The god of small things

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The God of Small Things (The God of Small Things, 1997) is a novel written in English by the Indian writer Arundhati Roy, which tells the childhood experiences of two twin brothers in the state of Kerala, essentially during a few days in 1969. The book, which won the 1997 Booker, is a description of how the little things in life add up, They influence people's behavior and affect their lives.

The God of Small Things is Roy's first novel. Completed in 1996, it took him four years to write it. Pankaj Mishra, head of HarperCollins, saw the potential in Roy's story and pitched it to three British publishers. The writer received half a million pounds in advance and the rights to the book were sold in 21 countries. Although widely praised, the book also received some criticism for its verbosity and controversial subject matter^{[citation required]}.

Argument

The story takes place mainly in a village called Ayemenem or Aymanam, in Kottayam, in the Kerala state of India. The time of the novel moves between the year 1969, when the twins Rahel and Estha are seven years old, and 1993, when the twins meet again at the age of 31. Much of the story is written from the children's perspective. The words of the Malayalam language are used freely and together with English. The novel captures various aspects of life in Kerala such as communism, caste system and Syrian Orthodox Christianity.

Summary

This plot summary places the events in chronological order, although the novel changes over time. The core of the story had appeared before, in The Prince of Tides, by Pat Conroy^{[citation needed]}.

The time of the novel moves between the year 1969, when the twins Rahel and Estha are seven years old, and 1993, when the twins are reunited at the age of 31. Much of the story is written from the children's perspective.

Shri Benaan John Ipe (called Pappachi, meaning grandfather), an imperial entomologist before his retirement, had two children, Ammu and Chacko, with his wife Shoshamma Ipe (called Mammachi, meaning grandmother). Pappachi was bitter because, after discovering a new species of moth, he was fired and his discovery attributed to someone else. Behind his facade of being a perfect husband he hides an abusive father towards his family, especially towards Mammachi whom he mistreats. One night, when Pappachi is beating his wife, Chacko, Ammu's brother, stops him and tells him not to do it again. From then on, until his death, Pappachi never hit him or spoke to his wife again. He also refuses to allow Ammu, her daughter, to continue her university education, and she is forced to return home to Ayemenem. Without enough dowries for a marriage proposal, Ammu was desperate to escape her father's bad mood and her mother's suffering. She finally 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 helps manage a tea estate (who is later discovered to be an alcoholic, who mistreats her and tries to prostitute her to her boss so as not to be fired from his job.). Together they have twin children, Estha and Rahel. She eventually abandons her husband and returns to live with her mother, her brother Chacko and Pappachi's sister: Baby Kochamma, in Ayemenem.

When she was young, Baby Kochamma fell 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 converted to Catholicism and entered a convent. Father Mulligan, however, returns to the United States. She quickly realized the futility of his plans and returned home, although she never stopped loving him. Because of her own misfortunes, Baby Kochamma enjoys the misfortunes of others.

While studying at Oxford, Chacko fell in love with and subsequently married an English woman named Margaret. Shortly after his daughter Sophie Mol was born, Chacko and Margaret divorced, as Margaret had fallen in love with another man, Joe, whom she later married. Chacko, unable to find work in the UK, returns to India to teach. He never stopped loving Margaret and the two stayed in touch. After Pappachi's death, Chacko returns to Ayemenem and expands his mother's pickle business, turning it into a failed jam and preserves factory called “Paradise Pickles and Preserves.”

Joe, Margaret's husband dies in an accident. Chacko invites Margaret and her daughter Sophie to spend Christmas in Ayemenem. On the way to the airport, the family (Chacko, Ammu, Estha, Rahel and Baby Kochamma) encounter a group of communist protesters. They surround the family car and force Baby Kochamma to wave a red flag and shout a communist slogan. She feels humiliated and begins to harbor a deep hatred towards Velutha, a cannery worker, whom Rahel claims to have seen in the crowd. Later at the cinema, while the family is watching The Sound of Music, the Ambigú soda seller (the 'Lemonade and Orange Man') sexually abuses Estha, when he is alone, and forces him to masturbate.

