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THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF LOVE TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE MAIN CHARACTER AS SEEN IN NICHOLAS SPARKS’ DEAR JOHN

AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS

Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra in English Letters

I NYOMAN TRI SUPUTRA

Student Number: 084214022

ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS FACULTY OF LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA 2012

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A Sarjana Sastra Undergraduate Thesis

THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF LOVE TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE MAIN CHARACTER AS SEEN IN NICHOLAS SPARKS’ DEAR JOHN

I NYOMAN TRI SUPUTRA

Student Number 084214022

Approved by

Drs. Hirmawan Wijanarka, M.Hum. August 10, 2012 Advisor

Adventina Putranti S.S., M.Hum. August 10, 2012 Co-Advisor

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A Sarjana Sastra Undergraduate Thesis

THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF LOVE TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE MAIN CHARACTER AS SEEN IN NICHOLAS SPARKS’ DEAR JOHN

I NYOMAN TRI SUPUTRA

Student Number 084214022

Defended before the Board of Examines on August 30,2012 and Declared Acceptable

BOARD OF EXAMINERS

NAME SIGNATURE

Chairman : Dr. F.X. Siswadi M.A. ______Secretary : Dra. Sri Mulyani M.A. ______Member 1. : Ni Luh Putu Rosiandani S.S., M.Hum. ______Member 2. : Drs. Hirmawan Wijanarka, M.Hum. ______Member 3. : Adventina Putranti S.S., M.Hum. ______

Yogyakarta, August 31, 2012. Faculty of Letters Sanata Dharma University Dean

Dr. F.X. Siswadi M.A.

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LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS

Yang bertandatangan di bawah ini, saya mahasiswa Universitas Sanata Dharma: Nama: : I Nyoman Tri Suputra Nomor mahasiswa : 084214022 Demi pengembangan ilmu pengetahuan, saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma karya ilmiah saya yang berjudul:

THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF LOVE TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF THEMAIN CHARACTER AS SEEN IN NICHOLAS SPARKS’DEAR JOHN

Beserta perangkat yang diperlukan (bila ada). Dengan demikian saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma untuk menyimpan, mengalihkan dalam bentuk media lain, mengelolanya dalam bentuk pangkalan data, mendistribusikan secara terbatas, dan mempublikasikannya di internet atau media lain untuk kepentingan akademis tanpa perlu meminta ijin dari saya maupun memberi royalty kepada saya selama tetap mencantumkan nama saya sebagai penulis. Demikian pernyataan ini yang dapat saya buat dengan sebenarnya. Dibuat di Yogyakarta Pada tanggal : 31 Agustus 2012 Yang Menyatakan

I Nyoman Tri Suputra

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STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY

This is to certify that all ideas, phrases, sentences, unless otherwise stated, are the ideas, phrases, and sentences of the thesis writer. The writer understands the full consequences including degree cancellation if he took somebody else’s ideas, phrases, or sentences without proper references

Yogyakarta, August 31, 2012

I NYOMAN TRI SUPUTRA

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For My Beloved Family

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I hereby would like to express my gratitude to those who have helped me finishing this undergraduate thesis with their kindness, attention, patience, intelligence and knowledge.

First of all, I would like to give my greatest gratitude to God Ida Sang Hyang

Widhi Wasa for His blessing during the completion of this thesis. He has guided me anytime I was stuck in writing this thesis.

I also would like to express my deep gratitude to my advisor Drs. Hirmawan

Wijanarka, M.Hum and my co-advisor Adventina Putranti S.S., M.Hum who have spent their precious time to read and correct my thesis patiently. All suggestions and corrections they have given to me have encouraged me in completing this thesis.

To my beloved family, my mother, Ni Made Ratnasitiadi, my father, Drs.

Made Suartama M.Sc, my brother, I Made Astina Putra ST, and my aunty Mektu, I dedicated this thesis to you. Thanks for your unstoppable love, prayer, support, care and for keeping my spirit to survive. I really appreciate and thank them for the unconditional help that encouraged me in writing this thesis.

I also thank someone special, someone who always supports me in whatever situation, for giving me her best attention and love until I can finish my thesis. It is she who cheers me up when I am feeling blue, the only girl who will never give up on me. She is the best gift I have ever got in my life.

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Furthermore, thanks for all my crazy friends who always help and accompany me. Thank you to all Public Relation Staff for helping and encouraging me to finish this thesis. The last but not least I would like to thank everyone who works in English

Letters Department, the administrative staff, especially Mbak Ninik, and the lecturers for giving me chance to have precious and unforgettable study in Sanata Dharma

University.

I Nyoman Tri Suputra

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

TITLE PAGE ...... i APPROVAL PAGE ...... ii ACCEPTANCE PAGE ...... iii LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI ...... iv STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY ...... v DEDICATION PAGE ...... vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ...... vii TABLE OF CONTENTS ...... ix ABSTRACT ...... xi ABTRAK ...... xii CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION ...... 1 A. Background of the Study ...... 1 B. Problem Formulations ...... 5 C. Objectives of the Study ...... 5 D. Definition of Terms ...... 6

CHAPTER II: THEORETICAL REVIEW ...... 7 A. Review of Related Studies ...... 7 B. Review of Related Theories ...... 11 1. Theories of Character and Characterization ...... 11 2. Theories of Character Development ...... 14 3. Theories of Love ...... 16 C. Theoretical Framework ...... 17

CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY ...... 19 A. Object of the Study ...... 19 B. Approach of the Study ...... 20 C. Method of the Study...... 21

CHAPTER IV: ANALYSIS ...... 23 A. The Development of the Main Character ...... 23 1. The Characteristics of John Tyree before Falling in Love ...... 24 a. A Person Who Cannot Do Self-introspection ...... 24 b. A Person Who Hardly Accept Someone’s Weakness ...... 28 c. A Temperamental Person ...... 29 d. A Man Who Is Never Serious With Women ...... 30 2. The Characteristics of John Tyree after Falling in Love ...... 31 a. A Person Who Can Do Self-introspection ...... 31 b. A Person Who Is Able to Accept Someone’s Weakness ...... 33 c. A Patient Person...... 36 d. A Man Who is Serious To Woman ...... 38

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B. The Contributions of Love to Development of the Main Character ...... 41 a. Doing Self-introspection ...... 41 b. Loving and Understanding Others ...... 43 c. Being Patient ...... 44 d. Developing the Way of Loving Woman...... 44

CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION ...... 47 BIBLIOGRAHY ...... 49 APPENDIX ...... 51 Appendix 1: Summary of Dear John ...... 51

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ABSTRACT

I Nyoman Tri Suputra. 2012. The Contributions of Love to the Development of the Main Character as Seen in Nicholas Sparks’ Dear John. Yogyakarta: Department of English Letters. Sanata Dharma University, 2012.

This thesis tries to discuss the development of John’s characteristics in Nicholas Sparks’ Dear John. John’s personalities seem to be developed under the influences of love. Since love takes big role in developing John’s characteristics, the contributions of love are the goal of this study. Related to the title of this thesis, this thesis has two objectives: 1) To identify the character development of the main character which are influenced by the presence of love and 2) To find out the contribution of love to the development of the main character. This thesis writing is an analytical study that uses library research method. The writer uses formalistic approach to analyze how love changes John’s characteristics and the contributions of love to the development of John’s characteristics because the writer does not need any information outside the text. The aim of the thesis will be focused only on the novel itself. The result of this study shows that John’s characteristics develop from negative to positive. Before experiencing love, John is portrayed as a bad person who cannot do self-introspection, a person who cannot accept his father’s weakness and feels embarrassed to his father, a man who cannot control his own anger, and a person who is never serious with women. When falling in love with Savannah, John becomes good person who is able to do self-introspection, a thinker who can accept his father’s weakness, loves and understands his father, a patient person, and a man who is serious with woman. As John develops under the influences of love, love gives many contributions to his character development such as deeper thought, loving and understanding others, emotion control, and seriousness.

