Tom`s maturity process as the result of conflicts seen in mark twain`s the adventures of Tom Sawyer - USD Repository
TOM’S MATURITY PROCESS AS THE RESULT OF CONFLICTS
SEEN IN MARK TWAIN’S
THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra in English Letters
By
LENI ANDRIANI
Student Number : 034214121
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
YOGYAKARTA
2009
This undergraduate thesis is dedicated to: My beloved parents, H. Heru Suyono and Hj. Endrastutik
My wonderful sisters, Luqi H, Lucia, Lutfi and my brother, Faisal
and those who have given me support and love in my life.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
My first gratitude goes to Allah SWT for blessing me in my life and for guiding me in writing and completing my undergraduate thesis.
I would like to express by best gratitude to my advisor, Dra. Th. Enny Anggraini, M. A. I thank her for taking the time to guide me and for sharing her knowledge with me. I also thank my co-advisor, Drs. Hirmawan Wijanarka, M.
Hum for reading my undergraduate thesis and giving me suggestions in order to make it better. And I also thank all my lecturer for their guidance and their time to share their knowledge during the years of my study.
My best gratitude goes to my beloved family for supporting me in writing my undergraduate thesis. My deepest gratitude and love goes to my wonderful father, H. Heru Suyono and my mother Hj.Endrastutik for their love, support and prayers. My special gratitude goes to my beloved sisters and brother; Luqi Hermawanti, S.P for always supporting me, Lucia Herlinawati, S.E, Lutfi Hervianti, and Faisal Lukman Nugroho, I love them all.
I also would like to express my thanks to friends in Sastra Mungil and “Street Car Named Desire’ team: Andre, Wahmuji, Yusak, Mando, Demuz, Theo, Abit, Cita, Mei, Ketut, Nani, Sondang, Bigar, Yaco, Ginting, Agnes, Yuni, Intan, Dewi, Ike, Cisil, Afril, Inop, Maya, Dean, Daud, for giving me happiness, laughter, and knowledge. I thank ‘Ndre’ for always giving me happiness and support. Thanks for coloring my life. Also, I thank all 2003 English Letters Department students who have been with me during my study.
Many thanks are to my boarding house friends, Cumi and Lindut,. Thanks for being true friends for me. Thanks for a lot of things, for the laughter, love, tears, and silly things you have shared. Keep our friendship forever. I love you all.
My special thanks go to ‘Ant’ for being such a good boyfriend. Thanks for your endless support and love.
Last but not least, my thank goes to friends in “Sekar Jepun” for giving me happiness and helping me to leave my tension awhile in the writing process of my undergraduate thesis.
Leni Andriani
TABLE OF CONTENTS
TITLE PAGE .................................................................................................... iAPPROVAL PAGE .......................................................................................... ii
ACCEPTANCE PAGE .................................................................................... iii
DEDICATION PAGE ...................................................................................... iv
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................. vTABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................. vii
ABSTRACT........................................................................................................ viii
ABSTRAK ......................................................................................................... ix
CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION ..................................................................... 1
A. Background of the study .................................................................... 1 B. Problem Formulation ......................................................................... 6 C. Objectives of the study ...................................................................... 6 D. Definition of Terms ............................................................................ 6CHAPTER II: THEORETICAL REVIEW .................................................... 8
A. Review of Related Studies ................................................................. 8 B. Review of Related Theories .............................................................. 101. Theory on Character and Characterization ........................... 10
2. Theory on Conflicts .............................................................. 14
3. Theory on Maturity ............................................................... 15
C. Theoretical Framework ......................................................................18
CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY ................................................................. 20
A. Object of the Study ............................................................................ 20 B. Approach of the Study ....................................................................... 21 C. Method of the Study .......................................................................... 21CHAPTER IV: ANALYSIS ............................................................................. 23
A. The Characteristics of Tom Sawyer .................................................. 23 B. The Conflicts Experienced by Tom .................................................. 30 C. The Result of Conflicts toward Tom’s Maturity Process ................. 47CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION ........................................................................ 58
BIBLIOGRAPHY .............................................................................................. 60APPENDIX: Summary of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer ................................ 62
ABSTRACT
LENI ANDRIANI. Tom’s Maturity Process as the Result of Conflicts Seen in
Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Yogyakarta: Department of
English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma University, 2009.The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is one of Mark Twain’s best novels. This
undergraduate thesis focuses on the novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer written by Mark Twain. It became a best-seller novel when it was first published. The story of the novel is about a boy who likes to have some adventures in his life. The name of the boy is Tom Sawyer. The novel tells about Tom’s life which is full of extraordinary experiences and conflicts. Although he is a boy, he already has ability to face all the experiences. It shows that he is able to reach maturity in his very young age.
