THE MAIN CHARACTER’S DREAMS AS THE CONFLICTS REPRESENTATION IN THE PLOT DEVELOPMENT IN DAVID SHERMAN’S THE JUNKYARD DOGS
THE MAIN CHARACTER’S DREAMS AS THE CONFLICTS
REPRESENTATION IN THE PLOT DEVELOPMENT IN
DAVID SHERMAN’S THE JUNKYARD DOGS
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra in English Letters
By
THOMAS SURYA AGUNG
Student Number: 054214049
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
YOGYAKARTA
2012
THE MAIN CHARACTER’S DREAMS AS THE CONFLICTS
REPRESENTATION IN THE PLOT DEVELOPMENT IN
DAVID SHERMAN’S THE JUNKYARD DOGS
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra in English Letters
By
THOMAS SURYA AGUNG
Student Number: 054214049
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
YOGYAKARTA
2012
To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong.
- -- Joseph Chilton Pearce --
This undergraduate thesis is dedicated to The Almighty Jesus Christ The Holy Mary My Lovely Parents
The Unyielding Spirit and The Creative Life
AKNOWLEDGEMENTS
My deepest gratitude to Jesus Christ and Holy Mary for giving me a solid strength to me so that I finally can finish this thesis. I thank God for giving me very patient parents who always pray for me, give me support in this thesis making.
In this opportunity, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my advisor Drs. Hirmawan Wijanarka M. Hum. and co-advisor Adventina Putranti S.S., M.Hum. who have provided their precious time for guiding me during my thesis writing process. May God always bestow His blessing on them.
I also would like to express my heartfelt appreciation to all the lecturers of the English Letters Department for the sharing knowledge to me and the members of secretariat staff for their best service.
Last but not least, I thank my fellow comrades who still struggle for the better future. God bless them all.
Thomas Surya Agung
TABLE OF CONTENTS TITLE PAGE ...................................................................................... i
APPROVAL PAGE ............................................................................ ii
ACCEPTANCE PAGE ....................................................................... iii
PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI ........................................................... iv
MOTTO PAGE ................................................................................... v
DEDICATION PAGE ......................................................................... vi
AKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...................................................................vii
TABLE OF CONTENTS .................................................................... viii
ABSTRACT ......................................................................................... x
ABSTRAK .............................................................................................xi CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION ......................................................
1 A. . Background of the Study ..........................................................
1 B. Problem Formulation .................................................................
4 C. Objectives of the Study .............................................................
5 D. Definition of Terms ...................................................................
5 CHAPTER II: THEORETICAL REVIEW .....................................
7 A. Review of Related Studies ........................................................
7 B. Review of Related Theories ......................................................
8 1. Theory of Plot ......................................................................
8 2. Figures of Speech or Rhetorical Figures ..............................
13 3. The Interpretation of Dreams ...............................................
14 C. Theoretical Framework .............................................................
14 CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY ..................................................
16 A. Object of the Study ...................................................................
16 B. Approach of the Study ..............................................................
17
C. Method of the Study ..................................................................
18 CHAPTER IV: ANALYSIS ...............................................................
20 A. The Plot of the Story .................................................................
20 B. The Main Character’s Dreams ..................................................
40 C. The Main Character’s Dreams as the Conflicts Representation in the Plot Development in Sherman’s The Junkyard Dogs ...........
48 CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION ..........................................................
62 BIBLIOGRAPHY ...............................................................................
66
ABSTRACT
THOMAS SURYA AGUNG, THE MAIN CHARACTER’S DREAMS AS
THE CONFLICTS REPRESENTATION IN THE PLOT DEVELOPMENT
IN DAVID SHERMAN’S THE JUNKYARD DOGS. Yogyakarta: Department
of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma University, 2012.David Sherman’s The Junkyard Dogs is a novel in which among the development of the plot, the author implanted its story with several dreams of the main character that likely gave any important role toward the structure of the novel. There are many experts who put their opinion related to the dream. Most of them said that a dream is a kind of vehicle to connect a person with his/her unconscious elements. Therefore, since the novel The Junkyard Dogs contains several dreams experienced by the main charatcer, the present study is interesting yet challenging and giving some advantages about knowing the role of those main character’s dreams to the main plot of the story and enriching the scientific research related to the topic chosen in this thesis.
