How Does Roy Tell the Story in Chapter One of the God of Small Things
Write about the ways Roy tells the story in chapter one of ‘The God of Small Things’.
‘The God of Small Things’, Arundhati Roy’s debut novel is now considered to be a world renowned literary sensation, mainly due to the distorted manner in which the story is told. Roy utilises the subversion of genre, a playful approach to language (especially when Estha and Rahel are concerned) and a complex temporal structure to portray a poetic retelling of “small things” and their importance. To fully appreciate the importance of the primary chapter we must reflect upon it with the rest of the novel in mind due to the non-linear chronology of the narrative.
The setting of the novel is in an area surrounded by nature it contains aspects of books written in a pastoral form. However, Roy often subverts this ‘natural nirvana’ by surreptitiously implying that nature is s a ‘force to be reckoned with’ and doesn’t lionise it as other pastoral novelists would. In fact she goes as far as likening the rain to “silver ropes slam[ming] into loose earth, ploughing it up like gunfire”. The pastoral tendencies of the book is also contrasted against the harsh storyline much like ‘Of Mice And Men’ which subverts your expectation of a nice book with a happy ending and gives you quite the opposite. Arundhati Roy is extremely politically literate and at times the novel can be perceived to be an extension of her views. On the last page of the first chapter Roy makes reference to the “love laws” which dictate “who should be loved. And how. And how much.” Her disdain for this elitist view of the caste system and the way people such as Pillai stuck to it so is displayed through the relationship between Ammu and Velutha and the constant references to the Sound of Music. Roy does not vehemently stick to one genre, she creates her own by adopting a ‘magpie ethic’ towards her form and stealing certain aspects of many different genres to form her own which is appropriate for her novel.
Another way in
‘The God of Small Things’, Arundhati Roy’s debut novel is now considered to be a world renowned literary sensation, mainly due to the distorted manner in which the story is told. Roy utilises the subversion of genre, a playful approach to language (especially when Estha and Rahel are concerned) and a complex temporal structure to portray a poetic retelling of “small things” and their importance. To fully appreciate the importance of the primary chapter we must reflect upon it with the rest of the novel in mind due to the non-linear chronology of the narrative.
The setting of the novel is in an area surrounded by nature it contains aspects of books written in a pastoral form. However, Roy often subverts this ‘natural nirvana’ by surreptitiously implying that nature is s a ‘force to be reckoned with’ and doesn’t lionise it as other pastoral novelists would. In fact she goes as far as likening the rain to “silver ropes slam[ming] into loose earth, ploughing it up like gunfire”. The pastoral tendencies of the book is also contrasted against the harsh storyline much like ‘Of Mice And Men’ which subverts your expectation of a nice book with a happy ending and gives you quite the opposite. Arundhati Roy is extremely politically literate and at times the novel can be perceived to be an extension of her views. On the last page of the first chapter Roy makes reference to the “love laws” which dictate “who should be loved. And how. And how much.” Her disdain for this elitist view of the caste system and the way people such as Pillai stuck to it so is displayed through the relationship between Ammu and Velutha and the constant references to the Sound of Music. Roy does not vehemently stick to one genre, she creates her own by adopting a ‘magpie ethic’ towards her form and stealing certain aspects of many different genres to form her own which is appropriate for her novel.
Another way in