An Ecocritical Analysis of Young Adult Dystopian Novel in Veronica Rossi’s Under the Never Sky.

An Ecocritical Analysis of Young Adult Dystopian Novel in Veronica

Rossi’s_{Under the Never Sky}

A THESIS

Submit as Partial for Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Sarjana Degree of English Department Faculty of Arts and Humanities UIN Sunan Ampel

Surabaya

Rofi’atul Azizah A93213162

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT

FACULTY OF ARTS AND HUMANITIES

UIN SUNAN AMPEL SURABAYA

ABSTRACT

Azizah, Rofi’atul. 2017. An Ecocritical Analysis of Young Adult Dystopian Novel in Veronica Rossi’sUnder the Never Sky, English Department, Faculty of Arts and Humanities, State Islamic University Sunan Ampel Surabaya.

Advisor : Sufi IkrimaSa’adah, M. Hum

This thesis focuses on the literary portrayal of nature in young adult dystopian novelUnder the Never Skyby Veronica Rossi. This novel is the first book from the trilogy. The novel tells about the portrayal of Reverie and Death Shop,two places in same world which have different nature and culture condition. Aria and Peregrine as the main characters have to adapt and survive in dangerous place to accomplish their purpose. The aims of this thesis are to describe the representation of nature and the interaction of Aria and Peregrine as main characters with nature, using Garrad’s theory of ecocriticism and Basu’s perspective on dystopian literature.

This thesis applies descriptive qualitative method. The result of this thesis confirms that the novel draw the portrayal of dystopian using Garrad concept of ecocriticism. First, Pastoral is represented by the distiction of the town and country. In the novel town is reprsented as Reverie and country as Death Shop. Second,Wilderness is represented by the wilderness of society in the Reverie and Death Shop and the wilderness of Death Shop’s land. Third, Apocalypse is represented by the portrayal of foreboding doom and human eradication in the novel. The setting of place and time are the result of natural disaster and the development of technology takes control in human’s life. The interaction of Aria and Peregrine shows human coexist with nature. Human takes experience, learns knowledge and makes relation with nature.

INTISARI

Azizah, Rofi’atul. 2017. An Ecocritical Analysis of Young Adult Dystopian Novel in Veronica Rossi’sUnder the Never Sky, Jurusan Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Humaniora, Universitas Islam Negeri Sunan Ampel Surabaya.

Dosen Pembimbing : Sufi Ikrima Sa’adah, M. Hum

Skripsi ini berfokus pada penggambaran sastra tentang alam pada novel distopia remajaUnder the Never Skyoleh Veronica Rossi. Novel ini adalah buku pertama dari triloginya. Novel ini menceritakan tentang penggambaran Reverie and Death Shop, dua tempat di dunia yang sama tapi memiliki kondisi alam dan budaya yang berbeda. Aria dan Peregrine sebagai karakter utama harus

beradaptasi dan bertahan di tempat yang berbahaya untuk meraih tujuan mereka. Tujuan dari skripsi ini adalah untuk mendeskripsikan representasi alam dan interaksi antara Aria dan Peregrine sebagai karakter utama dengan alam, dengan menggunakan Garrad teori tentang ekokritik dan Basu perspektif tentang distopia.

Skripsi ini menggunakan metode kualitatif deskriptif. Hasil dari tesis ini menegaskan bahwa novel ini menggambarkan penggambaran distopia

menggunakan Garrad konsep tentang ekokritik. Pertama, Pastoral digambarkan dengan perbedaan kota dan negara. Didalam novel, kota direpresentasikan oleh Reverie dan negara direpresentasikan oleh Death Shop. Kedua, Wilderness digambarkan dengan kekejaman dari masyarakat di Reverie dan Death Shop juga tempat berbahaya yang ada di Death Shop. Ketiga, Apocalypse direpresentasikan dengan penggambaran hari kiamat dan kehancuran manusia. Pengaturan tempat dan waktu merupakan hasil dari bencana alam dan perkembangan teknologi mengambil kendali dalam kehidupan manusia. Interaksi Aria dan Peregrine menunjukkan manusia hidup berdampingan dengan alam. Manusia mengambil pengalaman, belajar pengetahuan dan membuat hubungan dengan alam. Kata Kunci :Ekologi, Ekokritik, Sastra Distopia Remaja

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Inside Cover Page ...i

Inside Title Page ...ii

Declaration Page ...iii

Dedication Page ... iv

Motto ... v

Advisor’s Approved Page...vi

Examiner’s Approval Page ...vii

Acknowledgment ...viii

Table of Contents ...ix

Abstract ...xi

Intisari ... xii

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION A. Background of study ... 1

B. Statement of the Problem ... 4

C. Objective of the study ... 4

D. Scope and Limitation ... 5

E. Significant of the study ... 5

F. Method of the study ... 5

G. Definition of key terms ... 7

CHAPTER 2 REVIEW OF LITERATURE A .Theoretical Framework ... 9

1. Ecocriticism ...9

c. Apocalypse ...15

2. Young Adult Literature ...18

B. Review of Related Studies ...20

CHAPTER 3 ANALYSIS 1. Representation of Nature ...22

a. Pastoral ...22

b. Wilderness...30

c. Apocalypse ...34

2. Interaction of Main Character with Nature ...39

a. Aria ...39

1. The Experiance with Nature ...39

2. The Knowledge about Nature ...42

3. The Relation with Nature ...44

b. Peregrine ...45

1. The Experiance with Nature ...45

2. The Knowledge about Nature ...48

3. The Relation with Nature ...49

CHAPTER 4 CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION ...52

WORKS CITED ...55

APPENDIXES Synopsis ... 57

R . A z i z a h |1

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study

Environment becomes the one trending topic during the last decade. The rapid development of technology in the age of globalization makes people forget the other side that must be considered, fertility of the earth. The number of factory established, ending on the amount of waste produced. Shortage of land into one as a result of indiscriminate waste disposal and the river is the place. They need the land for factory development and forests are cleared for the factory purposes. Air pollution due to vehicle fumes and factory smoke resulted in an increase of respiratory diseases and the worst of the ozone layer depletion that makes the sun becomes more scorching. Another factor also come from nature itself.

Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, storms conveniently indicates the earth has its own free will to show its strength.

Nowadays, literature grows rapidly. Seing the frequent cases of the environment that getting worse by day, the experts put forward their concerns through writing form. Books and novels about the environment growing rapidly. In the mid-eighties, the field of environmental literary studies was planted in the early nineties it grew. The brief essay, literary journals about environmental issues and some universities begin to include literature courses in their environmental studies, like in the University of Nevada, Reno, created the first academic position in Literature and the Environment (Glofelty and Fromm 6).

R . A z i z a h |2

According to Cheryll Glofelty and Harold Fromm in their bookThe

Ecocriticism Reader : Landmarks in LiteraryEcology, in 1992, a new Association for the Study of Literature and Environment (ASLE) was formed, with Scott Slovic elected first president. In 1993, Patrick Murphy established a new journal, ISLE : Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment, to “provide the forum for critical studies of literary and performing arts proceeding from or addressing environmental consideration (Glofelty and Fromm 7). These would include ecological theory, environmentalism, conceptions of nature and

depictions, the human/nature dichotomy and related concern.

The study about environment is called Ecocriticism and becomes one of the literary criticism. Glotfelty and Fromm define ecocriticism as ‘the study of the relationship between literature and the physical environment’(Carter 139). Don Scheese says that, one of the some principles of ecocriticism is inherently interdisciplinary. Ecocriticism is most appropriately applied to a work in which the landscape itself is a dominant character, when a significant interaction occurs between author and place, character(s) and place (Scheese 11).

According to place, ecocriticism has two basic portrait when appear in literary text, dystopia and utopia. Literally, dystopia was created from utopia, the name of ideal country imagined Sir Thomas in 1516. Utopia means too good place or perfect world to be true where no problems like war, disease, poverty,

oppression, discrimination, inequality and so forth. Dystopia is the opposite of utopia. The term is used to describe an unpleasant futuristic society inhabited by a

R . A z i z a h |3

major preoccupation of the dystopian imagination is the threat of environmental destruction because of global warming and other scenarios of ecological

destruction like rising sea levels, storms, drought, and the end of fossil fuels create social, political, and economic nightmares. The environmental dystopian literature usually illustrates the dangers of environmental ruin and the young-survivor protagonists learn to adapt in the hard times.

Under the Never Skyis one of young adult dystopian novels which discusses about the new world after a major catastrophe has decimated the Earth. The book written by Veronica Rossi is a 2012 young adult debut novel the first in a trilogy. The story is about Aria, a 17 year old girl who has been exiled from Reverie( a doomed city that protect people from outside). She is blamed for starting fire and killing her friend and two others. This punishment means almost certain death: outside of her Pod and other similar Pods where the technologically advanced dwell, is a wasteland known as the Death Shop. Death Shop was a place known to be filled with cannibals and terrible Aether storms, even the air can kill. However, she soon discovers that she can breathe the outside air without fatal harm, though she has little other means of surviving in the savage land. Then she meets an Outsider named Perry, Aria eventually realizes that he is her only chance for survival. Despite his reluctance to help a sheltered girl from Reverie, Perry knows that Aria has the potential to help him redeem himself. The two must learn how to work together if they are to survive in this new dangerous world.