The present study analyzes three main problems. The first one is desrcribing the plot of the story. The sond one is describing the main character’s dreams. Then, last problem will find out that the thesis attempts to find out that the main character’s dreams represent the conflicts in the plot development in David Sherman’s The Junkyard Dogs (2008).
The analysis in this thesis was conducted using new criticism approach based on M. H. Abrams’ A Glossary of Literary Terms/ Seventh Edition (1999) that insists that detailed consideration of the work itself as an independent entity.
After the analysis is done, the plot of the story is described as well as the main character’s dreams. Then, it is concluded that the main charatcer’s dreams represent the conflicts in the plot development in Sherman’s The Junkyard Dogs by finding close relation between teks in those dreams and texts in the plot. The first dream represents the main character’s conflict against himself. The second dream represents the main character’s conflicts condensation and represents the main character’s major problems that are unresolved yet. The third dream represents the main character’s conflict against himself and his goal to complete the mission. The fourth dream represents the main character’s conflict against the chain of command. The fifth dream represents the main character’s conflict against his understanding of war. The sixth dream represents the main character’s conflict against the chain of command. The last dream represents the main character’s conflict against the fear of getting into trouble. On the other words, the main character’s dreams draw the major events that have strong conflicts and emotional values before the plot turns to the climax.
ABSTRAK
THOMAS SURYA AGUNG, THE MAIN CHARACTER’S DREAMS AS
THE CONFLICTS REPRESENTATION IN THE PLOT DEVELOPMENT
IN DAVID SHERMAN’S THE JUNKYARD DOGS. Yogyakarta: Program Studi Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Sanata Dharma, 2012.
Novel The Junkyard Dogs oleh David Sherman adalah novel dimana sang penulis menyisipkan beberapa mimpi yang dialami oleh karakter utama. Mimpi-mimpi tersebut seperti memiliki arti dan hubungan tersendiri dengan alur cerita novel. Banyak pakar yang berpendapat bahwa mimpi merupakan sebuah jembatan yang menghubungkan dunia sadar sesorang dengan dunia bawah sadarnya. Melihat beberapa mimpi yang dialami oleh karakter utama, maka studi ini menjadi cukup menantang dan menarik serta memberikan pemahaman mengenai hubungan mimpi-mimpi si karakter utama dengan alur cerita novel. Selain itu, studi ini dapat memperkaya penelitian ilmiah yang bersangkutan dengan topik yang dipilih di dalam studi kali ini.
Studi kali ini menganalisa tiga masalah utama. Masalah yang pertama adalah bagaimana alur cerita novel dijabarkan. Masalah yang kedua adalah bagaimana mimpi-mimpi si karakter utama dijabarkan. Terkahir, masalah yang ketiga adalah tentang apa hubungan antara mimpi-mimpi si karakter utama dengan alur cerita novel.
The analysis in this thesis was conducted using new criticism approach based on M. H. Abrams’ A Glossary of Literary Terms/ Seventh Edition (1999) that insists that detailed consideration of the work itself as an independent entity.
Analisis dilakukan dengan mengusung pendekatan new criticism yang mengacu pada M. H. Abrams yang dalam bukunya A Glossary of Literary Terms/
Seventh Edition (1999) menjelaskan bahwa analisa sebuah karya sastra
menitikberatkan pada teks dalam karya sastra itu sendiri.Dari hasil analisis, dapat ditemukan gambaran alur dan mimpi dari karakter utama. Kemudian, dengan menganalisa arti mimpi tersebut terlebih dahulu, ditemukan kesimpulan bahwa mimpi karakter utama menggambarkan konflik yang terjadi pada alur cerita. Mimpi yang pertama menggambarkan konflik karakter utama dengan dirinya sendiri. Mimpi yang kedua menggambarkan pemadatan konflik serta masalah yang belum terselesaikan. Mimpi yang ketiga menggambarkan konflik karakter utama dengan tujuannya untuk menyelesaikan misi yang diembannya. Mimpi yang keempat menggambarkan konflik karakter utama dengan rantai komando. Mimpi yang kelima menggambarkan konflik karakter utama dengan pemahamannya tentang perang. Mimpi yang keenam menggambarkan konflik karakter utama dengan rantai komando. Mimpi yang terakhir menggambarkan konflik karakter utama dengan ketakutannya menghdapi masalah yang berat. Dalam hubungan secara keseluruhan, mimpi-mimpi tersebut menggambarkan konflik dan muatan emosional si karakter utama sebelum alur cerita mencapai klimaks.
