What is a theme?

THE first problem every student of literature faces is a feeling of blankness. I have read the text, now I am supposed to study it: how do I start? Teachers and critics sometimes make this stage more difficult by pretending that literature is a special subject which only experts can understand. Nothing could be more misleading. Great writers and poets write because they want to communicate with ordinary readers like you and me: they do not write for experts. They are not writing on a specialised subject, either. Literature is about the same things you and I are concerned with: life and living. Be confident, therefore. Every student finds the first step in studying literature difficult, but there is nothing mysterious or specialised about it. The difficulty you face at the beginning is simply one of choosing what to focus on out of the rich mass of details, characters, events and so on, which you have met in reading the text. You are faced with the intricate complexity of a literary work: as soon as you can decide what to study first, and where to start, you can make a start.

What will obviously help you is if you have a method which tells you how and where to start. The method I will be explaining in this book can be applied to any of the texts you have to study, whether they are novels, plays or poems. I shall be showing how you can think about the text, and go on to study important passages, so your understanding develops fruitfully and is supported by the detailed analysis you need when you come to write essays or examinations. The way to overcome the first difficulty is really quite straightforward: you can make a start by finding a theme.

A theme is simply this: a subject which interests the writer, and which is discussed in the text or portrayed in it in some way. Finding a ‘subject’ in a book may sound difficult, but when you know the kind of subject you are looking for you will see that it is quite easy. A theme is not a summary of the story: that is not what the text is ‘about’; nor is it a special subject you have to search for. Literature is about ordinary life, so the big themes in literature are the important subjects and experiences of our public and private lives: they are the ordinary and common words in our everyday thoughts and conversations, like love, death, marriage, freedom, hope, despair, power, war, revenge, evil, and so on. This list of the big common experiences of life could go on and on, because anything which is a subject in life can become a theme in literature. The first thing you can say about a text is that it is about one of these common subjects, so the first thing you say is startlingly simple. You might think it even too obvious, but it is a very important step forward because you have left the feeling of blankness behind: you simply say ‘There is a lot in it about love’, or ‘It is about hope and despair’. Then you have made a start.

There is one more point to make about themes. They are big ordinary subjects, but they are complex. The texts you study focus on the problems people face, their contradictory feelings, and the complex moral and social entanglements which confront people and make our experience of living so complex. So the big ideas in a text are not simple opinions: they are full of complexity like our experience of life itself.

Source: Nicholas Marsh. How to Begin Studying English Literature

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Allegory

Allegory which comes from Greek, allos means other and agoreuein that means to speak in public, is figurative mode of representation conveying a meaning other than literal meaning. Allegory is one of ways that the writer may use to express what he or she actually wants to convey through his or her literary work. This kind of literary work that is written in the form of allegory, the writer usually wants to convey indirectly what he or she usually means, a writer camouflage what he or she actually wants to express that the literary work cannot be understood by reading its surface language but it must be deeper meaning below the surface. That is why allegory is often defined as a story or visual image with a second distinct meaning partially hidden behind its literal or visible meaning. An allegory is a work which has meaning behind the surface meaning”. In other word with the same point, allegory as a literary statement presenting its meaning in a veiled way; the literal meaning is a metaphor for the real meaning. It means that allegory, in short, is simply one thing consistently being presented in the guise of something else.

An allegory is a narrative in which the agents and action, and sometimes the setting as well, are contrived both to make coherent sense on “literal” or primary level of signification, and also to signify a second, correlated order of agents, concepts, and events. Allegory is also a narrative that serves as an extended metaphor. It may be written in the form of fables, parables, poems, stories, and almost any other style or genre. The main purpose of an allegory is to tell a story that has characters, a setting, as well as other types of symbols that have both literal and figurative meanings. But, allegory differs from symbolism. The difference between an allegory and a symbol is that an allegory is a complete narrative that conveys abstract ideas to get a point across, while a symbol is a representation of an idea or concept that is able to have a different meaning throughout a literary work. Furthermore, although both of them have the meaning behind the surface meaning, but in symbolism is exclusive and cannot be translated into other word. In allegory is otherwise that we can state confidently what the precise meaning is that lies behind the surface, because we are meant to see through the text to its underlying significance.

