A MARXISM STUDY: THE REACTIONS TOWARDS THE EXISTING POLITICAL SITUATION AS FACED BY PELAGEA NILOVNA, THE MAIN CHARACTER OF MAXIM GORKY’S MOTHER A Thesis Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree in Englis

  A MARXISM STUDY: THE REACTIONS TOWARDS THE EXISTING POLITICAL SITUATION AS FACED BY PELAGEA NILOVNA, THE MAIN CHARACTER OF MAXIM GORKY’S MOTHER A Thesis Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree in English Language Education By Muhamad Nur Hidayat Student Number: 041214082 ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA

  

A MARXISM STUDY: THE REACTIONS TOWARDS THE EXISTING

POLITICAL SITUATION AS FACED BY PELAGEA NILOVNA,

THE MAIN CHARACTER OF MAXIM GORKY’S MOTHER

A Thesis

  

Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements

to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree

in English Language Education

  

By

Muhamad Nur Hidayat

Student Number: 041214082

ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM

  

DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION

FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION

SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY

YOGYAKARTA

  The young man [who] consents to become a tool, not an independent workman, a mere means to the fulfillment of others, not the artificer of his own nature feels to be good. In the moment when he makes his act of consent, something dies within him.

  

MOTTO

  He can never again become a whole man, never again have the undamaged self- respect, the upright pride, which might have kept him happy in his soul in spite of all outward troubles and difficulties.

• This work is dedicated to all critical thinkers.

• --Bertrand Russell

  

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  First and foremost, my deepest gratitude goes to Most Gracious and Most for the faith in me and the assistance in the period of bitterness

  Merciful Allah SWT and happiness in life.

  I also owe my deepest gratitude to my major sponsor, Drs. Antonius

  

Herujiyanto, M.A., Ph.D ., for his guidance, assistance and useful feedbacks during

the completion of this thesis. I also express my sincere appreciation to Mr.

  and all PBI lecturers and staff whose

  Agustinus Hardi Prasetyo, S.Pd., M.A., dedicated work have made me be able to speak, read, listen to and write English.

  Now, the world of unlimited knowledge and information is opened for me.

  I am deeply indebted to my mother, Murti Sunarni, my father, Subaru and my two beautiful sisters, Rindang and Nisa, whose endless supports and prayer have kept me going. My special gratefulness also goes to my grandparents, uncles and aunts who have been keenly supportive to me.

  Further, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to all PBI friends, specifically The Grassroots friends: Silvi, Albert, Pius, Tika, Novi, Indri, Rita,

  

Yuni and Riska; for their supports and fresh jokes that keep me sane. I also thank all

  of my ex-Orong-Orong friends who have shared their remarkable ideas and knowledge. and been very supportive to me. I owe my gratitude specifically to Imam, Nida,

  

Pipik, Nita and Mala, who have become my family. I also express my sincere

  gratitude to all lecturers, friends and staff in The University of California Santa who have painted the most

  Cruz, English Language and International Program

  beautiful memories of my life. I thank Chris, Gail and Bill who have been very supportive to my study and who have proofread my Abstract, Chapter 4 and 5. I also thank all of UCSC Inn friends specifically Cindy and Marlene who have been so kind and helpful by sending me precious essays that I could not download them for free from the internet. I love you all and I certainly am coming to Santa Cruz again.

  There are many other people whom I cannot mention here one by one but, surely, I cannot complete this thesis without their helps and supports. God bless them all.

