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REVEALING THE MESSAGES THROUGH FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE IN “FIREWORK” BY KATY PERRY
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra in English Letters
By GIOVANNI ERWIN INDRATNO Student Number: 124214084
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS FACULTY OF LETTERS UNIVERSITAS SANATA DHARMA YOGYAKARTA 2020
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
REVEALING THE MESSAGES THROUGH FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE IN “FIREWORK” BY KATY PERRY
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra in English Letters
By GIOVANNI ERWIN INDRATNO Student Number: 124214084
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS FACULTY OF LETTERS UNIVERSITAS SANATA DHARMA YOGYAKARTA 2020
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PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
TABLE OF CONTENTS TITLE PAGE ii APPROVAL PAGE iii ACCEPTANCE PAGE iv STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY v LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS vii TABLE OF CONTENTS viii ABSTRACT x ABSTRAK xi
CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION 1 A. Background of the Study 1 B. Problem Formulation 5 C. Objectives of the Study 5 D. Definition of Terms 6
CHAPTER II: REVIEW OF LITERATURE 7 A. Review of Related Studies 7 B. Review of Related Theories 11 1. Figurative Language 11 a. Metaphor 12 b. Simile 12 c. Personification 13 d. Metonymy 13 e. Symbol 13 f. Allegory 13 g. Paradox 14 h. Hyperbole 14 i. Understatement 15 j. Irony 15 2. Theory of Message 16 C. Theoretical Framework 17
CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY 18 A. Object of the Study 18 B. Approach of the Study 19 C. Method of the Study 20
CHAPTER IV: ANALYSIS 22 1. Analysis of the Figurative Language and Its Meaning 22 a. Simile 23
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b. Personification 25 c. Metaphor 26 d. Irony 28 e. Paradox 29 f. Hyperbole 30 2. The Messages Revealed through the Figurative Language in Katy Perry “Firework” 33 a. Be confident for being yourself 34 b. Keep looking forward 36
CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION 41 REFERENCES 43 APPENDICES 45 Appendix 1 : Lyric of “Firework” By Katy Perry 45 Appendix 2 : Table of Figurative language in “Firework” 47
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ABSTRACT
INDRATNO, GIOVANNI ERWIN (2020). Revealing the Messages through Figurative Language in “Firework” by Katy Perry. Yogyakarta: Department of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma University. This thesis discusses the figurative language presented in “Firework” by American singer named Katy Perry. This single is on her third album “Teenage Dream” and was released on August 24, 2010. The song was written by Perry with Ester Dean, the Norwegian production team Stargate, and co-producer Sandy Vee. In literature song lyric is categorized as a poem because of its similarities. One of the similarities is contain figurative language. It is sometimes difficult to interpret for general listener or the reader. Therefore, the researcher conducted the study in figurative language which are found in Katy Perry‟s song “Firework”. The researcher has two objectives in this research. The first objective is to find out the figurative language used in the song. The second objective is to reveal the messages in the song through the figurative language. In Katy Perry‟s “Firework”, the researcher uses library research and information that collected from articles, writings, and the internet. There are two theories that the researcher applied to answer the problem formulation. The first is the theory of figurative language and the second theory is theory of message. There are some steps to answer the problem formulations. The first step is reading the song lyric. The second is collecting all the figurative language. The next step is identifying the implicit meaning of the words containing figurative language using the theory of figurative language by Perrine. The third is revealing the message of the song lyric. In “Firework” song lyric, the researcher found six types of figurative language. They are simile, personification, metaphor, paradox, irony, and hyperbole. The simile occurs in 4 lines, the personification occurs in 3 lines, the metaphor occurs in 3 lines, the paradox occurs in 1 line, the irony occurs in 1 line and the hyperbole occurs in 10 lines. From the analysis of the figurative language, the researcher can reveal some messages using new criticism approach. The messages are to be confident for being yourself and keep looking forward.
Keywords: figurative language, message, Katy Perry.
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ABSTRAK
INDRATNO, GIOVANNI ERWIN (2020). Revealing the Messages through Figurative Language in “Firework” by Katy Perry. Yogyakarta: Jurusan Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Sanata Dharma. Tesis ini membahas bahasa kiasan yang disajikan dalam "Firework" oleh seorang penyanyi Amerika bernama Katy Perry. Single ini ada di album ketiganya "Teenage Dream" dan dirilis pada 24 Agustus 2010. Lagu ini ditulis oleh Perry bersama Ester Dean, tim produksi Norwegia Stargate, dan co-produser Sandy Vee. Dalam dunia sastra, lirik lagu dikategorikan sebagai puisi karena kesamaannya. Salah satu kesamaan adalah berisi bahasa kiasan. Terkadang sulit untuk menafsirkan bagi pendengar atau pembaca. Oleh karena itu, peneliti melakukan penelitian terkait bahasa kiasan yang ditemukan dalam lagu Katy Perry "Firework". Peneliti memiliki dua tujuan dalam penelitian ini. Tujuan pertama adalah untuk mengetahui bahasa kiasan yang digunakan dalam lagu tersebut. Tujuan kedua adalah untuk mengungkapkan pesan-pesan dalam lagu melalui bahasa kiasan. Dalam penelitian ini, peneliti menggunakan penelitian kepustakaan dan informasi yang dikumpulkan dari artikel, tulisan, dan internet. Ada dua teori yang peneliti terapkan untuk menjawab rumusan masalah. Yang pertama adalah teori bahasa kiasan dan teori kedua adalah teori pesan. Ada beberapa langkah untuk menjawab rumusan masalah. Langkah pertama adalah membaca lirik lagu. Langkah kedua adalah mengumpulkan semua bahasa kiasan. Langkah selanjutnya adalah mengidentifikasi arti tersirat dalam kata-kata yang mengandung bahasa kiasan menggunakan teori bahasa kiasan oleh Perrine. Langkah ketiga adalah mengungkap pesan dari lirik lagu. Dalam lirik lagu “Firework”, peneliti menemukan 6 jenis bahasa kiasan. Bahasa kiasan tersebut adalah simile, personifikasi, metafora, paradoks, ironi, dan hiperbola. Simile ada dalam 4 baris, personifikasi dalam 3 baris, metafora ada dalam 3 baris, paradoks ada dalam 1 baris, ironi dalam 1 baris dan hiperbola dalam 10 baris. Dari analisis bahasa kiasan, peneliti dapat mengungkapkan beberapa pesan menggunakan pendekatan kritik baru. Pesan-pesan tersebut adalah: percaya diri untuk menjadi diri mereka sendiri dan terus memandang ke depan.
Kata kunci: figurative language, message, Katy Perry.
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CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. Background of the Study
Language is a communication tool that has several functions in daily life.
One of the functions of the language is to express thoughts. It means language is used to communicate and express wills or feelings with others. According to
Kreidler (1998, p. 19) “language is a system of symbols through which people communicate”. From the quotation, it proves that the understanding of the language that we use to communicate is important. Related to the figurative language which has explicit meaning especially in a song lyric or poetry, the reader or the audience should know the meaning as a part of way to communicate.
