Philosophical Taught of the Short Story Little Brother (Moral and Philosophical Approach)

BY: Udiana Puspa Dewi C0308075

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT SEBELAS MARET UNIVERSITY SURAKARTA 2010

Philosophical taught of Little Brother short story

A. Introduction Moral-philosophical approach is one of traditional approach in analyzing short story. This kind of approach appears because of some classical thinkers (Aristotle and Horace) considered literature capable of fostering virtue (Mack, 2001). The basic position of such critics is that the larger function of literature is to teach morality. The critic is not aware of form, figurative language, and other purely aesthetics considerations, but the most important thing is moral or philosophical teaching (Willingham, 1966: 9). The story in moral-philosophical approach is seen as something to increase the moral or philosophical value of the reader. So the story should contain a taught for the reader. The moral and philosophical taught often be found in the symbolization appears inside the story or from a causal relationship which was done by the characters in the story. The story has a role as an integral part of the allegory that defines the storys theme. Allegory is a form of extended metaphor, in which objects, persons, and actions in a narrative, are equated with the meanings that lie outside the narrative itself. The underlying meaning has moral, social, religious, or political significance, and characters are often personifications of abstract ideas as charity, greed, or envy. Thus an allegory is a story with two meanings, a literal meaning and a symbolic meaning (Nordquist, 2010). In allegory a narrative containing a meaning beneath the surface, for that reason, in analyzing theme in short story there are two important things to be paid attention on. The first is the one on one relationship appears in short story and second is the moral or philosophical lesson from the story. One to one relationship means one object or idea in narrative stands for only one idea or object allegorically. In this case, we are dealing with the symbolization and representation of an object or idea in the short

story. Besides from the object, the symbol or representation can appear in the form of thought or ideas from the character of the story. The moral or philosophical lesson is about finding what is the taught, if the work is in any degree significant or intelligible, this meaning will be there. It can be found after finding the one to one relationship. Because from the one to one relationship we can see what the story said or what is beneath the story.

B. One to one relationship One to one relationship in the Little Brother short story appears to be symbolic. There are some symbol appears which can be interpreted as a representation of some ideas. Mr. Hodd and Mrs. Hodd in the story as the representation of everyman. Mr. Hodd becomes a representation of the pessimistic part of human personality and Mrs. Hodd as representation of optimistic part of human personality. Mr. Hodd was seen as a symbol of pessimism because he always considers the children as a burden. He does not seem to have any responsible for all the children he has. It can be seen from several statements which he was stated in the short story. A sight too many! Swish - swish The place is chuck full of em. You stamp on em as you walk. This statement shows his careless and hopeless feeling about all the children he has. It said implicitly that he regret by having those children and he felt sick with that situation. At any rate this poor little one wont have to be fed; youre no worse off than before it came It shows that he is glad when his wife gave a birth of dead baby. He feels happy when he knew that the baby who should be his thirteenth children instead dies. He thinks that it is good because he does not need to feed the baby.

Mrs. Hodd becomes the representation of the optimistic part of human because she never considers the children as the burden. She sees her children as something to be looked after. That is why for her, it is okay to have a lot of children. Some statements which is said by Mrs. Hodd in the story can represent her optimism. That fare hard, she gurgled, to go tough it all and then to lose em This statement shows that she feels sorry because her baby was born dead. She wishes that the baby can be alive and grow well. It shows she does not think that her children never be a burden for her. A crop o heer hed got all over his poll like golden souvenirs It shows how much the dead baby means so much for her. She compares the dead baby to a golden souvenir. It means that she loves the baby so much, unlike her husband who does not feel any regret of the dead of the baby. The children as the symbol of dreams or obsession The children become the representation of dreams or obsession having by the human. Mr. Hodd and Mrs. Hodds children in the short story can be interpreted as the dreams or obsession. One of the statement in the story stated that: He was the eldest hope of the Hodd family, helping his father in the hour between morning and afternoon school. On that part we can see the word the eldest hope which can encourage the interpretation of the children as dream or obsession. Because children is considered can change their poor family later on in the future. Their parents put their hopes on the children. The thirteen children represent too many hope and dreams which having by Mrs. Hodd and Mr. Hodd who represent everyman. Those too many dreams and obsession which at last become the weight on their shoulder.

