Analisis Plot dalam Novel Lord of The Flies Karya William Golding

THE NOVEL                                                                                                

Mengidentifikasi plot dalam novel Lord of the Flies karya William Golding

oleh Usti Maula

Dalam novel Lord of the Flies terdapat beberapa unsur plpakaot. Plot merun rangkaian cerita yang dibentuk oleh tahapan-tahapan peristiwa yang dimulai dari exposition sampai denoument, saling berkaitan dengan tujuan untuk menunjukan suatu maksud jalan cerita yang ada. Dikutip dari gurupendidikan.co.id menjelaskan bahwa alur merupakan sebuah struktur rangkaian kejadian-kejadian dalam sebuah cerita yang disusun dengan secara kronologis. Alur mengatur bagaimana suatu tindakan-tindakan yang terdapat dalam cerita harus berkaitan dengan satu sama lain, misalnya seperti bagaimana suatu peristiwa berkaitan dengan peristiwa lainnya, lalu bagaimana tokoh yang digambarkan dan berperan di dalam cerita yang semuanya terkait dengan suatu kesatuan waktu.

Anasir-anasir plot :

1.      Exposition

Plot cerita diawali dengan exposition dimana exposition merupakan tahapan pengenalan cerita, biasanya berupa pengenalan tokoh, dan pengenalan tempat dimana cerita itu berlangsung.

The boy with fair hair lowered himself down the last few feet of rock and began to pick his way toward the lagoon. Though he had taken off his school sweater and trailed it now from one hand, his grey shirt stuck to him and his hair was plastered to his forehead. All round him the long scar smashed into the jungle was a bath of heat. He was clambering heavily among the creepers and broken trunks when a bird, a vision of red and yellow, flashed upwards with a witch-like cry; and this cry was echoed by another.

(hal. 1)

Paragraf pertama bab pertama narator membuka cerita dengan memperkenalkan satu orang tokoh laki-laki mengenakan jas sekolah yang berada di suatu hutan rimba, tergambar oleh benda-benda yang ada di tempat itu seperti bebatuan, tanaman, dan burung-burung yang berkicauan. Pengenalan tempat diperjelas di halaman berikutnya.

"This is an island. At least I think it's an island. That's a reef out in the sea. Perhaps

there aren't any grownups anywhere."

The fat boy looked startled.

"There was that pilot. But he wasn't in the passenger cabin, he was up in front."

The fair boy was peering at the reef through screwed-up eyes.

"All them other kids," the fat boy went on. "Some of them must have got out. They

must have, mustn't they?"

The fair boy began to pick his way as casually as possible toward the water. He tried to be offhand and not too obviously uninterested, but the fat boy hurried after him.

"Aren't there any grownups at all?"

"I don't think so."

The fair boy said this solemnly; but then the delight of a realized ambition overcame

him. In the middle of the scar he stood on his head and grinned at the reversed fat boy.

"No grownups!"

The fat boy thought for a moment.

"That pilot."

The fair boy allowed his feet to come down and sat on the steamy earth.

"He must have flown off after he dropped us. He couldn't land here. Not in a place

with wheels."

"We was attacked!"

"He'll be back all right."

(hal. 2-3)

Dengan kutipan ini menjadi jelas tentang keberlangsungan cerita tersebut bahwa tokoh berada di sebuah pulau, begitulah anggapan tokoh. Mengapa mereka berada di tempat tersebut? Kutipan tersebut membicaran tentang pesawat, pilot, kabin, anak-anak, pendaratan, jadi sangat jelas bahwa mereka itu berada di suatu tempat yang asing dikarenakan mereka kecelalakaan pesawat dan terdampar di tempat itu. Narator juga menjelaskan bagaimana keadaan tempat tersebut, seperti dalam kutipan berikut.

