River of “Quietness”
and “Emptiness” in Arundhati Roy’s The
God of Small Things
Anushka
Mitra
Independent Researcher
Abstract:
This
research paper evaluates the close-knit relationship between the children and
the river in Arundhati Roy’s The God
of Small Things. It incorporates several disciplines, namely,
Intersectionality, Discourse Analysis and various areas of Trauma studies to
explore how the protagonists develop faith in the river and its repercussions.
Drawing on Jungian Psychoanalysis, the paper assesses nuances of the river’s
character, beside her assumed role in the children’s lives. Through in-depth
analysis and interpretation of literary texts, this paper aims to show that the
river, defying all expectations, eventually leads the young protagonists to
separation from each other in addition to a detachment from their respective
selves.
Keywords: Children, Detachment, River, Separation,
Trauma
Introduction
Rivers are the harbingers of new life. As far back as one traces in
time, finds rivers as the foundational base of civilizations, shaping and
sustaining human lives with their agricultural value. In so doing, they have
become an emblem of progress, an onward journey to future ushering in change
and prosperity. Besides, the multifunctional nature of rivers holds equal
importance in history, culture, and literature making. This paper focuses, for
contextualisation, on river’s significance in literature. Whether it is the
free-spirited nature of the waters, the majestic beauty originating around
them, or the role of a creator, curator and preserver, rivers are found as the
muse in many celebrated pieces of art and literature. Literary artists employ
river imagery to capture many aspects of human reality. Coleridge’s fictitious
“sacred river” Alph in Kubla Khan (1816) represents the source of human
creativity which can create wonders in one’s imagination. A contrasting
deployment of river is seen in A.K Ramanujan’s poem “A River” where the speaker
depicts a picture of tangible reality, disdainfully talking about the ignorant
poets who use the river as a poetic subject while paying no heed to the tragic
lives of those caught in flood. Amitav Ghosh, in his book The Hungry Tide
(2004), uses the confluence of river Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna in the Bay
of Bengal, as a key medium to comment on climate change, the struggles of the
Sundarbans inhabitants, the questionable side of research industry as well as
the conflict between humanism and environmentalism. Ghosh deliberately takes
advantage of the rivers combined with historiographic metafiction to shed light
on the history of Morichjhanpi Massacre. (1978-79) Therefore, river becomes a
bridge leading to the past, to history distanced by time and space. A similar
approach is taken in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness (1899), where the
river Congo becomes instrumental in delving deep into psychology of the
colonisers and that of the colonised. Quite like the “meandering with a mazy
motion” (Coleridge, line 25) the symbolism of river is multifarious; signifying
transformation, mirroring life’s journey, or sometimes it stands for a route of
emancipation. Such case is seen in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884)
where the little Huck finds freedom from his abusive father down the
Mississippi River. Not only is it a liberating path providing safety, the
Mississippi also does away with all the societal discriminating norms
establishing a desired social equilibrium. Mark Twain’s portrayal of
Mississippi as a doorway sits in stark contrast to the Meenachal river that is
perceived as an escape route by Estha and Rahel in Arundhati Roy’s The God
of Small Things. (1997) Meenachal is declared as one of the most dangerous
rivers because of its rapid flooding, strong undercurrents and the debris
carried from the mountains. Meenachal’s deceitful beauty is life-threatening by
character, and that is central to the discussion of this research paper.
Roy concocts a complex, heart-wrenching and uniquely humane tale of two
fraternal twins that leave the readers overwhelmed yet so hollow from inside.
The novel is set in Ayemenem, Kerala, revolving around the events taken place
in two specific years: 1969 and 1993. It unfolds the story of fraying of the
Ipe family through staunch moral conventions, manipulation of relations,
childhood traumas, abetment of casteism, political exploitation, patriarchal
violence and murder. However, Roy’s blend of nature with human life and emotion
deserves special appreciation. River Meenachal works as a catalyst auguring the
denouement in the novel. The protagonists Estha and Rahel, “Dizygote”
seven-year-old twins, are trapped by the unfathomable forces of life before
they can even have a chance to understand it. They experience life like a
montage of several episodes where they constantly attempt to find a uniformity in
the patchwork via language―spoken and (mis)understood―but drift further and
further away. The novel captures the significance of small things in life that
often lead to bigger ones.
