The Effects Of Trauma Found In Toni Morrison’s Song Of Solomon
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
1.1
Background of the Study
Literature is a kind of art arising out of the human ability to create languages. Literature
is one of human creation, as a written text based on the fact. This is implied that literature
comes from reality. Literature is a medium of cultural society which has the destiny of human
life such as their problem, conflict, and struggle of life. It represents the story of reality in
human thoughts, feeling, behavior, attitudes originality through the imagination and concrete
situation. According to Griffith (1982:1) “Literature gives pleasure, it has a certain magic that
transports us from the real world to seemingly more remote and enjoyable place.” People who
read literature will get enjoyment because it gives information, knowledge, and experience
about human daily life. In line with the statement above literature becomes a historical
mentality of peculiar perspective. It also spreads out the philosophy, idea, memory, notion
and point of view in cultural construction of reality. Thus literature is both presented and
reported story as the skeleton of evidence from the author’s mind to the reader.
Literary works are written or created by writers not only to be read but there are also
ideas, experiences, and message that writer wants to deliver for the readersso that the reader
can take conclusions and interpret it as something that can be useful for the development of
life. This thing proves that literary works can develop culture. In another words, literature is
always related to social culture. It happens because the writer also undergoes the influence of
the environment and his time in creating his works.
There are some ways to express ideas especially in a literary work. There is a literary
work that brings us to the world of dreams and takes us away from reality. It has to be
contrasted with a literary work that needs our interpretation. Literature is a personal
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expression of feeling including experience, idea, motivation, confidence in the concrete
description by using language.
Novel, the most widely read of the form of literature, might be defined as a prose fiction
of book length which characters and actions are presented in a plot as if representing persons
and events in real life. A novel expresses some aspect of human’s love and existence. Since
novel talks about human activities and describes what happened in surrounding,it is written in
long composition.
Sometimes from author’s experience, they got mixed feelings such as happiness,
sadness even negative feeling like trauma. I chose to study about trauma for my thesis
because it is interesting to see how literature and life can be related to each other.
Morrison’s Song of Solomon is a novel about traumatized people, victims of slavery,
and the brutal history of the past, in which Morrison moves her readers throughout the nonlinear memories of these traumatized characters. Since no narrative of trauma can be told in a
linear way, Morrison tries to depict the overwhelming power of trauma through a non-linear
narrative, episodic delivery and flashbacks. She has used modernist along with oral
techniques to invoke the reader’s power of imagination, which implicitly depicts history not
as a series of significant public events, but as rememory. Consequently, readers are compelled
to confront and concoct the disjointed and fragmented pieces of memories, shifting narrative
voices, and repetition, in which past, present, and future are intermingled.
Historical and psychological approaches are suitable approaches to analyze this paper.
Historical approach is one of the method to analyze literary work in which the author and the
reader comprehend the message of the literary work by remembering the moment or historic
moment a long with the literary work written.The psychological approach leads most directly
to a substantial amplification of the meaning of a literary work. When we discuss psychology
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and its place in a literary work, we are primarily studying the author’s imagination. As all
literary works are based on some kind of experience and as all authors are human, we are
necessarily caught up in the wide spectrum of emotional problems caused by experience.
In this novel, Morrison has illustrated the belated experience of trauma not only through
main characters but also through her narrative, specifically in the beginning of each chapter.
In the initial part of each chapter, the readers might find themselves one step behind the
narrator, which resembles Freud’s definition of the incubation period in a traumatic
experience. Morrison’s narrative clearly depicts the belated experience of trauma by putting
readers in an untimelessness as if the readers get lost in the character’s traumatic memories,
and even the story’s traumatic past. Morrison has implicitly conveyed the sense of belatedness
in Song of Solomon. These are those gaps and black holes which are rooted in some traumatic
and murky experiences in the past, into which Morrison submerges her readers in order to
convey the sense of the traumatic experiences.
Reading Song of Solomon is more than an intellectual experience. It appears to be a
physical process in which the reader must take a participatory role to fill the traumatic gaps
and to connect several seemingly unrelated details in order to solve the riddle of the text.
Finally, all of the explanations mentioned above become the reason to have this analysis
entitled The Effects of Trauma Found in Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon.
1.2
Problems of the Study
In doing research, it is very important to decide the problem so the readers can focus
their mind. The problems of this study are:
1.3
1.
How are traumas portrayedin Song of Solomon?
2.
What are the effects of trauma experienced by the characters in Song of Solomon?
