The God of Small Things

The God of Small Things

First edition

Author Arundhati Roy

Cover artist Sanjeev Saith
Country India
Language English
Genre Novel
Publisher Random House (USA)
Random House of Canada (Canada)
HarperCollins (UK)
RST IndiaInk & Penguin Books (India)
Publication date 15/03/ 1997
Media type Print (hardback & paperback)
Awards Booker Prize (1997)
ISBN 0-06-097749-3
OCLC 37864514
Followed by The Ministry of Utmost Happiness (2017)
Arundhati Roy
The God of Small Things is a family drama novel written by Indian writer Arundhati
Roy. Roy's debut novel, it is a story about the childhood experiences of fraternal
twins whose lives are destroyed by the "Love Laws" prevalent in 1960s Kerala, India.
The novel explores how small, seemingly insignificant things shape people's
behavior and their lives. The novel also explores the lingering effects of casteism in
India. It won the Booker Prize in 1997.

The God of Small Things was Roy's first book and only novel until the 2017
publication of The Ministry of Utmost Happiness twenty years later. She began
writing the manuscript for The God of Small Things in 1992 and finished four years
later, in 1996. It was published the following year. The potential of the story was first
recognised by Pankaj Mishra, an editor with HarperCollins, who sent it to three
British publishers. Roy received £500,000 in advance and rights to the book were
sold in 21 countries.

Plot[edit]
The story is set in Aymanam, part of Kottayam district in Kerala, India. The novel has
a disjointed narrative; the temporal setting shifts back and forth between 1969,
when fraternal twins Rahel, a girl, and Esthappen, a boy, are seven years old, and
1993, when the twins are reunited.

Ammu Ipe is desperate to escape her ill-tempered father Benaan John Ipe, known as
Pappachi, and her bitter, long-suffering mother, known as Mammachi. She leaves
Ayemenem, and to avoid returning, she marries a man only known by the name of
Baba in Calcutta. She later discovers that he is an alcoholic, and he physically
abuses her and tries to pimp her to his boss. Ammu gives birth to Estha and Rahel,
leaves her husband, and returns to Ayemenem to live with her parents and brother,
Chacko. Chacko has returned to India from England following his divorce from an
English woman, Margaret, and the subsequent death of Pappachi.

The multi-generational, Syrian Christian family home in Ayemenem also includes

Pappachi's sister, Navomi Ipe, known as Baby Kochamma. As a young girl, Baby
Kochamma fell in love with Father Mulligan, a young Irish priest who had come to
Ayemenem. To get closer to him, Baby Kochamma converted to Roman
Catholicism and joined a convent against her father's wishes. After a few months in
the convent, she realized that her vows brought her no closer to the man she loved.
Her father eventually rescued her from the convent and sent her to America for
education. Because of her unrequited love for Father Mulligan, Baby Kochamma
remained unmarried for the rest of her life, becoming deeply bitter over time.
Throughout the book, she delights in the misfortune of others and constantly
manipulates events to bring calamity.
It didn't matter that the story had begun, because Kathakali discovered long ago that
the secret of the Great Stories is that they have no secrets. The Great Stories are
the ones you have heard and want to hear again. The ones you can enter anywhere
and inhabit comfortably. They don't deceive you with thrills and trick endings.

— The God of Small Things

The death of Margaret's second husband Joe in a car accident prompts Chacko to
invite her and their daughter, Sophie, to spend Christmas in Ayemenem. On the road
to the airport to pick up Margaret and Sophie, the family visits a theater, and on the
way, they encounter a group of Communist protesters who surround the car and
humiliate Baby Kochamma. Rahel thinks she sees amongst the protesters Velutha, a
servant who works for the family's pickle factory, Paradise Pickles and Preserve, and
does extra chores for Mammachi. Later at the theater, Estha is sexually molested by
the "Orangedrink Lemondrink Man", a vendor working at the snack counter. Estha's
traumatic experience factors into the tragic events at the heart of the narrative.

