RASHEED’S AGGRESSION OVER HIS WIVES IN KHALED HOSSEINI’S A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS A THESIS Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree in English Language Education
RASHEED’S AGGRESSION OVER HIS WIVES
IN KHALED HOSSEINI’S A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS A THESIS Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree in English Language Education By Andreas Indra Pangarsa Student Number: 051214098 ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA 2010
RASHEED’S AGGRESSION OVER HIS WIVES
IN KHALED HOSSEINI’S A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS A THESIS Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree in English Language Education By Andreas Indra Pangarsa Student Number: 051214098 ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA 2010
STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY
I honestly declare that this thesis, which I have written, does not contain the work or parts of the work of other people, except those cited in the quotations and the references, as a scientific paper should.
Yogyakarta, 20 September 2010 The Writer
Andreas Indra Pangarsa 051214098
LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN
PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS
Yang bertanda tangan di bawah ini, saya mahasiswa Universitas Sanata Dharma: Nama :Andreas Indra Pangarsa Nomor Mahasiswa: 051214098
Demi pengembangan ilmu pengetahuan, saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Sanata Dharma karya ilmiah saya yang berjudul:
RASHEED’S AGGRESSION OVER HIS WIVES
IN KHALED HOSSEINI’S A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS
Beserta perangkat yang diperlukan (bila ada). Dengan demikian saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma hak untuk menyimpan, mengalihkan dalam bentuk media lain, mengelolanya dalam bentuk pangkalan data, mendistribusikan secara terbatas, mempublikasikanya di internet atau media lain untuk kepentingan akademis tanpa perlu meminta ijin dari saya maupun memberikan royalti kepada saya selama tetap mencantumkan nama saya sebagai penulis.
Demikian pernyataan ini saya buat dengan sebenarnya. Dibuat di Yogyakarta Pada tanggal: 20 September 2010 Yang menyatakan, (Andreas Indra Pangarsa)
This Thesis is dedicated to
Bapak Silvester Sukirman, and Ibu Anastasia Sri
Susilawati
&
My lovely sister, Cicilia Rosilaningsih “When there is a will there is a way”
ABSTRACT
Pangarsa, Andreas Indra (2010). Rasheed’s Aggression over His Wives in
Khaled Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns. Yogyakarta: English Language
Education Study Program, Department of Language and Arts Education, Faculty of Teachers Training and Education, Sanata Dharma University.
This study lifts husband-to-wife aggression theme from Khaled Hosseini’s
A Thousand Splendid Suns. This theme is hopefully relevant to some recurring
cases that literally happen in real life and expected to reflect and explain what the reasons are behind this very act. The writer opts to have Rasheed’s aggression as the central attention and intends to reveal what can possibly generate his cruel behavior toward his wives.
The problems formulated to solve in this thesis are (1) how are Rasheed’s aggressive behaviors over his wives described in the novel? and (2) what are the reasons of Rasheed’s aggression over his wives?
This study applied psychological approach to solve both of the problems formulated. The former was solved by the theory of aggression in regards to the kinds of aggressions that Rasheed commits on his wives. Meanwhile, the latter was resolved by the theory of aggression in which it provides the particular views to trace reasons of someone’s aggression.
The result of the study of Rasheed’s aggressive behavior yields findings that Rasheed’s is both psychologically and physically aggressive towards his wives. His psychological aggression can be sensed in his acts which are: keeping silent toward Mariam, responding to Mariam’s questions by harsh tone and sarcastic replies, faulting Mariam’s cooking, hurting Mariam when he reaveals his intention to marry Laila, undervaluing Mariam with unfavorable comparison to Laila, unjust faulting towards Mariam when Laila gets problems, and turning away his attention from the three (Mariam, Laila, and Aziza). While his physical aggression are physically insulting Mariam after repeatedly faulting her cooking, severely punishing both Mariam and Laila over leaving the house, and getting more abusive towards Laila, Mariam and Aziza. The second findings are of the second problem formulation solving which coins the reasons of Rasheed’s aggressive behavior by the help of the three points of view—ethological theory, drive theory, and social learning theory. The ethological theory provides Rasheed’s physical appearance and the presence of gun as the factors influencing Rasheed’s aggressiveness. The drive theory concludes that Rasheed’s act of aggression is generated from his frustration over his bitter ordeal in the past— once he lost his beloved boy, Zalmay. Besides, his frustration also comes from the food deprivation as a recurring result of losing his jobs. In this same case the social learning theory views the male domination over woman and the influence of Taliban’s ruling have given the role model to all husbands in Afghanistan to practice aggression on woman or wife.
