THE SOCIAL STRATIFICATION OF THE INDIAN SOCIETY AS
REFLECTED THROUGH THE MAIN CHARACTERS IN
DESAI’S THE INHERITANCE OF LOSS
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the RequirementsFor the Degree ofSarjana Sastra In English Letters
By
Mauritius Kartono
064214075
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
YOGYAKARTA
2011
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
i
THE SOCIAL STRATIFICATION OF THE INDIAN SOCIETY AS
REFLECTED THROUGH THE MAIN CHARACTERS IN
DESAI’S THE INHERITANCE OF LOSS
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the RequirementsFor the Degree ofSarjana Sastra In English Letters
By
Mauritius Kartono
064214075
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
YOGYAKARTA
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
iv
Our Deepest Fear
By Marianne Williamson
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.
Your playing small does not serve the world.
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking
So that other people won't feel insecure around you.
We were all meant to shine, as children do.
It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine,
We unconsciously give other people permission to do the same
As we are liberated from our own fear,
Our presence automatically liberates others.
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v
This undergraduate thesis is dedicated to
My beloved father
My wonderful mother
My dearest sister and brothers: K’ Vera & Bang Hans,
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viii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Writing this thesis is a series of hard-work that is both energy and time
consuming. What it would be without the blessing from the Lord Jesus Christ. Also,
I have been helped and encouraged by people around me. In this very moment, I
would like to thank them for it.
My deepest gratitude goes to my family. I would like to thank my father and
my mother for everything they have given and for not giving up on me. I also thank
my sisters and my brothers:bang Hans, kak Vera, ka’e Rusdi, mbak Tiar, ase Peter for motivating me and for the prayer.
My deep gratitude goes to my advisor, Dewi Widyastuti, S.Pd., M.Hum., for
giving valuable corrections and advice on my thesis. I thank her for her patience and
understanding. My deep gratitude also goes to my co-advisor, Ni Luh Putu
Rosiandani, S.S., M.Hum. who has given her precious time to read and check on this
undergraduate thesis. I also would like to thank all English Letters lecturers for
teaching me for about four years. “I can no other answer to make, but thanks and
thanks.” (William Shakespeare). They all have inspired me to be all that I can be.
I thank all my friends: ’06 students (Al, Andry, Andre, Exel, Emil, Hasan,
Wahyu, Kiki, Dewi, Sita, Ira, Danas, Puput, Rere and for all the students of class C
and D), all 8A Uniteds (PaDe, Mas Marci, Mas Andrew, Ipul, bang Titi, Johan, Adit, Oby, Arie, and Atno), the X-Pio Jogjas (Aldo, Engkoz, Kelle, Rian, Entok, Tomi), the English Clubbers (ka’e Engki, Indi, Ani), to all my ase (Selis, Dion, and Yanto),
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for their endless support and for being my friend. They all had made my world so
colorful. My special gratitude goes to Natas for teaching me how to be myself and
helping me shaping my idealism. More than that, Natas helped me to build up my self
confidence.
I would like to thank all BEC’s teachers for giving me a chance to work with
such great persons as they are. They taught me so many things which I would not get
in class. The last but not least, I thank all my students in BEC and SDK Sang Timur
for teaching me how to be patient and how to be a good teacher. May God bless them
all!!
x
1. Theory of Character and Characterization ……… 9
2. Society and Culture, and Literature ……… 15
3. Theory of Setting ……… 18
4. Theory of Social Stratification ……… 19
5. Review of Social Stratification of Indian Society ……… 23
C. Theoretical Framework ……… 26 A. The Description of the Main Characters ……… 33
B. The Description of Indian Society in the Novel through the Setting and the Characters……….. 46
C. The Reflection of the Social Stratification through the Main Characters and the Social Setting……….. 56
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xii ABSTRACT
MAURITIUS KARTONO. The Social Stratification of the Indian Society as Reflected through the Main Characters in Desai’s The Inheritance of Loss. Yogyakarta: Department of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma University, 2011.
Literature is a product of society. As a product of society, it reflects the social condition of the society where the work of literature is set. This study discusses a novel entitled The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai. As a product of society, the novel represents the social stratification of Indian society. It is represented through the main characters.
The study has three objectives. The first is to identify the main characters. The second is to identify the Indian society described in the novel. The last is to find out the representation of Indian social stratification reflected to the main characters.
The writer applies the library research method to collect all data supporting the research. Socio-cultural-historical approach is applied to answer the problems stated. Besides, some theories such as theory of character, theory of characterization, theory of setting, theory of social stratification, and review of Indian society are applied to guide the analysis.
The result of the analysis points out that the main characters reflect the Indian social stratification through their characteristic and also their way of life. The Indian society is stratified in some ways: by power which is determined by education, wealth, and education, by caste system, and by ethnical stratification. The society is stratified into three tiers: upper class, middle class, and lower class. Caste system stratified the society of India into four main classes. They are the Brahmins, the Khsatriyas, the Vaisyas, and the Sudras. The last is the ethnical stratification. The people of India come from so many ethnics. Some of them are Bengalis, Nepalese, Pakistani, and Chinese. The writer figures out that the Bengals are considered higher than the other ethnics because they are considered as smart people, educated, and so forth. On the contrary, the lowest is the Nepalese for they tend to use their muscle more than their brain.
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xiii ABSTRAK
MAURITIUS KARTONO. The Social Stratification of the Indian Society as Reflected through the Main Characters in Desai’s The Inheritance of Loss. Yogyakarta: Department of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma University, 2011.
Karya sastra merupakan produk masyarakat. Karya sastra merupakan produk masyarakat. Sebagai sebuah produk masyarakat, karya sastra merefleksikan kondisi sosial tempat karya sastra tersebut dibuat. Studi ini membahas sebuah novel berjudul The Inheritance of Loss karangan Kiran Desai. Sebagai sebuah produk masyarakat, novel ini merefleksikan stratifikasi sosial masyarakat India melalui tokoh-tokoh utama.