In the tragic course of their lives when “Love laws” scourge them, when
they are abused by adults, and unfortunately, their mother blames them for her
misery instead of embracing them in her safe arms, the little children seek
after Meenachal for recourse, for solace, and to find their way back to their
mother’s heart, “Valued, loved, and needed more than ever.” (Roy 292) For them
Meenachal becomes a guardian who is supposed to advocate for their worth,
restore their value in the family’s eyes, who would save them from “Orange
drink Lemon drink Man” and build them a respectable future in the Ayemenem
house. However, Meenachal fails to meet their expectations. If anything, she
only destroys their lives irrevocably, keeping up with her personal trait.
Moreover, it draws a rift between them and their mother, leaving them alienated
from one another. This paper addresses the very intricate yet fatal
relationship of the twins with the river arguing that Meenachal is a site of
both physical and psychological estrangement.
Theoretical Framework
A qualitative research methodology is used to critically analyse
Meenachal’s acquisition of power and how she (ab)uses it. The paper employs theories such as Intersectionality,
Discourse Analysis, Psychoanalysis, and Trauma studies to interpret and
understand Estha and Rahel's marginalized position and the impact of trauma on
their lives, all the while approaching the main argument.
River: A Sanctuary of
Trust
“Esthappen and Rahel thought of themselves together as
Me, and separately, individually, as We or Us.” (Roy 2)The “two-egg twins”,
identical from within, grow up sharing an uncanny mystic connection allowing
them to think and say alike. As though they are one soul in two separate
bodies. However, through the course of the novel their identical personalities
part ways, like split paths of a river near deltas, when life decides to stand
as the Trojan Wall between them.
Drawing on Kimberle Crenshaw’s Intersectionality, Ben Smith opines that
Intersectionality can be stretched beyond gender and race to create a general
theory of identity stating it is complex pertaining several categories and
their analysis, “a
theory that highlights oppression, and a tool to be used in remedying that
oppression.” (78) Being offspring of a financially weak and divorced
mother from an interfaith marriage, Estha and Rahel are often subjected to
the brunt of others’ double standards and shallow ideologies. The phallocentric
Ayemenem house treats them as burden but prepares an extravagant celebration to
welcome Sophie Mol, the daughter of their divorced son Chacko. Baby Kochamma
construes their temperament as a result of father’s absent authority and
extreme influence of mother’s impotent guidance. “He said that Ammu, Estha and
Rahel were millstones around his neck.” (Roy 85) Having a quick demise of his
marriage due to his irresponsible nature, ironically, Chacko is even quicker to
point out that his sister and her kids fall under his responsibility
forcefully. Such practice of Phallogocentrism comes from the inherent belief in
patriarchy and the inherited wealth as a male child. Within this context then,
Intersectionality as general theory of identity also questions the inequal
distribution of power between Ammu and Chacko based on their sex, “If women/men is a distinction not just of
difference, but of power and powerlessness, if power/ powerlessness is the sex
difference, those questions need to be asked very differently than they have
been.” (MacKinnon 123)
At the face of multifaceted marginalisation, the Meenachal river
systematically comes to acquire the twins’ trust. The paper further examines some of the key
episodes to instantiate how the river earns their trust. The first time
Meenachal appears as a tranquil dream to comfort Estha and Rahel when they grow
tired of grappling with reality. In order to understand the need and importance
of such dream, we must fathom the poignant influence Ammu has on the twins’
linguistics formation. Despite them picking language from their surroundings,
notably the anglophile Ipe family, they seem to value their mother’s words the most;
to the point of mimicking her speech pattern. The adoption of Ammu’s speech
pattern reinforces the physical and psychological connection the triad shares
after being ostracised by the world. Attachment theories suggest that
children’s proximity with their primary caregiver culminates into a
synchronised partnership where they reflect one another’s communication
patterns in order to meet each other’s expectations. It certainly keeps the
children away from anxiety during their developmental period.
