MISTERI LEMBAH HANTU: HORROR NOVEL AND VIOLENCE IN FAMILY RELATION

The talk on horror stories never ceased to be discussed, as ones will find any topics regarding horror stories, even in daily conversation. The horror stories permeated in Indonesia during the period of 19701990s were considered as a third-rate literature, even though it had a considerable amount of readers who were fans of these stories. During the period, Abdullah Harahap came into the spotlight and became the most productive horror writer compared to his colleagues. However, Abdullah Harahap, who were prominent among readers during 1970-1990s, turns to be a less-known writer when it comes to academic research. This research examines Misteri Lembah Hantu (1988), a novel written by an Indonesian writer Abdullah Harahap, that the novel is regarded to sufficiently represent the stories in other novels that exhibit the elements of violence, abnormal sexuality, and the troubled nuclear family relation. The novel be will analyzed from its plot to understand the narrative pattern. Plot and character analysis will be used to comprehend how violence and abnormal sexuality described in Misteri Lembah Hantu (1988). Additionally, a horror story can also show how it is used to confront anomaly, anxiety, and fear which is different compared to the everyday life. Fear and anxiety are impossible to be expressed in the real world, but they can be manifested through a literary work. The violence and abnormal sexuality in Misteri Lembah Hantu also can be concluded as the symbol that improper parenting from the nuclear family will impact the chaos happened in the broader community, for instance the society.


INTRODUCTION
The talk on horror stories never ceased to be discussed, as ones will find any topics regarding horror stories, even in daily conversation. In academic circle, horror becomes one of the popular topics in the dialogue of genre in literature. Horror is also identical with supernatural elements used as a mean of storytelling. It is understandable that horror then gained its wide aficionados. The horror stories permeated in Indonesia during the period of 1970-1990s were considered as a third-rate literature, even though it had a considerable amount of readers who were fans of these stories. During the period, several horror writers came into the spotlight, such as Tara Zagita, Teguh S., Abdullah Harahap, or S.B. Chandra. Yet, only Abdullah Harahap who could set  Hantu (1988) synopsis in order to deliver a full understanding of the matter.

HORROR STORY WITHIN THE TRAJECTORY
Horror is one of the popular topics in a genre of literature. Todorov (1973) divided the type of horror as a genre in general, which consists of uncanny, marvelous, and fantastic. Uncanny is a genre with the elements of supernatural, nonsensical, and irrational things. Marvelous horror is a genre of horror which holds the nugatory phenomenon, but still can be comprehended by accepting the second-layer of reality or 'the new law of nature'. For example, the story about vampires, zombies, or satans. Meanwhile, fantastic horror is a genre in which the end of the story will guide the readers into some kind of doubt over the natural/supernatural or the real/unreal condition. Carrol (1991: 4) stated that the first European horror story (or gothic) is a product of British and Germany gothic literature titled The Castle of Otranto written by Horace Walpole in 1760. The work then started the trend of the graveyard-poets. A series of supernatural horror stories then followed, such as Mysteries of Udolpho (1794) by Ann Radcliffe and Edgar Huntley: or, the Memoirs of a Sleepwalker (1799) by Charles Brockden Brown. He stated that the major development in horror genre is the genre of supernatural horror. Additionally, the horror genre that explores the experience of supernatural were also developed, such as Frankenstein (1881)  Violence, sexuality, crime, and murder are the themes depicted in horror stories-whether in supernatural horror, marvelous horror, or fantastic horror. Violence and sexuality were no longer considered as merely a theme, but also recognized as a subgenre in horror stories. Prohászková (2012:133) divided horror into several subgenres, included crime horror (a detective story based on the criminal plot and the increasing tension with the addition of horror elements) and erotic horror (a combination of sexual metaphors and horror plot). Erotic horror is not only related to heterosexual relationships but also homosexual ones. The homosexual subgenre in horror is called queer horror.
Horror is identical to violence and sexuality, since violence used as one of the elements to construct distressing situations or events. Horror stories combined with violence and sexuality-for example murders, rapes, abnormal sexual behaviors, or tortures-cannot be separated from the long history of Gothic literature in Europe, such as the first gothic literature, The Castle of Otranto (1760) by Horace Walpole. Gothic writings try to confound reality and fiction. Besides terror, horror in Gothic literature holds its own unique elements, which are supernatural, violence, abject, cultural horror, and transgression (Cherry, 2004: 4).

