Hello and welcome to the Discourse. The God of Small Things is the first novel by Arundhati Roy which was published in 1997. The novel won the Booker’s Prize in 1997. The novel is based on the themes of illusive love, social restrictions, caste and class-based struggles, and grotesque randomness of life. The novel stresses that caste-based discrimination exists even in Christian, Muslim, and even communist circles of India. Another important theme is the contrast between the small things, incidences, or feelings often neglected or sacrificed by people while they ardently protect the bigger issues like caste, politics, religion, and others. The novel is set in Ayemenem, Kerala, India, the birthplace of Arundhati Roy.
The novel is a semi-autobiographical literary fiction, a family drama presented in a disjointed non-sequential narrative style. One of the main characters is based on the author’s mother’s life. The story is nonlinear and meanders between past and present, flipping back and forth between childhood and adulthood perspectives shifting between 1969 and 1993. To represent the perspective and viewpoint of children, the novelist used the technique of Capitalization of certain words and phrases to give them significance. The story is about a Syrian-Christian family living in India.
Characters of The God of Small Things:
Estha is the protagonist of the novel. He is Rahel's fraternal twin, the female protagonist. She is 18 minutes younger than Estha. Estha is a serious, contemplative, intelligent, and shy child. As a child he is molested by a man and that trauma further increases his nervousness.
Rahel is outspoken and impulsive. She often feels that she is considered lesser than her brother. Past incidents push her away from society and she becomes a drifter. In her adulthood, she experiences a failed relationship with an American man that further pushes her away from society. She is training as an architectural draftsman. Chacko is Rahel and Estha's maternal uncle. He was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford. He is a Communist. He took over Paradise Pickles & Preserves from Mammachi. Chacko's marriage to Margaret Kochamma crumbled after she could no longer stand his flabby, lazy nature. After divorcing Chacko, Margaret married Joe who raised Sophie as her stepfather. Joe died of illness and Margaret returned to Aymenem with Sophie. Chacko loves and cares for Margaret and Sophie though he remains idle and sluggish while promoting communist ideology.
Sophie Mol is another child, the daughter of Chacko and Margaret Kochamma. After her stepfather Joe dies, she visits Ayemenem with her mother. She befriends Estha and Rahel, her cousins. Circumstances lead to her death which is a pivotal incident in the novel.
Ammu is Estha and Rahel’s mother. She is a sister of Chacko. She married Babu, a tea plantation worker in Assam. But her husband was alcoholic and abusive. When her husband forces her to sleep with his boss, she leaves him and returns to Ayemenem with Rahel and Estha. Later, she falls in love with Velutha, a man of a lower caste considered untouchable. Her love creates a scandal and she is banished from her house. She dies at the age of 31 during a business trip. Mammachi (Soshamma Ipe) is Ammu and Chacko’s mother. She is a hard-working, strict, and reserved woman who started Paradise Pickles & Preserves, a pickle factory all by herself. Like Ammu, she suffered domestic violence. Her husband and Ammu’s father Pappachi (Benaan John Ipe) used to beat her until their son Chacko became big enough to intervene and stop him. Velutha is a lower caste (Paravan) who serves as a handyman to Ammu. He is a skilled carpenter at the Ipe family's pickle factory. He is deeply involved in the local Communist movement, has a forbidden affair with Ammu, and faces brutal punishment. Kuttapen is his paralyzed brother. Velutha appears to be the titular character, the God of small things in the story. He develops an intimate relationship with small kids Rahel, Esha, and Sophie who admire him deeply. Unlike other adults, who keenly observe religious, caste-based, and class-based discrimination, he remains free of such prejudices, spending most of his time in little pleasures of life that often remain untouched by others. Vellya Pappen is his father, a former acquaintance of Mammachi. When he comes to know about Velutha’s affair with Ammu, he informs Pappachi and offers to strangle Velutha to death by his own hands. Baby Kochamma is Pappachi’s younger sister, Rahel, and Estha’s grandaunt. She remained unmarried because of her unrequited love for Father Mulligan. Father Mulligan never accepted her love and rejected the church to be a devoted worshiper of Vishnu. Because of this rejection, Baby Kochamma turns frustrated and embittered. Mr. Hollick is Babu’s boss in Assam who threatens him that if he doesn’t force Ammu to sleep with him, Babu will lose his job. Comrade Pillai is the local leader of communist groups. Despite being a communist, he is highly bigoted and declines to help Velutha because of his lower caste. Inspector Thomas Mathew is the local inspector who ignores his constable’s unreasonable atrocities against the lower caste members of Ayemenem. Orangedrink Lemondrink man is a vendor at the Abhilask talkies where Ammu goes with Estha and Rahel to watch a movie (The Sound of Music). He sexually molests Estha in the lobby Rahel witnesses.
