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THE MESSAGES REVEALED THROUGH ADRIENNE’S CONFLICTS IN NICHOLAS SPARK’S NIGHTS IN RODANTHE
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra in English Letters
By
IKHSAN JAMALUDIN
Student Number: 114214010
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAM DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS FACULTY OF LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA 2018 PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
A Sarjana Sastra Undergraduate Thesis
THE MESSAGES REVEALED THROUGH ADRIENNE'S CONFLICTS IN NICHOLAS SPARK'S NIGHTS IN RODANTHE
By IKHSAN JAMALUDIN Student Number: 114214010
Approved by
Drs. Hirrnawan Wijanarka, M. Hum. December 14,2018 Advisor ~~/~ Harris Herrnansyah S., S.S., M.Hum. December 14, 2018 Co-Advisor
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A Sarjana Sastra Undergraduate Thesis
THE MESSAGES REVEALED THROUGH ADRIENNE'S CONFLICTS IN NICHOLAS SPARK'S NIGHTS IN RODANlliE
By IKHSAN JAMALUDIN Student~umber: 114214010
Defended before. the Board ofExaminers on January 25, 2018 and Declared Acceptable
BOARD OF EXAMINERS
Name Chairperson : Drs. Hirmawan Wijanarka, M Hum. Secretary : Harris Hermansyah S., S.S., M.Hum. Member I : Dewi Widyastuti, S.Pd., M Hum. Member 2 : Drs. Hirmawan Wijanarka, M Hum. Member 3 : Harris Hermansyah S., S.S., MHum.
y • ~ _"",akaIta, January 31, 2018 -0~ S!·"~.';~CUlty .If~" f'~ '~' ofLetters '" ,t' c" Sana ' harma University I) Ii) ..:..9: 1-! ~J ,r.~;D.,~ ~ i=-~:C::::~'... 'I i'? } '/".\\N'",r 1l, .,1-'< ~{A~ ~ '~',}\:1Nf;f't' ~~ us Ari Su bagyo" M. Hurn.
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STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY
I certify that this undergraduate thesis contains no material which has been
previously submitted for the award of any other degree at any university, and that,
to the best of my knowledge, this undergraduate thesis contains no material
previously written by any other person except where due reference is made in the
text ofthe undergraduate thesis
Yogyakarta, January 10, 2018
-- <;
Ikhsan Jamaludin
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LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI KARTA ILMIAH UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS
Yang bertanda tangan di bawah ini, saya mahasiswa Universitas Sanata Dharma Nama : Ikhsan Jamaludin NomorMahasiswa : 114214010 Dengan pengembangan ilmu pengetahuan, saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma karya ilmiah saya yang beIjudul
THE MESSAGES REVEALED THROUGH ADRIENNE'S CONFLICTS IN NICHOLAS SPARK'S NIGHTS IN RODANTHE beserta perangkat yang diperlukan (hila ada). Dengan demikian saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma hak untuk menyimpan, mengalihkan dalam bentuk media lain, mengelolanya dalam bentuk pangkalan data, mendistribusikan secm-a terbatas, dan meminta ijin kepada saya maupun memberikan royalti kepada saya selama tetap mencantumkan nama saya sebagai penulis. Demikian pemyataan ini saya buat dengan sebenamya.
Dibuat di Yogyakarta Pada tanggallO January 2018
Yang menyatakan,
~ r
Ikhsan Jamaludin
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Thanks for those who had underestimated me, without them I might not be where I am now ..
(Anonymous)
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First of all, I would like to say thank to Allah for everything He has given to me, it would be nothing without His blessing. Then, I also would like to say thank to my parents Slamet Widodo S.Pd., and Sri Lestari S.Pd., for always support me no matter what.
Second, my sincere gratitude goes to my lecturer Drs. Hirmawan
Wijanarka, M. Hum., this undergraduate thesis would never have happened without a help by him. The only lecture who supports and advices me to finish this undergraduate thesis.
In the end, I dedicate this undergraduate thesis to my only brother Arief
Juwono S.T., the one who always wants me to finish this study faster than ever.
Then, the one who always being by my side no matter what, Vina Ardiana. The last, I also would like to thank to all my dearest friends, Scholastica Novena,
Dwigo Biyas Tarigan, Gatot Wikanto, Kaka Fajar Permana, Kevinar Thomas,
Septiadi Hutomo, Satrio Widyatama, Gusti Nanda Putra, Christo Timothy, Antony
Adytiya, Dryan Dwisasono and others who cannot be mentioned, thanks for the spirit of love and an endless friendship.
Ikhsan Jamaludin
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TABLE OF CONTENTS TITLE PAGE ...... ii APPROVAL PAGE ...... iii ACCEPTANCE PAGE ...... iv STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY ...... v LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH ...vi MOTTO PAGE ...... vii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...... xiii TABLE OF CONTENTS ...... ix ABSTRACT ...... x ABSTRAK ...... xi
CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION ...... 1 A. Background of the Study ...... 1 B. Problem Formulation ...... 3 C. Objectives of the Study ...... 3 D. Definition of Terms ...... 3
CHAPTER II: REVIEW OF LITERATURE A. Review of Related Studies ...... 5 B. Review of Related Theories ...... 8 C. Theoretical Framework ...... 13
CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY A. Object of the Study...... 13 B. Approach of the Study ...... 14 C. Method of the Study ...... 15
CHAPTER IV: ANALYSIS A. The Characteristic of Adrienne ...... 17 B. The Conflicts Faced by Adrienne ...... 40 C. The Message as Revealed through the Adrienne’ Conflicts ...... 49
CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION ...... 55 BIBLIOGRAPHY ...... 58
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ABSTRACT IKHSAN JAMALUDIN, The Message Revealed Through Adrienne’s Conflict in Nicholas Sparks’ Nights in Rodanthe. Yogyakarta: Department of English Letters, Sanata Dharma University, 2017.
The object of this study is a novel entitled Nights in Rodanthe which is written by Nicholas Sparks that tells about two wounded individuals, Adrienne Willis and Paul Flanner, who meet in a small place called Rodhante Inn and built an intimacy through deep conversation during their stay and finally realize that they fall in love to each other. The purposes of this study are first, identify the main character, Adrienne Willis; second, identify the conflicts faced by Adrienne; and third, showing the messages as revealed through the conflicts faced by Adrienne. The writer uses New Criticism as the approach of the study to analyze this novel. The writer also conducts some study about character and characterization, conflicts, and message. Then, the writer applied the theories from those books into the analysis to answer the problem formulations. Therefore, it can be said that the method which is used in this study is library research. The writer can reveal several possible messages from the conflicts faced by the main character, Adrienne. In this study, Adrienne has six characteristics; those are charming, affectionate, dedicated, hard worker, tough and wise. Then, those characteristics lead Adrienne to continue her life after the loss of someone that she loved. Adrienne’s conflicts are divided into two, both internal and external conflicts. There are some internal conflicts that Adrienne faced, those happened when Adrienne has to deal with herself. She is bothered a lot by her inner thoughts, anxiety, and crisis of confidence. Then, the writer divides the external conflicts into three conflicts. First, when Adrienne gets divorce by Jack. Second, when Adrienne gets such in dilemma between having Paul stay with her or letting him go to clarify his personal problems with his son, Mark. Third, the conflict with Amanda, Adrienne’s daughter. It happens when Adrienne reminds Amanda to be able to cope with her grief and be self-resilient to continue her life for the future of her children. Yet, Amanda gives hard response to Adrienne’s words. The message that are revealed through the conflicts of Adrienne is about the power of love. Love could heal and move someone beyond their own limits. Even if when you are down enough in the bottom and you cannot see the light, love gives you hope in your life to find out yourself once more time and keep move forward for the future.
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ABSTRAK IKHSAN JAMALUDIN, The Message Revealed Through Adrienne’s Conflict in Nicholas Spark’s Nights in Rodanthe. Yogyakarta: Department of English Letters, Sanata Dharma University, 2017.
Objek dari studi ini adalah salah sebuah novel dari Nicholas Spark berjudul Nights in Rodanthe yang menceritakan tentang dua orang yang terluka, Adrienne Willis dan Paul Flanner, mereka bertemu di sebuah tempat kecil bernama Rodhante dan membangun keintiman melalui percakapan yang mendalam selama mereka tinggal bersama dan akhirnya mereka menyadari bahwa mereka saling mencintai satu sama lain. Tujuan dari studi ini adalah yang pertama, mengidentifikasi karakter utama, yaitu Adrienne Wilis; kedua, mengidentifikasi konflik yang dihadapi Adrienne; dan ketiga, mengungkap pesan melalui konflik yang dihadapi oleh Adrienne Penulis menggunakan New Criticism sebagai pendekatan untuk menganalisa novel ini. Penulis juga melakukan beberapa studi tentang karakter dan penokohan, konflik, dan pesan. Kemudian, penulis menerapkan teori-teori dari buku-buku ke dalam analisis untuk menjawab rumusan masalah. Oleh karena itu, dapat dikatakan bahwa metode yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah studi pustaka. Penulis dapat mengungkapkan bahwa ada beberapa kemungkinan pesan dari konflik yang dihadapi oleh karakter utama, Adrienne. Dalam studi ini, Adrienne memiliki enam karakteristik; menawan, penuh kasih sayang, berdedikasi, pekerja keras, tangguh dan bijaksana. Kemudian, karakteristik tersebut membuat Adrienne dapat melanjutkan hidupnya setelah kehilangan orang-orang yang dia cintai. Konflik Adrienne terbagi menjadi dua bagian, baik konflik internal maupun eksternal. Ada beberapa konflik internal yang dihadapi oleh Adrienne, yaitu saat Adrienne harus bertentangan dengan dirinya. Dia sangat terganggu oleh pikirannya sendiri, kegelisahan, dan krisis kepercayaan diri. Kemudian, penulis membagi konflik eksternal menjadi tiga bagian. Pertama, saat Adrienne bercerai dengan Jack. Kedua, saat Adrienne mengalami dilema antara ingin Paul tinggal bersamanya atau membiarkannya pergi untuk menyelesaikan masalah pribadinya dengan anaknya, Mark. Ketiga, konflik dengan Amanda, anak perempuan Adrienne. Hal itu terjadi ketika Adrienne mengingatkan Amanda untuk bangkit dari kesedihannya dan mandiri, lalu melanjutkan hidupnya demi masa depan anak-anaknya. Namun, Amanda menanggapi keras akan hal tersebut. Pesan yang terungkap melalui konflik Adrienne adalah tentang kekuatan cinta. Cinta bisa menyembuhkan luka dan membuat seseorang dapat melampaui batasan diri mereka sendiri. Bahkan saat anda terpuruk dan merasa tidak dapat bangkit lagi, disitulah cinta memberi harapan dalam hidup untuk tetap bangkit dan menyambut masa depan.
