My movie is entitled "The Last of Sophie Mol" with the tagline "Someone has to pay

when life takes its toll". I chose to include the term "Mol" in the title to represent the theme of
Indian culture. The main subject of the poster is Sophie Mol's actress, Isabelle Allen, who
appears to have wet hair, and a blank but filthy face, implying drowning as the cause of her
death. Behind her is a shroud of fog which symbolizes the element of mystery. The design also
includes an old or antique effect which represents unpleasant memories or tragic events that
happened in the past, such as the last of Sophie Mol which signals the beginning of Estha, Rahel,
and Ammu's darkest moments.
The intention is to draw my audience into thinking that the whole plot revolves around
the mysterious death of this character, just like I first assumed while reading the novel. With a
plot that goes back and forth between the past and the present, Arundhati Roy had me interested
in knowing who or what was responsible for the death of Sophie Mol, which she revealed near
the end of the novel. This unique and clever plot design has successfully established the
foundation for an unexpected twist in the story. Reading the novel was like being provided with
various puzzle pieces, and slowly learning how to put them all together as the story progresses.
The movie title expresses a hint of irony because despite the last moments of Sophie Mol,
she continued to live on in the memories of the main characters. The story is not about how she
died, but about the significance of her tragic fate. Her death, in fact, as stated in page 277, was
"Just a quiet handing-over ceremony. A boat spilling its cargo. A river accepting the offering.
One small life." Though Roy had given a clue in the beginning about drowning as the cause of
Sophie Mol's death, I was still curious as to how this happened or who did this to her. Thus, I
want to share with the movie audience my disappointment upon finding out that the boat simply
capsized while it was carrying poor Sophie Mol who did not know how to swim.
The tagline, on the other hand, aims to complement the movie title as if it tries to provide
a reason for the death of Sophie Mol. Though, luckily, it somehow rhymes with the title, this was
not really intended. This tagline briefly explains one of the insights I gained from reading the
novel. It doesn't matter who is responsible or who made the biggest mistake. Just as Roy stated in
page 186, "Anything can happen to anyone" so "It's best to be prepared". These refer to the
results of the "Small Things" or circumstances, which all seems insignificant at first, but actually
plays a huge part in preparing the stage for the "Big Things". Just like they were described on
page 32, "Suddenly it becomes the bleached bones of a story". What happens in a few dozen
hours can affect the outcome of a whole lifetime. And finally, when the last puzzle piece is put
into place, life takes its toll.
Unfortunately, for Sophie Mol, as well as for Velutha, they had to pay with their own
lives. As for the rest of the characters, however, they have no choice but to simply deal with the
consequences of Estha's actions. Because it was Estha who was responsible, at least in Margaret
Kochamma's point of view. Meanwhile, for Chacko, it was all Ammu's fault. Since the novel was
written in a third-person point of view (omniscient), Roy was able to let the readers know who
blamed who, and who loved who. Enough pages or chapters were dedicated to each character,
allowing a wide range of readers to actually relate with at least one of them.
Arundhati Roy has also written repetitive lines so effectively that I could have used one
of them as the tagline. This unique style of writing gives the reader a sense of familiarity for the
lines that the author wants to emphasize. It also helps the reader recognize the different themes
applied in the novel. The line which was first stated in page 33, for example, "That it really
began in the days when the Love Laws were made. The laws that lay down who should be loved,
and how. And how much.", introduced the theme of forbidden love.
Forbidden love, though signs were given, was an unexpected theme of the story. Mostly
because the most obvious theme was about Family, which explores the different relationships
between brother and sister, or mother and child. It was just hard to predict that love can develop
from one form into something entirely different, especially after you've defined your rules or set
your expectations.
The first example of forbidden love was Baby Kochamma's love for a priest known as
Father Mulligan. She fell too hard that she decided to become a Roman Catholic and enter a
convent in Madras for a little chance of being near him, for she was willing to love him by only
looking at him. Though she thinks she is in love, this may also be considered as a form of
infatuation or obsession. Things, however, did not work out for her. The next relationship sets
the boundary between familial and romantic love. Apparently, Mammachi has developed a
different kind of love for her son, Chacko, since the day that he stopped Pappachi from beating
her ever again. According to page 160, "From then onwards he[Chacko] became the repository
of all her womanly feelings. Her man. Her only Love." It could possibly be one of the reasons
why Mammachi never liked Margaret Kochamma. This relationship between Chacko and
Mammachi foreshadows the incestuous relationship which happens between Estha and Rahel
after 23 years of separation. Though people would generally disagree with this kind of
relationship, Roy has already prepared her readers with all the reasons why they were perfect for
each other. Their relationship is further discussed in Part 3 of this paper. The last and most
critical example of forbidden love was between Ammu and Velutha, whose love also dared to
defy the rules of society. The plot did not include the story of how they met, or how they fell for
each other. But it gave an understanding of how Ammu gained the courage to do something no
one in her family has ever done. "for her, life had been lived. She had had one chance. She made
a mistake. She married the wrong man (page 38)." She simply had nothing to lose, at least that's
what she may have thought.
In the end, their whole family was guilty of forbidden love. "They all broke the rules.
