Analysis of Elements of Plot in Tom Clancy's 'Rainbow Six'.

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Maranatha Christian University

ABSTRACT

Dalam tugas akhir ini saya membahas tentang elements of plot dalam novel yang berjudul Rainbow Six karangan penulis berkebangsaan Amerika Serikat, Tom Clancy. Saya memilih untuk menganalisis buku ini karena menurut saya novel ini merupakan contoh novel bergenre thriller yang baik. Dalam sebuah novel thriller yang baik, akan terdapat unsur-unsur suspense dan surprise yang baik pula, ditunjang dengan artistic unity yang menyatakan bahwa unsur suspense dan surprise dalam novel tersebut masuk akal dan bisa diterima secara logis.

Rainbow Six bercerita tentang sebuah tim anti-teror beranggotakan

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APPENDICES

Synopsis of Rainbow Six

A mysterious incident happens in New York, when some homeless people are taken by some volunteers from a medical corporation named Horizon Corporation. The homeless people are taken to some kind of facility and they become the test subjects of a new virus called Shiva.

Meanwhile, CIA’s operatives John Clark, Domingo ‘Ding’ Chavez and Alistair Stanley (a SAS officer), move from the United States to Hereford, England, to join an elite and multinational counter-terrorist team named Rainbow. Soon after Clark, Chavez, and Stanley have been introduced to the team, Rainbow Team immediately has to go on a mission. A bank in Bern, Switzerland, has been robbed by a group of terrorists. Rainbow Team under Chavez’s command disguises as Swiss police and successfully takes down the terrorists. Another mission for Rainbow Team to take is to free an Austrian businessman who has been kidnapped by German terrorists, who believe that the Austrian has a special code that can lead to an international trading market, which is believed to be held by elite capitalists. Again, Rainbow Team successfully takes down the terrorists.

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using Shiva through the Olympic Games in Sydney. Horizon’s CEO, John Brightling, hires an ex-KGB officer, Dimitriy Popov, to extinguish the Rainbow

Team’s existence. After Dmitry Popov fails to beat the Rainbow Team, he learns

that he indirectly helps the extinction of human beings including himself and decides to help Rainbow Team to catch John Brightling. Rainbow Team manages to defeat the terrorists in their hideout deep inside a Brazilian rain forest.

Biography of Tom Clancy

Tom Clancy was born Thomas Leo Clancy Junior. Born on April 12th 1947, he graduated from Loyola High School in 1965. He then continued his study in Loyola College in Baltimore and graduated four years later with a degree in English Literature. Tom married his first wife, Wanda, in 1970. His marriage failed and after his divorce with Wanda, Tom married Alexandra Marie Llewellyn at the age of 52. His first debut in literature was his famous novel The Hunt for Red October in 1984. The novel gained immense popularity and so did the author.

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Ghost Recon. Tom Clancy is also known as a defender of Moslems’ rights after

the 9/11 tragedy. Tom Clancy died on October 1st, 2013 at the age of 66.

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CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Thriller is “a work of fiction or drama designed to hold the interest by the

use of a high degree of intrigue, adventure, or suspense” (“Thriller”). Thriller has

many subgenres such as psychological thriller and crime thriller. In the late

1980’s, a new subgenre in thriller emerged and it was called the techno-thriller.

Techno-thriller means “a thriller whose plot relies on modern technology”

(“Techno Thriller”). Techno-thriller novels usually contain military technology

“as the ‘techno-thriller’ label makes clear, these were thrillers in which the

‘techno’ was central, in particular high-technology military weapons systems that

were either very new, or believed likely to be available in the near term” (Elhefnawy) within the story.

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“if anybody invented the techno-thriller, what about Crichton?” (Ryan)

Tom Clancy is a popular novelist in the United States of America. His novels are mainly about political and military worlds. His popularity is growing

larger because he “has written fifteen #1 New York Times bestselling novels”

(“Tom Clancy”) and his works are popular not only in the world of the reader but

also “in the US military and intelligence agencies” (“Tom Clancy”). His “military

plotting and scenarios are considered so plausible” (“Tom Clancy”) that he

becomes known as one of the best authors in “thriller” genre, especially “techno

-thriller”.

Rainbow Six is one of the most popular works of Tom Clancy. I have

chosen to analyse this novel because it is a good example of techno-thriller novel and “this novel has everything that techno thriller readers love” (Roby), and I am

also curious about some reviews which mention that “some sections were real

page turners” (Louis). The strength of thriller genre lies in the fact that the story

makes the readers continue to flip over the pages, and that is why I am interested to find out about the elements of plot in this novel which is significant in this kind of genre.

Elements of plot consist of suspense, surprise, and artistic unity; Suspense is one of the elements of plot that gives us a sense of curiosity when we read a novel. “Suspense is the quality in a story that makes the reader ask ‘What’s going

to happen next?’ or ‘How will this turn out?’ and impels him to read on to find the

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Maranatha Christian University proportional to the unexpectedness of what happens” (47), while the last element, Artistic Unity, is a “condition of a successful literary work whereby all its

elements work together for the achievement of its central purpose” (“Artistic

Unity”). All of the events that happen in the story can build a great plot if they are

logical and likely to happen in real life and have an Artistic Unity.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

The problems analysed in this thesis are: 1. What is the suspense in the novel?

