THE REFLECTION OF CHRISTMAS CONSUMERISM IN THE US IN...
Transcript of THE REFLECTION OF CHRISTMAS CONSUMERISM IN THE US IN...
THE REFLECTION OF CHRISTMAS CONSUMERISMIN THE US IN THE LATE 1990s PRESENTED IN JOHN
GRISHAM’S SKIPPING CHRISTMAS
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirementsfor the Degree of Sarjana Sastra
in English Letters
By
ERVINA STEVANYStudent number: 064214028
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMMEDEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITYYOGYAKARTA
2010
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Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s need, butnot every man’s greed (Mohandas K.
Gandhi)
You have succeeded in life when all you really want isonly what you really need. (Vernon Howard)
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those who always give me theirperfect love, care, and
understanding…
My Beloved God,Jesus Christ. . .
My late Dear Dad,Mr. Rusmawi. . .
My Superb Mom,Mrs. Veronica Suherni. . .
My Lovely Big Sister and LittleBrother,
Fenny Oktarina and RiechoAntonius. . .
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
In the first place I would like to express my gratitude to our Father for
giving His Son as our Savior and for Jesus Christ for blessing and caring me so
that I could pass all the hard times in my life including the time when I struggle to
complete this thesis. I am also so grateful for Saint Mary for her sincere prayer.
I would like to express my gratitude for my advisor, Dewi Widyastuti,
S.Pd., M.Hum and my co-advisor Fransiskus Xaverius Siswadi, Dr.,M.A. for
being so patient in guiding me to finish my thesis. I also want to thank all the
lecturers and staff of the English Letters Department of Sanata Dharma University
for their love and support during my study.
To my late dear father, I could only express my love and gratitude here, I
believe he prays for me wherever you are now. To my mother, who struggles for
all her children, I could say nothing but thank her so much. Although she is not a
perfect mother, her love is unlimited. To my big sister, Tacie, from whom I learn
to be a good daughter, I really appreciate all her love and care. And to my little
brother, Riko, who always encourages me with his mockery and who accompanies
me during my thesis writing process, hardly I say that I thank for that.
I also would thank my dear best friends, Vinny, Susin, and Irene for their
support, prayer, and love. And also for all my friends in Jogja who always support
me in bad and good time this past 4 years, Dhika and his family, “BFI” and “After
Twenty”. This single paged acknowledgement is not enough to express my
gratitude but sincerely I thank all of people who help me with my thesis.
Ervina Stevany
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
TITLE PAGE ......................................................................................................... iAPPROVAL PAGE .............................................................................................. iiACCEPTANCE PAGE........................................................................................ iiiMOTTO PAGE .................................................................................................... ivDEDICATION PAGE........................................................................................... vLEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAHUNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS ........................................................... viACKNOWLEDGEMENTS................................................................................ viiTABLE OF CONTENTS................................................................................... viiiABSTRACT........................................................................................................... xABSTRAK ............................................................................................................ xi
CHAPTER I : INTRODUCTION ....................................................................... 1A. Background of the Study ................................................................................ 1B. Problem formulation ....................................................................................... 4C. Objectives of the Study................................................................................... 4D. Definition of Terms ........................................................................................ 4
CHAPTER II : THEORETICAL REVIEW ...................................................... 6A. Review on Related Studies........................................................................... 6B. Review of Related Theories ......................................................................... 9
1. Theory of Character and Characterization..................................................... 9
2. Theory of Setting ............................................................................................ 11
C. Review of Socio-Cultural Historical background ...................................... 121. The Theory of History and Christmas Tradition in the US ....................... 12
2. Theory of Christmas Consumerism in the late 1990s in the US............... 19D. Theoretical Framework .............................................................................. 26
CHAPTER III : METHODOLOGY ................................................................. 28A. Object of the Study..................................................................................... 28B. Approach of the Study ............................................................................... 29C. Method of the Study................................................................................... 30
CHAPTER IV : ANALYSIS .............................................................................. 31A. The Main Characters’ Characterization ..................................................... 31
1. Luther’s Characterizations............................................................................. 32a. Realistic .................................................................................................. 32b. Thrifty .................................................................................................... 37c. Impatient................................................................................................. 39
2. Nora’s Characterization ................................................................................. 44a. Sensitive ............................................................................................ 44b. Shifty Minded ................................................................................... 52
B. The Setting in Skipping Christmas............................................................. 57
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1. Setting of Time................................................................................................ 58a. Christmas Season .............................................................................. 58b. The Late 1990s.................................................................................. 60
2. Setting of Place ............................................................................................... 623. The Society ...................................................................................................... 64
C. The Reflection of Christmas Consumerism in the Late 1990s in the US .. 691. The Reflection of Christmas Consumerism in the 1990s in the US from
Luther’s and Nora’s characterization ...........................................................702. The Reflection of Christmas Consumerism in the late 1990s US from the
Setting in Skipping Christmas ....................................................................... 79a. Setting of Time.................................................................................. 80
i. Christmas ...................................................................................... 80ii. The Late 1990s.............................................................................. 82
b. Setting of Place ................................................................................. 86c. Society............................................................................................... 87
CHAPTER V : CONCLUSION......................................................................... 89
BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................................................92
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ABSTRACT
ERVINA STEVANY. The Reflection of Christmas Consumerism in the US inthe Late 1990s Presented in John Grisham’s Skipping Christmas. Yogyakarta:Department of English Letters, Letters Faculty, Sanata Dharma University.
Luther and Nora Krank are the main characters in Skipping Christmas.With some consideration they decide to skip Christmas. It is not somethingcommon for the society and it makes the Kranks have a clash with their society.From the main characters’ characterization and setting, the researcher finds thatSkipping Christmas shows a reflection of Christmas consumerism that happenedlargely now a days. Although the setting in this book is in the US, but Christmasconsumerism happens almost all over the world, it becomes multi-issues becauseChristmas consumerism becomes not only an religious issue, but also aneconomic, social cultural and environmental issue.
There are some objectives that the researcher wants to achieve through thisthesis. The first is to describe the characterization of the main characters inSkipping Christmas in order to understand the character, the story line and theidea of Christmas consumerism. The second is to describe the setting, includingsetting of time, place, and society. The last objective is to see how thecombination of main characters’ characterization and the setting reflect theconsumerism in the US in the late 1990s.
This thesis is a library research. The main data were taken from JohnGrisham’s novel, Skipping Christmas. The secondary data were taken from somesupporting books and articles from the internet. To analyze the topic of this thesis,the researcher applied socio-cultural historical approach. Socio-cultural historicalapproach is considered appropriate to be applied to this topic because thediscussion in this work tries to see the relation between the novel and the societywhere the novel was written.
Luther is characterized as realistic, impatient and thrifty. While Nora ischaracterized as sensitive person with two senses, understand others’ feeling andeasily offended, and Nora is also a shifty-minded person. With theircharacteristics, Luther and Nora who plan to skip Christmas had to face peoplearound them who celebrate Christmas a lot. Finally, the researcher presents thetendency of Christmas consumerism from what the main characters and thesociety to during Christmas, which are reflected from their custom to spent moneya lot during Christmas. The reflection is also shown by their custom to exchangegifts and give Christmas cards as they also use real tree for their Christmas tree.
Both the main characters and the setting present Christmas consumerism inthe late 1990s in the US although they have different attitude. Grisham does notshow his preference attitude whether he agrees with one of the groups. Researcherconcludes that Grisham just wants to provide facts and let the readers to choosetheir own attitude.
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ABSTRAK
ERVINA STEVANY. The Reflection of Christmas Consumerism in the US inthe Late 1990s Presented in John Grisham’s Skipping Christmas. Yogyakarta:Jurusan Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Sanata Dharma.
Tokoh utama dalam Skipping Christmas adalah Luther dan Nora Krank.Dengan beberapa pertimbangan, mereka memutuskan untuk melewatkan natal.Keputusan ini bukan hal yang biasa di masyarakat mereka sehingga keluargaKrank terlibat perselisihan dengan masyarakat sekitar. Melalui perwatakan tokohutama dan setting, penulis menemukan bahwa Skipping Christmas menampilkanrefleksi konsumerisme natal yang marak terjadi dewasa ini. Walaupun settingnovel ini di Amerika Serikat, konsumerisme natal terjadi hampir diseluruh dunia.Hal ini bukan hanya masalah keagamaan tetapi juga masalah ekonomi, sosial danbudaya serta lingkungan.
Ada beberapa tujuan yang ingin dicapai penulis dalam menyusun skripsiini. Yang pertama untuk mendeskripsikan perwatakan tokoh utama pada novelSkipping christmas dengan tujuan untuk memahami watak tokoh utama, jalancerita dan konsep konsumerisme natal. Tujuan kedua adalah untukmendeskripsikan setting, termasuk didalamnya seting tempat, waktu dan sosial.Tujuan terakhir adalah untuk melihat bagaimana kombinasi perwatakan tokohutama dan setting merefleksikan konsumerisme di Amerika Serikat sekitar tahun1990-an.
Skripsi ini merupakan studi pustaka. Data utama diambil dari novel JohnGrisham, Skipping Christmas. Data-data sekunder lain diambil dari buku – bukupendukung dan beberapa artikel yang diambil dari internet. Untuk menganalisistopik dari skripsi ini, penulis menggunakan pendekatan sosial-kebudayaan dansejarah. Pendekatan ini dirasa tepat karena pembahasan dalam skripsi ini mencobamelihat hubungan antara novel dan masyarakat di mana novel ini dibuat.
Luther dilukiskan sebagai tokoh yang realistis, tidak sabar dan cermatdalam menggunakan uang. Sedangkan Nora dilukiskan sebagai tokoh yangsensitif dengan dua arti, mengerti perasaan orang lain dan mudah tersakiti, danNora juga mudah berubah pikiran. Dengan perwatakan tersebut, Luther dan Noraharus menghadapi masyarakat sekitar yang merayakan natal dengan mewah. Padaakhirnya, penulis menunjukan tendensi konsumerisme natal melalui karakterutama dan masyarakat sekitar yang direfleksikan dari kebiasaan untukmenghamburkan banyak uang selama masa natal. Refleksi ini juga terlihat darikebiasaan mereka untuk tukar kado danmemberikan kartu natal seperti hal nyamereka menggunakan pohon asli sebagai pohon natal mereka.Tokoh-tokoh utamadan seting sama-sama menyajikan refleksi konsumerisme natal di Amerika Serikatsekitar tahun 1990-an walaupun dengan sikap yang berbeda. Grisham tidakmenunjukan apakah ia mendukung sikap salah satu pihak. Penulis menyimpulkanGrisham hanya menyajikan fakta dan membiarkan para pembacanya untukmenentukan sendiri pandangannya.
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CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. Background of the Study
“Literature is a lively image of human nature, representing passions and
humors, and the changes of fortune to which it is subject, for the delight and
instruction of mankind” (Dryden, 1970: 36). From this quotation the researcher
can see how literature is a kind of portrait of the real life. Literature is so much
influenced by the author because a literature is a product of its author, which
comes from author’s mind. An author’s mind is influenced by many things like
his/her educational, religious, and social background. With this knowledge, the
author can understand the logic of the above quotation.
In this paper the researcher will discuss one of the messages which can be
concluded from Grisham’s novel entitled Skipping Christmas. The focus of this
undergraduated thesis is on the reflection of consumerism tendency especially
during Christmas in the United States in the late 1990s. The researcher will try to
see how a work of literature, specifically, a novel can give a reflection of an issue
in the real life.
With this study, the researcher wants to focus only on the consumerism
tendency which is practiced by most American people in the late 1990s. Although
the degree of their consumerism practices are varies depend on many factors, such
as the State where they live or their economic conditions, but Americans activities
during Christmas season showed they spent money more than they need to
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commemorate the birth of Jesus Christ. The US is a big country. American society
is a very influential and rich society. There are some studies or surveys which
claim that Americans are the most consumptive people in the world. It is proven
by some economic survey as the researcher quote in the paragraph below.
Americans constitute 5% of the world’s population but consume 24% ofthe world’s energy. On average, one American consumes as much energyas 2 Japanese, 6 Mexicans, 13 Chinese, 31 Indians, 128 Bangladeshis, 307Tanzanians, or 370 Ethiopians.<http://www.mindfully.org/Sustainability/Americans-Consume-24percent.htm> (20 March 2010)
From the data, Americans was in the top position. It is ironical, an
American can consume energy which can be used by 370 people from other
country. With pretty small percentage of world’s population, Americans can
consume around a quarter of the world’s energy while there are so many people
from other countries that live in an awful condition. Moreover, we also realize that
there is a tendency that people become more consumptive during festivals or
holidays period like in Thanksgiving, Halloween, New Year, and Christmas Day.
As stated in the title of this paper, we will focus on consumerism during
Christmas time. Although Christmas is a religious holiday, people celebrate it
more for greeting, gathering, feasting, and exchanging gift rather than for praying,
attending the mass, retreating or anything which are parts of religious practices.
This fact quite annoys some people who concerned about it. This is a statement of
Pope John Paul II about today’s Christmas celebration as quoted from
www.indiatimes.com:
Pope John Paul II said on Sunday that the spiritual message of Christmaswas under threat from the rampant consumerism of the season."The beautiful tradition of exchanging Christmas gifts between family and
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friends, is under shock from a certain consumerist mentality and riskslosing its authentic sense of Christmas, above all, interior silence andprayer." He said "Secondly, the willingness to welcome the will of God,however it is manifested," he added.(http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/32083545.cms) <22 July2010>
Pope’s statement shows his concern and anxiety with the condition of
Christians’ mentality and Christianity. Pope sees that Christmas consumerism
fade the real meaning of Christmas out. The spirit of Christmas gradually
becomes the spirit of greeting, feasting or partying.
The researcher also takes the late 1990’s because we all are part of this
new modern and we can see it closely as a current issue that happened until today
and most of us are the actors of it. People are accustomed to consumptive lifestyle
without considering the effects of their lifestyle. Although the effects are
becoming true, like recession, social gap and global warming which are really
harmful for our life, we, as parts of the actors still, do not really give our care with
this issue.
Reducing consumption without reducing use is a costly delusion. Ifundeveloped consumed at the same rate as The US, four complete planetsize of the Earth would be required. People who think that they have aright to such a life are quite mistaken.<http://www.mindfully.org/Sustainability/Americans-Consume-24percent.htm> (20 March 2010)
The researcher’s reason for using Skipping Christmas novel is that in this
novel consumerism especially during Christmas time is clearly described. The
actions of the main characters in this novel show their disagreement with
consumptive side in celebrating Christmas. This book shows many dark sides of
Christmas from the point of view of the main character, especially Luther, but as
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the opposite, this book also shares with the reader the warmth of Christmas at the
end of the story.
B. Problem formulation
1. How are the main characters characterized?
2. How is the setting described?
3. How does the combination of main characters with their characterization and
setting reflect consumerism tendency in the US in the late 1990s?
C. Objectives of the Study
Three problems will be discussed in this paper. The first problem is related
to characters and characterization. The researcher will try to find out the
characteristics of characters in this novel and the researcher will review theory on
character and characterization. The second problem is related to setting. The
researcher will try to find out the setting of the plot in this book and therefore the
researcher will review a theory on setting in literary point of view. In the last
problem, the researcher will try to review and analyze how characters with their
characterizations and the setting of this novel reflect consumerism tendency in
The US.
D. Definition of Terms
According to the Webster's New Explorer Encyclopedia Dictionary, the
word 'consumerism' has two definitions. The first definition is about a movement
which was popularized in the 1600s to protect consumer interests. Lately,
consumerism has a new meaning which is related to the consumer’s strong
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interest in consumption which actually is the effect of the movement that is
described in the first definiton.
Consumerism: 1. the promotion of the consumer's interests 2. the theorythat an increasing consumption of goods is economically desirable; also: apreoccupation with and an inclination toward the buying of customergoods.(Merriam-Webster, Inc, 2006: 389)
Another definition is about what Christmas is. The researcher took a
definition Webster’s Encyclopedia Unabridged Dictionary of the English
Language. Here are also two definitions; the first one is more religious nuance.
To highlight on commemorate Jesus’ birthday, when Christian people believe as
the son of God and the founder of Christianity teaching birthday. And in the
second definition, we can see modern and happy nuance of Christmas where
people have fun, gather, and so on. In this case, the researcher will dig more about
the second definition of christmas.
Christmas: 1. the annual festival of Christian church commemorating thebirth of Jesus: celebrated on December 25. 2. December 25, now generallyobserved as a legal holiday and an occasion for exchanging gifts, greeting,etc. (Merriam-Webster, Inc, 1989: 263)
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CHAPTER II
THEORETICAL REVIEW
A. Review on Related Studies
John Grisham is an American author who was born on February 8, 1955 in
Jonesboro, Arkansas. His father is a construction worker and his mother is a
housewife. In 1981, He finished his university education in law school at Ole
Miss. Soon after he graduated, he worked as a lawyer, especially in criminal
defense and personal injury litigation. In 1983, Grisham was elected to be a
member of Representatives Mississippi and worked there until 1990. From his
experience of working in law court and corporation, he got some inspiration to
write a story related to the cases he ever handled. That is possible the reason why
almost all of Grisham books were about thriller law.
