Katy Carr in Susan Coolidge’s What Katy Did: a study on the education of a young girl to be an ideal woman in the nineteenth century America

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Rina Damayanti - C1303036 - Fak. Sastra dan Seni Rupa

ABSTRACT 2008. This minor thesis discussed about the American womanhood in nineteenth century which was reflected by Susan Coolidge in her novel What Katy Did, focusing on the idea of a young girl to be an ideal woman as expected in the society. The research took the form of library research utilizing the descriptive technique, and used some approaches such as biographical approach, and socio-cultural approach. Those approaches relate to each other in order to find out the construction of the ideal woman in the nineteenth century. Biographical approach is applied to understand more about how the author’s intention in the work is related to her background. While socio-cultural approach is used to know how the socio-cultural condition in the nineteenth century, especially about woman, contribute and shape the work. There were four womanhood values reflected in Katy’s construction: goodness or being ladylike that required women to have good behavior, affection which was identical with women, submissiveness which required women to be submissive in accepting their position in life, and domesticity that concerned about the performance in the social, household, and family duties. Those values should be owned by women to be the ideal ones.