A FORMAL ANALYSIS ON TOLSTOY’S “GOD SEES THE TRUTH BUT WAITS” AND “A GRAIN AS BIG AS A HEN'S EGG”

Abstract

A Formal Analysis on Tolstoy’s God Sees The Truth but Waits and A Grain as Big as a Hen’s Egg; Retno Tri Wulansari, 070110191033; 2013; English Department, Faculty of Letters, Jember University. This thesis deals with formalist analysis which concerns on the analysis of selected short stories TOLSTOY’S “GOD SEES THE TRUTH BUT WAITS” AND “A GRAIN AS BIG AS A HEN'S EGG”. The problem in this thesis is the language used in both short stories above because the language used in the stories is different from daily language. Hence, the goal of the study is to find out why different language occurs. The language used in literary works performs as “art as thinking in images” which is closely related to the study of formalism. Formalism emphasizes on the beautiful letters in conveying message that does not occur in daily spoken language. This “art is thinking in images” relates to the creative process of the author to convert the fabula into sjuzhet that appears as estrangement. In away “art is thinking in images” talks about fabula, sjuzhet and estrangement as whole. Estrangement is indeed a process of making an object strange, to touch only the senses of the object, hence the object is not really important because the reader can perceive the idea through the arts within the story. Thus, this writing is projected to give more explanation on how the arts may perform in the story. Furthermore, it will give a new way of perspective to see difference of the language used in literary works. The data applied in this writing is qualitative data. In this case, the words or sentences data are applied. Data collection in this thesis is documentary study. The data is documented from Tolstoy’s selected short stories. This thesis is a descriptive study which function is to identify the use of Fabula and Sjuzhet as well as Estrangement. Those three terms are nothing but instruments to perform art in the language used in literary works. In this manner, the language written in the universe of literature can be distinguished from the daily language. Art however is something really important in this study. For the final comment, The God Sees the Truth but Waits displays more sjuzhets since many object are becoming odd, and they never be explained directly but to imply it using close reading. Not to mention the length of the story, God Sees the Truth but Waits serves more examples of the sjuzhet. The images of the rich guy yet pious person are the main theme of the story. While A Grain as Big as a Hen’s Egg presents less sjuzhet because not many objects are illustrated in images, more direct expression is applied and the length of the story. Thus, the image of the past and the present becomes clearer.The result of this thesis indicates that there is a very systematic process to generate meaning, idea, and notion through images. The occurrence of arts proves that the language is beautiful. However the creativity of Tolstoy is challenged to estrange the object