Long before his name became synonymous with the modern legal thriller,he was working 60-70 hours a week at a small Southaven, Mississippi lawpractice, squeezing in time before going to the office and duringcourtroom recesses to work on his hobby—writing his first novel<http://www.jgrisham.com/bio/> (20 March 2010).
Almost all Grisham’s works are all about law in thriller and serious
atmosphere. But his Skipping Christmas has totally different atmosphere from his
other works. Skipping Christmas is a Christmas story that presents the main
characters, Luther and Nora, as a successful couple. They have the only one
daughter who just graduated from a university and wanted to be a volunteer in
Peru to teach poor children there. After their daughter’s leaving they feel very
anxious and at one point decided to skip Christmas just for once for some reasons.
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Luther is the first who has that idea. As an accountant, Luther realizes that
he, his family and all people in his society do something crazy during Christmas.
That is about its ritual which costs a lot of money. Besides, his daughter leaving,
this is a strong reason why Luther persuades his wife to skip Christmas and all its
following rituals which usually start one month before Christmas. But their
decision to skip Christmas is not easy to realize. Their plan seems so simple but
the result of their decision is not that simple, although the setting in this book is at
somewhere in US, a free country, people commonly said, they are not really free
to skip Christmas. They must face their neighbor and friends who mock them,
people think they are crazy or maybe just have financial problems.
It wasn’t such a bad idea. All the money spent on intangible things orthings that are forgotten weeks later. Christmas has gotten way out of handwhen we spend so much money on food that goes to “waist”, gifts thatprobably aren’t what people want most, cloths we won’t wear againbecause we’ll have to have new next year, even Christmas cards that weonly sign our name so it’s not like we’re keeping up on the news<http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5357.skipping_christmas>(20 March 2010).
At the end of the story Luther and Nora fail to skip Christmas. It is not
because they are defeated with the full pressure from their surrounding but
because of the unexpected return of their daughter with her new fiancé.
Many readers love this book but there are some Grisham lovers who think
that Skipping Christmas is not a good one. The quotation below is the sample of
the sound of disappointment of Grisham’s Skipping Christmas.
In the final third of the book, Grisham goes about undoing the case forSkipping Christmas made so convincingly up to this point… This“unskipping” of Christmas is so contrived and tortured, it appears to havebeen written by someone other then Grisham…All in all, a very
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disappointing book <http://www.mostlyfiction.com/humor/grisham.htm>(20 March 2010).
Different from the statement from the quotation above, the researcher finds
that Grisham clearly shows his critique on the way people celebrate Christmas
through out the novel. The problem is not simply about whether they complete
their mission to skip Christmas or not. In spite of Luther and Nora’s decision to
take a Caribbean cruise, maybe it is not the best way to escape from Christmas
ritual which is identical with shopping, glamour and grand feast, Christmas
consumerism is a hot issue in American society.
Although at the end of the story, a surprise of her daughter coming home
makes Luther’s and Nora’s plan to skip Christmas failed, it does not show
whether skipping Christmas is a good thing or a bad thing. It instead shows other
messages that we can get from reading this book, that we can prepare everything
well but we can not avoid unpredictable hindrance or every people have his/ her
good side. We can see the last point when the Kranks’ neighbor at the end of the
story help the Kranks prepare for the sudden Christmas party.
With this research the researcher will go deeper in analyzing the
phenomena of Christmas consumerism presented in this novel by using socio-
cultural historical approach, so see the relation between the novel and the
civilization where the novel was produced. So the focus in this research is not on
whether or not the main characters success to skip Christmas or whether or not the
Skipping Christmas Plan is a good plan.
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B. Review of Related Theories
1. Theory of Character and Characterization
Character is one of the important elements to interpret or point out the
message of this book. Character brings many significances such as bring with
themselves the line story. To make the story is accepted by the readers, the author
must present character vividly; kind of characters, which represent or alike with
people in the real world.
Character is life-like. The first requirement for such a character is to have aplausible name and to say and do things that seem convincingly like thekinds of things people say and do in so called ‘real-life’ (Bennett andRoyle, 2009: 62).
It does not mean that a person in a work of literature is always exactly
someone that exists in the real life. It is because if we talk about fiction, character
is made to life in the work of literature and they are made like a real person, with
its multiple human identities. So to read a character is to imagine. Reading
character involves learning to acknowledge that a person can never finally be
singular (Bennett and Royle, 2009: 67).
“Character, as quoted from An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry and Drama,
is an imagined person who inhabits a story”. Character can be divided as flat or
round character.
Flat character has only one outstanding trait or feature, or at most a fewdistinguishing marks. In the other words, Flat character tends to stay thesame throughout a story (Kennedy and Gioia, 1998: 60-61).
Flat character is also known as static character. Flat character is usually a
minor character, as quoted from the same book, there is a reason why the flat
character is the minor character. It is because if the author try to “Rounding them
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would cost time and space; and so enlarged, they might only distract us from the
main characters”.
If a minor character is made as round character, that means the minor
character is given more than one identity, and the author need more space in
his/her work of literature to explain about this minor character that does not really
bring the line story with him/herself. Moreover, reader’s focus on the main
character will be driven away and it will confuse the reader with the point of view
of the story.
A round character is presented by its author with more trait or feature.
Some critics call this kind of character as dynamic character because this
character is multiple-dimensions character that has number of different qualities, it
is why round character is more complex than flat character.
Round character, however, present us with more facets—that is, its authorportray them in greater depth and in more generous detail. Round characteroften changes—learns or become enlightened, grows or deteriorates(Kennedy and Gioia, 1998: 60-61).
Round character usually gets more attention for the reader, for round
character usually is a main character in a story. An author gives more details on
his/ her round character. There are many ways for an author to present his/ her
character.
Characterization is also important to be discussed in order to get a good
understanding of a character, furthermore, readers can reveal the motif of
character and the message of the work of literature by analyzing character and its
characterization. Because there are some ways to present a character in a work of
literature - in this case we narrow the topic as fiction or a novel, here are some
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ways which used in characterizing a character which is described in
Understanding Unseen: an Introduction to English Poetry and English Novel for
Overseas Students
a. Personal description. For example the author can describe a person’sappearance and clothes.
b. Character as seen by another. Instead of describing a character directly theauthor can describe him/her through the eyes and opinion of another. Thereader gets, as it were, a reflected image.
c. Speech. The author can give us an insight into the character of one of thepersons in the book through what that people says. Whenever a personspeaks, whenever he/she is in a conversation with another, whenever he putsforward an opinion. He is giving us some clue to his character.
d. Past life. By letting the reader learn something about a person’s past life theauthor can give us a clue to events that have helped to shape a person’scharacter. This can be done in direct comment by the author, through theperson’s thoughts, through his conversation or through the medium of anotherperson.
e. Conversation of others. The author can also give us clues to a person’scharacter of the other person spoken about
f. Reactions. The author can also give us a clue to a person’s character byletting us know how the person reacts to various situations and events.
g. Direct comment. The author can describe or comment on a person’s characterdirectly.
h. Thoughts. The author can give us direct knowledge what a person is thinkingabout. In this respect he is able to do what we cannot do in real life. He cantell us what different people are thinking.
i. Mannerism. The authors can describe a person’s mannerisms, habits oridiosyncrasies which may also tell us something about his character (Murphy,1972:161-173).
2. Theory of Setting
This review will discuss the theory of setting in a literary work. All stories
or works of Literature have its particular setting. Setting that the researcher means
here is both setting of time and place. Setting is the intrinsic element of work of
literature which needs to be considered in revealing the purpose or the idea of a
work. An author set the setting with purpose behind it. Setting of a work of
literature is not made coincidentally. An author learns how to make setting has
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significances. The author often imitates or conveys the real place in the real world
to his/ her story’s world, in order to make it more natural, believable, or to critic
and conveys some values.
In Richard Gill’s Mastering English Literature, it is stated that a word
“setting” can be used to cover several ideas:
1. The place in which the characters appear2. The social context of characters, such as their families, friends, and
class3. The customs, beliefs, and rules of behavior that give identity to a
society4. The particular locations of events5. The atmosphere, mood, and feel that all the above elements create
(Gill, 1995: 148).
Setting as an element of literary work can not be separated from other
elements. It is intentionally presented by an author. It often works together with a
or some other(s) element to present an idea in a work. Setting is not only present
place but also the time and society where characters in a work appear. “These
have a great effect upon the personalities, actions, and the way of thinking of the
characters.” (Murphy, 1972: 141).
C. Review of Socio-Cultural Historical background
1. The History of Christmas and Christmas Tradition in the US
Christmas is from Christ mass or in Old English called Cristes Maesses.
This is the day when Christian celebrating Jesus Christ’ birthday, although people
are not sure the exact date when Jesus was born. In the Encyclopedia Americana it
is stated that Christmas is celebrated on 25 December or on 6 January. Christmas
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is celebrated on 6 January by small number of church in the world. The church is
called Armenian Church.
Armenians follow the old eastern custom of honoring Epiphany,commemorating in the west chiefly visit of the Magi to the infant Jesus,and in the east, Christ’s Baptism. In some parts of the United States thisdate has been celebrated as “old Christmas” or “Little Christmas”(Lorimer, 1995: 666).
Most of the churches in the world celebrate Christmas in 25 December by
the influence of Pagan culture that celebrated the “the birth of the Unconquered
Sun” which brings warmth and light.
In Rome, pagans celebrated three important mid-winter festivals:Saturnalia (December 17-23), the Calends (January 1st -5th, and precursorto the Twelve Nights of Christmas), and the Deus Sol Invictus or theBirthday of the Unconquered Sun (December 25)<http://www.randomhistory.com/2008/11/21_christmas.html> (20 March2010).
The custom from Pagan culture was also brought to Christmas culture that
is celebrated this day by dancing, singing, decorating and feasting. This Pagan
custom was also done during old Christmas celebration in Rome and Roman
brought to England the medieval Christmas culture and influenced some countries
such as The New world. Now Christmas becomes a holiday in over 160 countries
and it is a big holiday in Britain and United States. Many cultures were enriched
today Christmas festival. Now, we know Christmas carol, Christmas card, Santa
Claus, exchanging gifts which were had its own history and became parts of
Christmas customs.
In this part the researcher will provide some facts which are related to the
topic which will be discussed in this paper. We will see about social-cultural
sector of the society where the work was made and socio-cultural sector which is
14
described in the literary work. Both socio-culture where the work was made and
which represented in the work are the same, that is in the United States.
However, in the late 1990s in countries such as Britain and the United
States, there were industrial revolutions which replaced the agricultural era.
People produce stuffs and sold those stuffs and they worked harder and longer in
duration. Old gifts hand-made were replaced by toys from factories, and this was
recognized as the beginning of commercialization of Christmas which becomes
worsen today.
as societies changed from an agricultural based economy to an industrialeconomy, many people lost both the leisure time and the necessary rawmaterials to make homemade gifts, and by the 1920s, store bought giftsovershadowed homemade gifts. It would be easy to trace statistics to showhow commercialized Christmas has become since then<http://www.randomhistory.com/2008/11/21_christmas.html> (20 March2010).
At the first part, we already see slightly about Christmas history in general.
In this part, the researcher will try to give some information about Christmas ritual
especially in the United States. Let us first see a little bit about history of
Christmas in the United States.
Christmas tradition is not a tradition from native people of the US. It is a
culture from the immigrants who came to the New World with various reasons. It
is interesting to know that later the immigrants are the one who dominate this
country. It is important to know that the US native people are Americans Indian,
who nowadays become minority in size of the population.
People believe that Columbus, an Italian navigator, was the first person
who discovers the New World (America) in 1492 (Harlow and Miller, 1953: 19).
15
After this period, larger amount of people from Europe and next other contingent
come to the New World. European colonies come first and become powerful until
today.
They come with various reason and background. Some come as exiles,
some come as political hostages, some are forcedly come as slaves most of them
come from Africa, some come as missionaries and some other are the conqueror
act as the government of the colonies there. By knowing this fact, we can
understand that the US is formed by various kinds of people from different social,
educational, and regional background. That is why, if we aware, there are many
cultures in the US were imported by the immigrant and mixed well by them
although still western or European culture is dominant.
Most of people who helped make our history came from Europe. Theybrought with them the ideas, the customs, and the blood of westernEurope. The Indians, who here when Columbus discovered the NewWorld, have had small effect on our history (Harlow and Miller, 1953: 20).
Back to the focus, Christmas, the history told us that Christmas first was
introduced to the US by European colonies. By the influence of European
colonies, Christmas in the US is celebrated on 25 December. The first
introduction of Christmas and its tradition in the US happened in the 17th century.
From that time on, Christmas became more and more familiar for Americans with
changes here and there because of the influence of people who celebrate it.
Americans brought with them the various European attitudes towardChristmas. Generally, the members of the Church of England, the DutchReformed Church, Lutherans, and Roman Catholics celebrated the festival<http://www.randomhistory.com/2008/11/21_christmas.html> (20 March2010).
16
At this time separatist puritans, “who define as a group of people who
grew discontent in the Church of England and worked towards religious, moral
and societal reforms” <http://www.nd.edu/~rbarger/www7/puritans.html> (5 May
2010). They came from Britain, and brought with them their customs, including
their custom on Christmas. Puritans were not happy with the Christmas
celebration which was held as tradition in their home. So they do not celebrate
Christmas in their new home.
The pilgrims, English separatists that came to America in 1620, were evenmore orthodox in their Puritan beliefs than Cromwell. As a result,Christmas was not a holiday in early America<http://www.history.com/topics/christmas/page2> (3 April 2010).
But changes happened, after silent Christmas day in the beginning of
Christmas in the US, numbers of states begin to have Christmas celebration and
finally, after quite long period counted from the first introduction of Christmas in
the US, Christmas became federal holiday in 1870. From that year on, Christmas
was and is celebrated, workers is given a holiday.
After the American Revolution, English customs fell out of favor,including Christmas. In fact, Congress was in session on December 25,1789, the first Christmas under America’s new constitution. Christmaswasn’t declared a federal holiday until June 26, 1870<http://www.thehistoryofchristmas.com/ch/in_america.htm> (3 April2010).
People use Christmas season to gather with their relatives and friends; they
prepare foods, gifts and decorations. Americans have tradition to have dinner
party on Christmas Eve, the night before Christmas Day. In this dinner party, the
host usually invites some of their relatives and close friends to eat dinner together.
There will be many foods that are served by the host. The foods were not really
17
the same from one host to another host. The differences are caused by the multi-
cultural background of people in the US. But there are foods that were served by
the majority of Americans.
Turkey and ham are the two most popular meat entrees served in atraditional American Christmas dinner, though beef roasts and porktenderloin are also the centerpiece of many Christmas dinners. Commonside dishes including mashed or roast potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce,squash, yeast rolls and salads. Christmas dinner is often served withalcohol, mainly wine or champagne.Dessert items for an American Christmas dinner include Christmascookies like decorated sugar cookies and gingerbread men, pumpkin,pecan and apple pies, fruitcake and eggnog or hot chocolate to drink<http://www.ehow.com/about_4603941_christmas-dinner.html> (24 July2010).
Christmas is Christian festival to commemorate Jesus Christ birthday, as
rooted from its name Christ mass, but it is interesting to know that Christmas in
the US is also celebrated by people with other different faith, it seems that
Christmas in the US is festival for Americans not only for Christians.
Besides the strictly religious traditions, however, other common Christmaspractices are observed by people who are not religious or who are notChristian. In this way, some Christmas traditions have become Americantraditions <http://usa.usembassy.de/holidays-xmas.htm> (3 April 2010).
Today, Christmas becomes even the more and more popular event in the
US even more in the world wide. There are many traditions which are attached to
Christmas and Christmas in the US is influenced so much by other countries.
Although some of these things are not really originated from the US but these
Christmas instruments become popular instruments in the US, even some of
popular Christmas instruments in the world was originated in the US.
There are Christmas tree with colorful decoration and electric lights,
wrapped gifts and stocking under the Christmas tree or other Christmas plants like
18
mistletoe, Santa Claus with a red suit, big stomach, white hair and beard, Frosty,
Christmas foods like roasted turkey, candy, nut, pudding, pie, marshmallow,
fruitcakes, eggnog, and gift greeting cards. Some of the above examples were
brought by Englishmen in the early time they arrived in the New World. Some
others were brought by immigrants such as from, Germany and France. There are
also some popular Christmas instruments that were originated in the US like Santa
Claus.
Decoration with holly, hawthorn, and mistletoe and the sing of carols(especially by Waits) are all typically English. Santa Claus first waspopular un New York. Other American Invention are firecrackers andeggnog in the south. The Christmas tree was already a tradition in TheGerman Middle Ages, the light in the window, found widespread,probably came o America with the Irish (Bridgwater and Sherwood, 1950:388).
Christmas decorations are something that attached to Christmas
celebration. Christmas decorations make Christmas become bright and merry.
People who celebrate Christmas usually decorate their house before Christmas
day. “…and the more enthusiastic member of society start decking out their
houses and front gardens with a barrage of lights, glowing reindeer and giant
plastic Santas” <http://www.guardian.com.uk/uk/2001/des/18/christmas> (24 July
2010).
Santa Claus is not only part of Christmas decoration. Moreover, Santa
Claus is an imaginative figure from time to time becomes connected with
Christmas celebration.
