THE REFLECTION OF CHRISTMAS CONSUMERISMIN THE US IN THE LATE 1990s PRESENTED IN JOHN

GRISHAM’S SKIPPING CHRISTMAS

AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS

Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirementsfor the Degree of Sarjana Sastra

in English Letters

By

ERVINA STEVANYStudent number: 064214028

ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMMEDEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS

SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITYYOGYAKARTA

2010

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Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s need, butnot every man’s greed (Mohandas K.

Gandhi)

You have succeeded in life when all you really want isonly what you really need. (Vernon Howard)

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those who always give me theirperfect love, care, and

understanding…

My Beloved God,Jesus Christ. . .

My late Dear Dad,Mr. Rusmawi. . .

My Superb Mom,Mrs. Veronica Suherni. . .

My Lovely Big Sister and LittleBrother,

Fenny Oktarina and RiechoAntonius. . .

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

In the first place I would like to express my gratitude to our Father for

giving His Son as our Savior and for Jesus Christ for blessing and caring me so

that I could pass all the hard times in my life including the time when I struggle to

complete this thesis. I am also so grateful for Saint Mary for her sincere prayer.

I would like to express my gratitude for my advisor, Dewi Widyastuti,

S.Pd., M.Hum and my co-advisor Fransiskus Xaverius Siswadi, Dr.,M.A. for

being so patient in guiding me to finish my thesis. I also want to thank all the

lecturers and staff of the English Letters Department of Sanata Dharma University

for their love and support during my study.

To my late dear father, I could only express my love and gratitude here, I

believe he prays for me wherever you are now. To my mother, who struggles for

all her children, I could say nothing but thank her so much. Although she is not a

perfect mother, her love is unlimited. To my big sister, Tacie, from whom I learn

to be a good daughter, I really appreciate all her love and care. And to my little

brother, Riko, who always encourages me with his mockery and who accompanies

me during my thesis writing process, hardly I say that I thank for that.

I also would thank my dear best friends, Vinny, Susin, and Irene for their

support, prayer, and love. And also for all my friends in Jogja who always support

me in bad and good time this past 4 years, Dhika and his family, “BFI” and “After

Twenty”. This single paged acknowledgement is not enough to express my

gratitude but sincerely I thank all of people who help me with my thesis.

Ervina Stevany

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

TITLE PAGE ......................................................................................................... iAPPROVAL PAGE .............................................................................................. iiACCEPTANCE PAGE........................................................................................ iiiMOTTO PAGE .................................................................................................... ivDEDICATION PAGE........................................................................................... vLEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAHUNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS ........................................................... viACKNOWLEDGEMENTS................................................................................ viiTABLE OF CONTENTS................................................................................... viiiABSTRACT........................................................................................................... xABSTRAK ............................................................................................................ xi

CHAPTER I : INTRODUCTION ....................................................................... 1A. Background of the Study ................................................................................ 1B. Problem formulation ....................................................................................... 4C. Objectives of the Study................................................................................... 4D. Definition of Terms ........................................................................................ 4

CHAPTER II : THEORETICAL REVIEW ...................................................... 6A. Review on Related Studies........................................................................... 6B. Review of Related Theories ......................................................................... 9

1. Theory of Character and Characterization..................................................... 9

2. Theory of Setting ............................................................................................ 11

C. Review of Socio-Cultural Historical background ...................................... 121. The Theory of History and Christmas Tradition in the US ....................... 12

2. Theory of Christmas Consumerism in the late 1990s in the US............... 19D. Theoretical Framework .............................................................................. 26

CHAPTER III : METHODOLOGY ................................................................. 28A. Object of the Study..................................................................................... 28B. Approach of the Study ............................................................................... 29C. Method of the Study................................................................................... 30

CHAPTER IV : ANALYSIS .............................................................................. 31A. The Main Characters’ Characterization ..................................................... 31

1. Luther’s Characterizations............................................................................. 32a. Realistic .................................................................................................. 32b. Thrifty .................................................................................................... 37c. Impatient................................................................................................. 39

2. Nora’s Characterization ................................................................................. 44a. Sensitive ............................................................................................ 44b. Shifty Minded ................................................................................... 52

B. The Setting in Skipping Christmas............................................................. 57

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1. Setting of Time................................................................................................ 58a. Christmas Season .............................................................................. 58b. The Late 1990s.................................................................................. 60

2. Setting of Place ............................................................................................... 623. The Society ...................................................................................................... 64

C. The Reflection of Christmas Consumerism in the Late 1990s in the US .. 691. The Reflection of Christmas Consumerism in the 1990s in the US from

Luther’s and Nora’s characterization ...........................................................702. The Reflection of Christmas Consumerism in the late 1990s US from the

Setting in Skipping Christmas ....................................................................... 79a. Setting of Time.................................................................................. 80

i. Christmas ...................................................................................... 80ii. The Late 1990s.............................................................................. 82

b. Setting of Place ................................................................................. 86c. Society............................................................................................... 87

CHAPTER V : CONCLUSION......................................................................... 89

BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................................................92

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ABSTRACT

ERVINA STEVANY. The Reflection of Christmas Consumerism in the US inthe Late 1990s Presented in John Grisham’s Skipping Christmas. Yogyakarta:Department of English Letters, Letters Faculty, Sanata Dharma University.

Luther and Nora Krank are the main characters in Skipping Christmas.With some consideration they decide to skip Christmas. It is not somethingcommon for the society and it makes the Kranks have a clash with their society.From the main characters’ characterization and setting, the researcher finds thatSkipping Christmas shows a reflection of Christmas consumerism that happenedlargely now a days. Although the setting in this book is in the US, but Christmasconsumerism happens almost all over the world, it becomes multi-issues becauseChristmas consumerism becomes not only an religious issue, but also aneconomic, social cultural and environmental issue.

There are some objectives that the researcher wants to achieve through thisthesis. The first is to describe the characterization of the main characters inSkipping Christmas in order to understand the character, the story line and theidea of Christmas consumerism. The second is to describe the setting, includingsetting of time, place, and society. The last objective is to see how thecombination of main characters’ characterization and the setting reflect theconsumerism in the US in the late 1990s.

This thesis is a library research. The main data were taken from JohnGrisham’s novel, Skipping Christmas. The secondary data were taken from somesupporting books and articles from the internet. To analyze the topic of this thesis,the researcher applied socio-cultural historical approach. Socio-cultural historicalapproach is considered appropriate to be applied to this topic because thediscussion in this work tries to see the relation between the novel and the societywhere the novel was written.

Luther is characterized as realistic, impatient and thrifty. While Nora ischaracterized as sensitive person with two senses, understand others’ feeling andeasily offended, and Nora is also a shifty-minded person. With theircharacteristics, Luther and Nora who plan to skip Christmas had to face peoplearound them who celebrate Christmas a lot. Finally, the researcher presents thetendency of Christmas consumerism from what the main characters and thesociety to during Christmas, which are reflected from their custom to spent moneya lot during Christmas. The reflection is also shown by their custom to exchangegifts and give Christmas cards as they also use real tree for their Christmas tree.

Both the main characters and the setting present Christmas consumerism inthe late 1990s in the US although they have different attitude. Grisham does notshow his preference attitude whether he agrees with one of the groups. Researcherconcludes that Grisham just wants to provide facts and let the readers to choosetheir own attitude.

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ABSTRAK

ERVINA STEVANY. The Reflection of Christmas Consumerism in the US inthe Late 1990s Presented in John Grisham’s Skipping Christmas. Yogyakarta:Jurusan Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Sanata Dharma.

Tokoh utama dalam Skipping Christmas adalah Luther dan Nora Krank.Dengan beberapa pertimbangan, mereka memutuskan untuk melewatkan natal.Keputusan ini bukan hal yang biasa di masyarakat mereka sehingga keluargaKrank terlibat perselisihan dengan masyarakat sekitar. Melalui perwatakan tokohutama dan setting, penulis menemukan bahwa Skipping Christmas menampilkanrefleksi konsumerisme natal yang marak terjadi dewasa ini. Walaupun settingnovel ini di Amerika Serikat, konsumerisme natal terjadi hampir diseluruh dunia.Hal ini bukan hanya masalah keagamaan tetapi juga masalah ekonomi, sosial danbudaya serta lingkungan.

Ada beberapa tujuan yang ingin dicapai penulis dalam menyusun skripsiini. Yang pertama untuk mendeskripsikan perwatakan tokoh utama pada novelSkipping christmas dengan tujuan untuk memahami watak tokoh utama, jalancerita dan konsep konsumerisme natal. Tujuan kedua adalah untukmendeskripsikan setting, termasuk didalamnya seting tempat, waktu dan sosial.Tujuan terakhir adalah untuk melihat bagaimana kombinasi perwatakan tokohutama dan setting merefleksikan konsumerisme di Amerika Serikat sekitar tahun1990-an.

Skripsi ini merupakan studi pustaka. Data utama diambil dari novel JohnGrisham, Skipping Christmas. Data-data sekunder lain diambil dari buku – bukupendukung dan beberapa artikel yang diambil dari internet. Untuk menganalisistopik dari skripsi ini, penulis menggunakan pendekatan sosial-kebudayaan dansejarah. Pendekatan ini dirasa tepat karena pembahasan dalam skripsi ini mencobamelihat hubungan antara novel dan masyarakat di mana novel ini dibuat.

Luther dilukiskan sebagai tokoh yang realistis, tidak sabar dan cermatdalam menggunakan uang. Sedangkan Nora dilukiskan sebagai tokoh yangsensitif dengan dua arti, mengerti perasaan orang lain dan mudah tersakiti, danNora juga mudah berubah pikiran. Dengan perwatakan tersebut, Luther dan Noraharus menghadapi masyarakat sekitar yang merayakan natal dengan mewah. Padaakhirnya, penulis menunjukan tendensi konsumerisme natal melalui karakterutama dan masyarakat sekitar yang direfleksikan dari kebiasaan untukmenghamburkan banyak uang selama masa natal. Refleksi ini juga terlihat darikebiasaan mereka untuk tukar kado danmemberikan kartu natal seperti hal nyamereka menggunakan pohon asli sebagai pohon natal mereka.Tokoh-tokoh utamadan seting sama-sama menyajikan refleksi konsumerisme natal di Amerika Serikatsekitar tahun 1990-an walaupun dengan sikap yang berbeda. Grisham tidakmenunjukan apakah ia mendukung sikap salah satu pihak. Penulis menyimpulkanGrisham hanya menyajikan fakta dan membiarkan para pembacanya untukmenentukan sendiri pandangannya.

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CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study

“Literature is a lively image of human nature, representing passions and

humors, and the changes of fortune to which it is subject, for the delight and

instruction of mankind” (Dryden, 1970: 36). From this quotation the researcher

can see how literature is a kind of portrait of the real life. Literature is so much

influenced by the author because a literature is a product of its author, which

comes from author’s mind. An author’s mind is influenced by many things like

his/her educational, religious, and social background. With this knowledge, the

author can understand the logic of the above quotation.

In this paper the researcher will discuss one of the messages which can be

concluded from Grisham’s novel entitled Skipping Christmas. The focus of this

undergraduated thesis is on the reflection of consumerism tendency especially

during Christmas in the United States in the late 1990s. The researcher will try to

see how a work of literature, specifically, a novel can give a reflection of an issue

in the real life.

With this study, the researcher wants to focus only on the consumerism

tendency which is practiced by most American people in the late 1990s. Although

the degree of their consumerism practices are varies depend on many factors, such

as the State where they live or their economic conditions, but Americans activities

during Christmas season showed they spent money more than they need to

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commemorate the birth of Jesus Christ. The US is a big country. American society

is a very influential and rich society. There are some studies or surveys which

claim that Americans are the most consumptive people in the world. It is proven

by some economic survey as the researcher quote in the paragraph below.

Americans constitute 5% of the world’s population but consume 24% ofthe world’s energy. On average, one American consumes as much energyas 2 Japanese, 6 Mexicans, 13 Chinese, 31 Indians, 128 Bangladeshis, 307Tanzanians, or 370 Ethiopians.<http://www.mindfully.org/Sustainability/Americans-Consume-24percent.htm> (20 March 2010)

From the data, Americans was in the top position. It is ironical, an

American can consume energy which can be used by 370 people from other

country. With pretty small percentage of world’s population, Americans can

consume around a quarter of the world’s energy while there are so many people

from other countries that live in an awful condition. Moreover, we also realize that

there is a tendency that people become more consumptive during festivals or

holidays period like in Thanksgiving, Halloween, New Year, and Christmas Day.

As stated in the title of this paper, we will focus on consumerism during

Christmas time. Although Christmas is a religious holiday, people celebrate it

more for greeting, gathering, feasting, and exchanging gift rather than for praying,

attending the mass, retreating or anything which are parts of religious practices.

This fact quite annoys some people who concerned about it. This is a statement of

Pope John Paul II about today’s Christmas celebration as quoted from

www.indiatimes.com:

Pope John Paul II said on Sunday that the spiritual message of Christmaswas under threat from the rampant consumerism of the season."The beautiful tradition of exchanging Christmas gifts between family and

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friends, is under shock from a certain consumerist mentality and riskslosing its authentic sense of Christmas, above all, interior silence andprayer." He said "Secondly, the willingness to welcome the will of God,however it is manifested," he added.(http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/32083545.cms) <22 July2010>

Pope’s statement shows his concern and anxiety with the condition of

Christians’ mentality and Christianity. Pope sees that Christmas consumerism

fade the real meaning of Christmas out. The spirit of Christmas gradually

becomes the spirit of greeting, feasting or partying.

The researcher also takes the late 1990’s because we all are part of this

new modern and we can see it closely as a current issue that happened until today

and most of us are the actors of it. People are accustomed to consumptive lifestyle

without considering the effects of their lifestyle. Although the effects are

becoming true, like recession, social gap and global warming which are really

harmful for our life, we, as parts of the actors still, do not really give our care with

this issue.

Reducing consumption without reducing use is a costly delusion. Ifundeveloped consumed at the same rate as The US, four complete planetsize of the Earth would be required. People who think that they have aright to such a life are quite mistaken.<http://www.mindfully.org/Sustainability/Americans-Consume-24percent.htm> (20 March 2010)

The researcher’s reason for using Skipping Christmas novel is that in this

novel consumerism especially during Christmas time is clearly described. The

actions of the main characters in this novel show their disagreement with

consumptive side in celebrating Christmas. This book shows many dark sides of

Christmas from the point of view of the main character, especially Luther, but as

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the opposite, this book also shares with the reader the warmth of Christmas at the

end of the story.

B. Problem formulation

1. How are the main characters characterized?

2. How is the setting described?

3. How does the combination of main characters with their characterization and

setting reflect consumerism tendency in the US in the late 1990s?

C. Objectives of the Study

Three problems will be discussed in this paper. The first problem is related

to characters and characterization. The researcher will try to find out the

characteristics of characters in this novel and the researcher will review theory on

character and characterization. The second problem is related to setting. The

researcher will try to find out the setting of the plot in this book and therefore the

researcher will review a theory on setting in literary point of view. In the last

problem, the researcher will try to review and analyze how characters with their

characterizations and the setting of this novel reflect consumerism tendency in

The US.

D. Definition of Terms

According to the Webster's New Explorer Encyclopedia Dictionary, the

word 'consumerism' has two definitions. The first definition is about a movement

which was popularized in the 1600s to protect consumer interests. Lately,

consumerism has a new meaning which is related to the consumer’s strong

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interest in consumption which actually is the effect of the movement that is

described in the first definiton.

Consumerism: 1. the promotion of the consumer's interests 2. the theorythat an increasing consumption of goods is economically desirable; also: apreoccupation with and an inclination toward the buying of customergoods.(Merriam-Webster, Inc, 2006: 389)

Another definition is about what Christmas is. The researcher took a

definition Webster’s Encyclopedia Unabridged Dictionary of the English

Language. Here are also two definitions; the first one is more religious nuance.

To highlight on commemorate Jesus’ birthday, when Christian people believe as

the son of God and the founder of Christianity teaching birthday. And in the

second definition, we can see modern and happy nuance of Christmas where

people have fun, gather, and so on. In this case, the researcher will dig more about

the second definition of christmas.

Christmas: 1. the annual festival of Christian church commemorating thebirth of Jesus: celebrated on December 25. 2. December 25, now generallyobserved as a legal holiday and an occasion for exchanging gifts, greeting,etc. (Merriam-Webster, Inc, 1989: 263)

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CHAPTER II

THEORETICAL REVIEW

A. Review on Related Studies

John Grisham is an American author who was born on February 8, 1955 in

Jonesboro, Arkansas. His father is a construction worker and his mother is a

housewife. In 1981, He finished his university education in law school at Ole

Miss. Soon after he graduated, he worked as a lawyer, especially in criminal

defense and personal injury litigation. In 1983, Grisham was elected to be a

member of Representatives Mississippi and worked there until 1990. From his

experience of working in law court and corporation, he got some inspiration to

write a story related to the cases he ever handled. That is possible the reason why

almost all of Grisham books were about thriller law.

Long before his name became synonymous with the modern legal thriller,he was working 60-70 hours a week at a small Southaven, Mississippi lawpractice, squeezing in time before going to the office and duringcourtroom recesses to work on his hobby—writing his first novel<http://www.jgrisham.com/bio/> (20 March 2010).

