Analysis of Suspense, Surprise and Artistic Unity of Tom Clancy's 'Net Force'.

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Maranatha Christian University

ABSTRACT

Dalam tugas akhir ini saya membahas sebuah novel berjudul Net Force yang ditulis oleh Tom Clancy. Net Force adalah sebuah novel yang bergenre crime fiction. Novel ini bercerita tentang seorang komandan baru Net Force bernama Alex Michaels yang berusaha mengungkap misteri kematian sahabat baiknya, komandan lama Steve Day, yang dibunuh secara sadis, dan menangkap dalang dibalik pembunuhan tersebut.

Setelah membaca buku ini saya menemukan bahwa unsur yang penting dalam novel ini adalah plot, dengan unsur-unsurnya suspense, surprise dan artistic unity. Saya memutuskan untuk membuat analisis tentang hubungan antara suspense, dan surprise, serta menunjukkan bagaimana keduanya terhubung sehingga membentuk sebuah artistic unity yang masuk akal dan dapat diterima serta dipercaya oleh pembaca. Selain itu, Tom Clancy menyajikan novel ini dengan cerita yang menarik, yang membuat pembaca selalu penasaran dan bertanya-tanya bagaimana akhir cerita dari novel ini.

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APPENDICES

Synopsis of Net Force

The story begins when the Commander of Net Force named Steve Day is assassinated by someone unknown. Net Force is a cyber security system that controls all public resources in United States of America; it is associated with the military. Commander Steve Day is a close friend of Deputy Commander Alex Michaels. The next day, the Chief of FBI, Walter S. Carver, holds a meeting with Alex Michaels and appoints him the new Commander of Net Force and Toni Fiorella the new Deputy Commander of Net Force.

Alex Michaels's first day as Commander of the Net Force is used to look for some evidence that might help him to find out the assassin and the purpose of the assassination. In doing the investigation, Commander Alex Michaels is assisted by his deputy Tony Fiorella, Colonel John Howard, and a computer programmer of Net Force named Jay Gridley. There is someone who is suspected as the assassin. He is Ray Genaloni, the leader of New York City Five Families mafia.

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plans to buy governments with the money that he will gain. It will make him a rich and powerful man.

After doing some investigations to several people that might be involved in the assassination, Net Force crime unit led by Commander Alex Michaels along with Jay Gridley, Colonel John Howard and Sergeant Julio Fernandez, manages to catch the assassin of Commander Steve Day. He is Vladimir Plekhanov, who is arrested when he is preparing his mission to start a civil war in the United States of America.

Biography of Tom Clancy

Tom Clancy is a great American contemporary novelist. His full name is Thomas Leo Clancy, Jr. He is best-known for his ability in writing crime fiction. He was born on 12 April, 1947 in Baltimore County, Maryland. He studied at Loyola Blakefield in Towson, Maryland and graduated in 1965. He continued to study English Literature at Loyola College in Baltimore and graduated in 1969.

Tom Clancy’s goal was to join the United States military army, but he was

rejected because he failed in a required eye exam in the Reserve Officers Training Corps. Before making his literary debut in 1984 with his first best seller novel The Hunt for Red October, he spent some time running an independent insurance

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Llewellyn, who is the first cousin of Colin Powell, the 65th United States Secretary of State.

Tom Clancy is one of two authors who have sold two million copies on a first printing in the 1990’s. His novel Clear and Present Danger in 1989 sold 1,625,544 hardcover copies, making it a bestselling novel of the 1990’s. The other

author is John Grisham. Tom Clancy also received the Alfred Thayer Mahan Award for Literary Achievement from the Navy League of the United States in 1990.

Beside Net Force (1998), there are several of Tom Clancy’s best novels such as The Hunt for Red October (1984), Red Storm Rising (1986), Patriot Games (1987), Clear and Present Danger (1989), The Sum of All Fears (1991),

Op-Center (1995), and SSN: Strategies for Submarine Warfare (1996).

