THE GOD OF SMALL THINGS

Arundhati Roy

"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 God of Small Things (1997) is a novel by Indian author Arundhati Roy. It is a story about the
childhood experiences of a pair of fraternal twins who become victims of circumstance. The book is a
description of how the small things in life build up, translate into people's behavior and affect their
lives. The book won the Booker Prize in 1997. One of the chapters in the book is also called "The God
of small things".

The God of Small Things is Roy's first book, and as of 2010, is her only novel. Completed in 1996, the
book took four years to write. The potential of the story was first recognized by Pankaj Mishra, an
editor with HarperCollins, who sent it to three British publishers. Roy received half-a-million pounds in
advances, and rights to the book were sold in 21 countries.

While generally praised, the book did receive some criticism for its verbosity and controversial subject
matter.

e story primarily takes place in a town named Ayemenem or Aymanam now part

of Kottayam in Kerala state of India. The temporal setting shifts back and forth from 1969, when
fraternal twins Rahel and Estha are seven years old, to 1993, when the twins are reunited at age 31.
Much of the story is written in a viewpoint sympathetic to the seven-year-old children.Malayalam words
are liberally used in conjunction with English. Prominent facets of Kerala life that the novel captures
are Communism, the caste system, and the Keralite Syrian Christian way of life.

This plot summary places the events in chronological order, though the novel shifts around in time.
The pivot of the story had appeared earlier, in The Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy.

Without sufficient dowry for a marriage proposal, Ammu becomes desperate to escape her ill-
tempered father and bitter, long-suffering mother. Finally, she convinces her parents to let her spend a
summer with a distant aunt in Calcutta. To avoid returning to Ayemenem, she marries a man who
assists managing a tea estate (who she later discovers to be a heavy alcoholic, who beats her and
attempts to prostitute her to his boss so that he can keep his job). She gives birth to two
children, dizygotic twins Estha and Rahel, but ultimately leaves her husband and returns to live with
her mother and brother in Ayemenem.

Also living at the house with Ammu, Chacko, and Mammachi, is Pappachi's sister: Baby Kochamma
(Kochamma is an honorific name for a female). As a young girl, Baby Kochamma had fallen in love
with Father Mulligan, a young Irish priest who had come to Ayemenem to study Hindu scriptures. In
order to get closer to him, Baby Kochamma, against her father's wishes, became a Roman Catholic
and joined a convent. It then became apparent that she couldn't compete with the others there, for his
attention. Physically sick - because of convent food, lonely and depressed, she wrote several times to
her parents. Her father eventually pulled her out, and sent her to the US for an education, since, to his
mind, no one would accept her as a wife anyway. She came back, two years later with a degree in
ornamental gardening, extremely large, and still in love with Father Mulligan.(Father Mulligan later
converts to Hinduism). Because of her own misfortunes, Baby Kochamma delights in the misfortune of
others. She also hates those who she sees as unfortunate - like the twins, Estha and Rahel.

While studying at Oxford, Chacko had fallen in love and married an English woman named Margaret.
Shortly after the birth of their daughter Sophie Mol (Mol is an affectionate way of calling daughter),
Chacko and Margaret get a divorce (Margaret having fallen in love with another man, Joe, whilst
pregnant). Unable to find a job, Chacko returns to India to teach. Chacko never stops loving Margaret,
and the two of them keep in touch (even though she no longer sees him in a romantic light). After the
death of Pappachi, Chacko returns to Ayemenem and expands his mother's pickling business into an
ultimately unsuccessful pickle factory called Paradise Pickles and Preserves.

Margaret remarries, but her husband Joe is killed in an accident. Chacko invites the grieving Margaret
and Sophie to spend Christmas in Ayemenem. On the way to the airport, the family (Chacko, Ammu,
Estha, Rahel, and Baby Kochamma) encounters a group of communist protesters. The protesters
surround the family car and force Baby Kochamma to wave a red flag and chant a communist slogan.
She is humiliated and begins to harbor a deep hatred towards Velutha (a man from the factory), who
Rahel claims to have seen in the crowd. After this, the family visits a theater playing "The Sound of
Music", where Estha is molested by the "Orangedrink Lemondrink man" (the food vendor).

Velutha is an untouchable (the lowest caste), a dalit. His family has been working for Chacko's for
generations. Velutha is extremely gifted with his hands, an accomplished carpenter and mechanic.
Unlike other untouchables, Velutha has a self-assured air. While his skills with repairing the machinery
have made him indispensable at the pickle factory, there is a lot of hostility about the fact that he is an
untouchable working in a factory of touchables who resent him. His self-assured air does not help.

Rahel and Estha look up to Velutha and he becomes a father figure to them. This relationship is
further solidified figuratively on the day of Margaret and Sophie's arrival. Ammu and Velutha realize
that they are attracted to one another.

When her intimate relationship with Velutha is discovered, Ammu is tricked and locked in her room
and Velutha is banished. When the twins ask their mother why she has been locked up, Ammu (in her
rage) blames them as the reason why she cannot be free and screams at them to go away. She says
they are the two millstones around her neck, and she says she should have taken them to an
orphanage the day they were born. Rahel and Estha decide to run away, and Sophie convinces them
to take her with them. During the night, while trying to reach an abandoned house across the river,
their boat capsizes and Sophie drowns. The twins cannot find her. Wearily, they fall asleep at the
abandoned house where they had already been storing food and toys in preparation for their
departure. They are unaware that Velutha is there as well, for it is where he secretly meets with
Ammu.
When Sophie's body is discovered, Baby Kochamma goes to the police and accuses Velutha of being
responsible for Sophie's death. She claims that Velutha attempted to rape Ammu, threatened the
family, and kidnapped the children. A group of policemen hunt Velutha down and savagely beat him
for crossing caste lines. The twins witness this terrible scene, and are deeply affected.

