CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study

Deception Point novel is scientific novel written by Dan Brown. It

becames his third novel after Angel and Demond novel. It was published by

Pocket Book in 2001, and it consists of 557 pages.

Deception Point tells about Intelligence Analyst Rachel Sexton in her

mid-thirties, as single, and works for the NRO (National Reconnaissance

Office). Her father, Senator Sedgewick Sexton, is a popular presidential

candidate surpassing the incumbent President of the United States Zachary

Herney. The President sends her to the Arctic as part of a team of experts to

confirm and authenticate findings made by NASA deep within the Milne Ice

Shelf. NASA's new Earth Observation System (EOS), a collection of satellites

constantly monitoring the globe for signs of large-scale change, has found an

extremely dense spot in the Milne Ice Shelf. NASA discovers a very dense

meteorite. In it are fossils of bugs very similar to but not the same as species

on earth. NASA claims this as proof of extraterrestrial life. This find is

something NASA needs desperately, as the agency’s success rate on other

fronts has put it in a bad light. Senator Sexton uses this as an example of

government overspending and failure to further his campaign. Meanwhile, a

Delta Force team is observing the discovery, monitoring the NASA staff for

an unknown commander. When one of the four civilian scientists observes an

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irregularity with the pit the meteorite was found in, the Delta Force team 'takes

him out' using their miniature spy boot, leaving his body in the pit far below

the water where he will not be discovered. When another civilian scientist sees

the irregularity, he shares it with his friends Corky and Rachel. They report it

to Norah, who confirms that there is sea water in what should be a closed area

with only freshwater. The four go outside to scan the ice from a distance. The

scan shows Ming's body and a frozen section of ice where the meteorite was

drilled up into the shaft and sea water sealed the gap. Upon discovering this,

the four are attacked by the Delta Force team. Norah is killed, shown as an

accident. Rachel, Mike and Corky escape and are picked up by the Navy

submarine USS Charlotte. The Delta Force team believes them to be dead,

leaving them a chance to tell the President's advisor and Rachel's boss at the

NRO about their discovery, Ming and Norah's deaths and about the attempt on

their lives. Rachel's boss, William Pickering, has them airlifted from the sub to

a chopper which escorts them away from the meteorite discovery site. A group

of four civilian scientists have already been studying the find and have

confirmed NASA's claims. It is only hours before the President and NASA

plan to go public with the discovery.

In the novel Deception Point, Dan Brown performs Rachel Sexton as

the major character. Brown develops the personality of woman. Rachel sexton

is the female protagonist. She is intelligence analyst in her mid-thirties, is

single, and works for the NRO (National Reconnaissance Office).

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There is a positive and negative response from this public for this

novel. From the positive response, they said that the novel is interesting.

Reader’s will not disappointed by the novel. Reader’s feel the emotion of the

novel.

January 29, 2010: Deception point is a very interesting book that I would
recommend other people read. Deception point has great character
interaction, deceptions throughout the book, and Dan Brown has already
written many wonderful books. If you like Dan Brown's previous books I
know that you will like this book. Although it wasn't his best book, it was
a good book that I enjoyed reading. I just had to know the end and couldn't
put the book down until I found out what happened. The two main
characters, Michael Tolland and Rachel Sexton, go on an adventure to try
and discover the truth about the fake meteorite. As they leave the icy
tundra, they go on a mission to not only discover who is behind the
deception but also to save their lives. When they finally solve the mystery
Rachel and Michel get a great shock as the person behind the curtains is
revealed. You can never guess what will happen and this book is amazing
as it continues to throw twists at you that will never cease to amaze you. I
would recommend that anyone that likes a mystery, action, or romantic
relationship should read this book. http://www.Amazon.com

While the negative response by Darian Peters said that

Deception Point is one of Dan Brown's less well-known novels without the
mass exposure of the Da Vinci Code. But as with the more famous novel
he has written a fast paced thriller that will provide enjoyment to many but
appall.http://www.helium.com/knowledge/216828-book-reviews-
deception-point-by-dan-brown.

Not only the good comments, but also they are critics of this novel.

They think that this novel had a great deal of repetition of certain phrase and

word. They think it could have been shorter and just as effective to make the

readers not to be boring when reading this novel. There was someone said that

this novel has weak characters, because uses very short chapters. Some of
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them are half page long and while for the most of the book it is rather

annoying (Adult, 2004). The other comments also come from lifeloom.com, it

shows that most of the people who did not like the novel argued that it is

amateurishly written, but most complain about the logical and mathematical

errors.

Based on the rating of this novel in www.Amazon.com, this novel is

popular enough. It is proven by the selling of this novel and being the

American’s 1 best selling, although this is the first Dan Brown literary work.

This novel has been translated into more than 25 languages, including

Indonesian languages and many people like Dan Brown’s Deception Point

novel.

The Deception Point, By Dan Brown is an interesting novel. The

writer discover three reason why choosing this novel.

The first reason is that the Deception Point is shocking scientific

discovery novel and the novel to make the readers not boring when reading

this novel and the readers feel emotion in this novel. The second reason is that

the novel is simple. The writer finds that this novel is simple because this

novel using traditional plot which is the story has relation each other in which

makes cause effect relation from the begining until in the end of story, so it is

make easy to the writer in understanding the story.

The third reason is challenging. This novel is challenging because the

writer finds there are several aspects and there are still many interesting

characters in this novel that challenge be explored.

