Chapter 1 Introduction
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CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
A. RESEARCH BACKGROUND
American families generally extol the type of traditional nuclear family.
This type of family is the kind of appropriate family in America during the
Twentieth Century. As a matter of fact, “During the twentieth century, Americans
have tended to identify the traditional nuclear family as the family” (Strong and
DeVault, (1992): p. 6). Accordingly, American family in that century appreciated
traditional nuclear family. It also proves that the characteristics of traditional
family values portray a form of harmonious whole family that lives in a house.
The closeness of the family relationship between husband, wife and children can
still be seen in the form of traditional nuclear family.
Strong and DeVault stated, “until recently, American researchers have
focused on the traditional nuclear family, composed of a marriage couple
and their biological children; in this family, the husband is employed outside the home while the wife remains at home performing housework
and child-care tasks” (1992: 6).
Furthermore, this type of family does not break the function and the rule
of the family; and also can keep the intimacy of family in their society. Moreover,
the concept of traditional nuclear family provides appropriate values to take care
of their families. However, it still creates a big question for the researcher. Does
the system of traditional nuclear family still exist or vanish to the next period?
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Nowadays, the common family values shown by American traditional
nuclear family start to collapse. Times have changed toward a new perspective of
the way to lead the family. Most of American families are busy with their careers.
The wave of consumerism also influences the married couple trying hard to earn
money. Therefore, they begin to ignore the norms of family values. It happens
because industrialization attacks most of American society. It provokes married
couple, both husband and wife to go outside to seek a job. The situation that
attacks the middle class family cause changes in the structural pattern of
traditional nuclear family‟s character to become working class. The new era
proves that blue collar affects all of the family couple to work. Therefore, the
character of father as a breadwinner and mother as a housewife are changes along
with the equal gender positions in the modern American family.
The shifting family starts in the middle of 1980‟s where industrial
movement attack American societies. Many couples in the family start to seek a
job for fulfilling their needs. The generalization of working status influences the
function of mother as a household to become an industrial worker. Certainly, the
mother will leave her main task to preserve the coziness of her children and the
wholeness of her household. The activity of the parents outside the house makes
they cannot control their children activities. It will cause a risk for children who
do not get affection from their parents. Before moving on to the next discussion,
the question must be answered. Working class family type portrayed by
Burnham‟s family in the film American Beauty is the answer of the question. The
film mentioned in the answer is the object of the research. commit to user perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id3
On September 17, 1999, the film American Beauty was released in
America. This film lasts around 122 minutes. It becomes the greatest movie in the
end of 1990. It wins many awards, such as People's Choice Award at the 1999,
Golden Globe Awards on January 2000, Academy Awards at March 26, 2000,
British Academy of Film and Televisionon April 9, 2000, and many other
nominated awards. This movie was directed by Sam Mendes, the film script by
Alan Ball, and cinematography by Conrad Hall. American Beauty is casted by
many of excellent actors and actresses such as Kevin Spacey (Lester Burnham),
Annitte Bening (Caroline Burnham), Thora Birch (Jane Burnham), Mena Suvari
(Angela Hayes), Wes Bentley (Ricky Fitts), Chris Cooper (Colonel Frank Fitts),
Allison Janney (Barbara Fitts), Peter Gallagher (Buddy Kene), Amber Smith
(Christy Kane), ScottBakula (Jim Olmeyer), Sam Robards (Jim Berkley), and
many more, retrieved from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0169547/fullcredits on
January 2, 2013. American Beauty was filmed on soundstages at the Warner Bros.
It also takes the pictures in Burbank, California, and at Hancock Park and
Brentwood in Los Angeles. The aerial shots at the beginning and end of the film
were captured in Sacramento, California, and many of the school scenes were shot
at South High School in Torrance, California. Moreover, several extras in the gym
crowd were South High students. The film starts to produce on December 14th,
1998 until February 1999, retrieved from
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0169547/locations on January 2, 2013.
