Hannali Joyce Popoca Fehr
9 Mar 2009
A Unique Language Reveals the Secrets Behind Roy’s Small Things
The lives of two-egg twins, Estha who is loved and Rahel who is loved a little less, are shaped by small things that happen during their childhood in Kerala, India. Such things are unfortunate and dramatic. They surround the twins’ family and fall apart in the first pages of the novel: the accidental death of the twins’ half-English cousin, Sophie Mol (who was loved from the beginning), and the less accidental death of Velutha (a paravan of the untouchable cast loved by the twins and their mother Ammu). Tragedy revolves around those events prompting the separation of the soul-connected twins, and the passing of their divorced mother at the age of 31. Arundhati Roy’s story shows that “things can change in a day”[...]
