i
THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF LOVE TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE MAIN CHARACTER AS SEEN IN NICHOLAS SPARKS’ DEAR JOHN
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra
in English Letters
By
I NYOMAN TRI SUPUTRA
Student Number: 084214022
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
ii
A Sarjana Sastra Undergraduate Thesis
THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF LOVE TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF
THE
MAIN CHARACTER AS SEEN IN NICHOLAS SPARKS’
DEAR JOHN
By
I NYOMAN TRI SUPUTRA
Student Number 084214022
Approved by
Drs. Hirmawan Wijanarka, M.Hum. August 10, 2012 Advisor
iii
A Sarjana Sastra Undergraduate Thesis
THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF LOVE TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF
THE MAIN CHARACTER AS SEEN IN NICHOLAS SPARKS’
DEAR JOHN
By
I NYOMAN TRI SUPUTRA
Student Number 084214022
Defended before the Board of Examines on August 30,2012
and Declared Acceptable
BOARD OF EXAMINERS
NAME SIGNATURE
Chairman : Dr. F.X. Siswadi M.A. _______________
Secretary : Dra. Sri Mulyani M.A. _______________
Member 1. : Ni Luh Putu Rosiandani S.S., M.Hum. _______________
Member 2. : Drs. Hirmawan Wijanarka, M.Hum. _______________
Member 3. : Adventina Putranti S.S., M.Hum. _______________
Yogyakarta, August 31, 2012. Faculty of Letters
Sanata Dharma University Dean
iv
LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS
Yang bertandatangan di bawah ini, saya mahasiswa Universitas Sanata Dharma:
Nama: : I Nyoman Tri Suputra
Nomor mahasiswa : 084214022
Demi pengembangan ilmu pengetahuan, saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma karya ilmiah saya yang berjudul:
THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF LOVE TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF THEMAIN CHARACTER AS SEEN IN NICHOLAS SPARKS’DEAR JOHN
Beserta perangkat yang diperlukan (bila ada). Dengan demikian saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma untuk menyimpan, mengalihkan dalam bentuk media lain, mengelolanya dalam bentuk pangkalan data, mendistribusikan secara terbatas, dan mempublikasikannya di internet atau media lain untuk kepentingan akademis tanpa perlu meminta ijin dari saya maupun memberi royalty kepada saya selama tetap mencantumkan nama saya sebagai penulis.
Demikian pernyataan ini yang dapat saya buat dengan sebenarnya.
Dibuat di Yogyakarta
Pada tanggal : 31 Agustus 2012
Yang Menyatakan
v
STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY
This is to certify that all ideas, phrases, sentences, unless otherwise stated, are the
ideas, phrases, and sentences of the thesis writer. The writer understands the full
consequences including degree cancellation if he took somebody else’s ideas,
phrases, or sentences without proper references
Yogyakarta, August 31, 2012
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For
vii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I hereby would like to express my gratitude to those who have helped me
finishing this undergraduate thesis with their kindness, attention, patience,
intelligence and knowledge.
First of all, I would like to give my greatest gratitude to God Ida Sang Hyang
Widhi Wasa for His blessing during the completion of this thesis. He has guided me
anytime I was stuck in writing this thesis.
I also would like to express my deep gratitude to my advisor Drs. Hirmawan
Wijanarka, M.Hum and my co-advisor Adventina Putranti S.S., M.Hum who have
spent their precious time to read and correct my thesis patiently. All suggestions and
corrections they have given to me have encouraged me in completing this thesis.
To my beloved family, my mother, Ni Made Ratnasitiadi, my father, Drs.
Made Suartama M.Sc, my brother, I Made Astina Putra ST, and my aunty Mektu, I
dedicated this thesis to you. Thanks for your unstoppable love, prayer, support, care
and for keeping my spirit to survive. I really appreciate and thank them for the
unconditional help that encouraged me in writing this thesis.
I also thank someone special, someone who always supports me in whatever
situation, for giving me her best attention and love until I can finish my thesis. It is
she who cheers me up when I am feeling blue, the only girl who will never give up on
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Furthermore, thanks for all my crazy friends who always help and accompany
me. Thank you to all Public Relation Staff for helping and encouraging me to finish
this thesis. The last but not least I would like to thank everyone who works in English
Letters Department, the administrative staff, especially Mbak Ninik, and the lecturers
for giving me chance to have precious and unforgettable study in Sanata Dharma
University.
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1. Theories of Character and Characterization ... 11
2. Theories of Character Development ... 14
A. The Development of the Main Character ... 23
1. The Characteristics of John Tyree before Falling in Love ... 24
a. A Person Who Cannot Do Self-introspection ... 24
b. A Person Who Hardly Accept Someone’s Weakness ... 28
c. A Temperamental Person ... 29
d. A Man Who Is Never Serious With Women ... 30
2. The Characteristics of John Tyree after Falling in Love ... 31
a. A Person Who Can Do Self-introspection ... 31
b. A Person Who Is Able to Accept Someone’s Weakness ... 33
c. A Patient Person... 36
x
B. The Contributions of Love to Development of the Main Character ... 41
a. Doing Self-introspection ... 41
b. Loving and Understanding Others ... 43
c. Being Patient ... 44
d. Developing the Way of Loving Woman... 44
CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION ... 47
BIBLIOGRAHY ... 49
APPENDIX ... 51
xi ABSTRACT
I Nyoman Tri Suputra. 2012. The Contributions of Love to the Development of the Main Character as Seen in Nicholas Sparks’ Dear John. Yogyakarta: Department of English Letters. Sanata Dharma University, 2012.
This thesis tries to discuss the development of John’s characteristics in Nicholas Sparks’ Dear John. John’s personalities seem to be developed under the
influences of love. Since love takes big role in developing John’s characteristics, the contributions of love are the goal of this study.
Related to the title of this thesis, this thesis has two objectives: 1) To identify the character development of the main character which are influenced by the presence of love and 2) To find out the contribution of love to the development of the main character.
