AN ANALYSIS OF ERIN GRUWELL’S SOCIAL
CONFLICT IN “THE FREEDOM WRITERS” FILM
THESIS
By :
DESSI VILAST TRIAGUNA
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION
UNIVERSITY OF MUHAMMADIYAH MALANG
AN ANALYSIS OF ERIN GRUWELL’S SOCIAL
CONFLICT IN “THE FREEDOM WRITERS” FILM
THESIS
This thesis is submitted to meet one of the requirements to achieve
Sarjana Degree in English Education
By :
DESSI VILAST TRIAGUNA 06360239
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION
UNIVERSITY OF MUHAMMADIYAH MALANG
This thesis written by Dessi Vilast Triaguna was approved on August 2, 2012.
By :
Advisor I Advisor II
This thesis was defended in front of the examiners of the Faculty of Teacher
Training and Education of University of Muhammadiyah Malang
and accepted as one of the requirements to achieve
Sarjana Degree in English Education
on August 2, 2012
Approved by :
Faculty of Teacher Training and Education
University of Muhammadiyah Malang
Dean,
Dr. M. Syaifuddin, M.M
Examiners : Signatures :
1. Drs. Hartono, M.Pd 1.
2. Bayu Hendro Wicaksono, M.Ed. Ph.D 2.
3. Dra. Erly Wahyuni, M.Si 3.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Title page .………..
Title page .……….. i
Title page .……….. ii
Advisor’s Approval .……….. iii
Examination Committee’s Approval .……… iv
Motto and Dedication .………... v
Acknowledgment .……….. vi
Abstract ..……… vii
Table of Contents .……….. viii
CHAPTER I : INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background of the Study ..……… 1
1.2 Statements of the Problem .…………..……….. 5
1.3 Purposes of the 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 Literature ..……….………..
2.2 Film ..……….………..
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2.3 Elements of Film ....……….... 10
3.1.1.2 Erin with Ms. Campbell ……….
3.1.1.3Erin with her Husband, Scott ………...
3.1.1.4Erin with her Student, Eva ……….
4.2 The Causes of Social Conflict faced by Erin Gruwell ……….
MOTTO AND DEDICATION
“
AC TUALLY THERE I S EASY WAY BEHI ND D I FFI C ULTY
”
( AQ.S Al-Insyira : 6 )
Henda k ny a Ti a p k a Ta
Ta k Ha ny a meng a ndung Il mu,
t et a pi j ug a mel a hir k a n dz i k ir .
Henda k ny a Ti a p k a l ima T,
Ta k Ha ny a Mena Mb a H Wa Wa sa n,
t et a pi Jug a Ket a q wa a n
-Salim A. Fillah-
Th i s t h esi s i s Ded i ca t ed t o:
M y Sou l m a t e
My b el ov ed Pa r en t s
M y b el ov ed Pa r en t s i n L a w
M y t w o l i t t l e A n gel s
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Alhamdulillahi Rabbil’alamin, All praise is to Allah S.W.T. Because of His bless, merciful, and love, she can accomplish this thesis. Greeting, prayers, and love are also presented to the beloved prophet Muhammad S.A.W, his family, and companions who love us deeply.
First of all, the writer would like to present the greatest gratitude to both of her advisors; Dra. Erly Wahyuni, M.Si as the first advisor and Rina Wahyu, M.Pd as the second advisor for the great contribution, meaningful guidance, corrections, suggestion, encouragement, motivation, and use full feedback that have inspired the writer over the completion of this thesis.
Furthermore, my sincere gratitude goes to all lecturers of English Department who have taught her to be a good English graduation and given much knowledge which influence her thought about anything. Especially to Ahmad Tohir Yoga because of his motivation and suggestion the writer chose “The Freedom Writers” film as object of the study.
beloved law parents, Al Musyafir and Bintan Maharani for their motivation and pray. Her brother and sister, Ella and Ero for their pray and love. Her nephew and niece, Rofi, Dilla, Fian, Radhi, Ari, and sheffa. Also the writer thankful her brothers and sister in law, Mbak Ely, Mas Sentot, Mbak Ana, and Mas Nasrum for their love
The writer thankful for the close friend Yanti, Ema, Qurrota’ayun, Mbak Susi, Tyas, Nuris, Arief, Masdiyan, Meidy, Wildan, and Iza who give her support and motivation. Also, all of her friends whose name cannot be mentioned one by one here.
