Vivi Aunillah, 2211415042 (2020) MORAL CRISES IN POST-WORLD WAR II JAPAN DEPICTED IN OSAMU DAZAI’S THE SETTING SUN. Under Graduates thesis, UNNES.

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Abstract

Moral crisis has become a complex global issue. Many cases such as racism, discrimination, corruption, even mass killing still linger in since traditional to this so-called open-minded modern era. This final project discusses the moral crises that happened in the post-World War II Japan as depicted by Dazai Osamu in his masterpiece The Setting Sun. The objectives of this study are including: 1.) to explain the forms of the moral crises depicted by the world war II generation in The Setting Sun and 2.) to reveal worldview related to moral crises of Osamu Dazai’s as reflected in his novel The Setting Sun. The methodology used in this study was the qualitative method. The study analyzed the novel by using Lucien Goldmann’s theory of genetic structuralism. The object of the study consists of two components, namely The Setting Sun a novel by Dazai Osamu as the material object and the theory of Genetic Structuralism by Lucien Goldmann as the formal object. The data are categorized into primary and secondary ones. The primary data are directly taken from the novel entitled The Setting Sun whereas the secondary data are the supporting information about the topic or the theory which are taken from books, journal articles, the internet, etc. This study identified that the characters in the novel expressed their moral crises through drug addiction, alcoholism, killing innocents and infidelity. The correlation of the novel with the of Dazai’s real-life events and the crises that happened in Japan at the time indicates that the novel was the manifestation of Dazai’s bitter experience and people around him in the desperate time of Japan after the war. From his real-life experience, Dazai’s personal struggles seemed to influence the characterization and background story of all the three characters, Kazuko, Uehara and Naoji. As for the historical background of the novel, Dazai portrayed the destructive effects of the defeated war and the transition of Japan in being westernized socially and morally. As a member of Japan society, Dazai seemed to convey his worldview that those acts of moral crisis are the only way for people to escape from the their suffering. In conclusion, the moral crises during the post-World War II depicted by the characters in The Setting Sun show the despair and exhaustion of Japanese society by the war. He wanted to imply that people saw the acts of moral crises that have been mentioned in the novel as something acceptable at the time.

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