Studi ini memiliki tiga tujuan. Pertama adalah untuk mengidentifikasi tokoh utama dalam novel tersebut. Tujuan kedua adalah untuk mengidentifikasi masyarakat India seperti yang digambarkan di dalam novel tesebut. Tujuan yang terakhir adalah untuk menemukan stratifikasi sosial masyarakat India yang direpresentasikan melalui tokoh-tokoh utama.
Penulis mengaplikasikan metode studi pustaka untuk mengumpulkan data yang mendukung penelitian ini. Pendekatan socio-cultural-historical dipakai untuk menjawab masalah-masalah yang ditetapkan. Selain itu, beberapa teori seperti teori tokoh, teori penokohan, teori latar kejadian, teori stratifikasi sosial, dan tinjauan umum masyarakat India diaplikasikan untuk membimbing analisis.
1 CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. Background of Study
Literature as a work of art is a product of human intelligence. The author
gathers facts, culture, setting to create “new world” in a work of literature which
amuses the readers. But, the question is what do the people read the works of
literature for? Why do they want to spend their time to read let say novel, poems,
etc.? There are various reasons, for example to kill time, to enjoy fanciful visions,
to be amused, to learn about alien ways of feelings, and to learn about human
itself. In short, people can get many interesting things in reading it. People can
get both knowledge and aesthetic experiences.
Not only as a source of knowledge and pleasure, but literature also
conveys idea, truth, and even factual event. Literature is considered as a reflection
of reality. It is a vital record of what people have seen, what they experienced of
it, what they have thought and felt about those aspects of life itself which have the
most immediate and enduring interest for all of us (the reader) (Hudson, 1958:10).
It is thus fundamentally an expression of life through the medium of language.
Since literature is considered as a reflection of reality or the truth of life, people
can investigate the truth (of life) behind the text and the aim of it.
Literature is also a product of society. It is developed along with the
development of the society in which it is produced. Wellek and Warren support
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that literature is an expression of society and is determined by or dependent on its
social setting, social change and development (1962: 96).
As a product of society, it reflects the condition of the society where the
author lives or the origin of the authors. It can be social, politics, ideology,
economical problem, or religious condition, depends on the concern or the
ideology of the writer. As a part of a certain society, the authors feel that it is
necessary for them to investigate the social milieu in which it necessary reflects.
No one of course can deny their assertions: first, that literature is not created in a
vacuum, and secondly, that literature embodies ideas significant to the culture that
produced it (Rohrberger and Woods, 1971: 8).
Often, a literary work is used as a tool or device by an author to criticize
the conditions that happened around him, and of course depends on their ideology
or depends on what they are fighting for. We cannot deny that literary works are
records of values, thoughts, problems, and conflicts in society because an author is
the member of society itself. In his or her work, he or she conveys the daily life or
their experience on certain social, political, economical, cultural issues, or
historical movement.
In making a good story, the society becomes an important background.
The society gives an important effect in the composition. As Langland (1984: 5 –
6) in Society and the Novel says that the condition in the real world can be applied in the pattern of art. It means that the real condition or the society can be a good
3
The real condition in our life can become an inspiration of the author to
produce a literary work. In the novel the author also uses the real condition as his
or her inspiration in producing a literary art. Based on The New Encyclopedia Britannica it is said that novel is a literary work. It is a genre of fiction, fiction may be define as the art craft of contriving, through the written words,
representations of human life that instruct or divert or both (Hutchin, 1986: 276).
As one of the best writers in the twentieth, Desai pleases her readers
through one of her masterpieces, The Inheritance of Loss. The plots, the characters, the setting, give a certain pleasure to the readers. So many praises
come up from the reader or even for the literary critics after reading it. Desai also
touches so many issues throughout the book, such as the issue of globalization,
multiculturalism, post colonialism, inequality, romance, social stratification, etc.
It is quite different from her first novel, which only provides the issue of third
world country. Ann Harleman, on Globe Correspondent said that The Inheritance of Loss is rich of descriptions of people, places, weather, seasons, and the social condition in India (http://www.boston.com/ae/books/articles/2006/01/04/).
The society where the author lives will influence the content of his or her
works. Desai, as a part of Indian society and also as an author, was influenced by
social condition around her at the time in creating the background of the Novel.
The Inheritance of Loss, set in India in the 1980s, reflects the life of Indian society in the 1980s or after the period of the British colonization. It becomes the basic
idea of Desai’s novel The Inheritance of Loss. Besides, the 1980s is the period when India was in the cusp of modernization and globalization.
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
As a developing country, India was faced so many problems such as
economic, social, and politic, etc. In this thesis, the writer will focus on the social
problems in India, especially on its social stratification.
India is a hierarchical society. Within the Indian culture, whether in the
north or the south, Hindu or Muslim, urban or village, virtually all things, people,
and groups of people are ranked according to various qualities. Although India is
a political democracy, in daily life there is little advocacy of or adherence to
nations of equality.
Indian society is stratified in many ways. In general, the society is
stratified by caste system which divides the society into four groups, namely
Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaisyas, and the Sudras. But, Indian society is also divided
by the rules of descents, rules of marriage, ritual, occupation, ideas about purity
and pollution, or by various combinations of these criteria of differentiation (Sills,
1972: 24). Those social stratifications affect the social’s life. The relationship
between an individual and the others, and even the duty and the rights of the
people are also differentiated based on what caste someone belongs to. Say for
example, Brahmins, the priests and the teachers. They are considered as the right hand of God and educated. So, they are in the highest level of the society.
However, the Sudras are the people who do the menial jobs. Therefore, they(the Sudras) are the lowest group in the society. As the lowest group, they are
prohibited to enter the palace of the higher class.
