An Analysis of the Homeless People in America Reflected in John Grisham’S Novel the Street Lawyer

AN ANALYSIS OF THE HOMELESS PEOPLE IN AMERICA REFLECTED IN JOHN GRISHAM’S NOVEL THE STREET LAWYER

A THESIS

NISTI FINDRIANI UTAMI

REG. NO. 100705058

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH

FACULTY OF CULTURAL STUDIES

UNIVERSITY OF SUMATERA UTARA

MEDAN 2014

Universitas Sumatera Utara AN ANALYSIS OF THE HOMELESS PEOPLE IN AMERICA REFLECTED IN JOHN GRISHAM’S NOVEL THE STREET LAWYER

A THESIS

NISTI FINDRIANI UTAMI

REG. NO. 100705058

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH

FACULTY OF CULTURAL STUDIES

UNIVERSITY OF SUMATERA UTARA

MEDAN 2014

Universitas Sumatera Utara AN ANALYSIS OF THE HOMELESS PEOPLE IN AMERICA REFLECTED IN JOHN GRISHAM’S NOVEL THE STREET LAWYER

A THESIS

NISTI FINDRIANI UTAMI

REG. NO. 100705058

SUPERVISOR CO-SUPERVISOR

Dr. Siti Norma Nasution, M.Hum Drs. Siamir Marulafau, M.Hum NIP. 19570720 198303 2 001 NIP. 19580517 198503 1 003

Submitted to Faculty of Cultural Studies University of Sumatera Utara Medan in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Sarjana Sastra from Department of English

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH

FACULTY OF CULTURAL STUDIES

UNIVERSITY OF SUMATERA UTARA

MEDAN 2014

Universitas Sumatera Utara Approved by the Department of English, Faculty of Cultural Studies University of Sumatera Utara (USU) Medan as thesis for The Sarjana Sastra Examination.

Head, Secretary,

Dr. H. Muhizar Muchtar, MS Rahmadsyah Rangkuti, M.A. Ph.D. NIP. 19541117 198003 1 002 NIP. 19750209 200812 1 002

Universitas Sumatera Utara Accepted by the Board of Examiners in partial fulfillment of requirements for the degree of Sarjana Sastra from the Department of English, Faculty of

Cultural Studies University of Sumatera Utara, Medan.

The examination is held in Department of English Faculty of Cultural Studies

University of Sumatera Utara on Saturday, July 12, 2014

Dean of Faculty of Cultural Studies

University of Sumatera Utara

Dr. H. Syahron Lubis, M.A.

NIP. 19511013 197603 1 001

Board of Examiners

Dr. H. Muhizar Muchtar, MS ……………………………….

Rahmadsyah Rangkuti, M.A. Ph.D. ……………………………….

Dr. Siti Norma Nasution, M.Hum ……………………………….

Drs. Parlindungan Purba, M.Hum ……………………………….

Universitas Sumatera Utara AUTHOR’S DECLARATION

I, NISTI FINDRIANI UTAMI DECLARE THAT I AM THE SOLE AUTHOR OF THIS THESIS EXCEPT WHERE REFERENCE IS MADE IN THE TEXT OF THIS THESIS. THIS THESIS CONTAINS NO MATERIAL PUBLISHED ELSEWHERE OR EXTRACTED IN WHOLE OR IN PART FROM A THESIS BY WHICH I HAVE QUALIFIED FOR OR AWARDED ANOTHER DEGREE. NO OTHER PERSON’S WORK HAS BEEN USED WITHOUT DUE ACKNOWLEDGMENTS IN THE MAIN TEXT OF THIS THESIS. THIS THESIS HAS NOT BEEN SUBMITTED FOR THE AWARD OF ANOTHER DEGREE IN ANY TERTIARY EDUCATION.

Signed :

Date : July, 2014

Universitas Sumatera Utara COPYRIGHT DECLARATION

NAME : NISTI FINDRIANI UTAMI

TITLE OF THESIS :AN ANALYSIS OF THE HOMELESS PEOPLE IN AMERICA REFLECTED IN JOHN GRISHAM’S NOVEL THE STREET LAWYER

QUALIFICATION : S-1/SARJANA SASTRA

DEPARTMENT : ENGLISH

I AM WILLING THAT MY THESIS SHOULD BE AVAILABLE FOR

REPRODUCTION AT THE DISCRETION OF THE LIBRARIAN OF

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH, FACULTY OF CULTURAL STUDIES,

UNIVERSITY OF SUMATERA UTARA ON THE UNDERSTANDING THAT

USERS ARE MADE AWARE OF THEIR OBLIGATION UNDER THE LAW

OF THE REPUBLIC OF INDONESIA.

Signed :

Date : July, 2014

Universitas Sumatera Utara ACKNOWLEDGMENT

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim.

Alhamdulillah, all praises to Allah SWT. and shalawat to the great Prophet,

Muhammad SAW., who has brought us from the dark ages to the era full of knowledge like today.

First of all, I would like to give the gratitude to Allah SWT., God of the universe, for all the mercy and the blessing so I can complete this thesis. Allah always be there to guide me, especially in completing this thesis.

I also thankful to Dr. H. Syahron Lubis, M.A., the Dean of Faculty of

Cultural Studies; Dr. H. Muhizar Muchtar, MS, the Head of English Department; and

Rahmadsyah Rangkuti, M.A. Ph.D., the Secretary of English Department. I also would like thank to my Academic Advisor, Dr. Hj. T. Thyrhaya Zein, M.A., and all the lecturer of English Department who have teach me during the years when study in English Department.

I would like to give the gratitude and deepest appreciation to Dr. Siti Norma

Nasution, M.Hum., as the supervisor and Drs. Siamir Marulafau, M.Hum., as the co- supervisor for all guidance, suggestion, advice, and all the thing given to me in doing this thesis.

My special gratitude is given to my beloved parents, H. Usman Effendy, S. E. and Sawalnis, who have given not only financial and spiritual support, but also motivation and all the things that I need so I did not give up and keeps trying to complete this thesis, and also thank you for the patience and advice in educating me.

I also given the gratitude to my brothers, Muhammad Merfadhly, Muhammad

Ardhika, Muhammad Hidayani Setiawan, Muhammad Nofrian, and my sister Atika

Nistiawaty, thanks to all your love, care, and pray given to me.

Universitas Sumatera Utara Finally, I would like to thank to Alm. Bang Amran and also Bang Mistam for all the help. I also would like thank you to my friends Fira Mauliani Shanti, Ryani

Junisha Ayulin, Julisa Masita, Khairunnisa Nst., and Vita Khairani, thank you for being a friend for me and filled the days while studying in English Department and in daily life, share stories and listen all of my complaints that I given to you. Thank you for the care and motivation given to me so I can complete this thesis.

To all my classmates, Mori, Nina, Septi, Mariam, Devi, Wina, Laura, Kania,

Krista, Tami, Hetty, Apri, Elsye, Hanny, Yosi, Nurhayati, Rini, Eka, Cindy, Novita,

Gunanti, Ninis, Putri, Yudi, Aldi, Fandu, Boy, Denny, Samuel, Petrus, Dicky,

Martin, and all my friends in A & B Class in English Department. Thanks for all moments we shared for four years in English Department. You guys are my friends.

May Allah SWT. bless us forever. Aamiin…

Medan, July 2014

Nisti Findriani Utami

Reg. No. 100705058

Universitas Sumatera Utara ABSTRAK Judul skripsi ini adalah An Analysis of the Homeless People in America Reflected in John Grisham’s novel The Street Lawyer. Novel ini bercerita tentang ketidakadilan dalam sistem hukum, dimana “kaya” dan “miskin” tidak pernah berada pada kedudukan yang sama dan juga realitas kehidupan tunawisma di Amerika khususnya di Washington D.C., dimana masyarakat terbagi menjadi dua golongan, yaitu mereka yang peduli pada nasib tunawisma serta orang miskin dan mereka yang tidak peduli. Skripsi ini menganalisis penyebab seseorang menjadi tunawisma dan akibat sesorang menjadi tunawisma, serta sikap pemerintah dan masyarakat terhadap tunawisma. Metode yang digunakan dalam penulisan skripsi ini adalah metode deskriptif kualitatif yaitu penulis mendeskripsikan, menyelidiki, serta menganalisis data-data yang ada yang dikumpulkan dari buku-buku di perpustakaan dan internet yang berhubungan dengan penelitian ini. Teori yang digunakan adalah teori sosiologi sastra dan strukturalisme dinamik. Sosiologi sastra adalah suatu teori yang melihat sebuah karya sastra sebagai hasil interaksi antara penulis dan lingkungannya. Dan strukturalisme dinamik adalah sebuah bentuk sempurna dari teori strukturalisme. Strukturalisme dinamik adalah teori tentang unsur-unsur di dalam karya sastra yang diaplikasikan ke dalam suatu penelitian.

Kata Kunci: Tunawisma, sebab dan akibat dari tunawisma

Universitas Sumatera Utara ABSTRACT The title of this thesis is An Analysis of the Homeless People in America Reflected in John Grisham’s novel The Street Lawyer. This novel tells about injustice in legal system, where the “haves” and “have-nots” are never on an equal footing and also the reality of homeless life in America especially in Washington D.C., where the society is divided into two groups, they are the people who care about the fate of homeless and poor people and the people who do not care. This thesis analyzes about the causes of people become homeless and the effect of people who become homeless, also the attitude of the government and society toward homeless people. The method that used in writing this thesis is a qualitative descriptive method that is the writer describes, explores, and analyzes the data that collected from the books in the library and the internet related to this study. The theory that used is sociology of literature theory and dynamic structuralism. Sociology of literature is a theory that sees a literary work as a result of interaction between the author and their community. And dynamic structuralism is a perfect form of the structuralism theory. Dynamic structuralism is a theory about the elements in literary work which is applied in the research.

