The Dynamics of Binary Oppositions in Arundhati Roy’s the God of Small Things

ABSTRACT

The binary opposition is a pair of opposites, thought by the Structuralists to powerfully form and organize human thought and culture. Some are commonsense, such as raw opposites cooked; however, the terms of the opposition, creating a hierarchy.

Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things is very interesting to be analyzed based on some considerations. First, that novel described the binary oppositions. The researcher identified and described The Dynamics of Binary Oppositions focused on the actions. Second, something happened in The God of Small Things are truly fact whether the actor and setting were changed. In this study, The God of Small Things showed the influence of colonial cultures (British and American), the symbolic “Small Things”, the tragic story of a Syrian Christian family from Aymenem in Kerala, Marxism in Kerala, the social inequalities about women and caste system. Third, The God of Small Things is a controversial novel.

This research is conducted based on statements of the problems. Identifying the binary oppositions of Indian societies reflected on that novel described the dynamics of binary oppositions in that novel and deconstructs the binary oppositions which happened in that novel. This research also designed as literary criticism. In literary criticism, the study related to definition, analogy and analysis of literary work. To analyze the object of study, the researcher uses deconstruction approach. The researcher applies this approach by observing the binary oppositions focused on the actions and connect it with deconstruction theory.

Finally, the results of this study are we can identify and deconstruct the binary oppositions that truly happened in real life. The result is the second binary opposition of these two binary oppositions is the good binary opposition, but the first binary opposition of these two binary oppositions is the bad binary opposition.