Trauma and Storytelling in Arundhati Roy’s The Ministry of Utmost Happiness

Abstract

The graveyard in Arundhati Roy’s The Ministry of Utmost Happiness (2017) may be interpreted as the quintessential place that communicates traumatic loss, so that the present paper purports to analyze this fictional work from the perspective of trauma studies. I will first demonstrate how the text abounds with all the typical elements on which this field of study focus their attention, from dissociative disorders to the obsession of repeated images, and more. Another section of my work analyses how the impact of trauma results in the surfacing of a death-wish that dominates Anjum’s frame of life, as well as the whole narration. Differently from what had happened in The God of Small Things, this pessimistic view however is countered in The Ministry, where an instinct for survival reacts against the prevailing gloomy atmosphere. In this context, the roles of storytelling and social commitment acquire a central role as agents able to neutralize psychic suffering and restore social connection. Finally, particular attention has also been made to offering a range of possible interpretations to the meaning of the term “happiness,” a key word for this text.