IDEOLOGY IN CHICK LIT AS SEEN IN JANE GREEN’S JEMIMA J, LAUREN WEISBERGER’S THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA AND HELEN
FIELDING’S BRIDGET JONES’S THE EDGE OF REASON
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the degree of Sarjana Sastra
in English Letters
By
HAYU PRIMA INDRASTUTI Student Number : 014214059
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
i
IDEOLOGY IN CHICK LIT AS SEEN IN JANE GREEN’S JEMIMA J, LAUREN WEISBERGER’S THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA AND HELEN
FIELDING’S BRIDGET JONES’S THE EDGE OF REASON
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the degree of Sarjana Sastra
in English Letters
By
HAYU PRIMA INDRASTUTI Student Number : 014214059
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
ii
iv
After a while you learn,
That the circumstances and the environment have influence upon us,
But we are responsible for ourselves.
You start to learn that you should not compare yourself with others,
But with the best you can be.
You discover that it takes a long time to become the person you wish to
be,
And that the time is short.
You learn that it doesn't matter where you have reached,
But where you are going to.
But if you don't know where you are going to,
Anywhere will do.
You learn that either you control your acts,
Or they shall control you.
And that to be flexible doesn't mean to be weak or not to have
personality,
Because it doesn't matter how delicate and fragile the situation is,
There are always two sides.
v
Dedicated to
LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN
PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS
Yang bertanda tangan di bawah ini, saya mahasiswa Universitas Sanata Dharma : Nama : HAYU PRIMA INDRASTUTI
Nomor Mahasiswa : 014214059
Demi pengembangan ilmu pengetahuan, saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma karya ilmiah saya yang berjudul :
IDEOLOGY IN CHICK LIT AS SEEN IN JANE GREEN’S JEMIMA J, LAUREN WEISBERGER’S THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA AND HELEN
FIELDING’S BRIDGET JONES’S THE EDGE OF REASON
beserta perangkat yang diperlukan (bila ada). Dengan demikian saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma hak untuk menyimpan, me-ngalihkan 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 memberikan royalti kepada saya selama tetap mencantumkan nama saya sebagai penulis.
Demikian pernyataan ini yang saya buat dengan sebenarnya. Yogyakarta, 16 Agustus 2009
Yang menyatakan
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
A thesis is not only a piece of work presented as requirement to obtain the
bachelor degree, but more than that, thesis is a representation of how we keep our commitment, to our parents, our university and more over, to ourselves. This acknowledgment is dedicated to those who help me to keep my commitment and my
promise.
First of all, I would like to thank Almighty God for answering my prayer.
Once again, You always have a unique way answering my prayer although sometimes it surprises me. Thank You for opening all the doors that I can reach. Secondly, I would like to express my gratitude to my major sponsor Fajar Sasmita,
S.S, M.Hum, who has guided and supported me especially for the precious time which he has spent for guiding me in writing this undergraduate thesis. I am grateful
to have Dewi Widyastuti, S.S, M.Hum as my academic advisor, thank you for always remaind me to finish my study.
With lots of love, my special gratitude goes to my dearest family. I thank
them for their love, prayers and financial support. They are my dearest father, Drs. G.M. Sukamto, M.Pd, M.Si, thank you for understanding me, giving me the freedom
to grow as I want to be and my dearest mother, Dra. Suwarti, thank you for supporting and trusting me, this thesis is specially dedicated to you mom. My dearest aunt and uncle, Endah Widyasari&Amadeus Abi, thank you for all the
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A special dedication goes to Martina Novi Irawati, thankyou for precious time and friendship, we may take different path but our heart will always find each other. Special thanks to Anne Yunita Diyen, Sarah Yesi, Mery Tio, Meyra, Mia and
Citra Kerina Tarigan who have shared crazy and amazing days with laughter, chats, trust honestly, happines, madness, pain and tears, now it is your turn. I also thanks to
Maria Pulkeria Ratih and Anggraini Rahmaniasari, thank you for remind me for not quit, no matter hard it is.
I also thank Lia Hariningtyas, my companion to finish study, thank you for
answering every messages that I send, I know sometimes it bothers you. I also thank to Dina, Nana, and Sista, thank you for the precious moment I spent in English
Letters Sanata Dharma, without all of you I would be lost. I also thank for Michaela Credo and Kelik Priharyanto for giving me the spirit to finish my study.
At last, I would like to thank to anybody not mentioned here, who has given
me many supports and enormous assitance in the process of finishing this thesis. Thanks for understanding and supporting me, it has been a precious experience in my life. May the Almighty God bless you.
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CHAPTER II : THEORETICAL REVIEW ... 9
A. Review of Related Studies ... 9
B. Review of Related Theories... 11
1. Theory of Character... 11
2. Theory of Representation... 16
3. Theory of Semiology... 18
4. Theory of Ideology... 22
5.Woman Culture in America... 25
C. Theoretical Framework ... 26 A. The Characters of Chick-Lit Novels ... 34
1. Jemima J... 34
2. Bridget Jones ... 40
3. Andrea Sach ... 45
B. Representation of Women through The Characters ... 51
C. Ideology depicted in Chick Lit ... 59
CHAPTER V : CONCLUSION ... 60
BIBLIOGRAPHY ... 61
ix
x ABSTRACT
HAYU PRIMA INDRASTUTI (2009). Ideology in Chick-Lit as seen in Jane Green’s Jemima J, Lauren Weisberger’s The Devil wears Prada and Helen Fielding’s Bridget Jones’s The Edge of Reason. Yogyakarta : Departement of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma University.
Chick-lit as new genre in women novel has become a phenomenon because it has been sold out in great number and has been translated in many languages. As novels, chick-lit also stated has become the mirror of women in 1990’s. With the theme single working woman in their middle ages, chick-lit is dealing with the issues and problem faced by women. But, chick-lit as popular culture is not purely portraying the life of woman. Chick-lit also has a message that want to be delivered to their reader. This message translated into an ideology, an idea behind chick-lit novel. The main characters are selected in order to understand the mind of the author, including the ideology put by the author. I choose three chick-lit novel in order to give a representation chick-lit novel. From many chick-lit novel that has been published, I will used Jane Green’s Jemima J, Lauren Weiberger’s The Devil Wears Prada, and Helen Fielding’s Bridget Jones; The Edge of Reason as the source of my research.
In this undergraduate thesis, I will analyzise three main problem. The first is the characterization of the chick-lit characters from the three novel, the second is the representation of women in 1990’s that depicted in chick-lit characters and the third is the ideology behind chick-lit that depicted through the representation of women in 1990’s.
To analyze the problem above, I used cultural studies approach as a tool to understand chick-lit novel. Cultural studies approach is an approach which combine many theories to give a full understanding about culture phenomenon. This research is using library research with the novel as the main source.
xi ABSTRAK
HAYU PRIMA INDRASTUTI (2009). Ideology in Chick-Lit as seen in Jane Green’s Jemima J, Lauren Weisberger’s The Devil wears Prada and Helen Fielding’s Bridget Jones’s The Edge of Reason. Yogyakarta : Jurusan Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Sanata Dharma.