• Muhamad Nur Hidayat -

  

TABLE OF CONTENTS

  Page TITLE PAGE ………………………………………………………… ……….… i PAGES OF APPROVAL ………….……………………………………………. ii STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY………………………………….. iv

  ……………..………… v

  LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI

  MOTTO ……………………………………………………………………….... vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS …………………………………………………..... vii TABLE OF CONTENTS ……………………………………………………..... ix ABSTRACT ………………………………………………………………….... xiii

  ………………………………………………………………..…….. xiv

  ABSTRAK

  CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION …………………………………………..….. 1

  1.1. Background of the Study ……………………………..……. 1

  1.2. Objective of the Study ……………………………………... 4

  1.3. Problem Formulation ……………………………………….. 4

  1.4. Benefit of the Study ………………………………………... 5

  1.5. Definition of Terms……………………………………….... 5

  CHAPTER 2: REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE………………….......... 8

  2.1. Review of Literature Theories……………………………..... 8

  2.1.1. Theory of Character………………………….......... 8

  2.1.2. Theory of Characterization……………………...…. 10

  2.1.3. Theory of Personality…………………………….... 13

  2.2. Theory of Marxism………………………………………….. 14

  2.2.1. The Overview of the General Theory of Marxism… 14

  2.2.2. Marxist Theory of Social Class………………..…... 18

  2.2.3. Marxist Theory of Class Consciousness …..…...… 20

  2.2.4. Theory of Marxist Literary Criticism ……………... 23

  2.3. The Contexts of the Novel…………………………………... 25

  2.3.1. The Social Setting of the Writing of the Novel……. 25

  2.3.2. The Social Setting in the Novel………………...….. 29

  2.4. Theoretical Framework…………………………………..….. 30

  CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY …………………………………………..…... 32

  3.1. Object of the Study ……………………………………..…… 32

  CHAPTER 4: ANALYSIS ……………………………………………….……... 37

  4.1. Pelagea Nilovna’s Personality ………………………….…... 37

  4.2. Pelagea Nilovna’s Reactions towards the Political Condition ………………………………….…… 50

  4.2.1. Pelagea’s Changes as the Manifestation of her Reactions towards Pavel’s Movement......... 50

  4.2.2. Pelagea’s Reactions as the Depiction of the Working Class’ Social Consciousness Necessary to Build Gorky’s Model of Revolutionary Society………………….……... 62

  CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS, SUGGESTIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS . ………………………………. 74

  5.1. Conclusions …………………………………………….…... 74

  5.2. Suggestions for Future Researcher………………………..... 77

  5.3. Recommendations for English Instructors to Teach Short Essay Writing I……………………...…………….….. 78

  BIBLIOGRAPHY ………………………………………………………….….. 80

  APPENDIX 2: The Biography of Marxim Gorky ……………………………… 86 APPENDIX 3: Lesson Plan for Teaching Short Essay Writing I ..…………….... 88 APPENDIX 4: Sample Material for Teaching Short Essay Writing I ..………… 90

  

ABSTRACT

Hidayat, Muhamad Nur. 2009. A Marxism Study: The Reactions towards the

Existing Political Situation as Faced by Pelagea Nilovna, the Main Character of Maxim Gorky’s Mother. Yogyakarta: English Language Education Study Program Sanata Dharma University.

  This study analyzes a novel written by Maxim Gorky in 1906 entitled Mother. The analysis deals with the reactions of the main character, Pelagea Nilovna, towards the existing political situation in the factory settlement in which she lives. It is highly interesting to analyze the topic because it portrays a massive shift of Pelagea Nilovna, from being a simple and ignorant woman to being a revolutionary militant activist.

  In order to achieve the aim, this study focuses on two discussions. Firstly, it deals with the portrayal of Pelagea Nilovna. Secondly, it deals with her reactions towards the existing political condition in the novel. The second discussion is divided into two sections, namely, Pelagea Nilovna’s reactions towards the revolutionary movement of her son, Pavel, and the significance of her reactions.

  The theories of character, characterization and personality are applied to answer the first question posed in the first discussion. While the theories of Marxism and Gorky’s socio-political backgrounds are used to answer the second question posed in the second discussion. Meanwhile, the study uses Marxist literary criticism approach.

  The findings reveal that during her life with her husband and her early interaction with Pavel’s movement, Pelagea Nilovna is portrayed as being religious, sensitive, fearful, wise and loving. However, after becoming completely involved in the movement, she turns into being brave and less religious. Her reactions towards Pavel’s movement manifest in her change of attitude, beliefs and personality. Her acquaintance with Pavel and his comrades has contributed to her new understanding about the political condition. She has become a new person.

