Honesty in Indonesian Literature : Its Social and Cultural Factors

As an important life value, honesty is well reflected in Indonesian literature. It appears in a large number of talks and events, which involve the characters of many of its literary works. This paper is a report on a corpus study of the social and cultural factors that influence the characters' honesty as shown in the use of the words jujur (honest), sejujurnya or sejujurjujurnya (most honest), and kejujuran (honesty). The result reveals that social position, intimacy, life and work norms, and erotic capital may affect a person's view of honesty and its practice. A person with a high social position may influence a person with a lower social position to be honest or dishonest, and the person finds it difficult not to obey him. A person having an intimate relation with another person does not hesitate to talk about matters which may threaten the addressee's negative face or his own positive face. In real life and work place, honesty is required as a norm for a person to be fully accepted. A person with a big erotic capital may gain trust from other people more easily and be considered honest. The study also reveals that the words jujur (honest) and sejujurnya or sejujur-jujurnya (most honest) are often used as a hedge to avoid a negative face-threatening act to the addressee and maintain the speaker a positive face. The speaker requests the addressee's understanding that he is a position which requires him to say something the addressee does not like.


INTRODUCTION
Honesty is an important characteristic that people need to have (van Lange & Kullman, 1994;Shanks, 2005).They need honesty in their interaction both in a formal and in informal situation (Frankel, 2006) as they may lose other people's trust if they are not honest.They need to conform to both verbal and behavioural honesty (Dwijatmoko & Lestari, 2016) to be accepted well in their society.
As literature reflects human experience (Meyer, 1997;Dubey, 2013), the social and cultural values, including honesty, which a society holds, are also reflected in its literature.Indonesian literature, therefore, may also reflect the concept of honesty, which Indonesian people believe and practice.Literature shows how they talk and behave honestly in their daily life.
In people's interaction, some social and cultural factors affect their behaviour.When they talk and behave, they need to observe social factors such as their social position, age, gender, social class, and residential area (Apte, 2001;Habib, 2008).Furthermore, in their interaction they also need to observe the cultural values that their society maintains.Following Williams (1970), Schwarts (1999, p. 25) defines cultural values as "the implicitly or explicitly shared abstract ideas about what is good, right, and desirable in a society."The conformity to the values determines whether a talk or action is right or wrong and acceptable or unacceptable.To participate well in a community, a person therefore, has to observe the social factors and cultural values that govern their interaction.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This study is a corpus study.The data were taken from the website www.corci.org(Dwijatmoko, 2014), which hosts more than 98 novels and 300 short stories and folktales.The website provides 392 sentences that use the word jujur (honest), sejujurnya or sejujurjujurnya (most honest) or (most honestly), kejujuran (honesty).The sentences that show a social or cultural factor in the use of the word jujur, sejujurnya, sejujur-jujurnya, or kejujuran were then selected as the research data.
The research data were then analyzed using the principles of the grounded theory (Strauss & Corbin, 1998;Neuman, 2007).The analysis proceeded in three stages; the open stage, axial coding, and selecting coding.In the open coding, the data, which showed the influence of some social and cultural factors in the use of honesty, were selected.The data whose social and cultural context was not clear were deleted.Out of 392 sentences, only 105 sentences showed a clear social and cultual factor that influences a person's honesty.In the axial coding, the categories of the data or the 105 sentences were identified, and the data were then classified according to the categories.The data in each category were compared and contrasted to arrive at the category refinement.In the axial coding, the context, cause, purpose, and other reasons of being honest or dishonest in each category were identified.Finally, in the selective coding, the relations of the factors, which affect honesty and honesty with the categories, were established to have a full understanding of the categories.
The analysis of the data, the 105 sentences, proceeded in two phases with the three types of coding for verification purposes.In the first phase, 60 sentences were analyzed.The analysis yielded five categories, namely social position, intimacy, face threatening/keeping act, life or work norms, and erotic capital.In the analysis of the next 45 sentences, no new categories were found, and the distribution of the data or sentences, which belonged to each category, remained the same.
