Feminism portrayed in the main character, celie, in Alice Walker`s the color purple - USD Repository
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FEMINISM PORTRAYED IN THE MAIN CHARACTER, CELIE, IN ALICE WALKER’S THE COLOR PURPLE A THESIS
Presented as partial Fulfillment of the Requirements to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree in English Language Education
By Name: Nina Setyorini
Student Number: 031214078 ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION PROGRAM DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION SANATA DHARMAUNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA
2009
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DEDICATION PAGE
“
Bermimpilah karena Tuhan akan memeluk setiap mimpimu”
By: Andrea HirataThe author of “Edensor”
This Thesis is dedicated to:
My lovely parents, younger brother, younger
sister and best friends
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
First of all, I would like to express my gratitude to Allah SWT for His bless and grace which empowered me to finish this thesis. Everything is possible because of Allah SWT. I thank Him for accompanying me when I felt down and hopeless, so that I could still smile and be stronger than before.
I would like to thank Henny Herawati, S.Pd., M.Hum., my major sponsor, who guided me in writing this thesis patiently. I thank her for understanding my difficulties. I would also like to thank Christina Lhaksmita Anandari, S.Pd, M.Ed., my co-sponsor, who helped me in checking the language in my thesis. I thank her for giving me guidance and encouragement for finishing my thesis. Without their deep concerns, I am sure that this thesis would never be completed. I would also like to thank all lecturers of English Language Study Program of Sanata Dharma University for the time they taught and gave me knowledge. I wish God always bless them.
I give my deep appreciation to my lovely parents, Anton Hartono, S.E. and Sukorini, who always become the shelter and take care of me with their endless love. I thank them for the prayers and for everything. I also dedicate this thesis to my younger brother, Hendri Dwi Prasojo and my younger sister, Widya Pusporini, who always support me.
This thesis is also dedicated to Ari “dogy”, Eva, Mbamboed, Tia, Githa, Budi, Nova, Ferry, and Sary who support me in every single thing. I thank them
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all friends at the English Language Education Study Program ’03, especially Priska, Febri, Datu, Rere, Yuni “jawa”, Anas, Linda, Uti, Yusta and Wiwit. All of you are my friends that I cannot live without. I thank Uyek and Fahmi for the computer (without their presence, this thesis could not be accomplished!). I thank my friends at my boarding house who also help me and support me during my thesis writing, especially to Githa who always be there for me.
Last but not least, I thank those who have supported and encouraged me to finish this thesis. May god bless them all.
Nina Setyorini
TABLE OF CONTENTS
8 1. Theory of Critical Approach ............................................................
17 b. Radical Feminism .........................................................................
15 a. Liberal Feminism ..........................................................................
12 3. Theory of Feminism .........................................................................
10 b. Theory on Characterization ...........................................................
10 a. Theory on Character ......................................................................
9 2. Theory on Character and Characterization ......................................
7 B. Review of Related Theories .................................................................
Page TITLE PAGE ................................................................................................... i APPROVAL PAGES ....................................................................................... ii STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY ................................................ iv DEDICATION PAGE ...................................................................................... v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................. viii ABSTRACT ..................................................................................................... xii
5 CHAPTER II. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE A. Review of Related Studies ...................................................................
4 E. Definition of Terms ..............................................................................
4 D. Benefits of the Study ............................................................................
3 C. Objectives of the Study ........................................................................
1 B. Problem Formulation ...........................................................................
CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION A. Background of the Study ......................................................................
ABSTRAK ......................................................................................................... xiii
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C. Theoretical Framework ........................................................................
20 CHAPTER III. METHODOLOGY A. Subject of the Study .............................................................................
22 B. Approach of the Study .........................................................................
23 C. Method of the Study .............................................................................
24 CHAPTER IV. ANALYSIS
A. Celie’s Character Depicted in The Color Purple before Meeting Shug Avery ....................................................................................................
26 1. Uneducated .......................................................................................
27 2. Suppressed .......................................................................................
28 3. Obedient ...........................................................................................
29 4. Passive ..............................................................................................