This thesis writing is an analytical study that uses library research method. The writer uses formalistic approach to analyze how love changes John’s characteristics and the contributions of love to the development of John’s characteristics because the writer does not need any information outside the text. The aim of the thesis will be focused only on the novel itself.
xii ABSTRAK
I Nyoman Tri Suputra. 2012. The Contributions of Love to the Development of the Main Character as Seen in Nicholas Sparks’ Dear John. Yogyakarta: Jurusan Sastra Inggris. Universitas Sanata Dharma, 2012
Skripsi ini berusaha untuk membahas perubahan kepribadian John dalam novel Dear John karya Nicholas Sparks. Perubahan ini tampaknya disebabkan oleh pengaruh cinta. Karena cinta berperan penting dalam mengubah kepribadian John, kontribusi cinta itu sendiri menjadi tujuan dari skripsi ini.
Sesuai dengan judul, skripsi ini mempunyai dua tujuan: 1) Untuk mengetahui perubahan kepribadian tokoh utama yang dipengaruhi oleh kehadiran cinta dan 2) Untuk menunjukan kontribusi cinta terhadap perubahan kepribadian tokoh utama.
Skripsi ini adalah sebuah studi analisis yang menerapkan metode kepustakaan. Penulis menggunakan pendekatan formalistik untuk menganalisis bagaimana cinta mengubah kepribadian John dan apa saja kontribusi cinta terhadap perubahan kepribadian John karena penulis tidak membutuhkan informasi diluar novel. Tujuan dari skripsi hanya akan terfokus hanya pada novel itu sendiri.
1 CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. Background of the Study
As human beings, people need to share what is happening in their life to
others. It is important to share what we are passing through whether it is pleasing or
not. Those who feel hard to share their own experience can simply express their
feeling since some people do think that way. There are many ways to express it. One
way to express people’s feelings, ideas, thoughts, and experiences is writing
literature, for example a novel. In novels, the authors often reveal their opinions about
thing related to their own life whether or not it is happened. Roberts and Jacobs said
Literature refers to written (and also spoken) compositions designed to tell stories, dramatize situations, and reveal thoughts and emotions, and also, more importantly, to interest, entertain stimulate, broaden, and ennoble readers (1989: 2)
Literature is a composition that can be both written and spoken. Through this
composition, the readers may get knowledge about things or life they have never
experienced. It attracts the reader’s thought in certain way and it may be about faith,
passion, sacrifice, religion, and even love.
Everyone in this world can feel love. In general, love is feeling that is hard to
be explained as it only can be felt. Love is a word with many connotations.
Actions that fit the description of loving relationship are expression of affection, both physical and emotional; a wish to offer pleasure and satisfaction to one’s mate; tenderness, compassion, and sensitivity to the needs of the other; a desire for shared activities and pursuits; an ongoing, honest exchange of personal feelings the process of offering concern, comfort, and outward assistance for the love object’s aspirations (2006: 31)
From that definition, the writer gets an idea about the meaning of love, and the way to
love each other. Love is a mixed feeling of affection, attraction, and enjoyment. Love
is often experienced when someone is thinking about anyone else in a special way
and when he or she is around that special somebody. Most people enjoyed and feel
wonderful when they experience love. This is why, perhaps, love is often raised as the
main topic of literary works as we can see in Nicholas Sparks’ works.
Nicholas Charles Sparks was born in Omaha, Nebraska, on December 31,
1965. As a child, he lived in Minnesota, Los Angeles, and Grand Island, Nebraska,
finally settling in Fair Oaks, California, at the age of eight. His father was a professor,
his mother a homemaker, then an optometrist’s assistant. He lived in Fair Oaks
through high school, graduated valedictorian in 1984, and received a full track
scholarship to the University of Notre Dame.
After breaking the Notre Dame school record as part of a relay team in 1985
as a freshman (a record which still stands). During that summer, he wrote his first
novel, though it was never published. He majored in Business Finance and graduated
While living in Sacramento, he wrote his second novel in the same year,
though again, it was not published. He worked a variety of jobs over the next three
years, including real estate appraisal, waiting tables, selling dental products by phone,
and started his own small manufacturing business which struggled from the
beginning. In 1990, he collaborated on a book with Billy Mills, the Olympic Gold
Medalist, and it was published by Feather Publishing before later being picked up by
Random House. (It was later re-issued by Hay House Books.) Though it received
scant publicity, sales topped 50,000 copies in the first year of release.
Nicholas Sparks wrote many beautiful novels which some of them were
bestsellers. He started writing his first novel in 1994, at the age of 28. Then he
continued expressing his pleasure in his novel. He wrote The Notebook over a period of six months and he followed that with Message in a Bottle (1998), A Walk to Remember (1999), The Rescue (2000), A Bend in the Road (2001), Nights in Rodanthe (2002), The Guardian (2003), The Wedding (2003), True Believer (2005),
At First Sight (a sequel to True Believer) (2005), Dear John (2006), The Choice
(2007), The Lucky One (2008), The Last Song (2009), Safe Haven (2010) and a non-fiction memoir, Three Weeks With My Brother (2004), written with his brother, Micah, all with Warner Books / Grand Central Publishing. All were domestic and
international best sellers, with almost $80 million in worldwide sales, and were
released in October 2011. Those are the novel written by Nicholas Sparks.
(www.nicholassparks.com, 2011)
In spite of the fact that Nicholas Sparks wrote many novels, in this thesis, the
writer will focus on one of Nicholas Sparks’ bestseller novel entitled Dear John. The
writer is interested in analyzing Dear John because the story is fantastic. It touches the writer’s heart and teaches him good things about the real meaning of true love,
especially of how to love our beloved. Love can also change people’s attitude toward
his or her life. Love is very important in our life. When people love other, it can be
their family, their friend, or their beloved; people will give their best and also
sacrifice something which is very important in their life. Dear John is a novel in which love takes a big role. This novel shows how one’s personality can change
when he was falling in love with someone. It includes the contribution of love and the
sacrifice for the love itself.
Dear John is a love story of a soldier named John Tyree with a college student named Savannah Lynn Curtis. John has enlisted in the army after high school
because he did not know what else to do. He is an arrogant person, cares about
nothing, gets bad relationship with his dad, and feels lack of love. Everything are
about to change when he falls in love with Savannah. The major change is on John’s
personalities. He becomes a different person than he would ever imagine. He is more
patient, cares with everyone else especially his father so that he decides to make up
never does he feel mad of her. He helps her, instead of breaking up the marriage,
when she is in trouble. John experiences the deep meaning of a true love. This thesis
is worth studying because at present time people still confuse about what love is.
