THESIS
Submitted as partial fulfillment of the Requirements for Sarjana Degree of English Department of Art and Humanities Faculty UIN Sunan Ampel
Surabaya
By: Ma’rifatul Ilmi Reg. Number A73213111
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT FACULTY ARTS AND HUMANITIES
THE STATE ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY OF SUNAN AMPEL SURABAYA
CONSTRUCTING SOCIAL IDENTITY: OUT-GROUP MOVEMENT OF IMMIGRANT DONE BY GOGOL’S FAMILY IN JHUMPA LAHIRI’S
THE NAMESAKE
THESIS
Submitted as partial fulfillment of the Requirements for Sarjana Degree of English Department of Art and Humanities Faculty UIN Sunan Ampel
Surabaya
Supervised by: Dr. A. Dzo’ul Milal, M.Pd NIP: 196005152000031002
By: Ma’rifatul Ilmi Reg. Number A73213111
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT FACULTY ARTS AND HUMANITIES
THE STATE ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY OF SUNAN AMPEL SURABAYA
ABSTRACT
Ilmi, M. 2017. Constructing Social Identity: Out-Group Movement of Immigrant Done by Gogol’s Family in Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake. English Department, Faculty of Art and Humanities. The State Islamic University of Sunan Ampel Surabaya
The advisor: Dzoul Milal, M.Pd
Keywords: interaction, immigrant, social categorization, social comparison, social identification, social identity construction.
Social identity is one of important things in life. It is because other people will see us from our social identity, at first. Social identity usually refers to
someone’s nationality. Social identity can be construction through three concepts,
including: categorization, social comparison and social identification. The aim of this study is to examine Gogol’s family social identity construction. Therefore, the concepts of their social identity construction are being explored. Further, this study also explores the effects of their construction toward their environment.In conducting the study, the writer applies Discourse Analysis to analyze Gogol’s
family’s utterances and sentences related to their construction described in The Namesake novel. Content analysis approach is used to infer Gogol’s family’s utterances and attitudes indicating the social identity construction. The study only uses human instrument. The writer is the main instrument to collect the data. The data are collected through reading the novel and selecting Gogol’s family’s utterances and attitudes. Meanwhile, the collected data are analyzed by identifying, classifying, describing and concluding.The findings of this study
reveal that Gogol’s family applies three ways of social identity construction, they are: social categorization, social comparison and social identification. From the
data found, the writer concludes that Gogol’s family, father and mother, stand to
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INTISARI
Ilmi, M. 2017. Constructing Social Identity: Out-Group Movement of Immigrant Done by Gogol’s Family in Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake. Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Adab dan Humaniora. Universitas Islam Negeri Sunan Ampel Surabaya.
The advisor: Dzoul Milal, M.Pd
Keywords: Interaksi, imigran, category sosial, perbandingan sosial, identifikasi sosial, , pembentukan identitas sosial.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Inside Cover Page ... i
Inside Title Page ... ii
Declaration Page ... iii
Motto ... iv
Dedication Page ... v
Thesis Advisor’s Approval Page ... vi
Thesis Examiners’ Approval Page ... viii
Acknowledgement... viii
Table of Contents ... ix
List of Appendices ... xii
List of Figures ... xiii
List of Tables... xiv
Abstract ... xiv
Intisari ... xv
x
1.3. Objective of Study ... 6
1.4. Significance of Study ... 6
1.5. Scope and Limitation ... 7
1.6. Definition of Key Terms ... 7
CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE 2.1 Social Identification ... 10
2.2 Identity and Social Identity ... 13
2.3 The Analysis Framework of Social Identity ... 19
2.3.1 Social Categorization ... 20
2.3.2 Social Comparison ... 21
2.3.3 Social identification ... 22
2.4 The Theoretical Framework of Interpretation ... 22
2.5 Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake ... 24
CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHOD 3.1Research Design ... 25
3.2Data Collection ... 26
3.2.1 Data and Data Source ... 26
3.2.2 Instruments ... 26
3.2.3 Techniques of Data Collection ... 27
3.3Data Analysis ... 28
4.1Findings ... 34
4.1.1 The Process of Social Identity Construction ... 36
4.1.1.1Social Categorization ... 37
4.1.1.1.1 Culture ... 37
4.1.1.1.2 Tradition ... 42
4.1.1.1.3 Behavior ... 45
4.1.1.1.4 Language ... 47
4.1.1.2Social Comparison ... 49
4.1.1.2.1 Culture ... 49
4.1.1.2.2 Tradition ... 51
4.1.1.2.3 Habit and Behavior ... 54
4.1.1.3Social Identification ... 57
4.1.2 The Effects of Social Identity Construction ... 59
4.2Discussion ... 62
CHAPTER V CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION 5.1. Conclusion ... 66
5.2. Recommendation... 67
REFERENCES
xii
List of Appendices
1. Social Categorization showed by Gogol’s family
a. Culture
b. Tradition
c. Behavior
d. Language
2. Social Comparison showed By Gogol’s Family
a. Culture
b. Tradition
c. Habit and behavior
3. Social Identification showed by Gogol’s family
4. Effects of the Social Identity Construction
List of Figures
Figure 2.1 Ricoeur’s theory of interpretation ... 24
Figure 3.1 The example of selecting data by highlighting ... 29
Figure 3.2 The example of selecting data by underlining ... 29
Figure 3.3 Social categorization coding ... 30
Figure 3.4 Social identification coding ... 30
Figure 3.5 Social comparison coding ... 30
xiv
List of Tables
Table 2.1 Percentage of postvocalic ‘r’... 17
Table 3.1 Example of data classification table... 31
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
This chapter covers the fundamental ideas of exploring the way of
immigrants’ people in constructing their social identity which is
represented by the characters of Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake. It
consists of background of study, research problems, objective of study,
significance of study, scope and limitation and definition of key terms.