Key Word: Homeless, cause and effect of homeless

Universitas Sumatera Utara TABLE OF CONTENTS

AUTHOR’S DECLARATION…………………………………………… v

ACKNOWLEDGMENT…………………………………………………... vii

ABSTRAK………………………………………………………………….. ix

ABSTRACT………………………………………………………………... x

TABLE OF CONTENTS………………………………………………….. xi

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study……………………………………………… 1

1.2 Problem of the Study…………………………………………………... 5

1.3 Objective of the Study…………………………………………………. 5

1.4 Scope of the Study…………………………………………………….. 6

1.5 Significance of the Study……………………………………………… 6

CHAPTER II REVIEW OF LITERATURE

2.1 Intrinsic Elements in Prose…………………………………………….. 9

2.1.1Character………………………………………………………………10

2.1.2 Plot……………………………………………………………………..11

2.1.3 Point of View…………………………………………………………..12

2.1.4 Setting………………………………………………………………….13

2.1.5 Style……………………………………………………………………13

2.1.6 Theme………………………………………………………………….14

2.2 Extrinsic Elements……………………………………………………..14

2.2.1 Economic Background in America…………………………………….14

Universitas Sumatera Utara 2.2.2 Homeless People in America………………………………………....16

CHAPTER III METHOD OF RESEARCH

3.1 Research Design………………………………………………………..18

3.2 Data Collection………………………………………………………...18

3.3 Data Analysis…………………………………………………………... 19

CHAPTER IV ANALYSIS AND FINDING

4.1 The background of homeless people………………………………… 20

4.2 The causes of people become homeless ……………………………. 21

4.2.1Unemployment……………………………………………………….. 21

4.2.2Extreme poverty and the minimum wage………………………….... 22

4.2.3The lack of affordable housing……………………………………… 23

4.3 The effect of people who become homeless ………………………. 23

4.4 The attitude of government and society toward the homeless people… 27

CHAPTER V CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION

5.1 Conclusion……………………………………………………………... 41

5.2 Suggestion……………………………………………………………… 42

REFERENCES...... 43

APPENDICES i. Biography of John Grisham ii. Grisham’s Works iii. Summary of The Street Lawyer

Kata Kunci: Tunawisma, sebab dan akibat dari tunawisma

Key Word: Homeless, cause and effect of homeless

Universitas Sumatera Utara CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study

Literature has been known for a long time. It reflected human life and art work, as this following quotation. “Literature springs from our inborn love of telling a story, of arranging words in pleasing patterns, of expressing in words some special aspect of our human experience.” (Moody, 1977:2) Literature can be said as the result of the author’s imagination but the framework is what’s happening in the surrounding society who later developed by the authors with interesting words.

Literature can be classified as having two mayor forms they are fiction and nonfiction. Literature can be divided into drama, poetry, and prose (novel and short story).

As the work of imaginary, fiction especially novel gives the problems of human life. It presents social problems as the issues that the reader can take a lesson from these problems, and the reader knows what has happened in a society even in their neighborhood. Novel can be a source of story that entertain readers and improve their knowledge about culture and society.

Social problems become a problem when a number of people began to complain about a situation that they face in society (Coleman and Cressey, 1987:4).

These people believe that they are victims of the environment around them who do not care about their fate. One of the social problems that exist in America is homeless. Two decades ago, every city had its “skid row” with bums, derelicts, vagrants… The “bum” or “hobo” of the past become today’s “homeless person”

(Tischler, 1996:542,543). A word of “homeless” has a complicated definition. People staying in shelters for the homeless, on the streets, or in other similar settings can be

Universitas Sumatera Utara called as homeless (Toro, 2007:463). People who are very poor have the risk to become homeless. Homeless condition is also influenced by unemployment, a low minimum wage; there is a very noticeable difference between the wages of workers with the chief executives. Many companies only accept employees, who have the skills, make unskilled people to be unemployed and receive any job for minimum wages. A lack of affordable housing and inability to pay the house rent send them living on the street.

In fact, the increase in inflation and unemployment in the American economy began in the early 1970s, despite the ups and downs in the business cycle, it has drifted downward ever since. Unemployment, unskilled, and extreme poverty are some of the causes to make someone become homeless. The poor in rich countries are facing more hardship than in a poor one because they are minority. The proportion of poor people has gone up reaching 15.3 percent in 1983, before dropping back to 14.4 percent the following year. And then the poverty also increased in 1990s. The poverty rate of 13.7 percent in 1996 has gone up from 12.8 percent in 1989. More than one in five children (20.5 percent) lived in poverty in

1996.

One of the authors who explores issues of the homeless and poor people is

John Grisham in one of his novel The Street Lawyer. In this novel, Grisham tells the story of homeless lives, why they became homeless, what are the causes and effect of people who become homeless.

The Street Lawyer novel begins when a homeless person who named himself with ‘Mister’ enters the office of the Washington D.C. law firm Drake & Sweeney and make a lot of lawyers as hostage. Although eventually he was shot dead by police snipers but one of all hostages, Michael Brock, that is a successful lawyer in

Universitas Sumatera Utara law firm Drake & Sweeney wants to know why this ‘Mister’ holding them and giving strange questions about how much their salary as a lawyer at this large law firm. On his way to search the truth, Michael Brock found the reality outside his estimation that in Washington D.C., the great city where he lived, in fact have a lot of sorrow. When night came, he saw a lot of homeless people who gathered at a homeless shelter to get some food and a place to sleep though only one night, especially in bad winter. And the numbers of homeless shelters are not comparable to the number of homeless people in the city. Brock also knows the fact why this

‘Mister’ tries to make them a hostage and then the death of a homeless woman and her children have a relationship with his law firm where he worked. Then, Brock takes the data that is very important to the law firm where he works and make him became the target of the police and finally he decided to switch his profession to become a street lawyer and began to defend the rights of the homelessness.

Generally, sociology of literature means to understand literature by considering aspects of society itself. Sociology of literature aims to improve understanding of the literature in relation to the society, explaining the creativity that is not opposed to the reality. Literature is not only about individual phenomenon but also a social phenomenon (Ratna, 2003). Sociology of literature focuses on literature as a result of interaction between author and society. Literature is a complex structure so that in understanding it should be analyzed. Structural analysis cannot be separated with a semiotics analysis because literary works is a structure of meaningful signs. Structural and semiotics theory are the objective literary criticism that considers literary works as something autonomic, regardless of the surrounding nature, the reader and the author (Pradopo, 2003:140,141). Definitively, structuralism gives attention to the analysis of elements in literary works. The

Universitas Sumatera Utara elements of prose are theme, conflict, setting, characters, plot, point of view, and style of language. The most important in this criticism is literary work itself.

Structural analysis which is combined with semiotics called dynamic structure

(Teeuw in Pradopo, 2003:146). In Dynamic structuralism, according Mukarovsky, the chain of relationship is between four factors: the creator, literature, readers, and reality.

Sociology of literature can explain the essence social facts, literary works as communication systems, especially in relation to the extrinsic aspects, such as social groups, social class, social stratification, social institutions, social systems, social interactions, social conflict,... (Ratna, 2003:18). One of the theories which are relevant is theory of Karl Marx. Marx (in Ritzer and Goodman, 2004:145) believed that the workers must take the terms the capitalists offer them, because the workers can no longer produce their own needs. As Marx believed, if the worker doesn’t want to do the job at the wage that offered for them, someone else like unemployment will take their job, and they will be unemployment, too. It can cause the rich become richer while the poor change poorer.

A student of literature discussed about social problem in her thesis that is

Usrotun Saidah An Analysis of Social Reflection in America based on F Scott

Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby (2008). In her thesis, she describes about the background of the moral degradation in The Great Gatsby and the impact of moral degradation in American society in that novel.

The writer is interested in literary works, especially novels. The writer considers that literary work is unique, especially novel because the author can show the world with its problems which is then written into words and next become a book. Reading literary works, we know the social problem of human life. The novel

Universitas Sumatera Utara The Street Lawyer shows the social problem, especially homeless people in America.

Until now, this problem is still not resolved, not only in America even in some developed countries it is still an issue that must be solved. All that reasons encourage the writer to choose this topic. The writer hopes this thesis to be useful for further research related to the social problems, especially about the homeless. This thesis also aims to develop the study of sociology of literature considering that literary works can explain the problem that is happening in society.

1.2 Problems of the Study

According to the title of this proposal “An Analysis of the Homeless People in America Reflected in John Grisham’s novel The Street Lawyer”, the writer tries to clarify the problems into some questions, and they are:

1. What are the causes of people become homeless picturized in John

Grisham’s novel The Street Lawyer?

2. What are the effects of people who become homeless picturized in John

Grisham’s novel The Street Lawyer?

1.3 Objective of the Study

The objectives of the analysis of this thesis are:

1. To explain the causes of people become homeless picturized in John

Grisham’s novel The Street Lawyer.

2. To explain the effects of people who become homeless picturized in John

Grisham’s novel The Street Lawyer.

1.4 Scope of the Study

In research, it is very important to limit the analysis on specific data that has been chosen so that over complicating and unfocused issues and analysis can be avoided. The analysis is limited to the background of homeless people, the causes

Universitas Sumatera Utara and effects of people become homeless picturized in John Grisham’s novel The

Street Lawyer and the attitude of the government and society toward the homeless people picturized in this novel.

America has a lot of social problems. One of the social problems that exist in

America is about homeless. The inflation and unemployment which has increased in the early 1970s and the poverty in this country make their presence overlooked. The impact of the extreme poverty, unemployment continually, and inability to pay house rent make them live on the streets and today people call them as homeless people.

1.5 Significance of the Study

The significance of the study is to give information to the readers what has happened in society even in their neighborhood through this novel. By reading this novel, the readers know that developed countries like America also have social problems such as homeless. Until now, the homeless problem is still not solved even in developed countries. The writer hopes this thesis could be a reference to know the condition of a society and improve the knowledge of the readers about the homeless, what are the causes and effect of being homeless. The writer also hopes this thesis could become references for further study especially about this topic.

Universitas Sumatera Utara CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

Sociology of literature is a theory that sees a literary work as a result of interaction between the author and their community. This is suitable with main function of literature that is to portray, reflecting human life, while human life itself still developing (Ratna, 2004:75). So in this case we need a theory to understand a literary work.