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION A. Background of the Study Each person must have experienced a dream during the sleep. Some people even have their interest of dream. An psychological expert, Dr. Clayton E. Tucker-Ladd (2004), who had been licensed as a Clinical Psychologist by the Illinois Department of Professional Regulation for 34 years and registered for
many years with the National Register of Health Service Providers in Psychology, in his book Psychological Self-Help said that the interest of dreams has already exist even since the Babylonians, when people at that time had “had a Goddess of Dreams” and “book for interpreting dreams.” Dr. Clayton E. Tucker-Ladd also explained that “there was a thought, as we do now, that dreams satisfy some of our psychological needs and change our mood” and “dreams have led directly to great novels, musical compositions, scientific discoveries, and political military decisions” (2004: 1581). Therefore, dreams have – or are considered to have – some meanings in human life, as what Clayton E. Tucker-Ladd stated in his book:
But while we hardly know more about the meaning of our dreams than the Babylonians 5,000 years ago, it is possible that dreams reflect our traumatic memories, our needs, and our unconscious "thoughts." So, dreams are thought to tell us something about ourselves we did not know (2004: 1582). Dreams, as being thought to tell us something about ourselves we did not know, therefore, are expected to give us more new knowing that probably will change our opinion about something that we believe before or give us new alternatives about what we have to next. However, in order to give more objective about what the dreams’ meaning, Tucker-Ladd didn’t let his opinion about dreams stand alone. He quoted some other psychological experts’ opinion defining what the dreams are. One of them is an opinion from Scarr and Vander Zanden’s
Understanding Psychology (1984). It is said that
Many more unpleasant emotions, especially fear and anger, are expressed in dreams than pleasant emotions, although sexual arousal is frequent during dreams (Tucker-Ladd, 2004: 1583). Though the way of fear and anger expressions are not mentioned exactly in Scarr and Vander Zanden’s opinion, people usually got what they call a nightmare – that usually contains fear and anger. Interestingly, Tucker-Ladd put a thought by Chollar (1989) in his book that mentioned that “Nightmares occur more often in sensitive and creative people.” (2004: 1583). Another opinion that is quoted was derived from Robert Cartwright and Lamberg (1992) that said that “our dreams reflect our major conscious emotional concerns. In effect, our dreams underscore our current problems, rather than hide or erase them,” continued with:
The dream content, while symbolic, can, with a little thought, be easily associated with the things that are consciously worrying us tonight. The mind supposedly searches our past to find a person, situation, or symbol that fits the feelings that are pressuring us during our sleep. It is as though bad dreams are telling us: HEY, PAY ATTENTION TO THIS PROBLEM!” (Tucker-Ladd, 2004: 1584).
He also quoted Freud’s thought (1967) that said “dreams were venting our emotions or fulfilling our unconscious wishes” (2004: 1582) and ended his quotation with Langs’ (1994) idea that believed that “dreams are giving us solutions for important but repressed problems” and “dreams are a way for the unconscious mind to give us its wisdom about handling emotional situations.” (2004: 1584).
Learning from those definitions and opinions of dreams, though there is also a thought of the current science suggesting that “dreams do not have much meaning” (Tucker-Ladd, 2004: 1582), it will be better if we concern about our dreams that might to tell us something that we did not know or help us handling emotional situations, as Dr. Clayton E. Tucker-Ladd reminded us:
In general, however, I would assume it is less dangerous to cautiously explore the possible implications of our dreams (and daydreams) than to assume that dreams have absolutely no significance or utility at all (2004: 1598).
David Sherman’s The Junkyard Dogs is a work of military fiction that brings the reader a portrait of real-world conflict of Vietnam (circa 1968). The author has claimed that his novel delivers a kind accurate and realistic portrayal of the lives of Marines who serve as Combined Action Platoon in Vietnam since the author is a former CAP veteran who have been there – not just who make it up, who do their research or who have served. The plot of the novel is served dynamically but with strong intimate conflicts that Corporal Socrates, the main character, has to deal with. Interestingly, among the revolving of the plot, the author implanted the story with several dreams of the main character that likely gave any important role toward the novel’s structure. The reviewer Mike McPhail on his review i(2009) said that the readers, through main character’s dreams, supposed to “learn of his past and how it shaped his character, as well as reflecting on his apprehensions of the current situation.” However, so far, the writer hasn’t found any scientific research that tries to find out and explain it scientifically.