 The poor family as the representation of failure The way how the writer describe the condition of Mr. Hodd and Mrs. Hodd family shows the image of poor and suffering family who have a lot of children. The family is described as unhappy family with an awful condition. These are certain descriptions of the story which show how poor the family is. Not such a family as the Hodds do we often see in Dulditch, but in the present shortage of labour the farmers are glad to welcome what help they can get. He also was red-headed, he also was attired for the most part in a sack. (describing Hodds eldest son) In the kitchen I passed through on my way upstairs, a pair of Hodds, of too tender an age to be at school, were seated on a sack again a sack! spread before the fire, and were playing with a large battered doll. Mrs. Hodd, above, lay in her big squalid bed, alone. Those descriptions are trying to create an image of the very poor family. As we see that they clothe their children with a sack, sleeps in the squalid bed, and always wait to get a help from anyone else. The poor family in this short story represents the human failure. The suffering and misery identified their failure in getting through this life. They are not success in managing and taking care of the thirteen children they have. The dead baby was used as a toy for other children In the end of the short story we can see that the corpse of the dead baby was not in the coffin anymore. When they were trying to find out, they found the dead body by the baby was played by the other children, as it is described:

Failing in every effort to insert the arms, she decided to dispense with that formality; pulling the awful nightgown over the shoulders she knotted it at the back of a little red head. Then she turned the battered doll on its back and I saw that it was the dead baby. Evangeline and Randolph pushed their grubby fingers into the open mouth, and tries to force them into the sunken eyes, in order to raise the lids. The description of the way the other children used the dead body of the baby as a doll and destroyed it symbolize how a dream or obsession can be a disturbance for another dream, as in the beginning the children are interpreted as the dreams and obsessions.

C. Philosophical Taught From finding out the one to one relationship of the story, we can arrive into the philosophical value contained beneath the story. Mr. Hodd and Mrs. Hodd are represented of every man who has a lot of obsessions and dreams which was symbolized by the thirteen children. The writer tries to emphasize that thirteen children is too many, it was proved by their poor life. From that we can get a lesson that the writer tries to give to the reader is that too many dreams and obsessions are instead cause the suffering for a person. From the last part of the short story, when the children played the dead body of the baby, we can learn that one obsession is sometimes not in line with the others obsession. So, an obsession or dream instead can cause a failure. It will be better if someone be focused in one dream instead of having a lot of dreams but none of them are able to be realized. The characterization of Mr. Hodd and Mrs. Hodd are also representing the two part of human personality. In chasing a dream there always be an optimistic part and pessimistic part. The optimistic part is represented by Mrs. Hodd who never considers the children as a burden and always be sure that she can take care and look after their children no matter what happen. It represents the optimistic

feeling that all the obsessions and dreams can be reach. While Mr. Hodd represents the pessimistic part of human who always thinks that all of his children is a burden and weighing so much on his shoulder. This characterization represents the pessimistic feeling that the human was haunted by failure of chasing the dream.

D. Conclusion The philosophical taught of the Little Brother short story comes up through the symbolization of an idea through the characterization, character, and causal relationship. As we see in one to one relationship above a symbol is representing an idea allegorically. From that we can dig the surface of the story to arrive into the beneath and the main message of the story. The philosophical lesson that we can learn from the story is that it is important to be focused, because the uncertain dreams and obsessions can lead human into failure and misery.

Bibliography

Nordquist,

Richard. 2010. Allegory. http://grammar.about.com/od/terms/g/allegory.htm (downloaded at December 10, 2010.) 2001. Moral Philosophical Criticism. http://www.faulkner.edu/admin/websites/cwarmack/Moral%20%26%20Philosophical%20C riticism.ppt (downloaded at November 26, 2010.)

Mack.

Willingham, John R. 1966. A Handbook of Critical Approach to Literature. New York: Harper & Row Publisher.