CULTURAL SYMBOLISM IN ROB MARSHALL
’S
MEMOIR OF A GEISHA MOVIE
A THESIS
Submitted to Fulfill the Partial Requirement for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra
By :
CHAIRI ICHWANA SYAHPUTRI
Registration Number: 2123220007
ENGLISH AND LITERATURE DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGES AND ARTS
DECLARATION
I have familiarized myself with the university’s policy on academic
integrity. Except where appropriately acknowledged, this thesis is my own
word, has been expressed in my own words and has not previously been
submitted for assessment.
I understand that this paper may be screened electronically or otherwise
for plagiarism.
Medan, February 2017
i
ABSTRACT
Syahputri, Chairi Ichwana. 2123220007. Cultural Symbolism in Rob Marshall’s Memoir of a Geisha Movie. A Thesis. English Department. Faculty of Languages and Arts, State University of Medan. 2017.
This study deal with symbolic element and its meaning in Rob Marshall’s Memoir
of a Geisha movie. The objectives of this study were to find out the kinds of
symbol in the movie and to describe the meaning of the symbol. This study was conducted by using descriptive qualitative method. The data of this study was analyzed by using five steps: identifying the symbolic element in Memoir of a
Geisha movie, reducing the symbols, classifying the symbols to its kinds,
analyzing the meaning of the symbols and concluding the symbolic element that are founded. The data were collected from the movie Memoir of a Geisha. The finding of this study found that there were 21 symbols in the movie. Those symbols were red, black, white, throwing salt, burn incense, kibiri, serving tea, snow dance, mizuage, tunnel, cherry blossom, maple leaves, water, fire, full-coloured lip, kimono, bell flower crest, obi, rice cake in red box, golden fish and tiger. The meaning of the symbols were dangerous, joy, evil, formality, status, purify, good luck, honor, forbidden love, the practice, demarcation point, spring, autumn, adaptability, the character, the district, virginity, maturity, fearless, free and cruel.
ii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First and foremost, the writer would like to express her greatest gratitude
to Allah SWT who has granted countless blessing, knowledge and opportunity so
that the writer can finish the academic year and completing this thesis entitled
“Cultural Symbolism in Rob Marshall’s Memoir of Geisha Movie” as one of the
requirements for completion of Sarjana Sastra (S1) at English Department,
Faculty of Languages and Arts, State University of Medan.
During the process of completing this thesis, the writer realized that she
Department, Dra. Meisuri, M.A., the Secretary of English and Literature
Department, Faculty of Languages and Arts, State University of Medan.
Syamsul Bahri, S.S., M.Hum., the Head of English Literature Study
Program.
Dr. I Wayan Dirgeyesa, M.Hum., the First Thesis Advisor and
Dr. Zainuddin, DIP., TEFL., M.Hum., the Second Thesis Advisor
whose advice, encouragement, robust criticism and sincere motivation
have been a great deal towards this thesis writing process right from the
very beginning.
Prof. Amrin Saragih, M.A., Ph.D., and Drs. Elia Masa Ginting,
iii
inputs and constructive comments have enlightened her to accomplish this
thesis.
Eis Sri Wahyuningsih, M.Pd., the Administration Staff of English
Department, for her attention, assistance, and information in completing
this thesis.
Abdul Lathief Nasution, her beloved grandfather, Khairul Saleh and
Rita Abdianti Nasution, S.E., S.Pd., her beloved parents for their endless
love, whole hearted care, days and nights prayer, moral and material
support in her whole life. This thesis is dedicated to you.
Her beloved sister and brothers; Chairina Aulia Syuhadda, S.Pd., M.
Iqbal Seno, Satria Harum Nugraha, and Iklil Harum Syahalam for
their endless love, prayers, and encouragement.
Her uncle Muhammad Arifin, M.Pd., for his suggestion and
encouragement.
Her best friends Maria Rivera Parasian Panjaitan, S.S., M. Ridho
Wibowo, S.S., Mutia Suri, and Sharlly Marina, for their everlasting
support, togetherness, amazing moments and experiences, and sad-happy
days they have spent together in her four-year study.
The writer realizes that this thesis is still far from being perfect, she
warmly welcomes any constructive suggestions, and comments that will improve
the quality of this thesis. She hopes that this thesis would be useful for those who
read and feel interested in the field of this study.
