CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

1.1. Background of Study Literature and physical environment are important parts that are related to thingeach other. Ecocriticism is one of the theories which talks about the relationship between literature and physical environment 1 (Glotfelty, Association for the study of

Literature and Environment, 1996). In addition, ecocriticism also linked to the relationship between human and non-human. Non-human refers to nature. This study also defines how nature becomes an important element of ecocriticism, which means a part of Literature.

Thesis which learns about ecocriticism has been researched by some people.

As the previous research, firstly, the writer takes the thesis from Yu Yan (2011), entitled The Call of the Wild – An Eco-critical Reading of The Old Man and the Sea .

The problem formulation from this thesis mainly focuses on literature and gender studies and American ecocriticism which discussed the basic relationship between human and non-human world. It stresses on human being and nature, which are mutually dependent on each other in emotion, ethic and biology. The research analysis is supported with animal rights theory. In Yu Yan’s journal, she wrote about the animal rights theory, which states that the whole nature and the component parts of nature have intrinsic value or inherent worth. As the result, animals cannot be treated as tools to promote human beings’ welfare and they deserve the same manner as given to human beings. Secondly, the writer takes a thesis from Dana C. Mount

(2012), entitled Enduring Nature: Everyday Environmentalism in Postcolonial

1 http://www.asle.org/site/resources/ecocritical-library/intro/defining/glotfelty/ (Retrieved April 14, 2013) 1

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Literature . The writer of this thesis focuses on environmental thought and action through expanded definition of environmentalism and the new ecocritical approach to view environmentalism as a common and foundational feature of postcolonial literature. As the result, the writer of this thesis concludes that nature as a commonplace features in postcolonial literature, and, more importantly, to show environmentalism as intimately connected to the postcolonial project.

Through this thesis, the writer would like to observe about a movie entitled

The Emerald Forest. The Emerald Forest is a movie directed by and written by Rospo Pallenberg. It was released internationally in 1985. John Boorman is an English filmmaker who is a longtime resident of Ireland.

John Boorman makes The Emerald Forest movie because he wants to make an anthropologically authentic movie in a nearly impenetrable rain forest about

Amazon Indians who believe they are invisible.

He directs some award movie such as Hope and Glory, ,

Excalibur, The General and The Tiger’s Tail. Starring in The Emerald Forest movie are Powers Boothe, , Ruy Polanah, Claudio Moreno and Dira Paes.

The Emerald Forest was nominated for BAFTA and César Award in 1986.

The Emerald Forest is a 1985 English language British film set in the

Brazilian Rainforest. It was directed by John Boorman and written by Rospo

Pallenberg. This story is based on true story of a 7 year-old boy who was kidnapped in 1972 by Indians and disappeared. The boy's father is a Venezuelan engineer. He spent every summer for the next 10 years in the forests searching for his son and finally found him. He found his son had become integrated into the tribe. At the end of the story, the father decided to leave him there rather than bring him back to the

''dead,''. The Indians called the dead as the land of cities and polluted air.

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The movie feature focuses on Tomme as the main character in The Emerald

Forest movie. This movie shows about how Tomme can be kidnapped by Indigenous tribe, invisible people. Tomme’s father is a man who made a dam. As the Dam finished, more people will come to live in the building that was built by ignoring the forest population. However, the dam needs 10 years to be finished. The meaning of the movie’s title, ‘ The Emerald Forest ’ refers to the sacred stones that have been described in the movie. The sacred stones are the green stones which known as

Emerald nowadays. In this movie, the sacred stones are used to give the invisible people the green color for their skin so they are invisible in the forest because their skin will look like the trees in the forest.

The writer also wants to know how the ecocriticism characteristic in The

Emerald Forest movie emphasize the aspect of nature, about how the environment is represented and how the relationship between human being and the nature is portrayed in the movie. Ecocriticism can be used to analyze this movie because it talks about physical environment and how it can influence the story of The Emerald

Forest . The ecocriticism can be linked to the relationship between human being and nature as represented in The Emerald Forest . The environmental issues will become the main focus in this thesis.

1.2. Problem Formulation

The problem formulations of this research are:

1. How does The Emerald Forest movie emphasize the aspect of nature?

2. How is the relationship between human being and the nature portrayed in The

Emerald Forest movie?

3. How are the environmental issues represented in The Emerald Forest movie?

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1.3. Scope and Limitation

The scope of this thesis is the movie entitled The Emerald Forest , an English language British film set in the Brazilian Rainforest in 1985. The limitation of this research is the main character of The Emerald Forest movie , Tomme by analyzing the character, setting, theme and symbol.

1.4. Goal and Function

GOAL

1. To know how The Emerald Forest movie emphasize the aspect of nature

through the main character.

2. To find out how the relationship between human being and the nature is

portrayed in the movie through the character, symbols and setting.

3. To find out how the environmental issues are represented in the movie

through the physical setting, chronological setting and social setting.

FUNCTION

1. To give knowledge to the audiences in analyzing a movie by using the

theory of Ecocriticism.

2. To gain more and deeper understanding about Ecocriticism theory.

1.5. Research Method

In conducting this research, the writer will use Qualitative research based on

Library research. The writer applies library research for knowing whether this topic

5 has been done or not by other researchers. First, the writer collects data by watching the movie scene by scene repeatedly to gain more and deeper understanding. The media of this research is The Emerald Forest movie by John Boorman, in 1985.

Second, the writer selects data that will be analyzed, which are ecocriticism issues.

The instrument that will be used is the ecocriticism theory. Third, the writer take several months to finish this thesis, which is about six months. During these six months, the writer will find out the main problems in this thesis by relating the movie with the ecocriticism theory. Fourth, the writer starts to write first chapter of thesis, which includes background of study, problem formulation, scope and limitation, goal and function and the previous study. Fifth, the writer used library research to analyze the intrinsic and extrinsic element of literature. Sixth, the intrinsic element divided into three parts that need to be analyzed. They are character, dialogue and scenes from the movie.

The ecocriticism theory as a part of extrinsic element has three parts that will be discussed along this thesis. They are representation of nature aspects, the environment and the relationship between nature and human being. By analyzing ecocriticism theory, the writer uses some books, journal, articles and online references which mostly taken from Binus university.

The writer also visited library in order to conduct library research by reading and finding material related to the ecocriticism theory. After all data are collected, the writer analyzing the intrinsic and extrinsic element then draw the conclusion which answers the problem formulation of this thesis.

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Data Collection

Data Selection

Library Research

Intrinsic Extrinsic

Analysis Analysis

Character Dialogue Scenes Ecocriticism

Representation Symbol Theme Setting of Nature

Environment

Relationship between nature and human

Conclusion

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