  Meanwhile, the significance of her reactions reveals three findings. Firstly, Pelagea represents the emerging social consciousness of simple and traditional people as well as the women’s struggle. Secondly, Pelagea’s social consciousness is acquired primarily due to her being a mother who senses something positive in Pavel’s movement. Thirdly, Pelagea’s depiction as a simple mother acquiring social consciousness also reveals Gorky’s own model of revolutionary society which includes spiritual and emotional fervors and in which women become an important part.

  It is suggested that future researchers conduct analyses on other characters’ roles in building Maxim Gorky’s model of revolutionary society and his conception of “God Building.” Lastly, it is also recommended that the novel be used as a

  

ABSTRAK

Hidayat, Muhamad Nur. 2009. A Marxism Study: The Reactions towards the

Existing Political Situation as Faced by Pelagea Nilovna, the Main Character of Maxim Gorky’s Mother. Yogyakarta: Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris. Universitas Sanata Dharma.

  Studi ini menganalisis sebuah novel yang ditulis oleh Maxim Gorky pada tahun 1906 berjudul Mother. Analisis dari novel ini membahas mengenai reaksi dari tokoh utama, Pelagea Nilovna, terhadap situasi politik di pemukiman pabrik dimana ia tinggal. Topik ini sangat menarik untuk dianalisis karena hal ini menggambarkan sebuah perubahan yang besar atas Pelagea Nilovna, dari seorang perempuan sederhana dan bodoh menjadi seorang aktifis militan revolusioner.

  Untuk mencapai tujuannya, studi ini mencakup dua pembahasan. Pertama mengenai penokohan Pelagea Nilovna. Kedua menenai reaksinya terhadap situasi politik yang ada. Pembahasan kedua terdiri dari dua bagian yaitu reaksi Pelagea Nilovna terhadap pergerakan revolusioner dari anaknya, Pavel, serta arti penting reaksi tersebut.

  Teori mengenai tokoh, penokohan serta kepribadian digunakan untuk menjawab pertanyaan pertama pada pembahasan pertama. Sedangkan teori-teori mengenai Marxisme serta latar belakang sosial-politiknya Gorky digunakan untuk menjawab pertanyaan kedua pada pembahasan kedua. Sementara itu, studi ini menggunakan pendekatan kritik sastra Marxisme.

  Hasil dari analisa menunjukkan bahwa selama hidup dengan suaminya dan selama interaksi awal dengan pergerakan Pavel, Pelagea Nilovna digambarkan sebagai seorang yang relijius, peka, penakut, bijak dan penyayang. Namun, setelah sepenuhnya bergabung dengan pergerakan itu, dia berubah menjadi seorang yang pemberani dan kurang relijius. Reaksinya terhadap pergerakan Pavel termanifestasikan dalam perubahan sikap, kepercayaan serta kepribadiannya. Hubungannya dengan Pavel dan kawan-kawannya berkontribusi terhadap pemahaman barunya mengenai situasi politik tersebut. Dia telah menjadi manusia yang baru.

  Sementara itu, terdapat tiga arti penting dari reaksi tersebut. Pertama, Pelagea mewakili kemunculan kesadaran sosial dari warga tradisional dan sederhana serta mewakili perjuangan wanita pada khususnya. Kedua, kesadaran sosial dari Pelagea diperoleh terutama karena posisi dia sebagai seorang ibu yang dapat merasakan sesuatu yang positif pada pergerakan Pavel. Ketiga, penggambaran Pelagea sebagai seorang sederhana yang memperoleh kesadaran sosial, juga mengungkapkan sebuah model masyarakat revolusionernya Gorky yang memasukkan kualitas-kualitas emosional dan spiritual, dimana kaum perempuan menjadi bagian penting di revolusionernya Maxim Gorky serta konsepsinya tentang “God Building.” Pada akhirnya, novel ini juga direkomendasikan untuk digunakan sebagai bahan belajar- mengajar pada kelas Short Essay Writing I di Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris.