R . A z i z a h |4

conflict that appeared in novel. The portrayal of Reverie city was very safe and the world beyond the wall called the Death Shop has bad climate even the air can kill. Two different worlds have their own ways to survive and interact with nature. In different nature condition, Aria and Peregrine as main character in the novel have their own way to interact with nature. They breaks the system and role to know the truth of nature condition surrounded them and try to find safe place to life.

B. Statement of the Problem

The question of the research formulate by the writer are :

1. How is the representation of the natural environment in Veronica Rossi’s Under the Never Sky?

2. How do Aria and Peregrine as the main character interact with the natural environment in Veronica Rossi’sUnder the Never Sky?

C. Objective of the Study

Related to the previous statement of the problem, this research is proposed to answer all questions stated in the Statements of the Problems. These answers will be:

1. To describe the representation of the natural environment in Veronica Rossi’sUnder the Never Sky.

R . A z i z a h |5

D. Scope and Limitation

The object of this research is Veronica Rossi’sUnder the Never Skynovel. This study focuses on the ecologyissues that appear in Veronica Rossi’sUnder the Never Skynovel using Garrad’s theory of ecocriticism and Basu’s perspective on dystopian literature. It discusses about the interaction of main characters (Aria and Peregrine) and natural environment, also the representation of natural

environment.

E. Significance of the study

The findings of the study are expected to provide valuable input to the English departement student and other researcher that need the data to get information and give the additional empirical data about the study. This study aims to give more knowledge about the ecological perspective focus on the nature and human interaction with environment in dystopian work, beside to improve the reader’s knowledge in environmental work especially in Veronica Rossi’sUnder the Never Sky.Also, the common readers who do not really well understand about literature can learn and add knowledge on how to protect and preserve nature for the life of next generation.

F. Method of the Study

Methodology used by the researcher is descriptive-qualitative. It tries to analyze the interaction of Aria and Peregrine character with environment. It also

R . A z i z a h |6

explainthe potrayal of natural environment in Veronica Rossi’sUnder the Never Sky.The data are library based and data from the other source that can help.

a. Approach

The analysis uses the ecocritical approach in literature. It investigate the relationship between human activities and the natural world. Sometimes the human activities can influence environment badly or otherwise. Every people can give impact to environment whether it’s big or small effect. And the study of literature and the environment from an interdisciplinary point of view called Ecocriticism.

b. Data Sources and Data

The main sources of the data are taken from the novel Veronica Rossi’s Under the Never Sky.The other sources that the writer used are from library research and also online sources to give better understanding. The data are taken with the related clauses and sentences about ecocritical environment in the novel Veronica Rossi’sUnder the Never Sky.

c. Data Collection

The data are collected by closed-reading ofthe novel Veronica Rossi’s Under the Never Sky.In analyzing the subject materials, this research uses literary research. Moreover, the procedure of data collecting can be described as follows:

R . A z i z a h |7

- Searching data source. The main data source of this research is ecocritical environment in the novel Veronica Rossi’sUnder the Never Sky.

- Reading the novel in order to accomplish a complete understanding.

- After deciding the data source, the researcher reads the novel and tries to find the interaction Aria and Peregrine with environment and the representation of nature.

- Choosing the data which have relation to ecocriticism theory.

- Classifying the selected data

d. Data Analysis

Data are analyzed by using theory or concept of ecocriticism that is ecocritical theory. First step of analyzing is the representated nature in the novel. Secondly, to answer the second statement of problems, that is to analyze the interaction of Aria and Peregrine with environment.

G. Definition of Key Terms

Dystopia : J. A. Cuddon'sThe Dictionary of Literary Termsdefines dystopia as the converse of utopia. Dystopia forecasts "the doom awaiting

mankind" and can range from whimsical fantasy to politically charged fiction (Cuddon 959).

Ecology : the interconnection across the historical, political, human,

technological and natural–and the environment that is created from those interconnections. (Buell 13)

R . A z i z a h |8

Young Adult Literature : the Canadian Library Association Young Adult Book Award defines Young Adult literature as books that appeal primarily to youth aged thirteen to eighteen.

R . A z i z a h |9

CHAPTER II

LITERARY REVIEW

2.1 Theoritical Framework

The researcher uses ecocriticism as main theory focusing on Greg Garrad’s perspective and concept that studies about the relationship between literature and nature. The perspective and concept of ecocritism by Garrad will help to analyze the representation of nature and interaction of the main characters in dystopian novelUnder the Never Skywith ecological perspective.

2.1.1 Ecocriticism

Ecocriticism is the study of human–nature relations in literature, film and other cultural expressions. Ecocriticism has rapidly become established in the field of literary theory since its inception in the early 1990s. Further, in 1992 the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment (ASLE) was established along with the Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment (ISLE) in 1993 (Glotfelty 18). Ecocritics initially focused on American nature writing, the British Romantics and environmentally oriented non-fiction. The word

‘ecocriticism’ first appeared in William Rueckert’s essay “Literature and Ecology:

An Experiment in Ecocriticism” in 1978. Glen Love (Professor of English at the University of Oregon) called for ‘ecocriticism’ at the WLA meeting. Since that meeting in 1989 the usage of the term ‘ecocriticism’ has bloomed (18).

InThe Ecocriticism Reader : Landmark in Literary Ecology,Cheryll Glotfelty and Harold Fromm explain about the definition of ecocriticism that in tandem

R . A z i z a h |10

oikosandkritosmean “house judge”. A long winded gloss on ecocrit might run as follow: “ a person who judges the merits and fault of writings that depict the

effects of culture upon nature with a view toward celebrating nature, berating its despoilers, and reversing their harm through political action.” The Greekoikos,

household, and in modern usage refers both to “the study of biological

interrelationships and the flow of energy through organisms and organic matter.”

(Glotfelty and Fromm 62) So, theoikosis nature, a place Edward Hoagland call

“our widest home,” and thekritosis an arbiter of taste who wants the house kept in good order, no boots or dishes strewn about to ruin the original decor. (Buell 13).Simply put, ecocriticism is the study of the relationship between literature and the physical environment.

Richard Kerridge’s definition in the mainly BritishWriting the Environment (1998) suggests, like Glotfelty’s, a broad cultural ecocriticism:

The ecocritic wants to track environmental ideas and representations

wherever they appear, to see more clearly a debate which seems to be taking place, often part-concealed, in a great many cultural spaces. Most of all, ecocriticism seeks to evaluate texts and ideas in terms of their coherence and usefulness as responses to environmental crisis (Kerridge 5).

Base on definition above, Ecocriticism tries to examine and evaluate text and idea with relation to environmental issue. While, Greg Garrard in his book

“Ecocriticism” explain Ecocriticism is the study of the relationship of human and

the non-human, throughout human cultural history and entailing critical analysis

R . A z i z a h |11

Ecocriticism is interdisciplinary, calling for collaboration between natural scientists, writers, literary critics, anthropologists, historians, and more.

Ecocriticism asks us to examine ourselves and the world around us, critiquing the way that we represent, interact with, and construct the environment, both

“natural” and manmade. At the heart of ecocriticism, many maintain, is “a

commitment to environmentality from whatever critical vantage point” (Buell 11).

In this age of environmental crisis it is enlightening to analyse the works of this well-known writer against the backdrop of eco-critical theories which take an earth-centred approach to literary studies.

Ecocriticism’s attention to place reflects its recognition of the

interconnectedness between human life/history and physical environments to which works of imagination (in all media, including literature) bear witness— hence the claim by one of ecocriticism’s earliest spokespersons that its distinctive

addition to the commonly studied triad of race, class, and gender was place as a critical category (Buell, Heise and Thornber 420).

According to Buell, one can identify several trend-lines marking an evolution

from a “first wave” of ecocriticism to a “second” or new revisionist wave or

waves increasingly evident today. Buell explain, First-wave scholarship of the 1990s tended to equate environment with nature. Ecocriticism focus on literary renditions of the natural world in poetry, fiction, and nonfiction as means of evoking and promoting contact with it and value nature preservation and human attachment to place at a local-communitarian or bioregional level. Wendell Berry

R . A z i z a h |12

and Gary Snyder as environmental writer-critics, whose essayistic writings were more influential as catalysts for ecocriticism than were their fictive works.

By contrast, second-wave scholarship of the past decade has shown greater interest in literatures pertaining to the metropolis and industrialization. Tending to reject the validity of the nature culture distinction and sometimes to the point of following Bruno Latour’s stigmatization of nature as hopelessly vague and

antiquated. Placing particular emphasis on environmental justice concerns (419). Concepts of Ecocriticism

Greg Garrard’s accessible volume traces the development of the movement and explores the concepts that have most occupied ecocritics, including:

a. Pastoral

At the root of pastoral is the idea of nature as a stable, enduring counterpoint to the disruptive energy and change of human societies (Garrad 56). Seen in evolutionary terms, however, pastoral space cannot be understood as separate from ordinary human settings. Instead it must include all of the earth, with homo sapiens only one among myriads of interrelated and interdependent species of living creatures.

