Vionita Ajeng Nurul Fatimah, 2211410022 (2014) AMBIVALENCE ON SOUTHERN AMERICAN CULTURE DURING GREAT DEPRESSION ERA AS REFLECTED ON HARPER LEE’S TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD. Under Graduates thesis, UNIVERSITAS NEGERI SEMARANG.

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Abstract

This study was about ambivalence on Southern American culture in Great Depression Era as reflected in To Kill a Mockingbird. Racism was constructed through embedded signs displayed in novel, then it was related to the historical background of the novel and the life experience of the author in order to find out what racism represented for in Southern American culture based on the novel. The objectives of this study were to illustrate how racism was constructed through signs in To Kill a Mockingbird, and to analyze what different perspective history could be seen from the representation of racism in Southern American culture during the Great Depression Era based on the novel. The method of this study was reading the novel, identifying the data needed, inventorying the data, and reporting the data in a form of descriptive qualitative. It contained the description, analysis, and interpretation of these data supported by theories. Finally, I drew conclusion in order to answer the statements of problem. The results of the study were that the signs displayed in To Kill a Mockingbird could be constructed through two orders of signification system to show the existence of racism. Those signs were associated with the characteristics of racism. The result also showed that To Kill a Mockingbird could be considered as a novel portrayal of its white characters, their old conservative ideology, and the unwritten customs of white society that acted solely to maintain privilege and power of white people. The different perspective of history in Great Depression Era as reflected in the novel pointed out that the novel represented the ambivalence of white people towards representing themselves as a part of white supremacy or as a part of anti-racist was treated as the binary opposition of the absolute white supremacy with its conservative ideology which consigned the black as the victim of the race-based system in the society.

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