Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things

The novel revolves around two women, Mariam and Laila. The novel takes place during a terrible time to live in Afghanistan, but things were especially hard for women. Their lives brought together and are forced to live through unimaginable situations. At first, they didn’t get along, but then a beautiful friendship began. Their friendship would eventually be their salvation. They both experienced incredible character development. Mariam and Laila’s childhoods were very different, which is explains their characteristics in the novel. Laila’s modern upbringing gave her courage, which inspired Mariam to take action in both of their lives.

The simplistic plot of the novel and the overall theme of love allows the author to span the lives of the main characters. The reader sees the span of the life of two of the main characters, Sidda and her mother Vivi, as

On the other hand, it could be articulated that the female characters in both the novels have proved their mental instabilities, individualisms and rebelliousness have disturbed the lives of others. Moreover, it could be analyzed in the novels that both the author in their social context has explained the dark secrets of the life of individuals.

The novel brings out the themes of close friendship and family. It teaches the reader the extreme importance of having friends you can rely on when situations

Nonetheless, within the Hindu religion, women’s roles have evolved over time and women are going against the social norm of their tradition and their way of life in hopes of being treated in the same manner that Sikh women are within Sikhism (Desai, et al., 1995). Hindu women’s traditional roles in the household in India have changed over the past century. The influence of Western scholars as well as Sikhism views on women has brought change to the overall status and role of women in Hinduism so that Hindu women can be recognized in the same way that Sikhism women are. Western scholars who have studied Hinduism have written many books and articles on the sacred scriptures including reviews on the Vedas (hymns and ritual texts) and other religious scriptures that at one point were restricted from Hindu women.

The creator depicts the change of the most essential identity inside the story. While toward the starting he revels inside breaking down the uncouth books and needs to encounter the totally measure up to feelings so theirs courageous women, inverse that becomes oversea concerning an impact concerning the

It tells the story from the perspective of a young girl, who continuously gets scolded by her mother for going against social norms by writing. She continues to write despite the rebuke she receives from her mother because she hears the voices of the women who lived before her pleading her to continue writing. The girl explains that while most of her female family members experienced rape, they did not feel shame instead “They were singing, searching for meaning in the dust. And sometimes, they were talking to faces across the ages, faces like yours and mine.” (page 194). The reason these women did not feel shame was because they understood that while this act was horrible they needed to continue on with life in order to establish hope for the future generations that come after them. The reader gets to understand that life is cruel, but it is sometimes for the better. It also addresses this at the end of the epilogue when the girl’s mother has finished braiding her hair “..ask you to name each braid after those nine hundred and ninety-nine women who were boiling in your blood, and since you had written them down and memorized them, the name would come rolling off your tongue. And this was your testament to the way that these women lived and died and lived again.” (page 196) This shows the ultimate reward the people

The main conflict and the antagonist, her sister Lydia are both compelling because they make the memoir more personal to the author, which forces her to share feelings to the audience. Lydia’s character development from the guide to the antagonist who poses as a barrier to her sister in making peace with the past, gives the author tension within herself when she stated that “maybe harsh judgement is what [she] deserved” (235) as a part of her reflection of Lydia’s intolerance. The author sharing the tension with her sister gives readers a chance to understand her motivations for the memoir’s main plot. The realization that that she’s been haunting herself (250) gives the reader satisfaction because the author builds up tension very well where after many years feeling haunted by her past. While there is a rising action, a climax, and a falling action present, the amount of anecdotes overshadowed the main plot which made it hard to define these elements. However, the anecdotes did not detract from the main idea of the book, such as when the author saying that she believes “in spooks” (242) during a school reunion, which indicates that she was still plagued by how she could not make sense of the past, so this did not detract from the theme of being haunted by it. The way the author uses dramatic conflict greatly adds to the memoir’s quality by forcing her to share her feelings and many personal parts of her life, and this makes the reader understand her feelings toward the book’s entire

The lack of male presence symbolizes their disdain in the women’s lives. As portrayed in the book, the protagonist and other major characters are all females, suggesting self-sufficiency. The author writes about the women being left by their husbands, but moves on, depicting male triviality. The female characters also develop their independence when they rely on each other during difficult times.

The simplistic plot of the novel and the overall theme of love allows the author to span the lives of the main characters. The reader sees the span of the life of two of the main characters, Sidda and her mother

The array of themes lead to the idea of female independence and individuality. Throughout the novel, the themes of identity, feminism, and marriage and love come together to empower women and give them a

This book is so interesting to me both as a reader as a writer, but it is also hard to read. It is a novel that deals with a lot of powerful issues like sexual assault, misogyny, and a number of other things that are frankly hard to read. There are serious trigger warning attached to this book so please read with caution.

The resentment within the young girl’s family is essential to the novel because one can understand the young girl better as she makes her decision.

In The God of Small Things, Roy explores the idea of breaking boundaries by personifying the setting, focusing on everyday events, and manipulating the characters within society. The most predominant boundary in the novel remains the rigid social classes known as the caste system in Indian society. Roy gives each character a specific role to bring out the importance of the Love Laws, which set behavioral margins within the society.

The opening of the story begins with the return of Rahel to Ayemenem. Other significant scenes include the burial of Sophie and the case where the family members are reluctant to acknowledge Ammu and the twins. It is worth to note that during the time burial, Rahel had the view that Sophie was alive. Nonetheless, the events that unfold throughout the story can be defined as being based on the need to explain some themes. One of the themes relates to the position of the family. The author uses different concepts to develop Ammu at the beginning, in the middle, as well as at the end of the story. Some of the relationships that were explored by the author include the connections between brother and sister, grandparent and grandchild, and mother and child among other groups.