Those situations and the portrayal of the Indian society are obviously and
5
through how the main characters interact and through their role in “the society” in
the novel. In this thesis, the writer tries to enhance the idea how the society is
stratified.
B. Problem Formulation
The writer formulates three problems in analyzing the novel. This means
to limit the scope of the analysis.
1. How are the main characters described in the novel?
2. How is the Indian society in the novel described through the setting and the
main characters?
3. How do the main characters and the description of the Indian society reflect
the Indian social stratification?
C. Objectives of the Study
There are three objectives of study based on the problems formulated in
the previous part. The first is to reveal the characteristics of the main characters
in The Inheritance of Loss. Then, this study is also aimed to find how the Indian society is described in the novel through the setting and the main characters. The
last one is to find how the main characters and the description of the society
reflect the Indian social stratification. The main characters in The Inheritance of Loss are the Judge, Sai, Gyan, and the Cook. The main characters live in the same situation, the same society but they belong to different social classes or ranks. It
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represents the social stratification of Indian society. Besides, their relationship
also represents the social stratification in Indian society.
D. Definition of Terms
In order to make a better understanding and to avoid misunderstanding of
terms, they need to be defined.
1. Indian Society
In The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (Patwel, 1996: 58), Indian means relating to India or the East Indies or to their peoples,
language, or cultures. Thus, Indian is a native of India in the East Indies. Here, in
my thesis, Indian Society is related to the society of India in the East Indies.
2. Social Stratification
Social stratification is a social concept that refers to the fact that both
individuals and groups of individuals are conceived of as constituting higher and
lower differentiated strata, or classes, in terms of some generalized characteristic
7 CHAPTER II
THEORETICAL REVIEW
In this chapter, the writer will explore some reviews in order to support the
analysis. This chapter consists of the review of related studies, review of related
theories and the review of Indian society’s social stratification. The last part is the
theoretical framework.
A. Review of Related Studies
Kiran Desai was born in India in 1971. She is the daughter of Anita Desai,
who is also an author. At the age of fourteen years, she and her family moved to
England. She was educated in India, England, and the United States. She has
written two novels, her first novel is Hullabalo in the Guava Orchard (1998) and
her second novel is The Inheritance of Loss (2006). In her two novels, she tries to
evoke the problems of the third world country, in this context India. She also tries
to enhance the changing of India as the result of British colonization. Winning the
Betty Trask Award in 1998 and 2006 Man Booker Prize proves that Desai is a
successful writer and makes her as the youngest writer who wins those coveted
prizes (http:www.bookbrowse.com/biographies/index.cfm?author_number=229).
Kiran Desai also makes hard-hitting attack on the corrupt political system
in India which is reflected in her two novels, Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard
and The Inheritance of Loss. Krishna Singh, in her article Aravind Adiga’s The
White Tiger: The Voice of Underclass-A Postcolonial Dialectics wrote that Desai
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describes insurgency rampant in the whole country for separates (Singh, 1999:
103). She curtly blames the policy makers for this. The novel also gives the
detailed accounts of the Indian Society; rural as well as urban and its various
facets, such as poverty, illiteracy, unemployment, caste and culture conflict,
superstition, dowry practice, economic disparity, corrupt education system.
In some parts of the novel, migration becomes the major theme. In general,
the common aim of migration has been to improve one’s future prospects through
education and work. But, after decolonization, many people from the Third World
and former colonized countries migrated to the West in order to secure a better
future for themselves and their families back home. From the industrialized
countries’ point of view, the immigrants have helped out in increasing demand of
labor. However, the multicultural societies of today have also been a challenge.
Prejudice and intolerance, especially in connection with differences in race and
ethnicity, have been demanding and problematic. Due to variation in cultural and
religious background, gender roles have proven difficult in relation to western
ideals and other cultures. Finally, the question of class has been signified – both
respect of professional skills and social status in the country of origin, but also
regarding how immigrants settle and integrate into a new country
(http://www.boloji.com/perspective/223.htm).
According to Whale, Desai also pictures the condition of India especially
Nepal in the cusp of globalization. It illustrates the security afforded by love,
home and tradition and the disturbance to identity that occurs when they are
9
All the articles reviewed above talk about the issues related to the social
condition in India around the 1980s. Here, the writer just focuses on the
description of the Indian society in general portrayed in the novel specifically on
Indian society’s social stratification which reflected through the novel and the
setting of the novel. Until now, India is one of the countries that occupy a very
unique socialstratification.
B. Review of Related Theory
1. Character and Characterization
a. Character
Hearing the word “character”, two kinds of interpretation arises in our
mind. Firstly, people may think of the person who exists in the story physically,
and secondly, people may think about the characterization of the people.
In real life, our sense of character naturally varies with our power of our
perception and understanding. Harvey (2002: 30) says what human being seen in
others is only what we are able to see and this ability then form for other part of
our own character. In other words, human being can find their own
characterization by how they judge or value anyone else. This ability is used by
the authors to create a fictional character.
Authors put the facts of people around them and through their imagination
creating a fictional character. For example, love, death, sleep, dream, etc as what
real person have in the real world. It makes the novel or other works of literature
seems livelier. The character in a work of literature is usually human being. As
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Forster in his book, Aspects of the Novel (1927: 46) said that the actors in a story
are usually human. That is why a character can be mentioned as people. Although,
in some stories, the characters are animals, the author still uses the quality of
human being as the characteristics of the characters (animals).
The question then is whether the people in the real world and in a created
world in a work literature are similar or not. The answer is of course not. There is
a bound to be a difference. If the character in a novel is exactly like a person in a
real world, let’s say Queen Victoria, and the novel, all of it that the character
touches, becomes a memoir. A memoir is history, which is based on evidence
(Forster, 1927: 44 - 45). In the other way, a novel is based on evidence + or – x,
the unknown quantity being the temperament of the novelist, and the unknown
quantity always modifies the effect of the evidence, and sometimes transforms it
entirely.