31 5. Full of Love ......................................................................................
31 B. Feminism Portrayed in Celie’s Character in The Color Purple ............
32 1. The Type of Feminism Represented by Celie in The Color Purple ..
33 2. The Idea of Feminism in the Main Character, Celie .........................
36 a. Celie Asks for Equality .................................................................
36 b. Celie’s Freedom ............................................................................
37 c. Celie’s Independence ....................................................................
39 d. Celie’s Opportunity .......................................................................
40 e. Celie’s Strength .............................................................................
41 CHAPTER V. CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS A. Conclusions ...................................................................................
44 B. Suggestions ....................................................................................
46 1) Suggestion for the Future Researchers ....................................
46 2) Suggestion for Teaching Extensive Reading I
BIBLIOGRAPHY ..........................................................................................
52 APPENDICES ................................................................................................
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TABLE OF APPENDICES
Appendix 1 The Summary of The Color Purple .........................................56 Appendix 2 The Biography of Alice Walker ..............................................
60 Appendix 3 Alice Walker’s Complete Works ............................................
64 Appendix 4 Picture of Alice Walker ...........................................................
67 Appendix 5 Lesson Plan for Teaching Extensive Reading I .......................
68 Appendix 6 The Material for Teaching Extensive Reading I ......................
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ABSTRACT
Setyorini, Nina. 2009. Feminism Portrayed in the Main Character, Celie, in Alice
Walker’s The Color Purple. Yogyakarta: Department of Language and Arts
Education, Faculty of Teachers Training and Education, Sanata Dharma University.
This thesis analyzes Alice Walker’s novel entitled The Color Purple. The story is about a black woman’s life. Her name is Celie. It is interesting to discuss this novel since it portrays a struggle of a black woman as a main character. As a main character, Celie, experiences many problems in her life. Realizing the bitter life she faces, she demands the equal right as men to gain her happiness.
This study contains two problems formulation to be analyzed. The first is how is Celie’s character depicted in the novel and the second problem is how feminism is portrayed through the main character, Celie, in the novel.
In writing this thesis I conducted a library research to answer all the questions that are presented in the problem formulation. There are two kinds of sources that are used in this thesis. The primary source is obtained from the novel itself, The Color Purple. The secondary source is obtained from the books related to the theories and other sources are from the internet. The approach used to analyze the novel is feminist literary criticism. It is used to analyze the ideas of feminism, which are revealed in the main character, Celie, in Alice Walker’s The Color Purple. I also applied theories on character and characterization to reveal Celie’s characters in the novel.
Based on the analysis, the results of the study are as follows. First, I can conclude that Celie is described as a person who is uneducated, suppressed, obedient, passive and full of love in the novel. Second, the feminism is clearly portrayed through Celie’s character. Through her way of asking for equality, freedom, independent, opportunity and strength, she can prove that as a woman she can develop her ability in running a pants company. Celie dares to be the leader of a company of her own even though she is a woman. She is able to do what men do. She struggles to become a successful woman in her hard life.
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ABSTRAK
Setyorini, Nina. 2009 Feminism Portrayed in the Main Character, Celie, in Alice
Walker’s The Color Purple. Yogyakarta: Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa
Inggris, Jurusan Pendidikan Bahasa dan Seni, Fakultas Keguruan dan Ilmu Pendidikan, Universitas Sanata Dharma.
Skripsi ini menganalisa novel Alice Walker yang berjudul The Color Purple. Novel tersebut menceritakan kehidupan seorang wanita berkulit hitam. Wanita tersebut bernama Celie. Novel ini menarik untuk diulas karena menggambarkan perjuangan seorang wanita kulit hitam sebagai tokoh utamanya. Celie mengalami banyak masalah di dalam hidupnya. Menyadari kepahitan hidup yang dialaminya, Celie menginginkan persamaan hak yang setara dengan laki-laki untuk mendapatkan kebahagiaannya.
Studi ini berisi dua rumusan masalah untuk dianalisa. Yaitu: (1). Bagaimana karakter Celie digambarkan di dalam novel? (2). Bagaimana feminisme digambarkan melalui tokoh utama, Celie, didalam novel?
