The message of friendship seen through the major characters and plot in John Steinbeck`s tortilla flat - USD Repository
THE MESSAGE OF FRIENDSHIP
SEEN THROUGH THE MAJOR CHARACTERS AND PLOT
IN JOHN STEINBECK’S TORTILLA FLAT
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Sarjana Sastra
In English Letters By
DWI SARI TIRTANINGSIH
Student Number : 034214045
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
It is astounding to find that the belly of every black and
evil thing is as white as snow.(62; ch.7) Things that happen are of no importance.
But from everything that happens, there is a lesson to be learned.
(104; ch.9)
This Undergraduate Thesis is dedicated to
My beloved parents My beloved brothers And
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First of all, I would like to express my greatest thanks to Allah Swt., who has guided and helped me in this undergraduate thesis writing process. I also thank for His blessing that I can face my life and His greatness in giving me strength.
I would like to give my enormous gratitude toward my advisor Paulus Sarwoto, S.S., M.A. as my sponsor for the patience and willingness in guiding the writer in finishing this thesis. My gratitude also goes to Gabriel Fajar Sasmita Aji, S.S., M.Hum. as my co-sponsor, who has read and corrected my thesis. I also would like to thank Ms. Novita Dewi for her patience in supporting me to be stronger in my hard times. My appreciation also goes to the lecturers and staff of English Letters Department who have helped me during my study.
I also would like to express my deepest thanks from the bottom of my heart to my beloved parents and brothers for being on my life. My special thank goes to Alice for her helps; Ika, Nila, and Mbak Shella for their supports; Mbak Lia and
Mbak Tutik for their advices; Mbak Popi, Umi, Dwi, Wiwik, Reni and Titis for their
friendships; Veri “Q”, Deni “dk”, and Tong-Djie for their companionships; and also my other friends who I can not mention one by one. Lastly, I would like to thank everyone in my life who gives the color in my world.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
TITLE PAGE .................................................................................................... i
APPROVAL PAGE .......................................................................................... ii
ACCEPTANCE PAGE .................................................................................... iii
MOTTO PAGE .................................................................................................. iv
DEDICATION PAGE ...................................................................................... v
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT .................................................................................. vi
TABLE OF CONTENTS .................................................................................. xii
ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................ ix
ABSTRAK ............................................................................................................ x
CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION ..................................................................... 1
A. Background of the Study .................................................................... 1 B. Problem Formulation ......................................................................... 4 C. Objective of the Study ....................................................................... 4 D. Definition of Terms ........................................................................... 5CHAPTER II: THEORETICAL REVIEW .................................................... 7
A. Review of the Related Studies ........................................................... 7 B. Review on Related Theories ............................................................ 101. Theory on Character and Characterization ............................... .. 10
2. Theory on Plot ............................................................................ 13
3. Theory on Message ...................................................................... 14
C. Theoretical Framework .................................................................... 17
CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY .............................................................. 19
A. Object of the Study .......................................................................... 19 B. Approach of the Study ..................................................................... 20 C. Method of the Study ........................................................................ 21CHAPTER IV: ANALYSIS ............................................................................ 23
A. The Characterizations of the Major Characters in John Steinbeck’s Tortilla Flat…………… ................................................................. 23 1. The Characterization of Danny .................................................... 24
4. The Characterization of Jesus Maria Corcoran ........................... 30 5.
The Characterization of the Pirate ............................................... 32 6. The Characterization of Big Joe Portagee ................................... 35 B. The Plot in Steinbeck’s Tortilla Flat ................................................ 36
1. The Beginning ............................................................................. 37
2. The Middle ................................................................................... 38
3. The End ....................................................................................... 40 C. The Message of Friendship in John Steinbeck’s Tortilla Flat Seen through the Major Characters and Plot of the Story ........................ 41