When the twins reveal the truth of Sophie's death to the chief of police, he is alarmed. He knows that
Velutha is a communist, and is afraid that the wrongful arrest and impending death of Velutha will
cause a riot amongst the local communists. He threatens Baby Kochamma, telling her that unless she
gets the children to change their story, she will be held responsible for falsely accusing Velutha of the
crime. Baby Kochamma tricks Rahel and Estha into believing that unless they accuse Velutha of
Sophie's death, they and Ammu will all be sent to jail. Estha bears an even heavier burden, when at
the police station he is called in to respond "yes" to police questioning that will reveal Velutha as guilty.
Not only does he carry the extra guilt of being forced into testifying against Velutha, but he also sees
the aftermath of the police beating. Velutha dies from his injuries.

However, Baby Kochamma has underestimated Ammu's love for Velutha. Hearing of his arrest, Ammu
goes to the police to tell the truth about their relationship. The policemen abuse her and asks her to
leave the matter alone. Afraid of being exposed, Baby Kochamma convinces Chacko to believe that
Ammu and the twins are responsible for his daughter's death. Chacko forces Ammu to leave the
house. Ammu, unable to find a job, is forced to send Estha to live with his father. Estha never sees
Ammu again, as she dies alone and impoverished a few years later.

Rahel, when grown up, leaves for the US, gets married, divorced and finally returns to Ayemenem
after several years working as a waitress in an Indian restaurant and as a night clerk at a gas station.
Rahel and Estha, both 31 at this time, are reunited for the first time since they were 7 years old. Both
Estha and Rahel have been damaged by their past, and by this time Estha has become perpetually
silent because of his traumatic childhood. The twins stay together for most of a day and it is implied
that their intimacy grows culminating in incest.

This book is basically about love. Although the book is tragic, it is a most beautiful love story. The
beauty of Ammu and Velutha's love for each other is that it is forbidden. It is a wild and dangerous
love. This is what gives it its special flavor and intensity. Arundhati Roy gives the reader a deeper
understanding of all of the different dimensions of love.

Chacko's love for Margaret is forgiving and undemanding. No matter how badly Margaret has hurt him,
he will always be there for her. His love is secure and comforting. Baby Kochamma finds a meaning to
her life through an impossible and unrequited love for a priest. Life without love is no life at all.

The book speaks about family love. Here readers see the love between brother and sister. Rahel and
Estha's love for each other is so strong and deep that they instinctively know what each other is
thinking and doing. Ammu's love for her children is so deep and demanding that they all seem to
belong to each other body and soul.
Other examples of love are found throughout the book. Mammachi dotes on her son, Chacko. He is
her world who can do no wrong. Chacko adores his daughter Sophie, though he doesn't really know
her at all. Chacko's love for his niece and nephew is simple and cheerful. Rahel and Estha feel they
should love Sophie, simply because she is their cousin. Velutha's tender and unselfish love for the
twins is a reflection of his love for their mother.

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 a very special insight into the happenings and
characters. The are various moments which cross each other all through the book. One moment is in
1969 when Rahel is a seven-year-old child. At these moments everything is seen through a child's eye
with a child's feelings and rationale. Facts, objects and people are seen in a complete different light.
The child's view gives the book a very special charm and poignancy. It also brings in moments of light
comic scenes.

Another moment is twenty-three years later of an adult woman, searching for something she has lost
in her childhood. The adult's eye is more critical.

The story is set in the small town of Ayemenem in the Kerala province, southwest India. The main part
of the plot takes place in 1969, a time when the caste system in India was still very strongly imbedded.
It is also the time of increased awareness around the world and a peak of communist ideology and
influence.

India is a very complex society with various cultural and religious habits and beliefs. Hindus,
Buddhists, Christians and Muslims share the same space. Society is divided not only by the very strict
caste system but also by class consciousness. There are a number of languages 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,where the story is set itself has a complex social setup with
Hindus, Muslims and Christians having lifestyle and traditions different from each other. It also has a
considerably larger number of Christian population compared to other parts of India,
predominantly Saint Thomas Christians.

Arundhati Roy describes her book as "an inextricable mix of experience and imagination."

The book is divided into twenty-one chapters. Some chapters have subdivisions in them. Other
chapters are very short. The story is not told in a linear time frame. The author takes the reader back
and forth from the present to the past. Facts, thoughts and recollections are interrupted in one chapter
and further expanded on a few chapters later.

At certain points, Roy follows no sentence or paragraph rules. This deviation from a formal style
serves to enhance the atmosphere of the book.

In the first chapter, Roy gives readers an outline of the story. The other chapters have no
chronological order. The last chapter, depicting the love scene, is actually the middle of the story itself.
It ends the telling of a very sad story in a beautiful way. There is no real end to the story itself. The
author lets the reader imagine what the future may hold for Rahel and Estha. Will they ever find
happiness and how?

The author has structured the novel in this way in order to put more emphasis on the events that lead
up to the story, the consequences and the characters themselves involved. This is very effectively
accomplished.