The first suggestion derived from this study is an offer to study Mariam’s religious side that help her stay strong among many upheavals, or the role of parents in rearing their children as in comparing Mariam family and Laila’s. The second suggestion is an offer of teaching material for Intensive Reading II developed from A Thousand Splendid Suns’ excerpts.
Key term: Aggression
ABSTRAK
Pangarsa, Andreas Indra (2010). Rasheed’s Aggression over His Wives in
Khaled Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns. Yogyakarta: Program Studi
Bahasa Inggris, Jurusan Pendidikan Bahasa dan Seni, Fakultas Keguruan dan Ilmu Pendidikan, Universitas Sanata Dharma.
Studi ini mengangkat tema agresi suami pada istri dari novel A Thousand
Splendid Suns karya Khaled Hosseini. Tema ini diharapkan relevant dengan
berbagai kasus yang sering terjadi di kehidupan nyata dan diharapkan juga dapat menjadi cerminan yang bisa memberikan penjelasan-penjelasan dibalik tindakan agresi. Penulis memilih agresi yang dilakukan oleh Rasheed sebagai perhatian utama dan ingin mengungkap alasan-alasan apa saja yang mendasari perlakuan- perlakuan kejamnya terhadap istri-istrinya.
Rumusan masalah yang akan dijawab dalam skripsi ini adalah (1) bagaimana tindakan-tindakan agesif Rasheed terhadap istri-istrinya? dan (2) apa saja alasan-alasan dibalik agresi-agresi Rasheed pada istri-istrinya?
Studi ini menggunakan pendekatan psikologi untuk menjawab kedua masalah yang telah dirumuskan. Rumusan masalah yang pertama dipecahkan dengan teori agresi dalam hal pengelompokan jenis-jenis agresi yang dilakukan Rasheed pada istrinya. Sedangkan rumusan masalah yang kedua dijawab dengan teori agresi dimana teori ini memberikan beberapa cara pandang dalam menemukan alasan agresi manusia.
Hasil studi tentang tindakan-tindakan agresif Rasheed menghasilkan temuan-temuan bahwa Rasheed bertindak agresif terhadap istri-intrinya baik secara psikologis maupun secara fisik. Agresi psikis Rasheed dapat dilihat dari tindakan-tindakanya seperti: mendiamkan Mariam, merespon pertanyaan- pertanyaan Mariam dengan nada yang kasar dan dengan jawaban sarkastik, mencela masakan Mariam, melukai hati Mariam ketika dia menyatakan keinginanya menikahi Laila, merendahkan Mariam dengan membandingkan kekuranganya dengan Laila, seta-merta menyalahkan Mariam ketika Laila mendapatkan masalah, dan mengesampingkan perhatian pada Mariam, Laila, dan Aziza. Sedangkan agresi fisik yang dilakukan oleh Rasheed diantanya: secara fisik menyakiti Mariam setelah berulang kali mencela masakanya, dengan kejam menghukum Mariam dan Aziza karena meninggalkan rumah, dan semakin kejam pada Mariam, Laila dan Aziza. Penemuan yang kedua adalah dari penyelesaian rumusan masalah yang kedua yang memberikan alasan-alasan dibalik tindakan agresif Rasheed dengan bantuan tiga pandangan—teori ethology, teori drive, teori
social learning. Teori ethology menjelaskan bahwa kondisi fisik Rasheed dan
adanya pistol sebagai faktor-faktor yang mempengaruhi agresifitas Raheed. Teori
drive menyimpulkan bahwa tindakan agresif Rasheed desebabkan oleh
kefrustrasianya atas pengalaman pahitnya di masa lalu—kehilangan anak lelaki yang begitu dicintainya, Zalmay. Disamping itu, sumber kefrustrasianya juga berasal dari kekurangan makanan karena berkali-kali kehilangan pekerjaanya. Dalam hal yang sama ini teori social learning memandang dominasi kaum pria pada kaum wanita dan pengaruh pemerintahan yang dikuasai Taliban telah memberikan role model pada semua suami-suami di Afghanistan untuk meng- agresi wanita atau istri.