Objectives of the Study
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In line with the problems that the writer mentioned before, is meant to answer the
questions. In other words, what the writer expects from her analysis are:
1.4
1.
To find out traumas portrayed in Song of Solomon
2.
To find out the effects of trauma experienced by the characters in Song of Solomon
Scope of the Study
To avoid the vagueness of analysis of this novel, the writer makes limitation in her
analysis into a narrow scope so that the analysis can be clearly interpreted and understood.
This thesis focuses on trauma and its effects such as fright, anxiety, shame, and physical pain.
Therefore the writer limitsher analysis only to find out The Effects of Trauma in Toni
Morrison’s Song of Solomon.
1.5
Significance of the Study
This thesis can enrich reader’s knowledge about literature studies, especially about what
inside the novel. In this novel, we can see some effects of trauma as mentioned before which
are fright, anxiety, shame and physical pain. Also this thesis can be an example how to deal
with the traumas that happened in our life. And especially for the English Department
students, they can learn to analyze about the traumas.
1.6
Review of Related Literature
In doing the analysis, the writer uses some books as sources which can help her to find
out data and information. Some of the books are:
1.
Studies in Fiction by Blaze O. Bonazza, Emil Roy, and Sandra Roy (1982). It says
that the theme of a story is the generalization about human life that can be drawn
Universitas Sumatera Utara
from the outcome of the conflict and from the support provided by tone, attitude,
atmosphere, setting, and symbolism or allegory.
2.
Theory of Literature by Rene Wellek and Austin Warren (1982). This book
provides some explanations about extrinsic approach in general
3.
Studies on Hysteria by Sigmund Freud and Joseph Breuer (1974). This book
provides some explanations about the coreelation between psychoanalysis and
trauma
4.
Moses and Monotheism by Sigmund Freud (1939). This book provides some
explanations about trauma and its structure.
5.
Trauma : Exploration in Memory by Cathy Caruth(1995). It says that the
phenomenon of trauma has seemed to become all-inclusive, but it has done so
precisely because it brings us to the limits of our understanding: if psychoanalysis,
psychiatry, sociology, and even literature arebeginning to hear each other anew in
the study of trauma, it is because they are listening through the radical disruption
and gaps of traumatic experience.
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INTRODUCTION
1.1
Background of the Study
Literature is a kind of art arising out of the human ability to create languages. Literature
is one of human creation, as a written text based on the fact. This is implied that literature
comes from reality. Literature is a medium of cultural society which has the destiny of human
life such as their problem, conflict, and struggle of life. It represents the story of reality in
human thoughts, feeling, behavior, attitudes originality through the imagination and concrete
situation. According to Griffith (1982:1) “Literature gives pleasure, it has a certain magic that
transports us from the real world to seemingly more remote and enjoyable place.” People who
read literature will get enjoyment because it gives information, knowledge, and experience
about human daily life. In line with the statement above literature becomes a historical
mentality of peculiar perspective. It also spreads out the philosophy, idea, memory, notion
and point of view in cultural construction of reality. Thus literature is both presented and
reported story as the skeleton of evidence from the author’s mind to the reader.
Literary works are written or created by writers not only to be read but there are also
ideas, experiences, and message that writer wants to deliver for the readersso that the reader
can take conclusions and interpret it as something that can be useful for the development of
life. This thing proves that literary works can develop culture. In another words, literature is
always related to social culture. It happens because the writer also undergoes the influence of
the environment and his time in creating his works.
There are some ways to express ideas especially in a literary work. There is a literary
work that brings us to the world of dreams and takes us away from reality. It has to be
contrasted with a literary work that needs our interpretation. Literature is a personal
Universitas Sumatera Utara
expression of feeling including experience, idea, motivation, confidence in the concrete
description by using language.
Novel, the most widely read of the form of literature, might be defined as a prose fiction
of book length which characters and actions are presented in a plot as if representing persons
and events in real life. A novel expresses some aspect of human’s love and existence. Since
novel talks about human activities and describes what happened in surrounding,it is written in
long composition.
Sometimes from author’s experience, they got mixed feelings such as happiness,
sadness even negative feeling like trauma. I chose to study about trauma for my thesis
because it is interesting to see how literature and life can be related to each other.
