ROY’S CRITICISMS TOWARDS THE CASTE SYSTEM AS

REFLECTED THROUGH THE MAIN CHARACTERS AND

THEIR CONFLICTS IN ARUNDHATI ROY’S
THE GOD OF SMALL THINGS

AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS

Presented as Partial Fulfillment of Requirements

For the Degree of Sarjana Sastra
In English Letters

By

IRINE CAHYANING TYAS

Student Number: 044214019

ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
YOGYAKARTA
2009
ii
iii
 God is in every tommorow,
Therefore I life for today.
Certain of finding at sunrise,
Guidance and strength for the way.
Power for each moment of weakness,
Hope for each moment of pain,
Comfort for every sorrow,
Sunshine and joy after the rain...

Anonymous

iv
 I dedicate this thesis for My Beloved Parents,

My Little Brothers,

and Edo Baskoro

who

always support me in accomplishing this thesis.

v
vi
vii
 Acknowledgements

I would like to express my biggest gratitude to Jesus Christ and Virgin

Mary for the blessings, strength and miracles They have been giving in my life, so

that I am finally able to accomplish this undergraduate thesis. Thank God for

answering my prayers.

My gratitude is also directed to my advisor, Ni Luh Putu Rosiandani, S.S,

M.Hum. I am also grateful for her guidance, patience, and especially for the time

she has spent for reading and correcting my thesis. I also thank to my co- advisor

Elisa Dwi Wardani S.S., M.Hum. for your guidance in finishing this thesis. I

really appreciate all things she has done in process of writing my thesis

Furthermore, I deeply express my gratitude to my beloved parents for their

love, prayers, support, both financial and spiritual and good advices. I am so

proud to be their daughter. It is wonderful to have both of them as my parents. For

my little brothers; Dhani and Bayu, thanks for the love, support and help. I am so

proud of them. I would like to thank them for encouraging and motivating me in

finishing my thesis.

Next, my sincere gratitude belongs to Edo Baskoro. Thanks for the love,

support, patience, help and guidance. It is very helpful and means a lot for me. It

is nice to spend my time with you.

I would not forget to say thanks to my best friends in Yogyakarta (Corry,

Dede, Mbak Feb, Anna, Enchil, Mbak Ayu, Mbak Mei and KKN Kuliner).

Yogyakarta would not be much wonderful without you guys.

viii
 I would like to express my gratitude to my friends in class A (Siska,

Deasy, Martha, Indri, Dita ndut, Sheila, Tini, Jati, Soni, Edward, Nofi, Lutfi, Bara,

Ucok, Disti, Eka, Astrid, Amel, Elin, Caca, Rani, Dita, Intan, Lisis, Nanang,

Siswanto, Ison, Feme, Rizki, Patrik). It is nice to have nice friends like them.

There are many wonderful and exciting moments that we have shared together,

“Thanks for the memories friends!” I would not forget to thank all the staffs in

English Letters Department. I thank them for their help.

Irine Cahyaning Tyas

ix
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

TITLE PAGE ................................................................................................ i

APPROVAL PAGE ...................................................................................... ii
MOTTO PAGE ............................................................................................. iii
DEDICATION PAGE ................................................................................... iv
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ............................................................................ v
TABLE OF CONTENTS .............................................................................. vi
ABSTRACT ................................................................................................... ix
ABSTRAK ..................................................................................................... x

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION ................................................................ 1

A. Background of the Study ............................................................. 1
B. Problem Formulation .................................................................... 4
C. Objectives of the Study ................................................................. 5
D. Definition of Term ........................................................................ 5

CHAPTER II: THEORETICAL REVIEW ............................................... 9

A. Review of Related Studies ............................................................ 9
B. Review of Related Theories .......................................................... 11
1. Theories of Character and Characterization ............................. 11
2. Theories of Conflict ................................................................ 14
a. Theories of Caste.......................................................................
16
4. Relation between Literature and Society .................................... 17
E. Review on the Historical Background of Kerala state, India ....... 19
F. Theoretical Framework ................................................................. 21

CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY ............................................................ 23

A. Object of the Study ....................................................................... 23
B. Approach of the Study .................................................................. 24
C. Method of the Study ...................................................................... 25

CHAPTER IV: ANALYSIS ......................................................................... 28

A. The Main Characters’ Characteristics ........................................... 28
1. Ammu’s Characteristics .......................................................... 28
2. Rahel’s Characteristics .............................................................
33
3. Estha’s Characteristics .............................................................. 36
B. The Main Characters’ Conflicts .................................................... 38
1. Ammu’s Conflicts .................................................................... 39
2. Rahel’s Conflicts ......................................................................
45
3. Estha’s Conflicts ..................................................................... 48

x
 C. Roy’s Criticisms toward the Caste System .................................... 51

CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION .................................................................... 60

BIBLIOGRAPHY ......................................................................................... 66

APPENDIX .................................................................................................... 68

xi
 ABSTRACT

IRINE CAHYANING TYAS (2009). ROY’S Criticisms toward the Caste System
as Reflected through the Main Characters and Their Conflicts in Arundhati Roy’s
The God of Small Things. Yogyakarta: Department of English Letters, Faculty of
Letters, Sanata Dharma University.

This undergraduate thesis examines one of Arundhati Roy’s novel entitled

The God of Small Things. It presents Ammu and her twin children Rahel and
Estha as the central characters who live in conservative Syrian Christian and
Touchable family that obey the caste system. It is recited in the story that Ammu
and her twin children have to face problems happening to her and her children.
Roy shows her criticisms toward the rigid caste system that makes the innocent
people have to be sacrificed.
There are three problems to be discussed in this study. The first is the
description of the main characters: Ammu, Rahel and Estha. The second is the
description of conflicts that are undergone by the main characters. The third is
Roy’s criticisms toward the rigid caste system by revealing the main characters’
conflicts.
The writer used the library research in collecting the data. This analysis
used the socio-cultural historical approach. This approach is suitable for the
analysis because it concerned with the criticism toward the caste system in India.
As a result of the study, the writer concludes, first; there are three main
characters in the novel. They are Ammu, who struggled for her and her children’s
life around the people who oppress and underestimate her, Rahel who experienced
injustice and made her become a trouble maker and broken home child who lacks
of love and affection from her family, and Estha, Ammu’s son, can be described
as an introverted man. Second, the conflicts which are undergone by the main
characters, both external and internal conflicts. Third, Roy’s criticisms toward the
caste system. The conflicts which are undergone by the main charaters are the
criticisms toward the caste system in India because the caste system limits the
characters’ life. It can be seen that her criticism is absolutely meant to nudge the
caste system directly through her realistic portrayal of the life of the
Untouchables.

xii
 ABSTRAK

IRINE CAHYANING TYAS (2009). ROY’S Criticisms toward the Caste System
as Reflected through the Main Characters and Their Conflicts in Arundhati Roy’s
The God of Small Things. Yogyakarta: Jurusan Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra,
Universitas Sanata Dharma.

Tesis ini berhubungan dengan salah satu novel Arundhati Roy yang
berjudul The God of Small Things. Novel ini menyajikan Ammu dan anak
kembarnya Rahel dan Estha sebagai tokoh utama yang hidup di antara keluarga
Kristen Siria yang konservatif dan kaum “Tersentuh” (Touchable) yang sangat
menjunjung tinggi sistem kasta. Dikisahkan di dalam cerita tersebut Ammu dan
anak kembarnya harus menghadapi masalah-masalah yang terjadi pada mereka.
arundhati Roy sebagai penulis menyatakan kritik-kritiknya pada sistem kasta yang
kaku sehingga membuat orang-orang yang tidak berdosa menjadi korban.
Ada tiga rumusan masalah yang diangkat dalam penelitian ini yaitu yang
pertama gambaran tentang karakter tokoh-tokoh utama: Ammu, Rahel dan Estha.
Kedua, gambaran tentang konflik-konflik yang dialami oleh para tokoh utama.
Ketiga, kritik yang diberikan oleh Roy mengenai sistem kasta yang kaku dengan
melihat konflik-konflik para tokoh utama.
Penulis menggunakan penelitian pustaka dalam pengumpulan data.
Pendekatan yang dipakai dalam analisis ini yaitu pendekatan sosio-kultural
historikal. Pendekatan ini tepat digunakan dalam analisis karena tesis ini
menitikberatkan pada kritik yang terjadi pada sistem kasta di India.
Sebagai hasil dalam penelitian, penulis menyimpulkan, pertama; ada tiga
tokoh utama dalam novel ini. Mereka adalah Ammu, yang berjuang untuk
hidupnya dan kedua anak kembarnya yang hidup di sekeliling orang yang
menekan dan menganggap rendah dirinya, Rahel yang mengalami ketidakadilan
dalam hidupnya sehingga membuatnya menjadi anak yang suka membuat masalah
dan anak yang kurang kasih sayang dari keluarganya, Estha, anak laki-laki
Ammu, dapat digambarkan sebagai anak yang tertutup. Kedua, konflik-konflik
yang yang diterima oleh para tokoh utama., baik konflik eksternal maupun
internal. Ketiga, kritik-kritik yang disampaikan oleh Roy mengenai sistem kasta
di India. Konflik-konflik yang diterima oleh para tokoh utama dapat menjadi
kritikan terhadap sistem kasta di India karena sistem kasta membatasi hidup para
tokoh utama. Hal ini dapat terlihat bahwa kritiknya secara langsung menyinggung
sistem kasta dengan gambaran hidup kaum “Tak tersentuh” atau “Untouchable”
yang sangat jelas.

xiii
 CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study

After reading the work of literature, we find that literary work and reality

have one similarity. Both of them convey the story of human life. In real life, we

live to learn how to develop, to solve problems and to experience the gloomy side

of life. It becomes a place for us to struggle for a better condition and to survive

from harsh life. Here, we often deal with conflicts or problems, which are the

result of our relationship and interaction with others. The more problems we find,

the more experiences of problem solving we get. However, we are also able to

become maturer by knowing other people’s problems and their solutions. There

are many kinds of problem in our daily life, such as problem on love, social class

distinction and education.

We can learn many things in literature, such as the conflict of human life,

the ideas, or the criticism the author wants to say. Literature, actually, gives us a

picture of life from the author’s view. Besides, this picture is performed to us in a

vivid and moving form (Brooks, Purser and Warren, 1952: 8)

A conflict has a very close relationship with problems. In many facts, the

cause of conflict is not the same among many people. Not only the attitude of an

individual, but also the setting where she or he lives influences the appearance of

conflict. Therefore the background of the conflict is interesting to learn. In the

novel, The God of Small Things, the main characters face conflicts from their

1
 2

surroundings. Basically, the conflict emerges because of the social class

differences among them.

In literature, the authors of literary works write the work of literature

because of their experience and vision about the situation of the place or time they

live in. They will respond whether they admire or criticize the condition of the

situation by expressing their ideas, feeling and vision in their own style into

meaningful and beautiful work which cannot be expressed by common people.

In the literary works, many authors compose their stories based on what

they have seen and experienced in real life. The inspiration of composition is

based on their significant life experience that has a big contribution to the author’s

personality development. Thus, the theme of their books reveal stories of how

people overcome and solve their conflicts or problems in their life. Rene Wellek

and Austin Warren in their book Theory of Literature (1956) also suggest that the

work of literature portrays life as reality. They also mention that literarature looks

like a real-life portrait. It is an illustration of human lives because literary works

present the reality of human situations, problems, feelings, and relationships

(1956: 96). From the explanation above, we can say that both reality of the life

and the literary work consist of stories on how people struggle to overcome their

conflicts or problems with others.

Suzanna Arundhati Roy is an Indian novelist who won The Booker Prize

in 1997 in her first novel, The God of Small Things, and The Lannan Cultural

Freedom Prize in 2002. The novel is semi-autobiographical and the major part of
 3

it, captures her childhood experiences in Ayemenem

(http://website.lineone.net/~jon.simmons/roy/tgost.htm)

Roy’s first novel, The God of Small Things, is a controversial novel,

because many praises of some critics, said that the novel is remarkable for its

quality of innocence and originality. Besides, it also raises many controversies

from her homeland (India) itself, and from Syrian Christian Community. India

communist criticism from E.M.S. Namboodiripad said “Anybody who attacks

Communists anywhere in the world will be welcomed by the captains of the

industry of bourgeois literature in the world.” And Syrian Christian Community

said that the novel hurts the community in India. Kerala Chief Minister E.K

Nayanar’s claimed that The God of Small Things had won acclaim in the West

only because of its anti-Communist venom. It is also called as an obscene novel

and some people want its final chapter removed (http://indiastar.com/roy.hlm)

We cannot deny that literature is a good device to depict the reality from

the author’s point of view which cannot be presented by other means with

intensity and meaning. It means that literature is effectively and frankly showing

us the truth of the fact which is unseen for some people. Of course, we realize

how useful, meaningful, and beautiful literature is if we pay a scrupulous attention

to literature.

