Background of the Study

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study

After its publication in 1997, The God of Small Things gained global attention and put Arundhati Roy into the circle of world-class writers. The book received accolades for its richness and brilliance. Roy was noted especially for her bravery in presenting sensitive issues such as sexuality and social class discrimination. Moreover she served those issues in vivid descriptions of horrible traumatic scenes from children point of view. However the book also received many criticisms. Besides its verbose style of writing, Roy’s unfolding India’s cultural and social dark sides also enraged many readers Glaister, The Guardian. The God of Small Things focuses on the life of an honored family in a small village called Ayemenem in Kerala, India. The family, namely the Ipe family, is known as a religious Syrian Christian family. They are considered as charitable people who feed the poor of the lower caste. They are also respected as the owners of a successful pickle company that absorbs labour force from the neighboring area. The Ipe family is seen as a family of meritorious service for the village. However the Ipe family has a rebellious daughter who frequently violates the moral restrictions. The daughter, Ammu Ipe, marries a Hindu man without the family’s consent. Things get worse when they divorce several years afterwards. Ammu Ipe has to come back to her parents’ house in Ayemenem with two naughty kids and a stigma as a young divorcee. Some years afterwards, Ammu is caught in a love affair with Velutha, a labour from the lowest caste in the society. Seen from this point of view, Ammu can be regarded as a harlot as well as the black sheep in a big respected family. But is this perception of Ammu true? While the conflict of the whole novel focuses on her caste-breaking love affair that produces an earthquake to the ground- firm family reputation, Ammu’s desire as an individual is never questioned by her family. She is always seen as a member of the family who is responsible to prolong the family’s good reputation, regardless of her personal circumstances. Thus, Ammu’s attempts to reach her desire are always regarded as rebellion. Her attempt to escape a drunkard husband and her true love to a hard-labour man is seen far more disgusting than the domestic violence done by her father to her mother or than her brother’s affair with women labours from the family’s pickle factory. Ammu’s difficult situation is the result of the collision between her individual biological forces with the set of restrictions that come with the identity categories she inherits from the family. In this thesis, Ammu’s position regarding her identity is investigated. For her love to her children and to Velutha, Ammu put her identity; as a woman, as a member of a privileged caste, and as a respected Syrian Christian; at stake. Does Ammu really commit a fatal transgression? Or is Ammu the one whose human rights have been transgressed by the system and order in the society, the ideology that is naively named Love Law in the novel? Regarding her work, Arundhati Roy stated that that the core point of the novel is about biology and transgression Tickell 9. In this thesis, Ammu’s biology is seen as her capability in having personal desires, which then represents her whole existence as a human being with biological and psychological demands. How she tries to reach the objects of her desire under the controlling Love Law results transgression. This thesis attempts to elaborate the identity Ammu inherits from the kinship she has with the Ipe family, and the Love Law she is bound to as the consequence of being in those identity categories. The Love Law is described as “…the law that lay down who should be loved, and how. And how much.” p. 33 This thesis discusses how the Love Law controls the relationship between individuals in the society according to the identity categories they carry, the instruments of the Law, and the consequence of the transgressors.

B. Definition of Terms 1. Love Law and Ideological State Apparatuses