Caste System in Indian Social Structure portrayed in Arundhati Roy’s the God of small things: Sociological Literary Criticism

ABSTRACT

This study investigates the caste system described in Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things. The objectives of this study are to find out the kinds and the impacts of caste system in Indian social structure described in the novel and to reveal how this novel reflects the real condition of India in twentieth century.

This study uses sociological literary criticism which emphasizes its analysis on the sociological context of the novel itself. The data are collected from the phenomena of caste system described in the novel The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy with social stratification theory of Max Weber.

The result of the study shows that there are two kinds of caste described in the novel, they are: Vaishyas and Paravan. These two castes are categorized as Touchables and Untouchables caste which based on the caste system; there must be many kinds of restriction between castes. The caste systems, undeniably, causes some impacts in Indian social structure. The Impacts is both positive and negative. The positive impacts of caste system as described in the novel are: division of labor and purity of lineage. And the negative are: exploitation of the weak, instrument of oppression, preferential treatment, and foreign domination. This study also reveals that the novel The God of Small Things reflects the real condition of the politics situation, caste system, religion, and family in Indian social structure in twentieth century.

Since the novel also shows a lot some evidences about the influence of colonialism phenomena, the writer suggest to the next researchers to conduct further research in post-colonialism theory and to use more various theories in order to get better understanding about the novel.