Medan, February 2017
The writer,
Chairi Ichwana Syahputri
vi
CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION ... 57
A. Conclusion ... 57
B. Suggestion ... 58
REFERENCES ... 59
vii
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 2.1. Conceptual Framework ... 26
B. Problem of the Study 5
C. Object of the Study 5
D. Scope of the Study 5
E. Significant of the Study 5
CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW
A. Theoretical Framework 7
1. Semiotic 7
2. Semiotic vs Semantic 8
3. Signifier and Signified 9
4. Sign and Symbol 10
C. Technique for Collecting the Data 30
D. Instrument for Collecting the Data 31
1
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. Background of Study
Globalization is a phenomenon where the international integration arising
from the interchange of world view, ideas and other aspect of culture. This
situation was begun in the era of 19th and early 20th where economies and cultures
grew very quickly in every part in the world and no exception in Indonesia. Yet
despite bring advantages such as the exchange of culture and the development in
technology, this situation also brings disadvantages precisely in the moral of the
new generation.
Indonesia as a growing country is considered not ready to face this situation.
With the development of technology, the new generation in Indonesia undergo a
moral crisis and seems to forgotten the history of Indonesia and its culture. The
exchanges of the culture as the effect of globalization, make the new generation
love other nation’s culture, especially Western culture which bring a big change
since the early of 20th century. This is the problem that keep become the topic of
conversation and an issue which interest the people to solve it so the new
generation would like to love their own culture and arts which part of the culture,
might become a tool to solve this social issue.
Arts is considered as a represent of an expression and usually influenced by
the culture and which in turn helps to change the culture. Arts also included a
2
from a novel.
Literature stated by Hadjira (2013) is a mirror that reflect human life and
society with its characteristic and development and this is what make literature
different over nations and periods. Later, he also said that a literary work which
contain various themes, also rich with symbolic elements such as colour, form or
animal to convey a message.
Symbol itself in a literature is the deepest meaning and hidden meaning in a
piece of work and often used to represent things, a moral or religious belief or
value (Cuddon, 1998). Perrine (1966: 83) states that “we- as the literary readers,
are expected to dig some new and existing experiences through literary works,
because in fact, we do not only get experiences by involving directly into such
action, but we can get it through reading some literary works as well”.
In literature, symbol basically carries the meaning of the literary device that
the writers use to convey their message in directly by using symbol, whether for
the sake of decorating the work in order to give artistic beauty or for other
purpose (Amraoui & Salah, 2009). So, it can be said that a literary work without a
symbolism in it, is just like a work of word on a paper or a picture of documentary
video and the symbol in a literary work not only make the novel, movie or a
poetry look beautiful but also worth to watch because movie as a literary work,
reflected or mirrored the real life of human being (Fadaee, 2011).
Symbol itself, not only used in literary work but also in daily life as a tool of
communication to deliver a meaning through an image. It is also used to represent
3
basis of all human understanding and serve as vehicles of conception for all
human knowledge. Symbols facilitate understanding of the world in which we live,
thus serving as the grounds upon which we make judgments. In this way, people
use symbols not only to make sense of the world around them, but also to identify
and cooperate in society.
Symbol and culture is related each other. Human as part of the culture and
have a close relationship with the culture can be considered as symbolic creature.
As stated by Herusatoto (2008:16) who said that “begitu eratnya kebudayaan
manusia itu dengan simbol-simbol sehingga manusia dapat pula disebut makhluk
bersimbol (so close that a culture with the symbols so that it can be said that
human is a symbolic creature).
In relation to culture, Womack (2005:1) states that “symbols are the
language of religions, magic and expressive culture, including art, literature,
theatre, music, festival and sporting event”. This means that symbols exist in
culture and part of it, in term of an action or sign or picture. The example of
symbolism in culture can be found in any culture for example is the different
pattern and colour in Japanese traditional clothes, a kimono, which the colour
represents the seasonal weather or the feeling of the user.
The existent of a culture is really important. For example is in the East Asia.
The culture influences the behaviour, the custom and the daily life activities of the
people in that continent. This is because Asia consist of many nationalities,
4
which located precisely in East Asian, is highly honoured and keep their culture
despite being one of the advanced country which also being influence by the
western country’s culture. This can be seen by the different kinds of festivals,
design of the garden that maintaining the balance of the nature, the clothes, and
some historical heritage such as the castles and some beautiful temples. The Japan
culture itself is influenced by the Chinese culture. Showed in the language
characteristic, religious and also philosophy which is derived from Confucianism.
(http/en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_of_Asia)
The reflection of a culture can be represented in any kinds of literary works
such as a film which sometimes, adapted from a novel.
