The main character’s efforts against patriarchy practices in Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things

ENGLISH:

India is one of the countries that has highest rate patriarchy practices. Men predominate in India society, hence women are a victim of male domination in respective sphere of life, especially in economic life, over decision making, on utilization of women’s earning and body. The novel of Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things has successfully pointed out the factual representation of patriarchy in India. However, those patriarchy practices described may also represent the patriarchy system in other countries, such as Indonesia. Due to those reasons, conducting this study is important because it gives an awareness of patriarchy system that are practiced in society; of how to deal with those patriarchy practices; and of how to behave women and men properly in all aspects of society.

This study aims (1) to describe the patriarchy practices that occur in the novel The God of Small Things according to Walby’s six structures of patriarchy theory and (2) to discover how the main characters’ efforts against patriarchy practices in the novel The God of Small Things. This analysis uses radical feminist literary criticism as the research design of the study. The theory used to analyse the topic is six structures of patriarchy by Walby. The data source of this research is taken from Arundhati Roy’s novel The God of Small Things. The writer collects the data, classifies them according to the major problem of study, and interprets the data based on six structures of patriarchy from Walby. The data are analysed using literary criticism and Walby’s six patriarchy structures.

The result of this study shows that novel Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things describes all the structures. There are patriarchal relations in household, patriarchal relations in paid work, patriarchal relations in state, male violence, patriarchal relations in sexuality, and patriarchal relations in culture. The patriarchy structures that occur the most patriarchy practices is patriarchal relations in household. Furthermore, the writer also discovers how the main characters’ efforts against the patriarchy practices; (1) Estha by breaking the stereotypes about how man should be; (2) Ammu by showing that she was not subordinated, by fighting her husband back because of violence done to her, and by leaving her husband and going to her hometown in Ayamenem; (3) Rahel by breaking the stereotypes about how woman should be.

INDONESIA:

India merupakan salah satu negara yang memiliki tingkat praktik patriarki tertinggi. Di India, lelaki mendominasi, sedangkan wanita merupakan korban dari dominasi pria dalam setiap lingkup kehidupan, terutama kehidupan ekonomi, pengambilan keputusan, pemanfaatan pendapatan dan tubuh wanita. Novel The God of Small Things karya Arundhati Roy telah berhasil menunjukkan representasi faktual sistem patriarki di India. Namun, praktik-praktik patriarki yang dideskripsikan juga memungkinkan mempresentasikan sistem patriarki di negara lain, seperti Indonesia. Oleh karena itu, penting untuk melakukan penelitian ini karena memberikan kesadaran terhadap sistem patriarki yang terpraktikan di masyarakat; terhadap bagaimana berurusan dengan praktik-praktik patriarki tersebut; terhadap bagaimana memperlakukan laki-laki dan perempuan sebagaimana mestinya di segala aspek masyakarat.

Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk (1) mendeskripsikan praktik-praktik patriarki yang muncul di dalam novel The God of Small Things sesuai dengan teori enam struktur patriarki milik Walby dan (2) untuk menemukan bagaimana usaha-usaha beberapa karakter utama melawan praktik patriarki di dalam novel The God of Small Things. Analisis ini menggunakan kritik sastra feminis radikal sebagai desain penelitian. Teori yang digunakan untuk menganalisa topik pembahasan adalah enam struktur patriarki milik Walby. Sumber data penelitian ini diambil dari novel milik Arundhati Roy yang berjudul The God of Small Things. Penulis mengumpulkan data, mengklasifikasikannya sesuai masalah utama penelitian, dan menginterpretasikan data berdasarkan enam struktur patriarki milik Walby. Data-data tersebut dianalisisa menggunakan kritik sastra feminis dan enam struktur patriarki milik Walby.

Hasil penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa novel The God of Small Things milik Arundhati Roy mendeskripsikan semua struktur patriarki. Ada hubungan patriarki di rumah tangga, hubungan patriarki di pekerjaan berbayar, hubungan patriarki di negara, kekerasan laki-laki, hubungan patriarki dalam seksualitas dan hubungan patriarki dalam kultur. Struktur patriarki yang paling banyak menunjukkan praktik patriarki adalah hubungan patriarki di rumah tangga. Selain itu, penulis juga menemukan bagaimana usaha beberapa karakter utama melawan praktik patriarki; (1) Estha dengan mematahkan stereotip tentang bagamaimana seharunsya menjadi laki-laki; (2) Ammu dengan menunjukkan dirinya tidak tersubordinasi, dengan melawan balik suaminya karena kekerasan, dan dengan meninggalkan suaminya dan pergi ke kampung halamannya di Ayamenem; (3) Rahel dengan mematahkan stereotip tentang bagaimana seharusnya menjadi perempuan.