Novel Update

Yujin Hong
01670788

Question: What is the main conflict in the novel? Explain it in detail, giving examples from the
book.
Through my reading of The God of Small Things, the main conflict of this was the
social class problem. Especially the untouchable class issues were standing out for me. India
has strict social class system. And this novel tried to describe the bottom of the class.
There was untouchable class called Beluta. They cannot walk the road which even
domestic animals can walk, they cannot hide their upper body, cannot use umbrella, and they had
to cover their mouth to do not convey their dirty breath to others.
Amu and Beluta fall in love each other although Amu was touchable and Beluta was
untouchable. The small things indicates that kind of things. They didnt consider the social
class. They just concentrated on their private small love things.
However untouchable person had not big choice when they have trouble. For example,
Beluta fixed the boat to the Sophi who is cousin of the Amus twin and Sophi died to cross the
river with that boat. Beluta designated as a kidnap and finally got the death penalty.
This kind of social class conflict happened and described often in this novel. It makes me
so depressed.