Standing between the opinions that said that dreams have several possible implications and have no much meaning or significance and on the lack of scientific research related to the main character’s dreams in David Sherman’s
The Junkyard Dogs (2008), trying to investigate the relation between the main
character’s dreams and the main plot of the story in David Sherman’s The
Junkyard Dogs (2008) is interesting yet challenging and giving some advantages
about knowing the role of those main character’s dreams to the main plot of the story and enriching the scientific research related to the topic chosen in this thesis.
B. Problem Formulation
There are three problems revealed in this study. They are listed as follows:
1. How is the plot described in Sherman’s The Junkyard Dogs?
2. How are the main character’s dreams described in Sherman’s The Junkyard
Dogs ?
3. How do the main character’s dreams represent conflicts in the plot development in Sherman’s The Junkyard Dogs?
C. Objectives of the Study
Through the three problems that are revealed, the writer tries to describe the plot of the David Sherman’s The Junkyard Dogs (2008), followed with an effort to describe the main character’s dreams. After those steps are done, the writer is going to find out that the main character’s dreams represent conflicts in the plot development in Sherman’s The Junkyard Dogs by correlating the valuable elements in the dreams with the valuable events in the plot of the story.
D. Definition of Terms
In this part, the writer will derive some words used in this analysis to be defined in order to guide the readers in understanding this thesis. Also, the writer will clarify the meaning of some terms that are used in this study in order to avoid misunderstanding on reading this thesis.
Candace Schaefer and Rick Diamond in the book The Creative Writing
Guide (1998) stated that the main character or protagonist is “the central
character on whom the story focuses and with whom we identify” (Schaefer, 1998).
Dream, in Concise Oxford ENGLISH Dictionary 11th EDITION on CD-
ROM (2004) is defined as a series of thoughts, images, and sensations accuring in
the mind during sleep.Robert Saunders Dowst in his book The Technique of Fiction Writing (1921) wrote that conflict
Gives the various events and situations of a story any dramatic value they may possess. It follows that there are three basic plot-themes, conflict between man and his environment or Nature, conflict between man and man, and conflict between opposed traits in the same man (1921: 52). Candace Schaefer and Rick Diamond in the book The Creative Writing
Guide (1998) stated that plot is
The series of events in the story, chronological or not, which serve to move the story from its beginning through its climax or turning point and to a resolution of its conflicts” (1998: 210).
CHAPTER II THEORETICAL REVIEW A. Review of Related Studies Bert O. States (1992: vol. 2, No. 4), in his journal The Meaning of Dreams in www.asdreams.org stated that dream is a product of human thought
and has strong personal connotations for the dreamer. He said that the interpretation of dream sometimes faced problem – that interpretation usually “amounts to a translation of the literary text or the dream report (what is left of the dream) into highly specified meanings (1992: vol. 2, No. 4). He said that there is a possibility that “the cause of a dream meaning something may be the interpretation rather than the dream itself” and there is “no guarantee that it hasn’t caused the dream to mean something it doesn’t mean” (1992: vol. 2, No. 4). States explained that dream is just like life, both random and orderly. He added that dream is random respecting what might happen next, but it is “orderly respecting the persistence of a personal energy that continually repeats itself, thus achieving a kind of self-unity” (States, 1992: vol. 2, No. 4).
Furthermore, States said that dreams “do not add, or give meaning to our lives" but “instantiate meaning that is already there”. On the other words, he said that dreams are “simply a repetition, under different conditions” (States, 1992: vol. 2, No. 4). His journal stated that dreams are continuation of his bad and good habits and of his regret, guilt, or satisfaction about having them. Dreams are not to be interpreted because dream is “an imaginative condensation of experience” (1992: vol. 2, No. 4).
He continued to say that dream fabricates images, no matter how realistic or life-like they may appear to be. He agreed with Ernest Hartmann that dream will “connects thoughts, images, memories, wishes, fears, in new ways (Hartmann, 1991: 25), though some of them are quite bizarre. States argued that the dreamer is “both author and reader” who “tells the story to himself, in a manner of speaking.” Therefore, there is a difference between “experienced meaning” and “the kind of meaning derived from interpretation.” He said to the reader that dream “invariably tells the truth about our emotional life” and someone would dream about “things whose meaning we already know in an emotional and preconception sense.” What people brought directly into sleep was derived from the day’s experience” Then, States concluded that “a dream is a dream” (States, 1992: vol. 2, No. 4).
