A Marxist Analysis of Iwan Fals’ Song Nak Social Base and Function of Literature

A father’s love, a mother’s love… what if they are angry, angry to the world’s situation, angry to your environment and social condition around you. Will they broke the dishes, fill a bottle full with petroleum and then make it an explosive bomb then throw it to the governmental house, or will they kill themselves after they kill you. They can be doing all of those things above, but they are too kind to do that, they are not such kind of people. Another option they can take is singing some song or make some story, and retelling it to you as their child. This phenomenon captured in one of Iwan Fals’ song lyric, Nak. A song about a father’s feeling about the world and make it a background in his mind to make some wise words for his child. A song from 1984 in an album called Sugali.

“Verse 1

Jauh jalan yang harus kau tempuh

Mungkin samar bahkan mungkin gelap

Tajam kerikil setiap saat menunggu

Engkau lewat dengan kaki yang tak bersepatu

Duduk sini Nak dekat pada bapak

Jangan kau ganggu ibumu

Turunlah lekas dari pangkuannya

Engkau lelaki kelak sendiri

Verse 2

Nak dengarlah bicara bapakmu

Yang kenyang akan hidup terang dan redup

Letakkan dahulu mainan itu

Duduk dekat bapak sabar mendengar

Kau anak harapanku yang lahir di jaman gersang

Segala sesuatu hanya ada karena uang

Ya … ya … ya … ya …

Kau anak dambaanku yang besar di kancah perang

Kau harus kuat yakin pasti menang

Sekolah biasa saja jangan pintar-pintar percuma

Latihlah bibirmu agar pandai berkicau

Sebab mereka sangat perlu kicau yang merdu

Sekolah buatmu hanya perlu untuk titel

Peduli titel didapat atau titel mu’jizat

Ya … ya … ya … ya …

Sekolah buatmu hanya perlu untuk gengsi

Agar mudah bergaul tentu banyak relasi

Jadi penjilat yang paling tepat

Karirmu cepat uang tentu dapat

Jadilah Durno jangan jadi Bimo

Sebab seorang Dorna punya lidah sejuta

O . . . . o . . . . o . . . . . o . . . .

Hidup sudah susah jangan dibikin susah

Cari saja senang walau banyak hutang

Munafik sedikit jangan terlalu jujur

Sebab orang jujur hanya ada di komik

Pilihlah jalan yang mulus tak banyak batu

Sebab batu-batu bikin jalanmu terhambat

Ya … ya … ya … ya …

Pilihlah jalan yang bagus tak ada paku

Sebab paku itu sakit apalagi yang berkarat

Jadilah kancil jangan buaya

Sebab seekor kancil sadar akan bahaya

Jadilah bandit berkedok jagoan

Agar semua sangka engkau seorang pahlawan

Jadilah bunglon jangan sapi

Sebab seekor bunglon pandai baca situasi

Jadilah karet jangan besi

Sebab yang namanya karet tahan kondisi

Anakku aku nyanyikan lagu

Waktu ayah tak tahan lagi menahan murka.”[1]

            According to Ricoeur (1981) in a book by Faruk (2010), literature is something that can’t be separated by its context of social condition, but a literary work is something independent and can’t be owned by a person, it can be refers to anyone, anytime, and anywhere[2]. If so, those lyric above must have a social condition background. At the time of the album of the song launched is 1984 and at the time Indonesia is in its new order era under the Soeharto regime. And if we once again look at Marx two greatest clue about his philosophy of Marxism that “it is not the consciousness of men that determines their being, but, on the contrary, their social being that determines their consciousness. And, the philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways; and the point is to change It.[3]” so the lyric above is an ideology or a superstructure that rest upon the base structure that is no other than the reality of social condition when the lyric written. In despite of Marx, himself said that every different thought has their own social, politic, and economic group interest that dominated at the time. Generally, they, the dominant group, make the unfair economic problem as something that fair and right; they also make a rule about dominant groups as natural and legal. Thus, the thought is to make sure that the dominant group or class keep on power[4]. So the base structure are already monopolized and dominated by the dominant group, it is an unfair condition for the oppressed group; it is a similarity with the idea of bourgeois and proletarian group, so, according to Ryan (2007), literature is an important way to circulate thought in culture. Religion and institution of education in past time, and also film, television, radio, and another media nowadays has an important function[5]. Thus, another way to research literature is by analyzing its political function in shoring up the power of the dominant groups.