Chick-lit sebagai genre baru dalam novel wanita telah menjadi sebuah fenomena karena berhasil mencetak angka penjualan yang sangat besar dan telah diterjemahkan ke dalam banyak bahasa. Di sisi lain, chick-lit juga menyatakan sebagai gambaran wanita masa kini. Dengan temanya wanita single dan bekerja berusia menengah, chick-lit mengangkat masalah-masalah yang dihadapi wanita. Namun, sebagai budaya populer chick-lit tidak secara murni memotret kehidupan wanita. Chick-lit juga menyimpan pesan yang ingin disampaikan kepada pembacanya. Pesan ini telah diterjemahkan sebagai sebuah ideologi, sebuah ide yang diletakkan dibelakang novel chick-lit. Karakter utama dipilih dengan tujuan agar dapat memahami pemikiran sang pengarang, termasuk ideologi yang ingin dimasukkan oleh sang pengarang. Saya memilih tiga novel chick-lit sebagai representasi dari chick-lit novel. Dari sekian banyak chick-lit novel yang telah diterbitkan, saya akan menggunakan Jemima J karya Jane Green, The Devil Wears
Prada karya Lauren Weisberger, dan Bridget Jones; The Edge of Reason sebagai
bahan dari kajian saya.
Dalam skripsi ini, saya akan menganalisis tiga masalah utama. Yang pertama adalah karakterisasi dari karakter dalam ketiga novel chick-lit, yang kedua adalah potret wanita masa kini yang digambarkan oleh karakter-karakter chick-lit dan yang ketiga adalah ideologi di balik chick-lit yang tergambar melalui potret wanita masa kini.
Untuk menganalisa masalah di atas, saya menggunakan pendekatan kajian budaya sebagai alat untuk memahami novel-novel chick-lit. Pendekatan kajian budaya adalah pendekatan yang mengkombinasikan berbagai teori untuk memberikan sebuah pemahaman yang menyeluruh mengenai fenomena budaya. Kajian ini menggunakan kajian pustaka dengan novel sebagai sumber utama.
1 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
A. Background of Study
Two hundred years ago, women worked alongside with men in all sorts of
laboring work. However, as the industrial revolution began to require fewer workers, gradually women were pushed out of the industrial workforce and the beliefs grow that the proper place for a woman was in the home. Feminist sociologists have
argued that what was happening here was really a battle of the sexes and the males won, banishing women to the home.
At the turn of the century, less than 30 per cent of the workface was female. However, the First World War (1914-1918) took away the bulk of young men to fight. Women were recalled to the factories where they did all the work men had
done. But with the war over, the jobs were returned to the men. The same thing occurred in the Second World War.
In the 1960’s, however, the number of women in the workforce began to increase. This reflected the changing attitudes of women themselves. They began to fight against the idea that once they had children they ought not to work; instead they
began to seek work as soon as the youngest child attended school. Allied to the changing attitude of women was the growth in ‘service industries’ (those which do
men and because they were prepared to work part time they were more flexible to employ. In short, female employees were attractive to employers. That was the beginning of women’s stories as a worker. Nowadays, women write their own stories
as worker through chick-lit.
“The Story of Women from Heaven”, title in Kompas, one of the largest
newspaper in Indonesia to describe chick-lit (http://www.kompas.com/kompas-cetak/0404/17/pustaka/972525.htm). According to Rende (2008:3), chick-lit is a newly contrived style of writing. Marketed as a ‘for women, by women, about
women’ genre, the chickerati (authors of chick-lit) have benefited financially and profesionally by writing about ‘the feelings of women in a drawing-room’ (or maybe
just the living room of a Manhattan apartment), and the ‘everywoman-type-heroine, complete with dieting woes and dating insecurities’. The genere has even been inducted into the prestigious pages of the Oxford English Dictionary, which offers a
simplistic definition of the novel as ‘a type of fiction, typically focusing on the social livers and relationships of young professional women, and often aimed at readers
with similar experiences’. While semantically, the name of the genre itself remains questionable in that it joins two terms with negative conotations: chick (the slang reference for a woman) and lit (the shortening of “literature” to “lit” typically
denotes frivolity or insignificance) (Rende, 2008:3). While Helen Fielding’s 1996 novel Bridget Jones’s Diary is credited with sparking the genre, and granted the
3
and unapologetic” text. The phrase was mockingly used in an article by James Wolcott, “Hear Me Purr”, refering to the girlish style of writing used by female journalist in newspaper columns. At the end, Mazza and DeShell (1995:18) described
chick-lit as books flaunting pink, aqua and lime covers featuring cartoon figures of long-legged women wearing stiletto heels.
The raise of chick-lit as a new genre has been followed by a serious debate. Moreover, chick-lit comes as a phenomenon. From the first time published in the middle of 1990 with Bridget Jones’s Diary, chick-lit has a hilarious success record.
In Britain, the place where chick-lit born, chick-lit has been sold many copies and has become best seller novel. Ferris (2006:32) reported that chick-lit reader are
eating it up at a price of $71 millions, just in 2002 alone. Not only in Britain, chick-lit is also spreading all over America and all over the world. The success of chick-chick-lit in America and Britain has lead many publishers from all over the country to
translate and publish chick-lit in their countries. Not far from Britain and America, chick-lit also made success and become best seller in many countries. Chick-lit also
success in inspiring the born of other subgenre such teen lit and mom-lit. (http://www.kompas.com/kompas-cetak/0404/17/pustaka/972521.htm).
Chick-lit is claimed to be the novel that represents women in 1990’s which
are depicted to be single and working in their middle age. One of the key success of chick-lit is the representation of woman nowadays with their issues and problems as
worker through the stories and the characters of chick-lit.
chick lit umumnya adalah para perempuan seusia tokoh-tokoh dalam novel tersebut. Menurut Paramaditha, para perempuan tersebut melihat refleksi diri melalui tokoh yang coba memaknai hidup di tengah pergulatan dengan isu-isu perempuan modern. Isu-isu tersebut berkisar seputar pilihan karier, mencari jodoh, bentuk tubuh (body image-Red), dan keuangan.
Pendapat serupa diungkapkan oleh Ibnu Wahyudi, pengajar di Fakultas Ilmu Budaya. Menurut Ibnu Wahyudi, mengapa pasar begitu antusias menyambut novel-novel chick lit tersebut, tak lain adalah karena para pembacanya-para perempuan dewasa-merasa seolah-olah terwakili. Lebih jauh lagi, para pembaca juga dikatakan akhirnya merasa mampu mengaktualisasi diri sebagai bagian dari kehidupan modern yang memang diangkat di dalam chick lit.
http://www.kompas.com/kompas-cetak/0404/17/pustaka/972521.htm
However, the success of chick-lit is not only being emphasized but also being questioned by other women. Chick-lit was born during the era of modern woman in which feminism and gender equality has become a ‘taken-for-granted’ ideology. The
writers and the readers are women whose mother are used to dealing with the ideology of feminism and gender equality, both are the issues that they life with.