1. Friendship Means Accepting Differences ................................. 42 2.
Friendship Means Enlightening life ........................................... 43 3. Friendship Means Forgiving ...................................................... 44 4. Friendship Means Sharing .......................................................... 45
CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION ....................................................................... 48
BIBLIOGRAPHY ........................................................................................... 54
ABSTRACT
DWI SARI TIRTANINGSIH. The Message of Friendship Seen through the
Major Characters and Plot in John Steinbeck’s Tortilla Flat. Yogyakarta:
Department of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma University, 2008.This thesis analyzes Steinbeck’s Tortilla Flat which tells about the life of some paisanos who build a bond of friendship. They are Pilon, Pablo Sanchez, Jesus Maria, the Pirate, Big Joe, and Danny as the root of this friendship. Those characters join in the story one by one as the time goes and as their friendship develops. Their friendship starts to change when Danny feels his boredom of his monotonous life. Finally, their friendship ended after Danny’s death and they go apart to their own directions. After reading this novel, the writer is interested in analyzing the message of friendship seen through the major characters and plot of the story because no matter how the ending is, there must be a moral lesson contained to be learned.
In this study, there are three objectives to guide the analysis. The first is to analyze the characterizations of the major characters described in this novel. The second objective is to analyze the plot of the story. The third objective is to find out the message of friendship seen through the major characters and plot of the story.
In order to accomplish the objectives, the library and online research are used. The primary data is Tortilla Flat, while the secondary data are taken from some books and websites. Since the study tries to find out the message in a literary work, liberal-humanism approach is applied.
Based on the analysis, Danny as the first character is described as a wealthy womanizer paisano but likes to life freely who also generous and easy forgiving person. Then, Pilon is characterized as a religious grateful and kind-hearted man but cunning. The third character is Pablo who has a sixth sense and he is depicted as a follower and careless alcoholic. The fourth character is Jesus Maria that is portrayed as a humanitarian who is interested in socializing with others and art but often fails in love. The next character is the Pirate who is dependent, grateful, insecure, dog lover but also a religious hard worker who has a strange appearance and handicapped mental. The last is Big Joe who is described as lazy, not trustworthy, and wine obsessed man but honest. While the answer of the second problem is the exposition consists of the coming of some significant characters as the background of the story. The next is the middle that consists of complication that happens when they start to face some problems as the result of their different characteristics and climax which happens when Danny dies that also leads to the ending of their friendship as a denouement. The result of the last analysis that is the message of friendship seen
ABSTRAK
DWI SARI TIRTANINGSIH. The Message of Friendship Seen through the
Major Characters and Plot in John Steinbeck’s Tortilla Flat. Yogyakarta:
Jurusan Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Sanata Dharma.Tesis ini menganalisa novel Tortilla Flat karya Steinbeck yang menceritakan tentang kehidupan beberapa orang paisano yang membangun sebuah ikatan persahabatan. Mereka adalah Pilon, Pablo Sanchez, Jesus Maria, si Bajak Laut, Big Joe, dan Danny sebagai dasar persahabatan ini. Karakter-karakter itu bergabung dalam cerita ini satu per satu seiring berjalannya waktu dan berkembangnya persahabatan mereka. Persahabatan mereka mulai berubah ketika Danny merasakan kebosanan dengan kehidupannya yang monoton. Akhirnya, persahabatan mereka berakhir setelah kematian Danny dan mereka berpencar ke tujuan masing-masing. Setelah membaca novel ini, penulis tertarik untuk menganalisa pesan persahabatan yang terlihat melalui tokoh utama dan alur ceritanya karena seperti apapun akhirnya, pastilah ada suatu pelajaran moral yang terkandung untuk dipelajari.
Dalam studi ini, terdapat tiga pertanyaan yang dirumuskan untuk memandu dalam analisa. Pertanyaan pertama adalah untuk menganalisa penokohan tokoh- tokoh utama dalam novel ini. Pertanyaan kedua adalah untuk menganalisa alur ceritanya. Pertanyaan ketiga adalah untuk menemukan pesan persahabatan dalam novel ini melalui tokoh-tokoh utama dan alur ceritanya.
Dalam tujuan untuk menyelesaikan analisa, digunakanlah metode kepustakaan dan online. Data utama adalah novel Tortilla Flat, sedangkan data tambahan diperoleh dari beberapa buku dan website. Oleh karena studi ini dimaksudkan untuk menemukan pesan-pesan dalam sebuah karya sastra, maka digunakanlah pendekatan liberal humanisme.
