SETTING AND TIME PERIOD
Place: The town of Ayemenem in the Southwestern state of Kerala, India
Time Period: December 1969-June 1993
Social Prejudice: At the time, Kerala's formation of different social groups was done by using the Indian caste system as a foundation. This system split the members of society into four groups of people, with the lowest and most discriminated being the 'Paravan', or "Untouchable". Although there were legal measures set up against this particular system, its deeply rooted ties in Indian life made it difficult to completely dissolve this hierarchy.
Caste System: Characters are placed and born into a hierarchy of social status. This caste system prevents any person from raising their status forced to stay at the level they were born into. While life in the higher levels is respectable and easy, the Untouchables at the bottom of the caste system lead lives of manual labor and forced isolation.
Time Period: December 1969-June 1993
Social Prejudice: At the time, Kerala's formation of different social groups was done by using the Indian caste system as a foundation. This system split the members of society into four groups of people, with the lowest and most discriminated being the 'Paravan', or "Untouchable". Although there were legal measures set up against this particular system, its deeply rooted ties in Indian life made it difficult to completely dissolve this hierarchy.
Caste System: Characters are placed and born into a hierarchy of social status. This caste system prevents any person from raising their status forced to stay at the level they were born into. While life in the higher levels is respectable and easy, the Untouchables at the bottom of the caste system lead lives of manual labor and forced isolation.
CHARACTER LIST
Related Family Members
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Other Unrelated Characters
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(Pappachi's Family Tree)
SUMMARY
The majority of the story is in a town called Ayemenem, located in the southern state of Kerala, India. The story isn't told in chronological; the author, Arundhati Roy, choses to reveal important the plot's defining events in the order her characters are reminded of the past.
The God of Small Things begins with the main characters' grandfather, Pappachi. As an Imperial Entomologist who studied mainly moths, Pappachi thought he had discovered a new breed. After being officially judged as a mere mutation in an already recorded moth species, later another scientist successfully claimed it was indeed a new breed. This event shapes the foundation for the theme of hate in the story as it drove Pappachi into a jealous and enraged state up until his death. His reaction to not being given credit “tormented him and his children and his children's children”(Roy, 24), leading to his resentment trickling down several generations.
Mammachi, his wife, was an exceptional violinist and entrepreneur whom Pappachi beat regularly to offset his jealousy for her accomplishments. Their children, Chacko and Ammu, both go onto marriages that end in bitter divorce. We learn that Chacko’s wife, Margaret leaves him while pregnant (with Sophie Mol) for a man named Joe. Heartbroken, Chacko then moves back to Ayemenem and invites them over for the holidays shortly after Joe had died in a car accident. Ammu's abusive marriage with Baba, also caused her to flee back to Kerala to live with her parents. The story's point of focus is Sophie Mol's death, an accident which Estha and Rahel were indirectly blamed for being with her when the boat they were in capsized.
As the holidays arrive, the family is expecting the arrival of Margaret and Sophie Mol, who are living in England. When they have arrived, Sophie Mol is given a lot of attention, a change Rahel does not like at all. Anyways, when they reach the Ayemenem House, Rahel and Estha stroll around on the river bank and find an old boat. With Velutha's help they repair it and frequently cross the river to visit an abandoned house on the other side. Velutha, an Untouchable, whom Ammu and Chacko have known since their childhood, was given him the opportunity to visit a school (rarely seen in his social class) and employed him as a carpenter and mechanic in the family's pickle factory.
During the guests' stay Ammu is more and more attracted by Velutha. One night, Ammu dreams of him as a "God of Small Things" with one arm and she later decides to meet at the river, where they sleep with each other. As it is not possible for an Untouchable to have a relationship or even an affair with somebody from a superior caste, they have to keep their meetings secret. However, one night Velutha's father observes them and feeling humiliated by his son's overbearing behaviour, reports everything to Mammachi and Baby Kochamma. As a consequence they lock up Ammu in her room. There Rahel and Estha find her and, through the locked door, ask her why she's being locked up. As she is angry and desperate, she blames the two children that without them she would be free and they should go away. Hurt and confused they decide two run away and stay at the abandoned house, but Sophie discovers the twins' plan and demands to be taken along. While the three are crossing the river, which has risen from heavy rainfall, their boat capsizes. Rahel and Estha are able to reach the other shore but Sophie cannot swim and is carried away by the current. After a long search for Sophie, the twins go to the abandoned house and fall asleep on its veranda. Neither of them see Velutha, who had been sleeping there already after being insulted by Mammachi earlier that night.
In the morning the children's absence is finally noticed by the adults and they are informed that Sophie Mol has been found dead by the river. Baby Kochamma goes to the police and wrongly accuses Velutha of attempting to rape Ammu and kidnapping the children. When the police find Velutha sleeping on the veranda of the History House, they beat him up so heavily that he almost dies. The twins wake up and observe the whole procedure. At the police station they are forced by Baby Kochamma to confirm the wrong statement which she has made. In the following night Velutha dies in prison.
