The Special Characteristics of John Hersey's Writing

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The Special Characteristics of John Hersey's Writing THE SPECIAL CHARACTERISTICS OF JOHN HERSEY’S WRITING STYLE IN HIROSHIMA AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra in English Letters By JUVENTUS GEMBONG NUSANTARA Student Number: 054214021 ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS FACULTY OF LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA 2010 THE SPECIAL CHARACTERISTICS OF JOHN HERSEY’S WRITING STYLE IN HIROSHIMA AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra in English Letters By JUVENTUS GEMBONG NUSANTARA Student Number: 054214021 ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS FACULTY OF LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA 2010 i Others have seen what is and asked why. I have seen what could be and asked why not. ‐ Pablo Picasso In a war, a normal code of social life was suspended. - James Nachtwey For or less, I’m free. - Gembong Nusantara FOR THE REST OF MY SOLITARY LIFE ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The first one, I would like to thank the Almighty God for being inside me. Thanks for the love and blessing upon me. I believe without the Almighty God’s hand I will not have any power to finish this thesis. I do love the Almighty God with my whole heart and soul. I would like to thank my advisor, Dr. Fr. B. Alip, M.Pd., M.A. for helping me in finishing this thesis. I thank for the patience, guidance, advice, time, and support. This thesis would not complete without his help. I would like to thank my co-advisor, J. Harris H. Setiajid, S.S., M. Hum. for helping me in finishing this thesis. This thesis would never be completed without his guidance, time, support and advice. Then I would like to express my gratitude toward my family especially my parents, my grandmother and my brother who pray for me every day. They always give me love and support until this thesis finish. I dedicate this thesis for them. Next I would like to express my gratitude toward Chatarina Trihastuti. Thanks for the days we have spent together in finishing this thesis. Juventus Gembong Nusantara ABSTRACT JUVENTUS GEMBONG NUSANTARA. The Special Characteristics of John Hersey’s Writing Style in HIROSHIMA. Yogyakarta: Department of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma University, 2010. In 1960’s, there was a new genre of journalism called as literary journalism or narrative journalism. This genre involves the strength of novel into journalistic work. Although it involves the strength of a novel, narrative journalism is not always a novel. HIROSHIMA is one work of narrative journalism. HIROSHIMA was a news report written by John Hersey. It was published for the first time on August 30, 1946 by the weekly magazine The New Yorker. Three months after, HIROSHIMA was republished by Alfred A Knopf in a book form, and later on HIROSHIMA is called as a novel. HIROSHIMA has certain characteristics of the writing style to be categorized as a novel. The study covers two main problems. The first problem is to find the journalistic elements of HIROSHIMA. The second problem is to find the characteristics of HIROSHIMA that make it similar to a novel. In order to answer the problems, this study used an analytical method. The first is data collection and the second is analysis based on the data. In the data collection, all the elements of journalism and novel are identified in the text of HIROSHIMA. From the finding of the identification, the next step is analyzing the writing style of HIROSHIMA based on the utilization of the journalistic work and novel elements. After the analysis is finished, the results of the study are gained. The first is HIROSHIMA has the elements of journalism. The elements are character, setting, conflict, motive, narrative, facts, access, emotion, and fresh. The setting includes setting of time, setting of place, action set in time, chronology, and series of the time. The second is HIROSHIMA has the characteristics of a novel. They are theme, character and characterization, story and plot, point of view, setting, style, and irony. From the utilization of the elements of journalistic work and novel, the writing style of HIROSHIMA can be categorized as a journalistic work and a novel. x ABSTRAK JUVENTUS GEMBONG NUSANTARA. The Special Characteristics of John Hersey’s Writing Style in HIROSHIMA. Yogyakarta: Program Studi Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Sanata Dharma, 2010. Pada tahun 1960an ada sebuah aliran baru dalam jurnalisme, disebut sebagai jurnalisme sastrawi atau jurnalisme narasi. Aliran ini memasukkan kekuatan novel kedalam penulisannya. Walaupun aliran ini memasukkan kekuatan novel, tidak semua karya jurnalisme narasi adalah sebuah novel. HIROSHIMA adalah satu dari banyak karya jurnalisme narasi. HIROSHIMA adalah laporan berita yang ditulis oleh John Hersey. Pertama kali HIROSHIMA diterbitkan pada 30 Agustus 1946 oleh majalah mingguan The New Yorker. Tiga bulan kemudian, HIROSHIMA diterbitkan kembali oleh penerbit Alfred A Knopf dalam bentuk buku, yang kemudian disebut sebagai