The Representation of Sinta as a Good Woman in Herding the Wind Novel

Evelyna Nissi Adjikusuma

Herding the Wind is an English version of a novel entitled Anak Bajang Menggiring Angin
by Sindhunata, and translated in 2015 by Joan Suyenaga (Maghfiroh & Andriyanti, 2021). It is a
fascinating retelling of the Great Epic of Ramayana in the form of a literary story. This novel
generally depicts the origin story of the life story of Rama and Sinta. Princess Sinta is the
beautiful daughter of King Janaka from the kingdom of Mantili (Sindhunata, 2015). She is
married to Rama, a king from Ayodya because he has won the competition to get Sinta.
However, one day, because of the greediness of Queen Kekayi, Rama must sacrifice his throne,
and he is banished to the forest to do the isolation. Sinta, as his wife, follows the husband’s
hardship and lives in the forest gladly. She knows that as a wife, she has to be loyal to her
husband so that her life will be beautiful. As the day goes by, Sinta lives peacefully in the forest
until the evil king of Alengka, Rahwana, is enamored with her beauty. Rahwana uses all of his
power to kidnap Sinta and brings her to Alengka. Sinta is imprisoned for many years in Alengka.
While waiting for Rama to rescue her, Sinta keeps her purity from Rahwana. After everything
Sinta has sacrificed, she still needs to prove her purity because her husband does not believe in
her (Sindhunata, 2015).

This novel is essential for this study because it will examine Sinta’s characterization in
Herding the Wind novel. After that, the characterization will be used to find how a woman
should be. Sinta in Ramayana epic comes from Indian literature that is adapted in Indonesian
puppetry. Nurgiyantoro (2019) also stated that the traditional wayang stories become the basis
for writing Indonesia modern literature. Even though the Ramayana is adjusted in Indonesian
story, Sinta’s character may still possess the Indian women’s characteristic. Thus, the depiction
of Sinta in the Herding the Wind novel will be a classic delineation of Asian women. The reason
is that the characters in the puppetry are also the reflection of the human's characters in the real
world (Ariani, 2016). Sinta’s characterization in the story shows how women, especially in Asia,
are expected to be. Moreover, women's characters that are described in literature will have to
influence society to look at women as the literature describes them.
 The objective of this study is to find out the characterization of Sinta in Herding the Wind
novel and its resemblance with Asian women. The researcher will use narratology theory which
is the characterization to examine the issue. Characterization is the personal traits that a
particular character has in a story. The characterization may not appear straightforwardly in the
text (Rimmon-Kenan, 2003). Ewen 1971 (as cited in Rimmon-Kenan, 2003) stated that there are
two kinds of characterization. They are direct definition and indirect presentation. The character
of Sinta has been illustrated by various stories sourced from Ramayana. For example, Shinta is
portrayed as a woman who has some feminist values plays pivotal roles in the Wayang Kulit
Purwa show (Ariani, 2016). In the Herding the Wind novel, Sinta is mostly depicted as a
beautiful young woman who keeps her purity for her beloved husband, Rama, until the end of
her life (Sindhunata, 2015). Nevertheless, Sinta is something more than just a beautiful person.
Therefore, to get a deeper picture of Sinta’s character, the characterization theory should be used.

To the researcher’s knowledge, Herding the Wind novel has been discussed by other
scholars. The first research is written by Maghfiroh & Andriyanti (2021) with the title Exploring
Metaphor Use: Its Categories and Translation Strategies within the Novel Anak Bajang
Menggiring Angin by Sindhunata into Herding the Wind by Joan Suyenaga. They investigated
the categories of metaphor that are used in the novel and the strategies in translating the novel
from Indonesian to English version. They found out that four out of six categories of metaphor
are presented in the novel. The dominant metaphor in the novel is called the dead metaphor.
Besides, the writer also uses ‘metaphor to metaphor’ as the common strategy in dealing with the
translation (Maghfiroh & Andriyanti, 2021). Another research comes from Rahman et al. (2019)
entitled An Intertextual Study of the Novel of Anak Bajang Menggiring Angin by Sindhunata and
the Novel of Rahvayana by Sujiwo Tejo. In this study, they identified the intertextuality by
looking at the similarities and differences in the novel Anak Bajang Menggiring Angin by
Sindhunata as the hypogram and Rahvayana by Sujiwo Tejo. They discovered that the novel
Rahvayana has the intertextuality with the novel Anak Bajang Menggiring Angin from the
similarities and differences. Moreover, the intrinsic elements in the novel also play a role in the
expansion and modification of the novel (Rahman et al., 2019).
 This study is different from those previous studies. Maghfiroh & Andriyanti talks about the
translation strategies and metaphor from the Indonesian to English version of Herding the Wind
novel. Whereas Rahman et al discusses Anak Bajang Menggiring Angin's novel being the
hypogram to Rahvayana's novel and finds the similarities and differences between those novels.
Even though using the same novel, this paper is different from the previous studies. In this paper,
the researcher talks specifically about the character of Sinta in Herding the Wind novel and its
identicalness with the representation of Asian women.