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ABSTRAK

I Nyoman Tri Suputra. 2012. The Contributions of Love to the Development of the Main Character as Seen in Nicholas Sparks’ Dear John. Yogyakarta: Jurusan Sastra Inggris. Universitas Sanata Dharma, 2012

Skripsi ini berusaha untuk membahas perubahan kepribadian John dalam novel Dear John karya Nicholas Sparks. Perubahan ini tampaknya disebabkan oleh pengaruh cinta. Karena cinta berperan penting dalam mengubah kepribadian John, kontribusi cinta itu sendiri menjadi tujuan dari skripsi ini. Sesuai dengan judul, skripsi ini mempunyai dua tujuan: 1) Untuk mengetahui perubahan kepribadian tokoh utama yang dipengaruhi oleh kehadiran cinta dan 2) Untuk menunjukan kontribusi cinta terhadap perubahan kepribadian tokoh utama. Skripsi ini adalah sebuah studi analisis yang menerapkan metode kepustakaan. Penulis menggunakan pendekatan formalistik untuk menganalisis bagaimana cinta mengubah kepribadian John dan apa saja kontribusi cinta terhadap perubahan kepribadian John karena penulis tidak membutuhkan informasi diluar novel. Tujuan dari skripsi hanya akan terfokus hanya pada novel itu sendiri. Hasil dari penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa kepribadian John berubah dari negatif ke positif. sebelum merasakan cinta, John digambarkan sebagai seseorang yang tidak bisa mengintrospeksi diri, seseorang yang tidak bisa menerima kekurangan dan merasa malu terhadap ayahnya, seseorang yang tidak bisa mengendalikan amarah, dan sesorang yang tidak pernah serius terhadap wanita. Saat jatuh cinta kepada Savannah, John menjadi seseorang yang bisa mengintrospeksi diri, sesorang yang bias menerima kekurangan dan mengerti ayahnya, orang yang sabar, dan sesorang yang serius kepada wanita. Karena John berubah dibawah pengaruh cinta, cinta memberikan banyak kontribusi untuk perubahan kepribadiannya seperti berpikir lebih mendalam, menyayangi dan mengerti sesama, kontrol emosi, dan keseriusan.

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CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study

As human beings, people need to share what is happening in their life to others. It is important to share what we are passing through whether it is pleasing or not. Those who feel hard to share their own experience can simply express their feeling since some people do think that way. There are many ways to express it. One way to express people’s feelings, ideas, thoughts, and experiences is writing literature, for example a novel. In novels, the authors often reveal their opinions about thing related to their own life whether or not it is happened. Roberts and Jacobs said

Literature refers to written (and also spoken) compositions designed to tell stories, dramatize situations, and reveal thoughts and emotions, and also, more importantly, to interest, entertain stimulate, broaden, and ennoble readers (1989: 2) Literature is a composition that can be both written and spoken. Through this composition, the readers may get knowledge about things or life they have never experienced. It attracts the reader’s thought in certain way and it may be about faith, passion, sacrifice, religion, and even love.

Everyone in this world can feel love. In general, love is feeling that is hard to be explained as it only can be felt. Love is a word with many connotations.

According to the love definition stated by Firestone

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Actions that fit the description of loving relationship are expression of affection, both physical and emotional; a wish to offer pleasure and satisfaction to one’s mate; tenderness, compassion, and sensitivity to the needs of the other; a desire for shared activities and pursuits; an ongoing, honest exchange of personal feelings the process of offering concern, comfort, and outward assistance for the love object’s aspirations (2006: 31) From that definition, the writer gets an idea about the meaning of love, and the way to love each other. Love is a mixed feeling of affection, attraction, and enjoyment. Love is often experienced when someone is thinking about anyone else in a special way and when he or she is around that special somebody. Most people enjoyed and feel wonderful when they experience love. This is why, perhaps, love is often raised as the main topic of literary works as we can see in Nicholas Sparks’ works.

Nicholas Charles Sparks was born in Omaha, Nebraska, on December 31,

1965. As a child, he lived in Minnesota, Los Angeles, and Grand Island, Nebraska, finally settling in Fair Oaks, California, at the age of eight. His father was a professor, his mother a homemaker, then an optometrist’s assistant. He lived in Fair Oaks through high school, graduated valedictorian in 1984, and received a full track scholarship to the University of Notre Dame.

After breaking the Notre Dame school record as part of a relay team in 1985 as a freshman (a record which still stands). During that summer, he wrote his first novel, though it was never published. He majored in Business Finance and graduated with high honors in 1988.

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While living in Sacramento, he wrote his second novel in the same year, though again, it was not published. He worked a variety of jobs over the next three years, including real estate appraisal, waiting tables, selling dental products by phone, and started his own small manufacturing business which struggled from the beginning. In 1990, he collaborated on a book with Billy Mills, the Olympic Gold

Medalist, and it was published by Feather Publishing before later being picked up by

Random House. (It was later re-issued by Hay House Books.) Though it received scant publicity, sales topped 50,000 copies in the first year of release.

Nicholas Sparks wrote many beautiful novels which some of them were bestsellers. He started writing his first novel in 1994, at the age of 28. Then he continued expressing his pleasure in his novel. He wrote The Notebook over a period of six months and he followed that with Message in a Bottle (1998), A Walk to

Remember (1999), The Rescue (2000), A Bend in the Road (2001), Nights in

Rodanthe (2002), The Guardian (2003), The Wedding (2003), True Believer (2005),

At First Sight (a sequel to True Believer) (2005), Dear John (2006), The Choice

(2007), The Lucky One (2008), The Last Song (2009), Safe Haven (2010) and a non- fiction memoir, Three Weeks With My Brother (2004), written with his brother,

Micah, all with Warner Books / Grand Central Publishing. All were domestic and international best sellers, with almost $80 million in worldwide sales, and were translated into more than 45 languages. His newest book, The Best of Me, will be

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released in October 2011. Those are the novel written by Nicholas Sparks.

(www.nicholassparks.com, 2011)

In spite of the fact that Nicholas Sparks wrote many novels, in this thesis, the writer will focus on one of Nicholas Sparks’ bestseller novel entitled Dear John. The writer is interested in analyzing Dear John because the story is fantastic. It touches the writer’s heart and teaches him good things about the real meaning of true love, especially of how to love our beloved. Love can also change people’s attitude toward his or her life. Love is very important in our life. When people love other, it can be their family, their friend, or their beloved; people will give their best and also sacrifice something which is very important in their life. Dear John is a novel in which love takes a big role. This novel shows how one’s personality can change when he was falling in love with someone. It includes the contribution of love and the sacrifice for the love itself.

Dear John is a love story of a soldier named John Tyree with a college student named Savannah Lynn Curtis. John has enlisted in the army after high school because he did not know what else to do. He is an arrogant person, cares about nothing, gets bad relationship with his dad, and feels lack of love. Everything are about to change when he falls in love with Savannah. The major change is on John’s personalities. He becomes a different person than he would ever imagine. He is more patient, cares with everyone else especially his father so that he decides to make up his bad relationship with him. In spite of the fact that Savannah does not marry him,

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never does he feel mad of her. He helps her, instead of breaking up the marriage, when she is in trouble. John experiences the deep meaning of a true love. This thesis is worth studying because at present time people still confuse about what love is.

There are many connotations of love. This topic is chosen to trace the contributions of love. Those contributions are derived from the character development. Once people experience true love, they are able to understand the value of love. It is important to know the value of love if we want to clarify what love is. Since John, the main character, is changed because of love, this novel is the perfect example to research about the contributions of love.

B. Problem Formulation

There are two problems formulated in this thesis:

1. How does the main character develop?

2. What is the contribution of love to the development of the main character?

C. Objectives of the Study

The goals of this thesis are to find out the personalities of the main character, to identify the character development of the main character influenced by love and to determine the contribution of love to the development of the main character in

Nicolas Sparks’ Dear John.

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When analyzing the contribution of love to the main character, the writer needs to know the characteristics of the main character. Then, the writer will be able to identify the influence of love toward the main character. Finally, the writer can obtain the character development which leads him in identifying the contribution of love.

D. Definition of Terms

According to Hauck in his book entitled How to Love and be Loved, “Love is that powerful feeling one has for persons, animals or things that has satisfied, is satisfying, or will satisfy our deepest desires and needs”. (1983: 16)

According to Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary of Current English,

As a noun (n) love means a strong feeling of deep affection for sb that you are sexually attracted to; a person, a thing or an activity that you like very much; as a verb (v) love means to have very strong feelings of affection for subject; to like and enjoy sth very much (2005: 913) It can be noticed that love can be employed as noun and as a verb. However, generally, love can be classified as a strong feeling and affection to someone or something that you like very much.

