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