Allegory, in literature, is symbolic story that serves as a disguised representation for meanings other than those indicated on the surface. In addition, allegory in literature is the representation of a subject under the guise of another suggestively similar. In written narrative, allegory involves a continuous parallel between two or more levels of meaning in a story, so that its persons and events correspond to their equivalents in a system of ideas or a chain of events external to the tale. In the other word, the characters in an allegory often have no individual personality, but are embodiment of moral qualities and other abstractions. For example, Bunyan’s Pilgrims Progress (1678) is more than just an account of the hero’s adventure; because of his name, Christian, and because of the nature of his experience, it is recognized that the text as having a more general significance as an allegory of Christian’s journey through life. That is why allegory is generally treated as a figure of rhetoric, but an allegory does not have to be expressed in language. Medieval thinking accepted allegory as having a reality underlying any rhetorical or fictional uses. The allegory was as true as superficial facts of surface appearances.(*_*)

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Prose: Novel

Novel is one division of small general body of literature called narrative. This includes autobiography, material from history, ordinary or extraordinary events, short story, and play. In all of these we are interested in what happens in a sequence of events. This event may work climax that is to very high degree of interest, crisis of principle social conflict or turning point in the main situation and thus have complication of plot as in the novel, “The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn”.

Novel is fictive prose and it has certain length. It describes about the characters, life action in a plot. A good novel is good by virtue of more interesting, more valuable things such as characterization, plot culture or atmosphere.

Novel is a long story written in prose; because it is long, it differs from a short story in other ways too. So it can be concluded that difference between novel and short story lies in the length, the number of characters, and complexity.

• Kinds of novel
• The Elements of Novel

1. Plot
2. Character and Characterization
3. Setting
4. Subject Matter and Theme
5. Points of View
6. Conflicts

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The Elements of Novel: Conflicts

Conflict is what the reader involves emotionally in what is happening. Meanwhile, Jones says that a conflict consists of three categories: social conflict, psychological conflict, and physical conflict.

There are three kinds of conflicts as follows:
1. Social conflict is a conflict between one person to another. In other words, the conflict occurs between man and man. For example: Huckleberry wants to escape from his widow Douglas’s house and his father.
2. Physical conflict is a conflict between human being and nature or environment. This conflict usually occurs between man and environment.
3. Psychological conflict is a conflict between a man and himself, his conscience, his guilty feeling or simply trying to decide what he is going to do. In other words, the conflict occurs between man and himself.

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Points of View

Point of view is the relationship of the storyteller or narrator to the story. There are three kinds of point of view:
1. Omniscience point of view: the story is told by the author using the third person, and his knowledge and prerogative are unlimited.
2. Third person point of view: the author tells the story in a third person, but he tells it from the view point of one character in the story.
3. First person point of view: the author disappears into one of the characters who tells the story in the first person. This character refers to himself or herself as “I” in the story.

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Subject Matter and Theme

Subject matter is not what the work contains, but what the work refers to. Subject matter is the main idea of the story which consists of one or two phrases. Theme is the central idea or meaning of a story.

From this explanation it can be concluded that theme and subject matter are different. Theme is an idea which the author presents and is usually written in a full sentence. However, subject matter is a specific topic that is written in a phrase.

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The Elements of Novel: Setting

Setting is the context in which the action of a story occurs. The major elements of setting are time, place, and social environment that frame the characters.
The element of setting is divided into four headings. 
The first is the actual geographical location, such as topography and scenery.
The second is the occupations and modes of day to day existence of the characters.
The third is the time in which the action takes place, e. g. historical period, season of the year.
The fourth is the religious, moral, intellectual, social, and emotional environments of the characters.

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Character and Characterization

Character
Character is the important part in the story. Characters are not only persons, but also the elements of nature such as wind, waves, grasses, or even animals. The story will exist only because these things will be treated as if they were human rather than as what we know they are in nature, with exception of stories with animals as characters.

Fictional characters as either flat or round. A flat character is built around a single trait, quality, or idea. This type of character is immediately recognizable and never changes or surprises us. A round
character, on the other hand, satisfies our sense of the actual richness and complexity of human nature. These characters are developed by the author; they change and grow. They often exhibit contradictory traits, and like real human beings, frequently surprise us.

