YSiegel - GOST Reflection

Yale Siegel

Mrs. Hume

English II

12 April 2017

Reflection on The Californian Caste

From the announcement of this project, I knew that I wanted to write in the incredibly powerful style of Arundhati Roy. However, the theme that persists throughout The God of Small Things that I was going to write about was unclear. When suggested, the theme of class and caste challenges opened my mind to the endemic struggle between wealthy and poor socioeconomic backgrounds in the United States. From this point on, I used the lens of contrast between the rich and poor to view my surroundings. When writing the first scene in Roy’s style, I wrote with ease and grace. It was smooth. I believe that this is due to my extraordinary privilege. While I may have not entirely noticed it, I have lived an extremely fortunate life. In general, I am surrounded by wealth. Most of my friends are well off, if not wealthy, the school that I attend is prestigious, and day to day tribulations such as what is going to be on the table for dinner are not themes of which I am mindful. When writing the first passage, these themes were also not present and it is as if the person narrating the scene takes these magnificent gifts for granted. This project opened my eyes to my standing in the world.

The transition to poor is harsh. Instead of smooth, easy living, the narrator is constantly being bombarded by challenges and struggles, such as overcrowded and claustrophobic living spaces, inability to move freely about his environment safely, and the dangers of his neighborhood. The experience of writing this passage was almost in direct contrast to writing the section on the rich. As I started to write, I began to realize that I had never experienced what I was writing about. I quickly recognized that throughout my life I had never had troubles and experiences similar to those of the narrator. Though cognizant of how much a pair of new shoes cost, I never stopped to think that, I would I would be unable to buy them. The filming process was the same, in order to film a poor neighbourhood I had to go north of my home about five block. Immediately, I began to see homeless people, low income homes, and refuse on the street and sidewalk. This shift between worlds was so astonishing,  I began to research about living conditions, average family income, and distribution of wealth throughout the United States. What I found was sickening. The research exacerbated my preexisting knowledge of the wage and wealth gap. The lower class continues to become poorer, and the rich get richer, ever widening an economic chasm between the two. The vision of social mobility in the United States slowly vanished and the idea of a dark future took hold.

The text of The God of Small Things unapologetically discusses the clear differentiation between those of higher and lower status and exhibits the harshness of which “lower” individuals are treated. Now, looking back upon the text, I see that one of the largest underlying factors of the novel is not just the problem of the caste system, but also the difficulty of class mobility. One person, if born into a lower caste, cannot rise. While this class oppression is lessening in parts of India, in the United States the problem is worsening, and it is getting harder to move up in society. This project opened my eyes to the truth of class struggles and class stagnation in both the novel and in reality.