The result of the analysis of the data in the second phase verified the identification of the categories and confirmed the relation of the variables or factors connected to the categories.The analysis also confirmed the theories developed from the data.

SOCIAL AND CULTURAL FACTORS
The words jujur, sejujurnya, sejujur-jujurnya, and kejujuran have different types and are used for different motivations (Dwijatmoko & Lestari, 2016).Honesty falls into two major types namely, verbal and behavioural honesty.Verbal honesty falls into four types namely factual, emotional, perceptual honesty, and sincerity.Honesty is driven by nine kinds of motivation, namely, observing social norms, creating a better judgment, creating a mutual understanding, emphasizing characteristic, maintaining relationship and image, fearing to other people, having a better life understanding, gaining trust, and desiring for a better life.
Though a person is driven by a certain motivation to be honest or dishonest, his choice of being honest or dishonest and their perception and attitude towards the use the words are influenced by some social and cultural factors.The social and cultural factors fall into three major categories namely social position, intimacy, and face threatening/keeping and two minor categories namely work and life norms, and erotic capital.Social position, intimacy, and face threatening/keeping are considered as major categories because their number of occurrence is high and the addition of new data will likely increase the number.Work and life norms and erotic capital are considered as minor categories because their number of occurrence is relatively low and an addition of new data does not increase the number.
The distribution of the five categories is presented in Table 1.Social position, intimacy, and face threatening/keeping acts are the major social and cultural factors that affect a person's honesty in that they appear significantly more frequently than the other social and cultural factors.The last three categories rarely occurred, but they were also important.A failure to observe the categories may result in a wrong judgment on one's personality.The six factors are discussed thoroughly in this section.

SOCIAL POSITION
A person's position in a society may influence his/her view on honesty and other people's view on his/her honesty.A social position here is understood as a set of circumstances in which a person's cultural, social, and economic capitals (Bourdieu, 2006;Desan, 2013) accumulate.A person who has more cultural, social, and economic capitals, thus, has a higher social position than a person who has less cultural, social, and economic capitals.A person with a higher social position, hence a bigger power, has more advantages than a person with a lower social position.
In a talk, a person with a bigger power can demand the addressee to be honest like in (1) -( 3).
(1) But now, Dyah Wiyat had to talk truthfully because her mother asked her to talk honestly without hiding anything.As she suspected that something was going on wrong, she called her and asked to talk from heart to heart.(GMB-49) (2) Then, without looking at her, Mr. Dirga said, "I know many borrowers could not pay their debt, moreover the interest.Now answer honestly, did you ever borrow rice from the village barn?… " Mrs. Ratem turned pale suddenly.… With a mumbling voice in her throat, Mrs. Ratem acknowledged the accusation of the village head.(DKBC-39) (3) … on the contrary, Dyah Wiyat was disappointed with her dishonest husband.But, how could she demand honesty from her husband if she herself kept her secret love to Rakrian Tanca.(GMB-52) In ( 1) Dyah Wiyat has to talk honestly to her mother.Wiyat, a princess of Majapahit, does not have the power to resist the request of her mother, who is the queen of Majapahit, to talk from heart to heart.The talk must be one direction, meaning that she has to tell what she has on her mind or heart but she will not ask her mother to do so.In (2), the village head asks Mrs. Ratem, a villager, to answer his question honestly.As Mr. Dirga is a village chief and he has a big social, cultural, and economic capital, she could not answer differently but acknowledged the debt.In (3), Dyah Wiyat wants to demand her husband to be honest to her, but she cannot because she also has a secret that she cannot tell her husband.She acknowledges she is not perfect, but as a princess she has the right to demand her husband, who is lower in the social, cultural, and economic capital, to be honest.The use of the phrase demand honesty shows that she has the right to do so.
The high social position of a person may also affect another person in interacting with him or her.The other person may behave honestly or dishonestly because of the high social position.Sentences ( 4) and ( 6) show the tendency.