Almost all Grisham’s works are all about law in thriller and serious

atmosphere. But his Skipping Christmas has totally different atmosphere from his

other works. Skipping Christmas is a Christmas story that presents the main

characters, Luther and Nora, as a successful couple. They have the only one

daughter who just graduated from a university and wanted to be a volunteer in

Peru to teach poor children there. After their daughter’s leaving they feel very

anxious and at one point decided to skip Christmas just for once for some reasons.

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Luther is the first who has that idea. As an accountant, Luther realizes that

he, his family and all people in his society do something crazy during Christmas.

That is about its ritual which costs a lot of money. Besides, his daughter leaving,

this is a strong reason why Luther persuades his wife to skip Christmas and all its

following rituals which usually start one month before Christmas. But their

decision to skip Christmas is not easy to realize. Their plan seems so simple but

the result of their decision is not that simple, although the setting in this book is at

somewhere in US, a free country, people commonly said, they are not really free

to skip Christmas. They must face their neighbor and friends who mock them,

people think they are crazy or maybe just have financial problems.

It wasn’t such a bad idea. All the money spent on intangible things orthings that are forgotten weeks later. Christmas has gotten way out of handwhen we spend so much money on food that goes to “waist”, gifts thatprobably aren’t what people want most, cloths we won’t wear againbecause we’ll have to have new next year, even Christmas cards that weonly sign our name so it’s not like we’re keeping up on the news<http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5357.skipping_christmas>(20 March 2010).

At the end of the story Luther and Nora fail to skip Christmas. It is not

because they are defeated with the full pressure from their surrounding but

because of the unexpected return of their daughter with her new fiancé.

Many readers love this book but there are some Grisham lovers who think

that Skipping Christmas is not a good one. The quotation below is the sample of

the sound of disappointment of Grisham’s Skipping Christmas.

In the final third of the book, Grisham goes about undoing the case forSkipping Christmas made so convincingly up to this point… This“unskipping” of Christmas is so contrived and tortured, it appears to havebeen written by someone other then Grisham…All in all, a very

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disappointing book <http://www.mostlyfiction.com/humor/grisham.htm>(20 March 2010).

Different from the statement from the quotation above, the researcher finds

that Grisham clearly shows his critique on the way people celebrate Christmas

through out the novel. The problem is not simply about whether they complete

their mission to skip Christmas or not. In spite of Luther and Nora’s decision to

take a Caribbean cruise, maybe it is not the best way to escape from Christmas

ritual which is identical with shopping, glamour and grand feast, Christmas

consumerism is a hot issue in American society.

Although at the end of the story, a surprise of her daughter coming home

makes Luther’s and Nora’s plan to skip Christmas failed, it does not show

whether skipping Christmas is a good thing or a bad thing. It instead shows other

messages that we can get from reading this book, that we can prepare everything

well but we can not avoid unpredictable hindrance or every people have his/ her

good side. We can see the last point when the Kranks’ neighbor at the end of the

story help the Kranks prepare for the sudden Christmas party.

With this research the researcher will go deeper in analyzing the

phenomena of Christmas consumerism presented in this novel by using socio-

cultural historical approach, so see the relation between the novel and the

civilization where the novel was produced. So the focus in this research is not on

whether or not the main characters success to skip Christmas or whether or not the

Skipping Christmas Plan is a good plan.

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B. Review of Related Theories

1. Theory of Character and Characterization

Character is one of the important elements to interpret or point out the

message of this book. Character brings many significances such as bring with

themselves the line story. To make the story is accepted by the readers, the author

must present character vividly; kind of characters, which represent or alike with

people in the real world.

Character is life-like. The first requirement for such a character is to have aplausible name and to say and do things that seem convincingly like thekinds of things people say and do in so called ‘real-life’ (Bennett andRoyle, 2009: 62).

It does not mean that a person in a work of literature is always exactly

someone that exists in the real life. It is because if we talk about fiction, character

is made to life in the work of literature and they are made like a real person, with

its multiple human identities. So to read a character is to imagine. Reading

character involves learning to acknowledge that a person can never finally be

singular (Bennett and Royle, 2009: 67).

“Character, as quoted from An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry and Drama,

is an imagined person who inhabits a story”. Character can be divided as flat or

round character.

Flat character has only one outstanding trait or feature, or at most a fewdistinguishing marks. In the other words, Flat character tends to stay thesame throughout a story (Kennedy and Gioia, 1998: 60-61).

Flat character is also known as static character. Flat character is usually a

minor character, as quoted from the same book, there is a reason why the flat

character is the minor character. It is because if the author try to “Rounding them

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would cost time and space; and so enlarged, they might only distract us from the

main characters”.

If a minor character is made as round character, that means the minor

character is given more than one identity, and the author need more space in

his/her work of literature to explain about this minor character that does not really

bring the line story with him/herself. Moreover, reader’s focus on the main

character will be driven away and it will confuse the reader with the point of view

of the story.

A round character is presented by its author with more trait or feature.

Some critics call this kind of character as dynamic character because this

character is multiple-dimensions character that has number of different qualities, it

is why round character is more complex than flat character.

Round character, however, present us with more facets—that is, its authorportray them in greater depth and in more generous detail. Round characteroften changes—learns or become enlightened, grows or deteriorates(Kennedy and Gioia, 1998: 60-61).

Round character usually gets more attention for the reader, for round

character usually is a main character in a story. An author gives more details on

his/ her round character. There are many ways for an author to present his/ her

character.

Characterization is also important to be discussed in order to get a good

understanding of a character, furthermore, readers can reveal the motif of

character and the message of the work of literature by analyzing character and its

characterization. Because there are some ways to present a character in a work of

literature - in this case we narrow the topic as fiction or a novel, here are some

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ways which used in characterizing a character which is described in

Understanding Unseen: an Introduction to English Poetry and English Novel for

Overseas Students

a. Personal description. For example the author can describe a person’sappearance and clothes.

b. Character as seen by another. Instead of describing a character directly theauthor can describe him/her through the eyes and opinion of another. Thereader gets, as it were, a reflected image.

c. Speech. The author can give us an insight into the character of one of thepersons in the book through what that people says. Whenever a personspeaks, whenever he/she is in a conversation with another, whenever he putsforward an opinion. He is giving us some clue to his character.

d. Past life. By letting the reader learn something about a person’s past life theauthor can give us a clue to events that have helped to shape a person’scharacter. This can be done in direct comment by the author, through theperson’s thoughts, through his conversation or through the medium of anotherperson.

e. Conversation of others. The author can also give us clues to a person’scharacter of the other person spoken about

f. Reactions. The author can also give us a clue to a person’s character byletting us know how the person reacts to various situations and events.

g. Direct comment. The author can describe or comment on a person’s characterdirectly.

h. Thoughts. The author can give us direct knowledge what a person is thinkingabout. In this respect he is able to do what we cannot do in real life. He cantell us what different people are thinking.

i. Mannerism. The authors can describe a person’s mannerisms, habits oridiosyncrasies which may also tell us something about his character (Murphy,1972:161-173).

2. Theory of Setting

This review will discuss the theory of setting in a literary work. All stories

or works of Literature have its particular setting. Setting that the researcher means

here is both setting of time and place. Setting is the intrinsic element of work of

literature which needs to be considered in revealing the purpose or the idea of a

work. An author set the setting with purpose behind it. Setting of a work of

literature is not made coincidentally. An author learns how to make setting has

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significances. The author often imitates or conveys the real place in the real world

to his/ her story’s world, in order to make it more natural, believable, or to critic

and conveys some values.

In Richard Gill’s Mastering English Literature, it is stated that a word

“setting” can be used to cover several ideas:

1. The place in which the characters appear2. The social context of characters, such as their families, friends, and

class3. The customs, beliefs, and rules of behavior that give identity to a

society4. The particular locations of events5. The atmosphere, mood, and feel that all the above elements create

(Gill, 1995: 148).

Setting as an element of literary work can not be separated from other

elements. It is intentionally presented by an author. It often works together with a

or some other(s) element to present an idea in a work. Setting is not only present

place but also the time and society where characters in a work appear. “These

have a great effect upon the personalities, actions, and the way of thinking of the

characters.” (Murphy, 1972: 141).

C. Review of Socio-Cultural Historical background

1. The History of Christmas and Christmas Tradition in the US

Christmas is from Christ mass or in Old English called Cristes Maesses.

This is the day when Christian celebrating Jesus Christ’ birthday, although people

are not sure the exact date when Jesus was born. In the Encyclopedia Americana it

is stated that Christmas is celebrated on 25 December or on 6 January. Christmas

13

is celebrated on 6 January by small number of church in the world. The church is

called Armenian Church.

Armenians follow the old eastern custom of honoring Epiphany,commemorating in the west chiefly visit of the Magi to the infant Jesus,and in the east, Christ’s Baptism. In some parts of the United States thisdate has been celebrated as “old Christmas” or “Little Christmas”(Lorimer, 1995: 666).

Most of the churches in the world celebrate Christmas in 25 December by

the influence of Pagan culture that celebrated the “the birth of the Unconquered

Sun” which brings warmth and light.

In Rome, pagans celebrated three important mid-winter festivals:Saturnalia (December 17-23), the Calends (January 1st -5th, and precursorto the Twelve Nights of Christmas), and the Deus Sol Invictus or theBirthday of the Unconquered Sun (December 25)<http://www.randomhistory.com/2008/11/21_christmas.html> (20 March2010).

The custom from Pagan culture was also brought to Christmas culture that

is celebrated this day by dancing, singing, decorating and feasting. This Pagan

custom was also done during old Christmas celebration in Rome and Roman

brought to England the medieval Christmas culture and influenced some countries

such as The New world. Now Christmas becomes a holiday in over 160 countries

and it is a big holiday in Britain and United States. Many cultures were enriched

today Christmas festival. Now, we know Christmas carol, Christmas card, Santa

Claus, exchanging gifts which were had its own history and became parts of

Christmas customs.

In this part the researcher will provide some facts which are related to the

topic which will be discussed in this paper. We will see about social-cultural

sector of the society where the work was made and socio-cultural sector which is

14

described in the literary work. Both socio-culture where the work was made and

which represented in the work are the same, that is in the United States.

However, in the late 1990s in countries such as Britain and the United

States, there were industrial revolutions which replaced the agricultural era.

People produce stuffs and sold those stuffs and they worked harder and longer in

duration. Old gifts hand-made were replaced by toys from factories, and this was

recognized as the beginning of commercialization of Christmas which becomes

worsen today.

as societies changed from an agricultural based economy to an industrialeconomy, many people lost both the leisure time and the necessary rawmaterials to make homemade gifts, and by the 1920s, store bought giftsovershadowed homemade gifts. It would be easy to trace statistics to showhow commercialized Christmas has become since then<http://www.randomhistory.com/2008/11/21_christmas.html> (20 March2010).

At the first part, we already see slightly about Christmas history in general.

In this part, the researcher will try to give some information about Christmas ritual

especially in the United States. Let us first see a little bit about history of

Christmas in the United States.

Christmas tradition is not a tradition from native people of the US. It is a

culture from the immigrants who came to the New World with various reasons. It

is interesting to know that later the immigrants are the one who dominate this

country. It is important to know that the US native people are Americans Indian,

who nowadays become minority in size of the population.

People believe that Columbus, an Italian navigator, was the first person

who discovers the New World (America) in 1492 (Harlow and Miller, 1953: 19).

15

After this period, larger amount of people from Europe and next other contingent

come to the New World. European colonies come first and become powerful until

today.

They come with various reason and background. Some come as exiles,

some come as political hostages, some are forcedly come as slaves most of them

come from Africa, some come as missionaries and some other are the conqueror

act as the government of the colonies there. By knowing this fact, we can

understand that the US is formed by various kinds of people from different social,

educational, and regional background. That is why, if we aware, there are many

cultures in the US were imported by the immigrant and mixed well by them

although still western or European culture is dominant.

Most of people who helped make our history came from Europe. Theybrought with them the ideas, the customs, and the blood of westernEurope. The Indians, who here when Columbus discovered the NewWorld, have had small effect on our history (Harlow and Miller, 1953: 20).

Back to the focus, Christmas, the history told us that Christmas first was

introduced to the US by European colonies. By the influence of European

colonies, Christmas in the US is celebrated on 25 December. The first

introduction of Christmas and its tradition in the US happened in the 17th century.

From that time on, Christmas became more and more familiar for Americans with

changes here and there because of the influence of people who celebrate it.

Americans brought with them the various European attitudes towardChristmas. Generally, the members of the Church of England, the DutchReformed Church, Lutherans, and Roman Catholics celebrated the festival<http://www.randomhistory.com/2008/11/21_christmas.html> (20 March2010).

16

At this time separatist puritans, “who define as a group of people who

grew discontent in the Church of England and worked towards religious, moral

and societal reforms” <http://www.nd.edu/~rbarger/www7/puritans.html> (5 May

2010). They came from Britain, and brought with them their customs, including

their custom on Christmas. Puritans were not happy with the Christmas

celebration which was held as tradition in their home. So they do not celebrate

Christmas in their new home.

The pilgrims, English separatists that came to America in 1620, were evenmore orthodox in their Puritan beliefs than Cromwell. As a result,Christmas was not a holiday in early America<http://www.history.com/topics/christmas/page2> (3 April 2010).

But changes happened, after silent Christmas day in the beginning of

Christmas in the US, numbers of states begin to have Christmas celebration and

finally, after quite long period counted from the first introduction of Christmas in

the US, Christmas became federal holiday in 1870. From that year on, Christmas

was and is celebrated, workers is given a holiday.

After the American Revolution, English customs fell out of favor,including Christmas. In fact, Congress was in session on December 25,1789, the first Christmas under America’s new constitution. Christmaswasn’t declared a federal holiday until June 26, 1870<http://www.thehistoryofchristmas.com/ch/in_america.htm> (3 April2010).

People use Christmas season to gather with their relatives and friends; they

prepare foods, gifts and decorations. Americans have tradition to have dinner

party on Christmas Eve, the night before Christmas Day. In this dinner party, the

host usually invites some of their relatives and close friends to eat dinner together.

There will be many foods that are served by the host. The foods were not really

17

the same from one host to another host. The differences are caused by the multi-

cultural background of people in the US. But there are foods that were served by

the majority of Americans.

Turkey and ham are the two most popular meat entrees served in atraditional American Christmas dinner, though beef roasts and porktenderloin are also the centerpiece of many Christmas dinners. Commonside dishes including mashed or roast potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce,squash, yeast rolls and salads. Christmas dinner is often served withalcohol, mainly wine or champagne.Dessert items for an American Christmas dinner include Christmascookies like decorated sugar cookies and gingerbread men, pumpkin,pecan and apple pies, fruitcake and eggnog or hot chocolate to drink<http://www.ehow.com/about_4603941_christmas-dinner.html> (24 July2010).

Christmas is Christian festival to commemorate Jesus Christ birthday, as

rooted from its name Christ mass, but it is interesting to know that Christmas in

the US is also celebrated by people with other different faith, it seems that

Christmas in the US is festival for Americans not only for Christians.

Besides the strictly religious traditions, however, other common Christmaspractices are observed by people who are not religious or who are notChristian. In this way, some Christmas traditions have become Americantraditions <http://usa.usembassy.de/holidays-xmas.htm> (3 April 2010).

Today, Christmas becomes even the more and more popular event in the

US even more in the world wide. There are many traditions which are attached to

Christmas and Christmas in the US is influenced so much by other countries.

Although some of these things are not really originated from the US but these

Christmas instruments become popular instruments in the US, even some of

popular Christmas instruments in the world was originated in the US.

There are Christmas tree with colorful decoration and electric lights,

wrapped gifts and stocking under the Christmas tree or other Christmas plants like

18

mistletoe, Santa Claus with a red suit, big stomach, white hair and beard, Frosty,

Christmas foods like roasted turkey, candy, nut, pudding, pie, marshmallow,

fruitcakes, eggnog, and gift greeting cards. Some of the above examples were

brought by Englishmen in the early time they arrived in the New World. Some

others were brought by immigrants such as from, Germany and France. There are

also some popular Christmas instruments that were originated in the US like Santa

Claus.

Decoration with holly, hawthorn, and mistletoe and the sing of carols(especially by Waits) are all typically English. Santa Claus first waspopular un New York. Other American Invention are firecrackers andeggnog in the south. The Christmas tree was already a tradition in TheGerman Middle Ages, the light in the window, found widespread,probably came o America with the Irish (Bridgwater and Sherwood, 1950:388).

Christmas decorations are something that attached to Christmas

celebration. Christmas decorations make Christmas become bright and merry.

People who celebrate Christmas usually decorate their house before Christmas

day. “…and the more enthusiastic member of society start decking out their

houses and front gardens with a barrage of lights, glowing reindeer and giant

plastic Santas” <http://www.guardian.com.uk/uk/2001/des/18/christmas> (24 July

2010).

Santa Claus is not only part of Christmas decoration. Moreover, Santa

Claus is an imaginative figure from time to time becomes connected with

Christmas celebration.