There are three problem formulations in this undergraduate thesis; (1) What are the characteristics of Tom? (2) What are the conflicts experienced by Tom? and (3) How do the conflicts influence Tom’s maturity process?. The objectives of this undergraduate thesis are; first, to explore the characteristics of Tom Sawyer as the main character, second, to find out the conflicts experienced by Tom during his childhood, and third is to show Tom’s maturity process as the result of his conflicts.
This undergraduate thesis uses library research. The writer collects all the data from books and theories which are found from documents, either printed or on-line. The psychological approach is applied to analyze the novel.
Through the analysis, the writer finds that Tom Sawyer is a mischievous boy who often gets and out into troubles. He is also an imaginative, lazy, full of curiosity, and cowardly. Most of them are clearly seen in his speech, his attitude, and his thought in facing his life. Moreover, the analysis shows that the boy experiences some conflicts with other characters; they are Aunt Polly, Huckleberry Finn, and Becky Thatcher. Those are the most important conflicts which help him mature.
The conflicts with those other characters change Tom’s mind and attitude. His understanding toward problem in his childhood shows that his maturity begins to attain. Moreover, Tom’s maturity is seen in his self-evaluation, his ability to deal with frustration, and his sense of responsibility. Those criteria prove that his maturity process is already proven in this study.
ABSTRAK
LENI ANDRIANI. Tom’s Maturity Process as the Result of Conflicts Seen in
Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Yogyakarta: Jurusan Sastra
Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Sanata Dharma, 2009.The Adventures of Tom Sawyer adalah salah satu novel terbaik karangan
Mark Twain. Skripsi ini berfokus pada novel yang ditulis oleh Mark Twain. Novel tersebut merupakan novel yang sangat disukai ketika pertama kali novel tersebut diterbitkan. Cerita dari novel ini berkisah tentang seorang anak laki-laki yang sangat menyukai petualangan di kehidupannya. Nama anak laki-laki tersebut yaitu Tom Sawyer. Novel ini menceritakan tentang kehidupan Tom yang penuh dengan pengalaman-pengalaman luar biasa serta banyak konflik. Walaupun dia masih tergolong seorang anak, dia mampu menghadapi semua pengalamannya. Hal tersebut menunjukkan bahwa Tom telah sampai pada kedewasaan di usianya yang masih sangat belia.
Ada tiga pokok permasalahan dalam skripsi ini; (1) Apa sajakah karakteristik yang dimiliki oleh Tom? (2) Apa sajakah konflik-konflik yang dialaminya? (3) Bagaimana konflik-konflik tersebut mempengaruhi proses kedewasaannya? Tujuan dari penulisan skripsi ini adalah; pertama, untuk mengeksplorasi karakteristik Tom Sawyer sebagai tokoh utama, kedua, untuk menemukan konflik-konflik yang dialami oleh Tom, dan ketiga adalah untuk menunjukkan proses kedewasaan Tom sebagai akibat dari konflik-konflik yang dialaminya.
Skripsi ini menggunakan metode studi pustaka. Penulis mengumpulkan semua data dari buku dan teori yang ditemukan dari dokumen, baik itu dari media cetak ataupun media on-line. Pendekatan psikologi diterapkan untuk menganalisa.
Melalui bagian analisis, penulis menemukan bahwa Tom Sawyer adalah anak yang nakal yang selalu membuat masalah. Ia juga anak yang mempunyai banyak imajinasi, malas, penuh dengan keingintahuan dan penakut. Penggambaran tokoh Tom Sawyer ini terlihat jelas dari perkataannya, tingkah lakunya serta dalam pemikirannya dalam menjalani kehidupan. Lebih lanjut, analisis ini menunjukkan bahwa ia mengalami banyak konflik dengan karakter- karakter lain; mereka adalah Aunt Polly, Huckleberry Finn, dan Becky Thatcher. Konflik-konflik tersebut merupakan konflik yang paling pokok dalam cerita ini yang nantinya dapat mendewasakan Tom.