Saran pertama yang dikembangkan dari studi ini adalah tawaran untuk meneliti tentang sisi religius Mariam yang membantunya tetap kuat meghadapi berbagai pergulatan-pergulatan hidupnya, atau peran orang tua dalam membesarkan anak-anaknya seperti pada perbandingan antara keluarga Mariam dan Laila. Saran yang kedua adalah materi yang ditawarkan untuk megajar Intensive Reading II yang dikembangkan dari penggalan cerita dalam novel A Thousand Splendid Suns.
Kata kunci: Agresi
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
There are a thousand splendid helpers that help me bring this quite burdening thesis into a finish line. Without all of them I would have never managed to get this done and this is my happiest moment when I have a chance to single them out one by one to say thank you.
My first gratitude is toward my Almighty God who I know as Jesus Christ who gives me splendid blessings and loves spread through all people around me.
The second, I would like to express a big thank you to my parents, Bpk Silvester Sukirman and Ibu Anastasia Susilawati who never forget to worry about their son’s study and of course who never forget to pray for his beloved son.
Without their supports—materially and spiritually—I would never been able to get my study done.
The third, I would like to say thank to my beloved sister, Cicilia Rosilaningsih, and all my big family who always give their hands once I need it.
The fourth, I am indebted to all lecturers at English Language Education Study Program of Sanata Dharma who make me learn English as well as grow up to be a fully human. My deepest thank you goes to Mrs. V. Triprihatmini, S.Pd., M.Hum., M.A. for her guide to me in composing my thesis.
The fifth, I owe a favor to all my friends who help me collect and maintain my spirit to finish this very job. The most debt I wish I could pay is due to Andre, Ruma, Koko, Angga-Mui, Yebe, Pandu, Shodiq, Sano, Kris, Adit, Deni, Sancrut, Imel, Dinar, Mayang, Mega, Puri, Putri, Molen, Rindang, Berlin, Antris, Taju, Ari, Bunga, Frans, Rere who happen to be in my small but coziest speaking class. Big thanks also I would like to express to all my great friends Bagus, Chandra, for their spirit and modesty I can learn that we are necessary to say thank you.
The sixth, I feel indebted to be a part of my village community at Jatiningsih which provides me with many good examples along with some chances to learn and grow up. It has been a real pleasure to befriend with all people in my neighborhood.
The seventh, I would like to personally express my gratitude to Andre for planting the seed of loving reading in my habit and providing me many useful information which really helps me so I could confidently start and finish my thesis. My personal gratitude also goes to Ucik who provides consultations about psychological matters, especially aggression which is my topic of study.
The eighth, my deepest gratitude goes to the board of examiners of my thesis defense. They are Mrs. C. Tutyandari, S.Pd., M.Pd., Miss Made Frida Yulia, S.Pd., M.Pd., Mrs. V. Triprihatmini, S.Pd., M.Hum., M.A., Mrs. Henny Herawati, S.Pd., M.Hum., and Mr. Bambang Hendarto, S.Pd., M.Hum. I thank them for the opportunity they give to me to come to my final steps in my study along with their priceless advises both on my thesis and on my preparation to face my future.
The ninth, I owe much dept to all library staffs at Sanata Dharma Library which never fail to give me smiles and greeting anytime I enter that place. Those dedicated people always make me stronger and grateful of being part of Sanata Dharma Library.
I have just realized that it is impossible to name all my helpers, therefore, let this tenth gratitude comes to those I have mentioned and I have not as my prayer and may God bless them and pay back for their kindness to me.