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION This chapter consists of five parts, namely, Background of the Study, Objectives of the Study, Problem Formulation, Benefits of the Study and Definition

  of Terms. The first part, Background of the Study, explores the urgency of this study and my personal reasons in selecting the topic of the study. Secondly, the Objectives of the Study, presents the aims of conducting this study. Thirdly, the Problem Formulation presents some problems to limit the scope of study. Fourthly, the Benefits of the Study elaborates the advantages that the reader may gain from reading this study. And the last, the Definition of Terms presents some definitions of key terms used in the study.

1.1. Background of the Study

  Literature may function as a depiction of the socio-cultural and even ideological situation of certain period of time (Little 1). As one kind of the literary writings, novels are widely read given that they contain certain interesting knowledge about historical background of certain societies. Not only are novels important to provide valuable knowledge, they are also endowed with qualities that delight our aesthetic sense. Through the characters of novels, we are led to experience the The interrelationship among characters in a novel can reveal the complexity of human phenomena. Unlike any other living creatures, human beings have the capacity to discern and comprehend various phenomena in society and have the ability to react towards them. On the one hand, human beings are endowed with universal emotional capacity that make them united, have the sense of solidarity, caring and loving to each other. On the other hand, they have the intellectual capacity to cope with the complexity of nature and human phenomena itself. They have the capacities to differentiate between good and evil, truth and wrongness, fact and illusion. Those emotional and intellectual capacities combined make human beings progress through reacting towards the phenomena. And through exercising those capacities, men and women can acquire new knowledge, new understanding, new revelation and even new life.

  This thesis analyzes a novel Mother, written by a celebrated Russian author, Maxim Gorky. Mother, which was written in 1906, is said to be one of Gorky’s phenomenal works during his lifetime, which later became the pioneer of the Soviet genre of Socialist Realism. A socialist literature, Terry Eagleton says, must present the realities of the working people without giving any clear-cut solution. He also adds that it must also reveal the struggle of working people to free from oppressions (Eagleton vii). Both qualities that Eagleton says appear in Mother.

  The novel tells about the life of a mother named Pelagea Nilovna, widow of a being an ignorant and ordinary woman into being a militant activist. The mother has undergone social consciousness. The shift occurs during her acquaintance with and involvement in Pavel’s movement. The movement, whose pledge is to pursue the truth and liberate the working people from the oppressive authority of feudalism, challenges the authority by spreading leaflets into the factories and organizes protests and rallies. Therefore, the topic of the study concerns on the analysis of the reactions of the ordinary woman, Pelagea Nilovna, towards the political situation as seen in her involvement in Pavel’s revolutionary movement.

  I am particularly interested in the topic of the study because I am impressed about how Maxim Gorky explores the characters, specifically Pelagea Nilovna, in facing an oppressive authority of feudalism. Furthermore, it is overwhelming to learn the major shift that happens to Pelagea Nilovna in the novel. It is highly appealing to learn that one can acquire such a shift from being a simple person into being a revolutionary activist. Besides, I am keen to verify that such an extraordinary transformation is not gained from a pure spiritual or emotional search, rather, it is with help of Pelagea’s being able to comprehend and analyze the actual conditions that affect her life. I desire to prove that Pelagea’s transformation is a rational choice derived from her analyses of the surrounding phenomena. Moreover, I want to learn why Maxim Gorky reveals a character of mother in a revolutionary movement.

  The study is a Marxist study, which attempts to reveal that the novel is not an ideas to analyze the topic of the study given that it considers various aspects including the author’s political tendency and the prevailing ideology at the time he wrote the novel.

  1.2. Objective of the Study

  The objective of this study is to show one’s reactions toward the existing socio-cultural and political situation in his or her life as seen Pelagea Nilovna, the main character of Maxim Gorky’s Mother. The discussion deals with the trait and change acquired from comprehending a certain phenomenon.

