A STUDY OF MORRIE’S PERSONAL VIEWS ON AMERICAN VALUES AS PORTRAYED IN ALBOM’S TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE A THESIS Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree in English Language Education
A STUDY OF MORRIE’S PERSONAL VIEWS ON AMERICAN VALUES
AS PORTRAYED IN ALBOM’S TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE A THESIS Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree in English Language EducationBy Anneis Nutfatilah Kusumaputri
Student Number: 061214091
ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA 2011
STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY
I honestly declare that this thesis, which I have written, does not contain the work or parts of the work of other people, except those cited in the quotations and the references, as a scientific paper should.
Yogyakarta, March 9, 2011 The Writer
Anneis Nutfatilah Kusumaputri 061214091
LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH
UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS
Yang bertandatangan di bawah ini, saya mahasiswa Universitas Sanata Dharma: Nama : Anneis Nutfatilah Kusumaputri Nomor Mahasiswa : 061214091 Demi pengembangan ilmu pengetahuan, saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Sanata Dharma karya ilmiah saya yang berjudul:
A STUDY OF MORRIE’S PERSONAL VIEWS ON AMERICAN VALUES
AS PORTRAYED IN ALBOM’S TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE
beserta perangkat yang diperlukan (jika ada). Dengan demikian saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Sanata Dharma hak untuk menyimpan, mengalihkan ke dalam bentuk media lain, mengelolanya dalam bentuk pangkalan data, mendistribusikan secara terbatas, dan mempublikasikannya di internet atau media lain untuk kepantingan akademis tanpa perlu meminta izin dari saya maupun memberikan royalti kepada saya selama tetap mencantumkan nama saya sebagai penulis.
Demikian pernyataan ini saya buat dengan sebenarnya. Dibuat di Yogyakarta Pada tanggal: 9 Maret 2011 Yang menyatakan (Anneis Nutfatilah Kusumaputri)
ABSTRACT
Kusumaputri, Anneis Nutfatilah. 2011. Study o
f Morrie’s Personal Views on American Values as Portrayed in Albom’s Tuesdays with Morrie. Yogyakarta:
English Language Education Study Program, Department of Language and Arts Education, Faculty of Teachers Training and Education, Sanata Dharma University.
This study analyzes a novel written by Mitch Albom entitled Tuesdays with
Morrie. This novel tells about a dying professor, Morrie Schwartz, who suffers from
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and is eager to share his dying experience to his
student, Mitch Albom. Hence, Mitch visits him every week on Tuesdays and interviews him. In the interviews conducted, Morrie talks about his views in life: how to have a meaningful life and how to be satisfied with our own lives.
The objectives of this study are to know the American values shared by the society as seen in the novel and to know Morrie‟s personal views on the American values. To do so, two problems are formulated, namely: (1) how are American values described in Albom‟s Tuesdays with Morrie? (2) what are Morrie‟s personal views on American values?
This study uses sociocultural-historical approach because it deals with cultural aspects. Two sources are used in this study, namely primary and secondary sources. The primary source is Albom‟s Tuesdays with Morrie. The secondary sources are books on literature and culture, related articles in websites, and previous studies which use the same novel. There are some theories applied in this study. They are the theory of critical approaches, the theory of character and characterization, the theory of culture, and the theory of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.
Based on the analysis, there are seven values in the society which are reflected in people‟s attitudes. The values are value of rational approach reflected in the society‟s fear of death, value of progress reflected in the society‟s drive of having things over and over, value of individual success which is showed in a possibility that the society can become vicious to other people if individual success cannot be achieved, value on working reflected in people who are workaholic people, value of freedom for the individual reflected in the strike action held by employees at Mitch‟s office, individualism value reflected in the society‟s feeling of being ashamed if they have to depend on other people, and the last, value of measurable achievement which is showed in the pursuing of material things by the society in order to make them happy and satisfied.
However, Morrie‟s personal views on the seven values contradict to the views of the society. In his dying condition, Morrie is not afraid of death. Instead, he concerns with human relationship and how to make his life meaningful. He gives others what he is able to give, such as his time to hear others‟ stories and problems. Besides, he enjoys his dependency on others. Furthermore, Morrie thinks that material things cannot give love and everything needed if someone is in a dying condition like him because what he needs most is support or
„spiritual security‟ from his beloved people. Finally, this study presents suggestions for future researchers and teaching Public Speaking I using a literary work.