Berdasarkan analisa, Danny sebagai karakter yang pertama dideskripsikan sebagai seorang paisano yang pencinta wanita dan kaya tetapi suka hidup bebas yang juga dermawan dan pemaaf. Kemudian Pilon digolongkan sebagai orang saleh yang tahu terimakasih dan baik tetapi licik. Tokoh yang ketiga adalah Pablo yang mempunyai indera keenam dan digambarkan sebagai pengikut dan pemabuk yang ceroboh. Tokoh ke empat adalah Jesus Maria yang digambarkan sebagai seorang humanis yang tertarik dalam sosialisasi dan seni tetapi sering gagal dalam cinta. Tokoh selanjutnya adalah si Bajak Laut yang selalu bergantung, tahu terimakasih, tidak percaya diri, pecinta anjing tetapi juga seorang pekerja keras yang saleh yang berpenampilan aneh dan cacat mental. Yang terakhir adalah Big Joe yang munculnya beberapa tokoh utama sebagai latar belakang cerita. Selanjutnya adalah bagian tengah yang terdiri atas komplikasi yang terjadi ketika mereka mulai menghadapi beberapa masalah sebagai akibat dari perbedaan karakteristik mereka dan klimaks yang terjadi ketika Danny meninggal yang juga menyebabkan persahabatan mereka berakhir sebagai akhir cerita. Hasil dari analisa yang terakhir yaitu pesan persahabatan yang bisa diambil melalui tokoh-tokoh utama dan plot ceritanya adalah bahwa persahabatan berarti menerima perbedaan, mencerahkan hidup, memaafkan, dan berbagi.
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION This chapter presents four subtitles. First is background of the study that
contains some brief explanations about the topic of the study and the reason for choosing the subject. The second is problem formulation which mentions the problems discussed in this study. Third is objective of the study which expresses the problem formulation as objective and the last is definition of terms which explains some specific terms mentioned in the title of the undergraduate thesis.
A. Background of the Study An art should fulfill ‘dulce et utile’ as its function towards its readers.
Previous is Horace’s statement, which means that a literary work as an art should have the criteria sweet and also useful. Sweet, here, implies that a literary work can be enjoyable for its readers, while useful means a literary work also should contain insight of life, moral, etc (Wellek and Warren, 1956: 30). So, from the second criteria, we can get some messages as a moral lesson from reading a literary work that can be applied in our life. In a literary work, especially novel, readers can get more than one message because the interpretations of its content come from different readers with their own ways of thinking. It also can be said that a work of literature appears with its complexity in its meaning concerning the number of possible interpretations comes from one reader to another.
In this study the writer will try to specify on the messages of a literary work related to friendship. In his book, Kalish writes, “Man is a social being” (1973: 361).
From that statement, it can be understood that human being must have relationships with other in their lives because they cannot live by themselves. One kind of relationships is friendship. No one in the world wants to live without any friends. The basic of friendship is the will of sacrifice, not only on the material context but also related to humanity or others.
In International Encyclopedia of Ethics, there is Aristotle’s statement about a possibility that friendship is based on a relatively selfish motive of utility and pleasure, but to find the highest and most permanent form of friendship, it should derive from a perception of goodness for one another.
All friends wish one another well, but a good person will value a friend not for a mere advantage but also for the friend’s sake, and for the sake of the goodness in that friend (Roth, 1995: 333). He adds that friendship is not a basic need for human life because people can still exist without any friends, but they cannot exist without water, food or shelter from the elements. A happy person is someone who has good and essential things and who will need friends in his live. He considers happiness as a ‘virtuous activity’ and one kind of virtuous actions, which can be a delight; even need to reach happiness is
The writer chooses Steinbeck’s Tortilla Flat as the object of this study because it is a kind of novel containing human relationship that is friendship between some paisanos that live in Tortilla Flat, Monterey. They share their lives together in Danny’s house. The writer’s above statement is supported by Collin Hanna comment about this novel. She says that friendship among Danny’s friends made Tortilla Flat as a heart touching novel through their adventures, successes and tragedies. She also considers it as a novel about friendship, commitment, love, poverty, and alcohol. She adds that “it is the story of how shiftless individuals came together under Danny’s roof and created something better than any of them alone, and it is the story of how they all departed” (Hanna, 2005).
