Chapter III. Re-do: Exegesis of the Fiction
a. Synopsis
Rinjani an Agricultural faculty-student decided to spend the holidays at her grandfather's house. Unexpectedly, her first intention to take a vacation is now continuing to collect data for her final project. There she met Pak Danu, one of the farmers who happened to own land adjacent to her grandfather's land. Her research began when she helped Pak Danu to work the land for new agricultural crops. Due to differences in opinion and experience, Rinjani often collides with Pak Danu. Her book theory can be refuted by Pak Danu's field experience.
But that doesn't mean she's just annoyed and discouraged to work with Pak Danu. It is undeniable that precisely because of that she got a lot of things, not only data but also experience of the reality of plantations that she did not get by sitting quietly at school.
b. Personal motive
I choose this topic because I feel that most people in Indonesia don’t care that much and don’t know what to do when it’s about nature. Most of them are ignorant enough to pay little attention to the environment they’re living in. And then I narrowed the scope of discussion to agriculture, which I think is the closest interaction between humans and nature. From agriculture, we can see that what humans do can have an impact on crops and the agricultural environment whether it’s bad or good.
The first place that comes to the list to do the research is Desa Kopeng. Apart from that, there is an agricultural area, and the place is close to Salatiga so the round trip access is fairly easy, and doesn’t spend too much many to go there. The one who will be source person named Pak Slamet, who owned some farmland around the village. With the help of a friend I connected to Pak Slamet and he agree to help me fill in my data.
From two months of data gathering activity, I get enough data I can use to build up my story. I happen to confuse with the plot I offered in the thesis proposal because the environment in the field is different from what I imagined my story would be. The plot is already changed back in the consultation days and needs to completely replace with a new plot when the data is collected. First, the source person’s experience was planned to be the plot with them as the main character but then for some reason, a new plot was developed during the writing process.
The only character that survives from the first plot is the main character, Rinjani.
Rinjani in Sansekerta means burning desire. (CekArtiNama) Why choose Rinjani for the main character’s name? I just simply like the name Rinjani and I think it fits with the character I
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made. At first, she’s a Literature student but then changed to an Agro-technology student so that her character is more in line with the plot of the story. I add two more characters to accompany Rinjani, they are Grandfather Karyo and Pak Danu. Rinjani is based on me with some changes in characterization while Grandfather Karyo and Pak Danu are based on my resource person, Bapak Slamet. So, I use Pak Slamet to visualize Grandfather and his wiseness, then apply Pak Slamet's principle to Pak Danu's characterization.
Rinjani at the beginning of the story measure the plant hole and the fertilizer hole got enough distance before she pour in the fertilizer. In the next scene when Grandpa comes to her, he re-measures whether the distance is enough or not using his hand. Based on the data I collected, the safe distance for fertilizer application is one hand span. If it’s too close to the plant, it can kill them because the fertilizer will feel hot for the plant even though it feels cold in our hands. And so, that’s why we need to give enough fertilizer, not too much or too little.
(Slamet, 24.06.2022)
In the other part, Grandpa and Rinjani discuss other plantations that have died-dried their plant because of crop failure, this scene is from an actual event I met when I first come to Pak Slamet’s plantation. And the herbicide they use to kill the plant is also from real events.
To kill the plant using herbicide is not good for the soil because the chemicals that stick to the ground can kill the elements in the soil. It’s faster for the farmer to re-plant their land and clear weeds but the effect will have a long-term effect on the soil. (Slamet) From this, I want to make Grandpa's farming style follow Pak Slamet’s and for Pak Danu, I want to show that there are farmers who still like to find an easy way with fast results.
There is some habit of the farmers in Dusun Krajan that the source person tells. Based on the data, the farmers prefer to bury the plant or weeds in the ground because it can be additional nutrition for the plant and don’t need to go to the dump. But not many of them collect the plant waste and process it into organic fertilizer at the farmer association post. (Slamet) This process has several drawbacks. One of them is that if it is not processed properly then the fertilizer will be harmful to plants. So, this process needs to be done carefully. (Slamet)
Because of the weather, tomatoes still hold up for a better price in the market than lettuce, broccoli, or cabbage (Slamet, 24.06.2022), that is the reason why Pak Danu wants to try growing tomatoes, he wants to try the opportunity. He has two plantations in different places, so while the bigger plantation keeps producing broccoli, he wants to try growing tomatoes on the smaller plantation, just like Pak Slamet as his role model. Here, I use Pak
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Slamet's experience to draw the scene because when I first met him, we were on the tomato plantation and he told me that this is the first time he growing tomatoes.
