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THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF LOVE TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE

MAIN CHARACTER AS SEEN IN NICHOLAS SPARKS’ DEAR JOHN

AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS

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

  By

  

I NYOMAN TRI SUPUTRA

  Student Number: 084214022

  

ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS

FACULTY OF LETTERS

  A Sarjana Sastra Undergraduate Thesis

  

THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF LOVE TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF

THE MAIN CHARACTER AS SEEN IN NICHOLAS SPARKS’

DEAR JOHN

  By

  

I NYOMAN TRI SUPUTRA

  Student Number 084214022 Approved by

  Drs. Hirmawan Wijanarka, M.Hum. August 10, 2012 Advisor Adventina Putranti S.S., M.Hum. August 10, 2012 Co-Advisor

  A Sarjana Sastra Undergraduate Thesis

  

THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF LOVE TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF

THE MAIN CHARACTER AS SEEN IN NICHOLAS SPARKS’ DEAR JOHN

  By

  

I NYOMAN TRI SUPUTRA

  Student Number 084214022 Defended before the Board of Examines on August 30,2012 and Declared Acceptable

  

BOARD OF EXAMINERS

NAME SIGNATURE

  Chairman : Dr. F.X. Siswadi M.A. _______________ Secretary : Dra. Sri Mulyani M.A. _______________ Member 1. : Ni Luh Putu Rosiandani S.S., M.Hum. _______________ Member 2. : Drs. Hirmawan Wijanarka, M.Hum. _______________ Member 3. : Adventina Putranti S.S., M.Hum. _______________ Yogyakarta, August 31, 2012.

  Faculty of Letters Sanata Dharma University Dean

  

LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH

UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS

  Yang bertandatangan di bawah ini, saya mahasiswa Universitas Sanata Dharma: Nama: : I Nyoman Tri Suputra Nomor mahasiswa : 084214022

  Demi pengembangan ilmu pengetahuan, saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma karya ilmiah saya yang berjudul:

  

THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF LOVE TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF

THEMAIN CHARACTER AS SEEN IN NICHOLAS SPARKS’DEAR JOHN

  Beserta perangkat yang diperlukan (bila ada). Dengan demikian saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma untuk menyimpan, mengalihkan dalam bentuk media lain, mengelolanya dalam bentuk pangkalan data, mendistribusikan secara terbatas, dan mempublikasikannya di internet atau media lain untuk kepentingan akademis tanpa perlu meminta ijin dari saya maupun memberi royalty kepada saya selama tetap mencantumkan nama saya sebagai penulis.

  Demikian pernyataan ini yang dapat saya buat dengan sebenarnya. Dibuat di Yogyakarta Pada tanggal : 31 Agustus 2012 Yang Menyatakan

  I Nyoman Tri Suputra

STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY

  This is to certify that all ideas, phrases, sentences, unless otherwise stated, are the ideas, phrases, and sentences of the thesis writer. The writer understands the full con sequences including degree cancellation if he took somebody else’s ideas, phrases, or sentences without proper references Yogyakarta, August 31, 2012

  I NYOMAN TRI SUPUTRA

  

For

My Beloved Family

  

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  I hereby would like to express my gratitude to those who have helped me finishing this undergraduate thesis with their kindness, attention, patience, intelligence and knowledge.

  First of all, I would like to give my greatest gratitude to God Ida Sang Hyang Widhi Wasa for His blessing during the completion of this thesis. He has guided me anytime I was stuck in writing this thesis.

  I also would like to express my deep gratitude to my advisor Drs. Hirmawan Wijanarka, M.Hum and my co-advisor Adventina Putranti S.S., M.Hum who have spent their precious time to read and correct my thesis patiently. All suggestions and corrections they have given to me have encouraged me in completing this thesis.

  To my beloved family, my mother, Ni Made Ratnasitiadi, my father, Drs. Made Suartama M.Sc, my brother, I Made Astina Putra ST, and my aunty Mektu, I dedicated this thesis to you. Thanks for your unstoppable love, prayer, support, care and for keeping my spirit to survive. I really appreciate and thank them for the unconditional help that encouraged me in writing this thesis.

  I also thank someone special, someone who always supports me in whatever situation, for giving me her best attention and love until I can finish my thesis. It is

  Furthermore, thanks for all my crazy friends who always help and accompany me. Thank you to all Public Relation Staff for helping and encouraging me to finish this thesis. The last but not least I would like to thank everyone who works in English Letters Department, the administrative staff, especially Mbak Ninik, and the lecturers for giving me chance to have precious and unforgettable study in Sanata Dharma University.

