One of the most important themes in Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things is the “Love Laws” and the consequences that are the effect of the laws being broken. In the novel, Roy uses the “Love Laws” to set the boundaries, or social norms, to determine “who should be loved, and how much” (33). In turn, Roy challenges this idea of social norms by encouraging the characters to choose “real” love, and follow their hearts. But as can be seen in the novel, choosing “real” love does not always result in a fairytale ending; but, instead, harsher consequences for crossing the boundaries in first place (i.e. the death of Velutha). The relationship between Ammu and Velutha reveals the constant struggle to transgress the boundaries that prevent the characters from living their lives as they choose. In addition, Roy enforces these boundaries by creating characters like Baby Kochamma and the police. Despite the two being from two completely different castes of society, the relationship between Ammu and Velutha is the only relationship in the novel where both characters share mutual love and connection for each other; unlike Ammu’s previous relationship with her husband, which had ended in countless arguments and fights. In fact, one might even argue that the relationship between Ammu and her previous husband only benefitted Ammu, as she dreamed to leave the controlling society of Ayemenem. Throughout the novel, Roy reveals a pattern in relationships where only one character seems to hold the “love” for the other, or simply: the love isn’t mutual. For example, Baby Kochamma “defies her father’s wishes and becomes a Roman Catholic” (25) in hope to attract the attention of a Priest whom she knows she can never be with. In it’s utmost absurdi... ... middle of paper ... ...o overcome the castes of society in order to live their lives as they choose. In their relationship, Ammu and Velutha disregard the “Love Laws” to be together. And though the two rarely see each other and come from completely different lifestyles, their love for one another is the strongest of all relationships throughout the novel. With this absurdity, Roy challenges the idea of social boundaries by encouraging the characters to follow their hearts and chase true love, even if their search results in harsh consequences. Meanwhile, Roy enforces the boundaries of society by creating characters like Baby Kochamma, who represents the social norms, and the police, who represent the enforcers of the social norms. While the novel ends with the notion that “tomorrow is a new day,” this isn’t the case for Ammu and Velutha, who fall victim to the controlling ways of society.
When we think about the force that holds the world together and what makes humans different from animals, one answer comes to our minds - that humans can love. Love is a state of mind that cannot be defined easily but can be experienced by everyone. Love is very complicated. In fact it is so complicated that a person in love may be misunderstood to be acting in an extremely foolish manner by other people. The complexity of love is displayed in Rostand’s masterpiece drama Cyrano de Bergerac. This is accomplished by two characters that love the same woman and in the course neither one achieves love in utter perfection.
In Louise Erdrich’s The Round House and Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things, events from the past are used to develop the characters and plot lines in the novels. In The Round House, Mooshum’s stories of the windigoo that he tells in his dreams, the subplot involving Linda and Linden Lark, and the apparent negativity towards Catholicism shown on the reservation show the pervasive influence of the past on the present. In The God of Small Things, the inclusion of Pappachi’s moth throughout the novel, the constant referencing to the Love Laws, and continuing problems involving race relations show how much of an influence the past has on the present for the characters and the plot.
reflects upon the theme of the novel. As it highlights the fact that if people in the society
Finally, even though, for a long time, the roles of woman in a relationship have been established to be what I already explained, we see that these two protagonists broke that conception and established new ways of behaving in them. One did it by having an affair with another man and expressing freely her sexuality and the other by breaking free from the prison her marriage represented and discovering her true self. The idea that unites the both is that, in their own way, they defied many beliefs and started a new way of thinking and a new perception of life, love and relationships.