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CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

Tom Clancy is a great American contemporary novelist who writes crime

fiction. It is said that “Thomas Leo Clancy Jr, who writes under the name of Tom

Clancy, is an American author of bestselling political thrillers, best-known for his

technically detailed espionage and military science storylines during the Cold

War” (“Tom Clancy Biography and Notes”).

Tom Clancy is best-known for his ability in writing crime fiction. Crime

fiction is “the genre of fiction that deals with crimes, their detection, criminals,

and their motives. Most - though not all - crime novels share a common structure.

First there is the crime, usually a murder; then there is the investigation; and

finally the outcome or judgement, often in the shape of the criminal's arrest or

death” (“Definition of the Crime Fiction Genre”). Tom Clancy is “one of only two

authors to have sold two million copies on a first printing in the 1990s. His 1989

novel Clear and Present Danger, sold 1,625,544 hardcover copies, making it the

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Tom Clancy also received the Alfred Thayer Mahan Award for Literary

Achievement from the Navy League of the United States in 1990” (“Tom Clancy

Biography and Notes”).

The novel that I will analyse in my thesis is Tom Clancy’s crime fiction

Net Force. He wrote this bestselling novel in 1998. Because of its success, Tom

Clancy’s Net Force was adapted into a movie in 1999. This novel has a good

storyline and it tells about an investigation in uncovering the mystery of the

assassination of a Commander of the FBI’s Net Force.

In Tom Clancy’s Net Force, I notice that the most essential literary

element is plot. The plot of the novel is filled with actions and investigations. The

story in the novel is about an assassination of Commander of the FBI’s Net Force

named Steve Day by someone unknown. The actions and investigations in the

storyline will give the readers the feeling of suspense and surprise. So in my

thesis, I am going to analyse the three elements of the laws of plot, namely

suspense, surprise and artistic unity of the novel, by using formalism approach.

This approach is based on the information taken from the novel.

In Concise Dictionary of Literary Terms, suspense is “a quality of tension

in a plot which sustains interest and makes readers ask ‘what happens next?’”

(Shaw 365). In Perrine’s Literature: Structure, Sound and Sense, surprise is

“proportional to the unexpectedness of what happens” (Arp 111). In other words,

surprise means the element of reader’s unexpectedness about the plot. The

definition of artistic unity is “that condition of a successful literary work whereby

all its elements work together for the achievement of its central purpose”

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This study is significant because the result will tell the readers how the

author has successfully created a crime story through presenting good suspense,

surprise and artistic unity.

Statement of the Problem

The problems that are going to be analysed in this thesis are:

1. What suspense is revealed in the novel?

2. What surprise is revealed in the novel?

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

Purpose of the Study

Based on the above statement of the problem, this study is conducted with

the following purposes:

1. To show what suspense is revealed in the novel.

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

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

Method of Research

I used library research in writing my thesis. First, I read Tom Clancy’s Net

Force as the primary text. Then, I also read some sources as well as compiled

some information from the Internet to support my analysis of suspense, surprise

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Organization of the Thesis

This thesis consists of three chapters that are preceded by the

Acknowledgements, the Table of Contents, and the Abstract. Chapter One is the

Introduction, which consists of 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. Chapter Two is the analysis of suspense, surprise and artistic unity

in Tom Clancy’s Net Force. Chapter Three is the Conclusion. Finally, the thesis

ends with the Bibliography and the Appendices, which consists the Synopsis of

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CHAPTER THREE

CONCLUSION

After I have finished reading and analyzing the novel, I conclude that Tom

Clancy is very skillful in creating such a good story. He creates the story full of

actions and investigations. This makes the story have a good element of plot.

The first suspense is about the assassination of the commander of the

FBI’s Net Force named Steve Day and the assassin is a professional as he leaves

no clues on the murder scene. This suspense makes the readers thrilled by the

incident and start asking who the cold-blooded assassin is. They also wonder if

the FBI can succeed in solving the case. The suspense is answered by a surprise

when the FBI get some information from Carver, one of Day’s men in the unit, to

start the investigation. As the commander of Net Force, Steve Day has succeeded

in catching and putting the New York City Five Families’s members in jail. It

seems that Ray Genaloni wants to take revenge on Steve Day for putting some of

his members in jail, which becomes a strong motive for him to kill Steve Day.

