Cross cultural misunderstandings as depicted in E.M. Forster's novel "A Passage to India"

This study analyzes the cross cultural misunderstandings in "A Passage to India" a novel by E. M. Foster. The study under report is attempted to answer the following research problem. (1) What causes of cultural misunderstandings between the characters are depicted in E. M. Foster’s "A Passage to India?" and (2) How are they resolved? The data of this study are taken from the utterances between the characters of the novel. The data are analyzed by using the cross cultural misunderstanding theories, i.e. the different types of misunderstanding and the basic reasons of cultural misunderstanding. Besides, there are cultural aspects in correlation with the field that can be examined in cultural analysis, and also the British’s and Indian’s culture characteristics as the parameters. The data analysis brought the following findings: (1) there are three religion differences, Christianity, Moslem, and Hindu, that lead to the cultural misunderstanding. The differences of race, Western and Native, are also the cause of misunderstanding. In politics, the different aims lead to the misunderstanding. The last misunderstanding is caused by the differences of economic and social manners. (2) the solutions of cultural misunderstanding problems that bases on religion differences are overcomed by the friendliness that made afterward. The races and political misunderstandings are covered by Fielding’s description about no fairness in the world, and not all of the Englishmen have the same importance in India. The last solution of the economic and social manners is overcomed by several ways, such as to give punishment, to avoid interact with the native, and even to build good relation with the native. The writer realizes that this study is not perfect and there must be several weaknesses. The writer suggests to the further researcher who intends to make a cultural study especially cross cultural misunderstanding to make a study on Indonesia novel as Indonesia has many cultural differences among its people. Besides, the writer also hopes that the study may be useful for the reader in dispute interaction in order to be able to avoid the clash among people in the society