The Analysis of Characters, Point of view and Tone in
The
Eighty Yard Run
A.
INTRODUCTION
In
this paper I would like to analyze the short story elements of The Eighty
Yard Run by Irwin Shaw. This analyze will be the requirements for the final-test.
In this short story we can see the lesson that we can take from the story
according to the main male character’s life. In my opinion short story of The
Eighty Yard Run teach us that we must think clearly in order to face a
problem in this life, and do not taken along the past try to enjoy the present
life. Moreover this analysis will contain about three sections. The first
section will explain about the theoretical concept which contains definition
concepts of two elements of The Eighty Yard Run short story and
quotations will be given from a second source. The second section will contains
analysis of the two elements which are the characters and point of view that
exist in this short story by giving descriptions, explanations, and quotations
as evidences to support my arguments. The third section is a conclusion which
contains my summarizing or the result of this analysis. I will explain about
characteristics of the characters in The Eighty Yard Run short story and
related it with the point of view and tone.
B.
THEORETICAL CONCEPT
1.
CHARACTER
“Character
in fiction can be conveniently classified as major and minor, static and
dynamic. A major character is an important figure at the center of the
story’s action or theme.”[1]
“The major character is sometimes called a protagonist whose conflict
with an antagonist may spark the story’s conflict.
Supporting the major character are one or more
secondary or minor characters whose function is partly to illuminate the
major characters. Minor characters are often static or unchanging: they
remain the same from beginning of a work to the end. Dynamic characters,
on the other hand, exhibit some kind of change─of attitude, of purpose,
of behavior─as the story progresses.”[2]
“One
important minor character often appears in television programs: the confidant
(or, if a female, the confidante)─the persons in whom the protagonist
confides.”[3]
The kind of minor character, often known as a foil, typically contrasts
physically and/or in personality with the main character.”[4]
A stereotyped character represents a category of people … Stereotyped
characters are sometimes referred to as stock or type characters.”[5]
“A final category of character might be termed the piece of furniture
character.”[6]
“Character
creation is the art of characterization─what the author does to bring
a character to life, to provide the reader with a sense of that character’s
personality, to make that character unique.”[7]
It is divided into two that is direct characterization and indirect
characterization. “In direct characterization, the narrator or a
character summarizes or tells the reader what another character looks like or
what kind of person he or she is.”[8]
“In indirect characterization, narrators
and characters describe, without comment, a character’s appearance or
dress.”[9]
2.
POINT OF VIEW AND TONE
Point
of View
“Point of view is the
vantage point from which the author tells a story. There are two
mains
points of view; first person (I) and third person (he, she,
they), but there are variations within these points of view.”[10] “Although
third person point of view may take us inside a character’s consciousness or
remain objective, it does not assume the perspective of any character. Stories
with narrators who participate in the action are presented from a first
person point of view.[11]
“The third person
point of view may be omniscient; that is, it may reveal the thoughts of
all or most of the characters. In contrast, limited omniscient point of
view focuses on the thoughts of a single character.”[12]
“One type of limited omniscient is the objective point of view, in which the
author makes no commentary but records only those details that can be seen and
heard, rather the newspaper reporter does.”[13]
Tone
“Tone in
writing is somewhat like tone of voice in speech … Similarly, tone in writing is the author’s attitude toward
the character, the topic, or the readers, as expressed by the narrator, and it
may come accros in a number of ways.”[14]
C.
THE ANALYSIS OF ELEMENTS OF THE
SHORT STORY
1.
Characters
There are
many of the character that we can find in the short story of The Eighty Yard
Run by Irwin Shaw. They are: Christian Darling, Louise Tucker, Louise’s
father, Coaches, Assistant Coaches, Manager, Assistant Manager, the Football
Players Team, the students, Diederich, Cathal Flaherty, a girl with Flaherty and
couple (the boy and the girl) in the field. For the beginning, this analysis will
analyze the first character that is Christian Darling.
Christian
Darling is
the main male character and as a protagonist character in the short story. He
dominates from the beginning until the end of the story. He also is a dynamic
character who has a change in his behavior. When he is in the thirty five years
old, he sets himself in contradiction about his lives; he always reflects to
the past life when it is his highlight point in his life. He shows the significance changes attitude
after his father in law dead. For the first we will take a look his
characterization when he is a young man in the age around 25 years old. He is
an energetic or active person. We can see from the quotation:
Darling
trotted back, smiling, breathing deeply but easily, feeling wonderful, not
tired, though this was the tail end of practice and he’d run eighty yards.
(P.66)
From the quotation above we know that
Darling is not feeling tired even though he almost practice the football games.
