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FINDING THE SIMILE IN THE SHORT STORY THE FISHERMAN AND HIS SOUL BY OSCAR WILDE
Yuli Mutia1), Armilia Riza, M.Pd2), Hevriani Sevrika, M.Pd3)
1)English Department, STKIP PGRI Padang ,Gunung Pangilun [email protected]
2)English Department, STKIP PGRI Padang, Gunung Pangilun [email protected]
3)English Department, STKIP PGRI Padang, Gunung Pangilun [email protected]
ABSTRACT
This research was about analysis of simile in The Fisherman and His Soul short story. The researcher wanted to investigate whether all of the sentences which used simile‟s marked (like and as) were simile or not.
This was decriptive research. The researcher used the short story itself as the source of data. In collecting the data, the researcher read the short story to analyzed the data. Based on the research, the researcher concluded there were 15 sentences which used like marked and 9 sentences which used as marked. In short, sentences that using as and like were involved in simile. The short story gave the distinguishing between two different things but had the same meaning.
Penelitian ini adalah tentang analisis bahasa kiasan simile yang ditemukan di dalam cerita pendek The Fisherman and His Soul. Masalah utama dalam penelitian ini adalah untuk mengetahui apakah semua kalimat yang menggunakan penanda di dalam simile seperti “like dan “as” yang ditemukan di dalam cerita pendek tersebut apakah termasuk simile. Sumber utama data penelitian dilakukan dengan menggunakan metode kualitatif yang merancang dalam deskriptif. Peneliti menggunakan sumber utama yaitu teks cerita pendek itu sendiri.
Metode pengumpulan data adalah dengan analisis isi dengan membaca. Berdasarkan penelitian ini, peneliti menyimpulkan bahwa dalam menganalisis karya sastra, terutama cerita pendek The Fisherman and His Soul, peneliti menggunakan beberapa simile yang menggunakan penanda “like” sebanyak (15) kalimat dan penanda
“as” sebanyak (9) kalimat. Berdasarkan hasil analisis ini, penelitian ini mengungkapkan bahwa kalimat yang menggunakan kata penghubung “like dan “as” yang ditemukan di dalam cerita pendek ini adalah merupakan simile. Cerita pendek ini memilih untuk memberikan penekanan pada kalimat dan membandingkan pernyataan informatif dengan memberikan atribut perbandingan antara dua hal yang sangat berbeda tetapi mempunyai makna yang sama.
Key Words: Simile, Short story, The Fisherman and His Soul, Oscar Wilde
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INTRODUCTION
Figurative language is typically uses to add the aesthetic and the beauty of the work. Figurative language actually use in literary work which not use the literal meaning, but use the figurative language itself in context to attend the connotation (the emotional and imagination of author‟s word).
Furthermore, Spivey (2011, p.336) explains that “We use figurative language to describe an object, person, or situation by comparing it to or with something else”. It means the authors use the figurative language in the her/she work to describe the object, someone, or situation by comparing with something
other by using the figurative language to make other sense, aesthetic and feel.
There are many types of figurative language that can be analyzed. The types are simile, metaphor, personification, synecdoche, metonymy and alegory.
Simile is a comparison two unlike things in which a word of comparison “like” or “as” is used. Metaphor is a comparison of two unlike things in which no word of comparison “like” or “as” is used.
Personification consists in giving the attributes of a human being to an animal, an object, or a concept.
Synechdoche the use of the part for the whole and metonymy the use of something closely related for the thing actually mean are alike in both subtitute
2 some significant detail or respect of an experience for the experience itself. Allegory is a narrative or description that has a second meaning beneath the surface.
Therefore, the researcher interested to analyze a kind of figurative language of simile.
Spivey (2011) says, A simile (sim-uh-lee) uses the words “like” or “as” to compare two explicitly unlike things as being similar. It means, the simile belongs to a kind of figurative language which is comparing the two things very different by signing connecting words “like” and “as. Simile is interested to analyze, because the simile is comparing the two things where both of them have different classes.
Simile served to deepen the meaning of the word that the writers use in his/her work. Using the simile the writer creates his/her literary works concrete, and interesting. Simile is often finding by the reader when the reader read the novel, short story or others literary works.
Moreover, the writer urges readers to interpret the language used in the reading. Appealing to the imagination, it provides new ways of looking at the new world. Figurative language especially simile with its compatible terms forces the reader to attend to the connotations (the emotional and imaginative of words) rather than the denotations (the literal meaning).
In other word, simile makes other sense in the short story such as the readers have other world when they read it. According to Spivey (2011, p.336), the example of simile are: “Mom is as busy as a bee” paints a mental picture of Mom swarming around like a bee when she‟s busy. “Our old cat moves around like molasses in wintertime” means that the cat moves around like thick, slow-moving molasses.