In the literary context, character and characterization takes a very
important role. Andrew Bennett and Nicholas Royle, in their book An
Introduction to Literature, Criticism, and Theory, stated that character is the life
of literature: they are the object of our curiosity and fascination, affection and
dislike, admiration and condemnation (2004: 60). Indeed, through the power of
imagination, through the sympathy and antipathy, the characters can become part
of how we conceive ourselves, a part of who we are. Besides, character created
by the writer can be considered as the focus of the story. Readers come to know
11
So, what is exactly the meaning or the definition of the character then?
Character in a work of literature is always related to the people. They are created
by “person” and take the characteristics of people in the real world. Although in
some works of literature, such as fables the characters are animals but still use the
quality of human being. In A Handbook to Literature by Holman and Harmon
(1986:81) a character is defined as a personage who typifies some certain qualities
and characterization is the creation of the imagery personage who exists for
readers as lifelike. Therefore, character and characterization are related to each
other.
Considering the function of the characters in a work of literature, the
author presents them in dramatic or narrative ways. Through the characters, the
author puts the messages which are interpreted by the reader as being endowed
with moral, emotional qualities that are expressed in what they say, the dialogue,
and by what they do or the action. Then, character is defined as people or persons
presented in a dramatic way and the readers interpreted their qualities through
their dialogue, actions, and the relation between the characters (Abrams, 1999:
32-33).
There are many kinds of character. It depends on their functions in
developing the story. According to Edgar V. Roberts and Henry E. Jacobs, there
are two kinds of character, round character and flat character. A round character is
considered as one of the major figures in the work. He or she profits from
experiences and undergoes a change of some sort. Since the undergoing change or
growth as the result of their experience, the round characters are considered
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dynamic. Round characters are just as complex and as difficult to understand as
living people (1989: 48). E. M. Forster in Aspects of the Novels (1927: 67 - 69)
stated that round characters are complex in temperament, motivation and are
presented with subtitle particularly. Thus, round characters are described in a
more complete way (Abrams, 1999: 33). As contrasted to the round character, the
flat characters are indistinguishable from other person in particular group or class.
Therefore the flat characters are not individual, but representative, and flat
characters are usually minor, although not all minor characters are flat. Further,
Forster says that a flat character has only one feature or at most a few
distinguishing marks. Somehow, flat characters are characters with some
outstanding traits.
The other kind of character is the major character and the minor character.
The major character is the main focus in a work of literature. The author’s idea or
thought are represented through the main characters. Therefore, the reader’s
attention is focused on them. As Henkle states in his book Reading the Novel:
Major character has a fullest attention for the readers. They will have opinions that he or she will represent their wish and thought, and may become the major figure that build their expectation and desires, which in modification shift or established their values (Henkle, 1977:92).
On the contrary, the minor character is character that has a limited function.
The minor character is the partner of the major character in the story; it can be the
major character’s friend or enemy, to improve the story and to make some
13
b. Characterization
Characterization also plays an important role in building the idea of a story.
Characterization is the way the author characterize the characters. According to C.
Hugh Holman and William Harmon (1986: 81), characterization is the creation of
imagery persons so that they exist for the readers as life. Therefore,
characterization should be conveyed in a good way in order to create a clear
image to the reader’s perception.
Rohrberger and Woods Jr. in Reading and Writing about Novel (1971:20)
define characterization as the process by which an author creates character, it is
the device that he makes the readers to believe a character in the particular type of
person he is. An author does this way to make a stereotype of someone existing in
a real world situation comes real during the reading.
According to Murphy (1972: 161 -173), there are nine methods in which
the readers can understand the character. They are:
a. Personal Description
The author describes the appearance of a character in details such
as the face, the skin color, the hair, etc.
b. Character as Seen by the Others
The author describes the character of the person through the other’s
eyes and opinion. There the opinion may come from people around the
person about his personality which can also determine his characteristics.
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c. Speech
The author gives the readers some clue about the character through
what the character says.
d. Past Life
In certain events of the character’s past life, the readers will know
the characteristic of him/her. Here we learn that a character’s past
experiences, particularly those which are really meaningful can cause
several effects to the person’s future life even may change his character.
e. Conversation of Others
Through the conversations done by other people, the readers will
know what they say about the character.
f. Reactions
The readers will know what kind of person the character is by
seeing how he/she reacts to various situations in the story. The readers
here can conclude if a person is temperamental or patient and etc.
g. Direct Comment
The author gives direct comment to the character. However, the
author will not give lots of direct comment otherwise the novel will be
uninteresting to deeply read.
h. Thoughts
The author directly gives what a person is thinking about. By
knowing what in the character’s mind, the readers will know his
15
i. Mannerism
The author creates the character’s behaviors where each and every
one of the behaviors will show the characteristic of the character. A
person’s habits of idiosyncrasies may also tell us something about
someone’s characteristic.
Murphy (1972: 161) also adds that characterization is the presentation of
the characters’ personalities including their attitudes, appearance, motives, and
actions, which are created to be life like. This is in order that the ideas of what
kind of people they are in the story are conveyed to the readers.
2. Society and Literature, and Culture
Literature and Society are the two things that cannot be separated. Literature
is an expression of society, a social institution. It is said that literature represents
life and life itself is a social reality, through the natural world and the inner of
subjective world of the individual have also been object of literary imitations
(Wellek and Waren, 1962: 94).
However, it is not always true that literature imitates the accurate reality of
society. The author certainly copies or imitates his or her experience and
conception of life, but it would be manifested untrue to say that he or she
expresses the whole life of a given time completely and comprehensively.
Langland in Society in the Novel states that society is “an animation of an outside
world which has tended to obscure the formal variety of social presentation in the
novel” (1984: 4). So, the society in a real life and in a literary work is almost the
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same because usually the author describes the society of his work based on the
society in a real life.