Santa Claus’s generosity characteristic makes children love him. Children
think that Santa Claus is the one who gives them presents each year, although in
19
fact the presents are bought by their parents. For some people who do not have
sympathy for this imaginative figure see that “Santa Claus is a symbol of the
commercialization and consumerism that has seized the Christmas holiday in the
west”
<http://www.cbn.com/spirituallife/chruchandministry/nonBuseck_Saint_Nicholas
_Santa.aspx> (24 July 2010).
Christmas season is a very special event for American. There are opinions
that said “Christmas is as American as mom’s apple pie and the Fourth of July”
<www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,177322,00.htm> (24 July 2010). The tradition
of celebrating Christmas is can be said as part of American life, as Americans are
very common with apple pie and Independence Day.
2. Christmas Consumerism in the late 1990s in the US
Consumerism is one of hot topics to be discussed when we want to talk
about the aspects of Americans life. Consumerism in fact is not a new issue, we
can see it begun at the 19th century before and became more rapid after the
industrial revolution. People started to produce commodity in a large amount with
the lower price, producers focus in taking profit as many as possible. Workers
work hard, they also tried to get more wage by working overtime.
During this time the interest of consumers right arisen. This is the time
when consumerism, as the first definition which stated in Chapter I, arisen. At that
time, consumerism was a term of the promotion of customer interest, right, and
protection even until today this definition is still used as business and economic
term.
20
As stated before, the term consumerism had arisen through long time ago,
it is hard to see the very start point when the exact time this social phenomenon
was appeared. Since the term consumerism is used for more than one definition.
The definition of consumerism can be refer to, as the researcher quote from
Encyclopedia Americana, “the increased consumer protection which means to
safeguarding the buying public from dangerous and inferior goods and services
and from fraudulent and other unfair selling practices” (Lorimer, 1995, 683). It
begun around the American industrial revolution in 1920’s happened .
It was stated in the same book that, before this movement, the assumption
is consumers know what they want. They must aware by themselves. But after
this movement, consumers are very protected and fondled. Government and non
government movement at that time begin to make an effort which concern about
consumer’s problems. These institutions manage the standard of goods quality
and safety. They also try to protect consumers from fraudulent advertising. They
manage to create an obligation for producers to give the list of ingredients of their
goods (foods and drugs).
The result of consumerism movement can be enjoyed by people until
today. That is why now we get guarantee and warranty when buying goods; we
also find the list of ingredient in the package of foods, cosmetics, and drugs we
buy. We also know about organization which concern about consumers such as,
Food and Drug Administration (FDA), The General Services Administration
(GSA), Federal Trade Commission (FTC) (Lorimer, 1995: 683). These
organizations were founded to help consumers to get enough information about
21
goods in the market. The consumers can also ask some helps from these kinds of
organizations to complain about the product they buy. These organizations had
emerged as the result of consumerism.
But the focus of this paper is not consumerism at the above sense.
Consumerism in the previous explanation creates a new pace of its meaning.
While the focus of economist at that time was to protect consumers, consumers
drown into enjoyable consumption activities which later urge the study of
Consumer Behavior and then the new concern of consumerism.
Consumerism will be defined as a social phenomenon. It was related to
excessive consumers’ consumption behavior, which was affected by their
increased affluence, prosperity and security position.
Their increased purchasing power has given them the opportunity toembroider upon basic needs with a sense of individual taste and creativity,as they search for a style of life rather than for security (Sills, 1972:349).
In this pace consumers became powerful, not like in the previous pace
when producers seem the one who hold the control. Today consumer in the pace
when they are very free to choose what they want to buy, to even can choose what
brand which can create their self image, they have many choices of goods. Now
consumers buy goods not only for their basic daily needs but consumers also
spend their money to fulfill their self-satisfaction in their lifestyle. They even
spend their money for their lifestyle than for their basic daily needs.
This consumer behavior can be seen as a good sign, there is an increasing
standard of living which means that more people are capable to fulfill their needs.
22
But the tendency of over consuming also make expert, like expert in social
science become worry about it.
Consumerism becomes a part of Americans life. It is practiced by almost
all the citizens in the US. When we look back to the late 1990s, The US at that
time enjoys its top position in multi aspects in the world. Some people call the
twentieth century as American Century to describe how powerful and wealthy the
people of America during this period are
<http://www.historycentral.com/20thCent.html> (22 July 2010).
During the late 1990s until today consumerism increase largely, even
some people says that consumerism is American sports because it is so common
in the US it become one of Americans identity. American children are trained to
consume much. As they become adult, they worked hard to get what they want,
people are defined solely by what they buy and what they own <http://www.truth-
it.net/consumerism_effects.html> (22 July 2010).
Consumerism even becomes un-separated part in Christmas. Consumerism
disgraces the religious value of Christmas. It is seen by many Christmas
ornaments that are sold in market. From www.huppi.com, facts of Christmas
consumerism are clearly described. Americans spent more then $2 billion on
Christmas ornaments, artificial Christmas tree, toys, lights, and lamps that is
imported from China. It is not included Christmas stuff which is produced in the
US itself <http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/NoChristmas.html> (24 July 2010).
For the purchasing present, a single American will spent hundred of billion
dollars during Christmas. “In 1998, Americans will spend between $160 billion to
23
$ 200 billion presents” <http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/NoChristmas.html> (24
July 2010). If the quotation above shows American expenses as the whole
population, there are other data collected by Gallup Poll show how much the
average American spent for Christmas gift. “Gallup in 1999 reports that average
of American will spent $ 857 on Christmas gift only”
<http://www.allbusiness.com/retail-trade/4297781-1.html> (24 July 2010).
Americans’ expenses during Christmas season do not stop only for gifts
and ornaments. There is still a long list of expenses that Americans spend during
Christmas season. It is really beneficial for the producers and the sellers of
Christmas stuff. Let us take a look at greeting cards publisher. This is one of
industries that related closely to Christmas and get soar benefit during Christmas
season. According to the Greeting Card Association (GSA), approximately 3,000
greeting card publishers exist in The US
<www.integrainformation.com/forbes/overview01.htm> (23 July 2010).
These publishers get their highest profit during Christmas season. For just
one Christmas, these publishers turnover will reach 2.28 billion dollars.
About half of all greeting card sales were seasonal in nature, whileeveryday cards accounted for the other half. Within the seasonal category,Christmas cards accounted for 2.28 billion (61 percent) of sales<www.referenceforbussiness.com/industries/Printing-Publishing-Allied/Greetiing-Cards.html> (22 July 2010).
The industries which get high profit during Christmas like greeting cards
industries, toys industries, foods industries, and textile industries develop well in
the US especially in the modern US because of the culture of Americans. Like
Charles Gordon, writer of Maclean’s magazine comment about American society,
24
“We live in a souvenir society, a world in which everything we do, everywhere
we go, has to be commemorated
<http://www.sbdcnet.org/Snapshot/GreetingcardgiftshopSnapshot.pdf> (24 July
2010).
Christmas in the US is full of consumerism activities. Almost all
Americans do during Christmas are related with spent money which is proved by
the data of Americans expenses during Christmas above. Moreover, Americans
have what they called as Black Friday. Black Friday is acknowledged by
Americans as a sign to begin their shopping activities.
With Christmas shopping vitally important to some retailers, Christmashas extended into a “season” of its own. The day after Thanksgiving (thefourth Thursday in November) is now known as “Black Friday.” Animportant shopping day, it pushes some businesses into profitability, or “inthe black,” and can account for a substantial proportion of annual profits<http://www.america.gov/st/poepleplace-english/2008/Desember/20061226154528abretnuh0.7518579.html> (25July 2010).
Not only do Americans waste so many dollars in Christmas, but
Americans also exploit natural resources so much because they use real tree as
their Christmas tree. As it was quoted from huppi.com:
In 1997, Americans cut down 33 millons real trees to put up in theirhomes, enough to cover the state of Rhode Island. In doing so, they spentsomewhere between $600 million to $1.1 billion. Each acre of growingChristmas trees provides the daily oxygen requirements of 18 people<http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/NoChristmas.html> (22 July 2010).
Another environmental issue on Christmas consumerism is about the waste
that is produced during Christmas season. Around million ton of wastes from
Christmas cards, ribbons, gift wrappers, foods are produced during Christmas.
25
The quotation below describes the waste of foods and Christmas cards which are
produced during Christmas season.
At least 28 million pounds of edible food are wasted each year—or over100 pounds per person. The 2.65 billion Christmas cards sold each year inthe US could fill a football field 10 stories high. If we each sent one cardless we’ve save 50,000 cubic yards of paper<http://www.recycleworks.org/resident/holiday_facts.html> (23 July2010).
Americans specifically Christians have been contaminated with the spirit
of consumerism, it is more ironic because they practice consumerism activities
largely on the day which is dedicated to commemorate Christ’s birthday, the day
which should be celebrated in religious way. Christmas day activities seem more
far away from the Christianity and full of secular activities.
The consumer culture exercises a formative influence on a wide range ofAmerican holidays and celebrations, but peculiar ironies of thiscommercial puissance are never more poignant that during the season ofJesus’ Advent <http://www.crosscurrents.org/schmidt.htm> (23July 2010).
After a long period of big consumerism, there are reactions from some
Americans, they start to think critically about what they do and the impact of what
they do. People are moved to be anti-consumerism activist and establish anti-
consumerism organization and campaign.
There are also individuals who prefer not to celebrate Christmas. These
individuals do not join with a particular anti-consumerism organization. They do
not celebrate Christmas for their personal critically reason, like what Charles
Halff, the Director of Christian Jew Foundation, says about his reason to do not
celebrate Christmas:
The most important part of Christmas for most people is buying andexchanging gifts. I don’t celebrate Christmas because exchanging gifts has
26
nothing to do with Christ’s birthday<http://www.eaec.org/bibleanswers/christmas/christians_and_Christmas.htm> (24 July 2010).
An anti-consumerism movement tries to compete the current of the
consumerism activity. But unfortunately, the anti-consumerism movement is not
strong enough to defeat the consumerism activity which becomes part of
American life for decades. Producers are just too tricky to be defeated by anti
consumerism activist. People start to buy home made and cheaper product but
they are still trapped in consuming activity.
In the late 90’s consumerism effects led a lot of people to choose to live asimpler lifestyle and choose to buy fewer products and spend their moneymore carefully. Ironically this led to an entirely new type of consumerismthat focused on the purchasing of products that identified the purchasers asmembers of the group that rejected the excesses of earlier decades. Thisconsumer movement focused on buying handmade products from smallbusinesses for cheaper prices instead of purchasing mass producedproducts from large corporations <http://www.truth-it.net/consumerism_effects.html> (22 July 2010).
D. Theoretical Framework
The aim of this thesis is to find the reflection of Christmas consumerism
from the main characters’ characterization and the setting. To analyze the
characterization of the main characters and the setting in the novel the researcher
uses the theory of character and characterization and theory of setting.
The researcher also collects some reviews on Christmas Consumerism in
the late 1990s in the US to find out what really happen in reality during that
period. After getting the characterization of the main characters and the setting of
the novel, the researcher compares the result of the analysis on the main
27
character’s characterization and the setting with the reviews about Christmas
Consumerism in the 1990s in the US.
With this comparison the researcher will find out whether the issue in the
novel reflects the issue in the reality. Since the researcher tries to find the
reflection of reality in the novel, so the researcher uses socio-cultural historical
approach in examining this novel.
28
CHAPTER III
METHODOLOGY
A. Object of the Study
The object of this undergraduate thesis is a book from, a well-known
American author, John Grisham entitled Skipping Christmas. This book contains
177 pages which are divided into 20 chapters. It is published by Doubleday, a
division of Random House, Inc. in New York. The first edition was published in
November 2001, with three kind of print, the hardcover (ISBN 0-385-50841-7),
the large print (0-375-43162-4), and the limited edition (0-385-50624-4). Skipping
Christmas is a fictional comedy novel that was already translated into 27
languages and become one of Grisham’s bestseller books. This book was also
adapted into a film entitled Christmas with Krank.
Skipping Christmas as represented from the title is a novel about
Christmas. The story is about two main characters Luther and Nora Krank who
was just leave by their daughter to work as a volunteer in Peru. Then they decided
to skip the Christmas celebration with some reasons. They prepare Christmas this
year, like no one they know do it. They plan to have a cruise to Caribbean. Just to
enjoy the Christmas together.
But this plan is not as easy and fun as they think. They must face many
problems and the last big and unpredicted problems when their daughter give a
phone call that she and her new boyfriend will back home less then 24 hours.
29
They must prepare a one-month Christmas preparation just in less than 24 hours.
It’s a funny and a bit chaos but Grisham still gives a happy ending for this novel.
B. Approach of the Study
In this study, the researcher use socio-cultural historical approach to show
that this book is a representation of the real world. As stated in the title of this
study, the researcher want to see the Christmas consumerism tendency which is
especially happened in the United States, so here the researcher will see the
relation between socio-cultural historical background and the work, especially the
intrinsic elements of the work.
Socio-cultural historical approach is a kind of approach which is used not
only to examine literary work but it is also used in other field like in psychology
study. Basically this approach examine a work, event or people by relate it with
the social and cultural history when the work, event, or people when and where
those exist. “Socio-cultural historical approach is an approach that places a work
in relation with the civilization that produce it” (Rohrberger and Woods, 1971:
9)
In this paper the researcher uses socio-cultural historical approach to
analyze John Grisham’s Skipping Christmas because the researcher wants to
figure out the relation between the story with the real event, era, place and the
habits of people at the time this book was made. We will see the place, situation,
society where and the time when the work was made, gave influence the content
of the work or not.
30
C. Method of the Study
In analyzing the work, the researcher do a library research by collecting
data from source like book, dissertation, thesis, journal, etc whether in written or
online version. The primary source which is used by the researcher is a novel by
John Grisham entitled Skipping Christmas.
The researcher also uses some other sources in making the analysis. The
researcher use Reading and Writing about Literature from Mary Rohrberger,
International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences from David L. Sills and Samuel
H. woods, Mastering English Literature from Richard Gill, and some other online
sources like www.jgrisham.com, www.usa.usembassy.de, www.america.gov,
www.mindfully.org, www.nd.edu, and www.guardian.com to get the fact related
to the socio-cultural historical background of the work.
The researcher did some steps to come up with the thesis. For the first
step, the researcher did a deep reading towards the main source to get good
understanding of the work, especially the intrinsic elements, then the researcher
decided the topic for the analysis and then for the next step the researcher tried to
find source related with the work of literature and also with the topic of the
undergraduate thesis. It was also needed to make the undergraduate thesis reliable
by put quotations from other experts and believable source. The last step was the
researcher started with writing the analysis and drawn the conclusion from the
data which were got from library research and the researcher understanding and
stand point towards the work and sources.
31
CHAPTER IV
ANALYSIS
In this chapter, the researcher will answer the question formulated in
problem formulation in the Chapter I. There are 3 questions in the problem
formulation, so there will be 3 parts in this chapter. The first part will answer the
first question about the main characters’ characterization, the second part will
answer the second question about the setting of Skipping Christmas, and the last
part will answer the last question about the reflection of Christmas consumerism
from the characterization and the setting.
A. The Main Characters’ Characterization
A character functioned as one of the important tools for an author to
present a story. A character is the agent which is created to help an author present
a story which was just in his/her mind to be written as a novel that made sense for
the readers. A character had to be believable for the reader, so an author attached
the characters with one or more characteristics, just like real people, as their
necessity to bring the story out. “Character is an imagined person who inhabits a
story” (Kennedy and Gioia, 1998: 60). As also stated by Kennedy and Gioia, the
main character was usually round character that had more than single facet, often
changes, grows or deteriorates at the end of the story.
To discuss characterizations, the researcher used the characterization
theory from Understanding Unseen: an Introduction to English Poetry and
English Novel for oversees Students. In this book, characterization of a character
32
would be presented by the author by using 9 ways, those were personal
description, characters as seen by another, speech, past life, conversation of
others, reaction, direct comment, thought, and mannerism (Murphy, 1972: 161-
173).
1. Luther’s Characterization
The researcher came to the conclusion after reading the Skipping
Christmas that Luther and Nora were the main characters by considering them as
round characters. As stated before round character usually were given more detail
traits and often changed, learns or become enlightened, grows or deteriorates
(Kennedy and Gioia, 1998: 60-61).
Round character was usually the main character. As the main characters,
Luther and Nora had more that one traits and Grisham give more attention or
focus on these two characters in this novel. As the round character with more
complexity then flat one, the researcher will present some of Luther and Nora
characteristics in the explanation bellow.
Luther was one of the main characters of Skipping Christmas, with whom
Grisham told the line of story to the readers. Luther and also another main
character in Skipping Christmas were the center in this novel. From the
appearance, Luther was characterized as middle aged married man. He was quite
fat man. He worked in an accountant consultant firm and he was quite successful
and respected.
a. Realistic
33
Luther was one of the main characters in this work. One of his
characteristics was he was a realistic person. Luther was said to be realistic by the
researcher because he acted and thought in sensible and also practical way. As we
saw at the very beginning of this book the proof that Luther was a realistic person.
