CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background of Study Literary work

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CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of Study

Literary work is a work of art of its writer. Everything contained comes out from writer's choices and consideration. There must be reasons -why a writer chooses 1his way rather than that way; inserts this word rather than those words, emphasizes on this aspect rather than other aspects, and puts this event after that event. All comes from consideration that is aimed to pursue something: readers get such understanding intended by writer1hrough his or her writing.

In the starting process of writing, a writer has to choose the way how he/she would narrate or convey the story, especially for the position/angle from -where the events or situations would be viewed. It means that a writer should choose a character most fitted to it's purpose of narration. In case of Raymond Carver's Cathedral, the first person point of view used is so conspicuous so that the use of main character who positions himself as the 'I' narrator has become the characteristic of the story. First impression the writer got from the character's narration is a cynicism and prejudice. It is caught from the narrator's underestimation to blind man, hls insensitivity to situations he is telling about, and his choice of words. These traits lead the writer to assume the narrator unreliable. Despite this impression, it is too early to judge the narrator. It suggests a deeper observation to the complete story.

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A writer's preferences if repeatedly or consistently used in literary works may construct a pattern. This pattern would create characteristic for the literary work, and, as stated by Leech and Short, it becomes the style of the text. So, it can't be denied that the first person point of view in Cathedral short story is definitely a style, since it showed up to be its characteristic. However, in the process of determining a story's style to be analyzed next, it is not that easy and is a matter that need effort. There should be guidance for us especially when the analysis is for academic purpose. It would need a theory that regulates and becomes the foundation to style analysis. And this far,

Stylistics theory of literature is the most fitted theory to analyze style of any literary worlc.

Stylistics itself according to Barry (1995) is "a critical approach which uses the methods and findings of the science of linguistics in the analysis of literary texts (p.

202). Based on this definition, a stylistic analysis to literary text would involve science of linguistics, and it means that there is connection between linguistic features contained by the texts and its style. Moreover, the books explained more specifically by stating the aim of the approach, that is ''to show how the technical linguistic features of a literary work, such as the grammatical structure of its sentences, contnoute to its overall meaning (p.

202). From this, it becomes clear that from stylistics viewpoint, the creation of style that involved linguistic features is not only for the sake of aesthetic matters, but the most important is to distribute a meaning, a meaning that connected readers to what the writers meant and intended.

As the story chosen for the analysis, Cathedral for the writer is a kind of unique

3 who welcomed a visit from a blind man named Robert, the old friend of his wife. For

Ditto, there was no excitement about Robert's visit considering his blindness and his 10 years strong friendship with her wife. However after some moment he spent with him in the house, one by one his expectation about blindness was broken. Robert's friendliness to him minimized his aloofness. Then, a defining moment occur when a TV program about cathedral forced him to describe what he saw to Robert. He was able to explain a cathedral at first, but as it was switched to other cathedrals, he started to be speechless on it. Therefore, Robert asked to close his eyes and draw the cathedral with his hand on his hand, so Robert could imagine the building he drew.

This moment make him get the chance to experience how it is exactly the state of being blind. He felt free and borderless instead of feeling inconvenient or incapable of doing things. It contrasted to what he thought and believed before.

Cathedral was written by Raymond Carver, an American short-story writer and poet, a major force in the revitalization of the short story in the 1980s.

Cathedral might be the most appreciated work of Carver. It brought him nominations for the Puli1zer

Prize and National Book Critics Circle Award. He termed Cathedral as "totally different in conception and execution" from his previous work. With Cathedral, he declared his independence as a master. In the five years that remained to him, the only

"outside" influences on his work were Gallagher and Chekhov.

1.2 Problem Formulation

After several repetitions in reading Cathedral, the writer got special attention to

the 'I' narration of the story which is conveyed by main character of the story.

At first,

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5 by the way of narrating and its linguistic features, the story seems like an open book about narrator characteristics though it is not literally stated; The narrator would easily be judged/criticized for his narration. Then, along the process of narrating the narrator experiences things that contrasted to his viewpoint.By these points, the writer had some questions in mind to be answered:

1. What are the linguistic features that reflect the style of this short story?

2. How does the first person point of view reveal the characterization of narrator?

3. How do frrst person point of view and linguistic features contribute to reveal the true meaning about blindness in the story?

1.3 Scope and Limitation

The scope of this research would be the text of Cathedral short story, particularly to the narration. Every paragraphs, clauses, words, or interrelation between them that contain linguistic features will be the object of analysis. The writer will limit the analysis based on the stylistic theory and will use two linguistic terms: transitivity and speech and thought presentation, as the tools of the analysis.

1.4 Goal and Function

Befure undergoing analysis process to Cathedral, the writer has expected some goals to achieve. They are:

1. To reveal the style from linguistic features of the short story.

2. To reveal characterization of narrator from the first person point of view.

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3. To reveal the effectiveness of first person point of view and linguistic features for the story's meaning about blindness.

This research to short story Cathedral conducted by the writer is expected to be beneficial. So, the analysis is hoped to fulfill functions such as:

1. To give readers deeper understanding toward Cathedral by the analysis to its first person point of view

2. To show the important role of style in connecting writer intention to the readers.

1.5 Research Methods

There are steps the writer undergoes in conducting analysis to Cathedral.First, she determines elements of style that are contained by first person narration. Second, she analyzes them using stylistics theory with two linguistic termations: transitivity and speech and thought presentation, as the tool. Third, she finds the pursuit of nsing such first person narration. And the last, she sums up the result of the research.

To support and strengthen the research, the writer would do some library research and internet exploration regarding stylistics theory, finding the most relevant and applicable to the analysis.

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