Nevertheless, it still being questioned, whether chick-lit is further step of feminism or it was a backward of feminism. Some critic put chick-lit as post feminism, but the definition of post feminism and how post feminism stands against feminism are still
questioned (http://www.kompas.com/kompas-cetak/0404/17/pustaka/972525.htm). Feminism or not, chick-lit is a symbol of woman culture and culture phenomenon.
Chick-lit is culture phenomenon because it has been touch the life of thousand women as their readers. As the symbol of woman culture, what or whom chick-lit represent?
5
Popular culture will lead to the description of culture by F.R. Leavis. Leavis define culture into two categories, high and low culture. High culture refers to the culture of bourgeois while the low culture refers to the culture of the proletarian, the
working-class (Bessnet, 1997:7). Popular culture is defined as low culture, a culture of the working-class. Suitable with the description, working class is also become the
background of chick-lit stories and the reader of chick-lit. While it also refers to three important themes, first concerns with what or who determines popular culture? Does it emerge from the people themselves as an autonomous expression of their interest
and modes of experience? Or is it imposed from above by those in position of power as a type of social control? The second is the influence of commercialization and
industrialization upon popular culture; does the emergence of culture in commodity form mean that criteria of profitability and marketability take precedence over quality, artistry, integrity and intellectual challenge? The third is the ideological role
of popular culture, to indoctrinate the people, to get them to accept and adhere to ideas and values that ensure the continued dominance of those in more privileged positions who thus exercise power over them? Or is it about rebellion and opposition
to the prevailing social order? (Strinati, 2004:2).
Chick-lit has been stated to be popular by scholar. Since the very beginning,
the term chick-lit as a genre has been put chick-lit into an industry. While chick-lit as popular culture cannot be separated from ideologies. Ideologies, as the site of struggle from many interest has become a drive that lead chick-lit readers (read:
ideology in the media message has been able to make the message appear as natural and spontaneous presentation of reality. Chick-lit as reality is not resistant from the effect. Chick-lit also contains some message which will influence the readers, but
what the effect of chick-lit toward modern woman as their reader?
The question cannot be answered without understanding the ideology behind
chick-lit. Ideology critically examines the ideas, feelings, beliefs, values, and representation embedded in, and promoted by, the artifact and practices of a culture or a group (Leitch, 2001:45).The ideology will be revealed through the characters of
chick-lit. The characters are chosen because through the characters we can pop up into the head of the writer. Through the characters reader can read almost all the
message of the novels including the ideologies behind it.
In order to make the nearest representation of chick-lit novels, the research will choose three novels of chick-lit. The first is Jemima J by Jane Green, the second
is The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger and the third is Bridget Jones II, the Edge of Reason by Helen Fielding. The three novels will be analyzed using cultural
studies approach. Cultural studies are chosen because cultural studies offer distinctive answers to the two key questions, what is intepretation and what is literature. First, literature consist of popular, mass and minority genres as well as
elite cannonical works. It includes a wide array of discursive materials, from writings in standard literary genres to rap lyrics, blue poems, oral legends, diaries, magazines,
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Second, interpretation employs institutional analysis, ideology critique, and field-based research, as well as textual explication, exegesis, aesthetic appreciation and personal reponse (Leitch, 2001:45).
B. Problem Formulation
This research tries to answer some questions below
1. How are the characterizations of the main characters?
2. How women in 1990’s represented through the main characters of chic-lit?
3. What is the ideology behind the success of chick-lit novels?
C. Objectives of the Study
This study is conducted to find the answers of the questions formulated in the problem formulation. There are two objectives in this literary study, they are:
1. to find out how women in 1990’s represented in the chick-lit novels through the characterization of the main characters.
2. to find out the ideologies that influence chick-lit as novels genre and support
their success as novels through the representation of women in the novels.
D. Definition of Terms
The purpose of this part is to avoid misunderstanding in certain term.
and lit (the shortening of ‘literature’ to ‘lit’ typically denotes frivolity or insignificance) (Rende, 2008:3). While Oxford English Dictionary describe chick-lit as “ a type of fiction, typically focusing on the social lives and relationships of young
professional women, and oftem aimed at readers with similar experiences”. In this study, chick lit is described as a type of fiction’s writing style, typically focussing on
the social lives and relationships of young working women.
Ideology comes from the word idea and logos (science), while idea itself envisages meanings something individuals think up for themselves
(Edgar&Sedgwick, 2005:189). The definition of ideology based on Hall definition is a site of struggle from many interests (Turner, 2003: 172). Ideology also has function
to construct ‘false conciousness’ of the self and of one’s relation to history (Turner, 2003; 19). While Karl Marx defined ideology not as consciousness of people that determine their being, but, on the contratry, their social being that determines their
conciousness. Further, Marx and Engels in “The German Ideology” developed an account of ideology in terms of economic base and ideological superstructure. If a
person’s class position is determined by his or her economic position in relation to the mode of production, then this individual will share an ideology representing the economic class they belong to (Easthope&MacGowan, 1998:169). Based on the
definition above, ideology in this study described as the idea that chick lit writer think up and wrote behind the story of chick lit novels which contains of many
9 CHAPTER II
THEORETICAL REVIEW
A. Review of Related Studies
The evolution of the world not only affected the world of reality but also influence the world of imaginary. Women novels, as part of the world of imaginary has been giving birth to chick-lit, as the proof of the influence of the world change.
Chick-lit has been receive compliment as novels which giving the new color of women novels. Chick-lit has been develop a new style of writing which has not been used before such
as telling a story through diaries or email which has become one of the trend of writing since chick-lit published in the first time (
http://www.kompas.com/kompas-cetak/0404/17/pustaka/973634.htm)
According to Glasburgh (2006:18), the sudden explosion of chick-lit genre in the market because the literature has few ideas : Mabry (2005:27) suggest that as
traditional romance reader age (their average age is about forty-five), publishers are honing in on the next generation of female readers. These younger readers are looking for something sassier, funnier, and with more romantic choices than the traditional
romance formula has to offer. Others liken it to a return to consumerism: chick-lit’s preoccupation with shopping and fashion compounds its relationship with mass culture
and legitimazes the reader’s own assumed preoccupation with “these indispensable features of the feminine universe” (Radway, 1984:193). It is safe to say that there is some reader interest in consumerism as no one is completely immune to the powers of
Chick-lit is also mentioned to be ‘zeitgeist’ or the representation of the age, as chick-lit is the novel wrote by women and for women then can be summed that chick-lit
is the representation of women nowadays (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/19/books/review/19donadio.html). The novels also
titled to be the picture of women from heaven although all their heroine is not the perfect women in the world. It is mentioned to be the picture of women from heaven because although they are story about women but they faith is far much different from
women nowadays. Their luck and their serendipity are giving some dream that feminist never able to give
(http://www.kompas.com/kompas-cetak/0404/17/pustaka/972521.htm).
