The theme of story in William Stryron’s the confessions of nat turner novel: Genetic structuralism approach

ABSTRACT

Literary works cannot be separated from people’s life, because it is one of the mediators to get the information of a certain social condition, Hypolite Taine (in Fananie, 2000): 1 7 ا) states that literature is not only imaginative and individual, but it is as picture of culture, the appearance of the idea when the literature is created. Literature exist because people’s hunger of information. Literature could be one of the sharing experience mediators.

Especially novel, it has function as the way to get source of information about the certain society, historical background, and social ethnics. It is also as a media to get some new experiences, knowledges, andjudgements of life.

Novel, however, is conducted by two kinds of elements. They are intrinsic elements; such as theme, plot, character, point of view, setting, etc, and extrinsic elements; such as historical background, social background, political background, author worldview, etc. Both elements give contribution to the quality of novel.

Related to that case, the researcher has to analyze intrinsic elements and extrinsic elements. Although there are many intrinsic elements of fiction, the importance of a whole literary work is theme. William Styron’s The Confessions of Nat Turner is a historical novel that presents the slavery in Virginia in 1831 ’s (19'1 Century). It is consist of four parts that describes the slavery in Virginia. That’s why the research could be related to both intrinsic elements and extrinsic elements. Therefore, the problems of the study can be formulated as; 1) what is the theme found in every part ofWilliam Styron’s The Confessions ofNal Turner novel? 2) How does the author relate the themes in the story with the real social condition in Virginia, North America in I831’s (للاول century) in which the story was composed? The objectives of this study are to find out the theme of the story in every parts in William Styron’s The Confessions of Nat Turner and to describe how does the author relate the themes in the story with the real social condition in Virginia, North America in 1831 's (للاول century).

This research uses literary criticism in analyzing this novel, because it is the only method that is directly related to the literary works. In addition, the research uses the Genetic Structuralism as her approach, because this research related to the extrinsic elements but keep relevant with the intrinsic elements. Those elements are the theme, setting and character of the novel and the real social condition in Virginia, North America in I831’s (الاول century).

As the results of the study, the researcher found the theme of every part of the novel as:

ا . The white people did the violence toward the black people (their slave) that caused the hatred to them.

2. Along his past time (teenager time), being free man was Nat’s dream.

3. The rebellion begun, Nat Turner and his followers planned the rebellion and killed almost all of the white people in Southampton, Virginia.

4. Nat’s death was his return to his God’s love.
After finding these themes, the researcher concluded that the main theme
١٦un٦an right, that’s why no one has The ;freedom is a fundamental s٦\ لاآدع١ا؟ <؟١لأ١ ؟ه

a right to decide how much the freedom another person should have.

The last step, was find out the relationship between the themes in the story and the real social condition in Virginia, North America in 1831 ’s (19ا century). '1 here are three similarities between the theme of the storv and the real social condition in Virginia, North America in I831’s (ول century), they are: related to how the slaves scramble their freedom, the slave rebellion, and the location where the slavery took place.

The first similarity is related to how the slaves scramble their freedom. Styron describes that the black people have never been assumed as the human being, but they were just property, good or animal. All of the black children could not enjoy their teenager time؛ because they have to work all day long. Young girls would usually help in the house. Young boys would help in the farm by bailing hay and loading wagon with crops. Through this novel, Styron depicts pains and sufferings that slaves undergo, 'rhe slave owners do not consider slaves as human being; they consider slaves as things that are not supposed to have feelings and thoughts.

The second similarity which is described by the author arc related to the slave rebellion happened in Southampton and the characters in the story,. The rebellion started on 2 Ist of August and ended on 22nd of August١83 !.The characters appeared in the novel were similar with the real men in the slave rebellion in Virginia. And the victims of the rebellion also stated in the novel, The rebellion was less than 2 days but the victims were about 55 white people, including male, female and children

The last similarity is related to the location where the slavery took place. Styron states in the novel that Nat Turner is in Southampton, Virginia. “This is Virginia in the year anno Domini 1 83 1 and you have labored under civilized and virtuous master.” (Nat, page 46). In 1831’s the slavery was really happened in Virginia.

Although this study is far from being perfect, but this study is hoped to be used as the reference for further researchers who want to analyze in the same field, especially literary works.