Andreas Indra Pangarsa
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PageTITLE PAGE ...................................................................................................... i
APPROVAL PAGES .......................................................................................... ii
STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY ................................................. iv
LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI KARYA
ILMIAH UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS……………………………... v
PAGE OF DEDICATION .................................................................................. vi
ABSTRACT ......................................................................................................... vii
ABSTRAK ............................................................................................................. ix
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .................................................................................. xi
TABLE OF CONTENTS……………………………………………………...xiv
CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION A. Background of the Study ...................................................................... 1 B. Problems Formulation .......................................................................... 3 C. Objectives of the Study ........................................................................ 3 D. Benefits of the Study ............................................................................ 4 E. Definition of Terms .............................................................................. 4
1. Aggression and Aggressive behavior ................................................. 4
2. Taliban ................................................................................................ 5
3. Hazara ................................................................................................. 5
4. Pasthun ................................................................................................ 6
CHAPTER II. THEORETICAL REVIEW A. Review of Related Theories .................................................................. 7
1. Theory of Literary Approach ........................................................ 7
2. Theory of Aggression .................................................................... 9
a. Aggression and Its Types ........................................................ 9
b. Tracing the Views, the Concomitants and Foreground of Aggression .................................................. 10 1) Some Points of Views to Address Aggression ............... 10
a) Psychoanalytic Instinctual Theory’s Point of View ............................................................ 11
b) Ethological Theory’s Point of View ......................... 12
c) Aggressive Drive Theory’s Point of View ................ 13
d) Social Learning Theory’s Point of View .................. 14 2) The Concomitants and Instigators of Aggression ...................................................................
15 B. Review of Related Studies .................................................................. 16
1. Studies of Aggression ....................................................................... 16
2. Studies of Thousand Splendid Suns .................................................. 17
C. Theoretical Framework ...................................................................... 18
CHAPTER III. METHODOLOGY A. Subject Matter ................................................................................. 20 B. Approach of the Study ....................................................................... 21
C. Method of the Study ........................................................................... 21
CHAPTER IV. ANALYSIS A. Rasheed’s Aggressive Behaviors over His Wives ............................. 23
1. Psychological Aggression .............................................................. 24
a. Keeping Silent toward Mariam ................................................... 24
b. Responding to Mariam’s Question by Harsh Tone and Sarcastic Replies .......................................................... 25
c. Faulting Mariam’s Cooking ........................................................ 26
d. Hurting Mariam when He Reveals His Intention to Marry Laila ............................................................................. 26 e. Undervaluing Mariam with Unfavorable
Comparison to Laila ..................................................................... 27
f. Unjust Faulting toward Mariam when Laila Gets Problems ....................................................................................... 28
g. Turning Away His Attention from the Three (Mariam, Laila, and Aziza) ......................................................... 29
2. Physical Aggression ...................................................................... 30
a. Physically Insulting Mariam after Repeatedly Faulting Her Cooking ......................................... 30 b. Severely Punishing both Mariam and Laila over Leaving the House .................................................................. 32
c. Getting More Abusive towards Mariam, Laila, and Aziza ........................................................................................ 32 B. The Reasons of Rasheed’s Aggression over His
Wives……………………………………………………… ............. 34
1. Reasons Viewed from Ethological Theory .................................. 35
a. Rasheed’s Physical Appearance .............................................. 35
b. The Presence of a Gun ............................................................ 36
2. Reasons Viewed from Drive Theory ............................................ 37
a. Frustration Generated from Rasheed’s Bitter Ordeal in His Past ......................................................... 37
b. Deteriorated by Frustration of Food Deprivation and Lost of Jobs .......................................... 39
3. Reasons Viewed from Social Learning Theory ........................ 40
a. The Male Domination over woman ......................................... 40
b. The Influence of Taliban’s Ruling .......................................... 41
CHAPTER V. CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS A. Conclusions........ ................................................................................ 43 B. Suggestions…….. .............................................................................. 45
1. Suggestion for Future Researchers ................................................ 45
2. Suggestion for an Implementation of the Excerpts of A Thousand Splendid Suns in English Language Teaching and Learning ............. 46
REFERENCES.................................................................................................47
APPENDICESAppendix A: The Summary of A thousand Splendid Suns ............................ 49 Appendix B: Biography ................................................................................. 51 Appendix C: Syllabus of Intensive Reading II .............................................. 52 Appendix D: Lesson Plan .............................................................................. 54 Appendix E: The Implementation of the Excerpts of A Thousand Splendid Suns in Teaching Intensive Reading II ................. 56 Appendix F: The excerpts of A Thousand Splendid Suns (chapter 16) ....... 59
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION The purpose of this chapter is to provide the reader orientation of the
selected topic, aggression in A Thousand Splendid Suns. This chapter will comprise five subdivisions, namely, background of the study, problem formulation, objective of the study, benefits of the study, and definition of terms.