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CHAPTER II

THEORETICAL REVIEW

A. Review of Related Studies

One important thing of analyzing the work of literature is criticism because it shows people attention to the literary work itself. It means that people put their attention to that work and it can attract people to see or even to read it. Critiques also help readers to get the idea whether or not a literary work may hasve some important aspects. Besides, it helps the authors of literary works to maintain any unconscious mistakes and to improve their writings. Most of the criticisms appear to show people reaction toward the work itself. They can be arguments, comments, agreement/disagreement, and so on.

Nicholas Sparks is a very famous author who came from North Carolina,

America. Most of his novels become New York Time bestseller. He wrote a lot of novels, Safe Heavens, The Lucky One, The Last Song, A Walk To Remember,

Message in a Bottle, The Choice, At the First Sight, True Believer, Three Weeks With

My Brother, The Guardian, The Wedding, Nights In Rodanthe, A Bend In The Road,

The Notebook, The Rescue, and Dear John. Most of them have tragic ending and are adapted into Major Motion Picture.

There are many criticisms about Sparks’ Dear John. The first criticism comes from The Book Vixen:

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Dear John is story of love, loss and emotion…It is a story you will not soon forget. You will cry. Your heart will ache. You will find yourself asking "what if...?” Dear John is about a love lost but not forgotten. If you love a good, seamless love story that pulls on your heart strings, then you need to read Dear John. (www.goodreads.com, 2011) That criticism proves that although Dear John makes people who read this novel get the fantastic feel of happiness and sadness. Besides, it touches the hearts of the readers, and after reading it, the story will stay on the readers’ minds. Those are why this novel is highly recommended to read. The Washington Post-Margaux Wexberg

Sanchez stated

Only in a novel such as this could we find our political buzzwords- peacekeeping, IEDs, hurricane relief-interspersed with this sentiments: "And when her lips met mine, I knew that I could live to be a hundred and visit every country in the world, but nothing would ever compare to that single moment when I first kissed the girl of my dreams and knew that my love would last forever." (http://search.barnesandnoble.com, 2011)

The criticism proves that Dear John touched the hearts of the readers, and after reading it, the story will stay on our minds and it is hard to be forgotten. The message is also good to be applied.

Another criticism is derived from Book Page in the interview with the author of Dear John, Nicholas Sparks, by Trisha Ping:

Nicholas Sparks has been the undisputed master of the modern-day love story…Dear John, follows two star-crossed lovers…altering decisions when love and honor intersect. (http://bookpage.com, 2011) Through that criticism, the writer assumes that Nicholas Sparks is a great author of modern love stories. Despite he is master of love story, his stories are usually not happy ending.

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Nicholas sparks is well-known as a love-themed author. Since most of Sparks’ books are love-themed, several researchers have done their research to figure out the love manifests seen on his books. One of them is the study conducted by Christina.

(Merry Christina, The Values Of Love Reflected In Nicholas Sparks’ A Walk To

Remember, A Sarjana Sastra Undergraduate Thesis. 2007). The writer took the statement from Christina’s undergraduate thesis

Sparks is offering something different by creating a character, Jamie, who is able to change Landon’s heart and influences him and her surrounding with her kind heart. Sparks is also good at words choosing because when the writer read the novel, the words seemed to influence her in the way of thinking and feeling of the characters’ heart…The story includes spirituality, moral, and many values that happen in life. The story is about beauty, power and innocent of first love…The story contains many values of love (Christina, 2007: 4-5)

Christina analyzed one of Nicholas Sparks’ best-selling novels entitled A Walk to

Remember with similar topic to this thesis, love. From the quotation above, the writer knows that Sparks’ is an author who has quality in word choosing that makes the readers interest and feel they are part of the story. Christina found that the story represents many values of love including spirituality, beauty, moral, and power of love.

Because of the focus of this analysis is finding the contributions of love to the character development, the writer needs to know the scientific studies done before about the character development in order to limit the analysis. The thesis made by

Ginardi (Alvin Ginardi, The Influences Of Minor Characters On Harriet’s

Personality Development In Rumer Godden’s The River, A Sarjana Sastra

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Undergraduate Thesis. 2010) He found that people develop for many reasons and causes

The people who live around her and the events happened in her childhood life influenced her way of thinking. Conflicts in her life shows that human being’s personality are often influenced by conditions around them (Ginardi, 2010: 3) In Ginardi’s thesis, the main character develops because of the influence by the minor character. The childhood events and conditions also take role in developing one’s personalities.

The writer agrees with all critical praise above that the book is amazingly great and touching. The story of the novel will touch the hearts of the readers, and hardly do the readers forget about the story. This story also useful to read because the messages behind are good to be applied. Despite the truth that many people have already analyzed this novel, this undergraduate thesis is trying to discover something that has not been done before. In this thesis, the writer does not only analyze the personalities of the character, but also how love can change one’s personalities. Thus, the contributions of love to the main character which is revealed from the character development becomes the major focus of this analysis. The writer has not yet found another researcher who analyzed the contributions of love seen in Dear John.

Therefore, this undergraduate thesis is different from another thesis done by many researchers.

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B. Review of Related Theories

To answer all the problems formulated in this thesis, the writer needs some theories.

1. Theory of Character and Characterization

Since the analysis deals with the major character, the theories of character and characterization will be useful. There are many theories of character and characterization.

In his book A Glossary of Literary Terms, Abrams says

Characters are the persons in dramatic or narrative work, who are interpreted by the reader as possessing particular moral, intellectual, and emotional qualities by inferences from what the persons say and their distinctive ways of saying it. He says there are two ways of characterization: showing and telling. In showing, the author simply presents the characters talking and acting, and leaves it entirely up to the reader to infer the motives and dispositions that lie behind what they say and do. In telling, the author intervenes authoritatively in order to describe, and often to evaluate, the motives and dispositional qualities of the characters (2009: 42-43) Meanwhile, Roberts and Jacobs say

Character in literature generally, and in fiction specifically, is an extended verbal representation of a human being, the inner self that determines thought, speech, and behavior. (1989: 145) Arp and Johnson in the book entitled Perrine’s Literature: Structure, Sound, and Senses state

Analyzing characterization is more difficult than describing plot, for human character is infinitely complex, variable, and ambiguous. He states that author

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presents their characters either directly or indirectly. In direct presentation they tell us straight out, by exposition or analysis, what the characters are alike, or they have another character in the story describe them. In indirect presentation the author shows us the characters trough their actions; we determine what they are like by what they say or do. (2009: 161-162) Kenney says that there are three character traits to find out. They are social, physical, and psychological. A character’s social traits are those that have to do with the character’s place in society. For instance, to what social class the character belongs, character’s marital status and what a character does for living. Character physical traits can be answered by some questions such as whether the character is ugly or beautiful, fat or thin, tall or short, long hair or short hair, fair skinned or black skinned, and eye. Finally, the psychological traits include personality, such as emotional or intellectual, optimistic or pessimistic, secured or unsecured and observable behavior such as rhythm of speech, quality of gesture and others (1988:

32).

Murphy in (1972: 161-173) Understanding Unseen states that there are nine ways to characterize a character,

1. Personal Description

The author describes a person’s appearance and clothes, such as the face, skin,

eyes, and the castaway’s extraordinary clothing.

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2. Characters as Seen by Another

The author describes him through the eyes and opinions of another, conveys

through his choice of words and phrases, such as unquiet eyes, dim smile, rare

sound of her voice, unapproachable aspect, gazing at him stealthily.

3. Speech

The author gives an insight into the character of one of the persons in the book

through what that person says. Whenever a person speaks, whenever he is in

conversation with another, whenever he puts forward an opinion, he is giving

some clue to his character.

4. Past Life

The author gives a clue to events that have helped to shape a person’s character;

by direct comment, through the person’s thoughts, through his conversation or

through the medium of another person.

5. Conversation of Others

The author can also give clues to a person’s character through the conversations

of other people and the things they say about him. People do talk about other

people and the things they say often give as a clue to the character of the person

spoken about.

6. Reactions

The author can also give a clue to a person’s character by letting us know that

person reacts to various situations and events.

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7. Direct Comment

The author can describe or comment on a person’s character directly.

8. Thoughts

The author gives direct knowledge of what a person is thinking about. In this

respect he is able to do what he cannot do in real life. He can tell us what different

people are thinking.

9. Mannerisms

The author describes a person’s mannerisms, habits, or idiosyncrasies which tell

something about his character.