Santa Claus’s generosity characteristic makes children love him. Children

think that Santa Claus is the one who gives them presents each year, although in

19

fact the presents are bought by their parents. For some people who do not have

sympathy for this imaginative figure see that “Santa Claus is a symbol of the

commercialization and consumerism that has seized the Christmas holiday in the

west”

<http://www.cbn.com/spirituallife/chruchandministry/nonBuseck_Saint_Nicholas

_Santa.aspx> (24 July 2010).

Christmas season is a very special event for American. There are opinions

that said “Christmas is as American as mom’s apple pie and the Fourth of July”

<www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,177322,00.htm> (24 July 2010). The tradition

of celebrating Christmas is can be said as part of American life, as Americans are

very common with apple pie and Independence Day.

2. Christmas Consumerism in the late 1990s in the US

Consumerism is one of hot topics to be discussed when we want to talk

about the aspects of Americans life. Consumerism in fact is not a new issue, we

can see it begun at the 19th century before and became more rapid after the

industrial revolution. People started to produce commodity in a large amount with

the lower price, producers focus in taking profit as many as possible. Workers

work hard, they also tried to get more wage by working overtime.

During this time the interest of consumers right arisen. This is the time

when consumerism, as the first definition which stated in Chapter I, arisen. At that

time, consumerism was a term of the promotion of customer interest, right, and

protection even until today this definition is still used as business and economic

term.

20

As stated before, the term consumerism had arisen through long time ago,

it is hard to see the very start point when the exact time this social phenomenon

was appeared. Since the term consumerism is used for more than one definition.

The definition of consumerism can be refer to, as the researcher quote from

Encyclopedia Americana, “the increased consumer protection which means to

safeguarding the buying public from dangerous and inferior goods and services

and from fraudulent and other unfair selling practices” (Lorimer, 1995, 683). It

begun around the American industrial revolution in 1920’s happened .

It was stated in the same book that, before this movement, the assumption

is consumers know what they want. They must aware by themselves. But after

this movement, consumers are very protected and fondled. Government and non

government movement at that time begin to make an effort which concern about

consumer’s problems. These institutions manage the standard of goods quality

and safety. They also try to protect consumers from fraudulent advertising. They

manage to create an obligation for producers to give the list of ingredients of their

goods (foods and drugs).

The result of consumerism movement can be enjoyed by people until

today. That is why now we get guarantee and warranty when buying goods; we

also find the list of ingredient in the package of foods, cosmetics, and drugs we

buy. We also know about organization which concern about consumers such as,

Food and Drug Administration (FDA), The General Services Administration

(GSA), Federal Trade Commission (FTC) (Lorimer, 1995: 683). These

organizations were founded to help consumers to get enough information about

21

goods in the market. The consumers can also ask some helps from these kinds of

organizations to complain about the product they buy. These organizations had

emerged as the result of consumerism.

But the focus of this paper is not consumerism at the above sense.

Consumerism in the previous explanation creates a new pace of its meaning.

While the focus of economist at that time was to protect consumers, consumers

drown into enjoyable consumption activities which later urge the study of

Consumer Behavior and then the new concern of consumerism.

Consumerism will be defined as a social phenomenon. It was related to

excessive consumers’ consumption behavior, which was affected by their

increased affluence, prosperity and security position.

Their increased purchasing power has given them the opportunity toembroider upon basic needs with a sense of individual taste and creativity,as they search for a style of life rather than for security (Sills, 1972:349).

In this pace consumers became powerful, not like in the previous pace

when producers seem the one who hold the control. Today consumer in the pace

when they are very free to choose what they want to buy, to even can choose what

brand which can create their self image, they have many choices of goods. Now

consumers buy goods not only for their basic daily needs but consumers also

spend their money to fulfill their self-satisfaction in their lifestyle. They even

spend their money for their lifestyle than for their basic daily needs.

This consumer behavior can be seen as a good sign, there is an increasing

standard of living which means that more people are capable to fulfill their needs.

22

But the tendency of over consuming also make expert, like expert in social

science become worry about it.

Consumerism becomes a part of Americans life. It is practiced by almost

all the citizens in the US. When we look back to the late 1990s, The US at that

time enjoys its top position in multi aspects in the world. Some people call the

twentieth century as American Century to describe how powerful and wealthy the

people of America during this period are

<http://www.historycentral.com/20thCent.html> (22 July 2010).

During the late 1990s until today consumerism increase largely, even

some people says that consumerism is American sports because it is so common

in the US it become one of Americans identity. American children are trained to

consume much. As they become adult, they worked hard to get what they want,

people are defined solely by what they buy and what they own <http://www.truth-

it.net/consumerism_effects.html> (22 July 2010).

Consumerism even becomes un-separated part in Christmas. Consumerism

disgraces the religious value of Christmas. It is seen by many Christmas

ornaments that are sold in market. From www.huppi.com, facts of Christmas

consumerism are clearly described. Americans spent more then $2 billion on

Christmas ornaments, artificial Christmas tree, toys, lights, and lamps that is

imported from China. It is not included Christmas stuff which is produced in the

US itself <http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/NoChristmas.html> (24 July 2010).

For the purchasing present, a single American will spent hundred of billion

dollars during Christmas. “In 1998, Americans will spend between $160 billion to

23

$ 200 billion presents” <http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/NoChristmas.html> (24

July 2010). If the quotation above shows American expenses as the whole

population, there are other data collected by Gallup Poll show how much the

average American spent for Christmas gift. “Gallup in 1999 reports that average

of American will spent $ 857 on Christmas gift only”

<http://www.allbusiness.com/retail-trade/4297781-1.html> (24 July 2010).

Americans’ expenses during Christmas season do not stop only for gifts

and ornaments. There is still a long list of expenses that Americans spend during

Christmas season. It is really beneficial for the producers and the sellers of

Christmas stuff. Let us take a look at greeting cards publisher. This is one of

industries that related closely to Christmas and get soar benefit during Christmas

season. According to the Greeting Card Association (GSA), approximately 3,000

greeting card publishers exist in The US

<www.integrainformation.com/forbes/overview01.htm> (23 July 2010).

These publishers get their highest profit during Christmas season. For just

one Christmas, these publishers turnover will reach 2.28 billion dollars.

About half of all greeting card sales were seasonal in nature, whileeveryday cards accounted for the other half. Within the seasonal category,Christmas cards accounted for 2.28 billion (61 percent) of sales<www.referenceforbussiness.com/industries/Printing-Publishing-Allied/Greetiing-Cards.html> (22 July 2010).

The industries which get high profit during Christmas like greeting cards

industries, toys industries, foods industries, and textile industries develop well in

the US especially in the modern US because of the culture of Americans. Like

Charles Gordon, writer of Maclean’s magazine comment about American society,

24

“We live in a souvenir society, a world in which everything we do, everywhere

we go, has to be commemorated

<http://www.sbdcnet.org/Snapshot/GreetingcardgiftshopSnapshot.pdf> (24 July

2010).

Christmas in the US is full of consumerism activities. Almost all

Americans do during Christmas are related with spent money which is proved by

the data of Americans expenses during Christmas above. Moreover, Americans

have what they called as Black Friday. Black Friday is acknowledged by

Americans as a sign to begin their shopping activities.

With Christmas shopping vitally important to some retailers, Christmashas extended into a “season” of its own. The day after Thanksgiving (thefourth Thursday in November) is now known as “Black Friday.” Animportant shopping day, it pushes some businesses into profitability, or “inthe black,” and can account for a substantial proportion of annual profits<http://www.america.gov/st/poepleplace-english/2008/Desember/20061226154528abretnuh0.7518579.html> (25July 2010).

Not only do Americans waste so many dollars in Christmas, but

Americans also exploit natural resources so much because they use real tree as

their Christmas tree. As it was quoted from huppi.com:

In 1997, Americans cut down 33 millons real trees to put up in theirhomes, enough to cover the state of Rhode Island. In doing so, they spentsomewhere between $600 million to $1.1 billion. Each acre of growingChristmas trees provides the daily oxygen requirements of 18 people<http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/NoChristmas.html> (22 July 2010).

Another environmental issue on Christmas consumerism is about the waste

that is produced during Christmas season. Around million ton of wastes from

Christmas cards, ribbons, gift wrappers, foods are produced during Christmas.

25

The quotation below describes the waste of foods and Christmas cards which are

produced during Christmas season.

At least 28 million pounds of edible food are wasted each year—or over100 pounds per person. The 2.65 billion Christmas cards sold each year inthe US could fill a football field 10 stories high. If we each sent one cardless we’ve save 50,000 cubic yards of paper<http://www.recycleworks.org/resident/holiday_facts.html> (23 July2010).

Americans specifically Christians have been contaminated with the spirit

of consumerism, it is more ironic because they practice consumerism activities

largely on the day which is dedicated to commemorate Christ’s birthday, the day

which should be celebrated in religious way. Christmas day activities seem more

far away from the Christianity and full of secular activities.

The consumer culture exercises a formative influence on a wide range ofAmerican holidays and celebrations, but peculiar ironies of thiscommercial puissance are never more poignant that during the season ofJesus’ Advent <http://www.crosscurrents.org/schmidt.htm> (23July 2010).

After a long period of big consumerism, there are reactions from some

Americans, they start to think critically about what they do and the impact of what

they do. People are moved to be anti-consumerism activist and establish anti-

consumerism organization and campaign.

There are also individuals who prefer not to celebrate Christmas. These

individuals do not join with a particular anti-consumerism organization. They do

not celebrate Christmas for their personal critically reason, like what Charles

Halff, the Director of Christian Jew Foundation, says about his reason to do not

celebrate Christmas:

The most important part of Christmas for most people is buying andexchanging gifts. I don’t celebrate Christmas because exchanging gifts has

26

nothing to do with Christ’s birthday<http://www.eaec.org/bibleanswers/christmas/christians_and_Christmas.htm> (24 July 2010).

An anti-consumerism movement tries to compete the current of the

consumerism activity. But unfortunately, the anti-consumerism movement is not

strong enough to defeat the consumerism activity which becomes part of

American life for decades. Producers are just too tricky to be defeated by anti

consumerism activist. People start to buy home made and cheaper product but

they are still trapped in consuming activity.

In the late 90’s consumerism effects led a lot of people to choose to live asimpler lifestyle and choose to buy fewer products and spend their moneymore carefully. Ironically this led to an entirely new type of consumerismthat focused on the purchasing of products that identified the purchasers asmembers of the group that rejected the excesses of earlier decades. Thisconsumer movement focused on buying handmade products from smallbusinesses for cheaper prices instead of purchasing mass producedproducts from large corporations <http://www.truth-it.net/consumerism_effects.html> (22 July 2010).

D. Theoretical Framework

The aim of this thesis is to find the reflection of Christmas consumerism

from the main characters’ characterization and the setting. To analyze the

characterization of the main characters and the setting in the novel the researcher

uses the theory of character and characterization and theory of setting.

The researcher also collects some reviews on Christmas Consumerism in

the late 1990s in the US to find out what really happen in reality during that

period. After getting the characterization of the main characters and the setting of

the novel, the researcher compares the result of the analysis on the main

27

character’s characterization and the setting with the reviews about Christmas

Consumerism in the 1990s in the US.

With this comparison the researcher will find out whether the issue in the

novel reflects the issue in the reality. Since the researcher tries to find the

reflection of reality in the novel, so the researcher uses socio-cultural historical

approach in examining this novel.

28

CHAPTER III

METHODOLOGY

A. Object of the Study

The object of this undergraduate thesis is a book from, a well-known

American author, John Grisham entitled Skipping Christmas. This book contains

177 pages which are divided into 20 chapters. It is published by Doubleday, a

division of Random House, Inc. in New York. The first edition was published in

November 2001, with three kind of print, the hardcover (ISBN 0-385-50841-7),

the large print (0-375-43162-4), and the limited edition (0-385-50624-4). Skipping

Christmas is a fictional comedy novel that was already translated into 27

languages and become one of Grisham’s bestseller books. This book was also

adapted into a film entitled Christmas with Krank.

Skipping Christmas as represented from the title is a novel about

Christmas. The story is about two main characters Luther and Nora Krank who

was just leave by their daughter to work as a volunteer in Peru. Then they decided

to skip the Christmas celebration with some reasons. They prepare Christmas this

year, like no one they know do it. They plan to have a cruise to Caribbean. Just to

enjoy the Christmas together.

But this plan is not as easy and fun as they think. They must face many

problems and the last big and unpredicted problems when their daughter give a

phone call that she and her new boyfriend will back home less then 24 hours.

29

They must prepare a one-month Christmas preparation just in less than 24 hours.

It’s a funny and a bit chaos but Grisham still gives a happy ending for this novel.

B. Approach of the Study

In this study, the researcher use socio-cultural historical approach to show

that this book is a representation of the real world. As stated in the title of this

study, the researcher want to see the Christmas consumerism tendency which is

especially happened in the United States, so here the researcher will see the

relation between socio-cultural historical background and the work, especially the

intrinsic elements of the work.

Socio-cultural historical approach is a kind of approach which is used not

only to examine literary work but it is also used in other field like in psychology

study. Basically this approach examine a work, event or people by relate it with

the social and cultural history when the work, event, or people when and where

those exist. “Socio-cultural historical approach is an approach that places a work

in relation with the civilization that produce it” (Rohrberger and Woods, 1971:

9)

In this paper the researcher uses socio-cultural historical approach to

analyze John Grisham’s Skipping Christmas because the researcher wants to

figure out the relation between the story with the real event, era, place and the

habits of people at the time this book was made. We will see the place, situation,

society where and the time when the work was made, gave influence the content

of the work or not.

30

C. Method of the Study

In analyzing the work, the researcher do a library research by collecting

data from source like book, dissertation, thesis, journal, etc whether in written or

online version. The primary source which is used by the researcher is a novel by

John Grisham entitled Skipping Christmas.

The researcher also uses some other sources in making the analysis. The

researcher use Reading and Writing about Literature from Mary Rohrberger,

International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences from David L. Sills and Samuel

H. woods, Mastering English Literature from Richard Gill, and some other online

sources like www.jgrisham.com, www.usa.usembassy.de, www.america.gov,

www.mindfully.org, www.nd.edu, and www.guardian.com to get the fact related

to the socio-cultural historical background of the work.

The researcher did some steps to come up with the thesis. For the first

step, the researcher did a deep reading towards the main source to get good

understanding of the work, especially the intrinsic elements, then the researcher

decided the topic for the analysis and then for the next step the researcher tried to

find source related with the work of literature and also with the topic of the

undergraduate thesis. It was also needed to make the undergraduate thesis reliable

by put quotations from other experts and believable source. The last step was the

researcher started with writing the analysis and drawn the conclusion from the

data which were got from library research and the researcher understanding and

stand point towards the work and sources.

31

CHAPTER IV

ANALYSIS

In this chapter, the researcher will answer the question formulated in

problem formulation in the Chapter I. There are 3 questions in the problem

formulation, so there will be 3 parts in this chapter. The first part will answer the

first question about the main characters’ characterization, the second part will

answer the second question about the setting of Skipping Christmas, and the last

part will answer the last question about the reflection of Christmas consumerism

from the characterization and the setting.

A. The Main Characters’ Characterization

A character functioned as one of the important tools for an author to

present a story. A character is the agent which is created to help an author present

a story which was just in his/her mind to be written as a novel that made sense for

the readers. A character had to be believable for the reader, so an author attached

the characters with one or more characteristics, just like real people, as their

necessity to bring the story out. “Character is an imagined person who inhabits a

story” (Kennedy and Gioia, 1998: 60). As also stated by Kennedy and Gioia, the

main character was usually round character that had more than single facet, often

changes, grows or deteriorates at the end of the story.

To discuss characterizations, the researcher used the characterization

theory from Understanding Unseen: an Introduction to English Poetry and

English Novel for oversees Students. In this book, characterization of a character

32

would be presented by the author by using 9 ways, those were personal

description, characters as seen by another, speech, past life, conversation of

others, reaction, direct comment, thought, and mannerism (Murphy, 1972: 161-

173).

1. Luther’s Characterization

The researcher came to the conclusion after reading the Skipping

Christmas that Luther and Nora were the main characters by considering them as

round characters. As stated before round character usually were given more detail

traits and often changed, learns or become enlightened, grows or deteriorates

(Kennedy and Gioia, 1998: 60-61).

Round character was usually the main character. As the main characters,

Luther and Nora had more that one traits and Grisham give more attention or

focus on these two characters in this novel. As the round character with more

complexity then flat one, the researcher will present some of Luther and Nora

characteristics in the explanation bellow.

Luther was one of the main characters of Skipping Christmas, with whom

Grisham told the line of story to the readers. Luther and also another main

character in Skipping Christmas were the center in this novel. From the

appearance, Luther was characterized as middle aged married man. He was quite

fat man. He worked in an accountant consultant firm and he was quite successful

and respected.

a. Realistic

33

Luther was one of the main characters in this work. One of his

characteristics was he was a realistic person. Luther was said to be realistic by the

researcher because he acted and thought in sensible and also practical way. As we

saw at the very beginning of this book the proof that Luther was a realistic person.