From the reasoning above, the first suspense and surprise become acceptable and

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The second suspense shows when the FBI and the President of the United

States are discussing Day’s case. They suspect Ray Genaloni as the one who is

responsible for Day’s murder case. This suspense makes the readers curious to

know whether Genaloni is really involved in Day’s assassination. The suspense is

answered by a surprise when the FBI find that Ray Genaloni is assassinated by a

professional assassin. It seems that the assassin has a personal mission that needs

to be completed. The readers become more curious about the story. From the

analysis above, the second suspense and surprise can be acceptable and

believable.

The third suspense happens when a professional assassin tries to

assassinate Alex Michaels. This suspense makes the readers expect to know

whether the assassin will succeed in assassinating Alex Michaels. The suspense is

answered by a surprise when Alex Michaels can survive from the assassination

that the assassin will do to him. When Alex hears a little dog bark after seeing a

cat passing, he turns to see it and finds out that there is an old lady coming from

behind with a baseball bat ready to swing it to smash him. Fortunately, he can

reach the alarm button and press the firing stud, which makes the assassin run.

From the explanation above, the third suspense and surprise become acceptable

and believable.

The fourth suspense shows when the FBI try to catch Mora Sullivan, a

professional assassin who is believed to be responsible for Steve Day’s

assassination. This suspense makes the readers curious whether the professional

assassin, Mora Sullivan, is the real assassin of Steve Day. The suspense is

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Sullivan. When they do the interrogation, Mora Sullivan confesses that she kills

Ray Genaloni but not Steve Day. She wants to remove her tracks as one of

Genaloni’s left-hand by murdering Ray Genaloni. Mora Sullivan has no

relationship with Steve Day’s assassination. It raises the readers’ tension to know

the real assassin of Steve Day. From the sentences above, the fourth suspense and

surprise are proven to be acceptable and believable.

The fifth suspense shows when the FBI’s Net Force computer programmer

named Jay Gridley gives information that Vladimir Plekhanov, a computer hacker

from Russia, is trying to sabotage the Net Force’s main system, which may lead to

a civil war. This suspense makes the readers curious whether the Russian hacker,

Vladimir Plekhanov, is involved in sabotaging the Net Force's main system. The

suspense is answered by a surprise; when the FBI interrogate him, it turns out that

he does not only want to sabotage Net Force’s main system, but he is also the one

who is responsible for Steve Day’s death. Plekhanov wants to sabotage Net

Force’s main system and start a civil war in the United States of America.

However, he needs the key to get into it. The key is only owned by Commander

Steve Day. Plekhanov has to kill the Commander to get the key so that he can

have an access into the system. From the clarification above, the fifth suspense

and surprise are considered to be acceptable and believable.

In my opinion, Tom Clancy’s success in writing this novel has come from

the interesting subject of the novel and the good development of the plot,

especially the suspense. Tom Clancy can write such a story, in which the solution

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readers to a point where they will always wonder what will happen next to the

story.

Based on my analysis above, I can say that Net Force_{is a good novel. It}

tells about an investigation to uncover the mystery of the assassination of the

Commander of the FBI’s Net Force. The actions and investigations in the

storyline give the readers the feeling of suspense and surprise. The suspense is

answered by a good surprise. In reading the suspense we will find that it is

logically answered by the surprise; as a result, the readers will find that the

suspenses and surprises in the artistic unity are acceptable and believable. It

makes the novel worth to read. Because of its success, Tom Clancy’s Net Force

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Primary text:

Clancy, Tom. Net Force. New York: Berkley Books, Inc., 1998. Print.

References:

Arp Thomas, R. Perrine’s Literature: Structure, Sound and Sense. New York:

Hartcourt Brace & Company, 2002. Print.

“Definition of the Crime Fiction Genre.” Findmeanauthor. 2011. Web. 28 Aug.

2011.

“LiteraryTerms.” Humanitiesweb. 2011. Web. 30 Nov. 2011.

Shaw, Harry. Concise Dictionary of Literary Terms. New York: McGraw – Hill,

1976: 365. Print.