Literature and Circle

Erin Brockovich
Novel Analysis

Yulia Sari Riyanti

2011120046 Section D
Sampoerna School of Education

Novel Analysis

Erin Brockovich
1. Synopsis Erin Brockovich is a single-parent woman with three children. On the way home of her job interview, she gets a car accident that makes her get injured. Because of her financial problem, now she is in debt for her hospital payment. So she sues the accident to the court and goes to Ed Masry, the lawyer who will defend her at the court, hoping that she will win and get compensation. Erin loses at the court and has to pay the debt by herself. She gets so angry to Ed, but he does not care then leave Erin with her debt. Then Erin tries to find a job. After a long searching and call for a job, she finally gets a job in Ed Masrys office. Now Erin is fighting between her job and taking care of her children. So she leaves her children to someones house before George, the bikers who lives next door does. One day Erin is asked by Ed to find files about real-estate. It is about the Jensen family who complains about PG&E, a big company which wants to purchase their house with improper pay. Erin goes to Hinkley, California to the town where the Jensens house is located. In Hinkley, she finds that the Jensens couple is sick. She also finds that the company use hexavalent chromium which is a highly toxic and carcinogenic substance and caused organs deterioration and it is mixed in Hinkley groundwater. So Erin has a hypothesis that the disease which the Jensens have is because of the chromium they consume from PG&E Company. She is in investigation in Hinkley for a week, but she is fired because Ed thinks that Erin goes without permission. The following day, Ed comes to Erins house for asking information that Erin got in Hinkley. So Erin asks for a hire back, ten percent of salary increment and bonus. Ed and Erin then collect more data to strengthen the evidence that PG&E Company is guilty for the disease that the Jensens

have. After Ed sends those files to the company by fax, the company directly sends a clerk to offer a number to purchase the Jensens house but Ed and Erin refuse it. One night, a married couple comes to Erin in the office. They are the neighbor of Jensen family and they are complaining about their chickens that died strangely. Then the husband also complains that his wife has had five miscarriage and they think it also because of the chromium in the water that they consume. Based on that complaining, Erin starts to gathering information by door to door in Hinkley and she finds that people in the town are sick. She also takes sample of water in the town rill and illegally from the water board in the company area. Erin is working hard on her job, even someone is threatening her, and realizes that she is confronting a big company, but she keeps struggling for the sick-innocent people in Hinkley. After a long buffetings and wait, finally the people in town get the suitable pay. Ed Masrys firm also moves to a new and nice place and Erin get a big number of money from Ed for her work.

2. Elements 2.1 Characters and Characterization The main character of this story is Erin Brockovich who is a single-parent woman with three little children. She is a hard-worker, it shows in the story that she always do her job seriously until she sacrifices her time for her children. She is also a strong woman who always wants to get what she wants and fights and rudely argue everything that she does not like or disagree with. It is showed when she loses at the court and she does not get the compensation but because she needs it to pay her debt to the hospital, she gets angry to Ed Masry and chases him to his office and demands for a job. Also when Ed does not want to take the Hinkley case because he thinks that he is dealing with a big company, Erin keeps following him and ensure him that

the case is really serious, and she makes it to ensure Ed to take the case. Characterization of Erin is protagonist and flat. It shows that she is the main character who supports the story and she is a kind woman who cares about her children and consistently struggling for the good of people in Hinkley. Ed Masry is supporting character and round. It shows in the story that at first, he trusts Erin as his client who is saying the truth, but when they lose at the court, Ed leaves Erin. When Erin shows up in his office as a staff and she shows that she can do her job well in Hinkley case, Ed turns to be good to Erin and his trust to her is back. George is supporting character. He is a kind bikers who likes kids and has feeling for Erin. It shows from his statement, I like kids. I like hanging out with them. They keep it simple. Also that he has feeling for Erin, according to his statement that Erin is someone for him. The characterizations of George are protagonist and flat. It is showed in the story that he is supporting the story and he is a kind man who likes Erins children from the beginning until the end of the story. Donna Jensen is the wife of Jensen couple. She is the one who submitted the case to Ed Masrys firm. She is supporting character and protagonist. She supports the story who is a kind woman who gets sick because of the poisonous water she consumes. Her characterization is flat because she is kind from the beginning until the end of the story. Matthew is Erins son and eight years old. His characterization is protagonist and flat. He supports the story and a good boy who loves his mother from the beginning until the end of the story. It shows in the story that he complains about her busy mother, says that her mother is reading all the time and he feels lonely, it shows that he loves his mother and wants to spending time with her.

2.2 Setting The setting of this story is geographical. It sets in USA and in Hinkley, California. The story happened when the PG&E case started to investigate by Erin. The Hinkley case can also happen in any place with the same setting; a town nears a big factory. Every factory has waste disposal for dumping their waste, and if there is a naughty company that put hazardous suspense like PG&E, the community near the factory will get the bad effect just like what happened to people in Hinkley.

2.3 Point of View This story using first person point of view, because it is told by Erins perspective only, readers do not know the events outside Erins view. The purpose is probably to focus on Erins life, so the readers can learn something from her and to surprise the readers about the ending of the story.

2.4 Plot The plot of this story is chronological. It can be seen that the story is told sequentially from the beginning until the end. Orientation The story begins when Erin is in a job interview, and in the way home she gets a car accident and makes her injured and in debt for hospital payment. She sues for the car accident to the court, but she loses and does not get the compensation, so she has to find a job to pay her debt.

Raising Action The first conflict starts when the car accident happens. If Erin wins at the court, she probably will not have to find jobs to pay her loss. The second conflict happens between Erin and George. Erin gets angry with Georges roaring bike, because it is disturbing her sleeping baby. The raising action happens when Ed Masry asks Erin to find him files about real-estate. Erin finds something strange with those files, because there is a medical report and blood samples in real-estate files, so she tries to investigate it. The third conflict is between Erin and Ed Masry because Ed fires her. The reason is because she has gone for a week without left a note, and Ed thinks that Erin was having fun, in the fact that she is actually doing an investigation for the Hinkley case. Climax The climax of this story is when Erin and Ed win the Hinkley case. The PG&E finally gives the suitable pay for people in Hinkley, especially for the Jensens. Resolution The resolution of this story is that Erin gets two million dollar bonus from Ed Masry as the reward of her hard work.

2.5 Theme A single-parent woman with three little children and her cares who tries to survive her life with do a good thing to others and work hard. Issue There is feminism issue in this story. Erin Brockovich, the single-parent woman who does not get money from husband, is trying so hard to survive with her

three little children. She works hard without any hesitation and with her pure feeling she struggles for the sick-innocent people in Hinkley. The feminism shows in the story where Erin is working hard to survive with her three children. Also in her statement, when she argues with George at the time he wants to leave her, she says, All Ive ever done is bend my life around what men decide they need. Well, not now. Im sorry. I wont do it.

2.6 Moral Lesson The moral lesson of this story is do not easily give up in facing the problems in this life, always work hard and do not make assumption to people because of the attitudes or appearances. Those are reflected in Erins personality that even she is a single-parent, she is a strong woman who always works hard when doing her job. She calls every number in the newspaper to get a job, and goes door-to-door, takes a dead-frog in an abandoned pool and arguing many people to shows that she is doing a good thing for innocent people who get harmed. The assumption making shows in the story when Ed says that Erin looks like a woman who likes to have fun, but she is not.