Pastoral is a good example for examining human-nature relationship representation of the physical world. Pastoral, undoubtedly one of the most universal forms of Western environmental imagination, "has become almost synonymous with the idea of return to a less urbanized, more "natural" state of existence" (Buell 31). Buell writes:

R . A z i z a h |13

"Historically, pastoral has sometimes activated green consciousness, sometimes euphemized land appropriation. It may direct us towards the realm of physical nature, or it may abstract us from it…. (Buell 31)

Pastoral directs to portray of nature in physical world, sometimes in ways to care with environment and protect nature.In dystopian literature, Pastoral sometimes was described as the other part of world or place where the character can escape fromthe damaged world. It can be destruction of nature or human’s moral.The bad setting place in dystopian makes people thing nature does not appear but sometimes nature also exist.

Pastoral found in much British and American literature, focuses on the dichotomy between urban and rural life, is “deeply entrenched in Western culture”(Garrard 33). At the forefront of works which display pastoralism is a

general idealization of the nature and the rural and the demonization of the urban. Often, such works show a“retreat” from city life to the country while

romanticizing rural life, depicting an idealized rural existence that “obscures” the

reality of the hard work living in such areas requires (33).According toGarrad, in classical period of pastoral creates two key contrasts: the spatial distinction of town and country as well as a temporal distinction of a fallen present and an idyllic past (35). It presents the distinction of town (frenetic, corrupt, impersonal) and country (peaceful, abundant) in fallen present.

Greg Gerrard identifies three branches of the pastoral. First, Classic Pastoral,

“characterized by nostalgia” (37) and an appreciation of nature as a place for

R . A z i z a h |14

expansion of the urban. Third,American Pastoralism, which “emphasized

agrarianism” (49) and represents land as a resource to be cultivated,with farmland often creating a boundary between the urban and the wilderness.

b. Wilderness

Wilderness is the natural, unfallen antithesis of an unnatural civilization that has lost its soul. It is a place of freedom in which we can recover our true selves we have lost to the corrupting influences of our artificial lives. Most of all, it is the ultimate landscape of authenticity (Cronon 80). Wilderness also share the

sense of “undomesticated.” Literally, wilderness refers to a spatial area, whereas

wildness is a term of quality rather than location. Wildness is arguably

“everywhere: ineradicable populations of fungi, moss, mold, yeasts, and such that surround and inhabit us” (Snyder 14).

The concept of Wilderness has been suggested by Greg Garrard in his work Ecocriticism (2012) as:

The idea of wilderness, signifying nature in a state uncontaminated by

civilization, is the most potent construction of nature available…it is a

construction mobilized to protect particular habitat and species, and is seen as a place for the reinvigoration of those tired of the moral and material

pollution of the city. Wilderness has an almost sacramental value: it holds out the promise of a renewed, authentic relation of humanity and the earth, a post-Christian covenant, found in a space of purity, founded in an attitude of reverence and humility. (Garrard 66)

R . A z i z a h |15

Besides wildernes known as a land of dangerous and share sense of

undomesticated, it also refer to sacral place to get freedom and place to escape from pollution of the city. Wilderness reinvigoration of those tired of the moral.

Wilderness is represented in literature and popular culture. Representations of wilderness in British and American culture can be separated into a few main tropes. First, Old World wilderness displays wilderness as a place beyond the borders of civilization, wherein wilderness is treated as a “threat,” a place of “exile” (Garrard 62). This trope can be seen in Biblical tales of creation and early

British culture. Old World wilderness is often conflated with demonic practices in early American literature (62).

Second, New World wilderness, seen in portrayals of wilderness in later

American literature, applies the pastoral trope of the “retreat” to wilderness itself,

seeing wilderness not as a place to fear, but as a place to find sanctuary. The New

World wilderness trope has informed much of the “American identity,” and often constructs encounters with the wilderness that lead to a more “authentic

existence” (71).

Finally, the wilderness which follows the tradition of American frontier literature and fascinated with the wild as a cultural and social offering. With this understanding, ecocriticism proposes to seek social change as well as deeper understanding of literature.

c. Apocalypse

R . A z i z a h |16

youth–like the environment, are likely to survive even if our constructed civilization does not (Garrard 107). Garrard suggests, apocalypse involves a

‘social psychology’ that inclines towards ‘paranoia and violence’, ‘extreme moral dualism’, and canonisation of ‘believers’; and because it is always been coming

yet, it is always an imaginative act.

Buell, inThe Environmental Imagination(1995), describes this literature,

including Carson’sSilent Springas "environmental apocalypticism" and as "the single most powerful master metaphor that the contemporary environmental imagination has at its disposal" (Buell 285). The role of the imagination is pivotal

to this metaphor, for it implies that the very fate of our world ‘hinges on the arousal of the imagination to a sense of crisis’ (Buell 285). Generally, apocalypse

is equated with foreboding doom and human eradication. Thompson argue,

Apocalypse from the GreekApo-calyptein, meaning ‘to un-veil’. Apocalyptic literature takes the form of a revelation of the end of history. Violent and grotesque images are juxtaposed with glimpses of a world transformed; the underlying theme is usually a titanic struggle between good and evil . . . Apocalypticism has been described as a genre born out of crisis, designed to stiffen the resolve of an embattled community by dangling in front of it the vision of a sudden and permanent release from its captivity. It is underground literature, the consolation of the persecuted. (Thompson 13–14) This definition suggests the following features: the social psychology of apocalypticism that has historically inclined such ‘embattled’ movements to violence. The extreme moral dualism that divides the world sharply into friend

R . A z i z a h |17

corresponding role of believers as the ones to whom, and for whom, the veil of history is rent. But most importantly, apocalypticism is inevitably bound up with imagination, because it has yet to come into being.

Garrard goes on to detail the characteristics of the apocalypse narrative: the warning, the "good guys" who are admired without question, and the "bad guys" or faceless bureaucrats corrupted by commercial success (Garrad 95). This

apocalyptic narrative mirrors and feeds into the literary dystopia, where "even the most egalitarian utopia must eventually revert to conflict and competition for scarce resources" (94) and therefore, fall into dystopia.

The apocalyptic has proven to be one of the most complicit, resilient, and powerful metaphors used throughout history to manipulate human behavior. On one side, it continues to be a central rhetorical element connecting a multitude of conservative agendas (religious, military, and industrial) to justify an assumed moral supremacy of one group over other humans as well as nature. On the other side, in contrast, it has emerged as one of the most relied-upon and productive rhetorical devices in the current environmental movement.

In this point, ecocriticism as theory will be applied to this research by using ecocriticism’s concept (Pastoral, Wilderness and Apocalypse) to analyze the representation of nature that appear inUnder the Never Skynovel. The interaction of Aria and Peregrine with natural environtment will be analyzed and proved with data obtained from the novel.

R . A z i z a h |18

2.1.2 The Young Adult Dystopian Literature

Dystopia is derived from two words, namely: dis and utopia. Distopia is the opposite of utopia (eutopos- a "good place", dis topos- a "bad place"). The term is used to describe an unpleasant futuristic society inhabited by a number of people or a population (Adams 1). Here, the society itself is typically the antagonist; it is society that is actively working against the protagonist’s aims and desires. This oppression frequently is done by a totalitarian or authoritarian government, causing the loss of civil freedom and untenable living conditions, caused by any number of circumstances.

One major preoccupation of the dystopian imagination is the threat of environmental destruction because of global warming and other scenarios of ecological destruction like rising sea levels, storms, drought, and the end of fossil fuels create social, political, and economic nightmares (Basu et al 3). The

environmental dystopian literature usually illustrates the dangers of environmental ruin and the young-survivor protagonists learn to adapt in the hard times. In addition, based on this setting place and time, contemporary dystopian often illustrates aboutpost-apocalypticworld a variety of other huge world-changing events, such as plague, World War III, cataclysmic asteroid crashes, or even zombies.

The young adult text tends to "balance the desire to please and instruct" they have clear messages, with edgy covers (Basu et al 5). The genre sets youth at odds

R . A z i z a h |19

adult dystopia inherently offers a hope that is not present in the adult dystopia. Dystopia seeks to shock its readership into a realization of the urgent need for radical revisions of current human, political and social organization, and even of human nature itself (Sigler 148). If people do not change, the future looks devastatingly bleak.

The young adult dystopia derives many of its ideas and conventions from the wider traditions of utopian and dystopian literature for adults, science fiction, and children's literature. These texts recapitulate the conventions of the

bildungsroman, using various forms of turmoil as a catalyst for achieving adulthood, but the dystopia itself, and most important for this study the environment of the dystopia, is an entity and plays a role in the young protagonist's development (Basu et al 6).

Dystopian young adult texts focus, on the whole, on the actions of humans in the developed western world. They comment on an increasing reliance on

technology, genetic modification, consumerism, and the massive environmental impact this lifestyle causes. The predominant environmental tension addressed in these texts is humanity’s survival in the face of climate change and how climate change will alter not only the landscape of the planet but the landscape of humanity itself. The natural will to survive of both humans and the environment are now in conflict, but humans are inextricably connected to nature and not vice versa, nature will continue with or without us, but humanity cannot continue without the earth (Garrard 103). Nature, in its traditional sense (a biodiverse world

R . A z i z a h |20

never really existed in the scientific or real world but only within utopian ideals represented in literature through the ages (106).

2. 2 Review of Related Study

This research uses dystopian novelUnder the Never Sky, therefore some researchs of this novel is only review. Some thesis also analyze ecocriticism as theory in research.

