Re-defining Hero as depicted in Lyra in Philip Pullman’s The Golden Compass.

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RE-DEFINING HERO AS DEPICTED IN LYRA IN

PHILIP PULLMAN’S

THE GOLDEN COMPASS

THESIS

Submitted as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Sarjana Degree of English Department Faculty of Arts and Humanities State Islamic

University of Sunan Ampel Surabaya

By:

Talitha Shabrina El-Jihan Reg. Number: A03213050

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT

FACULTY OF ARTS AND HUMANITIES

STATE ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY SUNAN AMPEL SURABAYA


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ABSTRACT

El-Jihan, Talitha Shabrina. 2017. Re-defining Hero as depicted in Lyra in

Philip Pullman’s The Golden Compass. English Department. Faculty of Arts and Humanities. State Islamic University of Sunan Ampel Surabaya. Thesis Advisor: Itsna Syahadatud Dinurriyah, MA

This study is a general idea toward Phillip Pullman’s adventure novel, The

Golden Compass. Many literary works states that a hero is a strong, honorable

man and hard to defeat, but Lyra as main character is portrayed as a different figure with her innocence and immaturity. This study has two points of analyses.

Firstly, this study analyze how Lyra’s figure as identifiable hero from the

description of her physical-packed and action-packed in the novel by using theory of characters and characterization along with the concept of formula of adventure story by John G Cawelti, especially about hero to find that Lyra is a hero in the novel. Secondly, the deconstruction analysis as the main analysis of this study is analyze how Lyra leads herself as a hero and this theory also help this study to describe the hero pattern of Lyra and to describe some facts why Lyra is different

from mostly identical hero by using Margery Hourihan’s theory of the

deconstructing of hero.

This study use descriptive analytic method in order to get the valid description about how Lyra leads herself as a hero and all of her hero pattern. Thus, the important result of deconstruction analysis of this study is to redefine

the hero’s perception in the adventure fictionespecially in Lyra’s character in The

Golden Compass novel.


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INTISARI

El-Jihan, Talitha Shabrina. 2017. Re-defining Hero as depicted in Lyra in

Philip Pullman’s The Golden Compass. English Department. Faculty of Arts and Humanities. State Islamic University of Sunan Ampel Surabaya. Dosen Pembimbing: Itsna Syahadatud Dinurriyah, MA

Skripsi ini adalah sebuah penjabaran ide terhadap novel dari Philip Pullman yang berjudul The Golden Compass. Banyak karya sastra yang

mengatakan bahwa seorang pahlawan adalah sosok lelaki yang kuat, terhormat, dan sulit untuk dikalahkan, tetapi Lyra sebagai sebagai tokoh utama digambarkan berbeda dengan kemurnian dirinya dan ketidakdewasaannya. Skripsi ini

mempunyai dua point analisis. Pertama, skripsi ini menganalisa bagaimana Lyra sebagai pahlawan di dalam cerita dengan menggunakan teori karakter dan penokohan bersamaan dengan konsep formula cerita petualangan oleh John G. Cawelti khususnya tentang pahlawan untuk menjelaskan bahwa Lyra adalah sosok pahlawan dalam novel tersebut. Kedua, analisis dekonstruksi sebagai analisis utama skripsi ini adalah dengan menganalisa bagaimana Lyra dapat mengontrol dirinya sebagai seorang pahlawan, teori ini membantu menjelaskan pola-pola kepahlawanan Lyra, dan teori ini juga menjelaskan beberapa fakta mengapa Lyra sangat berbeda dari pahlawan pada umumnya menggunakan teori dekonstruksi kepahlawanan dari Margery Hourihan.

Skripsi ini menggunakan metode deskriptif analitik agar bias mendapatkan hasil yang benar tentang bagaimana Lyra dapat mengontrol dirinya sebagai

seorang pahlawan dan semua pola-pola kepahlawanannya. Maka, hasil utama dari sripsi ini adalah untuk mendefinisikan ulang persepsi tentang pahlawan di novel petualangan khususnya pada karakter Lyra di novel The Golden Compass. Kata kunci: pahlawan, petualangan, dekonstruksi tokoh kepahlawanan


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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Inside Cover Page...i

Inside Title Page...ii

Declaration Page...iii

Dedication Page...iv

Motto...v

Advisor’s Approval Page...vi

Examiner’s Approval Page...vii

Acknowledgement...viii

Table of Contents...ix

Abstract...xii

Intisari...xiii

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION...1

1.1. Background of the Study...1

1.2. Statement of the Problems... 4

1.3. Objective of the Study... 5

1.4. Significance of the Study... 5

1.5. Scope and Limitation... 5

1.6. Method of the Study...6

1.7. Definition of Key Terms... 7

CHAPTER II REVIEW OF THE RELATED LITERATURE...9

2.1. Theoretical Framework... 9

2.1.1. Concept Formula of Adventure Stories ... 9

2.1.2. New Criticism ... 13


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2.1.2.2. Characterization...15

2.13. Hourihan’sDeconstruction of Hero... 17

2.1.4. Review of Previous Study... 23

CHAPTER III ANALYSIS...25

3.1. Character’s Analysis ………... 26

3.1.1. Lyra as an Educated but a Curious Girl ... 26

3.1.2.Lyra as an Immature Girl …... 22

3.2. Lyra as a Hero based on Cawelti’s Formula ……... 35

3.2.1. Lyra as an Optimist Hero …………... 36

3.2.2. Lyra as an Intelligent Hero …………... 40

3.2.2. Lyra is a Strong but Limited hero ……... 41

3.3.Lyra as a Hero in Deconstruction’s Point of View …... 42

3.3.1. Lyra as a Young Hero ………... 42

3.3.2. Lyra as a Female Hero (Heroine) ………... 49

CHAPTER IV CONCLUSION...53

WORK CITED...54


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CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1. Background of the study

In analyzing popular literature, formula is a valuable thing that we should to note. According to John G. Cawelti in his book: Adventure, Mystery and

Romance: Formula stories as Art and Popular Culture, formula is a narrative

construction or dramatic principle that is used in a number of literary works. Formula can be used to name plot (1). Then, formula refers to the plot that embodies the type of story which inspired the author to write the story. Thus, the formula is part of a structural component (plot) that has detailed themes which forms a type of literary work.

Cawelti also stated that the definition formula in the popular literature is the same with the term genre in the discussion of classical literature. Formula is a configuration or blend of a number of specific cultural conventions with a more general story form or archetype (Cawelti 6). If in the discussion of classical literature we know the distribution of genres such as novels, plays, poetry, then in the popular literature there is adventure, mystery, romance, allien being and state, as well as the melodrama or tragedy.

From the view of adventure genre, John G. Cawelti defines adventure


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and dangers and finishing some ethical and significant mission (2). He also insults to the archetypical nature of this story pattern, which can be traced back to ancient myths and epics. Thus, novels in the adventure genre are action-packed, characteristic a hero on a mission, and are often set in mysterious locales throughout the journey times.

An identifiable hero is always found in the adventure fiction, he is

character whom readers like and to whom they relate. He achieves his fraught by means of his cleverness and skill, mission. The one the feature in adventure genre is the personality of the hero. Although inroads have been made by women, as will be seen below, this remains a male-dominated genre; he is a strong, honorable man, committed to his assigned mission. Both physical and intellectual skills are required: the hero must act to accomplish his mission, but he must also be able to figure out the puzzles along the way (Saricks 19).

The Golden Compass novel is a novel written by Phillip Pullman and

categorized as an adventure fiction. Lyra as the main character in this novel is taking her journey to the Northern Lights (Bolvangar and Svalbard). Lyra is doing some mission such as rescue her best friend, Roger Parslow and the

missing Gyptians’s children abducted by the Gobblers in Bolvangar and also

rescue Lord Asriel who is imprisoned in Svalbard by bears since the church againts his experiments on ‘Dust’ and also give the alethiometer to Lord Asriel in which she thinks it is needed by him to reveal Dust, thus it is constantly that Lyra Belacqua is supposed to be an identifiable hero and


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protagonist character in this Novel is. In The Golden Compass novel, Dust accumulates around people when their daemons stop changing – that is, when they go through puberty and grow up. As the radical theologian Rusakov

discovers, it is the ‘physical proof’ that something changes when innocence

becomes experience (Pullman 224).