The shore was fledged with palm trees. These stood or leaned or reclined against the light and their green feathers were a hundred feet up in the air. The ground beneath them was a bank covered with coarse grass, torn everywhere by the upheavals of fallen trees, scattered with decaying coconuts and palm saplings. Behind this was the darkness of the forest proper and the open space of the scar. Ralph stood, one hand against a grey trunk, and screwed up his eyes against the shimmering water. Out there, perhaps a mile away, the white surf flinked on a coral reef, and beyond that the open sea was dark blue. Within the irregular arc of coral the lagoon was still as a mountain lake--blue of all shades and shadowy green and purple. The beach between the palm terrace and the water was a thin stick, endless apparently, for to Ralph's left the perspectives of palm and beach and water drew to a point at infinity; and always, almost visible, was the heat.

(hal. 5)

Cerita ini berlatarkan di alam terbuka, terlihat disana terdapat pantai yang mempunyai ombak besar juga dikelilingi pohon kelapa, tanah yang ditumbuhi rerumputan, dan dibelakangnya ada hutan juga pegunungan. Tampak asri tempat tersebut, seperti tanda bahwa pulau itu tidak berpenghuni. Setelah menjelaskan tentang bagaimana latar tempat, Sampai kutipan ini narator belum memperkenalkan tiap tokoh-tokoh dan akan dijelasakan pada kutipan selanjutnya.

Some were naked and carrying their clothes; others half-naked, or more or less dressed, in school uniforms, grey, blue, fawn, jacketed, or jerseyed. There were badges, mottoes even, stripes of color in stockings and pullovers. Their heads clustered above the trunks in the green shade; heads brown, fair, black, chestnut, sandy, mouse-colored; heads muttering, whispering, heads full of eyes that watched Ralph and speculated. Something was being done.

(hal. 19)

Dengan kutipan diatas kita menjadi tahu bahwa tokoh dalam cerita ini adalah sekumpulan anak laki-laki yang mengenakan baju seragam dengan warna yang berbeda dan warna rambut yang berbeda juga. Ini menyiratkan bahwa mereka adalah anak atau remaja yang berasal dari sekolah yang berbeda dan belum mengenal satu sama lain.

"Then we'll have to look after ourselves."

Secure on the other side of Ralph, Piggy spoke timidly.

"That's why Ralph made a meeting. So as we can decide what to do. We've heard

names. That's Johnny. Those two--they're twins, Sam 'n Eric. Which is Eric--? You? No--

you're Sam--"

"I'm Sam--"

"'n I'm Eric."

"We'd better all have names," said Ralph, "so I'm Ralph."

"We got most names," said Piggy. "Got 'em just now."

(hal. 23)

Di kutipan ini narator memperkenalkan nama dari mereka seperti Ralph, Piggy, Johny, Sam, Eric. Satu sama lain saling memperkenalkan diri, ya tentu saja karena sebelumnya mereka tidak saling mengenal. Dari beberapa kutipan diatas sudah mewakili dari pengenalan akan cerita ini, mulai dari pengenalan tokoh dan latar tempat secara umum.

2.      Turning point

Turning point yaitu bagian dimana cerita mengalami perbelokan.

Jack spoke.

"We've got to decide about being rescued."

There was a buzz. One of the small boys, Henry, said that he wanted to go home.

"Shut up," said Ralph absently. He lifted the conch. "Seems to me we ought to have a

chief to decide things."

"A chief! A chief!"

"I ought to be chief," said Jack with simple arrogance, "because I'm chapter chorister

and head boy. I can sing C sharp."

Another buzz.

(hal. 25)

Setelah semua anak laki-laki berkumpul dan berkenalan mereka saling bercanda dan menikmati pertemanan baru mereka seolah mereka lupa sejenak akan permasalahan yang mereka alami tentang terdamparnya mereka di pulau tidak berpenghuni ini. tak lama kemudian Henry mengeluh bahwa ia ingin pulang. Ralph tersadarkan bahwa mereka tidak bisa diam dan bersenang-senang saja mereka harus melakukan sesuatu untuk bisa terselamatkan dari tempat itu. Namun mereka bingung apa yang harus mereka lakukan agar bisa diselamatkan. Ralph mengusulkan pengangkatan seorang pemimpin diantara mereka supaya ada yang mengatur rencana misi penyelamatan. Jack menawarkan diri menjadi pemimpin seolah ia ingin menguasai. 