  I Nyoman Tri Suputra

  

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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

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

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

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

STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY ......................................................................... v

DEDICATION PAGE ............................................................................................... vi

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ....................................................................................... vii

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

ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................... xi

ABTRAK .................................................................................................................... xii

  

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

A. Background of the Study ................................................................................. 1 B. Problem Formulations ...................................................................................... 5 C. Objectives of the Study .................................................................................... 5 D. Definition of Terms ......................................................................................... 6

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

A. Review of Related Studies ............................................................................... 7 B. Review of Related Theories ........................................................................... 11

  1. Theories of Character and Characterization ............................................... 11

  2. Theories of Character Development ........................................................... 14

  3. Theories of Love ......................................................................................... 16

  C. Theoretical Framework .................................................................................. 17

  

CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY ....................................................................... 19

A. Object of the Study ........................................................................................ 19 B. Approach of the Study ................................................................................... 20 C. Method of the Study....................................................................................... 21

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

A. The Development of the Main Character ...................................................... 23

  1. The Characteristics of John Tyree before Falling in Love ........................ 24

  a. A Person Who Cannot Do Self-introspection ........................................ 24

  b. A Person Who Hardly Accept S omeone’s Weakness ........................... 28 c. A Temperamental Person ....................................................................... 29

  d. A Man Who Is Never Serious With Women ......................................... 30

  2. The Characteristics of John Tyree after Falling in Love ........................... 31

  B. The Contributions of Love to Development of the Main Character .............. 41

  a. Doing Self-introspection ............................................................................. 41

  b. Loving and Understanding Others .............................................................. 43

  c. Being Patient ............................................................................................... 44

  d. Developing the Way of Loving Woman..................................................... 44

  

CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION ............................................................................... 47

BIBLIOGRAHY ....................................................................................................... 49

APPENDIX ............................................................................................................... 51

Appendix 1: Summary of Dear John ................................................................. 51

  

ABSTRACT

  I Nyoman Tri Suputra. 2012. The Contributions of Love to the Development of the

  

Main Character as Seen in Nicholas Sparks’ Dear John. Yogyakarta: Department

of English Letters. Sanata Dharma University, 2012.

  This thesis tries to discuss the development of John’s characteristics in Nicholas Sparks’ Dear John. John’s personalities seem to be developed under the influences of love. S ince love takes big role in developing John’s characteristics, the contributions of love are the goal of this study.

  Related to the title of this thesis, this thesis has two objectives: 1) To identify the character development of the main character which are influenced by the presence of love and 2) To find out the contribution of love to the development of the main character.

  This thesis writing is an analytical study that uses library research method. The writer uses formalistic approach to analyze how love changes John’s characteristics and the contributions of love to the development of John’s characteristics because the writer does not need any information outside the text. The aim of the thesis will be focused only on the novel itself.

  The result of this study shows that John’s characteristics develop from negative to positive. Before experiencing love, John is portrayed as a bad person who cannot do self- introspection, a person who cannot accept his father’s weakness and feels embarrassed to his father, a man who cannot control his own anger, and a person who is never serious with women. When falling in love with Savannah, John becomes good person who is able to do self-introspection, a thinker who can accept his father’s weakness, loves and understands his father, a patient person, and a man who is serious with woman. As John develops under the influences of love, love gives many contributions to his character development such as deeper thought, loving and understanding others, emotion control, and seriousness.

  

ABSTRAK

  I Nyoman Tri Suputra. 2012. The Contributions of Love to the Development of the

  

Main Character as Seen in Nicholas Sparks’ Dear John. Yogyakarta: Jurusan

  Sastra Inggris. Universitas Sanata Dharma, 2012 Skripsi ini berusaha untuk membahas perubahan kepribadian John dalam novel Dear John karya Nicholas Sparks. Perubahan ini tampaknya disebabkan oleh pengaruh cinta. Karena cinta berperan penting dalam mengubah kepribadian John, kontribusi cinta itu sendiri menjadi tujuan dari skripsi ini.

  Sesuai dengan judul, skripsi ini mempunyai dua tujuan: 1) Untuk mengetahui perubahan kepribadian tokoh utama yang dipengaruhi oleh kehadiran cinta dan 2) Untuk menunjukan kontribusi cinta terhadap perubahan kepribadian tokoh utama.

