LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 12 : 10 October 2012
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         S. M. Ravichandran, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.
Assistant Managing Editor: Swarna Thirumalai, M.A.

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Resisting Patriarchy- A Study of the Women in The God of Small Things

Chippy Susan Bobby, M.A.

Abstract

The God of Small Things depicts the social reality in the last few decades where organized movements to raise the consciousness of women began. There has been a very strong resistance to harassment, cruelty and discrimination against women, finding an organized expression for assertion of rights. The women in The God of Small Things are depicted as victims by the forces of history, dead convention, false pride, the tyranny of the state and the politics of opportunism and andocentric order. They stand for those women who are aspiring for freedom and equality, challenging traditional ideas and conventions.This idea is brought out clearly by the author in portraying a slow but definite assertion of confidence in the women in the novel, with every passing generation. This defiance of the social, political, sexists and casteist prejudices that society conforms to make the novel end on a promising note- the promise of a better ‘naaley’- tomorrow.

Complexity of Small Things in Society

Much has been written and discussed about the wide variety of complex issues dealt within this novel. In one of her interviews, the author Arundhati Roy has said: “Fiction for me has been a way of trying to make sense of the world as I know it…..if I had to put it very simply, it is about trying to make the connections between the very smallest things and the very biggest things and to see how those fit together”.( Roy, Amitabh. The God of Small Things-A Novel of Social Commitment,pg.45)

The novel thus reflects the author’s deep concern for the ‘small things’ and her commitment to these issues. The ‘small things’ are the victims of the state, society and the will of a powerful, dominant class. One such category she strongly portrays is that of women who are placed in a subordinate position by society and left defenceless by the state. In her book, The Broken Republic, where she writes about the plight of the tribals and marginalised groups in various parts of India, she asks a pertinent question - “When people are being brutalised what 'better' thing is there for them to do than to fight back? It's not as though anyone's offering them a choice, unless it's to commit suicide, like the 180,000 farmers caught in a spiral of debt have done.” (Roy, Arundhati. Broken Republic - Three Essays,pg.21)

Women Characters in The God of Small Things

The God of Small Things depicts the social reality in the last few decades where organized movements to raise the consciousness of women began. There has been a very strong resistance to harassment, cruelty and discrimination against women, finding an organized expression for assertion of rights.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Chippy Susan Bobby, M.A.
Assistant Professor of English
Smt. MMK College of Commerce and Economics
Bandra West
Mumbai 400050
Maharashtra
India
chippysusan@gmail.com
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