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Teaching theThe God of Small ThingsIn Wisconsin:A Guide for Educators 2012-2103 Great World Texts Program of the Center for the HumanitiesPrepared by:Rachel Weiss, Assistant Director, UW-Madison, Center for South Asia, K-12 Outreach Program203 Ingraham Hall, 1155 Observatory Dr. Madison, WI 53706 of ContentsHow to Use this Guide……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..4Teaching India………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….7 TOC \o "1-3" \h \z \u Biography of Roy, Arundati (1961-)18Author Profile PAGEREF _Toc335661027 \h 19About The God of Small Things PAGEREF _Toc335661028 \h 20Book Reviews PAGEREF _Toc335661029 \h 22The Age of Innocence, by Ritu Menon (September 1997) PAGEREF _Toc335661030 \h 22A Silver Thimble in Her Fist PAGEREF _Toc335661031 \h 25The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy PAGEREF _Toc335661032 \h 28Character List PAGEREF _Toc335661033 \h 31Glossary of Terms PAGEREF _Toc335661034 \h 34Major Themes PAGEREF _Toc335661035 \h 35Family PAGEREF _Toc335661036 \h 35Society and Class PAGEREF _Toc335661037 \h 38Versions of Reality PAGEREF _Toc335661038 \h 43Memory and the Past PAGEREF _Toc335661039 \h 47Guilt and Blame PAGEREF _Toc335661040 \h 50Innocence PAGEREF _Toc335661041 \h 53Love PAGEREF _Toc335661042 \h 56Fear PAGEREF _Toc335661043 \h 60Identity PAGEREF _Toc335661044 \h 64Mortality PAGEREF _Toc335661045 \h 68Literary Devices in The God of Small Things PAGEREF _Toc335661046 \h 72Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory PAGEREF _Toc335661047 \h 72Setting PAGEREF _Toc335661048 \h 75Narrator Point-of-View PAGEREF _Toc335661049 \h 76Genre PAGEREF _Toc335661050 \h 76Tone PAGEREF _Toc335661051 \h 76Writing Style PAGEREF _Toc335661052 \h 77The Title? PAGEREF _Toc335661053 \h 78The Epigraph? PAGEREF _Toc335661054 \h 79The Ending? PAGEREF _Toc335661055 \h 79Plot Analysis PAGEREF _Toc335661056 \h 81Initial Situation PAGEREF _Toc335661057 \h 81Conflict PAGEREF _Toc335661058 \h 81Complication PAGEREF _Toc335661059 \h 81Climax PAGEREF _Toc335661060 \h 82Suspense PAGEREF _Toc335661061 \h 82Denouement PAGEREF _Toc335661062 \h 82Conclusion PAGEREF _Toc335661063 \h 83Allusions & Cultural References PAGEREF _Toc335661064 \h 84Literary and Philosophical References PAGEREF _Toc335661065 \h 84Historical References PAGEREF _Toc335661066 \h 84Pop Culture References PAGEREF _Toc335661067 \h 84Suggested Essay Questions PAGEREF _Toc335661068 \h 86The God of Small Things Resources PAGEREF _Toc335661069 \h 87Websites and Articles PAGEREF _Toc335661070 \h 87Video PAGEREF _Toc335661071 \h 87Background information about Kerala PAGEREF _Toc335661072 \h 88Other Books by Arundhati Roy PAGEREF _Toc335661073 \h 96Arundhati Roy’s Social Campaigns PAGEREF _Toc335661074 \h 99More about the Narmada Dam/ Sardar Sarovar Dam Issue PAGEREF _Toc335661075 \h 99Websites about the Issue PAGEREF _Toc335661076 \h 100Films about the Issue PAGEREF _Toc335661077 \h 100Further Suggested Readings/Videos/Audio Clips PAGEREF _Toc335661078 \h 102Critical Articles about the Novel PAGEREF _Toc335661079 \h 102Articles to Support Teaching PAGEREF _Toc335661080 \h 102Articles and Essays by Arundhati Roy PAGEREF _Toc335661081 \h 102Articles about Other Essays Written by Roy PAGEREF _Toc335661082 \h 103Articles about Roy’s Social Activism PAGEREF _Toc335661083 \h 103Video/Audio Clips of Roy’s Activism PAGEREF _Toc335661084 \h 103How to Use this GuideA note on context: Reading Across Time and SpaceThe God of Small Things is a work of fiction. While its sociocultural and geopolitical contexts are integral to its impact, and to our critical reflections on the texts, it is important to remember that this is a work of literature and not a historical document. While literature can help us teach culture, history, psychology, current affairs, and so on, no one text can bear the burden of representing an entire nation, culture, or people. Please keep in mind as you teach this novel that this novel is written from a “minority” perspective even in its own cultural context and emphasize where you can the cultural specificities that make this book unique. Doing so in a clear and explicit way will also help you and your students appreciate the text’s ability to speak across time and space through its use of themes that many of us can relate to in complex and varied ways.How to Use this GuideThe material in this guide is intended to provide all you will need to teach the novel and its context, from an “intro to India” to thematic units on close reading. We believe that the historical and cultural background is necessary to understanding the novel, its characters, and their decisions, but we encourage you to teach the novel thematically, and tie it into other disciplinary issues and regular features of your core curriculum wherever possible.Readings, reviews and handouts: The reviews and readings in the guide are intended for teachers, but some of them may also work well as student handouts. These include readings that provide further background information for instructors as well as a variety of materials (especially from the internet) that might aid instructors in creating handouts, for example. You are encouraged, where possible, to use the materials in this guide as handouts for your students. These readings, handouts, and other materials are all available electronically at the Great World Text website: . Lesson plans and suggestions for discussion: The lesson plans and activities provided in this guide are designed to allow you the opportunity to tailor the way you teach the text to your own course, time constraints, interests, and goals. The individual units could be taught over one or several days or weeks, and you can mix and match ideas from the various sections to create your own syllabus. Each thematic section includes a theme, followed by a set of questions, suggestions for discussion, and then specific quotes from the text that might be used to further discussion of the theme, with some critical assessment. Focused Reading: although the guide assumes that one has read the entire novel, most units include specific passages for a focused reading—an area of the text from which the major ideas and themes of that unit are drawn and which can serve as an example of the major concepts discussed.Close Reading StrategiesMost of the lesson plans include focused readings, which are passages from the novel that illustrate a certain theme or idea for that particular unit. During discussion and for assignments, students should be encouraged to support their interpretations with evidence from the text. Close reading lends itself well to group work and to small-group discussions, and is an excellent way for students to learn both critical thinking and analysis skills as they make connections, use evidence to support their views, and discuss the impact of various literary techniques. For close reading to work successfully, it’s important that the teacher always remind the students to point to the passage/line/occurrence that supports their position as they share their ideas. Close reading teaches students the difference between “opinion” or “personal reaction” and “analysis.” It also helps teach students to assess the texts of its own merits, and avoid essentializing the cultural components of the text or stereotyping based on generalizations.Reading a portion of text out loud as a class or small group, followed by group analysis, can be an excellent way to develop close reading skills in the classroom.Teaching Toward the Student ConferenceYour students will come to Madison on March, 20, 2013 to present their work to their peers, listen to lectures from experts on the text, and workshop with UW faculty. Prepare them for a successful conference by encouraging them to challenge themselves with projects that provide critical interpretations of the text in unique and complex ways. There is no limit to the type of project they might prepare. Past projects have included essays, painting, sculpture, weaving, culinary projects, photography, film and other multimedia, dramatic performances, song, dance, and more. The only requirement is that the students’ projects must present a critical analysis of the text. Students will be required to write a short summary of their projects which will be due to Heather (greattexts@humanities.wisc.edu) by March 6, 2013. Each school will select one student (or group of students) whose work is exemplary to present at the plenary session on stage. It’s recommended that the students themselves select (by voting) the “best” project for this presentation, which will be about 5 minutes in length. It is our expectation that these presentations will be polished, rehearsed and timed, and that they will provide opportunity for your school to feel pride and investment in its participation in the program. All other students are expected to present their work in poster sessions during the conference, and will have opportunity to stand next to their projects and answer questions about them from other students and conference participants. Every student who attends the conference should present his/her work at the conference. A Note of Caution on PlagiarismAs with other “great” and popular texts, there is a wealth of information readily available on The God of Small Things, which can be tempting material to plagiarize from the web or other study guides. Teachers may consider discussing their policies on academic honesty and the differences between paraphrasing, summarizing, citation, and undocumented use of other sources. It is also recommended that teachers make plagiarism less likely by customizing their assignments to their classes and avoiding generic and widely-used prompts for take-home essay assignments and other projects. The more specific a prompt can be—responding to a quote or to another theme or piece of material from the current curriculum—and the more specific evidence from the play required will help to reduce the opportunity for plagiarism.For Further InformationIf you have any questions about this guide, or would like additional information on any of the materials here, please feel free to contact the author, Rachel Weiss, at rweiss@southasia.wisc.edu or the Great World Texts coordinator, Heather DuBois Bourenane, at greattexts@humanities.wisc.edu.Teaching IndiaFrom Wikipedia: India, officially the Republic of India (Bhārat Ga?arājya), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the south-west, and the Bay of Bengal on the south-east, it shares land borders with Pakistan to the west; China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the north-east; and Burma and Bangladesh to the east. In the Indian Ocean, India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka and the Maldives; in addition, India's Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a maritime border with Thailand and Indonesia.Home to the ancient Indus Valley Civilization and a region of historic trade routes and vast empires, the Indian subcontinent was identified with its commercial and cultural wealth for much of its long history.Four world religions—Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism—originated here, whereas Zoroastrianism, Christianity, and Islam arrived in the 1st millennium CE and also helped shape the region's diverse culture. Gradually annexed by and brought under the administration of the British East India Company from the early 18th century and administered directly by the United Kingdom from the mid-19th century, India became an independent nation in 1947 after a struggle for independence that was marked by non-violent resistance led by Mahatma Gandhi.According to World Bank, the Indian economy is the world's tenth-largest by nominal GDP and third-largest by purchasing power parity (PPP). Following market-based economic reforms in 1991, India became one of the fastest-growing major economies; it is considered a newly industrialized country. However, it continues to face the challenges of poverty, illiteracy, corruption, malnutrition, and inadequate public healthcare. A nuclear weapons state and a regional power, it has the third-largest standing army in the world and ranks ninth in military expenditure among nations. India is a federal constitutional republic governed under a parliamentary system consisting of 28 states and 7 union territories. India is a pluralistic, multilingual, and multiethnic society. It is also home to a diversity of wildlife in a variety of protected habitats.Religion in IndiaIndia is the birthplace of four of the world's major religious traditions; namely Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism.Throughout its history, religion has been an important part of the country's culture. Religious diversity and religious tolerance are both established in the country by law and custom. A vast majority of Indians associate themselves with a religion.According to the 2001 census, Hinduism is the majority religion with 80.5% of the population of India. Islam (13.4%), Christianity (2.3%), Sikhism (1.9%), Buddhism (0.8%) and Jainism (0.4%) are the other minor religions followed by the people of India. This diversity of religious belief systems existing in India today is a result of, besides existence and birth of native religions, assimilation and social integration of religions brought to the region by traders, travelers, immigrants, and even invaders and conquerors.Zoroastrianism and Judaism also have an ancient history in India and each has several thousand Indian adherents. India has the largest population of people adhering to Zoroastrianism and Bahá'í Faith anywhere in the world. Many other world religions also have a relationship with Indian spirituality, like the Baha'i faith which recognizes Lord Buddha and Lord Krishna as manifestations of God Almighty.Indian diaspora in the West have popularized many aspects of Hindu philosophy like yoga (meditation), Ayurvedic medicine, divination, karma and reincarnation to a great extent. The influence of Indians abroad in spiritual matters has been significant as several organizations such as the Hare Krishna movement, the Brahma Kumaris, the Ananda Marga and others spread by Indian spiritual figures.The Muslim population in India is the third largest in the world. The shrines of some of the most famous saints of Sufism like Moinuddin Chishti and Nizamuddin Auliya are in India and attract visitors from all over the world. India is also home to some of the most famous monuments of Islamic architecture like the Taj Mahal and the Qutb Minar. Civil matters related to the community are dealt with by the Muslim Personal Law, and constitutional amendments in 1985 established its primacy in family matters.The Constitution of India declares the nation to be a secular republic that must uphold the right of citizens to freely worship and propagate any religion or faith (with activities subject to reasonable restrictions for the sake of morality, law and order, etc.).The Constitution of India also declares the right to freedom of religion as a fundamental right.Citizens of India are generally tolerant of each other's religions and retain a secular outlook, although inter-religious marriage is not widely practiced. Inter-community clashes have found little support in the social mainstream, and it is generally perceived that the causes of religious conflicts are political rather than ideological in nature.Languages of IndiaThe languages of India belong to several language families, the major ones being the Indo-Aryan languages (a branch of Indo-European) spoken by 74% of Indians and the Dravidia languages spoken by 24% of Indians. Other languages spoken in India belong to the Austro-Asiatic, Tibeto-Burman, and a few minor language families and isolates.The principal official language of the Republic of India is Standard Hindi, while English is the secondary official language. The constitution of India states that "The official language of the Union shall be Hindi in Devanagari script." Neither the Constitution of India nor Indian law specifies a national language, a position supported by a High Court ruling. However, languages listed in the Eighth Schedule of the Indian constitution are sometimes referred to, without legal standing, as the national languages of India. Individual mother tongues in India number several hundred; the 1961 census recognized 1,652 (SIL Ethnologue lists 415). According to Census of India of 2001, 30 languages are spoken by more than a million native speakers, 122 by more than 10,000. Three millennia of language contact has led to significant mutual influence among the four language families in India and South Asia. Two contact languages have played an important role in the history of India: Persian and English.The northern Indian languages from the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European family evolved from Old Indo-Aryan such as Sanskrit, by way of the Middle Indo-Aryan Prakrit languages and Apabhra??a of the Middle Ages. There is no consensus for a specific time where the modern north Indian languages such as Hindi-Urdu, Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Marathi, Punjabi, Rajasthani, Sindhi and Oriya emerged, but AD 1000 is commonly accepted. Each language had different influences, with Hindi-Urdu (Hindustani) being strongly influenced by Persian.The Dravidian languages of South India had a history independent of Sanskrit. The major Dravidian languages are Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada and Tulu. Though Malayalam and Telugu are Dravidian in origin, over eighty percent of their lexicon is borrowed from Sanskrit. The Telugu script can reproduce the full range of Sanskrit phonetics without losing any of the text's originality, whereas the Malayalam script includes graphemes capable of representing all the sounds of Sanskrit and all Dravidian languages. The Austro-Asiatic and Tibeto-Burman languages of North-East India also have long independent histories.Online Teaching India: A History Institute for TeachersTeaching India: A History Institute for Teachers (March 11–12, 2006) The Foreign Policy Research Institute’s Marvin Wachman Fund for International Education is pleased to announce its History Institute for Teachers on “Teaching India,” chaired by David Eisenhower and Walter McDougall. Specially designed for secondary school teachers and curriculum supervisors, the weekend-long program will feature a series of lectures by leading scholars.Speakers and TopicsWhy It’s Important To Know About India, Ainslie T. Embree, Emeritus, Columbia University Audio/Video of the Embree lecture Read Why It’s Important To Know About IndiaEarly Indian History, Richard H. Davis, Bard College Audio/Video of the Davis lectureModern Indian History, Marc Jason Gilbert, North Georgia College and State University Audio/Video of the Gilbert lectureDomestic Indian Politics, Philip Oldenburg, The University of Texas at Austin Audio/Video of the Oldenburg lectureIndian Religions, Guy Welbon, University of Pennsylvania Audio/Video of the Welbon lectureThe Rise of the Indian Economy, John Williamson, Institute for International EconomicsAudio/Video of the Williamson lecture Read The Rise of the Indian Economy, FPRI E-Notes, 4/2006India-Pakistan Relations, Sumit Ganguly, Indiana University Audio/Video of the Ganguly lectureRead India-Pakistan Relations, FPRI E-Notes, 4/2006Panel Discussion on Teaching About India and South Asia Audio/Video of the panelDonald Johnson, New York UniversityJean Johnson, Asia SocietyYasmeen Mohiuddin, University of the SouthWilliam Harman, University of Tennessee at ChattanoogaModerated by Lucien Ellington, Senior Fellow, Marvin Wachman Fund for International Education, and Asia Program Director, University of Tennessee at ChattanoogaClassroom LessonsABCs of India (29K Microsoft Word document)Slides for ABCs of India (80K Microsoft Powerpoint presentation), Josh AlperIndia from the Raj to Today (55K Microsoft Word document), Abe MikellUnderstanding India (37K Microsoft Word document)Slides for Understanding India (414K Microsoft Word document), Abe MikellIndia and Pakistan: Assessing Likelihood of Nuclear War (31K Microsoft Word document), Paul DicklerIndia Since the British (112K Microsoft Powerpoint presentation), SchroederOnline India Teaching UnitsThe Story of India (PBS)The Story of India From ancient to modern times, India has played a central role in human history. The Story of India offers educational resources for teachers wanting to use the DVD and the rich content on this web site in their classrooms. The lessons have been designed for high school world history and Advanced Placement world history classes. However, they can be adapted for lower grades as needed. Lessons include: Lesson 1: Tracking Early Hinduism In this lesson students explore the early history of Hinduism and create a scrapbook that highlights important gods, holy sites, and ancient texts.Lesson 2: An Edict on Ashoka To honor the great achievements of Ashoka, students mimic the style of the Great Rock Edicts and write an edict memorializing one of Ashoka’s accomplishments. To follow up, students develop additional edicts that reflect the beliefs of Ashoka but apply to issues faced today.Lesson 3: The Winds of Trade This two-part lesson starts by putting students in the shoes of a Roman merchant in the state of Kerala trying to convince a business partner to join him in India. The second portion of the lesson has students evaluate the importance of trade in Indian history through the eyes of a contemporary historian examining the letter written in part one.Lesson 4: Monument to the Stars To commemorate the achievements of the great mathematician and scientist, Aryabhatta, students create a monument for display at a fictional university.Lesson 5: Akbar's Debate Students explore Akbar's interest in the many religions of India by constructing a conversation between multiple religious leaders, moderated by Akbar himself, who attempt to find common ground among the faiths.Lesson 6: British Attitudes Towards India The British perception of Indian culture was reflected in their policies and attitudes toward the people of India. This activity has students consider the British attitude and then respond to it from the perspective of an Indian living under British rule.For younger kids, there are educational materials available at Choices Program (Boston University): Teaching with the News India: Conflicts Within - Lesson Plans , a program of the Pulitzer Center.Kashmir Then and NowIn this one-day lesson, students will learn about the historical origins of the conflict in Kashmir, explore the current situation in Kashmir, identify quantitative and geographical data in media sources, and consider the role of perspective when analyzing sources. Partition and BeyondIn this lesson, excerpted from Indian Independence and the Question of Pakistan, students explore the 1947 partition of India through literature, analyze the political content of selections from a work of fiction, and identify the values and attitudes of the author.Additional lessons will be added as they become available. Puja: Guide for Educators (Smithsonian Institute)Puja: Guide for Educators Puja is the act of showing reverence to a god or to aspects of the divine through invocations, prayers, songs, and rituals. An essential part of puja for the Hindu devotee is making a spiritual connection with a deity. Most often that contact is facilitated through an object: an element of nature, a sculpture, a vessel, a painting, or a print. This site was developed to complement the award-winning exhibition Puja: Expressions of Hindu Devotion on view in the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, the national museum of Asian art at the Smithsonian. For more info about Hinduism see our facts about Hinduism. The goals of this unit are:to give insight into Hindu pujas. to portray the role of art objects as links to the divine. After completing the lessons, students will be able to:explain the basic beliefs of Hinduism. identify several of the major Hindu gods and goddesses. describe the practice of puja. demonstrate an understanding of how objects are used in puja ceremonies. integrate concepts learned from the study of puja into other curriculum areas. 