From those theories the writer knows what character is and knows how to characterize a character. By applying the various theories of characterization above, the writer can find the characteristic of characters in a literary work, how they are described, what kind of characters they are, and the impact of a character in the story.

Those theories provide complete way to analyze the characters of this work.

2. Theory of Character Development

In the analysis of the character development, types of characters theories are required to see whether a character is developed. There are many theories of type of character. According to bookclub, “character development describes both how characters grow and change over time or throughout the course of a fictional story”.

(www.pfspublishing.com/bookclub)

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Robertson say A succinct definition of the process of character development is difficult because character is such an ambiguous term, and can mean greatly different things to different people. In general, character development could be defined as encompassing the development of a few simple traits such as loyalty, honesty, wisdom and courage (www.ehow.com) Meanwhile according to the theory posted in a website on the internet Character development is the change in characterization of a dynamic character, who changes over the course of a narrative. At its core, it shows a character changing. Most narrative fiction in any media will feature some display of this. While the definition of "good" and "bad" character development is subjective, it's generally agreed upon that good character development is believable and rounds out a well-written character. Bad character development leads to the feeling that someone is manipulating the events to their own whims, or even reduces the character's believability (www.tvtropes.org)

So, character development can be defined as change or grow of characters in the novel. The change or growths of characters’ traits usually happen to dynamic characters.

Arp and Johnson say

There are two types of character: flat and round. Flat characters usually have only one or two predominant traits; they can be summed up in a sentence or two. By contrast, round characters are complex and many-sided; they have the three-dimensional quality of real people. (2009: 162) According to Robert and Jacob

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particular group or class. Because they do not change or grow, they are static, not dynamic like round characters. (1989: 145) From those theories, the writer is able to judge whether the character is developed or not. A character is called dynamic if there is development or growth after experiencing something, in this analysis, love. In contrast, static character is not developed or growth.

3. Theory of Love

Theory of love is required to see the contribution of love to the main character. Firestone, in his book entitled Sex and Love in Intimate Relationship say

From above statement, the writer thinks that love is an expression of affection. It can be physical and/or emotional. People need to do something for those they love because love is not only a statement. They have a desire to offer concern, pleasure and satisfaction to their beloved. Therefore, if people love someone, they should offer their best.

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According to the love definition as seen on a website in the internet

It can be best described as a very strong feeling that is deep down in the pit of your stomach. You experience this feeling when you are around that special somebody or when you happen to be thinking about them. These strong feelings can be of affection, attraction and enjoyment. In a way, it is kind of like all three of these feelings rolled up into one emotion. Many people feel wonderful when they experience this. (http://meaning-of-love.com, 2011) From above quotation, the writer concludes that love is a very strong emotion which is caused by admiration. Love will be experienced when people have strong feeling such as affection, attraction, and enjoyment to somebody else. Many people feel wonderful when they are falling love.

C. Theoretical Framework

The writer has already stated some theories that will be used to analyze the contribution of loves as seen in the novel Dear John. Those theories are divided into three; they are theory of character and characterization, theory of character development, and theory of love. Those theories are needed to help the author in analyzing the novel and in answering the two questions stated in the problem formulation.

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The first theory is theory of character and characterization. The writer uses theories of character and characterization to identify the personalities of the main character, John Tyree and how he is described. The second theory is theory of character development. Since the main character in Dear John is a dynamic character, several theories of character development are used to find out the growth of main character which is influenced by love. The main character is developed. It means that he got ‘change’ in his life. This change can be either better or worse.

The third theory is theory of love. Through this theory, the writer is able to understand the contribution of love. Through the theory the writer is able to define whether or not John experiences love. The contributions of love will be determined by the influence of love to the character development. Theory of love is very useful to understand what love is because from those theories, the writer is able to find out whether or not the main character experiences love. Therefore, however, the writer attaches the general theory of love only. Thus, the writer will see how love takes big role in changing main character’s attitude toward his life. In this thesis the writer focus on the contribution of love to the development of the main character only instead of the deep meaning of love itself. Therefore, theories of love used in this analysis are not the theory in which love is seen philosophically.

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CHAPTER III

METHODOLOGY

A. Object of the Study

The object of this thesis is a novel Dear John by Nicholas Sparks. The novel was published in 2009 by Grand Central Publishing in New York. This novel was awarded the #1 New York Times bestsellers. The setting of the story is Lenoir, North

Carolina. This novel is Sparks’ eleventh novel containing 335 pages and divided into twenty chapters. This novel is also translated into a film version which is released on

February 5, 2010.

Dear John tells the story of John Tyree and Savannah Lynn Curtis. This novel is written using the first-person point of view. The narrator is 23-year-old soldier who was the main character in the story. His whole life and attitude was suddenly changed when he met the girl of his dreams.

Dear John is a story of true everlasting love between two young people, John

Tyree and Savannah Lynn Curtis. John Tyree, a 23-year-old soldier living in a small town of Lenoir, North Carolina. He had enlisted in the army after high school because he did not know what else to do. During the furlough, he met the girl of his dreams,

Savannah Lynn Curtis, a 21-year-old college student at the University in North

Carolina. While falling in love with Savannah, John discovered how love can transform him in ways he never could have imagined.

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B. Approach of the Study

In this thesis, the writer uses formalistic approach to answer the problem formulation. According to Guerin in A Handbook of Critical Approaches to

Literature:

The formalist critic abandons historical and biographical information and instead focuses on the text as a discrete object. This approach is sometimes characterized as “art for art’s sake”. Formalist critic came to be called the New Criticism when several prominent critics adopted the name in the 1930s. (2011: 121)

From the above quotation, the writer concludes that formalistic approach does not need any information outside the text, such as historical and biographical background of the novel or the author, when analyzing works of literature. The aim of the thesis will be focused only on the novel itself. This approach is chosen to analyze Dear

John to find out the character development of the main character. Since the main topic of this analysis is the contribution of love to the development of the main character, this approach is suitable because the focus of the thesis will be on describing the personalities of the main character, analyzing the character development of main character, and the contribution of love toward the main character that falls in love. In addition, the thesis will also deal mostly with the feeling of love which influences one’s thoughts, feelings, and actions.

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C. Method of the Study

The method used in this thesis was a library research. The primary source of this thesis was Nicholas Sparks’ Dear John. And the secondary sources were many literature theories which were collected from the library of Sanata Dharma

University. Among others are Abrams’ A Glossary of Literary Terms, Arp and

Johnson’s Perrine’s Literature: Structure, Sound, and Senses, and Roberts and

Jacobs in their book Fiction: An Introduction to Reading and Writing.

There were several steps taken by the writer to examine this novel. The first step was reading the primary source, Dear John. The writer read the novel fully and tried to understand what the story was about. The writer also tried to place himself to the position of the main character, John Tyree, in order to understand his feeling and what kind of situation he had faced.

The second step was reading the secondary sources. The writer read many literature theories which were related to the novel. In this step, the writer also re-read the novel. This time, the writer read slower than the first time. He really paid attention to the passage, actions, and the words in every chapter.

The third step was formulating the problems. After the writer had read and re- read the primary and secondary sources, he formulated two important problems which would be discussed further in the process of examining.

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The fourth step was answering the first problem formulation. The writer tried to answer the first problem formulation by observing the main character to get the personalities and the character development.

The fifth step was answering the second problem formulation. The writer identified the contributions of love by looking at the character development of the main character.

The sixth step was the conclusion process. In this session, the writer concluded the whole chapter of the thesis that had been discussed. The conclusion was derived from the answers of the problems formulation.

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CHAPTER IV

ANALYSIS

In this chapter, the writer firstly discusses the characteristic of John Tyree as the main character to portray his characteristic. Secondly the discussion is on the character development of the John’s characteristic. The development is influenced with love and it is clarified to know which characteristics of John clearly developed.

And finally the discussion of the contribution of love to John is presented from the character development.

A. The Development of the Main Character

When analyzing the character development of the main character, analyzing his characteristics will be the entry point to know how he is portrayed in the beginning and the end of the story. In order to know the characteristic of a character presented in a novel, the writer tries to employ the all theories of character and characterization stated on the page 10.

Rendering to theory of characterization stated by Arp in Perrine’s Literature

(2009: 161-162), Nicholas Sparks’ Dear John portrays John, the main character, in a direct presentation. He describes the main character through the explanation of the narrator who is the main character itself. John is also experienced so-called character development. His characteristics are changed in some occasions and there is a reason

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behind. Therefore, by applying Robert and Jacob theory of character (1989: 45), John is categorized as round or dynamic character.

