THE DESCRIPTION OF THE THEME ON FRANCES HODGSON BURNETT’S NOVEL “THE SECRET GARDEN”
A PAPER
BY
NIA RAMADHANI GINTING REG.NO. 132202075
DIPLOMA III ENGLISH STUDY PROGRAM FACULTY OF CULTURAL STUDIES UNIVERSITY OF NORTH SUMATERA MEDAN 2016
UNIVERSITAS SUMATERA UTARA It has been proved by,
Supervisor,
Dra. Diah Rahayu Pratama, M.Pd. NIP.1956124 198601 2 001
Submitted to Faculty of Cultural Studies, University of Sumatera Utara In partial fulfillment of the requirements for Diploma- III in English Study
\Approved by Head of Diploma III English Study Program,
Dr. Matius C.A. Sembiring, M.A. NIP 19521126198112 1 001
Approved by the Diploma III of English Study Program Faculty of Cultural Studies, University of Sumatera Utara As a paper for the diploma-III Examination
UNIVERSITAS SUMATERA UTARA Accepted by the Board of Examiners in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the
D-III Examination of the Diploma-III of English Study Program, Faculty of Cultural
Studies, University of Sumatera Utara
The examination is held on June 2016
Faculty of Cultural Studies, University of Sumatera Utara
Dean,
Dr. Budi Agustono, M.S NIP. 19600805 198703 1 001
Board of Examiners Signature
1. Dr. Matius C.A. Sembiring, M.A (Head of ESP) ………….
2. Dra. Diah Rahayu Pratama, M.Pd (Supervisor) ………….
3. Drs. Chairul Husni, M. Ed., TESOL (Reader) ………….
UNIVERSITAS SUMATERA UTARA AUTHOR DECLARATION
I am, NIA RAMADHANI GINTING declare that I am the sole author of this paper.
Except where the reference is made in the text of this paper, this paper contains no material published elsewhere or extracted in whole or in part from a paper by which I have qualified for or awarded another degree.
No other person’s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the main text of this paper. This paper has not been submitted for the award of another degree in any tertiary education.
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Date : 2016
UNIVERSITAS SUMATERA UTARA COPYRIGHT DECLARATION
Name : NIA RAMADHANI GINTING
Title of Paper : The Description of The Theme on Frances Hodgson
Burnett’s novel “The Secret Garden”
Qualification : D-III / Ahli Madya
Study Program : English
1. I am willing that my paper should be available for reproduction at the discretion of the Librarian of the Diploma III English Department Faculty of Cultural Studies University of Sumatera Utara on the understanding that users are made aware of their obligation under law of the Republic of Indonesia.
2. I am not willing that my papers be made available for reproduction
Signed : …………
Date : 2016
UNIVERSITAS SUMATERA UTARA ABSTRACT
This paper deals with Frances Hodgson Burnett’s novel “The Secret Garden”. The objectives are to find out the description of the theme, the plot and the character of the novel. In order the get needed result, the data are taken from the story of the novel. The data then are described based on, these aspects. From the description, it is found that the theme of the novel “The Secret Garden”
UNIVERSITAS SUMATERA UTARA ABSTRAK
Kertas karya ini berkaitan dengan novel Frances Hodgson Burnett yang berjudul “The Secret Garden”. Tujuan dari penelitian ini adalah untuk mengetahui deskripsi dari tema. Alur cerita dan karakter dari novel ini. Untuk mendapatkan hasil, data yang diambil adalah cerita dari novel tersebut. Data tersebut kemudian dijelaskan berdasarkan aspek-aspek ini. Dari deskripsi ini dapat ditemukan tema dari novel “The Secret Garden”.
UNIVERSITAS SUMATERA UTARA ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Bismillahirrahmaanirrahim.
First of all, I would like to thank and praise to the Almight God Allah SWT who has given me health and capability to finish this paper as my final assignment to finish my study at Diploma III English Study Program University of Sumatera Utara. And I present shalawat to Prophet Muhammad SAW as my good example in my life and I hope his blessing in the beyond.
I would to express a deep gratitude, love, appreciation, and thanks to :
My beloved parents Nuredy Ginting and Asnita br Surbakti for their love and patience, supporting me morally, spiritually, and financially in completing this paper. My handsome brothers Harry Pratama Ginting and Bobby Arfanta Ginting for gave me spirit and love. Thanks for my family Surbakti. My uncle Muslim Surbakti for their love and always give me spirit, support and advice to finish my last assignment. My beautiful cousin Vivi Novianita, Yusnaida Leni, Chintya Surbakti and the important persons in my life. Dr. Matius C.A. Sembiring, M.A as the Head of Diploma III English Study Program, who gives me a lot of knowledge. Dra. Diah Rahayu Pratama, M.Pd as my supervisor. Thank for valuable time in giving the correction critics in completing this paper. Drs. Chairul Husni, M. Ed., TESOL as my reader. I would like to thank for time in giving the correction in completing this paper. Dr. Budi Agustono, M.S as the Dean of Faculty Cultural Studies University of Sumatera Utara. All lecturer in Diploma III English Study Program for giving me advices and knowledge.
UNIVERSITAS SUMATERA UTARA My best friends, Riza Fadhilah, Marys Yeremia, Yona Marissa, Ruth Franciska, Muhammad Ichsan, and Sakinah for their loyalty, love, support, crazy time and always beside me when I’m feeling tired, sad, and happy. Thank you for being my best friends who always care. And also my second family Asrama Widuri Marendal Tria Oktiwi, Mentari Utari, Fachrozy Huda, Buntal, MGD, Nesya, Eka, Borcet, Dela, Shafa Marwah, Aseng, and Andre Thanks for supporting me and crazy time during doing my final assignment. Thank for my friend from class B Arda Khajar and Winda Yuliani for cooperation and helping doing the final examination. Thank for my alumnus Eka Wardana and Rizky Siregar for helping me doing the final examination. My friends in Diploma III English Study Program SOLIDAS 2013 class A and B who I can not mention one by one. And thank you to all my friends who know me well for being part of my life. My someone special, Andra Agiarsyah Bintang who always gives his time, support me, advice, prayer, and always beside me when I’m feeling happy and sad.
Finally, I do realize that paper still far from being perfect. Therefore, I welcome any constructive, critics and suggestion toward this paper.