ABSTRAK
Kusumaputri, Anneis Nutfatilah. 2011.Study of Morrie’s Personal Views on
American Values as Portrayed in Albom’s Tuesdays with Morrie. Yogyakarta:
Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris, Jurusan Pendidikan Bahasa dan Seni, Fakultas Keguruan dan Ilmu Pendidikan, Universitas Sanata Dharma.
Studi ini menganalisa sebuah novel karya Mitch Albom, yang berjudul
Tuesdays with Morrie. Novel tersebut menceritakan tentang seorang profesor yang
sedang tidak berdaya karena menderita Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis dan berkeinginan untuk menceritakan pengalamannya itu kepada muridnya, Mitch Albom. Oleh karena itu, Mitch mengunjunginya setiap minggu di hari Selasa dan mewawancarainya. Dalam wawancara, Morrie bercerita banyak tentang pandangannya terhadap kehidupan; bagaimana caranya memiliki kehidupan yang berarti dan bagaimana untuk puas terhadap kehidupan kita sendiri.
Tujuan dari studi ini adalah untuk mengetahui nilai- nilai Amerika seperti yang digambarkan di novel dan untuk mengetahui pandangan pribadi Morrie mengenai nilai- nilai Amerika tersebut. Untuk itu, dua permasalahan dirumuskan, yaitu: (1) bagaimana nilai- nilai Amerika digambarkan pada novel karya Mitch Albom, Tuesdays with Morrie? (2) apa saja pandangan pribadi Morrie tentang nilai- nilai Amerika?
Studi ini menggunakan pendekatan sosiokultural-historikal karena studi ini berhubungan dengan hal-hal budaya. Metode yang digunakan adalah studi pustaka. Ada dua sumber yang digunakan untuk studi ini, yaitu sumber utama dan sumber kedua. Sumber utama adalah novel karya Mitch Albom, Tuesdays with Morrie. Sumber kedua adalah adalah buku- buku mengenai literatur dan budaya, artikel- artikel yang berhubungan dari website, dan studi- studi terdahulu yang menggunakan novel yang sama. Ada beberapa teori yang diterapkan dalam studi ini. Teori- teori itu adalah teori pendekatan kritikal, teori karakter dan pengkarakteran, teori budaya, dan teori Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.
Berdasarkan analisis, terdapat tujuh nilai di masyarakat yang tercermin oleh perilaku masyarakat tersebut. Nilai- nilai itu adalah nilai pendekatan rasional mengenai kehidupan yang tercermin oleh ketakutan masyarakat akan kematian, nilai kemajuan yang tercermin oleh keinginan masyarakat untuk memiliki barang- barang secara berlebihan, nilai terhadap kesuksesan individu yang terlihat oleh kemungkinan bahwa masyarakat akan menjadi kejam apabila kesuksesan pribadi tidak dapat diraih, nilai terhadap pekerjaan yang tercermin oleh masyarakat yang merupakan orang- orang candu kerja, nilai kebebasan untuk individu yang tercermin oleh aksi mogok kerja yang dilakukan oleh para pegawai di kantor Mitch, nilai individu yang tercermin dari masyarakat yang bersikap malu apabila harus bergantung kepada orang lain, dan yang terakhir adalah nilai tentang pencapaian yang terukur, yang terlihat dari pencarian hal- hal material oleh masyarakat untuk membuat mereka bahagia dan puas. Namun, pandangan pribadi Morrie mengenai ketujuh nilai tersebut bertentangan dengan pandangan masyarakat. Morrie tidak takut terhadap kematian di dalam kondisinya yang menderita. Namun, ia memberi perhatian kepada hubungan manusia dan bagaimana membuat hidupnya bermakna. Ia memberikan orang lain apa yang bisa ia beri, seperti memberikan waktunya untuk mendengarkan cerita dan masalah mereka. Di samping itu, ia menikmati ketergantungannya terhadap orang lain. Lebih jauh, Morrie berpikir bahwa hal- hal material tidak dapat memberikan cinta dan segala sesuatu yang dibutuhkan apabila sesorang tidak berdaya seperti dirinya karena apa yang ia butuhkan adalah dukungan dan keamanan spiritual dari orang- orang terkasihnya. Di bagian akhir, studi ini memberikan saran untuk peneliti selanjutnya dan untuk mengajar Public Speaking I dengan manggunakan karya sastra.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
My first gratitude goes to
Allah Subhannahu Wata’allahu, for giving me time
to enjoy every part of my life and to learn from it, for His guidance, and for His “hugs” during the process of working on my thesis.
