x ABSTRACT
PANDANSARI, MAULIDYA. Moral Values Reflected through Major Character in Sara Shepard’ Pretty Little Liars. Yogyakarta: Department of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma University, 2016.
Pretty Little Liars is a novel that talks about the life of a teenager. This novel tells the challenge that is faced by teenagers on their teen life. Teenager are the time for finding what they want, also finding their identities. This novel draws the challenge faced by teenagers and what they need on that time. Hanna Marin is a teenage girl that tries to survive in the society. She wants the society to accept her. Then, she changes herself to be what the society wants. Hanna changes herself to get love, attention, and appreciation from others. It is because she lacks love, attention, and appreciation from her parent. Through this study, the writer wants to reveal moral values reflected through major character.
This thesis focuses in (1) the characteristic of major character, (2) the development of the major character’s characteristic, (3) the moral values reflected through major character.
In this thesis, the writer uses library research method to answer the problem formulations. The writer collects literary resource for strenghtening the analysis. The writer uses theory of character and characterization, theory of moral and society, theory of moral and moral values in order to conduct the analysis. The writes uses the moral philosophical approach for guiding the writer reveals the moral values.
xi
ABSTRAK
PANDANSARI, MAULIDYA. Moral Values Reflected through Major Character in Sara Shepard’ Pretty Little Liars. Yogyakarta: Department of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma University, 2016.
Pretty Little Liars adalah sebuah novel yang menceriterakan kehidupan remaja. Novel ini berceritera tentang setiap tantangan yang dihadapi oleh remaja. Masa remaja merupakan masa pencarian jati diri serta masa pencarian hal yang mereka inginkan. Secara umum, novel ini menggambarkan tantangan yang dihadapi oleh remaja dan hal mendasar yang sesungguhnya paling mereka butuhkan. Hanna Marin adalah seorang gadis remaja yang berjuang untuk bertahan di lingkungan sosialnya. Ia menginginkan lingkungan sekitar dapat menerima ia. Kejadian selanjutnya dari kehidupan Hanna Marin ialah ia berusaha untuk mengubah dirinya, sehingga ia dapat dikasihi, diperhatikan, bahkan dihargai oleh orang lain. Hal ini terjadi karena Hanna Marin kekurangan kasih sayang, perhatian, dan penghargaan dari orang tua. Melalui penelitian ini, penulis ingin mengungkapkan nilai-nilai moral yang tercermin dari tokoh utama.
Penelitian ini memiliki berfokus kepada (1) karaktertistik tokoh utama, (2) perkembangan karakterristik tokoh utama, (3) pengungkapan nilai-nilai moral yang tercermin dari tokoh utama.
Penulis menggunakan penelitian pustaka untuk menjawab permasalahan-permasalahan yang ada. Penulis mengumpulkan data tertulis yang lain untuk memperkuat analisis. Penulis menggunakan teori karakter dan karakteristik, teori moral dan sosial, teori moral dan nilai-nilai moral dalam melakukan analisis. Penulis menggunakan pendekatan filosofi moral untuk menuntut penulis menguak nilai-nilai moral.
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra
in English Letters
By
MAULIDYA PANDANSARI Student Number: 094214089
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAME DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
ii
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra
in English Letters
By
MAULIDYA PANDANSARI Student Number: 094214089
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAME DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
vii
viii
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I give my greatest gratitude for my Savior, my Father, and my best friend
Jesus Christ who has given me strength to struggle in accomplishing thesis. I would
like to thank my grandmother, my parent and my sister for their support, their love
and their pray.
For my thesis advisor Ms. Sri Mulyani, I would like to thank for guiding me
until I can finish this thesis. It means a lot for me. Thank you so much. Also I would
like thank Mr. Hirmawan Wijanarka for always giving me chance for accomplishing
this thesis.
For Agnes and Yuni who always support and believe me, thank you so much.
I also would like thank all of the members of Bethany Jogja Church and our Pastor
for the pray and the support. Last but not least, for all of friends and families, I thank
them for taking care me all the time.
ix
APPROVAL PAGE………... iii
ACCEPTANCE PAGE………. iv
LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH...v
STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY……….vi
1. Theory of Character and Characterization ……….. ……..……....11
2. Theory of Moral and Society ………13
B. The Description of Major Character’s Development……….……... 28
C. Moral Values Reflected Through Major Character………... 36
CHAPTER V CONCLUSION………. 49
x ABSTRACT
PANDANSARI, MAULIDYA. Moral Values Reflected through Major Character in Sara Shepard’ Pretty Little Liars. Yogyakarta: Department of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma University, 2016.
Pretty Little Liars is a novel that talks about the life of a teenager. This novel tells the challenge that is faced by teenagers on their teen life. Teenager are the time for finding what they want, also finding their identities. This novel draws the challenge faced by teenagers and what they need on that time. Hanna Marin is a teenage girl that tries to survive in the society. She wants the society to accept her. Then, she changes herself to be what the society wants. Hanna changes herself to get love, attention, and appreciation from others. It is because she lacks love, attention, and appreciation from her parent. Through this study, the writer wants to reveal moral values reflected through major character.
This thesis focuses in (1) the characteristic of major character, (2) the development of the major character’s characteristic, (3) the moral values reflected through major character.
In this thesis, the writer uses library research method to answer the problem formulations. The writer collects literary resource for strenghtening the analysis. The writer uses theory of character and characterization, theory of moral and society, theory of moral and moral values in order to conduct the analysis. The writes uses the moral philosophical approach for guiding the writer reveals the moral values.
xi
ABSTRAK
PANDANSARI, MAULIDYA. Moral Values Reflected through Major Character in Sara Shepard’ Pretty Little Liars. Yogyakarta: Department of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma University, 2016.