Theory is a tool that has a function to guide and help a person in understanding objects maximally. In this thesis, the author uses the theory of dynamical structuralism. In analyzing the literary work, it is important to understand the work itself deeper by analyzing the elements that exist in the literary work itself, without forget the external elements when the novel was created.

Dynamic structuralism or dynamical approach is a perfect form of structuralism. It believes that literary work is the object of arts which can be understood in relation of the elements in the work itself. The text in literary work has some intrinsic components such as character, theme, plot, etc. This approach gives flexibility for the research to apply the components which will be a significant priority. Dynamic approach has the concept which given the valuation to the harmony of all the components that forms overall of the structure within relationship between these components so it becomes meaningful and they are aesthetically pleasing. Dynamic structuralism first raised by Mukarovsky and Felik Vodicka.

Mukarovsky dan Felik Vodicka (in Ratna, 2004:93) stated:

“Karya sastra adalah proses komunikasi, fakta semiotik, terdiri atas tanda, struktur, dan nilai-nilai. Karya seni adalah petanda yang memperoleh makna dalam kesadaran pembaca. Oleh karena itulah, karya seni harus dikembalikan

Universitas Sumatera Utara pada kompetensi penulis, masyarakat yang menghasilkannya, dan pembaca sebagai penerima.” In the intrinsic elements has been implied the extrinsic meanings that must be understood by researchers. And finally the works must be returned to the community that has produced or contributed ideas in the making this work.

2.1 Intrinsic Elements in Prose

Prose or fiction in the late seventeenth century and eighteenth century is begun to develop. Human beings of various social statuses and the social phenomenon in daily life became the importaant topics of literary work. Human nature was not simple and could be interesting to explain in a literary works, especially the novel. That’s why fiction cannot be separated from characters in a story. Fiction, especially the novel feels so real and interesting when the story or the issues that discussed are very close to the environment around the readers or was going on in a community.

Besides characters, setting also becomes one of the important elements of prose or fiction. Setting is not only about places or environment, but also the economic, social, and political conditions which affect to people’s life. Prose also has another important element; they are plot, point of view, style, and theme.

The writer simultaneously will explain all the intrinsic elements in prose one by one, though in analyzing these intrinsic elements, the writer limits only to the dominant elements contained in a work, in this case The Street Lawyer novel. It means that the element that the writer analyzes depends on the dominance of these elements in the novel which is discussed by the writer as the researcher such as characters and setting, and issues that were discussed in the novel, even though all

Universitas Sumatera Utara the elements in the prose is important. Here are some intrinsic elements in literary work.

2.1.1 Character

In a story, the author emphasizes the characters in order to make up the whole of the story in prose or in a novel through dialogue and action. Through the characters, the reader can also identify various human natures of the people. Like the quotation below.

“In fiction, a character may be defined as a verbal representation of a human being. Through action, speech, description, and commentary, authors portray characters who are worth caring about, rooting for, and even loving, although there are also characters you may laugh at, dislike, or even hate.” (Roberts and Jacobs, 1995:131) The British novelist and critic E. M. Forster, calls the two major types of characters, they are round and flat character. Round characters are characters that can change their nature and personality. These changes can be caused by a condition or event that has a major impact in the life of these characters that make them undergo a change in personality and behavior. Because of they have a personality that can change anytime and flexible, this character can be called a dynamic character, such as the quotation below.

“The basic trait of round characters is that they recognize, change with, or adjust to circumstances. The round character–usually the main figure in a story–profits from experience and undergoes a change or alteration, which may be shown in (1) an action or actions, (2) realization of new strength and therefore the affirmation of previous decisions, (3) the acceptance of a new condition, or (4) the discovery of unrecognized truths.” (Roberts and Jacobs, 1995:133) Round characters are usually playing a major role in a story. And because they have a personality that can be changed, these characters are also unpredictable.

Contrast to round characters, flat characters do not grow and they are static. Usually

Universitas Sumatera Utara a flat character is a minor, although not all of the minor characters are flat. We can see from this quotation.

“In contrast, flat characters do not grow. They remain the same because they may be stupid or insensitive or lacking in knowledge or insight. They end where they begin, and are static, not dynamic. But flat characters are not therefore worthless, for they usually highlight the development of the round characters.” (Roberts and Jacobs, 1995:134) Flat characters can also prominent in some literature such as detective or police stories. In this story, they must be strong, tough, and clever enough to perform recurring tasks like solving a crime, overcoming a criminal, etc. All of these characters are important to get a harmony within a story, both the major and minor characters. They are related to make the whole of a story became interest to the readers.

In this case, the main character in The Street Lawyer novel, the novel which the writer analyzes is Michael Brock, who can be categorized as a round character because of personality changes that happened to him. In this novel, Mike, the nick name of Michael, who at the beginning of the story is told as an ambitious young lawyer, a workaholic, and do not care about the fate of poor people, suddenly turns into a man who cares about the fate of the poor and homeless. This is the impact of the accident that happened to him and then opened his eyes and heart to the life of people who not lucky like himself.

2.1.2 Plot

An author make a story based on the sequence of events or incidents which are linked through a causal and time relationship to the climax and ended with a resolution. Sequence of events assembled to become a full story commonly called plot. The plot is the most important element in a story because it is the main point of

Universitas Sumatera Utara a novel or a story that told through the characters in the story. We can know this from the quote below.

“Stories are made up mostly of actions or incidents that follow each other sequentially. Finding a sequential or narrative order, however, is only the first step toward the more important consideration–the plot or the controls governing the development of the actions.” (Roberts and Jacobs, 1995:88) Plot cannot be separated from conflict because it is makes a story become interesting and not boring. Conflicts are usually tensions or disagreement between two or more characters in a story. Conflict can provide extra energy or strength to people and the character must make important decisions which could affect the character’s life in a story.

2.1.3 Point of View

Point of view is the place or position of the author to see their story. How the narrator tells the story, give opinions and express his/her feelings in a story or novel, such as the following quote.

“Practically, point of view involves the actual physical location of this speaker and his or her position to see and record the main action and ideas. … It may also be considered as a way of seeing, the perspective into which the work of art is cast.” (Roberts and Jacobs, 1995:88) Point of view divided into three types, they are first-person point of view, second-person point of view, and third-person point of view.

a) First-Person Point of View

If the voice of the work is an “I,” the author is using the first-person point of

view, the impersonation of the narrator or speaker in a story. First person

speaker usually reports events that they seen, felt, and how they

communicated each other. First person speaker also considered more

independent than the other point of view and found in many novels or short

stories.

Universitas Sumatera Utara b) Second-Person Point of View

If the voice of the work is “You,” the author is using the second-person point

of view. It occurs when the speaker know more about the character’s actions

than themselves. It also explains the actions of other character such as a

lawyer who defends his/her client in front of the judge.

c) Third-Person Point of View

If the event in the work described in the third person (he, she, it, they), the

author is using the third person point of view. In this point of view, the

speaker is outside the story to report the words and actions of the character in

the story.

In a novel which the writer analyzes, the author uses the first-person point of view. We can know that because Michael as the main character in The Street Lawyer novel uses "I" to call himself, and he also acts as the narrator who tells how this story goes.

2.1.4 Setting

In the story, setting is not only about places and time when the story is told, but also about the conditions of society, culture, politics, lifestyle, social and emotional of the characters are also included into the setting.

Generally, the story in The Street Lawyer novel takes place in Washington

D.C., the capitol of United States that commonly called as Washington, “the

District”, or simply D.C., and other places in Washington.

2.1.5 Style

Style is about the way authors assemble the words to tell the story, but it’s not making the separation between style and the content itself. Authors express the fictional action or scene in the story through the words. Style is individual because

Universitas Sumatera Utara every author has a different style in writing the stories. It’s also making them unique for each other, and the readers can recognize them through their style in writing a story. Authors usually use denotation or connotation meaning in their work.

Denotation refers to the literal meaning of a word or the dictionary meaning. In other hand, connotation is created when you mean something else or something that might be initially hidden.

2.1.6 Theme

The story usually has a lot of ideas. When the idea becomes a major, it is called the theme. The theme of a story is what the author is trying to convey or the central idea of the story. The central or major idea that author wants to convey through the characters and events of the story. Theme usually implied rather than stated explicitly.

2.2 Extrinsic Elements

This is important to know the extrinsic elements in a literary work besides the intrinsic elements. Extrinsic elements usually talk about the conditions in a society when the work such as novel was created. In this thesis, the writer find out the data related to this novel when this novel created such as economic background and social problems that occurred at that time.

2.2.1 Economic Background in America

America is one of the superpower countries today. This success is influenced by the increasing acceleration of development activities that depend on debt as a solution. In the past, America had several times failed to pay debts both the government and its citizens which resulted in a massive financial crisis whose the effects still can be seen until now, although not as badly as in the past.

Universitas Sumatera Utara The first crisis occurred in 1819 which is known as the “Panic of 1819”. The crisis began when the U.S. won the war against England in 1812, It makes the local banks began to lend money to anyone who wants to build the houses or places of business. This is going well until the European demand for imports of food from the

U.S. began to decline. It was make the entrepreneurs and the U.S. government itself failed to pay their loans to the bank which resulted in the first economic crisis in

America, where many of banks were forced to close, unemployment is everywhere, and prisons filled with people who are unable to pay their debts.

The next crisis occurred in 1857, which also started from banks that provide loans. In that time, the export of food and agricultural products from the U.S. east coast (New York and surrounding areas) to Europe began to decrease, it’s made many of U.S. citizens who moved to the west (California and surrounding areas) to find a new livelihood. They use the train to travel that make rail transport service got a big profit. It makes the banks began to give loans again to railroad companies, they expect the benefit too. But the economic crisis occurred when the U.S. citizens who are mostly farmers found the fact that the land where they live was barren and cannot be used to grow crops. So that, no more people were traveling to the west. This caused many companies began to go bankrupt because do not have a passenger, and make the banks that provide loans bankrupt too.