Di dalam penulisan skripsi ini saya menggunakan studi pustaka untuk menjawab pertanyaan yang ada pada rumusan masalah. Ada dua macam sumber yang digunakan pada skripsi ini. Sumber utama diperoleh dari novel itu sendiri, yang berjudul The Color Purple. Sumber kedua diperoleh dari buku-buku yang menunjang teori dan dari internet. Pendekatan yang digunakan untuk menganalisa novel ini adalah pendekatan feminisme. Pendekatan feminisme digunakan untuk menganalisa ide feminisme yang digambarkan oleh tokoh utama, Celie, di dalam novel The Color Purple. Saya juga menerapkan teori karakter untuk menunjukkan karakteristik Celie.
Hasil dari studi ini sebagai berikut. Pertama, dapat disimpulkan bahwa karakteristik Celie adalah orang yang kurang berpendidikan, tertekan, patuh, pasif dan penuh dengan rasa kasih. Kedua, feminisme dengan jelas tergambar melalui tokoh Celie. Melalui caranya untuk meminta persamaan, kebebasan, kemerdekaan, kesempatan dan melaui kekuatannya, Celie membuktikan bahwa sebagai seorang wanita dia dapat mengembangkan kemampuannya dalam menjalankan perusahaan celana miliknya. Celie berani menjadi seorang pemimpin perusahaannya meskipun dia seorang perempuan. Dia mampu melakukan hal yang dilakukan oleh pria. Dia berjuang untuk menjadi seorang wanita sukses dalam hidupnya yang keras.
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CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION There are five parts in this chapter. They are background of the study, problem formulation, objectives of the study, benefits, and definition of terms. The background of the study provides background information related to the
issues discussed. It includes a description of the topic and the reason for choosing the topic, as well as why the issue is worth studying. The problem formulation states two problems related with the issues being discussed. The third part, objective of the study states clearly and precisely the objective of the study. The fourth part, benefit of the study, identifies who obtains the benefit from the study. In the last part, that is definition of the terms, the writer clarifies some specific or important key terms used in this study.
A. Background of the Study
In literature, there are a lot of literary works, such as novels, essays, and plays. In this study, I choose to work on a novel because it is interesting in its ability to take the readers to a certain situation, place or periods that occur in the novel. The novel is a reflection of problems in life. Through its series of events and conflicts experienced by the characters, the readers seem to enter the character's life in the novel. The readers make a kind of effort to feel, to understand and to solve the conflicts that they gain from the novel. At the end of
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The Color Purple is one of Alice Walker's novels which talks about social issues and feminism, two issues which I am interested in. Alice Walker is a talented author. Her novels are meaningful and enjoyable. Her novel is meaningful because, at the end of the novel, the reader can obtain important values of life that reflect the author’s ideas about life. It can give spirit and enrich the reader’s understanding about the power of a woman’s struggle for equality and happiness in her life. In writing her novel, Alice Walker uses slang and African American’s language. Therefore, her novel is unique, enjoyable, and interesting to read.
Alice Walker's The Color Purple reveals the role of gender of a woman reflected in the main character, Celie. I intend to explore and write about feminism because it is an interesting issue and it can give spirit for the readers especially for women who struggle and survive in life. Feminism, in which women are struggling to achieve an equal right, is still a controversial topic of discussion today. As a woman, the main character, Celie, has to face many problems in her life. She has to struggle in her life about her gender as a woman in her black community. Her ways to survive give spirit and conviction to the readers. This is an interesting issue which is concerned with women especially in a black community because they have to fight to defend their dignity as women in
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The main character, Celie, has to be an obedient daughter, a mother and a married woman in her life. The old belief among the black people which states that women's best place is in the house gives them difficulties in finding choices in their life. Women need to be strong and independent rather than weak and dependent, because women have more than one role in life. They can be a mother, a daughter, a housewife, and a wife who should take care of their husbands, children and parents well. Celie’s patience in life makes her survive and bring her to happiness. Realizing the bitter life she faces, she actually demands the equal right. She wants to convince others that she can do everything alone in order to prove that a man is not more important than her. The language, story and messages contained in this novel make me eager and want to reveal feminism portrayed by Celie in Alice walker’s The Color Purple. I am interested in studying Celie’s process in solving her problem in life. Celie’s process can give significant lessons about feminism to the society through Celie’s character in Alice Walker’s The Color Purple.
