Voice of the voiceless: a thematic discourse in Arunthathi Roy’s The God of Small Things

Abstract

Indian literature mostly based on variety of themes and concepts. Suffering of the low caste women is one among the most important thematic concern to be discussed.  According to the reviewers the prime objective of the study of the novels of Arunthathi Roy is to expose how the Indian novelists have explored the unbearable sufferings of the low caste women in The God of Small Things.  The low caste women have mostly hailed from the typical villages in India. The general themes of Roy’s novels focus on exploration of the low caste and down-trodden identity, the condemnation and the celebration of the unique aspects of Indian culture.  Among the writers of Indian literature, Arunthathi Roy is an inevitable and significant writer who has projected the sufferings of the low caste women in her  well-known novel The God of Small Things and their culture and society in different situations. The God of Small Things make deep study of the inter-relationship of cultural dilemma, caste, gender and class. Roy tried to establish an evolutionary pattern of her own principle. As a writer she succeeds in her attempt to combine political consciousness with aesthetic sensibility.

                   Most of the reviewers examines about the place of Arunthathi Roy in the literary tradition of Indian women writings and establishes the inter-connectedness of the Cross cultural conflicts. It also emphasis on the survey of the current topics on the novels of Arunthathi Roy discussed here and also pointed out with the ethnicity and self-esteem of Indian women. Roy’s one of the prominent novels, The God of Small Things in which the author has emphasized fully on The God of Small Things. She brings out the overwhelming effects of the standard and the beauty of the dominant culture on the self-image of the Indian female adolescent protagonist Ammu. It explores Roy’s primary focus on the uniqueness of individualism in the Indian society. It also demonstrates the mental pangs and destruction of the hopes of its female protagonists Ammu and Kochamma in The God of Small. The novel deals with the conflict between the native Indian culture and the caste discrimination brought radical changes in the life of the protagonists and other characters. Through this, one can understand the ability and commitment of Arunthathi Roy who has explored the cause-and-effect relationship between the diverse classes in Indian society.