Portrayal of Love and Sexuality in Arundhati Roy’s

The God of Small Things

Amna Arbi, MA English Literature, Semester II, Department of English, S.S. Khanna

Girls’ Degree College, Allahabad

Abstract
Arundhati Roy’s “The God of Small Things” is her debut novel and an instant
success. However, despite the novel being critically acclaimed, Roy faced quite a
backlash from the Indian society for the books contents and language, primarily from
he then chief minister of her home state, Kerala, E.K. Nayanar. She was accused of
using obscene and graphic language to describe the unrestrained sexuality and illicit
relationships in her novel. This paper attempts to study the relationships and their
intricacies presented by the author in her book. Roy has presented different shades of
love and its expression and this paper attempts to study the
Keywords: love laws, twins, Ammu, Velutha, Rahel, Estha, sexuality of a woman,
Paravan, untouchable and definition of love and sex.

INTRODUCTION
Arundhati Roy was born in Shillong to Mary Roy, a Malayali Syrian
Christian women's rights activist from Kerala and Rajib Roy, a Bengali Hindu tea
plantation manager from Calcutta. Perhaps being borne of parents of such contrasting
faiths and ideologies gave Roy an insight into the structure of society and the
prejudices people held around her, and this gave her novel and the story it related a
ring of truth. The novel was so well received that it earned the author the Man Booker
Prize for Fiction in 1997.
“The God Of Small Things” is a story of a wealthy land-owning Syrian Christian
Ipe family residing in Ayemenem, Kerala. The events are told in a fragmentary
manner, oscillating between scenes in 1969 and 1993. The narration is in third person
and the characters are given the names that were used by the twins, Rahel Ipe and
Esthappen Yako Ipe. Most of the plot occurs in 1969, focusing on the twins who live
with their mother, Ammu, their grandmother Mammachi, their uncle Chacko, and
their great-aunt Baby Kochamma.
Ammu is a divorcee who married the twins father, Baba, to escape Ayemenem
and the violent abuse doled out by her father Pappachi. However, her husband also
turned out to be made of the same cloth and when his violence spread to the children,
she divorced him and returned back to Ayemenem. She later has an affair with the
Paravan untouchable, Velutha, who worked for her family and the affair has fatal
consequences.
Chacko, Mammachi’s son was a Rhodes Scholar and married a white woman
Margaret Kochamma and had a daughter with her, Sophie Mol. But she left him for a
man named Joe and took their daughter with her. He missed his daughter terribly and
was glad when the mother-daughter came to visit him after Joe’s death in an accident.
However his joy was cut short with the abrupt and tragic drowning of Sophie Mol.
Baby Kochamma, the great-aunt of Chacko and Ammu, is a typical high class
woman who prizes her high born status and has pure hatred for the untouchables. She
is a selfish and bitter woman, made more so by her unrequited love for Father
Mulligan and what she considered to be his rejection. She is the main villain of the
novel who fans the fires of conflict among the family members to such heights that
they destroy the lives of everyone involved and tears her already fragile family apart.
The novel consists of multiple themes and each theme is peeled and revealed
layer by layer like an onion. The political state of the country and its effect on the
masses, the social prejudice people held, the chauvinist and patriarch society, the state
of women, are all themes that have been explored by Roy in her book. However the
most controversial of the themes was that of love and sexuality that landed the author
into trouble with the then chief minister of Kerala, E. K. Nayanar, who did not
appreciate the explicit sexual descriptions and taboo relations presented in the book.
The book investigates love in all its forms and also explores the true meaning of
sensuality and sexual relations.

LOVE AND SEXUALITY

The novel “The God Of Small Things”, published in 1997, deals with many
facets of love and sexuality. The sexual activities described in the novel occur in
different lights. Some are inspired by deep love while others are a product of the base
and perverse human needs. The intimacy between Ammu and Velutha is an example
of an expression of deep and passionate love while the sexual activities of Chacko
with his parade of girlfriends is just the fulfillment of basic needs as he still holds a
torch for his ex-wife. Even the molestation of Estha by the Orangedrink Lemondrink
Man is an example of the perverse mind of human beings and how its frustrations
seek an outlet in sexual activities.
The forms and shapes of love have also been dealt with an expert hand by the author.
Even Baby Kochamma, the embodiment of evil is shown capable of love, however
selfishly, as is evident in her love for Father Mulligan who rejected her advances.
Chacko’s love for his ex-wife and daughter was also immense. He had been
unable to love anyone since Margaret despite the fact that she left him and married
another man. Chacko was still in love with Margaret but he was afraid of making any
misstep so he tread carefully around her as is evident when he cautiously calls Sophie
Mol his daughter.

