Chacko told the twins that though they hated to admit it, they were all Anglophiles. They were a family of Anglophiles.
(Roy 1996: 52)
In establishing the two-egg twins Rahel and Esthapen (Estha) as main characters in her 1996 masterpiece “The God of Small Things”, Arundhati Roy has set up postcolonial prototypes in the area of conflict between British and Indian identity and culture. The body of the story focuses on the childhood of the twins, playing in the late 1960s; they are born to an upper middle class family in Kerala, South-Western India, and grow up fatherless.
Their family to a large extent cultivates a British attitude – mainly due to grandfather Pappachi alias John Ipe, an Entomologist and former government official under the British colonial administration, his sister Baby Kochamma, and his son Chacko, who used to be an Oxford Rhodes Scholar. Until his death in the first part of the book, John Ipe drives a big Plymouth, he wears stiff English suits and it is inconceivable to him that any Englishman could misbehave; Chacko assumes the air of a British intellectual, he almost exclusively speaks English and often indulges in citing from English and American classics. The family has a high reputation in their home town Ayemenem, most members of the family profit from their Anglophile air in one way or other. The rest of the family more or less adapts to their way of life or finds a way to deal with the situation.
The plot of the novel is balanced along cultural and social areas of friction within the Indian society, such as caste, class, religion, culture, clout, customs and traditions. It is one of the main tasks for the characters in the novel to find their place in this complex social structure. Though the twins are educated in English, their situation is particularly difficult and they receive some degree of alienation also from within the family. Of course, the twins mostly do not articulate these sorts of feelings and assessments explicitly; it has to be considered that they are children of the age of seven - but they are given a much more subtle means of communication by the author: language. Not the content of their sentences, but the way they apply the English language in various situations. It conveys a lot about how they assess their position and how they engage themselves in certain situations the novel fronts.
Table of Contents
1. General Introduction
1.1 Introduction and problem identification
1.2 Approach of this term paper
2. English and other languages in India
2.1 General facts and figures
2.2 Indians in blood, English in taste and intellect
2.3 Enmeshment between religion and language
2.4 English as social indicator
3. Constellation in Roy: The God of Small Things
3.1 Social position and arrangement of the family
3.2 Anglophile Tradition
4. The twins and their communications system
4.1 Rahel and Estha – two egg misfits
4.2 Their way of using English
4.2.1 English as everyday language
4.2.2 English as a means of joking
4.2.3 language as a means of rebellion
5. Conclusion
6. Works Cited
Research Objectives and Themes
The academic paper investigates how the twin protagonists, Rahel and Estha, in Arundhati Roy’s novel "The God of Small Things" utilize the English language as a multifaceted communication system within a postcolonial Indian context. It specifically explores how this linguistic usage serves as a tool for navigation, social positioning, and symbolic rebellion against the constraints imposed by their family's Anglophile traditions and the broader colonial legacy.
- The intersection of postcolonial identity and language usage in India.
- The sociolinguistic influence of the family's Anglophile tradition.
- Language as a mechanism for both alienation and empowerment.
- Playful linguistic subversion as a form of rebellion against injustice.
- The broader cultural implications of English as an imposed social indicator.
Excerpt from the Book
4.2.3 language as a means of rebellion
The red sign on the red and white arm said STOP in white.
“POTS,” Rahel said.
A yellow hoarding said BE INDIAN, BUY INDIAN in red.
“NAIDIN YUB, NAIDNI BE, “Estha said (Roy 1997: 58).
Reading English backwards is how the twins articulate protest against injustice. It is interesting that Roy in this scene chose the sentence “Be Indian, buy Indian” – a sentence that wants to appeal to a national feeling but is written in a foreign language. This behaviour again gives room for a postcolonial approach – rebellion against the imposition of an alien language and culture, but also against slavish obedience from within the Indian population to the (former) occupants. This behaviour of the twins is, as in most of times, restrained by the putting forward of “moral arguments” by so-called authorities and a subsequent crackdown on the activities. “They were made to write “In future we will not read backwards”…. A hundred times. Forwards”. The Australian missionary friend of Baby Kochamma, Miss Mitten, complained to her “about their reading backwards. She told Baby Kochamma that she had seen Satan in their eyes. nataS in their seye” (Roy 1997: 60).
This motif of rebellion against injustice does not only appear in a postcolonial context, but also in situations where Rahel and Estha feel that they and their friends are immediately endangered. As in the chapter “Saving Ammu”, they express protest against police arbitrariness by reading backwards the presumable features of the police, which are attached on the wall. Again English and not Malayalam is the language that is used by the oppressors, the potential danger.
The first letters of these features combined read the word “POLICE” – Politeness, Obedience, Loyalty, Courtesy, Efficiency.
Summary of Chapters
1. General Introduction: This chapter defines the core problem of the twins' identity formation and outlines the methodology for analyzing their unique communications system.
2. English and other languages in India: It provides a sociolinguistic overview of India, highlighting the complex role of English in postcolonial society and its historical entrenchment.
3. Constellation in Roy: The God of Small Things: This section examines the conservative, patriarchal family structure and their deep-seated Anglophile tradition as the primary context for the twins.
4. The twins and their communications system: The main analytical part details how Rahel and Estha use English as an everyday tool, a source of humor, and a disruptive instrument of protest.
5. Conclusion: The conclusion synthesizes the findings, arguing that language and identity are inextricably linked for the characters within the novel's postcolonial landscape.
6. Works Cited: Lists the academic sources used to support the research.
Keywords
Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things, postcolonial literature, linguistic identity, Anglophile, English in India, sociolinguistics, rebellion, Rahel and Estha, cultural alienation, Indian identity, language usage, communication systems.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the primary subject of this academic paper?
The paper examines the way the twins, Rahel and Estha, in Arundhati Roy’s novel communicate using the English language and how this reflects their position in a postcolonial Indian setting.
What are the main thematic fields discussed?
The core themes include the intersection of postcolonial identity, the influence of colonial history on language, familial expectations, and the use of language as a tool for social navigation and rebellion.
What is the central research objective?
The goal is to analyze how the twins' specific use of the English language functions as a symbolic system that reveals their inner struggle with identity and their resistance against social constraints.
Which scientific methods are applied?
The study uses a qualitative, analytical approach based on postcolonial literary theory, incorporating sociolinguistic perspectives on the status of English in India to interpret textual evidence from the novel.
What topics are covered in the main section?
The main section covers the linguistic diversity of India, the Anglophile traditions of the family, and the specific functions of the twins' communication, such as everyday usage, joking, and protest.
Which keywords best characterize this work?
Keywords include postcolonial identity, Anglophilia, Indian literature, sociolinguistics, linguistic subversion, and the specific analysis of Roy's protagonists.
How does the "Anglophile tradition" affect the family in the novel?
It creates a cultural hierarchy where English is associated with intellect and social status, leading to a sense of alienation for the twins, who are forced to adopt this foreign language as their primary means of expression.
Why do the twins read words backwards in the novel?
Reading backwards is a form of symbolic rebellion and subversion against the authority of the English language and the injustices they perceive, allowing them to mock the symbols of power that surround them.
- Quote paper
- Lars Dittmer (Author), 2005, The communications system of the twins in Arundhati Roy's "The God of small things": How they apply the English language in a postcolonial Indian setting, Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/49289