A journey or quest is essential to the adventure fiction because without it there is no adventure (Saricks 16). Cawelti said that the true focus of interest in the adventure story is the character of hero and the nature of the obstacle he has to overcome (40). According to Campbell, a hero is a male or a female who ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of

supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man (263). Thus, the hero must leave the world of his or her everyday life to undergo a journey to a special world where challenges and fears are overcome in order to secure a quest, which is then

shared with other members of the hero’s community.

The act of giving up his life to someone or something greater than himself

is one of the characteristics of a hero. In Franz’s words, a hero is abnormal,

divine, beyond human limitations, even in novels and films, the hero is someone who has found or done something beyond the normal range of achievement and experience (Campbell 165). However according to Margery Hourihan in his book, Deconstructing of Hero: Literary Theory and


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Children’s Literature, to undergo a special adventure to the special world,

a hero need s special characteristics. In fact, a hero is constantly special, born to the world in special incidents and fated to undergo a

extraordinary journey, and back with unusual return s. In Western culture, and in any culture, the hero stories have been part of life since the emergence of the culture itself (10).

Considering the hero pattern mentioned above, there are several reasons why this study is interested to Lyra’s character to be the object of analysis. Firstly, this study finds that Lyra is an identifiable hero. Besides, Lyra is different from mostly identical hero with a strong man and hard to defeat but in the novel Lyra is describe as an immature girl and it is very doubtful that Lyra has power in taking her journey to the northern lights. Secondly, Lyra shows the heroic pattern which must face many problems, dangerous things and trials in his entirely mission. The last reason is Lyra has not been analyzed and studied by the previous students of English Department in Faculty of Arts and Humanities, State Islamic University Sunan Ampel Surabaya. Based on the reason mentioned above, the suitable title for this study is, “Re-defining Hero as depicted in Lyra in Philip Pullman’s The Golden Compass.

1.2. Statement of Problems

Based on the background of the study explained above, this study will focus to analyze some problems which are formulated as follows:


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2. How does she lead herself as a hero? 1.3. Objectives of the Study

Considering the research questions mentioned above, the research will intend to:

1. Describe the description of physical and action-packed of Lyra 2. Find and describe the pattern of hero in Lyra

1.4. Scope and Limitation

To avoiding the broadening the analysis, this study is limited to the novel

The Golden Compass. Then, this study focuses on the hero pattern of Lyra’s

character along her heroic journey to the Northren Lights and how she leads

herself as a hero by using Margery Hourihan’s theory of deconstructing of the

hero.

1.5. Significance of the Study

This study is expected to give direct contribution to existing people knowledge in the field of literature and to the common people who interest in reading literature. Theoretically, study will enrich the reader’s development of knowledge in theoretical based on literary studies, especially related to hero pattern analysis. Meanwhile, practically, this study hopefully can give useful contribution as references and alternative information for English Literature Student who conduct the similar research particularly in English Department, State Islamic University of SunanAmpel Surabaya.


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1.6. Methods of the Study 1.6.1 Research Design

This study will be library research. One of the characteristic in doing library research is working through many books, journals, articles, and other supporting references to support the research. The Golden Compass, a novel written by Phillip Pullman is choosing as the object of analysis. So, through descriptive analytic method this study wants to get the valid description about how Lyra leads herself as a hero and all her hero pattern

1.6.2 Source of Data

There are two data sources used by the writer for this research. They are primary data and the secondary data. Those primary data are taken from the novel itself that was written by Phillip Pullman. While, the secondary data are taken from book of Margery Hourihan theory of Heroic Patterns. This study analyzes phrase and sentence that relates to the hero pattern of Lyra as the main character.

1.6.3 Method of Collecting Data

This research uses the documentation method. At first, this study will tries to find the book and other sources related to archetypal criticism of heroes character. Then, this study takes any statement and conversation in the novel which is related to the problem analysis. In this case, the writer focuses on the Hero pattern of Lyra to the Northern Lights.


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1.6.4 Procedure of Analyzing Data

The data which have been collected will be analyzed using literary theory. This research is library based. In presenting the analysis, this research mainly uses descriptive-analytical method. The research follows the following steps:

1. Reading the novel many times toget the best understanding on the whole story.

2. Reading some theory’s books that related to the hero’s pattern issue

3. Selecting and collecting data inform of narration and conversation from the novel related to the Lyra’s heroic pattern.

4. Analyzing Lyra’s heroic pattern by using new criticism theory

along with Cawelti’s formula of adventure story that focusing on the meaning of hero and also using Hourihan’s deconstruction of

hero theory to get the best description that Lyra is a new style of hero.

5. Drawing conclusion based on the result of data analysis. 1.7. Definition of Key Terms

1) Hero : Usually, Hero is very conscious of his dependence upon the support of his friend who often provides almost his only emotional warmth in a seemingly hostile or, at least,


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2) Divine : The suggestion, since forever, has been that story is a conveyance, a vehicle, touse in order to think, to move forward through life. At the end of a life that has meaning, the point is not that one is perfected, but that one will still carry a view of self and the world. (Campbell iv)


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CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF RELATED STUDIES

2.1Theoretical Framework

This part is focused on discussing some theories which are going to be used as a guide of accomplishing this study. The theories are deconstruction as main theory and new criticism as supporting theory. Meanwhile as the

supporting theory, new criticism which is focused on character and characterization is used to help this study in describing the description of physical-packed and action-packed of Lyra. Besides, the concept of formula of adventure story by John G Cawelti, especially about hero in adventure story is used as a mediator to find Lyra as identifiable hero in the novel. Therefore, the deconstructing of hero by Margery Hourihan as the main theory is used to analyze how Lyra lead herself as a hero and this theory also helped this study to describe the hero pattern of Lyra and to describe some facts why Lyra is different from mostly identical hero.

2.1.1. The Concept of Formula of Adventure Stories

Cawelti stated that the definition formula in the popular literature is the same with the term genre in the discussion of classical literature. Formula is a combination or synthesis of a number of specific cultural conventions with a more universal story form or archetype (Cawelti 6). If in the discussion of classical literature we know the distribution of genres such as novels, plays,


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poetry, then in the popular literature there is adventure, mystery, romance, allien being and state, as well as the melodrama or tragedy.

The appeal of adventure fiction is argued by literary scholar John Cawelti to be due to psychological wish-fulfillment. He asserts that the most

popular works are those that ‗help people to categorize artistically with actions

they would like to perform but cannot in the ordinary course of events‘

(Cawelti 22). Cawelti seems without doubtful of the ideological effect of the

adventure genre when he posits formulaic literature as ‗a ruling-class device for keeping a daily measure of amusing anxieties from the majority of the

people‘s satisfied (Cawelti 25).

This structural formula represented an involvement between the reader and the author in which individual developments and turns in the plot are not apathetically anticipated, often within a storyline‘s formation that is

conventional, relatively easy to follow and thus reassuringly familiar to the mass viewers that enthusiastic with adventure fiction. The significance of these narrative structures is also responsive well by publishers. Cawelti sums awake this three-way relationship succinctly: ‗well-established conventional structures are particularly essential to the creation of formula literature and reflect the interests of audiences, authors and distributors‘ (Cawelti 9). First, by delivering a suspenseful plot and epic styles of heroism, the interests of audiences were satisfaction and distraction, understood in language that was easily reached to a mostly learned, but largely unrefined, popular market.


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Second, the principles of a formulaic narrative style allowed an abundant productivity from the adventure writer, whose plot outlines were largely programmed by the quest conventions of a challenge, a journey, a group of friend, a set of difficulties, a quash in fortune, its resolution and the final accomplishment of both the objective and the return to safety.

The creative challenge of the successful adventure writer was to re-invent continuously, within this basic structure, the geographical settings, the period of history, the objective to be won, the obstacles to be overcome and (within a set of tightly prescribed margins) the traits of the hero and his companions. Third, the interests of the publisher were paramount and closely aligned with the interests of readers and writers outlined above (Cawelti 34). In this way, the nature of Hero in The Golden Compassis closely to Cawelti‘s

observation that ‗formula stories are produced and distributed almost entirely in terms of marketable exploitation‘, because The Golden Compass Novel is categorized as popular fiction with proof of won the Carniage Medal for

children‘s fiction in the UK in 1995.