Medan, Mei 2016
The writer,
Nia Ramadhani Ginting RegNo : 132202075
UNIVERSITAS SUMATERA UTARA TABLE OF CONTENTS
AUTHOR’S DECLARATION………………………………………....…i COPYRIGHT DECLARATION……………………………………...….ii ABSTRACT………...……………………………………………………..iii ABSTRAK………………………...……………………………………….iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS………...………………………………....….v TABLE OF CONTENTS…………………………...…………….….…..vii
1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study………………………………………………...1 1.2 Scope of the Study…………………………………………………….…5 1.3 Problem of the Study……………………………...…………...….….....6 1.4 Purpose of the Study……………………………………..…………...... 6 1.5 Significance of the Study…………………………...……...……….…...6 1.6 Method of the Study………………………….……….………………....7
2. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE……………………....…....8
3. THE DESCRIPTION
3.1 Theme…………………………………………………….……..………..17 3.2 Character…………………………………………………..…………...... 24 3.3 Plot……………………………………………………..………………...30
4. CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION
4.1 Conclusion…………………………………………..……………..…….36 4.2 Suggestion………………………………………...…………………...... 38
REFERENCES…………………………………..………………….….…..40 APPENDICES A. Biography of Frances Hodgson Burnett…....………………………..……42 B. Summary of the Novel…………………….………………………..….….44
UNIVERSITAS SUMATERA UTARA 1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of Study
Literature is creative expression of human imaginations or wishes that it is almost impossible to create an exact definition of it. Literature can be divided into three genres, such as prose fiction, poetry and drama. In the sense of literary, prose also called fiction, narrative text, or narrative discourse. Literature is literary or disclosure of the facts artistic and imaginative as a manifestation of human life.
Society through language as a medium and has a positive effect on human life. There have been various attempts to define literature. You can define it, for example as
“imaginative” writing in the sense of fiction. Writing which is not really true. But even the briefest refection on what people commonly include under the heading of literature suggests that this will do.
Literature as imaginative writing is reflected from people thought, that is not really true. Literature formed which has two elements, they are intrinsic and extrinsic.
Intrinsic elements are included in the content of literary works. And extrinsic elements are elements that originate from outside of literature.
UNIVERSITAS SUMATERA UTARA Literature consist of three genres, namely poetry, drama, and prose. Poetry is meaningful arrangement of words. Drama is a story which is intended to be performed on the stage. Prose is fiction narrative kind of writing, prose also called fiction, narrative text or narrative discourse. Prose itself can be divided into novel, short stories, romance etc.
Novel is a human creation. Some novels are fiction and some based on true stories. They are not only entertaining but also giving meaning messages and impression to the readers.
Gill (1985:77) says that novel is a world specially made in words by an author. A novel exists in the way it does because an author has chosen to put it together in the particularly way. This means that novels are not real in life. Like all works of art poems, plays, pots or pieces or music –they have been constructed or crafted.
Based on the theory above the writer have the opinion of Richard Gill about his theory says the novel is a world specially made in words by an author and he says the novel are not real in life is true and can make reference to analyze this paper to
UNIVERSITAS SUMATERA UTARA reader understand. Because according to the writer as an author is a work of imaginary, fiction directs various problems of humanity, life and living. Fiction tells the various problems of human life in the interactions with the environment and the life of the author. And the last according to the writer sometimes the novel some are non fictional, some have been written in verse and some not even tell a story, novel is fictitious kind of writing.
In this paper the writer just explains one of five elements, just focused on theme. The writer choose the Jonathan Culler’s theory about theme, character and plot to reference analyze this paper easier.
Culler (1977:59) says that theme is something which becomes the authors thought. It explains about view of life or the author’s image, and how they consider the case. Theme should be universal, it means that the readers understand well. The relation of the story is obviously in message and theme. His other theory says that character is the major aspect of the novel to which structuralism has paid least attention and has been least successful in treating. And he also says that the structure that connects the parts of a story is a plot. The discourse of the story is how the plot is presented from which character's point of view.
UNIVERSITAS SUMATERA UTARA The plot is something the reader garners from the text, it is not something that is provided in a sentence or paragraph at the beginning of the narrative. First, the progressive plot in which the events are told chronologically, first event is followed by the next event. In other word, this story is started from the earlier step. Then the middle step(rising conflict, climax) and finally the last step. Second, flashback plot is the plot in which the events are not told chronologically. The story is not started from the earlier, but maybe from the middle or even from the last step, and then the first step will be told. Third the mixed plot, is the mixture between progressive or flashback plot. The writer would like uses about those three elements theory in the novel to analyze of the theme. So in this paper the writer just explains one of three elements of Jonathan Culler’s theory just focused on the theme.
Taylor (1981:1) says that literature is explained that the literature of social institutions use language as a medium. Language itself is a social creation. Literature presents a picture of life, and life itself is a social reality
In this paper, the writer has chosen the novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett as the subject of this paper. The writer is interested in the story found in The Secret
Garden. In the late 1890 Hodgson Burnett returned to England and took up residence in Great Maytham Hall, in the country of Kent. On exploration of the grounds of the
UNIVERSITAS SUMATERA UTARA property she discovered a walled garden untended for a number of years. She took it upon herself to restore garden to floral splendor and then used the spaces as a place to sit and write. It was here that she conjured the idea for her children’s novel The Secret
Garden, which was eventually published in 1911. After reading the novel, she knew that the theme of the novel is very interesting. It tells about a girl named Mary
Lennox was orphaned and sent to live with her uncle in his austere manor on the moors, Marry is a lonely and unhappy child. A meeting with Dickon, her servant’s brother begins her adventure and it is through their friendship and her relationship with her troubled hypochondriac cousin. She begins to learn about herself. Their lives all begin to change when a Robin shows Mary the door to a mysterious secret garden.
Therefore the writer has intentionally chosen the title for her paper “The Description of the Theme on Frances Hodgson Burnett’s novel “The Secret Garden” In this paper the writer uses the qualitative description method in doing in this paper. The first step done by the writer was reading and understanding the story of The Secret
Garden novel.
1.3 Scope of Study
There are so many aspects in this novel that can be described, but the writer becomes more interested in describing the theme in the novel. So, the scope of study is limited only on describing the theme portrayed of The Secret Garden novel.
UNIVERSITAS SUMATERA UTARA 1.2 Problem of Study
Based on the background of this proposal, the problem of this study maybe recognized as follow:
1) How is the theme portrayed in the novel The Secret Garden?
2) How is the theme portrayed described in novel The Secret Garden?
1.4 Purpose of Study
The purposes of this study are:
1) To find out the theme portrayed of the novel The Secret Garden.
2) To describe the theme portrayed in the novel The Secret Garden.
1.5 The Significance of Study
The Significance of study is divided into two sections
1) Theoretical Significance, the study can be used to enrich the literary study, especially in theme
2) Practical Significance, the reader will be understood about theme in a novel and the reader will know the story in the The Secret Garden novel.
UNIVERSITAS SUMATERA UTARA 1.6 Method of Study
The writer uses the qualitative description method in doing in this paper. The first step did by the writer was reading and understanding the story of The Secret
Garden novel. Then the writer search data sources are books and internet. The data in the words, texts, and quotations form. The writer reads and notes that the data then selects to be interpreted. Having understood the story of the novel, the writer can analyze the theme of the novel and can make the conclusion.
UNIVERSITAS SUMATERA UTARA 2. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
In doing this paper, the writer uses some books and take some quotations from the theory which are related to this topic in order to make the study better and support the idea. They also give me more knowledge about reference of theory that can make the writing of this paper easier and can analyze of theme in the novel. There are some theory to reference analyze the theme.