            In this essay, I want to summarize up the theory from Trotsky about the social base and function of literature, actually I found D. Jupriono (2012) has summarized it, here his theory say: 1) every works should be utter the voice of pain and hope of very weak or oppressed group in society. 2) In expressing the feeling, the work should be using a direct and most spontaneous word. 3) Extracted by economic factor, proletarian should be conveying their feeling by using their new point of view and poet should give them facility to do it[6]. So, from this theory I will analyze the lyric above if whether the social base and function of literature is in the lyric or not. Here we go.

            First, I will analyze from the number one, is the lyric conveying word from the very weak or oppressed group in society. To answer the question, we have to look at the lyric once more time and decide whether it’s a pro to the dominant or the oppressed group in society.

“Anakku aku nyanyikan lagu

Waktu ayah tak tahan lagi menahan murka.”[7]

            Those two lines of lyric tell that this lyric is about a father talk with his son that he sang a song when he can’t bear to hold angry anymore. The father angry because he can’t bear with the situation of war, full of conflict, and it’s so hard to live the life as shown by the lyric below.

“Kau anak harapanku yang lahir di jaman gersang

Segala sesuatu hanya ada karena uang

Ya … ya … ya … ya …

Kau anak dambaanku yang besar di kancah perang

Kau harus kuat yakin pasti menang”[8]

            This lyric is a voice of fathers in the era of this lyric written, this lyric is a voice of the oppressed group in society who want their child to be a successful man and don’t suffering like their father, so this lyric according to my appraisal is fulfilled the first requirement of social base and function as said by Trotsky every works should be utter the voice of pain and hope of very weak or oppressed group in society[9].

            Now I will analyzing the language used in the lyric, whether it’s using the most direct and spontaneous language or vice versa. The direct language is a language that should be easily understand by a mere people, and the indirect language is the vice versa of that. To know about whether using the direct or indirect language, let’s look at the lyric again, especially the second verse; and below I took a stanza from the second verse as an example.

“Sekolah biasa saja jangan pintar-pintar percuma

Latihlah bibirmu agar pandai berkicau

Sebab mereka sangat perlu kicau yang merdu

Sekolah buatmu hanya perlu untuk titel

Peduli titel didapat atau titel mu’jizat

Ya … ya … ya … ya …[10]”

            In that stanza, the translation in English is “school commonly and don’t too smart it’s will give you nothing, train your mouth to know chirruping, because they so need a beautiful twit, school for you just to get the title, don’t mind if it a winning or a given title… ya…ya…ya…ya…” I can take a conclusion that in this lyric to express his feeling, the father used a direct language, a language to persuade by the father to his child to train his speaking ability and make it the first goal before school because it’s the required thing to live the life at the time, although in the lyric used the word chirruping instead of speaking but it is clear enough for us, the reader, to know that the meaning sense is to speak. So the lyric once again fulfill the requirement, the second requirement of Trotsky’s theory about social function of literature “in expressing the feeling, the work should be using a direct and most spontaneous word[11]”.

            Now the final assessment, it is about the base structure if using Marx style, but here we using Trostky’s style and he said it by economic factor as the base of literature written. And also, in this final part is about the point of view of proletarian, and the function of the poet on helping the proletarian to convey their messages. I have taken a stanza from the lyric for me to analyze as shown below.

“Jadilah kancil jangan buaya

Sebab seekor kancil sadar akan bahaya

Jadilah bandit berkedok jagoan

Agar semua sangka engkau seorang pahlawan

Jadilah bunglon jangan sapi

Sebab seekor bunglon pandai baca situasi

Jadilah karet jangan besi

Sebab yang namanya karet tahan kondisi[12]”

            At the stanza above, the poet successfully conveyed the message from the proletarian about their new point of view to the world, why I know that this is a new point of view from the proletarian, first the lyric above leave the former meaning of some context meaning of some term like kancil or mouse deer, bandit or bandit, bunglon or chameleon, sapi or cow, and about karet (gum) and besi (iron). As the first line in that stanza tell that the child should be like the mouse deer not because the mouse deer clever as in Indonesian fable story but because mouse deer more understand about any danger around, and also not to be strong only as the crocodile. The second thing is to be a chameleon not to be a cow, a cow according to me an Indonesian people is so useful than a chameleon that can be found at so many place at my place freely, but in the lyric the child should be like the chameleon because it can read the situation around and that is more useful than to be a cow that can’t do anything. And to be gum than to be a piece of iron because the gum is more durable to any condition. Those show the fact that the lyric is the poet role to convey the new point of view of proletarian group. And the final thing, the economic factor as the background of the lyric written is in 1984 there are so much new rich people in Indonesia, and then from the album title also, Sugali[13], is the dominant group that using any method to keep their existence in keeping their power in society.