The third crisis occurred in the 1930s known as the ‘Great Depression’. The cause is still the same, because the problem of debt. The difference is it involved the capital markets. At that time, many banks ran out of money and closed because the stock exchange was fall. In 1932, more than a quarter of the American people become unemployed. Franklin D. Roosevelt, the U.S. president who won through the election in that time launched the New Deal policies. It’s about government

Universitas Sumatera Utara programs that provide assistance in the form of social security (construction of roads, schools, government buildings, works of art and give young people work to help the environment). This program was providing jobs for millions of American people although with a small salary. But the crisis recovered when World War II that occurred on 1 September 1939 in which the U.S. economy begins to move because a lot of companies receiving weapons and aircraft orders from countries in Europe.

2.2.2 Homeless People in America

The economic crisis in European countries creates many social problems.

One of the problems is homeless. This problem becomes sensitive when winter is coming. Few years ago, the number of homeless people in America began to rise due to the economic crisis, even this condition has become commonplace. Based on the report from the group of experts of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), stagnation in the U.S. economy and the inability of citizens to pay their debts at the bank led to a lot of people are at risk of losing his home. In the report, it is said that until now 2.5 million Americans have lost their homes or apartments and 1.5 million people are not able to pay their debts so that they in the danger of losing their homes.

Thousands of homeless people are forced to live in their cars, parking areas, and even they stayed at the roadside. Based on the U.S. Bureau of Statistics report, for this time, 50 million people is living in absolute poverty.

There are several factors that cause the increasing number of homeless people in developed countries. Poverty, drugs, and mental disorder are part of the factors that can increase the number of homeless. In addition, mental illness becomes one of the factors that make the condition of homeless people become worst. Consuming alcohol and drugs are another factor that led to increased of homeless in Europe.

Universitas Sumatera Utara Homeless people face many problems and major threats. Their life was not safe on the streets and in hunger condition. Their rights are ignored and any time they are threatened by various diseases such as tuberculosis, HIV and hepatitis.

Universitas Sumatera Utara CHAPTER III

METHOD OF RESEARCH

3.1 Research Design

In writing this thesis, the writer uses qualitative method. Qualitative method can refer to research about individual’s life, stories, behavior, social movements, or social relationship. Qualitative research starts from the existing data in the society and then finds a theory that fits with the data to be analyzed. We can see in this quotation from Noor (2011:33-34). He states:

“Pendekatan kualitatif adalah suatu proses penelitian dan pemahaman yang berdasarkan pada metodologi yang menyelidiki suatu fenomena sosial dan masalah manusia. Pada pendekatan ini, peneliti menekankan sifat realitas yang terbangun secara social, hubungan erat antara peneliti dan subjek yang diteliti.” In the analysis, the writer explains the social problems that exist in a society, in this case is America. The writer focuses on homelessness problem in America picturized in John Grisham’s novel The Street Lawyer. The writer also uses descriptive method in analysis. Descriptive method is used to describe the event or phenomenon that becomes a focus in a problem. It is suitable with Noor (2011:34) says in his book.

“Penelitian deskriptif adalah penelitian yang berusaha mendeskripsikan suatu gejala, peristiwa, kejadian yang terjadi saat sekarang.” 3.2 Data Collection

In doing the analysis, the writer uses library research. Library research means that the data and some information will be taken from some books in the library or other sources as internet. In this thesis, the writer uses The Street Lawyer novel as a main source or primary source. The writer also uses the books from library or internet, etc, as the other sources to support the analysis.

Universitas Sumatera Utara The data of this analysis is a novel entitled The Street Lawyer by John

Grisham as the data source. In that novel, the writer discovers how homelessness become commonplace in a developed country like America even ignored by most people because they are minority. In this analysis, the processes of collecting data to make this analysis systematic and easier are below:

1. Reading John Grisham’s novel The Street Lawyer as main source in this

analysis and tries to understand the meaning.

2. Select the problem that will be discussed.

3. Find out the data that found in the novel and other sources to support this

analysis.

4. Evaluate the data and make a conclusion.

3.3 Data Analysis

In analyzing the data the writer uses descriptive method. The writer notes the important things in the novel that related to the issues to be discussed. Then, the writer describes a problem in the novel and relates it to the reality around. In this analysis, the writer focuses on its social problems found in the novel especially about homelessness problem. The writer also discusses about how the homeless people treated by people around them and how the government and societies try to solve the homelessness problem in America. Finally the writer can design the conclusion for the research.

Universitas Sumatera Utara CHAPTER IV

ANALYSIS AND FINDING

4.1 The background of homeless people

People staying in shelters for the homeless, on the streets, or in other similar settings can be called as homeless. Some of homeless people come from various backgrounds. Some of them come from unhappy family. They do not know who their mother or father, and follow their parents. If their parents live on the streets, then they will follow the way. This is continued by their child’s future if they do not find a shelter or a decent job to improve their lives.

Lontae’s mother was sixteen when she was born, the second of three children, all out of wedlock, all sired by different men, though her mother refused to say anything about her father. She grew up in the rough neighborhoods in Northeast, moving from place to place with her troubled mother, living periodically with her grandmother and aunts. tier mother was in and out of jail, and Lontae quit school after the sixth grade. From there, her life became predictably dismal. Drugs, boys, gangs, petty crime, the dangerous life on the street. She worked at various minimum-wage jobs, and proved to be completely unreliable. (Grisham, 1998:218) Then, homeless people come from the middle class who suffered because a bankruptcy on their business and didn’t have a place to stay and sleep, not only from the poor. Many veterans who become a homeless because after the war they do not know how to find a job because they have no a skill except using a gun and did not have a family who care about their life make themselves living on the streets. The government considered did not care about their fate when the war was over.

Homeless people have a wide variety of groups that can be divided into three major groups, they are the homeless who have a family, and in this case the homeless women who had a child get into this group, homeless teenagers, and homeless adult.

Lontae is one of the homeless women who has four children. She usually came in to one soup kitchen to the others only to get some food for herself and her

Universitas Sumatera Utara children. When she was a child, she grew up in the rough neighborhoods. Moving from place to place with her trouble mother who was in and out of jail and quit from the school before the time and it makes Lontae familiar to the street life.

Many causes make teenagers become homeless. One of them is because quite from the school before the time and go away from their home because the problems in their family. These young people prefer to live on the streets than stay with their family who did not make them comfortable.

Many adult become homeless because they did not have family who take care themselves or their family did not care about them anymore. The widow of a veteran is one of homeless adult who become homeless. She was entitled to veteran’s benefits but never get it and send them living on the street because have no money.

4.2 The causes of people become homeless

There are many causes that make a person become homeless. In this analysis

I divided it into three mayor groups, and they are:

4.2.1 Unemployment

One of the causes that make a person become homeless is because of losing the only jobs that they have. Losing the only jobs makes people become unemployment. Become an unemployment makes a lot people take a short cut like stealing in order to survive, which ended with staying in jail.

According to one Mordecai Green, Director of the 14th Street Legal Clinic, DeVon Hardy had worked for many years as a janitor at the National Arboretum. He'd lost his job as a result of budget cutting. He had served a few months in jail for burglary, then landed in the streets. He'd struggled with alcohol and drugs, and was routinely picked up for shoplifting. (Grisham, 1998:23)

People who are quit from jail did not know how to find a job and it makes them living on the streets because they have no money to find a place to stay. Being

Universitas Sumatera Utara unemployment is not completely the fault of these people. This condition could be happen because they are fired from the company where they work as the result of budget cutting. Budget cutting is the result of the crisis that happened in America.

Many of company that reduces their employee because they cannot pay many of them so these companies choose to fire many of their employees to make the company keep standing.

4.2.2 Extreme poverty and the minimum wage

Extreme poverty and the minimum wage can bring a person to become homeless. The minimum wage they received makes the poor become poorer and spend most of their salary to pay their expensive rent and it is not comparable with the salaries they get. In fact, they can save very little money for unexpected expenses at any time if they need.

“The frightening part of homelessness is what you don't see on the street. About half of all poor people spend seventy percent of their income trying to keep the housing they have. HUD says they should spend a third. There are tens of thousands of people in this city who are clinging to their roofs; one missed paycheck, one unexpected hospital visit, one unseen emergency, and they lose their housing.” (Grisham, 1998:118) And when their little saving is used for urgent purposes such as buying medicine and the others, as soon they will run out of money and there is no more money to pay the rent, and then send them to the streets. The minimum wage makes the increasing of poverty number in a society because it is not comparable with their needs in their lives.

4.2.3 The lack of affordable housing

The lack of affordable housing is the other causes of people become homeless. Crisis in America made the government cutting the budgets that they were given as cutting the funds of affordable housing. It made the lives of poor people

Universitas Sumatera Utara more difficult and sending them to living on the streets because they have no ability to pay the expensive rent house.

“In the past fifteen years, two and a half million low-cost housing units have been eliminated, and the federal housing programs have been cut seventy percent. Small wonder people are living on the streets. Governments are balancing budgets on the backs of the poor.” (Grisham, 1998:117)

The government has been eliminated many of low-cost housing unit as the result of the balancing budgets because the crisis that happened in America but it is sacrificed the poor people. Some of the people who lost their homes stayed with their relatives at first. Then, they would move to other relatives because the housing allowance has a policy to limit the people who live in the rent house, so they cannot stay long with their relatives. People who do not have a place to stay for the first time were afraid of visiting a shelter because not all of the shelters are good. There was violence, robbery, and even rape in several shelters.

4.3 The effect of people who become homeless

Becoming homeless and living on the streets make a person close to alcohol or other booze and drugs that make these homeless addicted. These things are expected to reduce their burden and depression because of living in the rough neighborhoods and only these things can make them fall asleep on the streets.

Homeless people can get it easily because the price is relatively cheap and can be found everywhere.

“What's the drug of choice?” “Alcohol. It’s the most affordable. A lot of crack because it’s cheap too. You’ll see everything, but the designer drugs are too expensive.” (Grisham, 1998:119)

These homeless people also sell drugs to feed themselves and their children. They do anything to survive, even selling drugs. This is because they do not have any skills that no one wants to hire them. For homeless people who are addicted, it is very

Universitas Sumatera Utara difficult for them for not having addicted even within 24 hours. They also do not know how to get into a rehabilitation center for people who are addicted. They need someone who can help to overcome their addiction.