Luther was characterized as a father of one single daughter, Blair who was
freshly graduated from collage and decided to be a volunteer for teaching children
in a remote area at eastern Peru. As a father he also felt uneasy with his daughter
leaving but he was not really disturbed with it, if we compared it to his wife, Nora
who was very afraid to let her daughter went. ““I guess we’d better go,” Luther
said to his daughter, his only child” (Grisham, 2001: 3).
This statement was made by Luther the last minute before his daughter’s
plane departed, this statement showed how Luther was very realistic. He could do
nothing other than letting his daughter do what she wanted to do. He thought
practically and at the same time sensitively that it was just waste time if he tried to
dramatize his daughter leaving. It would make the daughter missed the plane and
it would screw her daughter plan. He understood her daughter was mature enough
and it was time for her to do what Blair wanted to do. In fact what Blair did was
really a good job.
When they were moving toward the city, Nora finally spoke. “Will she beokay?” she asked. He had heard that question so often that his responsewas an automatic grunt.“Sure.” Whether he did or he didn’t, what did it matter at this point? Shewas gone; they could not stop her.(Grisham, 2001: 4)
Again, the above quotation showed that Luther was realistic. While Nora
was very sad and anxious, Luther believed that his daughter would be fine. At
34
least, he believed, The Peace Corps, social organization, where Blair went to work
would not put the volunteer in danger. The Peace Corps had sent numbers of
volunteers for many years and he never heard anything bad happened to The
Peace Corps volunteers. He did not think, or at least did not want to think too
much about it. It seemed Luther thought one year was not very long time.
Another scene showed Luther’s realistic characteristic was when he had to
buy foods, which actually was Nora’s request. He did not like to do it, but he also
could not let Nora buy herself in that rainy day. He forced himself to go in an
expensive store where people were jostled at. He was not someone who loved
spending money, and in fact he was the one who worked for his family. “What a
waste, Luther thought to himself. Why do we eat so much and drink so much in
the celebration of the birth of Christ?” (Grisham, 2001: 7). Luther’s statement
again showed that he was a realistic person. Since Christmas Day was a religious
day to commemorate Jesus Christ birthday, Luther finds no connection between
people’s custom to eat so many foods on Christmas day and Jesus Christ’s
teaching.
In another scene, Luther, again, showed his realistic characterization. It
was when two police officers, Treen and Salino, came to his house every year few
days before Christmas day. They came to offer next year calendar, and the income
of the selling would be used for Christmas celebration with crippled children.
Luther with no hesitation rejected to buy the calendar that surprised the
two police officers. The researcher called it as Luther realistic. Here was the
quotation the previous explanation.
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“I have two calendars in my office and two on my desk,” Luther said. “Wehave one by the phone in the kitchen. My watch tells me precisely whatday it is, as does my computer. Haven’t missed a day in years”“We are raising money for crippled children, Mr. Krank,” Salino said, hisvoice suddenly soft and scratchy.We give to crippled children, Officer,” Luther shot back. “Through theUnited Way and our church and our taxes we give to needy group you canpossibly name.” (Grisham, 2001: 61-62)
Luther did it because he thought that there are many other ways he and his
family to donate for crippled children, and he actually did not really believe the
officers. As he was a realistic person, he was not really sure that the donation he
gave would be used properly, as implied from his thought: “Oddly, there was no
price attached to the calendars, at least not to the ones delivered personally by the
likes of Salino and Treen.” (Grisham, 2001: 61). He said very realistically that he
did not need a calendar. He had a phone to see what day was that day, and he
would not miss even one day although he did not have any calendar.
In the other scene, Luther with no hesitation rejected the fruitcakes which
were offered by firemen, Kistler and Kendall as they always do before Christmas
day. Luther listened to Kistler and Kendall who tried to sell the fruitcakes, but
unexpectedly, Luther just said that he would not buy any this year. In fact, last
year he bought five, three of which were given to his partner in the office and the
rest were given by Nora to her hairdressers.
It showed that last year he bought it just to respect the firemen and this
year he did not want to do it, there was different attitude from last years. He
shocked the firemen with strict rejection. His short “no” answer indicated
courteous answer, but it was because he really did not need any fruitcakes.
Considering the fact about the last year fruitcakes, Luther and Nora did not eat the
36
fruitcakes they bought so it just wasted their money. There was no reason to do
the same false purchasing this Christmas.
“No,” Luther finally said. I’ll pass this year”“Say what?”“I don’t want any fruitcakes this year.”“Is five too many?”Kistler asked.“One is too many,” Luther replied, then slowly folded his arms across hischest.“None?” Kendall asked in disbelief.“Zero,” Luther said.(Grisham, 2001: 77)
Luther got the same gaze like what he got when he just had to reject to buy
calendar and fruitcakes from police officers and firemen. It happened again when
Luther rejected to buy Christmas tree in order to keep his plan to skip Christmas
remained on the track. Luther and Nora planned to do not celebrate Christmas and
it meant that the Krank did not need any Christmas tree. Luther was shown as a
realistic person. He thought and acted practically by rejecting to buy what he and
his wife did not need. Although people saw him and his wife as weird couple, he
kept with his plan and reminded himself that:
More encounters were coming, no doubt, and that was one of the veryreasons Luther disliked Christmas. Everybody selling something, raisingmoney, looking for a tip, a bonus, something, something, something. Hegrew indignant again and felt fine (Grisham, 2001: 29).
In another scene, Luther was being questioned by his boss but rather
suitable to be called as his partner, Stanley Wiley about his Skipping Christmas
plan. The rumor of Luther and Nora’s plan to skip Christmas was spread
everywhere and in one occasion Stanley asked Luther what the reason was, he
explained it briefly and gave a question back to Stanley “It does come every year,
doesn’t it?” so Stanley only could answer this question with ”It does indeed”
37
(Grisham, 2001: 80). In this scene Luther stated something logical and realistic
but at the same time he also showed his nonchalant reaction about Christmas,
because it was clearly described that he did not like the ritual and the whole messy
things he had to deal with in every Christmas season.
b. Thrifty
One of the reasons why Luther planned to skip Christmas was because he
was a thrifty person. As an economist, specifically as an accountant, he was aware
and careful in spending his money. It was reasonable that he was an economical
person. He noticed how ‘crazy’ he and his family spent money for the previous
Christmas Day. For every single little things that they bought to celebrate the birth
of Christ, that was quite in glamorous way.
It was not because he did not believe on his religion or about Christmas as
the commemoration of the birth of Jesus Christ, but in his opinion it, was not wise
to spend money for something which was not really important and would be
forgotten only in days or week after Christmas. He was very detail in thinking
about financial stuff and he even took note about their expenses, in very detail and
well-managed long list as quoted bellow:
A year earlier, the Luther Krank family had spent $6,100 on Christmas--$6,100!-- $6,100 on decorations, lights, flowers, a new Frosty, and aCanadian spruce; $6,100 on hams, turkeys, pecans, cheese balls, andcookies no one ate; $6,100 on wines and liquors and cigars around theoffice; $6,100 on fruitcakes from the firemen and the rescue squad, andcalendars from the police association; $6,100 on Luther for a cashmeresweater he secretly loathed and a sports jacket he’d worn twice and anostrich skin wallet that was quite expensive and quite ugly and frankly hedidn’t like the feel of. On Nora for a dress she wore to the company’sChristmas dinner and her own cashmere sweater, which had not been seensince she unwrapped it, and a designer scarf she loved, $6100. On Blair
38
$6,100 for an overcoat, gloves and boots, and a Walkman for her jogging,and, of course the latest, slimmest cell phone on market-- $6,100 on lessergifts for a select handful of distant relatives, most on Nora’s side -- $6,100on Christmas cards from a stationer three doors down from Chip’s, in theDistrict, where all prices were double; $6,100for the party, an annualChristmas Eve bash at the Krank home (Grisham, 2001: 13-14).
With this long list we could have clear description about what the Kranks
family did and spent for the previous Christmas celebration. With this very detail
list we found that Luther was a thrifty person who was just very careless last year
and he did not want to use money unwisely again this year. That was the reason
why he wanted to skip Christmas. It indicated that he aware that they was over
consumptive and he was disturbed by it. So for only this year, he wanted to save
his money, skip the whole mess situation during Christmas season and used his
money for more exciting activities for him and his wife, like having a Caribbean
Cruise just for both of them.
This characteristic was also found in several other scenes, like when
Luther grumbled in his head when he might buy Nora’s list of food in a notorious
expensive store and still very crowded especially during Christmas season.
“Chip’s, a place he despised not only for its outrageous prices and snooty staff but
also for its impossible location” (Grisham, 2001: 5). Even he automatically
thought about phone call bill when Blair who just reached her plane, gave a call to
Nora. “Exactly how much does it cost to phone home from thirty thousand feet?
Luther wondered” (Grisham, 2001: 9). It was shown his thrifty characteristic
because he could think about the telephone cost while her daughter would go far
away and his wife was crying for that.
39
Another proof that was showed in this novel that Luther was a thrifty
person was when Luther and Nora, had to cancel all their plan to skip Christmas
and had to prepare very last minute party after their daughter called from Miami
airport and surprised Luther and Nora that she would be at home for Christmas.
Luther was very proud that he and his wife would skip Christmas. This year, they
would only spend their money only for what they needed and what would make
them happy together. But unfortunately he failed to keep his plan on track. He had
to celebrate Christmas as he and his family always did. His brain started to count
the extra expenses they had to spend because of one phone call and he could not
do anything to stop it.
There were four bags of foods from the store Luther’d never heard of,three shopping bags with handles from a clothing store in the mall, a caseof soft drinks, a case of bottle water, and a bouquet of dreadful flowersfrom a florist known of his outrageous prices. Luther’s accountant’s brainwanted to tally up the damage, but he thought better of it.How would he explain this around the office? All the money he’d save upnow in smoke. Plus, the cruise he didn’t take getting wasted because he’ddeclined to purchase travel insurance. Luther was in the middle of afinancial disaster and couldn’t do a thing to stop the bleeding (Grisham,2001: 133).
c. Impatient
Luther was characterized as a quite impatient person. Fortunately, he had
good self control. He did not like to be in the middle of a crowd. But around the
Christmas time, this situation could not be avoided. His temperament went up and
down and it happened every year during Christmas time. Although he never lost
control and got angry by spoken it up, he often cursed silently when he
conditioned to be in the situation he did not like. There were some scenes that
narrate this characterization, as we saw some of the scene began with the first
40
scene. We could find several occasions when Luther became angry or fed up and
curse on the situation, although he did it silently and successfully control his anger
and his mood.
In the very first part of this book, when Luther saw his daughter off in the
airport, he was situated in the middle of crowded airport on holiday season several
days after Thanksgiving. People were busy with the preparation of their departure;
some were pretended not being disturbed by the noise by reading book. Some just
rushed to get their plane and this just made Luther sick. He was not in a good
mood, because he was there to see her daughter off to a very far place and it got
his mood worse because of the crowded situation in the airport.
Luther, her father, studied the mob with a scowl on his face. Whatmadness, he said to him self… he was sad that Blair was leaving, and hedetested the swarming horde of people. He was in a foul mood. Thingswould get worse for Luther (Grisham, 2001: 3).
From the above quotation, it could be seen clearly that Luther very
annoyed by the crown. Although the crown did nothing to Luther, he felt very
annoyed by their existence. He could not focus on what happen to their family.
His attention was grabbed by the crowded situation that he did not like. He
grumbled and blamed those people such they were guilty for being there and
annoyed him. But the good side was he could control his emotion and grumbled
silently.
A moment after he left the airport, Luther showed his impatient
characteristic again. Unexpectedly Nora said that she needed to go to a grocery in
the middle of winter rainy day, besides, many shops were closed. Nora insisted to
come to a grocery and ask Luther headed to Chip, a grocery which was believed
41
in its high prices and modest rent. Luther was just a thrifty person so he did not
like to shop in Chip’s but he thought it would be useless to debate with Nora
about it.
He grudged while walking into the shop he hated because of its expensive
price and its crowded place especially during Christmas time, though he could not
let his wife shopped by herself because it was raining and freezing. Badly he
could not find the chocolate that Nora asked, Nora who was in a bad mood
because of Blair’s departure easily got mad, she got out from the car and bought it
by herself. It made Luther also fed up and maundering while Nora walked away
from the car.
”You forgot about the white chocolate?” Nora asked, fully recovered.“No. I didn’t forget it. They didn’t have any”She yanked the door handle with all the frustration she could muster. “Ihave to have it. Thanks for nothing.” And she was gone.I hope you step in frozen water, Luther grumbled to himself (Grisham,2001: 9).
Luther got mad too when Nora did not appreciate his effort to help her to
buy what she wanted. He knew that Nora was sad about Blair’s leaving, but what
Nora just did to him made him upset too. He hoped that Nora stepped in frozen
water so she would learn to appreciate his effort more. The positive thing was he
did not curse and did not leave her in that condition.
More proof provided in the novel that he was not a patient person was he
hated being trap in the middle of traffic jam while hurried to shop for so many
things. He was sick of the fact that people raced to buy plenty foods and
beverages for Christmas party and gifts or Christmas cards that would be
forgotten awhile after Christmas was passed. It was why Luther missed and tried
42
to skip Christmas and did something outside the tradition and planned to skip
Christmas although at the end of the story Luther and his wife, Nora, failed to
realize their Skipping Christmas plan.
How nice it would be to avoid Christmas, he began to think. A snap of thefingers and it’s January 2. No tree, no shopping, no meaningless gifts, notipping, no clutter and wrappings, no traffic, and no crowds, no fruitcakes,no liquor and hams that no one needed, no “Rudolph” and “Frosty,” nooffice party, no wasted money (Grisham, 2001: 10).
Another proof of this characterization could be seen when Luther react
very emotionally about the note from his influential neighbor, Vic Frohmeyer. Vic
gave a note to remind his whole neighbors on Hemlock Street to bring their plastic
Frosty on the top of their roof as they always did every Christmas. It was a
tradition on the Hemlock Street for several past years. But Luther had different
plan for Christmas this year, he wanted to just skip Christmas and its chaotic
stuffs including put the seven feet tall Frosty up on his roof. He did not want to be
commanded about what he should do during Christmas.
“No, I do not,” he said very firmly, his temper rising with each word.”Icertainly do not. I will not be told by Vic Frohmeyer that I have todecorate my house for Christmas…and no one even Vic Frohmeyer, canstop us.” Louder. “I will not be forced into doing this!”(Grisham, 2001: 40).
The effect of Luther’s and Nora’s decision to just simply skip Christmas
quite fussed their days. Luther got mad when people crowded in front of the
Kranks’ house and caroled, and there was a reporter among the carolers who were
called by the Krank’s neighbors to sing in front of the Kranks’ house. The reporter
was curious to know everything about the Krank’s skipping Christmas reason and
Luther could not hide his madness as it was describe in the novel, ““I’m not
43
talking,” he said and slammed the door”(Grisham, 2001: 85). Luther was able to
call a police for what his neighbors did to him in front of his property, his anger
was reasonable and it was good because he did not lose his self control and said
something rude the neighbors and reporter.
On the next day, Luther found his house picture in Gazette, the local
newspaper, with text narrated the picture and also the neighbors’ comments which
were sounded like judging the Kranks. What Luther could do was only kept his
temper down and assured himself that everything would be passed soon.
“I hope they’re satisfied now,” complained one unidentified neighbor. “Arotten display of selfishness,” said another.If Luther had a machine gun, he would’ve bolted outside and commencedspraying houses.Instead he sat for a long time with a knot in his stomach and tried toconvince himself that this too would pass (Grisham, 2001: 91).
Once more Luther emotion was tested. Luther just walked to get fresh air
around his neighborhood. He did not want to be restrained by what his neighbors
did to his family. Luther met Spike Frohmeyer, the eldest son of Vic Frohmeyer,
the unelected boss of Hemlock. Just like his father and also other neighbors, Spike
questioned and tried to make Luther to put his Frosty up on their roof. Luther was
really did not think they could force him to do what he did not want to do.
Moreover, Spike was only a kid and he tried to put Luther into corner. It was good
for Luther that he had quite good self control so he did not yelled at Spike, in the
contrary Luther tried to be patient and wise to respond Spike skeptical attitude.
“No, I’m not, Spike. We’re leaving town this year, no Christmas for us.”“I didn’t know you could do that.”“This is a free country, Spike, you can do almost anything you want.”“You’re not leaving till Christmas Day,” Spike said“What?”
44
“Noon’s what I heard. You got plenty of time to get Frosty up. That waywe can win the award again.”“Luther paused for a second and once more marveled at the speed withwhich one person’s private business could be so thoroughly kicked aroundthe neighborhood.“Winning is overrated, Spike,” he said wisely. “Let an other street have theaward this year” (Grisham, 2001: 47-48).
2. Nora’s Characterization
a. Sensitive
Nora was characterized as a middle aged mother, she was Luther’s wife.
Nora was characterized as quite sensitive women. Sensitive in this part would be
cover two different meanings. The first meaning showed Nora was a person that
could be easily offended, hurt or upset by things that people said and the second
meaning implied that Nora was a person who could understand other’s feeling and
problem. The meanings of sensitive which were used by the researcher were the
definition from Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (Gadsby, 1995:
1640).