1.1 Background of Study
Since it was firstly proposed by Tajfel (1978), the term of social
identity is used as investigation approach of many scholars’ research
(Capozza, 2000: vii). By the time goes on, people will consider identity as
a significant aspect in their life because other people view another from the
way they talk and behave (Jenkins, 2008:1). Additionally, Ochs
(1993:289) implied whether people will use verbal acts to construct their
personal and social identity to show other people to which group they
belong to. So far, a series of research have already been done to examine
the concept of social identity construction in various focuses, such as:
lesbian (Kitzinger, 1995), social media (Young, 2013), leadership (Hogg,
2001; Sinha, 2010), nationalism (Ross, 2012), ethnic violence (Fearon and
Laitin, 2000), mimetic isomorphism (Mizruchi and Fein, 1999),
entertainment (Trepte, 2006) and storytelling (Archakis and Tzanne,
2
investigate group of people. Unfortunately, previous researchers used the
concept of social identity to investigate only native people of a certain
area. Unlike the previous researches mentioned, this present study is
presented to fill the gap by investigating the way of immigrant people
construct their social identity, which is reflected in a literary work. Further,
it will also observe the effects of the immigrant people’s ways toward their
relationship with other people around them.
However, Ochs’s investigation (1993) leads the core of my idea
to conduct a research about immigrant people’s struggle to construct the
identity. He, ever once, investigated immigrant people that were described
in essays published in The New York Time magazine. Nevertheless, Ochs
did not explore detailed concept of immigrant to construct the social
identity. He instead only explored general perspective about the relation of
language acquisition and social identity related to immigrant people.
Hence, my self-motivation to conduct this study is to follow Ochs’s
suggestion (1993:302) which is not taken yet by any scholars during this
time. He suggested further research to explore more on (1) ways of
immigrant people to construct and show the identity to the native people,
and (2) how their ways of constructing social identity affect their
relationship with their neighborhood or other people around their life.
In fact, the study of identities becomes an interesting field to be
investigated, in the last few decades (Edwards, 2009:15). Yet, there is still
construction. However, Fatmawati (2015), an Indonesian researcher,
conducted a study which took literary work as her data source of
investigating personal identity. She analyzed the personal identity of
Mikhail, a character in translated novel The Zahir by Paulo Ceolho, which
focused on only his label and stance. Following Fatmawati, this present
study will also take literary work as the data source but it will focus on the
social identity construction instead of personal identity construction.
Again, this present study is showing a complement prospect concerning
the study of social identity construction. Hence, this present study is aimed
to complete any gap that exists in the study of constructing social identity,
nowadays.
As the tittle suggests, this study will wholly analyze
out-movement of immigrants to construct their identity. People will usually
establish social movement by promoting their culture and changing other
people’s point of view toward themselves (Meyer, 2002:20). In addition,
Ross (2012:100) seems to clarify and strengthen Mayer’s statement that
national identity focuses on cultural factors because culture is the actual
way to show someone’s social identity. Social identity theory focuses on
intergroup behavior in case of social categories, include: intergroup social
comparison, positive distinctiveness, stereotypes, discrimination, and
intergroup relation (Hogg, 2001:188). In fact, the social identity
construction theory has been dominated in the field of intergroup issues or
4
way of people to construct their self-prejudice and interpersonal
interaction (Tajfel and Turner, 1979:33). In other words, intergroup has
become the most leading topic to be discussed in the study of social
identity construction. Overall, this present study will apply Tajfel and
Turner’s concepts of constructing social identity. They suggested three
processes of constructing social identity, including: social categorization,
social identification and social comparison (Tajfel and Turner,
1979:38-40).
The focus of the study was Gogol’s family in Jhuma Lahiri’s The
Namesake. Gogol’s family, in the story, is described as immigrant who
struggle to be granted among the native people of America. Gogol himself
tries to construct his social identity as an Indian. In recent years, some
researchers and scholars take Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake to be the
focus of investigation in case of literature aspect, culture, identity and
immigrant itself. Mangayarkarasi (2004) analyzed The Namesake novel in
case of identity loss and cultural alienation. Besides, Paskarina (2008), an
undergraduate student of Universitas Kristen Maranatha Bandung took this
novel as her undergraduate thesis research. She focused on comparing the
immigrant portrayal in Jhumpa Lahiri’s The namesake and Mukherjee’s
Jasmine. In her research, she only analyzed the character of Ashima,
Gogol’s mother. Furthermore, Prof. Doody (2010) analyzed
postmodernism aspect, post colonialism aspect and identity within the
student of Dalarna University who investigated this novel as his thesis
which focused on the cultural identity aspect especially in term of
displacement and freedom. In the following year, Sharma (2013) analyzed
the identity crisis described in the novel. Then, Bran (2014) seemed to
conduct investigation toward the novel in a different case. She analyzed
the case of the author’s point of view in representing her own life as an
immigrant through the novel. Similar to the previous researches, this
present study will also analyze the novel in case of immigrant and identity.
Yet, it will no longer discuss the identity crisis or immigrant portrayal. It
instead will focus on analyzing the ways of immigrant to construct the
social identity and the effect toward the environment relationship.
From the explanation above, the finding of my study that explores
the immigrant people’s ways and its effect toward other people, will be
considered as the complement of previous researches related to social
identity theory. Hence, this study is important to conduct in order to widen
the knowledge and information in case of social interaction. Thus, the
writer hopes that this research will be useful for the readers so that they
can understand how to interact with people outside the group based on
who they are – their own culture, behavior and language.
1.2 Research Problems
The research problems are formulated as the following questions,
namely:
6
2. How do the ways of Gogol’s family constructing social identity affect
their relationship with other people?
1.3 Objectives of Study
This study is presented to reach the following goals, they are:
1. To explore immigrant people’s ways to construct the social identity
which is reflected by Gogol’s family in Jhumpa Lahiri’s The
Namesake.
2. To explore any possible effects that occurs due to the ways of
constructing the social identity toward relationship with surroundings
people.