Cawelti also analyses the ways in which the imaginary, or fantasy, is interwoven into the formulaic plot structures that are typical of the adventure novel. These literary formulae, Cawelti argues, are ‗means of making

historical and cultural inferences about the collective fantasies shared by large groups of people and of identifying differences in these fantasies from one


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value in identifying recurrent underlying ideological motifs in adventure fiction which, although published in the last thirty years of the nineteenth century, were often set at earlier historical moments, such as in the Elizabethan or Napoleonic era.

In Cawelti‘s view, ‗one cannot write a successful adventure story

about a social character type that the culture cannot conceive in heroic terms‘ (Cawelti: 6), the adventure hero brings a set of recognizable traits to a

recognizable situation. This familiarity with a formula, for readers of

adventure fiction, is one of the ways in which the genre exemplifies Culler‘s theory of how ‗readers produce meaning by making connections, filling in

things left unsaid, anticipating and conjecturing and then having their

expectations disappointed or confirmed‘ (Culler 123).

Conforming the view of adventure genre, John G. Cawelti defines

adventure fiction as the story “of the hero - individual or group - overcoming obstacles and dangers and accomplishing some important and moral mission (2). He also alludes to the archetypical nature of this story pattern, which can be traced back to ancient myths and epics. Thus, novels in the adventure genre are action-packed, feature a hero on a mission, and are often set in exotic locales during the journey times.

In the adventure fiction, there is always an identifiable hero, a

character whom readers like and to whom they relate. Through ingenuity and skill, he accomplishes his desperate mission. The nature of the hero is another


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hallmark of the adventure genre. Although inroads have been made by women, as will be seen below, this remains a male-dominated genre; he is a strong, honorable man, committed to his assigned mission. Both physical and intellectual skills are required: the hero must act to accomplish his mission, but he must also be able to figure out the puzzles along the way (Saricks 19). As Cawelti said that the true focus of interest in the adventure story is the character of hero and the nature of the obstacle he has to overcome (40).

2.1.2 New Criticism

New Criticism is a means of criticism which emphasizes explication, or "close reading," of "the work itself." It discards old

historicism‘s attention to biographical and sociological matters. Instead, the

objective determination as to "how a piece work" can be found through close focus and analysis, rather than through extraneous and erudite special knowledge (Abrams 180-181).

Furthermore, the function of new critics is to examine the relationships between a text's ideas and its form, between what a text says and the way it says it. Tension, irony, or paradox in this relation are might found in New Critics , but they usually determine it into unity and coherence of meaning (Biddle 100). Readers using patterns of sound, imagery, narrative structure, point of view, and other techniques visible on close reading of the text to find out the meaning and suitability of these to the independent work. The most essential and the only one that should be concerned by new


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criticism is only the text itself. In interpreting literary works, the readers‗ do

not need to know about author‗s life, biography, whether the text is related or a manifestation of author‗s experience. Readers do not need to observe how the author is, the special character of particular author writing, diaries, etc. For New Critics, it doesn‘t need all the aspect outside the text to understand the text because they don‘t give the influence in

interpretation.

Biddle asserts that the purpose of New Criticism is to make known the construction of art and its interrelationship and to find out the idea developed from the work itself. He also mentioned that the New Criticism features the interrelation and interconnection of each element to

reflect the work‗s as the main idea, thus the elements and the form of the work cannot be separable. To realize overall meaning or the form of a work, all the elements must be analyze and integrated first. According to Hamalian and Karl (vii), the basic elements of a fiction consist of, plot, setting, characters, mood and atmosphere, and style, point of view and themes (43-44) .

2.1.2.1 Character

The significant part that need in literature is Character. According to Abrams (1999:32) Characters are the persons represented in a dramatic or narrative work, who are interpreted by the reader as being endowed with particular moral, intellectual, and emotional qualities by inferences from what


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the persons say and their distinctive ways of saying it—the dialogue— and from what they do—the action. It means that the characters in novel can be stated as a verbal representative of human being because the characters in novel can do action, speech and qualities like people in real life and also pass the way of the life of real human Character is the single most important intrinsic element in the literary works. The things that characters do and say are more obvious than are the logic and meaning of the pattern in which they say and do them. Character is showing at perpetrator of presented story or the player of the story, whereas characterization is showing of clear picture about someone who present in a story. (X.J. Kennedy 47)

2.1.2.2 Characterization

Richard Gill said in his book, Mastering English Literature, that a character is a person in literary work; characterization is the way in which character is constructed. Characters are all the result of characterization. Characters are what they like because the way they have been made. The kind of conversation they have, the things they do, their appearance and so on are the particular ways in which the author has chosen to characterize of his or her character (25).

Characterization includes both descriptions of a character's physical attributes as well as the character's personality. It can be said that the way that characters act, think, and speak also adds to their characterization. Character and characterization cannot be separated, but they are different each other.


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Tomlinson says that characterization refers to the way an author helps the reader to know a character. By this characterization the authors try to describe the physical appearance and personality of characters in their works (29). There are two types of characterization, direct characterization and indirect characterization. According to Bernardo direct characterization refers to what speaker or narrator directly says or thinks about character, the reader is told what the character is like. Meanwhile, indirect characterization refers to what the character says or does. The reader then infers what the character is all about, the reader who is obligated to figure out what the character is like.

Holman also states that there are three fundamental methods of characterization in fiction: (1) direct exposition from the explicit appearance by the author of the character, both in an preliminary block or more often piecemeal throughout the work, illustrated by action; (2) the presentation of the character in action, with little or no explicit comment by the author, in the expectation that the reader will be able to deduce the attributes of the actor from the actions; and (3) the representation from within a character, without comment on the character by the author, of the impact of actions and emotions upon the character's inner self, with the expectation that the reader will come to a clear understanding of the attributes of the character (76).

F.C Lucas divides methods to understand the characterization, they are:


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1. Direct statement of the author, the author through the power of omniscience may explain what wants to know about the character to public.

2. Action, what a person does in the story often give the public imminent into his very nature and from this insight public can know and create an opinion about him.

3. Speech, from the character‘s speech public study his or her culture and natural environment. Frequently it reveals the way he thinks about people and thinks.

4. Reaction from others. This method often includes a prejudiced view. Public will get a unclear picture if the person‘s act talking about the character has a biased opinion,. Therefore, the trustworthiness of the character must always be the most important.

5. Environment, the presentations of person‘s surrounding, particularly those he deliberately chooses, including the recreations authors prefer, contributes to an understanding character.

2.1.3 Deconstruction of Hero

According to Campbell (263) a hero is a male or a female who ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man. Thus the hero must leave the world


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of his or her everyday life to undergo a journey to a special world where challenges and fears are overcome in order to secure a quest, which is then shared with other members of the hero‘s community.

To undergo a special adventure to the special world, a hero requires special characteristics. In fact, a hero is always special, born to the world in special circumstances and destined to undergo a special journey, and back with special rewards. In Western culture, and in any culture, the hero stories have been part of life since the emergence of the culture itself (Hourihan 10). The oldest extant written version is The Epic of Gilgamesh which, according to its English translator, probably belongs to the third millennium BC (Sandars in Hourihan 10).

Surprisingly, though has undergone thousands of years of history of storytelling and narrative writing, the presentation of hero has changed only a little. Hourihan in his book Deconstructing the Hero (2005) lists the characteristics of heroes commonly found in Western narratives which occur almost in narratives from any given time. He (9-10) states that

whether it is The Odyssey, Jack andthe Beanstalk, Treasure Island, Doctor

Who, Star Wars, the latest James Bondthriller, or Where the Wild Things

are, the hero story takes the form of a journey and follows an invariable


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a) The hero is white, male, British, American or European, and usually young. He may be the leader of a group of adventurers go together with a single male or companion.

b) The hero leaves the civilized order of home to venture into the wilderness in pursuit of his ambition.

c) The wilderness may be a forest, a fantasy land, another planet, Africa or some other non-European part of the world, the mean streets of London or New York, a tropical island, et cetera. It lacks the order and safety of home. Dangerous and magical things happen there.

d) The hero run into a series of complexityes and also susceptible by hazardous enemies. These may include dragons or other fantastic creatures, wild animals, witches, giants, savages, pirates, criminals, spies, aliens.

e) The hero overcomes these enemies because he is strong, brave, resourceful, rational and determined to succeed. He may not dispatch support from wise and generous beings who recognize him for what he is.

f) The hero achieves his goal which may be golden riches, a treasure with spiritual significance like the Holy Grail, the rescue of a virtuous (usually female) prisoner, or the destruction of the enemies which threaten the safety of home.

g) The hero returns home, perhaps overcoming other threats on the way, and is gratefully welcomed.


