one objective of the work in which the character appears is to reveal the consequences of these actions.

  Hugh Holman and William Harmon also described characterization as the author presenting the characters of actual persons and revealing the characters of imaginary person. There are three fundamental methods of characterization; first, the explicit presentation by the author of the character through direct exposition; second, the presentation of the character in action; third, the representation from within a character without comment on the character by the author.

  The author can use two methods of characterization. First, the author shows without comment about the word and action of characters. Or the second, the author tells the reader about the characters explicitly by the behavior of characters. According to Perrine in Literature, Structure, and Sense (1974: 68), In direct presentation, he tells us straight out, by exposition or analysis, what a character is like, or has someone else in the story tells us what he is like. In indirect presentation, the author shows us the character in action, we infer that he is like from what he thinks or says or does. Based on the way of author’s characterization, the reader or the audience can know the characters by looking at the behavior of the characters or others who tells what the character is like. The author may present the characters by showing character’s action, or describe the characters by telling what they are like.

  In Murphy’s Understanding Unseen, he states that there are a few of ways the author characterize the characters (1972: 161-173),

  1. Personal Description The author describes a person’s appearance and clothes, such as the face, skin, eyes, and the castaway’s extraordinary clothing.

  2. Characters as Seen by Another The author describes him through the eyes and opinions of another, conveys through his choice of words and phrases, such as unquiet eyes, dim smile, rare sound of her voice, unapproachable aspect, gazing at him stealthily.

  3. Speech The author gives an insight into the character of one of the persons in the book through what that person says. Whenever a person speaks, whenever he is in conversation with another, whenever he puts forward an opinion,

  4. Past Life The author gives a clue to events that have helped to shape a person’s character; by direct comment, though the person’s thoughts, through his conversation or through the medium of another person.

  5. Conversation of Others The author can also give clues to a person’s character through the conversations of other people and the things they say about him. People do talk about other people and the things they say often give as a clue to the character of the person spoken about.

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

  7. Direct Comment The author can describe or comment on a person’s character directly.

  8. Thoughts The author gives direct knowledge of what a 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. Mannerisms The author describes a person’s mannerisms, habits, or idiosyncrasies which tell something about his character.

  Kennedy and Dana Gioia in Literature An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry,

  

and Drama (1990: 60-61) say that the author may figure out the characters with

  motivation: sufficient reason to behave as they do. They also agree about Forster’s statement that characters may seem flat or round, depending on whether a writer sketches or sculptures them. A flat character has only one outstanding trait or feature, or at most a few distinguishing marks. A round character means that the author portrays them in greater depth and in more generous detail. Shortly, flat characters tend to stay the same throughout a story, but round characters often change, learn or become enlightened, grow or deteriorate.

  Similar to Kennedy and Gioia’s statement, Forster’s Aspects of the Novel

  

and Related Writings also states that characters can be divided into two; flat

  characters and round characters (1974: 47-51), 1. Flat Characters.

  One great advantage of flat characters is that they are easily recognized whenever they come in recognized by the reader’s emotional eye, not by the visual eye which merely notes the recurrence of a proper name.

  2. Round Characters.

  Round characters are fit to perform tragically for any length of time and can move us to any feelings except humor and appropriateness.

2. Theory of Conflict

  The literary work has a plot that shows the conflicts. Conflicts can happen among the characters; protagonists and antagonists. Conflicts also can happen with the character itself. It is called by inner conflict, for example the laziness, jealous, sadness, etc. Most of the literary works shows conflicts between the main character and the society.

  According to Abrams in A Glossary of Literary Terms (1993: 159), There may be the conflicts of a protagonist against fate, or against the circumstances that stand between him and a goal he has set himself; and in some works, the chief conflicts is between opposing desires or values in the protagonist’s own temperament.

  Hugh Holman and William Harmon in A Handbook to Literature (1986: 107-108) states that conflict is the struggle that grows out of the interplay of the two opposing forces in a plot. Conflict usually happens with the protagonist.

  Conflict can be divided into four different kinds and one additional possibility of conflict: a struggle against nature, a struggle against another person, a struggle against society, a struggle for mastery by two elements with the person, and the struggle against fate or destiny. Conflict not only implies the struggle of protagonist against someone or something, but also implies the existence of some motivation for the conflict or some goal to be achieved thereby.

  Robert Stanton in An Introduction to Fiction (1964: 16) states that every literary work contains some conflicts that can be divided into two; internal conflicts between two desires within a character; and external conflicts between characters or between a character and his environment. These conflicts can be in turn subordinate to the central conflict which is always between fundamental and contrasting qualities or forces, like honesty and hypocrisy, innocence and experience, individuality and the pressure to conform.