The writer thinks that it is interesting to write about the unique friendship that appears in Steinbeck’s Tortilla Flat. It is motivating enough for the writer to analyze further on the message of friendship in this novel seen through the major characters and plot of the story. It does not matter how the ending of the story is, whether the friendship still exists or ended but to explore the messages of a literary work is a valuable thing. Furthermore, this novel is relevant to our life because it shares with us about friendship lesson. In this study, the writer would like to specify only on the major characters that join that friendship. In this case, the major characters are the persons who have important roles in the story that if one of them is omitted, the story will be different. Those characters are Danny, Pilon, Pablo Sanchez, Jesus Maria in this analysis, the first problem deals with the characterizations of those major characters. While in the second analysis, the writer would like to analyze the plot of the story in order to relate some events that influence their friendship. The third analysis is tried to find out the message of friendship in Steinbeck’s Tortilla Flat seen through the major characters and plot of the story by relating the results of the first and second analysis.
B. Problem Formulation
Based on the background of the study above, there are three problems that will be discussed in the study. The problems are formulated in the questions below:
1. How are the characterizations of the major characters (Danny, Pilon, Pablo, Jesus Maria, the Pirate, and Big Joe) described in John Steinbeck’s Tortilla Flat?
2. How is the plot of the story developed?
3. How are the message of friendship described through the major characters and plot of the story?
C. Objectives of the Study
The objective of this study is to answer the three problems formulated in the problem formulation above. Firstly, in writing this thesis, the writer would like to discover about the characterizations of Danny, Pilon, Pablo Sanchez, Jesus Maria, study. Secondly, the objective is to identify the plot of the story in order to get more understanding on some events that influence those characters’ friendship as some important points in the story. While the last, the writer will try to find out the message of friendship, which are valuable as lessons of life seen through the major characters and plot of the story.
D. Definition of the Terms
Before moving further, it is important for the writer to define briefly some specific terms which are mentioned on the title in order to avoid misinterpretations in understanding this thesis on certain terms, which also will be mostly used in the analysis. Those terms are message, friendship, major characters, and plot.
Beaty and Hunter in their book, New World of Literature, give the explanation on messages. They describe this first term as the actual meanings or some easy conclusions that can be simply stated or summarized inside a work of art (1989: 899). It means that messages are some ideas that the readers can get from a work of art as a lesson for their life.
Then, the second term is friendship. In Friends and Friendship for Saint
Augustine, Cicero defined friendship as an accord of wills, tastes and thought, as a
harmonious agreement in all matters that divine human, accompanied by mutual goodwill and affection (McNamara, 1964: 21).
The third term is major characters that Abrams, in his book A Glossary of
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6 ed., defines as the persons in dramatic or narrative work who
Literary Terms
become the focus of the story. He adds that the events in the story always involve them directly or indirectly (1985: 20-21).
The last term is plot. Holman and Harmon, in A Handbook of Literature, quote Aristotle’s statement that a plot is defined as the imitation and arrangement of the incident (1986: 377). By reading the previous statement, it can be understood that plot is some related happenings which is tied in causal connection between events into a certain organization in a story.
CHAPTER II THEORETICAL REVIEW In this chapter, there are three sub-chapters; those are review of related
studies, theoretical review, and theoretical framework. In the review of related studies the writer will quote some public opinions of Steinbeck’s Tortilla Flat.
Whereas in theoretical review, the writer would like to write some theories related to the topic of this study. In this case, the writer will try to specify only on some theories that will be used to answer the problems mentioned in the problem formulation on the previous chapter. Then, in theoretical framework, the writer will try to explain the contribution of the reviews and theories mentioned before in solving the problems of the study.
A. Review of Related Studies
The writer found some customers’ reviews on www.amazon.com about
Tortilla Flat . Here, the writer would like to mention some of them in order to show
that it is interesting enough to be read or even to be analyzed. The first comment that the writer would like to mention is from Tara Chklovski that this book is about Danny and his friends who do not work but they have interesting adventures related with wine and women. Tortilla Flat is a heart-warming book that has propounding philosophy and the ending is masterful. Because of that, this novel successfully made her smiles and thinks (2005).
