THE AUTHOR’S CRITICISM TOWARD THE INJUSTICE TREATMENT OF THE WHITES AGAINST THE BLACKS IN AMERICA IN THE 1960S

THE AUTHOR’S CRITICISM TOWARD THE INJUSTICE TREATMENT OF THE WHITES AGAINST THE BLACKS IN AMERICA IN THE 1960S AS REFLECTED IN SUE MONK KIDD’S THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES:
A SOCIOLOGICAL STUDY

By:
Nanik Widiyanti
04004093

ABSTRACT

This thesis discusses a novel entitled The Secret Life of Bees, which was written by Sue Monk Kidd. The reason that the researcher wrote this thesis derived from the researcher’s curiosity to know The Blacks’ injustice in 1960s. Knowing that a literary work often becomes a reflection of the author’s life and way of communicating that author’s ideas to the readers, the researcher became interested in understanding the condition of the society in which Kidd wrote the novel and her own ideas about it. Here, the researcher drew a problem. It is how Kidd describes the injustice treatment of Whites toward blacks in America in 1960s in the story.

In order to achieve the aims of the study, the researcher employed a library research. The primary source of this study was taken from the novel itself, The Secret Life of Bees. The secondary sources in getting information about the sociocultural-historical background of the novel are from internet. Some quotations and statements from certain expert were also adapted to support and clarify some important ideas. For examples, Barnes and Noble’s book Barnes and Noble New American Encyclopedia and Curran’s book Introductory Sociology , were used to understand the Blacks’ condition in 1960s. This study was also supported by Swingewood’s sociological approach, Wellek and Warren sociological approach since the novel was analyzed based on the sociology of author.

In answering the problems above, several theories on literature were also applied. They were theory of Character and Characterization, theory of injustice, theory of the condition of The Black American in 1960s. The theory of sociological study was employed in her study in order to guide the researcher to find certain facts about author’s life which might have influenced her criticism toward The Blacks. Finally, the researcher wrote suggestions for future researcher concerning with the possible further researchers and general readers who are interested in studying the Black’s life .