CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
2.1 Novel
Novel is one of literary work that represents the ideas or the thoughts of the
author. The author expresses the feeling, the passion and the emotion that relates to
the experiences of life. That’s why the author needs a media to express the ideas, the
thought and it’s called literature as media of communication. Through literature,
human beings can communicate with others because literature is a media of
communication.
The most general genres in literature is divided into three major genres, they
are drama, prose, and poetry. Prose can be divided into two categories, they are
fiction and nonfiction. Fiction is created from the imagination of the author, not
presented as fact, though it may be based on a true story or situation. While
non-fiction is true writing that tells about real people, places and events. According to
Nurgiyantoro (1998), “The non-fiction works are autobiography, diary, essay, and
history. On the other hand, the fiction works are tales, roman, short story, and novel.
Peck and Coyle (1986:102) say that “Novel is prose story telling with a great
amount of detail on every page, usually reveal human values”.In analyzing a novel, there are two methods to understand all about the details on every page or in a
literature, they are intrinsic and extrinsic approach. Kasim describes about extrinsic
and intrinsic in his book entitled Theory Of Literature says :
method of criticism is the extrinsic in which the analysis of literary work applies the above disciplines of knowledge or belief. This method of studying literature concerns itself with its environment and its external causes”. (Kasim, Razali,7:2000)
In this analysis, the writer uses the intrinsic method to analyzing the data,
because the writer will analyze from the text itself and the structure of the literary to
find out the sense of mystery in the novel. Mystery is the condition of being secret or
obscure which the caused or origin is hidden or impossible to understand. Mystery
contains some secrets and hidden meaning that must be solved (Purwanti : 2009:6)
the mystery elements in Carolyn Keene’s Nancy Drew : The Email Mystery).
The mystery in this context is how a symbol as mystery things that needed to
be solved and understand because the symbol itself is hidden and being secret. The
way of an author in conveying the information, denotative, conotative meaning is
called style. Style deals with the texture of writing, imagery, sound and meaning ,
irony, syntax and symbol. It focuses on text itself and structures which are created.
Style, in literature, the mysterious yet recognize result of a succesful blending of
form with content.
The writer uses intrinsic method, because the writer will analyze some
symbols that hidden in the novel, Angels and Demons. An analysis through intrinsic
approach is to analyze the literary work from the structure of literary itself such as
theme, characters, setting, plot, symbols, point of view and language style. Symbol is
one of mystery elements, the writer will observe some information or symbols that is
unknown and must be explained. According to the Cambridge International
“Today a mystery story is, loosely, any story containing a mystery. It may be, and frequently is, a tale of horror and terror, an affair of codes and ciphers and secret societies, a crime story, a symbol or a dozen other things involving an enigma”. (Benton,1960:49)
In this thesis, the writer focuses on understanding symbols in the novel,
Angels and Demons. It’s important to understand the real meaning and the purpose
of symbols irrelevant to get deep explanations and descriptions of the symbols in
order to avoid the wrong explanation and comprehension of the meanings of symbol.
Peck and Martin Coyle (1988:71) say that symbol is an object which stands for
something else. It means that an object which is found as a symbol in novel, it
doesn’t merely means the object itself, but it has another wider meaning and has a
function for certain intention. A symbol can’t directly understood literally. It needs
deep interpretation to total meaning of literary work.
2.2 Symbol
Etimologically, a symbol is “something thrown together”. The ultimate
source is Greek,sumballein, it formed from the prefix sum-“together” and the suffix
ballein “throw”. So symbol is something thrown together (Ayto:1990). The notion of
‘throwing or putting things together’ led on to the notion of ‘contrast’ and so
sumballein came to be used for ‘compare’. it was derived from sumbolon, which denoted an ‘indentifying token’—because such tokens were compared with a
counterpart to make sure that were genuine — and hence an ‘outward sign’ of
The word symbol who is derived from the Greek word symbolon in ancient
Greece it was a custom to break a slate of burned clay into several pieces and give
each individual in a group one piece as a mark of identification. When, at a later
date, they met and fitted the pieces together (Greek symbollein) it confirmed that the
persons were the same ones, or representatives of those, who had received the pieces
of clay in the first place.