Just 2 human beings existing in the same society. Nowlan demonstrates how everyone is different, but everyone is equal. Everyone wants to love and wants to be loved. “We are lovers.” The grown man was understanding acceptance. Love is love regardless if you’re different from one another. Referring back to love doesn’t have to be intimate, it’s just a feeling that everyone need from friends and family. Feeling some emotion is a part of being human. This is what makes human nature. The “fire” is what separate every human being, but it also connects
Love and affection is an indispensable part of human life. In different culture love may appear differently. In the poem “My god my lotus” lovers responded to each other differently than in the poem “Fishhawk”. Likewise, the presentation of female sexuality, gender disparity and presentation of love were shown inversely in these two poems. Some may argue that love in the past was not as same as love in present. However, we can still find some lovers who are staying with their partners just to maintain the relationship. We may also find some lovers having relationship only because of self-interest. However, a love relationship should always be out of self-interest and must be based on mutual interest. A love usually obtains its perfectness when it develops from both partners equally and with same affection.
The problem we find in this story, and in puritanism, is that it presents contrasting views of love. Attachment to earthly possessions, to other people in fact, is discouraged, because everything physical leads to temptation and damnation, and ultimately hell, while the road to salvation of the individual wanders through a spiritual discipline, rigour, austerity. A man should not love his wife more than he loves God; in fact, it is recommended that he not derive pleasure from his wife, but rather seek suffering, in order to redeem himself from his earthly condition, his impure state.
Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things is a novel about how people’s pursuit of their own interests, influenced by the cultural and social contexts in which they live, ultimately determines their behavior. Through utilizing subthemes of self-preservation, the maintenance of social status/the status quo, and power, she portrays Velutha as the only wholly moral character in the story, who, because of his goodness, becomes the target of frequent deception. Roy argues that human nature is such that human beings will do whatever they feel is necessary to serve their own self-interests.
The fact that the fictional mothers and daughters of the story have unhappy marriages creates a common ground on which they can relate. However, marriage has different meanings for each generation in this book. In the mothers’ perspective, marriage is permanent and not always based on love. Especially with their marriages in China, which was a social necessity that they must secretly endure in order to be happ...
The Lais of Marie de France is a compilation of short stories that delineate situations where love is just. Love is presented as a complex emotion and is portrayed as positive, while at other times, it is portrayed as negative. The author varies on whether or not love is favorable as is expressed by the outcomes of the characters in the story, such as lovers dying or being banished from the city. To demonstrate, the author weaves stories that exhibit binaries of love. Two distinct types of love are described: selfish and selfless. Love is selfish when a person leaves their current partner for another due to covetous reasons. Contrarily, selfless love occurs when a lover leaves to be in a superior relationship. The stark contrast between the types of love can be analyzed to derive a universal truth about love.
eventually I felt that marriage was the central keyword in the book. I will concentrate on the situation
...o longer satisfied with living her life the way she had been, instead she feels the need to be like the others around her. She wants it so badly that she is distraught when that hope starts to fade before her eyes as Jim admits that he has another woman. Within the drama, society is consistently pushing conformity as the key to a happy life, and Tom, Amanda, and Laura are not above its influence.
Starting with narrator’s disapproval of Panos’ imminent infidelity, Ben Greenman’s “Ambivalence” presents readers with a protagonist bathed in conflicting emotions. Throughout his story, Greenman shows the futility of trying to bring emotion down to single understanding and origin of conformity because of that. Societal expectation of rigid standard of love creates tension. Panos possibly loves his future wife, otherwise he wouldn’t have wanted to get married but that love is insufficient; insufficient to get married at least. He is trying conform to the standards set by society but he fails to do so and thus cheats on his future wife. In the neighbor’s eyes Panos might have fit into the societal norms but this conformity is only external,
In Literature and Life, Love is a powerful force. Sans love; feelings, desires and relationships may seem empty. This force however, can also be destructive, even may end a marriage. Marital discord, arising in general, due to infatuation, lust or affection for a third person, may crop up primarily facilitated by adverse familial, economic or societal conditions that do frequently find their mention in the written word. Some of these concerns like family, marriage, sexuality, society and death, are notably illustrated by the authors, Gustave Flaubert in Madame Bovary and Laura Esquivel in Like Water for Chocolate.
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.