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CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. Background of the Study
Literary work may contain several values to deliver to the readers.
Reading a literary work is not only giving us a pleasure, but also there are several value to learn and contemplate and it also could be useful for daily life. Literary work is also a reflection of the real life. There are several elements exist such as character, plot, setting, message, etc. Just like things we find in the real life.
Wellek and Warren state that literature is about human’s reflection about their feeling towards their life.
Literature is the reflection of human feeling toward his life. It is closely related to human experience through which we can learn the image of human beings that is expressed in the written way. It can also be defined as the work of arts which represents human life (1956: 94). The elements of a literary work can be the object of the study by doing close reading of the text itself or correlating with any other extrinsic element such as the biography of the author, the socio-historical background, etc.
Nights in Rodanthe by Nicholas Spark is a romance novel tells about a middle age woman named Adrianne Willis, who gets divorced and has to live with her three children and raises them by herself. Trying to cope with her past failure, she takes an offer from a friend to take care an Inn when she was away.
Unexpectedly, she meets and falls in love with Paul Flanner, a retired doctor, who comes to Rodanthe to manage a former conflict with his ex-patient’s family.
There, they both find out that they love each other. Later on, Paul Flanner is
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killed in a car accident and Adrianne has to overcome all the conflicts of her life by herself. Soon, she finds that love gives such huge strength to survive.
In this study, the writer makes a literary analysis toward Nicholas Spark’s
Nights in Rodanthe using New Criticism approach, in which the writer only focuses on the intrinsic elements of the work, especially the message of the story.
It is quite different from any other approach, New Criticism only focuses on the study of the intrinsic elements of the literary work (text itself) and abandon the extrinsic ones, as stated by Bressler:
Known as New Criticism, this approach to literary analysis provide the reader with a formula for arriving at the correct interpretation of a text using only the text itself. Such a formulaic approach gives both the beginning student of literature and academicians a seemingly objective approach for discovering a text’s meaning (1999: 37).
As mentioned above, the main character of the work, Adrienne Willis faced several conflicts within her life, internally and externally. The internal conflict occurred when she has to deal with her grief and loss after Paul’s death.
On the other hand, the external conflict happens when she has to cope with the divorce, make an effort to fulfill the family needs and overcome her daughter’s problems.
Although Nights in Rodanthe can be considered as a popular work, the messages found in this work are so deep and powerful, as revealed through the characteristics of the main character and the conflicts that she has to deal with.
Then, the writer is interested to analyze the messages delivered in Nicholas
Spark’s Nights in Rodanthe.
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B. Problem Formulation
As mentioned on the title, this study would like to answer these following questions:
1. How is Adrienne Willis described in the story?
2. What are the conflicts faced by Adrienne in the story?
3. What are the messages revealed through Adrienne's conflict in the story?
C. Objectives of the Study
Firstly, the writer is going to find out the characteristics of Adrienne Willis as depicted in Nicholas Spark’s Nights In Rodanthe. The characteristics of
Adrienne Willis would show her tendency in dealing with conflict. Secondly, the writer investigates what kind of conflict faced by the main character of the novel.
It includes the internal and external conflict. Thirdly, the writer is going to find out the messages revealed through the conflict faced by Adrienne Willis.
D. Definition of Terms
In order to avoid ambiguity and misunderstanding about the meaning of the terms, the writer uses the following definitions to help the reader understand this study. Conflicts in the literature work are defined as two or more opposing forces between a character and other external factors, such as other character, society, nature, etc. Conflict also might happen internally, when there are two or more opposing forces occur in its character. Furthermore, messages are defined as the conclusion or meaning of the whole story that can be stated (1989: 899).
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CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
A. Review of Related Studies
Nicholas Spark is a prolific writers. He has published 18 novels, mostly with romantic genre. Many of his books had been adapted into movie, such as
Message in the Bottle, The Notebook, A Walk to Remember, Nights in Rodanthe, etc. The writer chooses Nights in Rodanthe as the object of this study. The novel is about a middle age woman, Adrianne Willis, who gets divorced, raises her children by herself, afford their financial needs, falls in love with a man, and struggle after the loss of a man she loved.
His popular writings had been published and translated in different languages. People also have conducted many studies to analyze his work using some different approaches.
Irene Dian Pratiwi analyzed one of his works in her undergraduate thesis entitled “The Meaning of Love as Seen in Theresa”, the Main Character of
Nicholas Sparks’ Message in the Bottle. Message in a Bottle is a novel written by
Nicholas Sparks, which tells about the journey of Theresa in finding her true love, it begins when Theresa found message in a bottle in Cape God seashore and decided to find the sender of the message (2016: x).
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In her study, she investigated the characteristics of the main character and her relationship with another character to reveal the meaning of love using the psychoanalytical approach.
In this study, Pratiwi uses a library research method. There are two sources that is used. Novel is the primary data itself, Message in a Bottle by Nichoas
Spark. Then, the second one is from a related books, journals and articles in the internet. She uses some theories in her study, those are theory of love, motivation, katresnanism, character and characterization, psychology, personality, and needs.
Furthermore, Pratiwi also uses psychoanalytical as the approach.
In the conclusion, she wrote that this novel taught the reader in understanding their partners. Love in this novel is not merely about sweet and beautiful word or sex, but it is about maintaining the relationship. It is also not about finding the perfection of our partner, but it is about completing each other.
Evi Shinta Nastiti in her undergraduate thesis entitled “Revealing
Messages through Erin Gruwell’s Characteristics and Conflicts as a Teacher as
Seen in Freedom Writers Movie Script” studied the characteristics of its character and the conflict to reveal the message of the story (2016: x)
In her study, Evi conductes a library research. She also uses psychological approach because she discusses about intrinsic aspect of the story, such as characteristics, conflict and messages. There are some sources that she uses, those are Freedom Writers movie and movie script. She also uses the sources from jurnals, books and articles in the internet that related to her study.
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She also applied the theory of conflict to analyze the movie further in order to be able to get the message revealed as appeared in the quotation below.
According to Rohberger and Woods (1971, p.21), there are two kinds of conflict namely an internal conflict and an external conflict. An internal conflict is a struggle against two desires within a character. While an external conflict is a struggle against fate, God, or environment. Both the internal and external conflict can happen at the same time (Nastiti, 2016: 16).
Through the theory of characteristics and conflict, she found the values that delivered in the story. Those values become the messages for the readers.
In the last section of her study, she concluded that there are some characteristics should be required of being a teacher, such as being optimistic, enthusiastic, sincere, and professional. A teacher should be able as a good leader and motivator as well. A teacher is expected to teach the student to respect others and teach them the humanity values for the future life (Nastiti, 2016: 56).
Emy Christiany in her undergraduate thesis “Message as Seen through
Edmund’s Characteristic in C.S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The
Witch, and The Wardrobe” is trying to reveal the message of the story (2009: x).
Emy uses objective criticism as the approach of the study to analyze the novel. She uses that approach because the approach amphasizes the intrinsic element itself. This study analyzes the message that can be taken from the intrinsic element, both characteristics and conflicts. Theory character and characterization, conflict and messages are the theory that she used to analyze the study.
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She took some theories of messages, in which also explain the differences between the theme and message as taken from Beaty and Hunter. They say the difference between theme and message is that theme seeks to inform or convince, meanwhile message seeks to emphasize the reader’s comprehension so that the idea is more broadly accessible (1989: 899). It means that the message tends to give moral values to convince the reader rather than to give ideas broadly like theme. These definitions help her to find the message from the novel (Christiany,
2009: 13).
In the conclusion, she found out that there are some possible messages.
Edmund, the main characters has to deal with several conflicts, internally and externally, that lead him to misery. Somehow, being gentle for our mistake is not as worse as we could imagine. The main character also has the strong will to achieve his dreams (Christiany, 2009: 40).
The writer is interested to have a different approach to use from the first and second study mentioned above in order to reveal the message in this story.
The writer conducts an analysis toward Nicholas Spark’s Nights in Rodanthe using new criticism approach, in which the writer only focuses on the intrinsic elements of the novel, particularly on the conflict faced by the main character of the novel, Adrianne Willis. The goal of this study is to reveal the message of the story that can be the precious lesson for the readers.
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B. Review of Related Theories
There are some other theories which are necessary to support the analysis of the work. They are theory of character and characterization, theory of conflicts and theory of messages. All those theories will be explained further in the following sections.
1. Theory of Character and Characterization
Characters are the persons characterized in a story, who are interpreted by the reader as being gifted with specific moral, intellectual, and emotional qualities by inferences from characters’ conversation and their distinctive ways of saying it and from what they do (Abrams, 1981:32). In order to have a clear explanation in the analysis, the writer provides the details about characterization theory by M.J Murphy. Murphy classified nine ways on how an author reveals the personalities and traits the character to the reader
(1972: 161-173) as mentioned below: a. Personal description
The author can describe a character’s appearance like the face, body, and clothes of the characters. He can describe clearly using adjective, what the characters are like and tell the reader the details of the characters appearance; for example the skin, eyes, hair or clothing. The personal description is very important because it can give clues to the character personalities. b. Character as seen by another
The author can describe a character through the eyes and opinions of another character. The author describes the character appearance or personalities
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by letting other characters tell and give comment about other characters that they encounter. c. Speech
The author can give the reader some clues or insight to the character through what that character says. Every time the character makes a conversation with another character or every time he speaks and gives an opinion, the character is giving us some information about the character’s characterization. d. Past life
The author can give the readers some clues to the character by allowing the readers to learn something about the character’s past life. The events in the past life may have contributions to shape the personalities or the traits of the character. This way can be done by observing the direct comment from the author, through the character’s thought, his conversation, and through the medium of another character. e. Conversation of others
The author can give the reader some clues to the character in literary work through the conversation of other characters and the thing they say about the spoken character. Some people often talk about other people. The thing that people say about the person can give a clue to that person’s characterization. f. Reaction
How a character in the story reacts to various situation and also gives us the clue to the qualities and personalities of the character. Using this kind of
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characterization, the reader might expect to find the quality of the characters in dealing with various events and situations that they encounter. g. Direct comments
The author can give a commentary or a description on the characters in the story directly. The author generally gives comment explicitly toward his character and the author gives his opinion about the character in the story. h. Thoughts
The author can give the readers a direct knowledge of what a character in a story is thinking about. Here, the readers are given a privileged position by the author because the readers are taken inside to the character’s mind. i. Mannerism
The author can describe the character’s mannerism, habit, or unconventional behaviors, which also may tell us something about the traits of the character. The character reveals his or her habits both the positive and negative one.
