Reflection Of Arundhati Roy's The God Of Small Things

Mahasweta Devi’s short story, “Giribala,” is about the life of Giribala, a girl of Talsana village located in India. Born into a caste in a time when it was still customary to pay a bride-price, Giri is sold to Aulchand by her father. From this point on, we see a series of unfortunate, tragic events that take place in Giri’s life as a result of the circumstances surrounding Giri’s life. There are many issues in Giri’s life in India that Devi highlights to readers. First, the economic instability of the village leads to an extremely poor quality of life for the lower, working classes. Next, the cruel role of women determined by men in society is to either satisfy the sexual desires of men or to reproduce offspring who can work or be sold off to marriages. There are also other social norms and beliefs which discriminate against women that will be discussed.

As the car slowly drives down the unpaved driveway I turn around to look at the barefoot children running after the car. As the car slowly drives away and the children fade away a broad grin spreads across my face. Just two months ago I would not have even dreamed of setting up a library in a poor government school in the slums of the Indian city of Jaipur.

While The God of Small Things deals with social hierarchy and castes, as well as the laws and customs of India, it can be very difficult to follow with the different time periods. We read The God of Small Things in my sophomore English class as well, and even met its author, Arundhati Roy at a conference in Madison. For me the book tried too hard with symbolism, it overflowed with it. Too much symbolism can muddle the book, and can sometimes be even better if it is stripped bare to the basic meaning. To replace The God of Small Things I chose the Divergent series. Although based on a fictional Chicago, Divergent parallels The God of Small Things because it also has to deal with social hierarchy, although in Divergent they were divided into factions rather than castes. The series deals with many different aspects of personality, which also is a theme in The God of Small

This paper attempts to examine the fictional projections of Indian girls, to see how they emerge in ideological terms. Their journeys from self-alienation to self-adjustment, their childhood struggles against the hypocrisies and monstrosities of the grown-up world, eventually demolishing the unjust male constructed citadels of power that hinder their progress- are the highlighted issues. The point of comparison between the two novels focused on here is the journey of Rahel in The God of Small Things and Sai in The Inheritance from a lonely childhood to a tragic adulthood passing through a struggle with the complex forces of patriarchal society. Both the novels portray the imaginativeness, inventiveness, independence, rebelliousness, wide-eyed wonder and innocence associated with these young girls.

Men, like in many ancient and modern societies, had a higher importance than women and were considered more useful as they were stronger to handle manual labour. The Hindu scriptures dictate that while men and women have different responsibilities and roles within the community, they should both be treated with equal respect. However in reality, this was not always the case. Sea of Poppies addresses this issue with Deeti, the wife of a veteran and the mother of a daughter, Kabutri. Deeti is raped by her brother in law, Chandan, on her wedding night due to her husband’s infertility and is continuously harassed by him. With the quote “You need a son, to give you a helping hand. You're not barren, after all . . . “ (Ghosh, pg. 11), his prejudice against women as well as his pervasive tendencies towards women emphasise the attitudes of people in mid 19th century India, especially men, that tended to denigrate the role of women. Although Sea of Poppies and Their Eyes were Watching God are set in different cultures, they both portray the privation of women and the damaging effects it can have on an individual. Through the incorporation of accurate historical context, the audience is able to evaluate the treatment of women and men in the modern

Little 1 Auzurae Little Professor Strange English 103 17 September 2014 Knowledge is Freedom People pay a lot of attention to their community and surroundings, especially as young children. They pick up habits and daily rituals from their family and friends. People talk like their loved ones using the same slang in relation to their area. Authors place of origin tend to influence their work.

The readability of Hard to Be a God is partly assured by the sense its implied reader has of being ‘in the know.’ The disguise and secrecy essential to allegory invest its hidden message with a rhetorical power it would not necessarily possess on its own (Gomel).” The decision to interweave these parallels and minute details into Hard to Be a God to make it possible to draw these allusions to actual historical events makes it immensely more powerful and imaginative as an allegorical film appealing to, in this case, the Soviet intellectuals who were capable of reading more in-depth into the text. It’s form as an allegory and a film naturally lends a sense of responsibility and power to the audience to perhaps not just be conscious about the dangers of intellectual suppression and indifferent individuals, but to create an active discussion about these certain topics and cultivate

