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the god of small things conclusion
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Paul was dead. His murderer? Older boys, the Principle, each and every teacher, doctor, mentor, friend and acquaintance he ever had; the buttons of his overcoat, the carnation, every church, pastor, priest, book and neighbor he ever came across; his father, other peoples’ fathers, the train schedule, the chill of November, and the sidewalk outside Carnegie Hall. Some of these things may seem inconsequential and unrelated; after all, they’re just things. They’re small things. They couldn’t have any importance, right? Wrong. Paul didn’t kill himself. Long-lost jaded dreams didn’t cause Baby Kochamma to try to live her life backwards. Technology didn’t appear at any one point in history, and it will never be truly the only force at blame for any of our darkest human interactions. The ruling force of the universe, it seems, is the force of the cumulative effect of the small things, the things that exist and happen all the time, but which are usually overlooked in favor of abstract concepts.
Your life might be completely different right now had, let’s say, 3623 days ago, you had eggs for breakfast instead of cereal. If the wind happened to be blowing in a different direction on the day of your marriage, two of the place markers on one of the tables outside could have blown away, and re-set on the opposite tables they were intended, resulting in your great aunt sitting 15 feet farther away from the food-buffet table than was originally intended. This could subsequently affect who she stands in front of and behind in line, who she starts a conversation with, what said conversation entails, and what she remembers about the event that later informs her life in the same subliminally subconscious way every cumulative exp...
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...verlooked by most of society. In accepting what we could again call The God of Small Things, we allow ourselves to be free from the constraints of attachment to the façade of the ‘big things’ like wealth and success.
Ahrundati Roy said, “The god of small things... whether it’s the way the children see things of whether it’s the insect life in the book, or the fish or the stars-- there is a not accepting of what we think of as adult boundaries.” In embracing the ‘small things’, we enable ourselves to be more like children, to be in the moment, and not to judge based on external ideas but instead just be, like Buddha under the Bodhi tree. The ultimate human activity isn’t trying to put forth a purpose for the species (or think that’s even possible), but instead just existing on a moment-to-moment basis, taking in the ‘insect life’ and the fish, and the stars.
In his book, An Imperfect God, Henry Wiencek argues in favor of Washington being the first true president to set the precedent for the emancipation of African-American slaves. Wiencek delves into the evil paradox of how a nation conceived on the principles of liberty and dedicated to the statement that all men are created equal was in a state that still preserved slavery for over seven decades following the construction of the nation. Washington’s grandeur estate at Mount Vernon at its peak had the upkeep of over 300 slaves 126 of which were owned by Washington. First, it must be understood that Washington was raised on slavery receiving ownership of 10 slaves at the age of 11 years old and that Washington was a man of his time. However, it must also be understood that Washington’s business with slavery was in the context of a constrained social and political environment. Weincek maintains that this does not exonerate the fact that Washington maintained slavery however; it does help to quantify the moral shortcoming by which Washington carried until his last year of life.
Jhumpa Lahiri in The Namesake illustrates the assimilation of Gogol as a second generation American immigrant, where Gogol faces the assimilation of becoming an American. Throughout the novel, Gogol has been struggling with his name. From kindergarten to college, Gogol has questioned the reason why he was called Nikhil when he was a child, to the reason why he was called Gogol when he was in college. Having a Russian name, Gogol often encounters questions from people around him, asking the reason of his name. Gogol was not given an Indian name from his Indian family or an American name from the fact that he was born in America, to emphasize that how hard an individual try to assimilate into a different culture, he is still bonded to his roots as the person he ethnically is.
Not only is human connection vital to live a happy and joyful life, but it is necessary to create a legacy, and thus live on through others. But in order to do this, one must first overcome their ego and their sense of self. Once all of the “I” thoughts are gone, one can relate, but fully understand, the higher powers as well as other human beings around us. However, it is important to accept that we may never fully understand the driving force of this universe. While it can be experienced, and we can briefly get an idea of what it is, it is impossible to define these concepts in words, because we don’t have a language that transcends what we can understand. And though many recognize that these concepts could never be fully understood by the human brain, determined minds continue to ask questions that will never have an answer, “pushing their minds to the limits of what we can know” (Armstrong,
Throughout the novel "Little Altars Everywhere", written by Rebecca wells, there are changes between the relationships of its characters. Viviane, the mother of Siddalee, Baylor and Little Shep, is one of the main characters, and most of the changes revolve around her. Throughout the novel, it is portrayed that Viviane has a closer relationship with her eldest daughter, Siddalee. Viviane has always been a distant mother, who is more worried with social things such as her "Yaya sisterhood", than developing a close relationship between her and her family. Viviane is not only distant with her children, but she does not have a solid relationship with her husband, Big Shep.
her whole life. Hurston, in the beginning of the book, said that women “forget all those things
In the novel God’s Bits of Wood by Ousmane Sembene, various marking events have occurred that remain really significant to the novel. One of the events being the march that occurred in Senegal which began all the way from the city of Thies to the capital, Dakar. The march personally viewed as a huge significant part of the novel, has a major impact and also adds an even deeper meaning to Ousmane Sembene’s work as a whole. The book indeed withholds many important events that result to being striking and or shocking in the story. Events that may have caused a lot of tragedy, internal conflicts within characters, as well as change within characters. However, despite such moments and events, the long march remains the most significant and important part of the novel and that symbolizes unity and dedication. Meanwhile, the significance and importance of the march depicts courage, will, faith, and leadership.
In Zora Neale Hurston’s novel, Their eyes were watching God the main character Janie is on a quest for self-fulfillment. Of Janie’s three marriages, Logan and Joe provide her with a sense of security and status. However, only her union with Teacake flourishes into true love.