1.4 Significance of Study
This present study is made to give both theoretical and practical
significances. Theoretically, this study is hoped to provide more and new
information for language learners to improve their understanding about
applied linguistics, especially in sociolinguistics which focus on social
interaction, culture and social identity. Further, this study is practically
hoped to give direction to language learners to conduct more specific and
detail research about the field for the next study. Hence, this study is
intended to fill the gap of previous researches so that they will have better
enlightenment concerning the concept of social identity construction in
1.5 Scope and Limitation
This research is conducted to identify the ways of immigrant to
construct the identity related to which group they belong to. Social identity
construction has close relation to human behavior and interaction (Tajfel
and Turner, 1979:15). Hence, this study will only limit the discussion in
term of how immigrants construct their social identity while interacting
and of how their ways affect their interaction and relation with other
people. Further, this study will only include three processes suggested by
Tajfel and Turner (1979), those are: social categorization, social
identification and social comparison. Unfortunately, the object taken will
be in the form of writing which is assessed to provide less data in term of
expression, real action and behavior visually. Yet, it may not be a big
matter because the description of the story, either monologue or dialogues,
will really help the researcher to infer the data.
1.6 Definition of Key Terms
a. Interaction
Generally, interaction is sharing and exchanging information
among people (Bull, 2008:232)
b. Social identity
Social identity is self-evaluative and self-knowledge concerning to
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c. Social categorization
This is the first concept of Tajfel in constructing social identity.
This concept means that people will categorize, classify themselves
into groups based on the behavior (Tajfel and Turner, 1979:38).
d. Social comparison
After categorization, comparison of one other will definitely
happen. This comparison happens because people search for good
group so that they will have better life (Tajfel and Turner,
1979:40).
e. Social identification
The last concept refers to people’s decision in case of
identification, whether they keep on their group or move to another
group (Tajfel and Turner, 1979:40).
f. Immigrant
Immigrant is people who move and live outside their homeland
(Ochs, 1993:2)
g. The Namesake
It is a literary work written by Jhumpa Lahiri published in 2003. It
tells about Indian family who live in America whose son is
h. Gogol’s family
Gogol’s family is the immigrant characters in the novel. It is told
that they keep their culture even though they have been many years
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CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
This chapter reviews some related theories and related studies that
support the study.
2.1 Social Interaction
Interaction is a common term discussed by people, generally. It has
close relation with the social and environment because people will definitely
have interaction one other, daily. Therefore, social interaction is the most
basic unit in sociology. Social interaction refers to actions in which the doers
intend to know the peers’ identity and references (Scheinkman, 2005:1).
Further, social interaction also deals with social relationship, including:
intergroup and individuals. During the interaction, people will usually show
who they really are from their behavior, customs, and the way they speak.
Edward T Hall (1983) divides the rules of social interaction into three
kinds, are: dimension of time, place and situation. In the dimension of place,
Hall mentions that there are four major kinds of limitations, including:
intimate, personal, social and public. That limitation will manage how the
interaction should be, exactly. In term of intimate limitation, it means that
people should consider how close their relation is, so that the topic of
interaction will not go too far. Similar to the previous limitation, personal
limitation also deals with how well we manage ourselves not to speak about
them. Meanwhile, public and social limitations mean that the interaction is
only limited to general information of the doers of interaction (Edward,
1983:1).
There are five types of social interactions whose functions are to
stabilize the social structure and to promote the change, those are: exchange,
competition, conflict, cooperation and accommodation (Johnston, 1984:80).
Exchange happens almost in everyday interaction. It means that the doers of
interaction are exchanging information’s one other for example: dating,
friendship, family life and many others. This type of interaction usually
occurs when an individual has self-interest to know more about other people.
Then, competition happens when two or more people or groups oppose each
other about each perspective toward certain cases. Some sociologists argue
that this type of interaction is positive because it motivates people to perform
society’s needed roles. Meanwhile, the others view this as negative because it
may cause psychological stress, lack of cooperation in social relationship,
inequality and even conflicts.
Further, another form of interaction is conflict (Johnston, 1984:80). It
is the deliberate attempt to control by force, oppose, harm or resist the will of
another person. Johnston also restated in his book about Georg Simmel’s
(1908) identification on four sources of conflicts, are: wars, conflict within
groups, legal disputes, and clashes over ideology such as religion and politics.
Competition and conflict has close relation because conflicts sometimes
12
more people or groups work together to achieve goals that benefit many
people. Cooperation may be very significant in case of social interaction
because none, even groups, can complete achieving the goals without
cooperation. The last type of social interaction is accommodation. It is a state
of balance between cooperation and conflicts. In other words, we
accommodate each other in our interaction. Simply saying that we give a little
and we take a little. Accommodation has four kinds of forms, are:
compromise, truce, and arbitration. Compromise occurs when both parties
give up something to come to a mutual agreement – mediated decision to
avoid conflict. Another form is the truce. It is a halt for the conflict of two
parties when the compromise is not reached yet – mediation or third parties.
The other form is arbitration. In this case, arbitration is when the third party
makes decision that is binding both conflicted parties.
According to Professor Edward, there are two process of identifying
other people by interaction: by its effect and its origin (1905:26). In the case
of identifying by its effects, people will see from the peers views and
explanation to identify who they are and where they come from. Still,
identifying the process of interaction by its effect may not totally valid.
Hence, other method of identifying people during interaction is also
considered to validate the result. In that case, identifying by its origin may be
needed. Unlike the other method, by its effect, this method of identifying
include the expression, language, intonation, and everything related to the
Since interaction has closed relation to society and social
environment, it will, indirectly, also relate with language and its usage.
Kempson, at al (2016), describes language as mechanisms for interaction.
They state that the concept of language reflects the processes of
action-coordination. Language use is full of subsentential shifts of context in which
phenomena can be illustrated properly in conversation. Thus, speakers will
consider the relation between situation context and language so that they can
convey their willing based on the context. In sociolinguistics, it is explained
that there are ways to reflect language in term of its context of usage, include
cross-cultural communication (Holmes, 1992:285). Hence, this present study
will discuss detail on interaction and cross-cultural communication which
then indicates the speakers’ social identity. In term of social identity,
interaction may be one of significant things because it is possible that people
will exchange and share information one other about each of them. Briefly,
interaction means the way of people to get know one other.