Round characters have many realistic traits and are relatively fully developed. To the degree that round characters have many individual and unpredictable human traits, and because they undergo change or growth as a result of their experiences, they may be considered dynamic. (1989: 145) Round or dynamic character is a character that is relatively developed. They may undergo change as result of their experiences. The developments are not always from bad to good but it is possible for a character to develop from good to bad, good to better, and even from bad to worse.

1. The Characteristic of John Tyree Before Falling in Love a. A Person Who Cannot Do Self-introspection

In the beginning of the story, John is described as an active person. According to Oxford Advance Learners Dictionary of Current English (2005: 15), active means

“always busy doing things, especially physical activities; doing something regularly”.

This characteristic can be proven with bellow quotation:

I was always in motion and hated to be alone…school for me was like a social club with sports added in…I bounced from here to there forever asking him long it took me to run to the end of the block and back…I had brown hair and eyes, and my olive skin would darken to a deep tan by May (p.11) John thinks school is not a place to learn and study which means he has different view of school with anyone else, he is an active person as he always does something

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in his youth, and he loves to discover something new by travelling to a different place.

Murphy in Understanding Unseen (1972: 161-171) states that “The author describes a person’s appearance and clothes, such as the face, skin, eyes, and the castaway’s extraordinary clothing”. The theory helps the writer to find out the John’s appearance.

Kenney (1988: 32) says that there are three character traits to find out. They are social, physical, and psychological. In this discussion, the writer finds out the physical of John that he has brown hair and eyes and he has olive skin.

The second characteristic of John is he cannot do self-introspection. Never does he do kind of reflection toward his life and his behavior. It makes John dislikes both his life and his father. John is portrayed as common boys who prefer the outside activities such as sports, stalking girls, and so on rather than home activities. John lives with his father and there is no presence of mother in his life. His mother had run off when he was less than a year. John is different with his father in some personalities.

He was the quietest man I’ve ever known. He asked few questions about what was going on in my life, and while he rarely grew angry, he rarely joked, either. He lived for routine. He didn’t date, nor did he spend weekend nights playing poker with his buddies; the telephone could stay silent for weeks (p.12)

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From above quotation, the writer knows that John’s father is a loner. Loner is “a person who is often alone or who prefers to be alone, rather than with other people”

(Oxford 2005: 905). While John grows up like other boys lived in the same atmosphere. ”Like most boys, I started to care about other things: sports and girls and cars and music, primarily, and by fourteen, I was spending little time at home.”

(p.15). He does not spend his time at home like his father does and he is interested in music, sport, and girls. The major difference between John and his father is John has extroverted characteristic while his father gets introverted ones. Referring to Oxford

Advance Learners Dictionary of Current English, extrovert “is a lively and confident person who enjoys being with other people” (2005: 542) while introvert means “more interested in your own thoughts and feelings than in spending time with other people”

(2005: 817). Therefore, in the personality aspect, John is so different from his father.

The different personality between John and his father makes him does not like the way he lives with his father. He realizes his dislike by comparing his life with his friends’.

My resentment began to grow as well. Little by little, I began to notice differences in the way we lived when I compared myself with most of my friends. While they had money to spend to go to the movies or buy a stylish pair of sunglasses, I found myself scrounging for quarters in the couch to buy myself a burger at McDonlad’s. More than a few of my friends received cars for their sixteenth birthday; my dad gave me an 1833 Morgan Silver dollar that had been minted in Carson City…we were the only family I knew who didn’t have cable television or a microwave open. When our refrigerator broke down he bought a used one that was the world’s most awful shade of green, a color that matched nothing else in the kitchen. (p. 15)

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The difference between John and his father personalities makes John thinks that he does not fit in his live with his father. It is emphasized when John reflects how they live and how his friends do. It is stated that John, unlike another teenagers, receives an 1833 Morgan Silver dollar instead of car in the sixteenth birthday. It is because his father is coin collector. He does nothing but studying and staring at the coins. “my dad would head to his den to be with his coins. That was his one great passion in life”

(p.12). The only thing his father cares about is his coin collection. His father does not care enough about the current technology, the kitchen appliance, and even about his own taste in colors. John feels upset in this kind of situation and it mimics John is sick of his live with his father. The writer knows John’s dislike by applying Murphy’s theories of characterization. The author gives an insight into the character of one of the persons in the book through what that person says. Whenever a person speaks, whenever he is in conversation with another, whenever he puts forward an opinion, he is giving some clue to his character. (1972: 165).

John puts an opinion about his own feeling, his father behavior, and about their way of live when he compares it with his friends’. And the result is John feels there is no boundary, there is no such relationship worth fighting for between him and his father. Then, the writer found that John is a hater. According to Oxford Advance

Learners Dictionary of Current English, hate means to dislike something very much; a very strong feeling of dislike for subject (2005: 712-713). So hater means a person who dislikes something. John dislikes his live with his father so much.

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Specifically, not only does John dislike his way of live but he also dislikes his father. He does not like his father because he thinks his father is no more than a weird person. He never thinks in a different point of view about his own thought. It means that he cannot do such self-introspection. Oxford Advance Learners Dictionary of

Current English states that introspection is “the careful examination of your own thoughts, feeling and reasons for behaving in a particular way”. (2005: 817). It proves that John is not able to examine his own thoughts, in this case, the thoughts about his father and his life. If he does self-introspection, he would be able to think in a different way so that he can open his mind and likes them. b. A Person Who Hardly Accept Someone’s Weakness

Another characteristic of John is as a person who cannot accept someone’s weakness. It is proven when he feels ashamed and embarrassed of his father. John does not love his father nor does he like him. Finally, John is embarrassed of his father. “I was embarrassed at the thought of having friends come over, and I blamed my dad for that” (p.15). John is ashamed when some of his friends come over and see the house and his father condition. John put the blame on his father about this situation. He thinks his father should behave normally and start doing other activities like what normal people do.

Another situation when John feels embarrassed is when his father heading off to watch him play basketball in a team during his sophomore year.

He sat in the stands, an odd balding guy wearing a worn sport jacket and socks that didn’t match. Though he wasn’t obese, his pants nipped at the waist, making him look as if he were three months pregnant, and I knew I

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wanted nothing to do with him. I was embarrassed by the sight of him, and after the game, I avoided him.(P. 16)

It seems like John thinks his father is very poor in fashion. He cannot stand a chance of looking his father appearance that way so that he feels ashamed to his father.

John’s feeling embarrassed to his father employs that he hardly accept people’s weakness, in this case, he cannot stand for his father appearance. c. A Temperamental Person

Since he spends a little time at home and he does not like his father, John’s relationship with his father is no longer close. It is because he spends a little time to talk to his father as well. Barely does he speak to his father so that he feels no love among them. John becomes bad person because he feels no love in his life. This situation is getting worse when he is in high school, choosing his buddies to associate with.

In high school, there’s always a place for everyone, and I began falling in with the wrong sort of crowd…I began to cut classes and smoke and was suspended for fighting in three occasions (p.16)

John begins to smoke, skip the classes and he is ever suspended for fighting for three times in high school. Things get worse. John cares about his school no more. He gets low grade so that hardly does he pass the class. It seems like John is a little bit temperamental person. Looking at Oxford Advance Learners Dictionary of Current

English temperamental means “having a tendency to become angry, excited or upset easily, and to behave in an unreasonable way” (2005: 1580). John’s having suspended for fighting in three occasion shows that he gets angry and upset easily so that he

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does violence and fight intentionally. As a temperamental person, he cannot control his temper and he also loves everything covered with violence atmosphere.

During my senior year; my rebellion reached a high point. My grades had been slipping from two years, more laziness and lack of care than intelligence, and more than once my dad caught me sneaking in the late at night with booze on my breath. I was escorted home by the police after being found at a party where drugs and drinking were evident… I barely passed my class. (p. 17)

From the passage, the writer concludes that John is not an obedient person in his age.

It is because he has ever been caught by the police when he was at a drugs and alcoholic-drink party, which will not be happened to good people. d. A Man Who Is Never Serious With Women

John’s bad behavior is also proven by his attitude toward his relationship with women. As a person who does not care about love or be loved, hardly does he falling in love with women even the women he dated with.

I dated dozens of women during that period. At Leroy’s, there were always women. Most were forgettable relationships. I used women and allowed myself to be used and always kept my feelings to myself. (p.19) Even though he has already joined in the army, John barely thinks about women.

