The God Of Small Things is a novel written by
Arundhati Roy an eminant hindi writer who always
comes into light for her style and controvercial statements
however, she writes on truth. may be it is stinging but is true.
The God of Small Things tells the story
of one family in the town of Ayemenem
in Kerala, India. Its epigraph is a
quotation from contemporary writer
John Berger: "Never again will a single
story be told as though it’s the only
one." She uses this idea to establish her
nonlinear, multi-perspective way of
storytelling, which gives value to points
of view as "Big" as a human being’s and
as "Small" as a cabbage-green
butterfly’s. In Roy’s world, there is no
definitive story, only many different
stories that fuse to form a kaleidoscopic
impression of events.
The novel opens with Rahel’s return to
Ayemenem after hearing that her twin
brother, Estha, has come home. We
switch to the funeral of Sophie Mol,
when the twins are seven years old.
Rahel believes that Sophie is awake
during her funeral and buried alive. The
rest of the family refuses to
acknowledge the twins and Ammu. On
the train ride back to Ayemenem,
Ammu cannot speak except to say "He’s
dead . I’ve killed him." Rahel and Estha
have not seen each other since Estha
was sent away as a child to live with
Babu in Assam. Both twins have
traveled somewhat aimlessly until
returning to their childhood home.
Rahel looks out on the family’s former
factory, Paradise Pickles & Preserves,
and contemplates how all the
strangeness in her family resolves
around the incident of Sophie Mol’s
death.
Next, we find the family traveling to
Cochin to greet Sophie Mol and her
mother, Margaret Kochamma, upon
their arrival from England. On their way,
they see their servant, Velutha,
marching with a group of Communists.
Back in the present, Rahel watches
Estha undress in the moonlight, neither
of them saying a word.
The narrative returns to Cochin, where
the family goes to see The Sound of
Music in the cinema. Inside the theater,
Estha cannot stop singing, so he is sent
out into the lobby, where the
Orangedrink Lemondrink man molests
him. After he becomes nauseated, the
family leaves the movie early. Rahel
senses that the Orangedrink Lemondrink
man has wronged Estha and talks back
to Ammu when she praises the man.
Ammu tells her that she loves Rahel a
little less, a statement that haunts Rahel
for a long time.
Back in the present, Rahel runs into
Comrade Pillai, and he shows her a
photograph of the twins and Sophie,
taken shortly before Sophie died. In a
flashback to Sophie’s arrival at the
Cochin airport, Rahel cannot handle the
nervousness surrounding her cousin’s
arrival, and she is scolded for hiding in
the window curtain. Everyone tries to
impress Sophie and Margaret
Kochamma with new clothing, English
sayings, and forced upbeat attitudes.
The narrative turns to Ammu’s death at
the age of thirty-one. After being
banished from the Ayemenem House,
she dies while out of town on a job
interview. Estha watches her body being
pushed into the cremation oven. No
one writes to Estha to inform him of
Ammu’s death. Roy introduces the
refrain, "Things can change in a day."
Back at Sophie Mol’s welcome
ceremony, a crowd gathers to sing and
eat cake. Rahel retreats to play with
Velutha. As Ammu watches her
daughter and handyman together, she is
attracted to Velutha for the first time.
Rahel joins Estha, who is alone in the
pickle factory. They plan to visit the
History House, where the Paravans live.
They push an old, decrepit boat into the
river and row to Velutha’s side of the
river. There, he promises to fix the boat
for them. Velutha is trying to suppress
his growing love for Ammu despite his
constant association with her children.
(Ammu dreams of a one-armed man
making love to her.)
Back in the present, Rahel watches
fondly as Estha bathes in the moonlight.
The twins meet by coincidence at a
temple, where they watch kathkali
dancers act out a violent story of
retribution all night.
We turn to the story of Chacko’s and
Magaret Kochamma’s marriage. It
began happily but soon crumbled
because of a sense of disconnection.
Margaret left Chacko for Joe, who later
died in an accident. After that, she took
Sophie to Ayemenem as a distraction;
she can never forgive herself for leaving
Sophie alone in Ayemenem the day she
died.
We finally hear the story of Sophie
Mol’s death and the events surrounding
it. Vellya Paapen comes to Mammachi’s
door and offers to kill Velutha with his
bare hands for having an affair with
Ammu. Baby Kochamma makes sure
that Ammu is locked in her room and
that the police think he raped Ammu.
Mammachi summons Velutha to her
house and fires him, banishing him
from the property on pain of death. He
goes to Comrade Pillai for help but to
no avail. Roy begins to call Velutha "The
God of Loss" and "The God of Small
Things." The telling of Sophie’s actual
death is short. She joins the twins as
they run away after Ammu insults them
terribly. After their boat capsizes in the
river, she drowns. The twins fall asleep
on the veranda of the History House,
unaware that Velutha is sleeping there.
The next morning, the police come
across the river to arrest Velutha. They
beat him nearly to death and take the
twins to the station with them. There,
Baby Kochamma pressures Estha into
saying Velutha is guilty of kidnapping
him and Rahel. She tells him that doing
so is the only way to save Ammu and
avoid a life in jail. Estha complies, thus
saving Baby Kochamma from being
arrested for filing a false report about
Velutha. After that, Baby Kochamma
coerces Chacko into evicting Ammu
from the house and forcing Estha to go
live with Babu. As Estha leaves on the
train, Rahel cries as though a part of her
is being ripped out of her body.
Back in the present, Estha and Rahel
finally share a fond moment in Ammu’s
former bedroom. They make love out of
"hideous grief" for the deaths of Ammu,
Velutha, and Sophie Mol.
The final chapter describes the first
night of Ammu’s and Velutha’s affair.
They are both drawn to the riverbank,
where they meet and make love for the
first time. After that, they continue to
meet in secret and share their
admiration of "Small Things" such as
the creatures of the riverbank. Each
night as they part, they say to one
another: "Tomorrow? Tomorrow." On
the last night they meet before
Velutha’s death, Ammu is compelled to
turn back and repeat one more time:
"Tomorrow."