2.2 Identity and Social Identity
John Edward (2008), in his book, re-explains Groebner’s statement
about identity (2004) that identity refers to individual subjective sense toward
themselves, other people include membership and classification (Edward,
2008:16). According to Jenkins (2004) identity can be identified from what
people tell about, include: culture, history, philosophy, etc. Fatmawati (2015),
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unlike Fatmawati, Edward (2009) only explains two categories of identity,
personal and social identity. According to him, personal identity is the brief
description of individual traits, characteristics and dispositions. In fact,
identity is not only about viewing human psychologically. Hence, the term of
social identity is also significant to identify someone’s identity. Social
identity refers to individual membership, to what group she/he belongs to,
what nationality they are and so on.
According to Burke (1998) who restated Hogg and Abrams (1988)
definition about social identity implied whether social identity is all about
people knowledge about other people’s category or group. Further, social
group is a set of people who hold common view about themselves that they
are the members of the same categories. Social identity is also about
interacting one to another, either in-group or out-group. Indeed, social
identity means individual’s characteristics and categorization of which group
they belong to, exactly.
Howard (2000), in his journal about social psychology of identities,
explained that social identity has several dimensions. First is ethnic identity.
In this case, people usually get confused to develop their identities because
they are dealing with the term of majority, minority, negative societal
stereotypes and discrimination. The next identity is sexual identity. Sexual
identity differs from racial identity in that awareness of one’s self as a sexual
being, and especially awareness of one’s possible deviation from sexual
ethnicity. Other dimension of social identity is gender identity. This
dimension is commonly discussed by social scholar in term of social identity.
Gender identities, in the sense of organizing a self sense around the
perception of female or male, and internalizing pre- and proscriptions of
behaviors deemed culturally appropriate to these self-perceptions, are thought
to be learned through early socialization, to be enacted and to be reinforced
throughout the life span.
Class identity is another dimension of social identity. For some
people’s point of view, class identity influences the interaction with other
identities (age, gender and so on). This identity is based on the social status of
individuals. Then, identity of (dis)ability, the next dimension of social
identity, is dealing with those who own illness and struggle on their existence.
It also relates how people adapt to the environment of “normal” people. The
last dimension is that age identity. Since age is one unique thing in social
identity, Gatz and Cotton (1994) implies that the identity dynamics of aging,
he stated that Age identities are both ascribed and
achieved; the boundaries of group membership are permeable, but defined
developmentally; and an influx of new members into the aged category is
certain, with numbers increasing much more rapidly than those of other
minority groups with permeable boundaries. It is because the definition of age
is flexible, both culturally and personality. Briefly, social identity is a
complex topic to be discussed because it tries to figure out and explore people
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Edwards (2009) described the relation among identity, language,
dialect, religion, gender and nationalism. Related to language-identity
linkage, he cited Sapir’s (1921) definition about language that language is
humans’ way to convey and illustrate their ideas, emotions and desires. It was
then developed by Morris (1946) that language is the arrangement of arbitrary
symbols whose function is to make people understand the context of what
they are talking about exactly.
One way to approach the language-identity linkage is to consider the
pragmatic advantages that may ensue during the conversation. For example,
two or more people whose background is different will interact one other
focusing on the context of situation such self-introduction. In fact, there are
various kinds of language spoken in the world. However, the use of lingua
franca may be considered. Most people will use lingua franca in order to
understand each other and to have better communication. It is language which
is used for mediation, such English.
For example, Japanese and an Indonesian are having a conversation;
to make both parties understand each other they may use English as their
lingua franca. Yet, some have proven the continuation of language diversity
as evidence of human desire to create unique perspectives on reality and to
protect group distinctiveness. Simply, they would like to demonstrate the
Furthermore, the relation between identity and dialect is closely
related to language-identity linkage. Generally, dialect if language variety that
differs from others along three dimensions: vocabulary, grammar and
pronunciation (accent). Accent is the most influential thing toward identity
demonstration by considering people’s dialect. The obvious example can be
seen from below percentage of possible postvocalic ‘r’ pronunciation
described by Edwards (2009:68).
Status New York Reading
Upper-middle-class speakers 32 0
Lower-middle-class speakers 20 28
Upper-working-class speakers 12 44
Lower-working-class speakers 10 49
In western world – French, England, America, etc. the way of people
to differ their social status is by pronunciation as illustrated in the table
above. Thus, dialect may also be a significant thing to demonstrate one’s
identity.
[image:31.595.143.507.258.579.2]18
markers of identity especially in term of ethno national identity. Historically,
religion was the bedrock of identity which is then replaced by language.
During the Renaissance era, religion had been the upper hand to demonstrate
one’s identity. John Edwards (2009), in his book cited Safran’s (2008)
statement that nationalism is, in fact, religion itself. Logically, religion is
about faith or being faithful. Similar to nationalism, we, indigenous, should
also have faith to our nation. Hence, both self-identity and social identity can
be demonstrated by recognizing the individual religion – their beliefs.
The term of gender has different meaning from sex (Nobelius, 2004).
For sociologists, gender is sex distinction based on the cultural aspect
including environmental influences – behavior, tradition, etc. Meanwhile, sex
is male and female distinction based on their biological components. In fact,
in case of identity, the term of gender may be one of basic thing to recognize
an individual. It is because male and female have their own stereotypes that
become their characteristics. For example, female may be more polite than
male during interaction, in certain cases. Thus, gender and identity also have
close relation because the basic thing of demonstrating identity is by
understanding ones’ stereotypes.
Discussing about nationalism, Anna Triandafyllidou (2003) mentions
the double-edge of national identity, including: the real member of the
community and the foreigner inside the community. She also states that this
double-edged does not only characterize national identity but also any kind of
nationalism is actually within identity especially social identity. Hence, its
relation is very significant and often debatable. It is because there are serious
cases related to nationalism such as: identity crisis, immigrants’ identity,
youth identity and so on.
2.3 The Analysis Framework of Social Identity
The term of social identity is described differently by some
researchers. Tajfel and Turner (1979:36) defined social identity as person’s
identity which relates to her/his community or group. Meanwhile, Ochs
(1993:288) explained social identity as the cover of person’s social belonging
which includes: social status, position roles and relationship among other
people. Then, Capozza 2000:1) stated that social identity is used to describe
some elements of constructing social status, such as: (a) the self-structure of
individuals as how they are being considered in a categorical membership, (b)
the character of intergroup relation – how certain people characterize
themselves in having social interaction with other people outside their group,
and (c) the relation of individuals to the broader social structure – how people
construct the identity without bothering their environmental relationship.