4. Lessons of the Indian Epics: The Ramayana (National Endowment for the Humanities)Lessons of the Indian Epics: The RamayanaThe Ramayana (ram-EYE-ya-na) and the Mahabharata (ma-ha-BA-ra-ta), the great Indian epics, are among the most important works of literature in South Asia. Both contain important lessons on wisdom, behavior and morality, and have been used for centuries not only as entertainment, but also as a way of instructing both children and adults in the exemplary behavior toward which they are urged to strive and the immoral behavior they are urged to shun. Elements of the stories can be found in South Asian literature, theater, sculpture, dance, music, architecture, film, personal and place names, and even in statecraft.The Ramayana is the story of Rama, the crown prince of ancient Ayodhya, and an earthly incarnation of the Hindu god, Vishnu. He is also the hero of the poem, whose focus is the epic telling of Rama's quest. In this lesson, students will read an abridged version of the Ramayana, and will explore the ways in which the story of Rama contains elements, such as the Epic Hero Cycle, that place it within the epic poetry tradition.Center for South Asia Outreach ProgramThe Center for South Asia at UW-Madison supports extensive research, academic study and outreach relating to the countries of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Tibet. There are over twenty faculty who devote their work full-time to research and teaching on South Asia. Over 50 courses each semester are offered by these faculty with at least 50% concentration on South Asian studies. In addition, through the Department of Languages and Cultures of Asia, the Center for South Asia lends both research and fiscal support for the teaching of such South Asian languages as Hindi, Urdu, Sanskrit, Pali, Tibetan (both modern/spoken, and literary), Telugu, Tamil and Nepali.At the Center for South Asia we provide access to resources for teaching about South Asia at the K-12, secondary, and post-secondary level and to the community at large. As a part of our federal mandate, all outreach services are free of charge. We can assist teachers and community leaders in designing programs on a number of aspects of the arts, civilizations, cultures, geographies, history, and languages of South Asia.If you would like to schedule a visitor to come to your classroom to talk about South Asia, show slides, or give a lecture on various topics, please contact rweiss@southasia.wisc.edu.Center for South Asia K-12 Online Lesson PlansOn this site you will find 20 Elementary Lesson Plans, 9 Middle Level Lesson Plans, 10 High School Lesson Plans – all written by Wisconsin educators who were a part of two curriculum development projects to India. Including:Market Simulation, by Brenda Betz-Stoltz, GPA 2003Nonviolent Leaders, by Brenda Betz-Stolt, GPA 2003Peace and Violence: The teachings of Gandhi, by Jean Hoffmann, GPA 2003Women in India: Tradition vs Modernity, by Jean Hoffmann, GPA 2003Microfinancing Works for Local Citizens and Foreign Business, by Denise Roseland, GPA 2003Coca Cola vs. People of India, by Katie Marien, GPA 2005Gandhi Discovery Box, by Cindy Johnson , Susan Loewenstein, Katie Marien, Sarah Olson, David Piovanetti, Don Vincent, GPA 2005 Center for South Asia PowerPoint Presentations and Slide ShowsThese presentations were created by CSA staff and educators for use in the classroom. Including:Kolam: a Living Art of South India Microfinancing Works for Local Citizens and Foreign BusinessTemplesTour of a TempleSchool PresentationCenter for South Asia Video Lending LibraryThe intention of our lending library is for classroom use by educators. Contact, Rachel Weiss, Outreach Coordinator (608) 262-9224 or e-mail: rweiss@southasia.wisc.edu to request the use of an item.Videos are available (pending usage by another educator) and can be reserved for a specific date. We will send them out for a week only, and they must be returned to the Center for South Asia within that time. Some highlights are:Division of HeartsDon't Ask WhyIndia: Defying the CrownJourneys into Islamic IndiaKaise Jeebo Re! (How Do I Survive, My Friend!)Nalini by day, Nancy by NightPuja: Expressions of Hindu DevotionThe Nehru – Gandhi DynastyA Passage to IndiaSpotlight on RamayanaWar & PeaceCenter for South Asia Documentary FilmsThe Center for South Asia was the first National Resource Center to produce and fund South Asian documentary filmmaking. Today, we possess the most extensive and diverse collection of South Asian films produced by any one Center. Any of these films can be borrowed by educators in Wisconsin. Schools in Wisconsin can also purchase them for a reduced rate of $50 per copy. To purchase or borrow any film, contact Rachel Weiss rweiss@southasia.wisc.edu. Some classics for the classroom are:Dadi and Her Family: A Rural Mother-In-Law in North India Given to Dance: India's Odissi Tradition Holi Hey: A Festival of Love, Color, and LifeAn Indian Pilgrimage: Kashi An Indian Pilgrimage: Ramdevra Kamala and Raji: Working Women of Ahmedabad Mithila Painters: Five Village Artists from Madhubani, India Modern Brides: Arranged Marriages in South India Munni (‘Little Girl’): Childhood and Art in Mithila Pilgrimage to Pittsburgh Village Man, City Man Voices of the People: The Elections in India 1977 Biography of Roy, Arundati (1961-) 19050-1270Arundhati Roy was born in 1961 in the Northeastern Indian region of Bengal, to a Christian mother and Hindu father. She spent her childhood in Aymanam in Kerala, which serves as the setting for her first novel, The God of Small Things (under the name "Ayemenem"). Roy's mother, Mary Roy, homeschooled her until the age of ten, when she began attending regular classes. She has been reluctant to discuss her father publicly, having spent very little time with him during her lifetime; Roy instead focuses on her mother's influence in her life. Mary Roy, a political activist, won an unprecedented victory for women's rights in Kerala. Through her persistence, the Supreme Court granted Christian women in Kerala the right to have an inheritance. She spent her teenage years at boarding school in Southern India, after which she earned her degree from the School of Planning and Architecture in Delhi. After graduating, Roy supported herself by teaching aerobics while honing her writing skills. She eventually wrote several film scripts, which are recognized for their complex structure and biting social commentary. Roy wrote and starred in the film In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones, and she wrote the script for Electric Moon, directed by her second husband, Pradip Krishen. (Her first husband was Gerard Da Cunha, whom she met while in college. Their marriage lasted approximately four years.) Both films garnered a cult following, setting the stage for the fiction-writing side of Roy's career. Penguin published the script for In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones as a book in 2004. Even when she was a low-profile writer, Roy began to assert her political opinions loudly. She rallied media support for Phoolan Devi, a politician and former criminal of Robin-Hood fame, whom she felt was being misrepresented by the film Bandit Queen (directed by Shekhar Kapur). After the controversy surrounding Bandit Queen subsided, Roy took time to write her first and only novel to date, The God of Small Things. She received an extraordinary advance of half a million pounds on the book, making its release high-profile well ahead of time. After the novel's publication in 1997, the book won the prestigious Booker Prize, making Roy its first Indian woman and non-expatriate Indian recipient. In addition to her novelistic skills, Roy is widely known for political activism (perhaps along the lines of a Noam Chomsky). She has published many works of nonfiction including several essays as well as The End of Imagination (1998), The Greater Common Good (1999), The Cost of Living (1999), Power Politics (2002), War Talk (2003), The Checkbook and the Cruise Missile (2004, with David Barsamian), and An Ordinary Person's Guide to Empire (2004). She also took part in the June 2005 World Tribunal on Iraq. In January 2006 she was awarded the Sahitya Akademi award for her collection of essays, The Algebra of Infinite Justice, but she declined to accept it. Roy has faced accusations of being anti-American and was convicted of contempt of court by the New Delhi Supreme Court for her political activism. She remains relentless. For instance, she was awarded the Sydney Peace Prize in 2004 for her efforts toward social justice and peaceful conflict resolution. Roy continues to write, engage in advocacy, and live with her husband in New Delhi.Author ProfileWorld Literature Today (Sept-Dec 2005)About The God of Small ThingsSource: God of Small Things is Arundhati Roy's first and only novel to date. It is semi-autobiographical in that it incorporates, embellishes, and greatly supplements events from her family's history. When asked why she chose Ayemenem as the setting for her novel, Roy replied, "It was the only place in the world where religions coincide; there's Christianity, Hinduism, Marxism and Islam and they all live together and rub each other down... I was aware of the different cultures when I was growing up and I'm still aware of them now. When you see all the competing beliefs against the same background you realize how they all wear each other down. To me, I couldn't think of a better location for a book about human beings." Because of her ingrained understanding of Ayemenem's diversity and cultural paradoxes, Roy allowed her imagination to run wild in a familiar landscape.Upon finishing the novel in 1996 after four years of writing, Roy was offered an advance of half a million pounds. Rights to the book were demanded worldwide in 21 countries from India to New York. Upon its publication, the novel became a bestseller, going on to win England's premier literary award, the Booker Prize, in 1997. This made Roy the first Indian woman and non-expatriate to win the award. Yet Roy's grand introduction into the fiction canon was not without incident. The God of Small Things infamously enraged some leftist Keralans upon its release. Soon after the book's release in 1997, a lawyer named Sabu Thomas attempted to have the book's last chapter removed because of its graphic description of sexual acts between members of different castes. Fortunately for the author and the novel, Thomas was unsuccessful and his lawsuit served only to bolster Roy's assertions throughout the novel that the caste system still greatly affects present-day Indian society. Winning the Booker Prize placed Roy among the ranks of such writers as Salman Rushdie. Although in interviews Roy has denied imitating Rushdie's style, The God of Small Things certainly shows his influence. The novel's constantly changing perspective, its nonlinear progression of narrative, its lush, almost extravagant, sometimes capitalized or contracted diction, and its confounding of fantasy and reality also connect the novel with the style of "hysterical realism" (one might think here of the young American writer, Jonathan Safran Foer). Despite these similarities to others, Roy's narrative style and perspective are distinctive in The God of Small Things. In addition to the literary techniques described above, Roy hones a delicate use of language that makes each word seem precious while imbuing phrases with a keen sense of whimsy. She skillfully incorporates foreshadowing in tiny refrains such as "Things can change in a day," "roses sicksweet on a breeze," and "blood spilling from his skull like a secret." The reader must collect these phrases along the way so that they fall into place with ease by the novel's end.According to one critic, "[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." Indeed, the perspectives of child protagonists Rahel and Estha are given the most weight of any throughout the novel. Even though, according to another critic, Rahel and Estha are "victims of circumstance," they are to an equal extent intelligent evaluators of it.Although the book has no single protagonist and no definitive moral, it certainly champions details of life to which contemporary society tends to be too frenzied or farsighted to pay heed. Roy does her best in the novel (as well as in her other writing and political activism) to enfranchise the "Small Things," overlooked people and issues that, in her opinion, deserve more attention.Book ReviewsThe Age of Innocence, by Ritu Menon (September 1997)23May 25, 1997A Silver Thimble in Her Fist By ALICE TRUAXA child's drowning is one of the tragedies in this novel about a prosperous Indian family's ruin The God of Small ThingsBy Arundhati Roy.321 pp. New York:Random House. $23.left0here is no single tragedy at the heart of Arundhati Roy's devastating first novel. Although ''The God of Small Things'' opens with memories of a family grieving around a drowned child's coffin, there are plenty of other intimate horrors still to come, and they compete for the reader's sympathy with the furious energy of cats in a sack. Yet the quality of Ms. Roy's narration is so extraordinary -- at once so morally strenuous and so imaginatively supple -- that the reader remains enthralled all the way through to its agonizing finish. This ambitious meditation on the decline and fall of an Indian family is part political fable, part psychological drama, part fairy tale, and it begins at its chronological end, in a landscape of extravagant ruin. When 31-year-old Rahel Kochamma returns to Ayemenem House, her former home in the south Indian state of Kerala, its elegant windows are coated with filth and its brass doorknobs dulled with grease; dead insects lie in the bottom of its empty vases. The only animated presence in the house seems to be great-aunt Baby Kochamma's new television set -- in front of which she and her servant sit day after day, munching peanuts. Rahel has come back to Ayemenem not to see her great-aunt, however, but because she has heard that her twin brother, Estha, has unexpectedly returned. Estha and Rahel were once inseparable, but now they have been apart for almost 25 years -- ever since the winter of 1969, when their English cousin, Sophie Mol, drowned in the river with their grandmother's silver thimble in her fist. ''Perhaps it's true that things can change in a day,'' Ms. Roy's narrator muses. ''That a few dozen hours can affect the outcome of whole lifetimes. And that when they do, those few dozen hours, like the salvaged remains of a burned house -- the charred clock, the singed photograph, the scorched furniture -- must be resurrected from the ruins and examined. Preserved. Accounted for.'' And this is precisely Ms. Roy's undertaking as, throughout her book, she shuttles between the twins' past and present, continually angling in, crabwise, toward the night of Sophie Mol's death. Unlike most first novels, ''The God of Small Things'' is an anti-Bildungsroman, for Estha and Rahel have never properly grown up. Whatever the nature of their crimes, it is almost immediately apparent that they have never recovered from their punishments, and present-day Ayemenem -- with its toxic river fish and its breezes stinking of sewage -- seems to reflect their poisoned and blighted lives. The Ayemenem of the twins' aborted childhood, however, is a rich confusion of competing influences. Bearded Syrian priests swing their censers while kathakali dancers perform at the temple nearby; the Communists are splintering, the Untouchables are becoming politicized and ''The Sound of Music'' is wildly popular. Life has an edgy, unpredictable feel. The twins are only 7 years old in 1969, and -- affectionate, contentious, indefatigable -- they still live almost entirely in a world of their own making. They are at Ayemenem House because their proud and beautiful mother, Ammu, made the unforgivable mistake of marrying badly: when her husband began hitting the children as well as her, she returned, unwelcome, to her parents' home. Ammu's status within the family is tenuous because of her marital disgrace, but a certain aura of eccentricity and defeat clings like a smell to all the residents of Ayemenem House, rendering them alternately comic, sympathetic and grotesque. There is the twins' elegant grandmother, Mammachi, with her skull permanently scarred from her dead husband's beatings and her bottle of Dior perfume carefully locked up in the safe. Then there is scheming Baby Kochamma, who once tried to become a nun but -- her faith inspired less by God than by a certain Father Mulligan -- lasted only a year in the convent. And there is the house servant, Kochu Maria, who thinks that Rahel is ridiculing her when she announces that Neil Armstrong has walked on the moon. Finally, there is the twins' charming uncle, Chacko, the Oxford-educated Marxist who has returned from his failed marriage in England and taken over Mammachi's chutney business -- which, with cheerful ineptitude, he is running into the ground. Comrade Chacko means to organize a trade union for his workers, but he never quite gets around to it; instead he philosophizes, flirts with his female employees and assembles tiny balsa airplanes that immediately plummet to the ground. Chacko commends his ex-wife, Margaret, for leaving him, but he pines for her and their little daughter, Sophie Mol, just the same. It gradually becomes clear to the reader that only Velutha, an Untouchable who serves as the family carpenter, is competent enough to transform life rather than simply endure it -- but, of course, as he's an Untouchable, endurance is supposed to be all he's good for. Velutha fixes everything around Ayemenem House, from the factory's canning machine to the cherub fountain in Baby Kochamma's garden. He is both essential and taken for granted in the twins' existence, like breathing. He is ''the God of Small Things.'' Estha and Rahel are accustomed to life under the umbrella of their elders' discontent; it is only after Chacko invites Margaret and Sophie Mol to come to India for Christmas that the twins gain a fresh appreciation for their second-class status. Baby Kochamma makes Estha and Rahel memorize a hymn and fines them whenever they speak in Malayalam instead of English. Kochu Maria bakes a great cake; Mammachi plays the violin and allows Sophie Mol to make off with her thimble. When Chacko angrily refers to the children as millstones around his neck, Rahel understands that her light-skinned cousin, on the other hand, has been ''loved from the beginning.'' In the following weeks, the smoldering longings and resentments at Ayemenem House will be ignited by larger historical pressures -- the heady promises of Communism, the pieties of Christianity, the rigidities of India's caste system -- and combust with catastrophic results. And if the events surrounding the night of Sophie Mol's death form an intricate tale of crime and punishment, Ms. Roy's elaborate and circuitous reconstruction of those events is both a treasure hunt (for the story itself) and a court of appeals (perhaps all the witnesses were not heard; perhaps all the evidence was not considered). Are the twins responsible for Sophie Mol's death? Why is Baby Kochamma so terrified of the Communists? What happened to Velutha at the police station? Why does jolly Chacko batter down the door to Ammu's room, threatening to break every bone in her body? What sustains us through this dread-filled dance between the calamitous past and the bleak present is the exuberant, almost acrobatic nature of the writing itself. Ms. Roy refuses to allow the reader to view the proceedings from any single vantage point: time and again, she lures us toward some glib judgment only to twist away at the last minute, thereby exposing our moral laziness and shaming us with it. But Ms. Roy's shape-shifting narrative is also tremendously nourishing, crammed not only with remonstrances but also with inside jokes, metaphors, rogue capital letters, nonsense rhymes and unexpected elaborations. Even as the Kochamma family seems to be withering before our eyes, the story of the family is flourishing, becoming ever more nuanced and intricate. 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.'' The end of this novel also describes a brief interlude of intense happiness, and it evokes in the reader a similar feeling of gratitude and wonderment: 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. And so we hold on to this vision of happiness, this precious scrap of plunder, even as the novel's waters close over our heads. Alice Truax is a book review editor at The New Yorker. The God of Small Things by Arundhati RoyJohn Craceguardian.co.uk, Thursday 15 April 2010 07.25 EDT No big deal ... Rital Theyyam dance in Kerala. Photograph: Frederic Soltan/Sygma/CorbisMay in Ayemenem is a hot brooding month, where the days are long and humid, crows gorge on bright mangoes and too many overwrought descriptive passages pile up in a car-crash of a creative writing tutorial.Bottom of FormBut forget about that, because it was early June, the time when the monsoon breaks, the yellow bullfrogs etc, etc ... when Rahel returned to the house. Baby Kochamma was still alive. She was Rahel's baby grand aunt, but Rahel hadn't come to visit her. She had come to see her dizygotic twin, Estha, from whom she has been separated for 23 years.Her mind inevitably goes back to a deeper, more secret poetic space. A space when Life was full of Beginnings and no Ends, before Edges, Borders and Capital Letters began to appear. She remembers what the Orangedrink Lemondrink Man did to Estha even though he never actually told her what happened. But these are Small Things.And that was before they were nearly born on a bus, before Ammu and her father were divorced, before Ammu died at 31, a dieable viable age, before the unthinkable became thinkable and Sophie Mol died at seven, a dieable, non viable age, before Estha was Returned, before she had gone to Canada to get married, before she had got divorced. But these too are Small Things.Even before Sophie Mol's funeral, the police found Velutha by the river. A river with a rushing, rolling, fishswimming sense. A river swollen, engorged with meaningless imagery. Yes, it had all begun with Sophie Mol in the days before the Love Laws were rewritten.It was a skyblue day in 1969 when Rahel found herself in a fictive time-slip. She gasped in amazement as the skyblue Plymouth pulled up and her uncle Chacko got out and talked about how Pappachi started drinking after a moth wasn't named after him and used to beat up Mammachi until he warned him off, how he had been a Rhodes scholar, had married Margaret and had a child, Sophie Mol, how she had left him, how he had returned to Kerala to run Mammachi's Paradise Pickles and Preserves factories, how he was a supporter of the Keralan Communist Party run by Comrade Pilla, how ..."Stop, Uncle," Rahel said. "There are too many names, too many things going on. I can't keep up.""That's the whole point," Chacko replied. "This is India, a land of sensory and poetic overload, a land where small boats bob in rippling water of green silk, a land teeming with literary prizes for those who can find the right imagery to win them. But these are small things.""Is there a God of Small Things?""There must be if I won the Booker,"Rahel went off to find her dizygotic twin. "Stel klat sdrawkcab ot eno rehtona," she said. "Yhw dluow ew tnaw ot od taht?" "Esuaceb sti eht tros fo suoitneterp parc sniwt od ni siht dnik fo koob."It took Rahel a few moments to realise she was now back in 1992 as she passes the tumbled-down factory, where no trees now grew and an elephant lazily etc ... She thought deep thoughts of the Love Laws, Small Things and why Estha hadn't spoken for years since he was Returned."We are going to the movies," said Ammu. "And when we get back Margaret and Sophie Mol will have arrived from England, now that Margaret's second husband Joe has died."They got into the skyblue Plymouth and drove past sun burnished banana sellers, sheltering under parched palms etc ... towards Cochin. "I need a drink," said Estha, as the nuns began singing in The Sound of Music."Come here," said the Orangedrink LemonDrink Man. "If you hold my penis, I will give you a free drink." Estha did as he was told and after some hot fluid had been deposited in his hands he returned to his seat. He didn't quite know why it had happened, or what relevance it had to the story as he never mentioned it again. It was probably another of those Small Things.Sophie Mol had arrived by the time they returned and was being fussed over by everyone. "Ti skool ekil ew era llams sgniht won," Rahel said to Estha, as Ammu, Chacko and Baby Kochamma ignored them. "Don't be horrid to us, Ammu." they begged. "If you talk like that, I shall love you a little less," she replied. And so the Love Laws began to get rewritten. In a Small Way.Rahel remembered that every piece of Indian fiction required a dream sequence, so as she sat down next to the silent Estha, she went into a prolonged unnecessary reverie of Kathakali dancers that reminded her of just how Indian she really was.A deep longing burnt deep in Ammu's vagina as she lay in the bedroom whose walls would soon learn their harrowing secrets. She needed Velutha's hard, lithe Untouchable body and he needed hers. It was against the Love Laws yet the Love Laws could not contain the primal urges of a dark sexuality unleashed. And hopefully breaking the Love Laws would only be a Small Thing.In the abandoned house, where vapid vinegary fumes etc... where Ammu conjoined with Velutha in sentences of disaggregated phrases, there Rahel and Estha found a broken boat. "Please mend it for us, Velutha," so we can cross the swirling, Forbidden River."Take me with you," begged Sophie Mol. "I've had enough of all this relentless Indianness."As they reached the middle of the Swirling, Forbidden River, the boat capsized. Rahel and Estha swam to safety; Sophie Mol was swept under. "Ho raed," the dizygotic twins said. "S'tel epoh sti tsuj a Llams Gniht."It was a Big Small Thing. Chacko was crazed with grief and blamed Velutha. "Arrest the Untouchable," he ordered the police. The police came for Velutha with batons. He was of a caste of no consequence. He did not survive the night in the blood stained cell, where rivulets etc..."It was not Velutha," Ammu wept. "I have been having an affair with an Untouchable.""That's even worse than Velutha killing Sophie Mol," yelled Chacko."The only way to save our honour is to get the twins to lie," said Baby Kochamma, fingering her silken scarf with pleasure at her niece's discomfort."It was Velutha," said Estha. The last words before he was Returned to the north by train, the last words Rahel ever heard him utter.Rahel pulled Estha close. It was the first time they had touched one another in 23 years. They undressed silently and conjoined in the Quietness and Emptiness like stacked spoons. There had been no reason for them to sleep together, but it seemed like the sort of ending the chatterati might like."It's only a Small Thing," Rahel said."It might have been for you, but it's been a fucking Big Thing for me," Arundhati replied. "It's taken me four years to write and it's still not very good. I'm not doing that again in a hurry.? 