zBlogging the Literary Life - AP College English

Way back to GOST

I'm taking Asian Studies right now and we recently studied Jainism. I was reading an article that was talking about their belief that there are time cycles. At the end of each time cycle, religion is reborn; "All things people want will be given by wish-granting trees,and people will be born in sets of twins with one boy and one girl who stay together all their lives. This can be seen as a symbol of an integrated human with male and female characteristics balanced." I just thought that was so interesting because it helps to show a religious reference in GOST. Not many people are familiar with this religion in our class I'm guessing, so many wouldn't have picked up it. The two twins in the book can symbolize this balance and sort of the start of a new chapter in life in India. For example, Ammu and Velutha, as well as many others, are challenging society's rules. It might also have to do with the almost 'reunion' of the twins at the end of the book, showing this balance of male and female characteristics integrated together as one. Sorry this is so much later! Any thoughts?

god's small things

I wrote a poem based off the last chapter of The God of Small Things and how Velutha was killed for his actions; essentially, my poem is about small, ethereal things that are crushed by much Bigger Gods...overpowering forces that destroy the beautiful experiences in life and leave you only with memories.

Gah. Kind of depressing, I guess. But not all the way! At any rate, any comments/blah-blahs are appreciated... and as is always suggested, please don't steal my poem, or I will eat you. :)

the house clicked
soft and ready
into dark.
dim blue seeped
through glass panes,
flooded empty rooms,
curled around two
tired bodies
like a silken cocoon.

for the first time,
night held Them
                                     Alone
and
giddy –
They breathed in
the silver of the moon,
laughed stars onto the ceiling,
and whispered Secrets
that floated and settled like smoke.

Her hair
(in his hands, through his fingers)
flowed like whale songs
in deep blue.
Her hands, her fingers
(in his hair)
bowed before the flames; messengers
in rows of five
prayed with night-burdened thoughts.
(Their voices crumbled the silence
and slid through the cracks.)
Then diving into
the dark blasphemy of a drowning cry
(a wishing
aching
moment) –
the silence shuddered
as His flames consumed cocoon and
Her
fearful flesh
swam in a sea
of sounds,
clutched by a silverblue promise
writhing in the dark.

He didn’t speak
with words
as she begged the messengers
to pray harder
(maybe god would lift them up) –
She left behind her charred body
though she could still taste
the silence burned along her throat.

He rose like a night-bloom
(satiated to embers)
in her red hat that she had offered him
with trembling hands.
The gurgling
       buzzing
house-belly
spat him out
up
away
in a slow, loving drool,
and she watched him glowing
down the dimblue block
(like a lantern
carried by an invisible hand)
like a dream.

Back in the stilldark
where she could stillfeel
Him
lingering like warm tears,
she cradled her joy
though it seared her flesh
with ghostly cold.

(C) Natty Dread

A Little Bit Nostalgic

So, I intended to write this post last Monday, before we officially said goodbye to God of Small Things, but like so many of us, I got sidetracked. So forgive me for living in the past.

As I began to write my God of Small Things essay my memory was suddenly jogged back to the days of Heart of Darkness-- more specifically, back to The Piano. I was thinking about Ada and her relationship with George, and how their relationship compares with Ammu and Velutha's. Granted the beginning of their relationships were very different, but I think that they come down to the same realizations. Both of these women figured out what they wanted and they went after it, expressing their desires and acting on them.

These women were expressing their agency by defying those laws that tell us who we should love, and how, and how much. But what are these pieces of culture telling us? Both of theses women who defy the system and love those they aren't supposed to love are punished-- severely. Ada has her finger cut off, cutting off the only passion she ever had before George, her ability to play the piano, and Ammu's love is killed-- she has to live with the fact that her relationship is what lead to his death. That, in her mind, she killed Velutha. Is it really that all people who break the "Love Laws" are punished or is it only the women? I understand that obviously the males of God of Small Things are the exception but what about other works of literature-- or pop culture in general?   

I also thought that the parallel between Ada and Estha's silence was worth looking into if anyone has any ideas.

Baby Kochamma

I know we've started "Lear," but I have a question about GOST.

Now that we know the -whole- story... What are your opinions of Baby Kochamma and her actions? Was she justified?

