CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of Study Literature
is a written or printed work which expresses feeling, attitude and life of
human in society. According to
Wellek and Warren
(1977:94), literature represents
‘life’ and ‘life’ is a social reality, even though the natural world and the inner or
subjective world of the individual
have also been
objects of literary ‘imitations’. Through literature, an
author tries to express his or her idea about what he or
she ever experienced
in life time
or what was
happening around them
from natural phenomenon to the life of the people in their community.
According to Peck and Coyle
(1984:103) novel, as one of literature genres, is a long
work with a great
amount of detail
on every page.
It presents all
the complicating facts that
need to be reconsidered before we
can reach any
sort of judgment.
In this thesis, Uncle Tom’s Cabin
is the object to be analyzed. It is a novel written by Harriet Beecher Stowe
(1811-1896). Published in 1852, the novel became one of the
biggest best-sellers of the th century.
Uncle Tom’s Cabin is
very interesting. It is a novel with a purpose. Through the novel, Stowe
wanted to show the readers that black people are human beings. This novel
firmly agrees that racial discrimination in any form of it, is not allowed to
do. Stowe clearly motivated the readers to fight the racial discrimination.
Uncle Tom’s Cabin is one of the most popular historical novels th at
presents actual events from the point of view of the author. It touches the
real human’s life at a certain place in historical time. This novel is
dominated by the gap between two races,
the black people
towards the white
people. The racial
concept caused inequalities in
black people’s life. Therefore,
racial discrimination should
be an unsolved problem until the present time. Further, Gosset
(1985:135) clearly stated; At this point
Stowe introduces a
problem in Uncle Tom’s
Cabin which almost as
difficult of solution
as that of
slavery, and one which
has by no
means been solved
up to the
present time, the matter of social relationships among
members of different races.
Based on the description, racial
discrimination became the focus of analysis in this thesis. Racial
discrimination has been a big issue in United States since the colonial era and
slave era as the main setting of time in the novel.
The writer chooses this topic to
be analyzed because the writer found that the main idea of this novel is about
the racial discrimination among the race in United States. As it is generally
known, the majority race in this novel is the Whites. The White people as in
this novel have a negative prejudice of
the black people. They have their own
opinion towards the black
people. According to
them, the black people
have no rights
to posses their
own independence. Harriet Beecher
Stowe described the situation of it intelligently.
According to Bowling (2002:21),
racism is the belief that certain groups are innately, biologically, socially,
morally superior to other groups, based upon what is attributed to be their
racial composition.
It can be said that racial
discrimination itself is an unequal treatment based on someone’s race.
The most notable
form of American
racism began with the institution
of slavery, during which Africans were enslaved and treated as property.
Prior to
the institution of
slavery, early African
and non-white immigrants
to the Colonies had
been regarded with
equal status, serving
as sharecroppers alongside whites. After
the institution of
slavery, the status of
Africans was stigmatized
and this stigma was the basis for the more virulent anti-African racism
that persisted until the present. The condition and situation are clearly drawn
by Stowe through Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
According to
the novel, black
people were never
treated well and
always became the victim
of white people
bad treatments. This
novel shows us the
individual experiences which
may portray the
life experience of
the black people living in the United State that were
always afraid of being sold to the slave trade and being sent to the plantation. It describes
the reality that
happened toward black people in United States at the time.
Racial discrimination is strongly
shown in this novel when black people on United
States became slaves and were
sold just because the
prejudice of white people. The black people experienced
many sufferings and miseries because of the racial discrimination such as
seperated away from their family, physical mistreat, and the human trade.
In the novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin by
Harriet Beecher Stowe, the writer found racial
discrimination is the
dominant theme of
the novel. This
dominant theme is very
interesting for the
writer to choose
the novel to be
analyzed. As racial discrimination is one of big problem
which occurs in American society until present time, the writer decides to make
further analysis upon the racial discrimination.
1.2 Problems of the Study It is important to find out the problems that
are going to be analyzed to get the
clear description on
the object of
the study. Based
on the statement
about the racial discrimination
above, the writer points out the problems of the study are: 1. What are the
forms of racial discrimination that black people has been through in Uncle
Tom’s Cabin novel? 2. What are the effects
of racial discrimination in black
people’s lives in Uncle Tom’s
Cabin novel? 1.3. Objective of the Study There
are two objectives
based on the
statement of the
problem above that have been decided: 1. To portray the
form of racial discrimination that black people have been through in Uncle
Tom’s Cabin novel.
2. To describe the effects of
racial discrimination in black people’s lives in Uncle Tom’s Cabin novel.
1.4. Scope of the Study In doing
the analysis of
this thesis becomes much sharper,
some scopes of study are arranged. The main concern of
the analysis in this thesis is all about
the racial discrimination reflected in the story of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Based on
it, this thesis is going to
reveal how the
racial discrimination that
is experienced by one leading character of this story. This
thesis focusses the analysis in showing the form of racial discrimination
such as
prejudice and slavery
towards black people that represents
by Uncle Tom has been through in this story.
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