The God of Small Things

The God of Small Things is the encircling story of twins Estha and Rahel and their divorced mother, Ammu. These characters reside in the south Indian state of Kerala. The state of Kerala is well-established world wide for giving relative freedom to women. The Western reader may feel the female characters in this novel are still oppressed and restrained, but by Indian standards, they are a highly assertive and energetic bunch. Author Roy utilizes her story-telling talent to bring across their version of ways in which women have been hurt by male domination in India.

The character Ammu is a Syrian Christian; therefore, she has had no choice after her divorce except to return to her parental home. The man she had married, the father of Estha and Rahel was Hindu. The story itself centers on specific life events surrounding the visit and drowning death of the twins' half-English cousin, a girl of 9 named Sophie Mol. At the same time, Ammu begins a love affair with the family's carpenter, Velutha, who is known in India as a 'pariah' or rather a member of the Untouchable caste ("The God of Loss / The God of Small Things)." (p. 274)

The story is related to the reader from the perspective of the twins. It begins in present-day India and moves backward toward the drowning incident twenty-three years earlier - 1969. The drowning and the intertwined forbidden love affair have dire consequences: Estha stops speaking; Ammu is banished from her home, dying alone at age 31; Rahel

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's life after divorce. "Die-vorced?" His voice rose in such a high register that it cracked on the question mark. He even pronounced the word as though it was a form of death" (124). "She was [Estha and Rahel's] Ammu and their Baba and she had loved them Double" (155). Gender is defined as being all about the relationship between a man and a woman. In America, gender has been revolutionized. Men have defined roles in India. In America, women have pseudo-defined roles, with mobility and accessibility between gender roles. While it is still not equal, the American woman is afforded many more opportunities than the Indian woman. In India, men will have to be directly addressed in order to deconstruct the prescribed status quo gender roles, roles that have been constructed by men. One key to deconstructing gender role differences in India is by destigmatizing sex and sexuality while teaching males to respect women. Boys seem to have a certain freedom of sexual expression that cannot be actualized because girls are controlled and not permitted to interact with them. Since there is no plan towards sexual intimacy, any sexual opportunity is sought which often results in the male power show of control in coercive sex or rape.

Category: Literature - T