Zora Hurston was an African American proto-feminist author who lived during a time when both African Americans and women were not treated equally. Hurston channeled her thirst for women’s dependence from men into her book Their Eyes Were Watching God. One of the many underlying themes in her book is feminism. Zora Hurston, the author of the book, uses Janie to represent aspects of feminism in her book as well as each relationship Janie had to represent her moving closer towards her independence.
Love is different for each and every person. For some, it comes easy and happens early in life. For others, such as Janie Mae Crawford, in Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, it happened much later in life. Oddly, after two failed marriages. Janie sought love in several different men and marriages, hoping to find true love; however, she was often left with abuse, hardship, and a broken-heart. As stated by Hoffman “Well, I think everyone struggles with self-love.” Amour Propre¹ Love for one’s parents is honorable, love for one’s child is unconditional, but self-love is often denied. Loving ourselves isn’t a one-time event. It’s an endless, moment by moment ongoing process. It wasn’t until Janie found self-love that she discovered confidence, peace, and fulfillment. Her finding of self-love helped her understand freedom and self-worth.
The short story, "A Small, Good Thing" by Raymond Carver tells of two American parents dealing with their son's hospitalization and death as the result of a hit-and-run car accident. The insensitive actions of their local baker add to their anger and confusion, yet by the end of the story, leave them with a sense of optimism and strength. With such content, Carver runs the risk of coming across as sentimental; however, this is not the case, and the anguish of the parents and their shock at the situation is expressed with dignity and understatement. It is a story with a broad appeal: the simple prose makes it accessible to a wide audience, while the complex themes and issues make it appealing to the educated reader. Written in Carver's characteristically minimalist style, the story poignantly evokes not only the trauma of the death of a child, but also the breakdown of communication and empathy in society. The plain and direct narrative style suits the content, conveying the lack of communication that is central to the narrative - between the parents, between the hospital staff, and with the baker. Critically, it is generally considered one of Carver's strongest short stories. It is a tale of isolation and of grief, but also of hope, and, with its fluid, pared-down style, clearly demonstrates why Carver is widely regarded as one of the greatest writers of the late 20th century.
The novel God's Bits of Wood by Sembene Ousmane is an account of the strike Senegalese trainworkers underwent in pursuit of equal benefits and compensation from their French employers. In an effort to coerce the workers into returning to their jobs, the French cut off the water and food supply to the three villages wherein these events transpire: Thies, Dakar, and Bamako. Ousmane's novel explores the way in which these hardships evolve the worker's and their families till the strike is ultimately resolved. Arguably the most significant transformation that takes place is in the role of women within these societies. Prior to the strike, the women were expected to be subservient to their husband, with exclusively domestic roles consisting of cooking, cleaning, and caring for the children. As a result of the strike and the famine that accompanied it, the women were forced to alter their role to provide food for their families. The goals of the men in women differed in that the men were fighting for equality and better pay, whereas the women were fighting a battle for their own and their children's survival. So despite the fact that the declaration of strike and refusal to work until their demands were met was the campaign of the men, it was the women who ultimately forced the Frenchmen to see their resolve and succumb to their demands.
In Sophie's World, Jostein Gaarder teaches philosophy and it explains basic philosophical ideas better than any other reading book or textbook that I have ever read. The many philosophical lessons of the diversified thinkers of their own time were dexterously understood. The author has a wonderful knack for finding the heart of a concept and placing it on display. For example, he metamorphoses Democritus' atoms into Lego bricks and in a stroke makes the classical conception of the atom dexterously attainable. He relates all the abstract concepts about the world and what is real with straightforward everyday things that everyone can relate to which makes this whole philosophy course manageable. ''The best way of approaching philosophy is to ask a few philosophical questions: How was the world created? Is there any will or meaning behind what happens? Is there a life after death? How can we answer these questions? And most important, how ought we to live?'' (Gaarder, Jostein 15).
According to Cambridge Dictionary, the definition of “culture” is “the way of life, especially the general customs and beliefs, of a particular group of people at a particular time”. On the other hand, accroding to Raymond Williams, it is more complicated. However, ther is something that is certain: Culture is ordinary, which happens to be the title of an article he wrote to define and explain what culture is.
“Can the future affect the present, and can the present affect the past?”(1) This is the question posed by the philosophical concept of retrocasualty – the product of time travel to the past. Time travel has been a common staple in science fiction writing, so many of its explanations owe their origins to tales of protagonists discovering its often confusing implications. Many people may already have a great understanding of a few hypothesized behaviors of time travel due to popular media, such as Back to the Future, Star Trek, and many other works of fiction. Currently, scientific knowledge is too premature to know if time travel is possible, no less how it behaves, so questions and answers are open for anybody to contemplate. The most famous question of time travel is the one posed by the temporal paradox, in which the time traveler invokes a condition which causes the circumstances that led up to time travel, or the time traveler’s presence, to become impossible. Many theories have attempted to answer this paradox, introducing behaviorally diverse concepts such as merging time lines, multiple dimensions, or a nature of time where everything is predestined. The act of time travel can produce radically different effects, depending on which solution to the temporal paradox is applied.
This essay focuses on the theme of forbidden love, The God of Small Things written by Arundhati Roy. This novel explores love and how love can’t be ignored when confronted with social boundaries. The novel examines how conventional society seeks to destroy true love as this novel is constantly connected to loss, death and sadness. This essay will explore the theme of forbidden love, by discussing and analysing Ammu and Velutha's love that is forbidden because of the ‘Love Laws’ in relation to the caste system which results in Velutha’s death. It is evident that forbidden love negatively impacts and influences other characters, such as Estha and Rahel, which results in Estha and Rahel’s incestuous encounter.