Rahel's assertion that she saw Velutha in the Communist mob, causes Baby
Kochamma to associate Velutha with her humiliation at the protesters' hands, and
she begins to harbor enmity toward him. Rahel and Estha form an unlikely bond with
Velutha and come to love him. Ammu soon gets attracted to Velutha mainly because
of her children's love towards him, and eventually, they begin a short-lived romantic
affair. Velutha is an Untouchable, the lowest caste, meaning his romance with Ammu
is forbidden, and culminates in tragedy for the family.

When her relationship with Velutha gets exposed by Velutha's father, Vellya Paapen,
Ammu is locked in her room and Velutha is banished. In a fit of rage, Ammu blames
the twins for her misfortune and calls them "millstones around her neck." Distraught,
Estha and Rahel decide to escape. Their cousin, Sophie also joins them. During the
night, as they try to reach the History House, an abandoned house across the river,
their boat capsizes and Sophie drowns. When Margaret and Chacko return from a
trip where they had gone to arrange Margaret's and Sophie's return trips, they see
Sophie's corpse laid out on the sofa.
Baby Kochamma goes to the police and accuses Velutha of being responsible for
Sophie's death. A group of policemen hunt Velutha down, savagely beat him for
crossing caste lines, and arrest him on the brink of death. The twins, huddling in the
abandoned house, witness the horrific scene. Later, when they reveal the truth to the
chief of police Thomas Mathew, he is alarmed. Not unknown to the fact that Velutha
is a Communist, he is afraid that if word gets out that the arrest and beating were
wrongful, it will cause unrest among the local Communists led by Comrade K.N.M
Pillai. Mathew threatens to hold Baby Kochamma responsible for falsely accusing
Velutha. To save herself, Baby Kochamma tricks Estha and Rahel into believing that
the two of them would be implicated as having murdered Sophie out of jealousy and
would surely be incarcerated with Ammu. She thus convinces them to lie to the
inspector that Velutha had abducted them and had murdered Sophie. Velutha dies of
his injuries overnight.

After Sophie's funeral, Ammu goes to the police to tell the truth about her relationship
with Velutha. Afraid of being exposed, Baby Kochamma convinces Chacko that
Ammu and the twins were responsible for his daughter's death. Chacko kicks Ammu
out of the house and forces her to send Estha to live with his father. Estha never
sees Ammu again. Ammu dies alone in a motel a few years later at the age of 31.

After a turbulent childhood and adolescence in India, Rahel gets married and goes to
America. There, she divorces before returning to Ayemenem after years of working
dead-end jobs. Estha and Rahel, now 31, are reunited for the first time since they
were children. They had been haunted by their guilt and their grief-ridden pasts.
Toward the end of the novel, Estha and Rahel engage in incestuous sex, and it's
said that "what they shared that night was not happiness, but hideous grief." The
novel comes to an end with a nostalgic recounting of Ammu and Velutha's love affair.

Characters[edit]
Estha

Estha, which is short for Esthappen Yako, is Rahel's twin brother. He is a serious,
intelligent, and somewhat nervous child who wears "beige and pointy shoes" and
has an "Elvis puff". His experience of the circumstances surrounding Sophie's visit is
somewhat more traumatic than Rahel's, beginning when he is sexually abused by a
man at a theater. The narrator emphasizes that Estha's "Two Thoughts" in the pickle
factory, stemming from this experience—that "Anything can happen to Anyone" and
that "It's best to be prepared"—are critical in leading to his cousin's death.