By this thesis, the writer agrees with States’ conclusion that a dream is a dream. However, the writer will try to figure out the correlation between the dreams content experienced by the main character and the valuable events in the plot of David Sherman’s The Junkyard Dogs.
B. Review of Related Theories 1. Theory of Plot
For examining the plot, the writer uses reference theories of plot derived from the expert M. H. Abrams (199) and Robert Saunders Dowst (1921).
M. H. Abrams, in his book The Glossary of Literary Terms: Seventh
Edition published in 1999, said that
A primary interest of structural narratologists is in the way that narrative discourse fashions a story—the mere sequence of events in time—into the organized and meaningful structure of a literary plot (1999: 173). He also described what a plot is, as the following: The plot (which Aristotle termed the mythos) in a dramatic or narrative work is constituted by its events and actions, as these are rendered and ordered toward achieving particular artistic and emotional effects (Abrams, 1999: 224).
Also, Abrams reminded that “a plot is distinguishable from the story— that is, a bare synopsis of the temporal order of what happens” (1999: 224).
Further, he explained the distinction between them. “When we summarize the story in a literary work, we say that first this happens, then that, then that” (Abrams, 1999: 224). He continued to explain that a plot can only be derived:
When we specify how this is related to that, by causes and motivations, and in what ways all these matters are rendered, ordered, and organized so as to achieve their particular effects, which a synopsis begins to be adequate to the plot (Abrams, 1999: 224) Abrams also quoted a theory of the typical plot from German critic
Gustav Freytag, with his book Technique of the Drama (1863), that came as a pyramidal shape, “known as Freytag's Pyramid” (1999: 227). There, plot is said to consist of a rising action, climax, and falling action (1999: 227). It is said also that critics of prose fiction as well as drama also echoed the various pattern of Freytag’s pattern, stated as the following:
As applied to Hamlet, for example, the rising action (a section that Aristotle had called the complication) begins, after the opening scene and exposition, with the ghost's telling Hamlet that he has been murdered by his brother Claudius; it continues with the developing conflict between Hamlet and Claudius, in which Hamlet, despite setbacks, succeeds in controlling the course of events. The rising action reaches the
climax of the hero's fortunes with his proof of the King's guilt by the
device of the play within a play. Then comes the crisis, the reversal or "turning point" of the fortunes of the protagonist, in his failure to kill the King while he is at prayer. This inaugurates the falling action; from now on the antagonist, Claudius, largely controls the course of events, until the catastrophe, or outcome, which is decided by the death of the hero, as well as of Claudius, the Queen, and Laertes. "Catastrophe" is usually applied to tragedy only; a more general term for this precipitating final scene, which is applied to both comedy and tragedy, is the denouement (French for "unknotting"): the action or intrigue ends in success or failure for the protagonist, the conflicts are settled, the mystery is solved, or the misunderstanding cleared away. A frequently used alternative term for the outcome of a plot is the resolution (Abrams, 1999: 227).
He also quoted another explanation related to the plot: Many, but far from all, plots deal with a conflict; Thornton Wilder's play Our Town (1938), for example, does not. In addition to the conflict between individuals, there may be the conflict of a protagonist against fate, or against the circumstances that stand between him and a goal he has set himself; and in some works (as in Henry James' Portrait of a Lady) the chief conflict is between opposing desires or values in the protagonist's own temperament (Abrams, 1999: 225).
Robert Saunders Dowst, in his book The Teqnique of Fiction Writing (1921), explained that
A plot is that its events function together as a unit. There is some connection between them other than chance, and that connection lies in the intimate relation between the events of a story and its characters (1921: 49).