Shaw (1977:162) says that literature is the writing in which expression and form, in connection with ideas and form, in connection with ideas and concern of universal and apparently permanent interest are essential features. Literature is frequently, but unwisely applied to any kind of printed material such as circulars, leaflets, and handbills. The term is correctly reserved for prose and verse of acknowledge excellence.
William (1934) says that writings having excellent of form or expression and expressing ideas of permanent or universal interest. Literature is writings in which expression and form in connection with ideas of permanent and universal interest, are characteristic or essential features as poetry, novels, history, biography, and essays.
UNIVERSITAS SUMATERA UTARA Literature in the sense drama, poems, and novel has something different. Literature is human creation in the form of oral and written language that can make you feel good.
Fannanie (2000:6) says that literature is a fiction that are created based on emotion spontaneously capable of expressing the ability aspect of beauty are both based aspects of language and aspect of meaning. This human capable of presenting creative ideas and life experiences with literary art from. The form of literary content of thought, feelings, experiences, beliefs and spirit of others.
Jacob (1993:1-3) says that literature provides the comparative that basic from which we can see worthiness in the aims of all people, and it helps us to see the beauty of the word around us. It is a kind of art which need a creative writing. It is a writing that can describe the real feeling which related to human interest, characterized, full of imaginations, and artistic. Literature in the sense drama, poems
,and novel has something different.
Eaglonton (1988:4) says that literature is a delicate piece of writing is the work of the recorded from of language. Daily in the variety of ways with the
UNIVERSITAS SUMATERA UTARA language compressed, at in the right, lapped, trimmed and reversed in length, uses as odd.
Stanford (2003) says that literature is literary or disclosure of the facts artistic and imaginative as a manifestation of human life. Society through language as a medium and has a positive effect on human life. There have been various attempts to define literature. You can define it, for examples as “imaginative” writing in the sense of fiction. Writing which is not really true. But even the briefest refection on what people commonly include under the heading of literature suggests that this will do.
Literature as imaginative writing is reflected from people thought, that is not really true.
Sumardjo (1998:29) says that novel is a story with the prose form in long shape, this long shape, this long shape, this long shape means the story including the complex plot, many character and various setting. A novel is a totality, a comprehensiveness that is artistic. As a totality, the novel has passages elements, most related to one another in close and mutually dependent. The elements of a novel-builder that collectively form a totality that-in addition to the formal elements of language, there are many more kinds. The division of the element in question is the intrinsic and extrinsic elements.
UNIVERSITAS SUMATERA UTARA Coates (1983:17) says that the novel is an impossible history, for history has become impossible. It is powered by negative utopianism, it creates an image of artificial reality, but not of a better one as a prophet would. “The novel story tells the story of human life generally in interacting with the environment and each other.
Rees (1973:106) says the novel is a fictitious prose narrative of considerable length in which characters and actions representative of real life are portrayed in a plot of more or less complexity.
Novel is one of many possible prose narrative forms. Richard Gill (1985:78) says that in writing, there is a recognition that a novel is something specially made by an author so that a reader will respond to it in a particular way. The good candidate has recognized three things about a novel: the events of novel, the author who has created them, and the reader for whom the novel is written. In any good writing about a novel, these three things should be mentioned. They are, however not separable. For instance, the events of a novel are only three because the author has put them there, and they are only recognized as events when read by a reader. The author, of course is the most important element, the events of the novel and the reactions of the reader depend upon what he or she chooses to do. Because without an author there could be no book at all ,but there is also a much more important reason, a novel is a world
UNIVERSITAS SUMATERA UTARA specially made in words by an author range of types and styles , picaresque, epistolary, gothic, romantic, realistic, historical to name only some of the more important ones.
Peck and Coyle (1984:102) says that the most important elements is the author. The events of the novel and the reaction of the reader depend upon what he or she chooses to do. Because without an author there could be no book at all, but there is also a much more important reason: a novel is a world specially made in words by an author. “Writers have, of course, always been interested in the world around them, but the development of the novel reflects a move away from an essentially religious view of live towards a new interest in the complexities of everyday experience. Most of novels are concerned with ordinary people and their problems in societies in which they find themselves”.
Nurgiyantoro (1965:70) says that theme is a meaning of story which especially explains a big part of its elements in the simple way. It is more or less synonymous the central idea and central purpose.
UNIVERSITAS SUMATERA UTARA Tarigan (1993:125) says that theme is a specific outlook on life or certain feelings about lives or definite system of points which make of made main of literature.
Culler (1977:59) says theme is something which becomes the authors thought.
It explains about view of life or the author’s image, and how they consider the case.
Theme should be universal; it means that the readers understand well. The relation of the story is obviously in message and theme. The theme of the novel is more than its subject matter, because an author’s technique can play as strong a rule in developing a theme as the various characters, conflicts and scenes found within them reader can look at different aspects of the work to uncover different interpretations of the meaning of the tale.
Robert and Jacobs (1995:131) says that in fiction, a character may be definite as a verbal representative of a human being. Explanation of character in a novel can also be done through the depiction of physical and behavior, environment, way of talking, the mind, or through the depiction or other figures. Character make the story become real and interesting to read it. The character is a way of thinking and behaving each individual to live and work in the story
UNIVERSITAS SUMATERA UTARA Peck and Martin (1984:105) says that another point to remember is that the character are part of a broader patterns; they are members of a society, and the author’s distinctive view of how people relate to society will be reflected in the presentation of every character.
The character of Mary took a big part to determine the theme of the novel The
Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. It is a Magic of Garden.
Alternbern (1998:170) says that protagonist is character who is admired by the readers or watchers popularity he is called as a hero because he or she always does ideal role and follows the rules and values in society. Readers often identify themselves in this character emotionally.
Protagonist is a character who is loved by the audience. He or she likes a hero and the audience always gives sympathy emphasis. The term “hero” does not mean someone who is brave or noble, heroes maybe good or evil, low or highborn. A protagonist is the main character in the story. The protagonist presents something that is adjusted with our perception and expectation and that is why we will recognize him or her because he or she has similarity with us. The self-identification toward the
UNIVERSITAS SUMATERA UTARA character is an empathy given by the readers or watchers. A fiction must have a conflict and a pressure had by the protagonist.
Lewis (1917:119) says that antagonist is opposite character of protagonist directly or indirectly either physically or psychologically. This character usually causes conflict for protagonist, although the other things, such as disasters, accident, environment and social rules, moral values, authority, etc.
Antagonist is a character that always makes a conflict. The antagonist can be said as opposite of the protagonist directly or indirectly. But the conflict which is always had by the protagonist is not only caused by the antagonist. It can be caused by the other factors outside someone individually, such as disasters, accidents, neighborhood and the others higher power. The cause of conflict that is not made by a character is called antagonist force.
