Summary of “Cantik Itu Luka”

Summary of “Cantik Itu Luka”

Author     : Eka Kurniawan
Pages       : 480 pages
Publisher : Jendela and Yogyakarta Culture Academy
Year         : 2002  

             This story starts from the resurrection of Dewi Ayu from the grave after her death twenty one years ago. It makes villagers come and surround her tomb. They cannot believe that the woman who have become a prostitute since war period live again. She walks to her house. She still remembers the way to the house and the house itself. In the house she found a girl, an ugly girl. She is twenty years old. Later Dewi Ayu realized that she is her daughter whose her name is Cantik although she is really ugly. The story continues from the past discussing about the origins of Dewi Ayu. Dewi Ayu is a Java-Dutch mulatto her grandmother is from Java Ma Iyang and her grandfather is from Dutch Ted Stammler. Dewi Ayu is a daughter result of forbidden love between Henri Stammler and Aneu Stammler. Afterwards Dewi Ayu grows become beautiful girl in Halimunda during colonialism era. When Netherlands fall and Japan overrun Indonesia, all of Dewi Ayu family has been killed except her. Then Japan arrests her and forces her to be a slut for Japanese soldier until she was pregnant and gave birth a daughter named Alamanda. After Japan has been fallen, and republic was established, she decided to be a streetwalker for Mama Kalong until gave birth three daughters Adinda, Maya Dewi, and Cantik. The next story tells about the life of Dewi Ayu’s daughters that ends tragically.

Analysis

Type of Literary Work

Cantik itu Luka (CIL) is a magic realism literary work. Magic realism is a method that mixes fantasy elements and narrative realism, joining legends, and myths with the historical events(Encyclopedia Britannica). Pay attention to these quotations:

“Sore hari di akhir pekan bulan Maret, Dewi Ayu bangkit dari kuburan setelah dua puluh satu tahun kematian. Seorang bocah gembala dibuat terbangun dari tidur siang di bawah pohon kamboja, kencing di celana pendeknya sebelum melolong, dan keempat dombanya lari di antara batu dan kayu nisan tanpa arah bagaikan seekor macan dilemparkan ke tengah mereka”.

The author wants to emphasize that CIL is a fairy tale with the resurrection of Dewi Ayu also the story about a pig that turn into a human called babi ngepet and the communist ghosts. Moreover, however, CIL also cite historical facts: world war, Japan colonization, established of republic, the rebellion of Indonesian Communist Party, and Petrus. Although the data is uncompleted also state that CIL is a realism literary work.

The City of Halimunda

CIL tells about the history of Halimunda through this citation

“Jauh sebelum itu Halimunda hanyalah sebuah hamparan rawa-rawa dan hutan berkabut luas tanpa pemilik. Seorang putri dari generasi terakhir Pajajaran melarikan diri ke daerah itu, memberinya nama, dan beranak-pinak menjadikannya perkampungan-perkampungan”. (p.45)

The author cannot give actual information about the imaginer city of Halimunda makes a blur imagery and cannot give special impression.

The Confusing Story

Appearance of some characters unexpectedly confused the readers. I often lose several moments when read one character to others. For example when Maman Gendeng comes to the Military Base in Halimunda because he is angry Dewi Ayu is forced to serve Shodancho makes some clumsy. Shodancho is mad because threatened by a stranger (p.131) Whereas Shodancho watches the fight between Maman Gendeng and Edi Idiot? (p.122) he supposed to be know who is Maman Gendeng.

Comparison Between “Black Beauty” and “The Sign of Four”

Comparison Between “Black Beauty” and “The Sign of Four”

From Contents

                          Black Beauty tells about how animal life such horse among humans. Black Beauty was a horse, born in large pleasant meadow. He has had many good and bad experiences, met kind and evil master. He got good experiences like well treatment, well feed, carrying light cart, and get holiday. He also got bad experiences like using bearing rein, whip, carrying heavy load and too much worked and Black Beauty got several scars from that. While, The Sign of Four, tells about mysterious case full of riddle solved by Detective Sherlock Holmes and his friend, Doctor Watson. Holmes and Watson got a client whose name was Miss Morstan. She wanted looking for his father that disappeared ten years ago. It brought Holmes to mystery sequence like found of lost treasure, murder case, investigating, chasing until know what is The Sign of Four. From collecting proofs and clues, Holmes always could solve problems and mysteries even though it is impossible and insane. Holmes was a genius person. His genius be able to brought him solve riddle in every case.