He wrote that there are two essential elements of a plot. Those elements are the “interaction, then, between incidents and characters, arising from the unity of the whole conception” and that “several incidents of the story possess climactic value, in that each event should have influence in forwarding the story to a definite end” (1921: 49), that he said in other words as
Since a plot is made up of incidents which influence and are influenced by the characters, and since the story must move to an end, a plot presents a problem. What will the persons do? if the emphasis is on personality ; and what will happen ? if the emphasis is on the event (1921: 50). He continued to say that Problem, in this connection, means conflict between opposing forces, which gives the various events and situations of a story any dramatic value they may possess. It follows that there are three basic plot-themes, conflict between man and his environment or Nature, conflict between man and man, and conflict between opposed traits in the same man (1921: 52).
He also stated the further explanation about the relation between events in the plot, in the view of the writer of the story.
Starting with some basic conflict, which will be his plot, the writer can devise situation after situation in which the struggle will become more and more acute, until, finally, it will become so serious as to involve all the 'elements of the story (1921: 61).
Therefore, Dowst provided more explanation that Each major situation of a story derives its dramatic quality from the opposition of incompatible motives or forces that endows the story's plot with its dramatic Quality (1921: 62). Related to the plot theory and descriptions derived from M. H. Abrams’
The Glossary of Literary Terms: Seventh Edition published in 1999 and Robert
Saunders Dowst’s The Teqnique of Fiction Writing (1921), the writer can figure out the connection between Abrams and Dowst theories. David Sherman’s The
Junkyard Dogs is a kind of narrative work. Therefore, related to Abrams’ theories
of plot, the writer finds out that the story contains “meaningful structure of a literary plot” (Abrams, 1999: 173). The structure of the plot is constituted by its events and actions that are rendered, ordered, and organized so as to achieve their particular effects – the artistic and emotional effects” (Abrams, 1999: 224). Those events must be have connection – that lies in the intimate relation between the events of a story and its characters (Dowst, 1921: 49) – and relation as the result of causes and motivations (Abrams, 1999: 224). Therefore, the writer also realizes both Abrams and Dowst agreed that plot of the story deals with problems or conflicts of the main character. Dowst said it was about what will the person do and what will happen (1921: 50) means there is dramatic quality from the opposition of incompatible motives or forces (1921: 62). The main character may face three basic problems. Abrams would say they are conflict between individuals, conflict of a protagonist against fate, or against the circumstances that stand between him and a goal he has set himself (1999: 225). Similarly, Dowst said they are conflict between man and his environment or Nature, conflict between man and man, and conflict between opposed traits in the same man (1921: 52). Therefore, the writer will say they are conflicts that caused by opposed motives between the main character and other characters, the environment, and the other motives in the main character itself.
Since those events – that contains climatic values in the interaction between incidents and characters –, function together as a unit (Dowst, 1921: 49), then the story must move to en end (Dowst, 1921: 50), starting with some basic conflicts until the so serious conflicts as to involve all the elements of the story (Dowst, 1921: 61). Means, the emotional effects happen during the story must have a structure that lead the starting conflict into the final conflict. Refers to the various Freytag’s pattern (1999: 227), the writer finds the plot structure that is suitable for this study can be drawn into several parts. First is the exposition that provides background information needed to make sense of the action, describes the setting, and introduces the major characters. Then the exposition then is followed with rising action (complication) that contains several conflicts of the main character. These series of conflicts develop into the climax (the greatest tension). Then, there is the crisis, the reversal or "turning point" of the fortunes of the protagonist. The crisis is followed with the falling action (from now on the antagonist largely controls the course of events). The last, there is the resolution (when conflicts are settled, the mystery is solved, or the misunderstanding cleared away).
2. Figures of Speech or Rhetorical Figures
The writer will use figures of speech or rhetorical figures to relate the main character’s dreams with the valuable events in the plot of the story.
M. H. Abrams, in A Glossary of Literary Terms/ Seventh Edition (1999) stated about language used as the comparison for two other things, like quoted from his book that allegory, as Abrams quoted in his book from Goethe, is stated to “transform the phenomenon into a concept, the concept into an image” while symbolism is used to express “the phenomenon into idea, the idea into an image” (Abrams, 1999: 313). For the figure of speech called hyperbole, Abrams explained it as “bold overstatement, or the extravagant exaggeration of fact or of possibility” that is used either for “serious or ironic or comic effect” (Abrams, 1999: 120).
3. The Interpretation of Dreams
The writer will use some thoeries of interpretation of dream from Freud’s The Interpretation of Dreams (1913) to help to find the relation between the main character’s dreams and the valuable events found in the plot of the story.