Konflik-konflik dengan karakter lain telah merubah pikiran dan tingkah laku pada diri Tom. Pengertiannya terhadap masalah di masa kecilnya menunjukkan bahwa kedewasaannya sudah mulai tercapai. Lebih lanjut, kedewasaan Tom terlihat jelas pada kemampuan evaluasinya, pada kemampuan dalam mengatasi kekecewaan, dan pada pengertiannya tentang tanggungjawab. Semua criteria tersebut membuktikan adanya proses kedewasaan Tom dalam studi ini.
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION A. Background of the Study As we know that every human being changes from time to time. His
growth proceeds in the physical change and at the same time, it changes in his behavior as the direct consequences of the growth. As human beings, they undergo stages of development from their process to become an infant, a child, a teenage, an adult and an elder person.
Human beings always get their childhood. It becomes one of human’s life stages of development that has to be faced by everyone. As they grow, they always learn and interact with others from their surroundings. Those learning and interacting processes often influence or change their characteristics. Basically, they face some kinds of developmental changes in their childhood and one of them is maturity development. They will reach their physical change, categorized as the external growth, and reach mental maturity, categorized as the internal growth, in their age after facing some experiences in life. Being mature according to R. Guys Lefrancois is “related to development which includes growth and learning as a relatively permanent change in the behavior of individual resulting from experience” (Psychological Theories and Human Learning, 1982:107).
In literary work if there is a conflict appears in its plot, it becomes more interesting to read. That is why conflict becomes an important aspect of an author when creating a literary work. In a literary work, characters need to struggle to overcome their conflicts which then lead them into their changes. As Ellen Jackson stated in her article “Conflict and Change”, conflict is the challenge a character must face and, in the end, overcome. Think of "conflict" as another word for "problem." The characters need to struggle a bit to resolve a difficulty. This problem of facing challenges and figuring out how to overcome them makes for exciting reading. If the characters do not have a problem to solve, they have no basis for an adventure. As the author, we want our readers to care about our characters, and to remain curious about the way the problem will be solved. Thus, the author must devise a story problem and then intensify it by throwing difficulties in the way of our characters. When our main character is confronted by an unpleasant event – the death of a pet, a fight with a friend, parents divorcing–he changes. Maybe they are not in the right away, but eventually. The author’s job is to show that change and to make the process seem believable <http://www.ellenjackson.net/work36.html> (March 26, 2007).
In real life, conflict also becomes an important aspect in human life. To develop, sometimes people deal with conflicts which then lead them into their changes or help them shape their maturity.
As Jeannette Santino stated in her article “Level of Maturity” <http://www.naturalhealthweb.com/articles/santino1.html> (November 14, 2007), human beings display some kinds of maturity level in their behavior. Generally, we would expect that people behave according to the levels of maturity of their age. We might think that people in the forty year old age would act like a forty year old age and twelve year old like a twelve year old, and so on. This is not that case. One can be a fully grown person but immature or, on the contrary, they can be a person in young age but very mature in their mental and emotional. As human beings grow from infant to adult, they have more experiences helping them to develop and to understand those events that occur in life. As mature person, we become more flexible. There are some greater capacities to find peaceful solutions when human faces the differences with others. It results a more independent attitude, ultimately achieving interdependence. In addition, greater maturity will produce more kindness, compassion, and respect toward others, along with self-confidence and clarity of purpose.
Sometimes maturity is used to indicate person’s response to the circumstances or environment in an appropriate manner. As Overstreet said in his book The Mind Alive, that to label someone becomes mature, he or she must know the appropriate behavior toward his age, and his power over his environment is matched by a growing awareness of what is involved in what he does (1949:44).