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h) The hero is rewarded. Sometimes this reward is a virtuous and beautiful woman.

However the characteristics of hero can also be viewed from his physical, emotional, and social traits attributed to him/her. Further,

Hourihan suggests seven characteristics of the hero related to his race, class and mastery, gender, age, relationship, rationality, action violence (Hourihan 57-95). These characteristics are more commonly found in action hero story, they are:

1) Race, the hero is white, and his story inscribes the dominance of white power and white culture. In those versions of the myth which belong to the last four hundred years or so, the period of European expansion and colonialism, white superiority is frequently an explicit theme. However we may be approaching the time when black heroes are possible in Western literature, but to date they have been almost a conceptual contradiction in terms. While black men could be noble, in the

tradition of the ‗noble savage‘, like Timothy in Theodore Taylor‘s perceptive children‘s book, The Cay[1969], they could not be heroes.

2) Class and mastery, one aspect of that identity, as we have seen, is a matter of race but the hero is also dominant over the lower orders of his own people. He is the symbol of elite. In early legends he is

typically a king or a prince, the leader and representative of his people, and his quest involves their aspirations. Most contemporary realistic


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children‘s stories have moved beyond a preoccupation with social

position but this is not the case with fantasy and science fiction where it is common to find pseudo-mediaeval societies and aristocratic heroes.

3) Gender, the hero typically avoids any significant sexual involvement for such a relationship would compromise his dedication to his

mission, and one of the attributes of maleness, as defined by the story, is contempt for such involvement, a preference for the sublimation provided by action and male bonding. Hero stories inscribe the

male/female dualism, asserting the male as the norm, as what it means to be human, and defining the female as other— deviant, different, dangerous.

The essence of the hero‘s masculinity is his assertion of control

over himself, his environment and his world. The world of these texts is a place of Manichean opposites: monsters exist and must be

opposed. The hero‘s life, therefore, consists of a succession of struggles. His struggle is with his own unconscious as much as with external opponents: he puts down the things which rise from the inner darkness, because to him they are enemies. Emotions and imagination threaten his control, and threaten to come between him and his goal; therefore they too must be suppressed.

4) Age, Heroes are young. In most versions of the myth there is no


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and readers are not invited to consider further. Where images of old heroes do occur they are depicted as dissatisfied, dreaming of the past. The archetypal hero is not merely young, he is essentially adolescent.

Sometimes, in children‘s literature, he is even younger.

5) Relationship, the hero‘s relationships are also typically adolescent. This is inherent in the linearity of the story, for as he a journey relentlessly onward he meets people, spends a little time with them, and then leaves them behind, especially the women he encounters. 6) Rationality, Historically the hero opposes the darkness. He stands for

the power of reason, the transforming strength of human intellectual energy. But while reason and its products, science and technology, have produced innumerable benefits, the exaltation of reason, which has been the primary characteristic of Western culture since the Enlightenment, has encouraged a corresponding devaluing of emotion and imagination and a profound fear of the unconscious.

7) Action and violence, The hero is a man of action and it is in action that he expresses his nature—skill, courage, dominance and determination. He is neither contemplative nor creative. He marches onward, and when he encounters a dragon or a difficulty he deals with it. In some versions of the story it is action itself, as much as the final goal, which is the point of the quest. Action involving an extreme level of skill or great danger is depicted as providing extraordinary fulfillment akin to that of a mystical experience.


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2.1.4. Review of related studies

There are some researchers who have analyzed about the hero, but the hero of these researchers is a man who has passed the three stages of heroic journey. But, this analysis will be need to be added in order to get the proper information about the hero. Because not only a man called a hero but also a girl who is immature can be called as a hero. So, there are two undergraduate theses which are analyses The Golden Compass Novel. firstly, the udergraduate thesis written by Mahardi Eka Putra, 2009, a student in Department of English Literature,

Faculty Of Letters, State University Of Malang entitled, “Human/Daemon: The

Role As Human Alter-ego Depicted In Daemon Of The Golden Compass” that

analyzed The Golden Compass Novel also. However the scope and the aim of this study are on the analysis of archetypal criticism toward the concept of daemon by using Carl Jung's theory of individuation process. This analysis begins by

analyzing the daemon as the alter ego of the human, then examining the roles of daemon in the relationship of human and daemon through the theory of Jung's archetypes; the ego, persona, shadow, animus/anima, or the self, which can be found in the details of this daemon conception. This analysis is done in sequence since the individuation process also happens sequentially in a human. This analysis aims to proof the role of alter ego in the depiction of daemon. The similarity of this study with previous studies is on novel which is used to analyze,


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but this study will be differences with previous study, because this study will be focuses on Margery Hourihan theory in analyzing and re-defining the hero pattern of Lyra as identifiable hero in the novel.

Besides, a thesis which is written by Gatriciya Rachman, 2014, a student in Department of English Literature, Faculty of Letters, State University of Yogyakarta entitled, The Archetypes of Hero and Hero’s Journey in Five

Grimm’s Fairy Tales has the similar approach in using theory. However, The focus of the researchwill be on finding the recurrent patterns of the

presentation of hero and hero‘sjourney in Grimm‘s fairy tales and Campbell ‗s Theory of the Archetypes of Hero and Hero‘s Journey is mainly use in the

research. So, truly it is different from this study which is more focus in use


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CHAPTER 3

ANALYSIS

The Golden Compass is an adventure fiction which is written by Phillip

Pullman. It tells about Lyra as the main character in this novel is taking her journey to the Northern Lights (Bolvangar and Svalbard). Lyra is doing some mission such as rescuing her best friend, Roger Parslow and the missing

Gyptians‘s children abducted by the Gobblers in Bolvangar and also rescue Lord

Asriel who is imprisoned in Svalbard by bears since the church against his experiments on ‗Dust‘ and also give the alethiometer to Lord Asriel in which she thinks it is needed by him to expose Dust. Even though Lyra is only a child and not fully developed as a mature, but she can do her dangerous adventure. Thus, the identifiable hero and protagonist character in this adventure novel is Lyra Belacqua.

Conforming that, there will be two analyses in this chapter. Firstly, this

study will analyze how Lyra‘s figure as identifiable hero from the description of

her physical-packed and action-packed in the novel by using theory of characters and characterization along with the concept of formula of adventure story by John G Cawelti, especially about hero to find that Lyra is a hero in the novel. After

describing Lyra‘s character, the result will support the next analysis as the main analysis of this study. Secondly, the deconstruction analysis is the main analysis of this study. Lyra as a hero is different from the most identical hero, for that


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heroic journey to the Northern Lights and how she leads herself as a hero by using

Margery Hourihan‘s theory of deconstructing of the hero. Thus, the important key of deconstruction analysis in this study is to redefine the hero‘s perception in the

adventure fiction especially in Lyra‘s character from The Golden Compass novel. 3.1 Character’s analysis

This part explains about Lyra‘s character. The story of The Golden

Compass is conveyed by a third person omniscient narrator. This means that the

narrator is not a character in the story, just a voice that distinguishes everything

that‘s going on in the story. The narrator bonds close to Lyra and only tells us what does occur around her. However, the description of Lyra‘s character is not only visible from the narrator, but also from her actions and characters around her.

3.1.1 Lyra is an uneducated but a curious girl

In the first chapter of The Golden Compass Lyra Belacqua is a lawbreaker

in the “Retiring Room” of the University of Jordan,

“Crouching behind the high table, Lyra darted along and through the door

into the Retiring Room, where she stood up and looked around. The only light in here came from the fireplace, where a bright blaze of logs settled slightly as she looked, sending a fountain of sparks up into the chimney. She had lived most of her life in the College, but had never seen the Retiring Room before: only Scholars and their guests were allowed in here, and never females. Even the maidservants didn't clean in here. That

was the Butler's job alone. Pantalaimon settled on her shoulder.” (Pullman

4)

The quotation above show that Lyra breaks several norms: she is an uneducated girl investigating a forbidden area which is only for educated adult


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males. Compare for being allowed to be alive in this room she seems to be weak enough and thus her compromise to enter this room is done in terms of sneakiness and investigation. Lyra expresses a hope in cruising and tries to hide her existence despite the tremendous hope of being able to stay unharmed in the room as show in the quotation below:

“Lyra and her daemon moved through the darkening hall, taking care to

keep to one side, out of sight of the kitchen. The three great tables that ran the length of the hall were laid already, the silver and the glass catching what little light there was, and the long benches were pulled out ready for the guests. Portraits of former Masters hung high up in the gloom along the walls. Lyra reached the dais and looked back at the open kitchen door, and, seeing no one, stepped up beside the high table. The places here were laid with gold, not silver, and the fourteen seats were not oak benches but mahogany chairs with velvet cushions. Lyra stopped beside the Master's chair and flicked the biggest glass gently with a fingernail. The sound rang

clearly through the hall” (4)

On the other hand, the sounds indicate the need to do a force, or for her to be in a powerful or a strong position (male/adult) position. She is realizes that she is wrong but shortly she ignores the dangers that is being discover. Her daemon Pantalaimon (Pan) mediates:

“You're not taking this seriously,” whispered her daemon. “Behave yourself.”

