The God of Small Things is a debut novel of Arundhati Roy, a famous contemporary Indian writer. This novel won Booker Prize in 1997 for stating how the small crucial things affect a human life. This is the only fiction written by this author till date. This is a story about a single family in Kerala, it speaks lot about Indian history and politics, forbidden love and betrayal. The flow of the story covers three generations of human life especially a woman's life in India.
Overview
Author: Arundathi Roy
Year : 1997
Themes: Society & Class, Versions of Reality, Identity
Main Characters: Estha, Rahel, Ammu, Baby Kochamma, Velutha
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| Characters in Detail |
Summary
The story begins with the return of Rahel to her home town in Kerala, she is very excited to meet her twin brother Estha after they had been separated when are 7 years old, they are very close to each other that the author says both as a single person despite of their separation, the children are now 31. The narrative is told in third person, the story moves forward and backward in time. Ammu is the mother of the twins, she lived in Kerala with her long suffering mother(mammachi) and ill tempered father(pappachi), in order to escape from the prison of culture Ammu decides to go Calcutta for a long holiday and never wanted to return to her home town again. For settling down in the new place permanently she marries a man named Baba, later he turned into an alcoholic and to save his job, he asks her wife Ammu to be with his boss for a day. Again Ammu wanted to escape for these tortures she returns to her hometown and there she gave birth to the twin children.
Baby Kochamma is the grandmother of the new borns, both the mother & Father of Ammu has passed away in her absence. Ammu's brother Chacko went to America for developing the business. Kochamma, when she was young she loved a young Irish Priest and she becomes a nun for the sake of her love but it doesn't help her in any way to get married with him so she returned to Kerala and this makes a cruel and heartless towards Ammu. Velutha is a mechanic and a dalit, Ammu fell in love with him and it is a impossible desire of that time, she blames her children for being a burden to her happy life. The children are now 7, they are happy that their cousin Sophie, Chacko's daughter came for holidays. As the twin children aware of their mother's thoughts they wanted to run away with the help of Sophie, in this process Sophie died accidentally.
Taking the death of Sophie as an advantage Kochamma blames Velutha for the death and he is imprisoned, for crossing the caste line and the murder, the victim Velutha died due to the injury he got in the prison. Estha sent to Calcutta to live with his father and Rahel goes to America for higher studies. Ammu dies after knowing she is the reason behind the death of Velutha and all misfortunes at the age of 31. But Rahel is 31 and she divorced her husband for ill treating her and lives strongly unlike her mother with the reunion of her twin brother. The story shows three generation of women and the consequences they face in life.
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