"We're on an island. We've been on the mountain top and seen water all round. We

saw no houses, no smoke, no footprints, no boats, no people. We're on an uninhabited island with no other people on it."

Jack broke in.

"All the same you need an army--for hunting. Hunting pigs--"

"Yes. There are pigs on the island."

All three of them tried to convey the sense of the pink live thing struggling in the

creepers.

"We saw--"

"Squealing--"

"It broke away--"

"Before I could kill it--but--next time!"

Jack slammed his knife into a trunk and looked round challengingly.

(hal. 40)

Berawal dari terdampar di pulau, kini mereka mencoba untuk menjelajahi pulau dan mencari tahu tentang bagaimana keadaan pulau yang mereka huni. Harus menerima kenyataan bahwa disana tidak ada rumah, asap, jejak kaki, kapal, atau orang. Disaat seperti itu Jack malah memikirkan untuk berburu babi karena saat penjelajahan dia melihat hewan itu.

3.      Rising actions

Bagian cerita dimana tokoh melakukan tindakan akibat adanya perbelokan cerita yang berujung pada suatu keputusan yang harus dilakukan.

"There's another thing. We can help them to find us. If a ship comes near the island they may not notice us. So we must make smoke on top of the mountain. We must make a fire."  "A fire! Make a fire!"

(hal. 48)

Mereka berpikir cara untuk diselamatkan, dan terpikirlah untuk membuat suatu sinyal yaitu yaitu membuat asap yang membumbung di atas gunung dengan tujuan keberadaan mereka terdeteksi oleh orang luar.

"Piggy! Have you got any matches?"

The other boys took up the cry till the mountain rang. Piggy shook his head and cam to the pile.

"My! You've made a big heap, haven't you?"

Jack pointed suddenly.

"His specs--use them as burning glasses!"

Piggy was surrounded before he could back away.

"Here--let me go!" His voice rose to a shriek of terror as Jack snatched the glasses off

his face. "Mind out! Give 'em back! I can hardly see! You'll break the conch!"

Ralph elbowed him to ne side and knelt by the pile.

"Stand out of the light."

There was pushing and pulling and officious cries. Ralph moved the lenses back and forth, this way and that, till a glossy white image of the declining sun lay on a piece of rotten wood. Almost at once a thin trickle of smoke rose up and made him cough. Jack knelt too and blew gently, so that the smoke drifted away, thickening, and a tiny flame appeared. The flame, nearly invisible at first in that bright sunlight, enveloped a small twig, grew, was enriched with color and reached up to a branch which exploded with a sharp crack. The flame flapped higher and the boys broke into a cheer.

"My specs!" howled Piggy. "Give me my specs!"

Ralph stood away from the pile and put the glasses into Piggy's groping hands. His voice subsided to a mutter.

(hal. 53)

Setelah mereka berada di puncak gunung dan mengumpulkan tumpukan ranting untuk siap dibakar namun mereka yang terdampar tentu saja mereka tidak mempunyai korek untuk menyalakan api. Kemudian Jack memberi ide membuat api dengan bantuan kacamata Piggy dimana Piggy adalah satu-satunya anak yang berkacamata. Piggy kesal Jack mengambil kacamata Piggy karena tanpa kacamata ia tidak bisa melihat.  Ralph memfokuskan sinar matahari pada lensa kacamata Piggy. Kemudian asap tipis muncul dan terbentuklah percikan api, kemudian membakar tumpukan ranting. Api menjadi hal yang penting bagi mereka karena dengan api yang menghasilkan asap kemudian asap itu menjadi sinyal akan keberadaan mereka dan berharap ada orang atau kapal yang bisa membaca sinyal mereka.

4.      Crisis

Roger took the conch and looked round at them gloomily.

"I've been watching the sea. There hasn't been the trace of a ship. Perhaps we'll never

be rescued."

A murmur rose and swept away. Ralph took back the conch.

"I said before we'll be rescued sometime. We've just got to wait, that's all."