Pretty Little Liars adalah sebuah novel yang menceriterakan kehidupan remaja. Novel ini berceritera tentang setiap tantangan yang dihadapi oleh remaja. Masa remaja merupakan masa pencarian jati diri serta masa pencarian hal yang mereka inginkan. Secara umum, novel ini menggambarkan tantangan yang dihadapi oleh remaja dan hal mendasar yang sesungguhnya paling mereka butuhkan. Hanna Marin adalah seorang gadis remaja yang berjuang untuk bertahan di lingkungan sosialnya. Ia menginginkan lingkungan sekitar dapat menerima ia. Kejadian selanjutnya dari kehidupan Hanna Marin ialah ia berusaha untuk mengubah dirinya, sehingga ia dapat dikasihi, diperhatikan, bahkan dihargai oleh orang lain. Hal ini terjadi karena Hanna Marin kekurangan kasih sayang, perhatian, dan penghargaan dari orang tua. Melalui penelitian ini, penulis ingin mengungkapkan nilai-nilai moral yang tercermin dari tokoh utama.
Penelitian ini memiliki berfokus kepada (1) karaktertistik tokoh utama, (2) perkembangan karakterristik tokoh utama, (3) pengungkapan nilai-nilai moral yang tercermin dari tokoh utama.
Penulis menggunakan penelitian pustaka untuk menjawab permasalahan-permasalahan yang ada. Penulis mengumpulkan data tertulis yang lain untuk memperkuat analisis. Penulis menggunakan teori karakter dan karakteristik, teori moral dan sosial, teori moral dan nilai-nilai moral dalam melakukan analisis. Penulis menggunakan pendekatan filosofi moral untuk menuntut penulis menguak nilai-nilai moral.
1 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
A. Background of the Study
“I have a dream” is a strong statement by Martin Luther Jr. and this statement
shakes around the United States even around the world. “I have a dream” is a simple
word but it represents the nature of human being. “I have a dream” brings the spirit of
freedom, right for chasing personal dream, and become ourselves which means an
individual able to show their personalities, their thoughts, also their desires in
free.The Martin Luther Jr.‟s statement gives people right to express theirselves and to
be what we want. It does not matter even if society acts against someone will; it is
because everyone has right for achieving their dreams and chasing their happiness.
Happiness always becomes the main purpose of life. Everyone in this world
workshard or does anything he/she can it is because they want to be happy. Some
people can say that they work hard to get a lot of money and become rich. It is true
because, with money, people can live comfortable with no debt or worries. That is the
definition of happiness according to people generally.
We cannot deny that happiness always becomes the end of thejourney of
people life. Happiness is the sign of theending of suffer, struggle, and work hard.
Happiness is acomfort, leisure, safe, and no worried. There for, the spirit for reaching
happiness inside an individual is something normal. It is because “happiness is the
Happiness is easy to be reached, but many people find that happiness is hard
to find in reality. People tend to set thehighest goal in their life and do not easily to be
satisfied as the result of people ambition. They can do everything to make their
dreams, and their ambitions become true. There is law exists in the society. This law
helps every individual inside the society live harmoniously and no harm one to
another although every member tries achieving their goals.
Laws in the societies make boundaries on the individual personal matter and it
creates uncomfortable feels. The reason of these uncomforting feels because there is
values exist in the society. It means society makes the standards of good and worse
according to the agreement are built by every individual in that society. The group of
individual in the society builds the agreement for preventing clash of the personal
interest ought to happen under some circumstances.
Moral values give good impact to society because it makes everything in good
order. It also prevents a clash of interest of members. Although moral values give
good impact, it can create clash inside an individual especially teenagers. Teenagers
stand in the cross road to find the way for their futures, their true identities, and their
dreams. Moral values which live in the society become their obstacles to achieve their
dreams. Teenagers can do everything in their own ways to achieve what they want
although it breaks values live in the societies. They just know how to achieve their
This condition can be the worse without a good moral ground. It means
teenagers realize that society has their values of live but they try to ignore that, also
they try to act ignorance. Teenagers aware with the values they live with, but they
think it does not matter. The important thing for them is how to get what they want
and be happy. They do not mind having asecret as long as they get their goals.
Teenagers can sacrifice everything in their lives for pursuit happiness. This
condition strikes almost all teenagers even the teenagers come from a rich family.
People think that teenagers or people from high social class with a lot of money are
the happiest people. In fact, the high social class has their own rules and values of life
that tie their members more than middle and lower social class. Those values are the
identity of their social status. People from high social class also have more
responsibility than others. It is because of their occupations, for example businessman,
politician, university professor, and many more. Because of their occupations and
statuses, people tend to be demand the good quality of behavior, responsibility, and
education from them.
These qualities of life push everyone (old and young people) in this society to
act perfectly. This case becomes the problem faced by teenagers in high-class society.
Most of them are having money but they do not know what they should do with that
money. Even they feel depressed because they cannot do anything they want to. They
need to act according to the society standards. They cannot express their wills, spirits,
accepted as who they are. They just want to be accepted as who they are and these
teenagers also want to be happy like other teenagers.
Money cannot buy the happiness, dream, family, love, and future life. Sara
Shepard through her work Pretty Little Liars tries emphasise this issue. She puts high
school students‟ life as the basic setting of her novel. She combines it with her
observation about high social class life. She observed it when she lived in the elite
estate at Philadelphia. Sara Shepard tries to draw social issues which say born in the
rich family and live in elite society will be happy, also live without problems. Rather
than that, Sara Shepard shows the problem, obstacle, achieve the dream, and also
desire to be happy and to be loved.
Sara Shepard‟s Pretty Little Liars takes the story of four teenagers struggling
for being themselves but also they try for do not violate values of society. Rather than
showing acceptance of society, Sara Shepard shows the major characters live hiding
the secret. It is because there are some actions do by the major characters that against
the values on way reaching their dreams. The actions, the choices, and the thought of
major characters cannot be understood and be accepted by society.
Pretty Little Liars draws common problem of a teenager but the society even
the parents cannot understand it. Parents have standard of good life and happy life, on
the other side children have their own. Parents think having a good house, a good
environment, a lot of money can make their children happy. Sometimes parents forget
their social life and their social challenge. The will for achieving a dream they
dreamt and they effort to be accepted by society show clearly through action do by
the major characters.
Sara Shepard reveals that showing our true self is the best way with no lie.
People can live in ease. The dreams, ambitions, goals; we can reach that in good ways.