Furthermore, Langland says that if society is a concept and construct in art,
it is also a concept and construction of life. She also explains that society in the
novels or literary works does not depend on points of absolute fidelity or accuracy
to an outside world in details, such as costume, setting, and locality because in the
novel does not aim to at faithful mirror of any concrete (1984: 5).
Society in the novel or literary world is not understood as only peoples, and
their classes, but also their medium and physical environment. The medium of a
society in a fictional work can be expressed as house, a city, an institution, an
object, or a group of relationship through characters, patterned interactions and
their common expectations of one another (Langland, 1984: 6). Furthermore,
Genette, in Narrative Discourse says the same idea with Langland that society or
social setting refers to everything related to the society’s life in a certain place
being described in the story. It includes the custom, tradition, belief, ideology, the
way of thinking, and behaving, and perhaps the social status of the character
(1980: 33, 35).
Related to literary meaning, society in the short story of fictional society can
be understood in the same way as that of the society in the real life. Society is
always related to culture and a further way to appreciate what culture entails is to
distinguish it from society. Although in the real world culture and society can
never be separated, sociologists differentiate them for the purpose of analysis.
17
people have created and to which they attach similar meanings (their beliefs,
values, knowledge, language, symbol, and norms prescribing customs), whereas
society refers to the networks of social relationship among those who share
culture (Donald and Bordieu, 1989: 81). Further, it was stated that culture cannot
exist without society or society without culture. While people use culture to guide
and give meaning to their social relations, culture itself is the product of people
interacting in a social system. Thus, culture and society are inextricably related.
In a social system, life style that becomes a part of status and class in a
society is the important thing. Marks Abrahamson in his book Sociological
Theory: An Introduction to Concepts, Issues, and Research states that status
involves life-style, matters of honor privilege. If class is ultimately related to the
production of foods, then life style is tied to the consumption of goods. In general,
life-styles imply restriction on social interaction. This typically entails routine
avoidance of persons in lower ranked status groups and an attempt to confine the
marriages of offspring to others of the same circle. The boundaries of status group
are usually amorphous, but they can become rigid or caste like when this occurs,
status honor becomes a matter of legal privilege; that is, laws confine the eating of
certain kinds of food, wearing special clothing (“uniform”), carrying arms, or the
like, to the certain status group (Abrahamson, 1981: 114). In other words, life
style becomes a part of society in the way of their life and to confine society’s
attitude and action, law is absolutely needed to control over consumption on
social interaction.
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
3. Theory of Setting
Setting in literary world is related to the background of the story, whether it
is time, place, or social setting. According to Holman and Harmon, there are two
elements in making up a setting; the actual geographical location, its topography,
scenery, and such physical arrangements as the location of the windows and doors
in a room and the time or period in which the action take place (1986: 465). He
did not include the social circumstances as a part of setting. Abrams, in The
Glossary of Literary Terms said that setting is the general locale, historical time,
and historical circumstances in which the action occurs (1999: 284-285). Here, it
is shown that, generally there are three important aspects in setting of a literary
work. They are time, place, and social circumstances where the story occurs.
According to Nurgiyantoro, there are three main elements of setting. They
are setting of place, setting of time, and social setting. Setting of place refers to
location where the event in the story takes place. The setting of place may have
some different locations, they will move from one location to another referring to
the development of plot and character. Then, setting of time refers to “when” the
event of the story happens in the story. The problem “when” is usually related to
the factual time which has a tight relation to the historical event. The social setting
refers to things and behavior of social life of society in certain place in the story.
Manner of social life includes several problems that are complex enough such as
common life, customs and traditions, beliefs, view of life, thoughts and behavior.
More than that social setting relates to the social status of the character, for
19
3. Theory of Social Stratification
Social stratification is related to a process where the society is grouped
according to some features. In a most general sense, social stratification means a
concept that refers to the fact that both individuals and groups of individual are
conceived of as constituting higher and lower differentiated strata, or classes, in
terms of some specific or generalized characteristic or set of characteristics.
Social stratification is a process where the society is grouped according to
some features or in more general sense. Specifically, Alan C. Kerckkhoff, in his
article: Education and Social Stratification Processes in Comparative Perspective
stated that social stratification is a term that is used to describe both a condition
and a process. As a condition, social stratification refers to the fact that members
of population have characteristics that differentiate them into levels or strata. On
the other hand, as a process, social stratification refers to the ways in which
members of population become stratified (http: //rac.sagepub.com).
There are some dimensions of social stratification. They are power,
occupational prestige, income or wealth, educational and knowledge, religious
and ritual purity, family and ethnic – group position, and local community status.
1. Power
The definition of power is various, depends on the contexts. In sociology,
power is defined as the capacity for achieving goals in social systems. Power in
this sense is obviously functional for all social systems, large and small, and for
all types of societies. In a social system, some roles have more power, other less,
and the result of this differential distribution is a stratified structure of power. The
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
result on the social stratification is the stratification of society based on the
“power” owned by individuals or a group of people. Individual or a group of
people who have “more power” will be in the higher position than the others
(Sills, 1972: 292).
2. Occupational Prestige
The different more or less full-time “productive” roles in society are of
differential functional significance for the society and therefore obtain a higher or
lower evaluation, or amount of prestige. The stratification based on the
occupational prestige is of course different within societies and in different
historical periods. It is because every society and periods has different point of
view of certain occupation and f course influenced by time or certain period (Sills,
1972: 292).
3. Income or Wealth
Different roles in society offer different possibilities for earning income and
accumulating capital wealth, so too, different roles have different chances
inheriting wealth. The people who earned much money (or considered as rich
people) will be higher than the others. The stratification of income and wealth,
weather earned or inherited has considerable social and economic consequences in
partial independence of other dimensions of social stratification. They are chances
for education, life style, power, prestige, etc (Sills, 1972: 293).