Furthermore, the object of research, this one of the example of simile used taken from short story The Fisherman and His Soul by Oscar Wilde:
Her hair was as a wet fleece of gold, and each separate hair as a thread of fine gold in a cup of glass.
Comparison are shown in the dialog above is „Her hair‟ is equated with „wet fleece of gold‟. And
„each separated hair‟ is equated with „a thread of fine gold in a cup of glass‟.The purpose of simile in that short story to give information about author idea, emotion, and visual field and to make interest in literary work.
Other example, Her body was as white ivory. This dialog shown the comparison „Her body‟
is equated with „white ivory‟. This simile in that short story have purpose to give information about author‟s
idea, emotion, and visual field and to make interest in literary work.
The readers sometimes found the difficulty in reading the literary books when the kinds of figuratives language found on it, they have to figure it out what the meaning of the figurative language used because it is the language that has more than one meaning and produced from creative imagination.
A short story is, in some ways, like a photograph- a captured moment of time that is crystalline, though sometimes mysterious, arresting, though perhaps delicate while a photo may or may not suggest consequences, a short story always does.
In the story's moment of time something important, something irrevocable has occurred. The change may be subtle or real, but it is definite and definitive.
According to Klarer (2004,p12),” Short story is a conscise from of prose fiction, has received less attention from literary scholars then novel”.
Short story is one of kinds of literary work that usually uses figurative language to support the story which can give different feels and atmospher in the short story than non literary book .
In this case, the researcher is interested to analyze the simile in the short story The Fisherman and His Soul by Oscar Wilde whereas in this short story mostly use a kind figurative language of simile to express the author‟s idea, feeling, and emotion in order to more clearly understand by the researcher in particular and the reader in general.
Moreover, simile is a kind of figurative language which used in short story. It can give others feel, sense and atmosphere in the story. According to Knapp (2005, p.54) explains, “a simile is a figure of speech that makes a comparison between one thing and another, usually in a phrase beginning with, like or as.” It means, simile is used by author to deliver his imagination with make comparison one thing with another different and use some marker such as like and as.
In addition, Granger (2008, p.128) states,
“A simile can be defined as a figurative expression used to make an explicit comparison of two unlike things by means of the prepositions like, (as)...as or the conjucntions as, as if, as though”. But, in the general phenomenon in simile just often using the connective word of “like” and “as”. Similes are well- known figures of speech and are easy to recognize beacuse of their explicit markers and the kind of comparisons they make. The Granger shall illustrate the application of preposition/marker in simile to this example, Ruth dropped like a stone into the
3 armchair. The dropped followed by like stone. Drop like a stone means a sudden or a quick fall or move down. In this example comparing the Ruth belongs to a human and the stone is belongs to a thing. In here is using marker/connective word of “like” to compare it them. Therefore, the simile used make the comparison is clear each other.
As the researcher stated before, the researcher wanted to analyze simile in short story. It meant that the researcher should talk about short story. Short story is a form of prose fiction. Short story is shorter than novel. According to Harlen (2016), short story is brief fictional prose narrative that is shorter than a novel and that usually deals with only a few characters. It means, the short story is brievity, no longer than novel.
Furthermore, Gelpi (2007, p. 3) states, “a short story present a specific aspect of life or of conduct by using a single plot, few characters, and generally, a short period of time and quick ending.”
In the short story contains short of story which conducted by single plot, it never have more plot.
The short story has some characters that are same, and have shorter period. Thats, the reader can finish to read the short story in short time.
In conclusion, short story is a form of fiction conveyed briefly. Short story has structures that can make the readers be easily understanding the intent that delivers by the author in short story. Actually, the short story begins with a short explanation that provides the reader with background information.
The information generally includes the setting, introduces the main character, sets the scene for the action, and sometimes creates the basic atmosphere of the story. And the last, short story has short period of time for reader to finish read the story.
In making more understand about what is short story, in this segment the researcher explains about some elements of short story. According to Roberts (1999, p.53), “there are some important elements of short story.” Those are first, character. A character may be defined as a verbal representation of a human being. Second, setting. Setting is a work‟s natural, manufactured, political, cultural, and temporal environment, including everything that characters know and own. Third, plot. Stories and plays are made up mostly of actions or incidents that follow each other in chronological order
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Next, point of view. The term point of view refers to the speaker, narrator, persona, or voice created by authors to tell stories, present arguments, and express attitudes and judgments. Last, idea or theme. The word idea refers to the result or results of particular, general, and abstract thinking.Based on explanation above, we can conclude that the short story have some elements.
First, plot showing about what happened in the story, then the authors/writers arrange the material in structural. Second, characters is the person who act in the story. Third, Setting is not only describe about the place, but also can showing the times. Fourth, point of view refers to the speaker, narrator, persona, or voice created by authors to tell stories, present arguments, and express attitudes and judgments. The last, Idea or theme are concept, thought, opinion, and principle of the author‟s abstrack thinking of.
