THE POTRAYAL OF PI’S SURVIVAL IN YANN MARTEL’S LIFE OF PI A NEW CRITICISM STUDY

• Main Author: Astrid Vita Prilya, 121112075
• Format: Theses and Dissertations NonPeerReviewed
• Language: English; English
• Published: 2016
• Subjects: PN80-99 Criticism
• Online Access: http://repository.unair.ac.id/56758/1/ABSTRAK.pdf; http://repository.unair.ac.id/56758/2/FS.%20BE.%2079-16%20Pri%20p.pdf; http://repository.unair.ac.id/56758/; http://lib.unair.ac.id
• Institution: Universitas Airlangga

This study, through New Criticism, aims to discover the main theme of the text and the formal elements that help to form it. First, it tries to find out if environmental change could force humans to change in order to adapt so that they could fit with the environment. The goal is to understand why and how the change of environment in the book force Pi to change his thoughts and actions as portrayed in the book. Second, it attempts to discover what the main character, Pi, is capable of doing in order to survive and how it leads to personality and behavioral shifting in Pi’s characterization. In this part, the writer reveals how Pi’s desire to survive has somehow overcome his idealism and thus causes significant changes in his personality and behavior. Since New Criticism approach is used as the main theory, the writer analyzes this novel using formal elements of the text, which are; characterization, plot, setting, and symbol. The writer therefore leaves out any external factors and focuses only on the text itself. This study uses qualitative method which means the data is collected from the text itself. In the end, the writer concludes that the formal elements particularly, the characterization, the conflict, the setting and the symbol develop the change of Pi’s attitude and behavior due to the environmental change in order for him to survive. This is related to theme of the text which is man’s survival.