B. Problem Formulation
There are two problems formulated in this study. They are:
1. How is Celie’s character depicted in the novel?
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C. Objectives of the Study
The aims of this paper are to describe the characters of the main character, Celie, and to reveal feminism portrayed through the main character, Celie. In order to achieve the objective, there are two points that need to be considered.
Firstly, this study aims to describe the condition of the main character, Celie, as presented in Alice Walker's The Color Purple. Secondly, I intend to reveal feminism portrayed in the main character, Celie.
D. Benefits of the Study
Women's struggle to gain equal and fair treatments in the society is the issue of human being, the issue of men and women. This study also gives benefits for me as a researcher to understand and provide more knowledge about feminism. This study may also give benefits to future researchers who conduct studies on feminism or on The Color Purple, by providing preliminary study on feminism. This study may make readers realize that one’s right is not based on the gender or belief and make them more aware that all people are born to be free and equal.
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E. Definition of Terms The definition of terms is presented in order to avoid misunderstanding.
There are two definitions that are defined. Those are feminism and character.
1. Feminism
Humm in The Dictionary of Feminist Theory states that feminism incorporates both doctrines of equal rights of women (the organized movement to attain women's right) and an ideology of social transformation which aims to create a world for women beyond simple social equality (Humm 74). It means that there is social transformation for women to gain social equality. She also states that certain terms in contemporary theory, such as work, family, patriarchy, and sexuality, are used to sum up the basis experiences of women. According to Terrey in Women's Studies Encyclopedia (Vol. 1), feminism can be described as a belief and a commitment to equal rights and opportunities (Terrey 139). Davies in Gender Theories in Education states that feminism is women’s assertion of their equality with men and their demand for access to those roles and positions of public life traditionally regarded as the province of men (Davies 62). In this study, I present feminism as a way to gain equal rights as a woman to obtain her freedom in thinking, acting and living.
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2. Character
According to Abrams in A Glossary of Literary Terms, characters are the person represented in a dramatic or narrative work, who are interpreted by the readers as being endowed with particular moral, dispositional, and emotional qualities by inferences from what the person say and their distinctive ways of saying it the dialogue and from what they do the action (Abram 32). The grounds in the characters’ temperament, desires and moral nature for their speech and actions are called their motivation (Abrams 33). In this study, character refers to the figure in the novel. I choose the character of Celie in Alice Walker’s The Color Purple because I intend to reveal the feminism exemplified by Celie’s character.
3. The Color Purple
The Color Purple in Alice Walker’s novel explains that purple is a kind of color which represents sadness, gloomy and violence. The main character, Celie experiences bad treatments from her stepfather and husband. Violence becomes a topic from Alice Walker’s The Color Purple. Celie is raped by her stepfather, Alphonso. Celie never feels happy with her marriage with her husband. Her childhood is not enjoyable. Celie has to do all the housework. Alice Walker wants to emphasize about the color in this novel. The Color Purple shows that the issues of color people are explored in this novel. This novel spots the life of black people community.
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CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE Review of Related Literature covers three main parts. They are review of
related studies, review of related theories and theoretical framework. In review of related studies, I review other related studies previously done by other researchers or writers on the same topic or author. In this undergraduate thesis, I review some studies which discuss study from the same author.
In this part, I review two main theories related with the topic about feminism portrayed in the main character, Celie, in Alice Walker's The Color Purple. They are theory of character and characterization and some theories of feminism, such as liberal, radical, marxist and socialist feminism. In theoretical framework, I explain the contribution of the theories and reviews in analyzing the problems of the study.
