Sense of Identity of the Native Characters in Pramoedya Ananta Toer’s This Earth of Mankind: A Postcolonial Approach

Abstract

A literary author often constructs a complex identity of characters that shaped the overall plot, including Pramoedya. Pramoedya set irony of the characters in his novel to deliver the message about being a native back in the early 20th century and shaped a plot which portrays the reality of being a native. Pramoedya gave several conflicts which were related to the human problem such as power, women, culture, and so on. It also reveals the political and social condition of Dutch East Indies [now Indonesia] in the year of Dutch colonization. Portraying how the indigenous were suffered from colonization and authority arbitrarily, the researcher tries to analyze Pramoedya's This Earth of Mankind native characters' sense of identity and how European influenced them after a long-term colonization using postcolonial approach. The study will focus on analyzing Minke and Nyai Ontosoroh's sense of identity, like how they behave or perceive themselves as a native by using the postcolonial approach.