One example of literary works which requires a story about children developmental changes in their maturity is in Mark Twain’s work, The Adventures
of Tom Sawyer . This analysis is going to discuss the main character’s maturity
process as the result of conflicts in Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.The writer chooses this novel for the study because of some reasons. The first reason is because of the novel itself. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is considered as one of Mark Twain’s popular works in his period, 1876. He is considered as one of the eight American authors as James Woodress states in his book Eight American Authors. Because of that the writer thinks that his work of
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer can be a good sample of American literature to
analyze.The second is because of the content of the story. The novel itself concerns about childhood experience. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is about a boy maturing throughout a span of adventures in love, treasure, and everyday life that make him more of an adult, then a boy. The name of the boy is Tom Sawyer. He is described as a boy from the beginning of the story. Although there is no specific description about Tom’s age, it seems that Tom is a boy which is approximately more than 6 years old. It is very important to categorize Tom to that age, because it will help the writer to give the limitation to know his maturity development for the analysis. According to Hurlock, he states “the late childhood for girls occurs in the range between 6-13 years old and for boys in between 6-14 years old” (2000:146). Based on the explanation above, Tom can be categorized in the late of childhood phase.
Twain wrote this novel based on his own experiences in his childhood. The scenes and events were drawn largely from Mark Twain’s childhood experiences in Hannibal, Missouri. He wrote the novel to remind adults of what they were once. As can be seen in the preface of the novel The Adventures of Tom
Sawyer , it is clearly seen that the events in the story take place in Twain’s
childhood. As Twain states himself that “Most of the adventures recorded in this book really occurred; one or two were experiences of my own, the rest of those boys who were schoolmates of mine” (1920).
The main character in the story is Tom Sawyer. He and its story represent everything about childhood. Twain’s The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is filled with Tom's adventures playing pirates and wars with his friend Joe Harper and Huck. It is a story filled with adventures, imagination, love, superstition, and mischievousness. The whole story is seemingly a complication of what people do or wish they do during their childhood
.
Furthermore there are a lot of conflicts occur between the characters in the story. The writer found it as an interesting topic to be analyzed. Tom experiences some conflicts which then lead him into his maturity in his age. As Tom Schenk <http://www.af.mil.news/story/asp?storyID=123011237> (November 16, 2007) stated in his article, that immature people tends lack of understanding when dealing with conflicts. But a mature person tends to expect and respect conflict. Therefore, to improve his or herself, a mature person utilizes conflict while respecting its danger, they appreciate its benefit.
This study tries to observe more closely on the self-maturity of the main character in Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. The writer focuses on the character of Tom Sawyer as the main character in the novel. Then the writer intends to show Tom’s conflicts with other characters. Therefore the writer attempts to identify how the conflicts of the main character’s childhood life result in his maturity process.
B. Problem Formulation
Based on the explanation above, the writer formulates the following questions as problems to answer in the analysis:
1. What are the characteristics of Tom?
2. What are the conflicts experienced by Tom?
3. How do the conflicts influence Tom’s maturity process?
C. Objectives of the Study
Considering the problem formulation above, there are three objectives in this study. The first objective is to explore the characteristics of Tom Sawyer as the main character.
The second objective is to find out the conflicts experienced by Tom during his childhood, which then lead him to his maturity. The last objective is to show Tom’s maturity process as the result of his conflicts.
D. Definition of Terms
In this study, the writer needs to define some terms in order to get better understanding of the title and to make the discussion clearer.
1. Maturity
According to Justin Pikunas in Human Development, An Emergent
Science , maturity is defined as “the state of maximal function and integration of a
single factor or a total person; also applied to age-related adequacy of development and performance” (1976:48).
2. Conflict
According to Perrine in Literature: Structure, Sound and Sense, conflict is defined as “a clash of action, ideas, and desires or will between two individuals, or among people in the story” (1974:44).
CHAPTER II THEORETICAL REVIEW A. Review of Related Studies Mark Twain was born in Florida, Missouri, on November 30, 1835. He got
his first success in 1869 after he wrote his novel The Innocents Abroad. The next major published work The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn considered him as the great American literature writer at that time. Another example of his well-known book of his is Life on the Mississippi in 1883. In 1876, he published The
Adventures of Tom Sawyer and it became the most well-known novel and made
him soon famous all over the world.The Adventures of Tom Sawyer was first published in 1876, and after its
publishing, he received some criticisms, appreciations and comments toward Twain himself and his literary works from other writers. Those are very important for the writer to support the analysis of this study.