I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my Major Sponsor, Drs. L.
Bambang Hendarto Y., M.Hum. for his guidance, support, kindness, and
willingness to read and suggestions during the process of finishing this study. Also, I express my gratitude to lecturers and secretariat staffs of English Language Education Study program, and library staffs of Sanata Dharma University for their support and assistance in finishing my thesis.
My great gratitude goes to my beloved and irreplaceable family: Bunda
Penny for the unconditional love, for always praying for me, and for the greatest
support I have ever received in my life. I would also like to thank my sister, Vinka, for her support and her prayers. My gratitude also goes to Enik Nen, my beloved grandmother for her love and prayers she has given to me. Also, I would like to thank
Enik Ira, Pakdhe, Budhe, Uwak, Om, Tante, and all of my cousins for the prayers
and for giving me spirit to finish my thesis.My special gratitude goes to my best friends Ade Wira, Tiwi, Fanny, Lani,
and Nike for always keeping my spirit up to finish my thesis and for helping me in
any conditions. I also thank Alex Irfan for the togetherness in accomplishing our theses and for always helping me during finishing the thesis. My gratitude goes to
Riskisari and Erlina “Mak Er” for giving a positive impact to me in our friendship.
I thank them for the great friendship.
I would like to thank my boarding house friends:
Mbak Rani “Mami”,
Monik “Mon-Mon”, Wulan “Wul-Wul”, Rizka “Boi”, and Mbak Irpi “Bo” for
the great support and help during writing my thesis in the boarding house, for the chatting we always do, and for the great friendship.
Anneis Nutfatilah Kusumaputri
I dedicated this thesis to: Allah Subhannahu Wata’allahu, My late Bapak,
My dearest sister,
and… My beloved and greatest Bunda ever.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PageTITLE PAGE………………………………………………………………………. i APPROVAL PAGES………………………………………………………………. ii STATEMENT OF WORK‟S ORIGINALITY……………………………………. iv
LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS
…………………………………………….v ABSTRACT………………………………………………………………………... vi
ABSTRAK
…………………………………………………………………………... vii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS……………………………………………................... ix PAGE OF DEDICATION…………………………………………………………. xi TABLE OF CONTENTS…………………………………………………………... xii LIST OF APPENDICES…………………………………………………………… xv
CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION………………………………………………….. 1 A. Background of the Study…………………………………………………........ 1 B. Problem Formulation…………………………………………………….......... 3 C. Objective of the Study……………………………………………………........ 3 D. Benefits of the Study…………………………………………………….......... 4 E. Definition of Terms……………………………………………………............ 4 CHAPTER II. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE…………………………. 7 A. Theoretical Review……………………………………………………............... 7 1. Critical Approaches…………………………………………………………...7 2. Character……………………………………………………...........................8 3. Characterization……………………………………………………................ 10 4. Culture…………………………………………………….............................. 12
5. Amyotro phic Lateral Sclerosis………………………………………………. 19 B.
Review of Related Studies……………………………………………………… 21 C. Theoretical Framework…………………………………………………………. 22
CHAPTER III. METHODOLOGY……………………………………………….. 24 A. Object of the Study……………………………………………………............... 24 B. Approa ch of the Study…………………………………………………….......... 25 C.
