Historical fiction explains complex global issues by illustrating them through the lives of characters, who reveal the impacts of larger issues through their stories and conflicts. In political activist and author Arundhati Roy’s semi-autobiographical novel, The God of Small Things, seven year old twins Estha and Rahel grow up in Ayemenem, India in the wake of the abolition of the caste system, which still lurks behind many aspects of society. The twins are so close they often think of themselves as a single entity, and yet they are stark opposites in many ways, as Rahel is more spirited and unpredictable, while Estha is thoughtful and quiet. The arrival in India and subsequent death of their European cousin, Sophie Mol, throws the twins into …show more content…
Following the accidental death of their cousin, Sophie Mol, and the brutal beating of Velutha by the police, the twins are brought to the police station for questioning. Baby Kochamma, the twins’ great-aunt and the most prominent antagonist of the novel, calls the children “murderers,” claiming, “Even God doesn’t forgive that” (300). As Baby Kochamma begins to craft this narrative that Estha and Rahel deliberately killed their cousin out of jealousy, Roy creates a harsh sense of irony because in reality it is Baby Kochamma herself who is the murderer after ordering Velutha to be killed for his affair with Ammu. Baby Kochamma continues to fabricate her tale, telling the twins how she will be morally obligated to confess to the police how they “forced [Sophie Mol] to go” and how they “pushed her out of the boat in the middle of the river” (300). Although Roy tells the story through an omniscient third person narrator, most of the novel is focused on the perspective of the twins at age seven. Therefore, the clouding lens of childhood innocence is often a big part of how the story is told. The twins, “fascinated by the story she was telling them,” (300) know this is not actually what occured the previous night, and yet …show more content…
Estha’s search for justice, or more accurately, his inability to search for justice, is representative of much larger systemic issues that plague India. The caste system, although now illegal, still remains very influential in many aspects of Indian society, including the justice system, which ultimately lead to the death of Velutha, an Untouchable, by denying him an opportunity to defend himself, along with the end of Estha’s childhood innocence as he confronts the harsh reality of the adult world, and subsequently attempts to escape it. Furthermore, Estha’s inability to let go of his past following the trauma of his childhood as he is forced to falsely incriminate Velutha to protect his own family is representative of the larger struggle of society to give up past traditions including the caste system to embrace a more moral society that allows people to fight for justice. Without solving these larger issues, it is impossible for individual people to effectively and morally carry out their lives and their own search for
She is experience at first anger after finding out that Choyos husband couldn't take her Martas baby anymore. The anger then lead her to a decision she'll regret. Now she is experiencing a whole new feeling which is regret. She is having regret feelings because she has put a curse on Choyo baby. Then the regret feeling grows even more after finding out that curse she put on the baby never left even after Marta told Remedius to take off the curse from the baby. Choyo child had to go through a tough time to get rid of a disease that he had because of the curse. Then Choyo child sooner finds out that the cause of the disease was from the curse that Marta put on him. Choyos child shunned Marta after finding out which then lead to a new feeling. Which is the last feeling, sadness. Marta is sad because now she has lost the trust from her sister's child even though she is very sorry but still Choyos child is being stubborn and still take her apologies for what she
In all honesty, I truly believe that the narrator, with no name, has a huge weakness; and that weakness is that since she is discouraged by her mom, which caused her to be completely blind sighted about Raheem which made her so willingly to take him back even though she realized she was being abused and cheated on. “You aint no beauty prize”-Narrators mom. And: “He hooks his thumb through my gold hooped earring and pulls down hard……….But he don’t get far-I don’t let him. I apologized.” This shows that Raheem is abusive and that the narrator is very forgiving and blind-sighted. As the end neared, I felt as if the narrator did not really act realistic in the scene because
Marie had just traveled from her hometown of Ville Rose, where discarding your child made you wicked, to the city of Port-Au-Prince, where children are commonly left on the street. Marie finds a child that she thinks could not be more beautiful, “I thought she was a gift from Heaven when I saw her on the dusty curb, wrapped in a small pink blanket, a few inches away from a sewer as open as a hungry child’s yawn” (79). Marie has suffered many miscarriages, so she takes this child as if it were her own, “I swayed her in my arms like she was and had always been mine” (82). Marie’s hope for a child has paid off, or so it seems. Later, it is revealed that the child is, in fact, dead, and Marie fabricated a story to sanction her hopes and distract her from the harsh reality of her life, “I knew I had to act with her because she was attracting flies and I was keeping her spirit from moving on… She smelled so bad that I couldn’t even bring myself to kiss her without choking on my breath” (85). Her life is thrown back into despair as her cheating husband accuses her of killing children for evil purposes and sends her to
...olent incidences contrast in specific details and their fathers personas, both children lose their innocence and gain the experience and knowledge to question life and make logical decisions.
After her child is born, she cares for her baby so much and tries everything she can to feed the baby because the baby constantly needs foods. When her sister Elly kills her child, she has enough courage to kill her own twin sister; while knowing that she will too, die because they are conjoined twin.
