ABSTRACT
Dalam novel The Devil Wears Prada karangan Lauren Weisberger, terdapat dua tokoh utama yang mengalami kesamaan dalam hal meraih ambisi mereka masing-masing. Andrea ingin menjadi penulis terkenal tetapi dia harus bekerja di tempat Miranda terlebih dahulu, serta Miranda yang ingin mempertahankan reputasi ternamanya di dunia mode tanpa harus menjadi “baik” terhadap bawahannya. Pada
akhirnya Andrea dan Miranda harus sama-sama kehilangan sesuatu dan seseorang yang berharga dalam hidupnya,
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER TWO: ANALYSIS OF THE THEME THROUGH MAJOR
CHARACTERS IN THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA………. 4
APPENDICES
Synopsis of The Devil Wears Prada
The story begins from the existence of a young woman in her early 20’s
named Andrea Sachs. On graduating from Brown University, this small town woman is hired by the high-profile mature woman that ever lives on the fashion world who firmly holds the empire of Runway magazine, Miranda Priestly. As having an unfalteringly manner in controlling the designers to launch their latest fashion collection and an absence of needing a humility of surroundings, Miranda is kookily directs her inferior, including Andrea, in an uncouth way. This happens in relation with her ambition in maintaining her popularity towards people who ‘eulogize’ her.
In possessing an ambition of a successful life as a columnist, Andrea puts her position as smart, confident, persistent, and tough to obey all the hard tasks that her haughty boss gives. Andrea is perceptibly trialed every day by Miranda’s orders barked over the phone for the purpose of proving to her boss that she suits to her boss’s recommendation that can pound The New Yorker door, her dream job.
enough to get her another worthy job; besides, her wisest thought leads her to be herself without vituperation silhouette of Miranda.
Biography of the Author
Lauren Weisberger is a New Yorker. Her birth name was Lauren Beth Weiberger. She learnt English Literature at Cornell University Arts and Science and graduated with GPA 4.0. Her English Lecturer from Cornell remembered her as a bright, judicial critic and a good student who handled criticism well.
Her English Lecturer said that she was a compulsive reader. She became a writer because she was drawn to all the glittery books. She released many best-seller books after her debut The Devil Wears Prada (2003), such as Everyone Worth Knowing (2005), and Chasing Harry Winston (2008).
She was an assistant to the Vogue magazine’s editor-in-chief’s Anna Wintour from 1999-2000, approximately for ten months, which encouraged her to write a novel about fashion world. This debut has sold more than 1.2 million copies and reached $4 million of the selling of its title and adapted into a movie starring the academy award winner Meryl Streep.
Sources : Kinetz. <http://www.laurenweisberger.com/even_nyt.php>.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
As a true devotee of high fashion, I am particularly interested in reading novels dealing with this matter. A novel entitled The Devil Wears Prada written by Lauren Weisberger explicitly caught my attention for several reasons. First, the title includes a world-famous brand, Prada, one of my favourite yet quite unaffordable brands. Prada is said to be “a leading force in fashion in 1990. The garments and
accessories were smart, sophisticated, and extremely high quality.” (Grosvenor) Secondly, I am overwhelmed by the knowledge of fashion world poured out in the
novel, which, I believe, is due to the fact that it is written by an ex-assistant of Vogue
Magazine editor-in-chief, Lauren Weisberger. She is a contemporary American
writer, and is well-respected of her acquaintance dealing with the literary works in
style. She also successfully earned about $4 million from her first debut novel, The
Devil Wears Prada. (Kinetz)
and owned by Nick Denton, and is considered to be one of the most visible and successful blog-oriented media companies.(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gawker_ Media), “It seemed the entire book world was eagerly anticipating her next contribution and couldn‟t shut about the realism with which she depicts her heroine.
The critics had gone crazy over the first book, hailing it as one of the greatest literary achievements of the twentieth century.” (Gawker)
Based on those reasons, I have decided to analyse the theme of the novel. As stated by Perrine in his book, Story and Structure, theme is “a central and unifying concept of the story.” (108) In doing so, I will focus my analysis on the major characters in the novel, Miranda Priestly – supposedly the mean “Devil” and Andrea Sachs, the nice girl.
As stated in Dictionary of Literary Terms by Shaw, “In fiction, a reader, primarily interested in the individuals concerned, has a natural tendency to identify the „hero‟ and to hate the „villain‟ or to feel „for‟ or „with‟ one individual or group and „against‟ one another.” (71) Consequently, this informational fact directs my attention
to have an opinion that the two major characters are presented in the novel with a purpose to deliver the theme of the story, to fascinate the readers to a valuable determination to choose the writer‟s offer in creating each character. I do believe that the relation between the two major characters and the theme is essential, that is, to offer the readers the choice in valuing what is the best life‟s learning; in other words, it leads the readers to the theme of the story.
Statement of the Problem
1. How does the author portray the two major characters in the novel? 2. How do these two major characters reveal the theme?
