Comrade K.N.M. Pillai is the leader of the Communist Party in Ayemenem. He runs the local printing press, and one of his big responsibilities is to print the labels for Paradise Pickles and Preserves.

Why does Chacko go to see Comrade Pillai in Chapter 14?

Chacko asks Comrade Pillai about the previous day’s march (when the family was driving to the movies). We find out that this is the real reason for Chacko’s visit – he couldn’t care less about vinegar labels. While they make small talk about the march, Chacko mentions that Rahel had seen Velutha among them.

Who was Ammu's husband?

Pappachi is kind of a drunk jerk, terrorizing Mammachi and Ammu. Feeling like there’s nothing left for her in Ayemenem but to wait around for a husband, Ammu gets permission to go to Calcutta for a summer. She meets and marries Baba, which turns out to be a bad choice.

Who is Kari Saipu?

Kari Saipu was the “Englishman who had “gone native.” Who spoke Malaylam and wore mundus. Ayemenem’s own Kurtz. Ayemenem his private Heart of Darkness” (51). The History House stands as a shell, a place where forbidden love spoiled and ruined Kari Saipu and would later destroy Ammu and Velutha.

Who is Baby kochamma in love with?

As a young woman of 18, Baby Kochamma falls in love with Father Mulligan, a young Irish monk. She tries to get his attention by force-bathing a little kid whenever she knows he’s going to come by. Baby Kochamma converts to Roman Catholicism and decides to become a nun so that Father Mulligan will love her.

Who is Sophie Mol in The God of Small Things?

In the multi-layered novel The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy, Sophie Mol is the half Caucasian, half Indian nine year old visiting her two younger cousins in India.

What does Mrs Pillai make her niece Latha do for Chacko?

Mrs. Pillai calls for her niece Latha to recite an English poem for Chacko.

What happened to velutha?

. After Sophie’s funeral, Ammu goes to the police to tell the truth about her relationship with Velutha. Afraid of being exposed, Baby Kochamma convinces Chacko that Ammu and the twins were responsible for his daughter’s death.

What is a tallow stick?

A tallow-stick is a stick daubed with fat which can serve as a sort of torch.

Who is mammachi?

Mammachi is Chacko and Ammu’s mother and Estha and Rahel’s grandmother. She’s nearly blind and plays a mean violin. She founded Paradise Pickles and Preserves and built it into a successful business before turning it over to Chacko, who transformed it into, um, a less successful business.

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What caste is Ammu in The God of Small Things?

In Arundhati Roy’s novel, The God of Small Things, the laws of India’s caste system are broken by the characters of Ammu and Velutha, an untouchable or Paravan. Velutha works at the Paradise Pickles and Preserves Factory owned by Ammu’s family.

Who is kochu Maria?

Kochu Maria is Mammachi and Baby Kochamma’s housekeeper. She is short and ugly. She doesn’t speak English, so whenever the twins speak English around her, she thinks they’re making fun of her (and, well, sometimes they are).

Why did Ammu divorce Baba?

She married Baba to escape Ayemenem, but he was an abusive alcoholic so Ammu left him after the twins were born.

How is baby kochamma living her life backwards?

Personality. Baby Kochamma is a spiteful, destructive, and materialistic character. Rahel once describes Baby as “living her life backwards” due to her earlier days when she rejected materialism and later days when she embraced it.

How many years have elapsed since Rahel and Estha last saw each other?

Baby Kochamma was still alive. She was Rahel’s baby grand aunt, but Rahel hadn’t come to visit her. She had come to see her dizygotic twin, Estha, from whom she has been separated for 23 years. Her mind inevitably goes back to a deeper, more secret poetic space.

How many years are Rahel and Estha apart?

Estha and Rahel were once inseparable, but now they have been apart for almost 25 years — ever since the winter of 1969, when their English cousin, Sophie Mol, drowned in the river with their grandmother’s silver thimble in her fist.

How did Chacko meet his wife?

As a young man, Chacko got all the family’s love and attention. … When we think about who Chacko is on a personal level, it’s important to look at his family life. When Chacko lived in England, he met and married Margaret Kochamma, a waitress at an Oxford café.

What are the love Laws in The God of Small Things?

The social norms in the novel are called the Love Laws, “the laws that lay down who should be loved, and how. And how much” (Roy 33). These are the rules that Ammu and Velutha break. They both know exactly how these laws work, and what will happen if they break them, but they never let that stop them.

Why was Ammu locked in her room?

Mammachi and Baby Kochamma made a plan for damage control. And by plan, we mean they locked Ammu in her bedroom and tried to get hold of Velutha so they could convince him to skip town.

Who is Estha and Rahels father?

We learn that Estha and Rahel were almost born on a bus. Their father Baba had to hold Ammu’s stomach to “keep it from wobbling” (1.21).

What happens between velutha and Ammu in Chapter 8?

Ammu watches Velutha and Rahel go through an elaborate secret greeting and sees Velutha toss her up in the air. She checks out his awesome bare abs. Ammu realizes that she hopes that it was, in fact, Velutha that Rahel saw in the march. We learn that just like Velutha, Ammu hates the “smug, ordered world” (8.83).

What does the river symbolize in The God of Small Things?

Water- The river, in The God of Small Things, plays an important role in the story. It physically represents a boundary, the children must cross it to escape. Velutha also crossed the river- he was alone, he was “The God of Small Things” (Roy, 274).

What creature did Rahel see at Sophie Mol's funeral?

At Sophie Mol’s funeral, she thinks she sees her turn over in her coffin, which further convinces her that Sophie Mol is being buried alive. She sees the kangaroo-shaped trash receptacles at the airport rummaging through their pouches for cigarettes and cashews.

What is the main theme of the god of small things?

In both the novel’s title and in her writing style, Roy emphasizes the small moments, objects, and changes that symbolize and lead to the “Big Things” in life, like death, love, and political upheaval.

What was velutha's profession?

When we see him participating in the march, he has been back in Ayemenem for five months and has been working for Mammachi as the factory carpenter.

Is velutha a communist?

Pillai hears the workers’ complaints about Velutha, a communist but of the untouchable Paravan caste. The workers resent his literacy and his demands for equality. … Roy reflects this failure of communist ideology in her novel — its failure in challenging the inequalities of caste.

What did baby kochamma tell the police in The God of Small Things?

Baby Kochamma tells Estha and Rahel that they are murderers, responsible for Sophie Mol’s death. Baby Kochamma tells them they’ll have to go to jail – and so will Ammu. They’ll be in three different jails.

Who is Mr Hollick?

Mr. Hollick is Baba’s womanizing boss who threatens to fire him for his poor performance and alcoholism but says he will keep him on if Ammu will have an affair with him. Baba proposes the idea to Ammu; she responds violently and soon leaves him.

What caste is the IPE family?

There also exists a caste system of Touchables (i.e. Ipe family) and Untouchables (i.e. Velutha). The Touchables are then divided again into Brahmins (priests, scholars), Kshatriyas (warriors), Vaishyas (merchants and bankers like the Ipe family and Shudras (servants like Kochu Maria).

Where did Rahels father move to?

Rahel’s male fraternal twin. His full name is Esthappen. After Sophie Mol’s death, he is sent to live with his father, Babu, in Assam. At the age of thirty-one, he moves back to Ayemenem.

What does Paravan mean?

: a torpedo-shaped protective device with serrate teeth in its forward end used underwater by a ship in mined areas to sever the moorings of mines.