CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
1. 1. Background of the Study There
are many ways to express idea and feeling. One of the ways to express idea or feeling is by writing a literature.
Rene Wellek and Austin Warren (1997: 5) said
that literature should be creative, an art and what an author has
produced. Not have
much different meaning from
Wellek and Warren, Julien D.
Bonn (2010: 93) said that
literature in a
broader aspect, literature
can be define
as any written
or spoken material
but the term
most often refers to
creative works. While
according Robert dan
Henry (1993:1) Literature
refers to compositions
that tell stories, dramatize
situations, express emotions
and analyze and
advocate ideas. Although they
have different meanings,
but the writer
concludes that literature
is a creative work which contains beauty that arises out of
the human ability to create language.
Wellek
and Warren also
said literary language
has an expressive
function, indicates the tone and
the attitude of the speaker or writer. Literary langua ge tries to influence,
persuade and eventually
change the attitudes
of readers. The
most important in
literary is a sign language,
the sound symbolism
of words. There
are many variety techniques created (e.g.
alliteration and sound patterns) to
attract the reader’s attention
to the literary
work (1997: 15).
Literature itself has
functions; it entertains the reader, it provides knowledge
such as history, culture, social life and it is
give us moral
teaching. Literature is
to please and
to teach the
reader. Literary works
may please their listeners
or readers. It has
an element of
entertaining or to afford pleasure
or we can
say that many
stories attract our
interest. Some literary could stir our feeling and emotion. As the
result, we may feel sad, happy, or angry after listening or reading a story.
Edgar
V. Robert and
Henry E. Jacobs
(1995:2) classified literature
into four categories
or genres: (1)
prose fiction, (2)
poetry, (3) drama,
(4) nonfiction prose.
Prose
fiction or narrative
fiction includes myths,
parables, romances, novels
and short stories. Poetry
expresses a conversation or interchange that is grounded in most deeply
felt experiences of
human beings. Drama
is literature designed
to be performed by actors. Beside, non-fiction prose
is literary genre that consists of news reports, feature
articles, essays, editorials,
textbooks, historical and
biographical works and the like,
all of which describe or interpret facts and present judgments and opinions.
The fiction that will be discussed in this
thesis is a novel entitled My Sister’s Keeper written
by Jodi Picoult.
Rees’ ( 1973:106 )
stated that novel
is a fictitious prose narrative of considerate length in which
characters and action representative of real life
are portrayed in a plot of
more or less complexity.
The novel My
Sister’s Keeper is one of her
works which became a New York
Times bestseller. Beside that she has
published many novels;
there are Salem
Falls, Plain Truth,
Vanishing Act and many more.
Picoult’s novels ally deal with ethical issues and are told from a variety
of viewpoints, with
each chapter written
in a different
character’s voice.
Abrams (1981: 20) stated that characters are
the persons in a
narrative of dramatic work of
art such as
novel, play or
film, that are
interpreted by reader
as being enclosed
with moral and
dispositional qualities expressed
in what they
say – the dialogue
– and what they do – the action.
As we
know that character is one of an important aspect of the novel. There are many characters in My Sister’s
Keeper novel, the characters
are: Sara Fitzgerald is a mother of
three children, Jesse, Kate
and Anna. She made decisions
for Anna and taking
control of her
life, Brian Fitzgerald
is Anna’s father.
He is a fire fighter captain.
Being a good
parent, facing a
difficult problem and
take care all
of the broken
family is not
easy for him,
Anna Fitzgerald is
a younger daughter
of Fitzgerald couple. She was
born for a specific purpose, to save her sister life, Kate Fitzgerald is an older daughter of Fitzgerald
couple. She diagnosed had a leukemia, but
in case of Kate she had an Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia, one of rare leukemia disease,
Jesse Fitzgerald is
a son of
Fitzgerald couple. He is a
broken home child, Campbell Alexander is a lawyer. Anna hires
him to sue her mother her rights
over her own body, Julia Romano is a
guardian al litem. A GAL is chosen by a court to be a
child’s advocate during
a legal proceeding
that involves a
minor. From the description
of the characters, the writer decided to choose one of the main character named Anna Fitzgerald.
Anna Fitzgerald is a thirteen years old
girl was born for specific reason to
save her sister life. Anna should be an allogenic donor for her
sister because her sister has leukemia.
By newborn, she used to do sacrifices
for her sister, Kate. Actually,
Anna is
not sick, but she might as well be. By
age thirteen, she has undergone
countless surgeries, transfusions, and
shots so that her older sister, Kate, can somehow fight the leukemia that has plagued her since
childhood. Then when she reached aged
thirteen, Anna tries to get her rights
over her own body, she wants a freedom from
being her sister donor, Kate.
Anna tries to tell her mother to stop using
her body to save her sister. But on the other hand, her mother does
not want to lose her daughter Kate and Anna.
Her mother should sacrifice one of her daughter’s life to save the other. Her mother action is not exactly cruel, but cannot
be said as good, either.
In
this thesis, the
writer will analyze
the sacrifices found
from the character Anna in
My Sister’s Keeper written by
Jodi Picoult. The writer chooses one of Jodi Picoult
works because the
story was interesting
especially about the
sacrifices of Anna. Generally, sacrifice was come from the
heart. No one should be forced to do it.
But different in Anna’s story, she should sacrifice herself from newborn until
her death. And
we know that
every people have
a moral, even
it is good
or bad. The moral
value in this novel deals with the human
problem in life. This story can be a good
lesson for reader; they can see how to be a good person by being more tolerant of other people’s feelings, minding their
attitude and responsibility in society.
1. 2. Problem of the Study Every thesis has a
problem, as a purpose to complete this thesis, the writer will focus the
analysis to the leading characters named
“Anna”. Through Jodi Picoult’s novel
My Sister’s Keeper, the writer
will try to explain her sacrifice, the way she did it and also about her struggle to get her
rights over her own body. In order to doing the analysis, the writer would like to put
forward the problems as follows: 1) What are Anna’s sacrifices to save her
sister’s life? 2) How does she sacrifice to save her sister’s life? 3) What are
Anna’s struggles to get her rights over her own body? 1. 3. Objective of the Study The objective of
this thesis is to find out and explain the sacrifices, the way she did
it and the
struggle which Anna
faced as portrayed
in the novel
My Sister’s Keeper. Then the writer also explains Anna’s
fight in order to get her rights over her own body as reflected in the story of the
novel.
1.4. Scope of the Study In this
novel, the story
showed us not
only about sacrifice,
but also about human
struggle to get rights.
Jodi Picoult’s novel
My Sister’s Keeper
has that part which will
be analyzed in
this thesis. By
doing so, the
writer restrict the
scope of analysis in portraying
the sacrifices, the way she did it and the struggle of Anna who is the leading character in the novel.
1.5. Significance of the Study The
significance of this study is to enrich literary studies especially in
literature through novel as one genres
of it beside drama and poetry. Another significance of this
analysis is to understand
about the sacrifices
portrayed in the
main characters, Anna. The writer also hopes that this thesis
will be useful for the readers or people who need this thesis as a reference.
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