Furthermore, Jenkins (2008:103) explained that social identity is as
self-identification which involves powerful imaginary of people who own
significant inter-subjective so that they are able to interact and construct their
identity to other group very well. Then, Layder (2004:88) argued that
people’s personal identity is actually based on their social identity. It means,
20
construction. In fact, Jetten (2006:98) implied whether social identity is the
process of individual awareness concerning their belonging in their group or
categorization.
In addition, Tajfel and Turner (1979) offer the concept of social
identity construction. There are three steps of processes to establish social
identity construction, they are: social categorization, social comparison and
social identification. Below is the detail explanation about those three
concepts.
2.3.1 Social Categorization
This concept is the stage where people try to categorize other in order
to understand and identify them. Social categorization includes race, position
and nationality. Tajfel explained that this concept is about how we behave
and evaluate other people in/out of our group. When we have already known
people’s categorization, we can then understand things about them.
Furthermore, we can also define appropriate behavior according to the groups
that people belong to.
Also, social categorization will refer to intergroup discrimination.
Indeed, when people are trying to categorize others, they will definitely
discriminate which is proper to them. In this case, the intergroup
discrimination includes both in-group members and out-group members. In
addition, the strategy used in this case is the strategy of fairness. This strategy
they will seem to compete with out-group members in term of suitable
behavior they are willing to do, in their point of view.
The word “categorization” is different from “categories”. We may
understand the word categories as interclass differences. Meanwhile,
categorization means we accentuate and differentiate members within the
same categories. Social categorization deals with individuals or groups
stereotypes. Hence, the function of social categorization,
2.3.2 Social Comparison
After people categorize themselves belonging to their group, they tend
to compare their own group with another group. They will favorably compare
their group in order to maintain their self-esteem. This then helps to explain
prejudice and discrimination because each members of the group will see that
the other are actually competing themselves.
According to Tajfel (1979), comparing groups will produce positive
and negative benefits. These benefits are depending on the people’s way of
comparing. Comparing groups in positively will too produce positive benefit
that is high prestige. Meanwhile, comparing groups negatively will result low
prestige. Then, from this comparison, three theoretical principle of social
comparison are produced, such as: (1) individuals strive to achieve or to
maintain positive social identity, (2) positive social identity is based on a
large extent on favorable comparisons, and (3) when social identity is
22
2.3.3 Social Identification
After categorizing and comparing others, people will adopt the
identity of the group they belong to. In this stage, people will act any possible
ways in order to ease others in perceiving themselves – to which group they
belong to, exactly. Tajfel and Turner gave certain example about this case,
they said: “When members of two national or ethnic categories interact on the
basis of their reciprocal beliefs about their respective categories and of the
general relation between them, this is clearly intergroup behavior in the
everyday sense of the term” (1979: 40)
In other words, they implied whether people outside certain group no
need to follow the interactant’s ways of socialization. It is because each group
has its own characteristics of interaction. Therefore, other people are able to
identify another’s social identity from the interaction they have. Hence, social
identification can be achieved through interaction and social categorization by
understanding each group characteristics, firstly.
2.4 The Theoretical Framework of Interpretation
Interpretation is dealing with human experience to then understand the
human nature of that experience (Tan at.all, 2009:2). In literature, we shall
learn about interpretation in term of hermeneutics. According to Gashemi
et.all, 2011:1623) interpretation in term of hermeneutics is connected with
education in which it teaches the interpreter to understand speech or written
Dorrairaj (2000:43) re-explained Ricoeur’s definition about
interpretation in hermeneutics that it is the theory of operation of
understanding text. Further, hermeneutics turns out to be phenomenology
hermeneutics in which its interpretation considers the role of context and
experiences. However, Glasersfield (1983:2) explained the concept of
interpretation that we shall pay attention to four elements of interpretation,
they are: an active subject, an object, a specific activity and the activity’s
result. In addition, Moran (1994:160) implied that interpretation is related to
the interpreter’s attribution of beliefs and the facts.
Furthermore, Recoeur (1976:12) divided two kinds of interpretation,
including: utterer’s meaning and utterance meaning. Each kind has three
elements to interpret, they are: the self-reference, locutionary and
illocutionary acts, and the interlocutionary act. Also, he implied whether
interpretation has to consider sense and reference in meaning (pg.19).
According to him, interpretation through sense is the objective side of
meaning. Meanwhile, interpretation through reference is the subjective side
of meaning. Thus, sense and reference take important role in interpretation.
Simply, the objective side and the subjective side is taken from two different
ways, they are: “what” and “about”. The question “what” refers to sense
while the question for “about what” refers to reference. Therefore, it is
important to consider that language is formed due to the speaker’s
experience. Hence, in analyzing text, the interpreter should understand the
24
Additionally, Gashemi et.all (2011:1624) drew a diagram to simply
describe about Ricoeur’s theory of interpretation, as below picture.
2.5 Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake
This novel tells about an Indian family who lives in America. In
August 1968, Ashoke and Ashima Ganguli welcome the born of their new
baby. He names his son Gogol. He gives that name because he was inspired
by a Russian novelist, Gogol. In 1961, Gogol, the Russian novelist, had ever
saved Ashoke’s life when he was injured due to a train crash in India. Few
years after Gogol’s born, Ashoke and Ashima bore a new baby, Sonali.
Growing up to be teenage, Gogol relalizes that his name was quite strange. In
[image:38.595.216.487.183.442.2]fact, he does not like that name at all. Also, he dislikes his parent’s custom,
the Bengali, so that he prefer to enjoy America popular culture. Attending to
collage, Yale, he officially change his name to be Nikhil.
Everyone but his family calls him Nikhil. He spends his education in
Yale and Columbia. He then gets job at a fancy pants architecture firm in
New York City. He also starts dating with an Anglo-American whose
background is far different from his own. Unfortunately, he feels
uncomfortable with his relation. He then begins new and serious relationship
with a girl named Maxine, the native Western. Soon, he feels as if he is a part
of her family and ignores his own. He adopted Maxine’s life style. Then, the
situation becomes worse with the death of his father. After his father’s death,
he feels really guilt that makes him leaves Maxine.