  Skripsi ini adalah sebuah studi analisis yang menerapkan metode kepustakaan. Penulis menggunakan pendekatan formalistik untuk menganalisis bagaimana cinta mengubah kepribadian John dan apa saja kontribusi cinta terhadap perubahan kepribadian John karena penulis tidak membutuhkan informasi diluar novel. Tujuan dari skripsi hanya akan terfokus hanya pada novel itu sendiri.

  Hasil dari penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa kepribadian John berubah dari negatif ke positif. sebelum merasakan cinta, John digambarkan sebagai seseorang yang tidak bisa mengintrospeksi diri, seseorang yang tidak bisa menerima kekurangan dan merasa malu terhadap ayahnya, seseorang yang tidak bisa mengendalikan amarah, dan sesorang yang tidak pernah serius terhadap wanita. Saat jatuh cinta kepada Savannah, John menjadi seseorang yang bisa mengintrospeksi diri, sesorang yang bias menerima kekurangan dan mengerti ayahnya, orang yang sabar, dan sesorang yang serius kepada wanita. Karena John berubah dibawah pengaruh cinta, cinta memberikan banyak kontribusi untuk perubahan kepribadiannya seperti berpikir lebih mendalam, menyayangi dan mengerti sesama, kontrol emosi, dan keseriusan.

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION A. Background of the Study As human beings, people need to share what is happening in their life to

  others. It is important to share what we are passing through whether it is pleasing or not. Those who feel hard to share their own experience can simply express their feeling since some people do think that way. There are many ways to express it. One way to express people’s feelings, ideas, thoughts, and experiences is writing literature, for example a novel. In novels, the authors often reveal their opinions about thing related to their own life whether or not it is happened. Roberts and Jacobs said

  Literature refers to written (and also spoken) compositions designed to tell stories, dramatize situations, and reveal thoughts and emotions, and also, more importantly, to interest, entertain stimulate, broaden, and ennoble readers (1989: 2)

  Literature is a composition that can be both written and spoken. Through this composition, the readers may get knowledge about things or life they have never experienced. It attracts the reader’s thought in certain way and it may be about faith, passion, sacrifice, religion, and even love.

  Everyone in this world can feel love. In general, love is feeling that is hard to be explained as it only can be felt. Love is a word with many connotations.

  Actions that fit the description of loving relationship are expression of affection, both physical and emotional; a wish to offer pleasure and satisfaction to one’s mate; tenderness, compassion, and sensitivity to the needs of the other; a desire for shared activities and pursuits; an ongoing, honest exchange of personal feelings the process of offering concern, comfort, and outward assistance for the love object’s aspirations (2006: 31)

  From that definition, the writer gets an idea about the meaning of love, and the way to love each other. Love is a mixed feeling of affection, attraction, and enjoyment. Love is often experienced when someone is thinking about anyone else in a special way and when he or she is around that special somebody. Most people enjoyed and feel wonderful when they experience love. This is why, perhaps, love is often raised as the main topic of literary works as we can see in Nicholas Sparks’ works.

  Nicholas Charles Sparks was born in Omaha, Nebraska, on December 31, 1965. As a child, he lived in Minnesota, Los Angeles, and Grand Island, Nebraska, finally settling in Fair Oaks, California, at the age of eight. His father was a professor, his mother a homemaker, then an optometrist’s assistant. He lived in Fair Oaks through high school, graduated valedictorian in 1984, and received a full track scholarship to the University of Notre Dame.

  After breaking the Notre Dame school record as part of a relay team in 1985 as a freshman (a record which still stands). During that summer, he wrote his first novel, though it was never published. He majored in Business Finance and graduated with high honors in 1988.

  While living in Sacramento, he wrote his second novel in the same year, though again, it was not published. He worked a variety of jobs over the next three years, including real estate appraisal, waiting tables, selling dental products by phone, and started his own small manufacturing business which struggled from the beginning. In 1990, he collaborated on a book with Billy Mills, the Olympic Gold Medalist, and it was published by Feather Publishing before later being picked up by Random House. (It was later re-issued by Hay House Books.) Though it received scant publicity, sales topped 50,000 copies in the first year of release.

