Theme Of Alienation In 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.

Rajam Krishnan occupies an important place among Tamil women novelists. She was born in 1925 Musiri, Trichy district of Tamil Nadu. Her childhood and early adult life were remarkably traditional. Her education was interrupted by her marriage at the age of fourteen. Rajam Krishnan writes that it was “unthinkable that a girl brought up in a conventional middle-class Brahmin family in a village would become a writer”- especially in her case, since she was the youngest member of a joint family. “I had to toil with humility and perseverance, obeying all my husband’s people, to earn a good name and add to my family’s honour and pride…I was calm outside, discharging my duties in the house, but there was a turmoil inside.” Things eased a little within the household when, in 1950, one

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.

Arundhati Roy was born in 1961, her mother a Christian woman a native of Kerala and her father was Hindu from Bengal. Because of the divorce of her parents, Arundhati spent her early years in Aymanam with her mom. The influence of her childhood years are revealed her writings structurally and thematically.

God has bifurcated sex into male and female whereas man has named in the sex and the fair sex or the superior and the inferior or the first and the second sex. The gender inequality has created unlawful male authority over women. The chief tasks of women were childbearing, rearing, and to satiate every desire of their husbands. This confinement of women made them mere servants of the superior sex. Education is one big question that haunts Amitav Ghosh. According to Amitav Ghosh education is memorization of facts at one level. It is a tool to get a livelihood. It sharpens human sensitivities. It kindles social consciousness in children. Education uplifts living standards of Indian masses and save them from nightmarish depths of poverty, ignorance and disease. Thus we find that through the women characters of his novel Sea of Poppies Ghosh wants to focuses on the evils of Indian society or the falls conception of Indian society about women. All women characters in Sea of Poppies show the real sufferings of women either by their family or by their society. All the human sufferings are the impediments on their way of

Mr. Argyle focuses on various themes and comparisons presented in Nectar in a Sieve and juxtaposed them to the ones in Thomas Mann’s poems. By doing so, he elucidates that there is another way to perceive life and not to mundane idea that the destiny of a man is determined by the politics around him. Based on the depth of the analysis he makes, the author’s intended audience would include scholars, and people who are familiar with Indian culture and the distinct association of poverty with social classes. Additionally, he does assume that his audience is familiar with the religious aspects on Indian life. He presents a critical view on how fate and time play crucial roles in this ever-changing life Rukmani and her husband, Nathan experience.

Arundhati Roy begins her novel The God of Small Things with a quote from English author John Berger: “Never again will a single story be told as though it’s the only one.” The novel takes this quote to heart, consisting not of a single story but a fragmentary plotline weaving in and out of the lives of all of its characters, traversing the twenty-four year span between 1969 and 1993. The stories center in the town of Ayemenem in Kerala, India, and follow members of the wealthy Christian Ipe family. The thread of the deep past, woven in between snatches of the present, follows the life of Imperial Entomologist Shri Benaan John Ipe, known throughout the novel as Pappachi, who he

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 The God of Small Things explores the tragic lives of twins Estha and Rahel through a profound application of language and detail. Roy’s utterly unique writing style reels the reader in through hard to grasp yet beautiful language, allowing one to appreciate the beauty within such a tragic story. Roy repeats a specific phrase throughout the novel at pivotal moments within the twin’s, specifically Estha’s, lives. This phrase, “Little Man. He lived in a cara-van. Dum dum”, is utilized by Roy to explain the trauma experienced by Estha, and the effect it has on him as a character. Each section of the phrase represents a specific aspect of each situation it accompanies, making it necessary to explore each portion on its own.

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.

Arundhati Roy’s magnum opus “The God of Small Thing” presents the grim reality of India. The novel basically deals with caste and gender discrimination. Full of autobiographical elements and set in a small town Ayemenem near Kottayam in Kerala, the novel depicts the deplorable condition of women. Women are treated here as second grade citizens and they have to bow down before the male supremacy. The novel portrays the Syrian Christian family living in Ayemenem House, with the blind old Mamachi, widow of the ambitious entomologist Pappachi presiding over it who is also the owner of Paradise Pickles, a factory of her own. Mammachi has one son named Chacko and one daughter named Ammu. Ammu leaves the house, goes to Calcutta and marries

Unlike other writers such as Mulk Raj Anand, Arundhati Roy presents politics as a very complex force. It is operative at different levels. This politics begins with home. This is manipulated by different people for different ends. The novel portrays the forces of power working in alliance in the novel.

In the story “The God of Small Things," the term family can be defined as persons that an individual cares about. The obligations of the family members appear to be influenced by the bold ties. Despite the disputes among some family members, the blood ties obligate them to express care and love towards one another. Just like in real life situations, the novel explains that family relations can be frustrating, complicated, and confusing. In most cases, it is apparent that most individuals are forced by the family ties to stick together. The failure to express care towards one another is seen as one of the factors that prompt families to fall apart.

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