(4) "The experience was indeed unforgettable, Your Majesty," answered Gajahmada."I have to say honestly that the qualification test for a security officer was nothing compared to what you have done."(Gm-57) (5) Finally I compulsorily said, "You are certainly a suitable girl-friend for Mas Narko."I did not know what happened, but after I said that I could hardly breathe.I wanted to cry and shouted loudly that I had lost honesty just in order not to hurt my sister's feeling.
(BBP-201) (6) "I'll honestly tell the tragedy which I suffered.The tragedy which has stamped my dignity and ruined my future," said Noura sobbingly.(AC-2) In (4) Gajah Mada emphasizes the need to be honest when he talked to King Jayanegara, his master.He acknowledges that King Jayanegara has experienced some events, which are harder than the tests which a security officer needs to take.In (5), on the contrary, Fonnie, the narrator, feels the obligation to be dishonest because of her position as a younger sister.She cannot be honest because she does not want to hurt her older sister although she is actually also in love with Narko.In (6), Noura has to talk honestly to the judge in the court because she is hopeless.She 'lost her virginity to Fahri.' Fahri seduces her, she cannot refuse, but he is not responsible for what he does.As it turns later, however, Noura has to tell a lie or to be dishonest because she is afraid of her "foster" father.She does not lose her virginity to Fahri, but Bahadur rapes her and she is pregnant.
A person with a high social position may also gain the trust of other people easily in that they consider him/her as an honest person or they do not question his/her honesty.Sentences ( 6) and ( 7) examplify the advantage.
(7) Ceng Hong and his men quickly got the impression that Queen Subandar was sincere, good, honest, different from the people they met on their voyage from Qui-Nho to Tuban.(SPK-147) (8) Patih Daha Gajah Mada, thinking hard, then smiled.Suddenly Gajah Mada realized that it was not important whether Raden Kudamerta talked honesty or not.His attitude was the most important.(GMB-56) (9) He [Anwar] wanted to get public attention.Probably he really wanted to express his ideas honestly.In short, Bung Parto, whom other people used not to argue with, suddenly had debates from Anwar.(Ath-13) In ( 6) Ceng Hong and his men readily acknowledge that Queen Subandar is an honest person.Her position as a queen made Ceng Hong have the impression that she is honest.In (7), Prime Minister Gajah Mada accepts Kudamerta's explanation about his marital status.He does not question the explanation as Kudamerta is the husband of Princess Wiyat and his statement is important than the reality.In (9), the people think that Anwar is an honest person.He has an excellent public speaking skill, hence a linguistic skill, a component of his cultural capital.
In summary, a social position like occupation, age, or other reflections of social, cultural, and economic capitals has an important role in developing an honest and fair relationship.A high social position can be used to influence a person to be honest or dishonest.A person with a high social position may ask another person with a lower position to be honest or dishonest, and the person with a lower social position may find it difficult not to obey the person of higher position.Furthermore, a person with a lower social position may have a tendency to consider a person with a higher social position honest or may tolerate the dishonesty of a person from a higher social position.

INTIMACY
Intimacy is another social factor that affects honesty.In an intimate relation, a speaker does not hesitate to ask the addressee to be honest in his or her talk (10) -( 12).( 10) "… I want to hear the reason which comes from your heart, the honest and true one, because you are the person who sacrificed."Krining looked at Aji's eyes in the dim light.She loved the man with whom she had shared fifteen years of her life and who had given her two children.(MPCP-09) (11) "Yu, Yu.Be honest, I am asking seriously," said Abu to Lastri.
"I know.It must be about the snake."Lastri knew that the village chief called Abu to see him.(MPU-84) (12) "…That's Wanda.She is a perfect girl.A healthy man will scratch the land just like a cock courting a hen to win her heart!"Eko said fierily."Sooo?" "So -what?" said Keenan innocently.Eko frowned, "Nan, it was time for you to be honest with me.Are you straight?"Keenan chuckled, "I was when I checked the last time."(PK-122) In ( 10), Aji and Krining are husband and wife.He asks her to be honest and give the true reason why she lets him marry another woman from a Brahman caste so that he can become a priest.As she loves him very much and she does not want their clan to have no priest, she does not feel intimidated when she has to give a true reason.In (11), Abu and Lastri are in love and have developed a personal relationship.Although Abu still calls her yu, which means 'older sister', he does not hesitate to ask her to be honest and give a personal answer about the snake.Finally, in (12), Eko and Keenan are relatives and they have a close relationship.He can ask him freely about his sexual preference.