Besides Darling is a frugal person, we can see in this quotation bellow:
"You'll spend every cent your old man owns," Darling
protested once when she showed up at his rooms with seven different packages in
her arms and tossed them onto the couch. "Kiss me," Louise said,
"and shut up." "Do you want to break your poor old man?"(P.69)
We can understand that Darling is a frugal person because he
protests to Louise when she buys many presents for him using her father’s
money. He doesn’t want to make her father’s become bankrupt. He also has a high
confidence character as the writer shown in the short story:
"It makes me feel good. Kiss me. I don't know why. Did you
know that you're an important figure?" "Yes," Darling said
gravely. (P.69)
We see from the quotation that Darling is really sure that he is
the importance figure as he said to Louise. It means he has a high self
confidence. After he married with Louise, Darling starts to show his bad
behavior by cheating with many girls.
They'd married when they got out of college. There'd been other
women for him, but all casual and secret, more for curiosity's sake, and
vanity, women who'd thrown themselves at him and flattered him, a pretty mother
at a summer camp for boys, an old girl from his home town who'd suddenly
blossomed into a coquette, a friend of Louise's who had dogged him grimly for
six months and had taken advantage of the two weeks that Louise went home when
her mother died.(P.69)
From the quotation above we know that Darling has already plans to
married with Louise after go out from college, but he cheats with many girls
before including Louise’s friend. Moreover even though Darling had been married
with Louise, he does it again when Louise goes to art galleries.
Louise went to the art galleries and the
matinees of the more serious plays that Darling didn't like to sit through and
Darling slept with a girl who danced in the chorus of Rosalie and with the wife
of a man who owned three copper mines. (P.70)
Besides he become extravagant when Louise’s father
gives Darling responsibility to work in his ink company and a three hundred
accounts to Darling and Louise.
They saw all the shows and went to all the speakeasies and spent
their fifteen thousand dollars a year and in the afternoons … (P.70)
From the quotation above shows that the present Darling’s behavior
is different with Darling’s behavior before married. Darling’s behavior or his
characteristics is become worse after Louise’s father was dead and leaves many
debts to pay off because the bankruptcy of the company. It is all caused by Darling’s
irresponsible action; the fact is he never manages the ink company, so he has
to spend the rest of his life stressed through feelings of failure. He becomes an introvert person and becomes
addicted to alcohol. We can see from the quotation:
“please, why do
you want to start drinking at two o'clock in the afternoon? "I have
nothing else to do," Darling said, putting down his glass, emptied of its
fourth drink. "Please pass the whisky." Louise filled his glass.
"Come take a walk with me," she said. "We'll walk along the
river." "I don't want to walk along the river," Darling said
… "We'll walk along Fifth
Avenue." "I don't want to walk along Fifth Avenue."
"Maybe," Louise said gently, "you'd like to come with me to some
art galleries … I don't want to go to any art galleries. I want to sit here and
drink Scotch whisky," (P.71)
The quotation above
shows that Darling is prefers to drink alcohol instead to go outside and meet
with other people. It is happens because Darling couldn’t face such dramatic
changing in his life. Not only Darling beings introvert and alcoholic, but also
he likes to criticize people as the writer shows in the story.
"I don't like your hat," Darling said, once, when she
came in the evening …"What's the matter with my hat, Baby?" she
asked, running her fingers through his hair. "Everybody says it's very
smart." "It's too damned smart," he said. "It's not for
you. It's for a rich, sophisticated woman of thirty-five with admirers."