The research finds some previous studies in same topic about ecocriticism in FilmAvatar.The Thesis belongs to Rohmah Romadhon, a student from UIN Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta (2011), Entitled An Analysis Environmental Issues Using Ecocriticism in James Cameron’s Film ‘Avatar’.The study focused on the environmental issue in object through the different relationship between human and non-human characters with environment and the statement that film make regarding environmental messages. Alfarizi Akbar (2016) from UIN Sunan Ampel Surabaya also analyzes about ecocriticism inJostein Gaarder's novel, The World According to Anna. Entitled A Portrait of Environmentalist in Jostein Gaarder’s The World According to Anna,the thesis concerns on analyzing Anna as character and her effort. Both of theses more focus on the character who try to save the word from disaster. Meanwhile, this research focuses on the landscape of nature representation and interaction main chacter that appear in dystopian novel.

Other thesis or journal that describes about ecocriticism is Ecology, Technology and Dystopia: an Ecocritical Reading of Young Adult Dystopian

R . A z i z a h |21

(2016). It discusses how contemporary young adult literature portrays the condition of nature and technology in three dystopian novels entitledThe Maze Runner(Dashner, 2010),The Hunger Games(Collins, 2008) andDivergent(Roth, 2011). Meanwhile, this research has similiar point with theory used in the thesis especially in ecocriticism theory and the focus of analysis. The thesis focus on three dystopian novel with nature and technology concern but this research only focuses on ecology concern and the interaction of two main character, althouth the object of analysis is different with this research.

The difference of the related studies and this research is the object of analysis. This research attempts to uncover the dystopian nature representation and the interaction of Aria and Peregrine as main character while both of character have different action with nature.

R . A z i z a h |22

CHAPTER III

Ecocritical Analysis inUnder the Never Sky Novel

The chapter explains about the analysis to answer the statement of the problem in this research. First, the analysis is about the representation of natural environment using concept of Pastoral, Wilderness, and Apocalypse in Garrad’s perspective. Second, the interaction of Aria and Peregrine as the main character with the natural environment in Veronica Rossi’s Under the Never Sky, is described in detail.

1. Representation of Nature

This part will analyze the first question of the statement problem about the representation of natural environment. The analysis is carried out based on some dominant concepts namely wilderness, pastoral, and apocalypse.

a. Pastoral

Garrad explains that nature represents in pastoral as the spatial distiction of town and country as well as a temporal distinction of a fallen present and an idyllic past (Garrad 39). The portrayal of pastoral is shown by two different place inUnder the Never Skynovel, there are Pod and Death Shop. According Garrad explanation, Pod represents a town described as afrenetic, corrupt, impersonal place. Meanwhile,Death Shop represents a countryknown as peacefuland abundant place.

R . A z i z a h |23

the Pods called Reverie where Aria lived and other is Bliss where Aria’s mother, Lumina stayed.‘Aria had kept communication with her mother, who had followed her research to Bliss, another Pod hundreds of miles away’(Rossi 10). Dome is designed for the safety of every Dweller so there is no gap to look out. The Dweller is the people live in Pod. Even, no one has ever seen the real sun in the dome.

“Most of the Pod is aboveground. The walls protecting Reverie are ten feet thick. There’s no way you could ever get through them again.”

He even had a tan, a ridiculous upgrade considering none of them had ever seen the sun. (Rossi 8)

The Reverie dome makes everyone who lived inside safe from Aether storm. Pod from the outside is like a man-made mountain amid earthen hills. The largest dome at the center would be the Panop. The off-shooting structures were the service domes, like Ag 6.‘Aria spent seventeen years in Reverie’s Panop.

Contained in one place. With daylightfading, the Pod’s deep charcoal shape was fast blending into the night’(Rossi 445).

As a representation of a town, Pod like Reverie contains the modern building, intellectual society and high technology development. In the Pod‘most

everything, from the production of food to the recycling of their air and water, was automated.Only the minority work in real’(Rossi 304). Many places are set as the progress city.

Reverie had stood nearly three hundred years, but she had never seen signs ofits age until now. She’d spent her whole life in the Panop, Reverie’s vast and immaculate central dome. Most everything happened there, on forty levels that housed residential, schooling, repose, and dining areas, all organized around an atrium. (Rossi 68)

R . A z i z a h |24

Based on the quotation about, Reverie is drawn as the metropolis city contain the modern building which has good facilities such as housed residental, repose and dining areas. The places is organized to facilitate Dwellers in their daily activity.

High technology in Reverie makes innovation in science research. Genetic experts create steril environment in Reverie thusmake no one can’t be sick, even someone can live until the second centuries with genetic manipulation.

How could she be sick? Reverie’s sterile environment eradicated disease. Genetic engineers like her mother kept them physically well.

Aria gripped the edges of the bed. “What are you saying?” she heard herself ask. “Are you saying Paisley’sdead?” It wasn’t possible. No onediedat seventeen. They easily lived into their second centuries. (Rossi 65) The development of technology grow rapidly, makes Reverie as perfect city. Steril environment in Reverie helps the Dwellers free from disease. The age– reversal treathments kept the Dwellers over a hundred years old looks young but their skin as thin and tender-looking as an infant’s.

Inside the Pod, Nature is present in two ways. First, through illusion using Smarteye. Developing technology in Reverie creates the clear device called Smarteye. It is worn over the left eye and it was always on. The Eye sends impulses that flow right into the brain, fooling it andTelling it, ‘You’re seeing this and touching that.’ But maybe some things haven’t been perfected yet.Maybe they’re close to the real thing, but not thesame. The Eye took them to the Realms. The virtual spaces where the Dwellers spent most of their time. The Realms allow them to visit any place.

R . A z i z a h |25

“They’re places as real as this is. If my Smarteye was working, I could go to any part of the world and beyond too, from right here. Without going anywhere. There are Realms for times that have passed. Last year the Medieval Realms were champ. You’d be great in one of those. And then there are Fantasy Realms and Future Realms. Realms for hobbies and any kind of interest you can think of.”(Rossi 175)

The Realms is the copy of world contains many places and many things like earth. Plants in Realms are artificial because Smarteye helps stimulate brain to be able to see and feel something with more live and real.‘In the Realms food still grew, or pretended to grow virtually, on farms with red barns and fields under sunny skies’ (Rossi 14).Although the plants pretend to grow, flowering and fruiting but the Dwellers don’t even knowthe smell of roses. Aria even asks “What about roses? Do they really smell so great?”(Rossi 160).

The Second way, nature is present inside the pod is through service dome called Agriculture 6. Dozens of domes supply Reverie with food, water , oxygen and all the things an enclosed city needed. Ag 6 looks like a cavernous space. Farming rows stretched back as even as stripes. High above, pipes and beams crisscrossed the ceiling. The real plants in Agriculture 6 looked liked old people, wrinkling and lacking brightness.

The real food in Ag 6 looked like old people before aging-reversal treatments.

The food grew from waist-high plastic mounds. Row after row of decaying fruits and vegetables spread out around her in endless lines. Like everything in the Pod, they were genetically designed for efficiency. They had no leaves, and needed no soil and little water to grow. (Rossi 13)

Located at the far end of the dome, Agriculture 6 contains terrariums in other part. ‘A forest loomed in front of them, beautiful and green. Then she looked up, seeing

R . A z i z a h |26

pipes. It was a huge terrarium.’ (Rossi 19).The real trees actually grow, to form a stretch of green forest. The air under the trees is cooler and darker.

On the other hand, the portrayal of country is Death Shop. Country is described as the peaceful place and abundant nature contains stretch of valley, desert, hills, sea and forest like earth should be. The only difference is the earth is more polluted and the sky contains Aether's storms.

It was morning, already warm in the Shield Valley, a dry stretch of land that reached nearly to his home two days to the north. He stopped in the central clearing, inhaled the briny smell of home.The ocean was a good thirty minutes’ walk to thewest. (Rossi 44)

Empty land ran clear to the horizon. Desert, reaching as far as she could see. (Rossi 95)

Aether is part of Death Shop and a form of representation of nature in the novel where the cloudy skies are supposedly made from evaporation of water transformed into flames and water. The sky was blazing with deep blue mixed thick gray clouds. Aether flows over a clump of clouds gathered into a thick and bright current.

Through a crack in the timbers, Perry could see a sliver of the Aether swirling in the sky. On calmer days, it was like being on the underside of waves, seeing the Aether roll and pitch above. Other times it flowed like rapids, furious and blazing blue. Fire and water, come together in the sky. (Rossi 55)

In addition Death Shop has season like spring where flowers bloom and aether movement ismore stable. ‘Spring sang itschattering music into Aria’s ears. Flowers burst up all along the wall, the colors bright against the gray stones. Winter had left broad bare spots on the mountain and the smell of smoke in the

R . A z i z a h |27

The storms came in force over the coming days, slowing their progress toward the coast. Funnels wheeled above constantly. The glare of the sky brightened nights and stole the warmth from the light of day. Winter had begun. (Rossi 476)

Pastoral focuses on dichotomy between urban and rural life (Garrad 33). Urban life in the novel is the Dwellers who live safely in the dome like Reverie. A rich life and technological developments can help them everyday such as Smarteye. As most region, Reverie hasgoverment called Consuls. There are five Consuls. ‘They were the most influential people in Reverie, governing all aspects of life in the Pod’ (Rossi 67).