Velutha is an outcast, an untouchable. His family has worked for Chacko for generations. He has great talent with his hands, is an accomplished carpenter and a very good mechanic and has become indispensable in the pickle factory due to his skill with repairing machinery. Rahel and Estha admire Velutha and become friends with him. On the day of Margaret and Sophie's arrival, Ammu and Velutha realize that they are attracted to each other. When the intimate relationship between them is discovered, Ammu is tricked and locked in her room and Veluhta is banished. When the twins, Ammu's children, ask her mother why she is locked up, she, getting carried away by her anger, blames them as the reason why she cannot be free and yells at them. let them go. 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, crossing the river, their boat capsizes and Sophie drowns. The twins look for Sophie all night but can't find her. Tired, they fall asleep in the abandoned house, unaware that Velutha is there too.

When Sophie's body is found, Baby Kochamma goes to the police and Velutha is accused of being responsible for Sophie's death, because Baby Kochamma accuses him of trying to rape Ammu, threatening the family and kidnapping to the kids. The police locate Velutha and savagely beat him. The twins witnessed this terrible scene and are deeply affected by it.

When the twins confess the truth about Sophie's accidental death to the police chief, he is frightened, as he knows that Velutha is a communist and fears that his illegal detention and imminent death will cause a riot among the local communists. He threatens Baby Kochamma, telling her that if the children do not change their story and declare that Velutha kidnapped them, she will be responsible for falsely accusing Velutha of Sophie's crime. Baby Kochamma tricks Rahel and Estha into believing that if they don't accuse Velutha of Sophie's death, they and Ammu will be imprisoned. Eager to save their mother from her, the children testify against Velutha. Later he dies from his injuries. However, Baby Kochamma underestimated Ammu's love for Velutha and, upon learning of her arrest, she goes to the police station to tell the truth about her love affair, but there the police tell her to drop the matter and not insist.

For fear that her lie will be discovered, Baby Kochamma convinces Chacko that Ammu and the twins are responsible for her daughter's death. Chacko forces Ammu to leave her home and as time passes, after being unable to find a job, she is forced to send Estha to live with her father. Estha never sees her mother again, as she, a few years later, dies alone and impoverished.

Rahel, when she grows up, goes to the United States, gets married, later divorces and finally returns to Ayemenem after several years working as a waitress in an Indian restaurant and as a night receptionist at a gas station. The twin brothers, both 31 years old, meet for the first time since they were 7 years old. Both have been damaged by their past and Estha has been left forever mute due to such a traumatic childhood. The twins are together most of the day and eventually have sex.

Some characters from the novel

Pappachi (Shri Benaan John Ipe): Husband of Mammachi, father of Ammu and Chacko and grandfather of Estha, Rahel and Sophie Mol. He was a great entomologist.

Mammachi (Shoshamma Ipe): Wife of Pappachi, mother of Chacko and Ammu and grandmother of Rahel, Estha and Sophie Mol. She founded the family pickle and preserve factory.

Ammu: The mother of Rahel and Estha, sister of Chacko, daughter of Pappachi and Mammachi.

Baba: Rahel and Estha's father. He tried to prostitute Ammu. When they separated, he remarried.

Estha (Esthappen Yako): Rahel's twin brother. Son of Ammu and Baba. He lives an unhappy childhood marked by sexual abuse that causes him to become mute.

Rahel: Twin sister of Estha, daughter of Ammu and Baba. Married and divorced from Larry McCaslin.

Chacko: Brother of Ammu, son of Pappachi and Mammachi and father of Sophie Mol. Married and later divorced Margaret Kochamma.

Margaret Kochamma: Chacko's ex-wife. Sophie Mol's mother.

Sophie Mol: Cousin of the twins, daughter of Chacko and Margaret Kochamma.

Baby Kochamma (Navomi Ipe): Sister of Pappachi, aunt of Chacko and Ammu and great-aunt of Sophie Mol, Estha and Rahel.

Father Mulligan: Baby Kochamma's platonic love..

Comrade Pillai: Leader of the local communist party.

Joe: Margaret's second husband.

Larry McCaslin: Rahel's ex-husband. He travels to India to teach and falls in love with Rahel whom he takes with him to the United States.

Inspector Thomas Mathew: Police inspector who conducts the interviews with Baby Kochamma.

Velutha: She is the character that gives meaning to the title of the novel. A local carpenter, an untouchable (lower social caste) by birth.

Kuttappen: Velutha's disabled brother.

Urumban: Velutha's imaginary twin brother.

Vellya Paapen: Velutha's father. An outcast.

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The god of small things

Argument

Summary

Some characters from the novel

Further reading (English)

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