Analysis of Social and Inner Conflicts of The Protagonist in Anne Tyler's 'Digging To America'.

(1)

Maranatha Christian University

ABSTRACT

Dalam penulisan tugas akhir ini, untuk memenuhi persyaratan

memperoleh gelar Sarjana Sastra di Jurusan Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra,

Universitas Kristen Maranatha, saya memutuskan untuk menganalisis sebuah

novel karya Anne Tyler yang berjudul Digging to America. Hal yang akan saya

analisa dari novel ini adalah beberapa konflik sosial dan psikologis yang dialami

oleh tokoh utama dalam novel tersebut, beserta penyebab terjadinya konflik, dan

juga solusi yang diambil oleh tokoh utama.

Novel Digging to America menceritakan tentang seorang imigran dari Iran

yang tinggal di Amerika bernama Maryam Yazdan. Maryam adalah tokoh utama

dalam novel ini, dan ia mengalami empat konflik sosial dan dua konflik

psikologis. Semua konflik sosial yang dialami oleh Maryam dikarenakan adanya

perbedaan pendapat dengan anggota keluarganya dan salah seorang temannya

mengenai cara hidup di Amerika. Konflik psikologis yang dialami oleh Maryam

disebabkan oleh adanya pertentangan pendapat dengan dirinya sendiri mengenai

(2)

APPENDICES

Synopsis of Digging to America

The story is set in Baltimore, Maryland and it is about experiences of two

families. Maryam, Sami and Ziba Yazdan are members of an Iranian-American

family. Brad and Bitsy Dickinson-Donaldson are members of an American

family. They meet at the airport when their adopted infant daughters arrive from

Korea. The two families finally become friends and begin a tradition of

celebrating the arrival of their adopted daughters each year, called The Arrival

Party.

The differences between the two families are apparent from the beginning,

especially Maryam Yazdan who insists on aplying Iranian manners and refuses to

apply American manners even though she has been living in America for more

than 35 years which make the relationship between both of them become

(4)

20

Biography of the Anne Tyler

Anne Tyler was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1941. Tyler attended Duke University, where she majored in Russian language. In the first year, she

became a pupil of Reynolds Price, who herself would become a major novelist. In

1962, she returned to Duke as a Russian bibliographer for the library. The

following year, she married Taghi Modaressi, a psychologist from Iran.

In 1964, the two moved to Montreal, where Tyler worked as an assistant

librarian at McGill University Law School and wrote her first two novels, If

Morning Ever Comes (1964) and The Tin Can Tree (1965). In 1967, she and her

husband moved to Baltimore, the setting for most of Tyler's novels. With the

publication of A Slipping-Down Life (1970) and The Clock Winder (1972), Tyler

began to receive more serious and positive critical attention, but only in the

mid-seventies, when such writers as Gail Godwin and John Updike called attention to

her, did her novels benefit from widespread recognition. Throughout Tyler's

novels, characters struggle to negotiate a balance between self-identity and family

identity.

Tyler’s novel, Morgan’s Passing (1980) was nominated for the National Book Critics Circle award and received the Janet Heidegger Kafka Prize. Dinner

at Homesick Restaurant (1982) won the PEN/Faulkner Award from fiction and

was nominated for a National Book Critics Award and the 1983 Pulitzer Prize.

The Accidental Tourist (1985) is the movie version of which helped make Tyler

to be more well-known. Breathing Lessons (1988) was honored respectively with

a National Book Critics Circle Award and Pulitzer Prize.

(5)

1

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

BACKGROUND OF STUDY

In my thesis, I choose to analyse a novel entitled Digging to America

written by Anne Tyler. I am interested in analyzing the novel Digging To America

because this novel is a semi-autobiographical novel, which means a “novel based

on the life of the author and becomes fiction that mirrors events in his or her life”

(“Autobiographical Novel”). Anne Tyler is an American woman who is married

to a man from Iran, Taghi Modaressi, who works as a psychologist. Anne Tyler

lives in Baltimore, Maryland, where most of her novels are set, especially in

Digging to America. “Obviously, she knows a great deal about the Iranian and

American families. Undoubtedly, there are strong autobiographical threads hidden

within the fabric of these characters fictional lives. Perhaps this is Anne Tyler

unconsciously trying to write herself into a less solitary future” (Case).

Tyler always writes about multi-cultural issues in her books. Most of

Tyler’s books tell about finding one’s identity as a foreigner, and what makes

someone as outsider in a foreign country. Tyler’s novel Digging to America deals

(6)

2

parents and their children. Tyler’s books have been awarded several times, as

stated by Leon that, “Dinner at Homesick (1982) won the PEN/Faulkner Award

for fiction and was nominated for a National Book Critics Circle Award and 1983

Pulitzer Prize, her eleventh novel Breathing Lessons (1988) was awarded the

Pulitzer Prize” (Leon 54).

In Digging to America, the most interesting elements to analyze are social

and inner conflicts experienced by the protagonist, namely Maryam Yazdan. Both

social and inner conflicts are closely related to the protagonist’s condition of

being a foreigner in America. Therefore, I feel challenged to analyze the social

and inner conflicts of the protagonist in this novel. According to Harry Shaw in

Dictionary of Literary Terms, conflicts are

important element of plot; they are material from which a plot is

constructed.there are three kinds of conflict; physical conflict, social

conflict and internal conflict. Physical conflict is a struggle between man

and physical world. It represents man versus forces of nature, the

difficulties and danger. Then, the second is social conflict which is means

a struggle between man and man. The third is internal conflict or physical,

means that a struggle between desires within a person. (Shaw 91-92)

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

In order to analyze the novel, I would like to answer the following

questions:

1. What social conflicts are faced by the protagonist?

(7)

3

3. What are the resolutions of both social and inner conflicts?

PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

Based on the statement of the problem, the purposes of the study are:

1. To find what social conflicts experienced by the protagonist.

2. To find what inner conflicts experienced by the protagonist.

3. To show the resolutions of both social and inner conflicts.

METHOD OF RESEARCH

In doing the analysis, I use library research. First, I read Anne Tyler’s

novel entitled Digging to America as a primary text. After that, I search the

references from the library and electronic website, which can support my analysis

and furthermore help me in writing my thesis. Finally, I draw some conclusion

from my analysis.