The writer obtains criticism from articles in Nation magazine on May, 12 1910. In that article, Sherman states that a good reputation among the other American literature writers at that time.
No American writers have ever enjoyed a more purely democratic reputation than Mark Twain. From village celebrity to international renown, he has been advanced stage after stage by popular suffrage. The plain, unbookish burgess holding both his sides at public lecture has helped roar to him into eminence<http://extext.virginia.edu/ration/sc_as_mt/obitmags.html> (October 16, 2007).
One criticism also comes from Robert E. Spiller. In the book titled The
Cycle of American Literature , he says that The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is the reflection of Mark Twain himself. The character of Tom Sawyer is the representation of Mark Twain when he was a child. The events happened in the life of Tom Sawyer were based on Mark Twain’s own childhood and it really happened in his real life.
Tom was the Sam Clemens who sought the violence and excitement of life in a frontier town, Huck the sensitive dreamer who puzzled over man’s in humanities. The two were never reconciled in the boy of Hannibal nor in the man who lectured and was read around the world; but through them he did his best writing (1957: 120).
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer becomes a great novel to read and also an
interesting literary work to be analyzed. The study about Mark Twain’s The
Adventures of Tom Sawyer had been conducted before by student of English
Letters Department and student of English Language Department of Sanata Dharma University, Yogyakarta. They were approved and successfully defended.
Yulius Yoma Preston, student of English Letters Department of Sanata Dharma University, Yogyakarta in his undergraduate thesis entitled The
Influences of Peers and Family on Tom Sawyer in his Social Development as
Depicted in Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Tom Sawyer states that Tom’s social
development as the main character is mostly influenced by his society which is represented by peers and family. The existence of peers and family give either bad or good influences on Tom’s character during his social development (2003: 62).
Discussing more about the character with its development and other intrinsic elements in which in this analysis is presented by conflicts, Linda Novita Sugiono, student of English Language Department in her undergraduate thesis
The Significance of Tom’s Conflicts in his Character Development in Mark
Twain’s The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, proves that the internal and external
conflict experienced by Tom in his childhood have change him into mature and responsible boy in his age (2001: 59-60).
From those reviews and comments, the writer finds that the character of Tom Sawyer is interesting to be analyzed. The writer finds also that there is no study which talks about the child maturity process. Because of that the writer intends to discuss more about the maturity process that is reflected in Tom’s characteristics after facing some conflicts.
B. Review of Related Theories
To support this study, the writer presents some theories that would deal with the topic about maturity process of Tom Sawyer as the main character seen in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. The theories are theory of character and characterization, theory of conflicts and theory of maturity. The writer would like to use those theories in order to get appropriate answer of problem formulation in this study.
1. Theory on Character and Characterization
Characteristic according to Stanton in An Introduction to Fiction (1965:17), literature or literary work is “the mixture of interests, desires, emotions, and moral principles that makes up each of these individuals.”
Still according to Stanton, characterization is “the traits of a character, or his development, or his attitudes toward others, or his effects upon them (and vice versa), or his similarities to and differences from them” (1965:70).
Roger B. Henkle states that a character can be described as major and secondary characters. Major characters are the most important and complex characters in the novel. They can be identified as such through the complexity of their characterization, the attention given to them (by author and other characters) who deserve our fullest attention because they perform the key of structural function. Secondary characters are the characters who perform more limited functions. They are limited in ways that the major characters are not. They may be less sophisticated, so their responses to the experience are less complex and interesting (Reading the Novel: An Introduction to the Techniques Interpreting Fiction , 1965:60).
According to Baldick in his book The Concise Oxford Dictionary of
Literary Terms , character is a person in a narrative or dramatic work. It is
different from characterization, in that characterization is the way in which a character is presented. Therefore, character is the result, while characterization is the process (1991:83).
Characters according to Abrams in A Glossary of Literary Terms (1981:20), are divided into major and minor characters. Major characters are involved in the main action and become the most important in a story. Minor characters are character who appear in certain setting or some parts of the story as the background of the major characters.