2. Theory of Conflict
Holman and Harmon define that conflict is the struggle that grows out of the interplay of the two opposing focus in the plot (1986: 107). They explain that there are four kinds of conflict. The first one is the struggle against nature. It occurs when the character has to deal with the natural forces, such as storm, flood, landslide, etc. The second conflict commonly is the struggle against another character. The third kind of conflict is the struggle against the society, when the
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character fights against the system and its value. The last one is the struggle against fate or destiny. It is a kind of conflict dealing with their creator (God) and the way they change their own fate or destiny.
Stanton divides conflict in to two, internal and external conflict. a. Internal Conflict
This kind of conflict is identifid as the conflict within the character, meaning that the character is arguing with himself/herself along to story and sometimes it forces the character to make a final decision (1965: 16). b. External Conflict
This conflict happens when the protagonist has trouble and conflict against the others characters. The protagonist is opposed by other characters. The protagonist could have conflicts with one or more other characters in the story
(1965: 16).
3. Theory of Message
Sinclair explains that message is the important part of the story, it could be the meaning, thought or idea delivered to the readers, so that the readers can evaluate for their better life after reading the books (1956: 490).
According to Beaty and Hunter, a message is defined as the real meaning or some easy conclusion that can be simply stated or summarized inside a work of art (1989: 899). Therefore, message can be said as the whole idea of the work of art.
From the quotation above, message can be defined as a the value found in a literary work that would like to be delivered to the readers. As a literary work
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could be described as the representation of real life, then the value inside of a literary work could become a guidance to the readers to contemplate about their life, appreciate it, and sometime help the reader to solve the problem wisely.
C. Theoretical Framework
The writer conducts this study in order to reveal the messages reflected through the conflict faced by Adrianne Willis, the main character of the novel
Nights in Rodanthe. All the theories mentioned above are applied in this study to answer the problem formulation.
Theories of character and characterization are applied to describe the character of Adrianne Willis, the main character of the work. It is useful to understand her characteristics before doing the next step of observing the conflict.
The theories of conflict are applied to answer the second problem formulation, which is the conflict faced by the main character. It could be the internal or external conflict.
Theory of message is useful to reveal the message through the character and conflict of the main character. This theory helps the writer to be able to find out what kind of lesson delivered in this novel.
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CHAPTER III
METHODOLOGY
A. Object of the Studies
The object of this study is Nicholas Sparks’ novel entitled Nights in
Rodanthe, released on September 2002. An adaptation movie based on the novel had been released in 2008. Nicholas Spark is well-known for his romantic novels, such as Message in the Bottle, A Walk to Remember, and the Notebook.
Nights in Rodant he is about two wounded individuals, Adrienne Willis and Paul Flanner. They meet in a small place called Rodhante Inn and build the intimacy through deep conversation during their stay and finally realize that they fall in love each other.
Adrienne Willis is a woman in midlife age, struggling to take care her teenage children and post-stroke father after getting divorce. Although, her ex- husband gives financial support for the children, but she still has to support her father. She does not refuse her friend’s offer to keep the small inn in Rodanthe while her friend is out of the town. It could give an extra income for her. On the other hand, it also gives the opportunity to Adrienne to have such a time to be alone to think and contemplate about her own life.
She meets Paul Flanner, the guest who insists to come to Rodanthe Inn although the owner has already announced it would be closed for a while. He comes to that place bringing his own emotional bagage; his divorce, his
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relatioship with his estranged son and ex-client’s husband who sued him for a tragically surgery in the past.
Caught up in the severe storm, these two people start building trust between them. They talk and share the problems of their life. They are listening passionately each other. They come into further stage, when they fall in love with each other. Then it leads into a great loss, when Paul is killed in an accident.
Adriene can survive her own life after that lose, with a faith that his love remain and give strength to her.
Another conflict happens when Adrienne finds out that her daughter also experiences the same loss after her husband’s death. Adrienne realizes that she has to tell her the truth to Amanda about her secret love that can help herself to survive for that long.
The novel itself consists of 19 chapters flowing beautifully using flashback narative. Adriene Willis is the main character who is trying to safe her daughter’s life by telling her secret love story with Paul Flanner that already gave her a new energy and strength to continue her life.
B. Approach of the Study
The writer uses new criticism as the approach of the study. This approach is appropriate to analyze the novel, in which the writer only focuses on the intrinsic elements, like the character, characterization and the conflict within the main character of the novel.
Different from any other approaches, new criticism examines the literary work itself, so that the reader does not have to connect to any other things, such as
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social historical background, the biography of the author, etc. New criticism only focuses on analyzing the “text in itself”, with its language and organization.
Selden, Widdowson and Brooker explain that criticism does not reach text’s meaning but the way the text ‘speaks itself’ (2005:19). Wilfred L Guerin states that a new criticism approach concentrates on the literary work itself (1979:20).
From the quotation above, new criticism delivers the analysis base on the text itself.
Since the new criticism is not affected by the other elements from outside of the novel, the writer considers that this approach is appropriated for this study.
C. Method of the Study
In this study, the writer conducts library research to analyze the work.
Library research is a way to gather information by collecting books and sources needed. The primary resource of the study is Nicholas Sparks’ Nights in
Rodanthe. The writer also collected the information in the articles and books about Nicholas Sparks, theory of character and characterizaation, theory of conflict, theory of message and new criticism approach.
The writer took several steps in this study. The first step was a deep reading the novel, in which the writer was interested to analyze the characteristics of Adrienne Willis. The second step was identifying characteristics of Adriane
Willis using the theory of character and characterization. The writer would like identify its characteristic based on several ways, as through the personal description, character as seen by another, speech, past life, conversation with others, reaction, direct comments, thoughts, and mannerism. The following step
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was identifying the conflicts faced by Adrian Willis, both internal and external conflict. The internal conflict was emphasizing the conflict within herself and arguments within her own thoughts. The external conflict focused on her conflict with other characters, such as her ex husband, children and her lover. Then the third step was revealing the message as reflected from the characterization of
Adriane Willis. It might include the thoughts, the way she deal with the problems in her life, her relationship with her children and lover and her recilience to survive. These messages could be the summaried ideas or thoughts that would like to be delivered to the readers. Thus, the readers can learn and contemplate the value of the whole story of the novel.
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CHAPTER IV
ANALYSIS
In this chapter, the writer delivers the analysis of the study to get the message revealed through the conflicts faced by the main character of Nicholas
Sparks’ novel Nights in Rodanthe, Adrienne Willis. This chapter is divided into three spesific parts to find out three problems, which are the characteristics of
Adrienne Willis, then followed by the internal and external conflicts and the message revealed through her conflict.
A. The Characteristics of Adrienne Willis
Adrienne Willis is the main character in Nicholas Spark’s Night in
Rodanthe. This novel has a twisted plot, mixed between the present and the past life of Adrienne Willis. The story started when Adrienne Willis was forty five years old. She was a widow with three children. The novel showed the journey taken by Adrienne Willis since she was young until present time, in which she has a secret love story being hidden for years from her children. Seeing Amanda, her only daughter was trapped in the deepest sorrow after the loss of her husband, made Adrienne decide to tell her secret love with Paul Flanner in order to help
Amanda to move on.
From the novel, the characteristics of Adriene Willis were revealed. She is a charming woman although she is a widow, she has the quality of attractiveness to others. She is very affectionate to her beloved ones; father, (ex) husband,
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children, Paul Flanner and Paul’s son. This quality is reflected through many things, such as speech, conversation of other, etc. She is a dedicated woman, she struggled too hard to take care of the family. She still tries to maintain her relationship with her husband when she found the changes on his behaviour, even though they could not maintain their marriage at the end. She was a hardworker as reflected through her effort to finance her father medical threatment. As a single parent, she was very tough in raising the children and took by herself all her burden and grief after the loss of her beloved one. At the end, it was revealed that
Adriene Willis is a wise woman, as she could take the lesson and values from all of her grief and bitterness. She would like to pass all the values she got to
Amanda, her only daughter in order to make her continue her life. All the characteristics of Adrienne Willis was analyzed further in the following sections. a. Charming
According to Erin McKean, charming means pleasant or attractive, polite, friendly, and likeable (2005:287). In Night in Rodanthe, Adrienne Willis is described to have all of those qualities as reflected through her characterization.
From the description about her past life, it revealed that she is attractive with blue eyes and slim body. Adrienne and Jack are considered as a perfect couple, as she got the blue-brunette eyes and quite smaller body shape at that time
(Sparks, 2002: 41).
Her quality of attractiveness is described through the eyes of Paul Flanner, a guest in Rodanthe Inn, who soon finds himself falls in love with Adrienne
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Willis. Paul says that she is beautiful, though her beauty is not fullfilling the conventional standard of beauty. The quotation below show how Adrienne’s physical appearance has attracted him.
Even though she was crying, he could tell she was pretty, but there was something in the sad way she shifted her weight that let him know she didn’t realize it (Sparks, 002: 36-37).
As she answered, Paul found himself evaluating her. Younger by a few years than he was, with light brown hair cut just above the shoulder blades and curled slightly. She wasn’t thin, but she wasn’t heavy, either; to him, her figure was inviting in a way that defied the unrealistic standards of television or magazines (Sparks, 2002:66).
From those quotations above, the writer could find that Adrienne has blue eyes, brown curly hair, quite ideal body shape that would be an interesting combination of her appeal.
Her attractiveness is not limited to her pyscical appearance, Adrienne
Willis also has kinds of inner beauty as the main element of her character. She was polite, friendly, and likeable. She was a sincere listener and respect her partner of conversation in genuine way. She is not pretending to be interested in the conversation, but she really pays attention to what they are talking about.
Paul smiled again, thinking how much he was enjoying the conversation. Enjoying her. In the silver light of the approaching storm, she looked beautiful, and he wondered how her husband could have let her (Sparks, 2002: 89).
