Comparison of The Female Stereotypes in O Pioneers! by Willa Cather And Tenggelamnya Kapal Van Der Wijck by Hamka

Abstract

This article compares the stereotypes of female in the main characters of two literary works, namely America and Indonesia in the early 20 century. The main character is Alexandra in the novel O Pioneers! by Willa Cather from America and Hayati in the novel Tenggelamnya Kapal Van Der Wijk by Hamka from Indonesia. The purpose of comparing the stereotypes of female fictional characters in these novels are to find out the ideology and values that people embrace in the fictional story. The writer uses a structuralism approach that emphasizes the intrinsic elements of literary works. Then, the writer in processing data utilizes feminist literary criticism and comparative literary studies to produce a comparative study of feminist perspective. The results of the analysis in this article show that there are similarities and differences in stereotypes between Alexandra and Hayati. The socio-cultural background adopted by the community is very influential in shaping the personality and mindset of Hayati, while Alexandra is very strongly influenced by the demands of the situation and conditions that develop around her.