Aspect of the Main Characters in Andrea Hirata’s Sirkus Pohon novel: An Overview of Literary Psychology

Abstrak

One of the novels that present the personality aspect of the main characters is Sirkus Pohon novel by Andrea Hirata. This novel narrates three main characters who have unique personalities. The objective of this study is to describe the personality aspect of the main characters based on the structure of consciousness which includes mental function, mental attitude (extrovert and introvert), and the structure of unconsciousness (personal unconsciousness and collective unconsciousness).

This study applies the theory proposed by Carl Gustav Jung (2012) which states that personality consists of (1) the structure of consciousness which includes the mentality function and the mental attitude (extrovert and introvert) and (2) the structure of unconsciousness which includes personal unconsciousness and collective unconsciousness.

The type of this study is qualitative research with a descriptive method. The data source for this study is collected from Andrea Hirata’s Sirkus Pohon novel. Data collection is performed through (1) reading and understanding the contents of Sirkus Pohon novel by Andrea Hirata, (2) marking and recording the data related to the research object, and (3) grouping the data based on the research problems. Data validity test is carried out in the triangulation technique. Data analysis is performed through (1) classifying the data based on the personality aspect of the main character, (2) interpreting the data that describing the personality aspect of the main character, and (3) concluding the results of the analysis of the dominant personality aspect of the main character.

Based on the data analysis and discussion, the results are as follows. First, the description of personality based on the consciousness structure consists of (1) the mental function, in which the main character has the persistence that is relatively unchanged in spite of adversities, (2) the mental attitude of the character, which consists of (a) extrovert, since the main character is very open during the search and (b) introvert, because the main character is reserved when feeling sad. Second, the personality description based on the structure of unconsciousness consists of (1) personal unconsciousness, in which there is a behavior of the main character that is influenced by the sub-conscious mind based on his own experience, and (2) collective unconsciousness, in which the main character indirectly inherits several traits from his ancestors, such as the similar walking style between the main character and his father.

Keywords: personality, main character, Andrea Hirata’s Sirkus Pohon novel