A. Review of Related Studies
In this study, I present some researchers who discussed and subjected to the same work on the Alice Walker’s The Color Purple and other discussions related to the whole study.
In Sugiharto's undergraduate thesis, which talks about the influence of the society and surrounding on Celie's view toward life, Sugiharto showed how this society had made or had formatted the way of thinking of the main character to
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decision to lead her life on. Gender criticism also becomes the main topic in Widiastuti's undergraduate thesis. The thesis talks about how people, especially black women at that time, became the lower class of the social class system in the United States. Black women did not just experience the discrimination but also sexual abuse. Black women have to experience two discriminations under the white people and under the black male. The thesis concerns how Celie struggled with all the discrimination she experienced during the time.
Widiatmoko's undergraduate thesis talks about the concept of nirvana revealed in the main character, Celie, in the Alice Walker's The Color Purple. He wants to show Celie's life and the revelation in the concept of nirvana. Celie accepts all the offerings that she had. Celie’s efforts in seeking what was the cause of her suffering are concept that Buddha has taught in some other continents that has different culture with America in that year.
In this thesis, I am going to reveal that Celie, the main character of the novel, has shown evidences of feminist action. This study has never been conducted before by other writers. This study talks about Celie's struggle in life to survive and to have equal rights as a human being.
B. Review of Related Theories
This study uses some theories to support the study. Theories which are used are theory of literature and theory of feminism. Theory of literature is
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character and characterization. While for the theory of feminism includes radical, liberal, marxist and socialist feminism.
1. Theory of Critical Approach
In this study I use feminist literary criticism to support the theory of critical approaches. Feminist literary critics or feminist approaches attempt to explain how men and women imbalance, due to gender, are reflected in literature texts. In its diversity, feminism is concerned with the position of women in a secondary position, where women do not gain equal position with men. According to Goodman in Literature and Gender, feminist literary criticism is an academic approach to the study of literature which applies feminist thought to the analysis of literary texts and the contexts of their production and reception. It has developed in recent years into a fascinating and highly specialized field with a language, set of theories and a vocabulary all its own ( Goodman xi).
Feminist critics examine how languages as a focus for studying women writers can reveal the idea of feminism in a literary text to be analyzed into the writing and allow the readers to illustrate the importance of feminist concerns in the contemporary work such as in the novel The Color Purple. Feminists examine the experiences of women from all races, classes and culture. Despite their diversity, feminist literary criticism convinced that the goal from feminism study are to expose patriarchal premises which result in prejudices, to promote
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This study uses feminist approach or feminist literary criticism to reveal the idea of feminism exemplified in the main character, Celie, in The Color Purple. The novel tells about the struggle of a young African American woman who lived under the pressure of her father, husband and her black society. Her desire to struggle for a brighter future shows that she can achieve equal rights with men to feel happy, and create the world that she wants. The feminist approach or feminist literary criticism then is used to analyze this novel.
2. Theory of Character and Characterization
a. Theory of Character
Character and characterization have a very important position and function in literary works. Baldick defines characters as the person in dramatic or narrative work. They also refer to a kind of prose sketch briefly describing some recognizable type of person (Baldick 33).
Abrams in his A Glossary of literary Terms defined characters as the persons presented in a dramatic or narrative work, who are interpreted by the reader as being endowed with moral and dispositional qualities that are expressed in what they say, the dialogue and what they do the action (Abrams 20).
Basically, based on the importance, the character can be divided into two categories. They are main or major character and minor character. A major character usually appears in the story. He/ she becomes the focus of the story. The events that appear in the story always involve him/ her directly or indirectly. On
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are less important than the main character because they are not fully developed characters and their roles in a story are just to support the development of the major character (Abrams 20). Henkle agrees with Abrams’ definition, that major characters are the most important and complex character in a novel. “It is the major character who deserve our fullest attention because they perform a key structure function, upon them we built expectation and desires, which in modification, shift or establish our values” (Henkle 87).