2. What is the surprise in the novel?

3. How is the artistic unity presented in the novel?

PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

Based on the statement of the problem, the purposes of the study are: 1. To show what the suspense is in the novel.

2. To show what the surprise is in the novel.

3. To show how the artistic unity is presented in the novel.

METHOD OF RESEARCH

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Maranatha Christian University ORGANIZATION OF THE THESIS

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CHAPTER THREE

CONCLUSION

After reading and analysing Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six, I come to the

conclusion that the novel is a good thriller novel because the elements of plot in the novel are very well presented. The Suspense in the novel makes the reader feel excited while they are reading the novel. Besides, the use of the main plot and the sub plot makes the reader well-informed of what happens in the story. It also intensifies the suspense that the reader experiences. The Surprise also makes the reader really surprised because what happens in the novel is beyond the reader’s

expectation. I also think that the story is well built because every event in the novel is plausible according to the element of Artistic Unity.

Tom Clancy is good at presenting suspense in Rainbow Six, and the example can be seen from the fourth suspense in the novel when Dmitry Popov is curious about John Brightling’s purpose. Tom Clancy makes the reader feel

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Maranatha Christian University wants to know whether Rainbow Team can stop John Brightling’s ultimate plan,

knowing that John Brightling is a smart and well-prepared man who has many backup plans. Tom Clancy makes the reader keep reading because the element of suspense in this novel is very intense. I think the way Tom Clancy delivers the suspense in Rainbow Six is so wonderful that the reader feels thrilled.

The element of surprise is also well presented. Tom Clancy makes the reader feel surprised at the events in the novel. The example can be seen when the reader finds out that the chaotic situations in Europe are closely connected with John Brightling’s ultimate plan. At first the reader does not think that these

chaotic situations are just a diversion for John Brightling’s biggest plan, which is to destroy mankind. The reader feels surprised because the purpose of the diversion is to make everything easier for John Brightling to smuggle Shiva to the Olympics Games through his security company. This situation is really beyond the reader’s expectation. I think Clancy succeeds in delivering the element of

surprise in the novel. Tom Clancy successfully gives the reader a real surprise in the story.

The elements of suspense and surprise would not be regarded to be plausible if they were not well connected. In my opinion, Clancy succeeds in arranging the events in the novel brilliantly. The example of the plausibility can be seen from the fourth suspense and surprise that I have analysed, namely when the chaotic situations in Europe turn out to be a diversion for John Brightling’s

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Maranatha Christian University Olympics Games. John Brightling establishes a big security consultant company called Global Security. The Olympics committee is likely to hire Brightling’s company because it is the biggest security consultant company in the world. Signing the contract with the committee means John Brightling has only one more plan to carry out, which is to bring Shiva to the Olympics Games and then to they have to do next. Tom Clancy successfully makes the suspense and surprise in the novel well connected. In other words, he manages to create a plausible plot.

In my opinion, the strongest element in this novel is the suspense because it really makes the reader eager to know more about the subsequent event and what will happen to the protagonist. In addition, the surprise and the artistic unity are also very significant in the novel. Tom Clancy presents the suspense in various ways so that the reader who likes reading thriller novels feels satisfied with the suspense in the novel. Tom Clancy successfully makes the reader feel tense because of the suspense.

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Maranatha Christian University “the electromagnetic field generated by the beating of the human heart” (876).

They also have a modern viewing system, “This was a lens, roughly the shape of a cobra’s head, but only a few millimeters across, which led by fiber-optic cable to

a TV camera set in his black bag around the corner” (76). These gadgets are also significant in the plot of the novel.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Primary Text:

Clancy, Tom. Rainbow Six. New York : Penguin Group, Inc., 1999. Print

References:

“Artistic Unity.” HumanitiesWeb.org. 2013. Web. 4 Dec. 2013.

Elhefnawy, Nader. “The Rise and Fall of the Military Techno-Thriller.” Irosf.com.

2009. Web. 9 May 2012.

Louis, Lynn Nicole. “Rainbow Six, by Tom Clancy.” Sfreader.com. 2012. Web. 21 Mar. 2012.

Perrine, Laurence. Story and Structure. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc., 1974. Print

“Rainbow Six.” Barnesandnoble.com. 2012. Web. 21 Mar. 2012.

Roby, William. “Tom Clancy Books – Techno Thrillers.” Askdeb.com. 2012.

Web. 9 May 2012.

Ryan, William. “The Techno-Thriller.” Vqronline.org. 2012. Web. 9 May 2012.

“Techno Thriller.” Merriam-Webster.com. 2012. Web. 9 May 2012.

“Thriller.” Merriam-Webster.com. 2013. Web. 4 Dec. 2013.

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“Tom Clancy.” Nndb.com. 2013.Web. 11 Oct. 2013.