A. Background of the Study
This literary study is aimed to study of human’s deviant behavior within the scope of household generated from a make-belief case of husband-to-wife aggression. The concern to converse with is a portrayal of a life after marriage— that will be proven it is not always so sweet to be enviable—taken from A
Thousand Splendid Suns. The author who previously has borne The Kite Runner
as his debut upholds aggression within a family as a main theme background in his second masterwork. Over the shroud of a prolonged war which rapidly rampages the buildings while keeping mounting the dead toll this aforementioned issue looms to draw more devastating pictures. Despite the pictures of Taliban (the infamous warlord that inflicts conservative Sharia law to women as its main interest) manifesting their impunities—which include leashing, lashing, stoning, whipping, and their partial tendency toward men—and the pictures of losing the beloved ones upon unpredicted missiles or untraced landmines, the pictures of inhumane husband aggressions suffered by two wives in this novel are in a distant
1
2 far clearer. The bitter cloud in their hearts pathetically cloud the smoke hovering above devastated Kabul and their tears dampen the noises of bombs raining from the sky. Fundamentally thus, the war aggression storied in this novel feels inundated by the calamity of husband-to-wife aggression undergone by the star- crossed victims. One of the clenching parts of this issue would be on the side of the perpetrator albeit the major people’s attention would be on the victims. The awareness of the rationale behind the aggressor to rest to that unpopular act is the goal to be derived in this study. Despite the host understandings that may generate, the least that this novel can do—even though it can be labeled as this very novel special rarity—is likely to educate people to learn that aggression in whatever sorts are deteriorating but uplifting. Indeed, indubitably, the sort is more catastrophic or at least has its personal degree when the assailant is a person who is very personal to the victims—their husband. .
Hosseini submerges profoundly in some particular details of a family life, not to mention the one saliently storied is the husband-to-wife aggression. Three vicarious characters are involved, namely Rasheed, Mariam and Laila, to depict what the worst of this matter can be. Rasheed, the aggressor, is depicted as a husband who continually insults his wives in some forms setting off from uttering harsh words regularly till even it evolves to some physical acts which result in body injuries and defects. As previously informed, my interest levers to this antagonist character by the extent of his rationale to continually aggress against his two wives—Mariam and Laila. I envisage this study will meet many similarities in our literal life as we have learnt violence within husband-and-wife
3 relationship still often covered in news headlines. psychology and sociology seem also perennially take this matter as a favorite which shows that aggression has been as matter of course general but always interesting to study. Eventually, managing to provide a good writing I would try to avoid impartial and hopefully more focused judgments of the alleged aggression by providing justifications derived from the border of psychological reasoning. Despite of this fact of choice, it would probably be a difficult detachment of other scopes of studies with familiar features i.e. sociology and anthropology. However, since the focus of interest of this study is more to human personal relation as a specific case within a family than the society with its generality, the psychological approach is taken as the choice that fits to adjudicate this very issue.
B. Problems Formulation
Based on the preceding orientation, then I formulate the problems for this study as follows:
1. How are Rasheed’s aggressive behaviors over his wives described in the novel?
2. What are the reasons Rasheed’s aggressions over his wives? C.
Objectives of the Study
The goals of this study are to answer the problems formulated above. The first is likely to explain how Rasheed’s aggressive character described in this novel while the second is to provide the reasons of Rasheed’s aggression towards his two wives.
4 D.
Benefits of the Study
I hope the analysis of this study can share information to readers especially for lay persons of one phenomenon of marital aggression in real life—to exchange a way of vision to the readers. As Nicolson and Wilson’s (280) survey research on domestic violence shows that it seems less frequently than what it is in fact does.
By garnering the necessary explanations from psychology I hope I can neutrally address what it calls aggression so as to provide appropriate justifications of it— what, why, to whom, when, where, it possibly occurs. In other words it is expected to make people aware, and make people find certain ways they can manage to diminish the possibility of its occurrence. Another wish is to enrich people’s moral value to see this phenomenon as a general human’s problem with many similarities among many races and region, and indubitably its culture. I believe everything can be learned if we understand it, thus, this analysis is expected to be one of many. This trial is in line with Lynch and Warner’s argument that publishers and teachers, as well as critics and authors ascribe to fictions is more elevated to cultural functions—to the moral improvement of readers and representation of reality (4).