(hal.57)

Mereka mulai mengeluhkan keadaan sinyal asap yang mereka buat seolah sia-sia. Tidak ada satupun kapal yang melintas dan berpikir kalau mereka tidak akan terselamatkan. Namun dengan optimis mengatakan bahwa mereka pasti akan terselamatkan, hanya saja mereka harus menunggu. Sebelumnya, Ralph sang pemimpin sudah mengintruksikan untuk saling bergantian menjaga asap dan mengamati jika ada kapal melintas, seperti dalam kutipan berikut Ralph membuat peraturan;

Piggy wilted. Ralph took the conch from him and looked round the circle of boys. "We've got to have special people for looking after the fire. Any day there may be a ship out there"--he waved his arm at the taut wire of the horizon--"and if we have a signal going they'll come and take us off. And another thing. We ought to have more rules. Where the conch is, that's a meeting. The same up here as down there."

They assented. Piggy opened his mouth to speak, caught Jack's eye and shut it again.

Jack held out his hands for the conch and stood up, holding the delicate thing carefully in his sooty hands.

"I agree with Ralph. We've got to have rules and obey them. After all, we're not savages. We're English, and the English are best at everything. So we've got to do the right things."

(hal. 56)

Sebagai seorang pemimpin Ralph mempunyai peraturan yang tegas. Mereka adalah laki-laki terpelajar sehingga mereka menyetujui untuk membentuk aturan-aturan. Seperti, setiap anak harus bergantian untuk menjaga asap dan api tetap menyala sebagi sinyal. Meskipun kenyataannya sebagian dari mereka pesimis kalau mereka akan terselamatkan. 

5.      Conflict

Terjadi konflik dengan antar tokohnya.

Ralph explained.

"Been working for days now. And look!"

Two shelters were in position, but shaky. This one was a ruin.

"And they keep running off. You remember the meeting? How everyone was going to work hard until the shelters were finished?"

"Except me and my hunters--"

"Except the hunters. Well, the littluns are--"

He gesticulated, sought for a word.

"They're hopeless. The older ones aren't much better. D'you see? All day I've been

working with Simon. No one else. They're off bathing, or eating, or playing."

Simon poked his head out carefully.

"You're chief. You tell 'em off."

(hal. 68)

Indignation took away Ralph's control.

"I was talking about smoke! Don't you want to be rescued? All you can talk about is

pig, pig, pig!"

"But we want meat!"

"And I work all day with nothing but Simon and you come back and don't even notice

the huts!"

"I was working too--"

"But you like it!" shouted Ralph. "You want to hunt! While I--"

(hal. 74)

Dengan semua aturan yang dibuat dan disepakati, namun tidak semudah itu dalam menjalankannya, terlebih karena mereka adalah anak-anak yang satu sama lain baru kenal sehingga sulit untuk menyatukan visi. Ada yang bekerja sepanjang hari membuat gubuk untuk tempat mereka berteduh dan tidur, ada yang menjaga asap tetep menyala dan mengamati sekelilingnya. Namun ada juga sekelompok anak yang kerjaannya hanya berenang, bermain, dan makan saja. Selain itu juga disaat Ralph fokus ke visi penyelamatan tapi Jack malah mementingkan untuk berburu babi. Ralph geram dengan tingkah anak-anak sulit diatur sehingga menimbulkan konflik antara Ralph dengan kelompok anak yang membangkang dari peraturan.

6.      Complication

Permasalahan semakin meningkat menuju climax.

The smoke was a tight little knot on the horizon and was uncoiling slowly. Beneath the

smoke was a dot that might be a funnel. Ralph's face was pale as he spoke to himself.

"They'll see our smoke."

Piggy was looking in the right direction now.

"It don't look much."

He turned round and peered up at the mountain. Ralph continued to watch the ship, ravenously. Color was coming back into his face. Simon stood by him, silent.

"I know I can't see very much," said Piggy, "but have we got any smoke?"

Ralph moved impatiently, still watching the ship.

"The smoke on the mountain."