Summary of The God of Small Things:
Rahel is a 31-year-old single woman returning to Ayemenem after learning that her estranged fraternal brother Estha is returning home too. She remembers how several years ago, they were together but were forced to separate. She remembers the funeral of her cousin Sophie Mol when the twins were seven years old. At the funeral, Rahel that the painter of the cathedral’s ceiling has fallen to the floor and his head is spilling blood out “like a secret.” She also felt that Sophie Mol was alive and calling out as she was being lowered into the earth in her coffin. She curiously spoke of it but nobody noticed her. Those fearful memories still haunt her. She remembers her mother Ammu while returning from the funeral of Sophie could not say anything but kept muttering, the words “He’s dead . . . I’ve killed him.” After the funeral, Estha was sent to Assam to live with his estranged father Babu.
Presently, Rahel looks out on the family's former factory, Paradise Pickles & Preserves, and wonders about all the difficulties their family faces after Sophie's death. When she reaches Ayemenem, she accidentally meets Comrade Pillai who shows her an old photo of her and Estha with Sophie.
Rahel remembers she was nervous when she heard that her aunt Margaret and cousin Sophie were coming back to live with them. Sophie was the child of Margarate and Chacko, Rahel’s uncle. After she was born, Margaret divorced Chacko because of his laziness and unwillingness to do anything. Later on, she married Joe who carefully raised Sophie as his stepdaughter. When Sophie was nine years old, Joe died, and then Margaret and Sophie decided to return to Ayemenem.
Rahel worried that Ammu would have less time for her. However, Sophie soon befriended her and Estha and the three made a good team under the guidance of Velutha whom all the three admired. She then remembers her mother once took her and Estha to Kochin to watch a movie The Sound of Music at Abhilask Talkies. Estha loved the movie and began singing along. As others were disturbed by his singing, he was sent back to the lobby. Rahel kept an eye on him and she noticed that something awfully wrong was happening to him. The vendor whom the kids called the Orandedrink Lemondrink Man sexually found the kid alone and sexually molested him. Rahel couldn’t understand what was going on but noticed something strange and abruptly snapped at Ammu to inform. Ammu scolds her and says that those who hurt others are loved less. Rahel shuts up as she fears Ammu will love Estha more. Estha becomes nauseated and the trauma forces him to remain shut and nervous. Ammu never realizes that her son was raped by the vendor. Later, Rahel asks Ammu whom she loves more, and Ammu playfully answers that she loves Estha a little more (considering he is ill and frightened). However, Rahel takes it seriously and struggles with it.
Ammu and Estha were happy while visiting Kochin with Ammu to receive Sophie Mol and her mother, Margaret Kochamma, upon their arrival from England. On their way, they see their servant, Velutha, marching with a group of Communists. At home, Rahel keeps repeating that she saw Velutha with the communists, and Baby Kochamma, her strict grandaunt notices this. Rahel observes that everyone is trying to impress Sophie and Margaret Kochamma with new clothing, English sayings, and forced upbeat attitudes. She feels a bit jealous but soon Sophie befriends her and Estha.
Rahel remembers the day when Ammu died. She was banished from her house and the factory and was forced to seek a job. During a travel for a job interview, she died. Rahel saw her body being pushed into the cremation oven. Estha was not there as he was already sent back to Assam to live with his father and nobody considered it important to inform him about his mother’s death.
She then remembers the welcoming ceremony of Sophie and Margaret. The whole family sang songs and ate cake. However, Rahel felt lonely. Velutha, the handyman of Ammu noticed it and entertained Rahel by playing with the kid. Ammu noticed how gleefully Velutha took care of her daughter and felt a certain love for him for the first time.
