Perbandingan Motif Rewards and Punishments dalam Cerita Rakyat Nusantara Berdasarkan Indeks Motif Thompson: A Comparison of Reward and Punishment Motifs in Indonesian Folktales Based on the Thompson Motif Index

Folktales about ungrateful children are found across Indonesian folklore traditions, including Malin Kundang, Batu Balai, Bujang Lengong, and Si Lancang. The pattern in these stories can be read as a sequence of a character's actions toward a parent and the consequences that follow, which Thompson classifies under the group of rewards and punishments (group Q). This study aims to identify and map the reward and punishment motifs and to describe their similarities and differences across the four stories. It employs a descriptive qualitative method with a comparative literature approach. The data are narrative elements, namely characters' actions, sequences of events, consequences of actions, and forms of transformation that indicate patterns of reward or punishment, taken from four written versions of the stories. The data were coded, mapped onto motif categories in the Motif-Index of Folk-Literature, and compared. The findings show that punishment follows the rejection or humiliation of the mother and is triggered by her prayer, while reward appears as positive consequences that vary in form, from survival and good news to wealth. Comparatively, the four stories share a pattern linking a character's actions toward a parent with the consequences received, but they differ in events, consequence mechanisms, and manifestations of punishment, namely the destruction of ships by storms and transformation into stone. The findings imply that these stories can serve as enrichment material for literature learning and character education.