  Nicholas Sparks wrote many beautiful novels which some of them were bestsellers. He started writing his first novel in 1994, at the age of 28. Then he continued expressing his pleasure in his novel. He wrote The Notebook over a period of six months and he followed that with Message in a Bottle (1998), A Walk to

  

Remember (1999), The Rescue (2000), A Bend in the Road (2001), Nights in

  (2002), The Guardian (2003), The Wedding (2003), True Believer (2005),

  Rodanthe

At First Sight ( a sequel to True Believer) (2005), Dear John (2006), The Choice

  (2007), The Lucky One (2008), The Last Song (2009), Safe Haven (2010) and a non- fiction memoir, Three Weeks With My Brother (2004), written with his brother, Micah, all with Warner Books / Grand Central Publishing. All were domestic and international best sellers, with almost $80 million in worldwide sales, and were translated into more than 45 languages. His newest book, The Best of Me, will be released in October 2011. Those are the novel written by Nicholas Sparks. (www.nicholassparks.com, 2011)

  In spite of the fact that Nicholas Sparks wrote many novels, in this thesis, the writer will focus on one of Nicholas Sparks’ bestseller novel entitled Dear John. The writer is interested in analyzing Dear John because the story is fantastic. It touches the writ er’s heart and teaches him good things about the real meaning of true love, especially of how to love our beloved. Love can also change people’s attitude toward his or her life. Love is very important in our life. When people love other, it can be their family, their friend, or their beloved; people will give their best and also sacrifice something which is very important in their life. Dear John is a novel in which love takes a big role. This novel shows how one’s personality can change when he was falling in love with someone. It includes the contribution of love and the sacrifice for the love itself. is a love story of a soldier named John Tyree with a college

  Dear John

  student named Savannah Lynn Curtis. John has enlisted in the army after high school because he did not know what else to do. He is an arrogant person, cares about nothing, gets bad relationship with his dad, and feels lack of love. Everything are about to change when he falls in love with Savannah. The major change is on John’s personalities. He becomes a different person than he would ever imagine. He is more never does he feel mad of her. He helps her, instead of breaking up the marriage, when she is in trouble. John experiences the deep meaning of a true love. This thesis is worth studying because at present time people still confuse about what love is. There are many connotations of love. This topic is chosen to trace the contributions of love. Those contributions are derived from the character development. Once people experience true love, they are able to understand the value of love. It is important to know the value of love if we want to clarify what love is. Since John, the main character, is changed because of love, this novel is the perfect example to research about the contributions of love.

B. Problem Formulation

  There are two problems formulated in this thesis: 1.

  How does the main character develop? 2. What is the contribution of love to the development of the main character? C.

   Objectives of the Study

  The goals of this thesis are to find out the personalities of the main character, to identify the character development of the main character influenced by love and to determine the contribution of love to the development of the main character in Nicolas Sparks’ Dear John.

  When analyzing the contribution of love to the main character, the writer needs to know the characteristics of the main character. Then, the writer will be able to identify the influence of love toward the main character. Finally, the writer can obtain the character development which leads him in identifying the contribution of love.

D. Definition of Terms

  According to Hauck in his book entitled How to Love and be Loved , “Love is that powerful feeling one has for persons, animals or things that has satisfied, is satisfying, or will satisfy our deepest desires and needs”. (1983: 16) According to Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary of Current English,

  As a noun (n) love means a strong feeling of deep affection for sb that you are sexually attracted to; a person, a thing or an activity that you like very much; as a verb (v) love means to have very strong feelings of affection for subject; to like and enjoy sth very much (2005: 913)

  It can be noticed that love can be employed as noun and as a verb. However, generally, love can be classified as a strong feeling and affection to someone or something that you like very much.

CHAPTER II THEORETICAL REVIEW A. Review of Related Studies One important thing of analyzing the work of literature is criticism because it

  shows people attention to the literary work itself. It means that people put their attention to that work and it can attract people to see or even to read it. Critiques also help readers to get the idea whether or not a literary work may hasve some important aspects. Besides, it helps the authors of literary works to maintain any unconscious mistakes and to improve their writings. Most of the criticisms appear to show people reaction toward the work itself. They can be arguments, comments, agreement/disagreement, and so on.

  Nicholas Sparks is a very famous author who came from North Carolina, America. Most of his novels become New York Time bestseller. He wrote a lot of novels, Safe Heavens, The Lucky One, The Last Song, A Walk To Remember,

  

Message in a Bottle, The Choice, At the First Sight, True Believer, Three Weeks With

My Brother, The Guardian, The Wedding, Nights In Rodanthe, A Bend In The Road,

  , and Dear John. Most of them have tragic ending and are

  The Notebook, The Rescue adapted into Major Motion Picture.