‘Everybody says that children
need a Baba. And I say no. Not my children. D’you know why?’…
‘Because you’re our Ammu and our
Baba and you love us Double.’
‘More than Double,’ Ammu said.
(Roy149)
The language becomes the only common ground, their home to remain
together. Likewise, Ammu’s sovereign reign over the Symbolic Order constructs
Estha and Rahel’s entire understanding of reality: law, language, and Love
Laws, “The laws that lay down who should be loved, and how. And how much.” (Roy
33) Thus, her words provide a microscopic lens under which they scrutinise the
universe including themselves to analyse, form their opinion as well as draw
conclusion. Besides, the continual contact with persistent and repeated
traumas―also known as Complex Trauma coined by Judith Herman in Trauma and
Recovery (1992)―always bring them to their mother’s words for reassurance.
“Water always helps.” (Roy108) This small phrase by Ammu plays a big
role in shaping Estha’s consciousness indefinitely, after he has already been
molested by the Orange drink Lemon drink Man in Abhilash Talkies and feels
nauseated. Unfortunately, instead of comprehending that he is a victim, he
considers himself an accomplice in the vulgarity by touching the stranger’s
urine, “He’s just held the Orange drink Lemon drink Man’s soo-soo in his hand,
but could you love him still?” (Roy106) Reality further becomes heavier with the
perpetrator’s subtle threat of finding him in person. The probability of
repeating the abomination terrorises Estha. Fearing Ammu’s love will fade, “He
longed for the river. Because water always helps.” (Roy 113) The seamless blend
of Ammu’s words and Estha’s inner thought suggests the sheer capacity the
mother has in building her children’s psyche.
It is surreal how the twins share instincts. Rahel’s immediate
recognition of her brother’s assaulter and her vexed remark against Ammu’s
judgement of him, stand as a testament to that. Her insolent comment asking her
mother to marry him, renders the time stop like her toy wristwatch suggesting
stagnancy. Roy foreshadows the future by juxtaposing her watch and her ambition
to own time which should be alterable according to her whims. “That’s what
careless words do. They make people love you less.” (Roy 112) Ammu’s
passive-aggressive words lead Rahelto conceive her mother’s love diminishing by
her every action as the novel proceeds. The experience of Developmental Trauma―
polyvictimization of a child during their formative years in the forms of
sexual assaults, emotional abuse, violence, abandonment, betrayal etc―by the
twins shakes their “core
beliefs and assumptions, including their self-esteem as well as their sense of
lovability, vulnerability, and faith in family, friendships, and a higher
power.” (Cruz, Daniel et al)
The Love Laws are laid. Sophie Mol has received the upper-hand for being
rich son’s “clean white” child whose mother loves her full. And Rahel’s
sadness “of Sophie Mol coming”, “Ammu’s loving her a little less”, and
“whatever the Orangedrink Lemondrink Man had done to Estha in Abhilash Talkies”
increases. A nervousness settles in her indicated by Pappachi’s Moth perching
on her heart. In desperate need to dissociate from crude reality, the twins
dream of “their river”. The dream portrays a blissful Meenachal catering to
every human sense.
It was warm. Greygreen. Like rippled
silk.
With fish in it.
With the sky and trees in it.
And at night, the broken yellow moon
in it. (Roy 123)
The repeated use of ‘in it’ can be interpreted as viewing the world
through a looking-glass. The river acts as a passage to an alternate world
where everything is serene and fair as opposed to their current situation;
where Love laws do not exist and they are accepted for who and how they are.
Thus, the river becomes a sanctuary of trust, providing solace and acceptance.
Therefore, the children develop a deep emotional bonding with Meenachal almost
as their secondary caregiver.