The minor characters are the characters who act as a foil to the major character. They interact or clash with the major character in order to bring out into the open crucial elements (Henkle 94). Here the characters appear briefly as hints, since they are the minor figures who are there in the story to show us what is going on (Koesnosoebroto 68). According to Baldick in The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms, foil is a character whose qualities or actions serve to emphasize those of the protagonist (or some character) by providing a strong contrast with them. Another source says that in literature, foil is characters that is presented as a contrast to a second character so as to point or shows to advantage some aspect of the second character (Webster 423).
Therefore it can be said that one of the most important aspects of the major novel is the interaction of characters. Contrasts between characters are important, and such contrast makes both figures more real, but the characters also act on one another and develop as a result of these interactions, which is often most of what a mainstream novel is about (Boulton 81). According to Forster in The Aspect of
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complexity, namely flat character and round character. Sometimes, flat characters can be called types or “two dimensional”. They are captured by the author’s view on one side. The author usually does not develop them as fully as the major character. They are static and not grow or change in the story. The advantages of flat character are easily recognized and remembered by the readers afterward. Round character often appears as the center of the story and looks like real human beings. With his or her complex aspects in temperament and motivation, sometimes he or she surprises the readers with unexpected behavior. The author develops round characters fully, and the characters grow and change during the story (Foster 46-54).
b. Theories of Characterization
Characterization refers to the presentation of persons in narrative or dramatic work by means of character’s action, speech, or physical appearances (Baldick 30). A character can be differentiated from others because they have their own personality and physical attributes.
The way to study the characters is through understanding the characterization which provides the creation of major character and the minor ones, so that the result is a clear explanation. Characterization is one of the literary elements representing persons. Holman and Harmon define characterization as the creation of imaginary persons. They are created imaginatively, but they have to be seen real, so that they exist for the readers as lifelike (Holman 81). The author can
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description of a certain character and the readers can figure out characteristics or personality traits of certain characters.
According to Allport, as quoted by Larver and Scheier in Perspective on Personality, the characteristics of a character are related with his or her behavior, thoughts, and feelings (Allport 5). They will influence the way of thinking, feeling and behavior from a person. Therefore, to understand deeper about character, it is important to know well about his or her characteristics.
According to Holman and Harmon, characterization is the description of the characteristics. The characterization is the act, the process or the result, of characterizing. In fiction (the drama, the novel, the short story, and the narrative poem), the author reveals the characters of imagery persons and the creation of these imagery persons so that they exist for the reader as lifelike is called characterization (Holman 81).
The author describes the character through the characterizations so that the reader can imagine what kind of person the character is. Barnet says that characterization is defined, as in fiction, by what the characters do, by what they say, by what others say about them, and by setting in which they move ( Barnet 746).
According to Perrine in Literature: Structure, Sound and Sense, characterization must observe three principles. First, the characters must be consistent in their behavior. They must not behave one way on one occasion and a different way on another unless there is a clearly sufficient reason for the change.
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when there is any change in their behavior. We must be able to understand the reasons for what they do, if not immediately, at least by the end of the story.
Third, the characters must be plausible of life like (Perrine 69).
Murphy in Understanding Unseen also conveyed some details of characterizing the character. The character’s personality can be seen through personal description that is from the description of his physical appearances and attributes, which may refer to the clothing or the way he dresses. The author can also give direct knowledge of what a character is thinking about. Besides describing the character directly, the author can describe the character through the eyes and opinions of the characters. It can be through the conversations and the things they say about him. The characters’ past life can also help us to figure out his motives of his present action, and the author can gives us a clue of his character by letting us know how he reacts to various situations and events (Murphy 161-173). Those are some ways which the author makes his reader aware of the characteristics of the characters that he writes about in his book However, I only choose six ways to understand the character of Celie so the writer can get a clue to find the characterization of Celie. They are:
1. Character as seen by another: the author describes the character through the eyes and opinion of another.
2. Speech: the author can give the readers an insight into the character of one of the persons in book through what the person says
3. Past of life: by letting the reader can learn something about a person’s past life the author can give a clue to events that have helped to shape a person’s
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readers know how that person reacts to various situations and events.