  Dear John is story of love, loss and emotion…It is a story you will not soon forget. You will cry. Your heart will ache. You will find yourself asking

  "what if...?” Dear John is about a love lost but not forgotten. If you love a good, seamless love story that pulls on your heart strings, then you need to read Dear John. )

  That criticism proves that although Dear John makes people who read this novel get the fantastic feel of happiness and sadness. Besides, it touches the hearts of the readers, and after reading it, the story will stay on the readers’ minds. Those are why this novel is highly recommended to read. The Washington Post-Margaux Wexberg Sanchez stated

  Only in a novel such as this could we find our political buzzwords- peacekeeping, IEDs, hurricane relief-interspersed with this sentiments: "And when her lips met mine, I knew that I could live to be a hundred and visit every country in the world, but nothing would ever compare to that single moment when I first kissed the girl of my dreams and knew that my love would last forever." (http://search.barnesandnoble.com, 2011)

  The criticism proves that Dear John touched the hearts of the readers, and after reading it, the story will stay on our minds and it is hard to be forgotten. The message is also good to be applied.

  Another criticism is derived from Book Page in the interview with the author of Dear John, Nicholas Sparks, by Trisha Ping: Nicholas Sparks has been the undisputed master of the modern-day love story…Dear John, follows two star-crossed lovers…altering decisions when love and honor intersect. 11)

  Through that criticism, the writer assumes that Nicholas Sparks is a great author of

  Nicholas sparks is well-known as a love- themed author. Since most of Sparks’ books are love-themed, several researchers have done their research to figure out the love manifests seen on his books. One of them is the study conducted by Christina.

  (Merry Christina,

  The Values Of Love Reflected In Nicholas Sparks’ A Walk To

Remember , A Sarjana Sastra Undergraduate Thesis. 2007). The writer took the

  statem ent from Christina’s undergraduate thesis Sparks is offering something different by creating a character, Jamie, who is able to change Landon’s heart and influences him and her surrounding with her kind heart. Sparks is also good at words choosing because when the writer read the novel, the words seemed to influence her in the way of thinking and feeling of the characters’ heart…The story includes spirituality, moral, and many values that happen in life. The story is about beauty, power and innocent of firs t love…The story contains many values of love (Christina, 2007: 4-5)

  Christina analyzed one of Nicholas Sparks’ best-selling novels entitled A Walk to

  

Remember with similar topic to this thesis, love. From the quotation above, the writer

  knows that Sparks ’ is an author who has quality in word choosing that makes the readers interest and feel they are part of the story. Christina found that the story represents many values of love including spirituality, beauty, moral, and power of love.

  Because of the focus of this analysis is finding the contributions of love to the character development, the writer needs to know the scientific studies done before about the character development in order to limit the analysis. The thesis made by Undergraduate Thesis. 2010) He found that people develop for many reasons and causes The people who live around her and the events happened in her childhood life influenced her way of thinking. Conflicts in her life shows that human being’s personality are often influenced by conditions around them (Ginardi, 2010: 3)

  In Ginardi’s thesis, the main character develops because of the influence by the minor character. The childhood events and conditions also take role in developing one’s personalities.

  The writer agrees with all critical praise above that the book is amazingly great and touching. The story of the novel will touch the hearts of the readers, and hardly do the readers forget about the story. This story also useful to read because the messages behind are good to be applied. Despite the truth that many people have already analyzed this novel, this undergraduate thesis is trying to discover something that has not been done before. In this thesis, the writer does not only analyze the personalities of the character, but also how love can change one’s personalities. Thus, the contributions of love to the main character which is revealed from the character development becomes the major focus of this analysis. The writer has not yet found another researcher who analyzed the contributions of love seen in Dear John.

  Therefore, this undergraduate thesis is different from another thesis done by many researchers.

B. Review of Related Theories

  To answer all the problems formulated in this thesis, the writer needs some theories.