The society cannot accept our perspective sometimes which means we must accept all
the consequences. Even though there are the consequences, we still need to stand for
reaching our dream and live a good life. Because of that, the writer tries to show
moral values on Sara Shepard‟s Pretty Little Liars through major characters.
Major characters in Pretty Little Liars have different problems in their
personal lives, but they face same basic problems. This book has four major
characters. They are Hanna, Emily, Aria, and Spencer. They are teenagers coming
from a rich family who live in the elite society, but they face problematic conflicts
between personal will and society values. Although all of the major characters are
interested to be analyzed, the writer will take one major character only to be analyzed.
She is Hanna Marin.
Hanna Marin has interesting characteristics. She is described as a common
teenager. Even though she comes from elite society, she does not show the stereotype
of the elite. There are some developments on her characters. Whereas the stereotype
Looking for the characteristics of Hanna Marin, the writer finds that the
character and the conflict are interesting to be analyzed. The writer wants to explore
the character and the conflict more. Then, the writer can explore moral values
reflected through major character in Sara Shepard‟Pretty Little Liars.
Based on that, the writer can conclude the situation and the curiosity into three
main problem formulations. This problem formulation helps the write find the answer
about moral values exist in Pretty Little Liars.
B. Problem Formulation
To be able to understand this novel, three problems formulation were
formulated to follow.
1. How is the main character described in Sara Shepard‟s Pretty Little Liars?
2. How is the main character‟s characteristic development described in Sara
Shepard‟s Pretty Little Liars?
3. What are the moral values reflected in major character in Sara Shepard‟s
Pretty Little Liars?
C. Objectives of the Study
This research tries to find and explores about moral values reflected in Pretty
Little Liars character. Specifically, this research has three main objectives. First is to
development of character. The third is exploring the moral values reflected in major
character.
D. Definition of Terms
There are some terms used in this research to help the writer explains the
content of this research. Using terms are helping the writer to share all the ideas; also
can help the reader understand more the research.
1. Moral Values
Wellman said that “values” determine whether someone or society by their act
of doing something which is morally good or bad. What makes an act morally good
or evil is the value or disvalue of its actual consequences.(Wellman, 1975:135)
Moral can be explained as some actions can be judged as good or bad attitude.
This judgment can be given by individual or society. It is a standard by reference to
which a particular action can be judged morally good or bad.(Gallagher,1985: 1)
Moral Values can be explained an important standard of the act is doing by
person or society that can be judged as good or bad attitude and bring consequences
for each action.
2. Character Development
Development is “a systematic change in behavior over time those results from
interaction between the individual and the internal environment”.(Lemme 1995:8)
It can be said that character development is the change of character as a result of
8 CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
A. Review of Related Studies
Pretty Little Liars is an interesting book because it has many contents that can
be observed. This book brings the society concern, the important of making a good
decision, psychology, moral value, and the important of social media for teenager,
language, lifestyle, dreams, the pursuit of happiness, and education. Basically, this
book reflects the real life that people lived in. There are many critics trying to bring
up by Sara Shepard. Many people try analyzing this novel and the most popular topic
is the character itself. The character can be analyzed from psychology state and
figurative language exists in the book.
Psychology takes part in the decision making. Psychology influences the
decision because it reflects the personality of the person itself. A person psychology
is influenced by their surroundings. It results in the development of individual. The
experiences have been received by someone that affects their ways of thinking. This
reason also makes a person take a decision which can be different from others.
During the process of development of the individual, the psychological disorder can
occur and influence the values that an individual believed.
Katelyn Redding on her writing AP Psych: Pretty Little Liars Style tells there
some individual.(http://prezi.com/4je5r0eyoxkl/ap-psych-pretty-little-liars-style/) She
explains that Pretty Little Liars brings a lot of psychology cases occur in some
individual that generally exists in the reality. Redding stated that Manipulation and
perception are the way of a person to adapt, survive, and flourish. This is a mental
process of a person which automatically switches on when they live outside their safe
zone.
Character “A” in Pretty Little Liars tries to survive in the chaotic school
condition. Accepted by some groups in school range is important for some students
including “A”. “A” stands in the second line of the group and is being mocked by the
stronger. Because of that “A” uses the dead of Allison to break down Allison‟s friend
mental. “A” tries to manipulate the situation for seeing how far she can destroy the
Liars‟ trust. “A manipulates the Liars to see how far she can get them to
crack.”(Redding, 2013:4)
According to Redding, Pretty Little Liars characters show psychological
disorder. Each character shows the different kinds of disorder. She does not analyze
major characters only, but also minor characters. Basically, she analyzes the
characters that bring specific psychological disorder. Although there are specific
disorders, Redding believes that the characters on Pretty Little Liars have been
influenced more by the environment. In psychology, it called Behavior Genetics
Approach “A theory which determines how our environment influences our
Pretty Little Liars brings a unique way for analyzing the characters. It also can
be seen through figurative language besides the psychology state. Sara Shepard as the
author wants the readers to enjoy reading the book but also make them to realize that
behind the beautiful language there are messages trying to deliver by the author. Then,
Sara Shepard gives a special touch of figurative language for each major character.
Novita Chang in her study An Analysis of Main Characters through
Figurative Languages in A Pretty Little Liars: Flawless by Sara Shepard mentioned
figurative language as one of “tool” can be used for analyzing the characters through
the problem faced by the main characters
itself.(http://library.binus.ac.id/eColls/eThesisdoc/Bab1/2008-2-00282-IG%20Bab%201.pdf) The special touch of figurative language is given by the author
indicates there is special implicit meaning tries to convey. Novita Chang catches that
as opportunity to find the hidden message through the figurative language of the
characters. Specifically, Novita Chang uses the second book of Pretty Little Liars
titled Pretty Little Liars: Flawless on her research.
She uses figurative language to find the real secret hid by the characters. It is
because finding the characters‟ secrets will lead her to the characteristic of characters.
Novita Chang wants to find the characteristic of characters because she realizes that
the characters are the main breath of Pretty Little Liar book. The characters in Pretty
Little Liars are the main object in this book and understanding the characters lead to
There are many figurative languages use in Pretty Little Liars: Flawless.