Based on the role in novel, there are two kinds of characters: protagonist and antagonist. Protagonist is a character who dominates in the story/ character who brings the stand point of the author. This character is not necessarily good character, however mostly they have goodness, patience, and kindness. The other is antagonist, it is simply the opposite of the protagonist one, thus, it is defined as character/s who against the protagonist.

Characterization
Term characterization refers to the techniques of creating characters for a narrative,including the process of conveying information about them.

a. The explicit presentation (discursive/ direct method)
In this technique, the author directly shows/ describes the characteristics of each characters
e.g. Andi is a good and generous boy who diligently saves his money in a bank. 
b. The presentation of the character by showing things that reveal the personality of a character. (dramatic/ indirect method) such as:

• Speech 

What does the character say? How does the character speak?

• Thoughts

What is revealed through the character’s private thoughts and feelings?

• Effect on others toward the character.

What is revealed through the character’s effect on other people? How do other characters feel or behave in reaction to the character?

• Actions

What does the character do? How does the character behave?

• Looks

What does the character look like? How does the character dress?

Through those elements (all or part or even just one element) the readers are challenged to draw their own conclusions about the characteristics that attached to certain character.  

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Elements of Novel:Plot

Plot is the sequence of events in a story. Plot is a series of events that leads from the beginning to the end. The events are related to the conflict or the struggle which the main character undergoes.

In the beginning of the story, the exposition, the author introduces the story’s character, setting and situation to the readers in order to enjoy the story. The narrative hook is the point at which the author catches our attention. It is beginning of the rising action of the plot. We become aware of the character’s problems, and,
from this point on, we are in suspense about what will happen next. The rising action adds complications to the problems and increases our interest in the story. The climax is the point of our highest interest and greatest emotional involvement in the story. It is the point in the story when we know for certain how the problems are going to be resolved. The falling action relates the events that are the result of the climax. The
resolution is the end of the story, in which the author gives the problems solving and turns back to the entire events that had happened.

There are two kinds of plot:
straight plot and flashback plot. In a straight plot, the event of the story is based on the sequence of time. On the other hand, in a flashback plot, the event of the story is started from present time and then backward in the past time and comes back to continue to present time.

At the end of the story, there are two plots: close plot and open plot. In a close plot, the author gives resolution at the end of the story. However, in an open plot, the author gives a chance to the reader to make resolution at the end of the story.

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Kinds of Novel

There are six kinds of novel. They are: adventure, psychological, detective, sociological, political, and collective novels.

1 Adventure novel
An adventure novel tells about an exiting and dangerous journey. And also, it talks about experiences and is full with many events. In adventure novels, the most dominant role is man because the content of this story involves man’s problems. If women are mentioned in this novel, they are only minor characters in the story.

2 Psychological novel
This novel emphasizes on the description of the character’s psychological development. In this novel, the author gives attention to the psychological changes of the characters.

3 Detective novel
This novel tells about mysteries, secrets, and crimes. The author always tries to create a good technique by raising suspense to guess the follow up of the story in order that the readers are more interested to read it.

4 Sociological novel
Sociological novel emphasizes on the influence of social and economic condition on the characters and events.

5 Political novel
In this novel, the problems are not observed from people’s problem point of view as individual but it is observed from the group’s problem point of view in the society, and from the reaction of each group to the problem that arises and the character is just used as the proponent of plot.

6 Collective novel
This novel focuses on social problems. In this novel, there is a mix between anthropology and sociology.
The novel investigated in this study belongs to the adventure novel because it tells about exciting and dangerous journeys which are full with conflicts. Besides, the most dominant role is a man and women are only minor characters in the story.

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Things to Contemplate

Things to Contemplate

When you realize how you have wasted your entire life for nothing, since all you have done just unimportant matters for you, your surrounds, and God, that will be a bright spot to start a new leaf. To fix everything you have done won't be as easy as you think, indeed, look deep down to your heart you'll see how cheeky the thing you do to him. As you look back, it just likes playing the recorder over and over, you can stop it but you can't change it. As a human, indeed, you’ll feel a sorry and that is a gift, it means that you have passed the contemplation journey to make you realize about all of it and to make you know what is wrong and what is right.