E. Definition of terms 1. Aggression and aggressive behavior
Bandura (4-6) stipulates that aggression is an intentional behavior that results in personal injuries and destruction of property of the victim. The injuries may be psychological (in the form of devaluation or degradation of someone’s emotional condition) or physical (marked by deformed body parts of the sufferer
5 of aggression). In this study the conception of aggressive behavior is simply the same with the term aggression, which is a behavior which causes someone’s injury and destruction of someone’s property both psychologically and physically.
One article in Kompas agony column written by Sawitri Supardi Sadarjoen (22) classifies human aggression into verbal and non verbal aggression. His classification in fact is close in meaning with the psychological and physical aggression notion held by Bandura. While in this study, the aggressions or aggressive behaviors are all sorts of acts that are intended to hurt others either psychologically or physically.
2. Taliban
The Taliban is a Sunni Islamist group. This group ruled Afghanistan in
between 1996 to 2001 until it was ousted by the American-led invasion. The group which was based in Pasthun region in the country’s southeast grew out of a student movement dedicated to purifying Afghanistan. During its time in power, the Taliban outlawed the education of woman.
(http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/t/taliban, updated on October 14, 2010)
3. Hazara
According to Encyclopedia of World Cultures Volume IX Africa and the
Middle Eas t Hazara is an ethnic group of people who numbers between 1 to 1.5
million and lives in mountainous area in Afghanistan. The characteristic of Hazara people are thought to have several affinities with Mongols, including physical appearance, language and kinship system. The Hazaras are one of Afghanistan’s
6 most impoverished ethnic groups and one of the most resistant to central government control. (115)
4. Pasthun
Pasthun, based on the Encyclopedia of World Culture Volume III South Asia, is an ethnic group in Afghanistan who inhabits southern and eastern Afghanistan and also an area roughly bounded by Kabul. Pasthuns have earned reputation as successful traders and businessmen who have dominated the society as well as the politics of the country for the past 200 years.
CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE This chapter lays all the foundations for reasoning the problems selected
which is garnered from the reviews of books and journals. This chapter will be parted into three divisions which are review of related theories, review of related studies, and theoretical framework.
A .Review of Related Theories 1. Theories of Literary Approach
Totozy de Zepetnek (100) pinpoints that literary theory is used as a tool to understand, contextualize, extract meaning when we analyze a literary text or texts or a problem of literature. He adds that in “Approach to literature” a range of phenomena are considered as interrelated and therefore designated for description and interpretation. As he elucidates that
“heuristic model indebted to Semiotics, Semi-Semiotics, Sociology of literature, and Communication theories, based in dynamic, operational, functional, and open or semi-permeable, system theories, and strong preference for observation and verification instead of intuition, speculation and metaphorical description are a priori postulates” (100).
Schmidt as cited in Totozy de Zepetnek contends that the main theoretical and methodological in the study of literature should focus on “how” of literature instead of “what” (100). However the further explanation states that literary scholars almost often contend that intuition is the basic factor necessary for the
7
8 study of literature and it differentiates it from research in the basic sciences where it is facts that determine the research. Totozy de Zepetnek highlights the crucial thing both in natural science research and innovative framework for literary research, which is “exacting determination of points of entry for intuition in the process of analysis and not that intuition is misplaced in either” (100). He then concludes the object of the empirical study of literature is not only the text in itself but also the roles of action within the literary systems in which its methods used are taken from psychology and social sciences. Another author Culler in Literary
Theory A Very Short Introduction fortifies what Zepetnek has claimed by
explaining that literature seems not to be the central question for literary theory.The reasons is that theory itself is intermingles ideas from philosophy, linguistics, history, political theory, and psychoanalysis, so there is no reason for theorists to worry about whether the text they are reading are literary or not (17). The seminal names more than not reviewed in the preceding literature theses by major students of English Education Department of Sanata Dharma University are Rohrberger and Woods in their co-work Reading and Writing about Literature which exhibits five critical approaches to address literary works, namely formalist, biographical, socio-historical, mythopoeic, and psychological (6-15). This current study will address psychological approach—the approach that approaches a different body of knowledge, psychology, then try to apply it to solve the problems (13-15)—to analyze Rasheed’s aggression against his wives. The reason behind this choice is that the phenomenon of aggression between individual is commonly covered within the border of psychology.
9 2.