It is categorized as a communication because a song is a way for a songwriter to deliver the message. Where there is a feedback between two persons, it means these two persons are doing communication.
Communication is an important part in our daily life because we live as social creature and we need to communicate with others to fulfill our social needs.
Communication is a process of someone building relation with other people.
Communication has several types, they are verbal, nonverbal, visual, and written.
Verbal communication is the use of language through speaking, for example, a conversation in a meeting. The second one is nonverbal communication. It is the use of language through body language or gesture. The third is visual
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communication which is the act of communication through photograph, drawing, art, etc. The last type of communication is written communication. The media to transfer the information is through the writing. This study discusses song lyrics which are categorized as written communication. It is the expression of readers within music.
Related to song lyric as written communication, sometimes people listen to the music when they are happy. On the other hand, people can feel the song lyrics when they are sad. According to Merriam Webster Online Dictionary, song is the act or art of singing; poetical composition (accessed on October 24, 2019).
Composing a song is the way of songwriters to deliver messages about their ideas.
It is clearly said that song contains words named lyrics. In a song, lyrics are written in simple form so the listeners can understand easily. In addition to that, the lyrics also represents the writer‟s mind so the listeners can understand the aim of the songwriter creating the song.
In literature, a song lyric is categorized as poem because the similarity of its characteristics. Both song lyrics and poem have stanza, alliteration and figurative language. Those are quite common in literary works such as poems and song lyrics. For example, examining a Bryan Adams song, Bradley notes that the lyric “it cuts like a knife/but it feels so right” creates a “dissonance” that
“generates some lyric heat.” He also said the dance of word and music makes song act on our imagination and emotion just as the best poems do. Another opinion stated by Professor Howard Rambsy who teaches a course on rap lyrics at
Southern Illinois Universtity that finds discussing the lyrics of rapper Jay-Z a
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good way to engage young literature students and get them thinking about concepts like allusion and alliteration. According to Perrine (1963, p. 65), poets use figurative language as “another way of adding extra dimensions to language”.
He also adds that by using figurative language, “we can say more vividly and forcefully by figures than we can by saying it directly” (1963, p.65).
There are other philosophers who have perspective about figurative language. It is stated by Abrams and Harpham in A Glossary of Literary Terms
10th Edition.
Figurative language is a conspicuous departure from what competent users of a language apprehend as the standard meaning of words, or else the standard order of words, in order to achieve some special meaning or effect. (2012, p. 130) This study focuses on figurative language in Katy Perry‟s song. Figurative language is sometimes difficult to interpret for general listeners. Moreover, not everyone is able to interpret the true meaning of figurative language. As figurative language are important to understand and the lyric of the song contains some figurative language, the researcher wants to discuss the figurative language found in Katy Perry‟s song. Figurative language is important to be understood since it is useful to give more detailed and accurate description of the meaning of the word.
Therefore, the researcher conducted the study in figurative language which are found in Katy Perry‟s song “Firework”.
The researcher chooses “Firework” by Katy Perry because this song is very popular in youth generation and it has good message beyond the song lyric.
“Firework” is a song from a well-known singer from California, America, named
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Katy Perry. In fact, her real name is Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson, but she changed her name into Katy Perry to avoid confusion with an actress named Kate Hudson.
She started her carrier when she was 9 years old by singing in a church where her parents were serving until she was 17. As teenager, she also learned to play guitar and sought a chance in musical career. Until the end of 2019, Katy Perry had released 5 studio albums. Based on a website created by Katy Perry fans on https://katyperry.fandom.com, “Firework” is a popular song which is recorded in
Teenage Dream album, the third album of Katy Perry. It was released in August
24, 2010 and the album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, selling
192.000 copies in its first week. It was later certified three times Platinum by the
RIAA; selling more than 3 million copies in the United States and charting within the Top 40 of the Billboard 200 year-end chart three years in a row. As of July
2013, Teenage Dream has sold 6 million copies worldwide.
The researcher chooses “Firework” by Katy Perry as the main data of this research because the lyric has great meaning to deliver to youth generation nowadays who often feels desperate and hopeless. The researcher thinks that the adolescents are not yet mature but not so young anymore. Therefore, they easily feel depressed and confused to find the solution to their problem. Related to a survey from Pew Research Centre, most of U.S teens see anxiety and depression as a major problem among their peers. The problem appears from various conditions. Fewer teens, though still substantial shares, voice concern over bullying, drug addiction and alcohol consumption. More than four-in-ten say these
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are major problems affecting people their age in the area where they live, according to a Pew Research Center survey of U.S. teens ages 13 to 17.
In this research, the researcher analyzes the messages in the song lyrics of
“Firework” by Katy Perry so that readers of this thesis have a better understanding about the messages implied in the song lyrics through figurative language.
Besides, the messages of this song can give a good impact to the teens related to many people just singing without knowing the meaning of the song. The researcher hopes that by comprehending the messages implied in “Firework” song lyrics, reader can get different point of view on the way people think about life and help them face their daily life differently.
B. Problem Formulation
From the background of the study, this research would like to answer these following questions:
1. What are the types of figurative language used in the song?
2. What are the messages revealed through the figurative language in Katy
Perry‟s “Firework”?
C. Objectives of the Study
The researcher has two objectives in this research. The first objective is to find out the figurative language used in the song. The second objective is to reveal the messages in the song through the figurative language.
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D. Definition of Terms
The following explanations are the definition of some particular terms that used by the researcher.
The first thing to define is figurative language. Perrine describes that figurative language is language that brings us to the imagination pleasure (1969, p. 71). Figurative language figures out something to be more than its meaning. In the other words, the meaning of figurative language mostly is not the literary meaning. It has another meaning deeper than the literary meaning.
The second thing is the definition of message. According to Sinclair, messages is something important in the story, message can evaluate us for a better life. Message is defined as an idea that someone tries to communicate to people. It is also the meaning, thought or idea that is intended to express (1956, p. 490). It can also mean the most important idea in a book, film, or play, or an idea that you want to tell people about. It can be said that message is written or spoken information that implicit in a literary work.
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CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
There are three parts of this section: review of related studies, review of related theories, and theoretical framework. The researcher reviews four sources for the related studies which consist of four theses. In the related theories, the researcher reviews some theories from the experts to lead the analysis based on research questions. Theoretical framework presents the role of theories to solve the problems.
A. Review of Related Studies
The researcher reviews four studies that have been published with similar main ideas, which are figurative language, as references. The theses were written by Indonesian researchers and have same topic which is about figurative language.
The first study was written by Madi (2019) who did an undergraduate thesis entitled Figurative Language in Maroon Five’s Album Overexposed. Madi analyses the figurative language found in the lyrics of some songs, namely: One
More Night, Payphone, Daylight, Lucky Strike, The Man Who Never Lied, Love
Somebody, LadyKiller, Fortune Teller, Sad, Tickets, Doin’ Dirt, Beautiful
Goodbye, and Moves Like Jagger. In his research, Madi said that:
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“Figurative language is the utterance produced when someone says or states something but the meaning is not literally the same as their statement. Figurative language is language that employs phrases or words that have a different meaning when they are interpreted literally” (2018, p. 8).
