Thematic analysis on Maggie: A girl of the streets novella by Stephen Crane

ABSTRACT

As human beings, we like to see and hear things happening in our surrounding. Television and radio are ways for US to know about the things that happen in the world. By watching television or listening to radio, we can increase our experience through imagination. We can imagine ourselves going to the world in which something happens. “Literature is simply another way we can experience the world around us through our imagination.” (Jones 1968:1) By studying literary works, we can get new knowledge about the world. Besides, we can practice our reading ability and we can get pleasure. The researcher decided to write Thematic Analysis on Maggie: A Girl of the Streets Novella by Stephen Crane because of some reasons. Firstly, Maggie: A Girl of the Streets is like a wake up call for people because life itself is full of sadness and depressing things. Secondly, Stephen Crane is the most interesting American writer of fiction whose all of his significant works were done in less than ten years.

In this study, the researcher used descriptive qualitative method. Because the discussion of this study was theme, the researcher used objective approach, which studies a literary work from its intrinsic elements. To collect the data, the researcher selected the words and utterances that related to theme. Then, the researcher took notes upon them based on the theme. After getting the data, the researcher categorized the data in accordance with theme. Finally, the researcher discussed the whole data and made conclusions.

After analyzing the data, the researcher found that the sub-themes of Maggie: A Girl of the Streets were violence often breaks people’s relationship to others; drunkenness makes someone cannot think logically; Indifference can make someone feel isolated; prostitution does not solve the problem; and hypocrisy brings someone to the wrong conduct. Meanwhile, the main theme of Maggie: A Girl of the Streets was socioeconomic condition determines the individuals1 life. The researcher, then, hopes that the next researchers will conduct their research from the same area but in different ways. It is because there are still a lot of intrinsic elements that are needed to be analyzed. Hopefully, this study could be one of the sources for further analysis.