Unexpectedly, Gogol reconnects with Moushumi Mazoomdar, his
little friend who is a graduate student in French at New York University.
With Moushumi, Gogol finally feels comfortable with his Indian-American
identity, and after a year dating, they get hitched. Unfortunately, Moushumi
has an affair with other guys, Dimitri Desjardins. Finally, Gogol and
26 CHAPTER III
RESEARCH METHOD
This chapter describes the research method used in conducting the
study. It consists of research design used, including: data and data sources,
instruments, techniques of data collection and techniques of data analysis.
3.1Research Design
This study used content analysis design. Content analysis is
technique of research which analyzes texts in order to make inferences
concerning the texts through the context of its use (Krippendorff,
2014:18). There are some classifications of content analysis design in term
of inferences, including: explorations, standards, indices and symptoms,
linguistic representation and conversation. In this study, the researcher
focused on the linguistic representation which concern on social
interaction. Further, the researcher applied data language component of
content analysis to draw the conclusion. There are three criteria of
applying data language component in content analysis (Krippendorff,
2014:151). Those criteria include: (1) data languages should not consist of
syntactical ambiguities and inconsistencies, (2) it should fulfill the
requirements of analytical techniques and (3) it must consist of
information related to the issue of phenomena so that the researcher can
This study aims to investigate on how immigrants construct their
identity and to which group they belong to, based on their language use
and their way of interaction. Hence, content analysis design were the
proper research technique because the researcher needs to draw inferences
toward attitudes and utterances of Gogol family as the immigrant
characters in Jhumpa Lahiri’s novel, The Namesake, in constructing their
social identity as Indian immigrant in America.
3.2Data Collection
3.2.1 Data and Data Source
The data source of this study was literary work that is the novel of
Jhumpa Lahiri, The Namsake. It was published on September, 2003. The
novel was downloaded from
http://www.booksee.org/the-namesake-jhumpa-lahiri.epub/. Meanwhile, the data were the utterances and the
attitudes [sentences/monologues] of Gogol’s family related to their social
identity construction that is described in the novel.
3.2.2 Instruments
The major instrument for this study will be human because the
researcher will fully collect and analyze the data herself. Additionally, she
will also use some supporting tools such as: computer, papers, pen and so
28
3.2.3 Techniques of Data Collection
The researcher used the following techniques to collect the data, as
follows:
1. Browsing and downloading
Since the novel was in the form of PDF, the researcher firstly
browsed and downloaded the novel in the website address of digital
library, www.booksee.org.
2. Close reading
After the novel was downloaded, the researcher carefully and
repeatedly read the novel to get deep understanding concerning the
attitudes taken and utterances spoken by Gogol’s family within the
story.
3. Selecting the data
After comprehending the story, the researcher then selected the
data, the attitudes of Gogol’s family explained in the novel and the
utterances of them that were related to the process of immigrant to
construct their social identity. In this part, the researcher conducted
two kinds of selecting as in bellow points, are:
The data of utterances were selected by highlighting, and
The data of attitudes were selected by underlining.
3.3Data Analysis
The techniques of data analysis will be as follows:
1. Identifying the selected data
After all data were selected, the researcher then identified the data
that indicated the way of Gogol’s family as immigrant to construct
[image:43.595.152.513.103.485.2]their social identity or to show people to which nation they belong Figure 3.1 The example of selecting data by highlighting
30
to. This step is conducted to answer problem number one that is to
know the ways of Gogol’s family as immigrant to construct their
social identity. In this case, the researcher focused on three
processes of constructing social identity based on Tajfel theory.
The three processes include: social categorization, social
identification and social comparison.
The data identification was done by coding the selected texts. The
coding used abbreviations that indicate each process. The
abbreviation SC was for social categorization, SI was for social
identification and SCo was for social comparison. Below figures
[image:44.595.161.511.289.756.2]are the examples of coding the selected data.
Figure 3.3 Social categorization coding
Figure 3.4 Social identification coding
2. Classifying the identified data
In this step, the researcher classified the identified data to ease her
to distinguish the processes of social identity construction done by
Gogol’s family. As the result, she had easier way to draw
inferences toward the analysis. Classifying the data also facilitated
the researcher to provide the evidences for the reader concerning
the three processes. Thus, the first problem was solved by knowing
and understanding the classification of each process of
construction. The classification was in the form of table which
consists of each process; social categorization, social identification
and social comparison. Since social categorization and social
comparison has three divisions for standard of analysis, the table
will be made differently to ease the classification. Hence, there will
be eight (8) tables for data classification. Each table will be
completed by code to also ease the analysis. The following figure is
the example of one of the classification tables, as follows:
Kind of Process Code Data
Social Categorization (SC)
Total data
[image:45.595.154.516.272.737.2]Note: SCnumb = The amount of data indicated Social Categorization. {p} = Page of the novel contained data which indicate Indian’s behavior showed by Gogol’s family.
32
List of code used for identifying data is as below table.
Code Explanation
SCnumb [p]
SC = Social Categorization Numb = number of data P = page
[] = data indicating culture SCnumb (p) () = data indicating tradition SCnumb {p} {} = data indicating behavior SCnumb /p/ // = data indicating language
SCo SCo = Social Comparison
SI SI = Social Identification
EC EC = Effect of Construction
The tables of data classification will be completely shown in
appendixes. Meanwhile, the data explained in the analysis will be
some of the whole data to minimize and to avoid saturated data.
1. Analyzing the effects
After the data were validated and inferred, the effects of social
identity construction process were then analyzed. The effects were
seen from the sentences or utterances indicating the Native
American’s response toward Gogol’s family’s social identity
construction. This step was to answer the problem number two. The
analysis was interpreting the implicit meaning of the text and
including evidences that are the texts of the story itself. In this step,
the text that showed the effect or respond from people who not
Indian were coded by number and given a rectangle as the example
[image:46.595.157.514.142.566.2]below.