The next is William Fuller’s comment that Danny, Pilon, Pablo Sanchez, Jesus Maria, the Pirate, and Big Joe are paisanos that qualified as friends. “Their friendship is the comradeships of simplicity, poverty, ignorance, despair, and on occasion, of simple pleasure. It is the comradeship of survival through the inexorable passage of time” (2005). In the end of the story, Danny wants to have freedom that makes him lost from his friend. His loss makes those paisanos friendship breaks up and his friends choose to live partly after his death. “The paisanos life will continue, not as a group of comrades but as the individuals they were before. Their temporary coalescing into a comradeship was, but the rise of the tide, which must, as a natural consequence, also fall” (2005).
According to James Gallen, Tortilla Flat is an easy reading, entertaining and funny book about Danny and his paisanos friends as an unemployed alcoholic joyous group. In this novel, Danny is the root of their friendship who gradually expanding this group to himself and holds it together by building friendship with Pilon, Jesus Maria Corcoran, Big Joe, Pablo Sanchez, and the Pirate who in this story, all of them introduce their own unique personalities as the story develops. They became a likeable group in Tortilla Flat although do not work, drink wine whenever available and steal to be survive. “Thieves though they are, they each have a good hearted”
Another review is from Sporkdude who states that Tortilla Flat is a decent novel which also heart-warming, funny, and tragic in the end. It tells a story about some paisanos that live in a poor condition and area who are considered as lazy people because their major activity in their daily lives is only drinking wine. “They go through, talk about, or hear about all sorts of little adventures. Some of these adventures revolve around getting drunk, some are more serious, and some are even more hilarious” (2002). As time passed, they build friendship until their conscience points although at the end, they are apart because of Danny’s death.
After reading some statements about Steinbeck’s Tortilla Flat, which some of them quoted above, the writer’s interest to analyze the friendship in this novel grows deeper, especially to find out the messages of friendship seen through its characters and the plot of the story. At first, the writer specifies on analyzing the characterizations of Danny, Pilon, Pablo Sanchez, Jesus Maria Corcoran, the Pirate, and Big Joe, and then, tries to analyze the plot of the story. And the last one is the writer relates the analysis of those characters’ characterizations and the plot of the story to the theories of message in order to get a deeper understanding of this study on the messages seen through those characters and plot of the story in Steinbeck’s Tortilla Flat .
B. Review of Related Theories In writing this thesis, the writer needs some theories that related to the topic.
Those are the theories on character and characterization, plot, and message. Because of that, this sub-chapter contains some explanations of the theories, which are needed to do the analysis.
I. Theory on Character and Characterization
In discussing about the message, especially the message of friendship, in a story cannot be done completely without discussing on the related characters. Those characters' life is being discussed as one of the focuses in the story. Moreover, the characterizations of the characters and the story of their life usually have important effect to the story, as they become one of the main focuses to be told.
In Encarta Webster’s College Dictionary, character is defined as a set of qualities that makes somebody or something distinctive, especially somebody’s qualities of mind and feeling; and another definition is that character is somebody who is considered in terms of personality, behavior, or appearance. While the definition of characterization is the way the writer portrays the characters in a book, play or movie (2005: 240). So, character and characterization is a kind of unity that cannot be separated because characterization is the writer’s way in creating a character whether directly (from the appearance) or indirectly (from the dialogue and
Abrams, in A Glossary of Literary Terms, states that character is one of the important elements of a story that also can be considered as a person who has an important role in a story. Abrams, in his theory, says that the person presented in a story is called the character. The readers interpret the character as having certain characteristic in the way he plays his role that is expressed by what he says or his dialogue and what he does or his action (1985: 20).
Characters are the persons presented in a 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 say--the dialogue—and by what they do—the action (Abrams, 1985: 23-24).
From the above quotation, it also can be understood that readers can interpret a character’s behavior, moral and habit or other qualities by paying attention to what
th
he says and does. While in A Handbook of Literature 5 ed., Holman and Harmon also say that the characterization is the creation of a character so that he exists for the readers as life like and the author always reveals the character of imaginary person in the story (1986: 81).
Abrams also states that basically, based on the importance, the characters can be divided into two categories. They are major and minor characters. Major characters usually appear in the entire of the story. The events that appear in the story always involve them directly or indirectly. On the other hand, minor characters are often said as the supporting characters. The roles are less important than the major characters because they are not fully developed characters and their roles in a characters are the most important element because the center of the story is focused to those characters from the beginning until the end of the story (1985: 20-21).