Unlike his friends, who are crazy about making such romantic story with women,

John tends to avoid any opportunities to get closer with women. It seems like John tries to avoid and to think about anything else besides women.

Unlike my buddies, I shied away from any prospect of female companionship (p. 25)…I wasn’t thinking about much of anything, just sort of letting my mind wander. Believe me, meeting a girl was the last thing on my mind. (p. 29)

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From those quotation about John’s thinking about women, the writer figures out that not only never John applies love in his life, but he also never experiences what love is. Therefore, however, he is never making any serious relationship with women.

The writer is able to find out those wicked characteristics of John by applying

Murphy’s theory, as written in his book Understanding Unseen, about characterize a character by looking at the mannerism. The author describes a person’s mannerisms, habits, or idiosyncrasies which tell something about his character. John’s habits, which are stated previously, show bad characteristics of person, especially for a person at his age, 22. And it is discovered that the reason why John has such behavior is because he feels no love at all. He does not get love from his father nor from any women.

2. The Characteristic of John Tyree After Falling in Love

Everything is changed after he meets a girl of his dream, Savannah Lynn

Curtis. Having loves with Savannah has influenced his personalities and the way he treats his father. a. A Person Who Can Do Self-introspection

This is the second change of John’s characteristics. After having love with

Savannah, he becomes a thinker. Oxford Advance Learners Dictionary of Current

English says that thinker is a person who thinks seriously; a person who thinks in a particular way (2005: 1596). John thinks deeper than he did before so that he is able

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to do a self-reflection about his life and what he has done. It is when Savannah says that John’s father had Asperger, developmental disorder. Hardly does John accept

Savannah’s analysis, and it drives him angry instead. He goes off her alone at the beach and he meets Randy, a friend of Savannah, who intends to stop and calm him down. John, covered by anger, takes him down since Randy refuses to leave him alone. Tim, Savannah’s best friend, sees what is happening and he wants to make thing up. But John, without consciousness, breaks his nose accidentally and get out of there. After having deeper thought, John regrets what he has done.

One minute I was thinking that I loved her more than I’d ever imagined possible, and the next minute we were fighting. I was outraged by her subterfuge yet couldn’t understand why I was this angry. It wasn’t my dad and I were close; it wasn’t as if I even thought I really knew him. So why had I been so angry? (p. 146)

The above quotation tells that John does a kind of self-reflection. He tries to replay what has happened in mind and he finds out that he does not have reason to being mad.

This self-reflection leads him to think about anything instead of himself. He starts think about everything especially Tim, the one who is injured in this situation.

But after what I did to Tim? How was she going to react to that? He was her best friend, and even if I swore it had been an accident, would it matter to her? How about what I’d done to the others? She knew I was a soldier, but now that she’d seen small part of what that meant, would she still feel the same way about me? (p. 148)

The deeper John thinks, the more he finds himself guilty. This is for the first time that John feels guilty about violence he has done. He regrets it and he feel guilty

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to let this happens. Therefore, John goes to meet Savannah the next day for an apology.

I was wrong. I’d overreacted, and I knew it. Not just with her, but with the others on the beach. I’m sorry. I know you were just trying to help, and I took it the wrong way. And I’m sorry for what I did to Tim…and Randy and the other guy too (p.159-160) He apologizes for everything he has done to Savannah and her friends. John does no violence intentionally. He can do self-reflection and introspect himself. It is simply because John does not want to lose his beloved, Savannah. John becomes a person who is able to think deeply is a kind of sacrifice toward his emotional mind. The existence of love is proven with John’s sacrificing his emotional mind because love means sacrificing. b. A Person Who is Able to Accept Someone’s Weakness

Previously, the writer has explained that John is a person who cannot accept his father’s weakness and feels embarrassed to his father. There are several reasons why John is having such feeling. The major reason is the different personalities between John and his father (see p. 23-24). The differences make him dislikes his father and feels embarrassed to him. Here, John undergoes kind of character development. He no longer hates his father. It happens as soon as when John falls in love with Savannah. He gets unforgettable moments with her for the few days in the furlough. A beautiful moment is not be beautiful if there is no one to share it with so that John tries to have sharing with his father about Savannah.

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I expected my dad to ask how the evening had gone with Savannah, but instead he said nothing, preferring to concentrate on his cooking… “I had a great time,” I volunteered. “Savannah’s really something. We actually went to church together yesterday.” Somehow I thought he’d ask more about it, and I’ll admit that I wanted him to. I imagined that we might have a real conversation, the kind that other fathers might have with their sons. (p. 95)

Here John tries to share his day with his father. He just wants to talk to his father and his father talks to him so that they have a real conversation. “I just wanted him to talk to me” (p. 102). It seems like John at last realize his not-close relationship with his father. He finally realize it because now he becomes a better person as a thinker, hence, he wants to make up this bad relationship. It is influenced by love because, if there is no love comes to him, John will not become a better person, and he does not have any topic to share with his father in order to start the conversation. In other words, love takes such role in making up the relationship between John and his father.

Meanwhile, John is also able to understand his father. When Savannah gives

John a book of developmental disorder, she says that John has to understand his father. “You’re right. I shouldn’t have done that. But I just wanted you to understand him”. (p. 142). At that moment, John is angry with Savannah because he thinks nothing has happened to his father. Then he realizes that she is right about his father.

John needs to understand him well.

Understanding his father, John tries to make up his relationship with him by understanding his father’s interest.

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“In my spare time, I’d visit the computer center and do a bit of research on my own. I’d search for certain coins, collect the history, and send the information back in a letter of my own. (p. 181)

Not only Savannah, but also his father sends John letters when he is away. John tries to express that he understands his father by searching for information about coins and sends it to his father. He believes that his father is so happy for when he is studying it.

Since John spends much time together with his father, the relationship between him and his father is getting better.

…I wanted an improved relationship with my dad…Instead of pressing him for constant conversation, I’d simply sit with him in his den, reading a book…we would spend hours together, most of the time saying nothing at all…unassuming way that we finally became friends…when it was time for me to return to Germany, I knew that I would miss him in a way I never had before. (p. 238-239)

From the quotation above, the writer concludes that John tries to make up his bad relationship with his father. He sits still beside his father instead of forces him to have kind of conversation so that they both can relax and relationship between John and his father is getting better. John will miss his father as soon as he is transferred back to Germany because he has such close relationship.

Love is the process of offering concern. This definition is applied when John shows his concern to Savannah. It means that John need to concern about what she concerns. While in this time, Savannah concerns John’s relationship with father because she loves John and she cares about his relationship with his father so that she tells him to make up. John’s listening her and doing what she said is the process of

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offering concern. Therefore, love influences John to open his mind and make up his relationship with his father. c. A Patient Person

Being patient is the next development of John’s characteristic. John Tyree is a person who likes violence. He often does violence intentionally without any self- reflection and apology. It is because he feels no love in his life, which makes him such temperamental person. However, it is changed when John experiences love. It is when at the barrack, far away from his hometown, John tries make a phone call to

Savannah. But it is not going as it is supposed to be. Savannah does not answer the call so that John is growing angrier with every ring that is unanswered. John gets several speculations toward this situation. It can be happened because she is busy with her job or because she hangs out with a new anonymous guy she finds lately.

The second speculation makes John green with envy. But he is still patient and does not express the jealousy in next phone call in order to keep up the good relationship with his beloved.

Despite the troubles, I never doubted that we would make it…In December, I began calling more regularly and did my best to keep my jealousy in check. (p. 223)

John undergoes kind of character development. He becomes a patient person. Oxford

Advance Learners Dictionary stated that patient is “able to wait for a long time or accept annoying behavior or difficulties without becoming angry”. (2005: 1110).

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From the above quotation, the writer can see the patient behavior of John. He tries to accept such annoying behavior happen in his mind and tries not to express it. It can be classified as a character development of John because before he experiences a true love with Savannah, John is a temperamental person. As we know temperamental person is the opposite of patient one. So in this situation John is developed 180 degree from bad to good.

Another example of John’s patient behavior is when he asks help from the neighbor to look after his father when he is seated off the country. The neighbor agrees to take care of his father and the house as well. However, when returning home, John finds that the garbage is overflowing and the house is seemed not be cleaned for days. This kind of situation makes John very angry because the neighbor breaks the promise that she agrees to look on his father. When the neighbor comes by the following day, the first words out of her mouth are an apology. She explains that she has not cleaned the house for several days because her daughter has been taken ill.

