Rindra Nuriza, 2014
A CHILD CHARACTER’S DEVELOPMENT IN R.J. PALACIO’S CHILDREN’S REALISTIC FICTION NOVEL
WONDER
Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu | perpustakaan.upi.edu
CHAPTER III
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This chapter provides the description of how the research was conducted to
answer the research questions: (1) In what ways is the main character in R.J. Palacio’s Wonder developed? (2) How does focalization contribute to the main character’s development in R.J. Palacio’s Wonder? Therefore, it covers the explanation of object of the research, research method, context of the research and
data presentation.
3.1 Object of the research
The research focuses on multiple characters’ focalization that indicates August character’s development—the main character in R.J. Palacio’s Wonder (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2012). The novel consists of 316 pages and has been translated into eight languages. It is regarded as children’s realistic fiction, since it drops several hints of human’s abnormality, child’s self-importance and the issues of school. In line with that, it takes the idea of childhood in different
perspective—utilizes a deformed child’s perspective in facing the problems of
life, thereby inviting and encouraging the writer’s interest in analyzing the
development of a child character.
3.1.1 About the author
Raquel Jaramillo Palacio is both an art director and a book jacket designer. She
lives in Brooklyn, New York with her husband and two sons. After more than 20
years being a graphic designer, she materialized the urge to write her debut
novel—Wonder. Her son’s experience when encountering a kid with facial
deformity inspired her to put her ideas out into the novel. Apparently, being the
author of a book which has ever been awarded #1 on The New York Times
Bestseller, Texas Bluebonnet Award, Lunchs des Monats on lynx of the month by
Die Zeit Newspaper, Carnegie Medal in Literature Nominee, The Judy Lopez
Rindra Nuriza, 2014
A CHILD CHARACTER’S DEVELOPMENT IN R.J. PALACIO’S CHILDREN’S REALISTIC FICTION NOVEL
WONDER
Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu | perpustakaan.upi.edu
Middle Readers, and Waterstones Children's Book Prize made her the nominee for the TIME For Kids’ 2012 person of the year. After the book was successfully marketed, she made an anti-bullying program on her website (choosekind.tumblr.com) and then got thousands children’s supports to help end bullying.
3.1.2 Synopsis of R.J. Palacio’s Wonder
R.J. Palacio’s Wonder (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2012) presents children’s realistic fiction story concerning a kid, named August Pullman, who was born
with a facial deformity struggling to convince the society that he is just as
ordinary as other kids, regardless his appearance. The story starts when August is
about to enter the fifth grade at the age of ten. Before that, he was being
homeschooled because the anomaly on his face needed to be cared every time.
Throughout the fifth grade year, there are problems he has to deal with. At
the beginning, other kids look at him as if he has a plague. Therefore, no kids want to befriend him. Moreover, he is often bullied by Julian’s gang, being mocked and jibed at his face. As the time goes by, there is a few kids gelling with
August—especially Jack and Summer—after realizing that August is just the
same as the kids in general. On the other hand, it does not stop August from
getting trouble. There is a clash between August and Jack in the Halloween Day
which makes August decide to quit school. Though, August and Jack reunite eventually. At the same time, Julian’s gang often plays tricks on them, since they know Jack has been being friend with August.
The story reaches climax when the fifth graders of Beecher Prep go camping
at the end of the year. August encounters some students from another school who
make fun of his face. Knowing this, some fifth graders, including Miles and Henry who used to be August’s rivals, support and fight for him. Meanwhile, August’s family who used to baby August all the time realizes that August does not want to be treated like he is still a baby.
After getting through lots of problems during the year, August learns the
Rindra Nuriza, 2014
A CHILD CHARACTER’S DEVELOPMENT IN R.J. PALACIO’S CHILDREN’S REALISTIC FICTION NOVEL
WONDER
Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu | perpustakaan.upi.edu
personalities. Hence, in the end, he got a medal from the school awards for
inspiring other people. His social life becomes different and everything is changed
afterwards. The most important thing, August is then noticed for the way he is.