Theories of Aggression a. Aggression and Its Types
Bandura in (2-3) posits that
Aggression a Social Learning Analysis
variations in defining aggression pervade because some authors describe aggression solely in terms of attributes of the behavior but others include assumptions about the instigator, emotional concomitants, or the intent of potentially injurious action. The similar judgment of aggression comes from
Social Psychology by Jonathan L. Freedman et al which regards this very issue as
“behavior that is designed to hurt others” (103) and from A Survey of Social
Psychology by Leonard Berkowitz as “the intentional injury of another” (337).
Then later elaboration from Berkowitz, Fesbach, Sears, Maccoby and Levin as cited in Bandura (3) stipulates that most subsequent theorizing and research have adopted injurious intent as essential aspect of aggression. However, there is a significant exception considering the socially sanctioned attitudes for example doctor who cuts their patience’s limp for their own behalf and a bulldozer operator who drive it to flatten the old building in the way to rebuild a new construction.
Those performances though it looks painful and dreadful since it enforce a huge power are not considered as aggression. Though, once again it is indubitably intentional, causing injuries and claiming vast damaged articles. From those understanding a wide range of activities that are commonly judged as aggressive—including some of the most forms of interpersonal assault—would be excluded from consideration when it has a major positive purpose to bring about good ends. Berkowitz and Feshbach as cited in Bandura (3) propose two different
10 types of aggression. It is Instrumental aggression which is aimed at securing extraneous rewards other than the victim suffering and hostile aggression which counts as the sole aim of which presumably to inflict injury on others on which injuries result from it will be psychological or physical or both. However the major advanced studies—refer to its thoroughness and depth—believe most cases of aggression is due the first reason or instrumental aggression which later will be extended more in detail through the assessment by the help of four points of view.
b. Tracing the Views, The Concomitants and Foreground of Aggression 1) Some Points of View to Address Aggression
Bandura (11-59) presents some different points of view collected from some studies plus the last which happens to be his foremost concern to reveal the phenomenon of aggression along with their deferential implication of each notion. The compared sights are seen from four spectacles namely psychoanalytic theory, ethological theory, drive theory, and from social learning theory. The reviews of those explanations are summarized in these following subsections to help us aware of the importance of these four tenets. Bandura assumes those four aforementioned view points are the developmental steps in appraising aggression. Since he and also other researchers are getting more adhere to the notion of role modeling therefore the direction comes towards the social learning theory but still appraising performance catharsis, aversive treatment—physical and verbal threat and insults, unfavorable changes in positive reinforcement and thwarting of goal- directed behavior—as the instigators of aggression.(115-182). The reason why levering to social learning theories (role of modeling) is that current researchers
11 highlight more at healing and fixing of what considered as the deviation at the end product not just the understanding. In other words the external factors—love, trust, good esteem—will do more to heal the sick. Then, back to the 4 vantage points—psychoanalytic, ethological, drive and social learning—I find it hard to subcategorize it whether into a realm of internal factor or external factor. The things result from the present of their role of both factors virtually in these first 3 stated view points while we can merely regard the fourth as boldly external factor—the social learning theory. However, to bear in mind these 4 aspects looks developing sequentially from era to era to revise the past understanding and fix with the current understanding in addition to the practical problem solving to be the core of attention. Eventually, due to the need of presence of those four aspects to appraise aggressive behavior I keep following their genuine order of elucidation as follow:
a) Psychoanalytic Instinctual Theory’s Point of View
Bandura cited Freud‘s coined justification that aggression was a primary response to thwarting of pleasure or pain-avoiding behavior. Freud initially assumed that human behavior was regulated by two opposing set of instincts— sexual instinct and self-preservative ego instincts that altered, deferred, or inhibited pleasure-striving in the service of the reality principle. Then Freud adopted a new instinctual system of motivation, with the opposition being between life-instincts (Eros) aimed at enhancing and prolonging life and death instincts (Thanatos) that continuously strives for destruction of life within the organism. He then stipulates that aggression is an inborn drive rather than a by-
12 product of thwarting libidinal striving. Although he believes that aggression is unavoidable he also states that it can be attenuated in term of the intensity and the form of expression—it is modifiable. One most important thing that Freud maintains is that aggression is a regulatory device which protects individual from destructing themselves (13). Most psychoanalysts have compromised with Freud’s theory as they take the position that aggression is an instinctual drive but not the self-directed death instinct/ Thanatos (14).