In the first meaning it showed Nora as quite self-centered person. She
thought too much about herself and if other people talked something bad about
her, it would make her very hurt. As we saw the proofs from the novel that
showed Nora was a sensitive person that could easily be offended.
Nora sensitiveness could be seen also when she was offered by Luther to
skip Christmas. She did not enthusiast hear Luther explain and persuade Nora to
skip Christmas and took a week Caribbean cruise from Christmas day till new
year. Luther said they would settle on the Island Princess, a spanking-new
mammoth vessel with rooms for three thousand, for pools, three casinos, nonstop
45
food, eight stops in the Caribbean…” (Grisham, 2001: 16). Although Nora was
interested with the Caribbean cruise but she only said “sound awful” (Grisham,
2001: 19) after she heard what Luther plan for their Christmas this year.
There were many things in her mind why she did not agree with Luther’s
plan at the first time. Beside personally Nora loved Christmas and all the activities
during Christmas such as, buying gifts and decorating Christmas tree, another
reason she doubted to accept Luther’s plan was Nora was afraid of what people
would think or say about their decision. She knew it would be hard for her if her
surroundings talked bad about her so she did not agree with Luther at the first
time Luther over his plan.
And no Frosty on the roof? When every house on the street would haveone? Which brought up the issue of public ridicule. Wouldn’t they bescorned for ignoring Christmas? (Grisham, 2001: 20).
Nora changed her mined after Luther tried to persuade and explain more
about his plan. They would have a good time and free from stresses they always
got during Christmas season. Nora now accepted Luther’s plan to skip Christmas,
with one condition, they did not skip to give donation. Here in this condition,
Nora seemed easily changed her mind. It did not need a day to change her mind to
accept her husband’s plan.
Nora had seldom seen him so determined. He methodically killed all herarguments, one by one, until nothing was left but their charitablegiving…and finally Luther said, ”All right. Let’s match last year’scharitable gifts, but not a penny more” (Grisham, 2001: 20-21).
A few days after she and her husband decided to skip Christmas, her
surrounding started to question and even some judged her and his husband for
their plan. She tried to defend her self when her friends questioned her and her
46
husband’s decision to just skip Christmas. She felt so disturbed and offended by
the reaction from some of her friends who tried to tease her that she and her
husband just tried to safe money. She was almost defeated by the condition but
she tried to calm and responded her friend with defense words. She still thought
about politeness, so she did not offense them back.
You crude little snot, thought Nora, but she managed to say quickly,“afraid not. We’re taking a year off.” To which she wanted to add, ”and ifwe ever have another party, Claudia dear, don’t hold your breath waitingfor an invitation” (Grisham, 2001: 51).
Nora was upset with her friend. She started to blame Luther for the
situation that happened to her. It seemed she regretted with her decision to accept
Luther’s plan. Her mind full with the thought about herself that was being
assaulted and Luther did not help her. Here was the quotation that showed Nora’s
complaint:
Women handled Christmas, not men. They shopped and decorated andcooked, planed parties and sent cards and fretted over things the men neverthought about. Why exactly was Luther so keen on dodging Christmaswhen he put so little effort into it? (Grisham,2001:51-52).
That day Nora felt so bad. She wanted to escape from the meeting, but she
did not and waited until the meeting was over. She was the first person who left
the meeting. With Nora’s sensitive characteristic, she was so resented and angry,
she could not just forgot her friend opinion about Luther and Nora’s skipping
Christmas plan. The tease and judging words repeated again and again in her
mind. She still thought about the unpleasant comment from her friend in the car
while she drove home.
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Someone mentioned adjournment and Nora was the first out of the room.She fumed even more as she drove home—unpleasant thoughts about Lilaand her comment about money (Grisham, 2001: 52).
Another condition that showed Nora’s sensitiveness was described when
Nora was grumbling to herself in front of the mirror when she saw her body in a
red small bikini that was, in her opinion, not suitable to her body. The bikini was
given by Luther who insisted Nora to wear it. Nora thought the bikini was not too
expensive so Luther could buy it for her. Here was the quotation about what has
been explained above:
She was wearing very small red bikini, one that had looked great on theyoung slinky model in the catalog, one she knew she’d never wear inpublic but Luther had insisted on anyway. He’d gawked at the model andthreatened to order the thing himself. It wasn’t too expensive, so Nora nowowned it (Grisham, 2001: 81-82).
As a sensitive person, Nora assumed that Luther would not give her an
expensive cloth. It is implied from the quotation that she felt that Luther did not
understand what she wanted and she felt was not really loved because Luther
bought it because of the model. She did not sense Luther was kind enough to buy
her a gift.
Luther knew exactly about Nora’s sensitiveness and it made Luther did not
tell Nora when their neighbors who did not like the Kranks’ decision to simply
skip Christmas. They put a poster in front of the Kranks‘ house that insisted the
Kranks to put up the Frosty as they did every year. Luther rushed and hid the
poster so Nora would not see it because he knew if Nora saw the poster she would
be very hurt. Nora was easily upset, if she knew their neighbors including the
children made a poster to protest their Skipping Christmas plan, Nora would give
48
up and forgot about to skip Christmas. It made Luther worried, he cared about
Nora’s feeling moreover he did not want their plan failed.
Then he realized that Nora should not see the poster. She’d worry about itmuch more than he did… If she believed the neighborhood children werenow protesting. She just might collapse (Grisham, 2001: 69).
Nora was a lovely mother. She loved her daughter too much and she
worried too much about her daughter safety. Those were why she cried for days
and kept asked to his husband whether their daughter would be fine or not, even
until weeks after her daughter’s departure. She still worried about her daughter
although she had received a letter from Peru sent by her daughter days after her
leaving. The quotation bellow was the conversation between Nora and Luther
while they ate their Italian dinner few days before Christmas and suddenly
without any caution, Nora began to talk about her daughter.
Do you think she’s okay, Luther?” Luther glanced around the room andsaid, “Who?”“Blair”He finished chewing and pondered the question that she now asked onlythree times a day. “She’s fine, Nora. She’s having a great time.”Is she safe? Another standard question, posed as if Luther should know forcertain whether their daughter was safe or not at the precise moment.The Peace Corps hasn’t lost a volunteer in thirty years. Yes, trust me,they’re very careful, Nora. Now eat” (Grisham, 2001: 88).
It was weeks after her daughter leaving and Nora still worried about her
daughter decision. Even after she received a letter from Blair that she was okay
and happy in Peru. By this fact, it seemed Nora’s anxiety was caused by her
sensitiveness. She was not ready to be leaved by her daughter, although it was the
time for her daughter to have her own life. If we took a deeper look on the above
quotation, we could see that Nora focused too much on her feeling and could not
49
join to feel her daughter happiness. She was self centered and easily sad if
something she did not want happened, seemed Nora need greater care than Blair
in this point.
Her sensitiveness also made the plot of Skipping Christmas changed
drastically. It was seen when Blair, called from the airport in Miami only one
month after her leaving. Blair said that she would take another flight to Atlanta
and she would be at home for Christmas Eve party. Blair wanted to give her
parents a surprise so she gave a call only less then 7 hours before her landing. One
more surprise from Blair that she would not come alone but she was with her
fiancé who was local doctor with whom Blair felt in love from at first sight.
Mom, you’re gonna love Enrique. We’re crazy in love with each other…I’ve told him all about Christmas on Hemlock, the kids, the Frostys, thebig party at our house. You’re doing the party, aren’t you, Mom?”Nora said a lie, “of course we are”…”Mom, no gifts, okay. Please promiseme no gifts” (Grisham, 2001:108-109).
The fact that Blair would be at home immediately really surprised both
Nora and Luther. It was good news if Luther and Nora just had not plan to skip
Christmas and take a Caribbean cruise as the replacement. But in their condition
at that precise time, their daughter phone call seemed like a curse. The additional
fact that she would come home with her fiancé gave more confusion for both Nora
and Luther but they gave more focus on their daughter arrival in less then 7 hours.
Nora really loved her daughter and she did not want to disappoint her
daughter. Nora automatically lied to her daughter, said that they have party as
usual, nothing changed. So they had to finish prepared everything for Christmas
Eve party including foods, beverages, Christmas tree, Frosty and of course the
50
guests for the party. Luther was really frustrated and asked Nora why she lied and
did not just tell the truth that they skipped Christmas this year.
Nora would not do that because it would break Blair’s heart. Besides, Nora
could not receive more scorn from the neighbors and friends if she did no
Christmas party when Blair came home with her fiancé. At this point, because of
her sensitiveness, Nora did not think about Luther’s feeling and did not care about
their Caribbean cruise. With no hesitation, she lied to save her pride in front of
Blair and Blair’s fiancé, cause for Nora their Skipping Christmas plan was too
ridiculous to be explained.
Again, she did not think about Luther. It was true that Nora thought about
Blair’s feeling, but her lie statement that they had Christmas Eve party this year
made the situation difficult for herself and also Luther. However, if Blair was
mature enough, Blair would not be disappointed with the fact that her parents
would have a holiday for only both of them.
The room was frozen for a long time before Luther said, “Why did you tellher we were having the party?”“Because we’re having the party.”“Oh.”“I don’t know who is coming or what they’re going to eat when they gethere, but we’re having a party.”“I’m not sure---”“Don’t start, Luther. This was your stupid idea” (Grisham, 2001: 110).
Now the researcher would discuss the sensitive characteristic of Nora in
the second sense. Her sensitiveness in the term that she understood others’ feeling
was described each time her husband tried to keep their plan to skipped Christmas
by rejected people who came to their house and offered some yearly Christmas
selling. She could not stand to see the shock, rejected faces of those people.
51
As it was seen when two youngsters who worked at Boy Scout came to the
Krank’s house and as they always did every year before Christmas, They offered
Kranks a Christmas tree. Luther who just wanted to keep their plan to skip
Christmas, he rejected to buy the tree, because they did not need any. And
suddenly Nora came out and showed her sympathy and tried to ask Luther to just
by and kept it in the backyard. She did not have heart to deny them.
Nora materialized from nowhere and suddenly had her chin on hisshoulder. “They’re so cute,” she whispered.Blank faces. Puzzled faces. Sad faces. A groan from just over his shoulderas the pain hit Nora (Grisham, 2001: 27).
Here from the quotation, we could see that Nora cared about others. She
was an easily offended person so she could understand how these youngsters felt.
But she did not debated Luther at that time.
The similar scene like what happened when Luther rejected to buy
Christmas tree happened again when Luther rejected to buy a calendar from police
officers, Salino and Treen. Just before Salino and Treen came to offer charitable
selling, Nora and Luther was watching TV but suddenly Nora was disappear,
although Luther knew that she was just beyond the French doors, hiding in the
kitchen, missing not a word (Grisham, 2001: 59).
As Luther predicted, Nora heard all the conversation between Luther and
Salino and Treen. Nora wanted to burst through the door and say, “Here’s a
check! Give me the calendar!” But she didn’t, because the aftermath would not be
pleasant (Grisham, 2001:63). Again here Nora was described as a sensitive person
in the sense that she could understand others’ feeling. She could not bring herself
to look those two officers was rejected by Luther so she preferred to hide in the
52
kitchen. She still felt bad because they rejected to buy the calendar. She wanted to
burst out but it would bring herself to a quarrel with Luther after the officers
leave. She held herself and let Luther rejected those two officers.
Nora’s sensitiveness was described again when she read a letter from Blair
that described the condition in Peru. While she got many pressure because of the
skipping Christmas plan. She received a letter from her daughter which was
mailed from Peru. In the letter, Blair, her daughter, said that she was okay and
happy. She also described the condition there that was absolutely different from
the condition in their country. She was touched by her daughter story about the
condition in Peru where people did not have much so did not want so much. She
read it over and over again and it injected her with courage and pride to continue
her and her husband plan to skip Christmas.
The last paragraph was the jolt of fortitude that Nora so desperatelyneeded. It read:I know it will be difficult not having me there for Christmas, but pleasedon’t be sad. My children know nothing of Christmas. They have so little,and want so little, it makes me felt guilty for the mindless of materialismof our culture. There are no calendars here, and no clocks, so I doubt if I’lleven know when it comes and goes. (Besides, we can catch up next year,can’t we? (Grisham, 2001: 53).
b. Shifty-Minded
In this novel, Nora was also described as a person who could easily change
her mind. It was seen from her opinion about Luther’s idea to skip Christmas. Her
shifty mind could be seen when she agreed to join with Luther’s Skipping
Christmas plan. In fact, at the first time Nora heard about Luther’s idea. She
seemed do not interested to skip Christmas, instead she said Luther’s plan was
53
sound (Grisham, 2001: 19). But it did not need an hour to make Luther convince
Nora to join with his plan.
The next day after, Nora still kept with their plan to skip Christmas, Nora
rejected to buy Christmas cards for Christmas this year. For this time, she could
see that the Kranks spent too much for Christmas card last year. So she stood
straight and said, “We’re not ordering cards this year.” She could almost hear
Luther applauding (Grisham, 2001:23).
But a day later, Nora began showed her doubt about their Skipping
Christmas plan when two youngsters came to the Krank’s house. As usual they
offered the Kranks a real Christmas tree. Luther kept his plan on the track. He
rejected to buy a Christmas tree this year because if they did not celebrate
Christmas. They did not need any Christmas tree. But Nora showed her will to
have a Christmas tree. She could not reject those two youngsters. She showed her
doubt about to skip Christmas. She tried to persuade Luther to buy and said
“They’re so cute,” she whispered. Blank faces. Puzzled faces. Sad faces. A groan
from just over his shoulder as the pain hit Nora (Grisham, 2001: 27). From this
quotation, we found that Nora was sympathy with the youngsters from the Boy
Scout who showed their shocked faces. She said that the trees were so cute and
she seemed hoping that it would made Luther softened his heart and bought one of
those trees.
The next day after Nora tried to persuade Luther to buy a Christmas tree,
Nora showed a different and somewhat contradictory attitude toward their
Skipping Christmas plan. When her friends, Merry and Candi asked her about the
54
Kranks’ Christmas party, Nora said to herself, “Grit your teeth. Think of beaches,
warm salt water, ten days in paradise” (Grisham, 2001: 33). She explained to her
friends that she and her husband would take a Caribbean cruise for this Christmas
and they would have no Christmas party. For that time, she showed her passion
for the skipping Christmas plan.
Her passion for their plan did not last for long time. A moment after Nora
came home after had coffee time with Candi and Merry, she and Luther found that
the unelected boss on Hemlock Street, Vic Frohmeyer issued an appeal for all the
neighbors to put their Frostys up on their roofs. Luther did not want to do it. He
had his own plan for Christmas this year but Nora thought they had to put their
Frosty up. She thought that it was not a big problem.
“You have to do it,” she said.“No, I do not,” he said very firmly…“It’s just Frosty.”“No, It is much more.”“What?”“It’s the principle of it, Nora. Don’t you understand? We can forget aboutChristmas if we damned well choose, and –”“Don’t swear, Luther” (Grisham, 2001: 40).
A few days later, Nora showed more doubt about to skip Christmas when
she was Once more, Nora’s shifty mind about the Skipping Christmas plan
showed when she got more attack because of that plan. It happened when she had
late-morning round table with seven of her friends. Because the gossip of the
Kranks’ Skipping Christmas plan spread widely, one of Nora’s friends started a
conversation about Christmas. It became hot conversation since three of her
friends who was presents that time had never invited to the Kranks’ Christmas
55
Eve parties. Nora had to defend herself from those ladies, and she started to blame
Luther for what just happened to her.
Even uglier thoughts about her husband and selfishness. She was sorelytempted to cave right then, go to a spree and have the house decorated bythe time he got home. She could have a tree up in two hours. It wasn’t toolate to plan her party. Frohmeyer would be happy to take care of theirFrosty. Cut back on gifts and a few other things, and they would still saveenough to pay for the cruise (Grisham, 2001: 52).
Nora got very mad, but suddenly all the madness disappeared when Nora
read Blair’s letter. In her letter, Blair said than she was fine and happy in Peru.
Blair asked her parents to do not be sad because Blair was not at home for
Christmas. Blair storied that in Peru people have so little so they want so little. It
made Blair felt guilty with their mindless materialism culture. Nora suddenly full
with pride and for awhile she confidence with the Skipping Christmas plan.
Such a smart girl. Nora read it again and suddenly filled with pride, notonly for raising such a wise and mature daughter but also her own decisionto forgo, at least for a year, the mindless materialism of our culture(Grisham, 2001: 54).
Nora’s shifty mind about the Skipping Christmas plan did not stop here.
One time Nora could show her confidence to skip Christmas, but shortly after that
she could show her regret about her decision to skip Christmas. As it could be
seen few days after she received Blair’s letter. If a few days before she said that
she was proud to skip Christmas ritual which was full of mindless materialism,
that day she showed her doubt again when Treen and Salino, the police officers
came to the Kranks house to offer a calendars. The income of calendar selling
would be used for crippled children.
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Luther rejected to buy any calendar for that year. But Nora could not
endure with their plan although she did not stop Luther when he rejected the two
officers, instead she prefer to hide in their kitchen. When there were only both of
them, Nora complained to Luther, “It was only a hundred dollars,” Nora said
sharply as she reentered the room (Grisham, 2001: 64). By this statement Nora
again showed that she was not sure enough to skip Christmas. She also forgot all
the pride she felt by skipping Christmas when she read Blair letters that remind
her about mindless materialism of their culture.