Purpose of the Study
There are two purposes in this study:
1. To show how the author portrays the two major characters in the novel. 2. To show how the two major characters help reveal the theme.
Method of Research
In the analysis, I read Lauren Weisberger‟s novel entitled The Devil Wears Prada as a primary text. And then, I search for supporting sources from the library and the Internet which help me in the process of analysing the novel. As a final point, I draw some conclusion of what has been discussed.
Organization of the Thesis
CHAPTER THREE
CONCLUSION
Having analysed the theme of the novel, I come to a conclusion that Andrea Sachs and Miranda Priestly play an important role in revealing the theme of the novel. They are through relatively the same amount of persistence in reaching great opportunities; besides, their pushing themselves to the limit affects their oblivion to lose things and person along the way. In accordance with their existence the theme of the novel is, “One‟s ambition and persistence lead to great opportunities, yet when one pushes the ambition to the limit, one will lose something or someone in the process of reaching the ambition.”
Both Andrea and Miranda set their fundamental belief in reaching their ambition from the nothing to something. I can conclude that Andrea starts her goal of life from working at Runway, the place where she never has an idea about the people‟s way of mind to „survive‟. Her being smart, confident, persistent, and tough lead her to achieve her ambition in pounding The New Yorker door for her. Despite
Miranda‟s haughtiness and obnoxious language, Andrea, influenced by her being
astute personality to leave her boss in the end and believe her own self in living a life she wants. In Miranda‟s part, her being tough to change her awful underprivileged past into a higher respectable level drives her to uphold it whatever it takes by being haughty and too demanding in relation to Andrea. Her being perfect drives her to become a person who has a high standard in maintaining her position as a goddess in the fashion world and her popularity.
Moreover, in accordance with the theme about losing something or someone in the process of reaching the ambition, both of these two major characters do lose it. I am of the opinion that the unflagging side of a person to attain something beyond his or her realization leads to the thoughtlessly missing things in the progress of reaching it. Andrea has to lose Alex, the love of her life, in unconsciousness of her mind; she loses him for pushing herself too hard in reaching her ambition in getting her boss‟s recommendation to open lots of opportunities in writing field. The same condition also happens to Miranda. Her being too demanding and treating Andrea coarsely lead this woman to lose Andrea. Still, in the name of her being callous of others and her lacking senses of humility, she does not let herself down by losing Andrea for there is another Andrea that she can find
out there, sadly to be „tortured‟ by her.
her boss. Yet, Andrea only praises Miranda‟s strength in creating her successful life,
not Miranda‟s being callous in treating her as her inferior.
Apart from the similarities, there is still an essential difference between both of these characters. I construe one single issue, that is, „beneath‟ this Weisberger‟s literary work, there is one crucial thing that differentiates Andrea and Miranda: Andrea knows the wisest thing to be taken at the end of the way of reaching her ambition while Miranda does not. Indeed, Andrea loses Alex; yet, the good example of her is she chooses not to let her idolatrous over Miranda overrate and drive her to be like her devilish boss. She realizes that she can reach her ambition and be her own self without always being tormented by vituperation silhouette of her evil-like boss.
Futhermore, these two major characters obviously reveal the theme of the
novel that is stated, “One‟s ambition and persistence lead to great opportunities, yet
when one pushes the ambition to the limit, one will lose something or someone in
the process of reaching the ambition”. I personally think that the theme is realistic
because it can happen in real life and it is undoubtedly represented by two lifelike characters, Andrea and Miranda..
Last but not least, Lauren Weisberger has portrayed Andrea as an accurate representation of a living person in this era. As I have to comment, principally life is about choices that have to be taken by people who run it. The purposes may be slightly the same but the decision can be different. One can select one‟s own way to
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Primary Text
:Weisberger, Lauren. The Devil Wears Prada. New York : Anchor Books. 2003
References:
Murphy, M.J. Understanding Unseen. London: Oxford. 1972.
Perrine, Laurence. Story and Structure. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc. 1974.
Shaw, Harry. Dictionary of Literary Terms. New York: Mcgraw, Hill, Inc. 1972.
Internet Websites
:Betts, Kate. “The Devil Wears Prada”. New York Times. 28 Feb 2008.
<http://query_newyorktimes.com/gst/fullpage-html?res=950EED61F39F390A25757C0A9659C8B63>.
Gawker. “The fictional New Yorker book review”. Lauren Weisberger. 26 May 2009. <http://gawker.com/tag/lauren-weisberger/>.
Grosvenor, Carrie. “The History of Prada”. Life in Italy. 28 Feb 2009. <http://www.lifeinitaly.com/fashion/prada.asp>.
Kinetz, Erika. “Devil’s in the Follow-Up”. Lauren Weisberger. 27 Feb 2009. <http://www.laurenweisberger.com/even_nyt.php>.
Wikipedia. Gawker Media.20 April 2010. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gawker_ Media>.