Novita Chang decides to bring her focus only on simile, personification, hyperbole,
metaphor, symbol, and irony. Those kinds of figurative languages already help her to
do her research for finding the characters.
Novita Chang research builds an understanding that language can influence
the characters and the characters can be revealed through language. Basically, every
single thing has contact with the characters give the influence toward the characters
itself although the characters do not want admit it. Last, Sara Shepard through Pretty
Little Liars wants open the readers‟ mind that there are a lot of factors influencing the
individual characters, their ways of thinking, the standard of good and bad, also the
happiness.
Different from Katelyn Redding and Novita Chang, the writer will explore the
moral values in Pretty Little Liars. The writer will analyze the moral values which are
trying to tell by the author through major character. This focus makes the writer‟s
analysis different from Katelyn Redding and Novita Chang.
B. Review of Related Theories
1. Theory of Character and Characterization
The character is an important role in literature work. The characters create a
lot of curiosities to the readers. Guth and Rico stated that an author will set the
characters fascinating which represent a variety of people in the world. (Guth and
characters about their hopes and fears, their goals and self-doubts. The purposes of
creating the characters are making the readers take sides, to care, and to get involved.
Then the main purpose of the author can be achieved.
We will find our self-moving from what to why in the characters. It is because
the characters bring actions and motivations on it. We will find the form of a
character (what) then moving to find the reason of character transforms becoming
certain characteristic (why).
The characters cannot be separated with characterization. The characters and
characterizations sound similar, but they are different. Characters give attention in
building the curiosity of the reader which represents people in the world. Characters
bring action and motivation on it. Characterizations give attention to the experience
of the characters.
Abrams gives a definition of character in A Glossary of Literary Terms as a
person who represents dramatic or narrative work. Character brings some qualities
such as moral, intellectual, emotion, etc. The reader can understand the qualities of
character through what the persons say and from what they do.
Characters are the persons represented in a dramatic or narrative work, who are interpreted by the reader as possessing particular moral, intellectual, and emotional qualities by interferences from what the persons say and their distinctive ways of saying it- the dialogue- and from what they do- the action. (Abrams, 2009: 42)
Characterization is central to the fictional experience. Characterization allows
making the reader feels the emotion and experiences the journey of the character.
Henkle through Reading The Novel explains “Characterization, therefore, is central to
the fiction experience. And the principle objective of the creation of characters in
novels is to enable us to understand, and to experience, people.”(Henkle, 1977: 86)
Henkle explains more about the characterization as the representatives of the
human condition and the time which they live. Through characterization, the reader
can understand more about the social condition, an important event occurs on the era
of the work, and the issue. The purpose of writing is to teach some values for the
reader can be achieved. Characters and characterizations are the way to build the
communication between the authors and the readers. (Henkle, 1977: 87)
Characters and characterizations represent the real world but they are not.
Although the goal of the author makes readers enable understand characters achieved,
the author always gives the limitation line of reality and imaginary. This line is
needed by the readers for making them stay awake from imaginary world which
offers in the literary work through characters and their characterizations.
2. Theory of Moral and Society
People need to be lived in some society because it helps them to feel secure.
People feel secure because everyone on the community has the common things to be
protected then to become a guard for others. Bourke states society in Ethics: A
Textbook in Moral Philosophy as the union of people for the purpose of doing one
means everyone in the group has their free will and has desire become a better person
than others.
Some theorists have opinion that the individual is all important, that society or
others cannot interference private life of another individual. It is not right because
people as individual need a society for support. Society needs to build the standard of
good and wrong to create a harmonious life of individual on the society also the
punishment for the bad citizen.
Other political theorists have claimed that the individual is all-important, that the state or civil society has no right to interfere in any way with his pursuit of his private good. This is wrong, because society is needed by man and society must be granted the right to coerce and punish bad citizens. (Bourke, 1961: 417 – 418)
The conflicts between the right of the society and the right of an individual
can be occurred many times because of that the standard of good and wrong are
needed to build. The individual in the society still has their desires to be freed for
doing anything and sometimes it walks in the different path with the society will. In
this case, moral values are the problem solvers for the problems occur in society.
3. Theory of Moral and Moral Value
Many books explain moral as ethics and ethics as moral. Moral is the standard
used to judge some actions are good or bad. According to Gallagher‟s The Basis for
Christian Ethics, he distinguishes factor in moral act becomes three. First, Judgment.
Some acts are said be good or bad depending on particular cases. Second is a choice.
for following social judgment or their own choice. Lastly, the objective elements of a
moral act, it includes the act itself and the realities which are affected by the act and
will be decided whether the act is morally good or not.
Moral brings some goal for each individual. From the social laws live in the
societies, moral expects each individual can find their true identity and their role in
society. It is interesting because moral is also influenced by a culture which makes
moral become rich and have difference standard. It shows that each individual is
created uniquely. Moral expects each individual will find their uniqueness and gives
respect to other through good action. “Values considerations enter into law making.”
(Fletcher,1967: 111) Because of that values of one place to another are different.
These differences combine with the difference standard of good or bad (moral) and
create different moral values. Moral Values can be explained an important standard of
the act is doing by person or society that can be judged as good or bad attitude and
bring consequences for each action.
This reason makes the moral values have difference standard from one place to
another. This creates the uniqueness of moral values and makes a lot of researchers
want to analyze this topic more.
There is something else about moral values. The moral can develop inside
individual as part of education and the process of life. Individual learns moral as part
of adaptation in society and the ability of understanding moral can be said as
development process of the individual. The big challenges are faces by adolescence in
identity and the time for doing everything freely. In this process, they have to face up
to moral values exist in the society. This reason makes moral development in the
adolescence becomes big issues.
Daniel Hart and Gustavo Carlo in their Moral Development in Adolescence
journal brings many issues related moral development in adolescence especially the
factors influence the development of moral in
adolescence.(http://education.ucsb.edu/janeconoley/ed197/documents/hartmoraldevel
opment.pdf) Hart and Carlo stated that environment gives big support of moral
development. The life of adolescence has been already differenced than their
childhood, and the successes of adolescence develop their morality and catch good
moral values depended on the environment where they grow up.