MISTERI LEMBAH HANTU (1988) SYNOPSIS
Margono has been wanted by the police with the allegation of murder and robbery in the city. His grandfather, Martubi, suggests him to run away to Lamping Village to his mother who has remarried to the local village head (lurah). Consequently, Margono has to pass the footpath of Lembah Hantu on his way towards the village in which, Martubi warns, he must not deviate while walking the path for any reasons. However, upon his walk there, Margono is tempted by a woman In this little hut, Margono stays with Melati and Sumirta. Until one day, Margono and Melati have sex during the full moon, leading Melati transforms into a snake. Margono is disgusted. Nevertheless, his intention to steal Melati's jewelry is greater than his repulsion. He kills Melati to get the jewelry and continue his journey to Lamping Village. On his way, Margono meets Sumitra. Margono lies when he is asked about the baggage his carrying. To Sumitra he says he merely brings rags. Margono is shocked when he finds out the jewelry turns into real rags.
Sumitra then explains to Margono that his tongue contains poison: any evil thing he say will come true. To this warning, Margono is careless and continue his journey. Upon arriving in Lamping Village, Margono is warmly welcomed by his mother. At the beginning of his stay, Margono feels happy and fulfilled until the moment when he tries to rape his mother. Because of the immoral thing he says, Margono turns into a black dog with a pair of red eyes. The chaos in Lamping starts there. Lurah Hardiman starts to receive numerous reports regarding several rape cases happened to women in the village with a dog suspected as the perpetrator.
At the same time, Margono's mother, Maryati, begs her husband to find her a dog with red eyes. Lurah Hardiman seeks for the dog with the help from Martubi-who suddenly came to the village, but he does not make much of a change. The locals, who have been distraught by the appalling events, take the law to their own hands. They caught and killed the dog, separating its head from the body. The locals buried the head on the southern side of the village and the body on the northern side. However, Margono's spirit is alive although his body has been torn off. He is furious and pays his revenge by raping his killers' wives and murder the killers.
Amid the unsettling moment, Sumirta arrives in the village uninvited. He intends is to help and solve the chaos. The only person who could save the entire mayhem happened in the village is Maryati, with the support from Sumirta's spells. Maryati proceeds to meditate and resurrect her son, but it was too late. Margono's spirit could not be united with his body, his spirit will alternately enter his head and his body instead. Such a condition is due to the grudge he holds towards his killers. Margono as a dog, then lives in Sumitra's little hut.

MISTERI LEMBAH HANTU (1991) PLOT
Based on the synopsis, a plot analysis can be determined as the initial step in analyzing the narrative structure of the story. The first step is to determine the unit of content which formed the text. According to Zaimar (1990), a unit of content holds various criteria, one of which is meaning. In a text, a semantics sequence can be divided into several units-commonly named as Sequencea part of speech formed by a unit of meaning.
To begin, the unit of content described below is the units in the level of syntagmatic analysis since the goal is to find the main character rather than the meaning. Zaimar (1990) also stated that syntagmatic analysis restates the text by revealing the unit sequence. A unit of content shows two functions, main function and catalyst function. The units that hold the main function will be the determinant of the plot, while the catalyst function is used to connect with the main function.

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To facilitate the analysis, the researcher used Freytag's plot structure. He established seven most important elements that construct a plot, consists of exposition, inciting accident, complication, climax, reversal, and resolution. In Abdullah Harahap's works, the seven elements remain to appear in the precise order. It is due to the fact that Abdullah Harahap's works showed a rather uncomplicated plot. The plot of the stories were written in a chronological order. Such a strategy was to accommodate the market readers during that time. His stories were sold in train stations, kiosks, or at the side of the road, targeted the readers with lower level of education and economy. Nevertheless, a plot structure plays an important role in Abdullah Harahap stories' because it will show how the story is constructed.
Below is Misteri Lembah Hantu (1988)'s unit of content based on the sequence of the story. From the unit of content described above, it is understandable that Abdullah Harahap's works have similar repetition and pattern of plots. The pattern becomes the fundamental base in the construction of the story. However, this research aims to show how the context of cultural and society during that time constructed the story, rather than studying how the pattern is constructed. By comprehending the unit content aforementioned above, a pattern of plot is generated from the novel, as shown in the box below.