Reverie dome is described as the perfect town where everyone can live happily. ‘Aside from the Consuls, everyone is entitled to the same living quarters and clothes and diet. Pod has pseudo-economy, where people amassed virtual wealth, but that there were black markets and hackers. None of it changes what happens in the real’(Rossi 305).

While, the rural life is represented as Death shop. The place outside the Pod is known to be filled with dangerous and terrible Aether storms. The people who lived in Death shop are called Outsiders or Savages. They build houses of stone and survive by hunting and farming.

Homes made of stones rounded by time. Wooden doors and shutters worn by salt air and rain. As weather-beaten as the compound was, it looked sturdy. Like a root growing aboveground. (Rossi 47)

From the roof, he had a good view of the hills thatformed the Tides’ eastern border. Farmland stretched back in a patchwork of browns and greens, woven through by a line of trees that followed the underground river. Perry could also see the stretches of Aether-blackened earth where the funnels had struck early in the spring. (Rossi 86)

R . A z i z a h |28

In the Death Shop, Outsider lives in deprivation. They have to work to fill their needs. All people works. The women’s duty is cook the food and the men go farming or hunting.

The Outsider lived by claiming a territory and forming a tribe for survival. A tribal leader is called a Blood Lord. Tide tribe is one of them.

“Bigger tribes claim territories. My brother is aBlood Lord. He commands my tribe, the Tides.”(Rossi 185)

Every tribes have their own rule to organize the tribe. But most of the tribes use the primitive rules to decided something such as the election of Blood Lord. In a challenge for Blood Lord, the loser died or was forced to disperse.

Environment and society situation are not only ways to explore pastoral nature. Sometimes nature has their own power to change the environment, no exception with the society who relates with nature directly like Outsider. Accoding Glofelty Human and nature have an inseparable relationship. Both affect each other. In the novel, nature influences human who lived in Death Shop. It makes them have an ability to adapt to harsh environments. The dangerous Aether makes theory of basic genetic happen. Aether made some of them 'marked'.

‘The population of Outsiders was small. Any shifts had the possibility of running rampant in such a limited pool. A drop of ink in a bucket was more potent than a drop in a lake. And with the Aether accelerating mutations, the Unity had created an environment ripe for genetic jumps’. (Rossi 243) People said that the Marked had the Aether flowing through their blood. Heating them up and giving them their Sense. (Rossi 58)

R . A z i z a h |29

great distance. They also have a sensitive taste. As a scire, they are able to feel the arrival of aether storms.

Like all the stronger Scires, he could anticipate Aether storms. The prickling sensation in the back of his nose told him the sky would still need to take a turn for the worse before it became a threat. (Rossi 79)

He looked right at her, his gaze brilliant green. “I have a strong sense of smell.”(Rossi 240)

Audile or aud are people who have a sharp sense of hearing. They are notoriously cunning. In addition they have an extraordinary balance.‘Roarperched on the rail with the cat’s balance of an Aud, no traceof fear at the huge drop behind him’ (Rossi 346) . Their ability is very useful for tribes as spies. Audile also can mimick natural sound. It’s helpful to give sign when they hunt.

“Roar is an Aud. He can hear things more clearly and from farther away. Sometimes miles off... Most Auds are quiet as shadows. The best end up as spies or scouts for the largertribes.” (Rossi 240)

Roar could hear Perry’s directions clearly from that far,but it was more complicated for Roar to communicate with him. Mimicking natural sounds came easily to Auds, so over the years they had adapted the calls of birds, turning it into a language between them. (Rossi 252)

Seer is granted a vision that surpasses human beings, they can see clearly from a great distance, they are also excellent archers. Seer is the most common sign. They are adept at seeing and beautiful.

Mila is my brother Vale’s wife. She’d been a Seer.Gifted with uncommon sight. Like most Seers, Mila had cared about the looks of things. Like most Seers, Mila had cared about the looks of things. On her deathbed, when her hands could no longer weave or paint or mold clay, she’d told stories and filled them with the colors she loved. (Rossi 49)

But sometimes there are also special human who are blessed with two senses, such as Peregrine.He is a Seer and Scire. Peregrine ‘As a Seer, he made a skilled

R . A z i z a h |30

The dominant sense is a form of natural influence and a form of adaptation to the environment in humans living outside the Pod. As a marked person they are a reliable hunter and fighter. They survive in a dangerous environment by feeling the movement of Aether.

b. Wilderness

If pastoral is the distinctive Old World construction of nature, suited to long-settled anddomesticated landscapes, wilderness fits the settler experience in the New Worlds with their apparently untamed landscapes and the sharp distinction between the forces of culture and nature (Garrad 60). There are two kind of Wilderness inUnder theNever Sky novel. The wilderness of society in both Pod and Death Shop and the wilderness of Death Shop’s land.

First, land of Death Shop represents the untamed landscape. It is a place with a million ways to die. Aria as the main character has bad experience when she is thrown to Death Shop. For the first time, she feels danger in every steps in the new world. The different culture and nature makes Aria afraid and odd in the untamed place. Since she had been thrown out of Reverie, she had met an Aether storm, she had had a knife held to her throat by a cannibal, and she had seen men murdered.

She’d heard all the stories about the Death Shop, like everyone else. A million ways to die. She knew of the packs of wolves as smart as men. She’d heard of theflocks of crows that picked living people to pieces, and Aether storms that behaved like predators. (Rossi 89)

R . A z i z a h |31

As the untamed place, Death Shop has the real dangers. That is Aether. The blast makes the gray surface of the earth gray and charred. Aether can grab anything or anyone, so traveling underneath is very dangerous.

Aria stopped beside the Outsider as they took in a wide patch of earth that was gray, almost silver,and perfectly bare. She didn’t see a single twig or blade of grass. Only the golden wink of a few scattered embers and gentle traces of smoke rising here and there. She knew this was the scar left by an Aether strike. (Rossi 187)

Aether is one of the representasion of nature power. Nature also have their own power to destroy nature itself and the civilization. Aether is disaster and the part of dangerous nature in Death Shop.

When the sky has aether, another thing to worry is the danger inside the forest. Nature provides the travelers need to survive, example food. Usually, they hunt to get food but when the game is not there, the plants inside the forest produces fruit. But most of the fruit is poisonous. Aria almost eat the poisonous fruit.‘She didn’t trust her own judgment anymore. What did she know out here? Evenberries might kill her’(Rossi 217).

Wolves become another danger of Death Shop. Aria meets wolves when she tries to escape from a cannibal tribe.‘Seven wolves prowled into view. Huge animals with glinting blue eyes and silver pelts. Their musk came at Perry in a red wave of blood hunger. They raised their shining snouts, reading scents as he did, then laid back their ears and bared their teeth, their hackles rising’ (Rossi 417). The only way to be save is to look for a high place like a tree or makes fire but it’lltakes long time.

R . A z i z a h |32

Second, the other trend of new world literature focuses on the issue of

wilderness not only in geographical wilderness space, but also in cultural signifier of a site of contested high-technology industrial and military activities (Garrard 78). Using technology human can save or destroy nature.

In Reverie dome, Dwellers choose to stop connecting with nature and the outside world. They can not go anywhere. This situation makes genetic experts try to create a virtual world with Smarteye; a world with no fear and no pain. They are only in place of pseudo-visualized as real named Realms. The existence of Smarteye makes Dweller can do two things at once without the need to move. The dangerous situation came when the region is inaccessible. The risks appear a new disease called Degenerative Limbic Syndrome (DLS). The desease makes the Dwellers crazy. Chaos spreads throughout the pod.‘Aria pressed her eyes closed, fighting the image of the chaos in Ag 6 on a grand scale. A Pod-wide riot where her mother was. A thousand people starting fires and ripping off Smarteyes’ (Rossi 342).

This chaos happens when the Dwellers turn off their smarteye like in the Ag 6. Soren, Aria's friend is like a person who has an addiction to fire. He approached the fire without fear. The madness increases as Soren intends to burn the entire terrarium area.

“It happened in Ag 6,” she said to Marron. The only difference is that we shut off on purpose that night.This thing. DLS.”Aria rememberedSoren’s wide,glazed eyes as he’d stared at the fire. How intent Bane and Echo had been. How even Paisley had been afraid the trees might fall on her.

R . A z i z a h |33

Situation got worse by time. Many Dwellers are crazy and their behavior becomes uncontrollable. The pod that was once filled with moral and educated people became a chaotic and dangerous place. The only safe place on earth also has another dreadful danger.

Meanwhile, the Outsiders has direct relation with nature. They live as part of nature and they have their own action to survive and adapt in harsh environment. Sometimes, the behavior of outsiders is influenced by nature itself, and it is not always in good way. Thoreau writes, And yet we have not seen pure nature, unless we have seen her thus vast, and drear, and inhuman . . . Nature was here something savage and awful, though beautiful (Thoreau 17). The natural

environment outside Pod is dangerous. Only the strong people will survive. One of the tribes is called the cannibal tribe, the Croven tribe.

She shook her head, turning a stunned look from the Croven’s dead body to him. “How could you?They wanted to share their food with us . . . and you justkilledthem.”