Her daemon's name was Pantalaimon, and he was currently in the form of a moth, a dark brown one so as not to show up in the darkness of the hall.

“They're making too much noise to hear from the kitchen,” Lyra

whispered back. “And the Steward doesn't come in till the first bell. Stop fussing.”

But she put her palm over the ringing crystal anyway, and Pantalaimon fluttered ahead and through the slightly open door of the Retiring Room at the other end of the dais. After a moment he appeared again.


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Crouching behind the high table, Lyra darted along and through the door into the Retiring Room, where she stood up and looked around. The only light in here came from the fireplace, where a bright blaze of

logs settled slightly as she looked, sending a fountain of sparks up into the chimney. She had lived most of her life in the College, but had never seen the Retiring Room before: only Scholars and their guests were allowed in here, and never females. Even the maidservants didn't clean in here. That was the Butler's job alone.

Pantalaimon settled on her shoulder.

“Happy now? Can we go?” he whispered. “Don't be silly! I want to look around!” (4)

This is an act of controlling Lyra‘s aim. Here Pantalaimon is an alternate

for adult authority, and since Pantalaimon is the right figure as belief, or soul, his

worry for Lyra‘s defense is symbolizes the extent to which Lyra‘s position can be

controlled and strong. In this novel, Pullman spends the time in creating Pan as

the place and center of Lyra‘s belief, as shown in this quotation: “You're a coward, Pan.”

“Certainly I am. May I ask what you intend to do? Are you going to leap

out and snatch the glass from his trembling fingers? What did you have in

mind?”

“I didn't have anything in mind, and well you know it,” she snapped quietly. “But now I've seen what the Master did, I haven't got any choice. You're supposed to know about conscience, aren't you? How can I just go and sit in the library or somewhere and twiddle my thumbs, knowing what's going to happen? I don't intend to do that, I promise you.” (7).

Here, rather than free or abandoned, Lyra‘s self confidence (her

consciousness of her own actions) are get from Pan as an adult imitation and

suggestion. Although Pan and Lyra‘s actions look contradictory here In the novel,

but it illustrates that the actions of Lyra and Pan cannot be easily considered individually but constitutes a whole and interconnected whole. For this reason


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hearing Pan‘s sound. He acts as a ethical guide and tells Lyra‘s thoughts. In this

case at the time after Pantalaimon asked Lyra to be careful, she becomes attentive of her own fault. Lyra can describe and distinguishes the portraits of scientists or scholars (adult male authority figures) in the room in view of her actions as shown in this quotation:

“She sat in one of the green leather armchairs. It was so deep she

found herself nearly lying down, but she sat up again and tucked her legs under her to look at the portraits on the walls. More old Scholars,

probably; robed, bearded, and gloomy, they stared out of their frames in

solemn disapproval.” (4).

Lyra‘s thinking that adult‘s strengths are on a mission is supporting by Pantalaimon‘s voice, that sound is reprimand from previous warnings in following

Lyra‘s apparent actions. Lyra is sincerely rejects adult‘s authority and tests her

own limits of power through her exploration – Lyra enters the adult word unhurriedly.

There is a change of tone directly when the threats it finds increasingly visible. Instead of open rejection and a reluctance to acknowledge her adventures, Lyra secretly avoids the detection when the Master and his servant enter the room:

“What d'you think they talk about?” Lyra said, or began to say, because

before she'd finished the question she heard voices outside the door.

“Behind the chair—quick!” whispered Pantalaimon, and in a flash Lyra

was out of the armchair and crouching behind it. It wasn't the best one for hiding behind: she'd chosen one in the very center of the room, and unless she kept very quiet...

“The door opened, and the light changed in the room; one of the incomers


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his legs, in their dark green trousers and shiny black shoes. It was a servant. Then a deep voice said, “Has Lord Asriel arrived yet?” (4).

Here the threat of detection alters Lyra‘s comfort in the room. Before the

Master enters the room Lyra seats herself in the center of the room in a chair reserved for scholars. At this moment she visualizes what it might be like to live a more powerful subject-position. When the room is reclaimed by the Master of Jordan, an adult male presence, she is jailed to her hiding place,

“The Butler bowed slightly and turned to leave, his daemon trotting obediently after him. From her Not-much-of-a-hiding place Lyra watched as the Master went to a large oak wardrobe in the corner of the room, took his gown from a hanger, and pulled it laboriously on. The Master had been a powerful man, but he was well over seventy now, and his movements were stiff and slow. The Master's daemon had the form of a raven, and as soon as his robe was on, she jumped down from the wardrobe and settled

in her accustomed place on his right shoulder.” (5)

While the Master waits in the room the extent of Lyra‘s power is limited, but her aim (to investigate, or to achieve knowledge) still the same. Similarly, it is her aim which brings her into a space where conflict is potential – while Lyra does not necessarily need conflict she is aware that conflict is a possible result of her aims. In both cases, whether acting out when an adult presence is not readily monitoring her actions, or avoiding notice by an adult presence, the adolescent is limited either in variance or magnitude of available actions. In the case that Lyra‘s action is severely limited, as it is when the Master enters the room, her intent becomes nearly deviate. She stops stirring and investigating in order to cover and thus the qualitative aspects of her investigation are limited by the quantitative


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aspects. It does not matter what the adolescent would like to do so long as he/she is unable to act on this wish.

By the end of the wardrobe scene Lyra has fallen asleep, she is so happily posed in this room for children that she loses her ability to detect the adult world – the maneuver of adult issues seems to have moved beyond Lyra, and she is once again more child than adult. Confirmation of this return to childhood comes as Lyra is reproving when she asks to further her participation in adult dealings. When she asks to go along with him on his mission to the north, Lord Asriel tells Lyra:

“You're not coming, child. Put it out of your head; the times are too

dangerous. Do as you're told and go to bed, and if you're a good girl, I'll bring you back a walrus tusk with some Eskimo carving on it. Don't argue

anymore or I shall be angry.”

And his daemon growled with a deep savage rumble that made Lyra suddenly aware of what it would be like to have teeth meeting in her throat. She compressed her lips and frowned hard at her uncle. He was pumping the air from the vacuum flask, and took no notice; it was as if he'd already forgotten her. Without a word, but with lips tight and eyes narrowed, the girl and her daemon left and went to bed. (20)

Lord Asriel distinguishes this fact and tries to reinstate Lyra‘s social -hierarchical place. He prohibits her from his journey to the Bolvangar and

Svalbard. He calls Lyra “child,” and “girl” for making sure to place her through

her subject‘s position, supporting the identified in limitations of her age and gender. He reminds her thoughts which are contrary to previously founded


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cause for her prohibiting, implying that her subject-position as a girl or as a child stops her from facing danger. He calls on adult language like,

“Good. But I've scotched him for now. Do as you're told and go to bed.”

(20)

In order to repress Lyra‘s ambition and curiosity. He offers a gift with slight price to calm her down, and damages these faces up to control her, he picks

once again to dangers “I shall be angry” (Pullman 20). This dialogue is proposed

to control Lyra‘s natural curiosity (mission of wakefulness, especially of the North) and adjust her to childish thoughts. The function of the dialogue is for guidelines of admiration and agreement, it forces and warns to achieve these goals, and because Lyra is still young.