Diagram 1: Plot Structure in Abdullah Harahap's Horror Story
Diagram 1 shows that the repetitive elements occurred in Abdullah Harahap's consist of nuclear family relation in the context of rural and urban, unnatural death, the appearance of supernatural creature, revenge from the supernatural creature, the inability of the formal authority to solve the problem, and the presence of shaman who can provide solution to the problem. The element of horror and supernatural constantly begins from the unnatural death. The death in the story also related to the visit of the people from the city or the existence of a wealthy person in the village. Besides that, the formal authority-police and babinsa (village supervisory noncommissioned officers)-portrays to have the inability to solve the problem, both to reveal the reason behind the unnatural death and the ability to arrest the culprit. Meanwhile, the story is concluded with the presence of a shaman, who made sudden visit or has been there from the beginning of the story, as well as the ghostly spirit who succeeded to take his revenge.
Furthermore, Diagram 1 also shows the occurrence of abnormal sexuality in several parts of the story. This abnormal sexuality functions to trigger the unnatural death, supernatural conducts, or as a way to revenge. The abnormal sexuality appears as a pattern that connecting one story to another. In the context of this horror story, the abnormal sexuality appears in the form of necrophilia, homosexuality, hyper-sexuality, zoophilia, and incest. The abnormal sexuality is used to intensify the dreadful sensation when reading horror story.
The explanation above runs accordingly with Lovecraft's statement (1993:1) that the most powerful emotion in human lays on fear, while the strongest fear manifested in the fear of not knowing. The unpredictable things can be considered as the source of disaster or hideous things or events. The fear and gruesome are made alive in horror stories. The sexuality functions to increase the sensation of atrocious things or events rather than stimulate sexual desire. The patterned plot is also inevitable to be separated from the characters or the relationship between characters. It revolves around the questions of how power relation between characters constructed which resulted in the chaos happened after or how the characters appear in a particular context of culture.

BROKEN RELATIONS BETWEEN THE FAMILY MEMBERS
Family plays an important role in Abdullah Harahap's stories. His central characters are placed in a scope of nuclear family. In this sense, a family defines as someone who belongs in a group based on blood-relation or share the same roof. For instance, the relation between a master and a servant. Nevertheless, Abdullah Harahap's stories present an incomplete and broken family relation. The disintegrated nuclear family relation shows the disorder within the smallest unit of community resulted in the disorder within the greater unit of community. The table of Misteri Lembah Hantu's family relation is presented below.
One of the important aspects in this novel is the disorder in the family members' relationship. Margono was born as the son of Sumargo and Maryati. Maryati gave birth to Margono when she was 12 years old, while Margono was only 15, the age of children entering their adolescent period. This period stipulates an unstable emotion, clearly denoting that Sumargo and Maryati are not ready to have a baby, as shown in the quotation below: Waktu itu Martubi berkata pada Pak Lurah dengan angkuh: "Kami tidak akan melepaskan tanggung jawab!" ia lupa, bahwa waktu itu Maryati baru berusia 12 tahun, dan Sumargo hanya lebih tua tiga tahun dari si gadis yang ia hamili. Tanpa malu-malu pula, pesta perkawinan diadakan besar-besaran. Dengan royal Martubi menghamburkan sejumlah uang untuk menutup mulut sejumlah tetangga yang suka bergunjing. Baru beberapa tahun kemudian Martubi dan istrinya menyadari satu hal: apa yang mampu diperbuat seorang suami yang masih gemar mengejar layanglayang putus, sementara istrinya di rumah membersihkan ingusnya saja masih perlu dibantu?! (hlm.11) Based on the quotation above, it is clear that Martubi pampers Sumargo, his only child. Martubi strives to be the savior of each problem his son encountered. He is the one who teaches Sumargo that money can solve anything. When Maryati runs away with a college student from the city, Sumargo and Margono's life increasingly turns into a complex one. Sumargo lost his wife and he does not know how to respond the situation. He expresses the distress to Margono instead. Sumargo-who also experienced an unhealthy upbringing from Martubi-violated Margono. He often hit Margono without any particular reason. Eventually, Sumargo often leave Margono alone and famished, encouraging him to do anything when he feels hungry, including stealing and robbing the others.
A rather outdated writing, but quite sufficient to represent such a situation is the writing of Rowntree (1955). She said that a heavy load of responsibility for child care is laid on the small family unit, and especially on the mother. The healthy growth and undisturbed emotional development of the child in its early years depends to a great extent on her skill in maternal care and household management; her effectiveness in these respects is influenced by her own upbringing and, to a considerable degree, by her relationship with her husband. When this is good, there is usually a stable emotional atmosphere in the home, a consistent method in bringing up the children and a reasonable arrangement for financing household and family needs: on the other hand, many recent studies have implied that when marital relations between the parents are poor or broken the child may be both physically and emotionally disturbed.
In the context of Margono, a mother's role is missing. He grew up with Sumargo and Martubi. Martubi's wife passed away due to the unbearable family situation. It can be concluded that Margono went under the wings of broken figures. Martubi is a father who regards the power of money and running away as the absolute solution of all problems. It is shown from the solution he suggested to Sumargo when he impregnated Maryati as well as the solution he gave to Margono to flee from the city and go to Lamping Village when he is wanted by the police. Meanwhile, Sumargo is a father figure who considers violence as the effective way to end a problem.
Both elements blended perfectly in Margono. He chooses to run away from the police and meet his grandfather. He avoids to take the responsibility. While he is on the run, his grandfather supports him to flee further. Additionally, Margono feels no remorse after violating the others, such as killing and raping. It is strongly related to the parenting pattern from the people close to him, triggered the disturbance in his mental and emotional stability.