Finally, problem number two was solved by understanding the
effects of construction through the interpretation from the text. The
interpretation used the interpretation theory of Ricoeur which
concern on sense and reference.
2. Describing and concluding the data
The next step is describing and explaining the whole data to infer
and to validate the data. Then, the inferences of the data will be
related to the effects analyzed. Thus, the conclusion will result
[image:47.595.185.510.105.272.2]valid and detail explanation.
34 CHAPTER IV
FINDING AND DISCUSSION
This chapter explains the finding data of the research and the
discussion concerning the result of analysis. It deals with the ways of
Gogol’s family as immigrant to construct their social identity as Indian and
the effects of their construction toward the Native American.
4.1FINDINGS
Based on the analysis, the researcher finds three processes of social
identity construction, they are: social categorization, social comparison
and social identification. Those three processes are used by Gogol’s family
as Immigrant in America. In addition, the researcher also finds the effects
of their constructions toward the environment.
Since the researcher offers two problems in this study, so she
divides the findings into two sub points that are appropriate to answer each
problems of the study. First sub point explains the ways used by Gogol’s
family to construct their social identity. The second point explains the
effect of their construction toward the environment including friends,
neighbors and others who are not identified in their group – Indian. . It
focuses on the respond of the Native American regarding the ways of
Since there are three concepts of construction according to Tajfel
and Turner (1979), which is mentioned previously in the first paragraph of
the finding, each concept of construction will definitely has its own
division or standard of understanding and analyzing. Social categorization
can be indicated by the culture of the nation [group], tradition, language
used and behavior that can depict their nationality. Therefore, the doers
[immigrants] will construct their social identity by showing and promoting
anything that categorize them as the member of the group including the
culture, tradition, language and behavior.
Meanwhile, social comparison can be analyzed by understanding
the comparison happen among the people. In this case, since this study
uses Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake in which the story sometimes
describes the differences between American and Indian, the Indian
characters within the story – main characters, will precisely compare their
own categorization with American including the tradition, culture, habit
and behavior sometimes. Then, the social identification is understood from
the characters [immigrant] ways to inform people, include the family,
about where they belong, how they behave and what they think. It is also
seen from their statement that implies their decision about which group
they choose as their identification. Finally, the effect of the construction is
analyzed by understanding the responds of people outside their group –
36
4.1.1 The Processes of Social Identity Construction
The processes of social identity construction proposed by Tajfel
and Turner (1979), are in fact used by Gogol’s family to construct their
social identity, those are: social categorization, social comparison and
social identification. In case of social categorization, the researcher finds
eighteen (19) data showing that Gogol’s family categorize themselves as
Indian immigrant who should stand on their own way of living – based on
Indians’ culture, behavior, language and tradition. Furthermore, the writer
finds seventeen (17) data showing that they often compare their
categorization with the Americans’, including the culture, tradition, habit
and behavior, sometimes. Then, she also finds four (4) data which show
their social identification whether they stand on their real identity as
Indian or change it to be American. It is seen by their action of informing
people, in-group or out-group, about who they are, where they belong ans
what they think.
In the end, the effects of construction are also mentioned in the
novel. In that case, the researcher finds five (5) data indicating the effects
of social identity construction. The effects can be the responses from
American concerning their daily activities and anything related to the way
they show their categorization. The detail and authentic data will be listed
4.1.1.1 Social Categorization
4.1.1.1.1 Culture
The story of the novel does not only tell about identity crisis
happened to Gogol. It instead also tells about the struggle of Gogol’s
family to construct their social identity as Indian by showing their culture.
From the data found, there are evidences indicated that they keep their
culture by applying it in America including: eating Indian special foods,
wearing clothes that usually Indians wear, practicing their action to greet
people and conducting activities based on their belief and culture in India.
The very first thing told in the novel is when Ashima was in her
first pregnancy, she still kept consuming Indian food. We can obviously
see from the monologue which explains about it below.
[Data 1] /Ashima has been consuming this concoction throughout her pregnancy, a humble approximation of the snack sold for pennies on Calcutta sidewalks and on railway platforms throughout India,
spilling from newspaper cones. Even now that there is barely space inside her, it is theone thing she craves./ (pg. 7)
The statements with bold and underline form above shows the
attitude of Ashima that shows social categorization. The second statement
“the one thing she craves” obviously shows that Ashima consume Indian
food – the only food she eats, even though there may be many American
foods she can eat. Further, “the one thing” refers to the food described in
38
snack sold for pennies on Calcutta sidewalks and on railway platforms
throughout India”. Thus, these statements show social categorization
because Ashima still consumes food originated from her nation even
though she has been living in America for years.
Furthermore, Ashima and her daughter, Sonia, are still wearing
clothes which imply their pride as Indian. It happens when Ashima was in
hospital for Gogol’s birth. A nurse asked her to change the dress into
patient’s cloth provided by the hospital, as the data below.
[Data 2] /She is asked to remove her Murshidabad silk sari in favor of a flowered cotton gown that, to her mild embarrassment, only reaches her knees/ (pg. 8)
The statement with bold and underline form shows that Ashima
wears Sari, Indian special cloth. It is clear whether she keeps her culture
even though she is not in India. In addition, she and her daughter also wear
Sari in Gogol’s wedding. Besides, Gogol himself also wears Indian cloth
for male, Punjabi, instead of wearing coat which is usually worn by
Americans in a wedding, as in below data.
lipstick on her lips. "Is it too much?" his mother worries, regarding herself in the mirror. Still, he has not seen her looking this lovely, this happy, this excited, in years. Sonia wears a sari, too, fuchsia with silver em broidery, a red rose stuck into her hair/ (pg. 153-154).
From the monologue above, we can understand that Gogol and his
family keep wearing Indian cloth even in daily and special big events to
show that they are Indian. Thus, they categorize themselves as Indian by
showing their culture including wearing the special cloth and eating the
special foods from their original nation.
Then, in certain occasion, they also conduct special ceremony
based on Indian’s culture. As example is the ceremony for a six month-old
child. The ceremony was following the culture of India, rice ceremony.
They name it Annaprasan. In india, a child who has been six months old
must have rice ceremony and other things included in the ceremony, such
predicting the future by stimulating the child to take a thing showing his
career, next time. The data below will make the explanation clearer.