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved.Character ListAdapted from 's female fraternal twin. Much of the story is told from Rahel's perspective as a seven-year-old girl and as a thirty-one-year-old woman. She has an instinctive connection to Estha, and as a child she could share experiences and memories with him unconsciously. She grows up in Ayemenem but, as an adult, lives in the United States with her husband, Larry McCaslin. After their divorce and upon hearing of her brother's return to Ayemenem, Rahel goes home herself.EsthaRahel's male fraternal twin. His full name is Esthappen. After Sophie Mol's death, he is sent to live with his father, Babu, in Assam. At the age of thirty-one, he moves back to Ayemenem. Estha stopped talking one day when he was a child and has not said a word since. He is considered crazy by the other inhabitants of Ayemenem except for Rahel.Sophie MolThe daughter of Chacko and Margaret Kochamma. After her stepfather Joe dies, she visits Ayemenem with her mother. She has "Pappachi's nose," but otherwise she looks decidedly Western compared to the rest of the family, with her light eyes and skin. She drowns in the Ayemenem river. Her death and the events surrounding it serve as a focus of the novel.AmmuEstha's and Rahel's mother. She married Babu in a glamorous ceremony, but she soon became disillusioned with their marriage because her husband was an alcoholic. After he tried to proposition her into sleeping with his boss, Ammu left Babu and settled back in Ayemenem with the twins. She has an affair with the Untouchable handyman, Velutha, so she is banished from her own house. She dies at the age of thirty-one while out of town on business.Baba (Note: “baba” is the Bengali nama for “father;” the character’s actual name is not mentioned in the novel). Estha's and Rahel's father and Ammu's ex-husband. He is an alcoholic who is talked about but never seen in the novel. Estha lives with him when he works on a tea estate in Assam, but Baba cannot or will not take his son along to Australia.MammachiEstha's and Rahel's blind grandmother. She is unhappily married to Pappachi, who beats her terribly until Chacko defends her. She plays the violin and generally keeps to herself, except when Ammu's and Velutha's affair is exposed.PappachiEstha's and Rahel's grandfather. He beats Mammachi with a brass vase frequently, until Chacko forces him to stop. His prize in life is his sky-blue Plymouth. His biggest regret is not having the species of moth he discovered named after him.Baby KochammaRahel's and Estha's grandaunt. She has a degree in ornamental gardening, but in her old age she simply watches television and writes in her diary. Her life's biggest regret is not winning the affections of a priest, Father Mulligan. Baby Kochamma has a vindictive and manipulative personality; she accuses Velutha of raping Ammu and then pressures Estha to confirm it.ChackoRahel's and Estha's uncle, and Mammachi's and Pappachi's only son. He was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, and he is now a capitalist proprietor with Communist sympathies. He took over Paradise Pickles & Preserves from Mammachi. Chacko's marriage to Margaret Kochamma crumbled after she could no longer stand his flabby, lazy nature. Even though he is separated from his ex-wife and daughter, he feels a strong affinity for them.VeluthaAn Untouchable Paravan who serves as a handyman for Ammu, Mammachi, and the rest of the family. He has a close relationship with Estha and Rahel, whom he treats lovingly but never condescendingly. He is the father figure they never had. Velutha has an affair with Ammu, rowing across the river to see her each night. After he is accused of raping Ammu and kidnapping the children, the police beat him nearly to death. They leave him to die in a prison cell, which he does, but not before Estha is tricked into confirming his guilt.Vellya PaapenVelutha's father and an old, fond acquaintance of Mammachi. When he discovers Velutha's affair with Ammu, he goes to Mammachi immediately and offers to kill Velutha with his bare hands in retribution for the shame he thinks Velutha has brought to Mammachi's family.KuttappenVelutha's paralyzed brother. He helps Estha and Rahel figure out how to fix their boat.Father MulliganA priest who is in Ayemenem when Baby Kochamma is a young woman. Despite her best efforts to impress him, Father Mulligan is not interested in Baby Kochamma. Eventually, he rejects the church to become a follower of Vishnu. He keeps in touch with Baby Kochamma until his death.Kochu MariaA tiny, pudgy house servant who, until the twins return, is the only other person living in the Ayemenem House with Baby Kochamma. She likes to watch wrestling on television and lives a sedentary lifestyle like her housemate.Mr. HollickBabu's boss at the Assam tea estate. He gives Babu an ultimatum: lose his job or send Ammu to sleep with Mr. Hollick. Babu's attempt to get Ammu to comply is the last straw for her and is what leads to their divorce.Larry McCaslinRahel's American ex-husband. He falls in love with and marries Rahel, but then he feels totally disconnected from her. Their marriage falls apart, and Rahel moves back to Ayemenem.JoeMargaret Kochamma's true love and Sophie Mol's stepfather. He dies in an accident, causing Margaret and Sophie to seek relief and refuge with their relatives in rade PillaiLeader of the Communist Party in Ayemenem. He has a very intelligent son named Lenin. Comrade Pillai does not like the fact that Velutha is a Communist, because he does not want to be allied with him. In fact, he turns Velutha away on the night of his death and is therefore the last to see him before the police beat him.Kochu ThombanAn elephant that sleeps in the temple while Rahel and Estha watch the Kathakali performance.MurlidharanA 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 manThe man at the concessions stand in the lobby of Abhilask Talkies. He molests Estha in the lobby while the rest of the family is watching The Sound of Music. The incident haunts Estha well into his adulthood.Inspector Thomas MathewThe 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.Glossary of TermsSources: and Ayemenem An actual town in the Southern Indian state of Kerala, spelled "Aymanam." Arundhati Roy spent her childhood there, and it is the main setting for The God of Small Things.Cochin A major city in the South Indian state of Kerala, which hosts the region's major airport. It is where the family goes to greet Sophie Mol and Margaret Kochamma upon their arrival from England. Because Cochin is a tourist city, its history has been shelved in favor of pleasing foreigners: historical rooms are turned into lobbies and dining rooms, and traditional Kathakali performances are abridged and catered to tourist-level patience and munist A follower of communism, often as expressed in the philosophy of Karl Marx and the politics of Lenin. It is often seen as subversive by non-Communists for its revolutionary, levelling spirit. Comrade Pillai, Chacko, and Velutha are all card-carrying rade A fellow member of the Communist Party.Coolie In Asia, an offensive word for an unskilled laborer.History House The abandoned house across the river, where Velutha lives with Vellya Paapen and Kuttappen. Estha and Rahel become obsessed with the History House and use the shadowy area surrounding it as their haven from the Ayemenem House. It is the History House to which they run away after Ammu calls them burdens.Kathakali A traditional art form native to Kerala, which combines opera, dance, and "full-body acting." It makes use of Malayalam literature and mudras as well as elaborate costuming and makeup in order to portray regional legends. Rahel and Estha watch an authentic Kathakali performance in the temple. But in tourist spots such as Cochin, the Kathakali performances, traditionally several hours long, are abridged to please the foreigners' patience and taste.Paravan A low, untouchable caste, usually of fishermen. Velutha and his family are Paravans. As with any caste, being a Paravan is hereditary.The Grotesque A style of literature and/or art in which things are distorted and made bizarre. It can incorporate the supernatural, violence, the unmentionable, and sexuality.Untouchables Those in the caste system who are at the bottom. They are considered unclean, especially by the more "pure" upper castes. Roy seems to incorporate the meaning of "untouchable" in the sense of "irreproachable," suggesting that what is untouchable may also be sacred. Velutha and his relatives are considered Untouchables.Major ThemesThemes and questions: and analysis: FamilyThe God of Small Things is probably more than anything else a novel about family. It explores the relationship between brother and sister, mother and child, grandparent and grandchild, aunt and niece/nephew, and cousins. It looks at the ways families are forced to stick together and also how they fall apart. Unconditional family love is a major issue on the table here. Sometimes we feel obligated to love our family members. On the other hand, just because you're related to someone doesn't mean you'll love them or that they'll have your back. Just like in real life, family relationships in the novel can be complicated, confusing, and frustrating.Questions about FamilyHow do you think Chacko feels about Ammu at the beginning of the book? In the middle? At the end?Rahel seems to think of Chacko as something of a surrogate, or substitute, dad. How do you think Chacko feels about Estha and Rahel? What examples support your view?Why do you think Vellya Paapen is willing to kill Velutha? What does this say about the importance of social rules versus family bonds?We get a glimpse into the perspective of most characters through the novel. Why do you think we learn so little about Baba, Estha and Rahel's father?Discussion ideas:Try on an opinion or two, start a debate, or play the devil’s advocate.In The God of Small Things, "family" refers to people obligated to each other because of blood, regardless of whether or not they actually care about one another.In The God of Small Things, "family" refers to the people one cares about.Quote #1Rahel had come to see her brother, Estha. They were two-egg twins. "Dizygotic" doctors called them. Born from separate but simultaneously fertilized eggs. Estha – Esthappen – was the older by eighteen minutes. (1.6)From the second we meet Estha – in the first pages of the book – we know him as Rahel's twin. Their "twin-ness" isn't just important to the other characters; it shapes the way we perceive them from the very beginning of the novel.Quote #2Chacko was Mammachi's only son. Her own grief grieved her. His devastated her. (1.31)What's key in this quote is the link between Mammachi's reaction to Chacko's grief and the fact that he's her only son. Chacko seems to be up on quite the pedestal. Do you think Mammachi would care about Ammu's feelings in the same way?Quote #3"Ammu," Chacko said, his voice steady and deliberately casual, "is it at all possible for you to prevent your washed-up cynicism from completely coloring everything?"Silence filled the car like a saturated sponge. "Washed up" cut like a knife through a soft thing. The sun shone with a shuddering sigh. This was the trouble with families. Like invidious doctors, they knew just where it hurt. (2.238)Throughout the novel, we see that being related to someone doesn't necessarily mean that you like them or are nice to them. Here we see that Chacko knows exactly how to push Ammu's buttons.Quote #4Ammu turned back to Estha and Rahel and her eyes were blurred jewels."Everybody says that children need a Baba. And I say no. Not my children. D'you know why?"Two heads nodded."Why. Tell me," Ammu said.And not together, but almost, Esthappen and Rahel said:"Because you're our Ammu and our Baba and you love us Double.""More than Double," Ammu said. "So remember what I told you. People's feelings are precious. And when you disobey me in Public, everybody gets the wrong impression." (6.172-178)Rahel is not the only one who is constantly reminded that others see their family as nontraditional. We can see here that Ammu has a difficult line to walk between being tough on her kids, so they can appear to be as good as the next family, and expressing the love she feels for them.Quote #5The day that Chacko prevented Pappachi from beating her (and Pappachi had murdered his chair instead), Mammachi packed her wifely luggage and committed it to Chacko's care. From then onwards he became the repository of all her womanly feelings. Her Man. Her only Love. (8.21)It's OK if you feel a little weird reading this. The narrator is showing us an example of an extremely fine line between familial and romantic love. It seems that Rahel and Estha sleeping together isn't the only moment with overtones of incest in this book; Mammachi's feelings toward Chacko appear to border the romantic, too.Quote #6Estha always thought of Pectin as the youngest of three brothers with hammers, Pectin, Hectin and Abednego. He imagined them building a wooden ship in failing light and a drizzle. Like Noah's sons. He could see them clearly in his mind. Racing against time. The sound of their hammering echoing dully under the brooding, storm-coming sky.And nearby in the jungle, in the eerie, storm-coming light, animals queued up in pairs:Girlboy.Girlboy.Girlboy.Girlboy.Twins were not allowed. (10.44-50)We catch a glimpse of how Estha's mind works in this quote. He seems to feel like his identity as a twin sets him apart from others, that it's reason enough for others to exclude him. We also get a sense here of how the Love Laws work between Estha and Rahel. The two of them are a pair, but not one that society will allow to be together. In a way, this moment foreshadows the incest they will commit as adults.Society and ClassThe characters in The God of Small Things are constantly coming up against the forces of society and class. Indian society was structured for centuries according to very rigid social classes and boundaries, through what is known as the caste system. Even though the novel takes place after the caste system stopped being a legal social policy, its characters still find themselves limited by what is and isn't deemed socially acceptable for them. Social rules dictate who can love whom, which occupations people can adopt, and who is considered to be better than whom. (Sounds a little like an extreme version of high school, doesn't it?)Questions about Society and ClassWhy does Ammu seem to dislike Margaret Kochamma and Sophie Mol, while everyone else fawns over them?Why do you think Chacko tells the twins that liking The Sound of Music is an example of their Anglophilia? In what ways do they put themselves down by putting the Von Trapps on a pedestal?Why does Ammu tell Rahel that she doesn't want the twins to spend so much time with Velutha?Why do you think Baby Kochamma tries so hard to impress Margaret Kochamma and Sophie Mol with her knowledge of Shakespeare?Discussion ideas:Try on an opinion or two, start a debate, or play the devil’s advocate.The characters of The God of Small Things are ultimately constrained and held back by class boundaries.In the end, the characters of The God of Small Things show us that class boundaries are breakable.Quote #1"It's a little too late for all of this, don't you think?" he said. He spoke the coarse Kottayam dialect of Malayalam. He stared at Ammu's breasts as he spoke. He said the police knew all they needed to know and that the Kottayam Police didn't take statements from veshyas or their illegitimate children. Ammu said she'd see about that. Inspector Thomas Mathew came around his desk and approached Ammu with his baton."If I were you," he said, "I'd go home quietly." Then he tapped her breasts with his baton. Gently. Tap tap. As though he was choosing mangoes from a basket.... Inspector Thomas Mathew seemed to know whom he could pick on and whom he couldn't. Policemen have that instinct. (1.55-56)There's a lot going on here. We see several different power dynamics at work that tell us a lot about this particular society. Inspector Thomas Mathew is English, while Ammu is Indian, so as far as he's concerned, he's already got the upper hand. Then throw gender into the mix. He sexually harasses Ammu by tapping her breasts, showing that since he's a man, he's automatically more powerful than she is. Then he shows her what kind of woman he thinks she is by bringing up her "illegitimate" children.Quote #2Looking back now, to Rahel it seemed as though this difficulty that their family had with classification ran much deeper than the jam-jelly question.Perhaps Ammu, Estha and she were the worst transgressors. But it wasn't just them. It was the others too. They all broke the rules. They all crossed into forbidden territory. They all tampered with the laws that lay down who should be loved and how. And how much. The laws that make grandmothers grandmothers, uncles uncles, mothers mothers, cousins cousins, jam jam, and jelly jelly. (1.188-189)Classification – figuring out where things and people belong and how they should be labeled – is a big deal in this book. The society Rahel and Estha live in is divided by extremely rigid class lines that not only dictate how "good" someone is but also whom they can associate with and even love. We find out early on in the novel, however, that Rahel, Estha, and Ammu – along with almost everyone else – will violate those rules.Quote #3That whole week Baby Kochamma eavesdropped relentlessly on the twins' private conversations, and whenever she caught them speaking in Malayalam, she levied a small fine which was deducted at source. From their pocket money. She made them write lines – "impositions" she called them – I will always speak in English, I will always speak in English. A hundred times each. (2.7)Baby Kochamma finds everything British – the language, the culture – inherently superior. Here, she punishes the twins for speaking their own language instead of English. Think about how this must contribute to the twins' fear that Sophie Mol is somehow better than them because she is only half-Indian and lives in England.Quote #4There would be two flasks of water. Boiled water for Margaret Kochamma and Sophie Mol, tap water for everybody else. (2.59)Even in the most minor details, like the drinking water the family brings to the airport, we see how everyone defers to Sophie Mol and Margaret Kochamma. What's good enough for the rest of the family is not good enough for the two of them. On the flip side, it seems that Estha and Rahel aren't good enough to have "special" boiled water, either. (Although, to be fair, the two visitors aren't accustomed to the unpurified Indian water, which would probably make them sick.)Quote #5Chacko told the twins that, though he hated to admit it, they were all Anglophiles. They were a family of Anglophiles. Pointed in the wrong direction, trapped outside their own history and unable to retrace their steps because their footprints had been swept away. (2.90)The concept of "Anglophilia" is a big one in this book, from the way everyone fawns over Sophie Mol, to Chacko's cocky attitude about his Oxford degree, to the whole family's obsession with The Sound of Music. But it's pretty clear that the thing they love also holds them down. When Chacko says their footprints have been swept away, he is making a reference to the way members of the Untouchable caste have to sweep away their footprints so that people of higher classes don't "pollute" themselves by walking in them. Even though by Indian standards their family is of a relatively high social status, they are of a low social status in relation to the British.Quote #6Pappachi would not allow Paravans into the house. Nobody would. They were not allowed to touch anything that Touchables touched. Caste Hindus and Caste Christians. Mammachi told Estha and Rahel that she could remember a time, in her girlhood, when Paravans were expected to crawl backwards with a broom, sweeping away their footprints so that Brahmins or Syrian Christians would not defile themselves by accidentally stepping into a Paravan's footprint. In Mammachi's time, Paravans, like other Untouchables, were not allowed to walk on public roads, not allowed to cover their upper bodies, not allowed to carry umbrellas. They had to put their hands over their mouths when they spoke, to divert their polluted breath away from those whom they addressed. (2.270)This quote speaks volumes about the experience of the Untouchables, and it helps us appreciate the kinds of deeply ingrained attitudes that drive so much of the prejudice and hate we see in the novel.Quote #7The Masters would haggle with him as he trudged behind them with the boys' luggage, his bowed legs further bowed, cruel schoolboys imitating his gait. Balls-in-Brackets they used to call him.Smallest Man the Varicose Veins he clean forgot to mention, and he wobbled off with less than half the money he had asked for and less than a tenth of what he deserved. (3.17-18)Here we get a snapshot of the experience of a member of the lowest class, who carries luggage for the students on Estha's class trip. This is a very humanizing moment for someone who is ordinarily seen by those around him as less than human. Life isn't fair for those in the lower classes; they have to deal with the upper classes not only bossing them around, but also being unnecessarily cruel and hateful – and not paying enough in return for hard work.Quote #8Mammachi had never met Margaret Kochamma. But she despised her anyway. Shopkeeper's daughter was how Margaret Kochamma was filed away in Mammachi's