VIOLENCE IN MISTERI LEMBAH HANTU
The improper parenting generated in violent conduct that occured in almost each of the event. Abdullah Harahap's stories are identical with violence and sexuality since violence is a International Review of Humanities Studies www.irhs.ui.ac.id, e-ISSN: 2477-6866, p-ISSN: 2527-9416 Vol.4, No.2, October 2019 (Special Issue), pp. 1035-1047 ________________________________________________________________ useful element to build the sensation of horror, anxiety, and strange feeling of the readers. Violence plays a significant role in building the terror. The readers are invited to the course of the narrative with a series of violence. From the unit of content described earlier, it is understood that Misteri Lembah Hantu (1988) constructed by the elements of violence, both physical, verbal, sexual, which further explained in the table below  Table 3 shows that the form of violence in this novel triggered by the violence conducted by Sumargo to Margono, in which leads Margono to regard that violence is a strategy to end a problem. Additionally, Margono dominates the violence happened in the story. The trauma of violence, started by his father, settles in Margono's memory and stays throughout his life. He not only takes revenge on his father, but also easily channels his distress to the others, even when he has turned into an incarnation. From the beginning, Abdullah Harahap's described Margono as a malevolent figure. With him being in a prison stipulates that Margono is not a good and wellbehaved person. A prison, generally regarded by the society, represents things that do not aligned with the value and norms in the society.
Furthermore, looking at the perpetrators and the victims, it is clear that power relation also influenced the event. The perpetrators are people with power who abuse it over their victims. Sumargo violated Margono when he was a kid and teenager when Margono had no power to defend or attack back. When Margono grows up to be an adult, he takes revenge to Sumargo who is getting old. Margono also conduct violence to the people with less power. In the case of the dog-killing event, the village residents are powerful due to its number, while Margono is only by himself. It can be concluded that the violence in the story conducted by those with power towards their victims.

ABNORMAL SEXUALITY IN MISTERI LEMBAH HANTU
Abdullah Harahap's horror stories are also strongly related to the element of abnormal sexuality, including Misteri Lembah Hantu. The abnormal sexuality in this novel is used to create a horrible sensation. The readers will feel terrified because of the occurrence of unusual events. Peterson (1984:1) said that the definition of abnormality is vague since it will always be in the grey area. However, he mentioned that several elements included within the requirements of abnormality, which are misery, the unability to adapt, irrationality, lose control, the uncomfort feeling of the viewers, and moral violence of the ideal standards. The more those elements appeared, the clearer something can be called as an abnormality. In this context, the abnormal sexuality is described in the table below. Margono rapes Maryati, his birth mother.
The table above describes that abnormal sexuality happened in the narrative consisting of bestiality and incest. Bestiality is closely related to animal-like conduct, or the subject gains sexual satisfaction when having sex with animals. This behavior is limited to the physical contact without involving emotional relation. It is possible that the bestiality occurred in the novel is not fully realized. In other words, Margono, at the beginning, was not aware that Melati is a snake incarnation. While the rape victims of Margono, who incarnated as a dog, are not willing to have such sexual intercourse. However, those relations succeeded in creating a horror sensation within the readers' mind since the narrative is presented with unusual sexual relation.

CONCLUSION
Based on the elaboration discussed earlier, the violence and abnormal sexuality in Misteri Lembah Hantu can be concluded as the symbol that improper parenting from the nuclear family will impact the chaos happened in the broader community, for instance the society. Margono does not experience to have a loving parents and grows up to be the "hooligan" within the society. Additionally, the abnormal sexuality conducted by Margono shows that Margono grew up without having any guidance from his family. He does not know how to respond his anger and disappointment except channeling them in violent conduct. He also channels his desires by having sexual intercourse with whoever and whenever he finds the urge.