River: The Traitor
“‘This river of ours – she isn’t always what she pretends to be.’” (Roy
210)Carl Jung propounds two components of personality ‘Persona’ and ‘Shadow’.
The former one is a complex network between one’s consciousness and society,
this “mask” is, “designed
on the one hand to make a definite impression upon others, and, on the other,
to conceal the true nature of the individual.” (264) Shadow, conversely, is the
repressed aspects of one’s inner psyche resembling Freudian Id, laden with
inane impulses, nonetheless, an integral part of being human. It is everything
opposite, essentially evil, of what a person appears to be in the eyes of
society. Jung describes it as, “an inferior component of the personality and is
consequently repressed through intensive resistance.” (85) Roy tactfully
personifies Meenachal River unearthing her layers of Persona and Shadow through
the Twins’ knowledge of her depth. “The first third of the river was their
friend.” (Roy203) The river’s appearance as an acquaintance is the mask she
wears to suit Estha and Rahel’s expectations.. “The second third was where the
Really Deep began…The third third was shallow again.” (Roy203) The latter two,
less known, sections of Meenachal together form her Shadow, containing not just
minor flaws but a pure force of evil. (Jung54)
Despite Meenachal’s cryptic nature, the
twins’ consideration of her as their confidant is a judgment groundedin the
simplicity of her Persona. Consequently, they choose to rely on her to escape from
the lecherous grasp of Orangedrink Lemondrink Man. The symbolic construction of
Meenachal river as a safe space is thorough and extremely influential. The
compounding stress by the constant recollection of his assaulter’s threat rings
like a persistent alarm in his head, leading Estha to have “Two Thoughts”: “(a)
Anything can happen to Anyone” and “(b) It’s best to be prepared.”
(Roy194) Instantaneously, the twins agree to seek help from their river to
evade the abuser’s impending arrival. As mentioned in the website of National
Center for PTSD, Emotional Avoidance “is when a person avoids thoughts or
feelings about a traumatic event. This type of avoidance is internal to the
person; others around you may not know what you are avoiding and why.” (“Avoidance”)The extent of their
preparation―running away across the river using a boat―is highly expressive of
literal flight as behavioural response to trauma. However, instead of acting as
her perceived role of a secondary caregiver, Meenachal resorts to her shadow-side
pushing the twins to lifelong despair.
Ammu’s tireless attempt to feel her existence under the crushing weight
of gender disparities in terms of education, love and social position, results
in dissociation with her Persona, an ideal picture she should have resembled.
Akin to Meenachal, Ammu too has her own ‘second third’ and ‘third third’, less
understood by society, that “temporarily set aside the morality of motherhood
and divorcée-hood.” (Roy 44) She comes out of the social definition of ‘woman’
to reclaim autonomy and bend the conventional Love Laws by loving Velutha, an
untouchable, equally marginalised as her. In consequence, she is confined by
her family that has built a separate entrance for Chackoto facilitate his
sexual yearnings, “He can’t help having a Man’s Needs”. (Roy 168) Societal
norms require people to identify with their Persona against which Jung warns
mentioning that the back and forth dealing between who one is and who one has
to pretend to be definitely causes emotional damage.(265) It explicates Ammu’s vehement outburst
at her children after reaching the pinnacle of suffering from experiencing
consecutive traumatic episodes, “‘You’re the millstones round my neck!’” (253)
Unfortunately, Estha and Rahel become the
victim of her battle between who she is and the pretence she is expected to
keep, “An unmixable mix. The infinite tenderness of motherhood and the reckless
rage of a suicide bomber.” (Roy44) Misinterpreted, however, the feeling of
abandonment by their mother traumatizes the children. Ronald David Laing expatiates on
interpersonal relations which is based on ‘no-thing’, “your experience of me is invisible to me and
my experience of you is invisible to you.” (16) To break it down, the invisibility forms “no-thing” in the interpersonal
relationship where each person of the dyad reacts according to their continuous
interpretation of other’s views. As though, their interpretation is the
reality. Wolfgang Iser calls it an “interpretative activity, which will contain
a view of others and, unavoidably, an image of ourselves” (108). The children’s
impulsive decision to run away may seem imprudent, but it is crucial to reckon
the intensity of relentless stress they have endured. Since birth, life has
pushed them among calamities “like billiard balls” (Roy 84) thrusting them in a
powerless position which becomes more prominent in Sophie Mol’s presence.