During Hart and Carlo research, they find almost three-quarter American adult
mentioned adolescence has bad moral values and only fifteen percents have an
opinion that adolescence still has good moral values.
When asked in a recent national poll to describe adolescents, almost threequartersof American adults used words suggesting moral shortcomingssuch as „„rude,‟‟ „„irresponsible,‟‟ and so on. Only 15% of adults in the same survey described teenagers positively. (Hart and Carlo,2005 : 224)
The American adults come up with this opinion because they see the social reality of
adolescence attitudes among others, especially to an adult. Generally, the attitude
showed by someone reflected the values grow inside that person and the attitude
among social member will be reflected as moral values. Adolescence that cannot give
values. The lacking of moral values toward adolescence occurs in American society
proved by the opinion of an adult.
Although moral values are always related with the social condition and
development, Hart and Carlo also mention that it has relation with the family figure.
It means the family has an important role in the moral development of the children.
Some children have good moral during their childhood, but it is not guarantee that
their moral will develop in good when they come to adolescence. It is because the
quality of moral always developed.
The development process of moral from childhood to adolescence needs
social control from the society especially parent. The adolescence grows with wrong
moral values because they do not have the good control and the good example from
the parent. The result of it, the adolescence grabs a lot of values from friends,
environments, and their own understanding whether those are right or not.
One quality that generally separates adolescents from children is that the former spendmore time than the latter with peers. Moreover, adolescents spend less time with their parents than children. As a consequence, adolescents are probably more influenced by their peers than are children.(Hart and Carlo, 2005: 224-225)
Hart and Carlo give big attention on moral development in the adolescence as
part of education should be learnt by human being naturally. The environment gives
big support on moral development for adolescence. Hart and Carlo also take down on
narrative gives a new perspective of the world. The adolescence learns something
new about the world including their values.
The spirit of freedom of the adolescence makes them difficult to teach about
the values that their parents or their societies are believed. The adolescences tend to
find the values which they believed. The adolescence can find the good values which
the world believes through narrative without force. Finding values in society are the
nature of human being as an adaptation form. If others break this right, it creates
some act against moral values and one of them was lying.
C. Theoretical Framework
Each theory is collected to help the writer analyze each element of the novel
that shows the moral values. Every theory has a close relation with the research.
Theory of characters and characterization are needed to help the writer understand
what character is, the quality and the experience have been experienced by the major
character. Then, the writer can collect all data from the novel that is related to the
character. From the theories, the writer can make the conclusion of the character and
the characteristic.
Next is Moral and Society. Moral and Society theory is needed by the writer
to understand the correlation between social condition, people who live in the society,
condition faced by the major character also the effort for chasing the happiness and
the freedom in the middle of the strict society.
Last theory is moral and moral values. Moral and moral values theory used to
analyze the values are believed by the society. The understanding of the concept of
moral and values will make the writer goes forward easily in the exploration of the
moral values which are lived by the Rosewood community which stated as a high
class society in Pretty Little Liars.
Finally, the theory of characters and characterization, theory of moral and
society, and theory of moral and moral values will work together to help the writer
does the research, and all of the theories are chosen by the writer reveals moral values
20 CHAPTER III
METHODOLOGY
A. Object of the Study
The object of my study is Pretty Little Liars novel written by Sara Shepard.
Sara Shepard is brilliance young woman. She won second prize at the State College,
Pennsylvania. She grew up in Philadelphia‟s Main Line, Pennsylvania but she fell
into unfortunate condition. She became intern for Elle magazine to struggle of the
condition. She finally escaped from the unfortunate and she got an MFA at Brooklyn
College, started receiving evil text messages from someone only known as A, nearly
got run over by her best friend's SUV, and kept thinking she saw dead people
everywhere. This experience becomes a motif for her writing Pretty Little Liars.
The main source of my study is taken from the first series of Sara Shepard‟
Pretty Little Liars books titled Pretty Little Liars. The novel first published in 2006
by Harper Collins Publisher. In the short time, Pretty Little Liars becomes one of the
popular teen books and goes to The New York Times Best Seller List. The success of
the novel makes ABC Family station TV brings the series to the broadcasting world
in June 2010. The tv series of Pretty Little Liars become a huge hit and win a lot of
television awards.
Pretty Little Liars has many strong characters bring a lot of values to be
analyzed through their actions. Although Pretty Little Liars has many characters, the
characters are an important role of the story because the whole story is about them.
Sara Shepard makes major characters of Pretty Little Liars are very interesting. There
is four teenagers named Spencer Hastings, Hanna Marin, Aria Montgomery, and
Emily Fields which have differ personality, problem, family background, and concern;
but they become one in hiding the truth.
Even though there are four major characters, the writer will analyze one major
character only. The major character will be analyzed by the writer is Hanna Marin. It
is because Hanna Marin and her action bring values which are interesting to reveal.
This major character brings classic problems which faced by a teenager but this
character brings important values that have start been forgotten by people. The reason
of this forgetfulness is because people start thinking if those things are common.
B. Approach of the Study
It is important for analyzing the novel to get some understanding and values
delivered by the author. Analyzing to get understanding, the writer needs approach as
a guideline for doing analyze. The approach used for completing this thesis is
Moral-Philosophical Approach.
Guerin stated in A Handbook of Critical Approach to Literature that literature
must be entertaining yet teaching some values to the reader. The big portion of moral
philosophical approach is literature teaches morality and to probe philosophical issues
The writer decides to use moral philosophical approach because this thesis
focuses on the moral values which are trying to be conveyed by the author, especially
through the major character. The writer wants to open the readers understanding
about the moral values on Pretty Little Liars. The writer realizes some readers only
focus on the story or the life of the character but do not think about the moral values
delivered by the author. Because of that, the writer tries for bringing this issue to
analyze
C. Method of the Study
The writer uses Library Research to conduct this thesis. Library research is
methodology uses to collect all data from many books references, also other written
sources. By collecting many written sources and data, the writer can get a lot of
inputs, ideas, and thoughts from other perspectives. Reading a lot of references brings
wide perspective to the writer, and this is very useful in research‟ writing. The writer
uses library research to make a good research that can conclude all aspects and all
details, so the writer can get the moral values in Pretty Little Liars.
