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Arundhati Roy Gender Roles

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Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things (Period :1960s)
The second phase (1947-1980s) witnessed the advent of modernism and the greater participation of the State and other educational agencies in the field of education. Though women, reaped the fruits of education to a certain extent, the gender bias stood against their’s employment and empowerment, and the ‘domestic mystique’ taught them that they are essentially wives and mothers. The public-private divide became conspicuous and women’s bonded labour and confinement in the family became imperative to look after the needs of their employed husbands and the educational needs of children. The process of democratisation and modernisation could not do away with the traditional feminine roles …show more content…

Political organizations began to play a greater role during this period and many men owed allegiance to one party or the other. In the novel, Comrade Pillai and Velutha are sworn communists and Chacko is a party sympathizer. But even the presence of a revolutionary party such as the Communist party could not eradicate class and caste hierarchies that existed in Kerala during this period. Though untouchability was legally banned it could not be wiped out from the minds of people. Neither could the missionaries do that. Though the State witnessed educational progress due to the activities of the Christian missionaries, S.N.D.P. and N.S.S. they could not do much to improve the economic, educational and social progress of their women. The greater emphasis given to the dowry system and the widespread belief that family is a hallowed institution to be protected at any cost led to the marginalization and victimization of women in the family and …show more content…

Roy focuses on some of key gender issues like marginalization and oppression of women who have no locus standi, lack of legal and inheritance rights, marital violence and the denial of their basic human rights. The novel highlights a plethora of details concerning the problems plaguing women in a male dominated society. The author narrates the agony and ordeal of women in an apathetic world where subjugation of women still persists. The novel is thus rooted in the culture and politics of Kerala. The author portrays gendered identities that are rooted in patriarchy.
A look at the Ayemenem House shows its indifference to its women. The aloof looking appearance of the house highlights the moral decadence, emptiness, apathy and absence of human values. Its indifferent appearance and gradual degeneration, which are symbolic of the loss of moral and familial values, make the life of its inhabitants nightmarish. Roy describes it thus: “The walls, streaked with moss, had grown soft and bulged a little with dampness that seeped up from the ground . . . The house itself looked empty. The doors and windows were closed. The front verandah bare. Unfurnished” (TGST

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