Robert and Jacobs say, there are two basic types of character “round character” and “flat character”.
UNIVERSITAS SUMATERA UTARA 1) Round Character is usually the main figure in a story-profit from experience
and undergoes a change or alteration because round usually play a major role
in a story, round character are often called the hero or heroine.
2) Flat Character do not grow, they remain the same because they maybe be
stupid or intensive or lacking in knowledge or insight. Sometimes flat
character are prominent in certain of literature, such as cowboy, police, and
detective stories, where the focus is less on character then performance.
Stanton (1999:157) says that the plot is the story that consist of events order, but each event is only connected with causality, one event is caused or causes the others.
Plot is one of the important elements of fiction of literary work, even most of the readers consider it as the most important element among another elements of fiction
By those statements and further explanations from each books that have’s been read by the writer, has helped the writer to understand more in interpreting the story of novel and find out its theme of the novel. Those theories is to complete the analyze the literature and the theme of the novel The Secret Garden.
UNIVERSITAS SUMATERA UTARA 3. THE DESCRIPTION
In this paper the writer would like to describe the theme portrayed in Frances
Hodgson Burnett’s novel “The Secret Garden”. As Jonathan Culler (1997:2) says to analyze a literary work, such as novel, that are three elements the theme, the character and the plot.
3.1 Theme
Theme is the main idea or the main point in a story. A theme must represent the whole part of story, because theme is a basic development of a whole story.
Themes often explore timeless and universal ideas and are almost implied rather than stated explicitly. Actually it is not easy to find out the theme in a novel. The writer has to read the novel and understand what the story tells about. The theme in this novel talks about The Magic of Garden.
The meaning of magic is the art of producing a desired effect or result through the use of incantation or various other techniques that presumably assure human control of supernatural agencies or the forces of nature. Magic is the skill of performing tricks to entertain people, such as making things appear and disappear and
UNIVERSITAS SUMATERA UTARA pretending to cut someone in half. The use of special powers to make things happen that would usually be impossible.
However the meaning of magic in theme of the novel, is an euphemism for positive thinking that ties into the rejuvenation and health of the garden can influence positive thinking can turn the mind away from trauma and create resiliency and finally it is a sensible way to live the life, to be grateful and happy for nature becomes a magic in its own right, it heals Colin from his illness both mentally and physically.
It provides direct metaphor because the baby robins learn to fly as Colin learns to walk.
3.1.1 The Description of the Theme Portrayed in the Novel
The theme of the novel is about the Magic of Garden. How the theme is about magic of garden because it is hidden around the house even the people who work in the house know it, but they don’t want to talk about it. Until Mary came to the house and met a bird named Robin found the key of the garden after the bird dig the ground near the garden. And that time Mary found the key but she didn’t know what the key was. Until the next day she met the bird to show the gate of the garden. Robin flew around the garden, it seemed the bird showed that the key for one of the gate of the garden.
UNIVERSITAS SUMATERA UTARA After she found the garden, every day she always came there without someone knew she went there and found the garden. She invited Dickon to go there and made the garden lived again. They played and planted in there. Someday they also invited Colin to go there in order to see the garden. After Colin arrived the garden he looked so strange and different because a pink glow of color has actually crept all over him-ivory face and neck and hands and all
“I shall get well! I shall get well! Mary! Dickon! I shall get well! And I shall live for ever and ever and ever!”(The Secret Garden, 1911:174)
Suddenly when they enjoyed the activity in the garden. Ben Weatherstaff came and got angry with Mary because she came to garden until Colin came to Ben and scolded him. There was a brief, fierce scramble, the rugs were tossed on to the ground, Dickon held Colin’s arm, the thin legs were out, the thin feet were on the grass. Colin was standing upright as straight as an arrow and looking strangely tall, his head thrown back and his strange eyes flashing lightning. What Ben Weatherstaff did Mary thought queer beyond measure. He choked and gulped and suddenly tears ran down his weather wrinkled cheeks as he struck his old hands together.
“Eh! The lies folk tells! You’re as thin as a lath an as white as a wraith, but there’s not a knob on thee. It make a man yet. God bless you!”(The Secret Garden, 1911: 183)
UNIVERSITAS SUMATERA UTARA They always called it Magic, and indeed it seemed like it in the months the amazing ones. The things which happened in that garden! If you never had a garden, you could not understand, and if you had never had a garden, you would know that it would take a whole book to describe all that came to pass there. At first it seemed that green things would never cease pushing their way through the earth, in the grass, in the beds, even in the crevices of the walls. Then the green things began show buds, and the buds began to unfurl and show color, every shade of blue, every shade of purple, every tint and hue of crimson. And the roses rising out of the grass, tangled round the sun dial, wreathing the tree trunks, and hanging from their branches, climbing up the walls and spreading over them with long garlands falling in cascades they came alive day by day, hour by hour. Fair, fresh leaves and buds and buds tiny at first, but swelling and working Magic until they burst and uncurled into cups of scent delicately spilling themselves over their brims and filling the garden air.
“Magic is always pushing and drawing in my chest and making things out of nothing. Everything is made out of Magic, leaves and tree, flowers and birds, badgers and foxes and squirrels and people. So, it must be all around us. In this garden in all the places. The magic in this garden has made me stand up and know I am going to live to be a man. When I was going to try to stand up that first time, Mary kept saying to herself as fast as she could “You can do it! You can do it! and I did. I had to try myself at the same time, of course, but her Magic helped me and as often in the day time as I can remember I’m going to say “Magic is in me! Magic is making me well! I’m going to be as strong as Dickon, as strong as Dickon!”(The Secret Garden, 1911:195)
UNIVERSITAS SUMATERA UTARA Magic also happened to Mary. She was never angry and seemed trouble and sickly. Because every day she was always busy to plant some plants in the garden and playing with Dickon and Colin. She felt so kind after she found the garden.
“The air from the moor has done the good already. That’s not night so yeller and that not night so scrawny. Even the hair doesn’t slump down on the head so flat. It’s got some life in it so as it sticks out a bit”(The Secret Garden, 1911:126)
3.1.2 Describe the Theme Portrayed in the Novel
In this paper the writer wants to describe about the theme of the novel. The following is what the writer can say about the Magic. One definition of magic that the novel provides is the conception of magic as a kind of life force. It enables Colin stand, and the flowers to work out of the earth, in that Colin says that the Doxology offers thanks to the same thing he does when he says that he is thankful for the magic.
Mrs Sowerby’s description of magic as a kind of creator, who is present in all things, and even creates human beings themselves. One of the ways Mary and Colin recover from their past experiences of English practicality which is something that today might be called the power of positive thinking and belief it can bring about psychological and physical healing. Mary and Colin begin to speak of the “magic” of the garden. Dickon counters that the magic is actually God living through the fields and forest. They sing and chant together in rituals to make Colin well and when Colin get stronger, their belief in positive thinking is reinforced. In many ways it is a type
UNIVERSITAS SUMATERA UTARA of religion because they belief in a more powerful force are strengthened when the thing prayed for occurs.
