Abstract
The God of Small Things exposes the unjust practices of patriarchy. From the opening pages, Ammu as a divorcee is victimized by patriarchy’s crude implement of power, the police. She is deprived legally of any claim to property and is forced to endure, and abide by, patriarchal cultural and social norms against which she eventually rebels. Roy explicitly associates violence with patriarchy’s fear of women. She criticizes, moreover, the male head of the household, Pappachi, depicting him as a petty tyrant. The glaring injustice of the patriarchal double standard regarding the “Love Laws” is also revealed through Mammachi’s response to her son’s various sexual liaisons as compared to Ammu’s affair with Velutha, a man from the Untouchable caste. Despite the ending in which Ammu and Velutha make love, The God of Small Things remains a dark novel as Roy reveals the ravages of patriarchy on women.
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