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Conflict of interest between individual and state in Dan Brown’s

Deception Point novel is one aspect which is interest. If we read this novel, we

can see that this novel tells about it. Conflict of interest is inherent to the

majority of relationship among individual and of these with companies and

institution and, certainly research involving human being is no exception.

These are reflected in sociology studies, in one or more specialties,

such as social organization, ethnic relation, social stratification, education, etc.

Dealing with literature, sociology then reflects the way of literature interact

with society and there is also relationship between literature and sociology.

Shortly talking Deception Point is very interesting, to know the

conflict of interest between individual and state. The theme of the novel tells

about the conflict of interest between individual and state in this novel, the

writer applies sociological approach. In this study the writer encourage herself

to give a title “CONFLICT OF INTEREST BETWEEN INDIVIDUAL AND

STATE IN DAN BROWN’S DECEPTION POINT (2001): A

SOCIOLOGICAL APPROACH”

B. Literature Review

The writer chooses Deception Point novel is very interesting to be

analyzed. As long as the writer knows, there is no researcher has been

analyzed Deception Point novel, especially in Muhammadiyah University of

Surakarta and Sebelas Maret University, but after browsing in the internet the
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writer found there is a researcher that conducted the study of Deception Point

novel.

In Diana Hikmawati’s blogspot, the writer found that she discusses

Deception Point novel with sociological approach, too. The research paper of

Diana Hikmawati have entitled “White Collar Crime as Seen in Dan brown’s

Deception Point: a Sociological Approach”. (Diana Hikmawati, 2008). It is a

research done in order to find out the white collar crime of the characters,

besides it also discusses about the reasons why white collar crime happens in

Deception Point novel.

Although the research used a similar approach, there is the

difference between of them. In this research, the writer intends to study the

sociological aspect of the novel being researched. It will be done by

discovering conflict of interest between individual and state that is reflected in

Deception Point novel especially concerning with American society in the late

of 20th and early 21st century from sociological approach. So, both of the

research have different form, it is about the subject of the research that used to

analysis the research.

C. Problem Statement

Based on the title and background of the study, the writer proposed the

problem as follows: “How is the conflict of interest between individual and

state reflected in Dan Brown’s Deception Point?”

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D. Objective of the Study

Based on the problem statement above, the writer can propose some

objectives of the study below:

1. To analyze the structural elements of the novel.

2. To analyze the novel based on sociological approach.

E. Limitation of the Study

To make the research appropriate with the objectives of the study, the

writer will make the limitation to the research. The writer will only focus on

the conflict of interest between individual and state in Dan Brown’s Deception

Point novel by using sociological approach.

F. Benefit of the Study

The reason why someone makes a research is to get the benefit from it.

By so doing, the writer expects some benefits produced from this research,

Those are:

1. Theoretical Benefit

By doing this research, the writer wants to give contribution in

providing references for criticizing a literary work and producing criticism

as objective as possible.

2. Practical Benefit

This research has benefit to give deeper understanding about the

content of the play especially from the sociological approach in Dan

Brown’s Deception Point novel.

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G. Research Method

This chapter is divided into five subparts, namely; type of the study,

object of the study, data and data source, technique of data collection, and

technique of data analysis.

1. Type of the Study

In this study, the writer uses a qualitative research. It is library

research while data source are using literary data. It purposes to analyze

the novel using sociological approach.

2. Object of the Study

The object of the study is Dan Brown’s entitled Deception Point

that is the written in 2001, published by Pocket Book in 2001, New

York, contains 557 pages and 133 chapters.

3. Type of the Data and the Data Source

In this study, the type of data is the form of the texts and image

which used in Deception Point novel.

The writer uses two sources of data, according to burns (2000: 485)

there are two types of data source, namely: primary data source and second

data source. Primary data source are documents written by a witness to the

events, whereas secondary data sources are secondhand version and

therefore less accurate:

a. Primary Data Source

The primary data source of the study is the novel entitled

Deception Point written by Dan Brown.

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b. Secondary Data Source

The sources of the secondary data are taken from other sources

which are related to the primary data that support the analysis. Some

books of literary criticism and another data related to this research.

4. Technique of Data Collection

The method of data collection in this study uses the library

research by selecting both primary and secondary data. The writer will

involve some required steps.

a. Reading Deception Point novel.

b. Taking write from primary and secondary data source.

c. Browsing the internet to get some information that related to the topic.

d. Classifying the data into the categories which relevant to the analysis.

e. Drawing conclusion and formulating suggestion.

5. Technique of Data Analysis

In analyzing the data, the writer use descriptive analysis. It means

that the researcher interprets the text and content to get the needed data.

This data are used to analyze the conflict of interest between individual

and state in Dan Brown’s novel using sociological approach.

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H. Research Paper Organization

This research paper is divided into six chapters. Chapter I introduction;

it deals with the background of the study, literary review, problem of the

study, limitation of the study, benefit of the study, research method, paper

organization. Chapter II presents underlying theory, which contains notion of

sociology of literature, principle of sociology of literature, structural elements

of the novel, and theoretical application. Chapter III delivers the social

historical background of America society in the late of twenty first century

with all aspects that influence and happened. Chapter IV discusses the

structural analysis; it deals with the structural elements of the novel and

discussion. Chapter V is sociological analysis. Chapter VI presents the

conclusion and suggestion. It consists of conclusion of the research and then it

propose some suggestion.