The God of Small Things

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The God of Small Things

Author	Arundhati Roy
Country	India
Language	English
Genre(s)	Novel
Publisher	Flamingo Pubs (UK)
Publication date	9 June 1997
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages	321 pp
ISBN	ISBN 0-00-225586-3

The God of Small Things (1997) is a semi-autobiographical, politically charged 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.

The God of Small Things is Roy's first book, and as of 2006, is her only novel. Completed in 1996, the book took four years to write. The quality of the writing was first recognized by Pankaj Mishra, an editor with HarperCollins, who sent it to three British publishers. Roy received half-a-million pounds (approx. $970,000 USD) in advances, and rights to the book were sold in 21 countries.

[edit] Plot summary

The 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 Rahel and Estha, a set of fraternal twins are 7 years old, to 1993, when the twins are reunited at age 31. Much of the story is written in a viewpoint sympathetic to the 7-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.

Shri Benaan John Ipe (referred to as Pappachi, which means grandfather), an imperial entomologist prior to his retirement, fathered Ammu and Chacko with his wife, Shoshamma Ipe (referred to as Mammachi, which means grandmother). Pappachi has been bitter since his discovery of a new species of moth was dismissed and then credited to someone else. His facade of being a perfect husband and father, hides his abusive tendencies towards his family (especially in respect to Mammachi). One night, while Pappachi is beating his wife, Chacko, Ammu's brother, a Rhodes scholar home from Oxford University stops him and tells him to never do it again. From then on, till his death, Pappachi never hits nor speaks to Mammachi again. He also refuses to let Ammu continue with her college education, so she is forced to return home to Ayemenem.

Ammu becomes desperate to escape the house, and finally convinces her parents to let her spend a summer with an Aunt in Calcutta. There, she marries a man who manages a tea estate (who she later discovers to be a heavy alcoholic, who beats her and tries to prostitute her to her 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 the sister of Pappachi, 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 became a Roman Catholic and joined a convent. Father Mulligan though, becomes a Hindu, adding a ironic twist to her actions. She quickly realized the futility of her plans though, and returned home, though she never stopped loving Father Mulligan. Because of her own misfortunes, Baby Kochamma delights in the misfortune of others.

While studying at Oxford, Chacko had fallen in love and married an English woman - Margaret Kochamma. Shortly after the birth of their daughter Sophie Mol (Mol means girl), Chacko and Margaret get a divorce (since Margaret has fallen in love with another man, named Joe, while she was 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 as a romantic interest). When Pappachi dies, Chacko returns to Ayemenem and expands his mother's pickling business into a pickle factory (which is ultimately unsuccessful) called Paradise Pickles and Preserves.

Margaret remarries, but her husband (Joe) is killed in an accident. The grieving Margaret and Sophie are invited by Chacko to spend Christmas in Ayemenem. On the way to the airport, the family (Chacko, Ammu, Estha, Rahel, Mammachi, 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 theatre playing "The Sound of Music", where Estha is sexually abused by the "Orangedrink Lemondrink man" (The candy bar worker).

Velutha is an untouchable (the lowest caste), a paravan. 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. Unable to conform to his father's idea of the proper behavior for an untouchable, Velutha disappears. (Only to reappear after his brother becomes paralyzed from an accident.) Velutha becomes indispensable at the pickle factory, as the one who fixes all the machinery. Because of his easy-going nature, Velutha befriends Rahel and Estha. Around the time of Margaret and Sophie's arrival, Ammu recognizes a sudden attraction to Velutha.

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. 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 search all night for Sophie, but cannot find her. Wearily, they fall asleep at the abandoned house. They are unaware that Velutha is there as well, for it is where he secretly meets with Ammu.

When Sophie's body is discovered in the morning, Baby Kochamma goes to the local police station and accuses Velutha for Sophie's death. She claims that Velutha attempted to rape Ammu, threatened the family, and kidnapped the children. A group of policemen are sent out to look for Velutha. When he is found, they savagely beat him for crossing the caste lines. The twins witness this terrible scene, and are deeply affected.