mind. Mammachi's world was arranged that way. If she was invited to a wedding in Kottayam, she would spend the whole time whispering to whoever she went with, "The bride's maternal grandfather was my father's carpenter. Kunjukutty Eapen? His great-grandmother's sister was just a midwife in Trivandrum. My husband's family used to own this whole hill." (8.19)Pigeonholing people is really important to Mammachi – not only to give her world order, but to show how important she is in comparison.Quote #9Then [Baby Kochamma] shuddered her schoolgirl shudder. That was when she said: How could she stand the smell? Haven't you noticed? They have a particular smell, these Paravans. (13.129)Like Mammachi, Baby Kochamma has a heap of prejudices against other social classes, and these prejudices run deep. By disparaging Velutha out loud and saying that his smell must have been intolerable, she tries to show just how high class she is.Quote #10Mammachi's rage at the old one-eyed Paravan standing in the rain, drunk, dribbling and covered in mud was re-directed into a cold contempt for her daughter and what she had done. She thought of her naked, coupling in the mud with a man who was nothing but a filthy coolie. She imagined it in vivid detail: a Paravan's coarse black hand on her daughter's breast. His mouth on hers. His black hips jerking between her parted legs. The sound of their breathing. His particular Paravan smell. Like animals, Mammachi thought and nearly vomited. (13.131)Again, we see just how deeply Mammachi's prejudices run. She doesn't see Ammu and Velutha's relationship as love between two people, as it might look to us. As far as she is concerned, it is as low as two animals going at it in the mud. The idea of a "coolie" (lower-class laborer) having sex with her daughter is so repulsive to Mammachi that it almost makes her puke.Quote #11With a street-fighter's unerring instincts, Comrade Pillai knew that his straitened circumstances (his small, hot house, his grunting mother, his obvious proximity to the toiling masses) gave him a power over Chacko that in those revolutionary times no amount of Oxford education could match.He held his poverty like a gun to Chacko's head. (14.63-64)The communist movement is an important sub-plot in the novel. Basically, we see people who are typically regarded as the lowest members of society – the workers of the world – looking to break class lines and fight for their own rights, whether it means marching in the streets or taking more violent measures. As the boss of the pickle factory, Chacko represents the kind of person who oppresses the lower classes (even though he calls himself a Marxist). As someone with political ambitions in this climate, Comrade Pillai can have more sway over the masses, and this is dangerous for a more affluent person like Chacko – he doesn't have the same kind of power in society that he used to.Versions of RealityThroughout The God of Small Things, we get to see how things look from different characters' points of view – different versions of the same reality. We see Estha and Rahel at two very different points in their lives, 23 years apart. There is a stark difference between their perspectives as 7-year-olds and as 31-year-olds. As kids, we see them learning about the world as they go; as adults, they are trying to make sense of the past.Questions about Versions of RealityWhat are some ways in which the twins are frightened by the way they perceive the world?How might it be useful for Rahel to create alternate explanations for Sophie Mol's death?What are some examples of how adults and kids view the same situation differently in the novel?Sometimes the way the twins view the world as kids can seem silly or cute, but in what ways are their observations insightful?Discussion ideas:Try on an opinion or two, start a debate, or play the devil’s advocate.Viewing one event from multiple perspectives helps us get at the one true story.Viewing one event from multiple perspectives shows us that there is no single "correct" version of things.Quote #1Only Rahel noticed Sophie Mol's secret cartwheel in her coffin. (1.44)This is Rahel's version of what happens at Sophie Mol's funeral. When Rahel seems to see something that other people don't, we enter a world that is completely hers.Quote #2When they lowered Sophie Mol's coffin into the ground in the little cemetery behind the church, Rahel knew that she still wasn't dead. She heard (on Sophie Mol's behalf) the softsounds of the red mud and the hardsounds of the orange laterite that spoiled the shining coffin polish. (1.46)Seriously, when we first read this we had to stop and wonder for a second: is Sophie Mol really still alive? What clues us in that this might just be Rahel's version of reality is the way she seems to experience the burial herself – she hears the mud covering the coffin as though she's inside it. In order to do this, Rahel has to delve into her own imagination, where anything is possible.Quote #3Inside the earth Sophie Mol screamed, and shredded satin with her teeth. But you can't hear screams through earth and stone.Sophie Mol died because she couldn't breathe.Her funeral killed her. (1.48-50)Isn't this a nightmare everyone has had at one point or another? Before we get totally sucked in to this moment and think, "She was buried alive! Oh, the humanity!" and tear out our hair, just take a second to think – is this something the narrator reports objectively, or are we still seeing the funeral through Rahel's eyes?If we re-read this moment from Rahel's point of view, we learn a couple of things: first, it seems that when Sophie Mol is buried, her death hasn't yet really sunk in with Rahel. Second, if it's the funeral that kills Sophie Mol, then Rahel can't be held responsible – and neither can Ammu or Estha. By creating a new lens through which to view Sophie Mol's death, Rahel can take away some of the blame that's falling on her family's shoulders, if only to alleviate her own feelings of guilt.Quote #4Still, to say that it all began when Sophie Mol came to Ayemenem is only one way of looking at it.Equally, it could be argued that it actually began thousands of years ago. Long before the Marxists came. Before the British took Malabar, before the Dutch Ascendancy, before Vasco da Gama arrived, before the Zamorin's conquest of Calicut. Before three purple-robed Syrian bishops murdered by the Portuguese were found floating in the sea, with coiled sea serpents riding on their chests and oysters knotted in their tangled beards. It could be argued that it began long before Christianity arrived in a boat and seeped into Kerala like tea from a bag.That it really began in the days when the Love Laws were made. The laws that lay down who should be loved, and how.And how much. (1.207-210)This quote is full of what might seem like obscure references, but what it's basically doing is pushing us to think about what caused everything to fall apart for Estha and Rahel. Did everything come crashing down because Sophie Mol came to Ayemenem? Or do the events of the novel happen as a result of decisions, actions, and rules that were made thousands of years before any of our characters were even born? Do things happen for a reason, because they're part of this huge plan, or do they just happen because the world is fickle like that?Quote #5"It was Velutha!" she explained with a smile. "And he had a flag!"The flag had seemed to her a most impressive piece of equipment. The right thing for a friend to have. "You're a stupid silly little girl!" Ammu said. (2.247-249)Here we see how one situation can be viewed in two completely different ways. To Rahel, seeing Velutha with a flag marching in a parade is something to be excited about. Ammu, on the other hand, is not so jazzed – she knows it'll be bad news for Velutha if Chacko and Baby Kochamma find out what he's up to.Quote #6[Estha] knew that if Ammu found out about what he had done with the Orangedrink Lemondrink Man, she'd love him less as well. Very much less. He felt the shaming churning heaving turning sickness in his stomach. (4.245)We can be pretty sure that if Ammu ever found out that Estha was molested, she wouldn't be upset with him. She'd be unbelievably angry at the Orangedrink Lemondrink Man, but she would never actually blame Estha. Yet, in Estha's mind, what happened to him is his fault, and he carries it around as his shame.Quote #7"Anything's possible in Human Nature," Chacko said in his Reading Aloud voice. Talking to the darkness now, suddenly insensitive to his little fountain-haired niece. "Love. Madness. Hope. Infinite joy."Of the four things that were Possible in Human Nature, Rahel thought that Infinnate Joy sounded the saddest. Perhaps because of the way Chacko said it.Infinnate Joy. With a church sound to it. Like a sad fish with fins all over. (4.310-312)Here we see the difference between an adult's and a child's version of reality. Chacko is sort of rambling just to answer Rahel's questions so she'll stop pestering him – we even detect a hint of sarcasm in his voice. In Rahel's mind, though, these random words might as well be written in stone. While Chacko says anything is possible, Rahel deems the four things he names as the only things that are possible because they are the only things he mentions.This quote is a great example of how the novel uses capitalized words to deem certain ideas or names as particularly significant in Estha and Rahel's minds. The fact that "infinite" is misspelled also heightens the mismatch between the adult's pronouncement and the child's understanding.Quote #8Ammu touched her daughter gently. On her shoulder. And her touch meant Shhhh....Rahel looked around her and saw she was in a Play. But she had only a small part.She was just the landscape. A flower perhaps. Or a tree.A face in the crowd. A Townspeople. (8.48-50)This moment turns the way Rahel understands her role at home upside-down. All of a sudden, things are totally different than they usually are. Rahel's realization that they're in a "play" shows us that everyone here is playing a part to some extent – they aren't being themselves. Sophie Mol's arrival topples over Rahel's reality; she goes from being one of the leads to being the "nobody" in the background.Quote #9[Ammu] was surprised at the extent of her daughter's physical ease with him. Surprised that her child seemed to have a sub-world that excluded her entirely. (8.85)Here, Ammu sees that Rahel's world is different from the version she had imagined. It seems that up until now, Ammu had never really imagined that there were parts of Rahel's life that she didn't know about and that she even now can't access.Quote #10Rahel put on her sunglasses and looked back into the Play. Everything was Angry-colored. Sophie Mol, standing between Margaret Kochamma and Chacko, looked as though she ought to be slapped. (8.218).This moment is a great example of how Rahel interprets what her senses tell her. Here, the red lenses of her sunglasses make the world look angry to her, but we might guess that that's because she's already angry. And as for the Sophie Mol part – we all know what it's like to see someone else getting all the attention and feeling mad that they don't really deserve it.Memory and the PastSource: Time in The God of Small Things doesn't unfold in a linear way; we don't start at Point A and watch the story progress until we get to Point B. Instead, we move back and forth between 1969 and 1993, with a few other episodes thrown in for flavor. The story is told through a series of memories and flashbacks. From the moment the novel begins, we know what's going to happen, we just don't know how. We start at the end, and the narrator uses the characters' memories to put the pieces together for us. (Check out "Writing Style" for more on this.)Questions about Memory and the PastHow are memories used in the novel to help tell the story?How are memories painful? How are they a source of comfort and strength?What are some of the central objects in the novel that trigger memories, and what kinds of memories do these objects evoke?What do we learn about individual characters through the things they remember?Discussion ideas:Try on an opinion or two, start a debate, or play the devil’s advocate.In The God of Small Things, memories tend to be extremely painful to recall.In The God of Small Things, memories of better times help the characters make sense of the troubles they're going through.Quote #1Now, all these years later, Rahel has a memory of waking up one night giggling at Estha's funny dream.She has other memories too that she has no right to have.She remembers, for instance (though she hadn't been there), what the Orangedrink Lemondrink Man did to Estha in Abhilash Talkies. She remembers the taste of the tomato sandwiches – Estha's sandwiches, that Estha ate – on the Madras Mail to Madras. (1.10-12)Rahel's ability to remember things that happened to Estha and not her tells us a lot about their joint identity and how profoundly she understands him.Quote #2It is curious how sometimes the memory of death lives on for so much longer than the memory of the life that it purloined. Over the years, as the memory of Sophie Mol [...] slowly faded, the Loss of Sophie Mol grew robust and alive. (1.98)When you think about it, it makes sense that the memory of Sophie Mol's death should be sharper than the memory of her life. Her death is a traumatic experience for the twins and their whole family – nearly impossible to forget. The circumstances surrounding it change everyone's lives forever, splitting apart Estha and Rahel's family. These major experiences overshadow any little actions or quips from Sophie Mol during her short life. We experience this as readers, too – scenes with Sophie Mol are few and far between, but her death is always coming up.Quote #3Earlier that year, Margaret Kochamma's second husband, Joe, had been killed in a car accident. When Chacko heard about the accident he invited them to Ayemenem. He said that he couldn't bear to think of them spending a lonely, desolate Christmas in England. In a house full of memories. (2.4)Here we see the painful side of memory. Chacko imagines that Margaret and Sophie's life in England is full of memories of Joe, of what they've lost. Memory, in this case, is something to escape from.Quote #4"Oh come on!" Chacko said. "You can't dictate what she does with her own spit!""Mind your own business," Ammu snapped."It brings back Memories," Estha, in his wisdom, explained to Chacko. (2.380-382)Again, we see how many of our characters try to escape from memory instead of embracing it. When Rahel blows spit bubbles, it reminds Ammu of her ex-husband Baba's unrefined behavior. The capital M in "Memories" shows us just how serious of a matter this is to Estha.Quote #5Silence hung in the air like secret loss.The terrible ghosts of impossible-to-forget toys clustered on the blades of the ceiling fan. A catapult. A Qantas koala (from Miss Mitten) with loosened button eyes. An inflatable goose (that had been burst with a policeman's cigarette). Two ballpoint pens with silent streetscapes and red London buses that floated up and down in them. (3.34)Here, we find ourselves in Estha's room in 1993, a room once filled with toys. These toys all hold a secret significance for Estha and Rahel, and they're impossible for them to forget. We get the hint that they belong to a scene in the past that was scary for the twins when we find out that a policeman destroyed one of their toys on purpose.Quote #6The Torch Man opened the heavy Princess Circle door into the fan-whirring, peanut-crunching darkness. It smelled of breathing people and hairoil. And old carpets. A magical, Sound of Music smell that Rahel remembered and treasured. Smells, like music, hold memories. She breathed deep, and bottled it up for posterity. (4.40)Memories are triggered left and right in this book. Almost any object, sensation, smell, or sight is capable of bringing memories to the surface. What's interesting about this moment is that Rahel actively tries to capture it. This is one instance in which memories are to be treasured and not fearedQuote #7Their beautiful mother's mouth, Estha thought. Ammu's mouth.That had kissed his hand through the barred train window. First class, on the Madras Mail to Madras. 'Bye Estha, Godbless, Ammu's mouth had said. Ammu's trying-not-to-cry mouth.The last time he had seen her. (17.39-42)At 31, Rahel has grown to look strikingly like Ammu the last time Estha saw her. They have the same mouth. This moment shows us how the simplest little details have the power to trigger overwhelming memories.Guilt and BlameGuilt and blame are a tricky duo in this book, lurking around every corner. Some really horrible things happen here: Estha is molested; Sophie Mol drowns; a family breaks apart. Even though the narrator sometimes suggests that these things might have been destined to happen, the only way for the characters to make sense of the tragedies they are living through is to find someone to blame. Margaret Kochamma, for instance, finds it easiest to blame Estha for Sophie Mol's death, while Chacko blames Ammu.Along with blame, guilt is an emotion all too familiar to our characters. Unfortunately, we often see instances of guilt, or shame, where there should be none. For example, Estha feels incredibly guilty after the Orangedrink Lemondrink Man molests him, convinced that he did something wrong.Questions about Guilt and BlameWhy do you think Margaret Kochamma suspects that Estha is to blame for Sophie Mol's death?Why do you think it's so easy for Chacko to blame Ammu for what happens to Sophie Mol?For which event do you think Estha feels more guilt: Sophie Mol's or Velutha's death?Which characters tend to feel guilt in this novel, and which tend to blame others?Discussion ideas:Try on an opinion or two, start a debate, or play the devil’s advocate.Even though it was unintentional, one could argue that Estha and Rahel are directly responsible for Sophie Mol's death.There is no one person to blame for what happens to Sophie Mol; her death is a product of many circumstances.Quote #1But worst of all, [Estha] carried inside him the memory of a young man with an old man's mouth. The memory of a swollen face and a smashed, upside-down smile. Of a spreading pool of clear liquid with a bare bulb reflected in it. Of a bloodshot eye that had opened, wandered, and then fixed its gaze on him. Estha. And what had Estha done? He looked into that beloved face and said: Yes. (1.202)At this point in the book, we still aren't sure what this quote is referring to (Estha's betrayal of Velutha). We do get the overwhelming sense that Estha has been burdened with guilt for an extraordinarily long time for answering "yes" to a question to which he (and we) can be sure he should have said "no."Quote #2"Ammu," Rahel said, "shall I miss dinner as my punishment?"She was keen to exchange punishments. No dinner, in exchange for Ammu loving her the same as before. (4.260)When Ammu tells Rahel that hurting others' feelings causes them to love you a little less, Rahel feels extremely guilty for speaking carelessly. She tries to take punishment wherever she can to make up for what she's done. The guilt she feels haunts her through Sophie Mol's visit, pressing her to watch Sophie and Ammu closely to make sure that Ammu doesn't start loving Sophie more.Quote #3So eventually, though she knew that her friends and colleagues at the school would think it odd – her running back to her first husband just as soon as her second one had died – Margaret Kochamma broke her term deposit and bought two airline tickets. London-Bombay-Cochin.She was haunted by that decision for as long as she lived. (13.91-92).This is the kind of thing that anyone would tell Margaret not to blame herself for. How could she have known that Sophie Mol would die in Ayemenem? And yet everyone feels this kind of regret at some point. When was the last time something went wrong and you said to yourself, "if only I hadn't...?"Quote #4Margaret Kochamma never forgave herself for taking Sophie Mol to Ayemenem. For leaving her there alone over the weekend while she and Chacko went to Cochin to confirm their return tickets. (13.99)It's interesting to think about how much blame gets thrown around for Sophie Mol's death. It seems everyone has a part in it. Margaret is willing to blame others, but she still blames herself for coming to Ayemenem in the first place.Quote #5It was only later, when the world collapsed around them, after Sophie Mol's body was brought to Ayemenem, and Baby Kochamma unlocked her, that Ammu sifted through her rage to try to make sense of what had happened. Fear and apprehension forced her to think clearly, and it was only then that she remembered what she had said to her twins when they came to her bedroom door and asked why she had been locked up. The careless words she hadn't meant. "Because of you!" Ammu had screamed. "If it wasn't for you I wouldn't be here! None of this would have happened! I wouldn't be here! I would have been free! I should have dumped you in an orphanage the day you were born! You're the millstones round my neck!" (13.101-102)Much like a delicious chocolate cake, this quote is made up of layers of guilt. We see Ammu quietly blaming herself for the "careless words" she said to the twins without meaning. By blaming the twins for her circumstances, she is putting guilt on their shoulders, which ultimately pushes them to run away.Quote #6[Margaret Kochamma] never forgot her irrational rage at the other two younger children who had for some reason been spared. Her fevered mind fastened like a limpet onto the notion that Estha was somehow responsible for Sophie Mol's death. (13.167)Margaret Kochamma doesn't even know why Estha might be responsible for Sophie Mol's death. (It was his idea to cross the river, after all.) But that doesn't stop her from blaming the twins and hating them for living while her daughter died.Quote #7[Baby Kochamma] gnawed like a rat into the godown of Chacko's grief. Within its walls she planted an easy, accessible target for his insane anger. It wasn't hard for her to portray Ammu as the person actually responsible for Sophie Mol's death. Ammu and her two-egg twins. (19.101)Again, if there's one person who's a master at playing mind-games and dispensing blame, it's Baby Kochamma. In moments of disbelief and sorrow, it's easy to pin blame on someone else just to help make sense of what's going on. This is what ends up happening between Chacko and Ammu.InnocenceOne of the most interesting aspects of The God of Small Things is how the narrator helps us see and understand the world from a kid's perspective. This ranges from everyday things (like what certain words mean) to the most shocking and horrific events imaginable (like Sophie Mol's death). Usually when we think about innocence, we think about a world of simplicity. When you're innocent, what you don't know can't hurt you – you can be blissfully na?ve. This book puts a different spin on innocence – here, it's not about what Estha and Rahel don't know, but rather the way they make sense of what they do know, see, or experience.Estha and Rahel, both separately and together, lose their innocence throughout the course of the novel. One of the most touching aspects of Estha's loss of innocence – when he is molested, and when he is forced to condemn Velutha – is how he tries to prevent the same thing from happening to Rahel. While both children undergo a loss of innocence through painful experiences, Estha is the more profoundly affected of the two. He watches his world change and tries to prevent his sister from having to share that experience.Questions About InnocenceDo you think Estha knows what's happening when the Orangedrink Lemondrink Man molests him, or do you think it only sinks in later?Why do you think Estha tries so hard to protect Rahel from harsh realities like his molestation and Velutha's death?Is Estha's loss of innocence a process, or is there one single event that marks it?In what ways does Rahel's innocence affect the way she looks at the world as a child?Discussion Ideas:Try on an opinion or two, start a debate, or play the devil’s advocate.By portraying the twins as cute and innocent, the narrator shows us that they don't fully understand what's happening around them.Portraying the twins as cute and innocent helps emphasize how horrible the events happening to them are.Quote #1By then Esthappen and Rahel had learned that the world had other ways of breaking men. They were already familiar with the smell. Sicksweet. Like old roses on a breeze. (1.39)The loss of innocence is central to the plot of the novel, and we see a hint of it here. Carefree children don't know anything about how the world "breaks men," but kids who have been through a major ordeal do.Quote #2When they left the police station Ammu was crying, so Estha and Rahel didn't ask her what veshya meant. Or, for that matter, illegitimate. It was the first time they'd seen their mother cry. (1.58)Here we see a mingling of innocence and the loss of it. Estha and Rahel don't know exactly what these hurtful words hurled at Ammu mean (veshya means prostitute), which shows that they still live with some sense of innocence. Still, the first time you see your mom cry is a big deal and can change the way you view the world. You realize your parents are fragile just like everyone else.Quote #3When the twins asked what cuff-links were for – "To link cuffs together," Ammu told them – they were thrilled by this morsel of logic in what had so far seemed an illogical language. Cuff + link = cuff-link. This, to them, rivaled the precision and logic of mathematics. (2.87)The book is full of great tidbits like these, where we get to see the world through the eyes of a child. We watch as they start to understand the world, in serious ways and in silly ones like this.Quote #4"Bow," [Estha] said, and smiled, because when he was younger he had been under the impression that you had to say "Bow" when you bowed. That you had to say it to do it. (4.23)Here we see Estha holding on to a bit of his childlike innocence. He smiles when he thinks back to the way he viewed the world when he was still innocent. Even though he now knows that you don't have to say "bow" when you perform the action, he does it anyway – and the little kid who once invented that rule lives on in him.Quote #5There was a voice from outside the picture. It was clear and true, cutting through the fan-whirring, peanut-crunching darkness. There was a nun in the audience. Heads twisted around like bottle caps. Black-haired backs of heads became faces with mouths and mustaches. Hissing mouths with teeth like sharks. Many of them. Like stickers on a card."Shhhh!" they said together. It was Estha who was singing. A nun with a puff. An Elvis Pelvis Nun. He couldn't help it. (4.53-54).We can almost hear Estha's pure, true voice carrying over the soundtrack of The Sound of Music. He can't help being overtaken by the music he loves so much. This is one of the last moments of sheer joy that Estha will ever experience, and we can't help but feel a little heartwarmed by it. The simplicity and innocence here makes the molestation that happens just moments later seem all the more vile and terrible.Quote #6"Where d'you think people are sent to Jolly Well Behave?" Estha asked Rahel in a whisper."To the government," Rahel whispered back, because she knew. (6.187-188)This exchange gives us more insight into the way Estha and Rahel think the world of grown-ups works. (To them, "the government" is some scary, physical place.) This moment mixes equal parts wonder and fear to give us a glimpse into Estha and Rahel's incomplete view of the world.Quote #7It took the twins years to understand Ammu's part in what had happened. At Sophie Mol's funeral and in the days before Estha was Returned, they saw her swollen eyes, and with the self-centeredness of children, held themselves wholly culpable for her grief. (20.15)Here, innocence can also be seen as a lack of awareness. Estha and Rahel don't know what's been going on between Velutha and Ammu, and they assume their version of events is the only version.Love"OK," you yawn, "another book with love as a theme. Can't anyone write anything different?" Well, friends, it's true, The God of Small Things is about love. The novel puts it right out there on the table, repeatedly invoking the "Love Laws" that dictate "who should be loved, and how. And how much" (1.209-210). Love and rules are constantly butting heads in the book. Ammu and Velutha's love is forbidden because of their caste (social status) differences. Rahel and Estha's love is expressed physically at the end of the book, resulting in the taboo of incest. Mammachi's feelings toward her son, Chacko, also blur the lines between familial and romantic love. (See "Family" under "Quotes by Theme.") And Baby Kochamma is in love with Father Mulligan, a priest who can never marry. In The God of Small Things, love constantly violates social rules.Questions about LoveIn what ways do you think Baby Kochamma would have been different if she had loved someone other than Father Mulligan?Are there any examples of love in this novel that is both successful and socially acceptable?When the narrator discusses Rahel's "list" (6.214), we learn that it shows how she is constantly torn between "love" and "duty" – who she really loves and who she's supposed to love. Who are the people who truly love one another in the book?Name three examples of love that violates the "Love Laws" – i.e., examples of people who love each other but aren't "supposed" to.Discussion ideas:Try on an opinion or two, start a debate, or play the devil’s advocate.The God of Small Things is about what happens when love is thwarted and not allowed to flourish.Love that breaks "The Love Laws" is the only successful love.Quote #1Baby Kochamma resented Ammu, because she saw her quarreling with a fate that she, Baby Kochamma herself, felt she had graciously accepted. The fate of the wretched Man-less woman. The sad, Father Mulligan-less Baby Kochamma. She had managed to persuade herself over the years that her unconsummated love for Father Mulligan had been entirely due to her restraint and her determination to do the right thing. (2.55)Baby Kochamma wants to believe that she chose not to receive Father Mulligan's love – the one thing she wanted more than anything. Forbidden love, like that between Ammu and Velutha, is despicable to her – and maybe it's because they have what she never could.Quote #2At Pappachi's funeral, Mammachi cried and her contact lenses slid around in her eyes. Ammu told the twins that Mammachi was crying more because she was used to him than because she loved him. (2.79)Throughout the book, we see examples of duty-bound love. Mammachi doesn't especially love Pappachi, and why should she? He's been nothing but awful to her.Quote #3Frightened eyes and a fountain looked back at Ammu."D'you know what happens when you hurt people?" Ammu said. "When you hurt people, they begin to love you less. That's what careless words do. They make people love you a little less." (4.237-238)People always say that a mother's love is unconditional – that she will love you no matter what. Here Ammu takes that guarantee away from Rahel in response to her careless, hurtful words.Quote #4[Sophie Mol] arrived on the Bombay-Cochin flight. Hatted, bell-bottomed, and Loved from the Beginning. (5.116)After Ammu tells Rahel that careless words come with the danger of being loved less, Rahel seems to feel that she needs to earn the love she receives. Sophie Mol, on the other hand, doesn't have to do anything to deserve anyone's love; she has it from the moment she steps off the plane.Quote #5For instance, [Velutha] saw that Rahel's mother was a woman.That she had deep dimples when she smiled and that they stayed on long after her smile left her eyes. He saw that her brown arms were round and firm and perfect. That her shoulders shone, but her eyes were somewhere else. He saw that when he gave her gifts they no longer needed to be offered flat on the palms of his hands so that she wouldn't have to touch him. His boats and boxes. His little windmills. He saw too that he was not necessarily the only giver of gifts. That she had gifts to give him, too.This knowing slid into him cleanly, like the sharp edge of a knife. Cold and hot at once. It only took a moment. (8.89-91)Is your heart melting right now? Here, we see Velutha starting to fall in love with Ammu. He's known her forever, but now he sees her in an entirely new and different way.Quote #6It is only now, these years later, that Rahel with adult hindsight recognized the sweetness of that gesture. A grown man entertaining three raccoons, treating them like real ladies. Instinctively colluding in the conspiracy of their fiction, taking care not to decimate it with adult carelessness. Or affection. (9.25)This moment shows us a different kind of love – the love between Velutha and the twins. Estha, Rahel, and Sophie Mol go to visit Velutha dressed as ladies in saris. As an adult, Rahel realizes how kind it was of Velutha to play along with their game.Quote #7Velutha smiled when he saw the Marxist flag blooming like a tree outside his doorway He had to bend low in order to enter his home. A tropical Eskimo. When he saw the children, something clenched inside him. And he couldn't understand it. He saw them every day. He loved them without knowing it. But it was different suddenly. Now. After History had slipped up so badly. No fist had clenched inside him before.Her children, an insane whisper whispered to him.Her eyes, her mouth. Her teeth.Her soft, lambent skin. (10.256-259)Velutha's feelings toward the children change here. He has fallen in love with Ammu, and as a result, his love for her children deepens to the point that it takes him by surprise.Quote #8Between them they decided that it would be best to disturb her discreetly rather than wake her suddenly. So they opened drawers, they cleared their throats, they whispered loudly, they hummed a little tune. They moved shoes. And found a cupboard door that creaked.Ammu, resting under the skin of her dream, observed them and ached with her love for them. (11.33-34)A mother's love for her children can be overwhelming. The twins, in their innocence, are afraid that if they wake Ammu up suddenly, she'll have a heart attack and die. So they tiptoe around trying to wake her gently. Noticing this, Ammu is overcome with her affection for them.Quote #9Somehow, by not mentioning his name, she knew that she had drawn him into the tousled intimacy of that blue cross-stitch afternoon and the song from the tangerine transistor. By not mentioning his name, she sensed that a pact had been forged between her Dream and the World. And that the midwives of that pact were, or would be, her sawdust-coated two-egg twins.She knew who he was – the God of Loss, the God of Small Things. Of course she did. (11.70-71)Ammu has a dream about falling in love with a man unknown to her, who she calls The God of Small Things. She realizes that it's Velutha that she was dreaming about.Quote #10Estha nodded down at Ammu's face tilted up to the train window. At Rahel, small and smudged with station dirt. All three of them bonded by the certain, separate knowledge that they had loved a man to death. (20.12)All three of them – Ammu, Rahel, and Estha – loved Velutha, and none of them were supposed to. His loss becomes all the more painful because it's likely that, if not for them, he probably wouldn't have died. It was because they loved Velutha that they involved him in their lives. And it was because they involved him in their lives that he died.FearIn a novel in which so many bad things happen, it's not all that surprising that fear comes to the forefront. It's hard to think of even one character who doesn't demonstrate fear at some point. The thing to keep in mind about fear in The God of Small Things is that it isn't just a reaction to something scary; it's a powerful motivator that pushes characters to act in particular, often dangerous, ways.Estha's fear of the Orangedrink Lemondrink Man and Rahel's fear that Ammu doesn't love her anymore provoke the twins to run away across the river. Baby Kochamma and Mammachi's fear of social disgrace push them to lock Ammu away and send the police after Velutha. Fear is a mechanism behind many of the major, life-changing moments of the novel, and the result is often more terrifying than the thing that was originally feared.Questions about FearHow does fear motivate Estha?How are relationships between people controlled by fear in this book?In what ways does the narrator show us that the twins are afraid without telling us outright?What are some things that only kids fear in this book? What are some things that only adults fear?Discussion ideas:Try on an opinion or two, start a debate, or play the devil’s advocate.In The God of Small Things, fear causes people to act in ways that lead to bad things happening.In The God of Small Things, fear is a natural response to bad things that are inevitable.Quote #1"Take mine!" Estha said quickly, not wanting Rahel to go near the [Orangedrink Lemondrink] man.But Rahel had already started towards him. As she approached him, he smiled at her and something about that portable piano smile, something about the steady gaze in which he held her, made her shrink from him. It was the most hideous thing she had ever seen. She spun around to look at Estha.She backed away from the hairy man.Estha pressed his Parry's sweets into her hand and she felt his fever-hot fingers whose tips were as cold as death."'Bye, Mon," Uncle said to Estha. "I'll see you in Ayemenem sometime." (4.219-223)How creepy is this moment? It presents two reasons for Estha to be completely terrified: he's worried that the Orangedrink Lemondrink man is going to do something to Rahel, and he also realizes the possibility of his tracking him down.Quote #2Ammu said a grown-up's Hello to Margaret Kochamma and a children's Hell-oh to Sophie Mol. Rahel watched hawk-eyed to try and gauge how much Ammu loved Sophie Mol, but couldn't. (6.86)We see the twins experiencing different kinds of fear about very different issues throughout the book. Here, Rahel is scared that Ammu will be enchanted by Sophie Mol and thus begin to love her more than she loves Rahel.Quote #3That night in the lodge, Ammu sat up in the strange bed in the strange room in the strange town. She didn't know where she was, she recognized nothing around her. Only her fear was familiar. The faraway man inside her began to shout. This time the steely fist never loosened its grip. (7.49)In the moment of Ammu's death, she's paralyzed by fear. What makes this moment so awful is that everything is strange to her except the fear that she feels. What a terrible way to die – not knowing what's going on except that you're completely terrified. Somehow, that makes the whole experience scarier, doesn't it?Quote #4The Orangedrink Lemondrink Man could walk in any minute. Catch a Cochin-Kottayam bus and be there. And Ammu would offer him a cup of tea. Or Pineapple Squash perhaps. With ice. Yellow in a glass. (10.19)Estha is overcome by the fear that the Orangedrink Lemondrink Man is going to come to Ayemenem and find him. What makes this moment so moving is Estha's sense of helplessness. He thinks that if the Orangedrink Lemondrink Man were to come for him, Ammu would be hospitable to him and Estha would be powerless.Quote #6Ammu was still locked into her bedroom. Baby Kochamma had the keys. She called through the door to ask Ammu whether she had any idea where the children might be. She tried to keep the panic out of her voice, make it sound like a casual inquiry. (13.101)It's rare that we see Baby Kochamma worried about anyone but herself. In this moment, Sophie Mol's body has already been found, and nobody knows what's happened to Estha and Rahel. Is it possible that Baby Kochamma might actually care about them? Or is she just worried about the consequences for her reputation?Quote #7"Perspiration trickled through Chacko's hair. He felt as though a company of ants was touring his scalp." (14.94)One thing the author does really well is to show us people's fear rather than telling us about it. Here Chacko breaks out in a cold sweat when he finds out that Velutha is a card-carrying member of the Communist Party.Quote #8"Sophie Mol? She whispered to the rushing river. "We're here! Here! Near the illimba tree!"Nothing.On Rahel's heart Pappachi's moth snapped open its somber wings.Out.In.And lifted its legs.Up.Down. (16.16-23)Here we see Pappachi's moth used as a symbol of fear. The timing of this moment is especially creepy. You can almost hear the moth's wings on Rahel's pounding heart.Quote #9Screams died in them and floated belly up, like dead fish. Cowering on the floor, rocking between dread and disbelief, they realized that the man being beaten was Velutha. (18.58)This is a moment of sheer terror, pure and simple. Estha and Rahel have probably never even imagined that such brutality was possible, and to see it happening to someone they love so much – well, that's just truly terrifying.Quote #10If they hurt Velutha more than they intended to, it was only because any kinship, any connection between themselves and him, any implication that if nothing else, at least biologically he was a fellow creature – had been severed long ago. They were not arresting a man, they were exorcising fear. (18.70)We can see here that the policemen don't just beat the smack out of Velutha because they think he's a criminal. They do it because they're afraid of him and no longer conceive of him as a human being.IdentityThe question of identity ("Who am I?") is important to all the characters in The God of Small Things, but especially to Estha and Rahel. On one level, they have a very good idea of who they are: they are extensions of one another. When they are together, they are a whole being. Nevertheless, the more Estha and Rahel learn about the world around them, the more we see them taking on alternate identities and imagining themselves as someone else. Ambassador E. Pelvis, Ambassador Stick Insect, and The Airport Fairy are all versions of themselves they identify with in different situations. Part of what makes their reunion in 1993 so important is that for the first time in 23 years they can consider themselves whole again.Questions about IdentityHow are different nicknames used in the book to identify different aspects of Rahel and Estha's personalities?Why do you think it might be important that Sophie Mol is half white and half Indian, rather than being all of one or the other?What are some of the ways in which identity and social class are inseparable?Why does Velutha claim to have a twin brother instead of admitting that it was him that Rahel saw in the march?Discussion ideas:Try on an opinion or two, start a debate, or play the devil’s advocate.As kids, Estha and Rahel share one identity.As kids, Estha and Rahel each have a separate identity that balances the other out.Quote #1In those early amorphous years when memory had only just begun, when life was full of Beginnings and no Ends, and Everything was Forever, Esthappen and Rahel thought of themselves together as Me, and separately, individually, as We or Us. As though they were a rare breed of Siamese twins, physically separate, but with joint identities. (1.9)When you think about it, Estha and Rahel actually seem to have pretty different personalities in the novel – they're definitely not the same person. And yet they balance each other out; each of them is the extension of the other.Quote #2The harbinger of harsh reality: You're both whole wogs and I'm a half one. (1.98)"Wog" is a derogatory British slang term for a non-white person. Here Sophie Mol matter-of-factly boxes Rahel and Estha's identities into the neat category of "not white" and her own into "half-white." This is just one of the ways Sophie Mol's presence causes Rahel to feel inferior.Quote #3Two little ones, instead of one big one. Twin seals, slick with their mother's juices. Wrinkled with the effort of being born. Ammu checked them for deformities before she closed her eyes and slept. She counted four eyes, four ears, two mouths, two noses, twenty fingers and twenty perfect toe-nails.She didn't notice the single Siamese soul. (2.27-28)This moment contrasts the parts of the twins' identities that are visible to the eye with the parts that can't be seen. Physically, they are two completely separate human beings. Deep down, though, their inner selves are connected.Quote #4"Shakespeare's The Tempest?" Baby Kochamma persisted.All this was of course primarily to announce her credentials to Margaret Kochamma. To set herself apart from the Sweeper Class. (6.103-104)One of Baby Kochamma's trademark personality traits is the way she's constantly trying to control how others perceive her. She's always trying to impress people she considers to be "better" than her, like Margaret Kochamma, or to prove her superiority to those she considers inferior. Here she tries to show Margaret Kochamma that she's well-read and educated.Quote #5On the front of the book, Estha had rubbed out his surname with spit, and taken half the paper with it. Over the whole mess, he had written in pencil Un-Known. Esthappen Unknown. (His surname postponed for the Time Being, while Ammu chose between her husband's name and her father's.) (7.16)On the surface, this moment simply tells us that Estha doesn't have a last name. (Ammu hasn't decided whether to give him her ex-husband's or her father's name.) But the significance of Estha's erasure runs a little deeper. Family names tell us who a person is in terms of who they belong to. Estha's unknown last name characterizes him as a person who doesn't seem to belong anywhere.Quote #6Rahel never wrote to him. There are things that you can't do – like writing letters to a part of yourself. To your feet or hair. Or heart. (7.62)Rahel's inability to write to Estha shows us to what extent their identities are wrapped up in each other. Writing to him would be like writing to herself.Quote #7"Liar," Rahel said. "Liar and pretender. I did see you. You were a Communist and had a shirt and a flag. And you ignored me.""Aiyyo kashtam," Velutha said. "Would I do that? You tell me would Velutha ever do that? It must've been my Long-lost Twin brother." (8.99-100)Velutha's long-lost twin brother Urumban is sort of Clark Kent to Velutha's Superman. Urumban becomes Velutha's alter-ego. He can attribute actions to him that are too dangerous for Velutha to admit to having done himself.Quote #8"Where's Estha Mon?" Velutha said, with an Ambassador (disguised as a Stick Insect disguised as an Airport Fairy) hanging down his back with her legs wrapped around his waist, blindfolding him with her sticky little hands. "I haven't seen him." (9.114)Here we see several different identities that Rahel takes on as a child. She's supposed to act as an Ambassador of India to Sophie Mol. In Estha's eyes she is a skinny Stick Insect, and she takes on the identity of Airport Fairy when the family goes to Cochin to pick up Margaret and Sophie.Quote #9Littleangels were beach-colored and wore bell-bottoms.Littledemons were mudbrown in Airport-Fairy frocks with forehead bumps that might turn into horns. With Fountains in Love-in-Tokyos. And backwards-reading habits. (9.127-128)Once more, we get an unflattering comparison between Sophie and Rahel here. Time and again, Rahel seems to find that Sophie Mol is everything she is not. Here we see how the family's awe over Sophie Mol diminishes Rahel's sense of self-worth.Quote #10Father Mulligan had died four years ago of viral hepatitis, in an ashram north of Rishikesh. His years of contemplation of Hindu scriptures had led initially to theological curiosity, but eventually to a change of faith. Fifteen years ago, Father Mulligan became a Vaishnavite. (17.23)What's interesting about Father Mulligan is that up until this point, his whole identity has been wrapped up in being a priest. His vocation has been pretty much the only point of reference we have for who he is, and what his role is among the other characters of the novel. His change of faith likewise changes who he is in the book.MortalityMortality, or death, resonates throughout The God of Small Things. We find out from the very beginning that Sophie Mol is going to die, and our anticipation of and eventual reaction to her death keeps us on edge from the first to the very last page. But Sophie Mol isn't the only person who comes face to face with death; Velutha dies in an incredibly graphic and violent way, and Ammu's death scene is full of anguish and fear. The novel asks us to consider not just the experience of death, but also that of witnessing it.Questions about MortalityWhy do