Rebellion Against Educational Institution In J. D Salinger’s Novel The Catcher In The Rye
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
1.1
Background of the Study
In general, literature is supposed to be a kind of imaginative writing with less
importance. It is regarded so because everything in literature has finished being read
within a few minutes or some hours. Activity of reading literature is time consuming
that makes the work of literature paid less attention than other kind of writing.
Literary writing tends to be subjective which is far from being objective such as
scientific writing.
Literature offers understanding in terms of knowledge if it is not accepted as
science. The difference between science and art is not that they deal with different
objects, but that they deal with the same objects in different way. In particular,
literature is a portrait of life. As work that portrays humans’ life, literature deals with
many aspects of life. Some major aspects that are covered by literature consist of
social, economy, religion, and education. Education throughout school as the
institution has been portrayed in many literature with various ways. For example, in
the novel entitled Laskar Pelangi by Andrea Hirata, the novel shows the existence of
school that shows human’s struggle for education. Dead Poets Society by Tom
Schulman reflects education as the medium for human to find their identity
The Catcher in the Rye in the other hand portrays school from different point
of view. If in the previous example the novel portrays school as tools for helping
student’s development, in this novel school is portrayed as institution that causes
1
rebellion from the main character. The novel tells story about a teenager named
Holden Caulfield who rebels against his school. Holden hates the people in his
school. He does not like the artificiality of the people created by the school. Holden
does not attend important occasion in the school and intentionally fails every subject
even when he is able to pass it. Every students in Holden’s school try to show their
greatness in different way, even when it forces them to make a bragging story.
Students try to oppress other student to get respect and courtesy from teacher and
their colleagues. Education is distinct, but to define the smart and the stupid one.
Fairness is exist, but its existence is fair enough to make the strong student bully the
weak. Holden gets oppressed by the condition where his parents want him to be
successful by attending the school. However, the fact that he does not want to be in
the school that implements the elitist standard and create discrimination, construct
personal depression within himself. He questions the role of school and he rebels
against the school’s failure.
Holden sees whether each students in his school are trying to push one
another in many different ways when he attends it. Superiority has been common
tools for each students to show their grandeur. The school transforms into wild
jungle where people who cannot defend their self with courtesy will be preyed and
ignored. In addition, teachers have lost their part as a medium to help students. This
situation causes Holden to rebel because school can’t help the student to solve their
problems.
The analysis of this thesis is centered on the main character’s rebellion in
terms of not believing the role of school as education institution. Holden’s rebellion
will be analyzed from the aspect of reason. Holden Caulfield is not satisfied towards
2
school because the teachers fail to educate character model to treat people equally.
School is only a device for people to emphasize their prestige that they have by
attending it. The Education about moral is not important for either the students or
teachers as long as the ambition of being a prestigious member of elitist school can
be fulfilled to get compliance from society. This condition is contrast with the basic
task of school. It also causes Holden as the main character to rebel against his school.
By analyzing Holden’s rebellion in this novel the writer not only hopes to figure
what kind of rebellion done by Holden against the educational institution, but also
able to reveal the reasons that affect him in doing rebellion against his school. This is
the reason as well as the background of this thesis to discuss about rebellion against
educational institution through the main character in J.D. Sallinger’s novel The
Catcher in the Rye.
1.2
Problem of the Study
In this analysis, some questions have appeared to make deeper
comprehension about the issues. Some problematic questions that emerge according
to this analysis are:
1.
How did Holden Caulfield’s rebellion against his school portray in the novel?
2.
What caused the main character to rebel against his school?
1.3
Objectives of the Study
In relation of the problem, the objectives of this analysis are:
1.
To identify Holden Caulfield’s rebellion against educational institution
(school) portrayed in the novel.
2.
To identify the causes of Holden’s rebellion against school in the novel.
3
1.4
Scope of the Study
In research, it is important to limit the analysis on specific data that has been
chosen. The data will be collected from the novel “The Catcher in The Rye by J. D
Salinger”. The scope of this thesis is directed on Holden Caulfield’s rebellion toward
school and his dissatisfaction on school institution as an instrument of creating gap or
class stratification in society. The role of school has failed to construct strong
personality among students to live in harmony without any gap.
1.5
Significance of the Study
This thesis is intended to help for better understanding about the novel. By
reading the thesis, the readers are expected to find the reason of why rebellion
produced by the main character emerges. The writer hopes this analysis would be
useful for readers to enlarge their knowledge about Holden Caulfield’s rebellion
from different perspective by considering the background that caused him to do it.