As she stands before me on the porch, I could see the exhaustion in her face, and all the words of reproach I’d been rehearsing drained away. I told her that I appreciated what she’d already done more than she would ever know. (p. 243)

John who is very angry to the neighbor at the first time becomes calm after she explains the reason behind. After being a patient person, John is able to maintain his anger and emotion toward other people. A temperamental John will not accept any explanation about anything when he gets angry. In contrast, a patient John is able to

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control his emotions though he is angry so that John can listen to any reason and overcome his anger.

Love is an expression of affection. The existence of love as an expression of affection can be seen in this situation. Since John has a great affection to Savannah, he tends to give her comfort. Someone does not feel comfort when they are with people who cannot maintain their emotion as temperamental as John. It means that

John needs to put his arrogant mind aside. If he wants to make Savannah feels comfort, he has to throw his arrogant mind away. Since loves her, John ensure her comfort with him. Survive from his temperamental emotion and being patient are love manifestations done by John. Therefore, love influences him to be a patient person. d. A Man Who is Serious to Woman

As what the writer has stated before, hardly does John feel a true love. He has never fallen in love with women. He thinks barely about women so that he is never making such serious relationship like any others with women. That is John before he meets savannah. However, as soon as he meets Savannah, John is able to experience a different kind of love. Their relationship grows up without any serious obstacle as they are already a couple. Unlike the forgettable relationship with any women, his relationship with Savannah is so special. It is different and it is unforgettable since

John enjoys every single moment being with her.

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Spending time with Savannah made me wonder whether it was possible to defy the norm. I wanted more of her, and no matter what happened between us, I already knew I’d never forget anything about her. As crazy as it sounded, she was becoming part of me, and I was already dreading the fact that we wouldn’t be able to spend the day together tomorrow. Or the day after, or the day after that (p. 116).

Being together with Savannah, John enjoys spending his time. It is such unforgettable experience that makes the relationship is different from the previous ones. Enjoying togetherness between lover and beloved is one aspect of having true love. Not only

John enjoys the unforgettable moment, but he is also afraid. He is afraid of they will not be able to spend the next day together since he is going away like other soldiers.

But he thinks that they will be together, for sure. “It was the first time we’d really been alone, but as we sat side by side, it felt as though we’d been together forever.”

(p. 121)

Love is strong feeling such as affection, attraction, and enjoyment to somebody else which makes people feel wonderful when they are falling love. It is exactly like what has happened to John when he is with Savannah. He feels wonderful being together with her and he enjoys every single moment and hopes it will last forever. He does not want to love someone but Savannah because love has taught him many things. In other words, love makes him seriousness to one woman,

Savannah Lynn Curtis.

The writer is able to find John’s characteristics by applying Kenney’s (1988:

32) theory in which he says that there are three character traits to find out. They are

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social, physical, and psychological. John Tyree is a soldier who has not married yet.

He has brown hair and eyes and he has olive skin. Before meets Savannah and having love with her, John is portrayed as a bad person. It can be classified because John’s characteristics are dominated by the bad ones. Although he is an active person, he has found that there is no similarity between him and his father. This situation has built his characteristics to be a hater. Since there is no similarity, hardly does John understand his father so that he dislikes him. Not only his father, but John also hates his life. John’s feeling to his father is getting worse. John becomes embarrassed of his father and he gets his own reasons why it can be happened. Another bad characteristic of John is his temperamental behavior. He cannot maintain his anger and he likes violence in his action. At last, John is never serious with women in his life.

It is right to say that those bad characteristics of John occur because there is no love in his life. Never has John felt love, even from his father. It is not because his father does not love him. But it is because of John is not able to feel love itself.

Everything has changed when love comes into his life, love to girl of his dream,

Savannah Lynn Curtis.

Having love with Savannah drives John into a different person. The major change is the main characteristics of John, which are previously dominated by the bad ones, are dominated by the good ones. First of all, he undergoes development as thinker who is able to do self-introspection. Another one is that John now is able to understand his father because he is being a person who can accept one’s weakness.

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He no more hates and feels embarrassed of him. Since he understands his father, John loves him in the way he never expects before. Next is being patient. John is no longer a temperamental person because he is able to maintain his anger. Finally, John has experienced such a true love since he is serious to women.

From the previous pages, we can see that the all changes happen to John characteristics are influenced by love. It is also stated that love does exist in John’s character development. Love means a lot to him and his life. In other words, love takes such a strong role in changing John’s behavior.

B. The Contributions of Love to the Development of the Main Character

As what the writer states previously, love takes such strong effect to John’s character development. In this subchapter, the analysis is on the contributions of love toward the character development. By looking at the character development of John, the contributions of love are: a. Doing Self-introspection

To love is to do self-introspection. This is what has happened to John while he is falling in love with Savannah. At the first time, John is figured as a person who never thinks about his action and thoughts. It makes John hardly enjoys his life and he seems to hates it. Since he dislikes his life, he dislikes his father as well. It is simply because he does not think about his own thought. When falling in love with

Savannah, he realizes that there is a big mistake in his way of think. The writer finds

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that love has a great power to change John’s characteristic from selfish person into a person who is able to do self-introspection. John begins to change when Savannah gives a book to him and she tells him that his father suffers a developmental disorder called Asperger. John is mad to her and they begin to have conflict. Then John does self-introspection to his actions and thoughts and he finds that it is inappropriate to behave that way (see p. 30-31 on this thesis). So, John is able to do such introspection when he is falling in love with Savannah. It is because John loves her. If someone loves their beloved, they try not to lose them. They will never give up on them. It is what happens with John. He does not want to lose Savannah so that he thinks deeply about his actions to her. It makes John becomes a person who can do self- introspection.

Since John is able to do introspection, he is also able to find his big mistakes to his father. He does apologize for his inappropriate action to his father.

I’m sorry about all the crappy things I put you through, and I’m sorry Dad I was never here for you enough. You’re the best person I’ve ever known. You’re the only one who never got angry with me, you never judged me, and somehow you taught me more about life than any son could possibly ask. (p. 248)

In other words, John is capable of finding out the things he has done. Since he does such reflection, he can deeply think about his actions and own thoughts. In this case, his action toward Savannah and his thoughts of his father are the things which get big contribution of this development. So, love changes his way of thinking into being able to do self-introspection. Therefore, love contributes a deeper thought.

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b. Loving and Understanding Others

After falling in love with Savannah, John does not hate his father anymore and he also understands his father. It happens right after Savannah’s giving him a book of Asperger. Savannah knows that something has happened to John and his father. Something that makes them have poor relationship. And lately, she finds out that this something occurs because John cannot understand his father well because his father has Asperger’s symptoms. John is angry to Savannah because he cannot accept her evaluation about his father. However, John does some evaluation and introspection toward his own thoughts and he realizes that Savannah may be right to think that way. Since he loves her, John gives special attention to her. He tries to do what Savannah has told him to make up his bad relationship with his father. Then he is able to understand his father and because he understands him, he loves him (see p.31-33 on this thesis).

On March 17, I knew there would be war. On my last night in Kuwait, I wrote letters to those I loved, in chase I didn’t make it: one to my father and one to Savannah. (p. 225) It proves that John now loves both Savannah and his father. In this phase, John undergoes so-called character development from a person who feels embarrassed of his father becomes a person who understands and love his father. This development is highly influenced by love. Therefore, in this point, the contributions of love to John’s personalities are: understanding and loving others.

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c. Being Patient

One characteristic which is changed after John falls in love with Savannah is his temperament emotion. Before falling in love with Savannah, John is mimicked as a temperamental person. He goes angry easily and he loves to do violence. But right after falling in love with Savannah, he is able to control his own emotion. It has possibly happened because John already being a person who is able to do self- introspection to think and re-think deeply about his own actions and thoughts so that he can control his temper (discussed on p.29-30 and 36-38). In other words John becomes a patient person. He does not get upset easily especially to Savannah. Thus, by looking at this development, the writer finds that love contributes emotion control. d. Developing the Way of Loving Woman

This is the last contribution of love which is reflected through the character development of John. Before falling in love with Savannah, John is described as person who is never serious with women. All his love stories are forgettable and are not influence anything toward his life. Never does he experience and feel love with any woman even the ones that he dates with. (discussed on p. 35) After falling in love with Savannah, John gets a new experience in loving someone. Like what the writer has stated before, John undergoes many development in his characteristics because he loves her. He loves Savannah in the way he has never imagined.