In this chapter, the author discusses how symbols can hold multiple meanings and interpretations, in which they are displayed in the novel through characters’ actions as well as objects and images. With not only the associations readers have but also the emotional reactions they experience, the audience can engage in symbolic imagination while questioning the text in order to expose a greater purpose. This is shown through Jhumpa Lahiri’s novel, The Namesake. In Gogol Ganguli’s account of depicting the life he led as a son of an immigrant, he illustrates the challenges he faces as he betrays his old identity for a new one. Throughout his journey and the journey

This upheaval of identity can be seen in way the colonial trauma pervades the social, political, and cultural environment depicted in The God of Small Things. The social, political, and cultural environments in turn invade the lives of the characters of the novel. The Indian caste system and the love laws, for instance, are driving forces in one of the main conflicts of the novel. The caste system, which was existed in its present form in the novel due to the British colonists favoring certain castes above others, categorized groups of people within Indian society and classified some as superior to others, with the Untouchables being the lowest classification of the human. The love laws determined “who should be loved, and how. And how much” (Roy 33). These histories work in tandem to create the tragedy of Ammu, the twins’ mother, and Velutha’s, an Untouchable and friend to the twins, doomed relationship. Because of these socially constructed class structures, Ammu and Velutha’s relationship was forbidden and when Velutha’s father, Vellya, informs Mamacchi and Baby Kochamma of their relationship, they are completely horrified. Vellya’s relationship with the Ipe Family also somewhat parallels the colonized people’s relationship with the colonizer. Vellya, as an Untouchable, occupies a lower social position than the Ipe Family and sees them as superior. By informing the Mamacchi about her daughter and his son’s relationship, he maintains the social class structures and the

This essay focuses on the theme of forbidden love, The God of Small Things written by Arundhati Roy. This novel explores love and how love can’t be ignored when confronted with social boundaries. The novel examines how conventional society seeks to destroy true love as this novel is constantly connected to loss, death and sadness. This essay will explore the theme of forbidden love, by discussing and analysing Ammu and Velutha's love that is forbidden because of the ‘Love Laws’ in relation to the caste system which results in Velutha’s death. It is evident that forbidden love negatively impacts and influences other characters, such as Estha and Rahel, which results in Estha and Rahel’s incestuous encounter.

Arundhati Roy’s novel The God of Small Things presents the reader with the realities of Marxism. Roy gives the reader an impression of three possible manifestations of the ideology, rather than presenting a biased reading for or against Marxism. Through Roy’s novel the reader comes to understand Marxism as it appears through Velutha, the oppressed worker, Chacko the Marxist-in-name only, and Comrade Pillai, the corrupt politician.

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 God of Small Things may be seen through another perspective of a political story in the sense that“politics intervenes in the basic social issues. One of the major social issues is centrally concerned with the untouchables. Compulsions transcend the limits of party, ideology. These leaders act as any, other leader would irrespective of party. In it, Roy engages with the political legacy of communism in Kerala. Her satirical portrayal of E.M.S. Namboodiripad, the first Chief Minister and his party followers created many controversies. The novel is about politics. Through its various agencies, this politics exercises decisive influence over the lives of the people of Ayemenem.

The God of Small Things can be defined to have featured numerous themes and styles that allow authors to communicate with audiences effectively. It entails a story of a family that loves in Ayemenem, a town in Kerala India. This paper seeks to offer a detailed analysis of the above story in term of themes, styles, characters, and other elements that are featured by the authors. Some of the significant characters that are featured in the story include Sophie, Rahel, Ammu, and Cochin among other individuals (Arundhati, 15).

In the novel The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy, the reader notices the differences between the modern American view of politics and society between the politics and society in the novel. This novel takes place in the southwestern part of India in a town called Kerala and is focused on the wealthy family of the Syrian Christian Ipe family of Ayemenem. Within this family, many of them have problems in their lives and as a result, go to the house once their problems have taken a turn for the worse. A major theme of this story is the society of India and the caste system that is in place. Some characters that were majorly affected by the caste system are a woman named Ammu and her two children, Estha and Rahel along with an Untouchable named Velutha. Besides the caste system Ammu and her children must worry about the social system and the outcomes of actions that are not socially acceptable. Another recurring theme of this novel is the change in political stances in the country of India and how it affects the characters. Since the Ipe family is wealthy, they own a factory called “Paradise Pickles and Preserves” and some character struggles revolves around the fact that there is a motion for a change in politics. Although the novel can be understood on its own, it makes it more understandable if the reader learns about the political history of India and an understanding of the caste system. Besides the political history and caste system the view on gender in the country of