The use of the word symbol was widened to include the engraved shells that
were employed by those initiated in the mysteries, both as marks of identification
and as essential components in ritual gatherings. It was only a short step away to the
word’s eventual meaning, in which an object, either through a visual similarity or a
common agreement between those using it, represented something other than itself.
Camte Goblet d'Alviella, in his book on The Migration of Symbols says a
symbol is :
"Might be defined as a representation which does not aim at
being a reproduction. Originally, as he points out, used by
the Greeks to denote the two halves of the tablet they
divided between themselves as a pledge of hospitality,"
It came to be used of every sign, formula, or rite by which those initiated in
any mystery made themselves secretly known to one another. Gradually the word
extended its meaning, until it came to denote every conventional representation of
idea by form, of the unseen by the visible. (Literary Symbolism:9)
For example, Angel is a symbol of Hope, goodness, purity, protection,
comfort and consolation. They also represent the spiritual nature of the being. A
a symbol is usually taken to mean) are all symbols when they are distinguishable
elements in critical analysis. From the word symbol came the concept of symbolism
where one object is used to refer to something else. Even the letters a writer spells his
words with form part of his symbolism in this sense: they would be isolated only in
special cases, such as alliteration or dialect spellings, but we are still aware that they
symbolize sounds. Criticism as a whole, in terms of this definition, would begin with,
and largely consist of, the systematizing of literary symbolism. It follows that other
words must be used to classify the different types of symbolism.
Symbolism is used in literature to give to the literary work meaning that
goes beyond what is evident to the reader. Symbolism helps in giving the piece of
writing feeling and mood without the writer having to actually spell out the same. By
giving certain things human like characteristics and also defining them with certain
qualities, the writer can manage to give the novel another level that may refer to
things that are completely alien from what is mentioned in the piece of writing
A symbol, in a broadest use of term, is anything which signifies something
else; in this sense, all words are symbols. As commonly used in criticism, however,
“symbol’ is applied only to a word or phrase signifying an object which itself has
significance; that is, the object referred to has a range of meaning beyond itself.
Some symbols are conventional and public, Klarer (1976:140) says a symbol is a
thing that suggest more than its literal meaning in a literary text. He divides symbol
into two kinds; they are conventional and private symbol.
2.2.1 Conventional Symbol
Conventional symbol is a symbol is easily that has an understood or widely
recognizable, for example, a flag which is a physical, tangible representation of a
country. Even as children people know that the flag isn’t the country, but that it
stands for a country. Conventional or traditional literary symbols work in much the
same way, and because they have previously agreed upon meaning, they can be used
to suggest ideas more universal than the physical thing itself. Conventional symbol
has meaning that recognized by a society for example: Red can symbolize blood,
passion, danger, or immoral character and stars are the symbols of Moslem.
The following objects have been considered as conventional symbols for
centuries, some of which are reflected in religious customs, mythical story and
literature. The universal symbol usually have known by many people or groups in
society that when a writer puts a symbol in the story and the symbol is known as
universal symbol, the groups in society and some people have same perception of the
meanings of symbol when they recognize the symbol firstly.
2.2.2. Personal Symbol
Personal symbol or private symbol is a symbol that made and put by the
author in a literary works as individual works. The symbol isn’t known by majority
of a society, it’s the one that requires special or private knowledge to understand the
meaning of and according in the context of specific story. The problem with private
symbol is the readers do not understand much about the symbol. It is a relation
between the reader and the author because The author needs to present or create a
symbol using the context of literary work and the reader understand the symbol
according context of text, the reader must recognize an object or things as a symbol.
That’s why a reader must to relate the interpretation to the total meaning. For
people who involved in religion part, the priests. Meanwhile demons are some bad
guys that join in Illuminati. Angels and Demons novel is about two parts that get
conflict because there’s something contrary between the both. It can concluded that
symbol is the person , natural, man, man objects, words, phrase, setting and character
