Anneli Xie
Prof. Yu Jin Ko
ENG 103: Writers of Color Across the Globe
2017/12/12
Prof. Yu Jin Ko
ENG 103: Writers of Color Across the Globe
2017/12/12
At the Crossroads of Change: the History House in The God of Small Things
Located in the Heart of Darkness, the History House is a fundamental piece to understanding Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things (1997). First introduced in the chapter “Pappachi’s Moth,” as Chacko lectures the twins on Anglophilia, the History House serves as both a physical location for many defining events, as well as a metaphorical representation of the colonial history of India, making it a place in which the “Big Things” and the “Small Things” of the novel intersect to further our understanding of both the Ipe family, and the nation of India.
As Estha and Rahel first try to make sense of Chacko’s metaphorical use of the History House, we are reminded of the naiveté surrounding childhood. While Chacko is using the History House as a symbolic representation of the history of India, the twins have “no doubt that the house Chacko meant was the house on the other side of the river.” (51) For the twins, the History House is a physical location – one “where they had never been” – surrounded by mystique and adventure, as they exclaim that “very few people had seen it. But [they] could picture it.” (51) The rationalization of the History House into a physical location brings to light Estha and Rahel’s innocence and their inability to fully understand many of the Big Things that the novel grapples, such as, in this case, the complex history of their country. This is also reflected in the way Roy modifies the English language throughout the novel, consistently turning things into proper nouns, as can be seen in Chacko giving the twins “Historical Perspective” (52) and Rahel’s thoughts about the word “humbling”: “Humbling was a nice word. […] Humbling along without a care in the world.” (53) Roy’s use of capitalized letters symbolizes an inability to fully grasp the colonial language, and gauges the twins’ inability to fully adapt to their postcolonial environment. Rahel’s childish distractive thoughts about “Humbling” also remind us of the innocent narration of the novel; a good example of how Small Things and Big Things become interlaced. The visualization of the History House and Rahel’s thoughts about words that she cannot fully comprehend are good examples of how Roy mixes Big Things, such as the postcolonial language, with Small Things, such as the twins’ inability to fully understand it. As readers, we are thus reminded that despite the complexities of Big Things, such as caste, communism, and colonialism, The God of Small Things is a story first and foremost about two children and their internal struggle trying to make sense of their postcolonial surroundings.
Not only a physical location, the History House serves as an embodiment of the relationship between precolonial and postcolonial India; a complex history that is the reason the Ipe’s are “a family of Anglophiles.” (51) Chacko compares history to “an old house at night. With all the lamps lit. And ancestors whispering inside,” and explains that “to understand history […], we have to go inside and listen to what they’re saying. And look at the books and the pictures on the wall. And smell the smells.” (51) Chacko here suggests that everything the twins need to know about history is right in front of them, as well as that history is not something that can be learned solely by observing from a distance. By going inside and listening, and looking, and smelling, Chacko means that history is a series of events to engage all senses and be fully immersed in. However, he continues:
“We can’t go in, because we’ve been locked out. And when we look in through the windows, all we see are shadows. And when we try and listen, all we hear is a whispering. And we cannot understand the whispering, because our minds have been invaded by a war. A war that we won and lost.” (52)
The inability to fully engage with history, Chacko means, is because of colonialism. Even though India gained its independence from Britain, ‘winning the war’, it still ‘lost’, because the pre-colonial state was altered by the cruelties of colonialism and would never be able to return. The Ipe’s have an inability to grasp their own past because their history has been “swept away” by the British, and they have been “pointed in the wrong direction” (51) — leading them to “adore [their] conquerors and despise [them]selves.” (52) This can be seen in the total admiration for the British Margaret and her daughter Sophie Mol, the pride Chacko feels for his British education, the shared love for The Sound of Music, and the family speaking in English rather than the traditional language of Malayalam.