They all crossed into forbidden territory. They all tampered with the laws that lay down who
should be loved and how. And how much (page 31)." This is the hidden theme which the movie
audience cannot predict from the poster. Despite the fact that Roy also included the theme of
Indian culture and politics, the biggest conflict in the life of the main characters was a
consequence of forbidden love. Though we know that the novel has much more to offer, this
gave her readers the permission to classify it as a love story.
After finishing the book, the first thing I wanted to do was to read it again knowing I
would understand all the hints and clues this time around. But besides that, it was a very
interesting read. The novel itself lives up to one of its most memorable quotes, the quote about
Great Stories which is found on page 218. "They are as familiar as the house you live in. Or the
smell of your lover's skin. You know how they end, yet you listen as though you don't. In the
way that although you know that one day you will die, you live as though you won't. In the Great
Stories you know who lives, who dies, who finds love, who doesn't. And yet you want to know
again." English is not even Arundhati Roy's mother tongue, and The God of Small Things is her
first and only novel according to weroy.org, but it fascinates me how beautifully she writes. If
there's one thing I learned from this novel, it's that we can never really achieve true freedom until
the Love Laws are gone. The laws that lay down who should be loved, and how. And how much.
Since Sophie Mol is the subject of my poster, I believe she deserves to be one of the
characters I must analyze. According to page 58, "In Malayalam, Mol is Little Girl and Mon is
Little Boy". She was called Sophie Mol throughout the novel because she never really had a
chance to be more than just a little girl. Unfortunately, in the December of 1969, when she was
nine years old, she drowned in a river. Her parents were Chacko, who was Indian, and Margaret
Kochamma, who was English. However, since Roy described her in page 135 as tall, thin, and
fair, with a hair that was the color of ginger, she seemed to look more english than indian.
Found in page 129 is a description of Sophie Mol which explains how the rest of the
characters feel about her: "Loved from the Beginning". Like Chacko said, they were a family of
Anglophiles. Just by being half-english in Kerala, Sophie Mol was treated like a princess.
Everybody thinks highly of her that they always concern themselves about "What Will Sophie
Mol Think?". Everybody wants to please her that they even had to rehearse for what seemed like
a play, at least to Estha and Rahel. In the novel, she was mostly described from other characters'
perspective, often as a spoiled brat. In page 253, however, we read about a sweet little girl
looking for the presents she would give her cousins in order to win their friendship. After all, she
is also just a lonely child who longs for the friend she lost in her stepfather, Joe.
To me, Sophie Mol was one of the small things, a hapless victim. But her death, in the
life of the main characters, Ammu, Estha, and Rahel, was one of the big things. "Sophie Mol
became a Memory, while the Loss of Sophie Mol grew robust and alive. Like a fruit in season.
Every season (page 253)", hence the movie title, "The Last of Sophie Mol". I chose Isabelle
Allen as her actress since they have the same physical characteristics, except that she will have to
dye her hair ginger. Like Sophie Mol, she is also from England. I first recognized her talent as an
actress when she played as the young Cosette in the movie adaptation of "Les Miserables".
The next character is Esthappen Yako, or simply Estha, who is quite impossible to talk
about without mentioning her twin sister, Rahel. In page 4, Roy stated that "Esthappen and Rahel
thought of themselves together as Me, and separately, individually, as We or Us". They were
weirdly inseparable in such a way that they seem to be telepathic, like in page 113, when Rahel
knew Estha was at the door without him having to knock. On his own, however, Estha was
described in 1969 as a 7-year old boy, with an Elvis Presley puff, who loved singing along to
The Sound of Music. He was basically sweet and innocent, until the traumatizing incident
involving the Orangedrink Lemondrink Man happened in Abhilash Talkies. Since then, he
realized two things, anything can happen to anyone, and it's better to be prepared. Together with
Rahel and Sophie Mol, he decided to hide in the History House by travelling on a boat.
Unfortunately, the boat tipped off, causing the death of Sophie Mol. Besides that, he had to
watch his beloved Velutha get beaten to death. Soon after, Baby Kochamma tricks him into lying
to the Police about Velutha being a kidnapper. All the big things happened too fast. "Estha's
mouth said Yes. Childhood tiptoed out. Silence slid in like a bolt (page 303)". Just like that, his
childhood was ruined forever.
23 years later, he had stopped talking altogether. He blamed himself for the things that
happened. When Rahel came to Ayemenem, "The world, locked out for years, suddenly flooded
in, and now Estha couldn't hear himself for the noise (page 16)". Despite being separated from
her for a long time, it was only Rahel who could understand what he was going through. As
Ammu explained in page 94, people always loved best what they identified most with. This led
to an incestuous relationship which would normally disgust me, but didn't.
I chose Aftab Shivdasani to play Estha because, seeing his picture when he was a child, I
thought he had enough hair to pull off an Elvis Presley puff. I also find him cute for a young boy.
Bibliography:
Turtle, S. (Photographer). (2012). Isabelle Allen - Cosette, Les Miserables [Photograph].
Retrieved June 24, 2014 from: http://www.simonturtle.com/portraits/#3
Roy, A. (1997). The God of Small Things. New York: HarperCollins Publishers
Weroy. (n.d.). Arundhati Roy. Retrieved July 2, 2014 from:
http://www.weroy.org/arundhati.shtml
IMDb. (n.d.). Isabelle Allen. Retrieved June 27, 2014 from:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm4961623/
IMDb. (n.d.). Aftab Shivdasani. Retrieved June 27, 2014 from:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0012778/