THE STRUGGLE FOR LIFE: AN ANALYSIS OF INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL FACTORS IN DANIELLE STEEL’S NOVEL ZOYA

Abstract

ABSTRACT Zoya, a noblewoman, faces challenges during a rebellion in Russia, where she loses her brother, friends, and servants, forcing her to flee with her grandmother and survive in Paris. Her internal struggles involve confronting her past, arguing with others, namely her grandmother, and adapting to her new environment. Zoya struggles to control herself in the face of deep sorrow and the traumatic experience of losing her loved ones. Influenced by her past, she strives to conquer Paris with her talent as a dancer. This paper aims to explore Braun and Isaac's struggle of life theory in the novel as a data source. The purpose of this study is to determine the types of life struggles and the intrinsic and extrinsic influences that develop in the story experienced by the main character, Zoya. The qualitative descriptive research is applied to this study because it shows the nature of the situation as it was during research. Research results show that the life struggle of a noble woman, Zoya, struggle with vs self is controlling herself in the face of the cruelty of the rebellion due to loss, and the struggle with others is fighting alongside her grandmother, and she fights for a better life for her grandmother. Then the struggle with the environment is how the consequences of the events in her life environment are struggling to get out of the rebellion situation and struggling to survive in the big city of Paris. However, in the end, the influence from within internal or herself and the influence from external helped her to be motivated to survive in a difficult life. The influence of external struggles dominates the narrative in this novel. Keywords: Struggle of Life Types, Internal influences, External influences