Madi found that there are 47 lines which contained figurative language
(Madi, 2019, p. 30). The result shows that there are nine figurative language which were found in Maroon Five‟s Album Overexposed. Those figurative language are simile, metaphor, personification, metonymy, symbol, paradox, hyperbole, litotes, and irony. He has an opinion that it is important to study the figurative language because the words in the lyric cannot be interpreted in literary meaning. It has hidden meanings in every word. He said, “Figurative language is important to be understood since it is useful to give more detailed and accurate description” (p.3).
In analyzing the data, Madi reviews some theories from Kenedy (1979),
Perrine (1963), Jay (2003), Sylvan Barnet (1963), Diyanni (2004), and Hornby
(2000). He collected the data from the online resources and took some songs as purposive sampling. In the end of the research, Madi concludes that the used of figurative language are very common in songs and it is very important to make the song lyrics sound more vividly and forcefully than saying it directly. The listeners need to think deeper to understand the meaning behind the song. Sometimes or even most of the song‟s lyrics can be the songwriter‟s experience.
The second study was written by Rientina (2018) who did an undergraduate thesis entitled Theme Seen through The Use of Metaphors and
Similes in Katy Perry’s Selected Songs in The Album Entitled Teenage Dream.
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There are two objectives in her research. The first one is to find out the metaphors and similes in Katy Perry‟s album. The second one is to deliver the theme of the selected songs in the album based on the use of metaphors and similes found. In her study, Rientina found that the song contains 8 similes and 14 metaphors in the three songs entitled “Firework”, “Pearl”, and “E.T.” She also found the theme of each song. The song “Firework” had the theme “encouragement”, “Pearl” had the theme “an unhealthy relationship”, “E.T.” had the theme “falling in love with someone who is unique”. The result of the research is the theme of the album
“teenage dream”.
The third study was written by Saputro (2017) who did an undergraduate thesis entitled The Message of The Betrayal in Figurative Language of The Song
“Your Betrayal”. There are two objectives in his research. The first problem is to find the figurative language found in “Your Betrayal” song lyric. The second problem is to explain the intended message from the song writer about betrayal through the meaning of figurative language in the song lyric of “Your Betrayal”.
In his study, Saputro discovers there are four figurative language in “Your
Betrayal” song lyrics. They are metaphor, hyperbole, irony, and dead metaphor.
Saputro finds that there is other aspect about the contextual meaning of figurative language that is applied in the “Your Betrayal” song lyric according to Dash‟s theory. Global context and local context have the main role in order to elaborate the intended message of the songwriter about betrayal. Those types of contextual meaning show the message of the songwriter conveyed through the meaning of the figurative language. Saputro stated:
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The intended message of the songwriter is about betrayal that have done by a person who the songwriter love most. Through the intended message in figurative language meaning, the reader is expected to feel the same emotional experience about the anger, the revenge, and the desperation of the songwriter (p. 42).
The fourth study was written by Harmastuty (2016) who did an undergraduate thesis entitled A Study of Figurative Language in The Script’s
Album No Sound Without Silence. There are two objectives in her research. The first one is to find out the types of figurative language which are found. The second one is to find out the types which predominate in the album. She used the theories by Lakoff and Johnson (2003), Jay (2003), and Colston (2015). She found ten types of figurative language. They are metaphor, simile, hyperbole, meiosis, idiomatic expressions, rhetorical questions, metonymy, irony, sarcasm, and personification. The most frequently used figurative language types are hyperbole and rhetorical questions. In the end of the research, Harmastuty concludes that the use of songs for language learning, particularly English, is worth considering since it enriches the understanding of language including figurative language.
The similar objective among studies from Madi, Rientina, Saputro,
Harmastuty and the researcher is to discuss the figurative language in song lyrics.
The differences are that Madi, Rientina and Harmastuty focus on finding the figurative language in some songs, and the researcher focuses on the message implied in the song. The difference of Saputro and the researcher‟s study is the object of the research which is the song. Saputro chooses The Betrayal song,
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Rientina chooses Katy Perry’s Album Teenage Dream, Madi chooses Maroon
Five’s Album Overexposed and the researcher chooses “Firework”.
In this research, the researcher aims to reveal the messages of the song lyrics using new criticism approach and figurative language theory while the other researchers reveal the meaning of the song lyrics using semantic theory. This research reveals the meaning focusing on the rhetorical aspect rather than the grammatical one.
B. Review of Related Theories
The researcher reviews some theories. The theories help the researcher to gather more information and add more knowledge about figurative language. The theories support the researcher in order to answer the problems mentioned in chapter II.
1. Figurative Language
In a book A Glossary of Literary Terms Tenth Edition, M. H Abrams and
Geoffrey Galt Harpham stated; “Figurative language is a conspicuous departure from what competent users of a language apprehend as the standard meaning of words, or else the standard order of words, in order to achieve some special meaning or effect” (2012, p. 130)
According to Perrine (1969, p. 65), “figurative language is language which uses a non-literal meaning.” Figurative language is usually applied to express what people want to deliver in different way. Figurative meaning invites people to think broader from what it is written. Figurative language is usually used by the authors of literary work to deliver what they thought of.
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Figurative language sometimes speaks something that does not make sense and gives many interpretations for people reading the texts. Perrine adds that
“figurative language affords us imaginative pleasure” (1969, p. 71). It means that in figurative language, people are invited to imagine beyond the surface. It makes people have critical minded since each person has different ways of interpreting.
Figurative language is divided into some types. Although there are so many variations in figurative language, the researcher decides to use Perrine‟s types of figurative language. According to Perrine (1969), there are ten types of figurative language. They are metaphor, simile, personification, metonymy, symbol, allegory, paradox, hyperbole, understatement, and irony. The researcher uses Perrine‟s theory since it has more variations which can help the researcher to answer the problems. Below, the researcher describes each type of figurative language. a. Metaphor
Metaphor is used to compare between things that are different (Perrine,
1969, p. 65). In metaphor, one thing represents another thing which is inanimate.
The example of metaphor is she is the star in her class. This sentence does not mean that she is the object from the space. In metaphor she associates with star and has meaning as someone who is very popular (Aprilianingrum, 2019, p. 12). b. Simile
Simile is a figure of speech that compares one thing to the others (Perrine,
1969, p. 65). Simile is likely similar with metaphor. The different things from metaphor, simile uses the word like or as. The use of those words makes metaphor
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compares things directly. Example of simile is she is as beautiful as the moon
(Aprilianingrum, 2019, p. 12). c. Personification
Personification is inanimate thing given the attributes of a human being
(Perrine, 1969, p. 67). In personification, people can see that non-human things seem like doing human‟s activity. Some examples of personification are the wind swept the dust, the mirror talks to me, the radio accompanies me every night
(Aprilianingrum, 2019, p. 12). d. Metonymy
“Metonymy is figure of speech that substitute the detail of an experience for the experience itself.” (Perrine, 1969, p. 69).Shortly, metonymy is the use of word that is used to represent another word. Metonymy replaces another name of thing that is closely related with it. Example of metonymy is he bought a Ferrari.