The writer uses two kinds of resources to collect data for supporting the study.
The first resource is the novel Pretty Little Liars which also the main resource of this
thesis. The second is many books and online sources that can be used for supporting
characterization, and moral values. The writer also collects some critics and studies
about the book to give more information about the book itself.
There are several steps taken by the writer for analyzing this study. First, the
writer read the novel Pretty Little Liars many times to understand the novel
completely. Then, the writer could find the characteristics of the main character and
the development. After that, the writer decided to apply moral – philosophical
approach which appropriated for this study. The first part of this study, the writer
focused on the characters of major character. Then, the writer focused on the major
24 CHAPTER IV
ANALYSIS
A. The Description of Major Character
The character plays important role in literature. It shows the personality of the
figure. The major character becomes the main role of literature work. The character
that becomes the center of the world and it is always interesting for talking about the
major character. The author uses the character to show human personality and its
development, also brings some values to assert to the reader through major character.
There are four major characters in Sara Shepard‟ Pretty Little Liars but the
writer takes one major character only; Hanna Marin. Hanna comes from rich family
and lives in upper-class towns in the country. Her mom is a successful and ambitious
woman also has a good figure.
People always have some stereotypes about upper-class society. For example,
upper-class people live happily without worry and problem. It is because they can get
anything they wanted or needed easily.
Rather than showing the stereotypes is right, the author through major
character; Hanna Marin; shows that everyone in this world is the same. Sara Shepard
depicts Hanna Marin as a common teenager with her personality, her changing, and
her problem but those things make the writer wants to analyze this major character.
1. Innocent
Hanna Marin is described as an innocent teenager. She is common girl who
has an imagination about her ideal man and wants date that man. Like in the fairytale,
the man is popular, handsome, and perfect. In the opposite, Hanna is not popular,
chubby, and she only can dream about him.
She does not change her habit even though she falls in love. She is not
hampered. She tries living in comfort and uses food to relieve her stress. She has a
simple image about the world and she easily believes what people said.
The moment Ali tells her that Sean likes a girl who loves to eat; Hanna‟s
expression is so bright and she responds the statement in bright. She also trusts the
statement is correct. She believes that statement because it comes from people she
believed, which that person is her best friend.
“You know what I heard?” Ali asked, flopping down on the couch. “Sean really likes girls who have good appetites.”
Hanna brightened. “Really?” “No.” Alison snorted.
Hanna slowly dropped the handful of popcorn back into the bowl. (Shepard, 2006: 9)
Hanna believes easily what her friend says. She does not say anything but we can
analyze it from Hanna reaction. She turns bright when Ali said that Sean likes girls
with good appetites. Then she puts back her popcorn when Ali said “No”. She is just
an innocent teenager girl who believes what her friends say easily. It is because she
2. Not Confident
Hanna always thinks that she is embarrassing person. She thinks her size of
the body makes her become embarrassing people and makes one of the reasons her
parents‟ divorce. She thinks her father does not love her because of that reason and
decides to leave her. “This was why Dad left, she thought. He wanted a daughter who
wouldn‟t embarrass him.”(Shepard, 2006: 158)
Hanna feels that she is a useless person. She is an imperfect person and out of
perfectness standard. Because of that, she does not feel confident about herself. Under
that condition, she has nobody to comfort her. Rather than comfort, her father makes
her more down. Her father called Hanna as Pig in front of her quasi-sister. This
situation makes Hanna feels down with her imperfectness.
She can only imagine becoming confident. She cannot feel confident in
herself because Hanna thinks there are no reasons for her to be confident. There are
no facts make her confident. Being confident is a dream that she dreamt only. “But
back then Hanna could only imagine what it would feel like to be so
confident.”( Shepard, 2006: 89)
The one reason she can look stand up because of her popular friend, Ali, who
has passed away. Ali is the standard of perfectness. She is beautiful, smart, and
popular. “She was perfect. Beautiful, witty, smart.Popular. Boys wanted kiss Alison,
and girls-even older ones-wanted to be her.” (Shepard, 2006: 3) Ali is not just popular,
but the person that makes Hanna feels she is a perfect people. Then Hanna lives under
Hanna cannot leave Ali behind because she likes Hanna‟s shield. Ali teaches
her how to gain the world when Hanna wants to hide from the world. She thinks Ali
will not make her live on the bottom. She can feel safe at least.
3. Honest
Hanna can share everything with her friends including her deep secret. She
cannot hide the secret from her close people. She admits that she takes jewelry to her
mom honestly. People will keep the secret perfectly and will not admit their false or
their secret usually. It is different for Hanna. She can admit her false in front of her
mom although she does not admit it with the word, but she admits it with her action.
She does not tell to her mom directly that she takes jewelry from the shop.
When her mom tells her to give her bracelet, she gives it to her mom including the
earring and all of jewelries that she takes from the shop. She is not denied it, but she
gives all of the stuffs to her mom directly. This action makes her become an honest
girl.
“Give it to me,” her mother whispered. “Huh?” Hanna squeaked.
Ms.Marin held out her palm. “Give it here. I can handle this.”
Reluctantly, Hanna let her mom unfasten the bracelet from her wrist. Then, Hanna reached up and took off the earrings and handed them over too.” ( Shepard, 2006: 93)
The other reason why the writer can tell her as an honest person, it is because
she is very honest with her own self. One day, Ali told Kate that Hanna can eat
everything Ali said is a lie. Rather than feels happy, she tells to herself that those
things are a lie and that words are mean words according to her opinion.
“ Then Ali turned to Kate, her dad‟s girlfriend‟s daughter, and said, “ Hanna‟s so lucky- she can eat anything and not gain an ounce!”
It wasn‟t true, of course. That‟s what made it so mean.”( Shepard, 2006:155)
B. The Description of Major Character’s Development
Hanna Marin is innocent, not confident, and honest girl; but there are some
developments in her character. Her biggest changing happens after Ali is gone. Hanna
personality changes 180% than before. She turns from the ugly ducky into a beautiful
princess.