Morrison’s Song of Solomon is a novel about traumatized people, victims of slavery,
and the brutal history of the past, in which Morrison moves her readers throughout the nonlinear memories of these traumatized characters. Since no narrative of trauma can be told in a
linear way, Morrison tries to depict the overwhelming power of trauma through a non-linear
narrative, episodic delivery and flashbacks. She has used modernist along with oral
techniques to invoke the reader’s power of imagination, which implicitly depicts history not
as a series of significant public events, but as rememory. Consequently, readers are compelled
to confront and concoct the disjointed and fragmented pieces of memories, shifting narrative
voices, and repetition, in which past, present, and future are intermingled.
Historical and psychological approaches are suitable approaches to analyze this paper.
Historical approach is one of the method to analyze literary work in which the author and the
reader comprehend the message of the literary work by remembering the moment or historic
moment a long with the literary work written.The psychological approach leads most directly
to a substantial amplification of the meaning of a literary work. When we discuss psychology
Universitas Sumatera Utara
and its place in a literary work, we are primarily studying the author’s imagination. As all
literary works are based on some kind of experience and as all authors are human, we are
necessarily caught up in the wide spectrum of emotional problems caused by experience.
In this novel, Morrison has illustrated the belated experience of trauma not only through
main characters but also through her narrative, specifically in the beginning of each chapter.
In the initial part of each chapter, the readers might find themselves one step behind the
narrator, which resembles Freud’s definition of the incubation period in a traumatic
experience. Morrison’s narrative clearly depicts the belated experience of trauma by putting
readers in an untimelessness as if the readers get lost in the character’s traumatic memories,
and even the story’s traumatic past. Morrison has implicitly conveyed the sense of belatedness
in Song of Solomon. These are those gaps and black holes which are rooted in some traumatic
and murky experiences in the past, into which Morrison submerges her readers in order to
convey the sense of the traumatic experiences.
Reading Song of Solomon is more than an intellectual experience. It appears to be a
physical process in which the reader must take a participatory role to fill the traumatic gaps
and to connect several seemingly unrelated details in order to solve the riddle of the text.
Finally, all of the explanations mentioned above become the reason to have this analysis
entitled The Effects of Trauma Found in Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon.
1.2
Problems of the Study
In doing research, it is very important to decide the problem so the readers can focus
their mind. The problems of this study are:
1.3
1.
How are traumas portrayedin Song of Solomon?
2.
What are the effects of trauma experienced by the characters in Song of Solomon?
Objectives of the Study
Universitas Sumatera Utara
In line with the problems that the writer mentioned before, is meant to answer the
questions. In other words, what the writer expects from her analysis are:
1.4
1.
To find out traumas portrayed in Song of Solomon
2.
To find out the effects of trauma experienced by the characters in Song of Solomon
Scope of the Study
To avoid the vagueness of analysis of this novel, the writer makes limitation in her
analysis into a narrow scope so that the analysis can be clearly interpreted and understood.
This thesis focuses on trauma and its effects such as fright, anxiety, shame, and physical pain.
Therefore the writer limitsher analysis only to find out The Effects of Trauma in Toni
Morrison’s Song of Solomon.
1.5
Significance of the Study
This thesis can enrich reader’s knowledge about literature studies, especially about what
inside the novel. In this novel, we can see some effects of trauma as mentioned before which
are fright, anxiety, shame and physical pain. Also this thesis can be an example how to deal
with the traumas that happened in our life. And especially for the English Department
students, they can learn to analyze about the traumas.
1.6
Review of Related Literature
In doing the analysis, the writer uses some books as sources which can help her to find
out data and information. Some of the books are:
1.
Studies in Fiction by Blaze O. Bonazza, Emil Roy, and Sandra Roy (1982). It says
that the theme of a story is the generalization about human life that can be drawn
Universitas Sumatera Utara
from the outcome of the conflict and from the support provided by tone, attitude,
atmosphere, setting, and symbolism or allegory.
2.
Theory of Literature by Rene Wellek and Austin Warren (1982). This book
provides some explanations about extrinsic approach in general
3.
Studies on Hysteria by Sigmund Freud and Joseph Breuer (1974). This book
provides some explanations about the coreelation between psychoanalysis and
trauma
4.
Moses and Monotheism by Sigmund Freud (1939). This book provides some
explanations about trauma and its structure.
5.
Trauma : Exploration in Memory by Cathy Caruth(1995). It says that the
phenomenon of trauma has seemed to become all-inclusive, but it has done so
precisely because it brings us to the limits of our understanding: if psychoanalysis,
psychiatry, sociology, and even literature arebeginning to hear each other anew in
the study of trauma, it is because they are listening through the radical disruption
and gaps of traumatic experience.
Universitas Sumatera Utara