There are many connotations of love. This topic is chosen to trace the contributions of
love. Those contributions are derived from the character development. Once people
experience true love, they are able to understand the value of love. It is important to
know the value of love if we want to clarify what love is. Since John, the main
character, is changed because of love, this novel is the perfect example to research
about the contributions of love.
B. Problem Formulation
There are two problems formulated in this thesis:
1. How does the main character develop?
2. What is the contribution of love to the development of the main character?
C. Objectives of the Study
The goals of this thesis are to find out the personalities of the main character,
to identify the character development of the main character influenced by love and to
determine the contribution of love to the development of the main character in
When analyzing the contribution of love to the main character, the writer
needs to know the characteristics of the main character. Then, the writer will be able
to identify the influence of love toward the main character. Finally, the writer can
obtain the character development which leads him in identifying the contribution of
love.
D. Definition of Terms
According to Hauck in his book entitled How to Love and be Loved, “Love is
that powerful feeling one has for persons, animals or things that has satisfied, is
satisfying, or will satisfy our deepest desires and needs”. (1983: 16)
According to Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary of Current English,
As a noun (n) love means a strong feeling of deep affection for sb that you are sexually attracted to; a person, a thing or an activity that you like very much; as a verb (v) love means to have very strong feelings of affection for subject; to like and enjoy sth very much (2005: 913)
It can be noticed that love can be employed as noun and as a verb. However,
generally, love can be classified as a strong feeling and affection to someone or
7 CHAPTER II
THEORETICAL REVIEW
A. Review of Related Studies
One important thing of analyzing the work of literature is criticism because it
shows people attention to the literary work itself. It means that people put their
attention to that work and it can attract people to see or even to read it. Critiques also
help readers to get the idea whether or not a literary work may hasve some important
aspects. Besides, it helps the authors of literary works to maintain any unconscious
mistakes and to improve their writings. Most of the criticisms appear to show people
reaction toward the work itself. They can be arguments, comments,
agreement/disagreement, and so on.
Nicholas Sparks is a very famous author who came from North Carolina,
America. Most of his novels become New York Time bestseller. He wrote a lot of
novels, Safe Heavens, The Lucky One, The Last Song, A Walk To Remember, Message in a Bottle, The Choice, At the First Sight, True Believer, Three Weeks With My Brother, The Guardian, The Wedding, Nights In Rodanthe, A Bend In The Road, The Notebook, The Rescue, and Dear John. Most of them have tragic ending and are adapted into Major Motion Picture.
There are many criticisms about Sparks’ Dear John. The first criticism comes
Dear John is story of love, loss and emotion…It is a story you will not soon forget. You will cry. Your heart will ache. You will find yourself asking "what if...?” Dear John is about a love lost but not forgotten. If you love a good, seamless love story that pulls on your heart strings, then you need to read Dear John. (www.goodreads.com, 2011)
That criticism proves that although Dear John makes people who read this novel get the fantastic feel of happiness and sadness. Besides, it touches the hearts of the
readers, and after reading it, the story will stay on the readers’ minds. Those are why
this novel is highly recommended to read. The Washington Post-Margaux Wexberg
Sanchez stated
Only in a novel such as this could we find our political buzzwords-peacekeeping, IEDs, hurricane relief-interspersed with this sentiments: "And when her lips met mine, I knew that I could live to be a hundred and visit every country in the world, but nothing would ever compare to that single moment when I first kissed the girl of my dreams and knew that my love would last forever." (http://search.barnesandnoble.com, 2011)
The criticism proves that Dear John touched the hearts of the readers, and after reading it, the story will stay on our minds and it is hard to be forgotten. The message
is also good to be applied.
Another criticism is derived from Book Page in the interview with the author
of Dear John, Nicholas Sparks, by Trisha Ping:
Nicholas Sparks has been the undisputed master of the modern-day love story…Dear John, follows two star-crossed lovers…altering decisions when love and honor intersect. (http://bookpage.com, 2011)
Through that criticism, the writer assumes that Nicholas Sparks is a great author of
modern love stories. Despite he is master of love story, his stories are usually not
Nicholas sparks is well-known as a love-themed author. Since most of Sparks’
books are love-themed, several researchers have done their research to figure out the
love manifests seen on his books. One of them is the study conducted by Christina.
(Merry Christina, The Values Of Love Reflected In Nicholas Sparks’ A Walk To
Remember, A Sarjana Sastra Undergraduate Thesis. 2007). The writer took the statement from Christina’s undergraduate thesis
Sparks is offering something different by creating a character, Jamie, who is able to change Landon’s heart and influences him and her surrounding with her kind heart. Sparks is also good at words choosing because when the writer read the novel, the words seemed to influence her in the way of thinking and feeling of the characters’ heart…The story includes spirituality, moral, and many values that happen in life. The story is about beauty, power and innocent of first love…The story contains many values of love (Christina, 2007: 4-5)
Christina analyzed one of Nicholas Sparks’ best-selling novels entitled A Walk to
Remember with similar topic to this thesis, love. From the quotation above, the writer knows that Sparks’ is an author who has quality in word choosing that makes the
readers interest and feel they are part of the story. Christina found that the story
represents many values of love including spirituality, beauty, moral, and power of
love.
Because of the focus of this analysis is finding the contributions of love to the
character development, the writer needs to know the scientific studies done before
about the character development in order to limit the analysis. The thesis made by
Ginardi (Alvin Ginardi, The Influences Of Minor Characters On Harriet’s
Undergraduate Thesis. 2010) He found that people develop for many reasons and
causes
The people who live around her and the events happened in her childhood life influenced her way of thinking. Conflicts in her life shows that human being’s personality are often influenced by conditions around them (Ginardi, 2010: 3) In Ginardi’s thesis, the main character develops because of the influence by the minor
character. The childhood events and conditions also take role in developing one’s
personalities.