you think the narrator tells us from the very beginning that Sophie Mol is going to die?How do you think the novel would have ended differently if Ammu hadn't died?Why do you think Rahel believes that Sophie Mol is still alive at her funeral?Do you think Estha would have felt differently about condemning Velutha if he could have done it after his death instead of while he was still hanging on by a thread?Discussion ideas:Try on an opinion or two, start a debate, or play the devil’s advocate.Sophie Mol's death has the greatest effect on the rest of Estha's life.Velutha's death has the greatest effect on the rest of Estha's life.Quote #1The Loss of Sophie Mol stepped softly around the Ayemenem House like a quiet thing in socks. It hid in books and food. In Mammachi's violin case. In the scabs of sores on Chacko's shins that he constantly worried. In his slack, womanish legs. (1.97)This quote portrays Sophie Mol's death as the kind of event everyone is constantly reminded of, in the simplest and quietest of ways. It's not something people come right out and talk about.Quote #2After the funeral Mammachi asked Rahel to help her locate and remove her contact lenses with the little orange pipette that came in its own case. Rahel asked Mammachi whether, after Mammachi died, she could inherit the pipette. Ammu took her out of the room and smacked her."I never want to hear you discussing people's deaths with them again," she said. (2.80-81)This is the kind of moment that helps shape a kid's understanding of death. Rahel probably didn't mean to be disrespectful or insensitive – she seems pretty matter-of-fact – but Ammu's reaction teaches her that talking about death is inappropriate.Quote #3Ammu died in a grimy room in the Bharat Lodge in Alleppey, where she had gone for a job interview as someone's secretary. She died alone. With a noisy ceiling fan for company and no Estha to lie at the back of her and talk to her. She was thirty-one. Not old, not young, but a viable, die-able age. (7.47)Ammu's death is a lonely and scary experience. It's especially sad the way the narrator points out Estha's absence. Love and warmth are noticeably missing from the scene. What a terrible way to go.Quote #4Esthappen and Rahel both knew that there were several perpetrators (besides themselves) that day. But only one victim. And he had blood-red nails and a brown leaf on his back that made the monsoons come on time.He left behind a Hole in the Universe through which darkness poured like liquid tar. Through which their mother followed without even turning to wave good-bye. She left them behind, spinning in the dark, with no moorings, in a place with no foundation. (9.37-38)This moment combines the idea of mortality with a deep sense of loss and insecurity. It shows how Velutha's death is the first step in the process of Estha and Rahel losing all the people closest to them. After Velutha dies, the twins lose Ammu and each other. Everything that was once stable in their lives is now gone.Quote #5The lovers make a suicide pact, and are found the next morning, washed up on the beach with their arms around each other. So everybody dies. The fisherman, his wife, her lover, and a shark that has no part in the story, but dies anyway. The sea claims them all. (11.56)This scene comes from the kathakali performance Rahel goes to see. Notice how it echoes images that are significant in Rahel's life – specifically, death by water. Everyone in the kathakali story dies because of the sea. And even though Sophie Mol's death is the only one in the novel that is directly caused by drowning, you could argue that the river is ultimately responsible for the deaths of Velutha and Ammu as well.Quote #6When Sophie Mol was old enough to go to school, Margaret Kochamma enrolled herself in a teacher training course, and then got a job as a junior schoolteacher in Clapham. She was in the staff room when she was told about Joe's accident. The news was delivered by a young policeman who wore a grave expression and carried his helmet in his hands. He had looked strangely comical, like a bad actor auditioning for a solemn part in a play. Margaret Kochamma remembered that her first instinct when she saw him had been to smile. (13.87)We never actually meet Joe – we know him mainly as Margaret's second husband who died. Nevertheless, the scene of his death, shown here, helps makes his loss real to us.Quote #7[Margaret Kochamma] took with her to her grave the picture of her little daughter's body laid out on the chaise lounge in the drawing room of the Ayemenem House. Even from a distance, it was obvious that she was dead. Not ill or asleep. It was something to do with the way she lay. The angle of her limbs. Something to do with Death's authority. Its terrible stillness. (13.93)This moment directly contrasts with the moment at the funeral when Rahel is convinced that Sophie Mol is still alive.Quote #8They ran along the bank calling to her. But she was gone. Carried away on the muffled highway. Graygreen. With fish in it. With the sky and trees in it. And at night the broken yellow moon in it.There was no storm-music. No whirlpool spun up from the inky depths of the Meenachal. No shark supervised the tragedy.Just a quiet handing-over ceremony. A boat spilling its cargo. A river accepting the offering. One small life. A brief sunbeam. With a silver thimble clenched for luck in its little fist. (16.24-26).Sophie's drowning is portrayed in a very matter-of-fact way. We don't see her suffering or struggling; she's merely "handed over" to the river. What's terrible about her death isn't necessarily the way she dies – it's the fact that she's dead.Quote #9A sparrow lay dead on the backseat. She had found her way in through a hole in the windscreen, tempted by some seat-sponge for her nest. She never found her way out. No one noticed her panicked car-window appeals. She died on the backseat, with her legs in the air. Like a joke. (17.7)When you think about it, this death resembles the kind of "point-of-no-return" way that Sophie Mol dies. The sparrow enters an unknown territory and never comes out, just as Sophie Mol climbs into the boat and sets out across the river, never to come out alive again.Quote #10Father Mulligan's death did not alter the text of the entries in Baby Kochamma's diary, simply because as far as she was concerned it did not alter his availability. If anything, she possessed him in death in a way that she never had while he was alive. (17.24)There isn't a sense of loss associated with Father Mulligan's death like there is with Velutha's, Ammu's, or Sophie Mol's. As far as Baby Kochamma is concerned, Father Mulligan wasn't available to her in real life, so how are things any different after he's gone? She hasn't really lost anything.Literary Devices in The God of Small ThingsSource: Symbolism, Imagery, AllegoryThe History HouseOK, just to clear things up, there are two different versions of the History House in the novel, one metaphorical and one literal.The first is the imaginary house that Chacko uses as a metaphor for India's, and the family's, history. He explains to Estha and Rahel that they come from a long line of Anglophiles, but the story of their true family background lies somewhere else:They were a whole family of Anglophiles. Pointed in the wrong direction, trapped outside their own history and unable to retrace their steps because their footprints had been swept away. He explained that history was like an old house at night. With all the lamps lit. And ancestors whispering inside."To understand history," Chacko said, "we have to go inside and listen to what they're saying. And look at the books and the pictures on the wall. And smell the smells." (2.90-91)If you don't get that right away, don't worry – we were re-reading this quote and scratching our heads too. Let's take it one step at a time. When Chacko says the family is made up of Anglophiles, he means they are overly fascinated with all things British ("Anglo" = British, "phile" = love). By identifying with the British, they lose sight of who they really are and where they come from. To understand history – not only their family's personal history, but the broader history of which their family's story is just one small part – they have to seek out ways of learning about the past.When Chacko says that history is like an old house at night, with all the lights on and ancestors whispering inside, he suggests that everything they need to know to understand who they are is right in front of them – they just have to look and listen carefully. The problem is, according to Chacko, that they can't go into this house:"[…] because we've been locked out. And when we look in through the windows, all we see are shadows. And when we try and listen, all we hear is a whispering. And we cannot understand the whispering, because our minds have been invaded by a war. [...] A war that has made us adore our conquerors and despise ourselves." (2.95)Understanding who they are and where they come from is so close to them, and yet just out of their reach. Loving England (the country that colonized India) means loving India, and perhaps even themselves, less.Of course, Estha and Rahel don't really understand what Chacko is getting at, and it's OK if we don't either at this point. Since we're getting this moment filtered through their childhood perspective, it seems almost intentional that we should be a bit confused, too. When Chacko talks about history as a house, the twins think he's saying history is a house – a real one. And they think they know exactly which one it is:Estha and Rahel had no doubt that the house Chacko meant was the house on the other side of the river, in the middle of the abandoned rubber estate where they had never been. Kari Saipu's house. The Black Sahib. The Englishman who had "gone native." Who spoke Malayalam and wore mundus. Ayemenem's own Kurtz. Ayemenem his private Heart of Darkness. (2.92)If there's one most mysterious house in all of Ayemenem, it's the one across the river, in the "heart of darkness" – the darkest, most unknown and unexplored territory around as far as Estha and Rahel are concerned. This is yet another example of Estha and Rahel's childlike version of reality; they take Chacko's metaphor literally.Kari Saipu's house, then, becomes the second version of the History House that we encounter in the novel. It even starts to become the History House in our own eyes, since we know that when Estha and Rahel talk about going to the History House they mean going to the long-dead Kari Saipu's abode. The History House, as the site where Velutha and Ammu meet in secret as lovers, where Estha and Rahel hide after Sophie Mol drowns, and where Velutha is nearly beaten to death, becomes an important emblem of the personal history that our characters both witness and experience.Pappachi's MothPappachi's moth takes on several meanings in the novel. On the most basic level, it refers to the insect Pappachi discovers one day and believes to be a yet-undiscovered species. This is the big moment of his career, and, as we find out, "his life's greatest setback was not having had the moth that he had discovered named after him" (2.73). Later in Pappachi's life, some lepidopterists (butterfly experts) decide that it is actually a separate species of moth, but they don't name it after Pappachi – they name it after someone he doesn't even like. As a result, Pappachi is particularly cranky for the rest of his life.When we learn the back-story of Pappachi's moth, we also learn that "Its pernicious ghost – gray, furry and with unusually dense dorsal tufts – haunted every house that he ever lived in. It tormented him and his children and his children's children" (2.76). Now, reading this, we don't exactly imagine that the ghostly image of a moth is literally creeping around the house and lurking in dark corners. Nevertheless, Pappachi's moth makes many appearances throughout the novel, specifically in moments when Rahel experiences fear. The narrator usually describes Rahel's fear as the icy feeling of Pappachi's moth's legs and wings upon her heart.The first time we encounter Pappachi's moth, Rahel has just insulted Ammu, who responds that careless words cause people to love each other less. Rahel feels a strange sensation she has never felt before: A cold moth with unusually dense dorsal tufts landed lightly on Rahel's heart. Where its icy legs touched her, she got goosebumps. Six goosebumps on her careless heart. A little less her Ammu loved her. (4.239-240)In instances where Rahel feels more secure and more loved, the moth tends to let go of her heart a little bit. In moments when Rahel feels especially fearful, though, the moth is eerily present. For instance, when Rahel realizes that Sophie Mol has drowned, we don't read anything as direct as "Rahel was terrified." Instead, the narrator shows us her fear by using the symbol of Pappachi's moth:On Rahel's heart Pappachi's moth snapped open its somber wings. Out. In. And lifted its legs. Up. Down. (16.18-24)We don't know about you, but this moment totally creeps us out – and we're pretty sure it's supposed to.Rahel's WatchAs a child, Rahel wears a toy wristwatch: [The wristwatch] had the time painted on it. Ten to two. One of her ambitions was to own a watch on which she could change the time whenever she wanted to (which according to her what Time was meant for in the first place). (2.12)So every time Rahel looks at her watch, it's ten minutes to two. Big deal, right? Well, let's think a little deeper and consider the role time plays in the novel. For one thing, it doesn't always work the way we expect it to. Like Rahel and Estha, we experience the present and past almost simultaneously. But when we're in the past, we're in a very specific two-week period, and in the present we're in a very specific span of just a couple of days.Unlike most other novels that start at one point and move forward through time at a normal pace, The God of Small Things is, for the most part, frozen in time. We get a little bit of filler information about what happened to Rahel as a young woman, but we don't live through those experiences with her. By the same token, we really never find out what happens in Estha's life in the 23 years that pass between the day he is Returned to Baba and the day he comes back to Ayemenem.Just as Rahel's watch has "stopped" permanently and always displays the exact same time, so are the events in the novel frozen. Rahel's watch, then, can be viewed as a symbol of how one brief moment in her life – the days surrounding Sophie Mol's death – was in a way the only time that mattered.Paradise Pickles and PreservesAlong with Rahel's watch, Mammachi's pickle factory can be viewed as another symbol of the freezing of time. The whole purpose of pickling and preserving is to take something with a short shelf life and make it last basically forever. (Or at least until you open the jar and eat what's inside.) It might seem like kind of a stretch to compare, let's say, Sophie Mol to a jar of banana jam, but it doesn't seem to be an accident that the family is in the preservation business. The preservation and persistence of certain memories is central to the novel, and having a pickle factory as a focal point of the house in Ayemenem serves as a constant reminder of this.Setting Ayemenem, Kerala, India, December 1969 and June 1993With several brief exceptions, The God of Small Things for the most part takes place in a town called Ayemenem, in Kerala, India. One of the trademarks of the novel is the way it jumps back and forth in time between 1969 and 1993. These jumps in time are just as important in creating the setting of the novel as the geographic space is.To begin, let's look at Ayemenem in 1969 when Estha and Rahel are kids. The novel's most important moments take place in this setting. Ayemenem in 1969 appears to be in a state of change, which we can see through the generational differences among the characters. The community is starting to embrace Communism, which seeks to empower the poor and working classes, and to eliminate class and caste distinctions.The older characters – Baby Kochamma, Mammachi, and even Vellya Paapen, who is a victim of the caste system – don't seem to be down with the changes that are starting to happen. They long for the time when everybody's place in society was neatly spelled out for them.On the other end of the spectrum, you have Rahel and Estha, who are only seven years old and pretty oblivious to social rules. When Rahel sees Velutha waving a communist flag, for example, she sees it more as a cool accessory than a symbol of the social unrest permeating their community.Those in the middle generation – Ammu, Chacko, and Velutha – seem to have the most complex relationship with the changing times. They simultaneously feel constrained by the social rules of the past and inspired to rebel against them. Chacko declares himself a Marxist, and Ammu and Velutha embark on a forbidden affair. Maybe it's because the plot events of 1969 take place in such a murky social climate that things seem to go totally out of control for everyone.Ayemenem in 1993 is a much different place. There is no longer the same kind of tension between different groups. The whole political climate is way more subdued, and everything that happened before only exists in memory. Everything is quiet. Baby Kochamma and Kochu Maria spend their days side-by-side eating popcorn and watching TV, letting the house fall to pieces around them. Baby Kochamma's garden turns into an overgrown mess. Even the river, once the unstoppable physical force that took Sophie Mol's life, lies quiet. The Ayemenem of 1993 shows us the eerie aftermath of a tumultuous past.Narrator Point-of-ViewThird-Person (Omniscient)The narrator of The God of Small Things is not a character in the story, but rather tells the story from a distance. He or she moves the narrative forward by delving into each character's perspective, showing us how things look from where they're standing. This strategy works well with the general style of the writing, where we're picking up bits and pieces of the plot as we go. (For more on this, see "Writing Style"). Similarly, the narrator gives us bits and pieces of information about each character, including information unknown to others – for example, Baby Kochamma's diaries, Estha's private fears, and Velutha and Ammu's long-brewing love.That said, even though the narrator approximates the thoughts of a number of characters while staying outside the action (a technique called free indirect discourse – learn to love it!), it's worth noting that we spend a large chunk of the novel following Rahel around, both as a child and as an adult. As a result, it's sometimes easy to slip into thinking that the entire novel is told from Rahel's point of view. In fact, our omniscient narrator manages to get us to experience multiple points of view by the time we turn the last page.GenreFamily Drama, Literary FictionThe God of Small Things revolves around Estha and Rahel's family. We learn about their roots through a series of brief flashbacks, all the way back down the line to the lives of their great-grandparents. The central conflict of the story rests on the death of their cousin, Sophie Mol. What makes this story not just a drama but a family drama is the way the novel explores the effects of Sophie's death specifically on the lives of each member of the family. It pays close attention to the way the family unravels in reaction to the event.What characterizes The God of Small Things as a work of literary fiction in addition to a family drama is the complex way the novel unfolds through its focus on the characters. We delve right into the psyches of a number of the characters, and Roy creates a unique perspective for each. Literary fiction tends to focus on style and characterization, and it's hard to find many works that exemplify that as beautifully as The God of Small Things.ToneAlternately Sing-Songy, Brooding, Childlike, and MatureThe God of Small Things finds our protagonists Estha and Rahel at two very different times of their lives: their childhood, in 1969, and their adulthood, in 1993. As a result, the tone of the novel contains aspects of the childlike and the mature. That isn't to say that the moments of childhood are characterized in a particularly light or fun way, or that adulthood is portrayed in entirely grown-up language. Just as the book itself skips back and forth, so does the tone. For example, the writing often takes on a rhyme-y, sing-songy tone, sounding almost like kids chanting while jumping rope.Nevertheless, the moments in which we see this kind of language used are often moments in which serious information is being conveyed. For example, when we find out that the twins are 31, we also learn that Ammu died when she was 31. The narrator darkly rhymes that 31 is "Not Old. Not Young. But a viable die-able age" (1.18-20). Similarly, when we learn about Sophie Mol's "special child-sized coffin," the narrator describes it in a sing-songy manner again: "Satin lined. Brass handle shined" (1.25-26). The cuteness of such sounds and rhymes stands in sharp contrast to the tragic things they are describing. This mix of seriousness and lightheartedness is one way the narrator shows us how complex the events of the novel are for our characters, and how our young protagonists are forced to deal with tough issues at a tender age.Writing StyleNonlinear, Multi-PerspectivalThere are a couple of things we need to cover when we talk about style in The God of Small Things. One important aspect of the novel's style is the way it takes into account each character's personal history. This is not to say that each character is a protagonist, or that we know each character equally. Like the epigraph tells us, there is more than one way of telling a story. (See "What's Up with the Epigraph?" for more.)Even though we largely see the novel from Rahel's perspective, we get a pretty good idea of each character's back-story. This is important because we learn certain things about the characters that are only known to them. Our experience of the story would be totally different if we were only following one person's point of view – we'd be missing out on a lot of key information. One interesting way in which Roy creates a distinct point of view for Rahel and Estha is by capitalizing certain words or phrases. We see how kids envision particular ideas as being very important. The other crucial aspect of the novel's style is that the narrative is nonlinear, meaning that we experience the events out of order. We know at the beginning that Rahel and Estha are being reunited as 31-year-olds after being separated over 23 years ago. We know they are the same age now that their mother Ammu was when she died. We know that Sophie Mol is the name of a girl who died when they were kids.Then, when we read further, we go back in time and meet these people as living, breathing characters. We know their fate ahead of time, but we have to jump around in time to figure out how the events happened. The novel doesn't just jump back in time once and then move sequentially into the present. Instead, we find ourselves alternately in 1969 and 1993, collecting the pieces of the puzzle until we know in the very last lines of the very last page exactly how we got to the moment we saw play out on the first page.The narrator reinforces the concept of knowing what happens before we see it happen when Rahel goes to see the kathakali performance in 1993: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. They don't surprise you with the unforeseen. They are as familiar as the house you live in. Or the smell of your lover's skin. You know how they end, yet you listen as though you don't. (12.8)We're not saying that by making this observation, the narrator is saying that the story he or she is telling is a particularly great one; that's up to us to decide. The key point of this moment, though, is that it draws our attention to the way the story is told in the first place. Like Rahel at the kathakali performance, we jump into the novel at random points in the characters' lives and figure out the story from there.The Title?There are a couple ideas to mull over when we think about the novel's title. On one hand, we can focus on the first half of the title and think of the particular person to whom it might refer – the God of Small Things. Who is this person? Well, from Ammu's dream, we get the idea that the God of Small Things represents Velutha, the man whom she loves in spite of the fact that society will never approve of them being together. In her dream (which takes place in Chapter 11 and happens to be entitled "The God of Small Things"), Ammu dreams of a man with one arm who holds her close to him:He could only do one thing at a time. If he held her, he couldn't kiss her. If he kissed her, he couldn't see her. If he saw her, he couldn't feel her. (11.5-6)When Ammu wakes from her dream, Rahel and Estha are there with her. Ammu notices a curl of shaved wood in Rahel's hair and knows that the kids have been to see Velutha. She also knows something else: "She knew who he was – the God of Loss, the God of Small Things. Of course she did" (11.71). Velutha's identity as the God of Small Things is reinforced at the end of the book when we learn about Ammu and Velutha's first romantic encounters. Since they know it's impossible for their love to exist in the real world, they never talk or think about the future, or the "big things"; they stick to the here and now.Even later, on the thirteen nights that followed this one, instinctively they stuck to the Small Things. The Big Things ever lurked inside. They knew that there was nowhere for them to go. They had nothing. No future. So they stuck to the small things. (21.68). So now that we've thought about who the God of Small Things is, let's take a minute to think about the second half of the title. What exactly are the small things in this book, and why are they important? We've already discussed how the small things sustain Ammu and Velutha's relationship, since thinking about the Big Things is out of the question. But let's also think about the relationship between big and small things in the development of the novel's plot. The narrator pays a lot of attention to Sophie Mol's death as the one big central event of the novel. The question that keeps coming up is whether Sophie Mol's death was totally random, or whether a combination of many smaller events made it inevitable that she would die. Maybe it's the small things that cause one big bad thing to happen: Margaret deciding to move out of her parents' house led her to meet Chacko. Estha's singing in the lobby led to his being molested, which in turn led him to want to run away. One small thing Rahel says causes her to worry that Ammu hates her. Somehow, all of the small decisions and events of the novel lead to Estha and Rahel running away from home and bringing Sophie Mol with them, which brings on not only Sophie Mol's, but also Velutha's death.The Epigraph?Epigraphs are like little appetizers to the great entrée of a story. They illuminate important aspects of the story, and they get us headed in the right direction.Never again will a single story be toldas though it's the only one.