  1.3. Problem Formulation

  To achieve the objective and specify the study, some research questions related to the topic have been prepared. The questions are formulated as follows:

  1. How is Pelagea Nilovna, the main character of the novel, portrayed in the novel?

  2. How does Pelagea Nilovna react toward the existing political situation as seen in the novel?

  1.4. Benefits of the Study

  Some parties are expected to benefit from the study. Firstly, the study would understanding of the characterization of Pelagea Nilovna and the emerging social consciousness of working people as revealed from Pelagea Nilovna.

  Secondly, the study would help future researchers who want to conduct a literary study on the novel. From this study, the future researchers can gain understanding about the influence of Marxism in the novel. Finally the study is expected to provide us understandings about the social consciousness of the working people and the injustices that they meet in their life. By comprehending the significance of the working people in shaping the structure of society, we realize that the working people have a huge hidden power.

1.5. Definition of Terms There are several important terminologies to help readers follow the study.

  The definitions are taken from both printed and online materials 1.5.1.

   Character and characterization

  Character, according to Abrams in A Glossary of Literary Terms, means: …the person presented in dynamic or narrative work, who are interpreted by the reader as being endowed with moral and disposition qualities that are expressed in what they say…[in] the dialogue…[and] by what they do…. (20)

  In this study the character that is being analyzed is the mother, Pelagea Nilovna, who undergoes a change in her life from a simple and ordinary woman to a fully-involved socialist militant.

  Characterization according to Baldick in his Criticism and Literary Theory (34), characterization is the representation of a person in a dramatic or narrative work with the use of direct method of attribution to the character so that the reader can infer or deduce the qualities from the character’s appearance, action or speech.

  1.5.2. Personality

  According to Cambridge Dictionary of Sociology, the question of personality concerns with one’s differences in his or her social behavior and his or her disposal to react in certain ways. It also “seeks to characterize in a rigorous way the basis of that difference by identifying characteristic patterns of behavior that are distinctive and consistent across time” (Turner ed. 437). In questioning the personality, many theorists recognize the importance of other social characteristics such as “age, gender, and race and ethnicity, or other personal determinants of behavior, such as attitude” (Turner ed. 438). Therefore in this study, in revealing the characterization of Pelagea Nilovna, it deals with her personality as an individual in reacting to the socio cultural and political condition in the settlement she is living.

  1.5.3. Class consciousness

  According to Online Dictionary of Social Sciences, class consciousness means: is associated with the development of a ‘class-for-itself’ where individuals within the class unite to pursue their shared interests. In addition, according to Lukacs, every social class has a determined class consciousness, but in Marxist perspective, class consciousness is not “an origin” but it is “an achievement” that “must be won” by the working people (Lukacs, “Class Consciousness”). The term class consciousness used in this study is the same as the term social consciousness that refers to the awareness of the working people of their condition (economic and social conditions caused by the feudalism structure of society). This awareness sparks the desire to change their life.

1.5.4. Reactions

  According to an electronic dictionary, Concise Oxford English Dictionary, Eleventh Edition, reactions mean “a person’s ability to respond physically and mentally to external stimuli.” In this study, reactions also refer to Pelagea Nilovna’s responses to Pavel’s movement and ideas. The reactions include her attitude, belief, and point of views that are revealed from her interaction with Pavel, his movement and his comrades and that are also revealed from her own reflection of her life and working people’s lives.

CHAPTER 2 REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE This chapter is devoted to present some theories that are used in this study. It

  is divided into five parts. The first part is the review of literature theory. The second part covers the theories of Marxism. Meanwhile, the third part of this chapter explores the contexts or the social settings both in the novel and the actual social settings at the time Maxim Gorky wrote the novel. And the last part is the theoretical framework.

2.1. Review of Literature Theories

  This first part deals with some literature theories which comprise the theories related to character and characterization, and theories related to personality. Those theories are used to help analyze the first problem of this study.