Perry was coming off the rush and beginning to shake. She didn’t know what he had scented from those men. Their ache for her flesh had been so potent it had nearly scored his nostrils. “Fool. Youwere going tobetheir food.”(Rossi 203)

The Croven tribe also slaughtered many other tribal leaders. A tribe in the west is in crisis because it has been a victim of the Croven tribe. They take strong youth and children. The rest, they eat it.

“What happened to the Fins?” Marron asked. He calmly cut his meat into a perfect square, like he had no idea of the sudden tension in the room. Roar took a long drink before he spoke. “The Fins were already weakened when illness hit them in the open. Then the Croven came and took the strongest children into their fold. To the rest . . . well, they did what the Croven do.”(Rossi 308)

R . A z i z a h |34

Croven tribe chooses the bad way to survive in dangerous nature. They are known for their cruelty to slaughter the tribe and oppress the weak people. They survive with eat anything including humans.

In addition nature is not always on the side of the weak people. Wilderness is also the place of exile (Garrad 61). The big tribe claims a territory, while for the dispersed people who live outside the region and have no tribe, they survive without tribe protection. ‘“There areterritoriesand there’s openland where the dispersed roam. Dispersed is people who live outside of tribe protection.

Wanderers who move in small groups or alone. Looking for food and shelter and . just looking tostay alive’ (Rossi 185).Exiling also applies to murderers and thieves in tribe. Blood Lords exiled the murderers and thieves into the borderlands. In the exile there is no existing rule, only surviver.

The wilderness hold unpredictable dangers, nature is not always in good side to escape. The danger also exist in a place looks beautiful and peaceful like in the Death Shop. The cultural wilderness is also shown in the urban and rural society. In the Pod, society become dangerous because the pseudo-earth called Realms. Meanwhile in the Death Shop, there is Croven tribe as a cannibal tribe. They sacrifice other tribes to survive.

c. Apocalypse

Apocalypse seems to be the common setting time and place in young adult dystopian novel.Under the Never Skytakes imagination place which may exist on earth after the union period. The place is devided into two world Pod and Death

R . A z i z a h |35

For six decades, when the Aether came, it had scorched the earth with constant fires, but the real blow to humanity had been its mutative effect, as her mother had explained to her. New diseases had evolved rapidly and thrived. Plagues had wiped out entire populations. Her ancestors had been among the fortunate fewwho’d taken shelter in the Pods. (Rossi 98) Apocalypse is equated with foreboding doom and human eradication.

Thompsons argue,Apocalypse derives from the GreekApo-calyptein, meaning ‘to un-veil’. Apocalyptic literature takes the form of a revelation of the end of history. Violent and grotesque images are juxtaposed with glimpses of a world

transformed and the underlying theme is usually a titanic struggle between good and evil (Thompson 13). The apocalypse in the novel is where human thinks that the end of world will come soon. The doomdays cames in two ways. Human power and nature power.

The proof nature has power is the aether storms. The storm gets worse and ruins many places. Pod of Dweller named Bliss was damaged by aether storm.

“I’m so sorry to tell you. Bliss was struck by an Aether storm. They said it was destroyed.”(Rossi 310)

“We’re in trouble here. Bliss has suffered serious damagein an Aether storm. The Consuls estimate forty percent of the Pod has been

contaminated, but generators are failing and the number seems to be climbing every hour. The CGB has promised help.” (Rossi 337) Not only Pod, Aether storm also burns the western plain of the Death Shop included the Blackfin tribe who live in the plain. Aether storms came and hit their compound directly. ‘The Blackfin compound looked nothing like the bustling settlement he’d seen ayear ago. Now, it was crushed. Abandoned. All its scents faded and old. A picked-over carcass at the foot of Mount Arrow.’ (Rossi 204). Now, the tribal area is just a ruined house and a charred plot.‘Aether storms and

R . A z i z a h |36

fires had leveled all but one of the homes, but one was all he needed. There was no doorand only part of a roof’ (Rossi 204).

The effect of the storm is thetribe couldn’tstay for much longer. No with rare game and the Aether storms growing worse every winter. The last nearly wiped out the tribe’s sheep, the flockis too far from the compound to be brought to safety in time. Without food and game they can not survive.

On calmer days, it was like being on the underside of waves, seeing the Aether roll and pitch above. Other times it flowed like rapids, furious and blazing blue. Fire and water, come together in the sky. Winter was the season for Aether storms, but in the past years the storms were starting earlier and lasting longer.Already they’d had a few. (Rossi 55)

Buell explains that apocalypse is the single most powerful mastel metaphor that the contemporary environmental imagination has at its disposal. The role of the imagination is important to metaphor, for it implies that the very fate of our world hinges on the arousal of the imagination to a sense of crisis (Buell 285). In fact, apocalypse in the novel is also the imagination to a sense crisis. Lumina, Aria’s mother explains another part of doomsday because the new disease. Actually, the new disease has not yet coming and infecting all Dwellers. Only some of Pods was fall in the disease. The crisis is cause of human power.

It all started from the time that some of human race had to enter the Pod during the union period. The area was created to make copies of the world they left behind, a pseudo-world called Realms. They can travel anywhere only by thinking.In the Realms the bad parts and the pain are removed, there's only fun.

R . A z i z a h |37

the possibilities proved to be too enticing. So we gave ourselves the ability to fly. To travel from a snowcap to a beach with a single thought. And why feel pain if youdon’t have to? Why feel the brunt of real fear if there’s no danger of becoming hurt? We increased what we deemed good and removed the bad. Those are the Realms as you know them.Better than Real,as they say.”(Rossi 338)

But human also need pain to learn about discomfiture and fear. The disease appears because the basic control of human brain called lymbic system is trouble. The limbic system regulates the instinct in humans. The limbic system useful is ‘Our drive to mate. Our comprehension of stress and fear and reaction to it. Our quick decision-making capability. We say a gut reaction, but actually these reflexes come from here. Simply put, this is our animal mind’ (Rossi 338). For several generations within the region this part of the brain was rarely used and resulted they lost the ability. It happens because the use of Smarteye continually.

The catastropic consequances is when human need to rely on instict, all emotions become confused. Fear can become thrilling. Rather than avoid stress, human seek it and even revel in it. The will to give life becomes the need to take it. The result is a collapse of reason and cognition. Put simply, it results in a psychotic break. The disease is known as mental disorder called DLS (Degenerative Limbic Syndrome).

“Ihave spent my life studying this disorder, Degenerative Limbic

Syndrome. When I began my work two decades ago, incidents of DLS were isolated and minor.” (Rossi 339)

No one knows the solution to save themselves from the six thousand people who live inside the enclosed dome with a mental disorder syndrome.‘The image

R . A z i z a h |38

of the chaos in Ag 6 on a grand scale. A Pod-wide riot where her mother was. What chance did Lumina have, between the Aether and DLS?’ (Rossi 342).

Besides the use of Smarteye, the another cause is the aether storms. The storms destroy the generator and cut the connection of Smarteye. Dweller can not go anywhere because the extinguishmentof Smarteye.‘Past three years the Aether storms have intensified at an alarming rate. They damage our Pods and cut off our link to the Realms. Generators fail. Backupsfail. . . . We’re left in dire situations that we’re incapable of handling. Entire Pods have fallen to DLS’ (Rossi 339). This causes a precarious situation. All pods are infected with DLS outbreaks in short time. The pain and pleassure emotion confused. Bliss become first place in Pod infected the disease. People are caged and contracted this syndrome. Damage, violence and even massacres may occur as a result of this syndrome. Doomsday has just begun.

“I think you can imagine, Aria, the anarchy of six thousand trapped people who have come under thissyndrome. I see it around me now.”(Rossi 339) Humans are confronted at the end of the world where aether storms are getting worse and disease outbreaks are spreading causing noise and death. There is no place to be safe in their world other than survival by escaping from aether storms, looking for new safe settlements.

“Yes, that’s right. A dual attack. External first. A storm weakens the Pod. Then internal, as the disease manifests. Your mother was among the first to study DLS. She was working toward a cure, along with many other

scientists. But as you can see by what happened here, we don’t have an answer. And we may run out of time before we do.”

R . A z i z a h |39

“The Aether storms are striking with intensity not seen since the Unity. Bliss isn’t the only Pod thathas fallen. If the storms continue, they will all fall.Reveriewill fall, Aria. Our only hope of surviving is to escape the Aether.”(Rossi 470)

The imagination of doomdays in Pod and Reverie appears because the nature and human power. The apocalypse setting is shown after the Unity period when the aether storms can shatter anytihing and the disease destroy civilization.

The three concept using Garrad’s persepective analyze the representation of nature in any condition. Nature and human has deep relationship. Representation of nature depend on human action. Human can destroy or save nature. Besides, Nature also has their own power to makes human sometimes need to survive. The nature and surroundings show that every human has their own way to survive with adaptation on nature power.

2. Interaction of Main Character with Nature

This part will explain how the interaction of main character with nature. The characters will be analyzed is Aria and Peregrine. The interaction of two main characters are taking experience with nature, getting knowledge about nature and having relation with nature.

a. Aria

1. The Experience with Nature

Aria is a 17-year-old girl living in an enclosed pod named Reverie. For 17 years, she lived in a closed place without knowing what is out there. Aria's interaction with the outside world is severely restricted. Although, Aria feels comfortable and save in the Reverie. Nothing or no one can hurt her in physically

R . A z i z a h |40

or emotionally. Environment’s rules in the Reverie makes everyone have same position and get same needs. Everyone live happily.

