The character traits and emotional intelligence of santiago, the main character of ernest hemingway’s the old man and the sea

ABSTRACT

Character traits in literary works are the central point to be discussed. The character discussion covers, among others, emotional intelligence since psychology and literary works has close relationship either indirectly or functionally; indirectly, literature and psychology have the same object, that is, human being’s life and functionally, literature and psychology learn about human being’s psychological condition. Moreover, emotional intelligence among the modem life has been dominant especially for supporting the one’s success to lead life as it is frequently played by the main character in a fiction. Besides, in modem fiction the role of main character is very significant and dominant because of the development of psychology. Psychological aspect is extremely emphasized in modem fiction.

Based on the fact, the study on character traits related to the emotional intelligence is conducted. This study aims at finding out the character traits of Santiago, the main character of The Old Man and the Sea, and describing the contribution of emotional intelligence to Santiago’s character traits.

This study employs descriptive qualitative method with the psychology of literature approach which focuses on the theory of emotional intelligence. The research data are obtained from Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea. This study uses human instrument that is the researcher becomes the key or main instrument. To make the data valid, a careful observation and triangulation are done. Data analysis is done using interactive model. In this model, the activity is done simultaneously and repeatedly, that is data reduction, data presentation and conclusion or verification.

The result of the study shows that there are many character traits of Santiago found in the Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea which cover (1) self، confident (2) patient (3) kind (4) humble (5) tender (6) tough (7) optimistic (8) discipline (9) calm (10) hopeful (11) brave (12) strong and (13) hard or stiff. Meanwhile, the contribution of emotional intelligence to Santiago’s character traits are (1) knowing one’s emotion (self- awareness); recognizing a feeling as it happens. And it contributes to Santiago’s character traits to be discipline, clever and self، confident. (2) Managing emotion (self-regulation); the ability to control or manage emotion to real responsible personality. And it contributes to be patient, calm and stiff or hard. (3) motivating oneself (motivation); an individual ability that leads and make all efforts to gain the goals, help taking initiative, act creatively, and defend any failure and frustration. And,it contributes to be tough, optimistic, hopeful, brave and strong.

Finally, after discussing all the problems of the study, the researcher proposed some suggestions; The researcher suggests to the next researcher to use this research as stepping stone to investigate or explore deeply character traits in literary works, especially Santiago’s character traits in the Old Man and the Sea. In addition, these findings can be used as an additional reference for character traits study in literary works.