INTRODUCTION. There have been various attempts to define what literature is. Wallek and

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1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 The Background of Analysis There have been various attempts to define what literature is. Wallek and Warren said that literature is said to be creative,an art, what an author has been produced. It means that literature is a product of author s imagination that imitates the reality in to the art of writing. Besides that,taylor states that literature is said to be the school of life that authors tent to comment on the conduct of the society and of individuals in the society. So,Taylor means that literature may become tool of valuing people in their behavior both collectively and individually. Literature is like mirror in which people or individuals can see their face and judge what are in them. In general literature has some different kinds. Each of them has its own characteristics though they have much in common such as they have characters, theme, setting and style. Peck and Coyle devide literature into three genres or types; they are : poetry, drama, and novel. Poetry etymologically the work poetry derived from the Greek word poesis means to make or construct and poietis means the maker.usually the maker of a poem called poet. usually poem is a piece of writing in verse form, and the beauty,the power and the effect of a poem rarely depend on styles technique form and also the essential elements like rhyme, rhythm,form and also the choice of words to create a poem. A poem usually have some aspects such as: feeling, sense, tone and intention. Sense is the subject matter of the poem. What is a poem about. Feeling is the attitude of the writer toward the subject matter, by reading a certain poem carefully we could understand what does the writer think about the subject matter feel of it and his opinion about it. Tone is the attitude of the writer toward the reader weather he writer 7

2 in a good mood, pessimist, or optimist, sad or happy. We understand it by giving our intention to the words that poets used in their poem. Novel is a narrative kind of fictitious writing. A novel is an extended fictional prose narrative dealing with human characters and action of a period of time. What is old in a novel might have happened. The happenings and actions or even the events need not necessarily to be true and factual. They might all the same be true to every day life. The author of the novel is the creator of the story He invents the characters, the happening, the action, the events, ect. The novelist usually tells his story through his characters or his media. All characters must act and behave according to the novelist. Novelist arranges everything who is to be the chief characters or hero and who is the heroine, and who will act minor actions. A novel is like mirror it reflects all the lives of people in other people in other places, the way how they live their lives, how they love or hate, how they struggle for their ideals or better way of life. Usually a novel have several aspects such as: the plot, the characters portrayals, the theme or themes, the tone, the background, the symbolism, and the language. The plot is the sequence of the events in the novel. the plot is like a chain, all the events are linked together. The events are the links. If one of the links drops down the chain falls apart. If one of the events is missing the story will not go or the story misses some of its part and the reader will not be satisfied. The characters is the actor of the novel and deal with how their appearances, their characters, their habits, their way of lifeas portrayal in a novel. The theme is the attitude r the philosophical point of view of a novelist or the creator of a novel. Tone is the general or prevailing 8

3 characters of morals, sentiment, the tone maybe sad, joyful, sentimental, humours, satirical, bitter,humours, passionate. Play is a form of literature written by a playwright, usually consisting of scripted dialogue between characters, in tended for theatrical performances rather than reading. A play usually have some aspects or elements such as: characters, plot,theme, dialogue, convention. Most plays contain major characters and minor characters, The delineation and development of major characters is essential to the play The distinction between heroes or heroines and villains, between good guys and bad guys, between virtue and vice is useful in dealing with certain types of plays, but in many modern plays. Another common term in drama is protagonist. Etymologically, it means the first contestant. The plot is usually structured with acts and scenes. The plot usually called the body of a play. The theme is the attitude r the philosophical point of view of a playwright or the creator of the play. Dialogue provides the substance of a play. Each Dialogue provides the substance of a play contributes to its effect as a whole. This thesis deals with play as the main source of analysis. It is Arthur Miller s All My Son. In this thesis I want to analysis the character as one main aspect in a play.i have read this play several times and it is inspires me to do this analysis. In analysis this play I intend to analysis the downfall of one major character in that play named Joe Keller. This analysis is focused on backdrop of Joe Keller s downfall such as the failure of Keller to understand the American Dream Myth. I chose this plays as the object of my analysis because I want to inform some statements caused the downfall of Joe Keller as the reflection to social life that is happen in our present life, especially it describes some cases that influence family life and society influences itself and how materialism can destroy all our dream. 9

