Her environment reeks of judgement and exclusion. Indian civilization has been wired against Ammu; her race, sex, and happiness all compose an ultimate disappointment. While Ammu values honesty over everything her family members would rather protect their reputation rather than spill the beans. After Baby Kochamma lies about Ammu and Velutha’s relationship, Ammu realizes what her happiness has cost Velutha: “He’s dead… I've killed him” (Roy 10). Finally Ammu chooses what she wants after her first marriage: her love for Velutha.
Ammu, Baby Kochamma’s niece, has twins and instantly Baby Kochamma wants them separated and gone. What disgusts her even more is that Ammu has kids with Baba and then gets divorced. In this Indian society, divorce is something one should be ashamed of and Baby Kochamma makes sure Ammu feels this way. Eight years Later Ammu falls in love with an untouchable, Velutha, which whom she has had an affair with. Ammu is having a similar forbidden relationship much like her aunt, only hers is working out more.
She just weighed the odds and accepted. She thought that anything, anyone at all would be better than returning to Ayemenem. She wrote to her parents informing them of her decision. They did not reply.” (Roy 39) In fact for Ammu Ayemenem was a dark and a dismal symbol of male domination, male tyranny, male indifference and male hegemony. She got rid of the hell-like Ayemenem where she felt suffocated; and now after marriage she felt a sigh of relief and started breathing fresh air under the sky of her own.
The character Lila had to leave her schooling and stay at home to look after her two sisters. Women experience social evils in society. They have been treated cruelly which affects them both physically and mentally. In Desai‟s novel Fasting Feasting, Uma‟s cousin Anamika has to face the cruel torture imposed by her husband and her mother-in-law. “Anamika was beaten regularly by her mother-in-law while her husband stood by and approved – or at least, did not object.”(Fasting Feasting, 71) She is beaten by her husband even when she is pregnant.
Mumtaz rules the girls with an iron fist, as can be seen in the quote above, and even then she operates under control of the man that manufactures multiple of brothels like this one. If she didn’t treat the girls so poorly, one can assume Mumtaz would not hold the same position of power. While other characters in this book share the cruelness of Mumtaz, not all of the women in Lakshmi’s life put their needs above others to reach their goals. Ama, Lakshmi’s mother, exemplifies the traditional “good” female role. To understand what I mean by this, one would have to define “good”.
“They feel isolated and mentally sick. Ashoke feels more burdensome than his wife because there is no one with them. They are amongst strangers. According to Sue Brenann Hospital symbolizes control and authority ““where individuals are subjected to disciplinary regimes aimed producing ‘healthy’ and self-sufficient citizens of the nation” (6). He thinks he has migrated for the sake of good life and better opportunities but feels isolated and burdened “Although it is Ashima who carries the child, he too, feels heavy, with the thought of life, of his life and life about to come from it” (13).
I disliked how little work his father, Karam, managed to do, while his wife did everything and anything. I admired Zehrunisa and how hardworking she was for her family, I looked down upon how abusive she was to Abdul because he did not deserve it. I found Asha’s strive for independence and power inspiring, but her means of obtaining it to be corruptive and dishonest. I really liked how kindhearted Manju was and how she took the time to teach the slum children, even though she really didn’t have to. She was also very kind to Meena and tried to be a very good friend to her because of her situation with her family.
No. You are afraid. You might perish.”(Cry, the Peacock, 113) The marriage of Maya and Gautama is more or less a marriage of convenience as we can say a marriage of traditional bond. Maya’s marriage with Gautama has been settled through her father’s friendship with him. But Maya is not conscious of unpleasant realities of life.
She never enjoys the privileges that Chacko enjoys because of her being a woman and during this period women were marginalized merely for the reason of their being women. In the book, “The Second Sex” Simone de Beauvior mentions that, “women has always been man’s dependent, if not his slave: the two sexes have never shared the world in equality” (Beauvior, 20) and this is the same problem which Roy addresses through her novel, “The God of Small Things” by emphasizing on the injustice that is experienced by Ammu. “Pappachi insisted that a college education was an unnecessary expense for a girl, so Ammu had no choice but to leave Delhi and move with them.” (Roy, 38) Ammu fails to have a higher education though she is an intelligent woman, because her father decides that it is a pointless expense for a girl. But unlike Ammu, her brother Chacko gets higher education and this shows the gender discrimination that was in India during that
The recollections of Mayamma’s past life provided an insight into her battered, violence-filled existence. While her husband called her “a shameless hussy” (111), and kicked her “after a night of whoring in the rain” (111), her mother-in-law fed her yesterday’s rice because “What is the use of feeding a barren woman” (112) and “smeared the burning red, freshly ground spices into my barrenness” (113) because she was found admiring her new saree. Later, her mother in law asked her to cut her breast open and “take the silver cup with the blood from your breast and bathe the lingam” (113) inorder to propitiate the gods so as to begot a son. Yet Mayamma never questioned these atrocities, never raised a voice or a finger or tried to run away from