Luther was characterized as a father of one single daughter, Blair who was

freshly graduated from collage and decided to be a volunteer for teaching children

in a remote area at eastern Peru. As a father he also felt uneasy with his daughter

leaving but he was not really disturbed with it, if we compared it to his wife, Nora

who was very afraid to let her daughter went. ““I guess we’d better go,” Luther

said to his daughter, his only child” (Grisham, 2001: 3).

This statement was made by Luther the last minute before his daughter’s

plane departed, this statement showed how Luther was very realistic. He could do

nothing other than letting his daughter do what she wanted to do. He thought

practically and at the same time sensitively that it was just waste time if he tried to

dramatize his daughter leaving. It would make the daughter missed the plane and

it would screw her daughter plan. He understood her daughter was mature enough

and it was time for her to do what Blair wanted to do. In fact what Blair did was

really a good job.

When they were moving toward the city, Nora finally spoke. “Will she beokay?” she asked. He had heard that question so often that his responsewas an automatic grunt.“Sure.” Whether he did or he didn’t, what did it matter at this point? Shewas gone; they could not stop her.(Grisham, 2001: 4)

Again, the above quotation showed that Luther was realistic. While Nora

was very sad and anxious, Luther believed that his daughter would be fine. At

34

least, he believed, The Peace Corps, social organization, where Blair went to work

would not put the volunteer in danger. The Peace Corps had sent numbers of

volunteers for many years and he never heard anything bad happened to The

Peace Corps volunteers. He did not think, or at least did not want to think too

much about it. It seemed Luther thought one year was not very long time.

Another scene showed Luther’s realistic characteristic was when he had to

buy foods, which actually was Nora’s request. He did not like to do it, but he also

could not let Nora buy herself in that rainy day. He forced himself to go in an

expensive store where people were jostled at. He was not someone who loved

spending money, and in fact he was the one who worked for his family. “What a

waste, Luther thought to himself. Why do we eat so much and drink so much in

the celebration of the birth of Christ?” (Grisham, 2001: 7). Luther’s statement

again showed that he was a realistic person. Since Christmas Day was a religious

day to commemorate Jesus Christ birthday, Luther finds no connection between

people’s custom to eat so many foods on Christmas day and Jesus Christ’s

teaching.

In another scene, Luther, again, showed his realistic characterization. It

was when two police officers, Treen and Salino, came to his house every year few

days before Christmas day. They came to offer next year calendar, and the income

of the selling would be used for Christmas celebration with crippled children.

Luther with no hesitation rejected to buy the calendar that surprised the

two police officers. The researcher called it as Luther realistic. Here was the

quotation the previous explanation.

35

“I have two calendars in my office and two on my desk,” Luther said. “Wehave one by the phone in the kitchen. My watch tells me precisely whatday it is, as does my computer. Haven’t missed a day in years”“We are raising money for crippled children, Mr. Krank,” Salino said, hisvoice suddenly soft and scratchy.We give to crippled children, Officer,” Luther shot back. “Through theUnited Way and our church and our taxes we give to needy group you canpossibly name.” (Grisham, 2001: 61-62)

Luther did it because he thought that there are many other ways he and his

family to donate for crippled children, and he actually did not really believe the

officers. As he was a realistic person, he was not really sure that the donation he

gave would be used properly, as implied from his thought: “Oddly, there was no

price attached to the calendars, at least not to the ones delivered personally by the

likes of Salino and Treen.” (Grisham, 2001: 61). He said very realistically that he

did not need a calendar. He had a phone to see what day was that day, and he

would not miss even one day although he did not have any calendar.

In the other scene, Luther with no hesitation rejected the fruitcakes which

were offered by firemen, Kistler and Kendall as they always do before Christmas

day. Luther listened to Kistler and Kendall who tried to sell the fruitcakes, but

unexpectedly, Luther just said that he would not buy any this year. In fact, last

year he bought five, three of which were given to his partner in the office and the

rest were given by Nora to her hairdressers.

It showed that last year he bought it just to respect the firemen and this

year he did not want to do it, there was different attitude from last years. He

shocked the firemen with strict rejection. His short “no” answer indicated

courteous answer, but it was because he really did not need any fruitcakes.

Considering the fact about the last year fruitcakes, Luther and Nora did not eat the

36

fruitcakes they bought so it just wasted their money. There was no reason to do

the same false purchasing this Christmas.

“No,” Luther finally said. I’ll pass this year”“Say what?”“I don’t want any fruitcakes this year.”“Is five too many?”Kistler asked.“One is too many,” Luther replied, then slowly folded his arms across hischest.“None?” Kendall asked in disbelief.“Zero,” Luther said.(Grisham, 2001: 77)

Luther got the same gaze like what he got when he just had to reject to buy

calendar and fruitcakes from police officers and firemen. It happened again when

Luther rejected to buy Christmas tree in order to keep his plan to skip Christmas

remained on the track. Luther and Nora planned to do not celebrate Christmas and

it meant that the Krank did not need any Christmas tree. Luther was shown as a

realistic person. He thought and acted practically by rejecting to buy what he and

his wife did not need. Although people saw him and his wife as weird couple, he

kept with his plan and reminded himself that:

More encounters were coming, no doubt, and that was one of the veryreasons Luther disliked Christmas. Everybody selling something, raisingmoney, looking for a tip, a bonus, something, something, something. Hegrew indignant again and felt fine (Grisham, 2001: 29).

In another scene, Luther was being questioned by his boss but rather

suitable to be called as his partner, Stanley Wiley about his Skipping Christmas

plan. The rumor of Luther and Nora’s plan to skip Christmas was spread

everywhere and in one occasion Stanley asked Luther what the reason was, he

explained it briefly and gave a question back to Stanley “It does come every year,

doesn’t it?” so Stanley only could answer this question with ”It does indeed”

37

(Grisham, 2001: 80). In this scene Luther stated something logical and realistic

but at the same time he also showed his nonchalant reaction about Christmas,

because it was clearly described that he did not like the ritual and the whole messy

things he had to deal with in every Christmas season.

b. Thrifty

One of the reasons why Luther planned to skip Christmas was because he

was a thrifty person. As an economist, specifically as an accountant, he was aware

and careful in spending his money. It was reasonable that he was an economical

person. He noticed how ‘crazy’ he and his family spent money for the previous

Christmas Day. For every single little things that they bought to celebrate the birth

of Christ, that was quite in glamorous way.

It was not because he did not believe on his religion or about Christmas as

the commemoration of the birth of Jesus Christ, but in his opinion it, was not wise

to spend money for something which was not really important and would be

forgotten only in days or week after Christmas. He was very detail in thinking

about financial stuff and he even took note about their expenses, in very detail and

well-managed long list as quoted bellow:

A year earlier, the Luther Krank family had spent $6,100 on Christmas--$6,100!-- $6,100 on decorations, lights, flowers, a new Frosty, and aCanadian spruce; $6,100 on hams, turkeys, pecans, cheese balls, andcookies no one ate; $6,100 on wines and liquors and cigars around theoffice; $6,100 on fruitcakes from the firemen and the rescue squad, andcalendars from the police association; $6,100 on Luther for a cashmeresweater he secretly loathed and a sports jacket he’d worn twice and anostrich skin wallet that was quite expensive and quite ugly and frankly hedidn’t like the feel of. On Nora for a dress she wore to the company’sChristmas dinner and her own cashmere sweater, which had not been seensince she unwrapped it, and a designer scarf she loved, $6100. On Blair

38

$6,100 for an overcoat, gloves and boots, and a Walkman for her jogging,and, of course the latest, slimmest cell phone on market-- $6,100 on lessergifts for a select handful of distant relatives, most on Nora’s side -- $6,100on Christmas cards from a stationer three doors down from Chip’s, in theDistrict, where all prices were double; $6,100for the party, an annualChristmas Eve bash at the Krank home (Grisham, 2001: 13-14).

With this long list we could have clear description about what the Kranks

family did and spent for the previous Christmas celebration. With this very detail

list we found that Luther was a thrifty person who was just very careless last year

and he did not want to use money unwisely again this year. That was the reason

why he wanted to skip Christmas. It indicated that he aware that they was over

consumptive and he was disturbed by it. So for only this year, he wanted to save

his money, skip the whole mess situation during Christmas season and used his

money for more exciting activities for him and his wife, like having a Caribbean

Cruise just for both of them.

This characteristic was also found in several other scenes, like when

Luther grumbled in his head when he might buy Nora’s list of food in a notorious

expensive store and still very crowded especially during Christmas season.

“Chip’s, a place he despised not only for its outrageous prices and snooty staff but

also for its impossible location” (Grisham, 2001: 5). Even he automatically

thought about phone call bill when Blair who just reached her plane, gave a call to

Nora. “Exactly how much does it cost to phone home from thirty thousand feet?

Luther wondered” (Grisham, 2001: 9). It was shown his thrifty characteristic

because he could think about the telephone cost while her daughter would go far

away and his wife was crying for that.

39

Another proof that was showed in this novel that Luther was a thrifty

person was when Luther and Nora, had to cancel all their plan to skip Christmas

and had to prepare very last minute party after their daughter called from Miami

airport and surprised Luther and Nora that she would be at home for Christmas.

Luther was very proud that he and his wife would skip Christmas. This year, they

would only spend their money only for what they needed and what would make

them happy together. But unfortunately he failed to keep his plan on track. He had

to celebrate Christmas as he and his family always did. His brain started to count

the extra expenses they had to spend because of one phone call and he could not

do anything to stop it.

There were four bags of foods from the store Luther’d never heard of,three shopping bags with handles from a clothing store in the mall, a caseof soft drinks, a case of bottle water, and a bouquet of dreadful flowersfrom a florist known of his outrageous prices. Luther’s accountant’s brainwanted to tally up the damage, but he thought better of it.How would he explain this around the office? All the money he’d save upnow in smoke. Plus, the cruise he didn’t take getting wasted because he’ddeclined to purchase travel insurance. Luther was in the middle of afinancial disaster and couldn’t do a thing to stop the bleeding (Grisham,2001: 133).

c. Impatient

Luther was characterized as a quite impatient person. Fortunately, he had

good self control. He did not like to be in the middle of a crowd. But around the

Christmas time, this situation could not be avoided. His temperament went up and

down and it happened every year during Christmas time. Although he never lost

control and got angry by spoken it up, he often cursed silently when he

conditioned to be in the situation he did not like. There were some scenes that

narrate this characterization, as we saw some of the scene began with the first

40

scene. We could find several occasions when Luther became angry or fed up and

curse on the situation, although he did it silently and successfully control his anger

and his mood.

In the very first part of this book, when Luther saw his daughter off in the

airport, he was situated in the middle of crowded airport on holiday season several

days after Thanksgiving. People were busy with the preparation of their departure;

some were pretended not being disturbed by the noise by reading book. Some just

rushed to get their plane and this just made Luther sick. He was not in a good

mood, because he was there to see her daughter off to a very far place and it got

his mood worse because of the crowded situation in the airport.

Luther, her father, studied the mob with a scowl on his face. Whatmadness, he said to him self… he was sad that Blair was leaving, and hedetested the swarming horde of people. He was in a foul mood. Thingswould get worse for Luther (Grisham, 2001: 3).

From the above quotation, it could be seen clearly that Luther very

annoyed by the crown. Although the crown did nothing to Luther, he felt very

annoyed by their existence. He could not focus on what happen to their family.

His attention was grabbed by the crowded situation that he did not like. He

grumbled and blamed those people such they were guilty for being there and

annoyed him. But the good side was he could control his emotion and grumbled

silently.

A moment after he left the airport, Luther showed his impatient

characteristic again. Unexpectedly Nora said that she needed to go to a grocery in

the middle of winter rainy day, besides, many shops were closed. Nora insisted to

come to a grocery and ask Luther headed to Chip, a grocery which was believed

41

in its high prices and modest rent. Luther was just a thrifty person so he did not

like to shop in Chip’s but he thought it would be useless to debate with Nora

about it.

He grudged while walking into the shop he hated because of its expensive

price and its crowded place especially during Christmas time, though he could not

let his wife shopped by herself because it was raining and freezing. Badly he

could not find the chocolate that Nora asked, Nora who was in a bad mood

because of Blair’s departure easily got mad, she got out from the car and bought it

by herself. It made Luther also fed up and maundering while Nora walked away

from the car.

”You forgot about the white chocolate?” Nora asked, fully recovered.“No. I didn’t forget it. They didn’t have any”She yanked the door handle with all the frustration she could muster. “Ihave to have it. Thanks for nothing.” And she was gone.I hope you step in frozen water, Luther grumbled to himself (Grisham,2001: 9).

Luther got mad too when Nora did not appreciate his effort to help her to

buy what she wanted. He knew that Nora was sad about Blair’s leaving, but what

Nora just did to him made him upset too. He hoped that Nora stepped in frozen

water so she would learn to appreciate his effort more. The positive thing was he

did not curse and did not leave her in that condition.

More proof provided in the novel that he was not a patient person was he

hated being trap in the middle of traffic jam while hurried to shop for so many

things. He was sick of the fact that people raced to buy plenty foods and

beverages for Christmas party and gifts or Christmas cards that would be

forgotten awhile after Christmas was passed. It was why Luther missed and tried

42

to skip Christmas and did something outside the tradition and planned to skip

Christmas although at the end of the story Luther and his wife, Nora, failed to

realize their Skipping Christmas plan.

How nice it would be to avoid Christmas, he began to think. A snap of thefingers and it’s January 2. No tree, no shopping, no meaningless gifts, notipping, no clutter and wrappings, no traffic, and no crowds, no fruitcakes,no liquor and hams that no one needed, no “Rudolph” and “Frosty,” nooffice party, no wasted money (Grisham, 2001: 10).

Another proof of this characterization could be seen when Luther react

very emotionally about the note from his influential neighbor, Vic Frohmeyer. Vic

gave a note to remind his whole neighbors on Hemlock Street to bring their plastic

Frosty on the top of their roof as they always did every Christmas. It was a

tradition on the Hemlock Street for several past years. But Luther had different

plan for Christmas this year, he wanted to just skip Christmas and its chaotic

stuffs including put the seven feet tall Frosty up on his roof. He did not want to be

commanded about what he should do during Christmas.

“No, I do not,” he said very firmly, his temper rising with each word.”Icertainly do not. I will not be told by Vic Frohmeyer that I have todecorate my house for Christmas…and no one even Vic Frohmeyer, canstop us.” Louder. “I will not be forced into doing this!”(Grisham, 2001: 40).

The effect of Luther’s and Nora’s decision to just simply skip Christmas

quite fussed their days. Luther got mad when people crowded in front of the

Kranks’ house and caroled, and there was a reporter among the carolers who were

called by the Krank’s neighbors to sing in front of the Kranks’ house. The reporter

was curious to know everything about the Krank’s skipping Christmas reason and

Luther could not hide his madness as it was describe in the novel, ““I’m not

43

talking,” he said and slammed the door”(Grisham, 2001: 85). Luther was able to

call a police for what his neighbors did to him in front of his property, his anger

was reasonable and it was good because he did not lose his self control and said

something rude the neighbors and reporter.

On the next day, Luther found his house picture in Gazette, the local

newspaper, with text narrated the picture and also the neighbors’ comments which

were sounded like judging the Kranks. What Luther could do was only kept his

temper down and assured himself that everything would be passed soon.

“I hope they’re satisfied now,” complained one unidentified neighbor. “Arotten display of selfishness,” said another.If Luther had a machine gun, he would’ve bolted outside and commencedspraying houses.Instead he sat for a long time with a knot in his stomach and tried toconvince himself that this too would pass (Grisham, 2001: 91).

Once more Luther emotion was tested. Luther just walked to get fresh air

around his neighborhood. He did not want to be restrained by what his neighbors

did to his family. Luther met Spike Frohmeyer, the eldest son of Vic Frohmeyer,

the unelected boss of Hemlock. Just like his father and also other neighbors, Spike

questioned and tried to make Luther to put his Frosty up on their roof. Luther was

really did not think they could force him to do what he did not want to do.

Moreover, Spike was only a kid and he tried to put Luther into corner. It was good

for Luther that he had quite good self control so he did not yelled at Spike, in the

contrary Luther tried to be patient and wise to respond Spike skeptical attitude.

“No, I’m not, Spike. We’re leaving town this year, no Christmas for us.”“I didn’t know you could do that.”“This is a free country, Spike, you can do almost anything you want.”“You’re not leaving till Christmas Day,” Spike said“What?”

44

“Noon’s what I heard. You got plenty of time to get Frosty up. That waywe can win the award again.”“Luther paused for a second and once more marveled at the speed withwhich one person’s private business could be so thoroughly kicked aroundthe neighborhood.“Winning is overrated, Spike,” he said wisely. “Let an other street have theaward this year” (Grisham, 2001: 47-48).

2. Nora’s Characterization

a. Sensitive

Nora was characterized as a middle aged mother, she was Luther’s wife.

Nora was characterized as quite sensitive women. Sensitive in this part would be

cover two different meanings. The first meaning showed Nora was a person that

could be easily offended, hurt or upset by things that people said and the second

meaning implied that Nora was a person who could understand other’s feeling and

problem. The meanings of sensitive which were used by the researcher were the

definition from Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (Gadsby, 1995:

1640).

In the first meaning it showed Nora as quite self-centered person. She

thought too much about herself and if other people talked something bad about

her, it would make her very hurt. As we saw the proofs from the novel that

showed Nora was a sensitive person that could easily be offended.