The writer hopes the reader can understand about the bad impact of social gap that is
resulted by school as an educational institution
1.6
Methodology
1.6.1
Data & Data Source
The data of this thesis are taken from the text of the novel. So, the text of the
novel is selected in terms of quotations. The quotations are classified into context of
rebellion against school, which is supposed relevant with the analysis. Because of
that, the data are not the whole text of the novel.
4
The primary data source of this thesis is The Catcher in The Rye novel
written by J.D. Sallinger. Besides the primary source, the internet and other critical
books about literature in particular about novel are treated as the supporting or
secondary data source.
1.6.2
Technique of collecting Data
The first step dealing with the novel is reading it several times in order to
understand not only the story, but also the meaning of the text in terms of word,
phrase, sentence, and clause as chosen in the text. The next step is to select the text
by classifying them through quotations. They are written as proof to strengthen idea
of the analysis. The selection of the text is related to context of rebellion against
school that is done by the main character. In reference to this, the sense of rebellion
against school is limited to what the main character says, what he has done, and what
other characters say about him.
1.6.3
Method
The method, which has been applied in this thesis, is descriptive qualitative
method. The analysis is done by interpreting the text and then describing the
phenomena of rebellion as portrayed in the novel. The analysis has nothing to do
with numbers or statistics as being done in quantitative research method.
1.7
Review of Related Literature
In completing the analysis, the writer used some books and sources to find
the information in order to support the data. They are:
Salinger (1951) is the main object of this thesis. Sallinger in this novel
portrays the condition of school as an appalling institution that sets classification and
5
creates discrimination. This phenomena creates rebellion in this novel that will be
showed by the main character through his attitude and response toward school as an
educational institution.
Eagleton (1976) in his book entitled Marxism & Literary Criticism analyzes
the element of literature from the Marxist point of view. Character in the novel is
seemed to be equal as human in real life. That is why they are confronted with social
problems. Human response toward certain phenomena is affected by their conscious.
The changing in human life is the cause of social interaction and their necessity.
Renne Wellek & Austin Waren (1956) in their book Theory of Literature
discusses particularly about the relation about literature and society. The novelist is
treated as a social agent because he or she is the member of society. The novelist
observes and writes social phenomenon that happen in society. Then, he summarizes
them in the form of literary works either poem, prose or novel or even drama.
Therefore, literature is in short a portrayal of social life imaginatively. In this book,
the function of literature and what literature is about are clearly stated. Simply to say,
this book is helpful to understand literature both practically and theoretically.
6
INTRODUCTION
1.1
Background of the Study
In general, literature is supposed to be a kind of imaginative writing with less
importance. It is regarded so because everything in literature has finished being read
within a few minutes or some hours. Activity of reading literature is time consuming
that makes the work of literature paid less attention than other kind of writing.
Literary writing tends to be subjective which is far from being objective such as
scientific writing.
Literature offers understanding in terms of knowledge if it is not accepted as
science. The difference between science and art is not that they deal with different
objects, but that they deal with the same objects in different way. In particular,
literature is a portrait of life. As work that portrays humans’ life, literature deals with
many aspects of life. Some major aspects that are covered by literature consist of
social, economy, religion, and education. Education throughout school as the
institution has been portrayed in many literature with various ways. For example, in
the novel entitled Laskar Pelangi by Andrea Hirata, the novel shows the existence of
school that shows human’s struggle for education. Dead Poets Society by Tom
Schulman reflects education as the medium for human to find their identity
The Catcher in the Rye in the other hand portrays school from different point
of view. If in the previous example the novel portrays school as tools for helping
student’s development, in this novel school is portrayed as institution that causes
1
rebellion from the main character. The novel tells story about a teenager named
Holden Caulfield who rebels against his school. Holden hates the people in his
school. He does not like the artificiality of the people created by the school. Holden
does not attend important occasion in the school and intentionally fails every subject
even when he is able to pass it. Every students in Holden’s school try to show their
greatness in different way, even when it forces them to make a bragging story.
Students try to oppress other student to get respect and courtesy from teacher and
their colleagues. Education is distinct, but to define the smart and the stupid one.
Fairness is exist, but its existence is fair enough to make the strong student bully the
weak. Holden gets oppressed by the condition where his parents want him to be
successful by attending the school. However, the fact that he does not want to be in
the school that implements the elitist standard and create discrimination, construct
personal depression within himself. He questions the role of school and he rebels
against the school’s failure.
Holden sees whether each students in his school are trying to push one
another in many different ways when he attends it. Superiority has been common
tools for each students to show their grandeur. The school transforms into wild
jungle where people who cannot defend their self with courtesy will be preyed and
ignored. In addition, teachers have lost their part as a medium to help students. This
situation causes Holden to rebel because school can’t help the student to solve their
problems.