Furthermore, the references to Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness (1899) in the manifestation of the History House urges the reader to realize the scope of problems that comes with colonialism. The novel talks about Kari Saipu: “the Englishman who had ‘gone native’. […] Ayemenem’s own Kurtz. Ayemenem his private Heart of Darkness.” (51) As Kari Saipu ‘goes native’, he becomes a symbol of British colonialism “captur[ing Indian] dreams and re-dream[ing] them;” (52) adapting and appropriating the culture of the nation. In Conrad’s novel, the ‘Heart of Darkness’ refers not only to a physical location but also to the consequences of imperialism: something that Kurtz is an epitome for. Similarly, in The God of Small Things, the History House becomes Kari Saipu’s “private Heart of Darkness;” a space that cannot be entered by the natives, represented by Chacko’s repeated notion of being “trapped outside.” (51) It is here that the dreams of the characters are “capture[d …] and re-dream[ed],” (52) and it is here we can once again see the intertwining of Small Things and Big Things. Although initially imagined a place of refuge, it is in the Heart of Darkness that Sophie Mol dies and Velutha is almost beaten to death. The death of Sophie Mol happens so quickly and quietly that it is not realized by neither the twins nor the reader until Rahel tries to talk to Sophie Mol and is “met with silence.” (277) Similarly, the beating of Velutha is overshadowed by detailed description of the peaceful surroundings: “a deepblue beetle balanced on an unbending blade of grass, […] a banana flower sheathed in claret bracts hung from a scruffy, torn-leafed tree,” (289) before the raw violence of the event begins. Even though both the death of Sophie Mol and the beating of Velutha ought to be considered Big Things, the description of their occurrence are overshadowed by Small Things, symbolizing that in the context of the Big World, what is considered Big Things by our characters become Small Things. Similarly, as Roy fuses Conrad’s colonized Congo with India, alluding to Heart of Darkness (1899), she highlights that India is just one of many postcolonial nations dealing with the internal struggles that she writes about, forcing the reader to think carefully about the harmful consequences of imperialism and colonialism in a broader scope.
Contrasting Small Things with Big Things, the History House becomes a crossroad for the complex identity of a postcolonial nation. Through the characters’ initial imagination of the History House as a place of refuge, to the shattering of their lives through the events that come to follow, the History House stands as a symbol for not only how the characters’ dreams are “capture[d …] and re-dream[ed],” (52) but also how an entire nation struggles under the influences of colonialism.
Roy, Arundhati. The God of Small Things. New York: Random House, 1997.
Conrad, Joseph. The Heart of Darkness. Penguin Classics, 2007 (originally from 1899).
As Estha and Rahel first try to make sense of Chacko’s metaphorical use of the History House, we are reminded of the naiveté surrounding childhood. While Chacko is using the History House as a symbolic representation of the history of India, the twins have “no doubt that the house Chacko meant was the house on the other side of the river.” (51) For the twins, the History House is a physical location – one “where they had never been” – surrounded by mystique and adventure, as they exclaim that “very few people had seen it. But [they] could picture it.” (51) The rationalization of the History House into a physical location brings to light Estha and Rahel’s innocence and their inability to fully understand many of the Big Things that the novel grapples, such as, in this case, the complex history of their country. This is also reflected in the way Roy modifies the English language throughout the novel, consistently turning things into proper nouns, as can be seen in Chacko giving the twins “Historical Perspective” (52) and Rahel’s thoughts about the word “humbling”: “Humbling was a nice word. […] Humbling along without a care in the world.” (53) Roy’s use of capitalized letters symbolizes an inability to fully grasp the colonial language, and gauges the twins’ inability to fully adapt to their postcolonial environment. Rahel’s childish distractive thoughts about “Humbling” also remind us of the innocent narration of the novel; a good example of how Small Things and Big Things become interlaced. The visualization of the History House and Rahel’s thoughts about words that she cannot fully comprehend are good examples of how Roy mixes Big Things, such as the postcolonial language, with Small Things, such as the twins’ inability to fully understand it. As readers, we are thus reminded that despite the complexities of Big Things, such as caste, communism, and colonialism, The God of Small Things is a story first and foremost about two children and their internal struggle trying to make sense of their postcolonial surroundings.