Everyone's a little bit racist II: Hey Reena and Jake, check this out

So by popular demand, I have started up my "Everyone's a little bit racist" blog. Jake R. brought up a good point about GOST and how it shows the relationship between racisism and caste. He brought up how there is a "caste system" in the United States. You have homeless people who have no money and they are the equivalent to the untouchables (i.e. Velutha.) And on the other end of the spectrum, we have people like Bill Gates who has some uncomprehendable amount of money. They are like the Cashrya's (the warrior/rich class.) There is such a vast gap between these two groups. It is actually kinda of sicking. Just to do a little math. According to Forbes, Bill Gates as 43 billion dollars. If he divided his money up and gave $100,000 to anyone who is homeless, he could help out 430,000 people/familes. Just think about it.

Estha + Rahel= Love?

I'm not sure if I am the only one confused here... but what exactly goes on between Estha and Rahel at the end of the novel? To me, it seems as if their sibling bond is expanded a bit and made into something that shouldn't be shared between siblings. Do they engage in sexual activities? I am so confused! When I read this part i was puzzled but assumed that i was just wrong and inerpreting it incorrectly. Yet then yesterday, Mr. Heidkamp, had a reference to this scene written on the board in a way that it seemed as if more happened between Estha and Rahel then I first assumed. Does anyone have a more elaborate interpretation as to what actually happened between them in that bedroom at the end of the novel?

Quotations

I've noticed that a lot of us are impressed with Roy's language. I was just wondered, do people have favorite quotations from the book? Here are two of mine:

"He stepped onto the path that led through the swamp to the History House.
He left no ripples in the water.
No footprints on the shore.
He held his mundu spread above his head to dry. The wind lifted it like a sail. He was suddenly happy.Things will get worse, he thought to himself. Then better. He was walking swiftly now, towards the Heart of Darkness. As lonely as a wolf.
The God of Loss.
The God of Small Things.
Naked but for his nail varnish."

"They all crossed into forbidden territory. They all tampered with the laws that lay down who should be loved, and how. And how much."

Great Stories

There was a part in the book that I thought was especially interesting and to my knowledge we haven’t really discussed much in class. When the kathkali dancers from the “Heart of Darkness” come to the Ayemenem Temple to ask pardon of their gods there is an explanation of Great Stories. I don’t mean to overwhelm you with an entire paragraph quote but I think it may be somewhat important to brush on.

The secret of Great Stories is that they have no secrets. The Great Stories are the ones you have heard and want to hear again. The ones you can enter anywhere and inhabit comfortably. They don’t deceive you with the thrills and trick endings. They don’t surprise you with the unforeseen. They are as familiar as the house you live in, or the smell of your lover’s skin. You know how they end, yet you listen as though you don’t. In the way that you know that one day you will die, you live as though you won’t. In the Great Stories you know who lives, who dies, who finds love, who doesn’t. And yet you want to know again.

That is their mystery and their magic (218- 219).

I just remember reading this and thinking it was a really great paragraph. I felt that it was pertinent to the novel but that I was maybe not entirely grasping, not only this passage, but the entire passage with the kathkali dancers. The passage is obviously at least partially showing the impact imperialism has had on Indian traditions and how it effects the citizens of India but I feel that the stories themselves, the way in which they are presented, mean more.

These Great Stories also seem explain why Roy plays with time so much in her novel. It maybe clarifies why she reveals what she does when she does-- why the first chapter is so chop full of plot. But then I was wondering why Roy hides what she does? For example the way Sophie Mol actually dies. Any thoughts as to why Roy includes all this information in her novel and how it adds to the book?

God of Small Things and The Kite Runner

I just recently started reading the Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, which is a novel about a man living in Afghanistan and realized that there are many parallels to this and GOST. The little boy in The Kite Runner has a best friend that is of a different social class and faces a lot of the same problems that Rahel, Ammu, and Estha face with Velutha.

For example, on page 25 of The Kite Runner, "Never mind any of those things. Because history isn't easy to overcome. Neither is religion. In the end, I was a Pashtun and he was a Hazara, I was Sunni and he was Shi'a, and nothing was ever going to change that. Nothing."

So clearly this theme of division between the castes and religions is a common one in middle eastern countries. So I guess my question is do you think that there are any kinds of divisions in our culture that are similar to those in the middle east? Not necessarily caste but any others?

Small Things like ants and sticks and moments

The last chapter of this book was very important to me because it helped me to understand what Roy meant by the The Big Things and The Little Things.  I think the reason why she focused so much on this in the last chapter is because the book is about the human struggle between the The Big Things and The Little Things.  Between ants and people.  Between our passions and our obligations.  I think everyone experiences this struggle.  In the book, Little Things are ants and sticks and moments.  The Big Things are history and social obligation.  It seems that though the Big Things run the characters' lives, the Small Things are what they live for.  I'm just curious to see how we can tie this into our own lives.  What are the Big Things and Small Things in your life?