I don’t know how long we stood together, but when we finally began moving toward the baggage claim, I slipped my hand into hers knowing that I loved

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her not only more than the last time I’d seen her, but more than I would ever love anyone. (p. 186-187) John seems to have a true love, a love which is never experienced before, with

Savannah. John loves Savannah so bad because he finds something on her, something that everybody hardly gets. It is her maturity that makes John loves her so much. She also works hard in order to help people. Therefore, Savannah is not a spoiled girl. She is not only a mature girl, but also a person which loves to look after everybody else’s happiness.

In spite of the fact that Savannah marries Tim, a close friend of her, John still loves her. But it does not make John breaks up their marriage.

As she drew near, her face half in shadow, I knew with certainty that I was still in love with her. Despite the letter, despite her husband. Despite the fact that we could never be together now. (p. 285) When his father is dead, John returns home to see the funeral. At that time, He has not spoken to Savannah for quiet long time as they have already broken up soon after

Savannah tells him that she finds another guy. Nervously he comes by to her house to say goodbye because he will go away from the town as soon as he sells his father’s house and properties. John then finds that the guy is Tim, his friend and Savannah’s close friend.

When John finally meets Tim, he realizes that Tim suffers a fatal disease called melanoma. It takes a lot of money, which Savannah and Tim are not able to

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afford, to save his life. Although he feels uncomfortable knowing the fact that

Savannah marries Tim, John decides to give them a favor.

I sold the collection because I finally understood what true love really meant. Tim had told me-and shown me- that love meant that you care for another person’s happiness more than your own, no matter how painful the choices you face might be….I wanted them to be happy. I wanted her to be happy…I know that my feeling about Savannah will never change (p. 333-334)

Despite there is no one who will care the coins as much as his father does, John sells all his father’s collections for Tim’s treatments because he wants to see his beloved woman happy, which means not breaking up the marriage although John is facing the hardest situation when loving someone. John accepts Savannah’s decision and decides to help her when she gets in trouble and hopes for Savannah and Tim happiness instead of fights her back from Tim. That is what a true love means.

Therefore, love contributes seriousness and sincere to John’s characteristics.

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CHAPTER V

CONCLUSION

In this chapter, the writer would like to make conclusion of the whole chapter of the thesis that had been discussed. There are two problems formulated, which are stated in chapter one of this thesis, they are: (1) How the main character develops under the influence of love and (2) What contributions of love to the development of the main character are.

To answer the first problem, in the thesis the writer discusses the character development of the main character, John Tyree. In order to finds out those character developments, the writer uses several steps. Firstly, the writer tries discovers the characteristics of the main character. John is described as a. John is described as a bad person. He cannot do self-introspection toward his own thoughts and action. He thinks there is no similarity between him and his father and he feels embarrassed of his father. Therefore, he has bad relationship with his father. John is a temperamental person. He cannot control his anger and he loves to do violence. He is also never serious with women even the women he dated with. Those bad characteristics of John occur because he never experiences love. Secondly, the writer tries to figure out how

John’s characteristics are changed. It is love that changes John’s characteristics.

When falling in love with Savannah, John becomes a different person. He is able to do self-introspections toward his actions and thoughts so that he no more dislikes his

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life and he understands his father. Meanwhile, John can control his temper as a patient person. And finally, he has a true love with woman. In other words, John undergoes character development when he has a true love. He is now being a far better person than before.

To answer the second problem, the writer tries to mention the contributions of love to the character development of the main character. Since John changes when falling in love with Savannah, love gives big contributions to his personalities. The second contribution to the second development deeper thought so that John is able to do self-introspection and reflection toward his action. Since John becomes a person who is capable of accepting his father’s weakness, loving and understanding others is the third contribution of love. Loving is being patient. So, the fourth contribution of love is emotion control. Finally, to love someone means to love them fully. So, love gives contribution as seriousness and sincere in developing the way of loving woman to John’s character development.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Abrams, M.H. A Glossary of Literary Terms. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, Inc., 2009. Arp, Thomas. R. and Greg Johnson. Perrine’s Literature: Structure, Sound, and Senses. Boston: Wardsworth Cengage Learning, 2009. Brooks, Cleanth, John T. Purser, and Robert P. Waren. An Approach to Literature. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, Inc., 1959. Christina, Merry. The Values Of Love Reflected In Nicholas Sparks’ A Walk To Remember, A Sarjana Sastra Undergraduate Thesis. Yogyakarta: Universitas Sanata Dharma, 2007. Firestone, Robert W, Lisa A. Firestone. Sex and Love in Intimate Relationships. Washington: American Psychology Association, 2006. Fromm, Erich. The Art of Loving. London: Unwin Paperback, 1976. Ginardi, Alvin. The Influences Of Minor Characters On Harriet’s Personality Development In Rumer Godden’s The River. A Sarjana Sastra Undergraduate Thesis. Yogyakarta: Universitas Sanata Dharma, 2010 Guerin, Wilfred. L. A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011. Hauck, Paul Dr. How to Love and be Love. London: Sheldon Press, 1983. Hornby, A.S. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. Kenney, William. How to Read and Write about Fiction. New York: Manhattan College, 1988. Murphy, M.J. Understanding Unseen: An Introduction to English Poetry and the English Novel for Overseas Students. London: George Allen and Unwin Ltd, 1972. Roberts, Edgar V and Henry E. Jacobs. Fiction: An Introduction to Reading and Writing. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1989. Sparks, Nicholas. Dear John. New York: Grand Central Publishing, 2006.

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Yelland, H.L., S.C. Jones, B.A. and K.S.W. Easton, B.A. (Compilers). A Handbook of Literary Terms. London: Angus and Robertson, 1953.

Meaning of Love (http://meaning-of-love.com). (November 15th, 2011).

Book Page (http://bookpage.com/interview/heartbreak-and-honor). (June 12th, 2011).

Brainiquote. (http://www.brainyquote.com). (June 12th, 2011).

Pfspublishing (www.pfspublishing.com/bookclub/literary-definitions/). 2011. (September 3rd, 2012).

Robertson, Stuart. (www.ehow.com). (September 3rd, 2012)

Sparks, Nicholas. (http://www.nicholassparks.com/LearnMore.asp?BookID=12). (June 12th, 2011). The Book Vixen. (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5526.Dear_John). Jan 10th, 2010. (June 12th, 2011). The Washington Post- Margaux Wexberg Sanchez. (http://barnesandnoble.com). (June 12th, 2011). Tvtropes (http://tvtropes.org). (September 3rd, 2012)

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APPENDIX

Appendix 1: Summary of Dear John

John Tyree was 23-year-old soldier in Germany army base. Although he was looked after by his father, they hardly had conversation. His father was coins collector who didn’t talk about anything except coins. John had enlisted in the army after high school because he didn’t know what else to do. During the furlough, he met the girl of his dreams, Savannah Lynn Curtis. She was a 21-year-old college student at the University at North Carolina. They met on the beach at Wilmington, where he used to surf and Savannah spent her summer holiday with voluntarily signed in a group called Habitat for Humanity. John successfully rescued her bag with her purse inside when it was drown in the ocean. Then, they got to talk and went out on a date.

During their time together, John and Savannah got to know each other, declared their love for each other, and even became unofficially engaged. As John had to return to the base for 12 months before he could be honorably discharged, he promised

Savannah to send everything through letter as well as she did, and they promised to wait each other. But neither could foresee that September 11 is about to change the world. John decided to re-enlist. This made Savannah down, but she understood it and continued to wait. After John returned to the army, he noticed that their letters became less frequent and less intimate. Soon enough, he got a letter notifying him that Savannah had fallen for someone else. John didn’t respond to the letter and he threw himself into being a good soldier and re-ups yet again and again. 3 years had

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gone by when he stayed away from North Carolina while he got mail notifying that his father was hospitalized. He went back home just a moment before his father passed away to say last words. He learned that Savannah married the old friend, Tim, when he decided to visit her. As John and Savannah became reacquainted while Tim was stuck in the hospital, John has a chance to evaluate his feelings for Savannah.

After hear about the fact that Savannah still loved him and about Savannah’s explanation why she married Tim, John decided that he wanted her to be happy, which means not breaking up the marriage. He sold all his father collection and anonymously donated the money to safe Tim’s life, and then checked back in a couple years to see that Savannah and Tim were happy.