Another scene showed her shifty mind characteristics when she met her
Reverend in a mall. She confidently or at least tried to be confident with the
Skipping Christmas plan. After seeing so many proofs above about her shifty
mind characteristic, it was not a surprise that Nora showed her confidence to skip
Christmas although for many times so also showed her regret and doubt for the
plan. This day, Nora showed her confidence in front of her Reverend about her
Skipping Christmas plan. She said “I’m fine and we’re fine. We still believe in
Christmas, in celebrating the birth of Christ, we’re just passing on all the
foolishness this year. Blair’s gone and we’re taking a break” (Grisham, 2001: 84).
Her shifty mind characteristics became an ordinary thing, but the effect of
her shifty mind characteristics was not ordinary. This characteristic made Nora
canceled all her plan and made all her and her husband efforts for last one month
became wasteful.
The story came to the climax because of the combination of Nora’s
characteristics. The combination of her sensitiveness in both senses, that she could
57
easily offended and she understand other’s feeling and problem her, and her shifty
mind made Nora did not tell Blair that Nora and Luther have no Christmas party
that year. It was only Nora who could make a phone call changed the whole story.
She changed her mind suddenly after she knew Blair would be at home for
Christmas Eve party. It was one day left and they would enjoy the Caribbean
cruise. But she just did not remember all her faith and struggle to avoid the whole
craziness, as Blair said ‘mindless materialism’ which in this paper the researcher
called it as consumerism. She blamed Luther and at that time called their plan as
stupid thing.
“Don’t start, Luther. This was your stupid idea.”“You didn’t think it was stupid yesterday.”“Yeah, well today you’re an idiot. We’re having the party, Mr. BeachBum, and we’re putting up a tree, with lights and decorations, and you’regoing to get your little brown butt up on the roof and do Frosty” (Grisham,2001: 110).
B. The Setting in Skipping Christmas
Setting in a work of literature has more than one meaning. Setting of a
work of literature could indicate the place where the story took place, it also could
indicate in time, atmosphere, and society where the characters in a work of
literature appeared. In Mastering English Literature, Richard Gill formulated 5
meanings of setting, as quoted bellow:
1. The place in which the characters appear2. The social context of characters, such as their families, friends, and
class3. The customs, beliefs, and rules of behavior that give identity to a
society4. The particular locations of events5. The atmosphere, mood, and feel that all the above elements create
(Gill, 1995: 148).
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This part would be divided into three parts. Each of these three parts was
connected so it would be seen as a unity. All of those parts would be encompass
the setting in terms of time, place, and society. And those three parts would show
the atmosphere of the novel. Let us start with the first part.
1. Setting of Time
a. Christmas Season
The setting of time in this book was in Christmas season when people
were very busy with their shop list and waited for holiday to gather with their
family and friends. The setting was described in the way, so that readers could
feel how busy and crowded this season is. But this year, there was something
different about Christmas for the Kranks because they could not gather together as
they always did every previous year in Christmas day. Instead of gathered
together, Luther and Nora had to let her daughter went away for one year around a
month before Christmas day.
It could be seen in the very initial setting which was taken in an airport
with very crowded people rush and jostle because it was high season, just days
after thanksgiving day and waited only around a month left for Christmas. Luther
and Nora did not go anywhere, they came to the airport to accompany Blair, the
daughter, who would go to Peru as a volunteer for the Peace Corp.
The gate was packed with weary travelers, most of them standing andhuddled along the walls because the meager allotment of plastic chairs hadlong since been taken…There seemed to be a thousand waiting for the 7P.M. flight to Miami…it was the Sunday after Thanksgiving, one of thebusiest days of the year for air travel, as they jostled and got pushed fartherinto the gate many asked themselves, not for the first time, why, exactly,they had chosen this day to fly…Nearby a skinny black Santa Claus
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clanged an irksome bell and droned out holiday greetings (Grisham, 2001:1-4).
From the quotation above, we could feel the description from the
researcher about Christmas; busy, crowded and important. Busy and crowded
stuff was described by the jostled crown, which could be found many times in the
novel as readers read it further. Christmas season was one of the busiest times
over a year. It indicated that it was time for holiday because people started to get
travelled in this time.
One of the author’s ways to show Christmas season in this novel, was by
presented Santa Claus as one of the symbols of Christmas as part of the airport
description in the initial part of the novel. “Nearby a skinny black Santa Claus
clanged an irksome bell and droned out holiday greetings” (Grisham,2001: 2).
Airport as public area was used to show that Christmas was celebrated very much
by the society in this novel. It showed that Christmas was celebrated by most of
the people in this novel. Christmas was for everyone.
Not only airport, but also in shops, in malls, on pavements, and most of the
houses the nuance of Christmas was very visible and sensible.
“Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” rattled from the hidden speaker abovethe sidewalk in front of Mother Earth…”God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen”was coming from above, as if Luther was supposed to be comforted. Mightas well be “Frosty the Snowman.”…”Santa Claus Is Coming to Town”blaring from the loudspeaker… (Grisham, 2001: 6-8).
Christmas meant holiday and winter. After crowded airport, the author
presented road with traffic jam and shop with, again, crown who tried to buy
foods, gifts, and everything for Christmas. This setting was presented to describe
that it was a shopping season for people. People in the novel, most of them,
60
enjoyed Christmas season and some just did it because it became tradition to
celebrate it. Christmas Eve party was part of the tradition. They planned and
prepared even a month before it came. It was not easy to celebrate Christmas if we
just knew there were so many things we needed.
Like Christmas cards, Christmas tree and the whole decorations, lights,
flowers and plenty foods for the party. It was also a tradition to buy new clothes
and gave it to each member of the family. It was somewhat Luther, as one of main
characters in this novel, with rational and economist characterization who did not
like about Christmas. It was why Luther preferred to skip Christmas and all the
stuff for one year while her daughter left. Christmas was equally to materialism,
so Luther prefer skip everything including charity part.
b. The Late 1990s
The late 1990s as the setting of time in this novel is not described
explicitly. But after all, the researcher saw some proofs that showed the setting of
this book was around the late 1990s.
For sure the setting in this book was around the 1990s to recent time. It
was seen from the existence of cars, malls, airports, and cell phone. People of
America were already familiar with these kind of stuff, Skipping Christmas could
be assume as a representation of today’s American society, but there was some
differences between today’ s American society and the late 1990s’ American
society.
Although now the US still one of the most powerful countries, but in the
mid 2000s the US was struck by massive recession that made many Americans
61
lose their jobs. People of America were threaded by the national collapse. But in
Skipping Christmas this issue was never mentioned. Although Luther really
wanted to skip Christmas because Christmas cost too much in his opinion, Luther,
as an economist, never mentioned about national economic problem in this novel.
In fact, this recession was the biggest one for this last six decades of the US.
Economists said, one of many related causes of the massive recession was the
over consuming behavior of American, and they had to work hard to rehabilitee
their national economy.
About 200,000 job cuts have been announced so far this year, according tocompany reports. Nearly 2.6 million jobs were lost over 2008, the highestyearly job-loss total since 1945."It's all about the consumer, and the consumer's been hit hard," said RobertBrusca, chief economist at Fact and Opinion Economics. "It's a viciouscircle as weakness begets layoffs, which beget more spending weakness<http://money.cnn.com/2009/01/26/news/economy/job_cuts/index.htm>(23 July 2010).
So the setting of Skipping Christmas was before the mid 2000’s, when the
massive recession knocked down the US economy. And another proof to make
sure that Skipping Christmas setting was around the late 1990s was when Luther
described about all his family expenses for Christmas last year. He talked about
Walkman which was he bought for her daughter’s Christmas gift. “…On Blair
$6,100 for an overcoat, gloves and boots, and a Walkman for her jogging…”
(Grisham, 2001:13-14). Walkman was a Japanese brand of portable radio cassette,
CD player and mp3. Walkman was very famous in American and today, Walkman
existence was defeated by iPod existence. The quotation bellow was quoted from
nytimes.com that was described the transition from walkman fame to Ipod fame.
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The predigital Walkman evolved over the years into more than anastounding 1,120 models. But its essential nature remained unchanged: itwas dumb hardware. When Apple Computer introduced the iPod inNovember 2001, Steve Jobs described his new player as "the 21st-centuryWalkman." With 98 years remaining in the century, that was an early call.But he was correct. The iPod in 2001 was a Walkman successor, butsmarter, its hard drive easily navigated with well-designed software(http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/13/business/worldbusiness/13digi.html?_r=1) <23 July 2010>.
2. Setting of Place
The whole setting of Skipping Christmas was placed somewhere in the
United States of America. Although there were not so many details about it, still
Grisham presented it several time in the novel. The first was presented when
Luther and Nora accompany Blair to the airport. It was described that Blair would
take a flight to Miami before she headed to Peru with another flight.
There seemed to be a thousand waiting for the 7 P.M. flight to Miami…theflight would take her to Miami then by bus for three days into themountains, into another century (Grisham, 2001:1-2).
Again, when Luther and Nora was surprised by Blair by her phone call a
day before Christmas which made Luther and Nora cancelled their Skipping
Christmas Plan at very last minute, Blair said that she was in the Airport in Miami
and soon would be at home.
Blair also said that she was with her fiancé who she just met in Peru. Blair
added that her fiancé had never been in the States, which referred to the US. Some
of the name in this novel was taken from the real place which was located in the
actual US, like Miami and Hemlock Street was common name of street in the US.
Even the name of social organization, the Peace Corps where Blair joint with was
really exist and quite big organization in the US.
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“He’s a Peruvian doctor I met right after I got here, and he’s just sowonderful. We fell in love at the first sight and within a week decided toget married. He’s never been to the States and he’s so exited (Grisham,2001:108).
One more detail was about Thanksgiving Day that described slightly at the
initial part of the novel. “It was the Sunday after thanksgiving, one of the busiest
days of the year for air travel…” (Grisham, 2001: 1). Thanksgiving was not
celebrated and became a holiday in many countries, so this detail would give more
proof and also emphasis about the US as the setting in this novel. It was true that
the author did not state explicitly where the specific town or state in this novel
was. This was made such a curiosity with this preference. It could be because the
author did not want to judge only one state. The author just tried to use general
picture of the US, maybe it was because there was no big difference between one
states to the other about Christmas.
The setting in the US of course was not just picked with any intention. By
knowing that John Grisham the author was American, we could understand why
the US was the setting in his novel. Although Grisham also wrote story with
different settings, with the message about Christmas and its consumerism
tendency it was could be said as a good decision made by Grisham to use his
country as the setting. The image of the US as big with the most big consumption,
according to some research, was really useful to make the atmosphere in the novel
became rational. In fact, the consumerism in general and Christmas consumerism
as one of forms of consumerism were became hot issue in the US.
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3. The Society
With Kranks as the main characters, Kranks’ house and the Hemlock
Street, where their home was located, became the central setting. There were
several settings out of this house, like airport, car, mall, café, Luther office, shop,
etc but these setting just appear rapidly. The Hemlock Street with the environment
was the most frequently setting which was described in the novel and it also
brought significant for the whole story.
All the families in the Hemlock Street neighborhood were Christians. As
the result, Christmas was celebrated a lot here in Hemlock. Christmas in Hemlock
meant so much by many reasons. The dominant reasons were for competition,
pride and merriment. It was Vic Frohmeyer who was the first person who made
neighborhood in Hemlock decorate their house and put an eight-foot plastic
Frosty on the top of each houses’ roof for Christmas. Vic Frohmeyer, as quoted
from the novel, “the unelected ward boss of Hemlock... A neighbor in need could
call the Frohmeyers for anything” (Grisham, 2001: 38).
The Hemlock Frostys had made their debut six years earlier and were asmashing success—twenty – one houses on one side, twenty- one on theother, the street lined with two perfect rows of Frostys, forty feet up. Acolor photo with a cute story ran on the front page. Two television newscrews had done Live! Reports (Grisham, 2001: 39).
In this novel, it seemed that Christmas was celebrated by everyone. They
had already got busy to shop immediately after Thanksgiving. People sold
everything which was related with Christmas, the sellers even give a call for their
customers to remind them with their shopping list. It was the quotation from the
book when Aubrie gave a phone call to Nora and tried to offer Christmas cards.
65
This year Aubrie had to feel disappointed because Nora just rejected to buy any
Christmas card.
After obligatory greeting, Aubrie came right to the point. “Just a bitworried about your Christmas cards, Mrs. Krank,” he said, trying to seemdeeply concerned…According to Luther’s audit, The Pumpkin Seed hadcollected $318 from the Kranks last Christmas for cards, and at themoment it did seem somewhat extravagant. Not a major expense, but whatdid they get from it? So she stood straight and said, “We’re not orderingcards this year” (Grisham, 2001: 22-23).
Christmas in Hemlock such a sacred ritual that must be done. There were
competition for house decoration, each family had their own Frosty, and they put
colorful lamp as much as they could afford. They did it in very hilarious way.
Here were some of the neighbors who were described in the novel.
Wes Trogdon was an insurance broker… No one on Hemlock strung moreChristmas lights than the Trogdons. They lined their yard, wrapped theirshrubs, draped their trees, outlined their house, adorned their windows—fourteen thousand lights the year before. (Grisham, 2001: 42)Walt Scheel was his rival on Hemlock…a mysterious job with Belgianconglom and an income that appeared to be in the upper range onHemlock—but regardless of what he earned Scheel and the missusexpected their neighbors to think they had a lot more. Luther bought aLexus, Schell had to have one. Bellington put in a pool, Scheel suddenlyneeded to swim in his own backyard, doctor’s orders… (Grisham, 2001:44).
People in Hemlock were close and they also cared about each other, they
were like family. The negative side was when something happened on somebody
in Hemlock, the news would spread very quickly and became a hot gossip in
Hemlock and around. It happened to the Kranks who just plan to skip Christmas
for themselves and it became such a problem for everyone who knew their plan.
They talked about it and judged them. It seemed gossiping was not enough so they
planed to do things like called carolers to sing in front of the Kranks’ house, put a
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poster in the Kranks’ front lawn to urge the Kranks to put Frosty on their roofs so
Hemlock could be the winner of Christmas decoration this year, and quite far too
much was, one of the Kranks neighbor called reporter to take coverage about the
Kranks’ Skipping Christmas Planning. This was the quotation from what was
printed as the headlined of local newspaper for the next day:
The home of Mr. and Mrs. Luther Krank is rather dark this Christmas.While the rest of their neighbors on Hemlock Street are decorating andbusily preparing for Santa, the Kranks are Skipping Christmas andpreparing for a cruise, according to unnamed sources. No tree, no lights,and no Frosty up on the roof, the only house on Hemlock to keep Frostyhidden in the basement. (Hemlock, a frequent winner in the Gazzette’sstreet decoration contest, finished a disappointing sixth this year.) “I hopethey’re satisfied now,” complained one unidentified neighbor. “A rottendisplay of selfishness,” said another (Grisham, 2001: 90-91).
Not only their neighborhood that just saw Luther and Nora as a kind of
weird stingy couple. Their friend and colleagues were talk about it. Some just
speculated that the Kranks had financial problems, some thought the Kranks,
especially Luther was stingy, but there also some who thought the Kranks’ plan
was fine even more, it was good for some few others. Here was one of few people
who did not see the Kranks’ plan was a bad idea. The quotation was about Yank
Slader, Luther colleague who just see Christmas in similar way to Luther and
hoped he could did what Luther went to do.
Yank Slader darted in. “Up to fifty-two hundred bucks, old boy,” heannounced. “with no end in sight. Abigail just spent six hundred bucks ondress for the Christmas dinner…Please let me go on the cruise.”…”you’remy hero,” he said again, and left as quickly as he’d arrived (Grisham,2001: 80-81).
The Kranks conflict with their environment initially was caused by their
different point of view about Christmas. What the reason why the Kranks,
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especially Luther, really wanted to skip Christmas was he did not like the
materialism and all the crazy things like quarreled about how to decorate the
Christmas tree and house. He did like “the traffic, stress, worry, bickering, ill-will,
sleep loss” (Grisham, 2001: 18). So then the Kranks, actually Luther, prefer did
not anything about Christmas even it was about charity.
Luther assumed it seemed people would take advantage just raise the price
and took the excess for their own personal profit. It made firemen, Police officers,
Scout Boys who just collect charity by sold stuff shocked, disappointed, and hurt.
It was the scene, when Luther just simply made Police men, who tried to sell
calendar for crippled children, got out from the Kranks’ house with
disappointment and a little bit anger.
Since Treen could think no intelligent retort, he grew hot too and decidedhe would get Krank’s license plate number and lie in ambush somewhere,maybe catch him speeding or sneaking through a stop sign. Pull him over,wait for sarcastic comment, yank him out, sprawl him across the hoodwhile cars eased by, slap the handcuffs on him, haul him to jail (Grisham,2001: 62).
Luther’s skipping Christmas plan made his relation with their
surroundings became in a clash. The society celebrated Christmas so much, while
Luther tried as hard as he could to skip Christmas. Luther rejected all people who
came to his house who try to sell Christmas stuff and collect Christmas donation.