RESEARCH METHOD
The aim of this research was to study the phenomenon of simile in the short story „The Fisherman and His Soul‟. It was classified into a descriptive research because the data were taken from a short story. Descriptive research is a research that tries to present the problem clearly based on the accurate data. Kothari (2004,p.37) explains that Descriptive research studies are those studies which are concerned with describing the characteristics of a particular individual, or of a group, whereas diagnostic research studies determine the frequency with which something occurs or its association with something else.
In this research, the researcher used the short story The Fisherman and His Soul by Oscar Wilde as the source of data. In collected the data, researcher read, selected by highlighted the data, then collected data and make the categories. The data used in this research was in the text data, therefore the researcher analyze the important elements in the text data. After collecting the data, the researcher analyzes the data to answer the research question and get the result of this research. Related to the Sudaryanto explanation, one to help the researcher classifies the data is equalizing technique (1993, p.27) Through this technique, the data would be grouped related to the form of the theories through the equalizing technique that is equalize between all the data substance.
RESEARCH FINDINGS
After presented and analyzed the data, the researcher found there are two marker/connective words of simile found in the short story The Fisherman and His Soul. After the researcher read that short story text, then took the data and classified them based on the forms of simile.
4 Table. 1. Findings
No. Monologs Connective Words 1. Her hair was as a wet
fleece of gold
as 2. Each separate hair as a
thread of fine gold in a cup of glass
as
3. Her body was as white ivory
as 4. ..and like sea-shells
were her ears
like 5. Her lips were like sea-
coral
like 6. The fish dart about like
silver birds
like 7. They are as the beasts of
the field
as 8. Their days are as the
days of flowers
as 9. Its juice is as white as
milk
as 10. At midnight the witches
came flying through the air like bats
like
11. His lips were like a proud red flower
like 12. The people went to and
fro over the plain like flies crawling upon a disk of polished copper
like
13. The gay lanterns of paper flutter like large butterflies
like
14. They rise and fall as painted bubbles do
as 15. Its odour as it burned
was as the odour of the pink almond in spring
as
16. Most of them sell the wine of Schiraz, whic is as sweet as honey
as
17. Only a little door like the door of a tomb
like 18. Like a slim reed of
crystal a fountain hung in the dusky air
like
19. The cypress-trees were like burnt-out torches
like 20. The man writhed like a
trampled snake
like 21. Both wine-coloured and
coloured like grass
like
22. They moved over the carpet like little white pigeons
like
23. Her notrils are shaped like the wings of a swallow
like
24. The white foam moaned like a leper
like
Simile is important in the literature, because it can increase aesthetic and artistic value in literary work. Spivey (2011) says, A simile (sim-uh-lee) uses the words “like” or “as” to compare two explicitly unlike things as being similar. In this short story there were the sentences which used two markers/connective words (“like” and “as”) where those sentences belong to simile. Proved and presence of the simile become more interesting to read and study. In addition to the entertainment factor and research, it also adds to the short story in style of language knowledge. The language usage was also the language used in daily life, but using the different sense. Hence, simile can also provide a sense of the style. Based in the researcher finding above, the researcher found two forms of simile in that short story text. The two forms of simile that in mark “as”
and “like”.
CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION
Based on finding as already discussed is the previous chapter, the researcher pointed out the conclusion. The simile signed by connective word/
marker “like” and “as”. The sentence which used the connective word “like” were (15) sentences and the sentence used the connective word “as” were (9) sentences. Thus sentences belongs to a simile.
From this research, the researcher hopes that this research can be as a beginning reference for the following researcher. Then, the researcher also suggests the further researcher to study more about figurative language of simile in different opinion and ways in the analysis, and perception. For the students, they can learn more about figurative language of simile with using literary work itself. Also for the readers, the researcher hopes they would not be confused about the figurative language of simile used in another literary works. So, from this research the readers have an alignment about the figurative language of simile.
5 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
To complete this thesis, the researcher has obtained a plentiful guidance, help, advices, and constructive critics from many people. In this occasion, the researcher would have to extend his special gratitude and very special thanks and appreciation are given from the deepest of his heart to the advisors, Armilia Riza, M.Pd and Hevriani Sevrika, M.Pd, who have been kinds and willing to give their times, opinions, and supports in completing this thesis.
REFERENCES
Granger, Sylviane and Fanny Meunier. 2008.
Phraseology: An InterdisciplinaryPerspective.
Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company.
Klarer, Mario.2004. An Introduction to Literary Studies. London, New York: Routledge.
Knapp, Peter and Megan Watkins. 2005. Genre, Text, Grammar. Sydney : National Library of Australia.
Sudaryanto, 1993. Metode dan Aneka Teknik Analisis Bahasa. Yogyakarta: Duta Wacana University Press.
Spivey, Becky L. 2011. Handy Handouts.
http://www.handyhandouts.com/ retrieved on 17th, August 2015