Paul watched her walk away, noticing again how attractive she was. In spite of the direction his medical practice had taken in later years, he’d always remained less interested in appearance than those things a person couldn’t see: kindness and integrity, humor and sensibility. Adrienne, he
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was sure, had all those traits, but he got the feeling that they’d been unappreciated for a long time, maybe even by her (Sparks, 2002:70).
It is obvious that Adrienne herself does not realize that she is attractive to man. Perhaps, it is because she never opens her heart to any other men after the divorce and her business with all the domestic routines. The divorce has put her in difficult situation, in which she never has a chance to see herself again, nor has such time for romance.
In this novel, Nicholas Sparks also gives his direct comment to show the way Paul Flanner get impresses with her friendly nature that is appeared in their conversation during the early arrival of him in Rodanthe Inn. By having many questions, it shows that he is curious about her and pays attention to what she talks about. The quotation below strengthens this statement.
As she spoke, Paul threw the salad together, topping it with the croutons she’d bought earlier, asking questions every so often, just enough to let her know he was interested in what she was saying (Sparks, 2005:80).
As they drank their tea, they talked for another hour about this and that, the easy conversation of casual friends (Sparks, 2002: 91).
Her qualities of being sincere and friendly make Paul Flanner fells comfortable and close to her, in which he could build trust to tell her about the condition of his family, his divorce and the relationship with his son. This is not a common thing to find out someone to tell his biggest secret and problem in his life, but Adrienne Willis has the nature of the warm soul that make Paul Flanner trust her.
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At one night, Adrienne involves in a deeper conversation with Paul
Flanner, she realized that he gets attracted and thinks to kiss her, although she hold herself to give the same response to him. From the reaction of her to Paul
Flanner, it could show how strong her appeal to a man. On the other hand, Paul
Flanner starts to realized that he is interested to her, as he likes to see her smiling.
Later on, he is falling in love with Adrienne because of her irresistable attractiveness.
All he knew for sure was that he was beginning to fall for a woman named Adrienne, who was watching the Inn for a friend in a tiny coastal town in North Carolina (Sparks, 2002: 117). Paul Flanner in his letter sent to Adrienne emphasized his feeling about her and what kind of qualities he found in Adrienne that made him fall for her.
The following quotation would give the evidence to strengthen Adrienne’s qualities.
With lightning flickering on your face, you were absolutely beautiful, and I think that’s part of the reason I was able to open up to you in a way I never had with anyone else. But it wasn’t just you beauty that moved me. It was everything you are – your courage and your passion, the commonsense wisdom with which you view the world (Sparks, 2002: 187). The author also gives a chance to the readers to know Adrienne Willis’ thought about herself. She was glad to see Paul Flanner, felt comfortable because she can trust and built an intimacy with him.
More than anyone she knew, and as much as she wanted to deny it, she was gratified that someone like him had found her attractive (Sparks, 2002: 123).
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Furthermore, the author also gives a chance to the reader to dive into
Adrienne’s mind and see the perspective of the children toward her. They see herself as a respected and loving mother, but also a good friend as well. In some way, Adrienne would like to keep their perspective just as it is, thus she keeps her secret love story for herself only.
In the eyes of her children, she was kind but predictable, sweet and stable, a friendly soul from another era who’d made her way through life with her naïve view of the world intact (Sparks: 2002: 10). When she gets older, she is still attractive as she finds several men are interested to her, unfortunatelly, she could not open her heart again after her loss of Paul Flanner. It was revealed in the quotation below.
Every now and then, someone would come in who was interested in her. Years ago, those men had usually been older that she was; now they tended to be younger, but either way, the process was the same (Sparks, 2002: 174). These men usually appeared in the library, the place where she works. In the beginning they would ask questions about books, general things, and ended up with questions about her. She could answer all the question politely, but she just keeps her heart only for Paul Flanner. b. Affectionate
According to Erin McKean, affectionate means readily feeling or showing/expressing fondness or tenderness (2005:25). Adrienne Willis is an affectionate person. She shows the tenderness to her beloved ones; father, children and the Paul. This quality can be found through several ways, such as from her personal description, speech, character as seen by others, etc.
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From her conversation with Paul Flanner, it is revealed that Adrienne raised her children with love and affection from his father. It strongly influences her when she becomes parent. She treats her children just the way her father treat her.
It was something he used to say to me, ever since I was a little girl. No matter how good or bad I’d done in anything, no matter if I was happy or sad, my dad would always give a hug and tell me, “I’m proud of you” (Sparks, 2002: 93). The author also gives direct description on Adrienne’s relationship with her parents. She has such a good relationship with both of them, but her father is the closest one. She has special relationship with her father, since the child until now, Her father always proud of her no matter what. Affectionate characteristics might be inherited from his father.
Her mother had passed away when Adrienne was thirty-five, and though they’d had a good relationship, she’d always been closest to her father. He was, she still thought, one of two men who’d ever really understood her, and she missed him now that he was gone (Sparks, 2002: 6). Adrienne also used to call her father in the nursing father just to show her affection to him, although he hardly spoke to her. She manages him to listen while she tells him story. It is a touching part, as we can find that Adrienne does not neglecte him, no matter his condition is. She loves him so much, she cares about him and she knows they need each other.
Though her father couldn’t answer the phone, she’d made arrangements to have Gail, one of the nurses, answer for him, and she’d picked up on the second ring (Sparks, 2002: 102).
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A moment later, when she heard her father’s raspy breaths, Adrienne closed her eyes. “Hi, Daddy,” she started, just as she would have had she been there with him (Sparks, 2002: 103). When Adriene meets Paul Flanner, her tenderness reflect along the conversation with him. Adrienne has such a sensibility to understand other people, especially Paul. She can show the affection by her manner. Furthermore, she treats Paul, the way she listens to Paul’s story, the way she talks to Paul and so on.
The fact that she understood was more than enough. It was all that he wanted from anyone these days, and though he’d met her only the day before, he sensed that somehow she already knew him better than most people did. Or maybe, he thought, better than anyone (Sparks, 2002:107). Her fondness encourage him to tell her several secrets of his life and the bitter relationship between him, his ex-wife and his estranged son, even though he just met her few hours before the conversation occurr. It appears through his speech with Adrienne as quoted below.
“I’ve never told that story before,” Paul finally added. “To anyone, I mean” (Sparks, 2002:86). As a mother, Adrienne pays attention to all her children activities perfectly. She does not only know about their schedule, but also know the detail information about the progress of their activities. It shows that she is caring of them, furthermore the children are felt comfortable to give the information about their daily activity progress to her. It is reflected through her speech quoted below.
“My kids? Oh, well, let’s see … Matt was the starting quarterback on the football team, and now he’s playing guard on the basketball team. Amanda loves drama, and she just won the lead to play Maria in West Side Story. And Dan … well, right now, Dan is playing basketball, too, but next year, he thinks he might go out for wrestling instead. The coach has been
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begging him to try out since he saw him at sports camp last summer” (Sparks, 2002: 69). However, she often feels worry as they are attending the teenage phase, particularly with Amanda, her only daughter. Knowing the fact that Amanda is the only daughter of her, she really knows that Amanda needs the attendance of father a lot than her. The one who can teach Amanda much more than she can. Now,
Adrienne concerns about the changes of her behaviour after the divorce.
“But to be honest, with the kids, I’m more worried about what they’re missing than what I am right now. I miss having Jack around, for their sake. I think little kids need a mom more than they need a dad, but as a teenagers, they need their dads. Especially girls. I don’t want my daughter thinking than men are jerks who walk out on their family, but how am I going to teach her that if her own father did it?” (Sparks, 2002: 95). She wishes that they can spend more time with their father. Since this age, they seems need a good role model of a man, their father. She is a selfish woman in this case, although she is hurt during the separation with Jack, she realizes that the children need the presence of both as parents.
Her affectionate characteristic is also revealed when she comforts Paul
Flanner, right after he meets the son of her former patient in Rodanthe. Paul feels a bit upset and disappointed. Paul is rejected by him when Paul tries to come to
Robert’s house as Robert wished. Adrienne with her soft and tender expression tries to give relief to him and lead him to see from different perspective about the case.
His expression was blank, withdrawn; he looked far more tired than he had earlier in the morning. When he finished, Adrienne’s face showed a mixture of simpathy and concern (Sparks, 2002: 112).
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“I know it wasn’t easy to hear,” she went on, “and I know they’re wrong and it isn’t fair to blame what happened on you. But you gave them something important today, and more than that, it was something you didn’t have to do. You can be proud of that” (Sparks, 2002: 114). With her sensitivitiy and affection, she can see the problems clearer. It is no longer about the guilty feeling, but more about giving a chance to someone else to express their deepest sorrow just the way they are, just to let them go with the hurt feeling and make themselves felt better after that.
Mark Flanner, the son of Paul Flanner, who is a doctor in Ecuador also can feel her tenderness upon his father that changed him to be more human than before, to be a normal father that he always needs since then. He expresses through the letter all of that, where he would like to thank Adrienne for the opportunity to fix his relationship with his father. It is reflected through the sentences below.
And though I know he’d made some changes before he met you, you were the reason he became the person he did. Before he met you, he was trying to find something. After you came along, he’d already found it (Sparks, 2002: 204). Somehow, you changed my father, and because of you, I wouldn’t trade this last year for anything. I don’t know how you did it, but you made my father into a man that I miss already. You saved him, and by doing so, I guess that in a way, you saved me as well (Sparks, 2002: 205). As a mother, Adrienne is affectionate to her children. When Amanda lost her husband and get sank into deep sorrow, Adrienne come at Amanda’s house most of the time, just to comfort her and assisted to handle the kids and their daily routines. Adrienne really knows that Amanda cannot do it temporary.
Nonetheless, for the first couple of months after Brent had died, Adrienne spent nearly every day at their house, keeping the bills in order and
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preparing meals for the children, while Amanda slept and wept in her room. She held her daughter whenever Amanda needed it, listened when Amanda wanted to talk, and forced her daughter to spend at least an hour or two outside each day (Sparks, 2002: 8-9). She concerns with Amanda, but the grandchildren are the biggest concern for Adriene to find another solution as soon as possible. She always thinks about her grandchildren deeply before everyhting is too late for them. Soon, she observes the significant change of Amanda as a mother becomes careless during the depression in order to find an appropriate way to help Amanda to continue her life.