Memoirs of a Geisha is an American epic/historical drama film that adapted
from a novel with the same title from the author Arthur Golden and directed by
Rob Marshall which also the director of famous film, Pirates of the Caribbean:
On Stranger Tides.
It is a film which consists of symbolic elements in the story such as the
handkerchief which symbolize the main character’s first love and water which
symbolize the main character’s personality. This film, despite being an American
film which the dialogue mostly in English, use Japan culture as the background of
the story.
Analyzing symbolism in a film/movie can be more difficult than in any
printed text (novel, advertisement, short story) because a film is a moving picture
5
the relationship between the symbols and the story in the film can be more
complicated and need more observation. Furthermore, Perrine (1974), the
meaning of the literary symbol should be recognized according to its context.
Thus, this research intends to find out the meaning of the symbol that consist in
the Memoir of a Geisha’s movie based on the Japanese culture.
B. Problem of the Study
In line with the background, the problems are formulated as forward
1. What kinds of symbols used in Rob Marshall’s movie Memoir of a Geisha?
2. What are the meaning of the symbols in Rob Marshall’s movie Memoir of
a Geisha?
C. Objective of the Study
The object of the study in this research are
1. To find out the kinds of symbols in Rob Marshall’s movie Memoir of a
Geisha.
2. To explain the meaning of the symbol in Rob Marshall’s movie Memoir of
a Geisha.
D. Scope of the Study
The scope of the study in this research was focused on the symbolic
elements which was presented in the movie to find out the kinds of the symbols
6
E. Significant of the Study
Finding of this study are expected to give both theoretical and practical
significant in symbolism study.
Theoretically, the finding of this study is expected to be significant:
1) For English literature student as additional theory in literature
2) To provide knowledge and understanding of semiotic, especially in
symbolism for the readers and English literature student.
Practically, the finding of this study is expected to be significant:
1) For the readers who want to learn the symbols in Japanese culture
or comparing it with other Asian culture.
2) For English literature student to gain the interest to study the
symbols in Indonesian culture and use symbol as references in their
57
CHAPTER V
CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION
A. Conclusion
After analysing and describing the symbol’s meaning in the movie, there
were some point that can be concluded as presented below:
1. There were 21 symbols found in the ‘Memoir of a Geisha’ movie. Those
symbols were red, black, white, throwing salt, burn incense, kibiri, serving
tea, snow dance, mizuage, tunnel, cherry blossom, maple leaves, water,
fire, full-coloured lip, kimono, bell flower crest, obi, rice cake in red box,
golden fish and tiger.
2. The meaning of the symbols in the movie were dangerous, joy, evil,
formality, status, purify, good luck, honor, forbidden love, the practice,
demarcation point, spring, autumn, adaptability, the character, the district,
virginity, maturity, fearless, free and cruel.
3. The meaning of the symbol in the movie was influenced by Buddhism,
Shinto, and Mythology of Japanese which worshiped and believed the
existence of a spirit such as in the meaning of the symbol of burning
incense and throwing salt which the act has the meaning of purifying from
58
B. Suggestion
In relation to the conclusion, there were several suggestions that the writer
could be offer to readers about symbolism, they were:
1. A movie can consist with different kinds of symbol and a careful
observation was needed to recognize those symbols.
2. A symbol can have more than one meaning and depend on the context,
the meaning of the symbol also changed.
3. Most of Japanese culture was influence by the mythology, Buddhism
and their belief, Shinto, and they also honoured some ancient tradition
and places as their culture heritage. It would be good if Indonesia can
learn from Japanese to protect their culture heritage and tradition in
59
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London: Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd. p. 17
Womack, Mari. 2005. Symbols and Meaning. A Concise Introduction. Oxford: AltaMira Press.
Hadjira, Rahal. 2013. Symbolism in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet letter
(1850). Ouargla: Kasdi Merbah University.
Abdullah, S., Osman, M and Setia, R. 2009. Semiotic Analysis of a Media Text
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. Canadian Social Science.
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Chang, H.M., Ivonim, L., Diaz, M. 2013. From Mythology to Psychology:
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Habib, F., Sara, N and H, Majedi. 2013. Japanese Garden as a Physical
Symbol of Japanese Culture. International Journal of Architecture and
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Communication / English, pp. 12-23
Morgan, John H. 1978. Clifford Geertz: An Interacting of Anthropology and
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Parmentier, Richard J. 2014. Representation, Symbol, and Semiosis: Signs of a
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Memoir of a Geisha. Dir. Rob Marshall. Dream Works/Spyglass/Amblin/Red
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