INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study Literature
is like a mirror that reflects all the lives of people in other places and a period of time. We can learn the history
of one country through its literary works.
The word `literature’ comes from the Latin word `litera’ which means an art of written works. Early literature was oral,
meant to be memorized and recited. Later, literature was written down and read. All
cultures and countries have their own literature,
even some of them famous in the world. Taylor (1981:1) says, “Literature, like other arts, is essentially an imaginative
act, that is, and act of the writer’s imagination
in selecting, ordering, and interpreting life-experience”. It means that literature is an interpretation of human’s
mind that uses language as medium. It has a large scope and fantastic. In literature,
there are three branches of literature such drama, poetry, and prose. Meanwhile, prose can
also be divided into novel, short story,
romance, etc.
Novel is one of literary form, and therefore
developed as a piece of prose fiction.
The novel was recognized as a major literary form in the end of the
NeoClassical period. Most novels are concerned with ordinary people and their
problems in the societies in which they
find themselves. Novel is written in narrative form, telling the social problem, including love,
politic, war, the story of technology, the historical, background of one area, biography
of someone, etc. What is told in a novel
might have happened, in the sense of ‘true life’, as historical and biography story. But a novel may be just as fiction. But
fiction must be true to life as we know it
or we accept it. It must be probable.
The
author of novel of course has a certain purpose why he or she writes a novel. It means that the author has some
messages to the reader through his novel.
That is why; an interpretation must be done to
find out the meaning of novel. We can approach
the novel through the characters. As Gill (1985:235) says that the approach through characters to analyze a novel is very
important. If you interpret a novel in this
way, you will have to consider the effect characters have on you, the feelings they arouse in you, and the judgments you make
about them. It means that we can find
the meaning and the significance of novel by exploring characters’ mind.
Therefore, I interest to discuss the main
characters in this thesis.
Characters are the person who plays an
important rule to build up the story. A character
in a novel is not a real human being and has no life outside the literary composition, however well the illusion of
reality has been created by the author.
Characters action the way how people live
their lives, how they love and hate, how they struggle for their ideals, even how they
struggle to prove themselves. All the characters
must act and behave according to themselves. He arranges everything, which is to be the main character. He can be a
hero or heroine. And minor character completes
the story. Sometimes a novelist takes himself in character; he ally uses another name or uses the first person singular
pronoun ‘I’ in his work. It proves that most
of author made their works base on their background of life, and the situation
of their period. Bonazza (1982:3) says
that character refers to one of the persons in the story, the end result of the author’s effort
to create a fictional personality. It is, of course, not possible to have action without
characters or no conflicts without character.
Learning about character of course brings us
to clarifying what the character is
like. We should, therefore, also think about how an author creates the
personality, or individuality of a
character. Gill (1985:97) explains that we need to do this, because many questions in public examination
ask to write about what a character is like.
In answering a question like that we will be writing about the ways in which an
author has made a particular character
distinctive. When we talk about characters, they must be included protagonist and
antagonist character. Generally protagonist presented the good habits, and in contrary
with antagonist which presented the bad habits
or evil.
There are some students of literature in the
faculty of cultural studies, University
of Sumatera Utara, discuss about main character in their thesis. Such, Rani Yusniati Andayani Damanik’s thesis, An
Analysis of the Main Characters’ in Harper
Lee’s novel To kill A Mockingbird (2009), and Nadya Natasha’s thesis, An Analysis of Main Characters in Arthur Golden’s
novel Memoirs of a Geisha(2011).
Most of them describe about how the main
characters portrayed in the novel and how the main character struggle in their life. But
there is no thesis discuss about main characters
in the novel Steal Away. That is way I would discuss about this novel in my thesis.
Steal Away is written by Jennifer Armstrong,
the winner of numerous awards for both
fiction and nonfiction, Jennifer Armstrong has written more than 100 books for all ages, from pre-school through young
adult. She receives an ALA Notable Children's
Book and an SCBWI Golden Kite Honor book from her novel Steal Away.
This novel published in 1992, telling of an
orphan Susannah with her slave Bethlehem
who tries stealing away from Virginia to Vermont. Susannah loves Bethlehem, although Bethlehem is slave, she
believes that slavery is wrong. Their trip
of stealing away is not easy but their friendship is strong. I interest to
analyze Steal Away because this novel
is full of escape adventure, the friendship, and the enduring racism.
There are many characters in this novel, they
are; Bethlehem Reid, Susannah McKnight,
Free, Mary, Uncle Reid, Aunt Reid, Fidelia, Byron, Mary’s mother, Mary’s father, Lizer, Nahum, Anna Tuke, Given,
Mrs. Tuke, and Dorothea Tuke.
Meanwhile this thesis focuses to the main
characters; Susannah and Bethlehem.
1.2 Problem of the Study Base on the
background of the analysis above, the problem of the analysis may be recognized as follows: • How the characteristics of the main
characters portrayed in the novel? 1.3 Objective of the Study Every analysis
has certain purpose or objective to be obtained and avoid deviation from have been planned. Based on the
problem of the study above, this thesis
has an objective to analyze. It may be recognized as follows: • To
identify the characteristics of the main characters portrayed in the novel.
1.4 Scope of the Study When we analyze a
novel, there will be many things to be discussed. So, it is important to make limitation of the analysis
to avoid the readers of getting confused.
This thesis limits the analysis only to
discuss about the characterization of the main characters in the Jennifer Armstrong’s novel
Steal Away, they are Susannah and Bethlehem.
1.5
Significances of the Study This thesis is entitled An Analysis of The Main
Characters Found in Jennifer Armstrong’s
novel “Steal Away”. The significance of this analysis contains theoretical and practical intention.
Theoretically, it may enrich the knowledge about literature, especially about character through
the novel. Practically, the readers can get
better understanding about Steal Away, especially understanding of its main characters. And I hope this thesis can be used
as the reference for students of literature
for further study, and can be added to the library collection.
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