The Effects of Culture towards Decision Making Ability

In The Main Characters of J.K Rowlings Harry Potter and Masashi

Kishimotos Naruto

CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. Background of Study
The world is already developed through connections that developed
through the commerce, technology and culture. It is not a new thing to find
someone that born in a western culture becomes the master of an art in the other
cultures or someone that born in the east also becomes a teacher of the western
hemisphere culture. The similarities not only stopped there but also expands to the
other parts of life include the literary works. In some cases there are found that a
work of an author of the western hemisphere has a similarities with the works of
arts with an artist or an author from the eastern hemisphere but yet the similarities
are concealed under a cover from the plot, settings, and even the story itself. A
comparative study of the works is a thing to be done to find the points of
similarities and the differences that existed in the cultures that exist in the two
hemispheres.
Inside the two continent a world of literary world in form of novel
is emerge under the condition of the world a certain author find , as stated by Van

de Laar in his book n Introduction to English Literature, a novel is a world which

created by an author as the result of his or hers observation and reflection of the
world where he or she is live on (1969: 163), it could be a simple expression of
memories or the form of the authors personal emotion that displayed through the
characters of a story, the plot, or even the setting of the story. It also shares a
values that later on influence the attitude of the readers on the authors or
somebody personal experience (Wellek & Warren, 1969 : 163).
It also shows the development of the growth of human conscience that
reflected through a characters characteristics characterization in the story as it is a
process that mainly related to the author unconscious repression (Pikunas,
2006:11), which is affected by the plot that settled by author that later on become
one of the factor that influences the characters development that the author made
in his or hers work.
In the development of the literary works, these hemisphere is grow in their
own values and sets of norms in the society which is based on their own ideals
and basic of the meaning of life towards themselves, but in some cases there are
some similarities which are shown in many aspects of life .and it also what shown
in the literary works also shown some discreet similarities, whether it is in the
theme, topic, or even plot. Nowadays the similarities are barely seen in the work
of J.K. Rowling , Harry Potter , an orphan that being nurtured through various
adventures (Kern, 2006:104) and a work of Japanese comic book by Masahi
Kishimoto, Naruto, a boy that being socially isolated by the villagers of
Konohagakure, a secret village of ninjas where he live. These boys show a path

of adulthood in a condition that even not related but the same due to the
background of their origin and also the condition that they stuck in.
Therefore this study is a comparison study of the similarities and
differences between a J.K Rowlings Harry Potter and Masahi Kishimotos
Naruto through the plot and the characterization to find the factor that built the
main characters maturity through the story and a process to find out how the
culture which is seen in the story through setting and plot influence the main
character of both stories in decision making process when they confront problems
or conflicts.

B. Problem Formulations

In order to limit the subjects of this study there are some questions that used
as problem formulation. The questions are:

1. How is the characterization of the main character of J.K. Rowling

Harry Potter and Masashi Kishimoto Naruto described in the
story?
2. How is the plot and setting of culture described in the story?
3. What are the influences of the setting of culture and plot of the
story to the main character of the two stories?

C. Objective of Study

The objective of this study is to answer the problem formulations above.

The first objection of this study is define the characterization of the main character
in J.K. Rowlings Harry Potter and Masashi Kishimotos Naruto as described in
the story. The second aim is to find the plot of both stories and the setting of the
story especially the setting of culture in the stories. The next purpose is to find the
influence of cultural setting in the character in both stories as seen in the
characterization of the characters and make a comparison study between the
stories in order to describe the influences of culture towards the character and the
factors that affect the decision making process of the main character in both
stories as the result of culture that the characters involved in and lived in.

D. Definition of Terms

In this study there is two terms that must be explained to avoid misunderstanding
in this study. The terms are:

1. Comparative Literature Study

Comparative literature study is study or research of literature that view

the literature and culture as a whole thing not as separated thing which in
need of use an application of other disciplinary. (Zepetnek, 1998 ; 15 ).

2. Manga

A style of Japanese comic books and graphic novels, typically aimed at

adults

as

well

as

children

and

emerging

since

1950s

(http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/manga. Sept 5, 2014)

CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
A. Review of Related Studies

In studying the J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter, here are some other
studies that conducted previously by some researchers in Harry Potter series
and also on the effects of culture through the perspective of psychology. The
first study that reviewed is a study that conducted by an editor of Alice
Academy, Elizabeth Pandolfo-Briggs. Briggs, in her study discussed how the
author of Harry Potter series, J.K. Rowling, presenting the story in a distinct
way (the-looking-glass.net, Aug 20, 2014) with the title The Real Magic of
Harry Potter. In the study, Briggs stated the way that it blends the fantasy
and reality by presenting the normal or ordinary magic that used in daily
routine basis that could be understand as a appraisal of how the author
brought the daily routine in the readers life, which originally the children, into
the magic world with its wonders and presenting the magic as the part of daily
routine.