We talked about Terrence, and rehab and getting clean, and again I began to feel the hopelessness of addiction. She was overwhelmed by the challenge of staying clean for just twenty-four hours. The drug was crack, as I suspected. Instantly addictive and dirt cheap. (Grisham, 1998:185)

Terrence is the son of one homeless woman who was separated from his mother, Ruby, because she was a drug addiction. The city has programs to provide foster parents for children who are considered not properly cared for by their parents, although the parents do not agree. In this case, Terrence is separated from Ruby, his mother, because Ruby was drug addiction, so she was not allowed to see her son.

Many homeless people want to change and improve themselves and hope to eliminate their addiction to alcohol and drug. They just do not have the way and do not know how to reduce the addiction.

“Are you in rehab?” I asked. She shook her head quickly and closed her eyes. “Why not?” I asked. “Can't get in.” I had no idea how a crack addict off the street got admitted to a recovery unit, but it was time to find out. (Grisham, 1998:151) These people need the help of everyone who cares about their fate to get access to the rehabilitation center to get rid of their addiction to drugs, and the like. Becoming homeless and being addicted make these people are susceptible to the several of diseases and death.

Living on the streets makes the homeless people threatened by a wide variety of diseases. Tuberculosis is a common disease that found on the homeless. Lack of

Universitas Sumatera Utara access to medical treatment caused their illness getting worse and can spread to their fellow easily.

He pointed to another nearby door. “That’s the clothes room. They take in between thirty and forty new people a week. The first step is a medical exam; tuberculosis is the current scare.” (Grisham, 1998:136) This condition is common in homeless people. We can know from the way they live all this time, the shelters that always full, they live in abandoned buildings. Some of them were slept on the streets, park or under bridges. Sleeping in hot and cold weather also make these people are susceptible to the several of diseases.

Besides tuberculosis disease, some homeless are also mentally ill. This can be ascertained, because they live on the streets for years, being chased by the police and tried to hide from them and the squeezer who control the streets. All of these make them easily suffer from a mental disorder.

He removed his red glasses, wiped them with a tissue, then rubbed his eyes. “He was mentally ill, like a lot of these people. You spend years on the streets, soaked with booze, stoned on crack, sleeping in the cold, getting kicked around by cops and punks, it makes you crazy. Plus, he had a bone to pick.” (Grisham, 1998:28) And when they finally found a place to stay at a cheap price, they were evicted from their apartment for the reason that they were squatters who had to go right then, although there was snowfall at that time. No one cares about their fate by giving a bit of time to avoid the snowfall that will certainly come in that day. This makes a lot of homeless people freeze to death in the extreme cold weather because they do not have a place to take cover.

Some homeless people choose to return to the shelter or soup kitchen which is still open if the weather becomes so bad. Soup kitchen is a place where these homeless can eat and drink freely without pay anything and if they are lucky, they

Universitas Sumatera Utara will survive in that place until the snowfall blows over. But if the homeless do not get a place in other shelters or soup kitchen, they will return to the streets or sleeping in their cars. It will be dangerous if their car have a heating system. The death of homeless people can be predictable. People who are sleeping when all of the windows are closed to prevent the entry of cold air unconsciously will inhale the carbon monoxide which is odorless and resulted in the deaths of homeless people themselves.

Sometime around 11 P.M., D.C. police found a small car near Fort Totten Park, in Northeast, in a war zone. It was parked on the street, its bald tires stuck in the frozen slush. Inside were a young mother and her four children, all dead from asphyxiation. The police suspected the family lived in the car, and was trying to stay warm. The automobile's tailpipe was buried in a pile of snow plowed from the street. (Grisham, 1998:63) Police usually claimed on these issues by giving a warning about the dangers of clogged tailpipes. This seems useless, because everyone knows that this is the only way for those people who do not have house. Sleeping in the car is the only way to keep warm in very cold weather.

Living on the streets or on the bench park for years make these people suffer from back pain. Besides that, homeless people especially homeless women are also susceptible to prostitution that have a high risk for HIV infected and drugs addiction because of their profession on the streets.

Half the women there were mentally ill, half were substance abusers, a third were HIV-positive. (Grisham, 1998:173) “Two brothers, both in jail. Lontae had a history of prostitution and drugs. No idea of who the father, or fathers, might be.” (Grisham, 1998:64)

For homeless people who are addicted, it is very difficult for them for not having addicted even within 24 hours. Many of them want to reduce their addiction, one of them is Lontae. She often came to the meetings for alcoholics and drug in

Universitas Sumatera Utara House of Mary. House of Mary is one of the activity centers for homeless women during the day. Some of these places provide food, clothing, counseling for homeless women, and have meetings for alcoholics and drug, and only open in the morning until afternoon. But the House of Mary had a policy forbidding the entry of any person obviously intoxicated or under the influence of drugs.

4.4 The attitude of government and society toward the homeless people

In the U.S., especially Washington D.C., there are some soup kitchens and the shelters special to homeless that spread in various places, although some of them are in the slum areas and unsafe. Shelter and soup kitchen is generally funded by the government and private agent. But in fact, the numbers are still not comparable to the number of homeless people in the field.

“Then where are the shelters?” “Scattered about. There are about twenty--half privately funded, the other half run by the city, which, thanks to the new budget, will soon close two of them.” “How many beds?” “Five thousand, give or take.” “How many homeless?” “That's always a good question because they're not the easiest group to count. Ten thousand is a good guess.” “Ten thousand?” “Yep, and that's just the people on the street. There are probably another twenty thousand living with families and friends, a month or two away from homelessness.” “So there are at least five thousand people on the streets?” I said, my disbelief obvious. “At least.” (Grisham, 1998:46) The crisis in Europe, especially the United States, has its own story for the homeless. The crisis in the U.S. caused several cities in this country to cut their budgets on the things that related to the social, such as reducing even begin to stop funds for institutions engaged in the social, such as legal clinic, shelters and soup kitchen for homeless and the poor.

Universitas Sumatera Utara The 14th Street Legal Clinic was funded by a charity and worked only with the homeless, according to Green. “Back when we got federal money, we had seven lawyers. Now we're down to two," he said. (Grisham, 1998:23) The 14th Street Legal Clinic is one of the few legal clinics that handle legal issues for the poor especially homeless people, located in the slum area at Q, NW. At the first, they had seven lawyers but now only two lawyers and a social worker because the government has stopped the funds to this clinic.

When it was funded by the federal government, the 14th Street Legal Clinic hired young lawyers from big law firm to work voluntarily to help resolve the problem of these homeless people like food stamps, veterans’ pensions, housing subsidies, Medicaid, aid to children, and etc. which is usually called pro bono rookies.

The 14th Street Legal Clinic has a director who doubles as a lawyer directly involved to defend the rights of these homeless people. Dedicating his life to defend the rights of the homeless who already ignored by the government and the society around them.

Mordecai Green was a warm, caring man who labored on the streets protecting hordes of nameless clients. His view of the law required more soul than I could ever muster. (Grisham, 1998:29)

Mordecai is a director in this legal clinic who caring and want to protect all of his nameless clients who most of them are homeless and living on the streets. This clinic also has Sofia Mendoza, a social worker who knows more about the street law even if the knowledge of Mordecai and Abraham, who is a lawyer haven been joined.

“And Sofia?” “A career social worker who’s been taking night classes in law school for eleven years. She acts and thinks like a lawyer, especially when she's abusing government workers. You’ll hear her say, “This is Sofia Mendoza, Attorney- at-Law,’ ten times a day.” (Grisham, 1998:75)

Universitas Sumatera Utara Sofia is not a lawyer but she acts like a lawyer because she knows more about the street law than the lawyers in the 14th Street Legal Clinic. This clinic is funded by the charity which was originally founded by Leonard Cohen, a founder of a large law firm in New York who are very wealthy, and supported by the federal government.

"The Cohen Trust. Leonard Cohen was the founder of a big New York law firm. He died in eighty-six; must've been a hundred years old. He made a ton of money, and late in life he decided he didn't want to die with any of it. So he spread it around, and one of his many creations was a trust to help poverty lawyers assist the homeless. That's how this place came to be. The trust operates three clinics--here, New York, and Newark. I was hired in eighty- three, became the director in eighty-four.” (Grisham, 1998:60)

But the funds given by the foundation is getting slightly from year to year, and the government cannot be reliable to handle this problem because they also want to stop funding and make this clinics getting worse because all that reasons resulted to the decrease of the number of lawyers who were working in these legal clinic. I doubt many legal clinics like the 14th Street Legal Clinic will keep standing if they have no funds anymore to help poor and homeless people, and it is make everything will be difficult for people to help and reduce the number of homeless people.

The government considered didn’t care to the fate of the poor. The tightening of budgets as a result of the recently crisis is the reason to cut the budget was previously setting by government. It makes the increasing of people become homeless.

American law is not fair for the homeless people. Not enough to cut the budget that make the life of the poor and the homeless more difficult even the

Universitas Sumatera Utara government also designed the laws that targeting the homeless and make them as criminals.

“The trend in urban America is to criminalize homelessness. The big cities have passed all sorts of laws designed to persecute those who live on the streets. Can't beg, can't sleep on a bench, can't camp under a bridge, can't store personal items in a public park, can't sit on a sidewalk, can't eat in public. Many of these have been struck down by the courts. Abraham has done some beautiful work convincing federal judges that these bad laws infringe on First Amendment rights.” (Grisham, 1998:119)

Abraham is one of the lawyers at the 14th Street Legal Clinic. He has a high sense of social and decided to quit from the law firm where he worked before and worked as a lawyer to help the poor and homeless on 14th Street Legal Clinic. He considers the law is more than making money. He was very cared about the fate of the homeless people. He will try to help and defend the rights of the homeless and ready to fight for anyone who wants to get rid of these people.