Hence, their decision elucidates an extreme emotional distress produced by
disrupted relationship with their primary caregiver, and an attempt to regain
an agency.
“The river itself was dark and quiet. An
absence rather than a presence, betraying no sign of how high and strong it
really was.” (Roy291)The real appearance of the river is a far cry from the
dream the twins once found solace in. More like a foil character beside Ammu,
Meenachal unites with her Shadow that is “to say yes to instinct, to that
formidable dynamism lurking in the background.” (Jung 55) Roy dedicates more
lines to the twins describing their physical struggle with the unfriendly
territory of Meenachal, than to Sophie Mol’s tragic death by drowning. The
narrative technique insinuates the river’s enormous betrayal yet to be grasped
entirely and Sophie Mol’s “quiet” death remains true to the theme of novel,
“only the Small Things are ever said. The Big Things lurk unsaid inside.”
(Roy142)
Following the ruinous events at and around
the river, Estha and Rahel’s lives change forever. Every odd, they once stood
against with their mother, wins breaking them apart corporeally. “Together they
were trouble” (Roy 302) a common belief among the Ipes forces Ammu to return
Estha to his father. Thereby, the river siding with society drowns Ammu’s
resilience too. Shortly after, Ammu dies away from her children bringing them,
“Not Death. Just the end of living. (Roy321)
River: A life Moving
to Past
“In future we will not read backwards.” (Roy 60) The statement
emerges as irony after Meenachal sets Estha and Rahel’s life in reverse
contrary to her forward flow. Beside the physical alienation, Estha and Rahel
go through an abrupt internal shift drastic in nature. The once shared psyche
binding them as “We”, is now divided by the “quick and black, snaking” (Roy289)
water, causing them to acknowledge the existence of two distinct lives. “Estha
has his and Rahel hers.” (Roy3) The sorrowful division grows a pair of
psychologically estranged twins struggling to survive without the oneness of
their ‘self’ post the grievous affairs.“They lay like that for a long time.
Awake in the dark. Quietness and Emptiness.” (Roy 327) As two parallel
riverbanks unlikely to ever meet. Twenty-three years of separation may have aged
them physiologically but their lives remain trapped in past locked by trauma.
The 1969 catastrophes fraught with fear, loss, manipulation, guilt and
separation anxiety have hushed Estha and hollowed Rahel. Their departure from selfhood
is manifestation of their actions undertaken in difficult times.
Baby Kochamma tricks them into believing
their mother would be imprisoned for their sin. Although they may be
too young to fully understand the larger conspiracy of framing Velutha, they
are aware of their choices. They consciously choose to “‘Save Ammu.’ Save us.
Save our mother.” (Roy 319)Exposure to extensive abuse and manipulative environment
causes children to construct Developmental Trauma Disorder (DTD), characterised
by mental health disorders and chronic neurological ailments, underdevelopment
of self-identity, difficulty in building and sustaining relationships with
parental figures and peers, “these
responses are mediated by conditioned fear and physiological hypo arousal”.
(Cruz, Daniel et al) The daunting possibility of splitting from Ammu
and each other ensnaresthem in crime, especially Estha for perjury. Estha’s
remorse impels him to actively seek an escape in fiction supposing the convict
is Urumban, Velutha’s long-lost twin. His shame affecting his behavioural
inhibition condemns him to a perpetual isolation in silence. As opposed to
Velutha’s colonised silence owing to his marginalised caste, Estha’s is a
consequence of abusing dominant caste’s privilege of independent speech.