In this study, the writer intends to analyze The God of Small Things. The

God of Small Things is the spirit of powerlessness and social exclusion that

pervades the lives of the unfortunate of the world. In the novel, the laws of India's

caste system are broken by the characters of Ammu and Velutha, an Untouchable
 4

or Paravan. When Velutha has an affair with Ammu, he breaks an ancient taboo

and incurs the anger of Ammu's family and the Kerala police. He breaks the rigid

social rules of the caste system and therefore, the authorities must punish him.

Ammu tries to live in a patriarchal society, and Ammu, the biggest victim of the

system, is a typical image of a daughter being marginalized in a patriarchal

society. Roy has given voice and expression to the sufferings of these people;

their oppression at the hands of those who wield power and the machinery that

dispenses injustice. Based on the description of how the small things in life build

up, translate into people’s behavior and affect their lives and the conflicts among

the main characters, the writer wants to analyze the author’s criticisms toward

caste system as reflected through the main characters and their conflicts, because

those conflicts which appear are the author’s criticism towards the Indian society

in the novel.

B. Problem Formulation

For further understanding, here, the writer formulated questions based on

the background mentioned above:

1. How are the main characters in the novel characterized?

2. What conflicts are undergone by the main characters?

3. What are Roy’s criticisms toward the caste system in the novel?
 5

C. Objectives of the Study

Below are the objectives of this study that are drawn by considering the

background and the problem formulation mentioned in the previous part. First is

to describe the main characters’ physical characteristics and personalities, to

reveal the main characters’ conflicts, both the inner conflicts and the external

conflicts. And the last is to convey and explain the author’s criticisms towards the

caste system that can be drawn from the previous analysis about the main

characters and their conflicts.

D. Definition of Terms

In order to provide a clear and accurate analysis and to avoid any

misunderstanding, there are some terms that need to be defined.

1. Criticism

According to Baldick in his book The Concise Oxford Dictionary Literary

Terms, criticism is concerned with revealing the author’s true motive or intention,

in terms of its relationship to some fields, such us history, gender, and social class

(1990: 48). Criticism in this study means the author’s motive or intention as

presented in her writing. In the relation with history of a group of people, a novel

may be used by the author to defend or to criticize people.

Criticism in this thesis means judgements about the social condition of a

society especially in relation with the unfair treatments toward minorities through

artistic works as the intention or the motive of the author.

2. Character
 6

In general, character may be defined as a descriptive analyzes of a human

virtue or vice or of a general type of human character. Related to the literature,

Abrams in his book A Glossary of Literary Terms specifies this definition. He

says:

“Characters are persons presented in a dramatic or narrative work, who are

interpreted by the reader as being endowed with moral, dispositional, and
emotional qualities that are expressed in what they say- the dialogue- and
by what they do- the action (1985: 23).”

According to Stanton, the term “character” can be used in two ways. First,

character refers to the individuals who appear in the story. Second, character also

refers to moral principles that make up each of the individuals (1965: 17). Hence,

major or minor character refers to those who become the main focus in the story

from the beginning to the end (Milligan, 1983: 55).

3. Conflict

The first definition of conflict is taken from Literature for composition:

Essay, Fiction, Poetry, and Drama by Sylvan Barnet, William Burto, and William

E. Cain. It is mentioned there that conflict is a struggle between a character and

some obstacle (for example, another character or fate) or between internal forces,

such as divided loyalties (2005: 1375).

Another definition is given by Jerome Beaty and J. Paul Hunter in their

book New Worlds of Literature. There, they define conflict as the struggle

between opposing forces- characters, families, nations, ideas, or ideological

sistems- that provides the central action and interest in any literary plot (1989:

1162).
 7

4. Caste System
Based on Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia, the term caste was first used

by Portuguese travelers who came to India in the 16th Century. Caste came from

Spanish and Portuguese word “casta” which means “race”, “breed” or “lineage”

(http://www.eb.com:180cgibin.html)

5. Syrian Christian

Syrian Christian is also known as Saint Thomas Christians who are

ethnoreligious group from Kerala, India, adhering to the various churches of the

Saint Thomas Christian tradition. The Syrian Christian people follow a unique

Hebrew-Syrian Christian tradition which includes several Jewish elements

although they have absorbed some Hindu customs. It is believed that actually the

Syrian Christian people are the Brahmins caste who obtained special caste status

in the prevailing caste system in India

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syrian_Christian_of_Kerala.htm)

6. Untouchability

Based on Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia, Untouchability is a social

system in which people belonging to a particular group restrict people in other

groups from interacting with them socially.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Untouchable_(social_system).

7. Untouchable

Untouchable is known as a member of the excluded group from the caste

system (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Untouchable_(social_system).
 8

CHAPTER II

THEORETICAL REVIEW

A. Review of Related Studies

The God of Small Things was written by Arundhati Roy in 1997. Roy was

the first Indian novelist who won the prestigious Britain’s Booker Prize in 1997.

Her novel was first published in United States by Random House and in Great

Britain by Flamingo, both were in 1997.

In this novel, the author’s socio-cultural historical background plays the

significant role in shaping the story because the important details in this novel like

the characters and the setting are influenced by the historical background of the

author. Some of the characters and events in this novel are much similar with her

life and her family, no wonder that this novel is presumed as her autobiographical

novel.

The God of Small Things is Arundhati Roy’s first literary work that

describes a real condition of the Indian society which applies the caste system

strictly. This work portrays the oppression of the caste system toward the people

inside the system. People from the lower class of the caste system are treated

badly almost in all aspects of life. Caste system for the Indian people is likely

their way of life that should be obeyed and maintained.

All of the oppositions to The God of Small Things were not due to the

obscenity but rather to the explicit description of the role of the Untouchables in

India, and in particular the intimate relationship between an Untouchable

8
 9

handyman and a factory owner’s daughter. In other words an intimate relationship

between an Untouchable man and a higher caste woman was forbidden in India

caste system. This was also a proof that fifty years after Mahatma Gandhi claimed

the equality for the Untouchables by naming them as Harijans (Children of God),

the Hindu caste system remained applied and “Untouchability” was still an

important issue in the society

(http://www.emory.edu/ENGLISH/Bahri/caste.html)

Besides the criticism above, the writer found the related studies about The

God of Small Things in two undergraduate theses. The first was about A Study of

the Influence of Childhood Traumatic Experiences of Fraternal Twins Rahel on

Their Adulthood Personalities, as Revealed in Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small

Things by Ida Yudiarini, this undergraduate thesis is about the influence of

childhood traumatic syndrome, focusing on characterization. She stated that

unpleasant experiences in childhood can traumatize a person and influence his or

her adult personality. Then, the second undergraduate thesis is The Influence of

Socio-cultural Aspects on Gender Discrimination as Revealed in Arundhati Roy’s

The God of Small Things by Eny Haryani, which focuses on gender discrimination

problem that occurs in Kerala, India. She stated that women have lower position

in society and thus they are considered as the passive object by their husbands.

They do not have the same opportunity as men to develop all their talent and

potential, and get their rights as God’s creature.

Different with the two theses above, the writer will go deeper to the

author’s criticism toward the caste system as reflected through the main characters
 10

and their conflicts. Then, the writer will analyze what conflicts are undergone by

the main characters, and the writer will also analyze on how the conflicts that are

being undergone by the main characters appear to be the the author’s criticisms

towards the caste system in the novel. The practices of Untouchability in Indian

caste system bounded and discriminated every aspect of life of the Untouchables.

It makes them cannot improve their life and there are rules which obviously deep

rooted in Indian caste system. Nothing is able to bring changes for these rigid

social laws.

B. Review of Related Theories

1. Theories of Character and Characterization

Characters are usually the key to a writing and become the simplest place

to start a story. It should be noticed at first that characters are fiction. However,

characters are very ‘life-like’ so that when you read about them, you will feel that

you know them like a person in life (Grenville: 1998: 35-36).

There are two classifications of fictional characters according to Milligan

(1983: 155). They are:

a. Major characters

Major character is the most important character in a literary work. He

plays very important role because everything he does become the content of the

story. His experience from the beginning till the end of the story composes the

whole story, so that his appearance is more often than the other characters. From
 11

his action, the theme of the story is conveyed. Major characters become the center

of the story because they endure problems, conflict, happiness, sorrow, etc. From

their action, the reader knows the author’s messages of the story.

b. Minor characters

Minor characters are characters who play less important role than major

characters. Their appearance support the main character to develop the story so

that they appear only in a certain setting. They do not endure the problem of the

story. Minor characters do not have experiences as the major characters have.

Authors use many different ways to convey information about characters

in fiction through the methods of characterizing which is often called

characterization. Grenville states:

“Characterization is all the things writers do to build up the

characters they want. Characterization is the process that
transforms real-life people into characters in fiction (1998: 36).”

M. J. Murphy’s Understanding Unseens (1972: 161-173) included the

theory of characterization and he proposed nine methods to disclose the

characters. Below are those nine methods:

a. Personal description
The character is personally described by the author through his or her
appearance (skin color, hair, eyes, nose, hands, and other part of the body) and
clothes (how she or he wears the cloth and what kind of cloth she or he
wears).
b. Character as seen by another
Instead of describing a character directly, the author can describe the character
through the other’s character opinion, view, attitudes, and comments.
c. Speech
 12

The author can give us an insight into the character of one of the persons in
the book through what that person says. Whenever a person speaks, whenever
he is in conversation with another, whenever he puts forward an opinion, he is
giving us some clue to his character.
d. Past life
This methodes invites the readers to describe the characters through their past
life of experiences. By letting the reader learn something about a person’s past
life, the author can give us a clue to events that have helped to shape a
person’s character.
e. Conversation of others
The author describes the character through the conversations of the other
people and the things they say about him or her.
f. Reactions
The readers are able to obtained information about the character by analyzing
his or her reactions while facing some events, incidents, or cases. Person
reacts to various situations and events can also give the reader a clue to a
person’s character.
g. Direct comment
The author can describe or comment on a person’s character directly. This
method is easier than the other since the author gives the description about the
characters directly.
h. Thoughts
The author can give us direct knowledge of what a person is thinking about. It
is something that we cannot do in our real life. The author also can tell us
what different people are thinking.
i. Mannerism
The author can describe a person’s mannerisms, habits or idiosyncrasies
which may also tell us something about his character.
 13

2. Theories of Conflict
Laurence Perrine (1974: 44) defined conflict as a clash of action, ideas,

desires or wills between two individuals or among people in the society. Conflict

can include external and internal. In the real life, people try to avoid conflict, they

prefer to live without any clash or quarrel. Although people try to avoid conflict,

they will soon get conflict, even without wars or large scale of disagreement.

Characters in a literary work have important roles in building a good story.

The story can be achieved by revealing conflict (Danziger and Johnson, 1961:20).

Conflict in the literature seems to be very important because a good conflict will

lead readers to the enjoyment of reading a literary work.

In their book A Handbook to Literature (1986: 107) Holman and Harmon

stated the conflict is the “the struggle that grows out of the interplay of the two

opposing focus in a plot. Conflict provides interest, suspense and tension.” They

also stated that the struggles that occur may be the struggle against nature, against

another person, against society, and struggle for mastery.

Pooley (1968: 9) also said that conflict may be an argument between

opposing forces like man against man, man against nature, man against fate or

perhaps an internal one between the two opposing parts of man’s personality.

Redman also stated that to find out the conflict in the literature, readers

have to indicate the problem including how the characters face the problem. If

readers already sign the problem, they will clearly get the conflict that occurs.

Therefore, the most important thing is that readers will know the end of the

conflict. The solutions of the conflict is reached if the opposing forces relent or
 14

the main character faces the opposing forces successfully or he or she fails in

facing the forces. Redman divides conflict into 2 kinds:

a. The inner conflict : a struggle between the heart and mind of the protagonist

and the conflict between oneself.

b. The external conflict : a struggle between the protagonist and an outside

force, for example conflict between two or more people.