In addition, still according to Abrams, characters are also divided into flat character and round character. Round characters are fully developed in the story.
They appear as the central of the story and possess all the characteristics of real human beings. While flat characters are not fully developed as the major characters. They are static and do not change the story.
As Murphy states in his Understanding Unseen: An Introduction to
English Poetry and the English Novel for Overseas Students says that
characterization is how an author conveys to the reader what sort of people they are, how an author makes the reader get to know and understand them. According to Murphy, a character can be understood from 9 ways: “personal description, character as seen by another, speech, past life, conversation by another characters, reactions, direct comment, thought, mannerisms” (1972:162-173).
a. Personal description The author describes a person by giving details of appearance. The author can tell the readers the details of the color of the skin and of the hair, the shape, or the clothes used, which may keep the readers to visualize the person and to know characters as well.
b. Character as seen by another Using this way means that the author may describe a person by using another person’s eyes and opinion. What people in the story think about certain character can be significant to the reader’s understanding from which the readers can set a reflected image on the character. c. Speech The author can give the readers an insight into a person’s character through what the person says. Whenever a person speaks in a conversation, or it gives an opinion, he gives a clue that the reader may know how his character is.
d. Past life It suggests that the author may picture a person’s past life permitting the readers to obtain a clue to events that have helped to shape his character. This can be done by direct comment by the author, through the person’s thought, through his or her conversation or through the medium of another person.
e. Conversation of other characters The author uses this way to give a description of a person through the conversation of other people and things they say about him. People do talk about other people and the things they say often served as a clue to the character of the person that is spoken about.
f. Reaction To describe a person, the author can show how the person reacts to various situations and events which allow the readers to get a clue to his character.
g. Direct comment It means that the author can explicitly give direct description or comment on a person’s character.
h. Thoughts The author can describe a person’s character by giving the readers knowledge of what the person is thinking about. i. Mannerism It suggests that the author can convey something about a person by describing his mannerism, habits or idiosyncrasies.
2. Theory on Conflicts
According to Redman (Second Book of Plays, 1964:363), there are two kinds of conflicts. Firstly, it is inner or internal conflict, it means that the conflict occurs within one’s character. For example, in a certain situation the character feels that she should take an action which is good according to her, but her belief prevented her to take it. In that situation, the clash occurs between her desire and her belief. Secondly, it is external conflict. This kind of conflict occurs between a character and his/her outside aspects. It can be the other characters, the setting, or society. Those outside forces are different from the character’s belief, desire or way of thinking which then create clash between them.
Perrine also states in his book Literature: Structure, Sound and Sense, “conflict is a clash of actions, ideas, desires and will between two individuals, or among people in the story” (1974:44).
Elgin F. Hunt in Social Science: An Introduction to The Study of
Society , states that a conflict does not always has the form in direct ones, such as
frontal war, riot, fight, or any kind of open hostilities. Conflict does not always mean hate, hatred, or distrust. It also can happen through the limitation of differences of opinion, judgment, perspective, and their opposing arguments (1955: 31-32).
3. Theory on Maturity
According to Justin Pikunas in Human Development, An Emergent
Science , maturity is defined as “the state of maximal function and integration of a
single factor or a total person; also applied to age-related adequacy of development and performance” (1976: 48).
In addition, he states that there are nine criteria of maturity. They are “differential responsiveness, interdependence, participate activity, in the term of application of knowledge and experience, communication of experience, sensitivity to the needs of others, ability of dealing constructively with frustration, willingness to assume adult responsibilities and perceive a moral character” (1976: 300-304).
a. Differential responsiveness The author states that a child and adolescent have a different kind of responsiveness if compared to the mature person. Mature person seems more responsive toward surrounding than a child and adolescent.
b. Interdependence It means that in this case, the main point is not become fully independent but more on self-realization of becoming self-reliant individual.
c. Participate activity The author believes that in his or her action, a mature person has to be able to act based on his or her initiative, set goals, and involves others in activities.
d. Application of knowledge and experience
The ability to evaluate and to self-examine is one of the most important criteria of maturity. That ability will help a mature person gains his or her appropriate decision in life.
e. Communication of experience The author points out that communicating one’s needs and experiences with others shows the level of maturity in each individual.
f. Sensitivity to the needs of others A mature person is a person who realizes the needs of others in his or her life.
g. Ability to deal with frustration The ability to deal with frustration is important to apply in life of a mature person. A mature person should be able to examine and draw positive lessons from his or her past frustration.
h. Willingness to assume adult responsibilities The author believes that this criterion involves with sacrifice and courage to overcome fear of failure, disregard moods, feeling of disgust and also involves readiness in ignoring others comments when he or she should meet with responsibilities in life. i. Perceive moral character
Pikunas states that people will be influenced by moral value of a certain society and a mature person will be able to behave mannerly according to those values.