sebuah novel. Jadi HIROSHIMA dikategorikan sebagai karya jurnalistik dan novel. HIROSHIMA memiliki gaya penulisan yang khas untuk dikategorikan sebagai novel. Penelitian ini mencakup dua masalah pokok. Pertama adalah mencari elemen jurnalistik di dalam HIROSHIMA. Kedua adalah mencari karateristik dari HIROSHIMA yang membuatnya sama dengan sebuah novel. Dalam urutan analisis untuk menjawab permasalahan tersebut, penelitian ini menggunakan metode analisa. Pertama adalah pengumpulan data dan kedua adalah menganalisa berdasarkan hasil dari data temuan. Dalam pengumpulan data, semua elemen jurnalistik dan novel diidentifikasikan didalam text HIROSHIMA. Dari temuan identifikasi kemudian dianalisa gaya penulisan HIROSHIMA berdasarkan penggunaan elemen jurnalistik dan novel. Setelah analisa selesai, kemudian hasil dari penelitian didapat. Pertama adalah HIROSHIMA memiliki elemen jurnalistik. Elemen tersebut yaitu karakter, latar belakang, konflik, motif, narasi, fakta, akses, emosi, dan unsur kebaruan. Latar belakang mencakup latar belakang waktu, latar belakang tempat, kejadian dalam urutan waktu, kronologi, dan urutan waktu. Kedua adalah HIROSHIMA memliki karakter sebuah novel. karakter tersebut adalah tema, karakter dan karakterisasi, cerita dan alur, sudut pandang, latar belakang, gaya dan ironi. Berdasarkan pengunaan elemen jurnalistik dan novel, gaya penulisan HIROSHIMA dapat dikatgorikan sebagai karya jurlaistik dan sebuah novel. xi CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION A. Background of the Study In 1960’s journalism in U.S. experienced a saturated situation in reporting (Setiati, 2005: 43). Printed media had to strive against domination of electronic media. Electronic media have the competitive advantage of giving up-to-date information quickly. Starting from this saturated point, journalists of printed media in U.S. tried to make different report that electronics media did not have. Feature as a media deep report became a way out from saturation that covers printed media. Kurnia in his book “Jurnalisme Sastra” (2002: 27) states feature is a kind of journalistic report that has no deadline and it has light news. Feature covers up humanity-theme-story, and it is also a long, detail, and deep story. Years before, feature was called the writer’s masterpiece. It was so because the writer was able to cover up minor news and changed it to major news by maximizing human-interest point in the story (p.30). Feature as pioneer of literary journalism has tone and unique style. The journalists pay attention on fact selection, quotation, diction, and length of sentences and paragraph (p.30). Kurnia gives example of feature of rock musician and classic musician. In rock music feature, the journalists usually write short sentences and in every paragraph the journalists use one or two sentences. It is to match the feature with the beat of rock music. The journalists will use different style if they write about classic musician. Long sentences and less beat words are used to go along with tone and wave of classic music. The 1 2 calmness and taste of classic music become the focus of the journalist when the journalist writes about classic music. Kurnia (p.4) assumes that there are at least two reasons why literary emerges and joins with journalism. The first is at that time a novel become a fever in society. Writing style in novel is the trendsetter in writing. The second is in effort of giving good competition to electronics media or audiovisual media. Printed-journalists are tired of tight routine and tight procedure in writing report. The monotonous in writing and covering procedure limit the journalist’s space and their creativity. Journalism needs something new and fresh. Kurnia (p.5) adds that they, journalists, do not only write the fact but also give the readers detail of facts and deep reports. Wolfe states in his book The New Journalism (1973: 25), all journalistic students want to write not only a journalism report but also a novel, like the experts do. Writing style of novel has entered in journalism reporting and changes the standard of feature writing. A journalistic report is more like a novel but non-fiction because all events are fact. Literary journalism is one of three names of the writing genres in United States that involves deep reportage and uses literary style. Some others say that it is narrative journalism because it involves events, characters and actions (Harsono, 2005: viii). Clark in his Nieman report “Essays on Craft” (2006) remakes new 5W1H elements, “who” becomes “character”, “what” becomes “action set in time”, “where” becomes “setting”, “when” becomes “chronology”, “why” becomes “motive” and “how” becomes “narrative”. 3 Publishing The New Journalism (1973), Tom Wolfe and EW Johnson introduce this kind of writing genre in journalism report as the answer of the challenges, to compete with electronic media. The book is an anthology of journalism report written by Hunter S. Thompson, Joan Didion, Truman Capote, Jimmy Breslin, and Tom Wolfe himself. Wolfe titles its second part of preface with “Like a Novel” (pp.10-23).
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