God of Small Things

In Arundhati Roy’s novel, The God of Small Things, Ammu’s refusal to conform to restrictions placed on gender and caste allows for her to reject the rigid social laws of her town, Ayemenem. Although Ammu is not an Untouchable, her gender prevents her from redefining long standing social structures. Ammu’s downfall occurs the day she was born because she was born a woman. Not being a man makes her undesirable in the eyes of her family. Unlike her brother Chacko, her family denies her the right to an education, instead educating her about the duties of her gender. Woman, mother, daughter are roles in place for her the day she is born.  She returns to her home of Ayemenem a divorcee who is not humble, but rather confident and free spirited.  Ammu’s family expects her to feel shame for her failures. Ammu’s strength to escape abuse chips away at history’s demands for women’s subservience. Roy describes Ammu as a woman searching for a voice in a world surrounded by traditions.  Her choice to divorce and raise two children alone shows her progressive mindset, “Maybe they’re right, maybe a boy does need a Baba” (286).  Ammu believes she is capable of taking on the roles of mother and father, but history suppresses this idea.  Ammu struggles with her role of woman as mother and breaks boundaries when she actively pursues her own personal desires, “It was what she had battling inside of her. An unmixable mix. The infinite tenderness of motherhood and the reckless rage of a suicide bomber. It was this that grew inside of her and eventually led her to love by night the man her children loved by day” (44). Before Ammu was born her life was written for her, dictating how she must live. As a woman her life has no room for desire. Ammu choses to deny history’s role for her and this denial threatens the past. Not only does Ammu break the laws of her gender, but her choice of Velutha as a lover destroys history’s caste system. Their actions defy long established boundaries. History attempts to tame the heart and Ammu and Velutha’s pursuit of desire recreates boundaries, “They knew that things could change in a day. They were right about that” (321). Ammu consciously gives into her desires; discarding the “identities” that history tells her she must obey. Breaking boundaries by herself and with Velutha are her attempts to change the past and give strength to those whose voices are lost.  

Ammu's choices and 'wild nature' constantly defies the life her family envisioned for her.  Indian tradition expects their women to conform to what has been dictated for them.  An Indian woman's duties revolve around the needs and expectations of her family and the household. Ammu's nonconformist and wild attitude threatens to disrupt the boundaries that Indian culture constructs for their women.  Ammu understood the consequences of marrying an American, the problems with sleeping with an Untouchable, but she decided to listen to HER needs and not the rules of her culture.  

In Shamim Sarif's film "The World Unseen," she frames the narrative around a woman's right to choose and the difficulties in breaking with tradition.  Sarif uses the character of Amina, an independent business owner and homosexual to comment on a woman's right to choose and the difficulties of containing what comes naturally to a person.  Amina comes from a traditional Indian background that expects her to conform and marry the man they choose for her to fulfill her duty as a daughter and honor her family.  Both Ammu and Amina subvert their gender roles by not adhering to the guidelines constructed by Indian society. For Ammu her duties encompass taking care of the household, raising her children, and performing the duties of a wife, as McLeod notes in his book titled, Postcolonialism. Amina constantly faces pressures from her community for her choice of dress: trousers, men's loafers, and blouses.  Traditionally Indian dress for a woman requires that they wear saris and for Amina to wear what she feels comfortable gives her the label of nonconformist.  In this aspect, women are subservient to their own comforts and must wear the prescribed manner of dress.  

Petra, like Ammu marries a man of a different background, refusing to acknowledge the boundaries placed on who a woman can marry and the process of marriage.  Love, like life, is instinctual and something that should have no restraints.  Petra marries a white man in 1960 South Africa.  There were bans at this time, prohibiting Indians from marrying whites.  Petra's choice to risk her life for the one she loves was slightly over-romanticized/dramatized, but Sarif's message was one of perseverance   Even though tradition runs through India and thought of disrupting scares many women, they must realize that is human nature to listen to one's own desires.