(hal. 93-94)

"Piggy's specs!" shouted Ralph. "If the fire's all out, we'll need them--"

He stopped shouting and swayed on his feet. Piggy was only just visible, bumbling up

from the beach. Ralph looked at the horizon, then up to the mountain. Was it better to fetch Piggy's glasses, or would the ship have gone? Or if they climbed on, supposing the fire was all out, and they had to watch Piggy crawling nearer and the ship sinking under the horizon? Balanced on a high peak of need, agonized by indecision, Ralph cried out: "Oh God, oh God!"

The fire was dead. They saw that straight away; saw what they had really known down

on the beach when the smoke of home had beckoned. The fire was out, smokeless and dead; the watchers were gone. A pile of unused fuel lay ready. Ralph turned to the sea. The horizon stretched, impersonal once more, barren of all but the faintest trace of smoke. Ralph ran stumbling along the rocks, saved himself on the edge of the pink cliff, and screamed at the ship.

"Come back! Come back!"

He ran backwards and forwards along the cliff, his face always to the sea, and his voice

rose insanely.

"Come back! Come back!"

Simon and Maurice arrived. Ralph looked at them with unwinking eyes. Simon turned

away, smearing the water from his cheeks. Ralph reached inside himself for the worst word he knew.

"They let the bloody fire go out."

(hal. 95)

Kapal itu datang disaat mereka berleha-leha. Ralph melihat satu titik dann ternyata itu adalah kapal. Namun sayang asap yang sebagai sinyal itu padam karena tidak ada yang menjaganya, karena sebagian anak bersama Jack sedang pergi berburu. Ralph sangat geram melihat kenyataan tersebut. Ia berlari mengejar kapal itu dan berteriak sekerang mungkin meminta kapal untuk kembali namun kapal telah hilang berlalu. Dan setelah itu kawanan Jack pun pulang dari pemburuannya.

"There was aship."

Jack, faced at once with too many awful implications, ducked away from them. He laid

a hand on the pig and drew his knife. Ralph brought his arm down, fist clenched, and his voice shook.

"There was a ship. Out there. You said you'd keep the fire going and you let it out!" He

took a step toward Jack, who turned and faced him.

"They might have seen us. We might have gone home--"

This was too bitter for Piggy, who forgot his timidity in the agony of his loss. He began

to cry out, shrilly: "You and your blood, Jack Merridew! You and your hunting! We might have gone home--"

Ralph pushed Piggy to one side.

"I was chief, and you were going to do what I said. You talk. But you can't even build

huts--then you go off hunting and let out the fire--"

He turned away, silent for a moment. Then his voice came again on a peak of feeling.

"There was a ship--"

One of the smaller hunters began to wail. The dismal truth was filtering through to

everybody. Jack went very red as he hacked and pulled at the pig.

"The job was too much. We needed everyone."

Ralph turned.

"You could have had everyone when the shelters were finished. But you had to hunt--"

"We needed meat."

(hal. 100-101)

Ralph sangat marah dan memberi tahu Jack bahwa tadi ada kapal namun diatas gunung sana tidak ada anak yang menjaga asap tetep menyala. Ralph menyalahkan kelompok Jack yang lebih mementingkan berburu. Dengan keegoan Jack dan dengan nada marah dia berkata bahwa ia butuh aging.

Permasalahan inilah yang memunculkan pada tahapan plot climax. Dimana tokoh konflik dengan keadaan juga konflik dengan antar tokoh lainnya.

7.      Climax

Merupakan puncak dari segala permasalahan dalam cerita.

He held the conch against his chest with one hand and stabbed the air with his index

finger.

"Who thinks Ralph oughtn't to be chief?"

He looked expectantly at the boys ranged round, who had frozen. Under the palms

there was deadly silence.

"Hands up," said Jack strongly, "whoever wants Ralph not to be chief?"

The silence continued, breathless and heavy and full of shame. Slowly the red drained from Jack's cheeks, then came back with a painful rush. He licked his lips and turned his head at an angle, so that his gaze avoided the embarrassment of linking with another's eye.

"How many think--"

His voice tailed off. The hands that held the conch shook. He cleared his throat, and

spoke loudly.

"All right then."

He laid the conch with great care in the grass at his feet. The humiliating tears were running from the corner of each eye.

"I'm not going to play any longer. Not with you."