When Mary found this garden it looked quite dead. Then something began pushing things up out of the soil and making things out of nothing. One day things weren’t there and another they were. Dickon charms animals and people. Colin never had let him come to see him if he had not been an animal. Mary and Colin could change her attitude to be better because before she was queer before she began to like people and before she found the garden. So they decided to stop being queer if they went every day to the garden.
“What is it? What is it? It’s something. It can’t be nothing! I don’t know its name, so I call it Magic”(The Secret Garden,1911:195)
At the first when Colin stood up, he thought the Magic that was healing his legs was coming from Dickon. The good energy in the universe, that helped Colin stood and that brought plants out of the ground from seeds. And not only did it have these positive physical effects, but it also had a spiritual dimension as well. Dickon told Mary privately that Mrs.Sowerby believed that the Magic in the garden was a maternal power coming from the lingering spirit of his mother.
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“Magic is in me! Magic is making me well! I am going to be as strong as Dickon, as strong as Dickon!” (The Secret Garden, 1911:196)
In the secret garden Colin really looked quite beautiful. He held his head high as if he felt like a sort of priest, and his strange eyes had a wonderful look in them.
The light shone on him through the tree canopy. They wanted to singing together. He said it a great many times-not a thousand times, but quite a goodly number. Mary listened entranced. She felt as if it was at once queer and beautiful and she wanted him to go on and on. Ben Weatherstaff began to feel soothed into a sort of dream which was quite agreeable. The humming of the bees in the blossoms mingled with the chanting voice and drowsily melted into a doze. Dickon sat cross-legged with his rabbit asleep on his arm and a hand resting on the lamb’s back. The grey film dropped over his eyes. At last Colin stopped.
“The sun is shining-the sun is shining. That is the Magic. The flowers are growing- the roots are string. That is the Magic. Being alive is the Magic-being strong is the Magic. The Magic is in me-the Magic is in me. It is in me-it is in me. It’s in every one of us. Magic! Magic! Come and help!”(The Secret Garden, 1911:198)
So the Magic was a combination of two central ideas in this novel. The importance of positive thinking and energy to a person’s overall health, and the redeeming and healing power of the garden. Lilias Craven, like Mrs. Sowerby was a
UNIVERSITAS SUMATERA UTARA natural mother, so she had to keep watching over Colin even from beyond the grave.
When Dickon charms animals and people. Colin never has let him came to see him If he had not been an animal-charmer which is a boy charmer, and Colin was sure there was Magic in everything. After Colin could stand it seemed very certain that something was upholding and uplifting him. He sat on the seats and once or twice he sat down on the grass and several times he paused in the path and leaned on Dickon, but he would not give up until he had gone all round the garden.
And then the moment came, the uncontrollable moment when the sounds forgot to hush themselves. Mr.Craven came to the garden and Colin ran faster and faster until he nearing the garden door. Mr.Craven had extended him just in time to save him from falling as a result of his unseeing dash against him. His father couldn’t believe its happen. He was very happy and shock Colin could ran and play.
“Yes. It was the garden that did it, and Mary and Dickon and the creatures and the Magic. I’m well. I can beat Mary in a race. I’m going to be an athlete” (The Secret Garden, 1911: 240)
3.2 Characters
Character is the major aspect of the novel to which structuralism has paid least attention and has been least successful in treating. This paper also describes the characters found in the novel. They are the protagonist characters and antagonist characters. This paper the writer only describes the major characters. In The Secret
UNIVERSITAS SUMATERA UTARA Garden Marry Lenox is as protagonist and antagonist character in the novel, Dickon is as protagonist character and Colin is also protagonist character in the novel.
3.2.1 Marry Lenox
Marry Lenox is a protagonist and antagonist in the novel. First she has a antagonist character because she is a spoilt, unpleasant and rude little girl. She has a thin body and unhappy face. Mary Lennox is a troubled, sickly, and unloved 10-year- old girl born in India to selfish, wealthy British parents. She is primarily cared for by servants, who pacify her as much as possible to keep her out of her parents' way. She grows into a spoiled and selfish girl. Mary is her usual self, sour and rude, disliking her uncle's large house, the people within it and most of all the vast stretch of moor, which seems scrubby and grey after the winter.
Everybody says that she is the most disagreeable-looking child ever seen. It is true. She has a little thin face and a little thin body, thin light hair and a sour expression. Every servant always obeys her and gives her own way in everything.
Moreover the little boy that is “basil” they call her “Mistress Mary Quite Contrary”.
Until finally she is sent to her uncle to Misselthwaite Manor, England. She has a very pretty manner, too but Mary has the most unattractive ways ever seen in a child. The
UNIVERSITAS SUMATERA UTARA children call her “Mistress Mary Quite Contrary”, and though its naughty of them, one can’t help to understand it.
“She is such a plain child, and her mother was such a pretty creature. Perhaps if her mother had carried her pretty face and her pretty manners oftener into the nursery, Mary might have learned some pretty ways too” (The Secret Garden, 1911: 9)
Secondly she has protagonist character. She arrives in Misselthwaite Manor she meets Martha. She is Mrs.Medlock’s servant. She also meets Dickon and Colin after she finds the secret garden. She can change her attitude because she is happy to play and to plant some plants there. Every day they come go there. They take care of the garden and make the garden back to life.
“That’s beginning to do Misselthwaite credit. That’s a bit fatter than the was and that’s not quite so yeller. That’s looked like a young plucked crow when the first came into this garden” (The Secret Garden, 1911:76)
3.2.2 Dickon Sowerby
Dickon is a protagonist character in the novel. Dickon is brother’s Martha. He is twelve years old .Dickon is alternately described as “a common moor boy” and “a
Yorkshire angel” he is both, two years older than Colin and Mary , Dickon has lived on Missel Moor his entire life, and has a uniquely intimate relationship with the land.
He is described as looking like the god Pan. He has rosy cheeks, rough curly hair and blue eyes precisely the same color as the sky over the moor. His eyes are described as
UNIVERSITAS SUMATERA UTARA looking like “pieces of moorland sky”, and he smells of “heather and grass and leaves..as if he were made of them”. When the reader first encounters him, he is sitting beneath a tree charming animals with the music of his wooden pipe. He therefore is presented as having an uncannily close relationship with the wilderness and with wild things. He tells Mary that
“Sometimes I think perhaps I’m a bird, or a fox, or a squirrel and I don’t know it” (The Secret Garden, 1911:56)
He has the power to charm both animals and people. All the creatures who come close to him are instantly tamed and he count a fox, a crow, and two wild squirrels among his pets. His power to tame creatures works on Colin and Mary as well, and is one of the central causes of their wondrous transformations. Throughout the novel, Mary and Colin perceive Dickon as thrillingly strange and exotic, like the
Indian natives. Also like the Indians, he is visually marked as different from Mary and Colin his difference is one of class, however, rather than of race. Mary comments several times upon Dickon’s patched clothes and rough hair, as well as on the coarse simplicity of his food. Mary describes him as “beautiful”, and as “a Yorkshire angel”
Dickon is, in some measure, above were class distinctions, because he is the representative of divine nature. He as much as the secret garden, is the agent of both
Colin and Mary’s transformations. He himself, being already ideal, does not change at all.