Further Redman also suggests the way to find out the conflict is by signing

the problems in the story including the characters’ attitude toward the problems.

In this way, the conflicts between the characters will be clearly identified and then

the end of conflict can be obtained (1964: 363).

According to Perrine (1974: 44) conflict in a literary work may consist of

one conflict that is stated clearly and the readers can easily identify the conflict. It

may also consist of multi conflicts or more than one conflict that are difficult to be

understood by readers. To understand multi conflicts the reader should analyze the

conflict one by one.

As people in the real world, characters in the imaginary world may also

face conflict. The conflict, that is the clash of two opposing forces, may occur

within the characters themselves or with the characters’ surrounding such as the

other characters and their society. Alike the living person they should solve the

conflict they have. The way the characters solve the conflict will give readers

interesting circumstances. It will give suspense toward readers which make the

story more interesting.

 15

3. Theories of Caste

The word caste comes from the Spanish and Portuguese word “casta”

which means race, breed, or lineage. Many Indians use the term “jati”. Caste as

religious concept is recognized by Oxford Dictionary as “each of the hereditary

classes of Hindu society, distinguished by relative degrees of ritual purity or

pollution and of social status and as any exclusive social class”. Anthropologists

use the term more generally, to refer to a social group that is endogamous and

occupationally specialized; such groups are common in highly stratified societies

with a very low degree of social mobility that is to say, a caste system is one in

which an individual's occupation and marriage prospects are determined by his or

her birth, thus preventing an individual from either getting a better job or from

marrying upward.

Caste system differentiates the society into many classes; The Brahmins

(scholar caste), the Kshatryas (warriors caste), the Vaishyas (trader and

agriculturist caste), the Sudras (worker and the cultivator caste). The division

between the Touchables and Untouchables is so ingrained in Kerala society. In his

book India- a World of Transition, Lamb stated that outside the fourfold social

order Wasa despised fourth group of still lower persons, often called “outcastes”

or “Untouchables”. They have suffered from number of civil and religious

disabilities, which have now prohibited by laws but have not entirely vanished in

practice. They are not allowed to enter certain part of villages, or drink water from

the common village well used by another Hindus. They are required to live in

special area or hamlets outside the villages (Lamb, 1963: 144)

 16

Hindus believe that being an Untouchable is a punishment for having been

bad in a former life. By being good and obedient, an Untouchable can obtain a

higher rebirth. Traditionally, a woman who has had sex with a man from a lower

caste would be expelled from her caste. There are many unprinted rules that there

is no interaction between the Touchables and the Untouchables. The

Untouchables are forbidden to touch the goods of the Touchables. And the

Untouchables cannot enter the room with the same door. The whole caste system

turns on the prestige of the Brahmans (Hutton, 1963:49).

According to the code of Manu, a marriage between a Brahmin woman

and a Sudra man would result in a “Candala”, who is described as “the lowest of

men” and shares many of the attributes of the contemporary “Untouchable”

(Moffit, 1979: 34). Michael Moffit writes that ancient textual sources from the

South suggest the existence of similarly ranked human relations and stresses that

many attributes of contemporary South Indian “Untouchables” were apparently

present 1500 years ago in the Sangam period. “Untouchables” are generally

associated with professions such as leather workers, butchers, launderers, and

latrine cleaners (http//www.indiastar/roy.hml).

4. The Relation between Literature and Society

Literature and society are in their nature two interesting aspects that

intertwine each other, yet to understand about their relationship, I would like to

put some statements from Rene Wellek and Austen Warren in their book Theory

of Literature as follows:
 17

The relation between literature and society is usually discussed by starting

with the phrase, derived from the De Bonald, that literature is an
expression of society, but what does this axiom mean? It is assumed that
literature at any given time mirrors the current social institution
‘correctly’, it is false; it is common place, trite and vague if it means only
that literature depicts some aspects of social reality (1956: 95).

Therefore, they offer a specific evaluative criterion stating that the relation

between literature and society is that literature mirrors or expresses life because an

artist is supposed to express life in his or her work. Yet, it does not mean that an

artist expresses or mirrors the whole life of a given time but means his or her time

completely; the artist is aware of the specific social, economic, political, and

religious condition in his or her era, and he or she should be representative of his

or her age and society; it is the artist’s duty to convey historical as well as social

truths as a symbol of artistic values in literature. Thus, literature can also be

viewed as the essence, the abridgement, and summary at all history. Therefore, the

relation between literature and society is very close in which the reader can catch

literature as the mirror reflects the society as well as in the author’s era (Wellek

and Warren, 1956: 95)

Elizabeth Langland in Society in the Novel explained that society in the

novels does not depend on points of absolute fidelity in an outside world in details

of costume, setting, and locality because a novel’s society does not aim at a mirror

of any real thing. The society in the novel is not always resemble or same with the

society in the real life. The society in the novel can be an independent aspect in a

novel which is not influenced by the outside world. Society in the novel cannot

always be found in the real world, but there is a possibility that we can find it in

the real world, although it is not exactly the same. Society in the novel might not
 18

be an absolute realistic mirror of the existent society in the real life, but there is a

possibility that it comments on the society in our life (1984: 5). The society in the

novel has a possibility to become a social criticism in the real life of society.

Langland also explained that everything which is seen such as norms,

conventions, codes, background, places, peoples, institutions are included in

society. But its particular manifestations in a novel will be determined by its role

within the work (1984: 6-7).

C. Review on the Historical Background of Kerala state, India.

1. Religions

Many religions exist in Kerala. Hinduism is the largest religion, it is about

56,1 %. Kerala, like other states in India, is famous with its caste system. It is an

important part in ancient Hindu tradition. The term was first used by Portuguese

travellers who came to India in 16th Century. There are 3,000 castes and 25,000

sub castes in India which is related to a specific job. The castes are grouped into

four basic varnas namely Brahmins (priest), Kshatryas (warriors), Vaishyas

(traders), and Shudras (labourers). Caste not only dictates one’s occupation, but

also dietary habits and interaction with members of other castes as well. Members

of a high caste have more wealth and opportunity, while members of low caste do

unimportant jobs. Outside of the caste system are the Untouchable jobs, such as

toilet cleaning, garbage removal, requiring them to be in contact with bodily

fluids. Therefore they are considered polluted and not to be touched. The

importance of purity in the body and food is found in early Sanskrit literature.
 19

Untouchables have separate doors to homes and must take water from separate

wells. They are considered to be in an unending condition of impurity.

Untouchables were named “Harijans” or Children of God by Mahatma Gandhi.

He tried to raise their status with symbolic gestures such as befriending and eating

with the Untouchables. Increasing mobility is very rare in the caste system. Most

people are still in the same caste in their whole life and marry within their own

caste. (http://www.emory.edu/ENGLISH/Bahri/caste.html).

Islam is the second largest religion (24,7%), Christianity (17%), and small

Jewish population. The Moslems of Kerala are divided into two groups: the

descendant of Arab and Malayalis. The Moslems have remained the strongest in

Malabar, the Northern part of Kerala; around the Calicut they involve almost half

of population. On the other hand, the Christians are in the former princely states.

43 % of the population in Cochin are Christian; around Kottayam in Travancore,

which is the center of Syrian Christians and the seat of their leader, the Chatolicos

of the East, they actually outnumber the Hindus. The Syrian Orthodox church,

with its various sects forms the largest and most important group of Christians in

Kerala. The Syrian Christian people follow a unique Hebrew-Syrian Christian

tradition which includes several Jewish elements although they have absorbed

some Hindu customs. It is believed that actually the Syrian Christian people are

the Brahmins caste who obtained special caste status in the prevailing caste

system in India (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syrian_Christian_of_Kerala).

 20

D. Theoretical Framework

Concerning to the analysis of main characters and their conflicts in

revealing the author’s criticism towards the caste system, three theories are

illustrated in the previous section, such as the theories of character and

characterization, the theories of conflicts, and the theories of caste are going to be

the bases to answer the problem formulation. Each theory has its own

contributions to this discussion and therefore they will be very helpful.

The theories of character and characterization are very helpful in giving

description of the main character in the story. These theories enable the writer to

consider the main character’s personal description, speech, thought, manner, and

reaction as the method in disclosing figure. Meanwhile, the theories of conflict

guide the writer to differentiate any conflicts that undergo by the main characters.

By distinguishing the conflicts, the analysis will be well-arranged and will not be

confusing. The relation between literature and society is used due to the

sociocultural-historical approach that is applied in this study. The last theory is the

theories of caste that will help the writer to answer the third question in problem

formulations.

The writer also employs the review of religion and political condition in

Kerala, India because it enables the writer to understand the life in Keralan

society. The theory is needed to give a view of social condition which is

experienced by the main characters. It helps readers to understand that the society

in the novel cannot be separated from the characters because it gives a strong
 21

influence to the characters themselves. It also gives an important information to

prove that the work is an author’s criticism towards the Indian caste system.
 22

CHAPTER III

METHODOLOGY

A. Object of the Study

The writer would like to employ a novel written by Arundhati Roy to be

the object of this study. The title of the novel is The God of Small Things and its

first publication was in 1997. This novel was published by Flamingo in Great

Britain and by Random House in United States in the same year, 1997. Yet, this

study refers to the Random House edition in 1997 that contains 321 pages.

In Roy’s first novel, The God of Small Things, she got the prestigious

Britain’s Booker Prize in 1997 and The Lannan Cultural Freedom Prize in 2002.

The book is semi-autobiographical and a major part captures her childhood

experiences in Ayemenem.

Set in Kerala in the 1960’s, The God of Small Things is about two-children

two-eggs, Rahel and Estha and also about their mother, Ammu. It is about their

tragic life in the way that they experienced oppressions by other people in their

society. They have to experience the tragic life since Ammu, a Syrian Christian

married a Bengali Hindu man which causes their caste degraded automatically,

became Untouchable people. By marrying a man who came from the lower caste,

she was automatically expelled from her family. The condition became worse

when Ammu got divorce with Baba, her husband. She had to come back to

Ayemenem house where her family lived.

22
 23

When she came to the house, everyone was mocking her. Until one day,

there is accidental-death by accidentally drowning of visiting English cousin-

Sophie Mol. The life of the three becomes worst because they have to face

conflicts with others, who have already underestimated them. Rahel and Estha

live in unhappiness, uncertainty and complicated adult world. Furthermore,

Ammu’s rebellion towards the society (caste system) by loving Velutha, an

Untouchable man, made her putting away from her family.

Here, the conflicts which have to be faced by the main characters were

also influenced by the religions. The conflicts of the main characters with other

characters were also as the reflection of the caste system which laid down in their

life. Everyone has to obey its unwritten life law. In this novel, The God of Small

Things is the spirit of powerlessness and social exclusion that pervades the lives

of the unfortunate of the world. Roy has given voice and expression to the

sufferings of these people; their oppression at the hands of those who wield power

and the machinery that dispenses injustice.

B. Approach of the Study

Since it deals with author’s criticism towards the caste system as reflected

through the main characters and their conflicts, the approach that will be used here

is the sociocultural-historical approach. This approach is considered suitable since

it applies the basic thought that the authenticity of the work was to find the

relationship between the work and the civilization of which the attitudes and
 24

actions of certain group of people became the subject matters (Rohrberger and

Woods, 1971: 9).

The culture in which a literary work is made takes an important role and

the work is a product of a reflection of and commentary on social realities that

take place in a society. The sociocultural-historical approach put literary work as a

product of and a reflection of civilization. This is supported by Guerin’s statement

that the historical-biographical approach percieved a literary work in a great

proportion as a reflection of the author’s life and times (Guerin, 1979: 25).

C. Method of the Study

There are some steps that can be applied as the method in composing this

thesis. The writer used library research that would supply two sources, primary

and secondary sources, to support the analysis of the chosen topic. The primary

source was the novel, The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy. The secondary

sources were books and website related to the theories, and the approach which

were used to analyze the problems. The book such as Kerala: A Portrait of

Malabar Coast, A Handbook to Literature, and Understanding Unseens as the

main sources of were used to determine the approach and the theories in this

study.

There are certain steps used in analyzing this study. First the writer began

with reading the main source comprehensively in order to understand the story.