The word Ferrari represents a brand of a car. It means that he bought a car branded Ferrari (Aprilianingrum, 2019, p. 12). e. Symbol
Symbol is defined as something that has more meaning when what it is
(Perrine, 1969, p. 83). Symbol can engage people to think deeper since it has more than its meaning. Example of symbol is flag, it represents a nation
(Aprilianingrum, 2019, p. 13). f. Allegory
Allegory is defined as the narrative or description that has more than meaning (Perrine, 1969, p. 91). Allegory makes the term has deeper meaning.
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Usually, abstract ideas and principles are described in terms in character, figure and event. The purpose of allegory is to teach or explain an idea or a principle.
Therefore, in allegory, people can find the moral point inside the text. Example of allegory is The Tortoise and The Hare. The Tortoise here means an animal that walk very slow and The Hare means an animal that walk fast (Aprilianingrum,
2019, p. 13). The common story of The Tortoise and The Hare is about the hare who underestimate the tortoise who is very slow in a race. The hare who fall asleep near the finish line is shocked because the tortoise has already passed the finish line. The moral point of this allegory is do not underestimate other people by its characteristics. g. Paradox
Paradox is the apparent contradiction in a statement (Perrine, 1969, p.
109). In paradox, people can see that in a statement has contradiction possibility.
Example of paradox is war is peace. In the dictionary war is defined as “a situation in which two or more countries or groups of people fight against each other over a period of time” (Hornby, 2010, p. 1672). Then, peace signifies “there is no war or violence in a country or an area” (Hornby, 2010, p. 1080). These two words consist contradiction. The first statement mentions about fighting then another one talks about no violence (Aprilianingrum, 2019, p. 13). h. Hyperbole
Hyperbole is figure of speech that consists the exaggeration (Perrine,
1969, p. 110). Hyperbole usually exists because the authors want to tell something that makes nonsense. The authors use hyperbole by overemphasizing something
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to attain notice on their statements. The examples of hyperbole are this bag weighs a ton and your skin is softer than silk (Aprilianingrum, 2019, p. 13). i. Understatement
Understatement is the opposite of hyperbole. Understatement is used to give less than the means (Perrine, 1969, p. 111). Understatement reduces the expectation from what readers think in a term. Example of understatement is when someone had accident, fell from the motorcycle and said It a little bit hurt.
As we can see, everybody who fell down absolutely hurt so much, but she or he just mentioned a little bit hurt. People will realize that she or he is hurt but still fine (Aprilianingrum, 2019, p. 14). j. Irony
Irony is a figure of speech that is used to tell meaning that beyond extend
(Perrine, 1969, p. 112). Irony is usually used to imply the statement in the term but it is wrapped in valuable sentence. Irony is figure of speech that can be used to develop our critical thinking and it can be sentimental when it is delivered as a statement (Aprilianingrum, 2019, p. 14).
In this research, the researcher will discuss six types of figurative language to analyze the song lyric. They are simile, personification, metaphor, irony, paradox, and hyperbole. The researcher will explain the reason why the lyrics belong to each figurative language. The researcher also will explain the implicit meaning of each finding.
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2. Theory of Message
Beaty and Hunter state a message is the real meaning or some easy conclusion that can be simply stated or summarized inside a work of art (1989, p.
899). Therefore, a message is the whole idea of artworks.
Another theory is said by Sinclair as stated below:
Messages is something important in the story, message can evaluate us for a better life. Message is defined as an idea that someone tries to communicate to people. It is also the meaning, thought or idea that is intended to express (1956, p. 490). This theory said that messages are very important in a literary work, it is supported by another theory stated by Spectrum:
“This central message is the most important idea that author of a story wants readers to understand and remember. The central message is often in a form of a life lesson” (2015, p. 4).
From the theory above, a message can be defined as the media for the readers to understand about the meaning of life. It gives the readers a vision about life and is to appreciate what they have because people only live once and cannot be repeated. Therefore, we can solve problems in life more wisely. Through this study, the readers can get the important messages that can be used as supports or motivation in their lives.
Meanwhile, to reveal the messages from the lyric the first step to do is the researcher read the lyric for several times to understand the aim of the songwriter.
Second, find the figurative language in the song lyric by classified the lines based on types of figurative language and figure out its meaning. The last is find the
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message implied in figurative language using new criticism approach which concerns in the literary work itself.
C. Theoretical Framework
Some theories reviewed in this research are explained in terms of their importance and how they contribute in analyzing the two problems the researcher has mentioned previously. This research applies the theory of figurative language and theory of messages to answer the problems of the study.
The first question concerns the types of figurative language found in the lyrics. The theory from Perrine supports the researcher to classify what types of figurative language and to find the implicit meaning in “Firework” song.
On the second question, the researcher answers the messages in the lyrics.
The theory of message helps the researcher to analyze the lyrics using new criticism approach to find the meaning in context without worrying the about the songwriter‟s background or our own reactions to the song lyric.
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CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY
A. Object of the Study
In this research, the researcher analyzes the types of figurative language and the messages in Katy Perry‟s “Firework”.
“Firework” is a song by American singer named Katy Perry. This single is on her third album “Teenage Dream” and was released on August 24, 2010. The song was written by Perry with Ester Dean, the Norwegian production team
Stargate, and co-producer Sandy Vee. As the researcher said in the first chapter, in literature, song lyric is categorized as a poem. Both of them are written in lines or verse, both are divided into stanzas, and both are used the same techniques like rhyme and repetition. This song lyric contains of 58 lines including the repetition of some lines, it also divided into some stanzas like poem has, and of course the song lyric is written in lines.
The song‟s music video was filmed in Budapest, Hungary and finds Perry at the center of merry outdoor dance party among fans. The clip‟s theme was personal acceptance and the singer dedicated it via Twitter to the “It Gets Better” campaign, which rallied against harassment in the LGBT community, “because everyone has the spark to be a FIREWORK.”
"Firework" reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. It spent four weeks at the top. It was also a #1 hit on adult pop, adult contemporary, and dance charts. It sold seven million copies in the US alone. "Firework" also reached #1 on the Canadian
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pop singles chart while going to #3 in the UK and the top 10 in most countries around the world.
"Firework" earned two Grammy Award nominations including for Record of the Year. It was performed as the finale to Katy Perry's Super Bowl Halftime
Show. It was also nominated for several awards, the Video of The Year and MTV
Video Music Awards in 2011, and elected the fifth most played single on US radio during 2011 on 2012 (www.liveabout.com, 2019).
B. Approach of the Study
The researcher applies the approach of new criticism to analyze figurative language and the values of life in Katy Perry‟s “Firework”. It means, the new criticism does not require the readers to connect the work to the other aspects.
Selden states that new criticism is a method which does not talk about context – historical, biographical, intellectual, and so on in analyzing literary work
(2005, p. 19). However, new criticism only focuses on analyzing the “text in self” with its language and organization. New criticism does not reach text‟s meaning but the way the text „speaks-itself‟. Since new criticism approach not worrying about the background of the literary work, the researcher analyzed the figurative language and the message revealed in the song lyric through close reading.