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“He is Martha’s brother. He is twelve years old. He is not like anyone else in the world. He can charm foxes and squirrels and birds just as the natives in India charm snakes. He plays a very soft tune on a pipe and they come and listen” (The Secret Garden, 1911:119)
3.2.3 Colin Craven
Colin is also a protagonist character in the novel. Colin is Master Craven’s ten years old son and Mary’s cousin. He was born in the same year in which Mary was born and the secret garden locked shut. Colin’s father cannot bear to see him, as Colin reminds him of his late wife, the boy, because of his strange gray eyes, greatly resembles her, and was born only shortly before she died. Every fears that he will become a hunchback and die before he reaches adulthood. Colin craven is your standard jerk who hurts other people because he is hurting so badly himself. He’s got a lot of reasons to feel bad about himself, though. His dad doesn’t like him, everyone assumes he’s too sick to walk, and he spends all of his time alone. These facts make
Colin surprisingly easy to sympathize with, even when he’s being a bossy throughout a surprising amount of the novel.
“Because I am like this always, ill and having to lie down. My father won’t let people talk me over, either. The servants are not allowed to speak about me. If I live may be hunchback, but I shan’t live. My father hates to think I may be like him” (The Secret Garden, 1910:105)
UNIVERSITAS SUMATERA UTARA Then Colin inspires so much of Mary’s kindness first of all Colin is a lot like
Mary herself. He has grow up knowing that his father doesn’t care much for him.
And his mother is dead, just like Mary’s parents. Unlike Mary’s parents, Colin’s mother died when he was born, it’s this death that has made it really hard for Colin’s father even to look at his son. Colin’s isolation and tantrum throwing reminds us a lot of Mary at the start of the novel. Colin also has it a lot worse than Mary in some ways. He has grown up totally sure that he is going to grow incorrectly, making it impossible for him to function out in the large world. Because of his supposedly fragile health, Colin has spent his life hidden from the world in his own bed, he doesn’t like people to look at him, and he doesn’t enjoy talking to people.
So not only must Colin learn how to treat people better, but he also has to learn to trust his own body. As Colin learns to rely on Mary and Dickon, as he starts working out in the Secret Garden, his physical and emotional condition get much better. But he doesn’t react to this improvement in the way that Mary does. Whereas
Mary uses her new health to become a supportive friend to Colin, Colin uses his strength more ambitiously. He holds these surprisingly formal little seminars on what he calls the “Magic” the scared life force that ties people to the larger natural world.
Whatever the reason, Colin quickly becomes leader of the little group of folks in the know about the Secret Garden.
UNIVERSITAS SUMATERA UTARA “I shall live for ever and ever and ever! I shall find out thousands and thousands of things. I shall find out about people and creatures and everything that grows like Dickon and I shall never stop making Magic. I’m well! I’m well! I feel! I feel as if I want to shout out something thankful joyful!”(The Secret Garden, 1911: 222)
3.3 Plot
Plot is the structure that connects the parts of a story is a plot. The plot is something the reader garners from the text , it is not something that is provided in a sentence or paragraph at the beginning of the narrative. Plot is one of the important elements of fiction of literary work, even most of the readers consider it as the most important element among another elements of fiction. In this paper, the writer finds the progressive plot in the novel The Secret Garden. The progressive plot that is the plot in which the events are told chronologically, first even is followed by the next event. In other word, this story is started from the earlier step, then the middle step and finally the last step.
The Secret Garden opens by introducing us to Mary Lenox, a troubled, sickly, and unloved 10-year-old girl born in India to selfish, wealthy British parents. She is primarily cared by servants, who pacify her as much as possible to keep her out of her parents' way. She grows into a spoiled and selfish girl. Eventually, there is a cholera epidemic in India which kills Mary's parents and all the servants. Mary is
UNIVERSITAS SUMATERA UTARA discovered alive but alone in the empty house. She briefly lives with an English clergyman and his family and is then sent to Yorkshire, England, to live with
Archibald Craven, an uncle she has never met, at his home called Misselthwaite
Manor.
At first, Mary is her usual self, sour and rude, disliking her uncle's large house, the people within it, and, most of all, the vast stretch of moor, which seems scrubby and grey after the winter. She is told that she must stay confined to her two rooms and keep herself amused without much attention. Martha Sowerby, a good- natured maid, tells Mary a story of the late Mrs. Craven and how she would spend hours in a private walled garden growing roses. Mrs. Craven fell to her death when a tree branch gave way beneath her, and the devastated Mr. Craven locked the garden and buried the key. Mary is piqued by this story and her ill manner begins to soften.
Soon, she comes to enjoy the company of Martha, Ben Weatherstaff the gardener, and a friendly robin redbreast whom she assigns a human personality. Her appetite increases and she grows stronger as she plays by herself on the moor. Martha's mother buys Mary a skipping rope to encourage this, and Mary takes to it immediately. Mary occupies her time wondering about both the secret garden and the cries she hears at night. The servants claim not to hear the cries.
UNIVERSITAS SUMATERA UTARA As Mary is exploring the periphery of the gardens, her robin friend draws her attention to an area of turned-over soil. Mary finds the key to the locked garden, and eventually the door to the garden. She asks Martha for garden tools, which Martha sends with Dickon, her twelve-year-old brother. Mary and Dickon take a liking to each other, as Dickon has a kind way with animals and a good nature. Eager to absorb his gardening knowledge, Mary lets him in on the secret of the garden. That night,
Mary hears the crying again. She follows the noise and, to her surprise, finds a small boy her age living in a hidden bedroom. His name is Colin. She soon discovers that they are cousins: he is the son of her uncle, his mother died when he was a baby, and he suffers from an unspecified spinal problem. Mary visits every day that week, distracting him from his troubles with stories of the moor, Dickon and his animals, and the garden. Mary finally admits she has access to the secret garden, and they decide Colin needs fresh air. Colin is put into his wheelchair and brought outside into the garden, the first time he has been outdoors in years.
While in the garden, the children are surprised to see Ben Weatherstaff looking over the wall on a ladder. Startled and angry to find the children there in
Colin's mother's garden, he admits he believed Colin to be a cripple. Colin stands up from his chair and finds that his legs are fine, though weak from disuse for so long.
