REFLECTIONS ON THE NOVEL

THE GOD OF SMALL THINGS

BY ARUNDHATI ROY

The story is about the experiences of a fraternal twins whose lives

were destroyed by the love laws (who should be love, how and how much).
The story is set in Ayemenem, now part of Kottayam district in Kerala,
India. At first, the novel seemed unappealing to me but as I continue
listening to the novel, I came to realize the truth of life. The temporal setting
shifts back and forth between 1969, when fraternal twins Rahel and
Esthappen are seven years old, and 1993, when the twins are reunited at the
age of 31. This book tells us on how small things affect our lives as it has on
the twins Rahel and Estha. In India they impose the caste system which is a
social stratification which has pre-modern origins and consists of levels which
corresponds social status in India. The lives of the character in the story were
affected by the system. The mother of the twins fell in love to a man which
status was on the lowest level of the caste system namely the untouchable
and resulted to tragic outcome. There was a part of the story when the sister
of ammu the mother of the twins was humiliated in front of a communist
crowd where Velutha the untouchable ammu fell in love with was believe to
be in the crowd.
The sister Baby Kochamma harbor deep hatred to Velutha which in turn
contribute to the events that happened in the story. Ammus family found out
the intimate relationship between Velutha and Ammu. Ammu was locked in
her room and Velutha banished. This event leads to ammu blaming her twins
for the misfortune she encounter. Distraught, Rahel and Estha decide to run
away and leads to their cousins death, Sarah. Sarahs mother blamed Rahel
and Esthappen for it. Baby kochama tells the police of false accusation about
Velutha that he tried to rape Ammu and kidnapped the children resulting to
the death of Sophia. These result to the arrest of Velutha and his death.
Ammu was kicked out from their house forcing her to send Estha to live
with his father. After years gone by Ammu dies at age 31, Rahel got married
and was later divorced. At age 31 the twins reunited and they have been
haunted by their guilt and their grief-ridden pasts. Estha is perpetually silent,
and Rahel has a haunted look in her eyes. It becomes apparent that neither
twin ever found another person who understood them in the way they
understand each other. The twins' renewed intimacy is consummated in their
sleeping together.
From these small series of events resulted to the destruction of the
twins lives. The story tells us that small things matter and should not be
disregarded. Every day we should do things with pre-plan thinking what
could happen if we do this and that. It opened my eyes on what could
happen in the future is a result on how we do things in the present.