The third wave feminism is not the end of feminist movement. Some critics put post feminism as the following chain of feminism. Chick-lit which aimed for women
has been said as the post feminism novel. Novel which born from the second-wave-feminism women, they born from mother which whispering second-wave-feminism as story before
sleep, they are not fighting for equal rights anymore nor they are not understand either the struggle of their mother for equality. They see equal right as something which given taken for granted but not something which has been fight for by their mother. They see
feminism as something they already have and have been make them fighting for something else. Some critics have been seen chick-lit as degradation of feminism. They
consider chick-lit did not support the struggle of many women which has been fight for equality in some third world country. They see the women characterized in chick-lit as women which fighting for something too simple. Post feminism is not seen as next
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Not all women agree with the opinion of Diane Goodman, from Allegheny College. Post feminism can be seen as the following or the regression of feminism, it
depend how people see. For Gadis Arivia, one of Indonesian feminist, post feminism is defined as feminist movement which not fighting for equality, but fighting for
something more particular and plural, the struggle which did not have any relationship with ideology but still become women’s problem. Women aimed by chick-lit are they who step onward from feminist movement which make them consider that women not
only facing the problem of equality, but also other simple problem. Intan Paramadina, literature and culture critics, put critics as novel which down-to-earth, the heroine which
not perfect has been put chick-lit has close relationship with the reader and put the reader identified themselves with chick-lit character (
http://www.kompas.com/kompas-cetak/0404/17/pustaka/972521.htm).
B. Review of Related Theories 1. Theory of Character
A character is the creation of the novelist who becomes important in the novel because it is necessary for a novelist to make his or her works interesting. Characters are
very significant because in order to understand the novel, the reader need to understand the character.
In order to understand the theory of character, we need to explain the word character itself. According to Stanton in An Introduction to Friction, the word character has two meaning. The first meaning is the individuals who appear in the story and this
meaning is the mixture of interest, desire, emotion, and moral principles that make up each of these individuals. This also raises the question of “how would you describe his
character?”. (Stanton, 1965:17)
A theory of character is needed in analyzing a novel, which relates to the
character and her background. Barnet explain that the author presents his/her own character in his/her own work (1988:712). It means that it is a must to have a character or characters in fiction. Abraham in his Glossary of Literary Terms defines character as
the persons who are presented in a narrative and dramatic work who reveal themselves in what the say (dialogue) and by what they do (the action). A character’s speech or
action may reveal some of the author’s ideas (1971: 20-21).
E.M Forster in his book Aspect of the Novel (1974 : 46-51) divides character into two kind, flat and round character :
a. Flat Character
Forster states that a flat character is built around “a single idea or quality” and is
presented in outline and without much individualizing. A flat character is characterized by one or two traits. Forster call this kind of character flat because we see only one side of him.
There are two advantages of flat character. One great advantages of flat character is that he is recognized easily whenever he comes. He is recognized not by the
visual eye which merely notes the recurrence of a proper name, but by the reader’s emotional eye. It means that by seeing a part of a person’s character, the reader can get the description of the whole character. The second advantage is that a flat character is
13
the end of it, the character stays the same (unchanged). He remains in the reader’s mind as unatterable for the reason that he is not changed by circumstances. The character can
be summed one or two words.
b. Round Character
A round character is complex in temperament and motivation and is represented with subtle particularity. Forster says that we remember him in connection with the
great scenes. It indicates that we do not remember him so easily for the waxes and wanes and has many facets like human being. Therefore he is as difficult to describe
with any adequacy as a person in real life, and like most people, he is capable of surprising us.
On the other hand, Henkle in his book Reading the Novel (1977: 87-97) states
that character can be described as major and secondary ones.
1. Major character
Major character is the most important and complex character in a novel. Major
character can be identified as such through the complexity of his characterization, the attention given to him (by the author and by the other characters), and the
2. Secondary character
Secondary character is character that performs more limited functions. He may be
less sophisticated, therefore his response to the experience is less complex and interesting.
In order to understanding the character, according to Barnet,Berman,&Burto in their book Literature for Composition, there are some factor to be considered when we want to see the character involved in a story (1988: 712), those are :
i. What the character says.
What the character says can give a clue how the author describes him, for instance,
whether he is a kind or bad person, educated or uneducated person, etc.
ii. What the character does.
By seeing what the character does, we are able to know whether he is from upper or lower class, he is kind or bad person.
iii. What other character say about the character.
What other characters say about the character is needed to get an additional information and clear description about his character in the story.
iv. What others do
The action of others may help to indicate what the character could do but he does
15
While M.J. Murphy’s in Understanding Unseens : An Introduction to English Poetry
and the English Novel for Overseas Student (1972: 161-173) said that there are nine
ways in which an author attempts to make his characters understandable to and come
alive for his reader.
1. Personal description
Personal description means that the author can describe a person’s appearance and
clothes in the story.
2. Characters as seen by another
Instead of describing a character directly, the author can describe him through the
eyes and opinions of another.
3. Speech
It is important way that may be used to describe of character. The author can give us an insight into the character of one of the persons in the book through what the person says. Whenever a person speaks, whenever he is in conversation with
another, whenever he puts forward an opinion, he is giving us come clues to his character.
4. Past life
done by direct comment by the author, through the person’s thought, through his conversation or through the medium of another person.
5. Conversation of other.
We can take clues of a person’s character through the conversations of the other
people and the things they say about him. People do talk about other people and the thing they say often gives us a clue to the character of the person spoke about.
6. Reactions
Through the person’s reaction to various situations and events, the author can also give us a clue to know a person’s character.
7. Direct comment
The author can describe or comment on a person’s character directly.
8. Thoughts
The author can give us direct knowledge of what a person is thinking about. It this respect, he is able to do what we cannot do in real life. He can tell us what different people are thinking.
9. Mannerism
The author can describe a person’s mannerism and habit which may also tell us
something about his character.
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Theory of representation is based on the major theorist of postmodernism which proposed by the contemporary French writer Jean Baudrillad. Baudrillad is associated
with what is usually known as ‘the loss of the real’, which is the view that in contemporary life the pervasive influence of images from film, TV and advertising has
led to a loss of the distinctions between the real and imagined, reality and illusion, surface and depth. The result is a culture of ‘hyperreality’, in which distinctions between these are eroded. His propositions are worked out in his essay ‘Simulacra and
Simulations’. He begins by evoking a past era of ‘fullness’, when a sign was a surface indication of an underlying depth of reality (‘an outward sign of inward grace’). But
what, he ask, if a sign is not an index of an underlying reality, but merely of other signs? Then the whole system becomes what he calls a simulacrum. He then subtitutes for representation the notion of simulation. The sign reaches its present stage of emptiness
in a series of steps (Barry, 1995: 87).