   For Reader Age

                          Black Beauty is suitable for reader under six years old because that story tells about friendship and compassion. In Black Beauty story is a good moral value that teach children to respect and treat animal, how good treatment should be given to animal even though animal, they have heart too and want to be given well treatment by human. In addition to, children like fable tale in which main character of the story is animal that has to force in his life, but at last he got better life. Black Beauty had implanted moral value to children through the story. The plot is simple and interesting to follow for children supported by pictures. While The Sign of Four is suitable for reader between seven until twelve years old because that story contains mysteries

and problems full with riddle that difficult to solve. The geniuses of Sherlock Holmes gave own impress in the story. In addition to, readers in that age will guess about what will be happened in the next page. It is not easy to predict if readers not read thoroughly, but language in the story is easy to understand because it is intended for children. This story capable of insist readers to think about puzzle case and how to solve it. This story contains moral value that do not make a decision hurry, think again about what will you do or you will regret it and be patience in each problem that you face do not even think about give up. This story had good imagination that suitable for children between seven until twelve and they have strong imagination and big curiosity. They must think about how can Mr. Holmes solve mysteries and find the suspect with limited tools and technology at the time. Of course Holmes only use his brain to solve all problems and that makes children like to

Sinopsis dan Komentar IPDN Undercover, Sebuah Kesaksian Bernurani

Tebal buku: 282 halaman
Penerbit     : Syaamil Media Cipta
Tahun Terbit: 2007

   Buku ini adalah sebuah autobiografi dari Inu Kencana Syafiie. Menurut (KBBI) autobioghrapy
adalah riwayat hidup pribadi yang ditulis sendiri. Artinya autobiografi adalah sebuah biografi yang
menceritakan tentang riwayat hidup dan pengalaman yang ditulis oleh diri sendiri. Penulisan autobiografi di dasarkan pada ingatan pengalaman penulis. Saat pertama kali melihat cover dan judul buku ini pembaca mungkin mengira bahwa buku ini bercerita tentang sebuah institusi pemerintah yang bernama IPDN yang sebelumnya bernama STPDN. Dan kata undercover yang berarti tersembunyi, terselubung dan rahasia, namun setelah saya melihat isinya ternyata sebagian besar adalah cerita tentang pengalaman hidup seorang Inu Kencana Syafiie mulai dari kecil sampai berhasil membongkar kasus-kasus di IPDN. Maksud dari penulisan judul tersebut adalah untuk menarik perhatian pembaca sekaligus mengenalkan kepada publik siapa sosok Inu Kencana ketika media massa seperti televisi dan koran tidak lagi menayangkan hal ini. Buku tersebut hadir sebagai bukti abadi tentang kasus IPDN dan kehidupan penulis. Penulis menceritakan tentang asal-usul IPDN, tujuan IPDN, dan sejumlah kasus besar yang terjadi di IPDN dengan sangat jelas dan tanpa rekayasa tidak seperti yang ditayangkan di televisi.

     Kisah inspiratif tentang kehidupan penulis yang penuh lika-liku dan tantangan. Tentang bagaimana dia berjuang, bagaimana dia menjalani kehidupan dalam penjara kemiskinan. Lewat buku ini, pembaca akan mengetahui sosok dan usaha-usaha beliau yang tak kenal takut dan menyerah untuk membongkar kasus-kasus di IPDN yang selama ini tertutup rapat dan tak pernah diberitakan di media manapun. Tekad Inu untuk membongkar itu semua adalah demi nama kebenaran, demi perbaikan masa depan almamaternya dan bukan untuk mengungkap aib. Beliau mengungkapnya dengan luar biasa berani, lugas, dan ceplas-ceplos meskipun diteror ancaman dari berbagai pihak dan diterpa kemiskinan dan kelaparan karena tidak digaji oleh IPDN namun itu semua tak mengurungkan niat beliau untuk terus mengungkap kebenaran.