            As a conclusion of this essay, I will say that this lyric entitled Nak by Iwan Fals is successfully created and fulfill every requirement of the three requirement as in Trotsky’s theory. So this lyric is an ideal lyric for its social base and function.

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[1] Fals, Iwan. 1984. Sugali. Indonesia : Musica Studios.

[2] Faruk. 2010. Pengantar Sosiologi Sastra, dari Strukturalisme Genetik sampai Post-modernisme. Yogyakarta : Pustaka Pelajar.

[3] Selden, Raman. ____. A Reader’s Guide to Contemporary Literary Theory 5^th ed. New York : Pearson Longman.

[4] Ryan, Michael. 2011. Teori Sastra, Sebuah Pengantar Praktis. Yogyakarta : Jalasutra.

[5] Ryan, Michael. 2011. Teori Sastra, Sebuah Pengantar Praktis. Yogyakarta : Jalasutra.

[6] Trotsky, L. 2003. Akar dan Fungsi Sosial Dunia Sastra. Terjemahan Dewey Setiawan. Jogjakarta : Wellred.

[7] Fals, Iwan. 1984. Sugali. Indonesia : Musica Studios.

[8] Fals, Iwan. 1984. Sugali. Indonesia : Musica Studios.

[9] Trotsky, L. 2003. Akar dan Fungsi Sosial Dunia Sastra. Terjemahan Dewey Setiawan. Jogjakarta : Wellred.

[10] Fals, Iwan. 1984. Sugali. Indonesia : Musica Studios.

[11] Trotsky, L. 2003. Akar dan Fungsi Sosial Dunia Sastra. Terjemahan Dewey Setiawan. Jogjakarta : Wellred.

[12] Fals, Iwan. 1984. Sugali. Indonesia : Musica Studios.

[13] Sugali is a fictive character created by the lyric writer, he is a bandit that wanted by the police in the era of Petrus in Indonesia, a mysterious tragedy in 1980’s that took so many victim. 

Theories of Marxism on Literature

The basic tenets of Marxism are no easier to summerize than the essential doctrines of Christianity, but two well-known statements by Marx provide a sufficient point of departure

It is not the consciousness of men that determines their being, but, on the contrary, their social being that determines their consciousness.

The philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways; the point is to change it.[1]

The Marxist critic believes that the only importance in a piece of literature lays in how it supports or attacks the socioeconomic structure.

[2]The one who started the Marxist critic is Karl Marx, he was an immensely influential German Jewish philosopher, political economist, and social revolutionary. He developed his system of thought in the 19th century in response to the Western industrial revolution and the rise of industrial capitalism as the predominant economic mode.

This theory of marxism is established because of there were some gap between bourgouis and proletariat, the bougouis opressed the proletariat. All of this oppression, according to Marx, causes tension between the classes, leading to cyclical oppression and revolution that can be observed throughout history. Marx recommended that societies overthrow their capitalist regimes and create a worker society in which the worker is recognized as central to the economy.

So How Does All of this Apply to Literary Criticism?

Simply Put, Marxist Literary Critics Apply the Insights of Marxism to Literature. But Marxism is a Political and Economic Theory… How Can It be Applied to  Literature?

To answer this question, we have to consider Marx’s concept of the base and superstructure.

Slavery and Base/Superstructure

All of the ideological institutions, such as organized religion, local and national politics, and art (especially literature), worked to uphold slavery as a good economic system. The bourgeouis drawing and redrawing of all these lines was a complex process.[3] Hence, the economic base of southern, slaveholding society determined its superstructure.

Marxist literary critics see literature as a social institution with with a particular ideological function. It participates in the struggles between oppressed and oppressing classes which makes up human history. All literature that expresses tension between opposing classes and their ideologies is ripe for Marxist analysis.

Questions Marxist Critics Ask about Literature

How are class differences presented in the work?

Are characters aware or unaware of the economic and social forces that affect their lives?

How do economic conditions determine the characters’ lives?

Do characters overcome oppression in their lives? If so, how?