1. Theory of Character and Characterization

  Since the analysis deals with the major character, the theories of character and characterization will be useful. There are many theories of character and characterization. In his book A Glossary of Literary Terms, Abrams says

  Characters are the persons in dramatic or narrative work, who are interpreted by the reader as possessing particular moral, intellectual, and emotional qualities by inferences from what the persons say and their distinctive ways of saying it. He says there are two ways of characterization: showing and telling. In showing, the author simply presents the characters talking and acting, and leaves it entirely up to the reader to infer the motives and dispositions that lie behind what they say and do. In telling, the author intervenes authoritatively in order to describe, and often to evaluate, the motives and dispositional qualities of the characters (2009: 42-43) Meanwhile, Roberts and Jacobs say Character in literature generally, and in fiction specifically, is an extended verbal representation of a human being, the inner self that determines thought, speech, and behavior. (1989: 145) Arp and Johnson in the book entitled

  Perrine’s Literature: Structure, Sound,

  state

  and Senses presents their characters either directly or indirectly. In direct presentation they tell us straight out, by exposition or analysis, what the characters are alike, or they have another character in the story describe them. In indirect presentation the author shows us the characters trough their actions; we determine what they are like by what they say or do. (2009: 161-162) Kenney says that there are three character traits to find out. They are social, physical, and psychological. A character’s social traits are those that have to do with the character’s place in society. For instance, to what social class the character belongs, character’s marital status and what a character does for living. Character physical traits can be answered by some questions such as whether the character is ugly or beautiful, fat or thin, tall or short, long hair or short hair, fair skinned or black skinned, and eye. Finally, the psychological traits include personality, such as emotional or intellectual, optimistic or pessimistic, secured or unsecured and observable behavior such as rhythm of speech, quality of gesture and others (1988: 32).

  Murphy in (1972: 161-173) Understanding Unseen states that there are nine ways to characterize a character,

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, he is giving some clue to his character.

  4. Past Life The author gives a clue to events that have helped to shape a person’s character; by direct comment, through 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

  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 he 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.

  From those theories the writer knows what character is and knows how to characterize a character. By applying the various theories of characterization above, the writer can find the characteristic of characters in a literary work, how they are described, what kind of characters they are, and the impact of a character in the story.

  Those theories provide complete way to analyze the characters of this work.

  2. Theory of Character Development

  In the analysis of the character development, types of characters theories are required to see whether a character is developed. There are many theories of type of character. According to bookclub, “character development describes both how characters grow and change over time or throughout the course of a fictional story”. Robertson say A succinct definition of the process of character development is difficult because character is such an ambiguous term, and can mean greatly different things to different people. In general, character development could be defined as encompassing the development of a few simple traits such as loyalty, honesty, wisdom and courage

  Meanwhile according to the theory posted in a website on the internet Character development is the change in characterization of a character, who changes over the course of a narrative. At its core, it shows a character changing. Most narrative fiction in any media will feature some display of this. While the definition of "good" and "bad" character development is subjective, it's generally agreed upon that good character development is believable and rounds out a well-written character. Bad character development leads to the feeling that someone is manipulating the events to their own whims, or even reduces the character's believability So, character development can be defined as change or grow of characters in the novel. The change or growths of characters’ traits usually happen to dynamic characters.

  Arp and Johnson say There are two types of character: flat and round. Flat characters usually have only one or two predominant traits; they can be summed up in a sentence or two. By contrast, round characters are complex and many-sided; they have the three-dimensional quality of real people. (2009: 162)

  According to Robert and Jacob Round characters have many realistic traits and are relatively fully developed.

  To the degree that round characters have many individual and unpredictable human traits, and because they undergo change or growth as a result of their particular group or class. Because they do not change or grow, they are static, not dynamic like round characters. (1989: 145) From those theories, the writer is able to judge whether the character is developed or not. A character is called dynamic if there is development or growth after experiencing something, in this analysis, love. In contrast, static character is not developed or growth.

3. Theory of Love

  Theory of love is required to see the contribution of love to the main character. Firestone, in his book entitled Sex and Love in Intimate Relationship say Actions that fit the description of loving relationship are expression of affection, both physical and emotional; a wish to offer pleasure and satisfaction to one’s mate; tenderness, compassion, sand sensitivity to the needs of the other; a desire for shared activities and pursuits; an ongoing, honest exchange of personal feelings the process of offering concern, comfort, and outward assistanc e for the love object’s aspirations (2006: 31)

  From above statement, the writer thinks that love is an expression of affection. It can be physical and/or emotional. People need to do something for those they love because love is not only a statement. They have a desire to offer concern, pleasure and satisfaction to their beloved. Therefore, if people love someone, they should offer their best.