Finally, the writer hopes that this thesis will give advantages for the readers. Amin.
Malang, August 2012
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Abrams, M. H. 1981. A Glossary of Literary Term. USA :Cornel University.
Andrie. 2007. Faktor-faktor Penyebab Sosial Konflik. http://andrie07.wordpress.com
Arp, R, Thomas, Johnson, Greg. 2006. Perrine’s Literature; Structure, Sound, and Sense, Ninth edition. Canada: Michael Rosenberg
Ary, Donald. Et.al. 2002. Introduction to Research in Education. Sixth Edition. New York:
Wadsworth Thomson Learning.
Beaty, et.al. 2002. The Norton Introduction to Literature. New York
Bogdan, Robert C. and Sari Knopp Biklen. 2007. Qualitative Research for Education. Fifth edition. USA: Syracuse University.
Darmadjati, Soepadjar. 2000. Nilai-Nilai Filsafat Timur. Gramedia Grup. Jakarta
Dirks, Tim. 2010. Kinds of Film. www.filmsite.org/filmterms9.html
DiYanni, Robert. 2004. Literature Approaches to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. New York: McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
Faidah.2011. An Analysis on Isabella Swan’s Social Conflict in the Novel “Twilight” written by Stephenie Meyer. Unpublished Thesis. The English Department of University Muhammadiyah of Malang.
Flint, Rebecca & Rovi, Marx. 2002. Richard Lagravenese Biography.
http://www.moviefone.com/celebrity/richard-lagravenese/1275979/biography
Guntur, Tarigan Henry. 1986. Prinsip Dasar Sastra. Bandung: Penerbit Angkasa Hartiningsih, Sri. 2001. Introduction to Literature. Unpublished. Malang: UMM Irawanto. 2011. Effect of Social Conflict. http //febriirawanto.blogspot.com/
Kennedy, XJ. 1983. An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry and Drama. Third Edition. New York:
Little, Brown and Company
Madden, Frank. 2007. Exploring Literature: Writing and Arguing about Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and the Essay. Third edition. United States: Pearson Education, Inc.
Rebecca, Just. 2007. Synopsis forFreedom Writers . http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0463998/synopsis
Taufikkurrahman. 2010. An Analysis on Santiago Munez’s Psychological Conflicts in “ Goal” Movie. Unpublished Thesis. The English Department of University Muhammadiyah of Malang
APPENDIX I
BIOGRAPHY OF RICHARD LAGRAVENESE
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CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
This chapter presents the background of study, statement of the problems, the purpose of the study, the significance of the study, the scope and limitation, and the definition of the key terms.
1.1The Background of the Study
Literature is one of the courses that has to be taken by the students of English Department at University of Muhammadiyah Malang. Literature consists of drama, prose and poetry. Most of the students do not like those subjects because they think that literature is difficult to understand and it deals with creativity and imagination. Other students say literature is not necessary to learn since it has nothing to do with real life.
Actually, if the students like literature and study well, they will get many advantages. It will give them information, knowledge, new experience about human daily life that they do not know. As human beings, we need entertainment to make us better and get satisfaction. Entertainment can be taken from many kinds of product of literature, such as watching TV or movie, listening to music, or reading novel. According to DiYanni (2004:1), “Many people read literature for pleasure. Many others read literary works mainly to satisfy academic requirement.”
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us to read it attentively, also stimulates thinking, and we can discover what we think about literary works. Thus, writing provides opportunities for us to express our views about the ideas and values in literary works.
According to Beaty et.al.(2002:xxvii),“literature is creative writing.” It is important in our life because it is one of the ways of human beings express their ideas and feelings. Literature expresses a series of happening of human life such as their problems, struggle, and conflict of life. It also describes human beings’ thought, feeling, behavior, and attitudes.
Moreover, according to Soepadjar (2000: 54), literary work is defined as a media or way to express or view toward the condition around human feeling, such as; politic, economic, social, and culture. Human being and literary work is one unity which cannot be separated each other. It clearly describes that literary works is a part of human culture produced by human beings.