Similarly, Rahel is entrapped in her own guilty-feelings. She suffers
from inferiority complex through constant comparison to Sophie Mol, considering
the latter better candidate for Ammu’s love. This explains why she observes the
rejoicings surrounding the newcomer as a “Play” in which she has a diminutive
part, “A face in the crowd. A townspeople.” (Roy173)But her cousin’s death
instantly puts her in the centre stage for her prominent role of an abettor.
Perhaps, Rahel daydreaming Sophie awake in her own funeral is a projection of
survivor’s guilt induced by the shocking and distressing incident, since Roy
describes her countenance as “wide awake, fiercely vigilant and brittle with
exhaustion from her battle against Real Life.” (5) Professor Eli Somer first
mentioned that Maladaptive Daydreaming could be perceived as a coping tactic in
adversity. Rahel concludes “Sophie Mol died because she couldn’t breathe.”
(Roy7) She too retreats into imagination to deal with contrition by blaming the
adults for Sophie’s suffocation. The memory of her death visit Rahel “like a
fruit in season. Every season.” (Roy16) In line with Pierre Janet’s
observations on automatic integration of information in memory, appalling and
unprecedented experiences may not be accommodated as easily as usual
anticipated encounters in Ordinary or Narrative memory.
Besides, adverse situations likewise generate emotional disturbances and
behavioural issues. Such “inability
to regulate our emotional responses and impulses becomes dispositional and
those dispositions effectively trump higher cognitive processing.” (Giri1432) Rahel’s
misconducts in school such as picking up fights, underage smoking, playing with
fire are demonstrations of her emotional dysregulation owing to her experience
of relentless trauma. On behalf of Ammu and Estha, the Ipeshardly ever look
after her adolescent emotional needs. Her consistently absent-minded adulthood
echoes Janet’s words about traumatised individuals “as if their personality development has
stopped at a certain point and cannot expand any more by the addition or
assimilation of new elements” (Janet qtd in Van der Kolk and Hart164) Rahel
seems to observe life from a distance where her empty body performs required
actions while her soul remains unfeeling and inert. The life-altering Meenachal
of 1969 that once elicited trepidation emulates Rahel’s internal emptiness in
1993 through her depleted state “now its teeth drawn, its spirit spent. It was
just a slow sludging green ribbon lawn that ferried fetid garbage to the sea.”
(Roy124) They both may continue to live and function, but an insatiable vacancy
persists inside.
Conclusion
“Childhood tiptoed out.” (Roy 320) Crossing the river symbolises a
premature demise of innocence and forced entry into the world of experience.The river acts as a provocateur of
wretchedness causing the two-egg twins lose childhood, themselves and one
another. Their childhood is confined within a dialectic: love and fear of
losing the love. When confronted by vagaries of fate threatening to demolish
their foundation, they are left unattended by their guardian. Moreover, an
interplay between twisted language and unsettling distresses catches the
children in middle of moral dilemma. Therefore, instead of learning to navigate
through such hardships while having a steady rise from innocence to experience,
the seven-year-olds are forced to grow up alone. In the primary caregiver’s
absence, Meenachal the river is sought in desperation for protection. Given
their age and anguished psychological state, the twins misrecognise their
perception as reality. Meenachal, instead, becomes a site of both physical and
psychological estrangement referred to in the introduction as the main
argument.
Albeit, Estha and Rahel’s childhood is traced
in this paper with theories and concepts as an endeavour to understand their
struggles and deeds, they were quite far from these recondite information while
living. It was for them, “frightening event(s) outside of ordinary human
experience”. (Van der Kolk and Hart172) The lack of justification for the
pivotal moments methodically traps them in a tug of war between guilt and
victimhood, “Had they been deceived into doing what they did? Had they been
tricked into condemnation?” (Roy318) Hence, even though they move forward in
accordance with natural cycle, they are haunted by the past. The river’s
tyranny has left them indelibly scarred.
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