From this comprehensive reading, the writer was interested in the conflicts

between the main characters. From the main characters’ conflicts, the writer tried
 25

to find out the main characters’ conflicts in the novel as the author’s criticisms

toward the caste system in India. By revealing the conflicts which the main

characters faced, the writer can draw that each main character criticizes the caste

system that applies in their society.

In attempt to look for the answers from the problem formulation, the

second step was collecting the data about the caste system as seen in the novel.

Some references which are related to the theories and some studies which are

related to the novel, are used to answer the problem formulation.

The third step was trying to answer the problem that had been formulated

in the problem formulation. This step was done by applying the theories of

character and characterization, theories of conflict, theory of caste, relation

between literature and the society and the review of sociocultural-historical

background of Kerala, India. First, theories of character and characterization were

used to analyze the main characters and the characterization in the novel. Second,

theories of conflicts were used to analyze the conflicts which were faced by the

main characters. Theory of caste was used to analyze the conflicts which are faced

by the main characters as the author’s criticisms towards the caste system in India.

The relation between literature and the society was used due to the sociocultural-

historical approach that is applied in this study. Then, the review of sociocultural-

historical background of Kerala, India was used to look at the event when the

novel was established and it strengthens the understanding the life in Keralan

society. Besides, the review can help the writer to answer the second question in
 26

the problem formulation since the problem is related to the life in Keralan society

in the novel and the conflicts within it.

Finally, after analyzing the characters as well as the conflicts in the novel,

and the third problem formulation could be answered. The conclusion of this

study could be drawn from this step.

 27

CHAPTER IV

ANALYSIS

As we come to the analysis part, it is better for the writer to give a brief

introduction regarding its content. Here, the answers of three problems

formulation as mentioned in the first chapter will be given. To specify the answers

of each question, this part will be divided into three divisions. The first subchapter

discusses on how are the main characters are characterized in the novel “The God

of Small Things”. The second subchapter discusses conflicts are undergone by the

main characters, both the internal conflicts and the external conflicts. The third

subchapter discusses on Roy’s criticisms toward the caste system that can be

drawn from the previous analysis.

A. The Description of The Main Characters

1. Ammu

Ammu, Rahel’s and Estha’s mother, is a beautiful young lady who has a

delicate, chiseled face, a small straight nose, nut brown skin, black eyebrows,

curly hair and has deep dimples when she smiles. According to Estha and Rahel,

Ammu is the most beautiful woman that they had ever seen.

Ammu is a Syrian Christian woman from the Brahmin caste. The Brahmin

caste is the highest position in Indian caste system. Syrian Christian people follow

a unique Hebrew-Syrian Christian tradition which includes several Jewish

elements although they have absorbed some Hindu customs. It is believed that

27
 28

actually the Syrian Christian people are the Brahmins caste who obtained special

caste status in the prevailing caste system in India. As a higher caste woman, she

cannot have any relationship with the lower caste moreover with the

Untouchables. Although Ammu’s family is a Syrian Christian family, but the

family has to follow and obey the caste system because it rooted hereditary.

Indian caste system, there are some people outside the fourfold social order, they

are often called the “Outcastes” or the “Untouchables”. They have suffered from

number of civil and religious disabilities, which have now prohibited by laws but

have not entirely vanished in practice. They are not allowed to enter certain part of

villages, or drink water from the common village well used by other Hindus.

Since Ammu was a child, she has a tragic childhood because of the

patriarchal system practiced in her family. One of its assumption is a girl does not

need any a higher education. According to her father, Pappachi, it is an

unnecessary expense for a girl to get a high education.

When she attends a wedding reception in Calcutta, she meets her future

husband which later she realizes that she married a wrong man. It is a beginning

point for her mistake. It is because Ammu, a Syrian Christian woman marries a

Hindu man. Then, automatically she is expelled from her family because she

breaks the caste system. They move to Assam, because her husband, Baba, a

Hindu man, working for a tea plantation. In the tea plantation, where her husband

works, many men admire her. Her husband’s English manager, Mr. Hollick also

admires her beauty. Mr. Hollick says directly to Baba that Baba needs some

refreshing, and then when he is refreshing, Ammu can be sent to his bungalow to
 29

be “looked after”. Baba agrees with his manager’s idea because he worries if he

would be fired. He does not refuse his manager’s idea although his wife will be

“taken care” by his boss.

Over coffee Mr. Hollick proposed that Baba go away for a while. For a
holiday. To a picnic perhaps, for treatment. For as long as it took him to
get better. And for the period of time that he was away, Mr. Hollick
suggested that Ammu be sent to his bungalow to be “looked after” (p. 41)

Ammu cannot understand that her husband sells her to his manager. Mr.

Hollick is a powerful man who can do anything toward people of lower position.

He has power to control and to oppress people who work for him. Therefore,

people from the lower position cannot do anything except agreeing what their

boss wants.

Ammu’s rebellion that she made is seen from her divorce with her

husband because her husband seems to underestimate, oppress, and regard her

merely as his stuff by “selling” her to get safety job position. She cannot accept

what her husband did to her, she remains to divorce from her husband. She

remains to divorce because she is sacrificed by her husband to please her

husband’s boss, and her husband turns to be a rude person when she does not

follow what her husband says. Thus, she breaks the Laws again. Ammu realizes

that she is not equally treated and she is being underestimated by her husband.

Therefore she prefers to break the rules although in her society to get divorce is

prohibited and shameful.

By marrying a Hindu man, she breaks the law and the caste system and

what she does, somehow it reflects her rebellion toward the caste system. Ammu,

who is a Syrian Christian, married a Hindu man. Actually, she knows the
 30

consequences of marrying a man who has different religion. But she chooses to

take the risk, therefore she is expelled by her family and out of her caste. Ammu is

a rebel woman who breaks the tradition because she married a man from different

religion. Although she knows the consequences, but she does not care about the

rules and it impacts toward her family. The rebellion can also be seen from the

way she dresses. Women have to wear a long sleeves shirt with her saris to cover

their body, but Ammu prefers to wear backless blouses and smokes long

cigarettes. She wears what she likes to wear and do what she likes to do. “She

wore backless blouses with her saris and carried a silver lame purse on a chain.

She smoked long cigarettes in a silver cigarette holder and learned how to blow

perfect smoke rings (p. 39-40)”.

Ammu’s biggest rebellion is seen when she secretly falls in love with an

Untouchable Velutha who comes from lower caste. She breaks the rules, because

she makes her family embarassed.

What was it that gave Ammu this Unsafe Edge? This air of
unpredictability? It was what she had battling inside her. An unmixable
mix. The infinite tenderness of motherhood and the reckless rage of a
suicide bomber. It was this that grew inside her, and eventually led her to
love by night the man her children loved by day. To use by night the boat
that her children used by day. The boat that Estha sat on, and Rahel found
(p. 44)

By loving Velutha who is an Untouchable, she breaks the rules and stereotype

which rooted and becomes the tradition in her society. As a Touchable, Ammu is

prohibited to touch Velutha. However, she loves him, and even makes love to

him. It is of course makes her family angry and and tries to separate her and

Velutha.
 31

Ammu is a woman in her thirty who raises up her twin children by herself.

She is a woman who is very disappointed with her childhood, and considers it as a

trauma. She becomes a person who cannot easily believe someone else especially

those who have power, because people who have power usually only take

advantages from the powerless one without thinking about the effect.

As she grew older, Ammu learned with this cold, calculating cruelty. She
developed a lofty sense of injustice and the mulish, reckless streak that
develops in Someone Small who has been bullied all their lives by
Someone Big (p. 181)

From the quotation above, it seems that violence has created trauma to

Ammu. This experience influences her life. Therefore, when she becomes a single

parent, she loves her children very much and she is being over protective toward

them. She educates them that not all human beings are good. That they should be

careful to live their life.

Ammu loved her children (of course), but their wide-eyed vulnerability
and their willingness to love people who didn’t really love them
exasperated her and sometimes made her want to hurt them- just as an
education, a protection (p. 42)

Ammu is kind of a really good mother. She always takes care of her children

Rahel and Estha, and tries to be fair to them. Ammu is always there if her children

need her, and tries to handle both, Rahel and Estha. She does anything to protect

her children. She can give everything for her children’s happiness, although she

has to sacrifice herself.

When she comes back to Ayemenem she finds that people, especially her

family despise her. Eventhough she never shows her pain, she sometimes cannot

stand of it. She finds something that can relieve her from the pain that she gets.
 32

This condition made Ammu seeks someone whom she thinks to be equal to her

and loves her no matter what she did in the past. She finds Velutha, her friend

when she was a child who comes from the lowest position. By loving Velutha she

can be herself without pretending to be someone else.

2. Rahel

Rahel is Ammu’s daughter and Estha’s twin sister. Although they are

twins, but Rahel and Estha do not look much like each other, it is because they

came from two different eggs. According to the doctor who has helped their birth,

they came from two different eggs, so they are just the same with other ordinary

siblings.

Physically, Rahel is a little bit skinny with her brown eyes. Her new teeth

are waiting inside the gum. Rahel’s hair is bounded on top of her head like a

fountain. On her hair, she wears a Love-in-Tokyo- a rubber band. As a child, she is

a typical of fashionable child because she wears a rubber band which is very

popular in Kerala at that time.

After her parents’ divorce Rahel lives with her mother’s family. She lives

in a conservative Syrian family who still obey the caste system. In the Kochamma

family, she lives under the oppression of the upper caste. Actually, she and her

mother are high caste people, the Touchable, but because of her mother’s mistake

in the past, she has to undergo the unfair treatment from her family and the

society around them. Although she is Ammu’s daughter, she does not know about

what her mother did in the past. Because she lives with less affection from her
 33

family, she grows to be a broken home child, Rahel really wants to have a mother

and a father as a normal family. She wants people to see her like a child who

comes from an ordinary normal family. It is seen from her reaction when their car

got stuck in the middle of demonstration with Ammu, Chacko, Estha and Baby

Kochamma. A man suddenly opened the car’s door and said that she had to ask

her father to buy an air conditioner so she could not feel hot anymore in the car.

She only smiled to the man for assuming Chacko as her father.

Then, unkindly, “Ask your daddy to buy you an Air Condition!” and he
hooted with delight at his own wit and timing. Rahel smiled back at him,
pleased to have Chacko mistaken for her father. Like a normal family (p.
76)

Rahel has a deep wish that she has Ammu and Baba to be beside her, although she

is also happy with her condition now. She can accept all that happened to her as a

gift. She has Ammu, as a single mother who also acts and has role as a father and

a mother.

Rahel grows up to be a girl who lacks of love and affection from her

family. She has to live her own life. “In matters related to the raising of Rahel,

Chacko and Mammachi tried, but they couldn’t. They provided the care (foods,

clothes, fees), but withdrew the concern (p. 17).” Her family can give anything

she wanted, but they cannot give their love to her. Especially when her mother

died, she lost control from her parents. Nobody gives her the best advice regarding

to life experience.

As stated before, Rahel grows up to be a girl who lacks of love and

affection from her family. Rahel grew up without an education that parents should

give to their children. “Without anybody to arrange a marriage for her. Without
 34

anybody who would pay her a dowry and therefore without an obligatory husband

looming on her horizon (p. 18)”. She has to manage her marriage alone without

the help of her family member. Nobody helps her because she is half Hindu and

broken home child.

Rahel is also a trouble maker girl. She does anything to get any attention

from her surroundings. Everybody in her environment underestimates her because

she is a daughter whose mother a rebel who breaks the ancient taboo of caste

system which rooted in the society. The condition becomes worse when Ammu

died, she moves from one school to another school. It happens because her family

does not give her any affection. She gets everything she wants; money, cloth, but

she did not get love.

Rahel drifted from school to school. She spent her holidays in Ayemenem,
largely ignored by Chacko and Mammachi (grown soft with sorrow,
slumped in their bereavement like a pair of drunks in toddy bar) and
largely ignoring Baby Kochamma.

She always makes trouble in her new environment and consequently, she is

expelled from one school to other schools. She does all troubles in order to get any

attention from her surroundings. She struggles in order to gain a better life and be

free of others’ unfair treatments.

When Rahel is eleven years old, she is blacklisted from her school because

she is caught decorating the headmistress’ door with little flowers. Regarding to

her fault, she got punishment to find the word ‘depravity’ in the dictionary. Six

months after her punishment, she was expelled from her school.

