The God of Small Things Lesson Plan

How do the insects found under the boat (page 202) characterize the boat itself?

When the twins dig up the boat they find, they uncover a busy, blind world of white insects. All of the insects are white, even the ones like the grasshoppers and the dead wasp, which seem like they shouldn't be. Each insect is described as having some kind of human activity, going to work or going home or playing "sad white music" on on the grasshoppers' violins. With the boat ripped away, the whiteness preserved underneath it starts to crumble and fall apart in the sun. The boat had until then served as a protective element for these creatures--in Estha and Rahel's...