Social Stratification in India Reflected by the Conflicts Happen in Arundhati Roy’s Novel “The God of Small Things”

摘要

ABSTRACT SALSA MEIDHA AZHARITA. 2016. SOCIAL STRATIFICATION IN INDIA REFLECTED BY THE CONFLICTS HAPPEN IN ARUNDHATI ROY’S NOVEL THE GOD OF SMALL THINGS. Semarang: English Study Program, Faculty of Humanity,Dian Nuswantoro University. Advisor: Muhammad Rifqi S.S., M.Pd. Keywords: social stratification in India, research about The God of Small Things, Touchable and Untouchable people. The novel to be analyzed in this thesis is “The God of Small Things”. This novel was written by Arundhati Roy, an Indian author. It was first published in 1997. This novel won a Booker Prize Award in 1997. The God of Small Things is a novel which story about an example of social stratification which happens in Ayemenem, Kerala, India and some places around that place in India. The main characters in this novel are the twins (Rahel and Estha). They have a conflict dealing with social stratification in that place. The conflict has changed the traits of the main characters.There are four problems discussed in this thesis such as, general description of the main character, conflict, setting, and social stratification described in the novel.The researcher is using references from library and internet to support this thesis. The method that used to analyze this novel is descriptive qualitative method. Besides of that, the researcher used sociology approach. As the result of the study, the researcher found so many general description of the main character such as: twin, curious, imaginative, half-hindu hybrid, love Velutha and love their mother, Ammu. However, the traits of the main characters have changed after the conflict happened. The conflict happens between the twins, Baby Kochamma, Ammu, and Velutha toward the social stratification. In that place, there are a social stratification between Touchableas the Capitalist class and Untouchable people as the Working class. Kochamma family represent as the Capitalist class. Furthermore, Velutha represents as the Working class. There is discrimination and intimidation happened in the story. Based on this novel, the story takes place in Ayemenem, Kerala, India and some places around it. The setting of time, this story happens in two times, on 1969 and 1993. The setting of social was found in this novel is sad, middle high family, Anglophile family, hot and quiet.