Analysis of Theme through the Social Conflicts in Mary McGarry Morris's A Dangerous Woman.

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ABSTRACT

Tugas Akhir ini ditulis untuk memenuhi salah satu syarat kelulusan program

sarjana di Jurusan Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Kristen Maranatha.

Dalam Tugas Akhir ini saya menganalisis tema dari novel A Dangerous Woman

karya Mary McGarry Morris melalui konflik sosial yang dialami oleh tokoh utama

yang menderita Sindrom Asperger.

A Dangerous Woman adalah sebuah novel yang menceritakan seorang tokoh

bernama Martha, seorang wanita berusia 32 tahun yang menderita Sindrom Asperger.

Karena Sindrom ini, ia berpikir dan bertindak berbeda dari orang-orang di sekitarnya

sehingga ia mengalami konflik dalam bersosialisasi. Ia berkonflik dengan John,

atasannya; Birdy, temannya; Mercy, rekan kerjanya; dan Frances, bibinya. Ia pun

menjadi korban dari orang-orang tersebut karena mereka tidak mengerti mengapa

Martha melakukan hal-hal yang begitu berbeda dari mereka.

Setelah menganalisis konflik-konflik yang dialami Martha dalam novel ini,

dapat disimpulkan bahwa orang-orang yang memiliki kelainan seringkali dianggap

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CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

Mary McGarry Morris is a twentieth-century American novelist who is

claimed to be “one of the most skillful new writers at work in America today”

(Hubbard). She has written 6 novels, such as Vanished, Fiona Range, and The

Lost Mother. I am interested in analyzing her second novel, A Dangerous Woman.

The reason I choose A Dangerous Woman is that the author could create a unique

character in her story, as stated in the following quotation: “. . . Mary McGarry

Morris has created a diverse novel with many twists and turns! Accompanied by a

diverse cast of characters, A Dangerous Woman is a novel to read!” (Budd).

Morris believes that people in real life have different characteristics from

one another. She states that she is “interested in people” and that she “finds them

fascinating” (Hubbard). By looking at this statement, I think that is why she likes

making stories about people. In A Dangerous Woman, she says that, “With

Martha, who is intelligent enough to understand that she is ostracized, I wanted to

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through different childhood experiences compared to any other children of her age

and that makes her “often feels set apart” (Hubbard). With all her experience and

observation, she is interested in making stories with mentally disturbed characters

in her novels. In A Dangerous Woman, Martha, the protagonist is having Asperger

Syndrome. Asperger Syndrome is defined as “a sociological disorder classified as

a very unique and misunderstood syndrome in the autism spectrum” (“Traits,

Diagnosis, and Social Aspects of Asperger Syndrome”).

In my thesis, I decide to elaborate the theme through the social conflicts

because the social conflicts in this novel make me see that people with mental

disabilities are often misunderstood and misjudged. According to William

Kenney, “Theme, then, is the total meaning discovered by the writer in the

process of writing and by the reader in the process of reading” (94) There are

three types of conflicts, which are social conflict, psychological conflict, and

physical conflict. Social conflict is defined as “a struggle between man and man”,

psychological conflict is “a struggle between desires within a person”, and

physical conflict is “a struggle between man and the physical world” (Shaw 91).

This explanation helps me understand more of the meaning of theme and social

conflict as I would like to analyze the theme through the social conflicts.

Statement of the Problem

In order to analyze the novel, I state the problems as follow:

1. What is the theme of the novel?

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Purpose of the Study

The study is done to show:

1. The theme of the novel.

2. How the social conflicts help to reveal the theme.

Method of Research

The method I use is library research. I start by reading the novel, A

Dangerous Woman. Then, I analyze the novel by using formalism. I take some

references and resources from the Internet and books to support my analysis.

Finally, I draw conclusion from my analysis.

Organization of the Thesis

I divide the thesis into three chapters. In the first chapter, I present the

Introduction, which contains the Background of the Study, the Statement of the

Problem, the Purpose of the Study, the Method of Research, and the Organization

of the Thesis. The second chapter is the Analysis of Theme through the Social

Conflicts t in Mary McGarry Morris’s A Dangerous Woman. The third chapter is

the Conclusion. The thesis ends with the Bibliography and the Appendices, which

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CHAPTER THREE

CONCLUSION

After having read the novel and analyzed the social conflicts in Mary

McGarry Morris’s A Dangerous Woman, I can see that society often misjudges

someone because one acts differently due to one’s disabilities.