3.1.2 Lyra is an immature girl

Lyra‘s innocence and immaturityis side of Lyra‘s character and it is most

clearly seen at Jordan College. This is the “world” in which we understand best about Lyra‘s innocence and immaturity as it was her childish pleasure at Jordan

College. For years spent at the college she needed the love of a mother and father because she believes that her parents were killed in an accident when she was young. The scholars at the college are all Lyra has for family. However they never attended to her pities. Consequently, Lyra is not gived with any paternal love from any of the scholars at Jordan College. Because of this Lyra misbehaves at the college by participating in tricks in order to feel a sense of fellowship with


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her friend Roger and spitting plum stones on the Scholars, stealing apples from the market, and participating in feuds with the other colleges. This is all part of

Lyra‘s “wild,” immature, and selfish behavior. Lyra had remained like a “half -wild cat” at Jordan College because of being without a mother and a father.

Lyra‘s need for parental help is involve her bad activities. Even though

this behavior appears as misbehavior when seen through the eyes of the Scholars at the college, it is the result of Lyra‘s innocence. Lyra looks for guidance and family. By her naughty behavior, Lyra believes that she will form a community for herself at the college which will be her family.

Despite Lyra‘s immature behavior and selfish acts, the pranks and naughtiness that Lyra contributes in at Jordan College are a part of her way of enjoying life. As much as she likes spending her time at the college with a lot of fun and cheats people as shown in this quotation:

“That was Lyra's world and her delight. She was a coarse and

greedy little savage, for the most part. But she always had a dim sense Had

a dim sense that it wasn‘t her whole world…and that somewhere in her life

there was a connection with the high world of politics represented by Lord Asriel. All she did with that knowledge was to give her airs and lord it

over the other urchins. It had never occurred to her to find out more.” (24)

Although Lyra understands that there is more to Jordan College outside her pranks, she prefers to be unconscious with the issue such as politics that

related in college. This further demonstrates Lyra‘s innocence because does not

know the difficulties of the world outside her world at Jordan College. She forms the world for herself is centered on offense and pranks.


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Additionally, Lyra begins to confuse with her immature behavior by the lies she says to. When her uncle Lord Asriel asks her as to how she spends her time at the College. As she spends most of the time on the roofs of the college with Roger and playing a part in pranks:

“Dirty,” said Lord Asriel, pushing her hands away. “Don't they make you wash in this place?”

“Yes,” she said. “But the Chaplain's fingernails are always dirty. They're even dirtier than mine.”

“He's a learned man. What's your excuse?” “I must've got them dirty after I washed.” “Where do you play to get so dirty?”

She looked at him suspiciously. She had the feeling that being on the roof

was forbidden, though no one had actually said so. “In some of the old

rooms,” she said finally.” (25)

Lyra uses dishonesty to keep her out of trouble. However, she does not know the extent of the consequences caused by her lies. It is because of her lack of knowledge of the damage that lies cause that we can say her innocence is most clearly in this point.

From all the definition and analyses about Lyra‘s characterization above,

this can be written that Lyra is doubtful character to be a hero because she is still young and immature according to the narrator, her actions and characters around her. She also avoids doing anything without suggestion and help from her daemon Pantalaimon. However, along her heroic journey to the Bolvangar and Svalbard she do some mission that create her become the hero and protagonist character in


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the novel. Therefore, the next analysis is consisting of hero characteristics or hero

pattern in Lyra. The main focus of next analysis is to change hero‘s perception

that an immature girl is can be called as a hero like a strong and honorable man.

3.2. Lyra as a Hero based on Cawelti’s formula of adventure story Before this study explains more about Lyra as a hero in the novel, Campbell was defined that hero is someone who has given his life over to someone or something bigger than himself. In Franz‘s words, a hero is abnormal, divine, beyond human limitations, even in novels and films, the hero is someone who has found or done something beyond the normal range of achievement and experience (165). That definition is not commonly suitable with Lyra‘s character because actually Lyra is normal girl with her curiosity and innocence as children usually do. Then, although in the first

chapter Lyra described as an innocence girl, but her character‘s development

from the beginning of her experience and mission to the Bolvangar and Svalbard is show that Lyra is a hero of the story, as Cawelti said that the true focus of interest in the adventure story is the character of hero and the nature of the obstacle he has to overcome (40).

In spite of the fact that the narrator only very seldom leaves Lyra‘s side, one is never given any purportedly true information which, in the course

of the novel, then turns out to be wrong and little more than the hero‘s

subjective perception. Therefore, the reader may also trust the narrator‘s


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eyes of the authorial narrator, one may regard this as a fact within the opus reality.

There are a lot of people argue that the young girl must have fear at a high level and with high intensity and that this is not quite match with

described as hero. Nevertheless, one should not be sure to say that Lyra is not necessarily always afraid for herself. At the beginning of the novel, for instance, the girl is anxious for Lord Asriel (Pullman 9), while later on, her main fear is directed towards her friend Roger who is disappeared (Pullman 60). Despite this moment of full fear, however, Lyra do whatever is needed in order to accomplish her heroic ambitions, this act is a hassle to take control of her panic.

3.2.1 Lyra is an optimist girl in completing her heroic mission to the Bolvangar and Svalbard

As Cawelti said in the chapter two that the hero must completes his

problem in the heroic mission, then starting from this passage this study will show that Lyra can be supposed to this character stereotype of a hero. Firstly, although all the difficulties Lyra meets during her heroic journey Lyra is portrayed as a really optimist little girl. This fact rejects the perception that say hero is abnormal

because in the previous definition of Lyra‘s character, Lyra was described as a

normal child with her innocence and curiosity but in the progress of the story Lyra is enthusiastic for information and attracted in things which actually are none of her concern. Although her curiosity does not concern the things, the Jordan


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Scholars try to teach the young girl, she is devoted to learn about Dust and another world. The process of finding out about things that interest for her can be seen as a kind of mission for knowledge and this is very important to her. So that, this must surely be considered as a marking that she is a heroic character.

From Lyra‘s own way Lyra be able to control herself, this becomes very

clear when Lyra gets herself at Bolvangar, as show in this quotation:

It wasn not Lyra‘s way to brood; she was a sanguine and practical

child, and besides, she wasn,t imaginative. No one with much imagination would have thought seriously that it was possible to come all this way and rescue her friend Roger; or, having thought it, an imaginative child would immediately have come up with several ways in which it was impossible.

Being a practiced liar doesn‘t mean you have a powerful imagination.

Many good liars have no imagination at all; it‘s that which gives their lies such wide-eyed conviction. So now that she was in the hands of the

Oblation Board, Lyra didn‘t fret herself into terror about what had

happened to the gyptians. They were all good fighters, and even though Pantalaimon said he‘d seen John Faa shot, he might have been mistaken;

or if he wasn‘t mistaken, John Faa might not have been seriously hurt. It had been bad luck that she‘d fallen into the hands of the Samoyeds, but the

gyptians would be along soon to rescue her, and if they couldn‘t manage it, nothing would stop Iorek Byrnison from getting her out; and then

they‘d fly to Svalbard and rescue Lord Asriel. (247)

Because a hero does not only require the certain abilities which make him or her better-quality to his enemies, but may also be as important– the strength and confidence necessary to keep on fighting against crime even if reaction happens from time to time, so that Lyra‘s optimism act is perhaps one of the confirmations for behaviors that characterize her as a hero,. Lyra also shows this trait at the end of story, when she loses her best friend Roger because she and Pan


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feeling sorry for herself and being final motivation, Lyra wants to go to the world

behind the Bolvangar and Svalbard, find out about Dust and “do better next time”

(Pullman 398).

This part very well explains Lyra‘s practice of tricks up her own courage,

as show in this quotation:

The alethiometer had indicated something and unnatural, which

was alarming; but who was she? Lord Ariel‘s daughter. And who was

under her command? A mighty bear. How could she possibly show any

fear? […] She was horribly nervous. […] There was no choice, and

anyway, she didn‟t want the bear to see her being afraid. He had spoken of

mastering his fear: that was what she‟d have to do. (210-212)

Lyra knows she has to control her fear. Northern Lights does not care for fear to be something impossible or somewhat that should best be reserved secret, but as something very natural, and this stance towards fear has been preserved for

the narrator‘s potrayal of the hero in the novel. As just described in the novel,

there are bright descriptions of Lyra‘s most afraid moments, and also Iorek

Byrnison, the mighty bear, owns to experiencing situations in which he feels fear. The main thing is exactly as Iorek once puts it not the escaping or rejection of

one‘s fear but the ability to manage with it and overcome it: “When I am [afraid], I shall master my fear” (Pullman 209). Being able to overcome one‘s fear means

being courageous.