b) Ethological Theory’s Point of View
Based on ethologists man is instinctively aggressive (14). As cited in Bandura, Lorenz posits that “aggression involves an instinctual system that generates its own source of aggressive energy independently of external stimulation; this fighting urge gradually builds up until relieved by an appropriate releasing stimulus” (14). The explanation is that aggression comes from itself inside a creature or self-generating not the reaction of external condition. The examples are among others fighting of animals of a same family in search for good breeding and prosperity. In fact they are born to fight. In equation human’s case man can perform aggression due to particular man’s lack of inhibition against injuring and harming others. Man’s lack of inhibition is interpreted as the man possesses more chance to render aggression over their compatriots. In other words it is easier for man to aggress against another if they have power to do it. In regards to discussion of instinctual sources Lorenz explain more through the analogy of subhuman patterns (17-31). In short it explains that the higher the evolutionary development of a species the greater is its plasticity. The stimuli of
13 the aggression would be the size of the body, color, territorial area. Hormonal control of sexual behavior also decreases with advancing evolutionary status. Therefore, there is every reason to believe that the evolutionary decrease in innate determinants of behavior holds true for aggression as well (21). And the last the heritability of characteristic of individual (related to genes) also plays a great role—whether it is man and woman in comparison and also their emotional characteristic. Subsequently, the further elaborations of this view are on human chromosomal matter—X and Y factor—physical look and characteristic (strength, muscles) as the determinant of any combative attack. To sum up, the conditions that exhibit male characteristic have more possibility to render aggression.
c) Aggressive Drive Theories’ Point of View
In an effort to resolve motivational problems, drives eventually replace instincts as internal impellers of action. Therefore, according to these theories, man is motivated to behave aggressively by a frustration-produced drive rather than by an innate aggressive force (31). This widely accepted proposition elaborates the frustration-aggression hypothesis which contends that interference with goal-directed activity induces an aggressive drive which then motivates behavior designed to injure the person toward whom it is directed. Infliction of injury is assumed to reduce the aggressive drive (32). Shortly, frustration is assumed to be the antecedent of aggression and its strength also reciprocally correlated. In the later discussion of his book Bandura also notes some proponents and opponents of this frustration-aggression notion. Apart from those arguments Bandura stipulates that catharsis of aggression is another hypothesized process
14 that is assigned by the prominent role in drive theories (36). The elaboration is that once aggressive drive has been aroused, it presumably remains active as a motivating force till it is then discharged by some forms of aggressive behavior.
The discharged energy is then called catharsis (37). Bandura concludes the explanation of drive theories is much similar with instinctual theories in their implications for the regulation of aggressive behavior. The main difference between these two is whether the motivation is innately stimulated as in psychoanalytic instinctual theories or it is externally stimulated as in drive theories.
d) Social Learning Theories’ Point of View
Social learning theories challenge most personality theories which depict behavior as impelled by inner forces in form of needs, drives, and impulses, often operating below the level of consciousness. The main argument of this theory is that an internal motivator cannot possibly account for the marked variation in the incidence of given behavior in different situations, toward different persons, at different times, and in different social roles (40). These theories assume that one can predict with much greater accuracy the expression of aggressive behavior from knowledge of the social context, the targets, the role occupied by the performer and other cues that reliably signify potential consequences for aggressive action than assessment from the performer. Human behavior is extensively analyzed in terms of stimulus events that evoke it and reinforcing consequences that alter it. The theory of social learning is related with behavioral study—concerning to individual that influence the manner and other social
15 variable. However social learning view man is neither driven by inner forces nor buffeted helplessly by environmental influences (43).It is the psychological functioning which will help elaborate the terms of continuous reciprocal interaction between behavior and its controlling condition. As a matter of course initially researchers view aggression is simply caused by these two aspects— individual behavior and his environment—as independent variables before they finally incorporate them into one entity. Therefore, it is revised that environment is only potentiality, it is not fixed property that inevitably impinges upon individuals and to which their behavior eventually adapt. Therefore it is reciprocally influencing.
2) The Concomitants and Instigators of Aggression
Berkowitz (337-359) in more practical explanation seems to simplify what Bandura has tried to extrapolate by dividing three main instigators of aggression.