  According to Hauck in his book entitled How to Love and be Loved , “Love is that powerful feeling one has for persons, animals or things that has satisfied, is satisfying, or will satisfy our deepest desires and needs”. (1983: 16)

  According to the love definition as seen on a website in the internet It can be best described as a very strong feeling that is deep down in the pit of your stomach. You experience this feeling when you are around that special somebody or when you happen to be thinking about them. These strong feelings can be of affection, attraction and enjoyment. In a way, it is kind of like all three of these feelings rolled up into one emotion. Many people feel wonderful when they experience thi From above quotation, the writer concludes that love is a very strong emotion which is caused by admiration. Love will be experienced when people have strong feeling such as affection, attraction, and enjoyment to somebody else. Many people feel wonderful when they are falling love.

C. Theoretical Framework

  The writer has already stated some theories that will be used to analyze the contribution of loves as seen in the novel Dear John. Those theories are divided into three; they are theory of character and characterization, theory of character development, and theory of love. Those theories are needed to help the author in analyzing the novel and in answering the two questions stated in the problem formulation.

  The first theory is theory of character and characterization. The writer uses theories of character and characterization to identify the personalities of the main character, John Tyree and how he is described. The second theory is theory of character development. Since the main character in Dear John is a dynamic character, several theories of character development are used to find out the growth of main character which is influenced by love. The main character is developed. It means that he got ‘change’ in his life. This change can be either better or worse.

  The third theory is theory of love. Through this theory, the writer is able to understand the contribution of love. Through the theory the writer is able to define whether or not John experiences love. The contributions of love will be determined by the influence of love to the character development. Theory of love is very useful to understand what love is because from those theories, the writer is able to find out whether or not the main character experiences love. Therefore, however, the writer attaches the general theory of love only. Thus, the writer will see how love takes big role in changing main character’s attitude toward his life. In this thesis the writer focus on the contribution of love to the development of the main character only instead of the deep meaning of love itself. Therefore, theories of love used in this analysis are not the theory in which love is seen philosophically.

CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY A. Object of the Study The object of this thesis is a novel Dear John by Nicholas Sparks. The novel

  was published in 2009 by Grand Central Publishing in New York. This novel was awarded the #1 New York Times bestsellers. The setting of the story is Lenoir, North Carolina. This novel is Sparks’ eleventh novel containing 335 pages and divided into twenty chapters. This novel is also translated into a film version which is released on February 5, 2010.

  Dear John tells the story of John Tyree and Savannah Lynn Curtis. This novel

  is written using the first-person point of view. The narrator is 23-year-old soldier who was the main character in the story. His whole life and attitude was suddenly changed when he met the girl of his dreams. is a story of true everlasting love between two young people, John

  Dear John

  Tyree and Savannah Lynn Curtis. John Tyree, a 23-year-old soldier living in a small town of Lenoir, North Carolina. He had enlisted in the army after high school because he did not know what else to do. During the furlough, he met the girl of his dreams, Savannah Lynn Curtis, a 21-year-old college student at the University in North

B. Approach of the Study

  In this thesis, the writer uses formalistic approach to answer the problem formulation. According to Guerin in A Handbook of Critical Approaches to

  Literature:

  The formalist critic abandons historical and biographical information and instead focuses on the text as a discrete object. This approach is sometimes characterized as “art for art’s sake”. Formalist critic came to be called the New Criticism when several prominent critics adopted the name in the 1930s.

  (2011: 121) From the above quotation, the writer concludes that formalistic approach does not need any information outside the text, such as historical and biographical background of the novel or the author, when analyzing works of literature. The aim of the thesis will be focused only on the novel itself. This approach is chosen to analyze Dear to find out the character development of the main character. Since the main

  John

  topic of this analysis is the contribution of love to the development of the main character, this approach is suitable because the focus of the thesis will be on describing the personalities of the main character, analyzing the character development of main character, and the contribution of love toward the main character that falls in love. In addition, the thesis will also deal mostly with the feeling of love which influences one’s thoughts, feelings, and actions.

C. Method of the Study

  The method used in this thesis was a library research. The primary source of this thesis was Nicholas Sparks’ Dear John. And the secondary sources were many literature theories which were collected from the library of Sanata Dharma University. Among others are Abrams’ A Glossary of Literary Terms, Arp and Johnson’s Perrine’s Literature: Structure, Sound, and Senses, and Roberts and Jacobs in their book Fiction: An Introduction to Reading and Writing.