While Adrinne sympathized with her daughter, she was concerned about Amanda’s children. Max was six, Greg was four, and in the past eight months, Adrienne had noticed distinct changes in their personalities. Both had become unusually withdrawn and quiet. Neither jad played soccer in the fall, and though Max was doing well in kindergarten, he cried every morning before he had to go. Greg had started to wet the bed again and would fly into tantrums at the slightest provocation. Some of these changes stemmed from the loss of their father, Adrienne knew, but they also reflected the person that Amanda had become since last spring (Sparks, 2002: 8). As Adrienne sees that there is no progress for months after the death of
Amanda’s husband, the children are being neglected, although Adrienne already spent more time to support them, but she realizes this situation could not last forever. She loves her grandchildren a lot, she knows their sorrow for having their father died, and now for having her mother abandoned them. On the other hand, she also knows that this situation is not good for them, the grandchildren need
Amanda presence, they need the presence of a role model.
But it wasn’t fair to the children. They needed her guidance and her love, they needed her attention. They needed her to tell them that everything was going to be all right. They’d already lost one parent, and that was hard
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enough. But lately, it seemed to Adrienne that they’d lost their mother as well (Sparks, 2002: 9-10).
c. Dedicated
According to Erin McKean, dedicated means devoted to a task or purpose, having single-minded loyalty or integrity, exclusively allocated to or intended for a particular service or purpose (2005: 441). Adrienne Willis is a dedicated person, she takes the family and children as the priority of her life, no matter what it takes.
It is reflected through some ways of characteristics.
At the beginning of her marriage, she plays her role as an obedient wife and loving mother for the family, taking care all the domestic task by herslef and the children on their daily activities. It is revelead through the direct comment in the quotation below.
She loved to cook, she kept the house clean, they went to church as family, and she did her best to maintain an active social life for her and Jack. When the kids started going to school, she volunteered to help in their clasesses, attended PTA meetings, worked in their Sunday school, and was the first volunteer when rides were needed for field trips. She sat through hours of piano recitals, school plays, baseball and football games, she taught each of the children to swim, and she laughed aloud at the expressions on their faces the first time they walked through the gates of Disney world (Sparks, 2002: 41-42). It seems that Adrienne tries to maintain the concept of ideal wife and mother by spending most of her time for them. Even when Adrienne find that her husband has cheated with another woman, her reaction is cool and calm. Instead of blaming others, she evaluates herself and tries to improve herself with the expectation that everything can be good as normal again.
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In denial, she cooked Jack’s favorite meal that night and mentioned nothing about what she’d seen. She pretended it hadn’t happened, and in time, she was able to convince herself that she’d been mistaken about what was going on between them (Sparks, 2002:43). Her effort to fix the relationship is obviously reflected through her reaction. She keeps her positive thought about her husband’s changes behaviour.
She convinces herself that it is just an upside down cycle of marriage life.
Though, she find out she is wrong. In the end, her husband asks her to divorce and leave the house soon just because of Linda, the woman who Jack loves accidentally.
She’d been married long enough to know better. She assumed it would return as it always had, and she wasn’t worried about it. But it didn’t. By fortyone, she’d become concerned about their relationship and had started purusing the self-help section of the bookstore, looking for the title that might advise her on how to improve their marriage, and she sometimes found herself looking forward to the future when things might slow down (Sparks, 2002: 42). From Adrienne’s thought, she is denying the fact that she is already left by her husband, she already did all the things expected as the ideal woman and wife do this far. She is faithful and dedicated all her life about eighteen years long just for the family. But her ex-husband never considers that before he left. The thing that he knows in that time is he falls in love with Linda and he is going to marry her.
She didn’t want this life, she’d neither asked for it nor expected it. Nor, she thought, did she deserve it. She’d played by the book, she’d followed the rules. For eighteen years, she’d been faithful (Sparks, 2002:44). Even after the divorce, she does not change her manner. She is still a dedicated mother and daughter. She devotes her life for his father and children, even if it took every hours and every days of her life. The things that she knows
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she has to stand on her on feet no matter what, even though she never has such a time for her own but she must do that.
And how had she dealt with that feeling? She’d devoted her life to her children, her father, the house, her job, the bills. Consciously or subconsciously, she’d stopped doing those things that would give her the opportunity to think about herself (Sparks, 2002: 132). She was busy from the moment she woke until the moment she went to bed, and because she’d robbed herself of any possibility of rewards, there was nothing to lookforward to. Her daily routine was a series of chores, and that was enough to wear anyone down. By giving up the little things that make life worthwhile, all she’d done, she suddenly realized, was to forget who she really was (Sparks, 2002: 132). Those quotations above strengthen the point that she takes the other things as the priority above her own life. She makes sure everything they need are fullfilled, but at the beginning she does not realize that she loses herself.
When Adrienne meets Paul Flanner, the same statement is revealed again during the conversation, in which she would not leave the children for her own happiness. She sacrifices herself for the goodness of the children since she knows they need her presence at the meantime.
She rolled her eyes. “Yeah, wouldn’t that be nice? I could come home and say something like ‘Sorry, kids, you’re on your own. Mom’s taking off for a while.” She shook her head. “No, for the time being, I’m kind of stuck. At least until they’re all in college. Right now, they need as much stability as they can get.” “Sounds like you’re a good mother” (Sparks, 2002: 89). Paul Flanner, the one who begins to get attracted to Adrienne and would like to ask more from her, realizing that they all have different kind of life and responsibilites. It is reflected through the way he saw Adrienne.
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She was in a different place; her life had responsibilites, and as she’d made clear to him yesterday, those responsibilities required stability and predictability (Sparks, 2002: 116). It is clear that Adrienne as a single parent has very big responsibilities and strong bounded with the children. Adrienne is firm about it. On the contrary, Paul
Flanner does not have such a bound with his estranged son.
When Adrienne gets older, she could compare the difficulties faced during the nursing time, when the children are still young and need more attention of her.
She remembers the pressure she has for almost twenty hours each day. She does not have enough time to rest and stop thinking about them.
Mostly, she was thankful for that, but the pressures of raising them on her own tested her limits daily. At night, she often collapsed in bed but found it impossible to sleep because she couldn’t stop the questions that rolled through her mind (Sparks, 2002: 44). Even when the time went by, the children grow up, she still keeps all of those memories during the most hectic time of her life. She knows that being a mother is like a whole-life job that required huge dedication.
Not only did she remember them from her own life, but she’d watched her children as they’d struggled through the angst of adolescence and the uncertainty and chaos of their early twenties. Even though two of them were now in their thirties and one was almost there, she sometimes wondered when motherhood would become less than a full-time job (Sparks, 2002:4). d. Hardworking
Being the only child of the family and a widow is like having the burden doubled. This thing happens to Adrienne Willis, as a widow she has to take care of the children after her husband left the house. Although, he still gives the
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financial support for the children, but it is not include to afford her father. This responsibility should be taken by herself.
She’d always believed that Jack was taking care of the future since he was the one who handled the bills. It turned out that he wasn’t, and she’d had to take a part-time job at the local library. Though she wasn’t so worried about her or the children, she was scared for her father (Sparks, 2002:47). Her anxiety of the financial situation becomes more real when her father got the stroke attack for several times and it requires more income to be able to afford the medical and nursing home for her father. Even though, she has already taken a part-time job in the library, she still has to earn much more money. She spends all the amount both for her father and the nursing home.
A year after the divorce, her father had had a stroke, then three more in rapid succession. Now he needed around-the-clock care. The nursing home she’d found for him was excellent, but as an only child, she bore the responsibility of paying for it (Sparks, 2002: 47). Talking about the father, it is more than about the money to pay the medical service of him, but it is more about her own needs of her father’s presence. After the divorce and the loss of her mother, her father becomes the only one who can be a friend that really comfort her. So, the effort that she takes is the reaction as she doesn’t want to lose him.
Money, though, was only part of her worries about her father. She sometimes felt he was the only person who was always on her side, and she needed her father, especially now. Spending time with him was an escape of sorts for her, and she dreaded the though that their hours together might end because of something she did or didn’t do (2002: 48). Understanding the financial problem that occurr to Adrienne, her friend offers a job of taking care her inn temporarily when she leaves the town for another family occation. In this case, the writer can learn that her friend trusts
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Adrienne to take over the work and she knows that Adrienne could handle the job well.
When Jean had first asked if Adrienne would mind watching the Inn while she was out of town, she had suspected that Adrienne was struggling financially and had left far more money than was necessary for the groceries. The note she’d left had told Adrienne to keep the remainder as a payment for her help (Sparks, 2002: 47-48). For Adrienne, this job is not only an offer additional income, but also an opportunity to have a vacation, a me-time from very hectic life as a mother of three after the divorce. She needs such a time to think about herself.
She comes up with the idea to get a full-time job in order to support her father. She would like to give the best thing to her father on his remaining days, to get him treated as a human regardless of his condition. Therefore, she would find out the way to afford the cost, instead moving him out from the present place.
“And because of that, I’ll work it out so he won’t have to leave. It’s the best place in the world for him. It’s close to home, and not only is the exceptional, but they treat him like a person there, not just a patient. He deserves a place like that, and it’s the least I can do.” “He’s lucky he has you as a daughter to watch out for him” (Sparks, 2002: 94). When she is fouty five years old, she still works on the library. Even though the children can still support her financially, but she herself find happines in keep working. It is no longer about money, but about the opportunity to find new people and to have social interaction with them.
From those explanation above, the writer could see that Adrienne Willis is a hardworking woman. At the beginning, the objective of working is to support
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her family, especially her father, but then it gives such personal satisfaction for her to keep working during her remaining days.
The work wasn’t hard- she now worked in the special reference section, where books couldn’t be checked out – and because hours might pass before she was needed for something, it offered her the opportunity to watch people who pushed through the glassed entryway of the building (Sparks, 2002: 173). e. Tough
According to Erin McKean, tough means strong enough to withstand adverse condition or rough or careless handling, able to endure hardship or pain, able to protect one’s own interests or maintain one’s own opinions without being intimidated by opposition, confident and determined (2005: 1781). Adrienne
Willis is a tough woman. Regardless her pain of being betrayed and losing her beloved one, she can struggle and stand up on her feet again. She has a strong goal that leads her to survive. This quality is going to be explained further in the following paragraphs.
Adrienne’s quality of being tough revealed through the conversation of her children, Dan and Amanda, just right after she tells her secret love story to
Amanda. Dan, who sees the change of Amanda behaviour, wandering what kind of things that she and her mother talking about. Amanda comes up with the following statement.
“She’s tougher than she looks,” Amanda said. Dan laughed. “Yeah … sure, she’s tough all right. She cries when the goldfish die.” “That may be true, but in a lot of ways, I wish I could be as strong as she is” (Sparks, 2002: 215).