Nora sensitiveness could be seen also when she was offered by Luther to

skip Christmas. She did not enthusiast hear Luther explain and persuade Nora to

skip Christmas and took a week Caribbean cruise from Christmas day till new

year. Luther said they would settle on the Island Princess, a spanking-new

mammoth vessel with rooms for three thousand, for pools, three casinos, nonstop

45

food, eight stops in the Caribbean…” (Grisham, 2001: 16). Although Nora was

interested with the Caribbean cruise but she only said “sound awful” (Grisham,

2001: 19) after she heard what Luther plan for their Christmas this year.

There were many things in her mind why she did not agree with Luther’s

plan at the first time. Beside personally Nora loved Christmas and all the activities

during Christmas such as, buying gifts and decorating Christmas tree, another

reason she doubted to accept Luther’s plan was Nora was afraid of what people

would think or say about their decision. She knew it would be hard for her if her

surroundings talked bad about her so she did not agree with Luther at the first

time Luther over his plan.

And no Frosty on the roof? When every house on the street would haveone? Which brought up the issue of public ridicule. Wouldn’t they bescorned for ignoring Christmas? (Grisham, 2001: 20).

Nora changed her mined after Luther tried to persuade and explain more

about his plan. They would have a good time and free from stresses they always

got during Christmas season. Nora now accepted Luther’s plan to skip Christmas,

with one condition, they did not skip to give donation. Here in this condition,

Nora seemed easily changed her mind. It did not need a day to change her mind to

accept her husband’s plan.

Nora had seldom seen him so determined. He methodically killed all herarguments, one by one, until nothing was left but their charitablegiving…and finally Luther said, ”All right. Let’s match last year’scharitable gifts, but not a penny more” (Grisham, 2001: 20-21).

A few days after she and her husband decided to skip Christmas, her

surrounding started to question and even some judged her and his husband for

their plan. She tried to defend her self when her friends questioned her and her

46

husband’s decision to just skip Christmas. She felt so disturbed and offended by

the reaction from some of her friends who tried to tease her that she and her

husband just tried to safe money. She was almost defeated by the condition but

she tried to calm and responded her friend with defense words. She still thought

about politeness, so she did not offense them back.

You crude little snot, thought Nora, but she managed to say quickly,“afraid not. We’re taking a year off.” To which she wanted to add, ”and ifwe ever have another party, Claudia dear, don’t hold your breath waitingfor an invitation” (Grisham, 2001: 51).

Nora was upset with her friend. She started to blame Luther for the

situation that happened to her. It seemed she regretted with her decision to accept

Luther’s plan. Her mind full with the thought about herself that was being

assaulted and Luther did not help her. Here was the quotation that showed Nora’s

complaint:

Women handled Christmas, not men. They shopped and decorated andcooked, planed parties and sent cards and fretted over things the men neverthought about. Why exactly was Luther so keen on dodging Christmaswhen he put so little effort into it? (Grisham,2001:51-52).

That day Nora felt so bad. She wanted to escape from the meeting, but she

did not and waited until the meeting was over. She was the first person who left

the meeting. With Nora’s sensitive characteristic, she was so resented and angry,

she could not just forgot her friend opinion about Luther and Nora’s skipping

Christmas plan. The tease and judging words repeated again and again in her

mind. She still thought about the unpleasant comment from her friend in the car

while she drove home.

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Someone mentioned adjournment and Nora was the first out of the room.She fumed even more as she drove home—unpleasant thoughts about Lilaand her comment about money (Grisham, 2001: 52).

Another condition that showed Nora’s sensitiveness was described when

Nora was grumbling to herself in front of the mirror when she saw her body in a

red small bikini that was, in her opinion, not suitable to her body. The bikini was

given by Luther who insisted Nora to wear it. Nora thought the bikini was not too

expensive so Luther could buy it for her. Here was the quotation about what has

been explained above:

She was wearing very small red bikini, one that had looked great on theyoung slinky model in the catalog, one she knew she’d never wear inpublic but Luther had insisted on anyway. He’d gawked at the model andthreatened to order the thing himself. It wasn’t too expensive, so Nora nowowned it (Grisham, 2001: 81-82).

As a sensitive person, Nora assumed that Luther would not give her an

expensive cloth. It is implied from the quotation that she felt that Luther did not

understand what she wanted and she felt was not really loved because Luther

bought it because of the model. She did not sense Luther was kind enough to buy

her a gift.

Luther knew exactly about Nora’s sensitiveness and it made Luther did not

tell Nora when their neighbors who did not like the Kranks’ decision to simply

skip Christmas. They put a poster in front of the Kranks‘ house that insisted the

Kranks to put up the Frosty as they did every year. Luther rushed and hid the

poster so Nora would not see it because he knew if Nora saw the poster she would

be very hurt. Nora was easily upset, if she knew their neighbors including the

children made a poster to protest their Skipping Christmas plan, Nora would give

48

up and forgot about to skip Christmas. It made Luther worried, he cared about

Nora’s feeling moreover he did not want their plan failed.

Then he realized that Nora should not see the poster. She’d worry about itmuch more than he did… If she believed the neighborhood children werenow protesting. She just might collapse (Grisham, 2001: 69).

Nora was a lovely mother. She loved her daughter too much and she

worried too much about her daughter safety. Those were why she cried for days

and kept asked to his husband whether their daughter would be fine or not, even

until weeks after her daughter’s departure. She still worried about her daughter

although she had received a letter from Peru sent by her daughter days after her

leaving. The quotation bellow was the conversation between Nora and Luther

while they ate their Italian dinner few days before Christmas and suddenly

without any caution, Nora began to talk about her daughter.

Do you think she’s okay, Luther?” Luther glanced around the room andsaid, “Who?”“Blair”He finished chewing and pondered the question that she now asked onlythree times a day. “She’s fine, Nora. She’s having a great time.”Is she safe? Another standard question, posed as if Luther should know forcertain whether their daughter was safe or not at the precise moment.The Peace Corps hasn’t lost a volunteer in thirty years. Yes, trust me,they’re very careful, Nora. Now eat” (Grisham, 2001: 88).

It was weeks after her daughter leaving and Nora still worried about her

daughter decision. Even after she received a letter from Blair that she was okay

and happy in Peru. By this fact, it seemed Nora’s anxiety was caused by her

sensitiveness. She was not ready to be leaved by her daughter, although it was the

time for her daughter to have her own life. If we took a deeper look on the above

quotation, we could see that Nora focused too much on her feeling and could not

49

join to feel her daughter happiness. She was self centered and easily sad if

something she did not want happened, seemed Nora need greater care than Blair

in this point.

Her sensitiveness also made the plot of Skipping Christmas changed

drastically. It was seen when Blair, called from the airport in Miami only one

month after her leaving. Blair said that she would take another flight to Atlanta

and she would be at home for Christmas Eve party. Blair wanted to give her

parents a surprise so she gave a call only less then 7 hours before her landing. One

more surprise from Blair that she would not come alone but she was with her

fiancé who was local doctor with whom Blair felt in love from at first sight.

Mom, you’re gonna love Enrique. We’re crazy in love with each other…I’ve told him all about Christmas on Hemlock, the kids, the Frostys, thebig party at our house. You’re doing the party, aren’t you, Mom?”Nora said a lie, “of course we are”…”Mom, no gifts, okay. Please promiseme no gifts” (Grisham, 2001:108-109).

The fact that Blair would be at home immediately really surprised both

Nora and Luther. It was good news if Luther and Nora just had not plan to skip

Christmas and take a Caribbean cruise as the replacement. But in their condition

at that precise time, their daughter phone call seemed like a curse. The additional

fact that she would come home with her fiancé gave more confusion for both Nora

and Luther but they gave more focus on their daughter arrival in less then 7 hours.

Nora really loved her daughter and she did not want to disappoint her

daughter. Nora automatically lied to her daughter, said that they have party as

usual, nothing changed. So they had to finish prepared everything for Christmas

Eve party including foods, beverages, Christmas tree, Frosty and of course the

50

guests for the party. Luther was really frustrated and asked Nora why she lied and

did not just tell the truth that they skipped Christmas this year.

Nora would not do that because it would break Blair’s heart. Besides, Nora

could not receive more scorn from the neighbors and friends if she did no

Christmas party when Blair came home with her fiancé. At this point, because of

her sensitiveness, Nora did not think about Luther’s feeling and did not care about

their Caribbean cruise. With no hesitation, she lied to save her pride in front of

Blair and Blair’s fiancé, cause for Nora their Skipping Christmas plan was too

ridiculous to be explained.

Again, she did not think about Luther. It was true that Nora thought about

Blair’s feeling, but her lie statement that they had Christmas Eve party this year

made the situation difficult for herself and also Luther. However, if Blair was

mature enough, Blair would not be disappointed with the fact that her parents

would have a holiday for only both of them.

The room was frozen for a long time before Luther said, “Why did you tellher we were having the party?”“Because we’re having the party.”“Oh.”“I don’t know who is coming or what they’re going to eat when they gethere, but we’re having a party.”“I’m not sure---”“Don’t start, Luther. This was your stupid idea” (Grisham, 2001: 110).

Now the researcher would discuss the sensitive characteristic of Nora in

the second sense. Her sensitiveness in the term that she understood others’ feeling

was described each time her husband tried to keep their plan to skipped Christmas

by rejected people who came to their house and offered some yearly Christmas

selling. She could not stand to see the shock, rejected faces of those people.

51

As it was seen when two youngsters who worked at Boy Scout came to the

Krank’s house and as they always did every year before Christmas, They offered

Kranks a Christmas tree. Luther who just wanted to keep their plan to skip

Christmas, he rejected to buy the tree, because they did not need any. And

suddenly Nora came out and showed her sympathy and tried to ask Luther to just

by and kept it in the backyard. She did not have heart to deny them.

Nora materialized from nowhere and suddenly had her chin on hisshoulder. “They’re so cute,” she whispered.Blank faces. Puzzled faces. Sad faces. A groan from just over his shoulderas the pain hit Nora (Grisham, 2001: 27).

Here from the quotation, we could see that Nora cared about others. She

was an easily offended person so she could understand how these youngsters felt.

But she did not debated Luther at that time.

The similar scene like what happened when Luther rejected to buy

Christmas tree happened again when Luther rejected to buy a calendar from police

officers, Salino and Treen. Just before Salino and Treen came to offer charitable

selling, Nora and Luther was watching TV but suddenly Nora was disappear,

although Luther knew that she was just beyond the French doors, hiding in the

kitchen, missing not a word (Grisham, 2001: 59).

As Luther predicted, Nora heard all the conversation between Luther and

Salino and Treen. Nora wanted to burst through the door and say, “Here’s a

check! Give me the calendar!” But she didn’t, because the aftermath would not be

pleasant (Grisham, 2001:63). Again here Nora was described as a sensitive person

in the sense that she could understand others’ feeling. She could not bring herself

to look those two officers was rejected by Luther so she preferred to hide in the

52

kitchen. She still felt bad because they rejected to buy the calendar. She wanted to

burst out but it would bring herself to a quarrel with Luther after the officers

leave. She held herself and let Luther rejected those two officers.

Nora’s sensitiveness was described again when she read a letter from Blair

that described the condition in Peru. While she got many pressure because of the

skipping Christmas plan. She received a letter from her daughter which was

mailed from Peru. In the letter, Blair, her daughter, said that she was okay and

happy. She also described the condition there that was absolutely different from

the condition in their country. She was touched by her daughter story about the

condition in Peru where people did not have much so did not want so much. She

read it over and over again and it injected her with courage and pride to continue

her and her husband plan to skip Christmas.

The last paragraph was the jolt of fortitude that Nora so desperatelyneeded. It read:I know it will be difficult not having me there for Christmas, but pleasedon’t be sad. My children know nothing of Christmas. They have so little,and want so little, it makes me felt guilty for the mindless of materialismof our culture. There are no calendars here, and no clocks, so I doubt if I’lleven know when it comes and goes. (Besides, we can catch up next year,can’t we? (Grisham, 2001: 53).

b. Shifty-Minded

In this novel, Nora was also described as a person who could easily change

her mind. It was seen from her opinion about Luther’s idea to skip Christmas. Her

shifty mind could be seen when she agreed to join with Luther’s Skipping

Christmas plan. In fact, at the first time Nora heard about Luther’s idea. She

seemed do not interested to skip Christmas, instead she said Luther’s plan was

53

sound (Grisham, 2001: 19). But it did not need an hour to make Luther convince

Nora to join with his plan.

The next day after, Nora still kept with their plan to skip Christmas, Nora

rejected to buy Christmas cards for Christmas this year. For this time, she could

see that the Kranks spent too much for Christmas card last year. So she stood

straight and said, “We’re not ordering cards this year.” She could almost hear

Luther applauding (Grisham, 2001:23).

But a day later, Nora began showed her doubt about their Skipping

Christmas plan when two youngsters came to the Krank’s house. As usual they

offered the Kranks a real Christmas tree. Luther kept his plan on the track. He

rejected to buy a Christmas tree this year because if they did not celebrate

Christmas. They did not need any Christmas tree. But Nora showed her will to

have a Christmas tree. She could not reject those two youngsters. She showed her

doubt about to skip Christmas. She tried to persuade Luther to buy and said

“They’re so cute,” she whispered. Blank faces. Puzzled faces. Sad faces. A groan

from just over his shoulder as the pain hit Nora (Grisham, 2001: 27). From this

quotation, we found that Nora was sympathy with the youngsters from the Boy

Scout who showed their shocked faces. She said that the trees were so cute and

she seemed hoping that it would made Luther softened his heart and bought one of

those trees.

The next day after Nora tried to persuade Luther to buy a Christmas tree,

Nora showed a different and somewhat contradictory attitude toward their

Skipping Christmas plan. When her friends, Merry and Candi asked her about the

54

Kranks’ Christmas party, Nora said to herself, “Grit your teeth. Think of beaches,

warm salt water, ten days in paradise” (Grisham, 2001: 33). She explained to her

friends that she and her husband would take a Caribbean cruise for this Christmas

and they would have no Christmas party. For that time, she showed her passion

for the skipping Christmas plan.

Her passion for their plan did not last for long time. A moment after Nora

came home after had coffee time with Candi and Merry, she and Luther found that

the unelected boss on Hemlock Street, Vic Frohmeyer issued an appeal for all the

neighbors to put their Frostys up on their roofs. Luther did not want to do it. He

had his own plan for Christmas this year but Nora thought they had to put their

Frosty up. She thought that it was not a big problem.

“You have to do it,” she said.“No, I do not,” he said very firmly…“It’s just Frosty.”“No, It is much more.”“What?”“It’s the principle of it, Nora. Don’t you understand? We can forget aboutChristmas if we damned well choose, and –”“Don’t swear, Luther” (Grisham, 2001: 40).

A few days later, Nora showed more doubt about to skip Christmas when

she was Once more, Nora’s shifty mind about the Skipping Christmas plan

showed when she got more attack because of that plan. It happened when she had

late-morning round table with seven of her friends. Because the gossip of the

Kranks’ Skipping Christmas plan spread widely, one of Nora’s friends started a

conversation about Christmas. It became hot conversation since three of her

friends who was presents that time had never invited to the Kranks’ Christmas

55

Eve parties. Nora had to defend herself from those ladies, and she started to blame

Luther for what just happened to her.

Even uglier thoughts about her husband and selfishness. She was sorelytempted to cave right then, go to a spree and have the house decorated bythe time he got home. She could have a tree up in two hours. It wasn’t toolate to plan her party. Frohmeyer would be happy to take care of theirFrosty. Cut back on gifts and a few other things, and they would still saveenough to pay for the cruise (Grisham, 2001: 52).

Nora got very mad, but suddenly all the madness disappeared when Nora

read Blair’s letter. In her letter, Blair said than she was fine and happy in Peru.

Blair asked her parents to do not be sad because Blair was not at home for

Christmas. Blair storied that in Peru people have so little so they want so little. It

made Blair felt guilty with their mindless materialism culture. Nora suddenly full

with pride and for awhile she confidence with the Skipping Christmas plan.

Such a smart girl. Nora read it again and suddenly filled with pride, notonly for raising such a wise and mature daughter but also her own decisionto forgo, at least for a year, the mindless materialism of our culture(Grisham, 2001: 54).

Nora’s shifty mind about the Skipping Christmas plan did not stop here.

One time Nora could show her confidence to skip Christmas, but shortly after that

she could show her regret about her decision to skip Christmas. As it could be

seen few days after she received Blair’s letter. If a few days before she said that

she was proud to skip Christmas ritual which was full of mindless materialism,

that day she showed her doubt again when Treen and Salino, the police officers

came to the Kranks house to offer a calendars. The income of calendar selling

would be used for crippled children.

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Luther rejected to buy any calendar for that year. But Nora could not

endure with their plan although she did not stop Luther when he rejected the two

officers, instead she prefer to hide in their kitchen. When there were only both of

them, Nora complained to Luther, “It was only a hundred dollars,” Nora said

sharply as she reentered the room (Grisham, 2001: 64). By this statement Nora

again showed that she was not sure enough to skip Christmas. She also forgot all

the pride she felt by skipping Christmas when she read Blair letters that remind

her about mindless materialism of their culture.