Method…………………………………………………….................................. 26
CHAPTER IV. ANALYSIS………………………………………………………. 27 A. The American Values as Descibed in the Novel………………………………... 27
1. Value of Rational Approach to Lif e…………………………………………. 28
2. Value of Progress……………………………………………………………. 30 3.
Values of Individual Success…………………………………………........... 31 4. Value on Working…………………………………………………………… 32 5. Value of Freedom for the Individual…………………………………............ 34 6. Individualism Value…………………………………………………………. 35 7. Value of Measurable Achievement………………………………………….. 36 B. Morrie‟s Personal Views on American Values……………….………................ 38
1. Value of Rational Approach to Life …………………………………………. 39 2.
Value of Progress………………………………………................................. 41 3. Values of Individual Success………………………………………............... 42 4. Value on Working…………………………………………............................ 43 5. Value of Freedom for the Individual………………………………………… 45 6. Individualism Value…………………………………………......................... 46 7. Value of Measurable Achievement…………………….................................. 47
CHAPTER V. CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS………………………… 50 A. Conclusions……………………………………………………………............... 50 B. Suggestions……………………………………………………………………... 53
1. Suggestions for Future R esearchers………………………………................. 53
2. Suggestions for Teaching Learning Activity Using the Novel
Tuesdays with Morrie
………………………………………………………... 54 REFERENCES……………………………………………………………………..56
APPENDICES……………………………………………………………………...58
LIST OF APPENDICES
Page
APPENDIX 1: THE SUMMARY OF ALBOM‟S TUESDAYS WITH
MORRIE
………………………………………………………………………… 59 APPENDIX
63 2: THE BIORGRAPHY OF MITCH ALBOM………………….. APPENDIX 3: LESSON PLAN OF TEACHING PUBLIC SPEAKING I…………………………………………………………………… 65
67 APPENDIX 4: LEARNING MATERIAL…………………………………….. APPENDIX 5: TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE pages 90-
97……………………... 73
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION This chapter consists of five parts. The first part is the background of the
study. This part discusses about reasons of choosing the novel for the study. The second part states the problem formulation, in which two questions are raised as the major issues in this study. The third part reveals the goals of the study. The fourth part clarifies the benefits of the study. Finally, the last part conveys definitions of terms that are used in this study.
A. Background of the Study
As part of a society, we live within a culture as a result of the existence of a society. A culture constitutes behavior of the society which has regularity and uniformity. The culture that has been created is transmitted to the next generations. Every generation will learn to behave just as the culture expects.
One aspect of the culture is called values. These values are norms or standards of behavior patterns (Fichter 297). It means that values have an effect in making uniformity of people’s behavior.
A work of literature like a novel is used by the author to portray our real life, such as a culture that exists in a society. It has an ability to teach us to think, imagine, feel, and make sense of our experience (Abcarian 2). From setting that is presented, readers may conclude what kind of culture that is applied by the society and may draw lessons concerning the culture.
Tuesdays with Morrie , a novel by Mitch Albom, tells a story of a professor of
sociology in Brandeis University, Massachusetts, named Morrie Schwartz. He teaches mostly about being human and relation to others. One of his favorite students is Mitch. They have an intimate relationship since they often talk about everything, about school lessons or a fatherly conversation.
On Mitch’s graduation day, he promises to keep in touch with Morrie. Unfortunately, he breaks the promise. After graduating from the university, Mitch works in Detroit as a columnist in Detroit Free
Press and never visits Morrie. He becomes very busy and also buries himself in his
work.The story begins when Mitch hears the voice of a famous presenter of “Nightline”, Ted Koppel, saying the name of his lecturer, Morrie Schwartz. From this TV talk show, Mitch understands that Morrie suffers from Amyotrophic Lateral
Sclerosis (ASL), a disease that causes degradation to dysfunction of human muscles.
Affected by this condition, Morrie is dying.
Knowing the condition of his former lecturer, Mitch finally visits Morry at his home for the first time since their last meeting sixteen years before. On their first encounter, Mitch learns that instead of giving up to his condition and getting depressed, Morrie wants himself to be an object of a study. He, with a disease that settles in his body, considers himself as being in a bridge between life and death. Since then, Mitch often visits Morrie. On one of
Mitch’s visits, Morrie asks him to have questions concerning life. Mitch makes his questions and conducts several interviews with Morrie which he records using a tape recorder.