The writer agrees with all critical praise above that the book is amazingly
great and touching. The story of the novel will touch the hearts of the readers, and
hardly do the readers forget about the story. This story also useful to read because the
messages behind are good to be applied. Despite the truth that many people have
already analyzed this novel, this undergraduate thesis is trying to discover something
that has not been done before. In this thesis, the writer does not only analyze the
personalities of the character, but also how love can change one’s personalities. Thus,
the contributions of love to the main character which is revealed from the character
development becomes the major focus of this analysis. The writer has not yet found
another researcher who analyzed the contributions of love seen in Dear John. Therefore, this undergraduate thesis is different from another thesis done by many
B. Review of Related Theories
To answer all the problems formulated in this thesis, the writer needs some
theories.
1. Theory of Character and Characterization
Since the analysis deals with the major character, the theories of character and
characterization will be useful. There are many theories of character and
characterization.
In his book A Glossary of Literary Terms, Abrams says
Characters are the persons in dramatic or narrative work, who are interpreted by the reader as possessing particular moral, intellectual, and emotional qualities by inferences from what the persons say and their distinctive ways of saying it. He says there are two ways of characterization: showing and telling. In showing, the author simply presents the characters talking and acting, and leaves it entirely up to the reader to infer the motives and dispositions that lie behind what they say and do. In telling, the author intervenes authoritatively in order to describe, and often to evaluate, the motives and dispositional qualities of the characters (2009: 42-43)
Meanwhile, Roberts and Jacobs say
Character in literature generally, and in fiction specifically, is an extended verbal representation of a human being, the inner self that determines thought, speech, and behavior. (1989: 145)
Arp and Johnson in the book entitled Perrine’s Literature: Structure, Sound,
and Senses state
presents their characters either directly or indirectly. In direct presentation they tell us straight out, by exposition or analysis, what the characters are alike, or they have another character in the story describe them. In indirect presentation the author shows us the characters trough their actions; we determine what they are like by what they say or do. (2009: 161-162)
Kenney says that there are three character traits to find out. They are social,
physical, and psychological. A character’s social traits are those that have to do with
the character’s place in society. For instance, to what social class the character
belongs, character’s marital status and what a character does for living. Character
physical traits can be answered by some questions such as whether the character is
ugly or beautiful, fat or thin, tall or short, long hair or short hair, fair skinned or black
skinned, and eye. Finally, the psychological traits include personality, such as
emotional or intellectual, optimistic or pessimistic, secured or unsecured and
observable behavior such as rhythm of speech, quality of gesture and others (1988:
32).
Murphy in (1972: 161-173) Understanding Unseen states that there are nine ways to characterize a character,
1. Personal Description
The author describes a person’s appearance and clothes, such as the face, skin,
2. Characters as Seen by Another
The author describes him through the eyes and opinions of another, conveys
through his choice of words and phrases, such as unquiet eyes, dim smile, rare
sound of her voice, unapproachable aspect, gazing at him stealthily.
3. Speech
The author gives an insight into the character of one of the persons in the book
through what that person says. Whenever a person speaks, whenever he is in
conversation with another, whenever he puts forward an opinion, he is giving
some clue to his character.
4. Past Life
The author gives a clue to events that have helped to shape a person’s character;
by direct comment, through the person’s thoughts, through his conversation or
through the medium of another person.
5. Conversation of Others
The author can also give clues to a person’s character through the conversations
of other people and the things they say about him. People do talk about other
people and the things they say often give as a clue to the character of the person
spoken about.
6. Reactions
The author can also give a clue to a person’s character by letting us know that
7. Direct Comment
The author can describe or comment on a person’s character directly.
8. Thoughts
The author gives direct knowledge of what a person is thinking about. In this
respect he is able to do what he cannot do in real life. He can tell us what different
people are thinking.
9. Mannerisms
The author describes a person’s mannerisms, habits, or idiosyncrasies which tell
something about his character.
From those theories the writer knows what character is and knows how to
characterize a character. By applying the various theories of characterization above,
the writer can find the characteristic of characters in a literary work, how they are
described, what kind of characters they are, and the impact of a character in the story.
Those theories provide complete way to analyze the characters of this work.
2. Theory of Character Development
In the analysis of the character development, types of characters theories are
required to see whether a character is developed. There are many theories of type of
character. According to bookclub, “character development describes both how
characters grow and change over time or throughout the course of a fictional story”.
Robertson say
A succinct definition of the process of character development is difficult because character is such an ambiguous term, and can mean greatly different things to different people. In general, character development could be defined as encompassing the development of a few simple traits such as loyalty, honesty, wisdom and courage (www.ehow.com)
Meanwhile according to the theory posted in a website on the internet
Character development is the change in characterization of a dynamic character, who changes over the course of a narrative. At its core, it shows a character changing. Most narrative fiction in any media will feature some display of this. While the definition of "good" and "bad" character development is subjective, it's generally agreed upon that good character development is believable and rounds out a well-written character. Bad character development leads to the feeling that someone is manipulating the events to their own whims, or even reduces the character's believability (www.tvtropes.org)
So, character development can be defined as change or grow of characters in
the novel. The change or growths of characters’ traits usually happen to dynamic
characters.
Arp and Johnson say
There are two types of character: flat and round. Flat characters usually have only one or two predominant traits; they can be summed up in a sentence or two. By contrast, round characters are complex and many-sided; they have the three-dimensional quality of real people. (2009: 162)
According to Robert and Jacob
particular group or class. Because they do not change or grow, they are static, not dynamic like round characters. (1989: 145)
From those theories, the writer is able to judge whether the character is developed or
not. A character is called dynamic if there is development or growth after
experiencing something, in this analysis, love. In contrast, static character is not
developed or growth.