The characters in this novel entertain conflicting notions of morality and pride. Sometimes, these characteristics are at odds with one another, creating the immoral and "evil" characters. Other times, they cooperate to create realism in these people. The moral characters are good, but still have enough pride to be dignified, yet not arrogant. Sometimes, when the evil twins (or other halves) run amuck, things get out of hand and troubles abound. Though most of the time these troubles spring from the discrepancy between pride and morality, at other points, dignity and morality work hand in hand to create reliable and realistic characters.
Laurie, the obnoxious boy, had a daily routine of going home and telling stories about the rude boy Charles in his class. In fact, one story that he recited was, “Charles was so fresh to the teacher's friend he wasn’t let do exercises.” This is included because it is conveying that the truth about Charles is right in front of them, who he is, what he does, and how he acts. Although, this is not exactly authorities trying to find out the truth about the murder it is still demonstrating the theme, the most obvious clue about who Charles is, is right in front of them, they just need to open their eyes. Eventually, the next parent night comes up, Laurie’s mom is anxious to meet Charles and his mother but what she finds out there is no Charles it is a astonishing surprise. “‘Charles?’ She said. ‘We don’t have any Charles in the kindergarten’” This is helping us infer the ending, that Laurie is actually Charles. And Charles was right in front of them the whole time, once again in arms reach but they did not realize it, they figured out the obvious in the end however, in Lamb to the Slaughter they never found out who it was. The sweetest person to them, really was the one who was disobedient. In conclusion, although, the plot in “Charles” was different, they still demonstrated the same theme through events that happen.
...eives nothing from the children. It should be obvious to the reader at this point that the children are obviously in no way doing any wrong and are telling the truth to the best of their knowledge. The continual obsession of the governess over maintaining the protection and innocence of the children gets so severe that it causes Flora to come down with a serious fever and Miles grows seemingly weaker and sicker without his sister there with her.
The story leads the reader on an exploratory journey to witness the neglect by Emily's extremely guilty mother. This is described by the children's cry when they are left with strangers, lacking attention and love due to the fact she is a single parent at a time where this was not commonly accepted in the community, causing a lot of emotional distress.
The irony comes into play when the truth starts to unravel and Jack finds out what really happened to him as a child and why he does not know his parents. After some coincidental events, all the main characters end up in the same room. When Lady Bracknell hears Ms. Prism’s (the woman Jack hired as his nieces governess) name she immediately asks to see her. She continues to say that Ms. Prism had wandered off with a baby years ago and asks what came about of that. Ms. Prism continues the dialog to explain how she misplaced a baby that was in her bag at a train station. Jack, thinking he might have been that very baby, retrieves the bag he was found in as an infant in which Ms. Prism identifies by some distinguishing marks to have been her own. Jack realized the woman that had been teaching his niece was his mother. But then Lady Bracknell explained that she was not but Lady Bracknell’s poor sister Mrs. Moncrieff was.
J. Eng. Lit. Cult. becomes merely “Street” as (does) Lingayat Street, Mudliyar Street and half a dozen others in Toturpuram” (5) in a gesture of egalitarianism whose effects are literally, as well as symbolically, disorientating. The sense of displacement is compounded by changes that have occurred on the street itself over the last few decades- “instead of the tender smell of fresh jasmine.... in scented sticks and virtue, instead of the chanting of sacred hymns the street had become thud with the haggling of cloth merchants and vegetable vendors, (and) the strident strains of the latest film music from video parlours” (5-6). The incursion of these loud and nestling registers of cultural change into the sanctuary of Sripathi‟s study mirrors more significant assaults on his sense of traditions including most worryingly, the refusal of his children to lead the lives he has imagined for him: his daughter Maya has broken off her engagement to an Indian man to marry a Canadian with whom she now lives in Vancouver, and his son Arun has rejected a tradition job in favour of a career as an environmental activist. Sripathi responds to the affronts by ceasing to communicate, literally, in the case of Maya, with whom he has stopped corresponding, and figuratively, with Arun and the rest of his family, through a retreat into an increasingly self enclosed world. The narrative traces the gradual expansion of his consciousness, a process initiated by Maya‟s death in a car
This particular event, in the very beginning of the novel, demonstrates how two people of t...
Such novels like Roy’s should be read to expose us to the realities and perspectives of others, particularly those who are chained by their societies culture and themselves; while making us (readers) question and contemplate about culture and the chains we place upon ourselves. Making us aware and resistant to limitations put upon...
This essay focuses on the theme of forbidden love, The God of Small Things written by Arundhati Roy. This novel explores love and how love can’t be ignored when confronted with social boundaries. The novel examines how conventional society seeks to destroy true love as this novel is constantly connected to loss, death and sadness. This essay will explore the theme of forbidden love, by discussing and analysing Ammu and Velutha's love that is forbidden because of the ‘Love Laws’ in relation to the caste system which results in Velutha’s death. It is evident that forbidden love negatively impacts and influences other characters, such as Estha and Rahel, which results in Estha and Rahel’s incestuous encounter.
In the present play Vijay Tendulkar chooses a term of judicial register as the title of his play to make a powerful comment on a society with a heavy patriarchal bias that makes justice impossible and that converts the august judicial system into an instrument of oppression of women and the vulnerable. Ideally justice can be provided only if the judge and the judicial system are objectively detached. But the same objective detachment can become the face of a very repressive and dehumanized system if the persons involved in the process of justice are themselves devoid of human value and compassion.