For Rinjani's part when she argues with Pak Danu, I use the data that I get from Pak Slamet on Rinjani’s side. For example, when Rinjani told about rain and fertilizer or that tomato is sensitive to weather and susceptible pest. (Slamet) When on Pak Danu’s argument, I use Pak Slamet's story about some farmer who cares more about results than environmental health but with a little improvement to make Pak Danu’s character sounds strong-minded and confident.
(Slamet) In Pak Danu’s explanation about non-organic fertilizers, “Because non-organic fertilizers have a kind of sulfate element that can inhibit the formation of methane gas…” I use data from the internet. (Pangannews.id)
Becoming a farmer is not just about money and result, but also about experience and how to be creative. If we’re not creative we will lose much money just to start a new season of plants, we can threaten the environment too. (Slamet, 24.06.2022) So, a farmer must be tenacious and resilient because the field situation is difficult to predict. (Slamet) From the data, I decided to use it in the part where Grandpa talks to Rinjani after she comes back from Pak Danu’s plantation. To give Rinjani an idea of what Pak Danu looks like because they will work together in the future.
From the field study, I learned that tomatoes can be harvested fourteen times if the tomatoes are in good condition. The harvest is periodic, from the bottom first and then propagates to the top. It is also possible if the small tomatoes grow, the medium ones can be harvested. Three months since the flowers have fallen and the fruit has popped up, the tomatoes are ready to be harvested. (Slamet) This is a reference to Rinjani's basic knowledge of what Grandpa said about tomatoes. Along with how fragile tomato is from pest.
c. The application of theory(-ies)
I use Buell’s first-wave ecocriticism theory which focuses on the investigation that humans may have the ability to affect the environment both positively and negatively. One from the data gathered in Pak Slamet's plantation states that tomatoes need to take care of nicely and diligently, and farmers need to fully pay attention to their farmland when they are dealing with tomatoes because if today we taking care of the front row and the back row another day, the front row already needs some attention because tomatoes are so easy to get pest to attach to them. (Slamet, 24) And farmers need to carefully measure the fertilizer. In the rainy season,
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there's no need to add much fertilizer because it can make the stem rotten from too much food and water. (Slamet, 10). The story shows that Rinjani and Pak Danu along with two workers are taking care of the tomatoes. They did their best to keep the tomatoes healthy and trim the rotten leaves regularly but they still face difficulties and failed at the end of the season. Another application for this data is Rinjani's argument about fertilizer before Pak Danu planted the tomatoes which related to the crop failure. Like Buell said in his theory, Rinjani and Pak Danu's actions led to the final output of the plantation. Because the amount of fertilizer applied in the wrong weather results in plants getting too much food and leads to crop failure and contributes to a small percentage of soil damage due to chemicals. From this, we can see that human activity impacted the environment's progress. Even though the cause of their loss is not only that, there are several aspects that can lead to crop failure such as seed quality (Slamet, 24.06.2022) but we’re focusing on human action in this case.
According to the theory, human doesn’t just bring negative effect on the environment but there also positive effect too. In an article I read, I found that the use of non-organic fertilizers is preferred as a source of plant food. Because this type of fertilizer already contains all the nutrients needed by plants, which can be directly used for plant metabolism. The sulfate element contained in non-organic fertilizers can cause competition between methanogenic bacteria and sulfate-reducing bacteria in obtaining hydrogen. This process that occurs can inhibit the formation of methane gas. (Pangannews.id) The point is to reduce methane gas produced in the soil and in the story Pak Danu understands that non-organic fertilizer can do that, it helps to reduce the methane gas contributed by agricultural land. But of course, organic fertilizer is more environmentally friendly.
d. Message, market, and achievement
I put several messages from this story through the character. From Rinjani, we can learn that learning is not only from books we can also learn from people around us, and it’s okay to have our own opinion in notes that we agree to be corrected if we’re wrong. From Pak Danu we can learn that don't be afraid to fail, if you fail, you have to get up and try again. And from Grandpa we learn that we need to understand people before we judge them. Aside from messages from the character, I also input messages from the story in general, failure can be caused by many factors, not only by ourselves but also by the environment around us. What
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we have to do is evaluate ourselves and get back up trying to find a way out, not just sink into sadness and regrets.
The target audience of this story is the people, the society. Not specific for farmers but also for society in general because I want to make people realize that our every action can affect the environment, and how small it is. And the effect is not for tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, but for the future. Whether it’s a distant future or several months.
The objective is to give people an overview of climate change that has occurred around us and to tell the reader about the impact that our action has on the development of the natural environment. This objective is not achieved because it turns out that the story has a different focus. The story turns from giving people an overview of climate change to giving people an overview that our action is affecting the nature around us. One of the factors that caused Pak Danu's harvest to fail was the unpredictable weather, sometimes raining so long and at the noon, the sun shining brightly. But not only that, but Pak Danu's action also impacted the growth of the tomatoes. The way Rinjani maintains it also affects the growth and development of plants in the field.