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It is obvious that Amanda gets surprised with all of her mother story, that already hidden from them for such a long time. She already knows the pain and the bitterness that her mother had to swallow after the divoce. However, Amanda never knows that her mother falls in love again with Paul after the divorced with
Jack and followed by greater pain and sorrow after the death of Paul. Amanda can feel it since she just lost her husband. The surprise for Amanda is her mother shows her grief and sorrow, even once, in front of them. Adrienne keeps going on her life just like something never happened, though her heart is broken inside.
It also appears when she remembered that her father often tells her that she is a survivor. The statement shows the strength and endurance that Adrienne’s has to pass through the hardness and bitterness of her life, particularly after the divorce.
She was a survivor, as her father had told her many times, and though there was a certain satisfaction to that knowledge, it didn’t erase the pain or regrets. Nowadays, she tried to focus on those things that brought her joy (Sparks, 2002: 173). That statement helps her to keep focus and move forward to her main objective of life, raising the children properly.
Few years after divorced, she falls in love with Paul Flanner, a guest who attended to Rodanthe Inn. However, she should accept the reality that Paul would have left soon to Ecuador for meeting up with his only son. It is like another hurricanne for Adrienne, being left by the man she loved, even though the reason of that thing is more acceptable.
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“You know, when I got up this morning, I told myself I wasn’t going to cry again. I told myself that I’d be strong and happy, so that you would remember me that way. But when I heard the shower come on, it just hit me that when I wake up tomorrow, you’re not going to be here, and I couldn’t help it. But I’ll okay. I really will. I’m tough” (Sparks, 2002: 163). Through her speech above, she is convincing herself to be strong and tough to face the reality and let him go to fix his relationship with his estranged son. This is such a tough decision she ever make, because it means she pretended to deny her own feeling. However, she is strong enough to realize that they have the responsibilites and problems to overcome that placed over their own feeling for each other.
But it wasn’t that easy. She knew that if her children were older, she would join him in Ecuador. If his son didn’t need him, he could stay here, with her. Their lives were diverging because of responsibilities to others, and it suddenly seemed cruelly unfair to Adrienne. How could their chance at happiness come down to this? (Sparks, 2002: 166). From Amanda’s memory, the writer finds out that Adrienne is hidding her sorrow and grief after the death of Paul Flanner. Amanda and her brothers do not realize what is going on to her mother. They think it is just a common fight with their father.
With effort, she could recall that Christmas so many years ago – how quiet her mother had been, the smiles that always seemed a little forced, the unexplained tears that they’d all assumed had something to do with their father (Sparks, 2002: 207). Adrienne is a tough woman, despite all of the pain she has experienced before. She has the clear mind that somehow she has to keep going on. She does not regret both falling in love with Paul Flanner and knowing the fact that he
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passed away. This love encourages her and gives her such huge strength to survive and continue her life
Her time in Rodanthe had changed her in other ways as well. Being with Paul had healed her feelings of loss and betrayal over the divorce and replaced them with something stronger and more graceful. Knowing that she was worthy of being loved made it easier to hold her head high, and as her confidence grew, she was able to speak to Jack without hidden meanings or insinuations, without the blame and regret that she’d been unable to hide in her tone in the past (Sparks, 2002: 174-175). f. Wise
According to Erin McKean, wise means having or showing experience, knowledge, and good judgement, responding sesnsibly to a particular situation, having knowledge in a specified subject (2005: 1928). Adrienne Willis is a wise person. She takes all her experiences of life, both good and bad, joy and grief, sweet and bitter ones, as the lesson to learn in the future. She gets the wisdom over it. It also gives her the courage and strength to survive. That quality is going to be explained further in the following paragraphs.
The wisdom of Adrienne is mostly reflected from her speech to others. As revealed when Adriene talks to Paul Flanner after his visit to his patient’s family.
The son of his former patient is being rude to Paul Flanner just to express the feeling of losing his mother. It sounds like he blamed Paul for his mother’s death.
Adrienne delivers different point of view about it, which is more wisely rational and touching.
“As hard as it is to accept, and matter what anyone says,” she said carefully, “You have to understand that even if you had talked to father this morning, you probably wouldn’t have changed his son’s mind. He’s hurting, and it’s easier to blame someone like you than to accept the fact
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that his mother’s time had come. And no matter how think it went, you did do something important by going there this morning” (Sparks, 2002: 113). “You listened to what the son had to say. Even though he’s wrong, you gave him the chance to tell you how he feels. You let him get it off his chest, and in the end, that’s probably what the father wanted all along. Since he knows the case isn’t going to make it to court, he wanted you to hear his side of the story in person. To know how they feel” (Sparks, 2002: 113).
It also happens when Paul Flanner is visited by his patient’s husband,
Robert Torrelson. He tells Paul about his feeling toward his former wife. He tells
Paul everything from the beginning of their life till the end. He has a thought that his wife deserves the best, deserves more than what she gets now, passed away.
“But you didn’t know any of those things about her. To you, she was just the lady who came in for an operation, or the lady who died, or the lady with the thing on her face, or the lady whose family was suing you. It wasn’t right for you not to know her story. She deserved more than that. She earned more than that by living the life she did.” (Sparks, 2002: 184). Again, Adrienne would like to ask Paul to see the case from different perspective and to give an emphaty to them, instead of being trapped in guilty feeling. Many people say that women use to give emotionally response in negative context. In this case, Adrianne is more rational and give the wise response accordingly.
When they are talking about Paul’s decision whether to stay or leave to
Ecuador, Adrienne is the one who comes up with sensible reason on why Paul should be persisted with his previous plan. She encourages him to fix his relationship with his estranged son right away, to ensure that it would not be worse.
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“No,” she said. “You can’t do that to Mark. Not after all that you two have been through. And you need this, Paul. It’s been eating you up; if you don’t go now, part of me wonders if you ever will. Spending more time with me isn’t going to make it any easier to say good bye, when the time comes, and I couldn’t live with myself knowing that I was the one who kept you and your son apart” (Sparks, 2002: 163-164). Adrienne convinces him wisely that there are things to be fulfilled as parent, their responsibilities sometimes required sacrifice for the interest of their children.
“Even though it’s hard, both of us also know it’s the right thing to do – that’s the way it is when you’re a parent. Sometimes there are sacrifices you have to make, and this is one of them” (Sparks, 2002: 164). Despite of her pain in the past, Adrienne begins to build a better relationship with his ex-husband, Jack, afterwards. She learns a lot from her experince with Paul Flanner, as his love healed her and made her stronger.
Eventually, she could place herself as friend, when Jack is left by his wife and faced the second divorce. Through their conversation, it revealed that Jack apologized for his mistake and wondered how she could cope with such a feeling after the divorce. Adrienne gives such a wise response on it.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “The dumbest thing I ever did was to walk out that door.” Adrienne smiled and patted his knee. “I know. But thank you anyway.” It was about a year after that when Jack called to ask her to dinner. And as she had with all the others, Adrienne politely said no (Sparks, 2002: 176).
As a mother, Adrienne was concerned with her only daughter as she is trapped in a great sorrow after the loss of her husband. Adrienne gives all the support that Amanda needed during her grief. However, she realized that she should help her to come out from that zone. Therefore, she decides to tell Amanda
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about her secret love with Paul and also her feeling after such loss of her beloved one. She also encourages Amanda with wise messages about being strong both women and parent for the future of her children.
She paused. “Your children need you, Amanda. I don’t think there’s ever been a time when they needed you more. But lately, you haven’t been there for them. I know you’re hurting, and I hurt for you, but you’re a mom now, and you can’t keep going like this. Brent wouldn’t have wanted it, and your children are paying the price” (Sparks, 2002: 212). At the end her days, Adrienne has already come up from a fragile broken- heart woman to be an independent and wise woman. She always believes that love give all the strength to her to be able to pass through the previous years in her life.
Despite all that happened in the years that had happened since then, Adrienne still held tight to the belief that love was the essence of a full and wonderful life (Sparks, 2002: 2). She accepts herself for growing old and could not do the things she used to do it easily at the younger time. She even does not regret for those things happened to her life. For her, it brings her to be a wisdom woman that she only be able to gain by experience.
Not that she regretted being older. People nowadays talked incessantly about the glories of youth, but Adrienne had no desire to be young again. Middle-aged, maybe, but not young. True, she missed some things- bounding up the stairs, carrying more than one bag of groceries at a time, or having the energy to keep up with the grandchildren as they raced around the yard – but she’d gladly exchange them for the experiences she’d had, and those came only with age (Sparks, 2002: 3).
B. The Conflicts Faced by Adrienne Willis
There are two kinds of conflict faced by Adrienne Willis, the main character in Nicholas Sparks’ Nights in Rodanthe, which are divided into the internal conflict and external conflict. The internal conflict happens inside herself,
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commonly about her thought, fear, anxiety, confidence, guilty, and disapppointed feeling. The external conflict is about the fight of the main character with another character, it could be more than one character.
1. Internal Conflict
This kind of conflict is identified by the term Man vs. Himself. It takes place inside the protagonist, meaning that he/she is arguing with himself/herself.
The protagonist spends the entire story arguing with himself about what to do before something finally happens that forces him to make a decision.
In the Nights in Rodanthe, the writer finds that Adrienne Willis faces several internal conflicts, in which she has to deal with herself. She is bothered a lot by her inner thoughts, anxiety, and crisis of confidence. All of those internal conflicts is going to be explained in the following sections. a. Denial
For Adrienne Willis, being denial become her defense mechanism, particularly when she caught her husband is dating another woman. Instead of asking him for what is going on when her husband is home, she pretend that there is nothing happened.
In denial, she cooked Jack’s favorite meal that night and mentioned nothing about what she’d seen. She pretended it hadn’t happened, and in time, she was able to convince herself that she’d been mistaken about what was going on between time (Sparks, 2002: 43).
Despite of the fact that Adrienne Willis’s husband is cheating to another woman, she somehow deny that fact and thinks that everyhting is gaoing to be alright. Furthermore, she also thinks that she had played her role as an obedient
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and faithfull housewife almost perfectly for eighteen years. But, unfortunatelly she felt the betrayal by Jack, Jack hurts her so much.
She didn’t want this life; she’d neither asked for it nor expected it. Nor, she thought, did she deserve it. She’d played by the book, she’d followed the rules. For eighteen years, she’d been faithful. (Sparks, 2002: 44).
