The Role of Children in The God of Small Things Why wont writers allow children to simply be children?

Often times in novels, children are the focus of the novel. The life of a child is storied and they are often the main characters. Sometimes books have complex plots that take place in settings from the future, or in devastating and depressing times. Often times the children in the novel do extraordinary things that children wouldnt actually do in real life. Take for example, The Hunger Games series. The children in this series are forced to grow up and act much more mature than there actual age. Sometimes writers create these larger than live, brave, extremely mature children to give the book a deeper meaning, and more dramatic plot, but while keeping the audience focused for young adults and children. There serves a purpose to the way the children act and behave in the novels. It is no different for The God of Small Things. The God of Small Things is a novel centered on the lives and events of two Indian twins: Rahel and Estha. The novel goes back and forth in time to narrate events that happened while the twins are children in 1969 and when they are adults in 1993. A lot of the novel and its stories take place in 1969. While Rahel and Estha are younger children they experience many different life-altering events. The novel, while not a work of non-fiction, contains events that are very likely to have happened to children. Arundhati Roy, the author of The God of Small Things, wrote this book and gave the children lives that although seem a bit tough and unfortunate to happen to children, are realistic and kept in the novel to tell a story and teach a lesson or offer an prompt which the reader will have to think about and discover the answer for themselves.

Rahel is the female twin in the novel. In her childhood she is very close to her brother Estha. While there are stories of them playing like normal children, much of the story is of events that we wouldnt think to be normal in the life of a child. Rahel worries much about the love she receives from her family. Rahel is also a very imaginative child, more so than Estha. At Sophie Mols funeral she imagines that Sophie Mol is moving and turning around in her coffin. She believes that Sophie Mol was buried alive. It is this detailed imagination, which often causes her to be afraid and worried. Yet sometimes she seems to let her imagination run wild and she often uses this as a way to almost hide from the truth; she lets her imagination take over so she doesnt have to swallow the truth whole. When Velutha is killed, Estha reassures her it wasnt their fault and everything will be ok. What she decides to imagine what happened is unsure, but we know this causes her less worry and she seems to accept his death more easily than Estha. Rahel has the more normal childhood like qualities out of the two twins. Rahel gets into trouble at school. She is curious and doesnt like to sit still; she likes to explore and learn things on her own. This gives her a relatable and more believable childhood and qualities. She is also very stubborn. When Sophie Mol and Margaret Kochamma come to visit, Rahel hides behind a curtain because she doesnt want to be friends with Sophie Mol. She is also very worried that her mother and own family will begin to love Sophie Mol more than herself and that they will quickly forget about her completely. Rahel lives the more childlike and innocent life. Her experiences are somewhat dramatic, but she seems to have characteristics more like the everyday child. Roy allows Rahel to be a child to counter Esthas experiences and offer both sides of the coin.

Estha is the male twin to Rahel. He also lives a childhood with a very close relationship to his sister Rahel and his mother Ammu. Estha however, begins to experience things that cause him to lose his sense of childhood innocence and is forced to mature quickly. When attending his third viewing of The Sound of Music, he is forced to wait in the lobby after refusing to stop singing along to the music. This seems like a very childlike thing; Estha is unfortunately punished just for singing along- not to spite anyone, but just out of pure innocent joy and love for the musical. Here in the lobby he is unfortunately molested by Orangedrink Lemondrink Man. This is the moment when he loses his innocent view of the world. He is scared and forced to grow up quickly out of fear and confusion for what happened to him. He experienced something children should not, something which caused him to never see the world in the same joyfully childlike light again. His new mature view of the world can be seen throughout the rest of the event that follow in the novel. He becomes protective of Rahel; he tells her things will be all right when Velutha is killed. He must take on the mature responsibilities out of the two twins because he wants to protect Rahel from losing her childhood innocent too. Estha also experiences other things which seem unfair to happen to a child. He is there, and partially the reason Sophie Mol is in the situation where she dies, and also has to lie to the police about Velutha abducting the children. He has to carry more weight on his shoulder and his spirit seems to diminish as he is bogged down with more unfortunate events. Roy lets these things happen the Estha to show the other side of the coin. Rahel is the more innocent and childlike one, while Estha is the child who must

endure worse things to grow up faster. Roy does this not to be cruel and unfair. This novel is a lesson. Roy tells of these things happening to Estha, because unfortunately in the real world, these things do happen and some children must grow up faster than others. The God of Small Things is a novel that shows how events affect two different children in different ways. The way the children interpreted the events determines how they act as adults. This novel, the way the novel ends, and the depth and symbolism this novel has to offer wouldnt be the same had everything that happened in the novel was good and hunky dory. This novel needed darker moments where innocence was lost to help develop and appreciation for where the twins are in their adult lives. Roy tells a story that covers a long period of time. People are shaped by their pasts. The God of Small Things is a novel that gives insight to characters presents as well as their pasts. Had Roy simply let children be children there would be no story.