As Jayaram V stated in his article Maturity of Mind and Adult Behavior <http://www.hinduwebsite.selfdvt/maturity.htm> (Nov 14, 2007), maturity refers to a complete physical and mental growth or the state of adulthood. People can make an intelligent guess of what complete physical growth means. Physical growth is visible, measurable, and does not continue beyond a particular age except in certain other ways. Every individual undergoes physical maturity, but few individuals fail to grow normally because some exceptional conditions or circumstances. In case of mental maturity, an individual can grow mentally for long. It is difficult to say when an individual actually stops growing mentally. Mental growth varies from each individual. Some people develop in their mental maturity and rationality much earlier in their lives compared to others.
Furthermore, he states that maturity does not necessarily come with age, but with awareness and understanding, borne out of individual perception and cognitive experience. To be mature according to him does not necessarily mean just a fully grown up individual. It becomes a combination of many things that includes age, awareness, intelligence, decision making ability and more.
Worchel says in his book, Psychology: Principles and Applications, in their development, people sometimes deal with conflicts that they have learned from their experience of life. A mature person will not avoid problems or conflicts, he or she will accept it to develop his or herself. In addition, he or she must be able to solve problem without always depending on other’s help. He or she has a good amount of responsibility of life. A mature person is a people who “grows and accept responsibility” (1985:109).
Mature person can solve his own problem without always depending on other’s help. He must be independent and help himself. He must be brave in facing the difficulties and sometimes he has to make a decision in order to make his life better (Overstreet, 1949:51). Furthermore, when he deals with problems and conflicts, he will make a mature solution of such conflict that would involve a mutual out of the situation and the reaching of an agreement. So it can be said that a mature person will not avoid problems. But, he will attack the problems by developing the capability. This kind of person is the one who is mentally mature (Overstreet, 1949:24).
According to Santino in her article “Level of Maturity” <http://www.naturalhelathweb.com/articles/santino1.html> (November 14, 2007), one can be a fully grown person but immature or, on the contrary, they can be a person in young age but very mature in their mental and emotional. As human beings grow from infant to adult, they have more experiences helping them to develop and to understand events that occur in life.
C. Theoretical Framework
This part aims to solve the problem formulations stated before. The writer applies some theories in this study. The theory of character and characterization is used to solve the first problem. Those theories are necessary to apply in order to know his characteristics. The theory of conflict and theory of maturity are used to solve the second and the third problems stated in the problem formulation. The theory of conflict is needed by the writer because it helps the writer to understand more about the conflicts experienced by Tom. The theory of maturity is applied in this study to show Tom’s maturity as the result of the conflicts he experienced in the story. In this analysis, the concept of maturity is going to be used to explain Tom’s changes in his maturity as the contribution of conflicts with other characters in the story.
The writer believes that those theories will support one another and help the writer to answer the formulated problems. In the end, the analysis of Tom’s maturity as the result of his conflicts can be proven.
CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY A. Object of the Study The object of the study is a novel entitled The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
which is written by one of America’s most popular authors, Samuel Langhorne Clemens. Mark Twain is the pen name for Samuel Langhorne Clemens. The
Adventures of Tom Sawyer was first published in 1876. The writer uses the novel
which was published by P. F. Collier and Son Company, New York in 1920. It consists of 291 pages. The story is divided into 35 chapters. The novel itself has been translated into many languages and became very popular all around the world.
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is the story of a child named Tom Sawyer.