[Data 4] /By February, when Gogol is six months old, Ashima and Ashoke know enough people to entertain on a proper scale. The occasion: Gogol's annaprasan, his rice ceremony// They ask Dilip Nandi to play the part of Ashima's brother, to hold the child and feed him rice, the Bengali staff of life, for the very first time. Gogol is dressed as an infant Bengali groom, in a pale yellow pajamapunjabi from his grandmother in Calcutta/ pg. 32
40
It clear whether Gogol’s family still respects their culture by
conducting the ceremony based on the culture they learn in their home
nation. They keep their belief the culture so that they implement it even
when they have been years not living in India. They do anything in order
that the ceremony runs well. As it is stated in the first data that “they ask
Dilip Nandi to play the part of Ashima's brother, to hold the child and feed
him rice, the Bengali staff of life, for the very first time”, it is one of the
way they do to succeed the ceremony. Actually, the one who should feed
Gogol was his own uncle, Ashima’s brother. Yet, Gogol’s parent asked his
friend, Dilip Nandi – an Indian immigrant, to change Ashima’s brother
duty in that ceremony. In fact, they also invited their neighbor Alan and
family, Native American, to join the ceremony. Thus, they apply social
categorization concept to show their social identity by showing their
culture to other people, American even.
Other ceremony conducted is Gogol’s wedding that also follows
Indian culture. His wedding, with other Indian immigrants, was prepared
wholly by his and his wife’s family. They conducted Hindu ceremony as
how Indians usually do, in common.
In fact, even though they have lived in America and learnt many
cultures of it, they still do special big events following Indian’s culture. It
implicitly means that they try to respect and to keep their culture. The
description of the activity was clear enough to depict Indian’s culture that
they conduct the wedding by setting the bridge and the bridegroom in the
middle sitting cross-legged and side by side. Meanwhile, the guests sit
facing them like watching a seminar. Hence, Gogol and his family
categorize themselves as Indian even though they are only immigrant.
Furthermore, Gogol’s father also does something indicating
Indian’s culture it happens when Gogol introduce Maxine, his girlfriend, to
his family. His father’s way to greet Maxine is not alike with how
American usually does. He instead uses Indian’s way in greeting other
people as seen from the data below.
[Data 7] /"Hi, Baba," Gogol says. "I'd like you to meet Maxine." "Hello," his father says, putting up a hand, looking as if he is about to take an oath. He does not sit down with them. Instead he asks Maxine, "That is your car outside?"/ pg. 105
Gogol’s father puts his hand up which indicate Indian’s way to greet
people. Indeed, it is also their way to categorize them as Indian.
Among the data explained above, it is obvious that Gogol’s family
apply Tajfel and Turner’s theory of social identity construction (1979).
They construct their social identity by showing and keeping Indian culture
42
They prefer to show their culture instead of following western culture in
order to keep their pride regarding their nationality.
4.1.1.1.2 Tradition
In other occasion, tradition is also including to standard of social
categorization in case of social identity construction as what Gogol’s
family do. Keeping the tradition is other ways to build up their social
categorization. For example, in India, parent does not name their baby
themselves. The name of the baby will be given by the elder such
grandmother, either from the husband or the wife’s family. In fact, Ashima
and Ashoke give full authority to Ashima’s grandmother to name their first
baby even though they are exactly far from her. Then, they also tell their
tradition to the hospital when they were asked to mention the baby’s name
for his certificate birth. It is seen from their dialogue in the novel as below
data.
[Data 8] /"What's his name? Buro?" Patty inquires brightly, bearing another tray of baked chicken for Ashima. Ashoke lifts the lid and polishes off the chicken; Ashima is now officially referred to by the maternity nurses as the Jell-O-and-Ice-Cream Lady. "No, no, that is not a name," Ashima explains. "We haven't chosen. My grandmother is choosing."/ pg. 24
It happens when their friend, other Indian Immigrant in America,
visit them to see their baby. His name is Mr. Nandi. He called the baby by
“Buro” which mean a boy. Hearing that, the nurse asked whether it is the
baby’s name or not. In fact, Ashima, without any doubt, tell the nurse that
do. Thus, Ashima and Ashoke keep their tradition in case of giving name
for a baby.
Additionally, it is a common activity for people to celebrate
birthday. Yet, each person will conduct birthday celebration in their own
way based on the tradition. So does Gogol’s family, his parent celebrates
Gogol’s birthday using their own way, as Indian immigrant in America,
especially. They conduct two kinds of celebration for two reasons, they
are: (1) to respect Gogol’s friend who are Native American, and (2) to
keep their own tradition. Thus, the celebration is definitely conducted
differently based own their own tradition and Americans’.
[Data 9] /Gogol's fourteenth birthday. Like most events in his life, it is another excuse for his parents to throw a party for their Bengali friends.
His own friends from school were invited the previous day, a tame affair, with pizzas that his father picked up on his way home from work, a baseball game watched together on television, some Ping-Pong in the den. For the first time in his life he has said no to the frosted cake, the box of harlequin ice cream, the hot dogs in buns, the balloons and streamers taped to the walls. The other celebration, the Bengali one, is held on the closest Saturday to the actual date of his birth. As usual his mother cooks for days beforehand, cramming the refrigerator with stacks of foil-covered trays. She makes sure to prepare his favorite things: lamb curry with lots of potatoes, luchis, thick channa dal with swollen brown raisins, pineapple chutney, sandeshes molded out of saffron-tinted ricotta cheese.
All this is less stressful to her than the task of feeding a handful of American children, half of whom always claim they are allergic to milk, all of whom refuse to eat the crusts of their bread/ pg. 55
The excerpt above clearly shows that Gogol’s family conducts two
different kinds of birthday celebration. One celebration is for Gogol’s
44
based on their habit and foods. Meanwhile, the other celebration is for
Bengali friends. Different from the celebration for America, the
celebration conducted for Bengali people is more special, for Ashima
especially. It is proven by the description explained in the last sentence of
the paragraph “All this is less stressful to her than the task of feeding a
handful of American chil