Freud (1913) said that “most of the artificial dreams contrived by poets are intended for such symbolic interpretation” (1913: 81). It supports Abrams’ theory of symbolism that will be used in the analysis. Freud also said that dream is “a kind of secret code, in which every sign is translated into another sign of known meaning, according to an established key” (1913: 81-82). The writer will find the keys or clues found in the dreams then will relate them with the text in the plot of the story. Dream, as Freud said, also consists of “series of notions, which may be designated as the "background thoughts" of this part of the dream” (1913: 86). That background thoughts that some times pictures all the troubles of waking life (Freud, 1913: 113) will be related to the text in the plot using Abrams’ figures of speech since “what has occupied our minds during the day also dominates our dream thoughts” (Freud, 1913: 147).
C. Theoretical Framework
Abrams’ (1999) explanations and definitions about plot are used as the base to gain more understanding of plot in fiction. Therefore, the various pattern that is based on Freytag’s pattern, as described above, would be used to describe the plot of Sherman’s The Junkyard Dogs in order to solve the first problem mentioned in chapter one. Then, all kind of figures of speech based on Abrams’ theory that are combined with Freud’s theory of dreams are used to find the close correlation between the valuable elements in the dreams with the valuable events in the plot of the story by comparing some similar elements among them.
CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY A. Object of the Study The subject or the work of literature that is examined in this study is The Junkyard Dogs, a work of narrative fiction that is written by David Sherman, a Former Marine and CAP veteran. It is the first revision and printed-on-demand by Createsspace in the year of 2008. The novel tells a story of a single Marine squad as part of the U.S. Marine Combined Action Platoon ordered to settle in Vietnam. They are sent to Khung Toi, a Vietnamese village and having an order to work with the local South Vietnamese militia called Popular Forces (PF). Together, the Marines and PFs form CAP (Combined Action Platoon) Whiskey 8, keeping the villagers safe
from the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army (NVA). The conflict arises when the a stranger who comes together with an unknown lieutenant gives order to the three of the Marines (Socrates, Captain Hook, and Sneaky Pete) to get involve in a secretive and mission-by-mission mysterious project to assassinate NVA cadre in villages other than their own. The corporal Socrates who is disturbed by the project tries to backtrack it, since they aren't supposed to tell anything about the missions that has no proper authorization. Instead finding the expected answer or explanation, they find documents detailing a planned NVA major attack against CAP Whiskey 8 that lead them to the biggest fight of their lives.
B. Approach of the Study
New criticism, that was prominent in American literary criticism until late in the 1960s, insists that The proper concern of literary criticism is not with the external circumstances or effects or historical position of a work, but with a detailed consideration of the work itself as an independent entity (Abrams, 1999: 180). The attention of analysis is turning from background, sources, and biography to the “detailed analysis of "literary texts themselves."” Sometimes, new criticism is called "the words on the page" (Abrams, 1999: 180).
Thus, the principles of the New Criticism are “basically verbal” and “to analyze the meanings and interactions of words, figures of speech, and symbols.” “Explication”, or “close reading” is the distinctive procedure of a New Critic. It gives “detailed analysis of the complex interrelations and ambiguities (multiple meanings) of the verbal and figurative components within a work.” The essential components of any work of literature “is conceived to be words, images, and symbols rather than character, thought, and plot” (Abrams, 1999: 181).
The new criticism approach is used in analyzing Sherman’s The Junkyard Dogs because as comparing the valuable elements in the main character’s dreams with the valuable events in the plot of the story, the writer takes some words from the text stated in the novel and compared words within the text to find out the correlation among them.
C. Method of the Study
The study analyzes one of David Sherman’s literary work, The Junkyard
Dogs (2008), by using library research as the method of the study. The data are
divided into two categories. The primary data was taken from the novel The
Junkyard Dogs (2008) itself while the secondary data were taken from some
supporting books and some appropriate information from websites in internet.They are M. H. Abrams’ The Glossary of Literary Terms: Seventh Edition published in 1999 and Robert Saunders Dowst’s The Teqnique of Fiction Writing (1921). All data would be used to help the writer answering the questions stated on the problem formulation.
In this analysis, the writer took some steps that were done systematically. The first step in analyzing the object of the study was by reading and trying to understand the work itself. After reading and comprehending the content of the novel in detail, the writer tried to figure out the interesting thing in the novel, which made the novel distinguished from others. The step was followed by choosing the topic related to the interesting thing: The Main Character’s Dreams as The Conflicts Representation in the Plot Development in David Sherman’s The
Junkyard Dogs.