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entertainment and powerful method for educating society. Films are created by specific culture which reflects those cultures.
Furthermore, Film is a form of entertainment that makes a story by sound and a sequence of images giving the illusion of continuous movement (www.dictionary .die.net: February 20, 2012). It also has a story that is written and to be acted for an audience, but film has a screen as the media and the audience cannot see the actors immediately (Taufik, 2010).
Cook (2007: 87) defines movies (also known as films or motion pictures) as a type of communication which uses moving pictures and sound to tell stories or help people learn about new ideas. People in every part of the world watch films that tell stories as a type of entertainment; a way to have fun. Most films are made so that they can be shown on big screens at cinemas or movie theaters. It is clearly explained that film is the easy media of literary work that not only gives us many information and knowledge from many kinds of human characters in certain time but also it can be an entertainment to the audience.
Film types are the form, categories, group, and classification of the film. Film is divided into eleven types, those are; action, adventure, comedy, crime & gangsters, drama, epics/historical, horror, musical (dance), science fiction, war (anti-war), and western film. (Dirks, 2012)
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life, and way of thinking with others. It is also supported by Tarigan (1984:134) that conflict is a struggle completely to resolve all kinds of difficulties for searching his purpose.
According to Jones (in Hartiningsih: 2001:26), social conflict is a conflict which is related to the social condition. It can be conflict between one person and another. Moreover, people life cannot be separated from conflicts which happen in all aspect of family, school, society, country, etc. In addition, it is important to know experience, and new knowledge from human’s life.
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There were still many researchers who analyzed social conflict in film or novel, whereas it is very interesting to be analyzed. Nowadays, many people do not know how to face and find the best solution for their conflict. They usually do not aware about the cause and effect of their conflict, especially social conflict. Social conflict can happen every time and with everyone. Therefore, it is very important for the writer to conduct a further analysis about social conflict in order to know more detail about the causes and effects of social conflict.
The explanation above is the reason why the writer wants to analyze “The Freedom Writers” film. It is an interesting story that has good quality to be analyzed. This film is based on the true story faced by an English teacher and it shows how school life is. Furthermore, it reflects the life in senior high school with all differences of ethnic and background of family among the students and how the teacher handled and faced some conflicts, especially social conflict. It is expected to give new insight and important lesson to the audience about social conflict that may occur in human’s life. Also, this movie can give inspiration for all teachers in the world.
1.2 Statement of the Problems
Based on the background, the problems of this study are stated as follows: 1. What are the social conflicts faced by Erin Gruwell as a main character in “The Freedom Writers” movie?
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1.3The Purpose of the Study
Based on the statements of the problem above, the purpose of the study are: 1. To know social conflict faced by Erin Gruwell as a main character in “The
Freedom Writers” movie.
2. To know the causes of social conflicts faced by Erin Gruwell in “The Freedom Writers” movie.
3. To know the causes of social conflicts toward her life. 1.4The significance of the Study
Every kinds of study has own significance. From this study, the writer hopes that this study will bring some significances.
First of all, it is for English Department students. It is hoped this study will be able to help the readers in analyzing literature especially film and this study may provide helpful as one of reference for the further researchers who are interested in conducting the study in the same field.
Secondly, it is for the readers. This study will provide description of how important understanding social conflict that will happen in human’s life is. Also, the readers can use it to learn and understand about the effect and causes of social conflict. So they can choose the best solution if the conflict occurs.
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1.5The scope and Limitation
The scope of this research is the conflict. There are many conflicts that can be found in this movie, such as psychological, social, and physical conflict. From those conflicts, the writer is interested in analyzing the main characters’ social conflict. The writer focused on social conflict because this kind of conflict is more dominant than other conflict. Therefore, the writer limits this research only on the main character’s social conflict.
1.6 The Definition of the Key Terms
The definitions of the key terms which are necessary to be defined are as follows:
1. Erin Gruwell is the main character of this film.
2. Social conflict is one of kinds of conflict that usually occurs in human’s life when people have interaction with others. Human’s life cannot be separated with conflict because every person has different idealism, thought, and feeling.
3. The freedom Writer is the title of movie that is investigated in this study.