These interviews last for several months and are held on every Tuesday of the personal views of the American culture, especially its values. He also says that their culture does not make people feel good about themselves. Thus, Morrie tells Mitch about his personal views of American values from many aspects for the society to practice.
This novel is chosen since it tells the lessons of life and knowledge about a culture. From Morrie ’s personal views on death and of many aspects of life such as regrets, family, money, and love, we can learn many good values that can make our lives more meaningful. From the interviews with Morrie that Mitch conducts, the readers can learn
Morrie’s positive attitudes of facing his death in which he makes the best of his dwindling time instead of withering up.
Furthermore, the novel presents Morrie’s point of views about values of life. Also, from reading the novel, we may obtain knowledge of American culture which directs to achievements of material things. In addition, we may apply the values which Morrie has proposed to make our lives more meaningful.
B. Problem Formulation
This study focuses on two problems which are formulated as follows:
1. How are American values described in Albom’s Tuesdays with Morrie?
2. What are Morrie’s personal views on American values?
C. Objectives of the Study
The first objective of this study is to reveal the American values that are described in the novel. Furthermore, the second objective of this study is to find out
D. Benefits of the Study This study gives some advantages to both the readers and the thesis writer.
This study is expected to enrich the readers’ knowledge of values in a culture, especially those in American culture. Furthermore, through this study, hopefully the readers may obtain wisdom about values of their cultures so that they will have a broad point of view about various values that exist in a culture. In addition, the study will facilitate the readers in comprehending the novel Tuesdays with Morrie.
As for advantages for the thesis writer, this study enriches the thesis writer’s knowledge about the culture in American society and its values. Furthermore, this study improves the critical thinking of the thesis writer about different views of values in a culture.
E. Definition of Terms
There are some terms that need to be clarified to avoid possible misunderstanding. These terms are as follow:
1. Culture
The term culture is defined by many anthropologists. The first anthropology who defines culture is E.B. Tylor. Tylor, as quoted by Miller (129), defines culture as something totally complex in which there are knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, any other capabilities and habits. These complexities are obtained by a man as a member of a society.
Another definition of culture is proposed by another anthropologist, named phenomena. The first phenomenon is acts which constitute patterns of behavior. The second phenomenon is objects which contain tools and things made with tools. The third phenomenon is ideas in which belief and knowledge are included. The last phenomenon is called sentiments which contain attitudes and values (129). Both of the definitions of culture are in accordance with this study.
2. View
According to Encarta® World English Dictionary [North American Edition ©
& (P)2009 Microsoft Corporation.
112/view.html), view is somebody’s opinion or judgment on something. In addition, it can also be defined as a personal belief or attitude about a situation or a subject . In this study, the term
personal view
refers to Morrie’s personal opinion, belief, and attitude about something, namely about American values.
3. Values
Values as a part of a culture have various meanings. According to Stewart (16-20), values are almost the same as assumptions. Assumptions are the reason of people’s actions. Meanwhile, values more direct to “oughtness” in behavior. Both values and assumptions may be used to describe people’s behavior in a cultural environment. Different cultures may happen because of different assumptions which the people share. Another description of values is conveyed by Ficther (293-294). He says that values exist in everything which is useful, admirable, and which makes people want to possess it.
Based on the two definitions of values proposed, the definition stated by something that may have different standards which are considered useful, admirable, and make him/her want to possess it.
4. American Culture
Based on the definition proposed by White which is quoted by Merrill (129), a culture contains four phenomena, namely acts, objects, ideas, and sentiments. These phenomena contain patterns of behavior of the people, tools, things made with tools, belief, knowledge, attitudes, and values.
Hence, it can be inferred that American culture means the whole things of the four phenomena which happen in America. Since values are included in the four phenomena, they form the American culture. These values are going to be discussed in this study.
5. Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal neurological illness that attacks the nerve cells (neurons) whose function is to control the voluntary muscles.
This illness signaled by degeneration of the neurons to control voluntary movements. People with ALS will have difficulties in moving parts of their bodies. Most people with ALS will die because they undergo respiratory failure. Usually, people with ALS will survive for three to five years from the beginning of the symptoms. However, 10% of the sufferers survive for ten years or more rosis/detail_amyotrophicl ateralsclerosis.htm).
CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE This chapter consists of three parts. The first part is the elaboration of theories
used in this study. This section conveys the theory of critical approaches, the theory of character and characterization, the theory of culture and American culture, and the last is the theory of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). The second part is a review of the preceding related studies. The third part is the explanation of the used theories in this study conveyed before.
A. Theoretical Review
This section is divided into five parts. The first one deals with approaches that may be used in analyzing a novel. Character and characterization will be explained in the second and the third parts. The fourth section discusses the theory of culture and the theory of American culture which become the setting of the novel Tuesdays with
Morrie . The last part explains about the symptom which Morrie suffers from,
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS).1. Critical Approaches
Rohrberger and Wood Jr. (3-15) state that a critical approach to literature requires an understanding of its nature, function, and positive values. A literary work is valued from its beauty and the response to it is called the esthetic response. In so doing, five critical approaches are proposed. They are the formalist approach, the biographical approach, the sociocultural-historical approach, the mythopoeic approach, and the psychological approach.
The formalist approach sees the work of literary work as a whole without any consideration to other aspects of the work, such as the background of the author or the genre. It considers only the esthetic value of the work.
In the biographical approach, the work of literature is seen as a reflection of the author’s personality and idea. To understand the work of literature, a reader must learn about the life and the development of the author.
The sociocultural-historical approach sees a literary work as a result from civilization. This approach believes that behaviors and actions from particular society affect the production of the literary work.
The mythopoeic approach tries to understand a literature work toward repeated patterns of human thought. These repeated patterns became the basic of expression in ancient myths and folk rites.
As the mythopoeic approach, the psychological approach analyzes the periodic patterns of human thought. The difference of this approach is that it highlights the psychological aspects of the characters in a work of literature through their words, thoughts, and behavior.
2. Character
a. Definition of Character
Abrams (20) suggests that characters are people that exist in a dramatic or narrative work who have moral and nature that are portrayed in their dialogue and novelist and are given names and sex. After having given names and sex, the novelist gives the characters gestures and makes them speak by giving the inverted commas. It is possible for the novelist to make the characters behave just as he expects.
A character is created to fulfill certain purposes. Henkle (86) states “And the principle objective of the creation of characters in novels is to enable us to understand, and to experience, people.” Hence, by reading a novel, we can learn about people
’s personality, attitudes or behavior through its characters.
b. Types of Character
Henkle (88-96) uses the terms of major characters and secondary characters to differ kinds of character. A major character is the more eminent than the other one.
This character is more often being talked by the other people in the novel. Furthermore, the major character is signified by the recurrent appearances in the story. An understanding to the major character may indicate an understanding to the novel.
A secondary character is created to inhabit the world of the novel. As Henkle (94) states,
“Since fiction presents human contexts, the secondary characters establish that context.
” Here, the secondary characters help in presenting a sense of human being. The understanding of time and milieu in the novel may be attained by observing the character’s regular basis activities.
Categorizing kinds of characters to flat characters and round characters is proposed by Forsters (46-54). A flat character is described through what he says which reveals constant behavior from the character. Due to his unchanged behavior, this character is memorable by the readers.
While a round character is a character that should be surprising in a particular time due to his inconsistency of what he has said. For this character, life is unpredictable and so his behavior undergoes changes as response to things happen.
Holman and Harmon (83) categorized the kinds of characters into static character and dynamic character. The static character does not experience changing in his personality traits even though things happen to this character. The character is not intended to describe his response to things. On the contrary, the dynamic character shows changes in response to things happen.
3. Characterization
a. Definition of Characterization
Murphy (161) explains the definition of characterization as ways of an author reveals his character’s personalities toward attitudes presented by the character.
Characterization constitutes factors which enable authors to tell the human qualities in their novels. The factors guide the readers to obtain understanding of the human themes of the novels (Henkle 86).
b. Ways of Characterization
There are nine ways of characterization suggested by Murphy. They are personal description, character as seen by another, speech, past life, conversation of others, reactions, direct comment, thoughts, and mannerism.