The transformation of Hanna is not just in her appearance but also her
personality and her attitude. At the beginning, Hanna Marin is described as innocent,
not confident, and honest girl. Then she changes become a popular, slim, beautiful,
and confident girl. There are something contrast inside Hanna Marin. Even though
she is confident, she has fear and be afraid inside her. She also feels lonely although
she is popular. Also, she makes troubles sometimes.
There is development and change in Hanna Marin‟s character. After her friend,
Ali, missed; some changes happen in her life. She loses her shield and tries to gain
the world by herself. She realizes she must defend herself first to survive in the world,
especially in the world named the society.
Society is a huge and scary world for teenagers. There are some teenagers
tend to want to be accepted by their surround and the society. Because of that, they
can give up on everything including their personality to be accepted by the society.
Hanna changes herself in the purpose of being accepted by the society. She
changes herself into the society standard and buries herself in deep inside of her heart.
Then, she decides become popular, beautiful, and confident girl with a coward,
worries, and lonely characters.
1. Becoming Popular and Beautiful
A year before Ali is gone; Hanna is just a common teenager girl. She is not
popular and chubby. The person who makes her seems popular and graceful is Ali.
After Ali is gone, she must fight for herself. Rather than giving up, she continues her
effort to become beautiful and popular.
She realizes the way of making a girl becomes popular is be beautiful. Since
then Hanna loses her weight drastically and becomes the Rosewood Girl. It is the
same title got by Ali a year ago. After that she can date Sean, a man that she dreams
to be her boyfriend a year ago, and Hanna can date the man a year later after her
transformation.
Hanna is not a pig anymore. She is Rosewood Girl that is beautiful and
popular. Her style changes too. In the beginning, Hanna is described as chubby and
unfashionable girl. She loves to wear her old clothes even though the fashion style
clothes”( Shepard, 2006: 3). Then, she becomes skinny, perky, and glamorous girl in
style. She changes become fashionable.
2. Becoming Lonely
Unpopular girls always think that they will happy after they gain popularity.
A lot of people will know them. Many people will stay around them. They will not
feel lonely anymore but Hanna faces the difference situation.
Hanna gains popularity but she feels lonely inside. She used to be friends with
four other friends including Ali. After the accident, they separate and build their own
life. Then, Hanna is becoming friend with Mona, the girl that they used to bully.
Hanna and Mona are friends now but Hanna cannot share her secret to Mona.
She is not trust Mona likes her old friends. Hanna is friendly to Mona because they
have the same interest and stand in the same position. Hanna cannot become herself
around Mona. She cannot show her true self to Mona.
Basically, Hanna does not have friends anymore, friends for sharing a secret,
and friends for supporting her. Mona is a friend to show that she is not lonely. Mona
is a friend to accompany her in her popular time, in happy time, and not in sad time.
Hanna realizes this condition and she thinks that it is fine.
Hanna‟s lonely life does not occur in the school only but also at home. After
her parents‟ divorce, her father lives in the different city and her mother is very busy
with her job. Hanna‟s mother only focuses on her job. It can be said her job is number
Hanna barely talks with her mother at home. It is because Hanna‟s mother
only focuses on her job and talks to her phone almost all the time. She does not give
Hanna a lot of attentions and Hanna has already used to this situation. She acts like
she does not care about this situation. She thinks that the important matter is her mom
makes money to pay her school tuition and to buy everything she needs.
On the other hand, Hanna‟s father focuses on his new family; his girlfriend
and his stepdaughter; than Hanna. One day, Hanna reads an article about her father
and he takes a picture with his new family for that article. Basically, he does not
know anything about Hanna and Hanna does not know anything about her father.
She does not have anyone for sharing her thought, for complaining about her
school, her friend, and for helping her to solve the problem. She settles everything by
herself and on her way.
3. Becoming Afraid
Settling or solving the problem by her can bring two consequences. First,
Hanna grows up becoming an independent person. She can solve everything easily
because she has been experienced already. The second consequence is she grows up
as a coward girl. The reason is she solves the problem with anyways including the
wrong ways according to the society standard. She tries hiding this way and being
afraid if someone knows the truth.
In this case, Hanna develops become a coward girl. She does not have courage
from other. She hides her weakness because she does not want teased by other, left by
her friends, and became nobody anymore.
Hanna is no one in her school a year ago and she thinks her condition which is
chubby, ugly, and unpopular become the reason of nobody knows her. Now, she is
beautiful and popular. She does not want to lose those things. She realizes if her
secret (her unbeautiful attitude, her unbeautiful way of losing weight) leaks to the
society, everyone will leave her alone. Then, she will become lonely again like in the
past.
She feels happy with her condition now. Everyone knows Hanna Marin. She
is surrounded and adored by everyone in the school. She gets a lot of attentions.
Those things are what Hanna dreams and live for. She feels that everyone likes her
and loves her. She is afraid if everyone will leave her once they know about her.
Then, she will be back to her old self.
She could just see it: Everyone would find out, and she‟d be instantaneously friendless and boyfriendless. From there, she‟d recede back to dorky, seventh -grade Hanna in reserve evolution. She‟d wake up and her hair would be a yucky, washed-out brown again. Then her teeth would go crooked and she‟d get her braces back on. She wouldn‟t be able to fit into any of her jeans. The rest would happen spontaneously. She‟d spend her life chubby, ugly, miserable, and overlooked, just the way she used to be. (Shepard, 2006: 95)
She is afraid if her nightmare will come true. She is afraid to be friendless and lack of
attention also lack of love. She wants people to accept her.
This reason makes Hanna always be conscious with everything around her.
She is also conscious of her action, especially the after effect. Hanna is a just
in the panic mode when it comes to the consequences of her action. It is because she
is afraid anyone who knows about her action will tell the story to the whole school,
and her world will collapse.
This thought makes Hanna cannot face the problem bravely. She always hides
behind someone. She never solves her problem by herself. She prefers to run or to
hide from the problem until her mom comes and defends her. She only thinks how to
hide the situation from others. She hopes noone will know about the incident and acts
like nothing happen.
