THREE DIMENSIONS OF THE MAIN CHARACTER IN LEE’S TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD
on
ISSN: 2302-920X
E-Jurnal Humanis, Fakultas Sastra dan Budaya Unud
Vol 14.3 Maret 2016: 96-102
THREE DIMENSIONS OF THE MAIN CHARACTER IN LEE’S TO KILL A
MOCKINGBIRD
By
Nadina Priscilla Novembrica
email: nadintnadint@rocketmail.com
English Department Faculty of Letters and Culture Udayana University
ABSTRAK
Penelitian ini berjudul "Tiga Dimensi Dalam Karakterisasi Tokoh Utama Dalam Novel Karya Lee yang berjudul To Kill A Mockingbird". Penelitian ini berkaitan dengan metode karakterisasi berdasarkan tiga dimensi dari tokoh utama dalam novel. Tujuan utama dari penelitian ini adalah untuk mengetahui bagaimana penulis menyajikan tokoh utama dalam tiga dimensi yang terdiri dari dimensi fisik , dimensi sosial dan dimensi kejiwaan. Sumber data penelitian ini adalah novel yang berjudul To Kill A Mockingbird oleh Harper Lee (1960). Penelitian ini didasarkan pada penelitian kepustakaan yang digunakan dalam pengumpulan data. Kemudian, data yang terkumpul dianalisis secara deskriptif dengan menggunakan metode deskriptif kualitatif. Beberapa teori karakterisasi yang digunakan seperti Teori Karakterisasi oleh Kenney (1966) dan teori Dimensi Karakter oleh Egri (1960) .
Kata Kunci : metoda karakteristik, tiga dimensi, tokoh utama .
Literary work is imaginative or creative writing. Several examples of literary works are novels, short stories, dramas, and poetries. Analyzing a literary work is to identify the separate parts that make it up, to determine the relationship among the parts, and to discover the relation of the parts to the whole (Kenney, 1966: 5). Intrinsically, the analysis can include various points of study such as: theme, setting, character, plot, and point of view, while extrinsically it can include social and cultural status, moral values, someone’s experience with life and language, author biography, etc.
Character as a part of intrinsic elements is one of important aspects because it carries the author’s message that can bring various values in human life such as
morality, education, and many others. In order to understand the character’s attitude and behavior, it is important to understand physiology, psychology, and sociology aspect of the character itself.
The analysis of the main character is one of the important aspects of fiction and through character the author’s thought is expressed. From the character analysis, various kinds of human temperance, human rights, personalities, and attitudes can be observed and studied as being potential in daily life.
Based upon the above explanation, the problem under observation are :
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1 What is the method of characterization used by the author to present the main character in the novel To Kill A Mockingbird?
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2 How is the main character created based on the physiological, sociological and psychological aspects in the novel To Kill A Mockingbird?
The aims of this study are focused:
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1. To analyze the method of characterization used by the author to present the main character in the novel To Kill A Mockingbird.
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2. To describe the main character based on the physiological, sociological and psychological aspects in the novel To Kill A Mockingbird.
This study focused on the method of characterization and three dimensions of the main character in the novel entitled To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee (1960). The novel was published in New York in 1960 (first mass market edition in 1982 and reissued in 2010) and consists of 31 chapters.
This study used library research to collect the data by note taking. The working procedure was divided into several steps. The first step was reading the novel repeatedly and intensively. Comprehensive reading was needed to understand the content of the novel and also to identify the character of the main character. Then, the second step was reading the theory book and browsing to the internet, in order to get more information that are relevant to the topic.
The data in this study were analyzed using qualitative method. The analysis of the data used the qualitative method and descriptively analyzed. The first step of analyzing data was sorted and classified. Then, the data were analyzed by using the theory of literature, such as, method of characterization by Kenney (1966) and three dimensions by Egri (1987).
Physiological dimension is anything that you can look at the outside physically such as gender/sex, age, height/weight, posture, appearances, defects, heredity, hair color, etc.
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a. Age
From the story To Kill A Mockingbird, Scout as the main character was described as a kid of six years old younger about four years than her brother, who played only near Mrs. Dubose’s house. In this quotation, Scout was described about her age in discursive method. The author told the reader directly that Scout was almost six years old and her brother was nearly ten years old.