As it had been achieved, the writer formulated the problems that were to analyze the plot of the novel and the interesting point, the main character’s dreams. Therefore, the writer set the last problem that tried to find that the main character’s dreams represent the conflicts in the plot development in Sherman’s
The Junkyard Dogs by correlating the valuable elements in the dreams with the
valuable events in the plot of the story.The analysis began with the analysis of the plot of the story. By describing how the plot of the story developed, the writer solved the first problem.
The second question was answered by focusing on the analysis of how the main character’s dreams described in the story. Afterward, in order to solve the last problem, some strong elements found in the description the main character’s dreams meaning was tried to be analyzed and compared using figures of speech that were found in the former analysis.
The writer would compare the dream content to whatever is going on in the main character’s life around the time of the dream, considered to the several emotional events from the day that would combine to form a composite happening, object, or person in the dream. Then, the writer found the "psychological conflict" that referred to the situation where there are strong motives or needs and barriers or resistance to fulfilling those motives or needs.
Then, the writer made a feasible relation from the main character’s dreams that involve figures of speech. The finding would be related to the text in the plot before the main character experienced his particular dream.
The finding of some crucial points as the result of the analysis would be put in conclusion. The conclusion was made to show the relation between each part of the study.
CHAPTER IV ANALYSIS A. The Plot of Sherman’s The Junkyard Dogs To draw the plot structure of the story, the writer will draw the plot
development as the following: First is the exposition that provides background information needed to make sense of the action, describes the setting, and introduces the major characters. Then the exposition then is followed with rising
action (complication) that contains several conflicts of the main character. These
series of conflicts develop into the climax (the greatest tension). Then, there is the
crisis, the reversal or "turning point" of the fortunes of the protagonist. The crisis
is followed with the falling action (from now on the antagonist largely controls the course of events). The last, there is the resolution (when conflicts are settled, the mystery is solved, or the misunderstanding cleared away).
The exposition begins with the third-point-of-view narrator’s introducing of the major characters: Socrates, Captain Hook, and Sneake Pete. The narrator also tells the setting, which is set in Khung Toi village, and the squad’s home base, Fort Cragg. The narrator explains that those major character are Marines working with Vietnamese militia named Popular Forces, “Three of the five Popular Forces who'd spent the night on patrol with the three Marines had already dropped out and gone home” (Sherman, 2008: 1). The duty of the main character is also revealed, “The photo caption said only that he was a Marine corporal, didn't say he was in Vietnam” (Sherman, 2008: 12), followed with the physical appearance of the major characters telling that “they were young men, these Marines of Whiskey 8, their average age was 19” (Sherman, 2008: 13). Therefore, there is a part of the story introducing other characters, Lieutenant Convoy and the stranger, who will lead the main character, Socrates, into the conflict:
"Corporal," Lieutenant Convoy said, "you see that man over there? I want you and those two men of yours to talk to him. Listen very carefully to what he has to say. I'm not telling you what to say or do, just give him a listen and then make up your own minds. Understand?" Socrates looked thoughtful while the lieutenant was talking. He nodded just as thoughtful when he was through. "Yes, sir." "Then do it." "Aye aye, Sir." Socrates looked at Captain Hook and Sneaky Pete where they stood watching and jerked his head at them. They followed him to the stranger (2008: 16-17). By this part, the main character’s initial curiosity is started. Socrates believed that the stranger was civilian. He was questioning the stranger’s authority to him.
The stranger continued toward the gate. Socrates hesitated a second, then followed. He had a feeling this stranger was a civilian, no matter he was in a uniform. What was this man's authority, if any (2008: 17)? Then the curiosity rose into Socrates’ mind when he was explained that his meeting and conversation with the stranger was secret and wasn’t supposed to tell to anyone.
"This conversation is top secret. You are never to divulge to anyone what we talked about. You are never even to tell anyone you talked to me. If anybody ever asks you about me or this conversation you don't know what they're talking about. Do you understand?" (2008: 19).
Socrates affirmed the request and this would result his another conflict later. He was told that there is a mission to kill VC cadre. His doubt revealed but the stranger said that the mission would lead them to win the war, so he affirmed.