3. Theory of Love
Theory of love is required to see the contribution of love to the main
character. Firestone, in his book entitled Sex and Love in Intimate Relationship say
Actions that fit the description of loving relationship are expression of affection, both physical and emotional; a wish to offer pleasure and satisfaction to one’s mate; tenderness, compassion, sand sensitivity to the needs of the other; a desire for shared activities and pursuits; an ongoing, honest exchange of personal feelings the process of offering concern, comfort, and outward assistance for the love object’s aspirations (2006: 31)
From above statement, the writer thinks that love is an expression of affection. It can
be physical and/or emotional. People need to do something for those they love
because love is not only a statement. They have a desire to offer concern, pleasure
and satisfaction to their beloved. Therefore, if people love someone, they should offer
According to Hauck in his book entitled How to Love and be Loved, “Love is
that powerful feeling one has for persons, animals or things that has satisfied, is
satisfying, or will satisfy our deepest desires and needs”. (1983: 16)
According to the love definition as seen on a website in the internet
It can be best described as a very strong feeling that is deep down in the pit of your stomach. You experience this feeling when you are around that special somebody or when you happen to be thinking about them. These strong feelings can be of affection, attraction and enjoyment. In a way, it is kind of like all three of these feelings rolled up into one emotion. Many people feel wonderful when they experience this. (http://meaning-of-love.com, 2011)
From above quotation, the writer concludes that love is a very strong emotion
which is caused by admiration. Love will be experienced when people have strong
feeling such as affection, attraction, and enjoyment to somebody else. Many people
feel wonderful when they are falling love.
C. Theoretical Framework
The writer has already stated some theories that will be used to analyze the
contribution of loves as seen in the novel Dear John. Those theories are divided into three; they are theory of character and characterization, theory of character
development, and theory of love. Those theories are needed to help the author in
analyzing the novel and in answering the two questions stated in the problem
The first theory is theory of character and characterization. The writer uses
theories of character and characterization to identify the personalities of the main
character, John Tyree and how he is described. The second theory is theory of
character development. Since the main character in Dear John is a dynamic character, several theories of character development are used to find out the growth of main
character which is influenced by love. The main character is developed. It means that
he got ‘change’ in his life. This change can be either better or worse.
The third theory is theory of love. Through this theory, the writer is able to
understand the contribution of love. Through the theory the writer is able to define
whether or not John experiences love. The contributions of love will be determined
by the influence of love to the character development. Theory of love is very useful to
understand what love is because from those theories, the writer is able to find out
whether or not the main character experiences love. Therefore, however, the writer
attaches the general theory of love only. Thus, the writer will see how love takes big
role in changing main character’s attitude toward his life. In this thesis the writer
focus on the contribution of love to the development of the main character only
instead of the deep meaning of love itself. Therefore, theories of love used in this
19 CHAPTER III
METHODOLOGY
A. Object of the Study
The object of this thesis is a novel Dear John by Nicholas Sparks. The novel was published in 2009 by Grand Central Publishing in New York. This novel was
awarded the #1 New York Times bestsellers. The setting of the story is Lenoir, North Carolina. This novel is Sparks’ eleventh novel containing 335 pages and divided into
twenty chapters. This novel is also translated into a film version which is released on
February 5, 2010.
Dear John tells the story of John Tyree and Savannah Lynn Curtis. This novel is written using the first-person point of view. The narrator is 23-year-old soldier who
was the main character in the story. His whole life and attitude was suddenly changed
when he met the girl of his dreams.
Dear John is a story of true everlasting love between two young people, John Tyree and Savannah Lynn Curtis. John Tyree, a 23-year-old soldier living in a small
town of Lenoir, North Carolina. He had enlisted in the army after high school because
he did not know what else to do. During the furlough, he met the girl of his dreams,
Savannah Lynn Curtis, a 21-year-old college student at the University in North
Carolina. While falling in love with Savannah, John discovered how love can
B. Approach of the Study
In this thesis, the writer uses formalistic approach to answer the problem
formulation. According to Guerin in A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature:
The formalist critic abandons historical and biographical information and instead focuses on the text as a discrete object. This approach is sometimes characterized as “art for art’s sake”. Formalist critic came to be called the New Criticism when several prominent critics adopted the name in the 1930s. (2011: 121)
From the above quotation, the writer concludes that formalistic approach does not
need any information outside the text, such as historical and biographical background
of the novel or the author, when analyzing works of literature. The aim of the thesis
will be focused only on the novel itself. This approach is chosen to analyze Dear John to find out the character development of the main character. Since the main topic of this analysis is the contribution of love to the development of the main
character, this approach is suitable because the focus of the thesis will be on
describing the personalities of the main character, analyzing the character
development of main character, and the contribution of love toward the main
character that falls in love. In addition, the thesis will also deal mostly with the
C. Method of the Study
The method used in this thesis was a library research. The primary source of
this thesis was Nicholas Sparks’ Dear John. And the secondary sources were many
literature theories which were collected from the library of Sanata Dharma
University. Among others are Abrams’ A Glossary of Literary Terms, Arp and Johnson’s Perrine’s Literature: Structure, Sound, and Senses, and Roberts and
Jacobs in their book Fiction: An Introduction to Reading and Writing.
There were several steps taken by the writer to examine this novel. The first
step was reading the primary source, Dear John. The writer read the novel fully and tried to understand what the story was about. The writer also tried to place himself to
the position of the main character, John Tyree, in order to understand his feeling and
what kind of situation he had faced.
The second step was reading the secondary sources. The writer read many
literature theories which were related to the novel. In this step, the writer also re-read
the novel. This time, the writer read slower than the first time. He really paid
attention to the passage, actions, and the words in every chapter.
The third step was formulating the problems. After the writer had read and
re-read the primary and secondary sources, he formulated two important problems
The fourth step was answering the first problem formulation. The writer tried
to answer the first problem formulation by observing the main character to get the
personalities and the character development.
The fifth step was answering the second problem formulation. The writer
identified the contributions of love by looking at the character development of the
main character.
The sixth step was the conclusion process. In this session, the writer
concluded the whole chapter of the thesis that had been discussed. The conclusion
23 CHAPTER IV
ANALYSIS
In this chapter, the writer firstly discusses the characteristic of John Tyree as
the main character to portray his characteristic. Secondly the discussion is on the
character development of the John’s characteristic. The development is influenced
with love and it is clarified to know which characteristics of John clearly developed.
And finally the discussion of the contribution of love to John is presented from the
character development.
A. The Development of the Main Character
When analyzing the character development of the main character, analyzing
his characteristics will be the entry point to know how he is portrayed in the
beginning and the end of the story. In order to know the characteristic of a character
presented in a novel, the writer tries to employ the all theories of character and
characterization stated on the page 10.