Adrienne Willis even has the expectation that her husband would come to her and ask for reconciliation. It strengthens the statement that Adrienne still denies the divorce with Jack, particularly the feeling of being neglected by him.
And though she never told anyone, she sometimes imagined what would say if Jack showed up at the door and asked her to take him back, knowing that deep down, she would probably say yes (Sparks, 2002: 44). b. Crisis of Confidence
Being neglected by her husband makes such a deep wound in Adrienne’s life and it raises the crisis of confidence inside her. She often thinks herself of being not attractive anymore as the reason why her husband left. As appeared before they get divorce, Adrienne’s husband does not want to spend more time with the family and even fells reluctant to have sex with her as well. She is questioning herself as appeared in the quotation below.
It was an evening filled with laughter and high spirits, but later, after they got home, she noticed that Jack didn’t watch her as she undressed before getting to bed (Sparks, 2002: 42).
Living in such a small town means almost everyone has quite close acquintance to her and her ex-husband. After their divorce, they live in the same environment. It means that increased the possibility for both of Adrienne and Jack meet in one occasion. That situation becomes such pressure for Adrienne since
Jack would have appeared with Linda, while she is coming alone to any occasion.
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This feeling hurts her deeper and causes less confidence as appeared in the quotation below.
A month ago, she’d gone to a Christmas party hosted by a couple she’d known for years, and who should happen to be there but Jack and Linda. It was life in a small southern town – people forgave things like that – but Adrienne couldn’t help but feel betrayed. (Sparks, 2002: 45-46).
After getting divorced, Adrienne does not have a date or new relationship with another man. She gets list of reason, such as expectation to meet a man with good personality, smart and understanding her responsibility as a single parent who raises three children. In the following three years, she has no date, and she thinks she would never have again. She feels less confident since she knows that her ex husband could enjoy the life and already gets a new relationship, but nothing on her side.
In the last three years, she hadn’t been asked out at all, and lately she’d come to believe that she never would. Good old Jack could have his fun, good old Jack could read the morning paper with someone new, but for her, it just wasn’t in the cards (Sparks, 2002: 46).
When Adrienne meets Paul Flanner and finds out that Paul is attracted to her, she could not believe it. She still feels underestimated with her ownself, since it is been a long time not to have someone found her attractive. Besides, she thinks she was no one, but a widow who spend most of her time working and taking care of her family.
Besides, this wasn’t really her, was it? This wasn’t the real Adrienne – the worried mom and daughter, or the wife who’d been left for another woman, or the lady who sorted books at the library. This weekend she was someone different, someone she barely recognized (Sparks, 2002: 114- 115).
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Somehow Adrienne is glad to know that someone is interested in her, but on the other hand she is not that confident. Finding the fact that she was neglected by her husband for a younger and more interesting woman had decreased her self- esteem.
How was she supposed to react to that sort of total rejection? It was easy for others to say that it had nothing to do with her, that Jack was going through a midlife crisis, but it still had an effect on the person she thought she was. Especially as a woman. It was hard to feel sensual when you didn’t feel attractive, and the ensuing three years without a date only served to underscore her feeling of inadequacy (Sparks, 2002: 131-132). c. Anxiety
Adrienne thinks that sex is the biggest reason on why her husband left her for another more attractive woman. It is like her husband only lookinf for sex because he betrayed the commitment after eighten years of marriage.
Was it just the sex he was after? Sure, Linda was both younger and prettier, but was it really that important to him that he’d throw away everything else in his life? (Sparks, 2002: 44-45).
During her marriage life, Adrienne Willis has experienced several anxiety symptoms. At the beginning, it happens when she realized the changes of her husband’s behavior, as he seems no longer sexually attracted with her. It becomes such an early warning for Adrienne that something worse might happen to them and their marriage.
It was an evening filled with laughter and high spirits, but later, after they got home, she noticed that Jack didn’t watch her as she undressed before getting into bed. Instead, he turned out the lights, and though she knew he couldn’t fall asleep that quicky, he pretended he had (Sparks, 2002: 42).
Time goes by, her anxiety about her marriage life becomes more real for
Adrienne. As the loyal wife, she puts her best effort to maintain the relationship
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with Jack. She even tries harder to fix it by reading some resources that she found.
It is expected that she could improve her marriage as normal again.
By forty-one, she’d become concerned about their relationship and had started perusing the self-hel section on the bookstore, looking for titles that might advise her on how to improve their marriage, and she sometimes found herself looking forward to the future when things might slow down (Sparks, 2002: 42).
Another additional anxiety for Adrienne is the financial insecurity. After the divorce, she has to manage her balance to be able to afford the children and also her father’s needs. It is a serious burden for Adrienne because the financial support from her ex-husband is not enough to cover everything. Her father’s stroke attack has forced him to be treated at the nursing home, which require extra money to pay the monthly bill. She makes a pragmatic solution to overcome this problem by taking a part-time job at the local library.
And then, of course, there were the financial worries. Jack had given her the house and paid the court-ordered support on time, but it was just enough to make ends meet (Sparks, 2002: 46-47).
A year after the divorce, her father had had a stroke, then three more in rapid succession. Now he needed around-the-clock care. The nursing home she’d found for him was excellent, but as an only child, she bore the responsibility of paying for it. She had enough left over from the settlement to cover another year, but after that, she didn’t know what she would do. She was already spending everything she earned at the part-time job she’d taken at the library (Sparks, 2002: 47).
Adrienne needs someone to rely on during her transision time. Someone who willingly listens to all her story. She could get those things from her father that provides her with serenity and courage. However, she feels very anxious because she is going to lose him if she could not earn more money to pay his
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medical support. It is like losing something you need most during the difficult time of your life.
Spending time with him was an escape of sorts for her, and she dreaded the thought that their hours together might end because of something she did or didn’t do. What would become of him? What would become of her? Adrienne shook her head, forcing those questions away. She didn’t want to think about any of this, especially now (Sparks, 2002: 48).
2. External Conflict
This conflict happens when the protagonist has trouble and conflict against the other characters. The protagonist is opposed by another character. Frequently he fights with a single person or more than one. In the novel Nights in Rodanthe,
Adrienne Willis deals conflicts with other characters: husband, Paul Flanner, and children (particulartly Amanda). All of those conflicts are going to explained in the following section. a. Conflict with Paul Flanner
At that time Paul Flanner is in his own life-mission to unravel his problems. One of the problems is to fix his relationship with his only son, Mark.
A young doctor who is struggling with his medical mission in Ecuador.
“Mark and I aren’t on very good terms these days. Actually, we’re not on any terms. We haven’t said more than a few words to each other in years.” (Sparks, 2002: 137).
Adrienne argues with Paul in the last night before Paul’s time in Rodanthe is over. Paul has such an idea to stay a bit longer in Rodanthe with Adrienne, he thinks that it is can be a good chance for them to stay together. Unfortunatelly
Adrienne rejects that idea, She thinks that Paul has to go to Ecuador to fix his personal problem with Mark. On the other hand, she also thinks that Paul have
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already a plan to fix his personal problem with Mark before come to rodanthe, so
Adrienne would never want to be such an obstacle between them.
“Adrienne… last night, after you went to sleep, I got to thinking that maybe I could stay a little while longer. Another month or two isn’t going to make much difference, and that way we could be together.
She shook her head, cutting him off.”
“No,” she said. “You can’t do that to Mark. Not after all that you two have been through. And you need this, Paul. It’s been eating you up; if you don’t go now, part of me wonders if you ever will. Spending more time with me isn’t going to make things easier to say good-bye when the time comes, and I couldn’t live with myself knowing that I was the one who kept you and your son apart. Even if we planned for you leaving the next time, I’d still cry then, too” (Sparks, 2002: 163-164).
Despite in the difficult option, Adrienne finally decided to let him go, letting him go to Ecuador to fix his own problem with his son. There are several considerations that strengthen her reason to Paul Flanner. First reason, at this phase the children need her presence and her stability as the only adult living with them. Second reason is that Adrienne does not want to be a burden or obstacle for
Paul to fix his problem with his only son. Adrienne realized that it is their biggest sacrifice as their concern to Mark.
“You can’t stay. We both knew you were leaving before the part of us even began. Even though it’s hard, both of us also know it’s the right thing to do- that’s the way it is when you’re a parent. Sometimes there are sacrifices you have to make, and this is one of them.” (Sparks, 2002: 164).
b. Conflict with Amanda
Post-divorce is the hardest period for Adrienne. Besides financial and psychological problems, she has to deal with the role as the only parent living with her three children. They are growing up as teenager at that time with all of
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their dynamic elements of life and fluctuative emotional condition. Three of them have their own way to deal with the divorce, but Amanda is the most concerned.
The kids were fourteen, thirteen, and eleven when Jack moved out of the house, and each child had dealt with the divorce in a different way. Matt and Dan took out their agression on the athletic fields and by ocassionally acting up in school, but Amanda had been the most affected (Sparks, 2002: 4).
Amanda responds it with her own way, she showes it through her rebelious fashion style and the changes on her daily behaviour, as appeared in the quotation below.
As the middle child sandwiched between brothers, she’d always been the most sensitive, and as teenager, she needed her father in the house, if only to distract from the worried stares of her mother (Sparks, 2002: 4-5).
She began dressing in what Adrienne considered rags, hung with a crowd that stayed out late, and swore she was deeply in love with at least a dozen different boys over the next couple of years (Sparks, 2002: 5).
Amanda’s behavior becomes a burden for Adrienne, although Adrienne could understand that it is Amanda’s defense mechanism toward the changes in her family’s condition. It also takes time for Amanda to be able to accept the condition and it is become such a big relief for Adrienne. It happens when
Amanda meets Brent and finally was married him.
After school, she spent hours in her room listening to music that made walls vibrate, ignoring her mother’s calls for dinner. There were periods when she would barely speak to her mother or brothers for days (Sparks, 2002: 5).
It took a few years, but Amanda had eventually found her way, settling into a life that felt strangely similar to what Adriene once had. She met Brent in college, and they married after graduation and had two kids in the first few years of marriage (Sparks, 2002: 5).
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However, it does not take a long time, since the conflicts with Amanda revealed. Adrienne tries hard to be present and encourages her duirng her loss.
Adrienne also reminds her to be able to cope with her own grief and be self- resilient to continue her life for the future of her children. Amanda gives hard response to her mother’s words, as if her mother does not understand her feeling,
Amanda thinks that her mother never lost the man like she does. The statement appeared in the quotation below.