2.1.1. Theory of Character

  Theory of character is used in this study to investigate one of the characters in Mother. In this study, the term character resembles to the definition given by Abrams:

  Characters are the persons presented in dramatic or narrative work, who are interpreted by the reader as being endowed with moral, dispositional, and emotional qualities that are expressed in what they In short, characters can be defined as the people by whom the author conveys the story. Through dialogues, actions and the author’s narration, we can understand the story of a particular novel. The bases or reasons underlying the character’s “temperament, desires and moral nature for their speech and actions” are called motivation (Abrams 23).

  According to Forster (48-54), Aspects of the Novel, there are two types of character, namely, flat and round character.

  1. Flat character Flat character is created in “a single idea or quality” that, in comprehending the character, we do not need any further detailed explanation, and therefore, it is easily recognized by the reader.

  2. Round character Unlike flat character, round character cannot be directly justified in terms of the quality. It has more complex temperament and motivation. It is peculiar and difficult to describe. The uniqueness of round character is the ability to surprise the reader

  Abrams adds that a character may be “stable”, or has no gradual change in the outlook and disposition. In addition, there is a character that undergoes “a radical change” through gradual process of motivation and development (Abrams 23).

  In addition to flat and round character, Guth and Rico (70) propose further the character that does not reveal any growth or development. The static character does not undergo changes in the story, whereas, the growing character undergoes changes and development in the story. The change or the development may take form of turning point in life, or the character’s spiritual journey.

  In this study, the mother, Pelagea Nilovna, resembles the round and growing character.

2.1.2. Theory of Characterization

  If characters are the persons in the story, characterization means the way the author explains or characterizes the characters. By means of characterization, we can be sure that the story is alive. The way the author characterizes his or her characters plays a significant role to help the reader understand the characters. Pelagea Nilovna, the mother, is characterized through various ways by the author in the novel.

  According to Abrams (24-25), there are two broad categories of characterizing the characters, namely, telling and showing. In telling, the author has the authority to describe the characters. The author also informs “the motives and dispositional qualities of the characters” by directly explaining to the reader through sentences, so that, the reader straightforwardly understand the character. However, in showing, the author characterizes the characters in an indirect ways. The reader is to deduce the motives and the dispositions of the characters by what they speak and act. This

  In addition to the broad distinctions of characterization explained by Abrams, the classic work of Murphy helps us reveal the ways the author characterize the characters in greater depth. According to Murphy (161-173), there are nine ways of how an author characterizes the characters. They are: a. Personal description

  The author gives the descriptions of personal physical appearances of certain characters to the reader by, for example, telling what the character is wearing, the color of the hair, eye, and so on. There is a good example in Maxim Gorky’s Mother in the way of describing Pelagea:

  She was tall and somewhat stooped. … Her wide oval face, puffy and wrinkled, was lighted by dark eyes filled with fear and grief,… Above her right eyebrow was a deep scar… Streaks of white shone in her thick dark hair. She was all softness and sadness and submissiveness… . (16-7) b. Characters as seen by others

  Here, the author characterizes a certain character by means of other characters’ opinions.

  c. Speech What the character says throughout the novel may hint his or her character.

  d. Past life The past life of a certain character told by his/her own speeches and conversations or by the author’s direct telling or by other characters’ speeches may also be the method of characterizing a particular character. For example when Pavel, Pelagea’s son, told his mother:

  Just think of the life we live! Here you are forty years old, and what have you ever known? Father beat you—now I know that he took his troubles out on you, all bitterness of his life. Something kept pressing down on him, but he didn’t know what… What joy have you ever known? ... What good things have you to remember?

  (21-2)

  e. Conversation of others From the conversation from other characters, the author can also give hints about the characterization of a particular character.

  f. Reactions In order to reveal the characterization of a certain character, it can also be seen from the reactions of the character in dealing with certain conditions or events facing the character.

  g. Direct comment The author can also give direct comments by telling the reader directly through sentences that show the characterization of certain character. For example:

  Thus lived Mikhail Vlassov, a sullen, hirsute mechanic with tiny eyes that glared suspiciously and with spiteful scorn from under his bushy eyebrows. He was the best mechanic at the factory and the strongest man in the settlement, but he was surly with his superiors, and for that reason made little money. (12)

  h. Thoughts

  In a way of characterizing a person, the author can give “direct knowledge” to the reader so as to know what other people or characters are thinking. i. Mannerism

  In this way, the author describes the character’s manners or habits or traits or behavior in helping the reader understand the character.