Rendering to theory of characterization stated by Arp in Perrine’s Literature
(2009: 161-162), Nicholas Sparks’ Dear John portrays John, the main character, in a direct presentation. He describes the main character through the explanation of the
narrator who is the main character itself. John is also experienced so-called character
behind. Therefore, by applying Robert and Jacob theory of character (1989: 45), John
is categorized as round or dynamic character.
Round characters have many realistic traits and are relatively fully developed. To the degree that round characters have many individual and unpredictable human traits, and because they undergo change or growth as a result of their experiences, they may be considered dynamic. (1989: 145)
Round or dynamic character is a character that is relatively developed. They may
undergo change as result of their experiences. The developments are not always from
bad to good but it is possible for a character to develop from good to bad, good to
better, and even from bad to worse.
1. The Characteristic of John Tyree Before Falling in Love
a. A Person Who Cannot Do Self-introspection
In the beginning of the story, John is described as an active person. According
to Oxford Advance Learners Dictionary of Current English (2005: 15), active means “always busy doing things, especially physical activities; doing something regularly”.
This characteristic can be proven with bellow quotation:
I was always in motion and hated to be alone…school for me was like a social club with sports added in…I bounced from here to there forever asking him long it took me to run to the end of the block and back…I had brown hair and eyes, and my olive skin would darken to a deep tan by May (p.11)
John thinks school is not a place to learn and study which means he has different
in his youth, and he loves to discover something new by travelling to a different
place.
Murphy in Understanding Unseen (1972: 161-171) states that “The author describes a person’s appearance and clothes, such as the face, skin, eyes, and the
castaway’s extraordinary clothing”. The theory helps the writer to find out the John’s
appearance.
Kenney (1988: 32) says that there are three character traits to find out. They
are social, physical, and psychological. In this discussion, the writer finds out the
physical of John that he has brown hair and eyes and he has olive skin.
The second characteristic of John is he cannot do self-introspection. Never
does he do kind of reflection toward his life and his behavior. It makes John dislikes
both his life and his father. John is portrayed as common boys who prefer the outside
activities such as sports, stalking girls, and so on rather than home activities. John
lives with his father and there is no presence of mother in his life. His mother had run
off when he was less than a year. John is different with his father in some
personalities.
From above quotation, the writer knows that John’s father is a loner. Loner is “a
person who is often alone or who prefers to be alone, rather than with other people”
(Oxford 2005: 905). While John grows up like other boys lived in the same
atmosphere. ”Like most boys, I started to care about other things: sports and girls and
cars and music, primarily, and by fourteen, I was spending little time at home.”
(p.15). He does not spend his time at home like his father does and he is interested in
music, sport, and girls. The major difference between John and his father is John has
extroverted characteristic while his father gets introverted ones. Referring to Oxford Advance Learners Dictionary of Current English, extrovert “is a lively and confident person who enjoys being with other people” (2005: 542) while introvert means “more
interested in your own thoughts and feelings than in spending time with other people”
(2005: 817). Therefore, in the personality aspect, John is so different from his father.
The different personality between John and his father makes him does not like
the way he lives with his father. He realizes his dislike by comparing his life with his
friends’.
The difference between John and his father personalities makes John thinks that he
does not fit in his live with his father. It is emphasized when John reflects how they
live and how his friends do. It is stated that John, unlike another teenagers, receives
an 1833 Morgan Silver dollar instead of car in the sixteenth birthday. It is because his
father is coin collector. He does nothing but studying and staring at the coins. “my
dad would head to his den to be with his coins. That was his one great passion in life”
(p.12). The only thing his father cares about is his coin collection. His father does not
care enough about the current technology, the kitchen appliance, and even about his
own taste in colors. John feels upset in this kind of situation and it mimics John is
sick of his live with his father. The writer knows John’s dislike by applying Murphy’s
theories of characterization. The author gives an insight into the character of one of
the persons in the book through what that person says. Whenever a person speaks,
whenever he is in conversation with another, whenever he puts forward an opinion,
he is giving some clue to his character. (1972: 165).
John puts an opinion about his own feeling, his father behavior, and about
their way of live when he compares it with his friends’. And the result is John feels
there is no boundary, there is no such relationship worth fighting for between him and
his father. Then, the writer found that John is a hater. According to Oxford Advance Learners Dictionary of Current English, hate means to dislike something very much; a very strong feeling of dislike for subject (2005: 712-713). So hater means a person
Specifically, not only does John dislike his way of live but he also dislikes his
father. He does not like his father because he thinks his father is no more than a weird
person. He never thinks in a different point of view about his own thought. It means
that he cannot do such self-introspection. Oxford Advance Learners Dictionary of
Current English states that introspection is “the careful examination of your own thoughts, feeling and reasons for behaving in a particular way”. (2005: 817). It proves
that John is not able to examine his own thoughts, in this case, the thoughts about his
father and his life. If he does self-introspection, he would be able to think in a
different way so that he can open his mind and likes them.
b. A Person Who Hardly Accept Someone’s Weakness
Another characteristic of John is as a person who cannot accept someone’s
weakness. It is proven when he feels ashamed and embarrassed of his father. John
does not love his father nor does he like him. Finally, John is embarrassed of his
father. “I was embarrassed at the thought of having friends come over, and I blamed
my dad for that” (p.15). John is ashamed when some of his friends come over and see
the house and his father condition. John put the blame on his father about this
situation. He thinks his father should behave normally and start doing other activities
like what normal people do.
Another situation when John feels embarrassed is when his father heading off
to watch him play basketball in a team during his sophomore year.
wanted nothing to do with him. I was embarrassed by the sight of him, and after the game, I avoided him.(P. 16)
It seems like John thinks his father is very poor in fashion. He cannot stand a chance
of looking his father appearance that way so that he feels ashamed to his father.
John’s feeling embarrassed to his father employs that he hardly accept people’s
weakness, in this case, he cannot stand for his father appearance.
c. A Temperamental Person
Since he spends a little time at home and he does not like his father, John’s
relationship with his father is no longer close. It is because he spends a little time to
talk to his father as well. Barely does he speak to his father so that he feels no love
among them. John becomes bad person because he feels no love in his life. This
situation is getting worse when he is in high school, choosing his buddies to associate
with.