Does the work accurately reflect the socio-economic conditions of the time period being portrayed? [4]

In Raymond Williams’ Marxism and Literature, Part III, he explore about marxism and literature, he conceded that there are multiplicity of writing that caused by the burgouis for their intention. Aestethic according to him is a value that must be concluded in a medium, medium is not language medium is something like film or advertisement; language then is a constitutive element of material social practice. Thus languages are notation, it is can be written or spoken notation, and sign is arbitrary it can be anything that can be used as a medium for comunication.[5]

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[1] Selden, Ramden. A Reader’s Guide to Contemporary Literary Theory. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1985.

[2] The drawing is from “marxist literary theory student copy.ppt”.

[3] Williams, Raymond. Marxism and Literatur. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1977.

[4] “marxist literary theory student copy.ppt”.

[5] Williams, Raymond. Marxism and Literatur. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1977.

The Feminist Sense in the life of Sri in N.H. Dini’s “Pada Sebuah Kapal”

A.    Introduction, Feminist, Feminism

N.H. Dini’s Pada Sebuah Kapal is a novel that published in 1973, N.H. Dini is a feminist because of her literary work that talking about women subtle or directly. N.H. Dini’s Pada Sebuah Kapal is just like A Vindication of the Rights of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft, in N.H. Dini’s she talk about how men treat women, but she indirectly talking it, she talk about it subtle through the story, from the story I can conclude that there are still some people who treat women hard, but not all people or not all men. In that novel, N.H. Dini also taught the men who read the novel how to treat women well. In Wollstonecraft’s she discusses a number of writers’ attitudes toward female character and education. Wollstocraft accepts the common theory of the association of ideas set forth in David Harley’s Observation of Man (1749) and employed by David Hume in his Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding. Her emphasis on the importance of impressions leads her in to attack the sentimental novels of her time for their pernicious influences on women’s intellectual development[1]. Those two women are feminist, so what are feminist and feminism, to understand it let’s see the following tripartite definition from the soc.feminism FAQ file.[2]

1.      The belief that women and men are, and have been, treated differently by our society, and that women have frequently and systematically been unable to participate fully in all social arenas and institutions.   

2.      A desire to change that situation.

3.      That this gives a "new" point-of-view on society, when eliminating old assumptions about why things are the way they are, and looking at it from the perspective that women are not inferior and men are not "the norm."

Feminism is a feminist concept. Feminist it self comes from the word femme (woman), means female (single) who fought for the rights of women (plural), as social class[3].

B.     Feminism in N.H. Dini’s Pada Sebuah Kapal

To know about feminism in the novel, I will use Elaine Showalter's Theory which has three stages; they are the Feminine, Feminist, and Female. In A Literature of Their Own, Elaine Showalter argued that literary subcultures all go through three major phases of development. For literature by or about women, she labels these stages the Feminine, Feminist, and Female:[4]

(1) Feminine Stage - involves "imitation of the prevailing modes of the dominant tradition" and "internalization of its standards."

(2) Feminist Stage - involves "protest against these standards and values and advocacy of minority rights...."

(3) Female Stage - this is the "phase of self-discovery, a turning inwards freed from some of the dependency of opposition, a search for identity."

Sri has loss her father when she was thirteen; from that moment we can perceive that her mother was the one bred the whole family, her mother and her brothers still treat she as a little girl. After several years she live and she still have a traditional think, Sri still a shy woman that rarely talk to other people. This stage of Sri’s life is called feminine stage when woman still abide the prevailing modes of the dominant tradition. Here are some citation from the novel about this stage.

“ kita bisa menanam ubi di samping rumah. Pohon blimbing itu kita potong, karena sudah tua,”katanya sambil memandangku. Aku tidak berkata sepatah pun, tersenyum ganti memandangnya. Jadi dia mengerti bahwa aku ingin meneruskan memelihara kebun ayahku. Memang aku yang mengurus kolam dan tumbuhan di sana. Semula dengan rasa wajib yang tidak kusadari. Aku menyiram anggrek dan pot-pot kaktus dengan sambil lalu....