There is one evidence in the novel in which Lyra looks to almost offer to her fear for her friend Roger. She recognizes that Roger will probably die and that she can do nothing to change this. However, she manages to get over these


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feelings and tries her best to fight for. Lyra‘s courage is increasingly emphasizes

when even the Gyptians, who accompany her on her way to the Northern Lights, defy not touch the so-called half-boy. They help as Lyra‘s foil characters and do so successfully. As if this were not enough celebrating the heroic courage, Iorek chides the gyptians for their cowardly behaviour:

The men held back, fearful; but the bear spoke, to Lyra's weary amazement, chiding them.

“Shame on you! Think what this child has done! You might not have more courage, but you should be ashamed to show less.”

“You're right, lorek Byrnison,” said John Faa, and turned to give orders.

“Build that fire up and heat some soup for the child. For both children. Farder Coram, is your shelter rigged?”

“It is, John. Bring her over and we'll get her warm....”

“And the little boy,” said someone else. “He can eat and get warm, even

if...” (132)

However, apart from her courage, Lyra also can make the other qualities which make her a hero. On the one hand, she is apparently able to understand with others and seems to tend to stand up for those people who cannot speak for

themselves. This becomes especially obvious when, after the half-boy‘s death, one of the Gyptians takes away the dried fish which the boy used as a substitute for his lost daemon in order to give it to the dogs. When Lyra realizes that the cut boy has been disadvantaged of his substitute daemon, she becomes absolutely furious and rebukes the Gyptians for behaving so unkindly and rudely. Lyra shows the same degree of loyalty when she finds out about what really happens to the children who are kept at Bolvangar and chooses not only to help the gyptians' children and Roger, but also all the other ones.


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3.2.2 Lyra is an intelligent girl during her heroic mission to the Bolvangar and Svalbard

Secondly, Before Lyra leaves Jordan College; she is neither described as very intelligent nor as very smart and actually it rejects the idea which is say the hero is divine or the person who is chosen by God. However, her ability to read

the alethiometer, which is Lyra‘s one talent Northern Lights focuses on, and only develops after her leaving home, and her looks are only mentioned with regard to her tattered clothes and her overall state:

“The number of times you been told about going out there—Look at you! Just look at your skirt—it‘s filthy! Take it off at once and wash yourself while I look for something decent that en't torn. Why you can't keep

yourself clean and tidy...” (41)

Even if Lyra does not know about her role as rescuer and her destiny at that point – and also must not know, as the prophecy about her would have it –, her main goal is making her way there, and when she learns that the Gobblers might have taken Roger, her will to leave Jordan College becomes only stronger. This is best exemplified by looking at the conversation she has with Lord Asriel before he intends to leave Jordan College and go to the north:

“But where are you going?”

“Back to the North. I'm leaving in ten minutes.” “Can I come?”

He stopped what he was doing, and looked at her as if for the first time. His daemon turned her great tawny leopard eyes on her too, and under the concentrated gaze of both of them, Lyra blushed. But she gazed back fiercely.


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“Your place is here,” said her uncle finally.

“But why? Why is my place here? Why can't I come to the North with

you? I want to see the Northern Lights and bears and icebergs and everything. I want to know about Dust. And that city in the air. Is it

another world?” (20)

3.2.2 Lyra is a strong but limited hero which is accompanied by her daemon

Thirdly, although in the previous definition is said that hero is

beyond human limitation but in fact Lyra‘s character is limits anymore. The proofs of her limits was defined in Lyra‘s character, she is an educated and an immature girl. Although in the first scene of the novel Lyra is doubtful character to be a hero because she is still young and immature according to the narrator, her actions and characters around her, but Lyra fulfils a number of other brave deeds

during her heroic mission, among her range the run away from Mrs. Coulter‘s flat

(Pullman 97), the freedom of Iorek Byrnison (Pullman 197-200), her rescue of

the “half-boy” (Pullman 214-217) and Roger and of the children at Bolvangar (Pullman 286-296), her effort to save Lord Asriel (192; 360-369). Conforming that, Lyra is accompanied by her daemon (Pantalaimon) during her heroic

mission. A daemon is a part of a person‘s soul, and once the daemon is alienated

from the child, the child is endures pain Lyra‘s daemon is still able to take some control which shows us that Lyra has not yet attained teenage years and is not yet at the access of adulthood; Lyra is still a child.


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3.3 Lyra is a Hero in Deconstruction’s point of view

The analysis of hero‘s patterns of Lyra is aims to find out facts and

explanations why Lyra as an immature girl is defines as a hero in this adventure

fiction “The Golden Compass”. This analysis use only two typical of hero proposed by Margery Hourihan as discussed in chapter two that is Lyra as a young hero and Lyra is a female hero because these two characteristics of hero are more appropriate with Lyra.

Then, from the result of Lyra‘s character analysis, this study will continue

the analyses from the characteristics of hero which can be viewed from physical, emotional, and social traits attributed to her.

3.3.1 Lyra is a young hero

Firstly, Heroes are young. In most versions of the myth there is no recognition of a future in which they will grow old. The closure is final and readers are not invited to consider further. Where images of old heroes do occur they are depicted as dissatisfied, dreaming of the past. The archetypal hero is merely young, he is essentially adolescent. Sometimes, in children‘s literature, he is even younger and the hero leaves the civilized order of home to venture into the wilds in pursuit of his goal (Hourihan 72-73). This characteristic is appearing

from Lyra‘s pretension in doing her mission to reveal dust and to rescue the kidnapped children although previously she was regarded as an immature girl.


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This is when she understands that the “Gobblers” have kidnapped her

friend Roger. At this moment Lyra is now showed to the obstacles of the world outside her world at Jordan College. Jordan College for Lyra is enjoyable and childlike. However she now understands that it was changing around her for someone who was thieving children, it can be seen from the following quotation

and Lyra‘s conversation with Pantalaimon:

This was her world. She wanted it to stay the same forever and ever, but it was changing around her, for someone out there was stealing children. She sat on the roof ridge, chin in hands.

“We better rescue him, Pantalaimon,” she said. He answered in his rook

voice from the chimney. “It'll be dangerous,” he said. '“Course! I know that.”

“Remember what they said in the Retiring Room.” “What?”

“Something about a child up in the Arctic. The one that wasn't attracting the Dust.”

“They said it was an entire child....What about it?”

“That might be what they're going to do to Roger and the gyptians and the other kids.” (Pullman 40).

Lyra is now being started to the realities of the world. The childish world of Jordan College which Lyra establishes for humorous pranks is not the safe place that once was to her. Lyra ignores her need for others as proof that she rejected the innocence character which is adhering to her. That is when she makes a choice to look for Roger. By composing this decision, Lyra confronts a mature judgment by having concerns for her friend rather than herself. Lyra is extra forced to the cruelties of the world when Tony Makarios, a young boy that was


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abducted by the Gobblers and afterward was found by Lyra, it can be seen from the following quotation:

Lyra thought suddenly: what if the child is Roger? And she prayed with all her force that it wouldn't be.

Pantalaimon was clinging to her, an ermine again, his little claws hooked deep into her anorak.

She lifted the lantern high and took a step into the shed, and then she saw what it was that the Oblation Board was doing, and what was the nature of the sacrifice the children were having to make.

The little boy was huddled against the wood drying rack where hung row upon row of gutted fish, all as stiff as boards. He was clutching a piece of fish to him as Lyra was clutching Pantalaimon, with her left hand, hard, against her heart; but that was all he had, a piece of dried fish; because he had no da;mon at all. The Gobblers had cut it away. That was intercision, and this was a severed child. (Pullman 129-130)

A daemon is the control of person‘s act, and once the daemon is alienated

from the child, the child is suffers pain. Lyra‘s understand that Tony‘s daemon is dried; she is confronted with the new information of the truths of the world. These thrust of the world show her that it is not always a safe place as she holds on to

her daemon, understanding that the Gobblers are out to destroy a child‘s daemon. Therefore it is this moment that becomes a part of Lyra‘s future experience

because she begins to have the fact about the truths of the world. So, it is actually rejected the perspective that a child or an immature girl likes Lyra cannot become a hero.