  According to Milly Barranger in Understanding Play (1994: 339), dramatic conflict is most often resolved by the removal of obstacles. Dramatic action is the movement of opposing forces toward a resolution of conflict in the hero’s death (in tragedy), in triumph (in comedy), or in the villain’s defeat (in both).

  According to Roberts and Jacobs, a conflict takes a number of shapes. The initial conflict is resolved by a separation leading each of the characters to a new life that is satisfactory but not totally happy. It is the establishment of these contrasting or conflicting situations and responses that produces the interest the short-story contains (1987: 88).

  Barnet, Burto, and Cain state that conflict is a struggle between a character and some obstacle, for example another character or fate, or between internal forces (2005: 1375). Redman, in Second Book of Plays, also states that conflict is the struggle between two opposing forces, ideas or beliefs which is the basis of the plot. In most play, the conflict is resolved when one force – usually the protagonist gives up the struggle as too difficult or not worth while.

  There are two terms of conflicts (1964: 363):

  1. The term inner conflict refers to a struggle within the heart and mind of the protagonist.

  2. The term external conflict refers to a struggle between the protagonist and an outside force.

  Brooks, Purser, and Warren state that the basis of all fiction is conflict. The structure of any given piece of fiction is determined by the way in which the conflict is developed. In the background of the story there is the idea of a struggle between those who have economic power and those who do not (1936: 605).

  They also state about conflict in drama. The most obvious feature of a good drama is the clash of wills as the various characters come into conflict with each other’s purposes and desires. The conflict may be internal or external. The protagonist struggles against his environment, or against other men, or even against himself (1936: 605).

  According to Maciver and Charles H. Page in Society: An Introductory

  

Analysis, social conflicts includes all activity in which men contend against one

  another for any objective. There are two fundamental types of conflicts: direct and indirect conflict. Direct conflict happens when individuals or groups thwart or impede or restrain or injure or destroy one another in the effort to attain some goal. Indirect conflict occurs when individuals or groups do not actually impede the efforts of one another but nevertheless seek to attain their ends in ways which obstruct the attainment of the same ends by others (1950: 64).

  Conflicts relate to the characters. What characters act or say can make a conflict. Some critics can analyze the character by describing the way of each character to solve the problems or conflicts. It means that how the author figures out the characters when they have problems or when the conflicts happen.

3. Theory of Western Education

  Christopher Dawson states that enculturation is the process by which culture is handed on by the society and acquired by the individual. It has a conscious systematic process that is initiated into the life and traditions of the tribe by a regular system of training and instruction which finds its climax in the initiation rites (1961: 3-4).

  In England, the tradition relation of church and school and the medieval system of corporative independence still survive in spite of the attacks of educational and political reformers. But, the strength of the voluntary principle and the lack of centralized authoritarian state caused the reforming movement in England to follow an independent course and to create its own organization.

  He also states that some cultural education is necessary if Western culture is to survive, but we can no longer rely exclusively on the traditional discipline of classical humanism, though this is the source of all that was best in the tradition of Western liberalism and Western science (1961: 67,133).

  Carlton H. Bowyer states that people need more than a dictionary definition of what education means. Whether education is the act of educating, the discipline of mind or character through study or instruction, or science dealing with the principles and practices of teaching and learning, people need to be more definite in order to be sure that we communicate ideas.

  He also says that indoctrination is the oldest and least complex form of education. As the social structure began to evolve from the family group to the clan and from the clan to the tribe, the mechanics of living became more and more complex. Education for self-development can only flourish in a society where a concern for temporal matters dominates a concern for eternal matters and where there is a democratic system of education. The success of the teacher will be evident when the students are able to evaluate assumptions, evidence, form, and conclusion in a series of arguments. It means that the student will be sensitive to meaning, validity, and reliability of statements and arguments (1970: 20-22, 360).

  According to Robert Bell, Gerald Fowler and Ken Little in Education in

  

Great Britain and Ireland, the university students have a royal charter, which

  acknowledges their status and rights. They decide what students to admit, what staff to appoint, what to teach and in what conditions degrees will be awarded.

  The students do not have an automatic right of entry if they hold the basic qualifications (1973: 7).

  Susan Bassnett in Studying British Cultures adds that British studies has assumptions that become a belief in the power of formal education to overcome the fundamental problems of poverty, ignorance and disease, and to create a peace

• – loving and creative community of egalitarian altruist. She also says that,

  Conservative prime ministers welcomed the winds of change, and nations like South Africa which resisted were consigned if not to the dustbins of history at least to those of the United Nations. And central to the realization of these goals was the education system, designed to a Western European pattern, senior-staffed by Western-trained teachers or by imported Western expatriates, super-imposed on the vast traditional network of ordinary people’s cultural relations, with which it scarcely interacted at all (1997: 39-40).