The impact of materialistic view of life on american middle class as reflected in Sinclair Lewis’ arrowsmith

Ariyani, Linda

× ABSTRACT This thesis presents a discussion about the impact of materialistic view of life on American middle class life and the idealism that is offered by Sinclair Lewis to respond to the spreading of materialistic view of life in the early 20th century as reflected in Sinclair Lewis’ Arrowsmith. The data is divided into primary and secondary data. The source of the primary data is Sinclair Lewis’ novel Arrowsmith. The primary data consists of narration, dialogues, character description, setting and interpreted phenomenon occur in the novel related to the topic. Meanwhile, the secondary data is taken from articles, journals, essays, criticism on the novel, and other information from books, either fiction or non-fiction. The supporting data is used to support the primary data in providing more information about the impact of materialistic view of life on American middle class in the early 20th century and Lewis’ idealism to respond to the spreading of materialistic view of life. This thesis is written under the discipline of American Studies, which employs an interdisciplinary approach. The use of this approach is meant to affiliate theories and knowledge from various disciplines in analyzing a work of literature. In other words, this approach requires a collaboration among disciplines to get a deeper interpretation from the data provided. The researcher uses some approaches that are suitable and related to this object of research namely: literary approach, sociological approach, biographical approach, and philosophical approach. The literary approach is used to interpret all literal codes into complete understanding about what the novel tries to tell about or to comprehend the novel much deeper. The biographical approach is used to find out the relations of Arrowsmith to Lewis’ idealism to respond to the spreading of materialistic view of life. The sociological approach is applied to see what had happened in America especially the middle class life in the early 20th century. Finally the philosophical approach is also required to dig out what philosophy that expanded in the era when the novel was published and to know the message the author tries to tell the readers. Analysis leads to a conclusion that materialistic view of life has some impacts upon American middle class life. The importance of money and power and the significance of social status have become the aim of their life. Consumerism and commercialism dashed their lives as the consequences of their materialistic view of life. Moreover, the American middle class starts to leave their moral and spiritual beliefs. They lost their moral and spiritual values that have been preserved since a long time ago by their ancestors. The final analysis is made out by seeing Lewis’ idealism to respond to the spreading of materialistic view of life. Lewis very aware of his society condition at the time and he feels necessary to warn the readers of the impact of materialistic view of life. To respond to the spreading of materialistic view of life Lewis approves the desire to accumulate wealth by saving the surplus earning and living in frugal and honest way.

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Penulis Utama	:	Linda Ariyani
Penulis Tambahan	:	-
NIM / NIP	:	C1399012
Tahun	:	2003
Judul	:	The impact of materialistic view of life on american middle class as reflected in Sinclair Lewis’ arrowsmith
Edisi	:
Imprint	:	Surakarta - FSSR - 2003
Program Studi	:	S-1 Sastra Inggris Non Reguler
Kolasi	:
Sumber	:	UNS-FSSR Jur. Sastra Inggris-C.1399012-2003
Kata Kunci	:
Jenis Dokumen	:	Skripsi
ISSN	:
ISBN	:
Link DOI / Jurnal	:	-
Status	:	Public
Pembimbing	:	1. Dra. Zita Rarastesa, MA 2. Dra. Endang. SA, MS
Penguji	:
Catatan Umum	:	3346/2003
Fakultas	:	Fak. Sastra dan Seni Rupa

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