Reading and re-reading the song lyric in order to understand the meaning and the author‟s purpose by ignoring the background of the song lyric.
According to Guerin in A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature 5th Edition. “The New Critics sought precision and structural tightness in literary work; the favored a style and tone that tended toward irony; they insisted on the presence within the work of everything necessary for its analysis; and the called for an end to a concern by critics and teachers of
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English with matters outside the work itself-the life of author, the history of his or her time, or the social and economic implications of the literary work.” (p.101)
Based on the two statements above, new criticism is not affected by other aspects from outside the literary works or the song lyric. Therefore, the researcher applies the new criticism because it is the most appropriate approach in order to assist the writer to analyze this research. As we know that mostly song lyrics contain figurative language which means that it cannot be interpreted denotatively. It has figurative language which mean it exceeds the word itself. New criticism analyzes poetry or song lyrics with its complexity.
C. Method of the Study The method that the researcher uses to analyze the lyric is library research.
The references used in this study are from related book and articles provided in the library and internet. The primary source is the lyrics of the song entitled
“Firework” by Katy Perry. The secondary source a important books from library such as Sound and Sense, Educating for Character: How Our Schools Can Teach
Respect and Responsibility, Introducing English Semantics, A Reader’s Guide to
Contemporary Literary Theory, Glossary of Literary Terms (10th Edition), and A
Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature and some source from internet.
There are some steps to answer the problem formulations. The first step is the researcher reading the song lyric “Firework” by Katy Perry to understand the meaning and the purpose of the songwriter using close reading method. The second is choosing the topic that will be analyzed and create the problem formulations. The third is collecting all the figurative language found in
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“Firework”. The next step is identifying the implicit meaning of the words containing figurative language using the theory of figurative language by Perrine.
By identifying the implicit meaning of the figurative language found in the song lyric, the researcher revealed the message of the song lyric. The researcher answers the second problem formulation using new criticism approach to analyze the message implied in the song. The last step is concluding the result of the research based on the whole analysis in this research.
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CHAPTER IV
ANALYSIS
This chapter contains analysis of the research. It is divided into two parts.
The first part is identifying the figurative language in the song “Firework” by
Katy Perry. The second part is revealing the message through implied meaning of figurative language. In the first part, the researcher uses the theory of figurative language to answer the first problem formulation and using the theory of message to answer the second problem formulation.
1. Analysis of the Figurative Language and Its Meaning.
When people who have not heard Katy Perry‟s song “Firework”, they may think that this song tells about celebrating something because of the title is usually concerns in big celebration. It could be someone‟s birthday, Independence Day, or other special events. But after listening and going deeper into the lyric, the song actually conveys about freedom and confidence in life. Through this song, the songwriter wants to encourage the people out there to be free and confident for the way they are. It is obvious that the songwriter wants to cherish the audience, realize their weakness and regain their self-acceptance in the same time. In the song lyric, the writer uses figurative language to deliver the message about the songwriter ideas and emotion to the audience.
The researcher discusses six figurative language found in the song lyrics which are simile, personification, hyperbole, metaphor, irony, and paradox. The
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researcher will identify the figurative language in every line as mentioned in
Table of Figurative Language in Appendices 2.
From the table, it can be seen that there are 22 lines in the song lyric of
“Firework” contain figurative language meaning. The simile occurs in 4 lines, 3 lines of personification, metaphor occurs in 3 lines, 1 line of irony, 1 line of paradox and 10 lines are categorized as hyperbole. This song lyric contains of 58 lines included refrain repetition. It means almost half of the song lyric contains figurative language.
The analysis below will explain further the figurative language that have been classified in the table above.
a. Simile
There are four sentences categorized as simile in Katy Perry‟s
“Firework”. In this part the researcher gives further analysis about the
meaning of the sentence contains simile. As mentioned in chapter two, simile
is a figurative language that involving comparison of one thing to another
different thing.
1.) Do you ever feel like a plastic bag?
In the first line of the song lyric, the simile can be seen in sentence “do
you ever feel like plastic bag”. In this sentence, a person is compared to a
plastic bag. The characteristic of the plastic bag is extremely light which
means it easily moves. It can represent as the person‟s life. The song writer
wants to express that sometimes people‟s life is like floating, with no passion.
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People with no hope only follow the stream of life, have no purpose of life and no strong stance in life.
2.) Do you ever feel, feel so paper thin? Like a house of cards.
The complete sentence is “Do you ever feel, feel so paper-thin? Like a house of cards”. The simile can be seen in a person‟s feeling which is like a house of cards. From this line, we can see that a house of cards is not strong enough because of its weak foundation. It can stand but can be collapsed easily by a little touch or wind. The song writer wants to tell that sometimes people‟s life is very weak and can be collapsed with ease by small problems in life.
3.) You don‟t have to feel like a waste of space.
The simile can be seen from the way of the writer states a person feeling like waste of space. In this line the song writer used figurative language in the word “waste of space”. Based on the Oxford Learner‟s Online
Dictionary, the meaning of waste of space is a person who is useless or not good at anything. On the other word, the person has no achievements in his/her life. The songwriter wants to encourage the audience that all of them are special. They are not supposed to think they are useless because everybody has their own achievement in life which cannot be compared to others'. There is nothing to be afraid of being ourselves because there must be something valuable that we have done in life.
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4.) Like a lightning bolt, your heart will glow.
The complete sentence in this lyric is „You like a lightning bolt, your
heart will glow‟. The simile in this sentence can be seen in the comparison
between a person and a lightning bolt. A person definitely cannot be a
lightning bolt. According to Merriam Webster Online Dictionary, the flashing
of light produced by a discharge of atmospheric electricity also : the
discharge itself. What the song writer wants to persuade is the personality of a
person can appear as bright as lightning in all of a sudden. b. Personification
In this part the researcher gives further analysis about the meaning of
the sentence contains personification. As mentioned in chapter two,
personification is the attribution of human being to something non-human or
inanimate thing. There are three sentences categorized as personification in
Katy Perry‟s “Firework”.
1.) Drifting to the wind wanting to start again
The complete sentence is “Do you ever feel like a plastic bag? Drifting
to the wind wanting to start again.” proven that this sentence is
personification. The part of personification is the plastic bag wants to live
again while it is not an animate thing. The plastic is an inanimate thing that
clearly cannot be alive. In this line, the plastic bag represents the feeling of a
person which is easily swayed by the flow of life. The meaning implied in this
line is a person that has no passion who is easily drifted by problems in life
just like the light plastic bag drifting to the wind.
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2.) If you only knew what the future holds
In this line, the personification can be seen in the word „what the future
holds‟. In fact, the person does not know the future holds and the future itself
cannot literally hold something even a person‟s dream. According to Merriam
Webster Online Dictionary, hold is described as to have or maintain in the
grasp. The future is not physically real which can grasp something like human
being does.