At the first when Colin stand up, he thinks the Magic that is healing his legs is coming from Dickon. The good energy in the universe, that helps Colin stand and that
UNIVERSITAS SUMATERA UTARA brings plants out of the ground from seeds. And not only does it have these positive physical effects, but it also has a spiritual dimension as well. Dickon tells Mary privately that Mrs.Sowerby believes that the Magic in the garden is a maternal power coming from the lingering spirit of his mother. Mary and Colin begin to speak of the
“magic” of the garden. Dickon counters that the magic is actually God living through the fields and forest. They sing and chant together in rituals to make Colin well and when Colin get stronger, their belief in positive thinking is reinforced. In many ways it is a type of religion because they belief in a more powerful force are strengthened when the thing prayed for occurs.
Colin spends every day in the garden. The children conspire to keep Colin's recovering health a secret so he can surprise his father, who is travelling and still mourning his late wife. As Colin's health improves, his faraway father sees a coinciding increase in spirits, culminating in a dream where his late wife calls to him from inside the garden. When he receives a letter from Martha's mother, he takes the opportunity to finally return home. He walks the outer garden wall in his wife's memory, but hears voices inside, finds the door unlocked, and is shocked to see the garden in full bloom, including his healthy and invigorated son. The servants watch, stunned, as Mr. Craven walks back to the manor and Colin runs beside him.
UNIVERSITAS SUMATERA UTARA So this story can support to describe the theme that the writer finds of the novel The Secret Garden. In essence, the theme is the meaning contained short story or meaning of the story. Additional meanings is not something that stands alone apart from the principal meaning of the story is concerned since a novel so is a unity.
Meaning of the story is to summarize the principal special significance, additional meanings contained in the work. Or converse rely, additional meanings that is supportive or reflects the primary meaning of the whole story.
Meaning in a work of fiction story novel, it may be more than one or rather more than one interpretation. This is why we are not easy to determine the main theme of the story. Determine the main theme of a story is essentially the activity of selecting, consider and assess, among a number of interpreted meaning there contained by the work in question. Basic meaning of the story is implicit in large part to not say a whole the story. Meaning which is only found in certain parts of the story that can be identified as part of meaning extra.
It refers that the theme is a major issue to mind of the writer, in which imagined view of life and the ideals of the writer. These opinions can be concluded that the theme is topic a story within the most conflict. At the same time one should not look at a literary work in too architectural a sense, other factors emotional impact for example need to be taken into account. It has been suggested that too much
UNIVERSITAS SUMATERA UTARA attention has been given in the novel to presenting a picture of station life and others matters not strictly related to the main theme and that the central novel.
Theme in a story is understood as meaning a story that tie up all the story elements into a coherent whole unity. With the Jonathan Culler’s theory the various elements such as theme, character and plot can support the existence of the theme in the novel The Secret Garden.
UNIVERSITAS SUMATERA UTARA 4. CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION
4.1 Conclusion
Having described the theme of the novel The Secret Garden it can be concluded that to understand of the principal theme is the mind, the basic idea or meaning of the story is contained implicitly in the work of fiction or novel that has a relationship with elements of the stories.
Theme of this novel is The Magic of Garden that happens to Mary and Colin.
Magic that the novel provides is the conception of magic as a kind of life force. It enables Colin stand, and the flowers to work out of the earth, in that Colin says that the Doxology offers thanks to the same thing he does when he says that he is thankful for the magic. One of the ways Mary and Colin recover from their past experiences of
English practicality which is something that today might be called the power of positive thinking and belief it can bring about psychological and physical healing.
Mary and Colin begin to speak of the “magic” of the garden. Dickon counters that the magic is actually God living through the fields and forest. They sing and chant together in rituals to make Colin well and when Colin get stronger, their belief in positive thinking is reinforced. In many ways it is a type of religion because they belief in a more powerful force are strengthened when the thing prayed for occurs.
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Beside that the description of The Magic of Garden is when Mary found this garden it looked quite dead. Then something began pushing things up out of the soil and making things out of nothing. One day things weren’t there and another they were. Dickon charms animals and people. Colin never have let him come to see him if he had not been an animal. Mary and Colin can change her attitude to be better because before she is queer was before she began to like people and before she found the garden. So they decided to stop being queer if they go every day to the garden.
At the first when Colin stand up, he thinks the Magic that is healing his legs is coming from Dickon. The good energy in the universe, that helps Colin stand and that brings plants out of the ground from seeds. And not only does it have these positive physical effects, but it also has a spiritual dimension as well. Dickon tells Mary privately that Mrs.Sowerby believes that the Magic in the garden is a maternal power coming from the lingering spirit of his mother. The writer description of magic as a kind of creator, who is present in all things, and even creates human beings themselves. One of the ways Mary and Colin recover from their past experiences of
English practicality which is something that today might be called the power of positive thinking and belief it can bring about psychological and physical healing.
Mary and Colin begin to speak of the “magic” of the garden. Dickon counters that the
UNIVERSITAS SUMATERA UTARA magic is actually God living through the fields and forest. They sing and chant together in rituals to make Colin well and when Colin get stronger, their belief in positive thinking is reinforced
So the Magic is a combination of two central ideas in this novel. The importance of positive thinking and energy to a person’s overall health, and the redeeming and healing power of secret garden.
4.2 Suggestion
After completing this paper the writer would like to suggest the readers to understand what the literature is in general before reading a novel since that novel is one of a familiar literary works to anyone. The reader should know the theme of the discussion according to the type and meaning. Second, she would like to advise the reader to understand the theme in this novel because the readers will know how the theme and message delivered in the story of novel and teaches the moral messages from that story. She would like to advise the reader to do further research to describe and get more information about the relationship. Third, she has some advices for all those who are interested in reading and writing, especially the readers, writers and student to learn about other aspects of literature not just a theme, such as character, plot and others. It is recommended for students to describe other aspects of the novel.
UNIVERSITAS SUMATERA UTARA The writer realizes that the paper is still far from being perfect, so she needs constructive suggestion from readers in order to make this paper perfect. She also asks the readers to forgive if there are any mistakes in this paper.
UNIVERSITAS SUMATERA UTARA REFERENCES
Culler, Jonathan. 1977. Structuralism and Literature. London: Mayfield Education Eagleton, Terry. 1983. Literary Theory and Introduction. Australia: Blackwell Publishing Fannanie, Zainuddin. 2000. Telaah Sastra: Muhammadiyah University Press Gill, Richard. 1985. Mastering English Literature. London: McMillan Education LTD Hodgson, Burnett. 1911. The Secret Garden. New York State: William Collins
Mahsun. 2005. Metode Penelitian Bahasa. Jakarta: Raja Grafindo Persada
Nurgiyantoro, Burhan. 1965. Teori Pengkajian Fiksi. Yogyakarta: Gajah Masa University Press
Peck, John and Coyle Martin. 1984. Literary Terms and Criticism. Great Britain Macmillan Education Ltd.
Rees, R.J. 1973. English Lecturer: An Introducing for Foreign Readers. Hongkong: The Macmillan Press Limited
Robert, Edgar V and Henry E Jacobs. 1995. Literature An Introduction to Reading and Writing. New Jersey: Prentince Hall Sembiring, Matius C.A.2013. Buku Pedoman Program D-3 Studi Bahasa Inggris. Medan : Universitas Sumatera Utara.