She was expelled from her school because of three expulsions. First, for

hitting the senior girls’ breasts, the second for smoking, the third for setting fire to
 35

her Hausemistress’ false-hair bun, which under duress, Rahel confessed for having

stolen. For those Rahel’s weird behavior, the teachers noted that she was an

extremely polite child and she had no friends.

The other students, particularly the boys, were intimidated by Rahel’s

waywardness and almost fierce lack of ambition. They left her alone. She
was never invited to their nice homes or noisy parties. Even her professors
were a little wary of her-her bizzare, impractical building plans, presented
on cheap brown paper, her indifference to their passionate critiques (p. 19)

From above quotation, every student assumes Rahel as a weird girl. She is a

typical of a free and independent girl who does not want to be ruled by others. She

just does whatever she wants and does not care with what people think about her.

She remains free to make her own enquiries.

3. Estha

Estha’s full name is Esthappen Yako. As previously mentioned, Estha and

Rahel are two-egg twins who born from separate but simultaneously fertilized

eggs. He is older than Rahel by eighteen minutes. Although they are twins but

their physical appearances are totally different. Physically, he is skinny. He

always wears his beige and pointy shoes. His favorite singer is Elvis Presley, thus

he always wears clothes and shoes in Elvis Presley style. Even he has Elvis puff

on his hair, his Elvis’ favorite song is “Party”. Estha has slanting sleepy eyes and

his new teeth are still uneven on the ends. Ammu says that Estha’s eyes are

inherited from Baba’s eyes.

Estha is a quiet child because of a traumatic experience due to a sexual

harassment in Abilash Talkies Cinema by a man who sells an orange drink and
 36

lemon drink called the Orangedrink Lemondrink man. He is sexually harassed by

a man in the hall of the cinema. He was forced to masturbate the man who sold

orange drinks and lemon drinks. He did not know what to do at that time and he

just could not do anything.

“Now if you’ll kindly hold this for me,” the Orangedrink Lemondrink
Man said, handing Estha his penis through his soft white muslin dhoti,
“I’ll get you your drink. Orange? Lemon?”
Estha held it because he had to (p. 98)

After that sexual abuse, he gets psychological trauma. He cannot tell everything to

his mother. He prefers to keep his traumatic experience by himself. After he

experienced the tragedy, Estha never spoke to anyone. By his traumatic

experience he becomes an introverted man who keeps everything to himself only.

Estha had always been a quiet child, so no one could pinpoint with any
degree of accuracy exactly when (the year, if not the month or day) he had
stop talking. Stopped talking altogether, that is. The fact is that there
wasn’t an “exactly when”. It had been a gradual winding down and
closing shop. A barely noticeable quietening. As though he had simply run
out of conversation and had nothing left to say. Yet Estha’s silence was
never awkward. Never intrusive. Never noisy. It wasn’t an accusing,
protesting silence as much as a sort of estivation, a dormancy, the
psychological equivalentof what lungfish do to get themselves through the
dry season, except that in Estha’s case the dry season looked as though it
would last forever (p. 12)

The memory of his childhood when he was at Abilash Talkies Cinema

always bothers him. He always remembers the Orangedrink Lemondrink man. He

always remembers what the Orangedrink Lemondrink has done to him. It causes

psychological trauma that makes him to be an introverted man.

One the quietness arrived, it stayed and spread in Estha. It reached out of
his head and enfolded him in its swampy arms. It rocked him to the
rhythm of an ancient, fetal heartbeat. It sent its stealthy, suckered tentacles
inching along the insides of his skull, hoovering the knolls and dells of his
memory, dislodging old sentences, whisking them off the tip of his tongue.
 37

It stripped his thoughts of the words that described them and left them
pared and naked. Unspeakable. Numb. And to an observer therefore,
perhaps barely there. Slowly, over the years, Estha withdrew from the
world. He grew accustomed to the uneasy octopus that lived inside him
and squirted its inky tranquilizer on his past (p. 13)

From the quotation above, it seems that the feeling of worthless, expelled, dirty

and lonely have killed Estha’s consciousness. Estha becomes an introverted man

because he does not have any friend who cares to him. Even his family rejects him

because he is a half-Hindu child from a divorced-marriage. His only friend is

Khubchand, his dog, which left him because of its death. Later, after Khubchand

died, he becomes such an insane man who walks all over the village. Nobody can

stop his willing to walk over the village. It is the only way that he can escape from

his loneliness and his worthless feeling, besides that he is already oppressed by

her mother’s family who treat him badly as if he is not a member of the

Kochamma family. He cannot imagine if his family knows about his sexual abuse

in his childhood, his family must throw him away from their house. It seems that

he cannot receive what his family did toward him only because he is a half-Hindu

and broken home child that everyone realizes that nobody wants to have the fate

that he has.

B. The main characters’ conflicts

As already mentioned in the theoretical review, conflict can include

external and internal conflict. By considering this classification, the writer would

like to describe the conflicts that the main characters have. The way the characters

face the conflict will give readers interesting circumstances. It will give suspense
 38

toward readers which make the story more interesting. The conflicts that are

undergone by the main characters can be seen below.

1. Ammu’s Conflicts

As the main character, Ammu has external and internal conflicts. The

external conflict that she has to undergo is the conflict with her family and the

society around her. Whereas, Ammu’s internal conflict is related to her love

toward Velutha. Ammu was born as a Touchable Brahmin caste and she grows in

a conservative Syrian Christian family. As a high caste woman, she has to marry a

man from her caste. If a member of the caste does not obey the rules, moreover if

he or she married people from the lower caste or different religion, he or she

would be expelled of the caste.

The main cause of Ammu’s conflict is because she marries a Hindu man.

In Indian caste system, an intercommunity marriage is not allowed, therefore she

is expelled from her family. She has to face some conflicts with her family and

the society around her. According to Indian family, to be an Untouchable is a

shame, and he or she has not to be respected. It happens to Ammu. Ammu, as a

Touchable woman from higher caste community, has to be expelled from her

family. Ammu already broke the honor of her family. It makes her family, the

Kochammas, tries to prevent Ammu not to make the same mistake in choosing the

right man.

Being an Untouchable woman does not make Ammu to be a desperate

woman. Once again, she breaks the Love Laws of the caste system. She dares to
 39

take the risk to love Velutha, an Untouchable Hindu man. Her love to Velutha

causes a bigger conflict that is opposed by her family.

Ammu who is a Syrian Christian, loves Velutha who has a lower caste or

an Untouchable man. She suffers from her prohibited love affair to Velutha.

Ammu and Velutha have a secret love affair in which they search for love and

emotional security. Actually, she really loves Velutha but to save herself and her

children, she pretends that she does not love him. She does it because her family

do not let her doing the same mistake in her life, marrying another wrong man.

Ammu has made a mistake when she married a Bengali Hindu man and even

worse she divorced. The Kochamma family protects her not to do the same

mistake.

Ammu as the main character of the novel also has conflicts with other

characters. The conflicts focus on Ammu’s conflict with her father, Pappachi. In

her childhood, she often got bad treatment by her father because he practices the

patriarchal system in her house. Her father, Pappachi, often hits her and her

mother without any reason. They cannot do anything because Pappachi is a strict

and powerful father who cannot accept any refusal. It is seen in the quotation

below:

But alone with his wife and children he turned into a monstrous,
suspiciously bully, with a streak of vicious cunning. They were beaten,
humiliated and then made to suffer the envy of friends and relations for
having such a wonderful husband and father (p. 171-172).

From the quotation above, it is seen that Pappachi is a strict and powerful father.

As a powerful father sometimes he shows his rude behaviour in front of

Mammachi and Ammu, and when there are many people in his house he acts as a
 40

nice father who loves his family. Sometimes he hits Ammu and Mammachi

without any reason. It makes Ammu suffers emotionally and physically.

Ammu is a subordinated woman because of her sex. A traditional

patriarchal society places little importance on woman’s education. Ammu’s

father, Pappachi, does not like the idea of spending money on his daughter’s

education.

Ammu finished her schooling in the same year that her father retired from
his job in Delhi and moved to Ayemenem. Pappachi insisted that a college
education was an unnecessary expense for a girl, so Ammu had no choice
but leave Delhi and moved with them. There was very little for a young
girl to do in Ayemenem other than to wait for marriage proposals while
she helped her mother with the housework (p. 38).

Ammu accepts the very first proposal after five days of courtship. In fact, Ammu

has no choice other than accepting whatever life offers her.

Unfortunately, Ammu’s husband turns to be a drunkard man who is unable

to support the family. Here, she has to endure conflict with her husband. Her

husband tries to force Ammu to please her husband’s boss in the tea plantation

because his boss admires Ammu’s beauty. Ammu’s husband, Baba, afraid if he

does not do what his boss’ wants, he would be fired. Ammu refuses her husband

order to please his boss, and the marriage ends in a divorce. As a divorcee, she

has to face disdain by her family and her society.

Within the first few months of her return to her parents’ home, Ammu
quickly learned to recognize and despise the ugly face of sympathy. Old
female relations with incipient beards and several wobbling chins made
overnight trips to Ayemenem to commiserate with her about her divorce.
They squeezed her knee and gloated. She fought off to slap them (p. 43)

According to Ammu’s family, a divorcee has no right to pursue for happiness in

life. The only course open to her is to spend a static life. Any attempt on her part
 41

to see life independently threatens the existing order. She is at conflict with the

society at large because she married a man from outside her community and she is

a divorcee too. It is seen at Sophie Mol’s funeral: “Though Ammu, estha and

Rahel were allowed to attend the funeral, they were made to stand separately, not

with the rest of the family. Nobody would look at them (p. 7).” The quotation

explains that the society cannot accept what Ammu did in her past related with

her intercommunity marriage. By doing so, Ammu is condemned as a woman

who breaks the caste system and she is proper to get any kind of rejection and bad

treatment from people around her. As stated above, Ammu and her twin children,

Rahel and Estha are allowed to attend the funeral ceremony but they have to stand

separately from her family. Nobody would respect them because they already

broke the honor of the Kochamma’s name.

Ammu sometimes also has conflicts with her children when they deal with

Velutha’s presence. She does not like if her children have a close relationship

with Velutha although he is the man she loves. She does not want her lovely

children get in a trouble. There is Sophie Mol’s accidental-death when Rahel,

Estha and Sophie Mol row a boat in the river. In fact, the boat belongs to Velutha,

the man who brings joy and sorrow to the twins at the same time. After the

accident, Rahel and Estha come back to Ayemenem, Ammu is locked because she

is caught having a love affair with Velutha. She does not know that her children

become the suspects of Sophie Mol’s death. Ammu is really angry when she

knows that her children go away to the History House by using the boat without

her permission.
 42

“Because of you!” Ammu screamed. “If it wasn’t for you I wouldn’t be

here! None of this would have happened! I wouldn’t be here! I would have
been free! I should have dumped you in an orphanage the day when you
were born! You’re the millstones round my neck1” (p. 239-240)

She is angry with what her children have done. She tries so hard to protect her

children from any trouble, but she feels that she failed. She realizes all trouble that

happened to her just because of her “sin” in the past. She breaks the law by

marrying a Hindu man whose caste is lower. Thus, her children only inherited her

fault and become the victims of the injustice.

When the death of Sophie Mol and the affair between Ammu and Velutha

are known, Baby Kochamma, thinks that Ammu’s affair with Velutha is an

embarrassing story to the Kochamma family. She cannot imagine what would

happen if the society knows that Ammu, a Syrian Christian has an affair with an

Untouchable man. To save the honor of the family name, Baby Kochamma tries

to manipulate the story. She tells the police who arrests Velutha that Velutha is

the man who kidnapped the twins and causes Sophie Mol’s death, and the one

who tries to rape Ammu. Velutha is sacrificed because she thinks that Velutha is

only an Untouchable man who is proper to be the victim. There is no difference

whether Velutha is alive or dead.

Ammu is deeply sad with the death of Velutha in jail. She feels that it

happens because of her. She comes to the police station in order to explain what

truly happens, but it is too late, Velutha has already dead in the jail, tortured by

the Touchable police boots.

 43

The conflict between the Touchable and the Untouchable is also seen

when Ammu and her children come to the jail in order to visit Velutha. The police

inspector, Thomas Mathew does a sexual harassment toward Ammu.