Research Question

1. What are Sinta’s characteristics in Herding the Wind novel?

2. How its characteristics are considered as a good woman?

The Objective of the Study

1. To find out Sinta’s characteristics in the Herding the Wind novel.

2. To discover a good woman characteristics.

Review of Literature

A. Character and Characterization

Characterization is a means used by a literary author to uncover the characters’ nature
(Saraswati, 2019). Reams add a definition of characterization is a description of
characters within a text by looking at their action (Reams, 2015).
An author uses characterization to develop and show a particular character to the readers.
There are two basic types of character’s textual signs. They are direct definition and
indirect presentation. The first type uses an adjective, an abstract noun, other kind of
noun, or part of speech to describe the characters. The second type does not obviously
use the characteristics, instead show it many ways and left the interpretation on the
readers (Rimmon-Kenan, 2003).
Types of Characterization
- Direct Characterization
 Basically, direct characterization is when the author tells the reader straightly some
traits that the character in the text have (Reams, 2015). Direct characterization can be
described by a character itself, a narrator, or other characters in the text. For example,
one of her friends said, “I get jealous of her. Anna is not only charming, but also a
talented pianist.” Based on the line, another character who is Anna’s friend in the
story describe Anna as a charming and talented girl. The character straightforwardly
mentions Anna’s characterization. Thus, by reading the text, the readers will obtain
the same image of how Anna is characterized.
- Indirect Characterization
A characterization can be considered as indirect when it not mentions the traits but
shows and illustrates a character in a several ways. Rimmon-Kenan (2003) give seven
ways of how the character is presented in the indirect characterization.
1. Action
The characters’ action show who they are in the literary text. It is essential to
examine the character’s action because even in real life, our actions can be a
reliable and concrete source to define who we are (Reams, 2015). The action can
be analyzed when the character becomes the cause of certain action, not the
effect.
There are two different ways of analyzing the action (Rimmon-Kenan, 2003). The
first one is by one-time actions, the second one in by habitual actions. One time
action indicates a dynamic character. Whereas, habitual action tends to declare
that the character is static. One time action is no less important than habitual
action. As a matter of fact, the one-time action often becomes more crucial to
analyze than the habitual action that is regarded as the character’s routine. To find
out both actions, there are some categories proposed by Rimmon-Kenan (2003);
They are the act of commission, act of omission, and contemplated act.
2. Speech

3. External Appearance
4. Reinforcement by Analogy
5. Analogous Names
 6. Analogous Landscape
7. Analogy between Characters

B. Character (digabung)
Character is part of the intrinsic element that has connection with plot, setting, and point
of view. Chatman (as cited in Hasanah et al., 2018) specified two significant aspect of
character, which are round and flat character.
C. A Good Woman
Popenoe (as cited in Nurwahyuni, 2015) argues that the gender roles cause stereotypes in
community. It means that to be seen as normal, both men and women should follow the
gender roles that have been set in society. Through the socialization process, people
perceive on what should and should not a man or a woman do. On the other words, the
socialization process is significant in shaping the gender roles. There are some main
agents of the gender roles; They are family, peers, schools, and social mass media
(Hoominfar, 2019). Family becomes the first surrounding for girls or boys when they
come to this world. Thus, the family holds an important role in introducing the gender
roles. For example, the parents treat their sons or daughters differently in the terms of
clothes’ color, toys, books, and even places. By looking at their parents, they learn on
how to distinguish girls or boys’ proper behaviors. After the children are growing up,
they will meet a lot of people out there and start having interactions with the outside
world. At this time, the peers be the second agent of the gender socialization. Leaper and
Freedman (2007) and Witt (2000) stated that the peers will give influence through
interactions, friendship, and group norms (as cited in Hoominfar, 2019). With the gender
knowledge that the children have been introduced in the family, they apply it in the peers’
level. There will be some differences group for boys and girls. They will play different
games and activities that will strengthen their gender identity. Moreover, as they start
their school time, they will also learn more about their roles. For instance, the teachers
have different attitude toward their students based on their sex. They will be more
tolerant to girls than boys. Not only the teachers, but also the school’s environment and
properties are very gendered. The last main agent of gender socialization is media. Media
are prominent in forming the gender stereotypes towards women and men because what
 people’s watch and read influence their mind a lot. Women are always given a minimum
screen time rather than men. Prot et al. (2014) and Collins (2011) provide a fact that men
become the main character in most TV shows, films, and games (as cited in Hoominfar,
2019). On the other hands, women in media generally are associated with the sexual
activity or household chores.
- Asian Woman Roles (CARI: a good woman by Asian standard)
Khusus untuk Asia atau Indo
Asian women have many roles (Dionaldo & Soluta, 2021). A woman is valued only
as the nurturer and domestic workhouse in the family. The position of Asian women
in literature is problematic because women are always under the men’s role. In other
words, the men are still have the dominance roles (Turuk, 2020). According to
Dionaldo & Soluta (2021), Asian women especially in literature have several main
roles. The roles of women are as a daughter, a wife, a mother, a mistress, and a rebel.
However, whatever roles women have, they are expected to be submissive and always
ready to sacrifice all that they have for their family and community. Thus, women’s
story always consists of subjugation and usually ends with tragic aftermath.
(perempuan baik menurut, bisa dibandingkan dgn karya sastra (di jurnal) ain ttg a
good woman)
D. Gender Work Division in Asia
A good woman: perannya apa,

Scope of the study: seberapa jauh, banyak karakter  Cuma Sinta

Literature, especially gender studies in the novel.

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