AMERICAN INDIVIDUALISM IN ADVENTURE STORIES: AN ANALYSIS OF TWAIN'S THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER AND RIORDAN'S PERCY JACKSON AND THE LIGHTNING THIEF

Hasbi Assiddiqi, Prof. Dr. C. Soebakdi Soemanto, S.U

2011 | Tesis | S2 Pengkajian Amerika

Amerika Serikat adalah negara yang menjungjung kebebasan dan persamaan mearih kesempatan. Yang pertama karena sejak semula orang-orang datang ke Amerika untuk mencari kebebasan. Yang kedua karena Amerika mempertahankan gagasan persamaan untuk mendapatkan kesempatan, bahwa setiap orang berhak mendapatkan apa yang ia harapkan. Ini adalah cirri-ciri individualisme Amerika. Individualisme dalam konteks Amerika berarti kebebasan individu yang membawa kepada pencapaian cita-cita dan kebebasan individu. Novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer dan Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief berisikan individualisme dimana tokoh-tokohnya mengasingkan diri dari masyarakatnya untuk meraih cita-citanya. Penulis kedua novel tersebut memandang individualisme Amerika sebagai kebebasan individu, menghormati hak-hak orang lain, dan pencapaian cita-cita individu. Ini ada kaitannya dengan voluntarisme yang sudah ada sejak permulaan sejarah Amerika. Ini adalah prinsip yang mengatakan bahwa setiap individu bebas memilih kelompoknya. Ketika orang Amerika mengagungkan kelompoknya ini berarti kebahagian individu. Interaksi antar tokoh di kedua novel terebut menunjukkan pandangan kedua penulis terhadap voluntarisme. Voluntarisme melahirkan persamaan dan persamaan dalam konteks Amerika adalah persamaan dalam meraih kesempatan. Namun demikian, ada perubahan penggambaran individualisme Amerika dari kedua novel tersebut. Di novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, sekelompok anak-anak melakukan petualangan untuk mencari hal yang sama, mencari harta. Sementara di novel Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief, meskipun sekelompok anak-anak secara bersama-sama melakukan petualangan, mereka memiliki tujuan masing-masing. Dari sini kita bisa melihat bahwa masyarakat Amerika modern lebih individualistik dibandingkan sebelumnya. Perbedaan penggambaran atas kebahagiaan pribadi di kedua novel tersebut menunjukkan bahwa kedua jaman memiliki makna yang berlainan tentang kebahagiaan individu. Di jaman Gilded Age kebahagiaan inidvidu berkaitan dengan materialisme, sementara di abad 21 hal ini berkaitan dengan kebahagiaan keluarga.

The United States of America is the land of freedom and the land of opportunity. It is the land of freedom because from the very beginning people came to America to search for freedom. It is also the land of opportunity because America holds the idea of equality of opportunity, that is every man and woman has the same opportunity to reach his or her happiness. These are the characteristics of individualism in America. Individualism in American context means individual independence and it leads to the pursuit of personal happiness and independence rather than collective goals or interests. Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief contains individualism in which characters of both novel draw apart from their society to pursue their personal goals. The authors of both novels regard American individualism as individual freedom, respecting other, and pursuing of personal goal. It has something to do with voluntarism which exists in American society since the beginning of their history to these days. It is the principle that individuals choose with whom they go. When Americans celebrate group or community, they are the means of individual happiness. The interaction between characters in both novels represent Authors point of view toward voluntarism. Voluntarism bears equality, and equality in American context is equality of opportunity. However, there is the shift in depicting American individualism from both novels. In The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, a group of children conduct the adventure to search the same goal, finding treasures. While in Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief, a group of children set out the adventures to the west to prevent the war between gods, but they have their own personal goal. Although they conduct the adventure together, they have their personal purpose. From this point we can see that modern American is more individualistic than that of before. The difference of depicting the personal goal in both novels indicates that the two eras has different meaning toward the pursuit of happiness. In the Gilded age the pursuit of happiness is related to materialism, but in 21st century the pursuit of happiness is related to the happy family.

Kata Kunci : individualisme, pencapaian kebahagiaan, persamaan, kebebasan individu.