Firstly, the sign represents a basic reality. The example of this is the
representations of the industrial city of Salford in the work of the twentieth-century British artist L.S. Lowry. Mid-century life for working people in such a place was hard, and the paintings have an air of monotony and repetitiveness – cowed, stick-like figures
fill the streets, colors are muted, and the horizon filled with grim factory-like buildings. As sign, then, Lowry’s paintings seem to represent the basic reality of the place they
depict (Barry, 1995: 87).
The second stage for the sign is that it misrepresents or distorts the reality behind it. As an example of this, the glamourised representation of cities like Liverpool
masts silhoutted against the sky. Life in these places at that time was presumably grim, but the painting offer a romantic and glamourised image, so the sign can be said to
misrepresent what it shows (Barry, 1995: 88).
The third stage for the sign is when the sign disguises the fact that there is no
corresponding reality underneath. To illustrate, take a device used in the work of the surrealist artist Rene Margritte, where, in the painting, an easel with a painter’s canvas on it is shown standing alongside a window: on the canvas in the painting is painted the
exterior scene which we can see through the window. But what is shown beyond the window is not reality, against which the painting within the paiting can be judged, but
simply another sign, another depiction, which has no more authority or reality than the painting within the painting (which is actually a representation of representation) (Barry, 1995: 88).
Another example the third stages is Disneyland. In one way, it is a sign of course, it a sign of the second type, a mythologised misrepresentation of the United
States. But, Disneyland is actually a ‘third-order simulation’ (a sign which conceal an absence). In a word, Disneyland has the effect of ‘concealing the fact that the real is no longer real, and thus of saving the reality principle’. Within postmodernism, the
distinction between what is real and what is simulated collapses : everything is a model or an image, all is surface without depth, this is the hyperreal as Baudrillard calls it
(Barry, 1995: 89)
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painting, which is not representational at all, like one of the great purple mood canvases of Mark Rothko, for instance (Barry, 1995: 88).
3. Theory of Semiology
Semiology is the science which build base on the theories of language by
Saussure. Saussure suggests the establishment of a science which would study the life of signs within society’ and semiology was to be the mechanism for applying the structural model of language across all signifying systems and for providing a method
of analysis that would be ‘scientific’ and precise (Turner, 2003: 13). Semiology not only influence by Saussure but also by the writing of the French critics and semiologist,
Roland Barthes. Through his ‘Mythologies’ and ‘Writing Degree Zero’, he constructs some theories about interpreting popular culture.
Semiology argues that material reality can never be taken for granted. It is
always constructed and made intelligible to human understanding by culturally scientific systems of meaning. This meaning is never ‘innocent’, but has some particular
purpose or interest lying behind it, which semiology can uncover. Our experience of the world is never ‘innocent’ because systems of meaning make sure it is intelligible. There is no such thing as a pure, uncoded, objective experience of a real and objective world.
The latter exist but its intelligibility depends upon codes of meaning or systems sign, such as language. These codes and signs are not universally given, but are historically
and socially specific to the particular interest and purposes which lie behind it. According to Barthes, it is manufactured out of historically shifting system of codes, conventions and sign, that is why Barthes called it as the process of signification.
which they are to be found. Rather, they present themselves as universal when they are really historically and socially fixed. As Barthes writes in Mythologies, the function of
myth is to ‘transform history into nature’ (Strinati, 2003: 98).
Barthes explained further through his analysis in French classicism and
‘Writing Degree Zero’. According to Barthes, the French classical style is rhetorical in character, motivated by the ‘permanent intention to persuade’. It is the style of the law courts and political campaign, aimed at changing opinions and ensuring the acceptance
of the bourgeois view of the world. It has thus not simply been a reflection of reality but an attempt to shape conception of reality. It has not been neutral and universal, nor
natural and inevitable, but historically specific and socially constructed, rooted in a particular set of class interests. Its meaning has not been given but produced, not ‘innocent’ but ‘guilty’. French classicism is another ‘myth’, which tries to transform the
historical into natural in the interest of the bourgeois class (Strinati, 2003: 99).
Barthes argues that the emergence of new class interests and conflicts in the
nineteenth century results in the breakdown of the classical style. Thus, he mentioning ‘Writing Degree Zero’ as a style developed in order to reject the idea of politically committed writing. It values writing which is colorless, transparent and neutral, blank
and impersonal. It pretends to be as asocial and historical as possible. In a way, it is not a style at all. But this is not possible according to Bathes. For him, all writing is a form
of fabrication or style. Furthermore, all writing is ideological and cannot avoid being so. Writing is never just an instrument of communication, an open way of addressing people. It is rather a product of certain social and historical circumstances and certain
21
presents itself as being beyond ideology, is for Barthes shown to be an illusion by his investigation of French classicism and ‘Writing Degree Zero’. (Strinati, 2003: 99).
Barthes carried his ideas further through his explanation in ‘Mythologies’. Myth is a system of communication, that is a message. Myth is not defined by the object of its
message, but by the way in which it utters this message. Barthes notes that any semiology postulates a relation between two terms, a signifier and a signified, a distinction elaborated by Saussure. There is also a third term, the sign itself. He
explained through the example of a bunch of roses. The roses are a signifier of a signified, which is passion, something signified by the roses sent to a loved. The bunch
of roses can thus be analytically if not empirically broken down into a signifier, the roses, a signified, passion and a sign which combines and is not separate from these two components, the roses as a sign of passion. Here, the passion is the process of
signification. This attribution of meaning- the roses signify passion and not a joke or a farewell – cannot be understood simply in terms of the system of signs, but has to be
located in the context of the social relationship in which the attribution of meaning occurs (Strinati, 2003: 101)
Barthes suggest that the study of myth needs to avoid confusion. Therefore, the
signifier becomes ‘form’, the signified ‘concept’ and the sign ‘signification’. Another example the picture of the black soldier saluting the French flag, we have the form of
the black soldier saluting the French flag, the concept of French military strength and the signification of the grandeur and impartiality of French imperialism. But through the semiological analysis, Barthes argues that myth works through the relationship between
meaning and placed in another system, that of the myth, which denies his history and culture and thus the real history of French colonial exploitation. What motivates this
‘impoverisment of meaning’ is the concept of French imperiality, which gives another history to the soldier, that of the grandeur and impartiality of French colonialism. The
soldier is now made to function as a sign of French imperiality. As Barthes puts it, it is emphasizing the process of signification: ‘The French Empire’? It just a fact : look at this good Negro who salutes just like one of our boys.
Barthes notes that ‘if one wishes to connect a mythical schema to a general history, to explain how it corresponds to the interest of a definite society – in short, to
pass from semiology to ideology, one has to become a semiologist and understand ‘the very principle of myth : it transforms history into nature. As with his analysis of French classical writing, Barthes argues that myth has to be understood by how it transforms
the socially (the interest of the bourgeois class) and historically specific (the structure of capitalist societies) into something which is natural and inevitable when it is really a
historically specific structure of imperial power. Barthes is therefore emphasize and led to the conclusion that myth thus facilitates the task of bourgeois ideology and represent the interest of bourgeois class (Strinati, 2003: 105).