The last theory to be explained in this sub-chapter is M. J. Murphy’s theory in Understanding Unseen: An Introduction to English Poetry and the English Novel
for Overseas Students about the nine ways that an author may describe the
character’s personalities and traits to the reader (1972: 161-173). Those are:
a. Personal description. It is related with the author’s description about the character’s appearance and clothes.
b. Character as seen by another. It means that an author can use other characters’ eyes and opinions in describing a character.
c. Speech. It is related with the character’s conversation with others as a clue for the readers to understand the character’s nature.
d. Past life. It is related with the character’s past life that can shape his nature, which the readers can find it from the author’s direct explanation, the character’s thought and conversation, and also the medium of another person.
e. Conversation of others. A conversation of other characters and the things they say about him can be a clue toward a person’s character.
f. Reactions. A character’s nature can be known from his reactions in various situations and events.
g. Direct comment. A character’s nature also can be found from the author’s direct h. Thoughts. The author gives the readers a direct knowledge of what a character is thinking about, so, the readers can get an understanding about that character’s nature. i. Mannerisms. The reader also can understand a character’s nature through his mannerisms, habits or idiosyncrasies.
2. Theory on Plot
A novel must be built by events, which are tied in a unity. Because of that, understanding a plot of a novel is important for the reader. In Aspect of the Novel and
Related Writings , Forster states that plot is different from a story. He says that “a
story as a narrative of events arranged in their time-sequence”, while a plot is “also a narrative events, but the emphasis falling on causality” (1974: 60). So, the basic difference between those two things is that a story only presents chronological events but plot also contains the causality of events.
nd
In Structure, Sounds, and Sense 2 ed., Perrine says that plot is the sequence of incidents or events of which a story is composed. It may be included what a character says or thinks, as well as he does, but it leaves out description and analysis and concentrates ordinarily on major happening (1974: 43).
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Abrams, in his book A Glossary of Literary Terms 6 ed., writes, “plot is constituted by its events and actions, as these are rendered and ordered toward is perceived by the readers as a complete and ordered structure of actions, directed toward the intended effect, in which none of the component parts or incidents is unnecessary. He also quotes Aristotle’s statement about a unified plot as a continuous series of “beginning, middle, and end” (1985: 161).
The beginning initiates the main action in a way which makes us look forward to something more; the middle presumes what has gone before and requires something to follow; and the end follows from what has gone before but requires nothing more; we are satisfied that the plot is complete (1985: 161). Aristotle also gives alternative of plot, which consists of “exposition”, “complication”, “climax”, and “denouement”. Exposition is the beginning of the novel when the characters are introduced and the background is sketched. While the next, when the increasing of interest appears as the difficulties introduced is called as complication. When there is the developing of conflicts and the rising of actions reach the highest point is known as climax. The last section is denouement that happens when the actions and intrigues reach the outcome as the ending of the story (Yelland, Jones, and Easton, 1953: 148).
3. Theory on Message
In writing a work of literature, an author must have some points, which he wants to tell to the readers when he writes a literary work, whether consciously or unconsciously. These points are usually known as the message of a work of art. So, a
According to Beaty and Hunter in New Worlds of Literature, messages can be defined as the real meaning or some easy conclusions that can be simply stated or summarized inside a work of art (1989: 899). This definition leads the readers to understand that enjoying a work of art not only focuses on looking for pleasure but also deeper than that. It means that the readers should find the essence of a work as a moral lesson that can be applied in their real life in order to make it better and more meaningful. Sometimes, people think that message and theme are identical because of their similarities, but Beaty and Hunter in this book also give the difference between both of them. They state that “message seeks to inform or convince, while theme seeks to have you to comprehend and empathize, so that the information or the ideas are less directly articulated, or more broadly accessible” (1989: 899).
When an author implies a message that the readers receive, it can be considered as a great success in teaching the readers by examples through his story.