(p. 72)
From the quotation, we know that Darling criticize about Louise’s
hat. He thinks that the hat isn’t proper to use for Louise. It also means that
Darling is frightened to lose Louise, if she becomes sophisticated woman with
admires and leave him. Once in a time, Darling succeeded to become enthusiasm to
get a work again. The quotation bellow shows the event:
He got jobs after that, selling real estate and automobiles, but
somehow, although he had a desk with his name on a wooden wedge on it, and he
went to the office religiously at nine each morning, he never managed to sell
anything and he never made any money. (P.74)
From the quotation above we know that Darling gets a job and
faithfully comes to the office, even though the real is he never does any jobs
in the office and makes money from it. After that, in another time he gets
another job with salary, here the quotation:
"Should I take it?" Deep within him he hoped fiercely,
longingly, for her to say, "No, Baby, you stay right here," but she
said, as he knew she'd say, "I think you'd better take it." He
nodded. He had to get up and stand with his back to her, looking out the
window, because there were things plain on his face that she had never seen in
the fifteen years she'd known him. "Fifty dollars is a lot of money,"
he said. "I never thought I'd ever see fifty dollars again." He
laughed. (P.77-78)
The quotation above shows that Darling had change becomes a person
who has lack of confidence. Even to get a job with good salary, he doesn’t
believe himself anymore if he can do that again. He asks advice to Louise but
in his deep heart he wants Louise to let him not take that job. The author describes Darling
appearance when he is in thirty five years old with direct characterization,
this is the quotation:
Darling walked
slowly over the same ground in the spring twilight, in his neat shoes, a man of
thirty-five dressed in a double breasted suit, ten pounds heavier in the
fifteen years, but not fat, with the years between 1925 and 1940 showing in his
face. (P.66)
The second character
is Louise as the main female character. She is antagonist and static
character because there is not significance change of his attitude. She has
extremely attractive characteristics; she is faithful, care, humble, easy
going, educated, and beautiful. We can see from the quotation above:
Louise loved him and
watched him faithfully in the games, (P.69)
From the quotation we know that Louise is a faithful woman to her
boyfriends. Besides, when she becomes Darling’s wife she still faithful and
patient to stay with him as long as she can. Even at the end of story Louise
and Darling had to separate. Louise also seems patients even though she knows
that Darling cheating behind her. This is the quotation:
… a friend of Louise's who had dogged him grimly for six months
and had taken advantage of the two weeks that Louise went home when her mother
died. Perhaps Louise had known, but she'd kept quiet, loving him completely,
filling his rooms with presents, religiously watching him battling with the big
Swedes and Polacks on the line of scrimmage on Saturday afternoons, making plans
for marrying him … (P.70)
We know from the quotation that even Louise knows, she still loves
him and act as usual. When Darling changes his attitude, Louise still loves him
and patient to face his attitude. She also care to Darling even Darling not
give a good response to her.
"Please, Christian," Louise said … "please, why do
you want to start drinking at two o'clock in the afternoon?" "I have
nothing else to do," Darling said, putting down his glass, emptied of its
fourth drink. "Please pass the whisky."Louise filled his glass.
"Come take a walk with me," she said. "We'll walk along the
river." "I don't want to walk along the river," Darling said …
(P.71)
From the quotation above we know that Louise with patient face
Darling’s attitude by pour the whisky to his glass. She also cares with Darling
and wants to make him happy by offering him take a walk with her, even Darling
rejected. Louise is a humble woman to the people, here is the quotation:
Louise was made assistant editor, and the house was always full of
strange men and women who talked fast and got angry on abstract subjects like
mural painting, novelists, labor unions. Negro short-story writers drank
Louise's liquor, and a lot of Jews, and big solemn men with scarred face … Louise
moved among them all, confidently, knowing what they were talking about, with
opinions that they listened to and argued about just as though she were a man.
She knew everybody, condescended to no one … (P.74)
The quotation above shows that Louise is a friendly, humble,
confidence to her guest in the house. Even she has good characteristics but
there is a bad side, Louise once ever shows off and extravagant:
She was proud of him and wanted to show everybody that she was
Christian Darling's girl. She bought him crazy presents because her father was
rich, watches, pipes, humidors, an icebox for beer for his room, curtains,
wallets, a fifty-dollar dictionary.(P.69)
In order to shows everybody that she is a Darling’s
girlfriend, she gives many presents to Darling after the football games over.
The author describes Louise appearance with direct characterization:
… how pretty she was, the rough blonde hair and
the large, inquiring eyes and the bright mouth, smiling now. (P.67)
Then the next character is Louise’s
father as a minor character and a static character. There is no change in
his attitude. He is a kind person because he has been given Darling and his
daughter a three hundred accounts for the, and gives Darling an office in his
ink company. This is the quotation:
Her father, who manufactured inks, set up a New York office for Darling
to manage and presented him with three hundred accounts… (P.70)
The next characters are Coaches,
Assistant Coaches, Manager, Assistant Manager, the Football Players Team, the
students, a girl with Flaherty and couple (the boy and the girl) in the field. They are
the minor characters and static characters. There is no significance change of
their attitude. Here is the quotation for each of the character that exists in
the short story of The Eighty Yard Run:
The coach was smiling quietly to himself and
the assistant coaches were looking at each other with Pleasure … (P.66)
The manager
slapped a piece of adhesive tape over the cut … (P.67)
The assistant
manager fussed over him, wiping a cut on his leg with alcohol and iodine … (P.
66)
… the
laughter of the players all somehow made him feel happy as he trotted back to
midfield, listening to the applause and shouts of the students along the
sidelines … (P.66)
… Cathal
Flaherty was saying, standing at the door with a girl … (P.75)
… he
saw the boy and girl sitting together on the turf, looking at him wonderingly.(P.79)
The next characters are Diederich and Cathal Flaherty; they are the
minor and static characters. The author describes the two persons using direct
quotation as shown in the quotation above:
… Diederich,
a blank-faced German kid from Wisconsin, who ran like a bull, ripping lines to
pieces Saturday after Saturday, plowing through, never getting hurt, never
changing his expression … (P.68)
Flaherty was a big young Irishman with a broken nose who was the
lawyer for a longshoreman's union, and he had been hanging around the house for
six months on and off, roaring and shutting everybody else up when he got in an
argument (P.75)
2.
