The God of Small Things: A Plot Summary

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Recommended: Sexuality in literature

Although desire presents itself in many charged forms in The God of Small Things, we can view the plot of the narrative as a series of disrupted yet connected events that are propelled by, or a product of, individual resistance fuelled by a Desire to Transgress. This plot of individual resistance is represented through the female protagonist Ammu and her daughter Rahel, as a foil of her mother, and is most explicit in the ending of the novel, when they both commit sexual acts that violate the conditions imposed upon them by the power of their patriarchal society. Although developed somewhat subliminally, through language and symbolism, the fragmented conventions of this plot of desire to transgress (not to be confused with a plot of transgression), works to frame the sexual acts of the ending as the desired conclusion. The ending of the novel performs the function of settling this plot of desire by acting as an explicit manifestation of transgression in its ultimate form in the novel, an ultimate form which settles and creates a sense of contentment for the characters and the plot, whilst almost simultaneously problematising this calm with a literary undercurrent of suffering and punishment.

It is possible to view Ammu's desire to transgress in light of how Roy mystifies Ammu's ability to resist in small ways. We can see Ammu's resistance epitomized in the songs she plays on her `transistor shaped like a tangerine' (44):

Occasionally, when Ammu listened to songs she loved on the radio, something stirred inside her. A liquid ache spread under her skin, and she walked out of the world, like a witch, to a better, happier place (44)

It is interesting that the term `ache' is used, with its double entendre of dull pain and lon...

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...feng/q4/messages/7.html">http://plaslab.cis.nctu.edu.tw/~pcfeng/q4/messages/7.html (accessed 22/09/2004)

Dhawan, R.K., "The Goddess of Small Things : Some Observations on the Fictional Technique of Arundhati Roy's First Novel" in Arundhati Roy the Novelist Extraordinary, (Delhi, 1998)

Kalpana Wilson "Arundhati Roy and Patriarchy - a rejoinder", originally an article appearing in Indian newspaper "Liberation" in January 1998, available at : http://angelfire.com/in/SASG/aroy.html (accessed 22/09/2004)

Somak Halder "My View of Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things", Postcolonial Web, http://www.postcolonialweb.org/india/roy/halder1.html (accessed 23/08/2004)

Tirthankar, Chandra "Sexual/Textual Strategies in The God of Small Things" in

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