He stared at Ammu’s breasts as he spoke. He said the police knew all they
needed to know and that the Kottayam Police didn’t take statements from
veshyas or their illegitimate children. Ammu said she’d see about that.
Inspector Thomas Mathew came around his desk and approached Ammu
with his baton. “If I were you,” he said, “I’d go home quietly.” Then he
tapped her breasts with his baton. Gently. Tap tap. As though he was
choosing mangoes from a basket. Pointing out the ones that he wanted
packed and delivered. Inspector Thomas Mathew seemed to know whom
he could pick on and whom he couldn’t. Policemen have that instinct (p.
9-10).

By condemning Ammu as a veshyas or a bitch, inspector Thomas Mathew has

humiliated her. Only because Ammu has an affair with an Untouchable man,

Inspector Thomas Mathew who is a Touchable considers that a woman who

behaves like Ammu can be treated whatever man likes, therefore he can do

anything he likes to her. A woman who is considered from the lower caste is not

respected by the upper caste in Indian caste system. It also gives a description

about the differences of social class which create a gap among the society. This

gap creates injustice for the people of the lower caste.

Ammu also experiences internal conflict. Secretly Ammu falls in love

with Velutha. She does not show her love in front of her family, including her

twin children. She knows that her children have a close relationship with Velutha,

but her family does not like the closeness. She realizes that her love would

become a trouble to her and her children. Here, Ammu’s internal conflict arises.

From the bottom of her heart, she really loves Velutha and she feels secure if her

children play with him. In the contrary, she has to pretend that she does not love
 44

Velutha in front of her family and her children. She has to do this because she

realizes that it would be a trouble if she confesses about her love.

“I’ve told you before,” she said. “I don’t want you going to his house. It
will only cause a trouble.” What trouble, she didn’t say. She didn’t know.
Somehow, by not mentioning his name, she knew that she had drawn him
into the tousled intimacy of that blue cross- stitch afternoon and the song
from the tangerine transistor. By not mentioning his name, she sensed that
a pact had been forged between her Dream and the World (p.210)

From the quotation above we can see that Ammu does not want her

children have a close relationship with Velutha because she knows that her family

would be angry if they know about the relationship. Ammu does not want her

children get in a trouble. What she wants is to take the risks to what she had

chosen by her own, not give trouble to her children. She does not want her

children become the victim of her mistake by loving a wrong man anymore

because if her family know that she and her children have a close relationship

with Velutha, the Kochamma family would treat the children badly or even worse

than before.

2. Rahel’s Conflicts

Rahel experiences many conflicts which come to her life and she has to face

them wisely. She experiences conflicts with her family, especially with her

mother’s family, the Kochammas. All conflicts that she has to face actually because

of her mother, Ammu, had married a Bengali Hindu man that makes her expelled

from the family. The condition becomes worse because Ammu gets divorce with

her husband. It is the primary cause which makes the twins to be in such trouble.
 45

As a half-Hindu child from a divorced marriage, Rahel grows as a girl who lacks

of attention and affection. She is considered as worthless and troublemaker girl.

This condition becomes worse since the tragedy of Sophie Mol’s death separates

her from her lovely mother Ammu and her twin brother Estha.

It seems that Rahel has a big problem which she does not understand.

There is something wrong about her, but she does not know what it is. It is seen

through the following expression: “Rahel is not sure what she suffers from, but

occasionally she practices sad faces, and sighing in the mirror (p. 59)”. Her

grandmother, Mammachi, says that her grandchildren suffer from are worse than

inbreeding, because their parents are divorced. She says so because in Indian caste

system, what Ammu did in her past is very shameful. It is a terrible condition to

the family because they have a member who breaks the caste system. Actually, by

saying that Mammachi somehow oppresses Rahel and it impacts to Rahel’s

internal conflict without realizing it. Rahel thinks that it is unfair because having

parents who are divorced and come from the different social class is not her wish.

Actually, she wants a complete family which consisted of mother, father, she and

her brother. But she cannot do anything. It is a fate that she has to live with

mother, her brother and the Kochammas family who ignores her.

In a car which goes to Cochin, Ammu, Rahel, Estha, Chacko and Baby

Kochamma meet a march. Inside the Plymouth car, Rahel can see her Untouchable

beloved friend Velutha marches. She calls him, but Velutha pretends that he does

not see Rahel. Ammu is angry with Rahel’s behavior, because she does not want
 46

her daughter has a close relationship with Velutha that can cause her daughter get

in trouble.

Inside the car Ammu whirled around, and her eyes were angry. She
slapped at Rahel’s calves which were the only part of her left in the car to
slap.
“Behave yourself!” Ammu said.
Baby Kochamma pulled Rahel down, and she landed on the seat with a
surprised thump. She thought there’d been a misunderstanding.
It was Velutha!” she explained with a smile. “And he had a flag!”
The flag had seemed to her a most impressive piece of equipment.
The right thing for a friend to have.
“You’re stupid silly girl!” Ammu said.
Her sudden, fierce anger pinned Rahel against the car seat. Why was
puzzled. Why was Ammu so angry? About what?
“But it was him!” Rahel said.
“Shut up!” Ammu said (p. 68-69)

Rahel still does not understand what is going on. She just wants to say that she sees

Velutha in the march, but Ammu is really angry. It seems that there is something

wrong with what she says, there is something hidden in Ammu’s anger. Ammu

does not tell the truth that she does not want her daughter to be trapped in a

complicated trouble. Ammu wants to save her daughter from the injustice social

system that separates them from the people that they love.

The Kochammas, especially Baby Kochamma, really obey the caste

tradition. They do not let their family member has a close relationship with the

Untouchable people. It is seen when she sees Rahel plays around with Velutha, the

Untouchable man.

“And please stop being so over-familiar with that man!” Baby Kochamma
said to Rahel.
“Over-familiar?” Mammachi said. “Who is it, Chacko? Who’s being over-
familiar?”
“Rahel,” Baby Kochamma said.
“Over-familiar with who?”
“With whom,” Chacko corrected his mother.
 47

“Alright, with whom is she over-familiar?” Mammachi asked.

“Your Beloved Velutha- whom else?” Baby Kochamma said, and to
Chacko, “Ask him where he was yesterday. Let’s bell the cat once and for
all.” (p. 175)

From the quotation above it is seen that no one let Rahel to play with her beloved

friend, Velutha. She really loves Velutha as a friend who can make many toys to

her. She feels comfortable if she is with Velutha, but because of his Untouchability

she cannot play with him

3. Estha’s Conflicts

Estha’s biggest conflict is his internal conflict within himself about the

sexual harassment that happened in his childhood as well as his feeling of being

ignored by the society. He is ignored by the society because he is Ammu’s son

whom already made a fatal mistake in her past, thus Estha is only inherited her

“sin’. Actually, he does not know anything about her mother’s past life but the

society already condemned him as a son of Untouchable woman who should not be

respected.

The sexual harassment makes Estha feels dirty and that memory is secretly

buried by himself in the bottom of his heart. He is afraid if he tells Ammu about the

tragedy, Ammu would love him less than before. The tragedy changes him to be an

introverted man who gradually never spoke to anyone.

Driving past the inky sea, Estha put his head out of the window. He could
taste the hot, salt breeze on his mouth. He could feel it lift his hair. He
knew that if Ammu found out about what he had done with the
Orangedrink Lemondrink Man, she’d love him less as well. Very much
less. He felt the shaming churning heaving turning sickness in his stomach
(p. 107-108)
 48

He often remembers the tragedy. It is rooted in his mind, therefore it makes him as

a silent man who never speak to other people, including Rahel, his sister. It seems

that he has the octopus in his head, and only the octopus’ ink which can erase the

terrible memory of The Orangedrink Lemondrink man.

Once the quietness arrived, it stayed and spread in Estha. It reached out of
his head and enfolded him in its swampy arms. It rocked him to the rhythm
of an ancient, fetal heartbeat. It sent its stealthy, suckered tentacles inching
along the insides of his skull, hovering the knolls and dells of his memory,
dislodging old sentences, whisking them off the tip of his tongue. It stripped
his thoughts of the words that described them and left them pared and
naked. Unspeakable. Numb. And to an observer therefore, perhaps barely
there. Slowly, over the years, Estha withdrew from the world. He grew
accustomed to the uneasy octopus that lived inside him and squirted its inky
tranquilizer on his past. Gradually the reason for his silence was hidden
away, entombed somewhere deep in the soothing folds of the fact of it (p.
13)

From the quotation above, it is seen that the feeling of worthless, dirty and lonely

has killed Estha’s consciousness. He becomes an introverted man. His quietness

comes from the dirty feeling after what The Orangedrink Lemondrink man did to

him.

Estha really remembers The Orangedrink Lemondrink man. It just comes

out in his thought. He feels that his life is insecure because The Orangedrink

Lemondrink man can come to his house anytime, unpredictable. “The Orangedrink

Lemondrink man could walk in any minute. Catch a Cochin-Kottayam bus and be

there. And Ammu would offer him a cup of tea. Or Pineapple Squash perhaps.

With ice. Yellow in a glass (p. 185)”. He really feels insecure because if The

Orangedrink Lemondrink man comes to Ayemenem, and he can do anything to

Estha. He cannot manage his feeling that The Orangedrink Lemondrink can find
 49

him wherever he hides. He realizes that the insecure condition and he thinks that he

has to be ready for the probability that The Orangedrink Lemondrink man can find

him anytime and anywhere, and he can do anything like he did in Abilash Talkies

Cinema.

Estha is a silent boy who talks to others if he needs. He does not answer or

give opinions to people who talk to him. When he grows older, he feels rejected by

his family especially by his father-Baba who re-returns him to Ayemenem because

he has to immigrate to Australia and he cannot allow Estha to go with him. In

Ayemenem house he does not get any attention or good treatment from his family.

He is ignored by the society. His aunt, Baby Kochamma hates him and always tries

to find a way to make him unhappy to live in Ayemenem house. It is because of the

rules of caste system that the family cannot give anything for half-Hindu and a

child from a divorced marriage.

Baby Kochamma dislikes the twins, for she considered them doomed,
fatherless waifs. Worse still, they were Half-Hindu Hybrids whom no self-
respecting Syrian Christian would ever marry (p. 44)
……………………………………………………………………………….
As for a divorced daughter-according to Baby Kochamma, she had no
position anywhere at all. And as for a divorced daughter from a love
marriage, well, words could not describe Baby’s Kochamma outrage. As for
a divorced daughter from intercommunity love marriage-Baby Kochamma
chose to remain quiveringly silent on the subject.
The twins were too young to understand all this, so Baby Kochamma
grudged them their moments of high happiness when a dragonfly they’d
caught lifted a small stone off their palms with its legs, or when they had
permission to bathe the pigs, or they found an egg hot from a hen. But most
of all, she grudged them the comfort they drew from each other. She
expected from them some token unhappiness. At the very least (p. 44-45).

Baby Kochamma as the defender of the caste system assumes that a child from a

broken family also cannot inherit the family’s inheritance and do not have any
 50

position at all in the family. She condemns the twins as people who break the honor

of the family as well as their mother.

The condition becomes worse when his half-English cousin Sophie Mol

arrives at Ayemenem house and Estha is accused as the main cause of Sophie

Mol’s accidental-death. Therefore, Maragreth Kochamma, Sophie Mol’s mother

is angry and slaps him and separates him from her lovely mother Ammu and his

twin sister Rahel. The feeling of the outcast from his family and being unwanted

makes him change his behaviour becomes an introverted man.

Estha’s ignorance and quietness is the result of mental pressure of

unhappy childhood and life. He cannot resist it anymore and become so much

suffer so that he becomes quiet and stop to talk. His disappointment and suffering

has forced him to stop talking to anybody.

C. Roy’s criticisms toward the caste system in the novel

Arundhati Roy in her first novel The God of Small Things tries to describe

the real portrait of Indian society’s life and to criticize the social system which is

applied in India. Roy describes a vivid portrayal life of Indian society in her first

novel, The God of Small Things. She wants to criticize the rigid caste system

which roots in Indian society, through the main characters and their conflicts in

the novel. Roy gives a perfect description of her criticism toward the caste system

by presenting a realistic depiction of the life of the Untouchables. The conflicts

that are undergone by the main characters are indirectly Roy’s criticisms toward

the caste system in India. By revealing the conflicts, the readers can understand
 51

that the main characters’ conflicts are a reflection of caste system in India which

Roy wants to criticize. The main characters in the novel have to face conflicts

which are happened to them. The conflicts are a reflection of caste system that

rooted in the society. Roy presents how the people of lower caste are treated in

Indian society by their social status, how their life is limited and ruled by the other

upper caste that causes injustice, and how Untouchability has made their life

miserable as the social punishment.

