God of Small Things Quotes Essay

Extended metaphor Perhaps Ammu, Estha and she were the worst transgressors. scarcely it wasnt just them. They all broke the rules. They all crossed into interdict territory. They all crossed into forbidden territory. They all tampered with the laws that lay set down who should be loved and how. And how much. The laws that make grandm differents grandmformer(a)s, uncles uncles, mothers mothers, cousins cousins, jam jam, and jelly jelly.Rahel and Estha live in a society with very rigid class lines.Commonly held view that a married daughter had no position in her pargonnts home. As for a divorced daughter according to muck up Kochamma, she had no position anywhere at all. And for a divorced daughter from a love marriage, well, words could not describe Baby Kochammas malicious gossipChacko t antiquated the twins that, though he abhord to admit it, they were all Anglophiles. They were a family of Anglophiles. Pointed in the wrong direction, trapped outside their own history and un able(p) to retrace their steps because their footprints had been brush awayThe concept of Anglophilia is a humongous one in this book, from the way everyone fawns over Sophie Mol, to Chackos cocky emplacement most his Oxford degree, to the whole familys obsession with The Sound of Music. But its pretty clear that the thing they love also holds them down. When Chacko orders their footprints have been swept away, he is making a reference to the way members of the Untouchable circle have to sweep away their footprints so that people of higher classes fathert pollute themselves by walking in them. Even though by Indian standards their family is of a relatively high social status, they are of a small(a) social status in relation to the British.Pappachi would not allow Paravans into the house. Nobody would. They were not allowed to touch anything that Touchables touched. Caste Hindus and Caste Christians. Mammachi told Estha and Rahel that she could rally a time, in her girlhood, w hen Paravans were expected to crawl backwards with a broom, brush away their footprints so that Brahmins or Syrian Christians would not defile themselves by accidentally stepping into a Paravans footprint. In Mammachis time, Paravans, like other Untouchables, were not allowed to walk on public roads, not allowed to cover their upper berth bodies, not allowed to carry umbrellas. They had to put their hands over their mouths when they spoke, to divert their foul breath away from those whom they addressed. (2.270) This quote speaks volumes about the experience of the Untouchables, and it helps us think the kinds of deeply ingrained attitudes that drive so much of the prejudice and hate we take hold of in the novel.Then Baby Kochamma shuddered her schoolgirl shudder. That was when she said How could she stand the smell? harbort you noticed? They have a particular smell, these Paravans. (13.129) Like Mammachi, Baby Kochamma has a heap of prejudices against other social classes, and these prejudices run deep. By derogative Velutha out loud and saying that his smell must have been intolerable, she tries to battle array just how high class she is.Mammachis rage at the old one-eyed Paravan standing in the rain, drunk, dribbling and covered in fuck up was re-directed into a cold contempt for her daughter and what she had done. She apprehension of her naked, coupling in the mud with a man who was nothing but a cheating(a) coolie. She imagined it in vivid detail a Paravans coarse contraband hand on her daughters breast. His mouth on hers. His bleak hips jerking between her parted legs. The sound of their breathing. His particular Paravan smell. Like animals, Mammachi thought and nearly vomited. (13.131) Again, we see just how deeply Mammachis prejudices run. She doesnt see Ammu and Veluthas relationship as love between two people, as it competency look to us. As far as she is concerned, it is as low as two animals going at it in the mud. The idea of a coolie (lower-class laborer) having sex with her daughter is so repulsive to Mammachi that it almost makes her puke.Still, to say that it all began when Sophie Mol came to Ayemenem is only one way of looking at it.Equally, it could be argued that it genuinely began thousands of years ago. Long before the Marxists came. Before the British took Malabar, before the Dutch Ascendancy, before Vasco da Gama arrived, before the Zamorins success of Calicut. Before three purple-robed Syrian bishops murdered by the Portuguese were establish floating in the sea, with coiled sea serpents riding on their chests and oysters create from raw stuff in their tangled beards. It could be argued that it began long before Christianity arrived in a boat and seeped into Kerala like tea from a bag.That it really began in the age when the Love Laws were made. The laws that lay down who should be loved, and how. And how much. (1.207-210) This quote is full of what might seem like obscure references, but what its basically doing is push button us to think about what caused everything to fall apart for Estha and Rahel. Did everything come crashing down because Sophie Mol came to Ayemenem? Or do the events of the novel happen as a result of decisions, actions, and rules that were made thousands of years before any of our characters were even innate(p)? Do things happen for a reason, because theyre part of this huge plan, or do they just happen because the world is fickle like that?Estha knew that if Ammu ensnare out about what he had done with the Orangedrink Lemondrink Man, shed love him little as well. Very much less. He felt the shaming churning lift turning sickness in his stomach. (4.245) We can be pretty confident(predicate) that if Ammu ever found out that Estha was molested, she wouldnt be upset with him. Shed be unbelievably angry at the Orangedrink Lemondrink Man, but she would never actually blame Estha. Yet, in Esthas mind, what happened to him is his fault, and he carries it around as his put downAmmu touched her daughter gently. On her shoulder. And her touch meant Shhhh.Rahel looked around her and saw she was in a Play. But she had only a small part.She was just the landscape. A flower perhaps. Or a tree.A face in the crowd. A Townspeople. (8.48-50)This moment turns the way Rahel understands her role at home upside-down. All of a sudden, things are totally different than they usually are. Rahels realization that theyre in a play shows us that everyone here is playing a part to some extent they arent world themselves. Sophie Mols arrival topples over Rahels reality she goes from being one of the leads to being the nobody in the background.Now, all these years later, Rahel has a memory of wake up one night giggling at Esthas funny dream.She has other memories too that she has no right to have.She remembers, for instance (though she hadnt been there), what the Orangedrink Lemondrink Man did to Estha in Abhilash Talkies. She remembers the taste of th e tomato sandwiches Esthas sandwiches, that Estha ate on the Madras Mail to Madras. (1.10-12) Rahels ability to remember things that happened to Estha and not her tells us a lot about their joint identity and how profoundly she understands him.