The God of Small Things 911In fact, scriptures are an integral part of Row-
landson’s narrative. Biblical verses accompany the
description of each action or inaction, showing
Rowlandson’s belief that her captivity represents
the larger captivity of God’s chosen few. At times,
the verses are of clear importance and relevance.
For instance, at one of the worst moments of her
captivity, she quotes from Isaiah 54:7—“For a small
moment have I forsaken thee, but with great mercies
will I gather thee”—and continues by describing
a rare visit with her son, which lifts her spirits. At
other times, however, Rowlandson seeks to justify
otherwise horrible actions through biblical verse, as
in the time when she steals food out of the mouth
of a captive English child and justifies it by quoting
from the book of Job.
Many other instances of Rowlandson’s adher-
ence to Puritan beliefs and ideals populate her
text. The Bible and religion play important roles in
shaping the narrative and its message, as well as in
justifying its publication and Rowlandson’s actions
during her captivity.
Robin Gray Nicks
roy, aruNDHaTi The God of Small
Things (1997)
The God of Small Things (1997), which won the
prestigious Man Booker Prize, propelled Arundhati
Roy (b. 1961) onto the international scene, making
her a voice to be reckoned with by all powers both
inside and outside of India. It is a poetic tale of
growing up in Kerala, a southern state of India that
has a long history of Marxist-communist rule, high
populations of Christians, and the highest literacy
rate in India. The novel, which is loosely based on
Roy’s life, is innovative, intellectual, and poetic in
its deconstruction of master narratives. Although
told through a third-person point of view, it looks
at events through the achingly innocent perspec-
tive of a pair of seven-year-old twins and is to caste
relationships in India what Harper Lee’s to Kill a
moCKingbird is to race relationships in the United
States. Written somewhat in the same style as
Salman Rushdie’s midnight’S Children, The God
of Small Things exposes the devastating effects of
caste discrimination which, though legally banned,
is very much present in the social consciousness of
people. The novel also unravels the failure of all new
and progressive ideologies, including Marxist and
Christian ideologies, that, while offering hope of
empowering the disenfranchised, fail to engender
the necessary compassion and humility in the dis-
empowered to recognize the plight and suffering
of those in even worse conditions than the officially
disenfranchised.
Sukanya B. Senapatiabandonment in The God of Small Things
Flight is the first response to danger, but most
humans prefer to return to their homes after the real
or perceived danger is over. In rare cases do people
abandon homes and communities, refusing to return
even for visits. Abandonment is the grossest form of
neglect and an accurate indicator of a people’s and a
community’s lack of humanity. However, abandon-
ment is one of the major themes in Arundhati Roy’s
The God of Small Things, with responsible, powerful
adults abandoning homelands, belief systems, fami-
lies, spouses, and children. But powerless children
and disenfranchised pariahs abandon neither place
nor people, nor even the most pitiful and despicable
creatures.
The ancestral Ipe home in Ayemenem, where
the novel is set, at first appears to be a safe haven,
with family members returning to it in difficult
times; Baby Kochamma returns after a spell as a
nun; Ammu and her two children return after her
divorce and Chacko after his. Chacko’s ex-wife,
Margaret, and their child, Sophie Mol, even travel
all the way from England to visit Ayemenem to
recover from Joe’s death. But after the accidental
drowning of Sophie Mol, an incident that is so cen-
tral in the novel that all time is marked by “Before
the Terror” or “After the Terror,” the Ipe home either
expels its inhabitants (Ammu and her children) or is
abandoned by its masters (Chacko leaves; Mamma-
chi dies). Only the caste-conscious Baby Kochamma
remains, perhaps because she represents all that is
wrong and evil about the place. At the end of the
novel, the parentless, homeless, and casteless Estha
is abandoned yet again in this abandoned place,
drifting forever a ghost suspended in time, a time
“Before the Terror.”