In Indian caste system, people are treated based on their by their social

status. To be an Untouchable is a punishment for being bad in former life because

they believed the reincarnation. It can be seen clearly in the following quotation:

“The Untouchable people are only allowed to go to the separate school

which is built for them, and they are made to have separate churches, with
separate services and separate priests from the Untouchable” (Hutton,
1963:49).

The Untouchable also have to put their hands over their mouth when they speak

because their mouth can cause air pollution. Through this real description, Roy

emphasizes that there are traditional and historical reasons behind those strict

rules as it had been stated in the history of the Untouchables related to Hindu

belief. Being a Touchable is something prestigious and at the same time as a

Touchable who has an upper caste position, a person can do anything that he or

she wants, especially toward the lower caste, the Untouchables. As stated before,

to be a Touchable people in India is prestigious, therefore they keep their position

in the society carefully. They should behave like an aristocrat and obey all the

unprinted rules. Having a relationship with the Untouchables is forbidden,

 52

moreover having a love affair with the lower caste is something that has to be

avoided. If they break the rules, they will be expelled from their caste and family.

Being separated by caste system has caused the lower caste people’s life is

limited and ruled by the upper caste, for example they cannot have any

relationship with lower caste people, and as its effect causes injustice. This

happens to Ammu and her twin children, Rahel and Estha. As a Syrian Christian,

Ammu was born as a Brahmin caste, the Touchable, but she has married a Hindu

man and then divorced. Therefore, she does not have any position at all at her

house and her children become the victim of her fault because her innocent

children have to inherit her “sin” so that they live in misery. Her family ignore her

and her children. They assume that Ammu already breaks the honor of her family.

“Though Ammu, Estha and Rahel were allowed to attend the funeral, they
were made to stand separately, not with the rest of the family. Nobody
would look at them (p. 7)”.

The family members feel disgusted when they meet Ammu, they wonder

how a Touchable woman can do something that embarrass herself. They do not

understand with what Ammu thinks about love and life. Ammu only follows her

feeling, not her logic in their mind and eager to sacrifice her honor as a Touchable

woman.

The social status of Ammu and her twin children, Rahel and Estha are also

criticized by Roy. Through their characteristics, Roy presents that the main

characters’ characteristics are meant to nudge the caste system, because the main

characters seem that they do not satisfy and comfortable with their life which are

ruled by the upper caste. Ammu’s characters as an oppressed but once a rebel
 53

woman are meant to criticize the caste system. Roy describes that Ammu’s

sufferring is one of the impact of practicing caste system. Here, Ammu tries to

break the rules because she unsatisfied in this condition which oppresses her and

her children. Rahel’s and Estha’s characters are also meant to criticize the caste

system. In the Kochamma family, Rahel lives under the oppression of the upper

caste because of her mother’s mistake in the past, she has to undergo the unfair

treatment from her family and the society around them. Thus, Rahel grows up to

be a girl who lacks of love and affection from her family. She has to live her own

life. Besides, Roy also criticizes the caste system through Estha’s characters as an

introverted man. As the victim of her mother’s sin in the past, he is oppressed by

her mother’s family who treat him badly as if he is not a member of the

Kochamma family. Even his family rejects him because he is a half-Hindu child

from a divorced-marriage. Through Rahel’s and Estha’s characteristics, Roy

wants to criticize that Rahel and Estha are only the victims of the caste system.

The caste system places a little importance on children from a divorced-marriage

and considered them as dooms.

Indian caste system differentiates whether Touchable or Untouchable

which creates injustice. Roy criticizes the Policemen in Indian who make injustice

treatment toward Ammu. She describes that as Policemen, they do not do their

duty well because they still differentiate which caste he or she belongs. They still

differentiate whether they are Touchable or Untouchable. It happens to Ammu

when she goes to the Kottayam Police Office. Ammu goes to the Police Office in

order to see Velutha. She also gets a sexual harassment from the Inspector
 54

Thomas Matthew there. The Inspector, who is a Touchable man, seems can do

anything toward woman who has the lower caste than him. It is because woman

who is considered from the lower caste is not respected by the upper caste in

Indian caste system. Therefore he can do anything to Ammu as a justification,

although in the Police office there is a board said:

Politeness.
Obedience.
Loyalty.
Intelligence.
Courtesy.
Efficiency (p. 10)

According to Roy, Policemen should behave like the slogan said

at the Police Office, but in her novel she presents the contrary. Here, Roy wants to

criticize that POLICE is abbreviation from; Politeness, Obedience, Loyalty,

Intelligence, Courtesy and Efficiency, but as policemen, who should be polite to

anyone who needs help, do not do their duty as well. Even though they are a

Touchable person, they should not behave like what they do to Ammu. It seems

like a justification for them because they have a higher caste and they have a job

which is respected by the society. Thus, they can do anything toward people who

are not respected by the upper caste in Indian caste system.

Ammu is described as a worse transgressor towards the society rules,

toward the Love Laws which are rooted in the caste system. The caste system

limits Ammu to find her true lover. First, she marries a Bengali Hindu man while

she is a Syrian Christian. It is also forbidden although the man is in upper caste

because it is an intercommunity marriage. The marriage is rejected by her family

and relatives, moreover Ammu ends her intercommunity marriage in a divorce.

 55

Her divorce makes Ammu being scorned by her family. A married daughter in

Indian family has no position in her family, moreover for a divorced daughter.

She has nothing in her family.

As the result of being Untouchable, they became the victim of the system

and got social punishment. For the Indian society, marrying a person from the

lower caste is prohibited, thus when Ammu marries a Hindu man, she is expelled

from the society and her children do not have any position at all. It is worse

because the twins are half-Hindu and have divorced parents. As the consequence,

the twins, Rahel and Estha are treated like they are not the member of the family.

In the contrary, the Kochamma family is very kind to Sophie Mol, the twins’ half-

English cousin. Rahel and Estha cannot have any relationship with their lovely

friend, an Untouchable Velutha. The Kochammas, especially Baby Kochamma,

really obey the caste tradition. They do not let their family member has a close

relationship with the Untouchable people. It is seen when she sees Rahel plays

around with Velutha, the Untouchable man.

“And please stop being so over-familiar with that man!” Baby Kochamma
said to Rahel.
“Over-familiar?” Mammachi said. “Who is it, Chacko? Who’s being over-
familiar?”
“Rahel,” Baby Kochamma said.
“Over-familiar with who?”
“With whom,” Chacko corrected his mother.
“Alright, with whom is she over-familiar?” Mammachi asked.
“Your Beloved Velutha- whom else?” Baby Kochamma said, and to
Chacko, “Ask him where he was yesterday. Let’s bell the cat once and for
all.” (p. 175)

From the quotation above it is seen that no one let Rahel to play with her beloved

friend, Velutha. She feels comfortable if she is with Velutha, but because of his
 56

Untouchability she cannot play with him. The caste system limits people’s life who

live inside it and they should have friends who come from the same caste.

The social punishemnt also makes Ammu suffers. She suffers when she

decides to come back to the Ayemenem house. She has to go back to her family,

unwelcome with a heavy burden. Nobody in her family cares of her burdens and

her fear of the uncertain future for herself and her twins. She is poor economically

and spiritually. This condition lets her into an affair with a wrong man again, an

Untouchable man named Velutha whom she knew since she was a little girl. She

breaks the society laws even worse than her intercommunity marriage. She and

Velutha break the ancient law that is kept for generations.

Perhaps Ammu, Estha and she were the worst transgressors. But it wasn’t
just them. It was the others too. They all broke the rules. They all crossed
into forbidden territory. They all tampered with the laws that lay down
who should be loved and how. And how much. The laws that make
grandmother grandmother, uncles uncles, mothers mothers, cousins
cousins, jam jam, jelly jelly (p. 31)

All conflicts that happen to the main characters are meant to criticize the Indian

society to think once again the rigid existence of caste system and its effect

toward people inside it. Roy criticizes the rigid caste system that is applied in

Indian society through the depiction of the real life of the Untouchables and the

tragic conflicts among them. Roy emphasizes that the existence of caste system

only limits someone’s freedom to decide his or her life.

Roy portrays the affair between Ammu, a Touchable Syrian Christian

woman with Velutha, an Untouchable man, in order to give a description of her

criticism toward the caste system. Roy basically wants to give criticism toward

the caste system. She exposes the affair clearly, even she describes how they
 57

made love, though it is forbidden in India. It can be seen that her criticism is

absolutely meant to nudge the caste system directly through her realistic portrayal

of Ammu and Velutha who cannot reach their dreams. They are limited by the

caste rules which straighten up the members inside the caste only to marry with

people in the same caste level. Through her depiction of Ammu’s and Velutha’s

affair, Roy wants to convince that love is something universal, pure and honest.

Love can come suddenly to anyone, it does not see to whom it will be given. Love

can come to anyone without seeing the social status in the society. She also draws

that love makes everything that is placed and kept in order for generations in a

social system can be broken in a short time.

Centuries telescoped into one evanescent moment. History was wrong-

footed, caught of guard sloughed off like an old snakeskin. Its marks, its
scars, its wound from old wars and the walking-backwards days all fell
away (p. 167).

Love that is honest and pure has to be sacrificed to the existence of caste system.

Roy describes this condition through the tragic death of Ammu and Velutha.

Ammu died in a hotel room with nobody is beside her, and Velutha is indirectly

killed by the Kottayam police for what he does not do. Roy presents this action as

the Touchables’ (the powerful one) arbitrary deed toward the Untouchables (the

weak one).

Through The God of Small Things, Roy wants to criticize the caste system

that is not appropriate anymore in India in this era though it is rooted hereditary.

By reading Roy’s novel we can see that Roy’s dream is a better life for Indian

people, where there is no separation between the Touchable or Untouchable

person. People are free to get their proper education regardless of the social status.
 58

Roy might write The God of Small Things in attempt to trigger Indian people’s

view towards caste system that causes inequalities and injustice regarding to their

life condition.
 59

CHAPTER V

CONCLUSIONS

After having a long discussion in analyzing the main characters’

characteristics, the conflicts which are undergone by the main characters and

Roy’s criticisms toward the caste system in the novel, now the writer is going to

draw the conclusion. In order to specify the answer of the formulated problems

based on analysis, the conclusion is divided into three sections.

The first section is the characteristics of Ammu, Rahel and Estha as the

main characters. By applying the theory of character and characterization by

Murphy, the writer could conclude that Ammu, Rahel and Estha are the main

characters of the novel. Their characteristics could be seen from her speech,

reactions and thought. In the novel, Ammu is described as a woman who breaks

the caste system which applies in Indian society. The second character, Ammu’s

daughter, Rahel can be described as a trouble maker and broken home child who

lacks of love and affection from her family. Her characteristics are influenced by

her surroundings that oppress and underestimate her because of her mother’s fault

in the past. The third main character, Estha, Ammu’s son, can be described as a

introverted man. Estha is a quiet child because of a traumatic experience due to a

sexual harassment in his childhood.

Since Ammu was a child, she has an unpleasant childhood because of the

patriarchal system practiced in her family. One of its assumption is a girl does not

need any higher education. Therefore, when she decides to marry a Hindu man,

59
 60

she breaks the caste system and she is condemned as a rebel because an

intercommunity marriage is not allowed. The rebellion that Ammu made is seen

from her divorce with her husband because her husband seems to underestimate

and regard her merely as his stuff by “selling” her to his boss in order to get safety

job position. Ammu realizes that she is not equally treated and she is being

underestimated by her husband. Therefore, she prefers to break the rules although

in her society to get divorce is prohibited and shameful.

The second main character, Rahel, is Ammu’s daughter and Estha’s twin

sister. She is described as a girl who lacks of love and affection from her family.

Everybody in her environment underestimates her because she is a daughter

whose mother is a rebel who breaks the ancient taboo of caste system which

rooted in the society. The condition becomes worse when Ammu died. She moves

from one school to another school. It happens because her family does not give

her any affection. Rahel is also described as a trouble maker girl. She always

makes trouble in her new environment and consequently, she is expelled from one

school to other schools. She does all troubles in order to get any attention from her

surroundings. She struggles in order to gain a better life and be free of others’

unfair treatments.