3.) So you could open one that leads you to the perfect road.
The personification can be seen in the sentence „one that leads you to
the perfect road‟. According to the previous line, the word „one‟ refers to
„door‟–which maybe a reason why all the doors are closed. It is
personification because a door cannot lead someone to the perfect road. The
door cannot do as what human do like open the door, take a glass of water,
open the bottle cap, and so on. So the line that state a door can lead someone
to somewhere does not make sense. The subject is inanimate which is can do
human thing and it is clearly contain personification figurative language. c. Metaphor
In this part the researcher gives further analysis about the meaning of the
sentence contains metaphor. As mentioned by Perrine, metaphor is used to
represent one thing to another thing which is inanimate (p.65). There are three
sentences categorized as metaphor in Katy Perry‟s “Firework”.
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1.) Do you ever feel, feel so paper thin?
In this line the metaphor can be seen from the comparison between people‟s feeling and paper thin. The song writer wants to express the feeling of a person like a paper thin. It is clearly that width of the paper is thin, and even cannot be seen because a paper width is less than 1 mm. It can be said that people‟s feelings cannot be seen from appearance or any distance.
Besides, the characteristics of the paper-thin are very fragile, easily crumpled, modified, and torn. Human feeling is very sensitive. It can be hurt by act or even words. The similarity of human feeling and paper thin is almost the same. Both of them are easily broken and never be the same as before.
2.) „Cause baby you are firework
In this line, the songwriter used the metaphor to compare a person
“baby” as a firework. The word “baby” in this sentence is a way of a person to express the affection. As for the word „firework‟, in the Oxford Online
Dictionary, the characteristic of the firework itself is beautiful, sparkling, rousing, and dazzling. Fireworks are usually used to celebrate something special. The songwriter wants to encourage that all the audience is as beautiful as firework; they are special and beautiful creatures.
3.) So you could open one that leads you to the perfect road.
The metaphor in this sentence is in the words „perfect road‟. The meaning of the perfect road in this line is the life goal or dreams. The songwriter wants to say that when there is a problem, there must be a way to lead us to reach our life goal or dreams. A friend of mine said that when a door is closed, find
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another door. If all the doors are closed, you can still get out from a window.
If the windows are closed, keep trying to find the way out. It could be
ventilation even the roof. Like the old saying, when there is a will, there is a
way. The point is keep trying no matter what because the real failure begins
when you give up. d. Irony
In this part the researcher gives further analysis about the meaning of
the sentence containing Irony. As mentioned by Aprilianingrum, irony is used
to imply the statement in the term but it is wrapped in valuable sentence. Irony
is figure of speech that can be used to develop our critical thinking and it can
be sentimental when it is delivered as a statement (2019, p.14). According to
Merriam Webster Online Dictionary, sentimental is usually marked or
governed by feeling, sensibility, or emotional idealism. It is resulting from
feeling rather than reason or thought. In this song lyric, there is one line
categorized as irony in Katy Perry‟s “Firework”. “Six feet under screams, but
no one seems to hear a thing” the irony can be seen when a person is buried
six feet under screams but no one seems to hear a thing. Rationally, it is so
mean when a person is buried alive and screams looking for help but no one
hear a thing. The meaning implied in this line is no one cares at all. Being
buried six feet under implies that no one sees the person. So how loud the
screaming is, even in the crowded, when a person does not put any attention in
you, they would not hear any voice of you.
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e. Paradox
In this part the researcher gives the explanation about the meaning of a
sentence in the song lyric containing paradox. The researcher found a paradox
sentence. It is “After a hurricane comes a rainbow”. The paradox in this line is
in the word hurricane and rainbow. Based on Merriam Webster Online
Dictionary, hurricane describes as a tropical cyclone with winds of 74 miles
(119 kilometers) per hour or greater that occurs especially in the western
Atlantic, that is usually accompanied by rain, thunder, and lightning, and that
sometimes moves into temperate latitudes. The article from UCAR Centre for
Science Education stated when a hurricane approaches land, tremendous
damage can occur to coastal city and towns. When the hurricane strikes
coastal area, it brings a number of serious hazards. On the other hand, a
rainbow is described as a curved band of different colors that appears in the
sky when the sun shines through rain. It means that hurricane has already
passed by. This explanation proves that this sentence contains paradox. As
Perrine said about the paradox, hurricane and rainbow is apparent
contradiction in a sentence. These two words consist of contradiction. The
first sentence said about damaging phenomenon and the other one talked
about beauty phenomenon. Both of them have definition that clearly state that
this line is paradox related to the apparent contradiction. The message of this
line is there must be a good after hard time. A hurricane as a hard time and
comes the rainbow as the good time because the hurricane has passed.
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f. Hyperbole
In this part, the researcher explains the line containing hyperbole.
Perrine said that the hyperbole existed because the author wanted to tell
something that non-make sense. It made the reader think more than the way of
human think. The researcher found there are ten lines containing hyperbole.
1.) Like a house of cards, One blow from caving in
This line is hyperbole related to the previous line that states, „Do you
ever feel, feel so paper thin? Like a house of cards‟ One blow from caving in.
It is hyperbole because the house of cards cannot literally collapse in one
blow, there must be some parts that did not collapse. It could be the basic part
or maybe the upper part stand still. The meaning of this line shows how weak
the house of cards is because the songwriter said it can collapse in one blow.
2.) Do you ever feel already buried deep? Six feet under screams, but no one
seems to hear a thing.
The hyperbole can be seen in this line when a person feels already
being buried deep. In reality, when a person is buried deep, he/she will be
dead in the short time. It is impossible if there is a man wanting to be buried
alive. It is hyperbole for exaggerate the feeling of being ignored like someone
that still alive, buried, and screaming in the six feet under. It is like someone
has to feel the feeling of buried deep related to the feeling of ignorance.
The meaning of this line is whether you ever feel like no one sees you
in life. When someone already buries deep means that no one can see him/her
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again and be forgotten as time goes by. It is implied a human who has no hope and is depressed.
3.) „Cause there‟s a spark in you
A human has no spark in his/her body. In Oxford Dictionary, „spark‟ is described as a small flash of light produced by an electric current. It is hyperbole because it is impossible for a human body to produce a spark.
The meaning of this line is there is something inside you that can be showed off to others. It can be the strengths, the intelligence, or the inner beauty of someone.
4.) You just gotta ignite the light
Related the previous line, “cause there‟s a spark in you”, it is clearly showed that this line is hyperbole. The line “you just gotta ignite the light (in you)” does not make sense that a human body produces a spark and ignites the light.
The meaning of this line is everybody has strength but if the strength is just kept for us, then the other people will never know it because you never reveal it. All you need is to show the strength in you and give positive vibes to others.
5.) And let it shine
This line is hyperbole related to the previous line “you just gotta ignite the light” then let it shine. It is hyperbole because human body cannot shine.
The song writer wants to say that let our strength, inner beauty, or kindness
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spread out to the people around us. Besides, the shine gives the warmth to the area around it. So does the kindness make the surround us comfortable.