4. Educational and knowledge
The amount of knowledge that individuals have acquired, either formally,
21
result of differential amounts and types of education and other learning
experiences, the amount of knowledge is differentially distributed and may be
conceived of as forming a stratified structure among the individuals in society.
The people who have higher education level or get more experiences are the
people who have higher position in society (Sills, 1972: 293).
5. Religious and Ritual Purity
Individual or group can be regarded as possessing either more or less
religious or ritual purity, in terms of the functionally significant religious ideas
that prevail in every society. The stratification of course is different between the
societies. It is because of the homogenous of the society. In a religiously
homogeneous society, there is a greater consensus about where individuals or
groups should be placed with regard to this dimension of stratification, in
religiously heterogeneous societies; there is usually more dissensus (Sills, 1972:
293).
6. Family and Ethnic-group Position
In all societies, kinship groups and their extensions in the form of ethnic
groups perform important functions such as procreation, socialization of children,
and provision of moral and psychological support between parents and children
and between husband and wives. The result of the stratification is there are
higher-ranked and lower-higher-ranked families which in turn have an important and
independent influence the way in which members of particular families treat one
another and are treated by the others (Sills, 1972: 294).
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
7. Local – community Status
All but the very simplest societies are subdivided into communities that have
special problems from which the contributions of local individuals and families
are needed. These families are given a higher or a lower evaluation in the local
community in proportion to their contributions to that community’s welfare (Sills,
1972: 294)
The social stratification broadly organized the society into three main layers:
upper class, middle class, and lower class. The upper class people are the people
who have much power among the other people or classes in the society. They hold
very important role and more prestigious then the others in the society. The
middle class belongs to the military officers, entrepreneurs, medium
scale-landowners, and teachers or the educated people with medium income rate. The
last layer is the lower class. The lower class people are usually uneducated, poor,
superstitious, and they do not have important role in the society
(http://nos.org/331courseE/L-16%20SOCIAL%20STRATIFICATION.pdf).
4. Review of Social Stratification of Indian Society
India is a hierarchical society. Within Indian culture, whether in the north
or the south, Hindu or Muslim, urban or village, virtually all things, people, and
groups of people are ranked according to various essential qualities. Although
India is a political democracy, in daily life there is little advocacy of or adherence
23
The Indian society is stratified in many ways. In general, the society is
stratified by the caste system. Caste can be defined as hereditary endogamous
group, having a common name, common traditional occupation, common culture,
relatively rigid in matters of mobility, distinctiveness of status and forming a
single homogenous community. The caste system has several features, such as:
segmental division of society which means that the Indian society is stratified
largely based on the caste system which is determined by birth; hierarchy: it
indicates the groups are ranked from higher to lower positions; restrictions on
food, drink, and smoking. Usually different castes do not exchange food and
drink; do not share smoking of hukka among them; endogamy: it means that
members of the caste have to marry with their caste only. Inter-caste marriages are
prohibited; purity and pollution: it is one of important features of caste system.
Purity and pollution are judged in terms of deeds, occupation, language, dress
patterns, as well as food habits; occupational association: each caste has a specific
occupation and cannot change the occupation; social and religious disabilities and
privileges of few sections-the lower caste debarred from doing many things like
they are not permitted to enter the temple, do not use literary language, and cannot
use gold ornaments or umbrella, etc.; and distinction in custom, dress and speech,
for example the high caste use pure language, whereas the low caste use
colloquial language
(http://nos.org/331courseE/L-CASTE%20SYSTEM%20IN%20INDIA.pdf).
The caste system in India is believed to be nearly 3,000 years old. The
ancient Hindu society divided the population initially into four mutually
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
exclusive, exhaustive, hereditary, endogamous, and occupation-specific Varnas
(means color). These were the Brahmins, priestly and learned class (priests,
teachers), Kshatriyas, warriors and rulers (warriors, royalty), Vaisyas
(moneylenders, traders, farmers), and the Sudras (Hutton, 1964: 87). Caste
affiliation dictated all aspects of the person’s existence. As the economy grew
more complex, the Varna system metamorphosed into the Jati system, with jatis
sharing the same basic characteristics of the varnas. Jati is the contextual view or
field view of Indian social system. However, what makes the jati hierarchy
complex is that (i) jatis are not exact subsets of varnas and (ii) there is
considerable regional variation in the evolution of specific jatis. Thus, it is not
uncommon for a jatito claim a certainvarnastatus and for that to be disputed by
other jatis; or, for a jati to be considered “backward” in one state and for the
corresponding jatis in other states not be so classified (Hutton, 1964: 89). The
other distinction between varna and jati is that varna is the textual model or book
view of Indian social system which is only found in texts. Whereas, jati is the
contextual view or field view of Indian social system which can be found in
reality. As the result, there are only four varnas in Indian society. They are the
Brahmins, the Kshatriyas, the Vaisyas, and the Sudras. While, there are more than
4000 jatis in India.
(http://nos.org/331courseE/L-CASTE%20SYSTEM%20IN%20INDIA.pdf).
The members of different castes are linked in what has been called jajmani
system which in some regions means patron. The number of various castes
25
Households of service castes are linked through hereditary bonds to a household
of patrons, with the lower-caste members providing services according to
traditional occupational specializations. Thus, client families of launderers,
barbers, shoemakers, carpenters, potters, tailors, and priests provide customary
services to their patrons, in return for which they receive customary seasonal
payments of grain, clothing, and money (Wiser, 1936: 42).
India is also divided into some different classes in the rural area and in the
city. There is a three-level system of stratification. They are Forward Classes
(higher castes), Backward Classes (middle and lower castes), and Harijans (very
low castes). In this context, caste system has the same meaning with the class
system since the caste system is not seen as a rigid description of the occupation
or the social status of a group, but as an indicator of occupation, social standing,
and intellectual ability. Member of these groups share common concerns because
they stand in approximately the same relationship to land and production—that is,
they are large-scale farmers, small-scale farmers, and landless laborers. Some of
these groups are drawing together within regions across caste lines in order to
work for political power and access to desirable resources. For example, since the
late 1960s, some of the middle-ranking cultivating castes of northern India have
increasingly cooperated in the political arena in order to advance their common
agrarian and market-oriented interests. Their efforts have been spurred by
competition with higher-caste landed elites
(http://www.lotussculpture.com/bronze sculpturecaste.htm).