Not only a physical location, the History House serves as an embodiment of the relationship between precolonial and postcolonial India; a complex history that is the reason the Ipe’s are “a family of Anglophiles.” (51) Chacko compares history to “an old house at night. With all the lamps lit. And ancestors whispering inside,” and explains that “to understand history […], we have to go inside and listen to what they’re saying. And look at the books and the pictures on the wall. And smell the smells.” (51) Chacko here suggests that everything the twins need to know about history is right in front of them, as well as that history is not something that can be learned solely by observing from a distance. By going inside and listening, and looking, and smelling, Chacko means that history is a series of events to engage all senses and be fully immersed in. However, he continues:
“We can’t go in, because we’ve been locked out. And when we look in through the windows, all we see are shadows. And when we try and listen, all we hear is a whispering. And we cannot understand the whispering, because our minds have been invaded by a war. A war that we won and lost.” (52)
The inability to fully engage with history, Chacko means, is because of colonialism. Even though India gained its independence from Britain, ‘winning the war’, it still ‘lost’, because the pre-colonial state was altered by the cruelties of colonialism and would never be able to return. The Ipe’s have an inability to grasp their own past because their history has been “swept away” by the British, and they have been “pointed in the wrong direction” (51) — leading them to “adore [their] conquerors and despise [them]selves.” (52) This can be seen in the total admiration for the British Margaret and her daughter Sophie Mol, the pride Chacko feels for his British education, the shared love for The Sound of Music, and the family speaking in English rather than the traditional language of Malayalam.
Furthermore, the references to Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness (1899) in the manifestation of the History House urges the reader to realize the scope of problems that comes with colonialism. The novel talks about Kari Saipu: “the Englishman who had ‘gone native’. […] Ayemenem’s own Kurtz. Ayemenem his private Heart of Darkness.” (51) As Kari Saipu ‘goes native’, he becomes a symbol of British colonialism “captur[ing Indian] dreams and re-dream[ing] them;” (52) adapting and appropriating the culture of the nation. In Conrad’s novel, the ‘Heart of Darkness’ refers not only to a physical location but also to the consequences of imperialism: something that Kurtz is an epitome for. Similarly, in The God of Small Things, the History House becomes Kari Saipu’s “private Heart of Darkness;” a space that cannot be entered by the natives, represented by Chacko’s repeated notion of being “trapped outside.” (51) It is here that the dreams of the characters are “capture[d …] and re-dream[ed],” (52) and it is here we can once again see the intertwining of Small Things and Big Things. Although initially imagined a place of refuge, it is in the Heart of Darkness that Sophie Mol dies and Velutha is almost beaten to death. The death of Sophie Mol happens so quickly and quietly that it is not realized by neither the twins nor the reader until Rahel tries to talk to Sophie Mol and is “met with silence.” (277) Similarly, the beating of Velutha is overshadowed by detailed description of the peaceful surroundings: “a deepblue beetle balanced on an unbending blade of grass, […] a banana flower sheathed in claret bracts hung from a scruffy, torn-leafed tree,” (289) before the raw violence of the event begins. Even though both the death of Sophie Mol and the beating of Velutha ought to be considered Big Things, the description of their occurrence are overshadowed by Small Things, symbolizing that in the context of the Big World, what is considered Big Things by our characters become Small Things. Similarly, as Roy fuses Conrad’s colonized Congo with India, alluding to Heart of Darkness (1899), she highlights that India is just one of many postcolonial nations dealing with the internal struggles that she writes about, forcing the reader to think carefully about the harmful consequences of imperialism and colonialism in a broader scope.
Contrasting Small Things with Big Things, the History House becomes a crossroad for the complex identity of a postcolonial nation. Through the characters’ initial imagination of the History House as a place of refuge, to the shattering of their lives through the events that come to follow, the History House stands as a symbol for not only how the characters’ dreams are “capture[d …] and re-dream[ed],” (52) but also how an entire nation struggles under the influences of colonialism.
References
Conrad, Joseph. The Heart of Darkness. Penguin Classics, 2007 (originally from 1899).