Pertemuan Jodoh is an Indonesia

Indonesia

Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...

n novel

Novel

A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....

 by Abdul Muis

Abdul Muis

Abdul Muis , was an Indonesian writer, journalist and nationalist. He argued tirelessly for Indonesia's independence from the Netherlands....

 originally published in 1932

1932 in literature

The year 1932 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*E. V. Knox replaces Sir Owen Seaman as editor of Punch magazine.*Samuel Beckett's first novel, Dream of Fair to Middling Women, is rejected by several publishers....

. It tells the story of two students who are driven apart by their class

Social class

Social classes are economic or cultural arrangements of groups in society. Class is an essential object of analysis for sociologists, political scientists, economists, anthropologists and social historians. In the social sciences, social class is often discussed in terms of 'social stratification'...

 differences, but eventually marry.

Plot

Ratna, a young student, inadvertently meets Suparta, a medical student, on a train. There, Suparta tries to find her a seat but fails because a Chinese-Indonesian couple are using the spare seats for their luggage. Upon arrival in Cimahi, Suparta escorts Ratna to her school. Pleased by Suparta's manners, Ratna and he agree to keep in contact via mail

Mail

Mail, or post, is a system for transporting letters and other tangible objects: written documents, typically enclosed in envelopes, and also small packages are delivered to destinations around the world. Anything sent through the postal system is called mail or post.In principle, a postal service...

.

A few months later, Suparta proposes

Proposal of marriage

A marriage proposal is an event where one person in a relationship asks for the other's hand in marriage. If accepted, it marks the initiation of engagement. It often has a ritual quality, sometimes involving the presentation of an engagement ring and a formalized asking of a question such as "Will...

 to Ratna via post; Ratna accepts, and leaves for Sumedang

Sumedang

Sumedang is a town in West Java, Indonesia, approximately 35 km northeast of Bandung.The town is famous for tahu Bungkeng, a local variety of deep fried tofu which was first made by a Chinese immigrant, Ong Kino....

 to meet Suparta's bangsawan

Nobility

Nobility is a social class which possesses more acknowledged privileges or eminence than members of most other classes in a society, membership therein typically being hereditary. The privileges associated with nobility may constitute substantial advantages over or relative to non-nobles, or may be...

parents. However, Suparta's mother, Nyai Raden Tedja Ningrum, is unwilling to accept Ratna as her daughter-in-law

Affinity (law)

In law and in cultural anthropology, affinity, as distinguished from consanguinity, is kinship by marriage. It is the relation which each party to a marriage bears to the kindred of the other. In English, affinity is usually signified by adding "-in-law" to the degree of kinship...

 because Ratna is not of bangsawan descent.

Disappointed, Ratna decides to forget Suparta. Not long afterwards, her father's chalk business becomes bankrupt, and Ratna has to drop out

Dropping out

Dropping out means leaving a group for either practical reasons, necessities or disillusionment with the system from which the individual in question leaves....

 of school and find a job as a salesclerk, then later at a lawyer's office and as a maid for a Dutch couple. However, one of the other maids, Jene, becomes jealous of her and tells the police that Ratna stole jewelry from her mistress

Mistress (form of address)

Mistress is an old form of address for a woman. It implies "lady of the house", especially a woman who is head of a household.An example is Mistress Quickly in Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor. The title did not necessarily distinguish between married and unmarried women.The title Mrs. is...

. After being arrested, Ratna tries to escape but falls into a river, nearly drowning. She is brought to a hospital.

She is treated by Suparta, who has already graduated from medical school

Medical school

A medical school is a tertiary educational institution—or part of such an institution—that teaches medicine. Degree programs offered at medical schools often include Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine, Bachelor/Doctor of Medicine, Doctor of Philosophy, master's degree, or other post-secondary...

 and has been looking for Ratna. Hearing her plight, Suparta hires a lawyer for her and she is declared innocent; Jene's boyfriend, Amat, is shown to have stolen the jewelry.

After being discharged from the hospital, Ratna is asked to go to rest at the Bidara Cina pavilion. There Suparta treats her and they grow closer. Once Ratna is fully healed, Suparta proposes to her again and they are married the same day.

Reception

Pertemuan Jodoh is considered the opposite of Muis' earlier work, Salah Asuhan

Salah Asuhan

Salah Asuhan is an Indonesian novel by Abdul Muis originally published in 1928 by Balai Pustaka. It is widely considered one of the best examples of early modern Indonesian literature.-Background:...

; Pertemuan Jodoh deals with feudalism

Feudalism

Feudalism was a set of legal and military customs in medieval Europe that flourished between the 9th and 15th centuries, which, broadly defined, was a system for ordering society around relationships derived from the holding of land in exchange for service or labour.Although derived from the...

, while Salah Asuhan dealt with the incompatibilities in Western and Eastern cultures. However, it has also been called a sequel of Salah Asuhan.

Mahayana et al considered the use of language "convincing", with uneducated characters using a mix of Betawi

Betawi language

The Betawi language is the spoken language of the Betawi people in Jakarta, Indonesia. It is the native language of about 2,700,000 people . It is a Malay-based creole, and closely related to Malay language. Betawi vocabulary have large amount of Hokkien Chinese, Arabic, and Dutch loanwords...

 and Malay

Malay language

Malay is a major language of the Austronesian family. It is the official language of Malaysia , Indonesia , Brunei and Singapore...

 words. As a result, they consider it a result of Muis' observations while living in Batavia

Jakarta

Jakarta is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Officially known as the Special Capital Territory of Jakarta, it is located on the northwest coast of Java, has an area of , and a population of 9,580,000. Jakarta is the country's economic, cultural and political centre...

.

Bakri Siregar considered Pertemuan Jodoh "much weaker" than Salah Asuhan.