Pramoedya''''s Story on A Female Fighter Larasati; Pramoedya Ananta Toer; Hasta Mitra,
Jakarta, 2000 ; viii + 176 pp; Rp 23,000 > Pramoedya Ananta Toer, through his realism in this
revolutionary tale, has taken a snapshot of the life of a popular
female movie
star named Larasati, nicknamed Ara, during the armed
struggle between 1945 and 1950.
> After spending one year with independence fighters as an
unpaid stage star in Yogyakarta, Indonesia’s capital at the time,
Ara returns to Jakarta, under occupation by the Allied and Dutch
troops, to meet her
mother and resume her career as a film
star.
>During her journey on the train,
ara meets many young people
and artists who have relinquished their lives in the big cities
to join guerrilla forces, particularly in the West Java towns of
Cikampek, Karawang, Bekasi and East Jakarta.
> In the demarcation area of Bekasi, Ara meets an indigenous
colonel of the Netherlands Indie Civil Administration (NICA),
Suryo Sentono, as well as Marjohan, a former announcer during the
Japanese occupied era who became an opportunist. Marjohan offers
Ara the star role in a NICA propaganda film.
> Because she sympathizes with the independence fighters, Ara
refuses the offer and is jailed by the indigenous colonel, angry
at her stubborn behavior. However, ultimately she is freed by a
Dutch colonel, Drest.
> Ara manages to enter Jakarta thanks to the assistance of a
NICA sergeant from Papua, who has deserted the armed forces. He
leaves Ara at one of the city’s kampongs.
>In the kampong, she lives with an old woman who was her
mother’s neighbor. Her mother, Lasmidjah, works as a domestic
servant for an Arab family, who turn out to be Dutch spies.
At their home, Ara meets a yellow-eyed Arab youth named Jusman,
who asks her to join his gambus (Arabian music) group as a
singer. She refuses the offer.
&nbs
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