4. Theory of Ideology
Every sign is ideological. Yet it is hard to give a relatively objective and impartial account of the concept of ideology, one that is not tendetious because the question of ideology is so deeply bound up with politics, domination and issue of
23
the eighteenth century by the French philosopher Destutt de Tracy, to refer to a science (logos) of idea. Such a science would be based in analysis of human perception,
conceived itself as a sub discipline of biology, and the ideologus sought to reform educational practices on the basis of it. (Edgar&Sedgwick, 2005:189). Definition of
ideology have spread in widening circles, begins with a sense of ideology as conscious and deliberate then develops increasingly to regard ideology as permeating lived experience, subjectivity and even the conscious. A base-line definition of ideology
would contrast with the notion of ideas. While the term ideas, envisages meanings something individuals think up for themselves, ideology specifies meaning in so far as
they are social collective. Karl Marx defined ideology not as conciousness of people that detemine their being, but, on the contrary, their social being that determines their conciousness (Easthope&MacGowan, 1998:169).
Further, Marx and Engels in “The German Ideology” developed an account of ideology in terms of economic base and ideological superstructure. If a person’s class
position is determined by his or her economic position in relation to the mode of production, then this individual will share an ideology representing the economic class they belong to (Easthope&MacGowan, 1998). Marx itself, separated people into two
class into two class, the bourgeoise and the proletar. The bourgeosie represent the capital owner which has become the ruling class. In other, the proletar represent the
labour which described as people without capital power. Marx stated that in order to win the battle of power, the bourgeois not only had to win the capital, but also winning the battle of ideas. They did so through performing two manoeuvers, the first was to
line, Marx emphasize that ideology is gigantic masquerade which consist of ideas in the service of class interest (Easthope&MacGowan).
Other side opinion, although almost similar comes from cultural studies. Ideology, even though has been out of fashion from cultural studies, but it cannot be
separated from cultural studies. As mentioned by James Carrey in Turner (2003) British cultural studies could be described just as easily and perhaps more accurately as ideological studies for they assimilate, in a variety of complex ways, culture to ideology
(2003: 167). Turner then explained the function of ideology as ‘to misrepresent “the real” and to mask any political struggle: for cultural studies ideology can be summarize
as a site of struggle, emphasizing what has been developed by Marx through the battle of ideas.
Ideology, according to Gramsci cannot be separated from popular culture, even
he defined ideology as a site of particularly vigorious contestation, and the popular culture as a source of considerable resistance to hegemonic relation. Popular culture is
seen in two side of money, the first, it is seen as a rebellion from the hegemony. A new ideology which carried in order to be a sign of struggle. In opposite, the others is seeing popular culture as the process of naturalization,a process to maintain hegemony through
giving a new ideology which particularly following the hegemony. Hegemony speciefied ideology as ways a ruling group, block or class must rule by winning consent
in conjuction with the thread of force, the effectiveness of hegemony depending on how rarely force, always present, has to be used (Easthope&MacGowen, 1998).
The process of naturalization is process that according to Hall (1996) aim to
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culture, has become the site for the battle. Media has big influence in shaping the culture though ideological process. Hall (1996) mention two process that involving the
ideology to shape the culture. The first is the elaboration of ideology in language and the second is the articulation of ideology in the social formation.
Hall (1996) then refers to Sausurean which put language as the symbol of hegemony. Meaning in things is not given or taken-for-granted, but according to Sausurrean, a meaning is attributed culturally. Hall (1996) put it as politics of
signification, how a meaning won over the other. Media, as the site, use their power to signify meanings in a particular way. This process is a prove of the battle of ideological
power, ideology becomes a site of struggle and a prize to be won, nor a permanent possession of dominant group and this process structures the most basic system of cultural organization. Another effect of ideology in the media message is to efface itself,
allowing the message that has been sent to appear as natural and spontaneous presentation of reality. Hall (1996) mentioned it as the ‘reality effect’ while Althusser
(1970) prefer stated as false consciousness. Althusser stated that what represented in ideology therfore not the system of the real relation which govern the existence of individuals, but the imaginary relation of those individuals to the real relation in which
they live.
5. Woman Culture in America in 1990’s
With the rise of American industrialization after the Civil War, single women were pushed and pulled into the labor force in ever greater numbers. The changing
among the push factors. The pull factors included causes as varied as the division of labor due to new technology, the use of women as strikebreakers – and also, from the
women’s point of view, the independence that comes with having one’s own, earned income. This independence was enhanced for working single women who lived away
from their families. It cites several turn-of-the-century surveys that showed that working single women living away from home usually retained most of their earnings and over two-thirds of them retained 100 percent whereas those who lived at home while
working usually remitted most or all of their earnings to their parents. Even then, women enjoyed the benefit of having a greater say over how family finances were
distributed (Cvrcek, 2007: 12).
So strong, in fact, was the desire for independence that many single women had a clear preference for factory work over domestic service even though servants usually
received free board and might command a higher pay. By 1930, the proportion of single white women working as domestic workers collapsed to between a quarter and a third
of what it had been in 1860. Operative employment, on the other hand, was consistently above 30% and only went out of favor after 1910 as new occupations, promising not only higher salaries but also shorter hours and cleaner work environment, emerged.
These were professional, clerical and sales jobs. Domestic service simply entailed too strong a curtailment of the women’s freedom including, it seems, the freedom of social
and dating life. Department stores, on the other hand, presented ample opportunity to meet prospective dates. Indeed, so great was the attraction for both the woman employees and the male customers that some stores implemented policies to discourage
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D. Theoretical Framework
Chick-lit which born in the middle 1990’s is the symbol of woman culture. Although, it still doubtful whether they exaggerate or simplified the life of woman nowadays, but they have become the mirror of woman nowadays. Thus, interrelatedness between the characters and the readers, have been made the novels seems to be closes to the fact, though still, a work of literature is absolutely not the real fact that can be found in the real world. During the research, the exploration will be focus in the ideologies behind chick-lit stories which also entering chick-lit into great success.
There are five theories applied in this research. The theory of characters will enable the writer to explore the characteristic of the main character, how the character reacts to the problems in life, how she solve it an she see herself as part of the society since the first step of the study that will be done is on the character. Theory of representation will help to explore the main characters of chick-lit as the representation of reality. While the theory of semilogy will help to explore the sign that represent through the characters and both theory will help to potrait the representation of woman nowadays in chick-lit characters. The woman culture in America will help and enrich the the representation of woman nowadays, woman culture will help to give a real portrait. The theory of ideology will explained the ideology that depicted in chick lit character through the representation woman depicted in chick-lit.