“My daughter, Sophie,” Chacko said, and laughed a

small, nervous laugh that was worried, in case
 Margaret Kochamma said “exdaughter.” But she didn’t.
(Roy, ch.6 )

Chacko had an intense relationship with his mother as well, more so on Mammachi’s
part. She loved him more than she loved Ammu and often her relationship had
incestuous undertones despite the fact that there was nothing sexual between the
them.
Since the day Chacko saved Mammachi from Pappachi’s beatings, he became her
saviour in her eyes. All her love was then directed towards him. Like the author
describes,

The day that Chacko prevented Pappachi from beating

her (and Pappachi had murdered his chair instead),
Mammachi packed her wifely luggage and committed it
to Chacko’s care. From then onwards he became the
repository of all her womanly feelings. Her Man. Her
only Love. (Roy, 168)

A woman has expectations of love, care and protection from her husband and
Pappachi failed Mammachi on all accounts. It was Chacko’s defense of her that
directed all womanly feelings of Mammachi towards her son and she became both
mother and wife to him in regards of affection. Her love for her one and only son was
so immense that “her own grief grieved her [but] his devastated her.” (Roy, ch.1)
Mammachi’s love for Chacko had transcended from familial to romantic. She
even made excuses for his liaisons like a wife would.

She was aware of his libertine relationships with the

women in the factory, but had ceased to be hurt by them.
When Baby Kochamma brought up the subject,
Mammachi became tense and tight-lipped.
“He can’t help having a Man’s Needs,” she said primly.
(Roy, 168)

In contrast of Mammachi’s maternal love stood Ammu’s love for her twins. Unlike
Mammachi whose love was doled out as per gender, Ammu loved bother son and
daughter equally. Her love was not blind to her children’s faults and often she meted
out punishments even without fault. She was harsh as well as loving towards them.
The author captured Ammu and her twins’ relationship expertly in the lines,

Between them they decided that it would be best to

disturb her discreetly rather than wake her suddenly. So
 they opened drawers, they cleared their throats, they
whispered loudly, they hummed a little tune. They
moved shoes. And found a cupboard door that creaked.
Ammu, resting under the skin of her dream, observed
them and ached with her love for them. (Roy, )

The twins had no father figure and Ammu was both a mother and “Baba” to the them
and loved them “double” (Roy, ch.6 ).
Though the twins did not have a father figure, they found a perfect companion in
Velutha. They loved him and were adored back. He made toys for them, participated
in their fantasy plays and showered all the love and affection on the twins that a father
would have done. Although his love for them was immense it increased even more
when he started falling in love with Ammu. He could then find Ammu in every aspect
of the children. Every curve, every smile of the twins reminded Velutha of Ammu.

When he saw the children, something clenched inside

him. And he couldn’t understand it. He saw them every
day. He loved them without knowing it. But it was
different suddenly. Now. After History had slipped up
so badly. No fist had clenched inside him before.
Her children, an insane whisper whispered to him.
Her eyes, her mouth. Her teeth.
Her soft, lambent skin. (Roy, ch.10)

The heights to which Velutha’s love for the twins soared on seeing Ammu’s
impressions in them was a testament of his profound love for her. He was a Paravan
and had been treated as an untouchable all his life which is why he had a hard time
believing the changes he perceived in Ammu towards him.

He saw that when he gave her gifts they no longer

needed to be offered flat on the palms of his hands so
that she wouldn’t have to touch him. His boats and
boxes. His little windmills. He saw too that he was not
necessarily the only giver of gifts. That she had gifts to
give him, too.
This knowing slid into him cleanly, like the sharp edge
of a knife. Cold and hot at once. It only took a moment.
(Roy, ch.8)

The love between Ammu and Velutha was pure and poignant. It cost Ammu
everything “to love by night the man her children loved by day” (Roy, 193).
 Ammu was a woman deprived of male love. She felt desired and cherished by
Velutha. She was a sexually active woman and found solace and comfort in Velutha’s
arms and this fact was what felt most abhorrent to Mammachi. The love shared
between Ammu and Velutha was spiritual and transcended the bounds of “love laws”.
It was void of any discrimination and disgust. However, to Mammachi, it was all the
more revolting for it.

She [Mammachi] thought of her [Ammu] naked,

coupling in the mud with a man who was nothing but a
filthy coolie. She imagined it in vivid detail: a Paravan's
coarse black hand on her daughter's breast. His mouth
on hers. His black hips jerking between her parted legs.
The sound of their breathing. His particular Paravan
smell. Like animals, Mammachi thought and nearly
vomited. (Roy, ch13)

An expression of love between Ammu and Velutha was given the sordid light of lust
by Mammachi.
Mammachi, here, acted as the mouthpiece of society. She was not unique in her
thoughts. The idea of copulation with a Paravan was not the only issue, albeit it
worsened an already dire situation. Society, and men at large, has always been
threatened by a woman’s sexuality and Mammachi’s thoughts are a reflection of this
fact. Ammu’s sexual act with a Paravan was an issue but an even more significant
issue was the idea that a woman could have sexual desires and that too a ‘divorcee’.
The concept of a woman seeking pleasure and sexual gratification was not only alien
but also abhorrent and unacceptable to the wold. The fact that the mere idea of Ammu
and Velutha having sex, could make Mammachi nauseous, is a comment on a
woman’s sexuality as viewed by the society and the level of prejudice it held.
Similarly, the love between Rahel and Estha also was in conflict with the love
laws. The dynamics between the twins was such that they did not feel themselves to
be two separate entities. For them they were one soul in two bodies. They “thought of
themselves together as Me, and separately, individually, as We or Us” (Roy, 4-5).
Their love for each other consisted of both joy and pain. They shared both the aspects
with each other and neither was complete without sharing the other. The twins did not
need to tell each other of events that transpired in the absence of another. It was
already understood and realized by the other. This notion presented by the author
concretizes the love they shared. In the author’s words,