4 1.2 Problem of the Analysis The thesis analysis has been focused on how the hero Joe Keller,fails to understand American Dream Myth in his life. He has been betrayed by his own myopic worldview of the life that Keller sees himself as answerable only to himself and his family, not to society as a whole. It is also refers to his past misdeeds and Keller s self define as an uneducated man, taking pride in his commercial success without traditional book learning. Also how a capitalist system and materialism that encourage individuals to value their business sense over their moral sense. Joe Keller s blame attitude He tries to blame anyone and everyone for crimes during the wartime first by letting his partner go to jail. Based on those assumptions above, I come to state my problem analysis as follows: 1. How far the materialism can effect and destroy human life as portrayal in Joe Keller s life. 2. How far self define influence and effect one s life as portrayal in Joe keller s life. 3. How past misdeed effect present and shape the future of life as portrayal in Joe Keller s life. 1.3 Objective of the Analysis In analyzing the Joe Keller s downfall as portrayed in Arthur miller s play All My Sons, I have some purpose as follows are: 1.To explain how far the materialism can effect and destroy human life as portrayal in Joe Keller s life. 2. To explain how far self define influence and effect one s life as portrayal in Joe keller s life. 10

5 3. To explain how past misdeed effect present and shape the future of life as portrayal in Joe Keller s life. 1.4 Scope of the Analysis I restrict my analysis in this thesis into three aspect of manifesting American Dream Myth trough the leading character that is Joe Keller. Firstly the causes of Joe Keller downfall,the second is about Joe Keller s self define and his myopic worldview. And the third is about Joe Keller s past misdeed that influence his own life and his family. These three aspect are confined to the way of thinking which believes that by the myopic perspective on his world stem a devotion to his family and his claim that there is nothing greater than the family and his self define and past misdeed.these aspects are related to Joe Keller s Downfall which is then formulated as the scope of the analysis. 1.5 Method of the Analysis In analyzing this play I am using descriptive approach which describes the downfall of Joe Keller as portrayed in Arthur Miller s Play All My Son. The main source or primary data of the analysis is Arthur miller s play All My Son. I mean by the data here is the quotations I selected from the play. Thus, the first step of the method procedure is reading the play several times. After having understood the story, I come to find out the idea which is related to American Dream Myth. The selection of the data is important in order to get relevancy with the analysis. So the selected quotations are interoperated to get the actual meaning. After that I analyze the data for the truth of the analysis.in doing the research, I focused on books and references to get information for the data analyze. Since the data are documented 11

6 in written form, the method of my analysis is known as documentation method of analysis. In other word this kind of research known with library research. 1.6 Significances of the Analysis This thesis entitled Joe Keller s downfall as portrayed in Arthur Miller s play All My Sons. The significance of this analysis contains theoretical and practical use. Theoretically,this analysis is meant to add a`study of literature trough play as one genre of literature, particularly American literature which is represented by Arthur Miller s All My Sons. I hope this play may give information about American play for students of literature in general, and for students literature in particular. Practically, the student of English literature may get knowledge of literature especially trough Arthur Miller s All My Sons. And this analysis also may be reference for further analysis in literary work especially drama. 1.7 Review of Related Literatures In analyzing this play, I deals with books which has close relation to the title itself. Thus I state them as the importance to the analysis: 1.Thomas E. Porter, Myth and Modern American Drama (1969) Explain the dramatic Milieu and the American drama in the introduction. It clarifies how the concept of American dream myth comes into the central idea of literature especially drama. It is further added that such kind of myth has become central to literature.this book offer idea which help me to do further analysis in my thesis. It is related to an understanding of how the myth becomes the product of adaptation to American culture. It is said that because the myth represents experience that offers attitude of American to reach success.american dream myth which is manifested in slogan such as work hard, good performance, beauty and unique appearance can be materialized in achieving succeed. Yet, it is true culturally but not 12

7 realistic factually.for some evidence, the myth can betray the dream for success in term of failure or downfall. 2. Jean Gould.modern American playwright (1966) The name of some modern American play wrights include in this book, and of them is Arthur miller in this book background of playwright s life and lists of his works presented here. 3.Jhon Gassner. Best American plays Third Edition (1987) This book contains all American best play and here I found the play of Arthur Miller s All My Sons and also contain another his best play such as The Death of Salesman.from this one I take it and devote as the other chapter of the analysis. 13