The words jujur, sejujurnya, dan kejujuran are used in an intimate relation like in (10) -( 12) in a illocutionary speech act (Searle, 1976;Searle & Vanderveken, 1985;Wierzbicka, 2003); which can be direct or indirect.The speaker wants the addressee to be honest and tell the truth.The speakers in the directive speech acts in (10) I want to hear the reason which comes from your heart, the honest and true one and in (12) it was time for you to be honest with me are expressed in a statement, and the direct speech act in (11) in a command be honest because they have an intimate relationship with the addressee.
Besides giving the freedom to a speaker to perform an illocutionary speech act, intimacy also makes a speaker free to express his or her ideas or feelings.He does not hesitate to give an honest answer or is not afraid that the addressee may misunderstand his talk or make use of his talk.Sentences ( 13) -( 15) show the intimacy of the speaker to his addressee.(13) Pambudi felt tired of acting all the time.Therefore, he told her honestly who he was.
He also told her that he would only work for another three months.(DKBC-42) (14) Sandy knew the man was really serious.Slowly she stirred her orange juice."I'll be honest with you.When you left, my feelings were chaotic."(SiS-170) (15) Now Srintil felt that she had found the most suitable man to share her feeling honestly.
She did not realize that Sakum was really a close friend to her, closer than Mr. and Mrs. Kartareja, even closer with her grandparents.(LT-82) As Pambudi and Mulyani have developed an intimate relationship, he does not hide his identity and he only tells her that he will quit in three months in (13).In ( 14), Sandy is honest to the man, Lee Jeong-Su.They were once lovers, and so Sandy was not afraid that she would hurt Jeong-Su's feeling, or he would misunderstand her.Sakum is also a close friend of Srintil in (15).Thus, Srintil can tell him honestly what she feels.
From the discussion above, it can be said that intimacy is an important factor in a talk in a connection with a FTA (Brown & Levinson, 1987, Leech, 2014).When a speaker has an intimate relationship with the addressee, s/he can talk honestly to the person without the danger of committing a negative face threatening act to the addressee.The addressee understands the speaker's concern in being honest and asking a personal question.Similarly, when a speaker has a close relationship with his/her addressee, s/he does not hesitate to be honest and reveal more about him/herself.S/He is not afraid that his/her talk may endanger his/her positive face.The addressee understands him/herself well.

FACE KEEPING
As a social position is important in an interaction, a person is sensitive to any change of his/her social position.S/He is very careful in his/her talk so as not to make other people have a wrong conception of his/her position.S/He will not use words or expression that may lower his/her position, or if s/he does, s/he also uses an expression or construction which can moderate the effect.
(16) Honestly, I did not mind if he identified me wrongly.The man was one of the most handsome I've ever met aside from Therius, the hero in the comic Candy-Candy.(PK-15) (17) But, honestly, I would have felt happy if I had chopped Mahisa Kingkin's head.It was OK, though, Bongol had done it for me.(Gm-8) (18) Honestly, I want to cut his head open, take out the contents, and burn to ash.I don't know why I haven't done it although he always troubles me.(NK-166) Honestly in ( 16) introduces the contrast, which the narrator, Kugy, presents in her talk.It is uncommon for a person to be happy if another person recognizes him as somebody else, yet Kugy accepts it well.She does not mind because the man is very handsome like the hero in a comic book.Honestly in ( 17) is also used as a hedge.The speaker, Singa Parepen, does not want to surprise the other members of the security service of Majapahit when he says he would have been happy if he had chopped Kingkin's head.He expresses his regret, however, only to tease Bongol because Bongol kills Kingkin without checking whether Kingkin is really a spy or not, which turns out that Kingkin is not a spy.Honesty (18) is very much similar to that of (17).The narrator honestly wants to cut off the head of a policeman, take out the content, and burn it to ash.He wants to do the cruel action because he hates the policeman.His family often has to give money to the policeman.