“Sri masih seperti dulu. Tidak banyak bersuara. Bisanya hanya berbicara dengan kucing, dengan ayam atau tanamannya di kebun muka itu.”[5]

Yet Sri’s life begin to change when she already work as a radio broadcaster and then she wanted to be a flight attendance, she didn’t want to be a just merely ordinary woman, here she begin to change her traditional thinking and force the traditional law of women which women not usually work abroad and not usually work alone in a school of men. Although Sri didn’t be a flight attendance and continuing work as a radio broadcaster, she still has a change of thinking by doing some relationship with Saputro, in doing her relationship Sri belabor a tradition when a couple didn’t do intimacy with their partner before married. This stage of Sri’s life can be concluding as feminist stage when women can be anything she likes, and also do anything that she wants to do. Here begin women force the traditional law. Here some citation from the novel about this stage.

“Pada suatu hari kulihat pengumuman dibukanya kesempatan bagi wanita-wanita muda yang ingin menceburkan diri ke pendidikan pramugari udara.Ini adalah pekerjaan yang sama sekali asing bagiku. Tetapi aku tahu bahwa gaji seorang pramugari hampir tiga kali gaji yang kuterima pada waktu itu. Tanpa memberitahu seorang pun aku mengirimkan pendaftaranku. Setelah melalui percobaan-percobaan di daerahku, aku akhirnya mendapat panggilan untuk diuji di Jakarta...”[6]

Sri’s life isn’t as smooth as a baby’s skin, it’s full of struggle and sorrow. After make a plan to marry and then she engaged, accidentally her fiancé died in an accident. She became sick and mad but after several months she can move on and continuing her life. Marrying a nationalist from France she still didn’t happy, on the contrary she became ill because she treated as a slave, her husband yelled and mad at her. After the moment in the ship when Sri went to Paris she met a man namely Michel who a sailor and she found that she can’t be always like that, so she wants to divorce with  her husband but she ignored. Being ignored she make some affair with Michel till the end of the story. This stage is called female, where Sri has found her desires. Although to fulfill the desire she had to make an affair. Here are some citation from the novel about this stage.

Aku tidak memerlukan janjinya, tetapi dia mengucapkannya seolah menjadi hakkulah untuk menerima janji itu. Kuantarkan dia ke mejanya, dan kembali ke tempatku sendiri. Dua kali kulihat dia menolak undang. Hatiku meluap oleh rasa kebahagiaan kini dia mengerti bahwa perasaan yang kusimpan terhadapnya melebihi keramahan yang kutunjukkan kepada penumpang-penumpang lainnya[7].

At the citation above we can see the beginning of affair between Sri and Michel, the paragraph above is uttered by Michel.

C.     Conclusion

Here, Sri in Pada Sebuah Kapal has a unique characteristic, she passed through three stages of feminism theory, Feminine, Feminist, and Female stage. She, who from an ordinary female in her house, became more wild and wild as she got out from her house, and after she has not any attention from her parent anymore she became wilder.  This novel is a good mimesis from the real life, the mimesis still relevance with today reality. When women need not only money, women need not only loyalty, women need not only love, they need all of that, they need hugs and kisses, smooth sentences and gentle treatment from the men.

The story is in a side of mimesis is good, but in another side, this novel is not good for read by teenager because the novel still need so much attention from the parents, it is for adult, containing so much affair, so much moment that will written in the memory of its reader for a long time.

The novel gives me a conclusion that everything has two sides, a good side and a bad side, like this novel which gives me a good example of the effect of vindication of the right of woman that became a wrong perception. The women became advance in rank, in education, in everything, but they are became declined in their moral, this is the bad thing.

N.H. Dini in her novel conveys the moral message subtly but surely effective to the reader. He delivers the story a little slow but with using of so much character and setting the story became not boring to read. Especially with the special point of view that she used at the time, the first person point of view but delivered by different character give the reader an odd but fancy sensation that is rarely used although today.

Finally, both Wollstonecraft and also N.H. Dini succeed in delivering their message to the reader about how actually women treated.

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[1] Nurrachman, Dian, Classical Critical Theory: General Introduction on The Nature of Criticism, Bandung: Elsa Write Publishing, 2012.

[2] (http://www.cs.uu.nl/wais/html/na-dir/feminism/info.html)

[3] Ratna, Nyoman Kutha, Teori, Metode, dan Teknik Penelitian Sastra, Yogyakarta,: Pustaka Pelajar, 2004.

[4] http://www.editorskylar.com/litcrit.html#feminist

[5] Dini, NH., Pada Sebuah Kapal, Jakarta: Ministry of Education, 2004.

[6] Dini, NH., Pada Sebuah Kapal, Jakarta: Ministry of Education, 2004.

[7] Dini, NH., Pada Sebuah Kapal, Jakarta: Ministry of Education, 2004.