  These are some specific ways to find the characterization of a particular character in a novel presented in Murphy.

2.1.3. Theory of Personality

  According to Hall and Lindzey assert that to fully understand one’s behaviors, the study of the wholeness of the person is highly needed (Hall and Lindzey 6).

  Furthermore, they maintain that human personality can be assessed from his or her reaction towards various circumstances. In other words, different circumstances that a person meets shape his or her personality.

  Characters in the novel may undergo changes in his or her personality so that it makes the novel become more attractive. As Hurlock (124) states, changes in one’s personality is caused by various circumstances. The first cause is by physical changes for example derived from malnutrition or accident and so on. Personality change can also be geared from changes in the environment in which one has social interactions. persons. It happens usually in the relation of parents and their children. The parents have to adapt to the development of their children.

  One’s personality change can also be determined from changes in social pressure which is usually resulted from social rejection. Another cause of personality change according to Hurlock is the change of role is society. Strong motivation and changes is self concept may also cause personality change. The desire for acceptance and for better life may provoke people to change their attitudes and finally personality. The last is the use of psychotherapy to change one’s personality and to find out his or her self-concept.

2.2. Theory of Marxism

  This is the second part of chapter two. It includes the general theory of Marxism, Marxist perspective on social class, Marxist perspective on class consciousness, and the theory of Marxist literary criticism approach, an approach being used in this study.

2.2.1. The Overview of the General Theory of Marxism

  Marxism is a social, political and economic philosophy, social science, and also a critical theory. The center idea of Marxism is that the human behavior is governed by their relation to production. Marxism as a critical theory is based on the idea of social philosophy that addresses all kinds of economic exploitations,

  Yet, the focus of attention of Marxism has undergone dialectics since it was first put forward by Engels in the nineteenth century. There are some shifts of focus in the part of the theory following the development of capitalism. Versions and theoretical emphasis of Marxism also develop. It is in the first half of the twentieth century where the relative shift of attention happened. Marxism which aroused outside the USSR centered its attention toward “the way in which industrial capitalism had substituted machine-like relations for genuine human relations.” This, as is expected, shifted the theoretical emphasis away from scientific economic theory (such as Das Capital), towards socio-cultural topics like alienation of workers (the process of workers becoming foreign to the world and life they are living in because they are not valued from the products they work). The latter topic is more focusing on the relation of humans (workers) and the means of production (Harland 137; Marxist Internet Archive). This focus of socio-cultural topics of Marxism is I think in accordance with the story of the novel Mother by Maxim Gorky, which pictures the way workers were reduced to merely mechanical instruments. As shown in the first part of the novel, the results are the depression, hatred, despair, anger, and feeling of utter hopelessness—although eventually, they learn something from socialism ideas that was brought by Pavel, Pelagea’s son.

  This central tenet of alienation in Marxism views human beings in capitalist society as alienated or becoming foreign from themselves because the work they class which is “increasingly stunted, reduced to meaningless physical activity which, far from developing and exercising their humanity, reduces them to abstract organs of a lifeless mechanism” (Honderich ed. 558).

  This is so because the working class “do[es] not experience the products of their labor as their expression, or indeed as theirs in any sense.” They sell their activity to the capitalist for a wage, not for fulfilling their social self-expressions, but for merely sustaining their lives. Marxism as a science of political economy moreover portrays human beings, especially laborers, whose social life and relationships are at the mercy not of their collective choice but of an alien, inhuman mechanism, the marker-place, which allege to be a sphere of individual freedom, but it is in fact a sphere of collective slavery to inhuman and destructive forces. (Honderich ed. 558)

  To be free from alienation, Marx asserts that all we need is a “new form of earthly existence,” which is the key to fulfilled human beings, meaning, never lacking material conditions. To gain human freedom, human beings must be self conscious of their “essential human power”, namely the power of production, which in capitalist system, it is constrained. Therefore, only conscious self actualization, human beings can achieve their ultimate freedom. The idea of this consciousness is then of importance.

