Postcolonial Cultural Conflict in Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things

Abstract

Arundhati Roy defines postcolonial literature as engaging with the residual effects of European colonization on the world. The God of Small Things, a novel by Roy, follows the Ipe family in Ayemenem, Karela, through two different temporal structures. The novel begins with Rahel coming back to her home; her father had returned Estha to her. The text is then told through flashbacks to the Ipe family’s experiences: births, divorces, funerals, and Ammu trying to fix a mistake at the police station. Aside from these memories, two weeks later, Estha was removed from Rahel and sent to live with his father. Baby Kochamma is pleased Estha had withdrawn into silence and she had found it satisfying that this silence was not only from Rahel but from everyone. The relationship between India and English has long been a conflicted one. Concerning the country’s literacy rate, with able to speak, read, and write in English, India has only a small percentage of the population who can are fluent with the English language. The lingering effects of the empire on the minds of the urban elite and semi-westernized middle classes has been culturally negotiated in the writings of women writers in postcolonial India, often from elite or moderate backgrounds, but still negotiating culture. Arundhati Roy, as an English writer, takes advantage of her position between cultures, and this dualistic culture of negotiating language becomes central to developing the character of protagonists and thus creates a larger meaning for The God of Small Things.