Ammu is really a hard worker and a responsible mother. She dies alone in a grimy room. She dies in Bharat Lodge in Alleppey. She dies there when she wants
to attend a job interviews as a secretary. She really works hard to find a job to earn enough money for her family until she dies Roy 161.
Through the speech and mannerism, it can be concluded that Ammu is a hard worker. She works hard to get a living for her children. As a hard worker, she
accepts any kind of job to earn money for her family.
B. The Struggles of Ammu for Equality
This section will discuss the portrayal of caste system in the novel, the reason why Ammu struggles for equality, and the struggles of Ammu to get the
equality.
1. The Portrayal of Caste System in the Novel
Caste system is identical with India. Caste system influences most of Indians’ daily life. According to Hutton 2, “caste system is almost endogamous,
but is further divided, as rule, into a number of smaller circles each of which is endogamous.”
There are some specific features of castes. The members of certain caste are forbidden to marry those who are not the members of the same caste. There
are also some restrictions in drinking and eating with a member of another caste, fixed occupation for many castes, some hierarchical gradation of castes and the
Brahmans have the highest position. Beside that, birth determines a person’s PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
caste. The transition from one caste to another is not possible. The whole caste system turns on the prestige of the Brahmans Hutton 49.
According to Hutton 2, there are about 3000 castes in India. Some are derived from tribal or racial elements, some are occupational: that originally by
nature are perhaps of guilds of artificers or craftsmen, some are territorial, some are religious, and so forth. In a caste system, people are divided into some classes
based on their occupation. Based on the occupation there are four classes, the Brahmans that consist of groups of some priests, the Kshatriyas that cosist of
rulers, nobles, and fighter, the Vaishyas that are people in general, ordinary householders, and the Sudra that are the servile classes drawn from the people of
the country. The people are not only divided into four classes but also into the
Touchables and the Untouchables. People inside the caste system belong to the Touchables and people outside the caste system belong to the Untouchables. This
system is strongly applied and are kept in India until now. In South India, there are two big castes. The castes are Right Hand and
Left Hand. There are eighteen castes of the Right Hand and nine castes of the Left Hand. The castes of the Left Hand are Beri Chetti, Vaniyan who yoke two
bullocks to their oil-press, Devanga weavers, Golla cowherds, Panchala carpenters, masons, goldsmiths, coppersmiths, and blacksmith, Chakkiliyan
leather-workers, Bedar, Palli, and Pallan cultivator and soldier. While the Right Hand consist of Balija, Banajiga, Komatitrading castes, Vaniyan who
yoke one bullock only, Chaliiyan, Seniyan weaving castes, Jannapan hemp PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
dresser, Kusavan potters, Mellakaran musician, Shanan toddy drawers, Ammbatan barbers, Vannan washermen, Idaiyan shepherds, Vellala,
Paraiyan, Mala, Holeya cultivating caste, Kurava, Odde, Irula, Vetdan, and Vettuvan mostly laborers Huttoon 67-68.
The caste system influences and rules the members. The caste system rules the members about their cloth, food, how they eat, to whom they have to get
married, education, and place for housing. The members should obey it. If they break it, they will be outcaste.
The Indians believe that the presence of woman during monthly period is also a pollution. A Kudumi woman in her monthly period must keep herself seven
feet away from anyone. She has to cover her mouth and nostrils with her hand, and ensure herself that her shadow falls on no one. A woman in her tabooed
period after childbirth, a man who lit a funeral pyre, or a person in a similar state of ceremonial impurity or taboo are the other pollutions for a Hindu caste. They
have to bathe and wash their clothes before eating or a purification ceremony Hutton 78.
Some believe that low castes should not be seen by the upper castes during the day. Their existence will pollute the upper caste. They have to work between
midnight and daybreak and are not allowed to come out during the day time. The upper castes believe that the sight of them will pollute them.
In this novel, it is clear that there is discrimination between the Touchables and the Untouchables. Mamachi, Ammu’s mother, tells Estha and Rahel that she
still remembers in her girlhood, the Paravans are expected to crawl backwards PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
with a broom to sweep their footprints so that a Brahman would not pollute himself by accidentally steeping into a Paravan’s footprints. At that time, the
Paravans like the other Untouchables are not allowed to walk on public roads, cover their upper bodies, and to carry umbrellas. When they speak, they have to
put their hands over their mouths in order to divert their polluted breath away from those they are addressing Roy 74.
As the Untouchables are considered as a pollutant, it is also applied in the Ayemenem house. Papachi, Ammu’s father, will not allow the Vellya Paapen
family who are the Untouchables to enter and touch what the upper caste uses and touches “Papachi would not allow Paravans into the house. They were not allowed
to touch anything that Touchables have touched. Caste Hindhus and Caste Christians Roy 73.” Mamachi also does the same thing to Velutha. She will
allow him to touch and enter the house only when she needs him to repair something. Velutha works in the factory because he is the one who knows well
about the machine. Mamachi thinks that it is a good step for a Paravan Roy 77. In this novel it is described that the Paravans think that by converting
themselves into Christian they will be free from caste system. They convert their religion into Christian and join the Anglican Church. They are known as Rice-
Christian. They have separated churches, separated services and separated priests. They also have a Paravan’s Bishop. After the India’s Independence Day, they
realize that they do not get any benefits from the Government such as job reservations or bank loan interest. It is because they are Christian and therefore
are casteless Roy 74. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
Because of their casteless, some of them think that Christians are the members of Brahmans. Twenty percent of Kerala are Syrian Christians, who
believe that they are descendants of the one hundred Brahmans who are converted to Christian by Saint Thomas the Apostle when he travels to east after the
Resurrection. For a Paravan, becoming a Christian will set them free from caste system Roy 66.
Hutton 2 says that joining to another religion does not destroy the caste system. The new religions like Jews, Moslem, and Christian have their own caste.
It seems it is a great escape for them who are pressed by the caste system, but in fact it brings them to the new caste system.
In the field of education, the system really bans the members to get the same opportunity. It is shown in this novel that when Mamachi asks Vellya
Paapen to send his son, Velutha, to the Untouchables school, Mamachi thinks that Velutha has the ability to be an engineer. Vellya Paapen is a Paravan. He is a
toddy taper. In this Untouchables school, Velutha learns how to be a carpenter. When he is in the age of sixteen, he finishes his high school and become an
accomplished carpenter. It is clear that the school and any public facilities are differentiated by the caste. “Mamachi persuaded Vellya Paapen to send him to the
Untouchables’ school that her father in law, Punnyan Kunju, has founded Roy 74-75.”
Beside arranging the places for education, the caste system also arranges the place for housing. The Untouchables must live apart from the Touchables. If
they live together in the same area, their existence of the Untouchables will PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
pollute the upper caste. In this novel, Vellya Paapen, who is a Paravan, lives in a small hut with his family. He lives near the Ayemenem house. The land where he
builds his house is given by Mamachi’s family. “Velutha, Vellya Paapen, and Kuttapen lived in a lateritte hut, downriver from the Ayemenem house Roy 78.”
From those descriptions, the caste system is something that deeply roots in India. It is obviously described in Roy’s The God of Small Things. Nothing will be
able to change the social law in the caste system.
2. The Causes of Ammu’s Struggles for Equality