And at the very last minute, he had to face those people again when he had no
choice unless celebrate Christmas after getting the phone call from his daughter.
There was one scene in the novel that described the scoutmaster made
retaliation for what Luther did when they came to the Kranks’ house before. The
Scoutmaster sold an awful Christmas tree with high price. Luther knew that it was
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too expensive for that last tree, but he had no choice, and in fact he were in a
hurry. So he took that awful tree with the high price.
Merry Christmas Mr. Krank,” said the scoutmaster, who looked vaguelyfamiliar. “I’m Joe Scanlon, same guy who brought a tree to your house afew weeks ago.”…A handmade sign leaning against a pickup truck listedvarious prices, beginning with $75 and falling all the way to $15 as thedays had passed…Scanlon hesitated, then said, “seventy-five bucks.”“Why not fifteen?”“Supply and demand”“Seventy-five, take it or leave it” (Grisham, 2001: 114-115).
Luther brought that awful tree straightly to his home. Christmas was really
something important for people in this novel. By buying the awful tree Luther was
mocked by unknown couple about his tree. Although he bought that awful tree
with high price, people thought that he bought the last tree to got cheapest price.
From the quotation bellow, it seemed Christmas was time to spend money and
people who did not do that were mean people. People did not hesitate to mock
others if they did not spent money during this season.
“Hey buddy, That’s the ugliest tree I’ve ever seen!” yelled one. “It’sChristmas, come on, spend some money!” yelled the other and they roaredwith laughter (Grisham, 2001: 115).
So far, it seemed the surroundings, especially the closest one, neighbors,
very cruel to the Kranks, although it fact the Kranks, especially Luther was also
made the neighbor resent with his act. It was clear there was big disappointment
and hatred, but it changed and totally different atmosphere at the end of the novel
when Luther was almost dying by felt from the top of his roof and the neighbors
knew about the surprise from Blair who loved by the Kranks’ neighbors.
Neighbors leading by very influential Vic Frohmeyer helped the Kranks,
first, the neighbors tried to get Luther down from the roof and later medics and
69
firemen came to get Luther down, picked up Blair and her fiancé from the airport
by asking help from the policemen, and then help Nora to get the sudden
Christmas party. After all that happened, Luther and Nora were very touched by
the unity of their neighbors, the whole bad things were erased.
Regardless of how they felt about Luther at the moment, the neighborsadored Blair…Vic Frohmeyer took a step back and looked into the faces ofhis neighbors. He cleared his throat, raised his chin, and began, “Okay,folks, here’s the game plan. We’re about to a party here at the Kranks’, aChristmas homecoming for Blair. Those of you who can, drop what you’redoing and pitch in… (Grisham, 2001: 156-157).
C. The Reflection of Christmas Consumerism in the Late 1990s in the US
In this part, the researcher would see how the combination of the main
characters’ characterization and the setting in Skipping Christmas showed the
reflection of Christmas Consumerism in The 1990s in the US. Skipping Christmas
was written by American author, John Grisham. He was born in on February 8,
1955 in Jonesboro, Arkansas <http://www.jgrisham.com/bio> (20 March 2010).
It is not accidentally that the setting of Grisham’s Skipping Christmas is
also in the US. As an American, Grisham might be familiar with the American
traditions and customs. Christmas consumerism was one of hot issues there.
Moreover, at the time Skipping Christmas was published, Christmas consumerism
was done largely. So the researcher would examine Skipping Christmas by using
Socio-Cultural Historical Approach. With this approach the researcher could see
the relation between a work of literature and the civilization that produced it
(Rohrberger and Woods, 1971: 9).
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1. The Reflection of Christmas Consumerism in the 1990s in the US from
Luther’s and Nora’s characterization
As Bennett and Royle said that characters in a work of literature is just like
human being. They are treated as people who live in that work of literature. They
had name, they did activities, and they had emotion just like human being.
Character is life-like. The first requirement for such a character is to have a
plausible name and to say and do things that seem convincingly like the
kinds of things people say and do in so called ‘real-life’ (Bennett and
Royle, 2009: 62).
Luther and Nora were the main characters in Skipping Christmas. They
were characterized as a middle-aged couple with a single daughter, Blair. Luther
was characterized as a realistic, thrifty, and impatient man but with good self
control, while Nora was characterized as a sensitive woman with two different
senses. The first sense means Nora as an easily offended person. The second sense
means Nora as a person who able to understand other’s feeling. Besides the
sensitive characteristics above, Nora also was characterized as shifty minded
person.
Grisham gave characteristics for Luther and Nora so that they could
present the consumerism activities during Christmas season in the novel.
Although they were characterized as two different characters with absolutely
different characteristics, both of them would show the Christmas consumerism
issue in this novel but of course with different attitudes. Luther would show his
strong dislike towards consumerism during Christmas, while Nora would show
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her hesitation to skip Christmas, because actually she enjoyed all the activities
during Christmas.
Luther as a realistic person showed his disagreement with the way
Americans family, including his family, celebrated Christmas. He questioned
silently why people ate so much during Christmas season when he had to buy
some foods for Nora. He was in a grocery which was packed by crown who
busied to buy foods for Christmas Eve dinner. He found no realistic answer why
people ate so much in Christmas. As it was quoted from the book, he thought
“What a waste, why do we eat so much and drink so much in the celebration of
the birth of Christ?” (Grisham, 2001: 7).
Luther’s statement above seemed like a critic from Grisham for what was
happened during Christmas in reality. Christmas is celebrated on 25 December
each year. This day was dedicated to commemorate the birth of Jesus Christ. Jesus
Christ was the central leader for Christians. By knowing this fact, then Christmas
day should be occupied with devotion, charity or other religious activities. But the
religious activities were not as much as the secular activities during Christmas
season.
The consumer culture exercises a formative influence on a wide range ofAmerican holidays and celebrations, but peculiar ironies of thiscommercial puissance are never more poignant that during the season ofJesus’ Advent <http://www.crosscurrents.org/schmidt.htm> (23July 2010).
In the reality it is what Americans did during Christmas. By seeing
Americans activities during Christmas season, it was easy to find out the
consumerism tendency during this season. It was a custom for American family to
hold Christmas Eve dinner party, some family would invite their relatives and
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friends to join their party and some would only hold a family dinner party. Since it
was a party, it would be lot of foods there. Each Americans family had different
kind of menus for their Christmas Eve dinner party but mostly we could find
kinds of meats cookies, salads, pies, and liquors for Christmas dinner party.
Turkey and ham are the two most popular meat entrees served in atraditional American Christmas dinner, though beef roasts and porktenderloin are also the centerpiece of many Christmas dinners. Commonside dishes including mashed or roast potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce,squash, yeast rolls and salads. Christmas dinner is often served withalcohol, mainly wine or champagne.Dessert items for an American Christmas dinner include Christmascookies like decorated sugar cookies and gingerbread men, pumpkin,pecan and apple pies, fruitcake and eggnog or hot chocolate to drink< http://www.ehow.com/about_4603941_christmas-dinner.html> (24 july2010).
The quotation above only described the foods of Christmas Eve dinner
party. There would be many others about secular things about Christmas that
would be described further. In the novel, Luther did not just stop on thinking
about the waste which was produced during Christmas season. Since he was an
accountant, what he did next was he started to calculate how much he and his
family spent for Christmas. He was shocked when he found out the result. He and
his family spent $6,100 for the last year Christmas. As an economist, off course
he would think economically, he thought it was really over spent. He said to
himself that $6,100 was 9% of his income and he spent it for only one event,
Christmas which was could be forgotten days after it was over (Grisham, 2001:
14).
Luther’s expense for Christmas which was stated above was a reflection of
Americans Christmas consumerism. Grisham tried to picture how many dollars
73
were spent unwisely by Americans during Christmas. Although the amount was
not really close, it still showed the same conclusion that is consumerism. One
survey about Americans expenses during Christmas showed how much of money
Americans spent during Christmas. “In 1998, Americans will spend between $160
billion to $ 200 billion presents”
<http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/NoChristmas.html> (24 July 2010).
Another poll which was conducted by Gallup in 1999 reported that
average of American would spend $ 857 on Christmas gift only
<http://www.allbusiness.com/retail-trade/4297781-1.html> (24 July 2010). Since
the surveys only showed the Christmas expenses for presents, it could be
concluded from the poll that there were more expenses for Americans during
Christmas season, such as the expenses for their own new cloths or foods for
Christmas party, and decorations.
The Kranks were also spent so much money on gifts expenses during
Christmas including gifts for themselves and their relatives. It was one of the
Kranks’ expenses as it was quoted from the meticulous list of the Kranks’
expenses on previous Christmas season, “$6,100 on lesser gifts for a select
handful of distant relatives, most on Nora’s side” (Grisham, 2001:14).
The Kranks also spent some money for charitable gifts for crippled
children by bought calendars and fruitcakes. These kind of gifts were like an
obligatory gifts, if people did not bought the calendars and fruitcakes, they would
be gossiped and assume as stingy people so they bought it although they need
none of it. As stated in the novel, the Kranks bought the calendar and put it in the
74
basement (Grisham, 2001: 60), and they gave their fruitcakes to their friends and
colleague (Grisham, 2001:76-77).
Another thing Luther did not like about Christmas was about to prepare
Christmas celebration, there were a lot of things to do. In the novel, Grisham
clearly described that Christmas season as one of the busiest season over the year.
Public areas like airports, roads and malls will be very crowded (Grisham, 2001:
6). Luther did not like being trapped in the traffic, he did not like jostled in a shop
for shopping. The reason he did Christmas every year only because he had good
enough self control so he did not get mad in the middle of the jostling crown.
This kind of situation was hardly to be avoided during Christmas season
unless for people who did not celebrate Christmas. Because they did not need to
buy anything, they did not need to go to malls or grocery where there would be to
very crowded during Christmas season. Christmas became largely commercialized
in modern era. Christmas consumerism was started became a custom after
revolution industry. Later the mass production during Revolution Industry raised
the interest on consumers’ right.
The increased consumer protection which means to safeguarding thebuying public from dangerous and inferior goods and services and fromfraudulent and other unfair selling practices (Lorimer, 1995, 683).
Another effect of revolution industry was people’s standard of living
increased significantly. People focused on the work. To make it simple, they
bought all they need for Christmas. They had no time to made their own new
dresses, gifts or foods, or greeting cards.
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Their increased purchasing power has given them the opportunity toembroider upon basic needs with a sense of individual taste and creativity,as they search for a style of life rather than for security (Sills, 1972:349).
Since that period even until recent time, the dominant activity in Christmas
season was shopping. People shopped for everything they need for Christmas.
Shopped for the foods for Christmas Eve party, shopped for the house decoration,
shopped for the gifts, shopped for the new dresses, shopped for greeting cards,
and there were many other things to shop for Christmas celebration, as the
quotation described bellow:
as societies changed from an agricultural based economy to an industrialeconomy, many people lost both the leisure time and the necessary rawmaterials to make homemade gifts, and by the 1920s, store bought giftsovershadowed homemade gifts. It would be easy to trace statistics to showhow commercialized Christmas has become since then<http://www.randomhistory.com/2008/11/21_christmas.html> (20 March2010).
Back to the novel, Luther lived in modern era when Christmas was more
and more contaminated with consumerism activities. Luther really wanted to
avoid Christmas, moreover the messy situations and activities during Christmas.
Luther started to dream about to skip Christmas.
How nice it would be to avoid Christmas, he began to think. A snap of thefingers and it’s 2 January. No tree, no shopping, no meaningless gifts, notipping, no clutter and wrappings, no traffic and crowds, no fruitcakes, noliquor and hams that no one needed, no “Rudolph” and “Frosty,” no officeparty, no waste money (Grisham, 2001: 10).
Luther planed to skip Christmas to avoid all activities he did not like
during Christmas. He planed to replace it with a cruise to the Caribbean islands. It
would be nice, “to settle on the Island Princess, a spanking-new mammoth vessel
with rooms for three thousand, for pools, three casinos, nonstop food, eight stops
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in the Caribbean…” (Grisham, 2001: 16). Luther tries to persuade Nora to join
with his plan, but Nora was a sensitive woman, she thought about many things
that might happen if they skipped Christmas. One thing Nora thought about was
”Wouldn’t they be scorned for ignoring Christmas?” (Grisham, 2001:20).
With a lot of thoughts about would happen, Nora rejected Luther’s plan.
She said, “sounds awful.” (Grisham, 2001:19). But Luther did not easily gave up,
he tried to persuade over and over again. He explained about how much many
they would save and how many messy activities they would skip. Nora seldom
seen Luther so determined. He methodically killed all her arguments, and finally
she agreed to join with Luther’s plan (Grisham, 2002: 20-21).
Luther and Nora had to decide to skip Christmas this year, it meant they
needed none of Christmas stuffs they always bought every Christmas. It was not
common for Kranks to do not celebrate Christmas. People talked about it but Nora
tried to be tough, although she was disturbed by the pressure from their society,
she tried hard to keep on track.
The first Nora’s mission was to reject to buy Christmas cards that year.
From Luther’s audit, their expenses for Christmas cards are $318 (Grisham, 2001:
23). It is described in the novel when Nora receives a phone call from Aubrie, the
owner of The Pumpkin Seed where Nora usually bought Christmas cards. After
hear the offers from Aubrie, Nora straightly said that they will not buy any
Christmas cards this year. Nora also reject to tell the reason for that when Aubrie
ask for her reason (Grisham, 2001: 22-23).
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“We live in a souvenir society, a world in which everything we do,
everywhere we go, has to be commemorated” said Charles Gordon, writer of
Maclean’s magazine about American society
<http://www.sbdcnet.org/Snapshot/GreetingcardgiftshopSnapshot.pdf> (24 July
2010). From the quotation above, it was understandable why sending Christmas
cards, or in general, Greetings cards were very common for Americans since we
knew their tradition to celebrate something like Christmas, birthday, anniversary
day, and valentine day were part of their habits.
Christmas card was one of popular stuff for Christmas in the US.
Americans had become accustomed spent money for greeting cards, and this make
greetings cards producer get very big profit from their business.
According to The Greeting Card Association (GSA), approximately 3,000
greeting card publishers exist in The US
<www.integrainformation.com/forbes/overview01.htm> (23 July 2010).
Christmas cards were the best selling cards between other seasonal greeting cards
like Valentine day cards, and Thanksgiving cards. “About half of all greeting card
sales were seasonal in nature, while everyday cards accounted for the other half.
Within the seasonal category, Christmas cards accounted for 2.28 billion (61
percent) of sales” <www.referenceforbussiness.com/industries/Printing-
Publishing-Allied/Greeting-Cards.html> (22 July 2010).
Nora successfully rejected to buy Christmas cards but she could stand to
keep with their plan to skip Christmas. Nora was not like Luther. From the first
time, Nora seemed did not wholehearted to do their plan to skip Christmas. On
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one occasion, she toughly rejected to buy Christmas cards, but on another
occasion, she had no heart to reject people who tried to offer Christmas tree,
fruitcakes or calendar. It was described in the novel when Nora tried to persuade
Luther to buy a Christmas tree.
Nora materialized from nowhere and suddenly had her chin on hisshoulder. “They’re so cute,” she whispered.Blank faces. Puzzled faces. Sad faces. A groan from just over his shoulderas the pain hit Nora (Grisham, 2001: 27).
Her hesitation about to skip Christmas also came when her surroundings
showed their sarcastic eyes. She felt offended and started blaming Luther for what
she got because of their skipping Christmas plan.
Women handled Christmas, not men. They shopped and decorated andcooked, planed parties and sent cards and fretted over things the men neverthought about. Why exactly was Luther so keen on dodging Christmaswhen he put so little effort into it? (Grisham, 2001: 51-52).
The climax came out when she received a phone call from Blair, Nora
suddenly neglected her plan to skip Christmas. Blair informed her parents that she
would be at home for Christmas Eve dinner party. She suddenly forgot about
Caribbean cruise. Nora lied to Blair and said she and Luther did the same
Christmas Eve dinner party as usual.
Mom, you’re gonna love Enrique. We’re crazy in love with each other…I’ve told him all about Christmas on Hemlock, the kids, the Frostys, thebig party at our house. You’re doing the party, aren’t you, Mom?”Nora said a lie, “of course we are”…”Mom, no gifts, okay. Please promiseme no gifts” (Grisham, 2001:108-109).
Nora’s hesitation that is showed in the novel showed her Shifty minded
characterization. Nora actually liked to celebrate Christmas, although she had
known about the fact that it was polluted by consumerism activities, but it was
79
what they did for long time and it had already became their custom. Nora reflected
how Americans were very enthusiastically about Christmas. Christmas was very
important to be celebrated. Christmas was not only Christians’ but moreover, it
was Americans’. “Christmas is as American as mom’s apple pie and the Fourth of
July” <www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,177322,00.htm> (24 July 2010).
Americans were accustomed to celebrate Christmas. Americans used
Christmas day to gather with their families and have a good time. The government
also gave chance for the citizens to celebrate Christmas freely. So in 26 June 1870
Christmas was declared as federal holiday in the US
<http://www.thehistoryofchristmas.com/ch/in_america.htm> (3 April 2010).