ORGANIZATION OF THE THESIS

The thesis is organized into three chapters, which is preceded by the

Acknowledgements, Table of Contents and Abstract. In the first chapter, I present

the Background of the Study, the Statement of the Problem, the Purpose of the

Study, the Method of Research and the Organization of the Thesis. Chapter Two

consists of the Analysis of Social and Inner Conflicts of the Protagonist in Anne

Tyler’s Digging to America. Chapter Three is the Conclusion. The thesis ends

with Bibliography and the Appendices, which include the synopsis of Digging to

(8)

14 Maranatha Christian University

CHAPTER THREE

CONCLUSION

After having analyzed both social and inner conflicts in Digging to

America, I can conclude that Anne Tyler is a good writer due to the fact she

already succeeds not only in producing a good story that make me as the reader

feel eager to read her novel, but also in creating the social and inner conflicts in

the story that makes this novel becomes more interesting for me to read. In this

chapter, I would review the social and inner conflicts of the protagonist in the

novel, and draw a conclusion. Having read the novel and analyzed the social and

inner conflicts of the protagonist in Anne Tyler’s Digging to America, I am of the opinion that Maryam Yazdan, the protagonist of the novel has experienced social

and inner conflicts, because she cannot adjust with the American culture although

she has already lived there for 35 years. As a result, Maryam experiences some

dilemmas that affect her life.

Maryam as the protagonist of this novel experiences four social conflicts.

(9)

American friend Bitsy. The first social conflict is between Maryam and Sami

concerning Maryam’s objection towards Sami’s lifestyle, which is unresolved because Sami and Maryam still disagree with each other. The second social

conflict is between Maryam and Bitsy concerning Maryam’s rejection of the love

offered by Bitsy’s father, Dave. This conflict is unresolved because both of them still disagree with each other. The third social conflict is between Maryam and

Ziba concerning different opinion regarding pregnancy and this conflict is

unresolved because both of them still disagree with each other. The fourth social

conflict is also between Maryam and Ziba concerning Maryam’s objection

towards Ziba’s way of dressing Susan, which is unresolved because both of them still keep to their own opinion.

Maryam also experiences two inner conflicts. The first inner conflict

concerns Maryam’s citizenship, whether she has to choose to keep her Iranian nationality or change her nationality into American. This conflict is resolved as

she finally decides to be an American citizen. The second inner conflict concerns

Maryam’s decision whether to marry Dave or not. This inner conflict is finally resolved as she agrees to marry with Dave.

Most of the elements of social and inner conflicts in Anne Tyler’s Digging to America are interesting so as to make the readers feel eager as well as

question about how Maryam as the protagonist would resolve the conflicts in the

end. In the story in Digging to America, the protagonist’s life is relevant to real life. Most of people who live in America are immigrants from other countries, just

like Maryam Yazdan. Most immigrants are from the United Kingdom, China, and

(10)

and it is also difficult for them because most of them are considered to be inferior

than the Americans. Thus, it becomes difficult for the immigrants to feel at home

in America, which is the case of Maryam Yazdan.

In my opinion, one has to be able to adjust oneself in a foreign

country, and they have to accept other cultures. Living in another country does not

necessarily mean forgetting about one’s own culture and manner. However, I understand how Maryam feels. All of her family members are from Iran and she

was born in Iran. According to her, Iran is the one place that she knows. For me, it

must be a difficult to feel comfortable in a foreign country, because there are

many differences between American and Iranian cultures. American people are

more open, but Iranian people are more introverted. Americans are

straightforward, but Iranians always try to be polite whenever they speak.

However, if I place myself in Maryam’s position, I will not make the same decision as hers. Conflicts may happen due to different cultures. One has to be

open-minded about everything, so that one may become a better person. Even

though I disagree with Maryam, I believe that everyone has freedom to choose

what to think. What one can do to cope with differences is to feel comfortable

with oneselves. We have to be open with others. Accepting other cultures does not

mean forgetting about one’s own culture.

I am of the opinion that Anne Tyler as the writer succeeds in creating a

great character in the story that experiences both social and inner conflicts. For

(11)

and to persuade the readers to feel what Maryam feels, which makes me likes the

(12)

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Primary text:

Tyler, Anne. Digging to America. United States: United States Square press, 2006.

Reference :

Leon, Bram L. Funk and Wagnalls New Encyclopedia. The United States of America: Sons company, 1991. 27 Augst. 2010.

Shaw, Harry. Dictionary of Literary Terms. New York: McGraw Hill, Inc, 1972. 27 Augst. 2010.

Internet websites:

“Anne Tyler”. Wikipedia. 2009. 4 Sept. 2010 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki Anne tyler>

“Autobiographical Novel”. Wikipedia. 2008. 9 Sept. 2010 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autobiographical_novel>

“Digging to America: A Novel”. The Review. 2007. 9 Sept. 2010 <http://www.amazon.com/Digging-America-Novel-Anne- Tyler/dp/034549234X>

“Immigration to the United States”. Wikipedia. 2009. 28 Oct. 2010