Estha is the twin chosen by Baby Kochamma, because he is more "practical" and
"responsible", to go into Velutha's cell at the end of the book and condemn him as
his and Rahel's abductor. This trauma, in addition to the trauma of being shipped (or
"Returned") to Calcutta to live with his father, contributes to Estha's becoming mute
at some point in his childhood. He never goes to college and acquires a number of
habits, such as wandering on very long walks and obsessively cleaning his clothes.
He is so close to his sister that the narrator describes them as one person, despite
having been separated for most of their lives. He is repeatedly referred to as "Silent"
as he gradually slips into an unbreakable silence after he is Returned.
Rahel

Rahel is the partial narrator of the story, and is Estha's younger sister by 18 minutes.
As a girl of seven, her hair sits "on top of her head like a fountain" in a "Love-in-
Tokyo" band, and she often wears red-tinted plastic sunglasses with yellow rims. An
intelligent and straightforward person who has never felt socially comfortable, she is
impulsive and wild, and it is implied that everyone but Velutha treats her as
somehow lesser than her brother. In later life, she becomes something of a drifter;
several times, the narrator refers to her "Emptiness". After the tragedy that forms the
core of the story, she remains with her mother, later training as an architectural
draftsman and engaging in a failed relationship with an American, elements of which
parallel the author's own life story.

Ammu

Ammu is Rahel's and Estha's mother. She married their father (referred to as Baba)
only to get away from her family. He was an alcoholic, and she divorced him when
he started to be violent toward her and her children. She went back to Ayemenem,
where people avoided her on the days when the radio played "her music" and she
got a wild look in her eyes. When the twins are seven, she has an affair with Velutha.
This relationship is one of the cataclysmic events in the novel. She is a strict mother,
and her children worry about losing her love.

Velutha

Velutha is a Paravan, an Untouchable, who is exceptionally smart and works as a

carpenter at the Ipe family's pickle factory. His name means white in Malayalam,
because he is so dark. He returns to Ayemenem to help his father, Vellya Paapen,
take care of his brother, who was paralyzed in an accident. He is an active member
of the local Communist movement. Velutha is extremely kind to the twins, and has
an affair with Ammu for which he is brutally punished. Velutha has one brother,
Kuttapen, who is forever bedridden because of his paralysis from the chest
downwards.

Chacko

Chacko is Estha's and Rahel's maternal uncle. He is four years older than Ammu.
[1]
He meets Margaret in his final year at Oxford and marries her afterward. They
have a daughter, Sophie, whose death in Ayemenem is central to the story.

Baby Kochamma

Baby Kochamma is the twins' maternal great aunt. She maintains an attitude of
superiority because of her education as a garden designer in the United States and
her burning, unrequited love for an Irish Catholic priest, her relationship with whom is
the only meaningful event in her life. Her own emptiness and failure spark bitter spite
for her niece's children, further driven by her prudish code of conventional values.
Her spite ultimately condemns the twins, the lovers, and herself to a lifetime of
misery.
Style[edit]
Non-sequential narrative[edit]
The God of Small Things is not written in a sequential narrative style in which events
unfold chronologically. Instead, the novel is a patchwork of flashbacks and lengthy
sidetracks that weave together to tell the story of the Ipe family. The main events of
the novel are traced back through the complex history of their causes, and memories
are revealed as they relate to one another thematically and as they might appear in
Rahel's mind. Although the narrative voice is omniscient, it is loosely grounded in
Rahel's perspective, and all of the episodes of the novel progress toward the key
moments in Rahel's life.

Point of view[edit]
The book is narrated in the third person. However, during a great part of the
narrative, the reader sees everything through Rahel's eyes. This gives the reader
special insight into the happenings and characters. Throughout the book, there are
various moments that intersect. In one moment, everything is seen through a child's
eyes, with a child's feelings and rationales. Later, the same facts, objects, and
people are seen in a completely different light.

Setting[edit]
The story is set in the village of Ayemenem in the Kottayam district of Kerala, India.
The main part of the plot takes place in 1969, a time of changes in ideology and
influence.

India is a very complex society with various cultural and religious habits and beliefs.
Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, Christians, and Muslims share the same space. Society is
divided not only by the very strict caste system but also by class consciousness.
Many languages are spoken in India, but the higher classes make a point of
speaking English, sending their sons to study in England and adopting certain
English habits. Kerala itself, where the story is set, has a complex social setup, with
Hindus, Muslims, and Christians displaying different lifestyles and traditions. It also
has the largest Christian population in India, predominantly Saint Thomas Christians
or Syrian Christians. In the Kottayam district, Christians are a majority.