The novel tells about his childhood experiences in St. Petersburg, Missouri. He is described as a mischievous boy with his imagination who is always causing trouble and goes through a series of adventures involving his peers. All of his experiences require conflicts which then will help him change in his behavior as well in his age. As the story progresses, Tom realizes that he is growing up and starts to act more maturely. The study focuses closely on the self-maturity of Tom sawyer under the influences of his conflict with other characters which then help him to reach his maturity.
B. Approach of the Study
The study focuses on Tom Sawyer’s maturity development, which is closely, related to psychological aspects especially his attitude and behavior, therefore, the writer considers that the psychological approach is the appropriate one to use in analyzing the novel. This approach is used to analyze Tom’s maturity when he encounters with conflicts in his life.
Based on Rohrberger and Woods, psychological approach is an approach to literature which involves the effort to locate and demonstrate certain recurrent pattern, and which refers to a different body of knowledge, that is psychology. It is applied when the attention is focused on psychological interpretation for enhancing the understanding and appreciation of literature. In applying this approach, psychology is a study of man’s life together with his mind and behavior (Reading and Writing about Literature, 1971: 13-15).
C. Method of the Study
The writer used library research in analyzing Mark Twain’s The
Adventures of Tom Sawyer . It means that the data and other sources, both primary
and secondary were collected and found from library. In this study, the writer used Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Tom Sawyer as the primary data. The secondary data are the theories, references and other important information from articles or internet related to this study.
There were several steps that the writer used in analyzing this novel. The first step was reading the primary source, the novel itself. Then still in this step, reread it again in order to get better understanding about the novel. It was very useful for the writer to read the story as a whole in order to get some details and ideas presented in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. The second step was searching and collecting data from some books reference and important information related to its topic of the analysis. The writer read some books on the theories of character and characterization, theories of conflict, theories of maturity and also about how conflict leads into maturity which all of them supported in the work’s analysis. The writer took notes the information from its book and put it in the right order to support the analysis. In addition, the writer also looked for some information and criticism about the novel on internet.
The third step was analyzing the novel by answering the questions stated in problem formulations. The writer would try to answer by applying some theories about character and characterization, theories of conflict, theories of maturity. The analysis was based on the psychological approach since this story deals with characteristic and maturity. The dialogues and events from Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Tom Sawyer would be used as proofs in doing the analysis. The last step was making the conclusion based on the result of the analysis. After answering the question in the problem formulations, the conclusion would be presented at the end of the analysis.
CHAPTER IV ANALYSIS This part contains the analysis on the Tom’s maturity process as the result
of conflicts, which is divided into three parts of discussion based on the problem formulations. The first discussion is the analysis on Tom’s characteristics. The writer tries to observe the characteristic of the main character. The second one is the analysis on the conflicts between Tom and other characters. This part is important to analyze because it will be the basis of the discussion of maturity process. The last discussion will show how those conflicts lead Tom into his maturity.
A. The Characteristics of Tom Sawyer
Before analyzing his maturity process, the writer needs to find his general characteristics. The writer uses the theory of character and characterization to answer the first problem formulation. It will be done according to Murphy’s theory about character.
According to Murphy, (1972: 162-173), a character can be understood from nine ways. They are personal description, character as seen by another, speech, conversation of other characters, past life, reactions toward various events or situations, direct comment, thoughts and mannerism. Some of those ways will be used by the writer to analyze the characteristic of the main character.
Here, in the novel, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Thomas Sawyer is the main character. He is often called as Tom Sawyer. His speech, action, point of view, attitudes and the way he thinks are explored in the story. The following paragraphs are the analysis of Tom’s characteristics.
In the novel, Tom Sawyer is clearly described as a boy who lives in St. Petersburg, the town of the Mississippi River. He lives in a house with his Aunt named Aunt Polly, his half-brother named Sidney Sawyer and his cousin, Mary.
The first description of Tom Sawyer as the main character in this novel is that he is described by the author as a mischievous boy. It can be observed through his manner and action. He likes to play tricks on people around him including his aunt and his friends. He is described as an escape master, and a professional trickster. By some tricks, many times he could escape from punishments.
“Well, I know. It’s jam, that’s what it is. Forty times I’ve said if you didn’t let that jam alone I’d skin you. Hand me that switch.” The switch hovered in the air. The peril was desperate. “My! Look behind you, Aunt!” (p. 2)