Point of View and Tone
In the short story of The Eighty Yard Run, the
author use many point of view and there is a shift point of view happens in the
short story. The first, the author using the third person point of view as we
can see in the beginning of the story. We can easily know
the story use third person point of view because the author use pronounce “he,
she, it, or they” in the story. This is the quotation:
The pass
was high and wide and he jumped for it, feeling it slap flatly against his
hands, as he shook his hips to throw off the halfback who was diving at him.(P.65)
The author use pronounce he to
replace the one of the character. Then the writer shift the point of view into
the limited point of view, this is the quotation:
The first halfback came at him and he fed him his leg, then swung at the
last moment, took the shock of the man's shoulders without breaking stride, ran
right through him, his cleats biting securely into the turf. There was only the
safety man now, coming warily at him, his arms crooked, hands spread.(P.65)
We can know from the quotation above that the
author let the reader see what happen but the author didn’t let their know into
the character thought. The reader can see about the football game which Darling
playing in the game. The other quotation for the limited point of view:
Christian Darling sat on the frail green grass of the practice
field. The shadow of the stadium had reached out and covered him. In the
distance the lights of the university shone a little mistily in the light haze
of evening. (P.78)
Beside that the
author use omniscient point of view, we can see from the quotation:
"What do you say?" he asked. "Should I take
it?" Deep within him he hoped fiercely, longingly, for her to say,
"No, Baby, you stay right here," but she said, as he knew she'd say,
"I think you'd better take it."(P.77)
From the quotation above we know that the author let the reader
know the thought of the character. The other quotation:
Somewhere, he thought, there must have been a point where she
moved up to me, was even with me for a moment, when I could have held her hand,
if I'd known, held tight, gone with her..(P.78)
The next is the tone of what character said. We can see the tone
of ironic from the quotation bellow:
"I came in here," he said, "to tell you I wish you
wouldn't call me 'Baby.’ “(P.73)
We know that it
is ironic when Darling asks to Louise not to call him like that anymore because
he doesn’t want to be considered as equal as a real baby. Darling just wants to
be treated like a mature man as usual. Then the next tone is the tone of angry,
we can know from the quotation bellow:
"Nuts," Darling said, standing up. "Oh, nuts."
(P.76)
From the quotation that Darling is angry about something,
but according to
this story Darling is upset with himself why he doesn’t
come with his wife and her friends to the theatre. Then the other tone that we
can found in the short story is the happiness tone.
Here is the quotation:
"I can make fifty-sixty dollars a week," Darling said to
Louise that night. "And expenses. I can save some money and then come back
to New York and really get started here." (P.77)
From the quotation, we
know that Darling is happy and hopes for succeeded once more in his life. The
last is the tone of sadness, this is the quotation:
Darling stood up, smiled a little, because if he didn't smile he
knew the tears would come. (P.78)
From the
quotation we can know that Darling feels sad because in the story, he had lost
his wife.
D.
CONCLUSION
In this conclusion, I can conclude
that this paper consist of introduction that explain about the focuses in
making this paper. The theoretical concept based on the two sources, from Robert DiYanni and Jane Bachman Gordon book.The last is The analysis of the
two elements that exist in the short story of The
Eighty Yard Run. In the story, I have found there
are two major characters and twelve minor characters.
Then in the short story of The Eighty Yard Run, I found that the author is using the third person point of view, limited point view and omniscient point of view. There are also several tones from the character dialogue that exist in this short story. We can see the character’s characteristic
through the point of view and the tone.
Bibliografi
DiYanni
Robert. Literature:Approaches to Fiction, Poetry and Drama.
New York : Mc Graw Hill Companies, Inc, 2006
Gordon Jane
Bachman and Karen Kuehner. Fiction:The Elements of the
Short Story. Columbus : Mc Graw Hill Companies, Inc, 1999
[1] Robert DiYanni.
2004. Literature: Approaches to Fiction, Poetry and Drama. New York : Mc
Graw Hill Companies, Inc, 2006. P.54
[2] Ibid
[3] Jane
Bachman Gordon and Karen Kuehner. Fiction: The Elements of the Short Story. Columbus :
Mc Graw Hill Companies, Inc, 1999. P.96
[4] Ibid
[6] Ibid
[7] Ibid. P. 97-98
[8] Ibid. P. 98
[9] Ibid
[10] Ibid. P.151
[13] Ibid
[14] Ibid
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