Roy has described the book as "an inextricable mix of experience and imagination".

Techniques[edit]
Roy uses various techniques to represent the children's viewpoints and their
innocence. One technique she employs is the capitalization of certain words and
phrases to give them significance (i.e Because Anything Can Happen To Anyone).
The children also restate things that adults say in a phonetic way, separating and
recombining words. This echoes the children's way of looking at the world, distinct
from the perspective of the grown-ups who surround them. Roy often uses
metaphors that feature elements that are more prominent in the lives of children,
such as toothpaste, secrets, or portable pianos. They place significance on words
and ideas differently from the adults, thereby creating a new way of viewing the
world around them. They pick up on certain feelings and ideas that the adults around
them either fail or refuse to recognize, and give new significance to things that the
adults ignore for their own purposes. The children use and repeat these phrases
throughout the story so that the phrases themselves gain independence and
representational meanings. Another way she plays with language is to join words
together without punctuation, which we see in the description of the 'Orangedrink
Lemondrink man' or 'bluegreyblue eyes'. This subversion of the usual rules of syntax
and grammar not only places us in a child's view of the world, but it also draws
attention to the role of language in colonialism. By corrupting standard use of English
(the colonial language of India) Roy is rebelling against colonial influence still present
in India, represented by characters such as Margaret Kochamma and Chacko who
always speak correctly.

Roy also employs a disjointed, non-sequential narrative style that echoes the
process of memory, especially the resurfacing of a previously suppressed, painful
memory. The story of three different generations is told simultaneously going back
and forth in time.[2]

The uncovering of the story of Sophie's death, concurrently with the forward-moving
story of Rahel's return to Ayemenem and reunion with Estha, creates a complex
narrative that emphasizes the difficulty of the subject of the story and the complexity
of the culture from which the story originates. Time is rendered somewhat static as
parts of one narrative line are intertwined through repetition and non-sequential
discovery. This is also part of the way Roy uses real-life places and people that she
has shifted and altered for use in the story. The story's many elements come
together to construct a diverse look at one instance of Indian culture and the effect of
the caste system on life and love during a time of post-colonialism. As the children
try to form their own identities, naming and renaming themselves in the process, Roy
places in parallel the effect of the process by intertwining the past and the present.

This process also echoes the progression of the Indian people, like that of all
cultures that try to find ways to maintain their traditions in a time of
increasing globalization.

Possible autobiographical elements[edit]

The God of Small Things is a work of fiction but some critics have tried to find
autobiographical parallels in the novel, while at the same, warning against drawing
any simplistic connections between the novel and the writer's life.[3] Some of the
similarities between Roy's life and that of the characters she creates include her own
Syrian Christian and Hindu lineage; the divorce of her parents when she and her
brother were very young; her return to the family home in Ayemenem after her
mother's divorce; and her education in an architectural school, to name a few.
[3]
Some critics also attribute the political awareness manifested in The God of Small
Things to Roy's early life-influences from her mother, who was an activist and
feminist.[3]

Reception[edit]
The God of Small Things received stellar reviews in major American
newspapers such as The New York Times (a "dazzling first novel",[4] "extraordinary",
"at once so morally strenuous and so imaginatively supple" [5]) and the Los Angeles
Times ("a novel of poignancy and considerable sweep" [6]), and in Canadian
publications such as the Toronto Star ("a lush, magical novel"[7]). Time named it one
of the best books of the year.[8] Critical response in the United Kingdom was less
positive, and the awarding of the Booker Prize caused controversy; Carmen Callil, a
1996 Booker Prize judge, called the novel "execrable", and The Guardian described
the contest as "profoundly depressing".[9] In India, the book was criticised especially
for its unrestrained description of sexuality by E. K. Nayanar,[10] then Chief Minister of
Roy's home state Kerala, where she had to answer charges of obscenity. [11] The book
has since been translated into Malayalam by Priya A. S., under the title Kunju
Karyangalude Odeythampuran.[12] [13] Some critics have pointed out that the reader
reviews of this book on bookseller websites are so extremely opposed at times that it
is difficult to imagine readers are saying this about the same book.[14]