Sembiring, MCA.1990. An Introduction to English Grammar. Medan: USU Press Shaw, Harry. 1977. Concise dictionary of literary terms. New York: McGraw Hill Stanford, A. Judith. 2003. Responding to Literature . North America: MC Graw-Hill Book Company Stanton, Robert. 1965. An Introduction to Fiction. New York: Hoh,Rinehart and Winston Sumardjo, Jakob. 1998. Sastra dan Massa. Bandung : ITB
UNIVERSITAS SUMATERA UTARA Sudaryanto. 1993. Metode dan Aneka Teknik analisis Bahasa. Yogyakarta: Duta Wacana University Press. Tarigan, Henry Guntur. 1994. Menulis Sebagai Suatu Keterampilan Berbahasa. Bandung: Angkasa
Taylor, Richard. 1981. Understanding the Elements of Literature. Hongkong : Macmillan Whitla, William. 1934. The English handbook: A Guide to Literary studies. British Library
UNIVERSITAS SUMATERA UTARA APPENDICES
A. Biography of Frances Hodgson Burnett
Frances Eliza Hodgson Burnett (24 November 1849 – 29 October 1924) was an English-American novelist and playwright. She is best known for the three children's novels Little Lord Fauntleroy (published in 1885–1886), A
Little Princess (1905), and The Secret Garden (1911).Frances Eliza Hodgson was born in Cheetham, England. After her father died in 1852, the family fell on straitened circumstances and in 1865 immigrated to the United States, settling near Knoxville, Tennessee. There Frances began writing to help earn money for the family, publishing stories in magazines from the age of 19. In 1870 her mother died, and in 1872 Frances married Swan Burnett, who became a medical doctor. The
Burnetts lived for two years in Paris, where their two sons were born, before
UNIVERSITAS SUMATERA UTARA returning to the United States to live in Washington, D.C., Burnett then began to write novels, the first of which (That Lass o' Lowrie's), was published to good reviews.
In 1902, after a summer of socializing and filling Maytham with house- guests, she suffered a physical collapse that autumn. She returned to America, and in the winter of 1902 entered a sanatorium. There she told Townsend she would no longer live with him, and the marriage ended. She returned to Maytham two years later in June 1904. Maytham Hall had a series of walled gardens and in the rose garden she wrote several books; it was there she had the idea for The Secret Garden, mainly written in Buile Hill Park while visiting Manchester. In 1905 A Little
Princesswas published, after she had reworked the play into a novel. Once again
Burnett turned to writing to increase her income. She lived an extravagant lifestyle, spending money on expensive clothing.
In 1907, she returned permanently to the United States, having become a citizen in 1905, and she built a home, completed in 1908, in the Plandome Park section of Plandome Manor on Long Island outside New York City. Her son Vivian was employed in the publishing business and at his request she agreed to be editor for Children's Magazine. Over the next several years she had published in Children's
Magazine a number of shorter works. In 1911 she had The Secret Garden published.
In her later years she maintained the summer home on Long Island, and a winter home in Bermuda.[12] The Lost Prince was published in 1915, and The Head of the
UNIVERSITAS SUMATERA UTARA House of Coombe and its sequel, Robin, were published in 1922. Burnett lived for the last 17 years of her life in Plandome Manor, where she died on 29 October 1924, aged 74. She was buried in Roslyn Cemetery. Her son Vivian was buried nearby when he passed away in 1937.
B. Summary of the Novel
The Secret Garden has such a straightforward plot that we can almost sum it up as follows: Girl loses parents, girl finds friends, girl finds garden, boy joins girl in garden, boy learns to walk on his own, the end. Actually, that isn't quite as straightforward as we thought; let us explain in a bit more detail. Mary Lennox is a nine-year-old British girl growing up in colonial India in the care of a sequence of nannies. Since her father is an officer in the British army and her mom is super-busy with the vital business of dinner parties and nice clothes, Mary barely knows her own parents. And since she spends all of her time alone, she's selfish, demanding, and self- absorbed. Her parents die suddenly of cholera, leaving her in the care of her mother's brother, Archibald Craven. Mary's uncle doesn't care much about her, so he brings her to his huge mansion in England, Misselthwaite Manor, and basically leaves her there, more or less on her own. Mary's maid Martha is a cheerful Yorkshire woman who won't stand for Mary's spoiled tantrums and fits. She tells Mary all about two things that change Mary's life: (1) There is a walled garden on the grounds that has been
UNIVERSITAS SUMATERA UTARA sealed off since the death of Archibald Craven's wife ten years before; and (2) Martha has a little brother named Dickon who loves gardening and wild things.
Of course, Mary discovers the walled garden (since the title of this book is The Secret
Garden). With the help of a local robin (this isn't Mary Poppins, so the robin doesn't actually talk, but it's smarter than your average bird), Mary stumbles on the long-lost key to the garden and opens it up.
With the kindly help of nature-smart Dickon, Mary begins secretly working in the garden to bring its many roses back to life. The exercise and outdoor time improves both her physical and her mental health, and Mary stops being quite so much the spoiled princess that she was at the beginning of the novel. Ever since she first arrived at Misselthwaite Manor, Mary has been hearing the sound of a crying child late at night. She finally discovers the secret of the Manor (well, besides the
Secret Garden) one night: Archibald Craven has a son. The boy, Colin, is even more sheltered and spoiled than Mary. He's been told his whole life that he is sickly, so he believes it—even though there is actually nothing physically wrong with him. Since he gets so little exercise and he spends so much time about his own (imaginary) illnesses, he has a rotten temper and horrible manners. Now that Mary is around to give Colin some straight talk about his bullying behavior and his needless self-pity, though, he begins to grow out of his selfishness. The two of them (again, with the help of Dickon and his green thumb) decide to work in the Secret Garden together.
UNIVERSITAS SUMATERA UTARA Colin decides that he is going to make himself better so that when his father arrives back in England, Colin can surprise Archibald with his transformation.
Colin survived this terrible start in life, but Archibald can't stand to look at him. Archibald hates that Colin is all he has left of Lilias, and he also worries that
Colin is going to deal with the same physical difficulties with which Archibald struggles. So Archibald has spent most of Colin's life traveling in Europe and leaving
Colin in the care of his doctor and housekeeper. It's only with the help of Mary and
Dickon that Colin begins to imagine that he might survive, and even thrive, despite his mother's untimely death. As Colin begins to think less and less about himself and more and more about the Secret Garden and the natural world around him, he realizes that he is not going to die. Colin resolves to spend his life exploring the wonders of
Nature. With the strength he gets from this new appreciation for life, Colin slowly learns to walk on his own two feet. Meanwhile, as Colin's health (and behavior) improves, Archibald has a strange dream in which his deceased wife tells him to go back to the garden.
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