Because of his hard work, the government would select the rules which many lawyers thought that is violated the human rights. But the government still was doing favoritism in treating homeless people with the people who have money.

”So the cities selectively enforce general laws, such as loitering and public drunkenness. They target the homeless. Some guy with a nice suit gets drunk in a bar and pees in an alley, no big deal. A homeless guy pees in the same alley, and he's arrested for urinating in public.” (Grisham, 1998:119) Governments and the society who are sensitive to this problem considers that become homeless is a mistake, and that is their fault for being homeless. Many people in a society think that homeless people are so lazy to find a job make themselves become homeless. Homeless is considered as the scenery destroyer of the beauty of the city that has been laid out in such detail so delightful for people who live in it. To avoid this problem, governments frequently hold a clean sweep to the people who live and sleep on the streets.

Universitas Sumatera Utara “Do they arrest them?” “Every day, and it’s stupid public policy. Take a guy living on the streets, in and out of shelters, working somewhere for minimum wage, trying his best to step up and become self-sufficient. Then he gets arrested for sleeping under a bridge. He doesn’t want to be sleeping under a bridge, but everybody’s got to sleep somewhere. He’s guilty because the city council, in its brilliance, has made it a crime to be homeless. He has to pay thirty bucks just to get out of jail, and another thirty for his fine. Sixty bucks out of a very shallow pocket. So the guy gets kicked down another notch. He's been arrested, humiliated, fined, punished, and he’s supposed to see the error of his ways and go find a home. Get off the damned streets. It's happening in most of our cities.” (Grisham, 1998:120)

The city will punish anyone who sleeps on the streets, no matter what the reason. They are still considered these people were wrong. Then, oblige the homeless to pay a penalty in order to get out of jail, while they fought very hard in order to support themselves. The homeless were told to get a house with the wages that only enough to buy a food for their daily lives.

In this case, the government does not care that they are the causes of the increasing of the number of homeless people. They have cut and stop the funds for low-cost housing units for the poor and make the poor people sleep on the streets.

The city say to these people to find a house or any places to sleep because sleeping on the streets is a crime. New York is one of the cities that does not agree with the presence of the homeless people and made design laws against the homeless.

“New York, richest city in the world, can't house its people, so they sleep on the streets and panhandle on Fifth Avenue, and this upsets the sensitive New Yorkers, so they elect Rudy WhatsHisFace who promises to clean up the streets, and he gets his blue ribbon city council to outlaw homelessness, just like that--can't beg, can't sit on the sidewalk, can't be homeless--and they cut budgets like hell, close shelters and cut assistance, and at the same time they spend a bloody fortune paying New York lawyers to defend them for trying to eliminate poor people.” (Grisham, 1998:120)

It is an irony, knowing that one of the richest cities in America cannot provide a home for its own citizens. They cannot reduce the number of poor people

Universitas Sumatera Utara even they rejected the existence of these people. In other hand, they spend a lot of money which if it used well can build some shelters for the homeless and other things which is considered more beneficial for a long time. We do not know why the cities doing like that. Even the cities have a money, they just waste it by doing a clean sweep of homeless people that considered useless.

“And here's the asinine part: It costs twenty-five percent more per day to keep a person in jail than to provide shelter, food, transportation, and counseling services. These, of course, would have a long-term benefit. These, of course, would make more sense. Twenty-five percent. And that doesn't include the costs of arrests and processing. Most of the cities are broke anyway, especially D.C.--that's why they're closing shelters, remember--yet they waste money by making criminals out of the homeless.” (Grisham, 1998:120)

Many of the lawyers and the people who care about the fate of the poor people who strongly rejected the laws that is not impartially to the homeless and said that the city was very cruel because implementing the rules that make the life of homeless more difficult. Many advocates in the country criticize these laws because more cities are spending more on legal fees than on building shelters for the homeless.

Homeless people cannot be blamed for sleeping on the streets. They had no choice. They do what ordinary people do, sleep when they are tired, and begged to get food if they are hungry. The government must worry about this condition and try to resolve it not only blame these people.

“Remember, Michael, everybody has to be somewhere. These people have no alternatives. If you’re hungry, you beg for food. If you’re tired, then you sleep wherever you can find a spot. If you're homeless, you have to live somewhere.” (Grisham, 1998:119-120)

Society and the government must be aware. The homeless cannot be eliminated through frequent clean sweep. This will be repeated if no one cares to

Universitas Sumatera Utara their fate and trying to rectify this situation. If many people are trying to help them, then their number will be reduced although takes a long time.

They were not going away. They could not be swept from the streets and deposited in some hidden place so we didn't have to see them. They were living in cars, squatting in shacks, freezing in makeshift tents, sleeping on park benches, waiting for beds in crowded and sometimes dangerous shelters. We shared the same city; they were a part of our society. If we didn't help them, they would multiply in numbers. And they would continue to die in our streets. (Grisham, 1998:83)

Behind the government’s attitude that does not care about the fate of the homeless, there’s still a small portion of society who care about their fate. These people work not because of money. People who care about the fate of their fellow, who are not lucky like them choose to work in shelters and soup kitchen as a volunteer, and become a street lawyer who defended the rights of the people who live on the streets for their peace of mind because they also help these unlucky people.

Michael Brook is a main character in the novel The Street Lawyer. He is one of the ambitious young lawyers who worked at the big law firm with high salary that a few years will be promoted. Due to an accident which made him became one of the hostages from a homeless made himself wonder for what he's live this long, working hard hour by hour to resolve every cases given by the firm on them. More and more cases are resolved, the more money he would earn.

Weren't we just chasing money? Why did we work so hard; to buy a richer rug, an older desk? There in the warmth and coziness of my beautiful room, I thought of Mordecai Green, who at that moment was volunteering his time in a busy shelter, serving food to the cold and hungry, no doubt with a warm smile and a pleasant word. (Grisham, 1998:35)

He was fed up with the path to wealth and such blatant and unashamed greed for money and he wants to turn into a street lawyer who can help the poor and homeless without thought of payment that the client should be given to him.

Universitas Sumatera Utara Of course, I fully realized my new status in life. I was a wonderful story— ambitious young lawyer transformed into an advocate for the poor; turns back on blue-chip firm to work for nothing. Even though she thought I was losing my mind, Claire had found it hard to criticize a saint. (Grisham, 1998:81)

But his wife, Claire, who is also a doctor taking the surgical specialties in

Georgetown did not agree with decision of her husband. Claire is one of the people who does not care about the fate of the homeless. She does not want to accept the risk of her husband’s new job, and decided to divorce Mike, Michael’s nickname.

Becoming a street lawyer and getting less salary make Mike divorced by his wife.

“We’re not assigning fault. We’re dividing the assets. For reasons known only to you, you’ve decided to take a cut in pay of ninety thousand dollars a year. Why should I suffer the consequences? My lawyer is confident she can convince a judge that your actions have wrecked us financially. You want to go crazy, fine. But don't expect me to starve.” (Grisham, 1998:86)

Mike’s decision was not in vain because there’re still people who have same minded with him even though just a little. Miss Dolly is one example of some people who care about the fate of the homeless and become a volunteer who responsible to feed them. She is also a member of the church who make their kitchen was available for the homeless, and feed them every day. She was feeding the homeless for eleven years until now.

Soup kitchen for the homeless usually is an old church that had been abandoned by its original congregation. Soup kitchen is a simply places to feed the homeless, didn’t use as a shelter, except when the weather is bad, they are permitted to stay until the weather got better.

“How many people live here?” “None. This is just an emergency shelter. The kitchen is open every day for lunch and dinner, but it’s not technically a shelter. The church is kind enough to open its doors when the weather is bad.” (Grisham, 1998:46)

Universitas Sumatera Utara Not all of the churches want to open their doors and allow the homeless to get into it.

Only a few churches would be kind enough to open their doors to be used as a soup kitchen or the emergency shelter for the homeless.

Besides, the soup kitchen which is used as an emergency shelter when the temperature is going far below zero, the government also has a shelter to avoid the body being frozen, but it is very difficult to get into this place because it has a very long waiting list.

“Yep. There’s one hypothermia shelter the city graciously opens when the temperature drops below freezing. That might be her only chance, but I’m sure it's packed tonight. The city is then kind enough to close the shelter when things thaw.” (Grisham, 1998:47)

Some those, who managed these soup kitchens get food from food bank which is donated by food stores and restaurants in the city. Usually they get vegetables to feed the homeless but sometimes they get chicken that given from food bank.

“Where does the food come from?” “Food bank. It’s all donated. Tonight we’re lucky because we have chicken. That’s a delicacy. Usually it's just vegetables.” “This bread is not too fresh.” “Yes, but it’s free. Comes from a large bakery, their day-old stuff.” (Grisham, 1998:45)

Conditions in the entire soup kitchen were similar in everywhere, which is always filled with homeless and overcrowded. And usually this soup kitchen is in the basement of a church, even not all of the members of the church are willing to make their church become dirty by making it as soup kitchen and let the homeless entry.

There is a place in D.C., which provides fresh food for given to some soup kitchen in the city, not the leftovers. People usually called it as the D.C. Central Kitchen. It is a big enough soup kitchen in D.C.

“D.C. Central Kitchen, an outfit in the basement of the CCNV. They’ve developed this amazing system of collecting excess food from local restaurants, not leftovers, but uncooked food that will simply go bad if not

Universitas Sumatera Utara used immediately. They have a fleet of refrigerated trucks, and they run all over the city collecting food which they take to the kitchen and prepare, frozen dinners. Over two thousand a day.” (Grisham, 1998:155)

Community for Creative Non-Violence or called as CCNV is the largest shelter in the District, home to thirteen hundred people. The CCNV has a long history. It was founded by a group of war protestors who had assembled in

Washington to torment the government. They lived together in a house. During their protests around the Capitol, they met homeless veterans of Vietnam, and began taking them in. They moved to larger quarters, and their number grew. After the war, they turned their attention to the plight of the D.C. homeless. CCNV found an abandoned junior college. One built with federal money and still owned by the government, and invaded it with six hundred squatters. It became their headquarters, and their home. Until now The CCNV grew to thirteen hundred beds.