When you think everything was right and so perfect, in that point you have lost the battle. You don’t have any reason to continue your fighting anymore; you have lost even before the battle is started. Sometimes you feel that nothing else matters since you have everything you need right here, but believe me, you are wrong. Thankful is a must but never give up is more important. Although it is a pain when you feed and let your ambition takes every single conscience in every parts of your life, but surely you can’t just surrender and beg everything you desire to God without doing anything to make it real. So I can say that fight and struggle are something that become, just say, a must to do.

When you feel that a ton of problems come to stop you to light your spirit brighter, in that rate you are facing the real enemy. It is not the visible enemies that you have to worry about, but the invisible one, it always be. There always be options either let him to take control yourself or you fight to defeat him once and forever. Just like a cancer gnaws on your heart, sooner or later, it will weaken your faith and let you die at the end in remorse. Fight back, and always keep your faith guiding you. Don’t you ever think that you’re all alone, since He always opens His “arms” widely for those who walk into His path, He always there to welcome those who come near to Him. Always remember, through pain you can learn valuable thing that be able to sharpen your sense and accelerate your maturity. The more pain you get the more mature you will be.

When you feel everything is messed up, it means that your conscience is sharpened even more than before and your character is growing stronger, you have to thank for that. Do mess things is just natural. No one in this world is so perfect with no mistake, that thing makes you human. You are only human, the place of forgets and mistakes, not angle whose life is dedicated only for God. Doing mistake is not always that bad, as long as you can take a lesson from it to learn how to avoid the similar thing happens. Try to think that do mistake is just the same as gaining new experience, the more experience you got the stronger person you will be.    

When you feel so tired and disappoint, you are learning about earnestness. So tired since you have done many things and you feel that you have put your best on it but at the end it only gives you disappointments.  However, when you decide not to surrender to this bitterness, at this point you show the quality of your earnestness, the earnest of your will, spirit, and heart. Always remember this life is a test, a sustainable test that will only stop when you face your death. How strong you can cope with all the tiredness and disappointments reflects your true earnestness.   

When you feel all your hard works are not appreciated, you are learning about sincerity. Sincerity doesn’t mean giving up to the condition, but do everything you have to do with no expecting anything in return. Perhaps, it will be so wise when you learn this thing from a lover; he will give everything he has to someone who he loves without expecting anything in return but happiness of that one he loves.   So just put your best in things that you have to do, hand the result to God, He is the All Fair and All Seeing. Ignore everything that can make you down. Keep that way; it is because what you have done and are doing will determine your quality in the eyes of God and other people. Does not mean that you have to always care of other people opinions, you may simply say I don’t care what the neighbor’s thinking or I don’t care what do they know about me, but notice this, the value of yourself is reflected from what they say about you that will be the real you.

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THE YOUTH OF THE NATION (30 May 2010)

It seems that the term of politeness is no longer be held and noticed by the youth. This assumption arises along with the development of the youth who tend to glorify the ‘west’ culture instead of their own culture. They call the one who sustains the ‘east’ tradition with the term ‘old-fashioned’ and consider them as ‘unassociated’. This condition is indeed pathetic and apprehensive, for they are the next generation who will shoulder and determine the fate of this nation. Taking more responsibility of that issue is not only the obligation of the parents, the teachers or the government, but also the entire member of society, for they also contribute in creating this kind of condition either directly or indirectly.
It is undeniable that the role of the media has very significant influence in life. This media can both give benefit and destruction in the same time for the entire aspects of life. It can be used to educate the people or vice versa. As one of the pillars of democracy, it is expected that the existence of media is functioned as one of the controlling institutions to the government. However, in Indonesia, after reformation era had been blown, in which the media is no longer chained by the power of the new order regime, the roles of them are ideally expected to have a bigger proportion to educate the people in all aspects of life, they fail to do the task. Although, they have opened the people’ eyes, changed the people’ point of view, and matured their way of thinking in seeing ‘the truth of power’, it must be appreciated indeed, in many other aspects, they also give very devastating influences, especially concerning the way of life of the people.
The people learn the information and tend to imitate behaviors and actions presented by the broadcasting programs consciously or unconsciously. In addition, the entering of the unfiltered information and programs broadcasted by the media, in this case is television, will definitely cause the culture shift among the people, especially for the youth who still in searching their true identity. It is unwise to say that all things come from the ‘west’ are not good, for in fact, many useful information and knowledge we can obtain from there. However, the core of the problem is the incongruousness of values among those two sides world, the ‘west’ tend to magnify what so called liberalism, in which they inclinate to rightfully elevate their logic instead of the heart, in which it is in contrast with the value of the ‘east’. If this inclination spreads and infects the youth, that will be a doom for our nation.
And now the question is how to anticipate or minimize it? Previously, it is stated that the responsibility of that issue is not only in the government’s hand, but also in all the citizen of the nation. All the member of the society must indeed give contribution to control and filter the entering culture that may be give bad influence to the character building of the youth. We can no longer stand with our ignorance; together we guard the blossom of these flowers.