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
In cities other groups have vested interests that crosscut caste boundaries,
suggesting the possibility of forming classes in the future. These groups include
prosperous industrialists and entrepreneurs, who have made successful efforts to
push the central government toward a pro-business stance; bureaucrats, who
depend upon higher education rather than land to preserve their positions as civil
servants; political officeholders, who enjoy good salaries and perquisites of all
kinds; and the military, who constitute one of the most powerful armed forces in
the developing world (Wolpert, 2006: 221).
Besides the caste system, there is another dimension stratifying the Indian
society and related to the status of the individuals or certain groups. First is status
evaluation. It divides the Indian society into two broad categories; the secular
status and ritual status. In general, the secular status attaches to individuals and
classes rather than to groups and derived from such criteria such as wealth,
landownership, education, skills, and sometimes as in the case of government
servants, from occupation. Ritual status on the other hand attaches to both
individual and groups with equal force and is derived from mystical curing
promotion , that advance in status will be reflected through the whole context of
his social life. For example if a man will move to higher circles, becomes a
member of a more exclusive social and recreational group and may well marry his
children into better-class families (Sills, 1972: 29). Second is status and
occupation. It forms new groups within the caste group. It is usually based on the
occupational specialism, for example, skilled, semiskilled and plantation work,
27
about purity and pollution is that they cross both religious and sectarian
boundaries. Social behavior is evaluated for ritual status purposes by single
standard - that of the Hindu pollution concept – regardless of the religious group
to which the people belong to. Religious beliefs are evaluated in relation to a
different criterion, the degree of understanding of Ultimate Truth concerning the
nature of Absolute Power. All religious beliefs are held to be partial revelations of
the Ultimate Truth. Persons who worship the avatars, or incarnations of the
Absolute Power – Vaishnavites, Shaivites, Budhist, Christian, - are regarded as
superior to those who worship nature spirits (Sills, 1972: 30)
C. Theoretical Framework
The studies and the theories reviewed in the previous part are very
important for the writer to get into the analysis part. The related studies reviewed
give the writer much important information about the novel especially important
message related to the analysis. The theory of character and characterization will
be useful to determine the characters in the novel. It also helps the writer
determining the main characters that will be the focus of the analysis. Using the
theory of characterization, the writer will find out the characteristics of the main
character through the way the author presents them. The theory of setting will be
used by the writer to determine the social stratification of Indian society described
in the novel. It will help the writer to answer the second problem stated in the
first chapter. Then theory of social stratification and the review of the Indian
society’s stratification will be useful in determining how the main characters and
the setting reflect the Indian society’s social stratification.
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
28
CHAPTER III
METHODOLOGY
Chapter three is divided into three sections. First is the object of the study.
The second section focuses on the chosen approaches which are used in this
analysis. The third section concerns the steps in completing the study.
A. Object of the study
The object of the study is a novel by Indian author; Kiran Desai entitled
The Inheritance of Loss. Kiran Desai was born in India in 1971 and grew up there before moving to England at the age of fourteen years. She was educated in India,
England and the United States. Following the success of her mother, Anita Desai,
who is also a writer, her first novel, Hullabalo in the Guava Orchard (1998) won a 1998 Betty Trask Award.
The Inheritance of Loss is her second novel set in the mid-1980s in a Himalayan village. The novel won the 2006 Man Booker Prize. It makes Kiran
Desai as the youngest female ever author to clinch this coveted prize.
Originally, The Inheritance of Loss was firstly published by Penguin Group, Canada in 2006. The novel consists of fifty two chapters. The number of
pages of the novel is 324 pages.
In brief, The Inheritance of Loss is the story set Kalimpong at around the 1980s. It tells about a retired judge, Jemu, who spending his time staring at his
29
accompanied by his cook and Mutt, his dog, and his orphaned sixteen-year-old
granddaughter, Sai. She is a westernized Indian brought up by English nuns. She
is a type of “estranged Indian living in India”. Surely, Sai can be only an asset to
Jemu, who sees himself as unadulterated Anglophile.
Jemu’s position as a district judge is long gone frittered away in years of
misanthropy and cynicism. His hopes of redemption, however somewhat dashed
when Sai falls in love with Gyan, her math tutor. Gyan was born from a poor
family and proudly Indian. However, in the end, they have difficulty in
negotiating their love because Gyan feel intimated by Jemu. Besides, it also
because of the polarizing political principles, where Gyan is fed up by the fact that
Indian-Nepalese are being treated as a minority in their own land. Finally, Gyan
ends up judging Sai for her connivance and her loyalty to the social class she has
accidentally been born into.
Meanwhile, young Biju, the cook’s son ekes out an existence as an
undocumented worker in New York, stumbling from one low-paid restaurant job
to another, living in seedy squalor with groups of other immigrant men. It is
contradict with his hope achieving the American life. Unfortunately, the cook
mistakenly believing that only Biju can help other young immigrant men survive
in the United States.
Groups or Individuals are social ranked. We can decide what group
someone belongs to from his or her behavior or from the way he or she interacts
with the others in a certain society. Through the main characters, Desai shows the
social stratification of Indian society.
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
B. Approach of the study
To answer the problem formulations stated in the first chapter, the writer
applies the socio - cultural – historical approach. It is an approach that has
something to do with analyzing civilization, and it means that it concerns to the
society including the rule of the society and historical background of the story. It
is defined as the attitudes and actions of specific people that a work of literature
takes as a subject matter. The point of socio-cultural-historical approach is seeing
a literary work from its relation with social history of a certain time and place.