When Rahel and Estha 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, Ammu and they will both be sent to jail. She tells them that Velutha will not live through the night anyway. Eager to save their mother, the children testify against Velutha. Velutha dies from his injuries.

However, Baby Kochamma has underestimated Ammu's love for Velutha. Hearing of his arrest, Ammu comes to the station to tell the truth about their relationship. She is told by the police to leave the matter alone. Afraid of being exposed, Baby Kochamma convinces the grieving Chacko that Ammu and the twins are responsible for his daughter's death. Chacko forces Ammu to leave the house.

Ammu, finding employment difficult, is forced to send Estha to her divorced husband (separating the twins). Not able to make ends meet, Ammu dies alone in a hotel room a few years later. The church refuses to bury her corpse.

Rahel, when grown up, leaves for the US, gets married, divorced and finally (after several years working as a waitress in an Indian restaurant and as a night clerk at a gas station) returns to Ayemenem. Rahel and Estha, who are both 31 at that 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 experiences). The twins stay together for most of a day, and that night they commit incest with one another.

[edit] Characters in "The God of Small Things"

Ammu - Rahel and Estha's mother, sister of Chacko, daughter of Pappachi and Mammachi.
Baba - Rahel and Estha's father, tried to prostitute Ammu and beat her, later re-married, of a lower caste than Ammu
Baby Kochamma (Navomi Ipe) - Pappachi's sister -- aunt to Chacko and Ammu, and grand-aunt to Sophie Mol, Estha, and Rahel.
Chacko - Brother to Ammu, son of Pappachi and Mammachi, father to Sophie Mol and divorced from Margaret Kochamma
Comrade Pillai - Leader of the local communist party.
Estha (Esthappen Yako) - Rahel's twin brother, son of Ammu and Baba
Father Mulligan- Baby Kochamma's love interest. A Roman Catholic
Joe - Second husband of Margaret.
Kari Saipu - English paedophile who lived in the History House before Estha and Rahel arrived in Ayemenem; Vellya Pappen pins his ghost to a tree with his sickle, and there the ghost remains asking for a cigar
Kochu Maria - Housekeeper to Mammachi, Chacko, and Baby Kochamma.
Larry McCaslin - ex-husband of Rahel, travels to India to teach and falls in love with Rahel, bringing her back to the USA with him
Mammachi (Shoshamma Ipe) - Blind. Wife of Pappachi, mother of Chacko and Ammu, grandmother of Estha, Rahel, and Sophie Mol. Also founder of the family pickle factory.
Margaret Kochamma - Chacko's ex-wife, mother of Sophie Mol.
Murlidharan - A homeless, insane person who crouches naked on the welcome sign for Cochin. He carries the keys to his last residence around his waist expectantly
Orangedrink Lemondrink Man - Paedophile from Estha's past
Pappachi (Shri Benaan John Ipe) - Father to Chacko and Ammu, grandfather to Estha, Rahel, and Sophie Mol. He was an imperial entomologist.
Rahel - Estha's twin sister, daughter of Ammu and Baba, divorced from Larry McCaslin.
Sophie Mol - The twins' cousin, daughter of their uncle Chacko and Margaret Kochamma.
Inspector Thomas Mathew - The police inspector who interviews Baby Kochamma on the night Velutha dies. He is somewhat ambivalent about his men's practices of beating Untouchables nearly to death without having a substantiated reason
Urumban - Velutha's imaginary twin brother.
Velutha - The title character, local carpenter, an untouchable (lower social caste) by birth.
Velya Paapen- Velutha's father, a Paravan

[edit] External links

A study guide, which explains many Indian terms and concepts
Discussion on various issues depicted in Arundhati Roy's latest novel the god of small things including reviews, examination of contemporary and ancient Indian problems in relation to the novel.