3.2 Research method
The research was guided by qualitative research design with descriptive analysis
as a part of the method, since it was related to spoken and written language rather
than numbers (Polkinghorne, 2005). More precisely, the research collected data in
the form of written texts—the excerpts of characters’ focalization in the novel—
which were consequently interpreted, elaborated and described for the evidential
grounded data to base the findings—which were drawn dependent on a single writer’s interpretation—regarding the main character’s development in R.J. Palacio’s Wonder (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2012). In supporting this, according to Airasian, Gay & Mills (2006), qualitative research allows the writer
to collect data consisting large words (or text) to be described and analyzed
related to their themes, and to conduct the inquiry in a subjective, biased manner.
Therefore, qualitative research fits the research.
In line with that, as suggested by Hancock, Ockleford & Windridge (2009),
the nature of qualitative research focuses on how people can have different
perspectives towards reality or the real world contexts, which are reported through
description or interpretation based on their accounts. Consequently, all findings
within the research determine on whether the entire data have been clearly
described or not (Alwasillah, 2000). For Creswell (2007), in order to clarify the
data, the description of them should involve detailed rendering of information
about people, places, or events in a setting, so that the readers know where the
findings were derived. Besides, due to this matter of the research is concerning character’s development in a novel, it is hard to express the data numerically. Thus, the form of written text data could effectively be conducted as the primary
ground to illustrate the findings.
To clearly describe the data in the present research, the writer arranged the
Rindra Nuriza, 2014
A CHILD CHARACTER’S DEVELOPMENT IN R.J. PALACIO’S CHILDREN’S REALISTIC FICTION NOVEL
WONDER
Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu | perpustakaan.upi.edu
attempted to illustrate cause and effects of selective narrative events through characters’ focalization on the main character’s development. Furthermore, the description of data also denoted information regarding the kind of relationship
between the main character and the others whereby affecting the main character to
develop.
As a result, qualitative research design with descriptive analysis method was
applied as the guiding to examine the data needed to answer the research
questions. In the attempt to answer the research questions, intensive reading
regarding related framework was conducted following these sequences adapted
from Cresswell (2009):
a. Reading the whole novel carefully, in order to understand the overall
story-line, major issues and general sense of the story.
b. Preparing for collecting the data analysis by re-reading the novel in detail, to
gain more comprehensive understanding concerning the main character
within the story and then taking memos about it.
c. Highlighting the key narrative events in the story in which they become the catalyst for changes in the main character’s personalities and attitudes, and specifically selecting multiple characters’ focalization that contribute to the main character’s development.
d. Identifying the data collection by engaging it with the frameworks and
previous research that have been elaborated in Chapter II.
e. Generating the data analysis into narrative passage, by making elaboration
and interpretation to draw the findings in connection with the theories
applied.
f. Discussing the findings to draw the conclusion and giving some suggestions
eventually.
3.3 Context of the research
The analysis of character’s development in the research was limited to the main character, August. Due to the analysis, the characters’ focalization in the form of
Rindra Nuriza, 2014
A CHILD CHARACTER’S DEVELOPMENT IN R.J. PALACIO’S CHILDREN’S REALISTIC FICTION NOVEL
WONDER
Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu | perpustakaan.upi.edu
relation to some narrative events in the story. Apparently, there are six characters
whose focalization involved in the story: (1) August: the main character, (2) Via: August’s elder sister, (3) Summer: August’s friend at school, (4) Jack: August’s best friend at school, (5) Justin: Via’s boy friend, and (6) Miranda: Via’s old
friend. In this regard, multiple focalization is specifically identified to give a clear
picture of August’s changes in personalities and attitudes.
3.4 Data presentation
The following sample is the data analysis in the form of table concerning the
gradual changes in August’s traits that can be noticed from the sequence of
events. In this context, the cause and effect of what the characters focalize culminate in the development for August’s character.
3.1 Sample table of August’s character development
No. Narrative
Events Character(s) Focalization Cause
Effect on sanitizer before they catch
the Plague. I’m not sure