Rohrberger and Woods (1971: 9-10) stated that a critic whose major interest is the
socio-cultural-historical approach insist that the only way to locate the work is in
reference to civilization that produces it. Civilization here is defined as the
attitudes and actions of specific group people and point out that literature takes
these attitudes and actions as its subject matter. It is important to investigate the
social, cultural, and historical background in which a work of literature is created
so that the readers can find out the reasons or motivations why the characters
behave and act in certain way (Rohrberger and Woods, 1971: 9).
The socio-cultural approach is the approach that is used to analyze the
civilization and it is related to the society such as the social setting, culture, social
stratification, etc. of the work of literature. It also concerns with the historical
background of a work of literature. This approach is suitable to analyze Desai’s
31
C. Method of Study
In getting the answer of the problem formulations, the writer used the
library research method. To support the study, the writer used two kinds of
resource: primary resource and secondary resources. The primary resource on the
study was the novel itself; Desai’s The Inheritance of Loss. The secondary resources were some books that were used to support the analysis of this study
especially the books which were related to the Indian society and the Indian
society in the middle of 1980s. To collect the information about literature, the
writer used the book namely A Handbook to Literature, The Theory of Literature, etc. The writer also collected some information related to the analysis from internet.
In analyzing the novel, the writer did some steps. First, in order to
understand the object of study, the writer applied close reading and understanding
the whole text carefully. Then, the writer underlined the important points related
to the analysis. Second, the writer tried to found the secondary sources, which
were very important to analysis the novel and certainly related to the analysis. The
third step was analyzing the topic based on problem formulations in the first
chapter. To answer the first question, the writer tried to find out the characteristics
of the main characters. Before this step, firstly the writer identified the main
characters in the novel that are going to be analyzed. Afterwards, the writer
identified the qualities of the main characters. The theory of character and
characteristic were important to finish this step. Secondly, the writer tried to find
out the description of Indian society in the novel through the setting and the
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
characters. Theory of setting and the review of Indian social stratification were
very useful for helping the writer to answer the question. In the last part, the writer
tried to find out how the Indian society is stratified as reflected to the main
characters and the setting of the novel. In this part, the writer would apply the
theory of social stratification. The last step was drawing conclusion. It is done by
33
CHAPTER IV
ANALYSIS
This chapter consists of the discussion of the analysis and the answers of
the problems formulations stated in the first chapter. There are three parts of
discussion elaborated in the analysis. The first part will talk about the quality of
the main characters of the novel or how the main characters are characterized. The
second part will analyze the social stratification portrayed in the novel, and the
last part will analyze the Indian social stratification seen in the main characters of
the novel.
A. The Descriptions of the Main Characters
Characters are the central point of the reader’s interest. Each character has
a different role in making the novel more interesting and dramatic. In The
Inheritance of Loss, the writer found that the main characters of the novel are
Jemubhai or the Judge, Sai, the cook, and Gyan, the Math tutor. They are chosen
as the main characters since their presence is echoed from the beginning until the
end of the novel. They are the central characters and the most important characters
to whom the reader focus on the whole story. Thus, those characters are chosen as
the main characters since they have the fullest attention for the readers (Henkle,
1977:92).
Based on the theory of characterization stated by Murphy, the
characteristics of characters are presented in nine ways, from their personal
PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
description, characters as seen by others, speech, past life, conversation of others,
reactions, direct comment, thoughts, and mannerism (1972: 161-173). The
characteristics and the physical appearance of the main characters are also
presented in the same way by the author of the novel, Kiran Desai.
1. The Judge
The real name of the Judge is Jemubhai Patel. At his time, he was the chief
justice. He was a judge and he got his SS Strathnaver at Cambridge. When he
returned, he became a member of ICS (Indian Civil Service), and he was put to
work in a district in the state of Utar Pradesh.
The Judge is portrayed as a rude person. He always rants when he finds
something that annoys him. The quality of the Judge as a rude person is revealed
in some ways, based on Murphy’s theory of characterization. He stated that one
method in which the readers can understand the character is through “the speech”.
It means that the author gives the readers some clues about the character through
what the characters say (1972: 161 – 173).
In the novel, we can find the facts that show the Judge is a rude person. That
he used dirty words very often proves that he was characterized as a rude person.
He calls the baker “the fool” because the baker left for her daughter’s wedding
(Desai, 2006: 3). He also always curses the cook whom he thinks cannot make
something for him.
35
He is murmuring when the electricity fell abruptly to a lower strength and he
began to curse the sub divisional officer.
Must write to that fool of a sub divisional officer, said the Judge…. Then he said: “Damn it!” when the electricity was failed (Desai, 206: 33-34).
Moreover, he acted rudely to his granddaughter and called her using
inappropriate words such as “stupid fool” if she annoyed him.
The Judge began to cough as an acrid mix of smoke and chili spread into the drawing room. “Stupid fool,” said the Judge to his granddaughter. “Shut the door” (Desai, 2006:105).
He also murmured and responded harshly to Noni’s (Sai’s former tutor)
decision not to teach Sai in Science and Math because she could not finish some
problems in Physics and Math. Noni’s decision to find another Math and Physics
tutor is acceptable since she does not understand the subjects well and it is good
for Sai too. He called Noni as a bloody irresponsible woman because of her
decision not (Desai, 2006: 70). All the quotations above show the quality of the
Judge as a rude person.
The Judge is also portrayed as a bad tempered or a temperamental person.
It can be seen from how he reacted to the various situations (Murphy, 1972: 161 –
173) in the novel. He gets angry when something does not meet his expectation or
when someone hurts him or tells something that is embarrassing. When the
officers came to Cho Oyu to investigate the gun robbery, he was getting angry at
the cook when he told the officers that the robbers asked the Judge to set the table
that he had never done before.