In high school, there’s always a place for everyone, and I began falling in with the wrong sort of crowd…I began to cut classes and smoke and was suspended for fighting in three occasions (p.16)
John begins to smoke, skip the classes and he is ever suspended for fighting for three
times in high school. Things get worse. John cares about his school no more. He gets
low grade so that hardly does he pass the class. It seems like John is a little bit
temperamental person. Looking at Oxford Advance Learners Dictionary of Current English temperamental means “having a tendency to become angry, excited or upset easily, and to behave in an unreasonable way” (2005: 1580). John’s having suspended
does violence and fight intentionally. As a temperamental person, he cannot control
his temper and he also loves everything covered with violence atmosphere.
During my senior year; my rebellion reached a high point. My grades had been slipping from two years, more laziness and lack of care than intelligence, and more than once my dad caught me sneaking in the late at night with booze on my breath. I was escorted home by the police after being found at a party where drugs and drinking were evident… I barely passed my class. (p. 17)
From the passage, the writer concludes that John is not an obedient person in his age.
It is because he has ever been caught by the police when he was at a drugs and
alcoholic-drink party, which will not be happened to good people.
d. A Man Who Is Never Serious With Women
John’s bad behavior is also proven by his attitude toward his relationship with
women. As a person who does not care about love or be loved, hardly does he falling
in love with women even the women he dated with.
I dated dozens of women during that period. At Leroy’s, there were always women. Most were forgettable relationships. I used women and allowed myself to be used and always kept my feelings to myself. (p.19)
Even though he has already joined in the army, John barely thinks about women.
Unlike his friends, who are crazy about making such romantic story with women,
John tends to avoid any opportunities to get closer with women. It seems like John
tries to avoid and to think about anything else besides women.
From those quotation about John’s thinking about women, the writer figures out that
not only never John applies love in his life, but he also never experiences what love
is. Therefore, however, he is never making any serious relationship with women.
The writer is able to find out those wicked characteristics of John by applying
Murphy’s theory, as written in his book Understanding Unseen, about characterize a character by looking at the mannerism. The author describes a person’s mannerisms,
habits, or idiosyncrasies which tell something about his character. John’s habits,
which are stated previously, show bad characteristics of person, especially for a
person at his age, 22. And it is discovered that the reason why John has such behavior
is because he feels no love at all. He does not get love from his father nor from any
women.
2. The Characteristic of John Tyree After Falling in Love
Everything is changed after he meets a girl of his dream, Savannah Lynn
Curtis. Having loves with Savannah has influenced his personalities and the way he
treats his father.
a. A Person Who Can Do Self-introspection
This is the second change of John’s characteristics. After having love with
to do a self-reflection about his life and what he has done. It is when Savannah says
that John’s father had Asperger, developmental disorder. Hardly does John accept
Savannah’s analysis, and it drives him angry instead. He goes off her alone at the
beach and he meets Randy, a friend of Savannah, who intends to stop and calm him
down. John, covered by anger, takes him down since Randy refuses to leave him
alone. Tim, Savannah’s best friend, sees what is happening and he wants to make
thing up. But John, without consciousness, breaks his nose accidentally and get out of
there. After having deeper thought, John regrets what he has done.
One minute I was thinking that I loved her more than I’d ever imagined possible, and the next minute we were fighting. I was outraged by her subterfuge yet couldn’t understand why I was this angry. It wasn’t my dad and I were close; it wasn’t as if I even thought I really knew him. So why had I been so angry? (p. 146)
The above quotation tells that John does a kind of self-reflection. He tries to replay
what has happened in mind and he finds out that he does not have reason to being
mad.
This self-reflection leads him to think about anything instead of himself. He
starts think about everything especially Tim, the one who is injured in this situation.
But after what I did to Tim? How was she going to react to that? He was her best friend, and even if I swore it had been an accident, would it matter to her? How about what I’d done to the others? She knew I was a soldier, but now that she’d seen small part of what that meant, would she still feel the same way about me? (p. 148)
The deeper John thinks, the more he finds himself guilty. This is for the first
to let this happens. Therefore, John goes to meet Savannah the next day for an
apology.
I was wrong. I’d overreacted, and I knew it. Not just with her, but with the others on the beach. I’m sorry. I know you were just trying to help, and I took it the wrong way. And I’m sorry for what I did to Tim…and Randy and the other guy too (p.159-160)
He apologizes for everything he has done to Savannah and her friends. John does no
violence intentionally. He can do self-reflection and introspect himself. It is simply
because John does not want to lose his beloved, Savannah. John becomes a person
who is able to think deeply is a kind of sacrifice toward his emotional mind. The
existence of love is proven with John’s sacrificing his emotional mind because love
means sacrificing.
b. A Person Who is Able to Accept Someone’s Weakness
Previously, the writer has explained that John is a person who cannot accept
his father’s weakness and feels embarrassed to his father. There are several reasons
why John is having such feeling. The major reason is the different personalities
between John and his father (see p. 23-24). The differences make him dislikes his
father and feels embarrassed to him. Here, John undergoes kind of character
development. He no longer hates his father. It happens as soon as when John falls in
love with Savannah. He gets unforgettable moments with her for the few days in the
furlough. A beautiful moment is not be beautiful if there is no one to share it with so
I expected my dad to ask how the evening had gone with Savannah, but instead he said nothing, preferring to concentrate on his cooking… “I had a great time,” I volunteered. “Savannah’s really something. We actually went to church together yesterday.”
Somehow I thought he’d ask more about it, and I’ll admit that I wanted him to. I imagined that we might have a real conversation, the kind that other fathers might have with their sons. (p. 95)
Here John tries to share his day with his father. He just wants to talk to his father and
his father talks to him so that they have a real conversation. “I just wanted him to
talk to me” (p. 102). It seems like John at last realize his not-close relationship with
his father. He finally realize it because now he becomes a better person as a thinker,
hence, he wants to make up this bad relationship. It is influenced by love because, if
there is no love comes to him, John will not become a better person, and he does not
have any topic to share with his father in order to start the conversation. In other
words, love takes such role in making up the relationship between John and his
father.