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Holocaust

The phenomenon of holocaust, nowadays, intensively spoken by the world, since, the president chosen of Islamic republic of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad often loudly proclaim it. The story of holocaust has strong relation to the existence of Israeli state, in which they got a piece of land in Palestine in 1945 after War world II from majority of European Countries as the compensation of that issue. The president tried to advocate Palestine people by requestioning the truth of it. According to him holocaust is only a myth consciously spread out to justify the existence of Israeli state. If it was really happened, why should be Palestine not Germany or other European countries that has direct involvement and was responsible on it?
Moreover, the issue of holocaust is not up to date issue. More than fifty years ago it has became controversy among the historians, there were groups which agree and disagree. The first group who agree, majority from Zionist, they consider that Holocaust was really happened, they have obvious evidences to support it. For instance, they believes that the slaughtering of million Jews by Nazi was done in a gas room and that room until nowadays is still exist. According to them, they were butchered by using bio-chemical gas which has green color, and it can be found in that room. Unfortunately, the evidence once never be shown to the public. In the other side was group who disagree called revisionist. They strongly refuse and consider it as a myth, according to them holocaust is the greatest conspiracy ever done by “West” to justify the existence of Israeli state which is supposed as “the hand of West” or “the golden boy of USA” among Middle-East countries. They deny all the evidence given by Zionist by conducting some research. For instance for the gas used as the tools of butchered, hellion, they examined that that gas can not kill living creature, so how can it be used in that genocide as the tool.
In European countries, holocaust becomes some kind of belief in which there is no one who allows doubting, asking or conducting research to verify the truth of it. They are forced to believe without being given a chance to ask why; prison is waiting for those who disbelieve it. More extreme, in some countries there is a written law regulated it, usually someone who disbelieve holocaust is judged as anti-Jews and has to be jailed, they equivocate those kind of people will endanger the harmony of religion relationship.
Recently, a seminar discussed about holocaust was held in Teheran Iran, it was attended by many historians over the world interested in this issue, not only from revisionist historians but also from historians who support it. Indeed, although there is no agreement reached concerning this issue, all participants feel satisfied, because it is the first time seminar has ever been held which discuss concerning this issue. However, there was accidence, after attending this seminar; those historians have to get in touch with their state’s law, even some of them were arrested, and they were accused as anti-Jews.
Moreover, the issue of holocaust for the first time appeared after war world II. The European believes that there was a genocide done by NAZI to estimating 6.500.000 Jews in Europe especially in Germany. Adolf Hitler, the leader of NAZI known as leader who hates Jews very much. At the end of the war, for the consequences, there was an agreement signed by the leader of Germany and Zionist. Germany had to pay five thousand marks for one head; it was paid in installment started in 1965 until 2020. The European countries agreed to relocate the rest living of Jews, for this, they agreed to give a piece of land in Palestine; they reasoned that the land of ancestor of Jews was in Palestine. However, the question is, was the Palestine who live nowadays lived at the moment when million of Jews was expelled by the king of Rome, Nero? Can sin be heir? Should innocent people become the victim?
No matter whether we agree or disagree to the issue, the obvious thing is million innocent die because of this.

May God Smile Upon Us Always

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