In 2014, the novel was ranked in The Telegraph as one of the 10 all-time greatest
Asian novels.[15] On 5 November 2019, the BBC News listed The God of Small
Things on its list of the 100 most influential novels.[16] Emma Lee-Potter of The
Independent listed it as one of the 12 best Indian novels.[17]

In 2022, the novel was included on the "Big Jubilee Read" list of 70 books
by Commonwealth authors, selected to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II.
[18]

In popular culture[edit]
In 2013, Talkhiyaan, a Pakistani television series based on the novel, was aired
on Express Entertainment.

The band Darlingside credits the novel as the inspiration for their song "The God of
Loss".[19]

See also[edit]
 Caste system in India

References[edit]
1. ^ Roy, Arundhati (1997). The God of Small Things. New Delhi: IndiaInk.
p. 37. ISBN 8186939024.

2. ^ Lipson Freed, Joanne (2011). "The Ethics of Identification:: The Global Circulation of
Traumatic Narrative in Silko's Ceremony and Roy's The God of Small Things". Comparative
Literature Studies. 48 (2): 219–
240. doi:10.5325/complitstudies.48.2.0219. JSTOR 10.5325/complitstudies.48.2.0219.

3. ^ Jump up to:a b c Tickell, Alex (2007). Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things. London
New York: Routledge Taylor and Francis Group. pp. 13. ISBN 978-0-415-35842-2.

4. ^ Kakutani, Michiko (3 June 1997). "Melodrama as Structure for Subtlety". The New York
Times.
5. ^ Truax, Alice (25 May 1997). "A Silver Thimble in Her Fist". The New York Times.

6. ^ Eder, Richard (1 June 1997). "As the world turns: rev. of The God of Small Things". Los
Angeles Times. p. 2. Retrieved 18 January 2010.

7. ^ Carey, Barbara (7 June 1997). "A lush, magical novel of India". Toronto Star. p. M.21.

8. ^ "Books: The best of 1997". Time. 29 December 1997. Archived from the original on 6
March 2008. Retrieved 18 January 2010.

9. ^ "The scene is set for the Booker battle". BBC News. 24 September 1998. Retrieved 18
January 2010.

10. ^ Kutty, N. Madhavan (9 November 1997). "Comrade of Small Jokes". The Indian
Express. Archived from the original on 5 June 2000. Retrieved 18 January 2010.

11. ^ Bumiller, Elisabeth (29 July 1997). "A Novelist Beginning with a Bang". The New York
Times. Retrieved 18 January 2010.

12. ^ Basheer, K. P. M. (3 January 2012). "Estha, Rahel now speak Malayalam". The Hindu.
Retrieved 20 July 2015.

13. ^ "BBC toasts Indian literature".

14. ^ Tickell, Alex (2007). Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things. UK USA Canada:
Routledge Taylor and Francis Group. pp. xiii. ISBN 978-0203004593.

15. ^ "10 best Asian novels of all time". The Telegraph. 22 April 2014. Retrieved 6
December 2020.

16. ^ "100 'most inspiring' novels revealed by BBC Arts". BBC News. 5 November 2019.
Retrieved 10 November 2019. The reveal kickstarts the BBC's year-long celebration of literature.

17. ^ Lee-Potter, Emma (5 August 2020). "12 best Indian novels that everyone needs to
read". The Independent. Archived from the original on 18 June 2022. Retrieved 23
December 2020.

18. ^ "The Big Jubilee Read: A literary celebration of Queen Elizabeth II's record-breaking
reign". BBC. 17 April 2022. Retrieved 15 July 2022.

19. ^ Boilen, Bob (29 October 2015). "First Watch: Darlingside, 'God of Loss'". npr.org.
Retrieved 25 April 2017. The character Velutha is tangled in a web of familial, cultural and
romantic loyalties. The lyrics for 'The God of Loss' were inspired by Velutha's attempts to
preserve his humanity in the face of those competing forces.