Another scene showed her shifty mind characteristics when she met her

Reverend in a mall. She confidently or at least tried to be confident with the

Skipping Christmas plan. After seeing so many proofs above about her shifty

mind characteristic, it was not a surprise that Nora showed her confidence to skip

Christmas although for many times so also showed her regret and doubt for the

plan. This day, Nora showed her confidence in front of her Reverend about her

Skipping Christmas plan. She said “I’m fine and we’re fine. We still believe in

Christmas, in celebrating the birth of Christ, we’re just passing on all the

foolishness this year. Blair’s gone and we’re taking a break” (Grisham, 2001: 84).

Her shifty mind characteristics became an ordinary thing, but the effect of

her shifty mind characteristics was not ordinary. This characteristic made Nora

canceled all her plan and made all her and her husband efforts for last one month

became wasteful.

The story came to the climax because of the combination of Nora’s

characteristics. The combination of her sensitiveness in both senses, that she could

57

easily offended and she understand other’s feeling and problem her, and her shifty

mind made Nora did not tell Blair that Nora and Luther have no Christmas party

that year. It was only Nora who could make a phone call changed the whole story.

She changed her mind suddenly after she knew Blair would be at home for

Christmas Eve party. It was one day left and they would enjoy the Caribbean

cruise. But she just did not remember all her faith and struggle to avoid the whole

craziness, as Blair said ‘mindless materialism’ which in this paper the researcher

called it as consumerism. She blamed Luther and at that time called their plan as

stupid thing.

“Don’t start, Luther. This was your stupid idea.”“You didn’t think it was stupid yesterday.”“Yeah, well today you’re an idiot. We’re having the party, Mr. BeachBum, and we’re putting up a tree, with lights and decorations, and you’regoing to get your little brown butt up on the roof and do Frosty” (Grisham,2001: 110).

B. The Setting in Skipping Christmas

Setting in a work of literature has more than one meaning. Setting of a

work of literature could indicate the place where the story took place, it also could

indicate in time, atmosphere, and society where the characters in a work of

literature appeared. In Mastering English Literature, Richard Gill formulated 5

meanings of setting, as quoted bellow:

1. The place in which the characters appear2. The social context of characters, such as their families, friends, and

class3. The customs, beliefs, and rules of behavior that give identity to a

society4. The particular locations of events5. The atmosphere, mood, and feel that all the above elements create

(Gill, 1995: 148).

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This part would be divided into three parts. Each of these three parts was

connected so it would be seen as a unity. All of those parts would be encompass

the setting in terms of time, place, and society. And those three parts would show

the atmosphere of the novel. Let us start with the first part.

1. Setting of Time

a. Christmas Season

The setting of time in this book was in Christmas season when people

were very busy with their shop list and waited for holiday to gather with their

family and friends. The setting was described in the way, so that readers could

feel how busy and crowded this season is. But this year, there was something

different about Christmas for the Kranks because they could not gather together as

they always did every previous year in Christmas day. Instead of gathered

together, Luther and Nora had to let her daughter went away for one year around a

month before Christmas day.

It could be seen in the very initial setting which was taken in an airport

with very crowded people rush and jostle because it was high season, just days

after thanksgiving day and waited only around a month left for Christmas. Luther

and Nora did not go anywhere, they came to the airport to accompany Blair, the

daughter, who would go to Peru as a volunteer for the Peace Corp.

The gate was packed with weary travelers, most of them standing andhuddled along the walls because the meager allotment of plastic chairs hadlong since been taken…There seemed to be a thousand waiting for the 7P.M. flight to Miami…it was the Sunday after Thanksgiving, one of thebusiest days of the year for air travel, as they jostled and got pushed fartherinto the gate many asked themselves, not for the first time, why, exactly,they had chosen this day to fly…Nearby a skinny black Santa Claus

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clanged an irksome bell and droned out holiday greetings (Grisham, 2001:1-4).

From the quotation above, we could feel the description from the

researcher about Christmas; busy, crowded and important. Busy and crowded

stuff was described by the jostled crown, which could be found many times in the

novel as readers read it further. Christmas season was one of the busiest times

over a year. It indicated that it was time for holiday because people started to get

travelled in this time.

One of the author’s ways to show Christmas season in this novel, was by

presented Santa Claus as one of the symbols of Christmas as part of the airport

description in the initial part of the novel. “Nearby a skinny black Santa Claus

clanged an irksome bell and droned out holiday greetings” (Grisham,2001: 2).

Airport as public area was used to show that Christmas was celebrated very much

by the society in this novel. It showed that Christmas was celebrated by most of

the people in this novel. Christmas was for everyone.

Not only airport, but also in shops, in malls, on pavements, and most of the

houses the nuance of Christmas was very visible and sensible.

“Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” rattled from the hidden speaker abovethe sidewalk in front of Mother Earth…”God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen”was coming from above, as if Luther was supposed to be comforted. Mightas well be “Frosty the Snowman.”…”Santa Claus Is Coming to Town”blaring from the loudspeaker… (Grisham, 2001: 6-8).

Christmas meant holiday and winter. After crowded airport, the author

presented road with traffic jam and shop with, again, crown who tried to buy

foods, gifts, and everything for Christmas. This setting was presented to describe

that it was a shopping season for people. People in the novel, most of them,

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enjoyed Christmas season and some just did it because it became tradition to

celebrate it. Christmas Eve party was part of the tradition. They planned and

prepared even a month before it came. It was not easy to celebrate Christmas if we

just knew there were so many things we needed.

Like Christmas cards, Christmas tree and the whole decorations, lights,

flowers and plenty foods for the party. It was also a tradition to buy new clothes

and gave it to each member of the family. It was somewhat Luther, as one of main

characters in this novel, with rational and economist characterization who did not

like about Christmas. It was why Luther preferred to skip Christmas and all the

stuff for one year while her daughter left. Christmas was equally to materialism,

so Luther prefer skip everything including charity part.

b. The Late 1990s

The late 1990s as the setting of time in this novel is not described

explicitly. But after all, the researcher saw some proofs that showed the setting of

this book was around the late 1990s.

For sure the setting in this book was around the 1990s to recent time. It

was seen from the existence of cars, malls, airports, and cell phone. People of

America were already familiar with these kind of stuff, Skipping Christmas could

be assume as a representation of today’s American society, but there was some

differences between today’ s American society and the late 1990s’ American

society.

Although now the US still one of the most powerful countries, but in the

mid 2000s the US was struck by massive recession that made many Americans

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lose their jobs. People of America were threaded by the national collapse. But in

Skipping Christmas this issue was never mentioned. Although Luther really

wanted to skip Christmas because Christmas cost too much in his opinion, Luther,

as an economist, never mentioned about national economic problem in this novel.

In fact, this recession was the biggest one for this last six decades of the US.

Economists said, one of many related causes of the massive recession was the

over consuming behavior of American, and they had to work hard to rehabilitee

their national economy.

About 200,000 job cuts have been announced so far this year, according tocompany reports. Nearly 2.6 million jobs were lost over 2008, the highestyearly job-loss total since 1945."It's all about the consumer, and the consumer's been hit hard," said RobertBrusca, chief economist at Fact and Opinion Economics. "It's a viciouscircle as weakness begets layoffs, which beget more spending weakness<http://money.cnn.com/2009/01/26/news/economy/job_cuts/index.htm>(23 July 2010).

So the setting of Skipping Christmas was before the mid 2000’s, when the

massive recession knocked down the US economy. And another proof to make

sure that Skipping Christmas setting was around the late 1990s was when Luther

described about all his family expenses for Christmas last year. He talked about

Walkman which was he bought for her daughter’s Christmas gift. “…On Blair

$6,100 for an overcoat, gloves and boots, and a Walkman for her jogging…”

(Grisham, 2001:13-14). Walkman was a Japanese brand of portable radio cassette,

CD player and mp3. Walkman was very famous in American and today, Walkman

existence was defeated by iPod existence. The quotation bellow was quoted from

nytimes.com that was described the transition from walkman fame to Ipod fame.

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The predigital Walkman evolved over the years into more than anastounding 1,120 models. But its essential nature remained unchanged: itwas dumb hardware. When Apple Computer introduced the iPod inNovember 2001, Steve Jobs described his new player as "the 21st-centuryWalkman." With 98 years remaining in the century, that was an early call.But he was correct. The iPod in 2001 was a Walkman successor, butsmarter, its hard drive easily navigated with well-designed software(http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/13/business/worldbusiness/13digi.html?_r=1) <23 July 2010>.

2. Setting of Place

The whole setting of Skipping Christmas was placed somewhere in the

United States of America. Although there were not so many details about it, still

Grisham presented it several time in the novel. The first was presented when

Luther and Nora accompany Blair to the airport. It was described that Blair would

take a flight to Miami before she headed to Peru with another flight.

There seemed to be a thousand waiting for the 7 P.M. flight to Miami…theflight would take her to Miami then by bus for three days into themountains, into another century (Grisham, 2001:1-2).

Again, when Luther and Nora was surprised by Blair by her phone call a

day before Christmas which made Luther and Nora cancelled their Skipping

Christmas Plan at very last minute, Blair said that she was in the Airport in Miami

and soon would be at home.

Blair also said that she was with her fiancé who she just met in Peru. Blair

added that her fiancé had never been in the States, which referred to the US. Some

of the name in this novel was taken from the real place which was located in the

actual US, like Miami and Hemlock Street was common name of street in the US.

Even the name of social organization, the Peace Corps where Blair joint with was

really exist and quite big organization in the US.

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“He’s a Peruvian doctor I met right after I got here, and he’s just sowonderful. We fell in love at the first sight and within a week decided toget married. He’s never been to the States and he’s so exited (Grisham,2001:108).

One more detail was about Thanksgiving Day that described slightly at the

initial part of the novel. “It was the Sunday after thanksgiving, one of the busiest

days of the year for air travel…” (Grisham, 2001: 1). Thanksgiving was not

celebrated and became a holiday in many countries, so this detail would give more

proof and also emphasis about the US as the setting in this novel. It was true that

the author did not state explicitly where the specific town or state in this novel

was. This was made such a curiosity with this preference. It could be because the

author did not want to judge only one state. The author just tried to use general

picture of the US, maybe it was because there was no big difference between one

states to the other about Christmas.

The setting in the US of course was not just picked with any intention. By

knowing that John Grisham the author was American, we could understand why

the US was the setting in his novel. Although Grisham also wrote story with

different settings, with the message about Christmas and its consumerism

tendency it was could be said as a good decision made by Grisham to use his

country as the setting. The image of the US as big with the most big consumption,

according to some research, was really useful to make the atmosphere in the novel

became rational. In fact, the consumerism in general and Christmas consumerism

as one of forms of consumerism were became hot issue in the US.

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3. The Society

With Kranks as the main characters, Kranks’ house and the Hemlock

Street, where their home was located, became the central setting. There were

several settings out of this house, like airport, car, mall, café, Luther office, shop,

etc but these setting just appear rapidly. The Hemlock Street with the environment

was the most frequently setting which was described in the novel and it also

brought significant for the whole story.

All the families in the Hemlock Street neighborhood were Christians. As

the result, Christmas was celebrated a lot here in Hemlock. Christmas in Hemlock

meant so much by many reasons. The dominant reasons were for competition,

pride and merriment. It was Vic Frohmeyer who was the first person who made

neighborhood in Hemlock decorate their house and put an eight-foot plastic

Frosty on the top of each houses’ roof for Christmas. Vic Frohmeyer, as quoted

from the novel, “the unelected ward boss of Hemlock... A neighbor in need could

call the Frohmeyers for anything” (Grisham, 2001: 38).

The Hemlock Frostys had made their debut six years earlier and were asmashing success—twenty – one houses on one side, twenty- one on theother, the street lined with two perfect rows of Frostys, forty feet up. Acolor photo with a cute story ran on the front page. Two television newscrews had done Live! Reports (Grisham, 2001: 39).

In this novel, it seemed that Christmas was celebrated by everyone. They

had already got busy to shop immediately after Thanksgiving. People sold

everything which was related with Christmas, the sellers even give a call for their

customers to remind them with their shopping list. It was the quotation from the

book when Aubrie gave a phone call to Nora and tried to offer Christmas cards.

65

This year Aubrie had to feel disappointed because Nora just rejected to buy any

Christmas card.

After obligatory greeting, Aubrie came right to the point. “Just a bitworried about your Christmas cards, Mrs. Krank,” he said, trying to seemdeeply concerned…According to Luther’s audit, The Pumpkin Seed hadcollected $318 from the Kranks last Christmas for cards, and at themoment it did seem somewhat extravagant. Not a major expense, but whatdid they get from it? So she stood straight and said, “We’re not orderingcards this year” (Grisham, 2001: 22-23).

Christmas in Hemlock such a sacred ritual that must be done. There were

competition for house decoration, each family had their own Frosty, and they put

colorful lamp as much as they could afford. They did it in very hilarious way.

Here were some of the neighbors who were described in the novel.

Wes Trogdon was an insurance broker… No one on Hemlock strung moreChristmas lights than the Trogdons. They lined their yard, wrapped theirshrubs, draped their trees, outlined their house, adorned their windows—fourteen thousand lights the year before. (Grisham, 2001: 42)Walt Scheel was his rival on Hemlock…a mysterious job with Belgianconglom and an income that appeared to be in the upper range onHemlock—but regardless of what he earned Scheel and the missusexpected their neighbors to think they had a lot more. Luther bought aLexus, Schell had to have one. Bellington put in a pool, Scheel suddenlyneeded to swim in his own backyard, doctor’s orders… (Grisham, 2001:44).

People in Hemlock were close and they also cared about each other, they

were like family. The negative side was when something happened on somebody

in Hemlock, the news would spread very quickly and became a hot gossip in

Hemlock and around. It happened to the Kranks who just plan to skip Christmas

for themselves and it became such a problem for everyone who knew their plan.

They talked about it and judged them. It seemed gossiping was not enough so they

planed to do things like called carolers to sing in front of the Kranks’ house, put a

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poster in the Kranks’ front lawn to urge the Kranks to put Frosty on their roofs so

Hemlock could be the winner of Christmas decoration this year, and quite far too

much was, one of the Kranks neighbor called reporter to take coverage about the

Kranks’ Skipping Christmas Planning. This was the quotation from what was

printed as the headlined of local newspaper for the next day:

The home of Mr. and Mrs. Luther Krank is rather dark this Christmas.While the rest of their neighbors on Hemlock Street are decorating andbusily preparing for Santa, the Kranks are Skipping Christmas andpreparing for a cruise, according to unnamed sources. No tree, no lights,and no Frosty up on the roof, the only house on Hemlock to keep Frostyhidden in the basement. (Hemlock, a frequent winner in the Gazzette’sstreet decoration contest, finished a disappointing sixth this year.) “I hopethey’re satisfied now,” complained one unidentified neighbor. “A rottendisplay of selfishness,” said another (Grisham, 2001: 90-91).

Not only their neighborhood that just saw Luther and Nora as a kind of

weird stingy couple. Their friend and colleagues were talk about it. Some just

speculated that the Kranks had financial problems, some thought the Kranks,

especially Luther was stingy, but there also some who thought the Kranks’ plan

was fine even more, it was good for some few others. Here was one of few people

who did not see the Kranks’ plan was a bad idea. The quotation was about Yank

Slader, Luther colleague who just see Christmas in similar way to Luther and

hoped he could did what Luther went to do.

Yank Slader darted in. “Up to fifty-two hundred bucks, old boy,” heannounced. “with no end in sight. Abigail just spent six hundred bucks ondress for the Christmas dinner…Please let me go on the cruise.”…”you’remy hero,” he said again, and left as quickly as he’d arrived (Grisham,2001: 80-81).

The Kranks conflict with their environment initially was caused by their

different point of view about Christmas. What the reason why the Kranks,

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especially Luther, really wanted to skip Christmas was he did not like the

materialism and all the crazy things like quarreled about how to decorate the

Christmas tree and house. He did like “the traffic, stress, worry, bickering, ill-will,

sleep loss” (Grisham, 2001: 18). So then the Kranks, actually Luther, prefer did

not anything about Christmas even it was about charity.

Luther assumed it seemed people would take advantage just raise the price

and took the excess for their own personal profit. It made firemen, Police officers,

Scout Boys who just collect charity by sold stuff shocked, disappointed, and hurt.

It was the scene, when Luther just simply made Police men, who tried to sell

calendar for crippled children, got out from the Kranks’ house with

disappointment and a little bit anger.

Since Treen could think no intelligent retort, he grew hot too and decidedhe would get Krank’s license plate number and lie in ambush somewhere,maybe catch him speeding or sneaking through a stop sign. Pull him over,wait for sarcastic comment, yank him out, sprawl him across the hoodwhile cars eased by, slap the handcuffs on him, haul him to jail (Grisham,2001: 62).

Luther’s skipping Christmas plan made his relation with their

surroundings became in a clash. The society celebrated Christmas so much, while

Luther tried as hard as he could to skip Christmas. Luther rejected all people who

came to his house who try to sell Christmas stuff and collect Christmas donation.