The third main character, Estha, is a quiet child because of a traumatic

experience due to a sexual harassment in Abilash Talkies Cinema by a man who

sells an orange drink and lemon drink called the Orangedrink Lemondrink man.

After that sexual abuse, he gets psychological trauma. He cannot tell everything to

his mother. He prefers to keep his traumatic experience by himself. After he

 61

experiences the tragedy, Estha never speaks to anyone. By his traumatic

experience he becomes an introverted man who keeps everything to himself only.

The second section is the conflicts that are undergone by the main

characters. Here, the main characters have to face the conflicts, both external and

internal conflicts which are emerged because of Ammu’s mistake in her past by

marrying a Hindu man and the conflicts become more complicated because

Ammu falls in love with a wrong man again, Velutha, an Untouchable man.

Ammu’s twin children; Rahel and Estha are considered as the victims of Ammu’s

fault, they are only inherited her fault.

Ammu experiences external and internal conflicts. The external conflict

that she has to undergo is the conflict with her family and the society around her.

Whereas, Ammu’s internal conflict is about her love toward Velutha. The main

conflict that Ammu endures is because she marries a Hindu man. In Indian caste

system, an intercommunity marriage is not allowed. She is expelled from her

family. She has to face some conflicts with her family and the society around her.

According to Indian family, to be an Untouchable is a shame and he or she should

not be respected. It happens to Ammu. Ammu as a Touchable woman from higher

caste community has to be expelled from her family. Ammu already broke the

honor of her family. It makes her family, the Kochammas, tries to protect Ammu

not doing a mistake anymore due to her matter of choosing the right man. Being

an Untouchable woman does not make Ammu to be a desperate woman. Once

again, she breaks the Love Laws of the caste system. She dares to take the risk to
 62

love Velutha, an Untouchable Hidu man. Her love to Velutha causes the bigger

conflict that is opposed by her family.

Rahel also experiences many conflicts which come to her life and she has to

face them wisely. She experiences conflicts with her environment, especially with

her mother’s family, the Kochammas. All conflicts that she has to face actually

come because of her mother, Ammu, has married a Bengali Hindu man that makes

her expelled from the family. The condition becomes worse because Ammu gets

divorce with her husband. It is the causal problem which makes the twins come in

such trouble that they do not understand. Rahel’s grandmother, Mammachi, says

that Rahel’s problem is worse than inbreeding because in Indian caste system, what

Ammu did in her past is very shameful. It is a terrible condition to the family

because they have a member who breaks the caste system. Actually, by saying that

Mammachi somehow oppresses Rahel and it impacts to Rahel’s internal conflict

without realizing it.

Estha’s biggest conflict is his internal conflict to himself about his sexual

harassment in his childhood. He is ignored by the society because he is Ammu’s

son that already made a fatal mistake in her past, thus Estha is only inherited her

fault. Actually, he does not know anything about her mother’s past life but the

society already condemned him as a son of Untouchable woman who should not

be respected. The condition becomes worse when his half-English cousin Sophie

Mol arrives at Ayemenem house. Estha is accused as the main cause of Sophie

Mol’s accidental-death. The feeling of the outcast from his family and being

unwanted makes him change his behaviour becomes an introverted man. Estha’s
 63

ignorance and quietness are the result of mental pressure of unhappy childhood

and life. He cannot resist it anymore and become so much suffer so that he

becomes quiet and stop to talk. His disappointment and suffering has forced him

to stop talking to anybody.

The third section is Roy’s criticisms toward the caste system. Through the

description of the main characters and their conflicts in the novel, Roy gives a

description of her criticism toward the caste system by presenting a realistic

depiction of the life of the Untouchables. She presents how they are treated in

Indian society, how their life is limited and ruled by the other upper caste and how

Untouchability has made their life miserable. Roy presents how the people of

lower caste are treated in Indian society by their social status, how their life is

limited and ruled by the other upper caste that causes injustice, and how

Untouchability has made their life miserable as the social punishment.

In Indian caste system, people are treated by their by their social status. To

be an Untouchable is a punishment for being bad in former life, and in the

contrary being a Touchable is something prestigious and at the same time as a

Touchable who has an upper caste position, he or she can do anything that he or

she wants, especially toward the lower caste, the Untouchables. Having a

relationship with the Untouchables is forbidden, moreover having a love affair

with the lower caste is something that has to be avoided because if they do, they

would be expelled from his or her caste and family. This happens to Ammu and

her twin children, Rahel and Estha. As a Syrian Christian, Ammu was born as a

Brahmin caste, the Touchable, but she had married a Hindu man and then
 64

divorced. Therefore, she has to experience the injustice treatment and their

children only inherited her “sin”. As the result of being expelled from their caste,

they became the victim of the system and got social punishment.

Arundhati Roy in her first novel The God of Small Things tries to describe

the real portrait of Indian society’s life and to criticize the caste system which is

applied in India. Roy describes a portrayal life of Indian society in her first novel,

The God of Small Things. The conflicts that are undergone by the main characters

are indirectly Roy’s criticisms toward the caste system in India. By revealing the

conflicts, the readers can understand that the main characters’ conflicts are a

reflection of caste system in India which Roy wants to criticize. The main

characters in the novel have to face conflicts which are happened to them. Roy

presents how the people of lower caste are treated in Indian society by their social

status, how life is limited and ruled by the other upper caste that causes injustice,

and how Untouchability has made their life miserable as the social punishment.
 65

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Baldick, Chris. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms. New York: Oxford
University Press, 1990.

Barnet, Sylvan, William Burto, and William E. Cain. Literature for Composition:
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Beaty, Jerome and J. Paul hunter. New Worlds of Literature. New York: W.W. Norton
Company, Inc., 1987.

Brooks, Purser and Warren. An Approach to Literature. New york: Appleton-

Centiury-Crefts, Inc., 1952.

Danziger, Marlies K. and W. Stacy Jackson. An Introduction to Literary Criticism.

Boston: D.C. Hearth and Company, 1961.

Grenville, Kate. The Writing Book: A Workbook for Fiction Writers. St. Leonards:
Allen and Unwin, 1998.

Guerin, L. Wilfred. A Handbook of critical Approaches to Literature. New york:

Harper and row Publisher, Inc., 1979.

Haryani, Eny. “The Influence of Socio-Cultural Aspect on Gender” Undergraduate

thesis. Yogyakarta: Sanata Dharma University, 2006.

Holman, C. Hugh and William Harmon. A Handbook to Literature, 5th edition. New
York: Macmillan Publishing company, 1986.

Hutton, J.H. Caste in India Its Nature, Functionand Origins. London: Oxford
University Press, 1963.

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Lamb, Beatrice Pitney. India A World of Transition. London: Frederick A. Preager,

1963.
Langland, Elizabeth. Society in the Novel. Chapel Hill: The University of North
Carolina Press, 1984.

Milligan, Ian. The Novel in English: An Introduction. Michigan: gall Research

Company, 1983.

Murphy, M.J. Understanding unseens: An introduction to English Novel for Oversees

Student. London: George Allen and Unwin, Ltd., 1972.

Perrine, Laurence. Literature: Structure, Sound and Sense, 2nd edition. New york:
Harcourt Brace and Jovanovich, 1974.

Pooley, Robert C. Exploring Life through Literature. USA: Scott, Foresman and
Company, 1964.

Redman, Crosby E. A Secondbook of Plays. New York: The Macmillan Company,

1964.

Rohrberger, Mary and Samuel H. Woods, Jr. Reading and Writing about Literature.
New york; Random house, Inc., 1971.

Roy, Arundhati. The God of Small Things. New York: Random House, 1997.
Stanton, Robert. An Introduction to Fiction. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Witson,
Inc., 1965.

Yudiarini, Ida. “A Study of the Influence of childhood traumatic Experience of

Fraternal Twins Rahel” Undergraduate Thesis. Yogyakarta: Sanata Dharma
University, 2004.

Wellek, Rene and Austin Warren. Theory of Literature. New York: Harcourt Brace
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Woodcock, George. Kerala, a Portrait of the Malabar Coast. London: Faber and
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http://website.lineone.net/~jon.simmons/roy/tgost.htm (3 March 2007)

http://indiastar.com/roy.hlm (3 March 2007)

http://www.eb.com:180cgibin.html ( 8 March 2007)

http://www.emory.edu/ENGLISH/Bahri/caste.html (8 March 2007)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syrian_Christian_of_Kerala.htm (15 December 2008)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Untouchable_(social_system) (15 December 2008)

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APPENDIX

Summary

The God of Small Things

Ammu was a Syrian Christian woman from a Touchable family. She grew

in a Syrian Christian family who really obeyed the rigid caste system. Since she

was a child, she already got bad treatment from her father, Pappachi. Ammu did

not continue her study to the college because according to Pappachi it was

unnecessary expense for a girl to have a higher education. Then Ammu went to

Calcutta. There she met her future husband, a Bengali Hindu man. She decided to

get married with him without any consideration and discussion with her family. It

was a beginning point for her miserable life. Her husband, Baba worked in a tea

plantation in Assam. In her marriage she got twin children named Rahel and

Estha. The marriage took only a short time because later Ammu realized that Baba

was a rude person and what she felt to him was not love. Finally she had divorced

because her husband tried to sell her to his English boss. Ammu could not accept

any reason from her husband. She was really angry to her husband and decided to

divorce.

After her divorce, she went back to her family in Ayemenem house with

her twin children. She really realized that her family did not like her coming

home. In their opinion, Ammu already broke the caste system and broke the honor

of her family by marrying a Hindu man. Thus, she was expelled from her family

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and her caste. She got unfair treatment from her family and her society. The

condition became worse because her daughter, Rahel grew as a troublemaker girl.

She moved from one school to other schools. According to her friends, Rahel was

a weird girl who did not know how to behave as a girl. Ammu’s son, Estha was a

silent boy because he had a traumatic experience in his childhood. He got sexual

harassment in Abilash Talkies cinema when he and her family would go to watch

a movie. He had to make oral sex for the seller of Orange and Lemon juice. He

could not do anything except with what The Orangedrink Lemondrink man said.

Estha grew as a child who was sick mentally because of that sexual harassment in

his childhood. He felt dirty because of the trauma.

When Ammu went back to her house, she met Velutha, an Untouchable

man who worked in her mother’s pickles factory as a carpenter. Actually, they

were friend when they were a child, but they could not play like ordinary children

because of the social system which prohibited them to have any relationship.

Now, they met again in a different condition, Ammu was a divorcee. Ammu was

secretly fallen in love with him but she could not show their love because the

society would separate them. They had to meet in the darkness around the

riverbank. Because of the caste system which limited someone’s freedom, she

broke the law. Actually, Ammu realized with her action but she took the risks.

Once again she had a relationship with a wrong man, an Untouchable.

One night, they were caught made love around the riverbank. Her family

was really angry to her, she broke the caste system again. She made her family

name became bad. The Kochamma family could not forgive what Ammu had
 70

done. The family separated Ammu and Velutha. The problem about Ammu and

Velutha was not finish yet, there was a new problem that was made by the twins.

Secretly, the twins found a boat in the riverbank. They used it to go to the History

house. One night, they would go to the History house again, but Sophie Mol, the

twins’ half-English cousin wanted to join them. They already refused her and

Sophie mol begged to them. Finally, they went to the History house. Before they

arrived in the History house, their boat was sunk. Unfortunately, Sophie Mol

could not swim. She was dead by accidental boat sinking.

In the morning, the twins came back to the house without Sophie Mol. The

family looked for Sophie Mol. Then, they finally found her in an unwanted

condition. Baby Kochamma accused Estha as the murder of Sophie Mol. Then,

she got an idea. She said to the twins that their mother would be jailed because

they were not mature enough to be jailed. She offered an agreement. They had to

obey what Baby Kochamma said unless their mother would be jailed. All they

needed was to say “Yes”, therefore their mother would be save. She said to the

Kottayam Policeman that the suspect was Velutha. He was accused for

kidnapping the twins and as a man who tried to rape Ammu. She said so because

it would make her family name being saved from any scorned from the society.

Finally, Velutha an innocent man had to be sacrificed by the Touchable boots in

the Police Office. Velutha was sacrificed in order to obey the caste system which

was applied in India.