Aria has to use a tool called Smarteye to go to a fake place made similar to Earth, called Realms. Realms is a form of Aria interaction with natural

environment in Reverie. She can go anywhere in the world and enjoy any season inside Realms.

Aria rolled her eyes. “Your brother and his theme nights.” She usually cruised the Realms with Paisley and her older brother, Caleb, from their favorite spot in the 2nd Gen Lounge. For the past month, Caleb had planned their nights around themes. Tonight’s theme, “Feeding Friend-zies,” began ina Roman Realm where they’d feasted on roasted boar and lobster ragout. Then they’d cruised to a Minotaur feeding in a Mythology Realm. “I’m just glad we left before the piranhas.”(Rossi 10)

Aria has favorite place in Realms, that is the beach area.‘Aria tried cruising to a beach Realm. One of her favorites’ (Rossi 62).

The other side of Reverie dome has the part called Ag 6, the dome of the food supplier. In the Ag 6, Aria gets new experience by seing real plant. She looks how plants grow in the soil. The forest is looming over tall trees and ramps in the Terratium. Aria can see and touch the real tree.

It was cooler and darker under the trees. Aria ran her free hand over the trunks, feeling the rough textures. Pseudo-bark didn’t grip like it might bite into her skin. She crushed a dry leaf in her palm, creating sharp crumbs. She stared at the patterns of leaves and branches above, imagining that if the boys quieted down, she might be able to hear the trees breathe. (Rossi 20)

Aria is really interested with the real plants and trees in Ag 6. She know the plants in Realms more colourful with soft texture in the trunks and did not smell

R . A z i z a h |41

or feel anything when she touch it but real plants in Ag 6 has strange and rough texture. She feel comfortable sit under the tree.

The next experience is Aria see real fire.She thought, it was a magic. ‘She moved closer, drawn by the gold and amber tones in the flame. By the way it changed shape constantly. The smoke was richer than anything she had ever smelled. It tightened the skin along her arms. Then she saw how the burning leaves curled and blackened and disappeared’ (Rossi 28). It differs with fire in the Realms. In there, fire was a rippling orange and yellow light that gave off a gentle warmth. But now, she knew the real fire was really different.

Aria’s experiences with natureis not only in Reverie. She knows about the different nature and culture when she was thrown into the Death Shop for allegedly killing her best friend, Paisley. Aria is also accused bringing outsiders into Reverie, Peregrine. When she cames to Death Shop, Aria only can see the empty desert landscape around her. ‘She didn’t see anything that looked like Bliss. Empty land ran clear to the horizon. Desert, reaching as far as she could see’ (Rossi 95). And within 17 years, for the first time Aria saw the sun. The real sun.

She found the brighter patch in the cloud cover, where light shone through in a golden haze. That light came from the sun. She might get to see the real sun. She had to fight off the urge to cry, thinking about seeing the sun. Because who would know? Who would she tell about seeing something so incredible? (Rossi 98)

Aria felt sick. She thought, she would die because she is in the Death Shop. The dangerous land with a million ways to die. In the Death Shop Aria has counted the inventory of her discomforts. A headache, muscle pains, blisters feet

R . A z i z a h |42

and cramps low in her stomach. She felt herself has broken and can not be repaired again. Everyday in Death Shop makes her in pain.

2. The Knowledge about Nature

Nature kept and supplied many things to fill the human’s need. In Death Shop, Aria learns how to survive. First, she knows how to get water when she is in dried land or desert. ‘She had a fair idea now how hard his life was, if finding a drink of murky water took an hour’s worth of digging’ (Rossi 185). To find water Aria has to dig the land.’They spent an hour digging with flat rocks around midday.

Somehow the Outsider had found water a foot beneath the ground’ (Rossi 181). Aria has an interest in nature around her while in the Death Shop. She keeps asking Peregrine about many things, like the looks of snow, how the smell of roses, the Aether, even about does the dragonflies fly with both wings and many others.

“What is snow like?”

That nearly stopped him in his tracks. How could a person know about snow without knowing it was pure and silent and whiter than bone? Without knowing how the chill of it stung your skin? “It’s cold.”

“What about roses? Do they really smell so great?” “See many roses around here?”

“Do the clouds ever clear?” she asked. “Completely? No. Never.”

“What about the Aether? Does that ever go away?” “Never, Mole. The Aether never leaves.”

Her questions continued through the day. She asked if dragonflies made a sound when they flew and if rainbows were myths. When he stopped answering, she turned to speaking to herself as though it were a natural thing. She talked about the warm color of the hills against the blue cast of the Aether. When the wind kicked up, she said the sound reminded her of turbines. (Rossi 168)

R . A z i z a h |43

Aria really likes learning about the new environment in the Death Shop. She asks many thing and gets information from Peregrine about nature. She felt fantastic with what she sees and finds in Death Shop because nature felt different than in the Realms.

Finally thanks to Peregrine, Aria knows what the real rose smells like. A red rose sat on top of the stack. Aria picked it up gingerly and breathed in the

fragrance. Beautiful. Softer than the scent of roses in the Realms. But roses in the Realms didn’t make her heart race’ (Rossi 293). It smells nice and soft.

Aria has a new habit since she lived in Death Shop. She likes to collect stones and sort them according to color, shape and size. She recognizes and learns even from stone. She was fascinated by the irregular stone structure.‘Aria picked up a rock. She’d developed a habit of lining them up. By color. By size. By shape. Making sense of the randomness she’d admired at first’ (Rossi 213). In the

Realms, stones are different but Aria knows that the twelfth stone is the first stone to be modified either shape or size or color but in Death Shop all the different stones.

“Each one of these is unique,” she said. “Their shape. Their weight and composition. It’s amazing.In the Realms, there are formulas for

randomness. I can always pick them out, though. Spot how every twelfth rock is a modified version of the first one’s color or density, or whatever the variation might be.

“But rocks aren’t the only thing. When I was out in that desert, and then when . . .” The way she looked at him, he knew whatever she’d say next, he was part of it. “I’ve never felt that way. We don’thave fear like that. But if those two things are different, then there has to be more, right? Other things besidesfear and rocks that are different in the real?”(Rossi 177)

R . A z i z a h |44

Aria thinks, not only rocks, but also there are many thing in the Death Shop felt different with the Realms. She has never felt in that way before but she realize, nature not only about a fun place but also fear and pain.

In dangerous land Aria is almost being killed by poison berries. Aria learns to survive with learning how to distinguish berries that are safe to eat and the toxic ones. She tries to adapt with the environment.

“Soon you’ll recognize what’s safe toeat by knowing where things grow, and recognizing the shapes of the leaves. Until then, the first thing

is to crush a small piece and smell it.”

He peered at her. She sat up, looking more alert. Relieved, he plucked a berry and handed it to her.

“If it smells nutty and bitter, don’t eat it.”Aria broke it open, dipped her head to sniff it. “It doesn’t smell like either.”

“Good. That’s right.” The blackberry, a lucky find buried in a patch of brambles, smelled sweet and ripe. Perry could scent it perfectly. (Rossi 223) In addition, Aria learns to spin the branches to make shelter and retaining from the wind. ‘Aria copied the way they wove the branches together and found that for her first-ever screen, she did a respectable job’ (Rossi 233).

The next day she spent hours thinking, turning her inquisitiveness inward. She liked what she was discovering about herself. Aria, who knew that birds should be plucked while they were still warm so the feathers came out more easily. Aria, who could start a fire with a knife and a piece of quartz.

3. The Relation with Nature

A long journey takes Aria to know the truth about her. It is a form of Aria's interaction with nature because aether flows in her blood. She is also a marked person, just like Peregrine and Roar. Aria is a half Outsider. Her father is an

R . A z i z a h |45

Aria did not die in the Death Shop and infected with a DLS outbreak like most Dweller.

She was half Outsider. Half.

When she looked into the distance, where she’d seen nothing before, she now imagined the father who might be there. A man who would hear the world as she did, in endless tones. He was an Audile. That was the only thing she knew about him. Strangely, it felt like a lot. (Rossi 443) Aria Aud's ability makes her hear more than most people. Aria heard song everywhere, shifting in the trees, rumbling in the earth, drifting on the wind. It was the same terrain, but she saw it differently. She knows the sound comes from.

“They aren’t louder . . . I don’t know how to explain it. They’ve just become richer. Sounds that were simple are so intricate now. Like the river. There are hundreds of small sounds coming from the water. And the wind, Perry. It’s constant, moving through the trees, making the bark groan and the leaves rustle. I can tell exactly which way it’s coming. It’s almost like I can seeit, I hear it soclearly.”(Rossi 436)

The proof Aria relates with nature is her ability as Audile. The presence of Aether makes people were ‘marked’. In the Realms, Aria’s ability can not develop because the nature condition. In the safe place, she is never use her instinct to survive but in the Death Shop she met many dangerous situation every times. Without using her instinct to make quick decision or called reflex, she can not survive and get their ability. For the rest the ability appears because Aria’s lineage.

b. Peregrine

1. The Experience with Nature

R . A z i z a h |46

spends his entire life there, learns how to live in the Death Shop. Perry is very dependent on nature. He uses nature to survive. Food is available in nature. He eats from what nature provides. He hunts and plants crops.‘Perry spent the morning adjusting to the change and searching for game trails’ (Rossi 220). Perry is a great hunter.