In the novel, the major character, Martha is described as someone who has

difficulty to socialize with her surrounding because she suffers from Asperger

Syndrome. Instead of socializing with them, she in fact is involved in conflicts

which make her the victim in the end.

The source of the conflicts is actually Martha’s reactions towards

something. She has different ways in expressing her feelings that sometimes

cannot be understood by the society. It is shown in the first conflict with her boss.

Martha’s action when she tells the truth makes her boss upset, while she only tries

to do what she thinks is right by being honest. However, her action is not

acceptable and she becomes the victim when she gets the layoff notice.

In another conflict that happened in a party that is held by her friend’s

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communicating what she wants to say properly. This behaviour cannot be

understood by people around Martha and it makes her unable to be friends with

them. They cannot accept her attitude with the result that she is no longer invited

to any party or social meetings because they do not want Martha to spoil the fun.

It is a disadvantage for Martha and again she becomes the victim due to people’s

opinion about her.

Different case happens when Martha thinks that she finally has a best

friend. She cares so much that she does not know it becomes an obsession which

makes her lose her only friend. When she tries to do her best as a friend, her

intention is seen as a disturbance.

Martha also gets into a conflict with her aunt because she cannot control

her emotion. Her fear of being yelled at by her aunt makes her action

uncontrolable when a little girl accidentally breaks one of the porcelains in her

aunt’s house. She does not know that her action makes her aunt lose an employee

and makes her even mad at Martha.

Basically, all of the conflicts happen because the society do not understand

why Martha acts or does everything differently. They do not know that her

Asperger Syndrome makes her unable to control her emotion, her obsession, or

even unable to find the right moment to reveal the truth. All the conflicts that

happen between Martha and the people around her are resolved with Martha as the

victim because every one does not understand her being an Asperger.

In the novel, the author presents every conflict in a clear and systematic

way which makes the readers realize why Martha is involved in those conflicts

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Martha’s reactions and lets the readers know what is on her mind that is not

known by the characters in the novel. Due to their ignorance towards Martha’s

being an Asperger, they misunderstand Martha’s reactions and misjudge her

because of her actions. As the result, Martha becomes the victim. From the

conflicts that I have analyzed, I can conclude that the theme of the novel is

“People with mental disabilities are often misunderstood, misjudged by the

society and thus, become the victim of the society”.

I think that the theme is universal. It can happen to anyone in our

neighbourhood or around the world. When we see someone that is different from

us, we sometimes misjudge them because we do not understand the reason behind

it. Martha, the major character in the novel, suffers from Asperger Syndrome, but

actually there are many more of other mental disabilities that we do not know

about.

In the novel, it is shown how people think and react towards the action of

someone with a mental disability like Martha. They do not like to be around her as

they do not understand why she acts so differently. Moreover, they misjudge her

so that she becomes the victim of their actions. From reading the novel, I learn

that we had better find out and try to understand why people with mental

disabilities are different from us, instead of judging and avoiding them. We have

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Primary Text

Morris, Mary McGarry. A Dangerous Woman. New York: Penguin Group Viking

Penguin, 1991. Print.

References

Budd, Kelly. “Interesting and Compelling.” Amazon. 26 July 2001. Web. 12 Apr

2008.

Hubbard, Kim. “No One Calls Her a Dangerous Woman, but Mary McGarry Morris

Makes Her Mark with Tales That End in Violence.” People Magazine, Vol. 35,

no. 14. 15 April 1991. Web. 10 Apr 2010.

Kenney, William. How To Analyze Fiction. New York: Monarch Press, 1966. Print.

“List of Possible Characteristics of a Person with Asperger’s Syndrome (AS), High

Functioning Autism (HFA) or Pervasive Developmental Disorder-Not

Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS)”. Web. 23 Mar 2011.

“Mary McGarry Morris”. 2013. Web. 16 Apr 2013.

Shaw, Harry. Dictionary of Literary Terms. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1972. Print.