When I was almost six and Jem was nearly ten, our summertime boundaries (within calling distance Calpurnia) were Mrs. Henry Lafayette Dubose’s two doors to the north of us, and the
Radley Place three doors to the south. (Lee, 1960:7)
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b. Appearance
Her uncle named Jack Finch told her that she was more like Atticus than her mother. This quotation tells the reader that the author used characters on the others characters. Because the other character described the appearance of the main character.
He slapped his thighs for me to come sit on his lap. I liked to smell him: he was like a bottle of alcohol and something pleasantly sweet. He pushed back my bangs and looked at me. “You’re more like Atticus than your mother,” he said. “You’re also growing out of your pants a little.” (Lee, 1960: 105)
Sociological aspect is anything from the environment which gives some feedback to the development of one’s characters such as social class status, education, occupation, religion, home life, race nationality, political affiliation, etc. This dimension is a background in characterizing behavior, thinking and the way someone reacts to all sorts of problems.
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a. Environment
Scout was described as the youngest daughter of two siblings in her home family. She had a father, but grew up without her mother’s care anymore because when she was two years old, her mother was died. Her father was a widower which took care of two children by himself. The mixing method was used in characterizing Scout in this quotation. The author used the dramatic method to describe Scout as the youngest daughter in her home family. Then the discursive method was used by the author to describe Scout’s mother was died when she was born.
Jem was the product of their first year of marriage; four years later, I was born, and two years later our mother died from a sudden heart attack. (Lee, 1960:7)
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b. Human Relation (Relation with Boo Radley)
In the beginning of the story, Scout was scared of Boo. In Scout’s mind, the whole world becomes dangerous, every sound signaling a threat. And later, Scout realizes that it was Boo who brought her a blanket. As time passes and Scout faces down more real threats, Boo stops seeming so scary. He lurks in her imagination not as a monster but as a neighbor, who feel familiar even though she was never actually laid eyes on him. When finally Scout met Boo, it made Scout saw herself differently. And she was not necessarily happy about it. Atticus might have been right that putting yourself in another person’s shoes allowed you to understand the better. The relationship Scout and Boo Radley was good. The contextual method was used in this quotation above. The author wanted to make the reader concluded that Boo was a good neighbor. He saved Scout and Jem’s life in the almost ending story and it could be seen in the quotation below:
Neighbors bring food with death and flowers with sickness and little things in between. Boo was our neighbor. He gave us two soap dolls, a broken watch and chain, a pair of goodluck pennies, and our lives. But neighbors give in return. We never put back into the tree what we took out of it: we had given him nothing, and it made me sad. (Lee, 1960: 373)
Psychological dimension interests in everything that the character does and experiences. Psychological aspect is anything which related to the psychological condition of the character or stated as the inside things in human being such as abilities, qualities, temperaments, attitude toward life, complexes, introvert/extrovert, ambitions, etc.
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a. Ambitious and Dreamer
She was an ambitious and dream girl. Jem told her that she was being a girl that girl always imagined things. And he was so generous bought her a real baton on his twelve birthday. She had dream and ambition being one of the Maycomb County High School band, having developed her talent. She felt that she could overcome that defect with a real baton. The dramatic method was used in this quotation. It can be found in the action that she was with her stick in her hand wanted to be a real baton developed her talent.
I had long had my eye on that baton: it was at V. J. Elmore’s, it was bedecked with sequins and tinsel, it cost seventeen cents. It was then burning my ambition to grow up and twirl with the Maycomb County High School band. Having developed my talent to where I could throw up a stick and almost catch it coming down, I had caused Calpurnia to deny me entrance to the house every time she saw me with a stick in my hand. I felt that I could overcome this defect with a real baton, and I thought it generous of Jem to buy one for me. (Lee, 1960: 134)
It can be concluded that Scout Finch is the main character and protagonist. Based on Kenney’s theory, all of the methods of characterization were used in presenting the character. Lee, the author, combined the discursive, dramatic, character on the other characters, contextual and mixing methods. But among those methods, the dramatic method is used most frequently. Based on Egri’s theory, the main character can be described in terms of age and appearance from physiological dimension. Sociologically, the main character can be described in terms of her environment, education, religion and human relationship. The main character is boyish, curious, ambitious, and she is also a dreamer. On the other hand, she is an intelligent person whose negative traits are represented by her being impolite, bad temper, and inability to associate herself with other people. Those are the traits of the main character from the psychological dimension.
The result of this study shows that there is a relation between the characterization method and the three dimensions under concern. The relation itself also has an impact to the character’s personality.
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