Social construction behind family violence in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart and Abidah El Khalieqy’s Perempuan Berkalung Sorban: A study of Comparative Literature

ABSTRACT

Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckmann declare that reality is socially constructed and that the sociology of knowledge must analyze the process in which this occurs. It is norms, mores, spiritual values, and moral values which shape social structure or institution in community. Family, as the smallest institution in this study of comparing two novels written by Chinua Achebe and Abidah El Khalieqy, is considered as the causal factor of family violence. In comparing two works, the researcher is going to compare two works exactly to find the similarity and the difference, but not to judge or blame them.

This study aims at analyzing three problems from two novels Things Fall Apart and Perempuan Berkalung Sorban, there are: (1) identifying family violence in both novels, (2) explanation the influence of social construction to the occurrence of family violence, and (3) identifying the similarities and differences of the influence of social construction to the occurrence of family violence in the two novels. To handle the first problem, the researcher applies the theory of family violence proposed by Burgess and Roberts. The researcher continues this study for the second aim by applying social construction theory proposed by Berger and Luckmann. The last analysis in this study is identifying the similarities and differences of the influence of social construction to the occurrence of family violence in both novels by applying comparative literary theory.

The two novels of Perempuan Berkalung Sorban and Things Fall Apart depict a phenomenon where social construction that causes family violence cases. It occurs because: (1) family violence is done by the head of household, (2) characters in both novels follow the norms which had been defined in the society and family, (3) violence which is done by the head of household turns into tighter when the victims do not obey the command by means of language, (4) the two novels depict a distinction of right and duty between man and women to clarify what should and what should not be done by each gender, and (5) association of the elder in each community of the two novels consists of men only. The differences of both are: in Perempuan Berkalung Sorban internalization and objectivation influence to the occurrence of family violence, they are (1) internalization process transfers the values of womanhood during learning activities in home, school, and dormitory, (2) the presence of mistakes in the identity formation process in Samsudin family. In the second novel of Things Fall Apart, the difference of the influence of social construction lies in the internalization and objectivation process, they are (1) based on the explanation of Berger and Luckmann, primary socialization involves learning sequences that are socially defined through heroic stories of the clan told by Okonkwo to his son, and (2) in the objectivation process exactly in identity formation process, family violence begins because of Okonkwo’s disappointment to his poor and lazy father.