Sentences ( 16) -( 18) are similar in two ways.First, all the actions have not happened.Keenan does not identify Kugy, Parepen does not chop Kingkin's head, and the narrator does not cut the policeman's head open.The speaker, therefore, does not really mean what he says or cannot be held responsible for the act.Second, the statement concerns with an uncommon or bad activity.It is not common for a person to accept a misidentification like Kugy in ( 16), and killing a person like in ( 17) and ( 18) is a bad deed.Furthermore, chopping a person's head or cutting it open is really horrible.The use of the word jujur saja (honestly) or (to be honest) may function as a precaution that the person may have something uncommon, bad, or cruel, but he will not do the bad or cruel thing.
The use of honestly in ( 16) -( 18) functions like a hedge to protect the speakers' positive face (Brown & Levinson, 1987;Kärkkäinen, 2003;Wierzbicka, 2003;Black, 2006;Sifianou, 2012).The speakers request a permission from the addressee to talk about an uncommon, bad, or cruel act which they could or might have done, and assure the addressees that what they will do are not really like what they say.
The use of jujur saja or sejujurnya (honestly) referring to the speakers themselves reveals the need of the speakers to get the addresees involved in the talk.The expression has a dual function: on one hand, the expression is positive face keeping of the speaker so that the addressee or addressees do not have a negative impression of their personality and, on the other hand, the expression is also a negative face maintaining of the addressee.The talk about an uncommon, bad, or cruel act is a negative face-threatening act to the hearers.The speakers involve the hearers a talk about something not common or horrible, which they probably do not like.
The dual function of jujur saja and sejujurnya refering as a positive face keeping for the speakers and a negative face keeping for the addressee can be said as a device for a social interaction.The use of the device in a communication may signify the speakers' need of approval from the addressee and, at the same time, as a moderator of his attack to the addressees' negative face.The speaker feels obliged to say the condition and asks for the addressee's attention to understand his condition.He is aware that his statement will disturb the hearers, but he needs to say so.

WORK NORMS
Honesty is also related to life and work norms, which a person has to observe to become an acceptable member of his/her community or to keep his/her position.Honesty in ( 19) -( 21) is viewed from the conformation to work and life norms.In ( 19), Lia learns from Joko that the value of a job is not on the kind of job but on the way the person does the job.A person may have respect from his job if he does the job honestly, but he will lose respect if he does not do it honestly.In (20) honesty in a gamble, which is considered as a bad activity, is also important as it differentiates a good gambler from a bad gambler who may win by cheating.A gambler may lose in gambling, but he is respected if he plays honestly.In ( 21), Noni, the speaker, is wondering how her friend, Keenan, has a complicated love experience.She does not think as a puritan, quiet, and honest person, he should have a problem in his love.Two girls love him, they are not happy, and neither is he.She values honesty highly and believes that he should not have a problem in his love as he conforms to life norms strictly.
Honesty in ( 19) -( 21) is behavioral honesty (Dwijatmoko & Lestari, 2016).Behavioral honesty is viewed as the agreement of an action or behavior with the social and cultural norms.Honesty for a president, minister, and governor as well as a driver in ( 19) and gambler in ( 20) means an agreement of their action or behavior with the rules set by the social and cultural practice of the society.Honesty in (21) refers to both verbal honesty and behavioral honesty, or total honesty.Noni assumes that Keenan is both honest in his behavior and his talk so that he will not involve two girls in his love.
