The God of Small Things

"He left his voice behind. On the station platform Rahel doubled over and screamed and screamed. The train pulled out. The light pulled in" (309).

• This passage marks the beginning Rahel and Estha's damaged, but not ruined, relationship. Estha loses his will to speak, and like Adah from the Poisonwood Bible, he withdraws himself from society. The separation of the twins is so tramatic that it takes a sexual healing for them to ease their guilt and become one again.

"The watch they all forgot. It stayed behind in the History House. In the back verandah. A faulty record of time. Ten to two" (295).

• I think this is significant because the truth about Velutha's final beating is never revealed. The only people to witness the beating were the twins and the police officers, and none of them released the truth to anyone. Ammu tries to tell the police the truth, but the Inspector Mathew doesn't listen to her and Velutha's all ready dead. However, the fact that the watch is left behind symbolizes how the History House also knows the truth. I think this is why the History House got its name. Ammu and Velutha broke the Love Laws there, which scarred Ammu's entire family for life, and then, Velutha was beaten to his eventual death there, which worsened Ammu and the twins' pain. Overall, a simple relationship at the History House scarred Estha and Rahel's childhood and connection.

• “Enough? Enough. They stepped away from him. Craftsmen assessing their work. Seeking aesthetic distance." (294)
The beating of Velutha takes place in a very systematic fashion. The policemen do it as if it is a routine thing, without a thought that they are hurting a person. Velutha is portrayed as something completely worthless in this scene. The policemen do not even punch him because of Velutha's untouchable status, and instead kick him continuously as if he is not even human.

• “It isn’t him,” Rahel whispered to Estha. “I can tell. It’s his twin brother. Urumban. From Kochi.”
Unwilling to seek refuge in fiction, Estha said nothing. (295)
At this point in the novel the difference between Rahel's and Estha's perceptions of the world become evidently different. Rahel can not face the truth in things and instead convinces herself that the bad things in her life aren't really happening. We see this in the passage refereced above in that Rahel refuses to acknowledge that it is her beloved Velutha that was beaten.
Estha on the other hand perceives the unfortunate events in his life realistically. He remains silent rather than trying to convince himself of a better scenario.

• “Little Elivis the Pelvis with a spoiled, special outing puff. And beige and pointy shoes. He left his voice behind.” (309)
When Ammu Leaves the twins, we see that the hope that Estha had of being with his mother vanishes, and he faces the reality that she will most likely never come back. With this realization he “left his voice behind”.

• “On the station platform Rahel doubled over and screamed and screamed.” (309)
The strong bond between Ammu and the twins has been emphasized throughout the novel. Here when Ammu leaves the twin and leaves them heartbroken, we see that Rahel doubles over and screams as if their bond is being physically broken as the train takes Ammu away.

“Since the characters in the God of Small Things failed at their marriages, I thought that the failure of marriage foreshadowed their miserable story ending.

For example, Chacko who got divorced from Margaret failed to gain his independency. His failure of marriage proved that Chacko is not able to get away from Mammachi. Also, Ammu who married to the guy who had turned as alcoholic and vioent decide to leave him and went back to the Ayemenem. Ammu seemed to have her own life after she left her husband, unlike Chacko. However, she was forced by the society in some way. Ammu seemed to find her real love, Velutha who was abandoned by the society. Since the society decided to kill him, Ammu got ill and died later. She had no hope and no dream after Velutha died.

Therefore, I thought that Roy intened to set up the failure of marriages in the begining of the book so that he can foreshadow the storyline”

The failure of Ammu's marriage has a very important effect on the relationship between Ammu and the twins. She is the most important thing in the twins lives, and they see her as both a mother and a father. They strive to feel loved by her, and winning her love seems to be their goal in their childhood. We later see how strong their bond is when Ammu leaves the twins to search for a job. The breaking of their bond in the train station leaves Estha speechless and Rahel very hurt.

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Originally Posted by Gladys

You're hard on Estha, a mere child, understandably scared and damaged. And where's the adult supervision when Sophie drowns?

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Right, my apologies, I should have elaborated a bit more; I don't think Estha is the one to blame at all.
The problem stems from the Orangedrink Lemondrink man, "thanks to what [he] did to Estha, their Home away from Home was already equipped" (276). Estha needed a place to go to feel safe from the threat of the OD LD man.

Or from Ammu's partitioning of love, because "[Estha] knew that if Ammu found out about what he had done with the Orangedrink Lemondrink man, she'd love him less as well. Very much less" (108). He feels he cannot even turn to his own mother to confide this terrible, painful secret, so he keeps to himself, and builds a place where he can do so.

We could even point fingers at the social system in India; had the love between Ammu and Velutha not been forbidden, Ammu would not have had the need to yell at the twins, calling them "the millstones round [her] neck" and screaming at them to "just go away and leave [her] alone" (240), which they both took to heart.

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Originally Posted by rachmaninoff

Overall, a simple relationship at the History House scarred Estha and Rahel's childhood and connection.

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In this culture of cruelty and brokenness - failed loves and marriages, a man with only his moths, paedophilia, racial and caste prejudice, political and legal corruption - Estha and Rahel were heading downhill well before the human sacrifice of Velutha.