Meanwhile, John is also able to understand his father. When Savannah gives
John a book of developmental disorder, she says that John has to understand his
father. “You’re right. I shouldn’t have done that. But I just wanted you to understand
him”. (p. 142). At that moment, John is angry with Savannah because he thinks
nothing has happened to his father. Then he realizes that she is right about his father.
John needs to understand him well.
Understanding his father, John tries to make up his relationship with him by
“In my spare time, I’d visit the computer center and do a bit of research on my own. I’d search for certain coins, collect the history, and send the information back in a letter of my own. (p. 181)
Not only Savannah, but also his father sends John letters when he is away. John tries
to express that he understands his father by searching for information about coins and
sends it to his father. He believes that his father is so happy for when he is studying it.
Since John spends much time together with his father, the relationship
between him and his father is getting better.
…I wanted an improved relationship with my dad…Instead of pressing him for constant conversation, I’d simply sit with him in his den, reading a book…we would spend hours together, most of the time saying nothing at all…unassuming way that we finally became friends…when it was time for me to return to Germany, I knew that I would miss him in a way I never had before. (p. 238-239)
From the quotation above, the writer concludes that John tries to make up his bad
relationship with his father. He sits still beside his father instead of forces him to have
kind of conversation so that they both can relax and relationship between John and
his father is getting better. John will miss his father as soon as he is transferred back
to Germany because he has such close relationship.
Love is the process of offering concern. This definition is applied when John
shows his concern to Savannah. It means that John need to concern about what she
concerns. While in this time, Savannah concerns John’s relationship with father
because she loves John and she cares about his relationship with his father so that she
offering concern. Therefore, love influences John to open his mind and make up his
relationship with his father.
c. A Patient Person
Being patient is the next development of John’s characteristic. John Tyree is a
person who likes violence. He often does violence intentionally without any
self-reflection and apology. It is because he feels no love in his life, which makes him
such temperamental person. However, it is changed when John experiences love. It is
when at the barrack, far away from his hometown, John tries make a phone call to
Savannah. But it is not going as it is supposed to be. Savannah does not answer the
call so that John is growing angrier with every ring that is unanswered. John gets
several speculations toward this situation. It can be happened because she is busy
with her job or because she hangs out with a new anonymous guy she finds lately.
The second speculation makes John green with envy. But he is still patient and does
not express the jealousy in next phone call in order to keep up the good relationship
with his beloved.
Despite the troubles, I never doubted that we would make it…In December, I began calling more regularly and did my best to keep my jealousy in check. (p. 223)
John undergoes kind of character development. He becomes a patient person. Oxford Advance Learners Dictionary stated that patient is “able to wait for a long time or
From the above quotation, the writer can see the patient behavior of John. He tries to
accept such annoying behavior happen in his mind and tries not to express it. It can
be classified as a character development of John because before he experiences a true
love with Savannah, John is a temperamental person. As we know temperamental
person is the opposite of patient one. So in this situation John is developed 180
degree from bad to good.
Another example of John’s patient behavior is when he asks help from the
neighbor to look after his father when he is seated off the country. The neighbor
agrees to take care of his father and the house as well. However, when returning
home, John finds that the garbage is overflowing and the house is seemed not be
cleaned for days. This kind of situation makes John very angry because the neighbor
breaks the promise that she agrees to look on his father. When the neighbor comes by
the following day, the first words out of her mouth are an apology. She explains that
she has not cleaned the house for several days because her daughter has been taken
ill.
As she stands before me on the porch, I could see the exhaustion in her face, and all the words of reproach I’d been rehearsing drained away. I told her that I appreciated what she’d already done more than she would ever know. (p. 243)
John who is very angry to the neighbor at the first time becomes calm after she
explains the reason behind. After being a patient person, John is able to maintain his
anger and emotion toward other people. A temperamental John will not accept any
control his emotions though he is angry so that John can listen to any reason and
overcome his anger.
Love is an expression of affection. The existence of love as an expression of
affection can be seen in this situation. Since John has a great affection to Savannah,
he tends to give her comfort. Someone does not feel comfort when they are with
people who cannot maintain their emotion as temperamental as John. It means that
John needs to put his arrogant mind aside. If he wants to make Savannah feels
comfort, he has to throw his arrogant mind away. Since loves her, John ensure her
comfort with him. Survive from his temperamental emotion and being patient are
love manifestations done by John. Therefore, love influences him to be a patient
person.
d. A Man Who is Serious to Woman
As what the writer has stated before, hardly does John feel a true love. He has
never fallen in love with women. He thinks barely about women so that he is never
making such serious relationship like any others with women. That is John before he
meets savannah. However, as soon as he meets Savannah, John is able to experience a
different kind of love. Their relationship grows up without any serious obstacle as
they are already a couple. Unlike the forgettable relationship with any women, his
relationship with Savannah is so special. It is different and it is unforgettable since
Spending time with Savannah made me wonder whether it was possible to defy the norm. I wanted more of her, and no matter what happened between us, I already knew I’d never forget anything about her. As crazy as it sounded, she was becoming part of me, and I was already dreading the fact that we wouldn’t be able to spend the day together tomorrow. Or the day after, or the day after that (p. 116).
Being together with Savannah, John enjoys spending his time. It is such unforgettable
experience that makes the relationship is different from the previous ones. Enjoying
togetherness between lover and beloved is one aspect of having true love. Not only
John enjoys the unforgettable moment, but he is also afraid. He is afraid of they will
not be able to spend the next day together since he is going away like other soldiers.
But he thinks that they will be together, for sure. “It was the first time we’d really
been alone, but as we sat side by side, it felt as though we’d been together forever.”
(p. 121)
Love is strong feeling such as affection, attraction, and enjoyment to
somebody else which makes people feel wonderful when they are falling love. It is
exactly like what has happened to John when he is with Savannah. He feels
wonderful being together with her and he enjoys every single moment and hopes it
will last forever. He does not want to love someone but Savannah because love has
taught him many things. In other words, love makes him seriousness to one woman,
Savannah Lynn Curtis.
The writer is able to find John’s characteristics by applying Kenney’s (1988:
