scholarly journals Resistance and Identity in The God of Small Things Written by Arundhati Roy

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 70-75
Author(s):  
Saman A. Dizayi
Keyword(s):  
The Novel ◽  
Colonial Era ◽  
Arundhati Roy ◽  
Self Identity ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Complex Concept ◽  
Colonial Legacy ◽  
New Community ◽  
Small Things ◽  
Identity Suppression

This paper presents an analysis of the novel "The God of the Small Things" written by Arundhati Roy. The primary purpose of this paper is to evaluate the idea of resistance and identity that have been described in the novel by the novelist. It will be demonstrated in this novel that how the resistance against the traditions and norms of post-colonial era is related to the self-realisation. There are different kinds of resistance that have been depicted in the novel at various circumstances. In Postcolonial context identity is a complex concept to be located in just a simple definition or to be investigated throughout a single theoretical approach.  Resistance as a concept linked to the identity question. The Novel handles this notion and throughout its plot, besides the burden that is left from the colonial legacy, gender identity comes to the surface. Though women resistance appears as a reaction with identity suppression; yet it is a reflection of self-identification of gender inequality under patriarchal traditions inherited from long dominant masculine power. This paper elaborates on each type of resistance and activism that arises against the feudal and patriarchal forces structured by the economic and politically influential people in the new community as a sample in India after postcolonialism. Consequently, one of the points that the research ends with is that the act of resistance validates the pursuit for self-identity, which is an attempt to renown, reclaim and rename the world.

scholarly journals Intermingling of History and Politics in The God of Small Things

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 138
Author(s):  
Md. Abdul Momen Sarker ◽  
Md. Mominur Rahman
Keyword(s):  
The Political ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Indian Culture ◽  
Arundhati Roy ◽  
Political Condition ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
Democratic Election ◽  
Small Things ◽  
First Time

Suzanna Arundhati Roy is a post-modern sub-continental writer famous for her first novel The God of Small Things. This novel tells us the story of Ammu who is the mother of Rahel and Estha. Through the story of Ammu, the novel depicts the socio-political condition of Kerala from the late 1960s and early 1990s. The novel is about Indian culture and Hinduism is the main religion of India. One of the protagonists of this novel, Velutha, is from a low-caste community representing the dalit caste. Apart from those, between the late 1960s and early 1990s, a lot of movements took place in the history of Kerala. The Naxalites Movement is imperative amid them. Kerala is the place where communism was established for the first time in the history of the world through democratic election. Some vital issues of feminism have been brought into focus through the portrayal of the character, Ammu. In a word, this paper tends to show how Arundhati Roy has successfully manifested the multifarious as well as simultaneous influences of politics in the context of history and how those affected the lives of the marginalized. Overall, it would minutely show how historical incidents and political ups and downs go hand in hand during the political upheavals of a state.

scholarly journals Sensibility of the Novel “The God of Small Things” Personifies Realities where Meaning Plays the Protagonist

2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 275
Author(s):  
Imam Alam Khan
Keyword(s):  
Meaning Of Life ◽  
Research Paper ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Arundhati Roy ◽  
Figurative Meaning ◽  
The Social ◽  
Pass Through ◽  
Small Things ◽  
Local Languages

<p><em>The novel, “The God of Small Things”, is a Booker Prize winner fiction. It is obviously a thought-provoking novel with an apparent viewpoint. It is</em><em> </em><em>a novel by Arundhati Roy, an Indian</em><em> </em><em>writer. The novel is a story of stories where conflicting ideas of various subjects play vital roles. The subjects appear to be really striking. The style is marvelous. The plot construction is excellent, and the characterization is superb. Language is unique. It’s a worldwide acclaimed novel. The novel speaks on subjects like love, madness, joy, cast-discrimination, women’s exploitation and most importantly the conflict between the Laltain (lantern), the big people, and Mombatti (candles), the small people, which represent the class antagonism. All these antagonisms transform into a meaning. The novelist projects so many meanings together and tries to weave a story on Ammu, the protagonist of the novel. She has created a world where the readers feel the conflict between the social antagonisms and emotional meanings.</em><em> </em><em>The novelist, Arundhati</em><em> </em><em>Roy, has tried her best to evolve a literal as well as a figurative meaning of emotions. The readers feel spellbound emotions when they start reading the novel and pass through the strong throng until they finish the novel. The novelist succeeds in making her readers feel a trance. They emotionally find themselves in a pang of emotions which remains until the end of the novel. Though the novel is full of many obscurities where the readers fail to understand the obscure images and local languages in the novel, yet they feel satisfaction at the end as it discusses sensibility of the society.</em><em> </em><em>The reality apparently transforms itself into a crystal clear meaning of life which is very vital to the novelist as well as to the readers. The meaning of life, reality, appears like a protagonist. Hence, the novel under research is under scrutiny about the idea of reality appearing like protagonist.</em><em> </em><em>It is undoubtedly a very successful novel. Readers have liked it very much. The critics have found it interesting. It has been the best seller, too. Thus, this research is trying to find out the answer of the question, Is</em><em> </em><em>the novel really successful in arousing a sensibility? Is the meaning of life appears life-like? Does it personify reality of life? Consequently, this research paper has tried to find out the answers for the posted queries. </em><em>Moreover</em><em>, the obvious answer is, yes it does. It personifies the realities of the tragedies of the protagonists: Ammu and Velutha.</em></p>

scholarly journals “Madwoman in the Post-Colonial Era” A Study of the Female Voice in Jean Rhys’ Wide Sargasso Sea

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (7) ◽  
pp. 236
Author(s):  
Nushrat Azam
Keyword(s):  
Jean Rhys ◽  
Female Voice ◽  
Female Character ◽  
Sargasso Sea ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Colonial Era ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Written Text ◽  
Wide Sargasso Sea ◽  
Voice And Silence

This paper seeks to analyze the mediums and effects of voice and silence in the life of a female character of the re-written post-colonial text Jean Rhys’ Wide Sargasso Sea. The analysis shows how a re-written text can give a new meaning to a character and story of a novel, where the character of Antoinette tells the untold story of Bertha in Jane Eyre. The method of investigation for this research is analytical and descriptive; the research was completed by analyzing the events, actions and the interactions of the female character, Antoinette with the other major characters in the novel in order to identify how the character of Antoinette was portrayed throughout the novel. It is understood through the study of the text, that the post-colonial novel gave the female voice much more importance than its previous counterpart. This represents the early post-colonial times during which women were starting to gain liberation but had still not completely moved on from the notions of patriarchal societies that they had grown up in.

Cannibalism and cultural manipulation: How Morier is received in the Persian literary canon

Human Affairs ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 141-159
Author(s):  
Moslem Fatollahi
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Values ◽  
Literary Translation ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Literary Canon ◽  
Persian Literature ◽  
Colonial Era ◽  
Western Literature ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Post Colonialism ◽  
Persian Translation

Abstract Post-colonialism and orientalism have inspired literary scholars to study various aspects of literature and literary translation in the post-colonial era. One of the implications of post-colonialism for literature as a discipline is the idea of cannibalism and cultural manipulation. This corpus-based study aims to analyze the notions of “cultural manipulation” or “cannibalism” in the Persian translation of Haji Baba by Mirza Habib Isfahani, to explore the translator’s strategy, as an intercultural mediator, in modulating the source novel’s colonial stance and adapting it to the religious, literary and cultural tastes of the Iranians. Our findings reveal that two main techniques—of omission and euphemism—have been applied in rendering the novel into Persian. Using these techniques, the translator has attempted to challenge the imperial stance of the main writer and come up with a version of the source novel which is much less insulting to Iranians’ cultural values. That is why this translation has been widely received as a literary masterpiece in Persian literature. One implication is that it might be claimed that cannibalism and cultural manipulation can be used to explain the trend of manipulating western literature in countries which have never been colonized, but that have suffered from the colonial stance of colonial writers.

scholarly journals Masterji’s Resistance in Aravind Adiga’s Last Man in Tower: An Embodiment of the Struggle of the Marginalized Class

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 84-93
Author(s):  
Badiuzzaman Shaikh
Keyword(s):  
Lower Class ◽  
Upper Class ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Contemporary Society ◽  
Colonial Era ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Entire Country ◽  
Last Man ◽  
The Rich

Aravind Adiga’s Last Man in Tower, published in 2011, is a trenchant critique on the effects of globalization, urbanization, privatization and capitalism in the post-colonial era in India. All these changes in the contemporary society have effectively bifurcated the entire country into two groups—the rich and the poor, the centre and the margin, the privileged upper class and the underprivileged lower class. In the novel Dharmen Shah, a real estate mogul represents the first group of people who are socio-politically and economically highly influential, whereas Yogesh A. Murthy, aka Masterji, is the embodiment of the marginalized class that are constantly dominated and exploited by the former group. My present paper aims to analyse in detail how far Masterji is able to resist the scabrous sufferings unleashed by the rich realtor Dharmen Shah, and how far Masterji’s resistance becomes an incarnation of the resilience of marginalized people in the contemporary society.

Feministic Analysis of Arundhati Roy's Postmodern Indian Fiction: The God of Small Things

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 159-164
Author(s):  
A. Hariharasudan ◽  
S. Robert Gnanamony
Keyword(s):  
Gender Bias ◽  
Jel Classification ◽  
Social Structures ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Female Characters ◽  
Arundhati Roy ◽  
Generation Family ◽  
Paper Review ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Small Things

Objective - The aim of the research is to identify the feminist strains in the postmodern Indian Fiction The God of Small Things (TGST). The researcher has planned to investigate the text systematically for seeking feministic values. Methodology/Technique - The study reviews previous literature. Findings - Gender bias and feminism are relevant themes explored by postmodernists. Arundhati Roy portrays the predicament of women through her female characters belonging to three generations in this novel. In the novel, a sense of antagonism and division also infuse the difference senses of identity among the different generation of women. It also generates a line of the clash between the older and the younger generation. Family and political customs play a key role in disadvantaging women. Social constrains are so built up as to sanctify the persecution of women. This is because, in most of the civilizations, social structures are basically patriarchal. Arundhati's novel challenges this position, though her avowed feminist stance. Novelty - Women across the globe worldwide, nationwide, regionally and may be capable of holding the influential note of feminism and being capable of deconstructing a constructive implication of their own femaleness and womanhood after reading this paper. Type of Paper: Review Keywords: Feminism; Gender Bias; Patriarchal; Postmodernism; Downtrodden. JEL Classification: B54, H83.

scholarly journals Social, Historical and Psychological Realism in Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (5) ◽  
pp. 70
Author(s):  
Dr. Ram Janam
Keyword(s):  
Indian Society ◽  
Daily Routine ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Arundhati Roy ◽  
Psychological Realism ◽  
Realistic Picture ◽  
Inferiority Complex ◽  
Almost All ◽  
Small Things

The God of Small Things depicts realistic picture of the current issues of the typical Indian society. Arundhati Roy has tried her best to cover almost all the details of social and historical setting so that the readers may be able to acquaint with the pattern of living, daily routine, rites, customs, rituals and habits. The book explores how the small things affect people's behaviour and their lives. During that time in India, class was a major issue and still is in many parts of India. Inferiority complex is clearly visible in the interactions between Untouchables and Touchables in Ayemenem. The novel also shows that The Untouchables were considered polluted beings. Betrayal is also a constant theme in this story. Love, ideals, and confidence are all forsaken, consciously and unconsciously, innocently and maliciously, and these deceptions affect all of the characters deeply.

scholarly journals “You are the victims, not the perpetrators”: Narrating Violence and Trauma in Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things

2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 244-257
Author(s):  
Anja Mrak
Keyword(s):  
Traumatic Event ◽  
Narrative Structure ◽  
Caste System ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Trauma Narrative ◽  
Arundhati Roy ◽  
Traumatic Memories ◽  
Common Goals ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Small Things

In her 1997 novel The God of Small Things, Arundhati Roy confronts the problem of caste violence, inextricably bound up with other practices of social domination such as patriarchy, racism, colonialism and neocolonialism, through a complex narrative structure. The conventional story about a tragic love between a woman from a higher caste and a member of the untouchables skilfully evades cliché patterns by employing eccentric focalisers, as we experience most of the story through the lenses of multiple-person narrators, twin brother and sister, Rahel and Estha, magical realism, and a disjointed narrative full of prolepses and analepses which subtly renders traumatic memories. The novel is structured as a prototypical trauma narrative and stages a confrontation with an unresolved traumatic event from which Rahel and Estha have been recovering since childhood. Roy deftly transposes the dualism of caste purity and impurity onto the narrative structure. The narrative is caught within a duality (symbolised already by the twins) and a perpetual repetition which represents not only the eternal return of trauma but also the constant tension which derives from the hegemony of the caste system and the violence it produces. The biopolitics of social mechanisms and structures which disciplines the individual’s body, controls his actions, rectifies and sanctions transgressions is at the heart of the novel. It raises the individual into obedience and restraint with the help of state institutions, and regulates them into an inconspicuous collective body in the name of security, unity and higher common goals. Socio-political mechanisms are legitimised and reaffirmed through violence as well, which is not understood as such, but rather as a necessary “measure” and “duty” to uphold the law.

scholarly journals Federally administered tribal areas: British colonial legacy in postcolonial age

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 196-199
Author(s):  
Oleg Sergeevich Tselera
Keyword(s):  
British India ◽  
Colonial Era ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Colonial Legacy ◽  
The Usa ◽  
British Colonial ◽  
Administrative Experience ◽  
Tribal Areas ◽  
The Impact

The following paper analyzes the role of administrative experience of the British Empire on Northwest boundary of the British India in 19 - the first half of the 20th centuries in Pakistan political policy choice concerning the federally administered tribal areas in the second half of 20 - the beginning of the 21st centuries. At the same time special attention is paid to the British colonial practices which saved the value during a post-colonial era in the tribes zone. The author also pays attention to the role of colonial experience in asymmetrical conflict settlement with the USA involvement in Afghanistan territory as well as to features of interaction of Washington and Islamabad in the tribes zone. The author concludes about perspectives of colonial knowledge in federally administered tribal areas administration during a post-colonial era taking into account historical experience of the British colonial administration on Northwest boundary of British India during the age of empires. The paper also reveals the impact of postcolonial practices on the history of modern Pakistan and on the choice of its way to reform the FATA (Federally Administered Tribal Areas), as well as the role of other regional players in the reform of the FATA.

scholarly journals The Aesthetics of Healing in the Sacredness of the African American Female’s Bible: Zora Neale Hurston’s Moses, Man of the Mountain

2016 ◽  
pp. 69
Author(s):  
Vicent Cucarella-Ramon
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Black Women ◽  
Social Protest ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Colonial Era ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Protest Literature ◽  
Creative Agency ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Sacred Story

Zora Neale Hurston’s Moses, Man of the Mountain (1939) stands in the tradition of African American use of the biblical musings that aims to relativize and yet uphold a new version of the sacred story under the gaze of a black woman that manipulates and admonishes the characters of the gospel to offer a feminist side of the Bible. The novel discloses Hurston’s mastering of the aesthetics that black folklore infused to the African American cultural experience and her accommodation to bring to the fore the needed voice of black women. Rejecting the role of religion as a reductive mode of social protest, the novel extends its jeremiadic ethos and evolves into a black feminist manifesto in which a world without women equates disruption and instability. Hurston showcases the importance of an inclusive and ethic sacred femininity to reclaim a new type of womanhood both socially and aesthetically. Three decades before the post-colonial era, Hurston’s bold representation of the sacred femininity recasts the jeremiad tradition to pin down notions of humanitarianism, social justice and the recognition of politics of art. All in all, in an era of a manly social protest literature Hurston opts for portraying the folkloric aesthetics of spirituality as creative agency simply to acknowledge the leadership of the sacred femininity that black women could remodel into art.

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