Loss Of Innocence In The God Of Small Things

Maturity is a state of mind that suddenly shatters the past state of mind of innocence, and leaves it destroyed. It becomes irretrievable. Maturity is then forced upon the person’s mind until it is accepted as a normality. In The God of Small Things, written by Arundhati Roy, children named Estha and Rahel recall the biggest tragedy of their lives. Rahel feels responsible for the death of her cousin, Sophie Mol, and must come to terms with the horrible trauma she experienced. This event transforms the book into a tragedy with a grim tone. The tragedy and aftermath are caused by their reckless behavior.They both are forced to mature when they experience that tragedy and the aftermath of it.

Rahel feels guilt about being the reason their cousin is dead. All three of the children run away from home to escape. Estha and Rahel are the ones who decide to go, while Sophie Mol follows them to help them make a statement. They attempt to cross the river on a boat Estha and Rahel found earlier. As they are rowing, they begin to lose control of the boat due to the rapid waters. The boat capsizes, and Sophie Mol drowns. Estha and Rahel realize that she’s now dead, and that there will be consequences to their actions. Before even

confirming Sophie Mol’s death, Rahel already begins to feel she will suffer horrible consequences for this, and can not handle the idea: “Rahel’s heart Pappachi’s moth snapped open its somber wings.Out. In. And lifted its legs. Up. Down.” (277) Rahel uses this imagery whenever she feels that she will be loved less by her mother, Ammu. In this she uses very explosive imagery, which implies that the love will be drastically diminished after she finds out what they did. It gives the story a much more grim tone. It transforms it into a story of lost love. She grows into a woman who doesn’t even have much love for her mother even after death. She feels very detached from her mother. She matures knowing that she no longer has any unconditional love from anyone she loved as a child. They all have abandoned her after that incident, and she is left alone.

Her friend, Velutha, is brutally beaten to death because of her reckless behavior. After they capsize the boat and kill Sophie Mol, they make it to the other side of the shore where Velutha, a friend of Rahel and Estha, lives.They fall asleep in the house on the shore. Velutha happens to be sleeping there simultaneously. The policemen find Sophie Mol’s body, and begin investigating the other side of the shore. Their footsteps alerted Velutha, and they forced him awake. Estha and Rahel then woke up to find the policemen savagely beating Velutha: “Esthappen and Rahel woke to the shout of sleep surprised by shattered kneecaps. Screams 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.” (292) They both were very shocked by it. However, Rahel is so shocked that she goes into a state of denial: “It isn’t him,” Rahel whispered to Estha. “I can tell. It’s his twin brother. Urumban. From Kochi.” (295) She is in such a state of denial that she is willing to find any way possible for it not to be true. She’d rather have his brother be beaten horribly just so he wouldn’t be the one who is actually being beaten. Velutha died because of that beating. Rahel saw him in the prison cell in his final moments before death. She will have to live with this grief knowing he died because of her. This makes the book into a story of regret. She regrets her reckless childish actions, and is forced to live with her mistakes for the rest of her life. This shapes her into a person who is constantly filled with sorrow. This is prevalent with her ex-husband when he notices she always has a sorrowful look in her eyes. She cannot overcome the regret she has felt for her many teenage and adult years.

Rahel regrets letting Estha lie about the incident. When Rahel and Estha arrive at the police station, Baby Kochamma, their grandaunt, instructs them to lie about what actually happened to protect the family’s social status. They both feel hesistant during this, and are still trying to come to terms with all that just happened. Baby then decides to pick Estha to do it, and eventually she manipulates him into doing it. He cautiously goes to the inspector and sits down to answer his question with a lie: “The Inspector asked his question. Estha’s mouth said Yes. Childhood tiptoed out. Silence slid in like a bolt. Someone switched off the light and Velutha disappeared.” (303) Estha, in that moment, loses all remaining innocence he has left in him at once. He witnessed Velutha’s final moments, and has lied about the whole incident. After this questioning, Estha doesn’t say much. He is sent to his father afterwards, and eventually returns as an adult who stays silent. Rahel let Estha lie for them. She must’ve constantly thought about what if she had been the one picked by Baby or if she had told Estha to not lie. When she hears of his constant silence, she knows that he has been crippled by that endeavor. This makes the story into a story of regret. She wonders about what she should’ve done in that moment. She blames herself for not knowing better as a child. She feels as if she crippled the closest person she’s ever known. His departure afterward just adds to the guilt, and makes her feel as if she was the one who cut him off from her life. That it was her fault. This adds immense regret and grief to her, which sticks with her throughout her teenage and adult years.

Maturity is a harsh reality that storms into the mind.

It destroys innocence in its arrival. In The God of Small Things, written by Arundhati Roy, Rahel feels the pain of maturity. She feels it ruin her life, and destroy everything she holds dear. She is left with it, and loses all of what she had before it in her innocence. She caused her cousin to die, her close friend to be beaten to death, and her twin to be severed from her life as a mute for the rest of his life. This event and her suffering because of it make the book a very grim tale of how one horrible mistake can leave the world around you in ruins. Her regret and grief is all she has left after this tragedy. She clings to it, and hopes to one day let go off it when better times

arrive.