Social Problems in Nelson Alwi'sMamak Novel: An Overview of Sociology of Literature

Abstrak

Literary works are the result of the imagination and creativity of authors who express human and humanitarian problems. One of the problems is social problems such as those found in the novel Mamak by Nelson Alwi. This study aims to describe the form, causal factors, solutions to social problems in the novel Mamak by Nelson Alwi.

According to Soekanto and Solistyowati (2013), social problems are the problems that involves immoral behavior that is contrary to the law and is destructive. He explained that social problems consist of poverty, crime, family disorganization, problems of the younger generation in modern society, warfare, violations of the norms of society, population, the environment, and bureaucracy. According to him this problem is caused by four factors, namely economic, psychological, biological, and cultural. The solution can be done preventively or repressively.

This type of research is qualitative research with descriptive methods. The source of the data of this research is the novel Mamak by Nelson Alwi. The data of this study are in the form of words and sentences taken from Nelson Alwi'sMamak novel which show social problems. The technique of collecting the data is by reading and taking notes. The data analysis technique is the content analysis.

Based on the data analysis, it is found that, first, the problems found in the novel are the problems of crime (12 data) such as violence, followed by problems of violation of norm (6 data) such as theft, problems of the younger generation in modern society (4 data) such as impoliteness in speaking to the older ones, environmental problems (4 data) such as the losses faced by farmers that is caused by pests, bureaucratic problems (4 data) such as foul or fraud, poverty problems (2 data) such as the loss of livelihoods faced by the community, war problems (2 data) such as bombing, and population problems (1 data) namely population density. Second, the causes of social problems are cultural factors (24 data) such as foreigners with inappropriate clothes, followed by economic factors (9 data) such as the insufficiency of living needs, and psychological factors (2 data) such as the deviant behavior. Third, the solution to the social problems used is repressive (34 data), such as resolving the land and rice problems after the event has occurred and preventive (1 data), namely giving direction so as not to carry out bribery before the event occurs.

The conclusion of this study is that there are 35 data of social problems found in Nelson Alwi'sMamak novel which consists of; (1) the most common forms of the problems in the Mamak novel are the problems of crime. (2) The factor that causes the most problems is culture. (3) The solution to the most social problems is repressive. Thus the novel is proven to be talking about social problems..

Keywords: social problems, Mamak novel, sociology of literature