The influence of Conflicts to Jerilee’s Character Development in Harolrd Robbins’ The Lonely Lady

ABSTRACT

Conflict is a contradiction between two persons, each of which has his own idea or principle. Conflict is an important element in the novel. It is intensified through a phrase of rising action and compilation until crisis brings climax. Conflict that occurs can influence and change one’s character. Character development bringing the characters to live in the reader mind. They can range from thumbnail sketches to deep, wordy, highly detailed biographies of each character. It is important to note that different genres and stories require different types of character development.

This study is aimed or answering the following three research problems and gain better understanding on the content of the novel. The first is what the original character of Jerilee is. The second is what are Jerilee’s conflicts. And the last is how does the conflicts influence Jerilee’s character. The objectives of this study are based on three items. First of all to identify the original character of Jerilee. The second is to explain Jerilee’s conflicts. The third is to describe how the conflicts influence Jerilee’s character.

The research design used in this study is descriptive qualitative research. This is used because there is no treatment as in experimental research describes or interprets what exist with respect to condition in a situation, describes the original character of Jerilee, type of Jerilee’s conflict, and how the conflicts influence Jerilee’s character.

The result of this study shows that the original character of Jerilee is creative, realistic, decorous, and honest. Five types of Jerilee’s conflicts are psychological conflict, physical conflict, social conflict, environmental conflict, and moral conflict. Some conflict like free sex, alcohol and drugs influence her become anxious, depression and lonely. But then she realizes it and growing up becomes mature woman, independent, and enthusiastic in reaching her dreams as an author.