14th Street Legal Clinic has cooperated with several shelters in the city to help resolve the problems of these people that they were facing in their lives. Almost twenty-five percent of the street lawyer work deals with the social security, and

Mike’s new job have pretty diverse homeless clients.

“Your clientele will be a mixture of thirds,” he said, driving badly with one hand, holding coffee with another, oblivious to any of the other vehicles crowded around us. “About a third are employed, a third are families with children, a third are mentally disabled, a third are veterans. And about a third of those eligible for low-income housing receive it.” (Grisham, 1998:117)

Most of people in the CCNV have a job even not all people in that place have a job.

These people were lucky because they are given a place to stay until find a job.

CCNV was given one year to prepare and finding a job, after that they will be kicked out and will be replaced by another homeless. It sounds cruel, but actually not, because they've been told before check in and will prepare it for one year.

Universitas Sumatera Utara “That’s it. They boot them after one year, which at first may seem harsh. But it isn't. The goal is self-sufficiency. When a guy checks in, he knows he has twelve months to clean up, get sober, acquire some skills, and find a job. Most are gone in less than a year. A few would like to stay forever.” (Grisham, 1998:137)

One year is a long time and they were lucky to get a place in this shelter.

Many shelters which only gives a few months to avoid the difficult life on the streets, one of these place is the Samaritan House. This place is one of the great shelters in

D.C. Similarly with other good shelters, it is very difficult for the homeless to get into this place because it has a very long waiting list.

“Is it hard to get a room here?” I asked, certain of the answer. “Nearly impossible. There’s a waiting list a mile long, and the shelter can screen who gets in.” “How long do they stay here?” “It varies. Three months is probably a good average. This is one of the nicer shelters, so they’re safe here. As soon as they get stable, the shelter starts trying to relocate them into affordable housing.” (Grisham, 1998:122) Some of the good shelters for the homeless have a pretty good health system.

They check the health of every new homeless who entered to these places and give them medicine and clothing which is not bad for them. Minimally the homeless who stay in this place will be healthy and prepare their lives to find a job before out of this place. In a good shelter, homeless people had given some clothes once a month.

These clothes are good enough than the clothes they ever use.

“That’s the clothes room. They take in between thirty and forty new people a week. The first step is a medical exam; tuberculosis is the current scare. Second step is a visit there for three sets of clothes--underwear, socks, everything. Once a month, a client can come back for another suit, so by the end of the year he has a decent wardrobe. This is not junk. They get more clothing donated than they can ever use.” (Grisham, 1998:136-137)

Some shelters funded by private and church union, because the people who care about the fate of the homeless feel would be useless to expect funding from the government. It’s because not only didn’t give extra funds for homeless shelters and

Universitas Sumatera Utara soup kitchens, the city also stopped their funding for social institutions, so that these people collect their own funds or through donation of union church, one of them is the Samaritan House.

“It’s a private shelter,” Mordecai said. “Ninety beds, decent food, funded by a coalition of churches in Arlington. We’ve been coming here for six years.” (Grisham, 1998:121)

Samaritan House is one of the good shelters in D.C. It funded by a coalition of churches in Arlington. But almost impossible for homeless people who their numbers are so large to get a bed in this shelter because they only have ninety beds and it is not comparable with the number of homeless people out there.

No one cares about these homeless people, even the bureaucracy that should help them by providing social security that was already the right of these people, in fact they stripped off their rights for the reasons that they do not have a clearly address. For this thing we need the lawyers and social workers who work in legal clinic to help the homeless who want to get what has become their right.

“You see, Michael, the homeless have no voice. No one listens, no one cares, and they expect no one to help them. So when they try to use the phone to get benefits due them, they get nowhere. They are put on hold, permanently. Their calls are never returned. They have no addresses. The bureaucrats don’t care, and so they screw the very people they’re supposed to help. A seasoned social worker can at least get the bureaucrats to listen, and maybe look at the file and maybe return a phone call. But you get a lawyer on the phone, barking and raising hell, and things happen. Bureaucrats get motivated. Papers get processed. No address? No problem. Send the check to me, I’ll get it to the client.” (Grisham, 1998:61-62)

When we compared the number of people who care and do not care about the fate of the homeless people, we still find the shelters and soup kitchens which is have a little volunteers who want to spend their time to help people who are not lucky like them.

Universitas Sumatera Utara “Uh, not exactly. What’s going on?” “It’s cold as hell, snowing again, and we’re short on manpower. Do you have a few hours to spare?” “To do what?” “To work. We really need able bodies down here. The shelters and soup kitchens are packed, and we don't have enough volunteers.” (Grisham, 1998:43)

The big law firms should implement the new pro bono program, which is a program for lawyers to be willing to take a few hours of their time to resolve the problems of the homeless that they are facing voluntarily.

He gave me the opening, and I slipped in. Because I couldn't practice law for the next nine months, the clinic had decided that I should implement a new pro bono volunteer program using attorneys from the big firms in town. Since his firm happened to be the largest, I was thinking of starting there. The volunteers would work only a few hours a week, under my supervision, and we could reach thousands of homeless people.

Arthur was aware of such programs; vaguely aware. He hadn't performed free work in twenty years, he admitted sadly. It was normally for the younger associates. How well I remembered. (Grisham, 1998:255)

Arthur is a CEO and one of the most respected people in Drake & Sweeney law firm, a firm where Mike used to work before becoming a street lawyer. A case between his law firms with Mike has opened the eyes of his heart. At the suggestion of Michael, he is planning to revive the pro bono program that had been left. His planning is to oblige four hundred lawyers in his law firm to participate in this program which will be led by Michael.

This is good news for the 14th Street Legal Clinic that deals with homelessness. Because of this, they will be able to reach thousands of homeless people in their town and help these people to get their rights.

Universitas Sumatera Utara CHAPTER V

CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION

5.1 Conclusion

Having analyzed the novel The Street Lawyer from the beginning up to end, the writer comes the conclusion as follow:

a. Many of homeless people come from various backgrounds. Some of them

come from unhappy family, poor people, and from the middle class who

suffered because a bankruptcy on their business and have no a place to stay

and sleep.

b. Homeless people have a wide variety of groups that can be divided into three

major groups, they are the homeless who have a family, in this case the

homeless women who had a child get into this group, homeless teenagers,

and homeless adult.

c. Many causes make people become homeless, they are unemployment,

extreme poverty and minimum wage, and the lack of affordable housing.

d. Becoming homeless and living on the streets make a person close to alcohol

or other booze and drugs that make these homeless addicted. It make them

threatened by a wide variety of diseases as tuberculosis, mentally ill, HIV, the

others which resulting in death.

e. People in America who care about the fate of the homeless have a way to

help these people as become volunteers at soup kitchens and the shelters,

although not all homeless people can feel their existence because of the

number of volunteers is very little and not comparable with the number of

homeless that was thousands, but their existence is so expected.

Universitas Sumatera Utara f. The novel The Street Lawyer dealt with injustice that the poor and homeless

people received in America, where they were treated unfairly by the majority

of society and government. The government makes these people become a

criminal with the rules that they have been created. Homeless people also

considered as the ruin of the beauty of the city. Though the government

contributed in making the poor become homeless.

5.2 Suggestion

This novel is very interesting to read because it deals with social issues that are very close around us, that is about the homelessness. Even in European countries, this problem becomes very worrying because of the four seasons, and when the winter comes far below zero, they are very worried that this will take a lot of homeless as the victims who do not have a place to avoid the cold air.

This novel can open our eyes to know the difficulties of living on the streets and a lot of people out there who are not lucky like us who have comfortable home and do not have to worry about hunger because we still have a supply of food for tomorrow.

Therefore, through this thesis, the writer suggests the people not to look down and have negative thinking about the homeless, because we do not know how they run their lives on the hard life on the streets without anyone who cares about their fate. And from this novel we can learn to respect every human being starting from our surrounding.

Universitas Sumatera Utara REFERENCES

Coleman, James William & Donald R. Cressey. 1987. Social Problems. New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc.

Danrendorft. 1976. Contemporary Sociological Theory. New York: The Migraw Hill Companies.

Eagleton, Terry. 2008. Literary Theory: An Introduction. Oxford: Blackwell.

Grisham, John. 2010. The Street Lawyer: Pengacara Jalanan. Jakarta: Gramedia Pustaka Utama.

Hadibroto, S. 1965. Methode Research. (Unpublished). Medan: Fakultas Ekonomi USU.

Moody, H. L. B. 1977. Literary Appreciation. London: Longman Group Ltd.

Phelps, Harold A. & David Henderson. 1952. Contemporary Social Problems. United States of America: Prentice-Hall Inc., Englewood Cliffs, N. J.

Pradopo, Rachmat Djoko. 2003. Beberapa Teori Sastra, Metode Kritik, dan Penerapannya. Yogyakarta: Pustaka Pelajar.

Ratna, Nyoman Kutha. 2003. Paradigma Sosiologi Sastra. Yogyakarta: Pustaka Pelajar.

______. 2008. Teori, Metode, dan Teknik Penelitian Sastra. Yogyakarta: Pustaka Pelajar.

Ritzer, George & Douglas J. Goodman. 2004. Classical Sociological Theory. New York: McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Tischler, Henry L. 1996. Introduction to Sociology. United States of America: The Harcourt Press.

Toro, Paul A. 2007. “International Perspectives on Homelessness in Developed Nations” in Social Issues, Vol. 63 No. 3. United States: SPSSI.

Internet Sites

Bahtera Indonesia. 2012. Kondisi Tunawisma di Barat Memburuk. Retrivied from http://bahteraummat.wordpress.com/2012/11/01/kondisi-tunawisma-di-barat- memburuk/ (January 18th 2014)

Beams, Nick. 1999. Kondisi kelas pekerja Amerika yang semakin memburuk. Retrivied from https://www.wsws.org/id/1999/mar1999/indo-m25.shtml (January 18th 2014)

Universitas Sumatera Utara Diela, Tabita. 2014. Cara Amerika Entaskan Tunawisma Layak Ditiru Indonesia. Retrivied from http://properti.kompas.com/read/2014/01/28/1759284/Cara.Amerika.Entaska n.Tunawisma.Layak.Ditiru.Indonesia (April 20th 2014)

Doubleday, Random House, Inc. 2013. John Grisham the Official Site: Bio. Retrieved from http://www.jgrisham.com/bio/ (December 15th 2013).