6.) Just own the night
This line is hyperbole because you cannot own the night. Night belongs to none of human even the other creature. It is the time between one day and the next when it is dark, when people usually sleep. It is natural phenomenon that none of human can manage or own it.
7.) As you shoot across the sky
The hyperbole can be seen in this line because human will be dead when being shoot across the sky. It does not make sense for someone to shoot one another across the sky, besides it would be dangerous. The meaning of this line is not literally being shot across the sky but the condition when you are in the way to be success.
8.) Come on let your colors burst
This line is hyperbole because the color of human body cannot burst.
According to Oxford Dictionary, burst is described to break open or apart, especially because of the pressure from inside. From this definition, it does not make sense that a human body color can burst. The meaning of this line is to let our strength, beauty, and inspiration burst so the people around us know the good potency in you.
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9.) Like a lightning bolt, your heart will glow
In this line, the hyperbole can be seen in the sentence “your heart will
glow”. As we know that a human heart is inside the human‟s body and not
glowing. It does not make sense too that a part of human‟s body is glowing.
10.) Even brighter than the moon
The subject from this line is firework. The fact is firework is not
brighter than the moon. So this line is categorized as hyperbole. As we know
that moon is bright because of the ray of the sun. It does not make sense that
the bright of firework beat the bright of the moon. This line exaggerated the
bright of the firework beat the bright of the moon.
2. The Messages Revealed through the Figurative Language in Katy Perry
“Firework”
After identified the type of figurative language in Katy Perry “Firework”,
the researcher analyzed the messages revealed through figurative language in
the song as mentioned in second problem formulation. In order to answer the
second problem formulation the researcher used the theory of message.
Sinclair said that message is something important in the story; message can
evaluate us for a better life. The researcher analyzed and found the message
through five figurative language in the song lyric. They are simile,
personification, metaphor, paradox and hyperbole. The researcher will explain
the message in every figurative language as below:
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a. Be confident for being yourself.
A lot of people are struggling with confidence because of the lack of awareness in self acceptance. The researcher thought that this is a big issue that is always happen every day. An article of Thought Catalog entitled This is
What of Being Confident Really Means said that people struggle with confidence because there is misconception that being confident means you will succeed but being confident is the way to lead you to success.
(https://thoughtcatalog.com, 2016). This song lyric persuades the reader to be confident of being yourself. It can be seen in some lines as below
You do not have to feel like a waste of space.
This sentence contains simile in comparison between „human feeling‟ and „waste of space‟. The sentence waste of space itself has idiomatic meaning. As mentioned in first problem formulation analysis, „waste of space‟ has meaning a person who is useless or no good at anything. In this line, the songwriter persuades the reader to be confident of being yourself, the reader do not have to feel useless or no good at anything because every person has their own unique that can be showed off to other people and of course it should be the good one. Like the title of the song, firework, which can make the people who see you are amazed with something you showed off. Self- acceptance is the key for the readers to be confident.
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„Cause there‟s a spark in you / You just gotta ignite the light and let it shine.
These hyperbole sentence make the reader confident that there is something good can be shown off. It is said that there is a spark in you and you just gotta ignite the light and let it shine so the people around can feel the warmth and amazed with her/his existence. Some people do not know their own characteristics conscious or unconsciously so they assume that they are not quite capable to do something great. When you already found one strength, all you need is be confident of who you are and keep spread the kindness to others.
Like a lightning bolt, your heart will glow.
According to Online Cambridge Dictionary, lightning bolt defines as a flash of bright light in the sky that is produced by electricity moving between clouds from clouds to the ground. As we know that lightning bolt is assertive when strict the ground and can caused fire. This line shows the confidence of a lightning bolt which has no doubt.
Cause baby you‟re firework
This metaphorical line persuades the reader to be like a firework which amazed the other people who sees it. The songwriter used the firework as the object because firework is something bright and beautiful especially when we see it in the night. Be confident like a firework means you will be the focus of
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the people around by your beauty and let the people amazed to see your beauty.
Come on let your colors burst
This line implied the songwriter‟s persuasion about the self-acceptance and be proud of who you are. This line said to let your color burst. The meaning of the color is not always literally color; it could be the personality, the strength, the weakness of a person. In the other words, the songwriter encourage the reader to let the people know who you are and feel your existence. Be confident to let your color burst.
Even brighter than a moon
This sentence refers to firework. This line categorized as hyperbole because it is impossible that firework is brighter than a moon. But the fact is when firework was shot to the sky, the focus of the people is in the firework rather than the moon. Be confident like a firework which shows its beautiful sparks and beat the bright of the moon. The song lyric encourage the reader to be inspiration to others which brings joy to the people around with no doubt. b. Keep looking forward
Be confident is not enough without be strong and keep looking forward. There must be some people that did not like to our attitude of being confident. It could be the other people being threatened of our existence. Here are some lines of the song lyric that encourage the readers to be strong and keep looking forward.
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Do you ever feel like a plastic bag? Drifting to the wind wanting to start again
This line gives more understanding about the feeling that the songwriter talk about. It adds a condition that the plastic bag is drifting to the wind or flew away easily. This line contains of simile which the plastic bag represents the feeling of a person compared to the wind that represents the problems in our life. We can see at the end of the sentence we have
“…wanting to start again” which shows that there is a problem being experienced by this person and want to make a new start. This line shows that people can become so weak that they have no passion whenever they face their problem.
Everyone has problem, it can be a big problem or a small problem depends on how many times the person has experienced. When people face their problem, they can face it differently. People may have different solutions to solve their problems, or even not doing anything to solve the problem. In this line, the songwriter wants the audience to experience the feeling of losing their passion when facing a problem but want to start a whole new beginning.
The message we can take from this experience is to stay strong and keep looking forward. When we feel so desperate on a problem that it seems like people can bring us down so easily, we still need to have a hope for the future.
At least we should have a passion to want to start again.
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Do you ever feel, feel so paper thin/ like a house of cards/ one blow from caving in
This stanza concerns on the strength of a paper thin which arranged into a house of cards and collapse in a one blow. The line “do you ever feel so paper thin” compare the human feeling to a paper thin which is easily ripped fragile and weak. The paper thin which is arranged into a house of cards is like built a house without great foundation and can be collapsed when the storm comes. The songwriter wants to tell the reader to be strong and keep looking forward because everyone has his/her hardest time and how a person focused on the raising from the problem, not the falling time. Keep motivated so the reader not stuck in the problem for a long time while keep looking forward will help a person raising from the problem of life by seeing the good possibility and chance.
If you only knew what the future holds
This line tells us about presupposition. It assumes if we have a vision about the things that will happen in the future, we will be able to make the right choices for every action. The fact is we never know the future and the songwriter wants to persuade the audience to do our best because we never know the future. As long as we did our best, the result never disappointed us.
If only we knew the future, maybe many people will find the shortcut to the success and it is very possible they will cheating each other. Be strong and keep looking forward will be helpful when we face the problem our daily life.
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So you could open one that leads you to the perfect road.