She has other memories too that she has no right to

have.
She remembers, for instance (though she hadn’t been
there), what the Orangedrink Lemondrink Man did to
Estha in Abhilash Talkies. She remembers the taste of
the tomato sandwiches–Estha’s sandwiches, that Estha
ate–on the Madras Mail to Madras. (Roy, 5)
 Rahel never wrote to him. There are things that you
can’t do–like writing letters to a part of yourself. To
your feet or hair. Or heart. (Roy, 156)

A love such as that shared by Rahel and Estha where one was the extension of another
cannot be contained within the bounds of the “love laws” and hence, the sexual act
between the two towards the end, is not an act of lust or incest or an act done with any
sexual ardour. Rather it is the union of the two parts of the same soul.

“Promise me you’ll always love each other,” she’d

[Ammu] say, as she drew her children to her.
“Promise,” Estha and Rahel would say. Not finding
words with which to tell her that for them there was no
Each, no Other. (Roy, )

Rahel and Estha did not hesitate in promising their mother to love each other because
they did not think they had to promise to love a part of their own body, which is what
they considered the other to be. For the twins, they were two parts of the same body.
Therefore, the sexual aspect portrayed between the twins that crossed the boundaries
which society sets for love was an act of spiritual communication and the coming
together of two parts of the same identity, the same person.
The twins came from the same womb and by joining each others bodies in such a
way, they communicated their pain to each other and re-established the connection
they shared in their mother’s womb.

CONCLUSION
Read with an educated and unopinionated mind, “The God Of Small Things” by
Arundhati Roy reveals to the reader the intense and pure nature of love and the
innocence and intimacy present in lovemaking. It is a comment on the social structure
regarding love and sexual relations and the consequences that follow on disrupting it.
In her book, Roy has given love many definitions and expressions and left it up to
the readers to reason them out. The author has bared the face of true love in the love
shared between Ammu and Velutha. It is a love that elates their heart with happiness
and makes them fly the free flight of romance. And yet, at the same time it fills their
hearts with fear and dread. A love that embodies the existence of such contrasting
emotions that pain and joy come hand in hand for them. Ammu discovered herself as
a woman and flowered in Velutha’s arms while he found acceptance and the wonder
of being desired by her in Ammu. The sexual act between them was not something
sordid or disgusting, rather it was two devotees worshiping each other and expressing
their devotion through their bodies.
The existence of selfish love is also affirmed in the description of Baby
Kochamma’s feelings towards Father Mulligan. Even the love between Mammachi
and Chacko is tainted with similar colours because it is hard to imagine that Chacko
would love his mother the same way had she treated him in the manner she treated
Ammu. And yet, Chacko is shown capable of genuine love in his unswerving love for
Margaret Kochamma and Sophie Mol.
However, it is the love between Rahel and Estha that breaks all bounds of love
and its definition. It was unlike the love between Ammu and Velutha. They were not
two people in love but in fact they two parts of the same soul where one was seeking
out the other. Their love transcended all meaning of love and gave love a new
definition. Rahel and Estha were like two sides of the train track, running in the same
direction towards total breakdown and suffering together along the way. They bore
the brunt and burns of life together and one felt the same pain the other went through.
Hence, it is not difficult to understand why the twins felt the need to reconnect
after reuniting. It is as though they wanted to imprint their impressions on each other,
just like they had done in their mother’s womb. They felt the need to reestablish the
invisible connection their souls and bodies had with each other. It was their need to
communicate without the use of words that brought on the sexual act between them
because by that time their suffering had reached a point where it rendered one
virtually mute and the other numb with unexpressed emotions.

The novel provides food for thought as to who drew the lines that were never to
be crossed and how fair was it that Velutha paid the price of loving a woman with his
life. The portrayal of Ammu is a reflection of the ordinary woman in society who has
desires of her own and who is not brave enough like Ammu to be able to follow
through on those desires. It makes one understand the cost of loving someone and all
the joys and pain it brings.
The sexual act between Rahel and Estha is an example of expression of extreme
and bottled emotions. To call it incest and term it disgusting is the result of narrow
mindedness and sheer obtuseness. Because the idea to really ponder on is actually
who in fact coined the term incest and on what criteria. It is a question of who gave
that person or the society at large the authority to decide what form of love was
acceptable and what was taboo. It is illogical and upsetting that a person can comment
on relationships that he has no knowledge and understanding of and make them
forbidden.
Arundhati Roy’s novel “The God Of Small Things” deals with complex
relationships and criteria of love. It discusses love and sexuality in fine details and
adds new dimensions to the understanding of relationships. It makes a person
reevaluate the restrictions one places on love and its expression.

REFERENCES

Roy, Arundhati. The God Of Small Things.