Analysis Of Arundhati Roy's The God Of Small Things

Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things is a story of a family stricken with taboos and scandal. The novel is a series of events told in third person often out of chronological order. The God of Small Things is not merely just a series of events or a story solely about Esta and Rachel’s relationship. Rather it is a focus on the taboo love oppressed by the class system in India. All of the culturally taboo relationships play a key role in Roy’s social commentary; Ammu and Velutha, and Estha and Rahel, and even Baby Kochamma and Father Mulligan. With focus on these relationships, Roy can comment on the sexual oppression in India due to the class system.
From the very beginning, the reader learns that Baby Kochamma has longed for Father Mulligan each time she spent time with him during charity work. However, the “Love Laws” coupled with his moral beliefs prevent anything from happening (Roy 33). Roy states the the love laws “lay down who should be loved, and how. And how much.” (Roy 33) Baby Kochamma joins the nunnery in an effort to gain some ground with Father Mulligan and each night she writes her love of Father Mulligan, “I love you I love you” (Roy 281). Under Because of the oppressive love laws, Kochamma is sexually frustrated sexuality. Baby Kochamma’s sexual frustration leads her to later mention Ammu and Velutha’s love affair. Roy, through Baby Kochamma, shows how the sexual oppression of Indian society damages the relations between others of different social standing.
Vellya Paapen, the of Velutha, is a part of the class and generation which accepts if not embraces the sexual oppression and class system. His zealous opinion of the Love Laws are demonstrated when he exposes his son’s secret affair. At the Ayemen...

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...undhati Roy depicts the sexual oppression of Indian society through the sexual acts of others in varying class statuses. Roy is able to show the struggles and despair of each class’s oppressive situation by having them each in unique and bizarre sexual acts. Roy illustrates the harsh realities of oppressive Indian culture. Mammachi, Baby Kochamma, and Vellya Paapen are accepting of the Love Laws and are thus disgusted by the love affair between Ammu and Velutha. In addition, when Estha and Rahel reunite in Ayemenem, their relationship becomes one of incest. This sexual encounter clearly demonstrates the harmful effects of class oppression on the current surviving generations of India. Ammu and Velutha, and Estha and Rahel, and even Baby Kochamma and Father Mulligan are used so Roy can create a commentary on the sexual oppression in India due to the class system.