The conclusion will be taken the result of the analysis in order to give clear
understanding of chick-lit as women culture and popular culture through the ideologies behind it. The conclusion will help to develop an understanding the real war that women
28 CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY
A. Object of the Study
The object of the research is chick-lit novels, especially the three novels that has been chosen. The three novels are Jemima J by Jane Green, The Devil Wears Prada by
Lauren Weisberger and Bridget Jones II, The Edge of Reason by Helen Fielding. The three novels are chosen randomly from many tittle of chick lit novels.
The first novel is Jemima J by Jane Green which was published in 1998 by the Penguin Books. Jemima J is one of chick-lit that first published. Wrote by Jane Green, a novelist who has been published five other bestseller novels. Before wrote Jemima J,
Jane Green wrote Straight Talking in 1997. She has been written three other novels after Jemima J, they are Mr. Maybe (1999), Bookends (2000), Babyville (2001).
Written in the first person point of view, we can pop inside the head of Jemima
Jones, the main character of Jemima J. Jemima J is a story of ‘ugly duck’ who turn into a swan. Jemima was describe to be a young woman who has weight problem. Her
struggle to reduce her weight and become the girl she always wanted to has become the main story of the novel.
The second novel is Bridget Jones; The Edge of Reason by Helen Fielding. This is
the second novel of the Bridget Jones Diary. The first novel has been making a success and it has become the reason why the second come. The success of Bridget Jones not
29
box office movie. While Bridget Jones Diary; The Edge of Reason as the sequel of the first one, even though not as successful as the first one but still made a box office.
Bridget Jones is a story of women in their thirties. In the first novel it was describe Bridget Jones as a women with all her imperfectness. She was not describe as
‘stereotype women’ like slim, beautiful, smart and successful instead she was described as fat, not married yet (even though she is 32), did not like her job, a smoker and alcoholic. Bridget went through her life with all her imperfectness and her biggest aim
is finding “Mr. Right” in her life. Since Bridget Jones Diary was influence by ‘Pride and Prejudice’, that’s why the story of finding Mr. Right was also colored with many
prejudice before she finally could see the truth. Even the Mr. Right also named from the novel ‘Pride and Prejudice, Mr. Darcy. The second novel tells the story after Bridget Jones is finding Mr. Darcy. Not many changes from Bridget life, she still has the same
job, but what makes different only she and Mr. Darcy now live together. All the trouble comes when two different people put in the same place. Many problems come and like
the first novel, it is full of prejudice. The story of the second novel is about the struggle of Bridget Jones dealing with her prejudice toward Mr. Darcy as her couple.
The third novel is The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger which was
published in 2003. The Devil Wears Prada is chick-lit which publish after the success of the other chick-lit series. Although it was published in the glorious age but The Devil
Wears Prada also records its own success. Wrote by Lauren Wisberger, a writer who
graduated from Cornell University, The Devil Wears Prada has become one of New York Times Bestsellers for six months. The Devil Wears Prada also has been published
as the movie star and made by Fox 2000 Pictures in 2006 the movie was hilarious, not only because they made box office but also was supported by many best and famous
designer in the world.
The Devil Wears Prada is claimed to be the novel who open the gate behind the
fashion industry. Different from two other chick-lit, The Devil Wears Prada told the story of working for the boss who liked devil in a fashion magazine. Lauren Weisberger is a Vogue veteran, so she describe the fashion industry just like the way it
is.
The three novels tells about the same topics, they tells the story of woman. Even
though they have different backgrounds, different countries and different stories but they share one things in common, they are the picture of woman that life in 22 centuries. All the stories will be discussed further in the next chapter and understand
further about chick-lit.
B. Approach of the Study
For this study, the writer used a cultural studies approach. Cultural studies approach combines theories of culture, feminism, and hegemony to reveal the
ideologies behind the novels. There are many ideas that constitute cultural studies. Turner (2003:9) said that cultural studies is an interdisciplinary field where certain
concern and method have converged; the usefulness of this convergence is that it has enable us to understand phenomena and relationship that were not accessible through the existing disciplines. While Cuerin (1999:239) mentioned cultural studies as a set of
31
studies, public policy studies, popular culture studies and postcolonial studies; those fields that focus on social and cultural forces that either create community or caused
division. Almost the same with Cuerin, Sparks in Storey(1996:15) mention that cultural studies can be defined as a veritable rag-bag of ideas, methods and concerns from
literary critisism, sociology, history, media studies, etc, that are lumped together under the convenient label of cultural studies. Not far from all the definition, Edgar and Sedgwick (2005) described in two definition, the first is a multi-disciplinary approach to
culture, drawing not merely on the orthodox approaches derived from social science, but also on more radical approaches suggested by, for example feminism, Marxism and
semiotic. And the second definition, which not much different from the first one, an approach to culture that is explicitly opposed to the celebration of high or elite culture, as represented, for example, in the canonical texts studied in English Literature, or the
subject matter of traditional musicology, and an approach that is more positively derived from the social sciences, and particularly from cultural anthropology and the
sociology of culture. All the combination will be used to analyze the characters, especially the main characters.
Cultural studies are chosen because cultural studies offer distinctive answers to
the two key questions, what is intepretation and what is literature. First, literature consist of popular, mass and minority genres as well as elite cannonical works. It
includes a wide array of discursive materials, from writings in standard literary genres to rap lyrics, blue poems, oral legends, diaries, magazines, movies, posters, romance, soap operas, and so on. With a different population or in another time or place, literature
institutional analysis, ideology critique, and field-based research, as well as textual explication, exegesis, aesthetic appreciation and personal reponse (Leitch, 2001).
C. Method of the Study
The study on chick-lit is conducted by the library research. The writer used the novels itself as the primary source and collected some books as the secondary sources regarding the criticism on chick-lit and cultural studies. Turner’s British Cultural
Studies, An Introduction and Strinati’s An Introduction to Theories of Popular Culture,
Easthope&MacGowen’s A Critical and Cultural Theory Reader are the most important
sources mostly used in the analysis, in which the writer was able to find some theories of cultural studies to analyze the novels. Furthermore, the writer also found some additional information from the Internet and the national newspaper to support the
analysis.
The primary source, that is, the novel, was read several times. Later on, when
the focus was firmly established, that is, the analysis on the main characters as the medium for revealing the ideology of chick-lit novel through the three novels chosen. The writer then tried to collect as many sources as possible in order to understand more
about the characters, who might convey messages or sign that represent through the characters. From the charcters, it will give an understanding the representation of
33 CHAPTER IV
ANALYSIS
Since 1960’s the number of women in the workforce began to increase and working has become common activities. This reality reflected the changing attitudes of women themselves, the problems they face have been widened, not only domestic area,
but has been enlarging into workforce and industry. Chick-lit as new genre has been dedicated for women nowadays. As zeitgeist, their stories are made from and for
women nowadays, it would be suitable and close connected with women in this age. The characters also build based on the life of women nowadays. Single and working in their late 20 and in the beginning of 30 has become the theme of chick-lit novels.