The mixture of the fantasy and the reality also a point of idea that
Briggs discussed in her study through the existence of magical being, spells,
and magic or wizardry community life, such as Quiditch, magical items, and
the usage of magic, that used in the school life which leads to a conclusion
that the most interesting part of the story and also the strongest aspects of

interest towards the readers of the story is the mixture itself. On the other
hand, another study about the extrinsic aspect of the story also discussed by
Melia Hapsari Sabarno in her thesis about the portrayal of J.K Rowlings
school life as seen from one of hers protagonist, Hermione Granger in the
third book of the series, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.

In her study, Sabarno states that Hermione Granger, one of the

storys protagonists and friend of the main character, Harry Potter, as the
portrayal of Rowlins teenage (2006: 28). In her study, Sabarno used the
characterization, the physical appearance, social relationship, and mental
qualities, to reveal the resemblance of Rowlings teenage as seen from their
mental qualities similarities. Sabarno states that Hermione Granger is a
student with outstanding qualities. First quality is diligent, she always be the
hardest worker among her age-mates. The next quality is clever. Her
cleverness is the results of her diligent action such as read the text book before
the class started. She is also very familiar with book or book-oriented. The
library was her favorite place and she always spent her spare time there
reading various book. Another quality is brave, as seen she always stand up
when there is sometimes that she dislikes or not in the same perception of
truth that she has. She also shows her bravery to disobey one of her professor
to not help her friend, Neville Longbottom to do his assignment which also
reveals one of her quality, sensitive. There are also some other qualities such
as reliable, ambitious, and obedient (2006:30-35), and from these qualities,
Hermione is similar to Rowling, as stated by Sabarno in her analysis,

Rowling was growing up as a smart student. She liked books. She

always counts on the library as her main source of knowledge. She was
the cleverest student in every class she took. On the other side,
Rowling was different form her other girl friends. She did not use
make up on her face; she didnt dress up well, and on the top of that,
she dared to fight against her friends. (2006:38)
On the other hand, the intrinsic elements of Harry Potter series also one
aspects that discussed in literary studies beside the authors factor. One of the
studies that discuss the intrinsic elements of the story is a literary text discourse by
Maria Benedecta Dian Savitri from Sanata Dharma. In her thesis, Savitri tries to
reveals the reflection of British 20th century society in the story as seen in the
second book of the story, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. In her study,
Savitri stated that social divisions of the 20th century Britain are divided into some
classes by their genecology and their economic factors and this is also could be
seen in the story. The classes are divided into: the aristocrats or the upper class,
middle class or the professionals workers which divided into subclasses, the
salatariat or the salary man, routine white-collars workers, and the self employed.
The last class is the lower class or the proletariat or the social class that consists of
the low-class workers.

The story also reflects the class division which based on the genealogical
factors. The social classes in the story are divided into the upper class wizards or
the wealthy pure blood wizards, a wizard or witch that born from the wizard and
witch parents that represented by The Malfoys, the antagonists of the story. The
second class is the middle class wizard which consists of the half-blood wizards,
wizard or witch that comes from one wizard or witch parents and a non wizard or

witch parents. The wizard or witch that comes from a family that has non-wizard
ot muggles blood in their vein also included in the middle class wizard. In the
story this kind middle class wizard is represented by the Potters

The other part of the middle class wizard is the poor pure-blood wizard
that works to earn living for the family as represented by the Weasleys in the story
while the Grangers is also stated as the middle class wizard since comes from the
professional workers even they only have one witch in their family, the daughter,
Hermione Granger. The witch or wizard that comes from the muggles is stated as
the mudblood which reveal that the genealogical factors that influence the social
divisions in the story communities which also resembles the real life social
divisions in the 20th century British community.

The low-class worker or the low class is represented by a magical-being

character, Dobby, the Malfoys house keeper but since Dobby is an elf, he is
categorized as a house elf. Dobby is representing the lower class since even
though he is able to use magic, he cant use it without the Malfoys permission
and work for the Malfoys benefits only which is look alike the low-class workers
that working for the owner of the company where they work.

The studies above shows that a literary work could be a manifestation of

values or representation and reference towards what happened in the authors
world yet the characters also become the portrayal of what human being is. The
characters are also being able to influenced by the things that captured by the

author from the real world since they are a form of idea that similar to the people.
The influence itself is brought by the author while animate the characters in story.

The influence itself could be influence of culture, ideology, or mindset

from the community where the author live in. One example of real life influence
of culture that reviewed in this study is a study by Shali Wu and Boaz Keysar
about the effect of culture on perspective taking from University of Chicago. In
their study, Wu and Keysar tries to defines the effects of culture on perspective
taking in the individualistic culture and try to compare it with the same issue in
the collectivistic cultures.

Wu and Keysar studies involves 20 participants from American culture as

the representation of individualistic culture and 20 participants from Chinese
culture as the representation of collectivistic cultures and made them make a
perspective taking games and resulted the cultural patterns of interdependence
focus attention on the other. This issue, the interdependence among others, made
the Chinese participants become the better perspective takers than the American
participants.

The effects of culture also become the main idea of this study with the
focus of the effects of cultures towards the main character decision making ability
in J.K. Rowlings Harry Potter and later on compared into the main character of
Masashi Kishimotos Naruto to see the portrayal of culture effects in a person
mindset in the literary work from two hemisphere and develop a deeper

understanding about the cultural perspective representation from the literature

comparison study.

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