Fadhil. 2014. 57.000 Veteran Tentara Amerika di Iraq dan Afganistan Jadi Gelandangan. Retrivied from http://shoutussalam.com/2014/01/57-000- veteran-tentara-amerika-di-iraq-dan-afganistan-jadi-gelandangan/ (May 7th 2014)

Hidayat, Teguh. 2011. Sejarah Krisis Ekonomi Amerika. Retrivied from http://www.teguhhidayat.com/2011/08/sejarah-krisis-ekonomi-amerika.html (April 15th 2014)

Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia. 2012. Bagaimana Amerika Memperlakukan Penduduknya Yang Tunawisma?. Retrivied from http://hizbut- tahrir.or.id/2012/06/28/bagaimana-amerika-memperlakukan-penduduknya- yang-tunawisma/ (December 15th 2013).

Mula-Antara. 2012. Kelaparan dan Tunawisma Meningkat di AS. Retrivied from http://berita.plasa.msn.com/internasional/antara/kelaparan-dan-tunawisma- meningkat-di-as (April 20th 2014)

O’Leary, Kevin. Lebih Banyak Kaum Tunawisma Amerika Tinggal di Mobil. Retrivied from http://hizbut-tahrir.or.id/2010/02/23/lebih-banyak-kaum- tunawisma-amerika-tinggal-di-mobil/ (May 9th 2014)

______. The Street Lawyer. Retrivied from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Street_Lawyer (June 2014) http://fuyuhoshikim.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/john-grisham-1998-the-street- lawyer.pdf (February 2nd 2014). http://pascaunesa2011.blogspot.com/2011/10/teori-strukturalisme.html (July 14th 2014).

Universitas Sumatera Utara APPENDICES i. Biography of John Grisham

John Ray Grisham, Jr. or popular with John Grisham is an American lawyer, politician, and author, best known for his popular legal thrillers. He was born in

Jonesboro, Arkansas (on February 8, 1955) to Wanda Skidmore Grisham and John

Grisham. His father worked as a construction worker and a cotton farmer, while his mother was a housewife. When Grisham was child, his family started travelling around the South, until they finally settled in Southaven in DeSoto County,

Mississippi at 1967. As a child, Grisham wanted to be a baseball player. Despite the fact that Grisham's parents lacked formal education, his mother encouraged her son to read and prepare for college. Grisham changed colleges three times before completing a degree. He graduated from Mississippi State University in 1977, receiving a Bachelor of Science degree in accounting. He later enrolled in the

University of Mississippi School of Law to become a tax lawyer, but his interest shifted to general civil litigation. He graduated in 1983 with a Juris Doctor degree.

Grisham married Renee Jones on May 8, 1981, and they have two children, they are Shea and Ty. Grisham practiced law for about a decade and also won election as a Democrat in the Mississippi House of Representatives from 1983 to

1990. Grisham represented the seventh district, which included DeSoto County.

The early Grisham’s writing career was in 1984, when he was hanging around the court. He overheard a twelve-year-old girl telling the jury what had happened to her. Her story interested Grisham and he began watching the trial. He saw how the members of the jury cried as she told them about having been raped and beaten. Her story was inspired Grisham to start a novel exploring what would have happened if the girl’s father had murdered her assailants. Grisham wrote his first

Universitas Sumatera Utara book, A Time to Kill that took three years to complete it. But no one who wants published his book, and it was rejected by 28 publishers until Wynwood Press, an unknown publisher, agreed to give it a modest 5,000 copy printing. It was published in June 1988.

The day after Grisham completed A Time to Kill, he began work on another novel, The Firm, the story of a hotshot young attorney lured to an apparently perfect law firm that was not what it appeared. Spending 47 weeks on The New York Times bestseller list, The Firm became the bestselling novel of 1991.

Since first publishing A Time to Kill in 1988, Grisham has written one novel a year that is The Firm, and many of Grisham’s books have become international bestsellers. There are currently over 275 million John Grisham books in print worldwide, which have been translated into 40 languages. Nine of his novels have been turned into films (The Firm, The Pelican Brief, The Client, A Time to Kill, The

Rainmaker, The Chamber, A Painted House, The Runaway Jury, and Skipping

Christmas), as was an original screenplay, The Gingerbread Man. The Innocent Man

(October 2006) marked his first foray into non-fiction, and Ford County (November

2009) was his first short story collection. In 2005, Grisham received the Peggy V.

Helmerich Distinguished Author Award. The award is presented annually by the

Tulsa Library Trust.

When he’s not writing, Grisham dedicates his time to charitable causes, including most recently his Rebuild The Coast Fund, which raised 8.8 million dollars for Gulf Coast relief in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Now he also serves as the local Little League commissioner to keep up his passion about baseball. He built the six ball fields on his property which have played host to over 350 kids on 26 Little

League teams.

Universitas Sumatera Utara ii. Grisham’s Works

Year Novels Short Nonfiction Children’s Screenpla Story books ys Collections 1989 A Time to - - - - Kill 1991 The Firm - - - - 1992 The Pelican - - - - Brief 1993 The Client - - - - 1994 The - - - - Chamber 1995 The - - - - Rainmaker 1996 The Runaway - - - - Jury 1997 The Partner - - - - 1998 The Street - - - The Lawyer Gingerbrea d Man 1999 The - - - - Testament 2000 The - - - - Brethren 2001 A Painted House and - - - - Skipping Christmas 2002 The - - - - Summon 2003 The King of Torts and - - - - Bleachers 2004 The Last - - - Mickey Juror 2005 The Broker - - - - 2006 The Innocent - - Man: - - Murder and Injustice in a Small Town 2007 Playing for - - - - Pizza 2008 The Appeal - - - -

Universitas Sumatera Utara 2009 - Ford - - - County 2010 The Theodore Confession - - Boone: Kid - Lawyer 2011 The Theodore Litigators - - Boone: The - Abduction 2012 Calico Joe Theodore and - - Boone: The - The Accused Racketeer 2013 Sycamore Theodore - Row - - Boone: The Activist

iii. Summary of The Street Lawyer novel

The main character in this novel is Michael Brock, a lawyer working for

Drake & Sweeney, a giant D.C. law firm with eight hundred lawyers. Michael was in a hurry. He was struggling up the ladder of success at Drake & Sweeney. The money was good and getting better; a partnership was three years away. He was a rising star who did not waste his time to throw a few coins into the cups of beggar, no time to relax, and no time for a conscience.

One day a homeless man calling himself “Mister” enters the Washington

D.C. law firm Drake & Sweeney and holds Michael and other lawyers as the hostages. Michael and the lawyers manage to get out of the situation but the homeless man gets killed. Although he is eventually shot by a police sniper and the hostages freed, one of the hostages, an antitrust lawyer named Michael Brock wants to know who is the man that holding them. Michael finds out later that the homeless man was a mentally ill veteran who’d been in and out of shelters for many years.

Michael finds his way to the 14th Street Legal Clinic, where he meets Mordecai

Universitas Sumatera Utara Green, an advocate for the homeless, who asks him to help one night at a homeless shelter.

Later, Michael know that this “Mister” had been evicted from a building where he live, where he was paying rent and Drake & Sweeney was responsible for the eviction. Michael feels compelled to investigate further and found a dirty secret and the secret involved Drake & Sweeney, the law firm where he work. And the result of Michael’s investigation say that his own employer was complicit in an illegal eviction, which eventually resulted in the death of a young homeless family.

Michael started helping Mordecai Green, a lawyer for the homeless, and soon

Michael left Drake & Sweeny and became a lawyer for the homeless, a street lawyer.

But just before he officially left his firm, he take the eviction file that he wanted to see. Immediately he copied the data and surely to return the data to its place. But the firm found out about the missing file and it is quickly suspected of its theft.

From this file, Michael began to find out more about the eviction and realized it was illegal and his ex-firm, Drake & Sweeney, was responsible for wrongful deaths of some homeless people, who had died after being evicted. Shocked by what he has found, Brock leaves his firm to take a poorly paid position with the 14th Street

Legal Clinic, which works to protect the rights of the homeless. This leads to his wife divorcing him. He admits one of his clients, Ruby, to a therapy class for drug- addicted women, and in the process meets Megan.

Drake & Sweeney comes to Michael after he alleging with theft and malpractice when he out from Drake & Sweeney law firm while Michael filed a suit against his ex-firm, with the help of Mordecai Green, and they were representing the evictees. The partners of Drake & Sweeney know that they were wrong. Terrified of the certain bad publicity, the matter is settled by mediation. They met with Mordecai

Universitas Sumatera Utara Green to settle on an agreement without a jury. They were offering Mordecai and

Michael $770,000 and two-year suspension for Michael for stealing the file.

Mordecai made an offer of $5 million and a one-year suspension for Michael. If

Drake & Sweeney agreed everything would be over without the public hearing about it but if they disagreed, Mordecai would bring in a jury and was confident of winning and humiliating Drake & Sweeney. But they do not reach an agreement and finally this case was bring in a jury and reach the deal that is Drake & Sweeney give $5 million as compensation coast and the clinic receives a large payout to be shared with the victims of the eviction. For the first the 14th Street Legal Clinic will take two million up front. The balance of three million can be spread over the next ten years by installments three hundred thousand a year, and nine month suspension for

Michael.

Arthur Jacobs as the CEO of Drake & Sweeney was deeply troubled by the events. This event opens his heart and he offers to make pro bono staff available to assist the work of the Clinic in fighting for the rights of homeless people. This novel ends with Brock taking a short vacation with Megan and Ruby, and them reflecting on their lives.

Universitas Sumatera Utara