In this case, a work of art can tell and visualize the message contained to be an idea as a lesson of life. That message can be seen by paying more attention to some intrinsic elements, such as characters and plot of the story as what the writer do in this study. While, when we talk about a message as a lesson of life, it also can be said that it usually has a relation with moral in a work of art. Message in a story is intended as a suggestion related to practical moral lesson that closely related to problem in life. In The Domain of Moral Education, there is stated, “moral values think worth realizing and the actions which we think worth doing or which we think important to refrain from doing” (Cochrane, Hamm, and Kazepidez, 1979: 7). It means that moral value is a kind of thing that people believe as something which is important to be done and it also can be used to differentiate whether something is good or not.
In An Introduction to the Study of Literature, Hudson writes Symonds opinion that all art must be moralized which means that there must be a harmony between that principle with the tones of feeling.
The objects of ethics and art are distinct. The one analyses and instructs; the other embodies and delights. But since all the arts give form to thought and feeling, it follows that the greatest art is that which includes in its synthesis the fullest complex of thoughts and feelings. The more complete his presentation of life in organized complexity, the greater he will be (1958: 170).
In short, art is fundamentally connected with morality that art grows out of life, fed by life, and re-acts upon life. As the author deals with life, his work must be dealt with the moral facts and issues involved in life; and it is upon the whole spirit and tendency of his attitude, that the real greatness of his work very largely depends on.
So, there must be something that the readers can take as some valuable messages for their life beside satisfaction in enjoying it.
Thus, the writer considers that the existence of the moral as the message inside a novel is a very important thing and useful for human’s life . This is why the writer chooses the message in a novel to be analyzed. Because of that, the writer will be able to reveal the message of friendship seen through the major characters and plot of the story in Tortilla Flat.
C. Theoretical Framework
There are three problems which are mentioned in the previous chapter that will be discussed in this study in order to get a deeper understanding on the message of friendship seen through the major characters and plot of the story in John Steinbeck’s Tortilla Flat. Here, the writer would like to specify on the friendship between Danny, Pilon, Pablo Sanchez, Jesus Maria, the Pirate, and Big Joe. Because of that, the first problem is about how the characterizations of those characters in
Tortilla Flat are. The writer will apply Murphy’s theory taken from Understanding
Unseen: An Introduction to English Poetry and the English Novel for Overseas
Students about the nine ways to find out the characterizations of a character in
literary works as the basic theory in analyzing it. This result of the first analysis is useful to show that the difference characteristics between the major characters lead to the plot development in the second analysis.
To analyze the second problem, that is to explain the plot of the story, the writer will apply the theories of plot. The writer will try to analyze it by using the theories taken from Aspect of the Novel and Related Writings, Literature: Structure,
nd th Sound, and Sense
2 ed., A Glossary of Literary Terms 6 ed., and A Handbook of divided into three sections of plot. Those are the beginning, middle, and end; and also exposition, complication, climax, and denouement.
The last problem is about the message of friendship seen through the major characters and plot of the story. Because of that, the writer will use the theories of moral as the messages in a literary work taken from New Worlds of Literature, The
Domain of Moral Education, and An Introduction to the Study of Literature in
answering the third problem formulation . The final step that will be done by the writer is trying to make a conclusion of the analysis in this study.
CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY This third chapter consists of three parts namely the object of the study, the
approach of the study, and the method of the study. In the first sub-chapter, there is the description of the data of this study. The second part consists of the explanation about the approach that will be used in this study. While the last one, it covers the procedures of analyzing the work of literature in the study.
A. Object of the Study
The object of this study is one of John Steinbeck’s novels entitled Tortilla
Flat . This novel is considered as his first successful work. William Heinemann Ltd
first published this book in 1935. While in writing this thesis, the writer used Tortilla
Flat that published in London, by Pan Books Ltd as the third edition of this novel in
1975. It consists of 189 pages, which is divided into 17 chapters.Tortilla Flat tells about the life of Danny and his paisanos friends in
Monterey who usually enjoy their daily lives with wine. They are Pilon, Pablo Sanchez, Jesus Maria, the Pirate, and Big Joe who live with him in his house. The story is initiated by the building of their friendship when they start to join in the story one by one before living together. Then, the story itself becomes more interesting when Danny’s craziness starts to appear that also brings their friendship to an end after his death.
Tortilla Flat is considered as Steinbeck’s first success among his writings.