After Sophie Mol's funeral Ammu and the twins have to leave the family's house because Chacko, manipulated by Baby Kochamma, accuses them of being responsible for Sophie Mol's death. Estha is sent to his father in Calcutta where he attends school and later college. Ammu is forced to leave Rahel in Ayemenem in order to look for employment. But Ammu is not able to earn enough for a living and so she dies of bad health a few years later alone in a hotel room.
Rahel returns to Ayemenem at the age of 31. She hasn't seen Estha since they were separated after Sophie Mol's funeral. During his stay in Calcutta he someday stopped speaking. After spending a whole day together in Ayemenem, Rahel and Estha release years of repressed emotions by sleeping with each other. The fact that Estha has stopped speaking and that Rahel and Estha sleep with each other are only two aspects in which one can see how deeply hurt they still are by the events with Velutha and Sophie Mol that happened long ago.
The God of Small Things begins with the main characters' grandfather, Pappachi. As an Imperial Entomologist who studied mainly moths, Pappachi thought he had discovered a new breed. After being officially judged as a mere mutation in an already recorded moth species, later another scientist successfully claimed it was indeed a new breed. This event shapes the foundation for the theme of hate in the story as it drove Pappachi into a jealous and enraged state up until his death. His reaction to not being given credit “tormented him and his children and his children's children”(Roy, 24), leading to his resentment trickling down several generations.
Mammachi, his wife, was an exceptional violinist and entrepreneur whom Pappachi beat regularly to offset his jealousy for her accomplishments. Their children, Chacko and Ammu, both go onto marriages that end in bitter divorce. We learn that Chacko’s wife, Margaret leaves him while pregnant (with Sophie Mol) for a man named Joe. Heartbroken, Chacko then moves back to Ayemenem and invites them over for the holidays shortly after Joe had died in a car accident. Ammu's abusive marriage with Baba, also caused her to flee back to Kerala to live with her parents. The story's point of focus is Sophie Mol's death, an accident which Estha and Rahel were indirectly blamed for being with her when the boat they were in capsized.
As the holidays arrive, the family is expecting the arrival of Margaret and Sophie Mol, who are living in England. When they have arrived, Sophie Mol is given a lot of attention, a change Rahel does not like at all. Anyways, when they reach the Ayemenem House, Rahel and Estha stroll around on the river bank and find an old boat. With Velutha's help they repair it and frequently cross the river to visit an abandoned house on the other side. Velutha, an Untouchable, whom Ammu and Chacko have known since their childhood, was given him the opportunity to visit a school (rarely seen in his social class) and employed him as a carpenter and mechanic in the family's pickle factory.
During the guests' stay Ammu is more and more attracted by Velutha. One night, Ammu dreams of him as a "God of Small Things" with one arm and she later decides to meet at the river, where they sleep with each other. As it is not possible for an Untouchable to have a relationship or even an affair with somebody from a superior caste, they have to keep their meetings secret. However, one night Velutha's father observes them and feeling humiliated by his son's overbearing behaviour, reports everything to Mammachi and Baby Kochamma. As a consequence they lock up Ammu in her room. There Rahel and Estha find her and, through the locked door, ask her why she's being locked up. As she is angry and desperate, she blames the two children that without them she would be free and they should go away. Hurt and confused they decide two run away and stay at the abandoned house, but Sophie discovers the twins' plan and demands to be taken along. While the three are crossing the river, which has risen from heavy rainfall, their boat capsizes. Rahel and Estha are able to reach the other shore but Sophie cannot swim and is carried away by the current. After a long search for Sophie, the twins go to the abandoned house and fall asleep on its veranda. Neither of them see Velutha, who had been sleeping there already after being insulted by Mammachi earlier that night.
In the morning the children's absence is finally noticed by the adults and they are informed that Sophie Mol has been found dead by the river. Baby Kochamma goes to the police and wrongly accuses Velutha of attempting to rape Ammu and kidnapping the children. When the police find Velutha sleeping on the veranda of the History House, they beat him up so heavily that he almost dies. The twins wake up and observe the whole procedure. At the police station they are forced by Baby Kochamma to confirm the wrong statement which she has made. In the following night Velutha dies in prison.
After Sophie Mol's funeral Ammu and the twins have to leave the family's house because Chacko, manipulated by Baby Kochamma, accuses them of being responsible for Sophie Mol's death. Estha is sent to his father in Calcutta where he attends school and later college. Ammu is forced to leave Rahel in Ayemenem in order to look for employment. But Ammu is not able to earn enough for a living and so she dies of bad health a few years later alone in a hotel room.
Rahel returns to Ayemenem at the age of 31. She hasn't seen Estha since they were separated after Sophie Mol's funeral. During his stay in Calcutta he someday stopped speaking. After spending a whole day together in Ayemenem, Rahel and Estha release years of repressed emotions by sleeping with each other. The fact that Estha has stopped speaking and that Rahel and Estha sleep with each other are only two aspects in which one can see how deeply hurt they still are by the events with Velutha and Sophie Mol that happened long ago.