The God of Small Things and Reading Anundhati Roy Politically (480 words)

Solution responds to the following prompts:

1. “Big” and “small” things in the novel signify, among other things, the public and the private domains of life.
How do the two relate in the novel? (This is from the novel The God of Small Things)

2. Ahmad ends with a list of positive attributes of the novel.
Discuss three of them. (This is from an article by Aijaz Ahmad called "Reading Anundhati Roy Politically")

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1. “Big” and “small” things in the novel signify, among other things, the public and the private domains of life. How do the two relate in the novel? (This is from the novel The God of Small Things)

The “Big” and “Small” relate to the concept of public and private domains of life in the following ways. The “Big” public domain is the social stratification of society caused by the caste system in India. The caste system is a big deal because it affects the lives of all the characters in the novel. At the level of the “Big” social life is in the public domain, and it shapes who can be seen in public and with whom; for example, consider the effects the caste system has on the life of Velutha. In the public, he is not allowed to interact with people outside of his caste, but at the level of “Small” things, his life is very much intimately intertwined with Estha and Rahel, for they are his friends....