4. Becoming Worried
People who live hiding something will anxious with their surround. They will
become worried all the time. They are worrying if people may know something
which they try to hide. They are worrying if people know their secret, then people
will leave them.
In Hanna cases, she is worrying if people find out her past life and it makes
her travel back to her slum life again. She is worrying become unpopular, ugly,
chubby, and lonely again. Basically, Hanna hates her old self and does not want to go
back to that condition,
She hates her old images and does not want to go back to her old images. She
feels her condition now is much better. Everyone pays attention to her at school. She
can date her dream man. She is slim and perfect now. These reasons make Hanna
does not want to go back to her seventh-grade image.
For maintaining her condition, she always lives in worried. She is being
worried that she will become chubby and unpopular again. Because of that, she has a
habit of checking her appearance all the time. At the beginning, she is never worrying
about her appearance even though she is chubby. Now her appearance becomes
number one.
After her transformation, Hanna had been neurotically careful about not only looking cool and perfect at all times, but being cool and perfect, too. Terrified that the tiniest mistake would send her spiraling back to dorkdom, (Shepard, 2006: 121)
She always checks her appearance from time to time and gives the questions to
herself that she still has a good body or something wrong happen to her body.
She stopped at the mirror in the hallway and pulled up her shirt to examine her taut stomach muscles. She swiveled sideways to investigate her small, round butt. Then she bent forward to look at her skin. Yesterday‟s blotchiness was gone. She bared her teeth. One bottom front tooth crossed over a canine. Had they always been that way? (Shepard, 2006: 154-155)
Hanna thinks that what people see more important. Because of that, she tries
maintaining her appearance and hides her true self in the secret room. It is because
At the moment she steals jewelries from the shop, she picked up by the police.
She is really worried. It is not because she steals the jewelries from the shop but she
worried if there is someone who sees her picked up by the police. Then those people
tell the story in the school about what happens to Hanna. Next, her friend and her
boyfriend will leave her alone. These things make Hanna worried and afraid all the
time.
Hey Hanna,
Since prison food makes you fat, you know what Sean‟s gonna say? Not it! –A
She was so startled that she stood up, thinking someone might be across the room, watching her. But there was no one. She closed her eyes, trying to think who might have seen the police car at her house. (Shepard, 2006: 96)
Hanna efforts to keep her friend and her boyfriend stay around her make her
worried all the time. The reason of her worries because she realizes she does not
show her true self. She hides something and does not want people to know about it.
Hanna keeps it because she thinks herself is nothing without her beauty, her body, her
friend, and her popularity.
Hanna considers herself lack of the quality which is demanded by the society.
When she has already achieved the standard demanded by the society, she does not
want to lose that. She holds it tightly. If there is an opportunity will make her to go
back to the lower position, she will be worry. This thing happens many times and
C. Moral Values Reflected through Major Character
Literature is used by the author to deliver many values, messages, and critics.
It proves literature plays important rule to teach some values and touches the heart of
the readers. The authors have their purpose when they write literature works and it is
interesting to analyze the literature works.
Sara Shepard through Pretty Little Liars also wants to deliver some values
through major character. If we read the novel, it seems to talk about the life of the
teenagers only. More than that, this novel brings a lot of values related to the life of
the teenagers. A teenager faces some obstacle in the society and finds their true
identity especially.
During this stage, a teenager needs a lot of support from their surrounding and
their society. This stage is a crucial moment for a teenager. They need an extra
attention from their families, their friends, and their societies are the case that almost
happens all the time, a teenager gets the lack of attention at the time they need more.
This brings effect to the teenager personalities and their developments.
Pretty Little Liars brings some values that we need to pay attention more.
These values sound common in our ears. In fact, we neglect it all the time and we do
not realize if this neglect action brings some impacts.
1. Everyone need parent’s love
Sara Shepard draws the major character as a teenager girl who looks like has
this book and the character special? At the beginning, the writer thinks it is just a
common story. A story about teenagers live and their naughtiness but the writer
realizes that Sara Shepard wants to share the values that we must be realized.
Sara Shepard through Pretty Little Liars tries to tell some values should be
existed in the society but the society tends to forget if they have walk away from
these already. People are busy to make money for surviving in this world. They think
wealth will bring the comfortable life because we will not live in worries. Because of
this reason, people work harder than ever.
For achieving a better life, people can do everything especially someone who
has already married and has children. They realize their responsibilities are big and
hard. Parent tends to give the best thing to their children and this brings big effort.
For giving a good education to their children, parent needs to earn a lot of money. For
making their children dream come true, parent needs to spend more time in
workplace. These situations are the realities that we cannot deny and these realities
also bring another concern.
If the parent spends more time at workplace, that mean their time for the
children reduced. On the contrary, the children just do not need money from their
parent but also love, care, and attention from their parent. At time the children lack of
attention from their parents, they will try everything to get it. They can do good
things to achieve acknowledgment from their parent or bad things to attract attention
Hanna Marin is depicted as a teenager girl comes from a rich family but she
lacks attention from her parent. It does not mean she cannot get what she wants in
material but she lacks of love from her parent. Hanna‟s mother focuses on her job to
make a lot of money for paying Hanna‟s school fee, their lifestyles, and their daily
necessities. Meanwhile, Hanna‟s father focuses on his new family more than Hanna.
These things make Hanna feels losing her parent‟s love.
The condition faced by Hanna makes her lack of confidence. This condition is
getting worse at the moment Hanna visits her father. Hanna realizes about her
imperfectness, but she expects her father stands beside her. Rather than stands beside
Hanna, her father makes her more uncomfortable. When her father calls Hanna “pig”
and it makes Hanna confidence‟s shatters.
The writer believes that the parent always loves their children. The situation
between Hanna and her father can occur because the parent does not know their
children and their problem well. High school is the period for the children become
sensitive to their surround. It is the time for the children finding themselves and their
identity. Because of that, the parent is needed by their children for helping them to
face every obstacle.
Parent misses this period of time rarely. It is because this time is a time where
their children need extra money for education and pocket money. This period of time
is also the hardest time for the parent. These make the parent intends miss a lot of
