CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
1.1
Background of the Study
Literature
is the art of written text, it is considered as the reflection of human imagination. The writer build or
imagined their story by using their life experience. This experience everyday life may
emerge as ideas to create a story.
In general, Literature is life
experience uttered in words to become a beautiful writing.
Taylor states “Literature is
essentially an imaginative act; that is, an act of the writer’s imagination in selecting,
ordering, and interpreting life experience, ( Taylor, 1981 : 1 ).” Literature can be
classified into three categories, they are: 1. prose fiction; 2. Poetry; and 3. Drama.The words prose derives from the
latin ‘prosa’, which is literally translated to ‘straightforward’. Edgar V. Robert and
Henry E. Jacobs (1995:2) classify prose into
two, fiction and non-fiction prose. Prose fiction or narrative fiction includes
myths, parables, romances, novels and
short stories. Fiction prose is made based on author’s creation and imagination.
Non-fiction prose describes facts and opinion.
Novel is the longest of all
literary forms, and the more popular. Novel is a normally a prose work of quite some length and
complexity, which attempts to reflect
and express something of the quality or value of human experience or conduct ( Taylor 1981: 46 ). Novel made by
authors as an expression their idea about
their life experiences. Novel represents human activitiesin daily live through characters and setting. There are six
elements of novel, they are: 1. Plot; 2.
Character; 3. Setting; 4. Theme; 5. point ofview; and 6. style. In analyzing
this thesis the writer focuses on the
character than the other five aspects.
Character is an important element
in novel. Character is an imagined person who exist in a story, the author creates the
characters from the aspects of the ordinary
people that portray the personalities of human beings, and then develops these aspects and puts them together in a
story as the author likes. The characters have important role in creating the conflicts
in a story. The author tells the characters
qualities from the description the story narrator gives and through the actions and deeds of the characters revealed
in the story and through what other characters
say or do to this character. Characters attitude usually described behavior and moral value, whether the
characters have good value or bad value according
to moral standard. Moral standardfrom some rules, which acceptable in society, is believed asa universal truth.
A moral (from Latin morālis) is a
message conveyed or a lesson to be learned
from a story or event. According to Dewey ( 1953:1 ) says that: “The word ‘moral’ comes from latin, which means
manners, custom or habit is concerned.
This habit is concerned with right or wrong, good or evil, a good lesson in behavior, the right way of leading
one’s life.” Moral is concerned with the
judgment of the goodness and badness of
human action and character, pertaining
to the discernment of good and evil, designed to teach goodness of character and behavior, instructive towhat is
good and bad. Everyone cannot separate
from the arrangement based on the principles of right in their custom and obey to life norm as a moral standard which
acceptable in society.
Encyclopedia
Britannic (1982: 253) writes, “Morality isa standard of human behaviour determined either subjectively
and based on what is considered ethically
right or wrong”. Morality has something to do with the action of human being as members of social groups. The sources
of morality are custom or culture, religion
and ideology. Moralityconsists not only of particular statements of conduct, but also in the general working rules
by which we often justify and individual
cases.
In judging moral, we have to pay
attention to the action and motivation of a person. Encyclopedia Americana (1972:
610)states, “Moral judgment can be divided
into two groups. They are theory of value and theory of obligation.” In theory of value, which deals with the nature
of good, we find both particular and general
answer to the question: “What things, persons, motives, state of affairs and character traits are good and bad”.
Happiness, power, wealth, honor, an equal distribution of goods, knowledge, friendship
and various traits of character are the nature
of good. For example, some pleasures are good since one ought to act as so to bring about the greatest good for the
greatest number of people.
In the theory of obligation which
deals with conduct we find both particular and general answer to the question: “What
actions are right and wrong?” or alternatively
the question, “How ought a man to live?” A good motivation without a good action will produce a bad result. On
the contrary, a good motivation which is
accompanied with good action will produce good result.
Furthermore, the novel that the writer going
to analyze is Mirror Image.
In this thesis the writer would
like to discuss about moral lesson depicted from this novel. As we know everybody has a moral,
even it is good or bad. The writer would
likes to discuss some moral value from this novel such as kindness, honesty, selfishness, theft, fabrication,
abortion, and infidelity that described through
some characters of this novel. The moral value in thisnovel deals with the human problem in life. The writer wants to
convey some moral lessons from this
novel through the character.
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