This line contains personification meanings. The personification can be seen in the sentence “one that leads you to the perfect road”. The “one” refers to the “door which clearly it cannot lead you to anywhere. The meaning of this line is there must be a way out in every problem. The door implied the way we solve the problem. If one method is not working, there are other methods which show the way out as long as we never give up. The lyric persuades the reader to be strong in facing our problem in life and keep looking forward.
After a hurricane comes a rainbow.
As we know the characteristics of hurricane is bring a lot of damage, while the rainbow has beautiful colors as the sign that the hurricane is done and comes the light. Spectrum in the theory of message state that the central message is often in a form of a life lesson. If we relate the sentence of paradox and what Spectrum said, this sentence implied the songwriter‟s message that there is a better world after big problem that we face as long as we have willingness to fix it. There is hope in every problem. Keep moving forward even though there is hurricane (many problems) in the progress because in the end of your struggle, the result of your hard work is never lie. Someway, somehow it is not disappointed you.
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Maybe a reason why all the doors are closed / So you could open one that leads you to the perfect road
This personification line is very optimistic sentence. This line persuades the reader to be opportunist and keep looking forward. The doors in this line represents the way out of problems in our life. Sometimes we already trying so hard to solve our problems but somehow it does not work well. There must be a reason why our hard work does not succeed and keep moving forward will motivate a person who feel failed to be optimist and doing something until he/she finds the way out. If one method is failed, there must be hundreds or maybe thousands method that will work as long as the person keep moving forward and does not give up.
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CHAPTER V
CONCLUSION
The song lyric “Firework” is one of the examples of figurative language application in song lyric. In this song lyric, the researcher found 6 types of figurative language. They are simile, personification, metaphor, irony, and hyperbole.
The simile occurs in 4 lines, personification in 3 lines, metaphor in 3 lines, paradox in 1 line, irony in 1 line and hyperbole in 10 lines. The simile can be seen in the comparison between “person‟s feeling” and “plastic bag” in line 1, the comparison of “person‟s feeling” and “house of cards” in line 5. Personification figurative language can be found in line 2, it occurs in the sentence “Drifting to the wind wanting to start again”. In line 25, personification occurs in sentence “If you only knew what the future holds”. In line 28, personification occurs in sentence “So you could open one that leads you to the perfect road”. Metaphorical meaning can be seen in the line 5 “Like the Fourth of July” and in line 15 “Baby you are firework. Irony figurative language can be seen in the line 8, “Six feet under screams but no one seems to hear a thing”. Paradox figurative language can be found in the line 26 “After a hurricane comes a rainbow”. The word
“hurricane” and “rainbow” contain the figurative language of paradox which has contrastive meaning. The last, hyperbole figurative language can be found in sentences such as “Cause there‟s a spark in you”, “Come on let your color burst”,
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and “Even brighter than a moon”. Those sentences contain hyperbole because it seems like does not make sense in logical thinking.
The figurative language found in “Firework” by Katy Perry song lyric contains messages of the songwriter. The researcher found two messages that can be learned from the song lyric, the first is be confident of being yourself and the second is be strong and keep looking forward. The first message can be seen in the several lines of the song lyric, they are “You don‟t have to feel like a waste of space”, “You like a lightning bolt, your heart will glow”, “Cause baby you‟re firework”, and “Come on let your color burst”. The second message can be seen in the line “Do you ever feel like a plastic bag? Drifting to the wind wanting to start again”, “If you only knew what the future holds”, and “So you could open one that leads you to the perfect road”.
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REFERENCES
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Lindgren, M. (2017, May 13). What Makes Song Lyrics Poetry. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/what-makes-song-lyrics- poetry/2017/05/11/0b63c75c-195c-11e7-bcc2-7d1a0973e7b2_story.html (on 20 January 2020).
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Saputro, Y.M.N.. (2017). The Message of Betrayal in Figurative Language of The Song “Your Betrayal” (Undergraduate Thesis). Universitas Sanata Dharma, Yogyakarta.
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APPENDICES
APPENDIX 1. Lyric of “Firework” By Katy Perry
Firework
Do you ever feel like a plastic bag? Drifting through the wind Wanting to start again
Do you ever feel, feel so paper-thin? Like a house of cards One blow from caving in Do you ever feel already buried deep? Six feet under screams, but no one seems to hear a thing Do you know that there's still a chance for you? 'Cause there's a spark in you You just gotta ignite the light And let it shine Just own the night Like the Fourth of July 'Cause, baby you're a firework Come on, show 'em what you're worth Make 'em go, "ah, ah, ah" As you shoot across the sky Baby, you're a firework Come on, let your colors burst Make 'em go, "ah, ah, ah" You're gonna leave them all in awe, awe, awe You don't have to feel like a waste of space You're original, cannot be replaced If you only knew what the future holds After a hurricane comes a rainbow Maybe a reason why all the doors are closed So you could open one that leads you to the perfect road Like a lightning bolt, your heart will glow And when it's time, you'll know
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You just gotta ignite the light And let it shine Just own the night Like the Fourth of July 'Cause, baby you're a firework Come on, show 'em what you're worth Make 'em go, "ah, ah, ah" As you shoot across the sky Baby, you're a firework Come on, let your colors burst Make 'em go, "ah, ah, ah" You're gonna leave them all in awe, awe, awe Boom, boom, boom Even brighter than the moon, moon, moon It's always been inside of you, you, you And now it's time to let it through-ough-ough 'Cause, baby, you're a firework Come on, show 'em what you're worth Make 'em go, "ah, ah, ah" As you shoot across the sky Baby, you're a firework Come on, let your colors burst Make 'em go, "ah, ah, ah" You're gonna leave them all in awe, awe, awe Boom, boom, boom Even brighter than the moon, moon, moon Boom, boom, boom Even brighter than the moon, moon, moon
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APPENDIX 2. Table of Figurative language in “Firework” No Song Lyric Figurative Language Line
1 Do you ever feel like a plastic bag? Simile 1
2 Drifting to the wind wanting to start Personification 2,3
again
3 Do you ever feel, feel so paper-thin? Metaphor 4
4 Like a house of cards Simile 5
5 One blow from caving in Hyperbole 6
6 Do you ever feel already bury deep? Hyperbole 7
7 Six feet under screams, but no one Irony 8 seems to hear a thing. 8 „Cause there‟s a spark in you Hyperbole 10
9 You just gotta ignite the light Hyperbole 11, 31
10 And let it shine Hyperbole 12, 32
11 Just own the night Hyperbole 13, 33
12 Like a fourth of July Simile 14, 34
13 „Cause baby you are firework Metaphor 15, 35,
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14 As you shoot across the sky,y,y Hyperbole 18, 38,
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15 Come on, let your color burst Hyperbole 20, 40,
52
16 You don‟t have to feel like a waste of Simile 23
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17 You’re original, cannot be replaced Metaphor 24
18 If you only knew what the future holds Personification 25
19 After a hurricane comes a rainbow Paradox 26
20 So you could open one that leads you to Personification 28 the perfect road 21 Like a lightning bolt, your heart will Simile, hyperbole 29 glow 23 Even brighter than the moon Hyperbole 44, 56,
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