Most of the boys were looking down now, at the grass or their feet. Jack cleared his

throat again.

"I'm not going to be a part of Ralph's lot--"

He looked along the right-hand logs, numbering the hunters that had been a choir.

"I'm going off by myself. He can catch his own pigs. Anyone who wants to hunt when I do can come too."

He blundered out of the triangle toward the drop to the white sand.

"Jack!"

Jack turned and looked back at Ralph. For a moment he paused and then cried out,

high-pitched, enraged.

(hal. 188-189)

Perpecahan diantara merupakan puncak dari segala permasalahan. Berawal dari bersama salam pimpinan Ralph, kemudian terjadi konflik diantara mereka, hingga akhirnya mereka memisahkan diri menjadi dua bagian seolah terbentuk dua kubu yang saling bertentangan. Satu kubu mempertahankan visinya untuk mencari cara supaya terselamatkan, sementara kubu lainnya fokus pada perburuan babi dan bersenang-bersenang saja.

8.      Falling action

Setelah terjadi permasalahan yang ada puncaknya, kini tokoh berusaha untuk mulai meredakan permasalahan, jadi disini plotnya menurun.

"We can do without Jack Merridew. There's others besides him on this island. But now

we really got a beast, though I can't hardly believe it, we'll need to stay close to the platform; there'll be less need of him and his hunting. So now we can really decide on what's what."

"There's no help, Piggy. Nothing to be done."

(hal. 190)

Piggy dan dan Ralph harus menerima kenyataan bahwa Jack bersama kawanannya sudah tidak sepahaman lagi dengan Ralph. Dengan ketegangan konflik yang terjadi sebelumnya. Piggy beranggapan bahwa mereka bisa menyelesaikan permasalahan meski tanpa ada kehadiran Jack.

9.      Epiphany

Alur menuju resolution

He staggered to his feet, tensed for more terrors, and looked up at a huge peaked cap.

It was a white-topped cap, and above the green shade of the peak was a crown, an anchor, gold foliage. He saw white drill, epaulettes, a revolver, a row of gilt buttons down the front of a uniform.

A naval officer stood on the sand, looking down at Ralph in wary astonishment. On the

beach behind him was a cutter, her bows hauled up and held by two ratings. In the sternsheets another rating held a sub-machine gun. The ululation faltered and died away. The officer looked at Ralph doubtfully for a moment, then took his hand away from the butt of the revolver.

(299-300)

Ralph yang sudah ditinggalkan Piggy, Sam, dan Eric kini ia sendiri dan saat itu ia sedang diburu oleh kawanan Jack, Ralph merasa ketakutan. Dia berlalu menjauh dari kawanan itu hingga ia jatuh ke pasir dan didepannya ada seorang seorang perwira angkatan laut yang berseragam.

10.  Resolution

Penyelesaian dari semua masalah dalam cerita

"We saw your smoke. What have you been doing? Having a war or something?" Ralph nodded.

The officer inspected the little scarecrow in front of him. The kid needed a bath, a

haircut, a nose-wipe and a good deal of ointment.

"Nobody killed, I hope? Any dead bodies?"

"Only two. And they've gone."

The officer leaned down and looked closely at Ralph.

"Two? Killed?"

Ralph nodded again. Behind him, the whole island was shuddering with flame. The

officer knew, as a rule, when people were telling the truth. He whistled softly.

Other boys were appearing now, tiny tots some of them, brown, with the distended

bellies of small savages. One of them came close to the officer and looked up."

(hal. 301)

Perwira itu bisa mengetahui keberadaan mereka akibat adanya asap yang membumbung tinggi. Sehingga asap itulah yang menjadi pemecahan permasalahan mereka sehingga akhirnya mereka bisa terselamatkan.

11.  Denoument

Akhir dari nasib tokoh dalam cerita

"We'll take you off. How many of you are there?"

Ralph shook his head. The officer looked past him to the group of painted boys.

"Who's boss here?"

"I am," said Ralph loudly.

(hal. 301)

Akhirnya perwira itu membawa semua anak-anak itu dan menyelamatkan mereka.

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