And at the very last minute, he had to face those people again when he had no

choice unless celebrate Christmas after getting the phone call from his daughter.

There was one scene in the novel that described the scoutmaster made

retaliation for what Luther did when they came to the Kranks’ house before. The

Scoutmaster sold an awful Christmas tree with high price. Luther knew that it was

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too expensive for that last tree, but he had no choice, and in fact he were in a

hurry. So he took that awful tree with the high price.

Merry Christmas Mr. Krank,” said the scoutmaster, who looked vaguelyfamiliar. “I’m Joe Scanlon, same guy who brought a tree to your house afew weeks ago.”…A handmade sign leaning against a pickup truck listedvarious prices, beginning with $75 and falling all the way to $15 as thedays had passed…Scanlon hesitated, then said, “seventy-five bucks.”“Why not fifteen?”“Supply and demand”“Seventy-five, take it or leave it” (Grisham, 2001: 114-115).

Luther brought that awful tree straightly to his home. Christmas was really

something important for people in this novel. By buying the awful tree Luther was

mocked by unknown couple about his tree. Although he bought that awful tree

with high price, people thought that he bought the last tree to got cheapest price.

From the quotation bellow, it seemed Christmas was time to spend money and

people who did not do that were mean people. People did not hesitate to mock

others if they did not spent money during this season.

“Hey buddy, That’s the ugliest tree I’ve ever seen!” yelled one. “It’sChristmas, come on, spend some money!” yelled the other and they roaredwith laughter (Grisham, 2001: 115).

So far, it seemed the surroundings, especially the closest one, neighbors,

very cruel to the Kranks, although it fact the Kranks, especially Luther was also

made the neighbor resent with his act. It was clear there was big disappointment

and hatred, but it changed and totally different atmosphere at the end of the novel

when Luther was almost dying by felt from the top of his roof and the neighbors

knew about the surprise from Blair who loved by the Kranks’ neighbors.

Neighbors leading by very influential Vic Frohmeyer helped the Kranks,

first, the neighbors tried to get Luther down from the roof and later medics and

69

firemen came to get Luther down, picked up Blair and her fiancé from the airport

by asking help from the policemen, and then help Nora to get the sudden

Christmas party. After all that happened, Luther and Nora were very touched by

the unity of their neighbors, the whole bad things were erased.

Regardless of how they felt about Luther at the moment, the neighborsadored Blair…Vic Frohmeyer took a step back and looked into the faces ofhis neighbors. He cleared his throat, raised his chin, and began, “Okay,folks, here’s the game plan. We’re about to a party here at the Kranks’, aChristmas homecoming for Blair. Those of you who can, drop what you’redoing and pitch in… (Grisham, 2001: 156-157).

C. The Reflection of Christmas Consumerism in the Late 1990s in the US

In this part, the researcher would see how the combination of the main

characters’ characterization and the setting in Skipping Christmas showed the

reflection of Christmas Consumerism in The 1990s in the US. Skipping Christmas

was written by American author, John Grisham. He was born in on February 8,

1955 in Jonesboro, Arkansas <http://www.jgrisham.com/bio> (20 March 2010).

It is not accidentally that the setting of Grisham’s Skipping Christmas is

also in the US. As an American, Grisham might be familiar with the American

traditions and customs. Christmas consumerism was one of hot issues there.

Moreover, at the time Skipping Christmas was published, Christmas consumerism

was done largely. So the researcher would examine Skipping Christmas by using

Socio-Cultural Historical Approach. With this approach the researcher could see

the relation between a work of literature and the civilization that produced it

(Rohrberger and Woods, 1971: 9).

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1. The Reflection of Christmas Consumerism in the 1990s in the US from

Luther’s and Nora’s characterization

As Bennett and Royle said that characters in a work of literature is just like

human being. They are treated as people who live in that work of literature. They

had name, they did activities, and they had emotion just like human being.

Character is life-like. The first requirement for such a character is to have a

plausible name and to say and do things that seem convincingly like the

kinds of things people say and do in so called ‘real-life’ (Bennett and

Royle, 2009: 62).

Luther and Nora were the main characters in Skipping Christmas. They

were characterized as a middle-aged couple with a single daughter, Blair. Luther

was characterized as a realistic, thrifty, and impatient man but with good self

control, while Nora was characterized as a sensitive woman with two different

senses. The first sense means Nora as an easily offended person. The second sense

means Nora as a person who able to understand other’s feeling. Besides the

sensitive characteristics above, Nora also was characterized as shifty minded

person.

Grisham gave characteristics for Luther and Nora so that they could

present the consumerism activities during Christmas season in the novel.

Although they were characterized as two different characters with absolutely

different characteristics, both of them would show the Christmas consumerism

issue in this novel but of course with different attitudes. Luther would show his

strong dislike towards consumerism during Christmas, while Nora would show

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her hesitation to skip Christmas, because actually she enjoyed all the activities

during Christmas.

Luther as a realistic person showed his disagreement with the way

Americans family, including his family, celebrated Christmas. He questioned

silently why people ate so much during Christmas season when he had to buy

some foods for Nora. He was in a grocery which was packed by crown who

busied to buy foods for Christmas Eve dinner. He found no realistic answer why

people ate so much in Christmas. As it was quoted from the book, he thought

“What a waste, why do we eat so much and drink so much in the celebration of

the birth of Christ?” (Grisham, 2001: 7).

Luther’s statement above seemed like a critic from Grisham for what was

happened during Christmas in reality. Christmas is celebrated on 25 December

each year. This day was dedicated to commemorate the birth of Jesus Christ. Jesus

Christ was the central leader for Christians. By knowing this fact, then Christmas

day should be occupied with devotion, charity or other religious activities. But the

religious activities were not as much as the secular activities during Christmas

season.

The consumer culture exercises a formative influence on a wide range ofAmerican holidays and celebrations, but peculiar ironies of thiscommercial puissance are never more poignant that during the season ofJesus’ Advent <http://www.crosscurrents.org/schmidt.htm> (23July 2010).

In the reality it is what Americans did during Christmas. By seeing

Americans activities during Christmas season, it was easy to find out the

consumerism tendency during this season. It was a custom for American family to

hold Christmas Eve dinner party, some family would invite their relatives and

72

friends to join their party and some would only hold a family dinner party. Since it

was a party, it would be lot of foods there. Each Americans family had different

kind of menus for their Christmas Eve dinner party but mostly we could find

kinds of meats cookies, salads, pies, and liquors for Christmas dinner party.

Turkey and ham are the two most popular meat entrees served in atraditional American Christmas dinner, though beef roasts and porktenderloin are also the centerpiece of many Christmas dinners. Commonside dishes including mashed or roast potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce,squash, yeast rolls and salads. Christmas dinner is often served withalcohol, mainly wine or champagne.Dessert items for an American Christmas dinner include Christmascookies like decorated sugar cookies and gingerbread men, pumpkin,pecan and apple pies, fruitcake and eggnog or hot chocolate to drink< http://www.ehow.com/about_4603941_christmas-dinner.html> (24 july2010).

The quotation above only described the foods of Christmas Eve dinner

party. There would be many others about secular things about Christmas that

would be described further. In the novel, Luther did not just stop on thinking

about the waste which was produced during Christmas season. Since he was an

accountant, what he did next was he started to calculate how much he and his

family spent for Christmas. He was shocked when he found out the result. He and

his family spent $6,100 for the last year Christmas. As an economist, off course

he would think economically, he thought it was really over spent. He said to

himself that $6,100 was 9% of his income and he spent it for only one event,

Christmas which was could be forgotten days after it was over (Grisham, 2001:

14).

Luther’s expense for Christmas which was stated above was a reflection of

Americans Christmas consumerism. Grisham tried to picture how many dollars

73

were spent unwisely by Americans during Christmas. Although the amount was

not really close, it still showed the same conclusion that is consumerism. One

survey about Americans expenses during Christmas showed how much of money

Americans spent during Christmas. “In 1998, Americans will spend between $160

billion to $ 200 billion presents”

<http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/NoChristmas.html> (24 July 2010).

Another poll which was conducted by Gallup in 1999 reported that

average of American would spend $ 857 on Christmas gift only

<http://www.allbusiness.com/retail-trade/4297781-1.html> (24 July 2010). Since

the surveys only showed the Christmas expenses for presents, it could be

concluded from the poll that there were more expenses for Americans during

Christmas season, such as the expenses for their own new cloths or foods for

Christmas party, and decorations.

The Kranks were also spent so much money on gifts expenses during

Christmas including gifts for themselves and their relatives. It was one of the

Kranks’ expenses as it was quoted from the meticulous list of the Kranks’

expenses on previous Christmas season, “$6,100 on lesser gifts for a select

handful of distant relatives, most on Nora’s side” (Grisham, 2001:14).

The Kranks also spent some money for charitable gifts for crippled

children by bought calendars and fruitcakes. These kind of gifts were like an

obligatory gifts, if people did not bought the calendars and fruitcakes, they would

be gossiped and assume as stingy people so they bought it although they need

none of it. As stated in the novel, the Kranks bought the calendar and put it in the

74

basement (Grisham, 2001: 60), and they gave their fruitcakes to their friends and

colleague (Grisham, 2001:76-77).

Another thing Luther did not like about Christmas was about to prepare

Christmas celebration, there were a lot of things to do. In the novel, Grisham

clearly described that Christmas season as one of the busiest season over the year.

Public areas like airports, roads and malls will be very crowded (Grisham, 2001:

6). Luther did not like being trapped in the traffic, he did not like jostled in a shop

for shopping. The reason he did Christmas every year only because he had good

enough self control so he did not get mad in the middle of the jostling crown.

This kind of situation was hardly to be avoided during Christmas season

unless for people who did not celebrate Christmas. Because they did not need to

buy anything, they did not need to go to malls or grocery where there would be to

very crowded during Christmas season. Christmas became largely commercialized

in modern era. Christmas consumerism was started became a custom after

revolution industry. Later the mass production during Revolution Industry raised

the interest on consumers’ right.

The increased consumer protection which means to safeguarding thebuying public from dangerous and inferior goods and services and fromfraudulent and other unfair selling practices (Lorimer, 1995, 683).

Another effect of revolution industry was people’s standard of living

increased significantly. People focused on the work. To make it simple, they

bought all they need for Christmas. They had no time to made their own new

dresses, gifts or foods, or greeting cards.

75

Their increased purchasing power has given them the opportunity toembroider upon basic needs with a sense of individual taste and creativity,as they search for a style of life rather than for security (Sills, 1972:349).

Since that period even until recent time, the dominant activity in Christmas

season was shopping. People shopped for everything they need for Christmas.

Shopped for the foods for Christmas Eve party, shopped for the house decoration,

shopped for the gifts, shopped for the new dresses, shopped for greeting cards,

and there were many other things to shop for Christmas celebration, as the

quotation described bellow:

as societies changed from an agricultural based economy to an industrialeconomy, many people lost both the leisure time and the necessary rawmaterials to make homemade gifts, and by the 1920s, store bought giftsovershadowed homemade gifts. It would be easy to trace statistics to showhow commercialized Christmas has become since then<http://www.randomhistory.com/2008/11/21_christmas.html> (20 March2010).

Back to the novel, Luther lived in modern era when Christmas was more

and more contaminated with consumerism activities. Luther really wanted to

avoid Christmas, moreover the messy situations and activities during Christmas.

Luther started to dream about to skip Christmas.

How nice it would be to avoid Christmas, he began to think. A snap of thefingers and it’s 2 January. No tree, no shopping, no meaningless gifts, notipping, no clutter and wrappings, no traffic and crowds, no fruitcakes, noliquor and hams that no one needed, no “Rudolph” and “Frosty,” no officeparty, no waste money (Grisham, 2001: 10).

Luther planed to skip Christmas to avoid all activities he did not like

during Christmas. He planed to replace it with a cruise to the Caribbean islands. It

would be nice, “to settle on the Island Princess, a spanking-new mammoth vessel

with rooms for three thousand, for pools, three casinos, nonstop food, eight stops

76

in the Caribbean…” (Grisham, 2001: 16). Luther tries to persuade Nora to join

with his plan, but Nora was a sensitive woman, she thought about many things

that might happen if they skipped Christmas. One thing Nora thought about was

”Wouldn’t they be scorned for ignoring Christmas?” (Grisham, 2001:20).

With a lot of thoughts about would happen, Nora rejected Luther’s plan.

She said, “sounds awful.” (Grisham, 2001:19). But Luther did not easily gave up,

he tried to persuade over and over again. He explained about how much many

they would save and how many messy activities they would skip. Nora seldom

seen Luther so determined. He methodically killed all her arguments, and finally

she agreed to join with Luther’s plan (Grisham, 2002: 20-21).

Luther and Nora had to decide to skip Christmas this year, it meant they

needed none of Christmas stuffs they always bought every Christmas. It was not

common for Kranks to do not celebrate Christmas. People talked about it but Nora

tried to be tough, although she was disturbed by the pressure from their society,

she tried hard to keep on track.

The first Nora’s mission was to reject to buy Christmas cards that year.

From Luther’s audit, their expenses for Christmas cards are $318 (Grisham, 2001:

23). It is described in the novel when Nora receives a phone call from Aubrie, the

owner of The Pumpkin Seed where Nora usually bought Christmas cards. After

hear the offers from Aubrie, Nora straightly said that they will not buy any

Christmas cards this year. Nora also reject to tell the reason for that when Aubrie

ask for her reason (Grisham, 2001: 22-23).

77

“We live in a souvenir society, a world in which everything we do,

everywhere we go, has to be commemorated” said Charles Gordon, writer of

Maclean’s magazine about American society

<http://www.sbdcnet.org/Snapshot/GreetingcardgiftshopSnapshot.pdf> (24 July

2010). From the quotation above, it was understandable why sending Christmas

cards, or in general, Greetings cards were very common for Americans since we

knew their tradition to celebrate something like Christmas, birthday, anniversary

day, and valentine day were part of their habits.

Christmas card was one of popular stuff for Christmas in the US.

Americans had become accustomed spent money for greeting cards, and this make

greetings cards producer get very big profit from their business.

According to The Greeting Card Association (GSA), approximately 3,000

greeting card publishers exist in The US

<www.integrainformation.com/forbes/overview01.htm> (23 July 2010).

Christmas cards were the best selling cards between other seasonal greeting cards

like Valentine day cards, and Thanksgiving cards. “About half of all greeting card

sales were seasonal in nature, while everyday cards accounted for the other half.

Within the seasonal category, Christmas cards accounted for 2.28 billion (61

percent) of sales” <www.referenceforbussiness.com/industries/Printing-

Publishing-Allied/Greeting-Cards.html> (22 July 2010).

Nora successfully rejected to buy Christmas cards but she could stand to

keep with their plan to skip Christmas. Nora was not like Luther. From the first

time, Nora seemed did not wholehearted to do their plan to skip Christmas. On

78

one occasion, she toughly rejected to buy Christmas cards, but on another

occasion, she had no heart to reject people who tried to offer Christmas tree,

fruitcakes or calendar. It was described in the novel when Nora tried to persuade

Luther to buy a Christmas tree.

Nora materialized from nowhere and suddenly had her chin on hisshoulder. “They’re so cute,” she whispered.Blank faces. Puzzled faces. Sad faces. A groan from just over his shoulderas the pain hit Nora (Grisham, 2001: 27).

Her hesitation about to skip Christmas also came when her surroundings

showed their sarcastic eyes. She felt offended and started blaming Luther for what

she got because of their skipping Christmas plan.

Women handled Christmas, not men. They shopped and decorated andcooked, planed parties and sent cards and fretted over things the men neverthought about. Why exactly was Luther so keen on dodging Christmaswhen he put so little effort into it? (Grisham, 2001: 51-52).

The climax came out when she received a phone call from Blair, Nora

suddenly neglected her plan to skip Christmas. Blair informed her parents that she

would be at home for Christmas Eve dinner party. She suddenly forgot about

Caribbean cruise. Nora lied to Blair and said she and Luther did the same

Christmas Eve dinner party as usual.

Mom, you’re gonna love Enrique. We’re crazy in love with each other…I’ve told him all about Christmas on Hemlock, the kids, the Frostys, thebig party at our house. You’re doing the party, aren’t you, Mom?”Nora said a lie, “of course we are”…”Mom, no gifts, okay. Please promiseme no gifts” (Grisham, 2001:108-109).

Nora’s hesitation that is showed in the novel showed her Shifty minded

characterization. Nora actually liked to celebrate Christmas, although she had

known about the fact that it was polluted by consumerism activities, but it was

79

what they did for long time and it had already became their custom. Nora reflected

how Americans were very enthusiastically about Christmas. Christmas was very

important to be celebrated. Christmas was not only Christians’ but moreover, it

was Americans’. “Christmas is as American as mom’s apple pie and the Fourth of

July” <www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,177322,00.htm> (24 July 2010).

Americans were accustomed to celebrate Christmas. Americans used

Christmas day to gather with their families and have a good time. The government

also gave chance for the citizens to celebrate Christmas freely. So in 26 June 1870

Christmas was declared as federal holiday in the US

<http://www.thehistoryofchristmas.com/ch/in_america.htm> (3 April 2010).