2. The Reflection of Christmas Consumerism in the late 1990s US from the
Setting in Skipping Christmas
The researcher would see the reflection of Christmas consumerism from
the setting in which was described in John Grisham’s Skipping Christmas by
using Richard Gill’s setting theory which was printed in his book Mastering
English Literature.
The researcher would see setting as time, place and society in this book to
see its reflection of Christmas consumerism in the late 1990s US. The analysis in
this part would be divided into 3 sub-topics which are setting of time included
Christmas, and late 1990s, setting of place included The US and the setting of
Society.
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a. Setting of Time
i. Christmas
Christmas as the setting of time in Skipping Christmas was clearly
described throughout the story. The title also used the word ‘Christmas’ to
introduce that this book told about Christmas. Christmas Day was celebrated on
the 25 December, although there are several people from the east churches which
were called Armenians celebrated it on 6 January.
Armenians follow the old eastern custom of honoring Epiphany,commemorating in the west chiefly visit of the Magi to the infant Jesus,and in the east, Christ’s Baptism. In some parts of the United States thisdate has been celebrated as “old Christmas” or “Little Christmas”( Lorimer, 1995: 666).
Christmas celebration usually started from even one month before
Christmas day. That was why it was called season. As it is described in the novel,
a month before Christmas, public areas such as airport has already been decorated
with typical Christmas decorations. “It was the Sunday after
thanksgiving…nearby a skinny black Santa Claus clanged an irksome bell and
droned out holiday greetings” (Grisham, 2001: 1-2).
It was also described that people started to shop things for their Christmas
Day’s preparation. Places like groceries and malls were packed with customer
during Christmas season as it was described in the novel when Luther came to a
grocery and he found that the grocery are packed with customers.
Every shop was full…there were no shopping baskets near the checkout atChip’s and of course this was a bad sign. Luther didn’t need one, but itmeant the place was packed (Grisham, 2001: 6).
81
In the real life it was also what happened during Christmas. People started
their preparation for Christmas Day a month before it comes. In the US,
Americans had what they called as Black Friday as the sign of the beginning of
Christmas season and it was sign to start their shopping activities for Christmas.
The existence of Black Friday as the opening of Christmas season was also such a
clarification and authentication of consumerism activities during Christmas.
With Christmas shopping vitally important to some retailers, Christmashas extended into a “season” of its own. The day after Thanksgiving (thefourth Thursday in November) is now known as “Black Friday.” Animportant shopping day, it pushes some businesses into profitability, or “inthe black,” and can account for a substantial proportion of annual profits(http://www.america.gov/st/poepleplace-english/2008/Desember/20061226154528abretnuh0.7518579.html) <25July 2010>.
Comments about Christmas consumerism also attach in the existence of
Santa Claus. In this novel, Santa Claus appeared several times in different
occasions, this in airport when Luther and Nora accompany her daughter to go to
Peru Santa Claus appear 2 times (Grisham, 2001: 2, 3). Santa Claus appeared
again in front of groceries when Luther stopped to buy foods (Grisham, 2001: 6).
The researcher found that Grisham wanted to put emphasizes toward the existence
of Santa Claus during Christmas. It showed that Christmas was Santa Claus time
to appear.
As we knew in the real world, Santa Claus was a very famous Christmas
icon which was originated in the US in the New York City (Bridgwater and
Sherwood, 1950: 388). Santa Claus was liked by many people moreover kids
because this imaginary character is characterized as a fat belly old man from the
north pole who is very kind and loves to gives present in Christmas for good kids.
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Christmas in modern time is very fertile field for consumerism to develop. Santa
Claus is believed as one of the tools of consumerism. Santa’s characteristic made
parents had to buy presents for their children. It was good tradition for the
producers and sellers of presents. So for people who did not like this imaginative
figure said “Santa Claus is a symbol of the commercialization and consumerism
that has seized the Christmas holiday in the west”
(http://www.cbn.com/spirituillife/chruchandministry/nonBuseck_Saint_Nicholas_
Santa.aspx).
The consumerism activities during Christmas season polluted Christmas as
a religious day. Seemed people forgot that Christmas day was dedicated to
commemorate the birthday of Christ. Seemed people focused on made themselves
happy in this season. The religiosity of Christmas gradually decreased and
defeated by the spirit of consumerism as Pope John Paul II said in one of His
Christmas sermon which is published in www.indiatimes.com:
Pope John Paul II said on Sunday that the spiritual message of Christmaswas under threat from the rampant consumerism of the season."The beautiful tradition of exchanging Christmas gifts between family andfriends, is under shock from a certain consumerist mentality and riskslosing its authentic sense of Christmas, above all, interior silence andprayer." He said "Secondly, the willingness to welcome the will of God,however it is manifested," he added(http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/32083545.cms) <22 July2010>.
ii. The Late 1990s
In the novel, the late 1990s as the setting of time was not clearly described.
There were few proofs that helped the researcher found the late 1990s as the
setting. The first one was Skipping Christmas first was published on November
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2001. It meant Grisham made this novel before November 2001 and for sure the
setting that he made for Skipping Christmas was also not more that 2001.
The second proof was concluded from consumerism activities which were
done by the characters in the novel showed that Americans at that time had
nothing to be afraid about their economic conditions. While American’s economic
condition was shocked by recession by the early 2000s. Americans tried to tighten
their belt to reduce their expenses because there were many people were lose their
job during time. It confirm the previous proof that the setting in Skipping
Christmas was in late 1990s
About 200,000 job cuts have been announced so far this year, according tocompany reports. Nearly 2.6 million jobs were lost over 2008, the highestyearly job-loss total since 1945."It's all about the consumer, and the consumer's been hit hard," said RobertBrusca, chief economist at Fact and Opinion Economics. "It's a viciouscircle as weakness begets layoffs, which beget more spending weakness"(http://money.cnn.com/2009/01/26/news/economy/job_cuts/index.htm).
The last proof the researcher got from the novel about the late 1990s as the
setting was concluded from Luther’s list of expenses he did for Previous
Christmas. Luther made a long list about his and his family expenses for
Christmas last year. One of the stuff he bought for her daughter was a walkman.
“…On Blair $6,100 for an overcoat, gloves, and boots, and a walkman for her
jogging…” (Grisham, 2001:13-14). This detail list helped the researcher took the
conclusion that the setting was in the late 1990s. Walkman was a well-known
gadget brand for American for long time, but in the early 2000s, Walkman’s
position was evicted by Ipod. Since in this novel Walkman was still described as
84
a top branded gadget, so the researcher concluded that the setting of the novel was
around the late 1990s.
The predigital Walkman evolved over the years into more than anastounding 1,120 models. But its essential nature remained unchanged: itwas dumb hardware. When Apple Computer introduced the iPod inNovember 2001, Steve Jobs described his new player as "the 21st-centuryWalkman." With 98 years remaining in the century, that was an early call.But he was correct. The iPod in 2001 was a Walkman successor, butsmarter, its hard drive easily navigated with well-designed software(http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/13/business/worldbusiness/13digi.html?_r=1) <23 July 2010>.
After seeing the proofs from the novel about the late 1990s as the setting
of time, the researcher would try to find facts Christmas consumerism in the real
US during this time. The late 1990s or in general twentieth century was the best
century for Americans. Even some people called twentieth century as American
century because this was the time the global leadership was dominated by the US
<http://www.historycentral.com/20thCent.html> (22 July 2010).
By knowing this fact, it was understandable why characters in this book
spent money largely. As what Trogdons did for the previous Christmas
celebration which was described in the novel:
Wes Trogdon was an insurance broker… No one on Hemlock strung moreChristmas lights than the Trogdons. They lined their yard, wrapped theirshrubs, draped their trees, outlined their house, adorned their windows—fourteen thousand lights the year before (Grisham, 2001: 42).
What Trogdons did and other characters did during Christmas showed how
much Americans spent during Christmas, moreover how the consumerism
activities became something common for Americans. They did it as their daily
activity and it made them did not realize that they were over consumptive and
85
they had buy what they just wanted to buy although in fact, they did not really
need it.
During 1990s until today consumerism increase largely, even some peoplesays that consumerism is American sports because it is so common in theUS it become one of Americans identity. American children are trained toconsume much. As they become adult, they worked hard to get what theywant, people are defined solely by what they buy and what they own<http://www.truth-it.net/consumerism_effects.html> (22 July 2010).
The consumerism activities was American sports could be said as
something true if we saw in the novel, people used real tree for their Christmas
tree. It really showed that Americans only bought they want, not what they need.
It was a big question, why the American used real tree which was only could be
used one time, while there was artificial Christmas tree which could be used for
many years. They themselves who knew the reason to use real tree for their
Christmas tree, but whatever the reason was it could be concluded that it was part
of American Christmas consumerism.
As it was proof by a survey which was conducted to find out how many
tree were cut down for Christmas. Since it was about natural resources, the effects
of American Christmas consumerism were not only about economic issues but
also environmental issue.
In 1997, Americans cut down 33 millions real trees to put up in theirhomes, enough to cover the state of Rhode Island. In doing so, they spentsomewhere between $600 million to $1.1 billion. Each acre of growingChristmas trees provides the daily oxygen requirements of 18 people<http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/NoChristmas.html> (22 July 2010).
Although in the late 1990s Americans started to realize and feel the effect
of their over consumptive activities, it seemed hard for Americans to free
themselves from consuming what they did not really need. So, what Americans
86
did was bought homemade stuffs with cheaper prices but they did not tried to
reduce to buy what they did not need.
In the late 90’s consumerism effects led a lot of people to choose to live asimpler lifestyle and choose to buy fewer products and spend their moneymore carefully. Ironically this led to an entirely new type of consumerismthat focused on the purchasing of products that identified the purchasers asmembers of the group that rejected the excesses of earlier decades. Thisconsumer movement focused on buying handmade products from smallbusinesses for cheaper prices instead of purchasing mass producedproducts from large corporations <http://www.truth-it.net/consumerism_effects.html> (22 July 2010).
b. Setting of Place
The setting of place in Skipping Christmas was in the US. Although
Grisham did not showed in explicitly in this novel, the researcher found some
strong evidences, which had been explained previously, that showed the setting of
place in this novel was in the US.
In the real US, Christmas was influenced so much by European culture,
because historically, Christmas was a tradition which was bought by first
European people who came to the New World.
Most of people who helped make our history came from Europe. Theybrought with them the ideas, the customs, and the blood of WesternEurope. The Indians, who here when Columbus discovered the NewWorld, have had small effect on our history (Harlow and Miller, 1953: 20).
It was why we found Christmas ornaments and decorations which were
typically European like mistletoe, carolers, Christmas trees and lights in The US.
Decoration with holly, hawthorn, and mistletoe and the sing of carols(especially by Waits) are all typically English. Santa Claus first waspopular in New York. Other American Invention are firecrackers andeggnog in the south. The Christmas tree was already a tradition in TheGerman Middle Ages, the light in the window, found widespread,probably came to America with the Irish (Bridgwater and Sherwood, 1950:388).
87
Christmas season was also something common and a holiday in the US. As
stated previously Christmas was as American as mom’s apple pie and the fourth
June. In the official website of The US embassy, it was found similar statement
about Christmas in the US.
Besides the strictly religious traditions, however, other common Christmaspractices are observed by people who are not religious or who are notChristian. In this way, some Christmas traditions have become Americantraditions <http://usa.usembassy.de/holidays-xmas.htm> (3 April 2010).
American tradition to celebrate Christmas was polluted by Consumerism.
It was not a new thing for modern society in the US. As stated before Christmas
Eve party and Christmas cards were something attached with Christmas
celebration which done by people in The US. These two customs not only made
people in the US spent so much money, but at the same time they also produced
so much waste and exploit so much natural resources as it was described in
www.recycleworks.org:
At least 28 million pounds of edible food are wasted each year—or over100 pounds per person. The 2.65 billion Christmas cards sold each year inthe US could fill a football field 10 stories high. If we each sent one cardless we’ve save 50,000 cubic yards of paper<http://www.recycleworks.org/resident/holiday_facts.html> (23 July2010).
c. Society
Christmas consumerism in Skipping Christmas was described also by the
existence of Luther and Nora surrounding. It was described in this book that
people in their society celebrated Christmas enthusiastically. Even in the
neighborhood in Hemlock Street where Luther and Nora lived, people here had
88
annual competition for their house decoration in Christmas. Moreover, they had
what they called Frosty, a forty feet up plastic snow man. They put their Frostys
on each of their roofs.
The Hemlock Frostys had made their debut six years earlier and were asmashing success—twenty – one houses on one side, twenty- one on theother, the street lined with two perfect rows of Frostys, forty feet up. Acolor photo with a cute story ran on the front page. Two television newscrews had done Live! Reports (Grisham, 2001: 39).
Not only they put Frostys on their roofs, they also decorated their house
with thousand of lights to brighten the Christmas Day. It was what Trogdons, one
of Luther and Nora neighbors did for Christmas extravagantly.
Wes Trogdon was an insurance broker… No one on Hemlock strung moreChristmas lights than the Trogdons. They lined their yard, wrapped theirshrubs, draped their trees, outlined their house, adorned their windows—fourteen thousand lights the year before (Grisham, 2001: 42).
Some people in the real world really celebrated Christmas with full of
enthusiasm. They put quite much concern on Christmas decoration. “…and the
more enthusiastic member of society start decking out their houses and front
gardens with a barrage of lights, glowing reindeer and giant plastic Santas”
< http://www.guardian.com.uk/uk/2001/des/18/christmas> (24 July 2010).
On one survey which was published in www.huppi.com, facts of
Christmas consumerism are clearly described. American spent more then $2
billion on Christmas ornaments, artificial Christmas tree, toys, lights, and lamps
that is imported from China. That expenses on Christmas ornaments and
decorations were not included the Christmas ornaments and decorations which
were domestic productions <http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/NoChristmas.html>
(22 July 2010).
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CHAPTER V
CONCLUSION
After analyzing John Grisham’s Skipping Christmas the researcher finds
consumerism tendency which happened during Christmas season. Grisham uses
the characters especially the main characters, Luther and Nora Krank to present
Consumerism issue in this novel. While the setting also made the Christmas
consumerism became understandable. To start the analysis on the reflection of
Christmas consumerism in Skipping Christmas, the researcher formulates 3
questions and then the researcher provided the answers in the analysis chapter.
The first part of the analysis is dedicated to provide main characters’
characterization. The second part is dedicated to provide the setting in Skipping
Christmas. And the last part is dedicated to provide the reflection of Christmas
consumerism in the late 1990s in the US from the combination of main characters’
characterization and the settings.
The main characters in Skipping Christmas are Luther and Nora Krank.
Luther was characterized as a realistic person who thinks in sensible and practical
way. He is also characterized as thrifty person so he spent his money efficiently
and carefully. It is why he does not like Christmas because Christmas means time
to over spend money. One more Luther’s characteristic is he is impatient but still
he had a good self control that is why he often prefers to curse silently when he
faces a bad situation rather than shouts his anger out. Later with his
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characterization he decides to skip Christmas and asks his wife to join the plan.
This plan makes him in clash with his surrounding.
Nora is characterized as a sensitive woman. Sensitive in both the senses
that she is an easily offended person and she is able to understand others feeling.
Another Nora’s characteristic is she could easily shift her mind. This
characterization made her very proud with her plan to skip Christmas but shortly
in another time, she will show her hesitation and regret with her decision to skip
Christmas. And with Nora characterizations, Luther present to climax in Skipping
Christmas when she cancel her plan to skip Christmas at the very last minute
when her daughter gives a call and tells that she will be and home for Christmas.
The setting in Skipping Christmas was during Christmas time in the
late1990s in The US. The nuance of Christmas was described from the
decorations in the public area and from the conversation between the characters.
The shopping activities also showed that Christmas is close. The late 1990s and
the US as the setting are not stated explicitly, but still there are some details as the
proofs. It can be seen from the conversation between characters, the stuff they
used or name of places which are stated in the novel.
The society in this book is mostly about Hemlock street neighborhood
where Luther and Nora live. Most people in Hemlock Street are described as
Christians. People in this novel treat Christmas very special, they prepare the best
they can afford. They decorate their house extravagantly, put a plastic giant
Frostys on their roofs and have a competition for house decoration. The society
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did not like Kranks’ plan to skip Christmas and it makes they started to judge
them even treat Kranks badly.
With the combination of main characters’ characterization and setting of
this novel Grisham presented the issues about Christmas consumerism. So, the
reader can see what happens during Christmas in the US in the 1990s. With this
novel, Grisham also showed Americans attitude towards Christmas that treat
Christmas not only as a Holy day but also a holiday. Consumerism activities
dominate the Christmas celebration. It becomes a tradition so it seems hard to
remove the consumerism activities in Christmas celebration. The tendency of
Consumerism in Americans’ Christmas celebration is shown clearly by their
activities during Christmas season. They arrange special time to shop for
Christmas, even they spent more time for shopping rather than to go to the church.
They also cut real trees for their Christmas trees, Christmas cards and gift’s
wrappers. They throw millions pounds for edible foods from their Christmas Eve
dinner parties. And they also spent so much many on Christmas lights and
ornaments
Skipping Christmas and this thesis did not persuade anyone to change their
custom in celebrating Christmas but only provide facts and let the readers chose
their own attitude toward Christmas activities.
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