American Beauty tells about a nuclear family which lives unhappyly in
industrialization era. The era forces this family for becoming working class commit to user perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id4
family. The activity of Burnham‟s family makes their loss of the intimacy in
family respect. Lester Burnham starred by Kevin Spacey is a father who loses
respect from his wife and his daughter. He works in a popular magazine company
for many years, but he is fired because his boss does not see his competence in the
office. Lester Burnham was offended by the words of his boss and he decides to
resign. While he loses his work, his wife Caroline Burnham starred by Annitte
Bening is successful with her career as a property agent. Their daughter Jane
starred by Thora Birch is a passive and arrogant teenager. She feels like losing the
affection from her parents. At, the first scene of the movie, she tells her boyfriend
Ricky Fitts starred by Wes Bentley that she feels empty in her house. Her father
cannot be a role model for her life, and her mother is too busy with her career. She
asks her boyfriend to “lose” her father. On the other position, Lester Burnham
feels useless in his life. He loses love and respect from his beloved family and his
job too. Mr. Lester Burnham and Mrs. Caroline Burnham lose the passion of
sexuality because they are busy in their career, although, both of them still need
it. When their daughter becomes a cheerleader for a basketball competition in her
school; they come to see it. The mood of Lester changes when he looks at Jane‟s
friend Angela Hayes, starred by Mena Suvari. She can revive Lester Burnham‟s
sexual libido that has disappeared for a long time. Starting from that, Lester
always imagines Angela through his sexual fantasies. Lester shouts that in their
married life there is no longer sexual intimacy. It influences this couple to lose
family values. It causes their daughter to really hate them, because they cannot
give her affection and there is no harmony in the house. commit to user perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id5
The problem which appears in the movie is interesting topic to discuss. It
causes the researcher to want to dig the family problem in the area in the frame of
family studies. The type of nuclear working class family cannot be succeeded in
building the harmony in the family.
B. SCOPE OF THE STUDY
This research is conducted to criticize the main characters in the movie:
Lester Burnham, Caroline Burnham, and Jane Burnham as they reflect figures of
postmodern family in America. This research discusses about family crisis
representation through American Beauty movie and the construction of “red rose”
represents of Burnham family character.
C. RESEARCH QUESTION
This research is done to answer the following questions:
1. What are the factors that cause the destruction of family value in
Burnham family?
2. How the construction of red rose represent the destruction of family
value in Burnham family.
D. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The objectives of the studies are:
1. To explain the factors that causes the destruction of family value in
Burnham family. commit to user perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id6
2. To explain the construction of red rose represents the destruction of
family value in Burnham family.
E. BENEFITS OF THE STUDY
This research is aimed to analyze the society life of American family
during the new thought. Understanding about family life assists in learning about
family studies. Moreover, the research is intended to know about the sociology of
life and the new thought in America. This research is an interesting topic to
discuss. It discusses about American family type in the frame of American studies
research. Furthermore, it will give benefits for the other researchers to discuss the
related topic in Sebelas Maret University.
F. RESEARCH METODOLOGY
1. TYPE OF RESEARCH
This research is analyzed using the descriptive qualitative method of
research. The type of research explains more about the understanding of the
researcher in her analysis related to the topic of discussion. The type of the
research suggests that the researcher writes according to the interpretation;
however, it is related with the work. Indeed, descriptive qualitative does not allow
analyzing about numeric data. Moreover, the researcher tries to write all of the
implicit messages in the research object without compromising the core of the
story. It also helps the reader to understand overall content of the work with
reading the summarizing of the workcommit (Santana to user. ( 2010): p. 198). perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id7
2. DATA AND SOURCE OF DATA
The main data of this research are the script, character, and settings taken
from source of data. The source of data is taken from the VCD of American
Beauty distributed by Dreamworks Pictures.
The supporting data of the research are taken from journals, books, and
E-book which are related with the topic of the research.
3. TECHNIQUE OF COLLECTING AND ANALYZING DATA
The first step which is done by the researcher is finding the source of
data by watching the American Beauty movie. While watching the film, the
researcher seeks the interesting topic to discuss in the research. The second step
is finding the theory relates with the discussion. The theory is useful to analyze
the data based on the research concept. The third step is finding the related
scenes which prove parts of the research questions. After that, the researcher
starts to analyze the data. It is continued with analyzing the fragments of the film
by applying the theory and approach. The fourth step is making the conclusion
and recommendation based on the research.