2. The Reflection of Christmas Consumerism in the late 1990s US from the

Setting in Skipping Christmas

The researcher would see the reflection of Christmas consumerism from

the setting in which was described in John Grisham’s Skipping Christmas by

using Richard Gill’s setting theory which was printed in his book Mastering

English Literature.

The researcher would see setting as time, place and society in this book to

see its reflection of Christmas consumerism in the late 1990s US. The analysis in

this part would be divided into 3 sub-topics which are setting of time included

Christmas, and late 1990s, setting of place included The US and the setting of

Society.

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a. Setting of Time

i. Christmas

Christmas as the setting of time in Skipping Christmas was clearly

described throughout the story. The title also used the word ‘Christmas’ to

introduce that this book told about Christmas. Christmas Day was celebrated on

the 25 December, although there are several people from the east churches which

were called Armenians celebrated it on 6 January.

Armenians follow the old eastern custom of honoring Epiphany,commemorating in the west chiefly visit of the Magi to the infant Jesus,and in the east, Christ’s Baptism. In some parts of the United States thisdate has been celebrated as “old Christmas” or “Little Christmas”( Lorimer, 1995: 666).

Christmas celebration usually started from even one month before

Christmas day. That was why it was called season. As it is described in the novel,

a month before Christmas, public areas such as airport has already been decorated

with typical Christmas decorations. “It was the Sunday after

thanksgiving…nearby a skinny black Santa Claus clanged an irksome bell and

droned out holiday greetings” (Grisham, 2001: 1-2).

It was also described that people started to shop things for their Christmas

Day’s preparation. Places like groceries and malls were packed with customer

during Christmas season as it was described in the novel when Luther came to a

grocery and he found that the grocery are packed with customers.

Every shop was full…there were no shopping baskets near the checkout atChip’s and of course this was a bad sign. Luther didn’t need one, but itmeant the place was packed (Grisham, 2001: 6).

81

In the real life it was also what happened during Christmas. People started

their preparation for Christmas Day a month before it comes. In the US,

Americans had what they called as Black Friday as the sign of the beginning of

Christmas season and it was sign to start their shopping activities for Christmas.

The existence of Black Friday as the opening of Christmas season was also such a

clarification and authentication of consumerism activities during Christmas.

With Christmas shopping vitally important to some retailers, Christmashas extended into a “season” of its own. The day after Thanksgiving (thefourth Thursday in November) is now known as “Black Friday.” Animportant shopping day, it pushes some businesses into profitability, or “inthe black,” and can account for a substantial proportion of annual profits(http://www.america.gov/st/poepleplace-english/2008/Desember/20061226154528abretnuh0.7518579.html) <25July 2010>.

Comments about Christmas consumerism also attach in the existence of

Santa Claus. In this novel, Santa Claus appeared several times in different

occasions, this in airport when Luther and Nora accompany her daughter to go to

Peru Santa Claus appear 2 times (Grisham, 2001: 2, 3). Santa Claus appeared

again in front of groceries when Luther stopped to buy foods (Grisham, 2001: 6).

The researcher found that Grisham wanted to put emphasizes toward the existence

of Santa Claus during Christmas. It showed that Christmas was Santa Claus time

to appear.

As we knew in the real world, Santa Claus was a very famous Christmas

icon which was originated in the US in the New York City (Bridgwater and

Sherwood, 1950: 388). Santa Claus was liked by many people moreover kids

because this imaginary character is characterized as a fat belly old man from the

north pole who is very kind and loves to gives present in Christmas for good kids.

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Christmas in modern time is very fertile field for consumerism to develop. Santa

Claus is believed as one of the tools of consumerism. Santa’s characteristic made

parents had to buy presents for their children. It was good tradition for the

producers and sellers of presents. So for people who did not like this imaginative

figure said “Santa Claus is a symbol of the commercialization and consumerism

that has seized the Christmas holiday in the west”

(http://www.cbn.com/spirituillife/chruchandministry/nonBuseck_Saint_Nicholas_

Santa.aspx).

The consumerism activities during Christmas season polluted Christmas as

a religious day. Seemed people forgot that Christmas day was dedicated to

commemorate the birthday of Christ. Seemed people focused on made themselves

happy in this season. The religiosity of Christmas gradually decreased and

defeated by the spirit of consumerism as Pope John Paul II said in one of His

Christmas sermon which is published in www.indiatimes.com:

Pope John Paul II said on Sunday that the spiritual message of Christmaswas under threat from the rampant consumerism of the season."The beautiful tradition of exchanging Christmas gifts between family andfriends, is under shock from a certain consumerist mentality and riskslosing its authentic sense of Christmas, above all, interior silence andprayer." He said "Secondly, the willingness to welcome the will of God,however it is manifested," he added(http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/32083545.cms) <22 July2010>.

ii. The Late 1990s

In the novel, the late 1990s as the setting of time was not clearly described.

There were few proofs that helped the researcher found the late 1990s as the

setting. The first one was Skipping Christmas first was published on November

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2001. It meant Grisham made this novel before November 2001 and for sure the

setting that he made for Skipping Christmas was also not more that 2001.

The second proof was concluded from consumerism activities which were

done by the characters in the novel showed that Americans at that time had

nothing to be afraid about their economic conditions. While American’s economic

condition was shocked by recession by the early 2000s. Americans tried to tighten

their belt to reduce their expenses because there were many people were lose their

job during time. It confirm the previous proof that the setting in Skipping

Christmas was in late 1990s

About 200,000 job cuts have been announced so far this year, according tocompany reports. Nearly 2.6 million jobs were lost over 2008, the highestyearly job-loss total since 1945."It's all about the consumer, and the consumer's been hit hard," said RobertBrusca, chief economist at Fact and Opinion Economics. "It's a viciouscircle as weakness begets layoffs, which beget more spending weakness"(http://money.cnn.com/2009/01/26/news/economy/job_cuts/index.htm).

The last proof the researcher got from the novel about the late 1990s as the

setting was concluded from Luther’s list of expenses he did for Previous

Christmas. Luther made a long list about his and his family expenses for

Christmas last year. One of the stuff he bought for her daughter was a walkman.

“…On Blair $6,100 for an overcoat, gloves, and boots, and a walkman for her

jogging…” (Grisham, 2001:13-14). This detail list helped the researcher took the

conclusion that the setting was in the late 1990s. Walkman was a well-known

gadget brand for American for long time, but in the early 2000s, Walkman’s

position was evicted by Ipod. Since in this novel Walkman was still described as

84

a top branded gadget, so the researcher concluded that the setting of the novel was

around the late 1990s.

The predigital Walkman evolved over the years into more than anastounding 1,120 models. But its essential nature remained unchanged: itwas dumb hardware. When Apple Computer introduced the iPod inNovember 2001, Steve Jobs described his new player as "the 21st-centuryWalkman." With 98 years remaining in the century, that was an early call.But he was correct. The iPod in 2001 was a Walkman successor, butsmarter, its hard drive easily navigated with well-designed software(http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/13/business/worldbusiness/13digi.html?_r=1) <23 July 2010>.

After seeing the proofs from the novel about the late 1990s as the setting

of time, the researcher would try to find facts Christmas consumerism in the real

US during this time. The late 1990s or in general twentieth century was the best

century for Americans. Even some people called twentieth century as American

century because this was the time the global leadership was dominated by the US

<http://www.historycentral.com/20thCent.html> (22 July 2010).

By knowing this fact, it was understandable why characters in this book

spent money largely. As what Trogdons did for the previous Christmas

celebration which was described in the novel:

Wes Trogdon was an insurance broker… No one on Hemlock strung moreChristmas lights than the Trogdons. They lined their yard, wrapped theirshrubs, draped their trees, outlined their house, adorned their windows—fourteen thousand lights the year before (Grisham, 2001: 42).

What Trogdons did and other characters did during Christmas showed how

much Americans spent during Christmas, moreover how the consumerism

activities became something common for Americans. They did it as their daily

activity and it made them did not realize that they were over consumptive and

85

they had buy what they just wanted to buy although in fact, they did not really

need it.

During 1990s until today consumerism increase largely, even some peoplesays that consumerism is American sports because it is so common in theUS it become one of Americans identity. American children are trained toconsume much. As they become adult, they worked hard to get what theywant, people are defined solely by what they buy and what they own<http://www.truth-it.net/consumerism_effects.html> (22 July 2010).

The consumerism activities was American sports could be said as

something true if we saw in the novel, people used real tree for their Christmas

tree. It really showed that Americans only bought they want, not what they need.

It was a big question, why the American used real tree which was only could be

used one time, while there was artificial Christmas tree which could be used for

many years. They themselves who knew the reason to use real tree for their

Christmas tree, but whatever the reason was it could be concluded that it was part

of American Christmas consumerism.

As it was proof by a survey which was conducted to find out how many

tree were cut down for Christmas. Since it was about natural resources, the effects

of American Christmas consumerism were not only about economic issues but

also environmental issue.

In 1997, Americans cut down 33 millions real trees to put up in theirhomes, enough to cover the state of Rhode Island. In doing so, they spentsomewhere between $600 million to $1.1 billion. Each acre of growingChristmas trees provides the daily oxygen requirements of 18 people<http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/NoChristmas.html> (22 July 2010).

Although in the late 1990s Americans started to realize and feel the effect

of their over consumptive activities, it seemed hard for Americans to free

themselves from consuming what they did not really need. So, what Americans

86

did was bought homemade stuffs with cheaper prices but they did not tried to

reduce to buy what they did not need.

In the late 90’s consumerism effects led a lot of people to choose to live asimpler lifestyle and choose to buy fewer products and spend their moneymore carefully. Ironically this led to an entirely new type of consumerismthat focused on the purchasing of products that identified the purchasers asmembers of the group that rejected the excesses of earlier decades. Thisconsumer movement focused on buying handmade products from smallbusinesses for cheaper prices instead of purchasing mass producedproducts from large corporations <http://www.truth-it.net/consumerism_effects.html> (22 July 2010).

b. Setting of Place

The setting of place in Skipping Christmas was in the US. Although

Grisham did not showed in explicitly in this novel, the researcher found some

strong evidences, which had been explained previously, that showed the setting of

place in this novel was in the US.

In the real US, Christmas was influenced so much by European culture,

because historically, Christmas was a tradition which was bought by first

European people who came to the New World.

Most of people who helped make our history came from Europe. Theybrought with them the ideas, the customs, and the blood of WesternEurope. The Indians, who here when Columbus discovered the NewWorld, have had small effect on our history (Harlow and Miller, 1953: 20).

It was why we found Christmas ornaments and decorations which were

typically European like mistletoe, carolers, Christmas trees and lights in The US.

Decoration with holly, hawthorn, and mistletoe and the sing of carols(especially by Waits) are all typically English. Santa Claus first waspopular in New York. Other American Invention are firecrackers andeggnog in the south. The Christmas tree was already a tradition in TheGerman Middle Ages, the light in the window, found widespread,probably came to America with the Irish (Bridgwater and Sherwood, 1950:388).

87

Christmas season was also something common and a holiday in the US. As

stated previously Christmas was as American as mom’s apple pie and the fourth

June. In the official website of The US embassy, it was found similar statement

about Christmas in the US.

Besides the strictly religious traditions, however, other common Christmaspractices are observed by people who are not religious or who are notChristian. In this way, some Christmas traditions have become Americantraditions <http://usa.usembassy.de/holidays-xmas.htm> (3 April 2010).

American tradition to celebrate Christmas was polluted by Consumerism.

It was not a new thing for modern society in the US. As stated before Christmas

Eve party and Christmas cards were something attached with Christmas

celebration which done by people in The US. These two customs not only made

people in the US spent so much money, but at the same time they also produced

so much waste and exploit so much natural resources as it was described in

www.recycleworks.org:

At least 28 million pounds of edible food are wasted each year—or over100 pounds per person. The 2.65 billion Christmas cards sold each year inthe US could fill a football field 10 stories high. If we each sent one cardless we’ve save 50,000 cubic yards of paper<http://www.recycleworks.org/resident/holiday_facts.html> (23 July2010).

c. Society

Christmas consumerism in Skipping Christmas was described also by the

existence of Luther and Nora surrounding. It was described in this book that

people in their society celebrated Christmas enthusiastically. Even in the

neighborhood in Hemlock Street where Luther and Nora lived, people here had

88

annual competition for their house decoration in Christmas. Moreover, they had

what they called Frosty, a forty feet up plastic snow man. They put their Frostys

on each of their roofs.

The Hemlock Frostys had made their debut six years earlier and were asmashing success—twenty – one houses on one side, twenty- one on theother, the street lined with two perfect rows of Frostys, forty feet up. Acolor photo with a cute story ran on the front page. Two television newscrews had done Live! Reports (Grisham, 2001: 39).

Not only they put Frostys on their roofs, they also decorated their house

with thousand of lights to brighten the Christmas Day. It was what Trogdons, one

of Luther and Nora neighbors did for Christmas extravagantly.

Wes Trogdon was an insurance broker… No one on Hemlock strung moreChristmas lights than the Trogdons. They lined their yard, wrapped theirshrubs, draped their trees, outlined their house, adorned their windows—fourteen thousand lights the year before (Grisham, 2001: 42).

Some people in the real world really celebrated Christmas with full of

enthusiasm. They put quite much concern on Christmas decoration. “…and the

more enthusiastic member of society start decking out their houses and front

gardens with a barrage of lights, glowing reindeer and giant plastic Santas”

< http://www.guardian.com.uk/uk/2001/des/18/christmas> (24 July 2010).

On one survey which was published in www.huppi.com, facts of

Christmas consumerism are clearly described. American spent more then $2

billion on Christmas ornaments, artificial Christmas tree, toys, lights, and lamps

that is imported from China. That expenses on Christmas ornaments and

decorations were not included the Christmas ornaments and decorations which

were domestic productions <http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/NoChristmas.html>

(22 July 2010).

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CHAPTER V

CONCLUSION

After analyzing John Grisham’s Skipping Christmas the researcher finds

consumerism tendency which happened during Christmas season. Grisham uses

the characters especially the main characters, Luther and Nora Krank to present

Consumerism issue in this novel. While the setting also made the Christmas

consumerism became understandable. To start the analysis on the reflection of

Christmas consumerism in Skipping Christmas, the researcher formulates 3

questions and then the researcher provided the answers in the analysis chapter.

The first part of the analysis is dedicated to provide main characters’

characterization. The second part is dedicated to provide the setting in Skipping

Christmas. And the last part is dedicated to provide the reflection of Christmas

consumerism in the late 1990s in the US from the combination of main characters’

characterization and the settings.

The main characters in Skipping Christmas are Luther and Nora Krank.

Luther was characterized as a realistic person who thinks in sensible and practical

way. He is also characterized as thrifty person so he spent his money efficiently

and carefully. It is why he does not like Christmas because Christmas means time

to over spend money. One more Luther’s characteristic is he is impatient but still

he had a good self control that is why he often prefers to curse silently when he

faces a bad situation rather than shouts his anger out. Later with his

90

characterization he decides to skip Christmas and asks his wife to join the plan.

This plan makes him in clash with his surrounding.

Nora is characterized as a sensitive woman. Sensitive in both the senses

that she is an easily offended person and she is able to understand others feeling.

Another Nora’s characteristic is she could easily shift her mind. This

characterization made her very proud with her plan to skip Christmas but shortly

in another time, she will show her hesitation and regret with her decision to skip

Christmas. And with Nora characterizations, Luther present to climax in Skipping

Christmas when she cancel her plan to skip Christmas at the very last minute

when her daughter gives a call and tells that she will be and home for Christmas.

The setting in Skipping Christmas was during Christmas time in the

late1990s in The US. The nuance of Christmas was described from the

decorations in the public area and from the conversation between the characters.

The shopping activities also showed that Christmas is close. The late 1990s and

the US as the setting are not stated explicitly, but still there are some details as the

proofs. It can be seen from the conversation between characters, the stuff they

used or name of places which are stated in the novel.

The society in this book is mostly about Hemlock street neighborhood

where Luther and Nora live. Most people in Hemlock Street are described as

Christians. People in this novel treat Christmas very special, they prepare the best

they can afford. They decorate their house extravagantly, put a plastic giant

Frostys on their roofs and have a competition for house decoration. The society

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did not like Kranks’ plan to skip Christmas and it makes they started to judge

them even treat Kranks badly.

With the combination of main characters’ characterization and setting of

this novel Grisham presented the issues about Christmas consumerism. So, the

reader can see what happens during Christmas in the US in the 1990s. With this

novel, Grisham also showed Americans attitude towards Christmas that treat

Christmas not only as a Holy day but also a holiday. Consumerism activities

dominate the Christmas celebration. It becomes a tradition so it seems hard to

remove the consumerism activities in Christmas celebration. The tendency of

Consumerism in Americans’ Christmas celebration is shown clearly by their

activities during Christmas season. They arrange special time to shop for

Christmas, even they spent more time for shopping rather than to go to the church.

They also cut real trees for their Christmas trees, Christmas cards and gift’s

wrappers. They throw millions pounds for edible foods from their Christmas Eve

dinner parties. And they also spent so much many on Christmas lights and

ornaments

Skipping Christmas and this thesis did not persuade anyone to change their

custom in celebrating Christmas but only provide facts and let the readers chose

their own attitude toward Christmas activities.

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