The first way to describe a character is through personal description . In this way, readers can understand the character of a person by his physical appearance including the cloth.
Character as seen by another is the second way to characterize a character. Instead of what a character presents, readers may understand the character through another opinion to the character.
The third way of characterization is speech. The character is described with what he says. Anything that the character says, whether it is an opinion or a conversation may give clue to his personality.
The fourth way of charac terization is past life. Using this way, the person’s character is portrayed by a description of his past life experiences. The past life may reveal through the person’s thoughts, through his dialogues, or through other people.
Conversation of others is the fifth way of characterization. Readers of a novel might be able to understand the personality of a character by the conversation of other people. In this way, other people talk about the character in which we can conclude the character’s personality.
The sixth way of characterization proposed by Murphy is reactions. Readers may obtain an understanding about a character’s personality by the revelation of the character’s response to many things happen. Direct comment is the next way of characterization. Through this way, an author gives his comment directly on a person’s character.
The eighth way is thoughts. A feature that makes a novel special is that the readers are able to know what a person in the novel thinks. Through the thoughts of the person, the readers may know the character of him.
The last way of characterization is mannerism. In this way, the readers may attain knowledge of a person’s character from habits, manners, or extraordinary trait
4. Culture
This sub chapter is going to explain the definition of culture, qualities of culture, values, and American culture. The American culture then is explained into three parts that are history of American culture, characteristics of American culture, and values of American culture.
a. Definiton of Culture
Tylor as quoted by Merrill (129) defines culture as a complexity which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, habits and capabilities obtained by man as a member of society. Another definition of culture is proposed by White quoted in Merrill (129). She states that
Culture is an organization of phenomena- acts (patterns of behavior); objects (tools, things made with tools); ideas (belief, knowledge); and sentiments (attitudes,’values’) – that is dependent upon the use of symbols. Culture began when man as an articulate, symbol-using primate, began. Because of its symbolic character… culture is easily and readily transmitted from one human organism to another.
The history of culture, then, becomes the history of human being. From time to time, culture has been transmitted to the next generation. In so doing, some symbols in culture have been changed by adding and losing them. This constitutes an ongoing process.
As human beings, we live in a culture. We obtain knowledge, belief, morals, and custom from the previous generation in the society. We apply habits that are applied as well by our surroundings. We also learn about the art and the law as parts of a culture. These components of a culture, then, will be transmitted to our next generations.
b. Qualities of Culture
Adapted from Murdock, Merrill (135-136) suggests that culture has its characteristics that have a role in understanding the concept of culture. Merrill also has clarified the characteristic of the culture in terms of its qualities. They are the learned quality, the transmissive quality, the social quality, the ideational quality, the gratifying quality, the adaptive quality, and the integrative quality.
The first quality is the learned quality. This quality suggests that culture is not endowed to human being. Instead, culture needs to be learned. Culture itself constitutes expected behaviors from society and is learned by a man so that uniformities of behavior are created. The uniformities of behavior are called culture.
The second quality is the transmissive quality. This quality clarifies that culture is able to be transmitted from one generation to other generations. The transmission process of culture is cumulative. It means that a man in one generation may develop what has already been existing from the previous generation.
Another quality, the third quality, is the social quality. In this quality, culture is explained to have a normative quality. The normative quality constitutes behavior expected by people in society. This normative expectations yield uniformities behavior.
The fourth quality is the ideational quality. This quality explains that the uniformity behavior which becomes habits and constitutes the culture has to be an ideal for the society, so that the society may view, learn, and adapt themselves to the culture.
The fifth quality is the gratifying quality which means culture is able to satisfy also be the sociocultural needs such as falling in love and marrying. The next quality is the adaptive quality. This quality means that culture has to be able to adapt itself to its different aspect that may be changed, that is the geographical aspect. This quality has to exist to defend the presence of the culture itself.
The last quality is the integrative quality. This quality suggests that culture has inclination to form a consistent whole. Every culture has its quality although this quality may seems obvious or not in any culture. The integrative quality of a culture is very obvious in a simple society where the people do not change significantly. On the contrary, integration is not really obvious in a complex and heterogeneous culture where the people are change constantly.