Review. The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy - Book Report/Review Example

Book Review. "The God of Small Things" by Arundhati Roy. The book is a of how the small things in life build up, translate into people'sbehavior and affect their lives. This novel is about the decline and fall of an Indian family, it is partly political fable, partly psychological drama, partly fairy tale. Set mainly in Kerala, India, in the 1960s, "The God of Small Things" is about two children, the two-egg twins Estha (brother) and Rahel (sister), and the shocking consequences of the death-by-drowning of Sophie Mol, their English cousin. The twins are only 7 years old in 1969, and they still live almost entirely in a world of their own making. Other characters include their lonely, lovely mother, Ammu (who has left her violent husband), their blind grandmother, Mammachi (who plays Handel on her violin), their beloved uncle Chacko (Rhodes scholar, pickle baron, radical Marxist), their enemy, Baby Kochamma (ex-nun and incumbent grandaunt), and the volatile laborite Untouchable Velutha (it is he who is called the God of Small Things). Chacko's ex-wife, an Englishwoman, has returned to Kirala after a long absence, bringing along her and Chacko's lovely young daughter, Sophie Mol. As it turns out, their arrival not only unsettles the already tenuous balance of the divisive household, it also coincides with political unrest. Roy captures the children's candid observations but clouded understanding of adults' complex emotional lives. Rahel notices that "at times like these, only the Small Things are ever said. The Big Things lurk unsaid inside" (Roy 134). It's easier to talk about small things because the big things in life are far too complex and painful. Roy's most original contribution in this novel is her portrayal of children, entering into their thinking in a way which does not sentimentalize them but reveals the fierce passions and terrors which course through them and almost destroy them. The reader finds himself reading a childlike account of the events that come to pass through the course of the novels. The childlike quality of Roy's narration sophisticatedly creates a lightheartedness that starkly contrasts against the heavy tone and serious nature of the material, thus representing the gap between innocence and corruption. The author uses such stylistic tricks as capitalizing "Significant Words" and "runningtogether" other words. When her mother tells Rahel to "Stoppit," Rahel "stoppited." At Sophie's funeral, a bat alights on a mourner: "the singing stopped for a 'Whatisit' 'Whathappened' and for a Furrywhirring and a Sariflapping." The author also uses odd syntactical and verbal combinations and coinages (a bad dream experience during midday nap-time is an "aftermare"), striking metaphors (Velutha is seen "standing in the shade of the rubber trees with coins of sunshine dancing on his body") and sensuous descriptive passages ("The sky was orange, and the coconut trees were sea anemones waving their tentacles, hoping to trap and eat an unsuspecting cloud"). Roy incorporates phonetic spelling into the narration to give it a childlike quality. Phrases such as "Their Prer NUN sea ayshun was perfect" and "cheerful chop-chop-chopping" show once again the reader that the narrator is a child (Roy 147, 121). The form in which the word is presented to the reader reinforces the content. In "cheerful chop-chop-chopping," the lengthening of the word chopping into "chop-chop-chopping" creates a sing-song quality that portrays the act of chopping as being cheerful, thus reiterating the adjective that precedes it; in other words, the style reinforces the content. Roy also uses rather unusual epithets as well. When the narrator describes a tune that Mammachi plays on her violin, she describes it as "A cloying, chocolate melody. Stickysweet, and meltybrown. Chocolate waves on a chocolate shore" (Roy 174). This metaphor may seem like nonsense at first, but it is not nonsensical, for both are rich; one is rich in taste while the other is rich in sound. In addition, the interspersed lines of children's songs throughout the work contribute to the childlike quality of the writing. As Rahel climbs up the stairs with Baby Kochamma, she sings the song "Popeye the Sailorman" and fills in "Dum Dums" whenever there are pauses. The interspersed lines of children's songs, cheerful alliteration, and phonetic spelling that can be found throughout the narration all contribute to the formation of a playful, lighthearted, relaxed tone that portrays the innocence of childhood. The changing use of language and depth of insight of the narrator in the novel signal to the reader that the narrator has matured as a result of the events of the novel. For example, when the twins discover Sophie Mol is dead and come to the realization that they might go to jail, that realization is followed by a "Dum Dum." And again when they witness the bloody death of Velutha, they learn two lessons: one, that "Blood barely shows on a Black Man (Dum Dum)," and two, "It smells though, sicksweet. Like old roses on a breeze (Dum Dum)" (Roy 293). On the one hand, "The God of Small Things" is a story of forbidden, cross-caste love and what a community will do to protect the old unjust ways. Children's mother broke the rules concerning the relationship between the Untouchables and Touchables. Thus, they are now able to see the action from the policeman's and society's point of view, so when Inspector tapped Ammu's breasts with his baton, "it was not a policeman's spontaneous brutishness on his part. He knew exactly what he was doing. It was a premeditated gesture, calculated to humiliate and terrorize her. An attempt to instill order into a world gone wrong" (Roy 246). This level of thought and insight are evidence that the narrator is more mature and knowledgeable of the way that society works. Thus, the narrator has changed from a naive, ignorant child to a person with a more mature mind and an understanding of society. The Kochamma family business, "Paradise Pickles and Preserves", is emblematic of the social theme. The family is practically pickled in history. Roy demonstrates the burdens of caste and tradition, a double weight that crushes some of her characters and warps others, but leaves none untouched. It is also an illustrative example of the destructive power of the caste system, and moral and political bigotry in general. Prominent facets of Kerala life that the novel captures are Communism, the caste system and the Syrian Christian way of life. For example, bearded Syrian priests swing their censers while "Kathakali" dancers perform at the temple nearby; the Communists are splintering, the Untouchables are becoming politicized. The author tries to face the major cultural dilemmas of post-colonial India, and the image of a "Kathakali" dancer (a traditional folk dance) is a very potent symbol of India's own problems today. He exhibits himself in front of the modern world of tourists to earn his leaving: "The Kathakali Man is the most beautiful of men. Because his body is his soul. His only instrument He has magic in him But these days he has become unviable. Unfeasible. Condemned goods. His children deride him. They long to be everything that he is not. He has watched them grow up to become clerks and bus conductorsHe cannot slide down the aisles of buses, counting change and selling tickets. He cannot answer bells that summon him In despair he turns to tourism. He enters the market. He hawks the only thing he owns. The stories that his body can tell. He becomes a Regional Flavour." (Roy 230-1) Very early on in ''The God of Small Things,'' the grown-up Estha is caring for an ancient dog when he glimpses the shadow of a bird in flight moving across the dying animal's skin: ''To Estha - steeped in the smell of old roses, blooded on memories of a broken man - the fact that something so fragile, so unbearably tender had survived, had been allowed to exist, was a miracle.'' (Roy 11). The end of the novel also describes a brief interlude of intense happiness in this unjust world, and it evokes in the reader a similar feeling of gratitude: it's as if we had suddenly stumbled upon something small and sparkling in all this wreckage. By now we know what horrors await these characters, but we have also learned, like Estha, to take what we can get. Work cited. Roy, Arundhati. The God of Small Things. New York: Harper Perennial, 1997. Read More