  The vision of Marxism is to form a classless society. The historical materialism provides the working class a way of full understanding to consciously find the means to achieve them, rather, it is a matter of devoting the conscious revolutionary movements into participating in “an already developing class movement” that happens in the current time, and to define themselves the goals and to realize the goal by using their weapons “inherent in the class’s historical situation” (Honderich ed. 559). So, instead of orthodox and static, revolutionary movements must see the reality surrounding them and find the way to achieve the goals. And in the struggle to achieve that ends, they must not be independent from their historical situation.

  With regards to religion and God, which is the central controversy of Marxist doctrine, Marx argues in his Contribution to the Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Law, that “[t]o abolish religion as the illusory happiness of the people is to demand their real happiness” (Marxist Internet Archive). Since Marxism is a materialistic belief, the idea of God and religion play a parasitic role to building the society of workers.

  Marx believed that in classless community, or the eventual communist society, the private ownership of means of production and commodity production is abolished. He believed that in a communist society, all form of human alienation is non existent. Yet, he never stated that this eventual society is a static society and unchanging, instead, it is the truest beginning of the human history that is governed by conscious human development.

  Class in Marxist perspective means a group of people who share common relations to labor and means of production. Marx says in his Wage Labour and Capital that:

  These social relations between the producers, and the conditions under which they exchange their activities and share in the total act of production, will naturally vary according to the character of the means of production. (Marxist Internet Archive)

  The idea of class in Marxist perspective is radically different from that of bourgeoisie social theory or capitalism. In capitalism class is “abstract universal” that is defined by the common attributes of its members and is also defined by “categories and conceptions that have an existence prior to and independent of the people who make up the class.” For example, people who earn less than $ 20,000 a year constitute a lower class. However, the idea of class in Marxist view is that it “includes the development of collective consciousness in a class – arising from the material basis of having in common relations to the labour process and the means of production” (Marxist Internet Archive).

  Classes only appear at a particular stage of the development of the productive forces and the social division of labor. In the stage in which there is social surplus of production, classes are emerged, since one class can benefit by the exploitation of others. And as this stage is happening, the class antagonism or class struggle is inevitable. Therefore, according to Marx, the conflict begins where one class starts to surplus of production. This becomes the central issue of Marxist’s radical antagonism about bourgeoisie and proletariat. As Engels points out, Marx’s most important doctrine is the Inherent Class War between two irreconcilable groups, namely, the Bourgeoisie (the capitalist employers) and the Proletariat (the workers) (Sahakian and Sahakian 79). This inevitable antagonism is stated by Marx in his Communist Manifesto:

  The increasing improvement of machinery, ever more rapidly developing, makes their livelihood more and more precarious; the collisions between individual workmen and individual bourgeois take more and more the character of collisions between two classes. Thereupon, the workers begin to form combinations (trade unions) against the bourgeois; they club together in order to keep up the rate of wages; they found permanent associations in order to make provision beforehand for these occasional revolts. Here and there, the contest breaks out into riots. (Marxist Internet Archive)

  In resolving this antagonism, and since the two groups have diametrically- opposed interests, one of the group, the bourgeoisie, must be eliminated. The reason is that he Bourgeoisie are responsible for a number of social evils: they have exploited the employee by giving less than they deserve, they have treated the workers as a commodity in market, whose price is dependent upon the market fluctuation rather than upon the worth they have produced; and finally they have commercialize most occupations, including marriage (Sahakian and Sahakian 79).

  Marx argues that communism is the answer. And a communist society will only be achieved after the period of dictator proletariat. Through the stage of single which is based on “the common ownership of the means of production, distribution and exchange” (Barry 156).

2.2.3. Marxist Theory on Class Consciousness