“This isn’t like you and Dad,” she’d said. “You two couldn’t work out your problems, so you divorced. But I loved Brent. I’ll always love Brent, and I lost him. You don’t know what it’s like to live through something like that” (Sparks, 2002: 7-8).
Adrienne tries to understand Amanda’s psychological circumstance by standing beside her, taking care the house and the children. Observing that
Amanda gets drown in her sorrow and seeing the children start being neglected,
Adrienne decides to share her tragic love story with Paul and how she deals with her own grief after the death of him. She hopes that Amanda can take lesson and learn from her experience.
Adrienne had said nothing, but when Amanda left the room, Adrienne had lowered her head and whispered a single word. Rodanthe (Sparks, 2002: 8).
C. The Messages Revealed through the Conflicts Faced by Adrienne Willis
According to Beaty and Hunter, a message is defined as the real meaning or some easy conclusion that can be simply stated or summarized inside a work of art (1989: 899). Therefore, message can be said as the whole idea of the work of art.
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From the quotation above, message can be defined as the value that is found in a literary work that would like to be delivered to the readers. As a literary work can be described as the representation of real life, then the value inside of a literary work can become a guidance to the readers to contemplate about their life.
Sometime it helps the reader to solve the problem wisely. Through the characteristics of Adrienne Willis in the novel Nights in Rodanthe and the conflicts faced by her, the writer can summarize the messages of the novel.
The first message is sometimes letting go is the only way to heal. The novel describes a life journey of a woman named Adrienne Willis since young to her old days, the characteristics her reflected the value of the message that the writer mentioned above. It is about growing old through ages, problems and experiences.
Not that she regretted being older. People nowadays talked incessant about the glories of youth, but Adrienne had no desire to be young again. Midlle- aged, maybe, but not young. True, she missed some things – bounding up the stairs, carrying more than one bag of grocceries at a time, or having the energy to keep up with the grandchildren as they raced around the yard – but she’d gladly exhange them for the experiences she’d had, and those came only with age (Sparks, 2002: 3).
It talks about the feeling over the betrayal of her husband. At the beginning she denies the condition of her marriage because she felt hurts, betrayed and abandoned by her husband after eighteen years beeing an obendient wife. It decreases her self-esteem, yet increase her stress.
She didn’t want this life; she’d neither asked for it nor expected it. Nor, she though, did she deserve it. She’s played by the book, she’d followed the rules. For eighteen years, she’d been faithful (Sparks, 2002: 44).
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Over times, she finally could deal with the fact, accept the situation, forgives the man who hurts herself, and fights for her own and the children’s future. It enlightens her feeling and make her even wiser and stronger than before after the divorce.
Knowing that she was worthy of being loved made it easier to hold her head hight, and as her confidence grew, she was able to speak to Jack without hidden meanings or insinuations, without the blame and regret that she’d been unable to hide in her tone in the past (Sparks, 2002: 175).
On the other hand, Adrienne lost her father after struggling over the frequent stroke attack. Her father becomes her only friend during the hardest period of her life. Adrienne could share everything to him and got peacefulness and serenity from him.
Spending time with him was an escape of sorts for her, and she dreaded the thought that their hours together might end because of something she did or didn’t do (Sparks, 2002: 48).
After the lost of her father, Adrienne also lost Paul Flanner, the man she loves, who get killed in a car accident in Ecuador. Paul is the one who brings her alive again after long period of being neglected, betrayed, lack of confidence and overwhelmed with too many things in her life. He brings love and hope for
Adrienne.
Had I never met him, I doubt I ever would have forgiven Jack, and I wouldn’t have been the mother or grandmother I am now. Because of him, I came back to Rocky Mount knowing that I was going to be okay, that things would work out, that no matter what, I’d make it (Sparks, 2002: 211).
It is such an intense struck for her to know that Paul passed away in that car accident, she lost her hope of waiting. However, she could accept the fact, as she knows that he has the relationship with his son fixed before the accident. It
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seems like convincing Adrienne that she makes a right decision in the past, the time when she decided to let Paul go to Ecuador to fix Paul’s personal problem with Mark. Their sacrifices are worth it.
And the year we spent writing each other gave me the strength I needed when I finally learned what had happened to him. Yes, I was devastated by losing him, but if somehow I could go back in time – this time knowing what would happen in advance – I still would have wanted him to go because of his son. He needed to make things right with Mark. His son needed him – had always needed him. And it wasn’t too late” (Sparks, 2002: 211).
Another message revealed through the conflict of Adrienne Willis is struggling for the beloved ones. After divorced, Adrienne has to raise the children by herself, alhtough her ex-husband gives financial support for them, but he rarely spent his time for the children. Therefore, most of the time of children relied on
Adrienne. It makes Adrienne often finds out herself felt over-exhausted by her role as a mother.
She is financially struggling after the divorce, in which she has to earn more income to be able to afford all her family’s need, especially for her father’s medical support in the nursing home. She also takes a part-time job to get more income to be able to finance her father’s needs.
The nursing home she’d found for him was excellent, but as an only child she bore the responsibility of paying for it. She had enough left over from the settlement to cover another year, but after that, she didn’t know what she would do. She was already spending everything she earned at the part- time job she’d taken at the library (Sparks, 2002: 47).
As a fulltime mother and part-time librarian, Adrienne has to manage her time wisely. Despite of her hectic daily routines, Adrienne struggles to manage her time to provide affection for both sides; the children and her father.
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Sometimes there are sacrifice to make is the third messages that revealed through the conflict that faced by Adrienne Willis. After divorce, Adrienne spends most of her time for her family and her job. She has several considerations to take aside her own desires to have a new partner of life.
She believed that romance and passion were possible at any age, but she’d listened to enough of her friends to know that many relationships ended up being more trouble that they were worth (Sparks, 2002: 198-199).
Her decision to let Paul to go to Ecuador was also her sacrifice, although she knows that inside of her heart she loves him so much and wishes that he could stay with her to through day by day.
“You know, when I got up this morning, I told myself I wasn’t going to cry again. I told myself that I’d be strong and happy, so that you would remember me that way. But when I heard the shower come on, it just hit me that when I wake up tomorrow, you’re not going to be here, and I couldn’t help it. But I’ll be okay. I really will. I’m though” (Sparks, 2002: 163).
Apart of it, she realizes that loving someone could be in the form of encouraging them to achieve their happiness. In this case, she encouraged Paul to find his only son to fix the father-son relationship between them. At the end,
Adrienne lost Paul Flanner because of a car accident, but it does not reduce her happiness to know that Mark and Paul have already in a good relationship than before.
“When I think of losing Paul or the years that might have been, of course it makes me sad. It did then, and it still does now. But you have to understand something else, too: As hard as it was, as terrible and unfair as the way things turned out, I wouldn’t have traded the few days I spent with him for anything” (Sparks, 2002: 210).
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In Nights in Rodanthe, there is one more message revealed through
Adrienne’s conflict. It is that love has the powerful energy to heal the wound inside. Divorce brings great impact to Adrienne’s personality to be a bit cynical to others, especially to her ex-husband and his spouse. Besides the hurt of betrayal, the crisis of confidence happens to her as well. She thinks that she is being neglected because she is no longer attractive, her sex appeal decreased.
Furthermore, she thinks that she becomes a boring person to her husband. It influences her self-esteem as she becomes lack of confidence.
Her time in Rodanthe had changed her in other ways as well. Being with Paul had healed her feelings of loss and betrayal over the divorce and replaced them with something stronger and more graceful (Sparks, 2002: 174).
However, the presence of Paul Flanner into her life brings the light to her personality. It raises up her confidence. Paul’s love also heals the pain inside and gives the strength to Adrienne to continue her life. This is strengthened by the quotation below.
Yes, Paul was gone, but he had left her with so much. She’d found love and joy, she’d found a strength she never knew she had, and nothing could ever take those things away (Sparks, 2002: 221).
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CHAPTER V
CONCLUSION
This is the conclusion of this study. Nights in Rodanthe as the object of the study is a romance novel written by Nicholas Spark. The story is about a life journey of a woman named Adrienne Willis, a widow who is struggling both to raise the children and to survive after the loss of her beloved one. After analyzing this novel, the writer finds out there are some messages delivered through the characteristics and conflicts faced by Adrienne Willis.
The analysis is divided into three parts: the characteristics of Adrienne
Willis, the conflicts faced by Adrienne Willis, and the messages revealed through the conflicts faced by Adrienne Willis. Adrienne Willis has several characteristics.
She is charming, affectionate, dedicated, hard worker, tough and wise. Those are the important things to know the personality of Adrienne.
Furthermore, Adrienne has several conflicts that she faced, both internal and external conflict. The internal conflicts are denial, crisis of confidence and anxiety. Then, the external conflicts are conflict with Paul Flanner and Conflict with Amanda. Through the characteristics of Adrienne Willis and the conflicts faced by her, the writer can draw the message of the novel.
First, the message is about letting someone go is the only way to heal . The novel described the life journey of Adrienne Willis since young to her old days, the characteristics of her reflected the value of her about letting someone go and growing old through ages, problems and experiences. It is also about the loss of the beloved ones. Adrienne Willis has experienced great loss when her husband
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left her, also when the man she loved get killed in the car accident, Paul, and when her father passed away. It also talks about the feeling over the betrayal. This is not saying that she is lost, but more about forgiving the man who already hurt herself, letting the pain go, and gaining more strength and wisdom after all.
Second, the message revealed through the conflict of Adrienne Willis is struggling for the beloved one. After divorce, Adrienne has to raise the children by herself. She often finds out herself over-exhausted of being a mother. She is financially struggling after the divorce, in which she has to earn more income to be able to afford all her family’s need.
Third message is about sacrifice that we have to make. After getting divorced, she devotes her life only for taking care of the children and her father.
She takes aside her own desire, even for dating with someone else, she would think twice to do it. Her sacrifice is also revealed when she let Paul Flanner to go to Ecuador, even though she loves him so much. She realized that loving someone could be in the form encouraging them to achieve their happiness. In this case, she encouraged Paul to meet his only son and fix the father-son relationship between them.
All of those messages revealed through the conflicts faced by Adrienne
Willis could be the values that the author would like to deliver to the readers. The writer could conclude that the ultimate message of this novel is about the power of love. Love could heal and move someone beyond their own limits. Even if when you are down enough in the bottom and you cannot see the light, love gives you
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hope in your life to find out yourself once more time and keep moving forward for the future.
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