Norms in work and life can be understood as rules that a person has to follow to be accepted well in his work or life (Engel, 2007).A person who violates his work norms may be fired, and a person who violates the norms in his society may be rejected or expelled from his society.As a taxi driver, Joko in (19) can be fired if he is not honest like, for example, taking a long route to get a bigger fare, and the speaker in (20) can be expelled from the gambling group if he cheats.Keenan in (21) may lose his girls if he is not honest, and other girls may not accept him if he approaches them.
Total honesty, which covers both verbal honesty and behavioral honesty, is an essential value for people's interaction.It is needed in all types of interaction ranging from a formal one like business, and education to an informal one like a personal chat (Guenin, 2005;Schwartz, 2006;You, 2012).Total honesty constitutes a work and life norm, which a person has to observe to maintain his place in his work or society.

EROTIC CAPITAL
A person's view on another person's honesty may also be affected by another person's appearance.He is impressed by another person's appearance, feels comfortable with his presence, and readily considers another person as an honest person.Data ( 22) and ( 23) reflect the tendency.( 22) Widuri glanced at the face of the man.The man [Dimas] looked honest from his eyes.
Then Widuri got on the car.(TCT-179) (23) "From his countenance, he is honest," said Cheng Ho. "According to the ming-xiang lines, his nose belongs to the gou type, meaning he has a high affection…."(SPK-142) In ( 23), Widuri sees Dimas's honesty in his eyes when she glances at his eyes.She trusts him because of his appearance.Similarly, in (23) Cheng Ho can judge that Wikrawardhana, the man, is honest from his countenance.From his Chinese knowledge, he also believes that Wikrawardhana is a person with a high affection.
In Hakim's theory (2011), a person's face constitutes the photogenic element of his erotic capital.With the erotic capital (Hakim, 2011, Green 2008, 2012, Take & Adekoya, 2012, Waters, 2016) a man or woman may also influence people's view of his or her honesty.A man or woman with a big erotic capital can readily gain more trust from other people.Sentences ( 22) and ( 23) illustrate the power of erotic capital.

CONCLUSION
Honesty is an important value in Indonesia and it is reflected in its literature.Honesty is essential for people to maintain their relations and their social position.It is also important for maintaining their membership in their society or at work.
Honesty is influenced by some social and cultural factors.A person with a high social position may demand a person with a lower position to be honest, and a person with a lower social position has to be honest to a person with a higher social status.Furthermore, a person with a lower social position may readily accept a person with a higher social position as being honest.A person's erotic capital, which is also culturally determined, also affects another person's readiness to accept the person as being an honest person.Intimacy as a social factor makes a person not to hesitate to ask another person a question that requires the other person honesty.Similarly, intimacy also makes a person feel free to express his idea or feeling without losing face or being misunderstood.Work and life norms also affect a person's honesty.A person may become honest because the norms require him/her to do so to keep their job and maintain their membership in the society.
In addition to their meanings, the words jujur (honest) and sejujurnya (most honest) or sejujur-jujurnya (most honestly) are also used a hedge.The words are used as a means for the speaker to keep his positive face.Without the words, the addressees may misunderstand the speaker and give a wrong judgment.The words are used to moderate an expression, which, otherwise, produces a negative face threatening act to the addressee.
The study on the words jujur, sejujurnya, sejujur-jujurnya, and kejujuran reveals much about the concepts of honesty which Indonesian people have as reflected in their Indonesian literature.The study, however, is limited to the concepts, which are expressed lexically.The concepts which are not lexically expressed and which are only observable in the events the characters of novels, short stories, or legends are involved in or in their talk may reveal more about the nature of honesty of Indonesian people.

TABLE 1 .
Social and Cultural Factors Affecting Honesty 19) Lia was confused for a while, but then she remembered what Joki said."To become a driver is not a disgraceful work.If you do it honestly, it is the same as to become a president, minister, or governor honestly…" .(TCT-180)(20) Mr. Darma Tanda considered me a good person.I gambled honestly so that I also won in a normal way.Thus, they cannot consider me cheating.(ABM306-11) (21) You are a puritan, quiet, and honest person, but you undergo a complicated experience in love.Two girls love you, and they are both not happy..(KC-69)