Rahel remembers when Estha and Rahel decided to visit Velutha at History House where he lived with his paralyzed brother and old father. Estha and Rahel pushed an old broken boat into the river and somehow crossed it. When Velutha notices them, he promises to fix the boat for them. Velutha was trying to suppress his feelings for Ammu though he earnestly loved her. His constant touch with Rahel and Estha further escalates his feelings for her. Rahel and Estha once insisted that Ammu should accompany them to the river bank to play. Velutha also visited the bank that evening where he and Ammu accepted their love for each other as he embraced Ammu in his arms. The two deeply fell in love but kept their affair a secret. Rahel and Estha were too young to notice anything though Rahel saw Velutha making love with Ammu in her room in the house.
While thinking all this, Rahel reaches the temple where he sees Estha after so many years. They silently greet each other and decide to watch Kathakali dancers act out a violent story of retribution all night.
Baby Kochamma was already infuriated against Velutha when she learned that he was standing with the Communist protesters. One day, Vellya Pappen visits their house to inform Pappachi about the affair of Velutha and Ammu. Vellya had seen them embracing each other at the river bank in the dark of evening. Vellya apologizes for his son's sin and offers to kill Velutha with his bare hands for having an affair with Ammu, a woman of a higher caste. Pappachi, who often remains angry and frustrated, tries to ignore the scandal but Baby Kochamma becomes infuriated. She locks Ammu in her room and makes a false police complaint that Velutha raped Ammu. Mammachi summons Velutha and fires him from her factory. She bans him from entering any of her properties. While doing so, she feels very much troubled because she knows Velutha is a good man who could have taken good care of Ammu and her kids. As Velutha goes away, Mammachi suffers a heart attack and dies.
Knowing that he has been falsely blamed for raping Ammu, Velutha goes to Comrade Pillai to ask for help. Comrade Pillai insults him and tells him that he doesn't wish to have any relationship with a low-caste Paravan. Velutha tells him that caste discrimination has no place in communism but Comrade Pillai ignores his appeal.
Meanwhile, Ammu blames Rahel and Estha for the wrongs done to her and Velutha and terribly insults them. Pained by her words, Rahel and Estha go to Velutha at History House. Sophie too joins them as she doesn’t want to remain away from them. When they try to cross the river in the same old boat, it capsizes in the river flow and Sophie drowns in the river. Rahel and Estha somehow reach the other side and go to the History House.
The police constables couldn’t digest that a man of a lower caste could touch and rape a woman of a higher caste. They go in search of Velutha. Rahel and Estha were sleeping when the police came to arrest Velutha. They saw the policemen brutally beating him. The police then brought Velutha and the kids to the station. Inspector Thomas Mathew notices that Velutha has been brutally beaten and he may not survive. He summons Baby Kochamma and threatens her of making a false complaint against Velutha. When Baby Kochamma sees Rahel and Estha at the police station and learns about Sophie’s death, she convinces them to accuse Velutha of kidnapping them. She threatens them that if they won’t do so, Estha will be jailed for the death of Sophie. She also says that if the kids follow her order, she will ascertain that Ammu is safe. Frightened, the kids do as were told. This allows Inspector Mathew a valid reason to arrest Velutha who soon dies out of the brutal injuries he suffered.
Back at home, Chacko and Margaret are shocked after learning about the death of Sophie. Baby Kochamma blames Estha for her death and coerces Chacko to evict Ammu from his house. Infuriated Chacko does so and sends Estha back to Assam to live with his estranged father. Ammu couldn’t take care of both the kids now when she had no home or job. As Estha leaves for Assam, Rahel cries as if a part of her is leaving her. She could feel the pain even in the present, though now Estha was sitting beside her as they both watched the Kathakali dance.
After returning home, they feel uneasy as the past memories keep haunting them. They visit the room where Ammu used to live. Rahel and Estha feel a sudden rush of grief, guilt, and sin and embrace each other while remembering Ammu and Velutha. They do sex not out of love but out of their guilt, frustration, pain, and helplessness. While in the love act, Estha and Rahel remember how Velutha and Ammu used to meet secretly and make love, and every time Velutha used to ask if she would meet him again ‘Tomorrow,’? He used to insist until Ammu would answer him affirmatively. They remember how Velutha compelled Ammu to say ‘Tomorrow’ the last time they met before his arrest and ultimate death.
So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the history of Indian English literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards!
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