– John BergerIf someone were to ask you what happens in The God of Small Things, you might stutter and go, "Uh...it's really complicated – just read it." Or you might say [Spoiler Alert!] "OK. There are these twins whose mom loves someone she's not supposed to. Then their cousin comes to visit. The mom gets mad at the twins and they try to run away. Their cousin goes with them and she drowns, and the mom's lover is blamed." When it all comes down to it, the central events of The God of Small Things are pretty straightforward. What makes the story so rich and complex is the variety of perspectives that feed into it. The epigraph, which comes from John Berger's 1972 novel G., tells us just that. There isn't just one way of telling a story. Anyone involved in what's happening would tell it differently, see the events in a different way, or place the emphasis on a different aspect of it. While the plot of The God of Small Things is very simple when you break it down, it's made complex by the number of points of view feeding into it. Sure, you can say this is a story about Sophie Mol's death and the repercussions of that event, but by delving into the perspectives of the different characters, we are pushed to consider multiple reasons why it (and all of the ensuing fallout) had to happen.The Ending?One of the most distinctive characteristics of The God of Small Things is the way it jumbles time. We're actually farther ahead in the future on the first page of the book, which plunks us down in 1993, than we are at the end of the book, which shows us a scene in 1969. What's interesting about the ending is that even though it's the end of the book, it's not actually the end of the story. In fact, the end of the book places us at the beginning of things, so to speak. Ammu has just left the dinner table on the day of Sophie Mol's arrival and goes outside to listen to the radio and have some alone time. She thinks of Velutha and walks out to the river, part of her expecting him to be there waiting for her. She doesn't see him, but he is there, floating in the water. They end up making love right there on the riverbank, and we learn that they continue to do so every day for the next thirteen days. None of the drama surrounding Sophie Mol's death has happened yet. As a result, the end of the novel seems suspended in time. We already know, having read the rest of the book, that the relationship between Ammu and Velutha will lead to their downfall. Here, however, we see a version of their love that isn't tainted by blame or shame; it's just about the two of them, living their lives day by day and step by step. The novel ends with Ammu saying to Velutha, "Tomorrow" (21.82), because that's the only thing she can guarantee him. We've spent the whole book knowing what's going to happen and trying to figure out how it happened, so in a way, the ending of the book is the last piece of the puzzle.Plot AnalysisSource: Most good stories start with a fundamental list of ingredients: the initial situation, conflict, complication, climax, suspense, denouement, and conclusion. Great writers sometimes shake up the recipe and add some spice.Initial SituationThe family drives to Cochin to see The Sound of Music and to pick up Sophie Mol and Margaret Kochamma from the airport.As the family drives to Cochin, we get a pretty good sense of the groundwork for what's about to happen. We learn about the political conflicts in the region and the way Indian society dictates a very specific place for each person. We get to know the characters and how they interact. The family is full of anticipation of both the movie and Sophie Mol's arrival. And so are we – nothing has happened yet, but we get the sense that something big is about to.ConflictEstha is molested; Rahel insults Ammu.When the Orangedrink Lemondrink Man molests Estha in the lobby of the movie theater, Estha is filled with two emotions: guilt and fear. He feels guilty because he is convinced that he has done something wrong – something he can never confess or explain to anyone else. He's also fearful because the Orangedrink Lemondrink Man knows where he lives – he can come find Estha whenever he wants.Rahel, meanwhile, insults Ammu, who replies by telling Rahel that hurting people's feelings makes them love you less. Rahel is terrified that Ammu has already begun to love her less, and this fear affects the way Rahel behaves and feels about herself throughout the plicationRahel is convinced that Ammu doesn't love her. Estha is afraid the Orangedrink Lemondrink Man will come for him. Estha thinks Two Thoughts.As we discussed in the Conflict stage, Rahel and Estha both undergo experiences at the movie theater that cause them to feel extreme fear. As a result of her careless words, Rahel is convinced that Ammu is beginning to love her less. Estha is terrified of the Orangedrink Lemondrink Man. When they arrive back at the house after picking up Sophie Mol, Estha thinks his Two Thoughts: (1) anything can happen to anyone, and (2) it's best to be prepared (10.28-30). He decides they should get a boat to take them to the History House – just in case.When Ammu screams at the kids that it's their fault she's locked in her room, the kids take it as a sign that they should get out of there. This stage sets us up for the climax: we learn all of the reasons the twins decide to run away, but the most horrifying events have yet to happen.ClimaxSophie Mol dies.We know from the very beginning of the novel that Sophie Mol is going to die. It's mentioned repeatedly and alluded to through different objects and memories. So when the moment actually takes place, it's a pretty big deal. The interesting thing about Sophie's death – and also, perhaps, what makes it so climactic for us as readers – is that when it finally happens, we can't really believe it. Our reaction is sort of like Rahel and Estha's: the moment is startling but quiet. Nothing big or dramatic happens in terms of how she dies; what's big and dramatic is the way Rahel and Estha react, and, likewise, the way we feel upon reading about it.SuspenseBaby Kochamma goes to see Inspector Thomas Mathew and asks to talk to Rahel and Estha.After Sophie Mol dies, the police come to the History House, where Estha and Rahel have been hiding without realizing that Velutha is there, too. The police beat Velutha senseless, leaving a pool of blood on the floor and the two kids staring at the aftermath. When Baby Kochamma arrives at the police station, Inspector Thomas Mathew grills her. The kids have said that Velutha didn't do anything bad to them, so in the eyes of the law, Baby Kochamma has brought up a false charge against Velutha. The police have lethally beat him for no apparent reason. This means big trouble for Baby Kochamma unless she can clear her name.What happens next turns our stomachs. Baby Kochamma gets a moment alone with the twins and tells them that Velutha is going to die anyway, and that she has a plan that could save them and Ammu. She convinces them that if they don't go along with her plan, their mother will die in prison because of what they've done wrong. All they have to do is say yes to the question that the inspector asks them. This episode isn't just a huge moment of suspense for us – it's also suspenseful for the characters themselves: the twins wonder if they'll be able to save Ammu and Baby Kochamma waits to find out whether her plan will work.DenouementAmmu and Rahel say goodbye to Estha at the train station.In the aftermath of Sophie Mol's and Velutha's deaths, and the unraveling of the entire family, Rahel and Ammu take Estha to the train station so he can go live with Baba. This is the last time they will ever see each other. The greatest terrors of the novel are over, but the emotional pain that these three characters feel at the train station will persist. There's nothing else for them to really do at this point but say goodbye. It's a terrible moment for each of them, and it's also a painful one for the reader. Ammu tries not to cry, Estha stops speaking for good as soon as the train rolls away, and Rahel screams uncontrollably.ConclusionEstha and Rahel meet again 23 years later, when Baba sends Estha back to Ayemenem.Rahel comes back to Ayemenem from the United States when she hears that Estha has been re-Returned. Even though Estha still hasn't started talking (we never actually hear him speak as an adult), Rahel and Estha still have a silent way of understanding each other. He knows when she returns: "It had been quiet in Estha's head until Rahel came" (1.92). Similarly, she can sense his presence without even having to turn around to look at him. As adults, Estha and Rahel are left to deal with the grief they've suffered through, both together as kids and individually after they were separated. We don't know what the future holds for them, but we are left to hope that they will somehow find a way to pick up the pieces.Allusions & Cultural ReferencesSource: When authors refer to other great works, people, and events, it’s usually not accidental. Consider why Roy interjects these allusions and references throughout her novel.Literary and Philosophical ReferencesF. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby (2.15)Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness (2.92, 5.17)Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Book (2.152)William Shakespeare, The Tempest (2.151)Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities (2.168)William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar (2.362, 14.49-58)Homer, The Odyssey, Book 11 (6.19)Georg Friedrich Handel, Water Music (8.13)The Brothers Grimm, Rumpelstiltskin (8.169)Baroness Emmusca Orczy, The Scarlet Pimpernel (8.171)William Shakespeare, Macbeth (10.32)Sir Walter Scott, "Lochinvar" (14.27-30)The Brothers Grimm, Hansel and Gretel (16.27)Historical ReferencesBill Clinton, President of the United States (1.63)Karl Marx (1.167, 2.214, 5.17)Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, Communist revolutionary (1.167)Jawaharlal Nehru, first Prime Minister of India (2.211)Mao Tse-tung, first Chairman of the Communist Party of China (5.16)Neil Armstrong, first man to walk on the moon (8.33)Pop Culture ReferencesThe NBA (1.63)Grand Slam Tennis (1.63)The Bold and the Beautiful, an American soap opera (1.63)Santa Barbara, an American soap opera (1.63)WWF Wrestling Mania (1.64)Hulk Hogan, an American wrestler (1.64)The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) (1.166)The Sound of Music (2.3)Meet Me in St. Louis (2.26)The Bronze Buckaroo (2.26)Charlie Chaplin (2.45)Modern Times (2.45)Reader's Digest World Atlas (2.38)Mutiny on the Bounty (2.392)Phil Donahue (3.7-12)"Somewhere Over the Rainbow," from The Wizard of Oz (3.7)Hatari (4.31)"Baby Elephant Walk," from Hatari (4.31)"Colonel Bogey's March," a British military march (4.31)Christopher Plummer (4.33)AC/DC (9.29)The East German Olympic swim team (14.34)The Rolling Stones, "Ruby Tuesday" (21.5)Suggested Essay QuestionsSource: In The God of Small Things, various "Big Things" and "Small Things" are constantly at odds. Define "Big Things" and "Small Things" in your own terms, and then determine whether one class of things or the other becomes ascendant by the end. Or are they always equal and opposite sets of things?Examine Roy's use of "Small Things" and the 'small perspective' throughout the novel. Why does she insist on focusing on what is small? Are things small by nature or by convention? Consider the novel's epigraph in this context.Explore Paradise Pickles & Preserves as a symbol for the forbidden and hidden in The God of Small Things. How does the process of pickling serve as a metaphor for the way the family handles its 'skeletons in the closet'?How does Roy use the idea of loyalty in the novel? Which characters are loyal and which are disloyal? Some characters to consider: Comrade Pillai, Baby Kochamma, Velutha, Ammu, Estha.Examine Roy's use of the grotesque in the story's events as well as the characters' fantasies. Is any of the violence Roy uses gratuitous? If so, how? If not, why is so much violence necessary in the novel?Consider Roy's literary style. How does her use of perspective, time, fantasy, refrain, and any other element you wish to discuss affect the way we perceive the story?Examine Roy's use of setting in the novel. How do her choices serve to highlight a connection or disconnection between the worlds of "Big Things" and "Small Things"? Some locations to consider: The river and riverbank, Ayemenem as a whole, Cochin, the History House, the Ayemenem House, the hotel, the movie theater, Ammu's room, the police station.Does The God of Small Things have one definite protagonist? If so, who is it and why? If not, why does the novel need no single protagonist?Contrast one of the following sets of characters, using specific examples from the text: Velutha and Estha, Ammu and Rahel, Sophie and Rahel, Baby Kochamma and Mammachi, Chacko and Comrade Pillai. What makes the comparison worth noting? Do not compare characters unless you can argue why the comparison is worthwhile.Which affects Estha's and Rahel's relationship more, their shared experience, or their instinctive, biological connection from birth? Make sure you can substantiate your claim with regard to episodes such as their incest, the incident with the Orangedrink Lemondrink man, Sophie Mol's death, and the scene at the police station with Baby Kochamma.The God of Small Things Resources Source: Websites and ArticlesArundhati Roy in The Guardian ()A February 2007 article in the British newspaper The Guardian discusses Arundhati Roy's plans for her second book.Another Article in The Guardian on Roy ()Tim Adams takes a look at Arundhati Roy's political views and nonfiction writing in this 2009 interview. Kathakali ()Wikipedia’s explanation on some of the traditions behind Kathakali performances in India.VideoRoy Reads The God of Small Things ()Roy reads a part of the first chapter of her novel. BBC Bookclub: The God of Small Things with Arundhati Roy ()Arundhati Roy talks to James Naughtie and readers about her Booker Prize-winning novel The God of Small Things.Author Arundhati Roy speaks out about India's economic success being a 'lie' (1 June 2011) ()Speaking to the BBC's Newsnight, Roy says tens of thousands of the country's poorest people are suffering at the hands of corrupt governments bought and sold by big corporations.Background information about Kerala Sources: and Kerala is a state at the southwestern tip of India, meeting the Arabian Sea on the west and the Ghat mountains on the east. The state's tourism board coined its official slogan "God's Own Country." Like many Indian states, Kerala has its own creation myth. As the legend goes, a wise warrior named Parsurama created Kerala in an attempt to avenge his father's murder. He wreaked havoc on the clan of the Kshatriya king who killed his father, but afterwards was stricken with terrible remorse. After he repented, Varuna, the god of the sea, promised him a portion of land extending as far into the ocean as he could throw his axe. Parsurama did so, and the land that arose from the water became the territory of Kerala.In more modern history, Kerala achieved statehood in 1956 after existing as part of the Travancore-Cochin region since India's independence in 1947. Kerala's official language is Malayalam, although it is not uncommon for inhabitants to be familiar with several other languages from neighboring territories.Hindus, Christians, and Muslims are the primary religious groups occupying Kerala in addition to many minor ones. The state's religious diversity is a testament to the many groups that have inhabited the land throughout history, and this is one reason Roy's novel takes place here. Inhabitants have included Portuguese, Dutch, British, rulers from all over India, and religious groups escaping persecution in their own countries.Kerala is lauded for its outstanding progress in the areas of cleanliness, education, and quality of life. The tourism board of Kerala boasts that it is not only India's "cleanest state" but also has a literacy rate above ninety percent and "the highest physical quality of life in India."Kerala has a rich cultural heritage that includes many art forms. Perhaps the most recognizable of these is the traditional dance-storytelling art of Kathakali. The form originated in the seventeenth century, and it has become a hallmark of the region ever since. Over the course of several hours, trained and exquisitely costumed actors play out traditional stories while singing, dancing, and using hand gestures known as mudras. There are at least seven other dance and dramatic forms native to Kerala, including the original acting style of Koodiyattom.During festivals, elephant pageants are requisite, complete with costumes for humans and animals, music, and fireworks displays.Also central to the culture of Kerala is the tradition of Malayalam literature, which is at least 1,000 years old. Some of the most notable works of Malayalam literature are the Ramacharitam, the first of many poetry-based Malayalam versions of the Ramayana, as well as the Attakkatha, a genre of poetry used as the libretto for Kathakali performances. Other works are influenced by or reacting to the genres of British or Western literature in more recent times, plus literary criticism and an essay tradition.From Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaCoat of armsLocation of Kerala in IndiaMap of KeralaCountry?IndiaRegionSouth IndiaEstablished1 November 1956CapitalThiruvananthapuramLargest cityLargest Urban agglomerationThiruvananthapuramKochi UADistricts14 totalGovernment???BodyGovernment of India, Government of Kerala???GovernorHansraj Bhardwaj???Chief?MinisterOommen Chandy (INC)???LegislatureUnicameral (141* seats)???Parliamentary constituency20???High CourtKerala High CourtArea???Total38,863?km2 (15,005?sq?mi)Area rank21stPopulation (2011)???Total33,387,677???Rank12th???Density860/km2 (2,200/sq?mi)Time zoneIST (UTC+05:30)ISO 3166 codeIN-KLHDI0.921 (very high)HDI rank1st (2011)Literacy93.91% (ranked 1st in India)[2]Official languagesMalayalam, English[3].inKerala is socially a very progressive society. It has the highest Human Development Index (HDI) among all Indian states; at 0.921 it is higher than all nations of the world except Norway and Austria. It has the highest literacy rate (93.91%), highest life expectancy (74 years) and lowest sex ratio (as measured by the ratio of number of men to number of women: 923 men per 1000 women) in India. Kerala has witnessed significant migration of its people, especially to the Persian Gulf countries during the Kerala Gulf boom, and its economy depends significantly on remittances from a large Malayali expatriate community.Kerala is an important international and internal tourist destination; the backwaters, beaches, Ayurvedic tourism, and tropical greenery are among its major attractions. National Geographic's Traveler magazine named Kerala as one of the "ten paradises of the world" and "50 must-see destinations of a lifetime"; Travel + Leisure listed it as "one of the 100 great trips for the 21st century". HistorySource: PrehistoryAccording to Hindu mythology, the land of Kerala was recovered from the seabed by Parasurama, an avatar of Vishnu; hence Kerala is also called Parasurama Kshetram (The Land of Parasurama). Parasurama was an axe-wielding warrior sage. He threw his axe across the sea, and the water receded as far as it reached. According to legend this new area of land extended from Gokarna to Kanyakumari. Consensus among more scientific geographers agrees that a substantial portion of this area was indeed under the sea in ancient times. The legend later expanded, and found literary expression in the 17th or 18th century with Keralolpathi, which traces the origin of aspects of early Kerala society, such as land tenure and administration, to the story of Parasurama.Another Puranic character associated with Kerala is Mahabali, an asura and a prototypical king of justice, who ruled the earth from Kerala. He won the war against the devas, driving them into exile. The devas pleaded before Lord Vishnu, who took his fifth incarnation as Vamana and pushed Mahabali down to Patala (the netherworld) to placate the devas. There is a belief that, once a year during the Onam festival, Mahabali returns to Kerala.Ancient periodKerala was a major spice exporter as early as 3000 BCE, according to Sumerian records.The word Kerala is first recorded (as Keralaputra) in a 3rd-century BCE rock inscription (Rock Edict 2) left by the Maurya emperor Asoka (274–237 BCE). The Land of Keralaputra was one of the four independent kingdoms in southern India during Asoka's time, the others being Chola, Pandya, and Satiyaputra. These territories once shared a common language and culture, within an area known as Tami?akam. In the 1st century BCE, Tamil-speaking Dravidians established the Chera Dynasty, which ruled northern Kerala and western Tamil Nadu from a capital at Vanchi. Southern Kerala was ruled by the Pandya kings, with a trading port sometimes identified in ancient Western sources as Nelcynda (or Neacyndi). At later times the region fell under the control of the Pandyas, Cheras, and Cholas.In the last centuries BCE the coast became famous among the Greeks and Romans for its spices, especially black pepper. The Cheras had trading links with China, West Asia, Egypt, Greece, and the Roman Empire. In the foreign-trade circles the region was identified by the name Male or Malabar. Muziris, Berkarai, and Nelcynda were