This was a descriptive qualitative research which studied the poverty images in
Ronggeng Dukuh Paruk novel by Ahmad Tohari and aimed to describe the poverty
images within the novel. This research used the poverty base in analyzing the novel
and considering the theory of the characters and the characteristics. The data included
the narrative sentences and dialogues in the novel which were collected using reading
and noting techniques, analyzed using the library research technique, and presented
informally or using words.The findings of this research showed there were 43 poverty
images contained in the novel with 8 detailed data of inability to fulfill the basic needs
(food, clothing, shelter), 3 data of inability to make efforts due to physical or mental
disability, 10 data of social inability and misfortune (homeless child, women victims
of domestic violence, poor widows, remote and marginal group of people), 9 data of
low quality of human resources (illiteracy, low education and skills, sickness)and
limitednatural resources (infertile land, remote location, the absence of road
infrastructure, electricity, and water), 5 dataof individual shock vulnerability (low
income and asset) or mass shock vulnerability (low social capital, the lack of public
facilities), 2 dataof the absence of adequate and sustainable job vacancies and
occupation,6 dataof the absence of access to other basic life needs (health, education,
sanitation, clean water, and transportation), 1 data of the absence of future guarantee
(due to the absence of investment for education and family or social protection from
the country and society). Therefore, it can be concluded that the most dominant
poverty images in the novel were the data of social inability and misfortune (homeless
children, women victims of domestic violence, poor widows, remote and marginal
groups of people). Meanwhile, the smallest datum was the absence of future guarantee
(due to the absence of investment for education and family or social protection from
the country and society) because there was only one datum. All data were obtained
from the narrative sentences and dialogues in the Ronggeng Dukuh Paruk novel.