His career gets a positive reception from public because this novel got a great appreciation that can be seen when he received the California Commonwealth Club’s Gold Medal. The success of his Tortilla Flat continued when it was made into a film in 1942.
In this novel, the writer finds that the friendship between the major characters (Danny, Pilon, Pablo Sanchez, Jesus Maria Corcoran, the Pirate, and Big Joe Portagee) in Tortilla Flat is unique and interesting. Therefore, the writer wants to analyze the message of friendship seen through those major characters and plot of the story.
B. Approach of the Study
Since this study concerns on the message in a literary work that can be a lesson for the readers to be applied in their lives, the writer would like to analyze Steinbeck’s Tortilla Flat using liberal-humanism approach in answering the problem formulation stated in the previous chapter. In Beginning Theory: An Introduction to
nd Literary and Cultural Theory
2 ed., Barry writes that according to Leavis, this approach is talking about moral. There is also stated that its purpose is to teach In the same book, Barry says that liberal-humanism is an approach that concerns on “human nature as something fixed and constant which great literature expresses” which not related to politic, ‘non-Marxist’, ‘non-feminist’, and ‘non- theoretical’ (Barry, 2002: 3-4). It also means this criticism believes that a literary text contains its own meaning within itself and it does not require any elaborate process of placing it within a context. In analyzing a work of art by using liberal humanism approach, the writer will only analyze the elements in the works itself (intrinsic elements) in finding the humane values without relate it to any other fields outside the work (extrinsic elements).
C. Method of the Study
There were two methods that the writer did in doing the analysis of this study. Those are library and online research. The writer divided the data into two categories; they were primary and secondary. One of John Steinbeck’s works, entitled Tortilla Flat, was considered as the primary data. While the secondary data was the others which were related and used in doing this study that could be from library and Internet.
The first step was that the writer read Steinbeck’s Tortilla Flat as the primary data. In doing this step, the writer tried to gain deeper understanding on the story in order to get some interesting ideas to be analyzed further. Then, those ideas were
In the second step, the writer collected some references from some books and websites. The collected data included some comments on Steinbeck’s Tortilla Flat, theories on character and characterization, plot, and also on message. Since this study talked about the message in a work of art, the writer also applied liberal- humanism as the approach.
The third step in this study was analyzing the formulated problems in the previous chapter. Since the first problem was about the characterizations of the major characters (Danny, Pilon, Pablo Sanchez, Jesus Maria, the Pirate, and Big Joe) described in John Steinbeck’s Tortilla Flat, the theories of character and characterization were employed. Then, the writer applied the theories on plot to answer the second problem. While the next step, the writer used the theories on message, which will be related with those major characters’ characterizations and the analysis of plot, by using liberal-humanism approach.
After the analysis had been done, finally the writer drew a conclusion. In doing this last step, the writer concluded all of the analyses; starting from the characterizations of Danny, Pilon, Pablo Sanchez, Jesus Maria Corcoran, the Pirate, and Big Joe Portagee were described in the story; the plot of the story, and the message of friendship seen through its major characters and plot of the story which are founded in Steinbeck’s Tortilla Flat.
CHAPTER IV ANALYSIS In this chapter, the writer presents the result of the analysis as the answers of
the problem formulation in the previous chapter. This chapter consists of three sub- chapters. First sub-chapter contains the answers of the first question stated on the problem formulation, that is the characterizations of the major characters (Danny, Pilon, Pablo Sanchez, Jesus Maria, the Pirate, and Big Joe) in Steinbeck’s Tortilla
Flat. The second subchapter discusses the plot of the story. While the last
subchapter, it reveals the message of friendship that can be found in this novel seen through its major characters and plot of the story.
A. The Characterizations of the Major Characters in John Steinbeck’s Tortilla
Flat
In the first analysis that is the characterizations of the major characters in this novel, the writer tries to find the answers by paying attention to the personal description, character as seen by another, speech, past life, conversation of others, reactions, direct comment, thoughts, and mannerisms in the novel as Murphy’s theory.
1. The Characterization of Danny
On the preface of the story, Steinbeck gives a description of Danny as twenty-five years small, dark, and an intent paisano. Paisano is “a mixture of Spanish, Indian, Mexican and assorted Caucasian bloods. He speaks English with a paisano accent and Spanish with a paisano accent” (1975: 10).