among the principal ports at that time. The value of Rome's annual trade with India as a whole was estimated at no less than 50,000,000 sesterces; contemporary Sangam literature describes Roman ships coming to Muziris in Kerala, laden with gold to exchange for pepper. One of the earliest western traders to use the monsoon winds to reach Kerala may have been Eudoxus of Cyzicus, around 118 or 166 BCE, under the patronage of Ptolemy VIII, a king of the Hellenistic Ptolemaic dynasty in Egypt. Various Roman establishments in the port cities of the region, such as a temple of Augustus and barracks for garrisoned Roman soldiers, are marked in the Tabula Peutingeriana: the only surviving map of the Roman cursus publicus.Merchants from West Asia and Southern Europe established coastal posts and settlements in Kerala. Jewish connection with Kerala started as early as 573 BCE. Arabs also had trade links with Kerala, possibly started before the 4th century BCE, as Herodotus (484–413 BCE) noted that goods brought by Arabs from Kerala were sold to the Jews at Eden. They intermarried with local people, and from this mixture the large Muslim Mappila community of Kerala are descended. In the 4th century, some Christians also immigrated from Persia and joined the early Syrian Christian community. Mappila was an honorific title that had been assigned to respected visitors from abroad; and Jewish, Christian, and Muslim immigration might account for later names of the respective communities: Juda Mappilas, Nasrani Mappilas, and Muslim Mappilas. According to the legends of these communities, the earliest mosque, synagogue(1568 CE), and Christian churches in India were built in Kerala. The combined number of Muslims, Christians, and Jews was relatively small at this early stage. They co-existed harmoniously with each other and with local Hindu society, aided by the commercial benefit from such association.Early medieval periodThe inhibitions, caused by a series of Chera-Chola wars in the 11th century, resulted in the decline of foreign trade in Kerala ports. Buddhism and Jainism disappeared from the land. The social system became fractured with internal divisions on the lines of caste. Finally, the Kulasekhara dynasty was subjugated in 1102 by the combined attack of Later Pandyas and Later Cholas. However, King Ravi Varma Kulashekhara of the southern Venad kingdom was able to establish a short-lived supremacy over southern India. But, after his death, in the absence of a strong central power, the state fractured into small warring principalities governed by Nair-Brahmin chieftains. From these, the kingdoms of Venad (Quilon), Kolathiri (Cannanore), Kozhikode (Calicut) and Kochi (Cochin) emerged.Colonial eraThe monopoly of maritime spice trade in the Indian Ocean stayed with Arabs during the high and late medieval periods. However, the dominance of Middle East traders got challenged in the European Age of Discovery during which the spice trade, particularly in black pepper, became an influential activity for European traders. Around the 15th century, the Portuguese began to dominate the eastern shipping trade in general and the spice-trade in particular, culminating in Vasco Da Gama's arrival in Kappad Kozhikode in 1498. The Zamorin of Calicut permitted the new visitors to trade with his subjects. The Portuguese trade in Calicut prospered with the establishment of a factory and fort in his territory. However, Portuguese attacks on Arab properties in his jurisdiction provoked Zamorin and finally it led to conflicts among them. The Portuguese took advantage of the rivalry between Zamorin and king of Kochi; they allied with Kochi and when Francisco de Almeida was appointed as the Viceroy of Portuguese India in 1505, his headquarters was at Kochi. During his reign, Portuguese managed to dominate over the relation with Kochi and established a few fortresses in Malabar Coast. Nonetheless, Portuguese suffered severe setback from the attacks of Zamorin forces; especially the naval attacks under the leadership of admirals of Calicut known as Kunjali Marakkars compelled them to seek a treaty. In 1571, Portuguese were defeated by the Zamorin forces in the battle at Chaliyam fort.The weakened Portuguese were ousted by the Dutch East India Company, who took advantage of continuing conflicts between Kozhikode and Kochi to gain control of the trade. The Dutch in turn were weakened by constant battles with Marthanda Varma of the Travancore Royal Family, and were defeated at the Battle of Colachel in 1741. An agreement, known as Treaty of Mavelikkara, was signed by the Dutch and Travancore in 1753, according to which the Dutch were compelled to detach from all political involvements in the region. In the meantime, Marthanda Varma annexed many smaller northern kingdoms through military conquests, resulting in the rise of Travancore to a position of preeminence in Kerala.In 1766, Hyder Ali, the ruler of Mysore invaded northern Kerala. His son and successor, Tipu Sultan, launched campaigns against the expanding British East India Company, resulting in two of the four Anglo-Mysore Wars. Tipu ultimately ceded Malabar District and South Kanara to the Company in the 1790s; both were annexed to Madras Presidency of British India in 1792. The Company forged tributary alliances with Kochi in 1791 and Travancore in 1795. Thus, by the end of 18th century, the whole of Kerala fell under the control of the British, either administered directly or under suzerainty.There were major revolts in Kerala during its transition to democracy in the 20th century; most notable among them are the 1921 Malabar Rebellion and the 1946 Punnapra-Vayalar uprising in Travancore. In the Malabar Rebellion, Mappila Muslims of Malabar rioted against Hindu zamindars and the British Raj. Some social struggles against caste inequalities also erupted in the early decades of 20th century, leading to the 1936 Temple Entry Proclamation that opened Hindu temples in Travancore to all castes; Malabar soon did likewise, and Cochin followed with a similar proclamation in 1948, after Independence.Post Colonial periodAfter British India was partitioned in 1947 into India and Pakistan, Travancore and Cochin joined the Union of India and on 1 July 1949 were merged to form Travancore-Cochin. On 1 January 1950 (Republic Day), Travancore-Cochin was recognised as a state. The Madras Presidency was organized to form Madras State in 1947.On 1 November 1956, the state of Kerala was formed by the States Reorganisation Act merging the Malabar district, Travancore-Cochin (excluding four southern taluks, which were merged with Tamil Nadu), and the taluk of Kasargod, South Kanara. In 1957, elections for the new Kerala Legislative Assembly were held, and a reformist, Communist-led government came to power, under E. M. S. Namboodiripad. It was the first time a Communist government was democratically elected to power anywhere in the world. It initiated pioneering land reforms, leading to lowest levels of rural poverty in India.Demographics Population trend?CensusPop.%±195113,549,000—196116,904,00024.8%197121,347,00026.3%198125,454,00019.2%199129,099,00014.3%200131,841,0009.4%201133,388,0004.9%Source: 2001 & 2011 Censuses of India Kerala is home to 3.44% of India's population; at 819 persons per km2, its land is nearly three times as densely settled as the rest of India, which is at a population density of 325 persons per km2. Kerala's rate of population growth is India's lowest, and Kerala's decadal growth (9.42% in 2001) is less than half the all-India average of 21.34%. Whereas Kerala's population more than doubled between 1951 and 1991 by adding 15.6?million people to reach 29.1?million residents in 1991, the population stood at less than 32?million by 2001. Kerala's coastal regions are the most densely settled, leaving the eastern hills and mountains comparatively sparsely populated.Languages96.7% of the population speaks Malayalam, which is Kerala's official language; Tamil is widely understood in Kerala. Konkani, Tulu, Kannada, Hindi, Mahl and various Adivasi (tribal) languages are also spoken by ethnic minorities, especially in the south-western region.Vizhimjam Mosque, Kovalam, Kerala39243004000501495425400050-238125400050ReligionsSanta Cruz Cathedral, Fort Kochi, 16th C.Paradesi Synagogue, Cochin, 1568 Kerala's principal religions are Hinduism (56.2%), Islam (24.7%), and Christianity (19.0%).[140] In comparison with the rest of India, Kerala experiences relatively little sectarianism.Chakkulathukavu Temple, Alappuzha, Kerala 15430502268220Islam and Judaism arrived in Kerala through Arab traders. Muslims of Kerala, generally referred to as Moplahs, mostly follow the Shafi'i Madh'hab under Sunni Islam. The major Muslim organizations are Sunni, Mujahid and Jama'at-e-Islami. Christianity is believed to have reached the shores of Kerala in 52 CE with the arrival of St Thomas, one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus Christ. Saint Thomas Christians (also known as Syrian Christians or Nasrani) include Syro-Malabar Catholic, Syro-Malankara Catholic, Malankara Orthodox, Jacobite and Marthoma. Latin Rite Christians were converted by the Portuguese in the 16th and 19th centuries, mainly from communities where fishing was the traditional occupation. A significant Jewish community existed in Kerala until the 20th century, when most of them migrated to Israel, leaving only a handful of families. The Paradesi Synagogue at Kochi is the oldest synagogue in the Commonwealth. Jainism has a considerable following in the Wayanad district. Buddhism was dominant at the time of Ashoka the Great but vanished by the 8th century CE.Other Books by Arundhati Roy Source: books.books Arundhati Roy has been acclaimed for her courage and her eloquence. Her writing has been described as "a banquet for the senses" by Newsweek. She has found a readership among fiction enthusiasts and political activists. An Ordinary Person's Guide To Empire?2004 / 200 pages / South End Press / ISBN: 0896087271Arundhati Roy offers us this lucid briefing on what the Bush administration really means when it talks about "compassionate conservativism" and "the war on terror." Roy has characteristic fun in these essays, skewering the hypocrisy of the more-democratic-than-thou clan. But above all, she aims to remind us that we hold the essence of power and the foundation of genuine democracy-the power of the people to counter their self-appointed leaders' tyranny. First delivered as fiery speeches to sold-out crowds, together these essays are a call to arms against "the apocalyptic apparatus of the American empire."right0War Talk?2003 / 152 pages / South End Press / ISBN: 0896087247In her third volume of nonfiction, she valiantly addresses questions of power and its abuse, and powerlessness and its transformation via dissent and activism into a force for positive change. Roy dissects her country's violent religious conflicts, celebrates and mourns the seemingly lost legacy of Gandhi, and condemns India's gargantuan and environmentally unsound hydroelectric dam projects and the concomitant displacement of hundreds of thousands of people. She also discusses with invaluable clarity the mess in the Middle East, and presents razor-sharp interpretations of the U.S. government's foreign policy and the insidious influence of mega-corporations. right0Public Power in the Age of Empire2004 / 64 pages / Seven Stories Press / ISBN: 1583226826Roy clarifies the political and human stakes of "regime change" and reaffirms the imporance of activism and protest. In her major address to the 99th annual meeting of the American Sociological Association on August 16, 2004, "Public Power in the Age of Empire," broadcast nationally on C-Span Book TV and on Democracy Now! and Alternative Radio, writer Arundhati Roy brilliantly examines the limits to democracy in the world today. Roy discusses the need for social movements to contest the occupation of Iraq and the reduction of "democracy" to elections with no meaningful alternatives allowed. She explores the dangers of the "NGO-ization of resistance," shows how governments that block nonviolent dissent in fact encourage terrorism, and examines the role of the corporate media in marginalizing oppositional voices.right0Power Politics2002 / 192 pages / South End Press / ISBN: 0896086682Arundhati Roy -"India's most impassioned critic of globalization" (New York Times) has expanded the compelling first edition of Power Politics with two new essays on the U.S. war on terrorism. A Book Sense 76 choice for November/December 2001 and Los Angeles Times "Discoveries" selection, Power Politics challenges the idea that only experts can speak out on such urgent matters as nuclear war, the privatization of India's power supply by U.S.-based energy companies, and the construction of monumental dams in India. right0The Checkbook and the Cruise Missile?2004 / 120 pages / South End Press / ISBN: 0896087107A skillful interviewer can reveal aspects of a writer's voice in simple yet telling ways. As a novelist, Arundhati Roy is known for her lush language and intricate structure. As a political essayist, her prose is searching and fierce. All of these qualities shine through in the interviews collected by David Barsamian for Globalizing Dissent: Converations with Arundhati Roy. New and devoted readers will find that these exchanges, recorded between 2001 and 2003, add to their appreciation of Roy's previous work.right0The Cost of Living1999 / 144 pages / Modern Library / ISBN: 0375756140This book consists of two parts: "The Greater Common Good" attacks the construction of the Sardar Sarovar Dam on the Narmada river in western India, while "The End of Imagination" denounces India's nuclear tests in May 1998. The Save the Narmada movement, a grass-roots, anti-dam movement that has been agitating for over a decade, believes that instead of being a solution to India's water and power shortages, the still-incomplete dam will cause immense distress owing to the displacement of 40 million people, the submergence of 245 villages, inequities in resettlement, and environmental disasters. Roy's polemical tract on their behalf, while not a dispassionate inquiry, raises some important questions about the real price of "development," whether in the form of big dams or bombs.right0Arundhati Roy’s Social Campaigns: The God of Small Things is the only novel written by Arundhati Roy. Since winning the Booker Prize, she has concentrated her writing on political issues. These include the Narmada Dam project (see below), India's Nuclear Weapons, corrupt power company Enron's activities in India. She is a figure-head of the anti-globalization/alter-globalization movement and a vehement critic of neo-imperialism.In response to India's testing of nuclear weapons in Pokhran, Rajasthan, Roy wrote The End of Imagination, a critique of the Indian government's nuclear policies. It was published in her collection The Cost of Living, in which she also crusaded against India's massive hydroelectric dam projects in the central and western states of Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat. She has since devoted herself solely to nonfiction and politics, publishing two more collections of essays as well as working for social causes.Roy was awarded the Sydney Peace Prize in May 2004 for her work in social campaigns and advocacy of non-violence.In June 2005 she took part in the World Tribunal on Iraq. In January 2006 she was awarded the Sahitya Akademi award for her collection of essays, 'The Algebra of Infinite Justice', but declined to accept it.More about the Narmada Dam/ Sardar Sarovar Dam Issue The Sardar Sarovar Dam is a gravity dam on the Narmada River near Navagam, Gujarat, India. It is the largest dam and part of the Narmada Valley Project, a large hydraulic engineering project involving the construction of a series of large irrigation and hydroelectric multi-purpose dams on the Narmada River. The project took form in 1979 as part of a development scheme to increase irrigation and produce hydroelectricity.It is the 30th largest dams planned on river Narmada, Sardar Sarovar Dam (SSD) is the largest structure to be built. It has a proposed final height of 163?m (535?ft) from foundation. The project will irrigate more than 18,000?km2 (6,900?sq?mi), most of it in drought prone areas of Kutch and Saurashtra. The dam's main power plant houses six 200 MW Francis pump-turbines to generate electricity and afford a pumped-storage capability. Additionally, a power plant on the intake for the main canal contains five 50 MW Kaplan turbine-generators. The total installed capacity of the power facilities is 1,450 MW. Critics maintain that its negative environmental impacts outweigh its benefits. It has created discord between its government planners and the citizens group Narmada Bachao Andolan.The dam is one of India's most controversial dam projects and its environmental impact and net costs and benefits are widely debated. The World Bank was initially a funder of the SSD, but withdrew in 1994. The Narmada Dam has been the centre of controversy and protest since the late 1980s.An award winning film called A Narmada Diary (1995) by Anand Patwardhan and Simantini Dhuru, explores the efforts of NBA to seek social and environmental justice for those most directly affected by the Sardar Sarover Dam construction (Filmfare Award for Best Documentary-1996.The figurehead of much of the protest is Medha Patkar, the leader of the "Narmada Bachao Andolan," the "Save Narmada Movement." The movement was cemented in 1989, and was awarded the Right Livelihood Award in 1991.Support for the protests also came from Indian author Arundhati Roy, who wrote the extended essay "The Greater Common Good" in protest of the Narmada Dam Project; the essay was reprinted in her book The Cost of Living. In that essay, Roy states:Big Dams are to a Nation's 'Development' what Nuclear Bombs are to its Military Arsenal. They're both weapons of mass destruction. They're both weapons Governments use to control their own people. Both Twentieth Century emblems that mark a point in time when human intelligence has outstripped its own instinct for survival. They're both malignant indications of civilisation turning upon itself. They represent the severing of the link, not just the link - the understanding - between human beings and the planet they live on. They scramble the intelligence that connects eggs to hens, milk to cows, food to forests, water to rivers, air to life and the earth to human existence.Websites about the IssueFriends of River Narmada - Valley Development Authority - Sarovar Narmada Nigam Limited - about the Issue**A Narmada Diary (60 min., 1995, DVD)By Anand Patwardhan and & Simantini Dhuru The Sardar Sarover Dam in western India, lynch-pin of a mammoth development project on the river Narmada's banks, has been criticized as uneconomical and unjust. It will benefit prosperous urbanites at a cost borne by the rural poor. A NARMADA DIARY introduces the Narmada Bachao Andolan (the Save Narmada Movement) which has spearheaded the agitation against the dam. As government resettlement programs prove inadequate, the Narmada Bachao Andolan has emerged as one of the most dynamic struggles in India today. With non-violent protests and a determination to drown rather than to leave their homes and land, the people of the Narmada valley have become symbols of a global struggle against unjust development. **Kaise Jeebo, Re! How Do I Survive, My Friend! (80 min., 1997, VHS)By Anurag Singh and Jharana JhaveriIn the name of "national interest" men, women and children have been forced out of their homes and lands so that a dam, a mine, a factory or a wildlife sanctuary can be built. Their struggles against this process have been crushed, marginalized or ignored. What happens to their lives after uprootment? The film meets them in India’s city-streets and rural areas as labor, rickshaw-puller, domestic help and the uprooted. "Kaise Jeebo Re!" records the victims account of this uprootment, in this case caused by dams built on the river Narmada; Bargi Dam in the Central state of Madhya Pradesh. It records the arduous and heroic story of a people who have come together to fight a determined battle for justice.**Films are available for use from the Center for South Asia Lending Library, to borrow the films email: rweiss@southasia.wisc.edu.Further Suggested Readings/Videos/Audio Clips** signifies articles that are included in this guide, all other articles are available online.Critical Articles about the Novel**“History and Counterhistory: Novels and Politics,” by Prasenjit Maiti, in Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 35, No. 27 (Jul. 1-7, 2000), pp. 2382-2385.**“Introduction” (pp. i-v), and “Breaking the “Love Laws”: Sibling Incest in Midnight’s Children and The God of Small Things,” (pp. 61-78) in Transgression and Taboo Critical Essays, edited by Vartan P. Messier and Nandita Batra, College English Association—Caribbean Chapter Publications, Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, 2005. Articles to Support Teaching **“Enduring Stereotypes About Asia: India’s Caste System,” by Joe Elder, in Education About Asia, Volume 1, Number 2, Fall 1996, pp. 20-22.**“Teaching About Asian Religions: Getting the Foundations Right When Teaching Asian Religions,” by Todd Lewis, in Education About Asia, Volume 15, Number 2, Fall 2010, pp. 5-13. Articles and Essays by Arundhati Roy**“Come September: Will Things Get Better after they Get Worse?,” in The Women’s Review of Books, Vol. 20, No. 7 (Apr., 2003), pp. 6-8.“Baby Bush Go Home,” in The Guardian (February 28, 2006) “The Most Cowardly War in History,” in Global Research, World Tribunal on Iraq (June 28, 2005) Statement of Arundhati Roy on behalf of the jury of conscience of the world tribunal of Iraq.“How Deep Shall We Dig?,” in The Hindu (April, 25, 2004) essay on a country that is caught in the cross-currents of neo-liberalism and Hindu nationalism.“The New American Century,” in The Nation (February 9, 2004) about Other Essays Written by Roy**“Connecting the Dots, An Ordinary Person’s Guide to Empire by Arundhati Roy: The Checkbook and the Cruise Missile: Conversations with Arundhati Roy: David Barsamian,” by Kerryn Higgs, in The Women’s Review of Books, Vol. 21, No. 12 (Sep., 2004), pp. 16-17.Articles about Roy’s Social Activism**“Accountability of the Supreme Court: Arundhati Roy Case,” by S.P. Sathe, in Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 37, No. 15 (Apr. 13-19, 2002), pp. 1383-1384.Video/Audio Clips of Roy’s ActivismFeature length video: Arundhati Roy: Instant-Mix Imperial Democracy [DVD, 2004] HYPERLINK "" \t "_blank"Speech: “Instant-Mix Imperial Democracy, Buy One Get One Free” (Democracy Now! / October 24th 2003). Lectures and discussions with Howard Zinn (full 3-hour DVD available at UW library). Excellent introduction to Roy’s political activism.Dam/Age DAM/AGE: A Film with Arundhati RoyA Diverse Ltd Production / 2002 / BBC 4 We “tribute” video featuring “the world of Arundhati Roy” to World Literature: The God of Small Things. WGBH series on classics of world literature.Arundhati Roy on India, Iraq, U.S. Empire and Dissent (Democracy Now! / May 23rd 2006) Baby Bush Go Home: Arundhati Roy on Massive Protests Against Bush's Visit to India (Democracy Now! / March 3rd 2006) Crashing the Party: Famed Indian Writer Arundhati Roy Goes Inside the RNC (Democracy Now! / September 2nd 2004) Arundhati Roy and David Barsamian at Seattle Town Hall (August 2004) Public Power in the Age of Empire: War, Resistance and the Presidency (Democracy Now! / August 23rd 2004) Arundhati Roy, Hans Von Sponeck Respond to Bush's State of the Union on Iraq (August 2004) Indian Elections, Her Support for the Iraqi Resistance & the Privatization of War (Democracy Now! / January 21st 2004) Arundhati Roy Addresses Tens of Thousands At World Social Forum in Bombay (Democracy Now! / January 20th 2004) Come September: Arundhati Roy Speaks Out On Iraq, U.S. Foreign Policy, Palestine & Corporate Globalization (Democracy Now! / October 15th 2002) Arundhati Roy, Author of the God of Small Things, Faces Prison for Speaking Out Against the Privatization of Rivers, Energy, and Other Essential Resources in India (Democracy Now! / March 4th 2002) Arundhati Roy Speaks On War, Terror and the Logic of Empire (Democracy Now! / October 19th 2001) ................
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