5. Direct comment: the author can describe or comment on a person’s character directly.
6. Thoughts: the author gives the readers direct knowledge of what a person is thinking about.
3. Theory of Feminism
Women, from time to time, carry great duties and burdens serving the men (Harley 45). Women have to take care of their children and have to serve their husband as their responsibilities. Montagu says that “in almost every society there is a belief that men are superior and women are inferior, women also think that belief is right, because it believes as what really happens” (Montagu 23).
The men from one generation to the next generation exploit women. Gender discrimination is a great burden for women, because they have to face the idea of gender discrimination and have to fight against the men in order to change the idea of gender discrimination and men’s attitude toward women, which is conditioned from time to time. Women are not only physically oppressed but also mentally oppressed (Harley 57).
Montagu states that in society there was conditioned norm, which states what women can do and cannot do. Women lack of opportunities to develop their skills. They are not given the chances to develop their intelligence and skills and they have different equality of opportunities to men (Montagu 38).
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feel that they are weak and inferior. The feeling of weakness makes them much weaker than what they think.
Feminism appears from the women's suffering from injustice, because of their sex and their consciousness of female oppression. Consciousness arises since feminism means knowledge of existing things in a new light. Many feminists described the different historical, psychological, sexual and racial experiences of women and how feminism can be a source of power and knowledge.
Women are conditioned as weak creatures. People believe this condition from time to time. People believe that women are unable to do hard work better than men. They have double positions in families as mothers and wives. The unfair division of work to women continues from generation to the next until they realize their mistakes in receiving the unfair treatment from men. The realization of the equality of rights and opportunities then becomes a belief called feminism.
The theory of feminism does not only support the feminist ideas but also the theory of superior feeling. Actually, women are not inferior, as men and people say. Women are more realistic, effectively control their feelings and they can use power for good purposes. Women have good abilities in expressing their feelings. This makes them more realist than men. They are better in handling the bad conditions they face in life, like starvation, exposure, fatigue, shock and illness (Montagu 143). From Montagu’s statement, we can conclude that women are more realistic. They can control their feelings effectively and use their power
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The basic goal of feminism theory is to understand women's oppression in terms of race, gender, class and sexual preference and also how to change it. It is true that physically women are different from men. Some people believe they are also psychologically different. It can be seen that men are more rational and aggressive than women. Therefore, women are more capable to have domestic job. A job describes women's character such as secretary, nurse and administrator.
Meanwhile men are more capable to do a job, which is describing male characteristic. In addition, there are many different perspectives between the feminists. As the result, there are four types of feminism presents. They are liberal feminism, radical feminism, marxist feminism and socialist feminism.
a. Liberal Feminism
The liberal emphasis on the individual stresses the importance of the individual autonomy which is protected by guaranteed rights, economic justice and equality of opportunity. Liberal feminists are using the basic liberalism philosophy that every human being is created with the same rights and every woman must have the same opportunity in developing their future. Basically there are no differences between men and women. Therefore, liberal feminism is trying to put the women and men equal, corporate, independent and free to decide their own future. According to Ilyas, “changing the individual attitudes especially the women's attitude toward men destroys the patriarchy and they must realize on it
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community where there is a corporation between men and women based on the equality. These kinds of feminism considering inequality are the reaction of the oppressive structures, which result in sexism and patriarchy.
The fact that women are left behind are the cause of the foolish and irrational thought because of the traditionalism. Therefore, modernization and industrialization are the best ways to increase women's status.
b. Radical Feminism
This type of feminism is growing faster in the United States since 1960s- 1970s. They consider that the main aspect of the sexual working class is the patriarchy where women’s positions are always under the men’s in every aspect of life. Ilyas says that
The source of women's is on the biologic structure. Along of the history of women where there is no contraception yet, it is found that women are the victims of the biologic function, such as menstruation, menopause, giving birth and taking care their children, etc. (Ilyas 50).
Such conditions have made women always dependent on men. This reproduction difference creates the sexual working class. This kind of feminism is inclined as a male hates and asks women to be independent without the presence of men in their life.