As novels, chick-lit is not purely portraying the life of women nowadays, but they also send some messages (unconsciously or not) through each character depicted in
the novels. Noted by Hall that reality is not something natural, but they are constructed to be seen natural, then chick-lit as the reality of the word imaginary is also constructed with all the hidden message and interest. Jemima J, The Devil Wears Prada and Bridget
Jones; The Edge of Reason are three novels chosen to be analyzed. Each novels telling
different stories, depicted different characters but naturally they share something in
common as chick-lit novels. They share the same interest and send the same messages although through different type and size. This research will be looking forward for the hidden messages and interest which will be translated into the hidden ideologies behind
chick-lit. The hidden ideologies will give clear picture the aim of chick-lit novels toward their reader. How they lead their reader to think and judge their life which
for further discussion of message and interest while all the discussion will be started below.
A. Characterization of the works
Characters depicted in the novels, as mentioned before, would be the main entrance to the following discussion. As stated by Abrahams in his Glossary of Literary Terms, a character will reveal some of their author’s ideas through their speech of
action. Constructing a character of a novel is also equally constructing the author ideas.
The first character which would be discussed is the character of Jemima Jones
from Jemima J by Jane Green. The second would be Bridget Jones from Bridget Jones; The Edge of Reason. And the last is Andrea Sach from The Devil Wears Prada.
1. Jemima Jones
The novel which takes the setting in London has been put the name of the main
character as the title of the novel. Jemima Jones, the main character, is a single working woman which works as a journalist in the local newspaper. The major theme of the novel is a Cinderella story of woman’s struggle to be slim. Since little girl Jemima is
overweight, this has been her major problem in her life and drive her to obsess with a good shape. In her opinion, people around her is stare at her with pittyness everytime
they see her eating. According to her condition, eating is a mistake, while overweight is the result of her mistake. Because Jemima is considering it as a mistake, then she feels that she needs to make a reason to reduce her guilty feeling and to attract people
35
“Because, tough as it is to admit to a total stranger, I, Jemima Jones, eat a lot. I catch the glances, the glares of disapproval on the occasion I eat out in public, and I try my damnedest to ignore them. Should someone, some ‘friend’ trying to be caring and sharing, question me gently, I’ll tell them I have a thyroid
problem, or a gland problem, and occasionally I’ll tack on the fact that I have a super-slow metabolism as well. Just so there’s no doubt, just so people don’t think that the only reason I am the size I am is because of the amount I eat.” (Green, 1998; 2)
Her hobby is collecting model’s picture which she gets from cutting the magazines.
She collect and gather them in her drawer, she has been projecting her disable toward eyeing those pictures. Jemima grow with understanding that physical image is very
important and losing her weight is her life aim. It seems that losing her weight will solve all her life problems.
“And before you think I’m some kind of closet lesbian, I’ve already told you one thing I would wish for if I rubbed a lamp and a gorgeous, bare-chested genie suddenly appeared. If I had one wish in all the world I wouldn’t wish to win the lottery. Nor would I wish for true love. No, if I had one wish I would wish to have a model’s figure, probably Cindy Crawford’s, and I would extend the wish into having and keeping a model’s figure, no matter what I eat.” (Green, 1998;3) Raised by her mother, Jemima was growing up with her mother as her role model. While instead of loving and caring her daughter no matter her condition, Jemima’s mother is ashamed with Jemima existence as fat girl. She wants to hide
Jemima from sight of people. Jemima’s mother is a woman who dreaming her glorious youth. She was slim and beautiful when she was young, but after Jemima’s
father leaving her, she keeps putting her weight. She was projecting her obsession toward her daughter. But, what she wants is not what she gets, Jemima is not a slim girl and her mother’s feels that Jemima has been arousing people pityness toward
shameful. Jemima has been learning from her mother and she also learns that the love of her mother is also based on her appearance.
“Because at this moment in time Jemima’s mother tries her damnedest not to take her daughter shopping. She tries to avoid the pitying stares of shopkeepers, the humiliation of having to shop in outsize stores, of people staring at them walking down the street. Jemima’s mother loves Jemima, deeply, as only a mother can love her daughter, but she wishes Jemima looked different.” (Green, 1998; 140-141).
Physical image also has been throwing Jemima self esteem. She understands that she is a lovely person, but she put it aside. She sees the world as the physical
world and she also has been put aside by the world because she is not fulfilling the world’s expectation. She believes and she runs her life with the belief that she is not worth enough because what people see is the fat.”So here I’m now, at twenty-seven
years old, bright, funny, and warm, caring and kind; but of course people don’t see
that when they look at Jemima Jones. They simply see fat.” (Green, 1998; 3).
How Jemima see herself is how she sees the world. Jemima works as the writer of TipsTop Column in Kilburn Herald, one of the local newspapers in London. Jemima is talented to handle words, as journalist it is a gift that make her existed in
her world. She often helps Geraldine, her collegue in her office, and even sometimes Jemima who does the article because Geraldine’s writing is very awful. Jemima’s
boss did not see her talent, instead giving Jemima a chance to prove herself; he gives the chance to Geraldine although at the end it is Jemima who will finish the job. The jobs are given not based on the competencies of the employee but based on the
appearance. Geraldine is slim, beautiful and model’s look, Jemima feels that her boss prefer Geraldine rather than her because of it. As woman, Jemima feels insecure with
37
herself toward Geraldine. Instead of pushing herself further to explore her talent with words and moving her life, Jemima is giving up and taking for granted every times
her boss refuse to give her a chance to write an article.
“It is not that I’m completely cynical, but with her gleaming blonde hair in a chick bob, her tiny size 10 figures into the latest fashion, Geraldine may not have an ounce of talent, but the men love her, and the editor thinks she’s the biggest asset to the paper since, well, since himself…. Geraldine is the woman I wish I was. “(Green, 1998; 9).
As a woman, Jemima also naive, although she knows that she has become the
subject of industrial product, but she is still following it. The stereotype of slim girls is build in order to sell the diet pills, to make the industry running, to gain the aim
they have been made the stereotype. Although she is aware with the marketing of the industry, but because she is grown up with the understanding of beauty based of physical appearance, being discriminate and underestimated by other people, she
gives up and using all the diet pills.
“And diets don’t work, how can they? It’s a multi million-dollar industry, and if any of the diets actually worked the whole caboodle would go down the toilet… You name them; I’ve been the idiot that tried them.” (Green, 1998;4)
The evolution of Jemima begun not from herself but with the force of other. When Jemima is starting her online course, she meets someone through the internet.
For Jemima, it is a new experience because she never feels the attention of a male before, she never feels being in love and loved by a man, this exhilarating experience
has been make Jemima try her hardest to keep the relationship although it is in cyber world. They started to chatting, then sending an email and at the end they start exchange picture. Jemima is in doubt to send her picture; she did not feel confident