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The other evidence that shows the reader about Lyra‘s heroic pattern is the

alteration from her innocence to experience. Lyra begins to use the alethiometer, it was first given to her from Master at Jordan College. In the first opportunity, Lyra did not understand how to use the alethiometer. She did not understand the importance of the signs on the alethiometer. However, according to herself she gradually efforts to master the alethiometer as it feels like a young bird learning how to fly such the following quotation:

“Lyra did. The long needle began to swing at once, and stopped, moved

on, stopped again in a precisevseries of sweeps and pauses. It was a sensation of such grace and power that Lyra, sharing it, felt like a young bird learning to fly. Farder Coram, watching from across the table, noted the places where the needle stopped, and watched the little girl holding her hair back from her face and biting her lower lip just a little, her eyes following the needle at first but then, when its path was settled, looking elsewhere on the dial. Not randomly, though. Farder Coram was a chess player, and he knew how chess players looked at a game in play. An expert player seemed to see lines of force and influence on the board, and looked along the important lines and ignored the weak ones; and Lyra's eyes moved the same way, according to some similar magnetic field that she

could see and he couldn't.” (Pullman 94)

From the quotation above, Lyra simile as a young bird learning how to fly, Lyra must be mature and focus, in order to getting best of reading the


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alethiometer. Lyra‘s mature way of thinking is eventually clear when she is able

to think and find the right answers to the questions that Dr. Lanselius wants Lyra to ask the alethiometer. When Lyra asks the alethiometer what are the intentions

of the Tartars to Kamchatka, Lyra‘s full attention manner as Lyra is leasing her

mind hold the three levels of meaning together in focus, and relax for the answer, which came roughly at once. It shows from the following quotation:

That wasn't hard. Lyra turned the hands to the camel, which meant Asia, which meant Tartars; to the cornucopia, for Kamchatka, where there were gold mines; and to the ant, which meant activity, which meant purpose and intention. Then she sat still, letting her mind hold the three levels of

meaning together in focus, and relaxed for the answer, which came almost at once. The long needle trembled on the dolphin, the helmet, the baby, and the anchor, dancing between them and onto the crucible in

acomplicated pattern that Lyra's eyes followed without hesitation, but which was incomprehensible to the two men. (Pullman 105)

Because Lyra is smart in reading the alethiometer, we can see her development of skill through her new found knowledge. This can be compared

with Lyra‘s earlier fact that when she brings the alethiometer for the first time, she could not imagine what the alethiometer planned. In addition, Pullman describes the beginning of her maturity is when Lyra be able to think and to receive the answer from alethiometer. This idea can be compared to her earlier concentration level at Jordan College as the Librarian conveys opinions about Lyra,

The Librarian said. “I know her ways only too well. Try to tell her


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fidgeting. Quiz her about it next time and she'll have completely

forgotten.” (Pullman 21).

In the course of new experiences, Lyra continues her age maturity process. She raise imaginative skills to get her out of dangerous conditions as stated in the following quotation,

With every second that went past, with every sentence she spoke, she felt a little strength flowing back. And now that she was doing something

difficult and familiar and never quite predictable, namely lying, she felt a sort of mastery again, the same sense of complexity and control that the alethiometer gave her. She had to be careful not to say anything obviously impossible; she had to be vague in some places and invent plausible details in others; she had to be an artist, in short. (Pullman 171)

From beginning to end her journeys in The Golden Compass, Lyra becomes experienced at this originality of constructing stories. By constructing stories, Lyra becomes deliberately educated of the risks that she is revealed to on

her journeys. This can be compared to Lyra‘s past while attending Jordan College

where she still act a prank behavior to get out of danger rather than create stories to help her to stay alive.

Conforming that, Lyra‘s role as rescuer of the world and hero of the story

is supported by John Faa‘s and Iorek‘s honor of her bravery, for her ability to

speak influentially as seen in this quotation:

“Belacqua? No. You are Lyra Silvertongue,” he said. “To fight him is all I


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She looked at lorek Byrnison in his battered armor, lean and ferocious, and felt as if her heart would burst with pride. (Pullman 209)

Lyra to help Tony Makarios, the cut boy, when he blames the Gyptians for viewing a lesser amount of bravery Iorek points up how brave it. Than Lyra in view of the little weakening person as seen in this following quotation,

“Shame on you! Think what this child has done! You might not have more courage, but you should be ashamed to show less.” (132)

John Faa, too, does not hesitate to say that saving the boy was a brave action and a good achievement as shows in the following quotation,

“Child, you did a brave thing and a good thing, and I'm proud of you.

Now we know what terrible wickedness those people are capable of, we can see our duty plainer than ever. What you must do is rest and eat, because you fell asleep too soon to restore yourself last night, and you

have to eat in these temperatures to stop yourself getting weak....”

(Pullman 132)

Even Ma Costa‘s obviously serious assessment of Lyra‘s character hides an

admire and a clue at Lyra‘s ability to betray her enemies whenever required. It can

be seen in this quotation:

“You en't gyptian, Lyra. You might pass for gyptian with practice, but

there's more to us than gyptian language. There‘s a deep in us and strong

currents. We're water people all through, and you en't, you're a fire person. What you're most like is marsh fire, that's the place you have in the gyptian scheme; you got witch oil in your soul. Deceptive, that's what you are,


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male qualities: she is strong, undoubtedly heroic, rational, intelligent, dominant and independent. She is a girl who saves others and who shows herself as hero in the novel.


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CHAPTER 4

CONCLUSION

We can meet heroes in all aspects of life, both in real life and in literary reality. A hero or a heroine is always marked by unusualness: they are different from the characters around them and they of course stand out by integrate values and traits which are commonly appreciated. Then in this part, this study will conclude the results of analysis in chapter three. The results are formulated in to two points, the first point describes about Lyra’s character in the novel along with the reason that Lyra is a hero in the novel based on Cawelti’s formula of

adventure fiction. The second point is describes the hero pattern of Lyra’s

character in order to know that Lyra is different from the most identical hero, and also to redefine the hero’s perception in the adventure fiction especially in Lyra’s character.

Firstly, this study concludes that in the first scene of the novel especially where Lyra is still in the Jordan College, she is a doubtful character to be a hero because she is still young and immature according to the narrator, her actions and characters around her. She is passive, because she avoids doing anything without suggestion and help from her daemon Pantalaimon. However, along her heroic journey to the Bolvangar and Svalbard she does some mission that create her become the hero and protagonist character in the novel. The reason why Lyra is supposed as a hero in the novel because she rejects the idea which is say that the


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hero is abnormal, divine and beyond human limitations. Lyra has a hard time turning over the feeling that she is a hero, she follows the process of her age development as a normal girl from innocence to experience. Lyra grows through her obtained knowledge as seen that Lyra is able to grow out of her need for belonging, and rejects her passion for her mother. She matures in a manner

through she obligates herself to search for Roger, and is able to understand how to read the alethiometer although she does not have divine’s character.

Secondly, this study concludes the truth that Lyra is a hero in deconstruction point of view. Based on Margery Hourihan’s theory of

deconstructing the hero, Lyra is defined as a young hero. The archetypal hero is merely young, he is essentially adolescent. Sometimes, in children’s literature, he is even younger and the hero leaves the civilized order of home to venture into the wilds in pursuit of his goal. This characteristic is appearing from Lyra’s

pretension in doing her mission to reveal dust and to rescue the kidnapped children although previously she was regarded as an immature girl. Furthermore, Lyra is also defined as a female hero (heroine) because Lyra manages to enter the masculine sphere. She also does so through her ability to read the alethiometer, which is ironic considering that a young girl, of all people, is able to access all the old knowledge actually reserved for men.

Considering all that has so far been said about the character Lyra Belacqua, one can say that she does not really live up to the female


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or nurturing character. Instead, she seems to have been constructed around stereotypically male qualities: she is strong, undoubtedly heroic, rational, intelligent, dominant and independent. She is the kind of person who saves others and who proves herself as hero in the novel. Then, by facing some obstacles, it can be defined that Lyra is a young hero and a female hero in The Golden Compass novel.

Finally, from the explanation mentioned above this study is show that Lyra is different from mostly identical hero and change hero’s perception that an

immature girl like Lyra is can be called as a hero like a strong and honorable man and it can be assume that the only possible solution to this issue would be a de-construction of the link between qualities seen as heroic and the age and sex of the character who incorporates in the story.


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Campbell, Joseph. 2004. The Hero with a Thousand Faces. New Jersey: Princeton University Press.

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