In radical feminist terms, gender oppression is the most fundamental form of oppression. Radical lesbian feminists assert that being a lesbian means to release from male domination. They only worked in the sexual reality and less for other.
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c. Marxist Feminism
This kind of feminism is the reaction of the liberal feminism. They think that women’s decline is not the cause of the direct individual action but it is from the economic, social and political structure in relation with capitalism.
A family is a production group where whole family including women does all humans' needs in survival. But after the development of industrial capitalism, a family is no longer being the production group (llyas 48).
Nowadays, women are no longer the part of production and the sexual working classes appear. Men can get the public job, which is more productive and economical while women can only have the domestic job, which is unproductive and uneconomical. The Marxist feminism refused the basic gender differentiation, where a husband is described as the bourgeois class and women are the oppressed class.
d. Socialist Feminism
The socialist feminist argues that living in the capitalist community is not the main reason of women's under development. Socialist feminists criticize that there is a connection between women's participation in production and women's status. It is true that women's participation is important in economics but it does not mean to increase the women's status. Ilyas stated that there is a correlation between the women’s participation level and women's status but it makes the
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This feminism movement is focused on the women's consciousness about these disadvantages positions. The socialist feminism's purpose is to structure the society in order to get the equality in gender. On the other hand, socialist feminism highlights the relationship between paid work and domestic labor in which it reveals the impact of the sexual division of labor, by pointing out that women in the home do more work.
C. Theoretical Framework
The focus of the study is on the analysis of feminism portrayed in the main character, Celie, in Alice Walker's The Color Purple. Theories related to the study must be used to accomplish the analysis. Some theories of intrinsic elements are used to support the analysis of the main character. The theories of character by Abrams, which provide definitions of the term character, extend descriptions on the understanding of what character in fiction is. Abrams also differentiated the character into major and minor based on their importance.
Foster’s theory is helpful to determine the complexity of the nature of the character, which refers to flat and round character. By using Foster's theory, I can recognize what kind of character Celie is. By the application of the theory, it can
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To analyze the main character, the writer needs knowledge on how to reveal the character. Therefore, some theories of characterization are needed in the analysis to characterize the main character, which lead the analysis to the traits of his circumstances towards the main character. The theory of characterization proposed by Baldick, Holman and Harmon, and Barnet give various descriptions or explanation about what characterization is. The method of characterization is given by Perrine through his direct and indirect methods. Perrine also gives three principles in characterization in making the process of characterization more understandable.
I also use the theory of characterization by Murphy to gain the methods of characterization. Murphy proposes several ways in which he gives details of how the character of fiction is portrayed and how the author reveals the story.
To show what type of feminism portrayed in the main character, Celie, I use the theory feminism to analyze the two questions I proposed. The theories on feminism in liberal feminism, radical feminism, marxist feminism and socialist feminism are used as an addition to support the analysis, that is to show what kind of feminism is revealed in the story which is represented by Celie.
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CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY This chapter discusses the methodology in conducting this study. This
chapter consists of three parts. The first part discusses about the subject matter that contains a brief description of the novel. The second part presents the critical approaches used in this study. The third part tells about the research procedure, which discusses the steps done by the writer in conducting the study to answer two questions stated in the problem formulation.
A. Subject of the Study
This study deals with the novel which is written by an Afro-American woman, Alice Walker. The title is The Color Purple. Alice Walker won the Pulitzer Price for this novel. This novel consists of 244 pages. It was published in 1982 by Harcourt Brace Javanovich, New York. This novel consists of 91 letters.
These letters were written by the main character, Celie, and also her sister Nettie. In this novel Celie writes 70 letters which are written to God and also addressed to her sister, Nettie. Whereas Nettie, her sister, writes 21 letters all of them addressed to her older sister, Celie. From the letter which Celie wrote to God, she tells about her feeling and also her daily activity, while the letters to Native consists of her interactions with her circumstances includes Sophia, Shug Avery, Mr.___, Harpo,etc and Celie’s opinion about them. Nettie writes letters about her
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find Celie's children which are sold by Celie's father. Some of these letters are never sent and they are like diaries.