The analysis of this thesis is centered on the main character’s rebellion in
terms of not believing the role of school as education institution. Holden’s rebellion
will be analyzed from the aspect of reason. Holden Caulfield is not satisfied towards
2
school because the teachers fail to educate character model to treat people equally.
School is only a device for people to emphasize their prestige that they have by
attending it. The Education about moral is not important for either the students or
teachers as long as the ambition of being a prestigious member of elitist school can
be fulfilled to get compliance from society. This condition is contrast with the basic
task of school. It also causes Holden as the main character to rebel against his school.
By analyzing Holden’s rebellion in this novel the writer not only hopes to figure
what kind of rebellion done by Holden against the educational institution, but also
able to reveal the reasons that affect him in doing rebellion against his school. This is
the reason as well as the background of this thesis to discuss about rebellion against
educational institution through the main character in J.D. Sallinger’s novel The
Catcher in the Rye.
1.2
Problem of the Study
In this analysis, some questions have appeared to make deeper
comprehension about the issues. Some problematic questions that emerge according
to this analysis are:
1.
How did Holden Caulfield’s rebellion against his school portray in the novel?
2.
What caused the main character to rebel against his school?
1.3
Objectives of the Study
In relation of the problem, the objectives of this analysis are:
1.
To identify Holden Caulfield’s rebellion against educational institution
(school) portrayed in the novel.
2.
To identify the causes of Holden’s rebellion against school in the novel.
3
1.4
Scope of the Study
In research, it is important to limit the analysis on specific data that has been
chosen. The data will be collected from the novel “The Catcher in The Rye by J. D
Salinger”. The scope of this thesis is directed on Holden Caulfield’s rebellion toward
school and his dissatisfaction on school institution as an instrument of creating gap or
class stratification in society. The role of school has failed to construct strong
personality among students to live in harmony without any gap.
1.5
Significance of the Study
This thesis is intended to help for better understanding about the novel. By
reading the thesis, the readers are expected to find the reason of why rebellion
produced by the main character emerges. The writer hopes this analysis would be
useful for readers to enlarge their knowledge about Holden Caulfield’s rebellion
from different perspective by considering the background that caused him to do it.
The writer hopes the reader can understand about the bad impact of social gap that is
resulted by school as an educational institution
1.6
Methodology
1.6.1
Data & Data Source
The data of this thesis are taken from the text of the novel. So, the text of the
novel is selected in terms of quotations. The quotations are classified into context of
rebellion against school, which is supposed relevant with the analysis. Because of
that, the data are not the whole text of the novel.
4
The primary data source of this thesis is The Catcher in The Rye novel
written by J.D. Sallinger. Besides the primary source, the internet and other critical
books about literature in particular about novel are treated as the supporting or
secondary data source.
1.6.2
Technique of collecting Data
The first step dealing with the novel is reading it several times in order to
understand not only the story, but also the meaning of the text in terms of word,
phrase, sentence, and clause as chosen in the text. The next step is to select the text
by classifying them through quotations. They are written as proof to strengthen idea
of the analysis. The selection of the text is related to context of rebellion against
school that is done by the main character. In reference to this, the sense of rebellion
against school is limited to what the main character says, what he has done, and what
other characters say about him.
1.6.3
Method
The method, which has been applied in this thesis, is descriptive qualitative
method. The analysis is done by interpreting the text and then describing the
phenomena of rebellion as portrayed in the novel. The analysis has nothing to do
with numbers or statistics as being done in quantitative research method.
1.7
Review of Related Literature
In completing the analysis, the writer used some books and sources to find
the information in order to support the data. They are:
Salinger (1951) is the main object of this thesis. Sallinger in this novel
portrays the condition of school as an appalling institution that sets classification and
5
creates discrimination. This phenomena creates rebellion in this novel that will be
showed by the main character through his attitude and response toward school as an
educational institution.
Eagleton (1976) in his book entitled Marxism & Literary Criticism analyzes
the element of literature from the Marxist point of view. Character in the novel is
seemed to be equal as human in real life. That is why they are confronted with social
problems. Human response toward certain phenomena is affected by their conscious.
The changing in human life is the cause of social interaction and their necessity.
Renne Wellek & Austin Waren (1956) in their book Theory of Literature
discusses particularly about the relation about literature and society. The novelist is
treated as a social agent because he or she is the member of society. The novelist
observes and writes social phenomenon that happen in society. Then, he summarizes
them in the form of literary works either poem, prose or novel or even drama.
Therefore, literature is in short a portrayal of social life imaginatively. In this book,
the function of literature and what literature is about are clearly stated. Simply to say,
this book is helpful to understand literature both practically and theoretically.
6