Aroundmidday he picked up a boar’s trail, the animal’s smell strong enough to cut through his stunted nose. He headed downhill, then he told Roar the best path for driving the animal to where he waited. They had hunted this way their whole lives. (Rossi 251)

Perry is part of the tide tribe. It means his life was secure. He has a house to sleep and the food to eat. But when Perry decided to leave the tide, he left

everything behind to house, food, and family. This is a very difficult decision. He must leave the tribe seek talon, his nephew. Out of the tribe, there is only a cave that he find as a refuge.

He hadn’t been in this cave since Vale deemed this area forbidden, but found it well stocked by traders who used the cave as shelter when they came through the valley. He found clothes and jars with nuts. Dried fruits that were still edible. He even found a healing compound (Rossi 142) They found another cave in the late afternoon. This one was damp and crossed with formations that looked like melted wax. It stank of sulfur. Scraps of plastic and bone littered the ground. (Rossi 189)

Being out of tribe also means to live as a survivor. Tide tribe were lucky because there was an underground river that crossed their land, but Perry was in the border area. he had to search water by digging up the ground when he did not find river.‘They spent an hour digging with flat rocks around midday. Somehow the Outsider had found water a foot beneath the ground. They filled their

R . A z i z a h |47

waterskins and ate in silence’ (Rossi 181). For Perry, this is a common condition when he has to live in border area.

Life in the Death Shop makes Perry feels familiar with the dangerous nature. Perry has many common experiences about the difficult life in the Death Shop. But, his desire to find her nephew brought Perry into Realms, a virtual world where Aria spends her time. Perry must use Smarteye to enter the Realms. The first experience is awkward and embarrassing. The forest before him was blurred and the surrounding trees were like running.

He could see clearly through the eyepiece, but he noticed differences. Colors were too bright. The depth of things seemed off. On his left a wooded evergreen forest appeared. The scent of pine burned deep into his nostrils. The images blurred and flashed before his eyes. Perry looked one way and the other, but he couldn’t make anything stick.Dizziness came hard and fast. (Rossi 354)

Perry gets new experience with different nature condition in the Realms. It is his first time that he knows another world. The all things should be in the forest are vanished, like smell. Perry can not smell anything. As a Scire, he relies on his ability to determine direction but in the Realms all smell and temper were

disappear. His senses are blunt because he is in a virtual space and does not meet talon directly.

“Talon, it looks like you, but I can’t get your temper.”

“There’re no tempers in here,” he said, full of righteousness. “All the scents are off.”

R . A z i z a h |51

interaction with nature train his sense stronger. He really relies on his ability to survive in the Death Shop.

Aria and Peregrine as the main characters have their own action to adapt and survive in the nature. In the beginning, both of them rejects the different situation of nature but they can not avoid. However, they have to interact with nature, like Aria learns to survive in the Death Shop or Perry goes into Realms to save his nephew.

R . A z i z a h | ✁

CHAPTER IV

CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION

The research examines young adult dystopian novelUnder the Never Skyby

Veronica Rossi. The novel present dystopian setting in place and time. To some extent, nature appear in different lanscape althougt in same world. Two kind places with different nature and culture as cause of the ecological issues in the novel. Using Garrad’s persepective in ecocriticism, nature represent in three concepts. Pastoral, Wilderness and Apocalypse.

First, the representation of nature is the Pastoral. It tells and shows natural environment including place and society in novel. There are two places in novel which have different nature condition called Pod and Death Shop. Pod is the domed city where Aria lived. Pod present as representation of town. Pod imitates nature and environment through Smarteye–the clear device–which took

Dweller to virtual space called Realms. Pod restrict contact with outside because the Aether so Dweller makes Realms. Meanwhile, Death Shop is place outside Pod where Peregrine lived. Death shop is representation of country. The

landscape of Death Shop contains the forest, river, desert, hill, etc. Besides, Death Shop was famous with the dangerous place. In the Death Shop water is coated with foam or reeking of dead fish and Aether storms that behaved like predators. Aether relate and makes some of Outsider ‘marked’.It means to get dominant sense. The portrayal of Pastoral explains the nature and society condition that

R . A z i z a h |✂ ✄

Second, the wilderness is mostly experienced by the dangerous place or situation or society. Aria and Peregrine have to survive in Death Shop and Realms to get their purpose. Wolves, toxic berries, cannibal tribe, aether also crazy

syndrom appear as wilderness in the novel.

Meanwhile the third is apocalypse, it expresses the doomdays. The imagination of the end of the world that will happen someday. It can happen because human or nature power which make decision to destroy and end the world. In this cases, the novel presents both of them as the cause of doomdays. A dual attacks are from external first, that is a storm weakens the Pod and then internal, as the disease manifests.

Each character, Aria and Peregrine expresses that nature as a peaceful place where their thoughts can be free. Although, Aria has bad experience when she was thrown to Death Shop for the first time but by time she can adapt with nature. She is really interested to learn about nature, how to make fire, hunt the game, learn about toxic and medicinal plants and so on. In nature Aria knows who she is. She is a half Outsider. She get blessed ‘marked’ asAudile (sense of hearing).

Peregrine too, he lived in Death Shop in a whole his life. He learns with nature how can hone his ability asscire (sense of smell)andSeer (sense of seeing).As a

marked person he is a reliable hunter and fighter. Peregrine can feel aether strom movement. It means he connects with the aether. Nature is also a place to escape from his mistake. Interactions between Aria and Peregrine with nature inUnder

R . A z i z a h |☎ ✆

always inseparable nature of the relationship between humans and their natural environment.

The result of analysis of this novel is explained above.Under the Never Sky

as the object of research clearly shows the futuristic future in enviromental issues. Examining the text for this thesis demonstrates the different ways someone have imagined the future of our planet. It is important for young adults to engage with these young adult dystopian texts, not just as literary reading experiences, but also because they offer an environmental warning with a caveat–hope.

Bringing an ecocritical perspective according to Garrad in young adult dystopian novelUnder the Never Sky, this research makes readers or other

researchers understand about the concept of ecocriticism. And yet, there remains a problem which has not explained and become focus in this research such as the Dwelling and Animals concept. The next research can add and analyze both concepts in more detail. Another suggestion, perhaps the next research can be more obvious with one of the characters and focus in the way she or he save the natural environment from the disaster. In the next sequel,Through the Ever Night,

there is more detail description about every character confront action with the situation where the Aether storm get more worse.

R . A z i z a h |✝✝

WORKS CITED

Adams, John Joseph.Dystopian Fiction:An Introduction.

(http://www.tor.com/2011/04/11/dystopian-fiction-an-introduction/).2011. Web.

Akbar, Alfarizi.A Portrait of Environmentalist in Jostein Gaarder’s The World According to Anna.Surabaya : UIN Sunan Ampel Surabaya. 2016. Print.

Basu, et al (Ed.).Contemporary Fiction for Young Adults Brave New Teenagers. London: Routledge. 2013. PDF.

Buell, Lawrence.The Future of Environmental Criticism : Environmental Crisis and Literary Imagination.USA : Blackwell Publishing. 2005. PDF.

Buell, Lawrence; Ursula K. Heise, and Karen Thornber.Literature and Environment.(Annu. Rev. Environ. Resourc. 2011.36:417-440. Downloaded fromwww.annualreviews.orgby Harvard University on 11/07/2011). Web.

Carter, David.Literary Theory.British:Pocket Essentials. 2006. PDF.

Cronon, W. ‘The trouble with wilderness; or, Getting backto the wrongnature’,

in W. Cronon (ed.)Uncommon Ground: Rethinking the Human Place in Nature, London: Norton. 1996. PDF.

Cuddon, J. A., and Claire Preston. "Utopia."The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory.London: Penguin. 1999. PDF.

Garrard, Greg.Ecocriticism. New York : Routledge. 2004. PDF.

Glotfelty, Cheryll and Harold Fromm.The Ecocriticism Reader : Landmarks in Literary Ecology.Athens and London : The University of Georgia Press. 1996. PDF.

R . A z i z a h |✞6

Kerridge, R. and Sammells, N. Writing the Environment. London: Zed Books. 1998. PDF.

Romadhon, Rohmah.An Analysis Environmental Issues Using Ecocriticism in James Cameron’s Film ‘Avatar’.Jakarta : UIN Syarif Hidayatullah Press. 2011. Print.

Rossi, Veronica.Under the Never Sky.New York: HarperCollins Publisher Inc. 2012. Print.

Setyorini, Ari.Ecology, Technology and Dystopia: an Ecocritical Reading of Young Adult Dystopian Literature. Proceedings of International Conference on Language, Literary and Cultural Studies (ICON LATERALS) 29

October 2016. Print.

Sigler, Carolyn. “Wonderland to Wasteland.”Children's Literature Association Quarterly19.4. 1994. PDF.

Snyder, Gary.The Practice of the Wild. San Francisco, CA: North Point. 1990. PDF.

Thompson, D. The End of Time: Faith and Fear in the Shadow of the Millennium, London: Minerva. 1997. PDF.

Journal.