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G. THEORETICAL APPROACH
This research indicates the mainstream of American studies. American
studies occur in America since 1930‟s. It is focused to discuss about society,
politics, culture, and history in the United States of America. Firstly, American
studies occur to talk about American identity and the disciplinary in academic
boundaries. At that period, most of Americans are still confused with their
identity; because there are many ethnic groups which come to America. However,
the majority immigrants are white people who come from Europe and they
influence the Americans to research their culture and history. Different ethnic
groups bring many cultures. It is an interesting topic to discuss in the major of
American culture. The modernity changes it to become American studies as the
interdisciplinary approach. The aspect of American studies is more broaden;
because it researches anything happened in America include society, politics,
culture, psychology, environment, and many more (Kean and Campbell. (1997):.
p. 1).
According to the above statement which explain about the broaden scope
of American studies that it will be the interesting topic to discuss in the academic
area. Diversity makes unity. It will be the starting point to discuss in the form of
American studies. Kean and Campbell states that:
American Studies from beginning has been concern to explore the possibilities of cooperation between practitioners from different
disciplines, and even to develop an interdisciplinary methodology, with
its own distinctive working practices. In this introduction, we want to discuss a range of implications which follow from these two themes in a way which will prove helpful to student who are embarking on the study commit to user of American culture and at the same time are beginning the difficult but perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id9
always rewarding process of moving beyond conventional approaches
(!997: pp. 1 - 2).
Moreover, the developing of American thought emerges after the Second
World War. They start to use theory to analyze the issues which thrive in that
period. Historical, art, and social topics become the interesting issues to discuss
in the research. It will bring out many theories which can be used to analyze the
discussion. Furthermore, the issues which grow rapidly make changing the
sociology, anthropology, psychology of the American society. The changing
which develops at that time influences the thinker of American culture in the
University of Pennsylvania to make the part of cultural element to become
American Studies.
This argument is strengthened by Howard article states Largely through
the leadership of the American Civilization Program at the University of
Pennsylvania (e.g., Murray Murphey, Gordon Kelley, John Caughey, Jay
Mechling, Richard Horwitz, Janis Radway), these epistemological
questions and the social and psychological dimensions of „the culture
concept‟ became central to American Studies. Horwitz, Richard P. (2014).
Retrieved from: http://myweb.uiowa.edu/rhorwitz/ on August 8, 2010.
American studies which come from the concept of culture can be
analyzed with socio-cultural approach to maintain the development of the society
nowadays. Socio-cultural approach becomes the important part to analyze about
the sociological and historical of the society. This approach is one of the “knife” commit to user for cutting the analyzing data of the research. Visual Communication research perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id10
become a part of socio-cultural studies aid us to analyze the production,
representation and interpretation which is shown in film American Beauty. Socio-
cultural approach can analyze the destruction of family values shown by
postmodern family portrayed by Burnham family in American Beauty.
Sociological and cultural changing which are portrayed in the film will be shown
clearly; if it is analyzed with socio-cultural approach (Griffin, Michael.,& Paul,
Saint. (2002). Journal of Visual Literacy, Spring, Volume 22, number 1, pp. 29-
52)
In analyzing the data of the research, it needs semiotic theory to analyze
the problem asked in research question. The researcher uses semiotic theory by
Christian Metz; because it is related with film semiotic analyzing. The theory is
used to analyze the figures in the film. Film semiotic is used to interpret the
message in every fragment at the American Beauty film based on the research
topic.
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H. THESIS ORGANIZATION
The thesis consists of 4 Chapters and is followed by sub chapters in
every chapter:
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION.
This chapter is followed by 8 subchapters, there are: Research Background, Scope
of the Study, Research Question, Objective of the Study, Benefits of the Study,
Research Methodology, Theoretical Approach, and Thesis Organization.
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW.
This chapter is followed by 3 subchapters, there are: Family value in America,
American Family in 20th century, and Semiotic theory
CHAPTER 3: ANALYSIS.
This Chapter is followed by 2 subchapters, there are: Family Crisis Representation
through American Beauty Movie and The Construction of “Red Rose” to
Represent Burnham Family Character
CHAPTER 4: CONCLUSION & RECOMMENDATION.
This chapter will explain about the summarizing of the research analyses which is
conducted by conclusion. It will give suggestion and recommendation for the
other researchers who discuss the related topics.
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