"Hansel and Gretel in a ghastly fairy tale in which their dreams would be captured and re-dreamed." (pg 278)

Estha and Rahel, are stuck in a horor movie, their hopes and dreams are lost, now replaced with newer, more terrible ones. Roy describes the events after Sophie Mol's death with the description of Hansel and Gretel, how both Rahel and Estha are two lost kids just like them. Trying to follow the bed crumbs all the way home, but it is too dark to see the crumbs, to rainy that the crumbs might of washed away. Just like how Sophie washed away. Once it is lost to the river, nature takes care of the rest. Hansel and Gretel, Estha and Rahel, both lost kids who ran from home. Both scared for what will happen next. Both nervous about their futures. They don't know what will happen, but they know it wont be pretty.

Here are some questions I was asking in my head as I was reading, and I thought that you might be interested in answering:

1. What makes the characters in this The God of Small Things significant?

2. Chapter 11 is called "The God of small things." Why?

3. On page 254 it says "Work is Struggle. Struggle is Work." why did the character in this chapter write this?

"Sophie Mol became a Memory, while The Loss of Sophie Mol grew robust and alive. Like a fruit in season. Every season." I found this very notable. It is true that often the death of an individual becomes what they are remembered for, rather than what they did while they were alive. It seems to me that there are many more times that we hear about Sophie Mol's death than times that she was alive

Do you think that Comrade Pillia thinks that Chacko is a threat to him? They talk about the Union and how Chacko is becoming less of an overthrower and is turning into the rank of the To Be Overthrown. And how the workers will rebel against Chacko, but what if they rebel against Comrade Pillia afterword, Comrade Pillia would not have seen it coming and wont know what to do.

Pappachi wanted to the best for his family. He always tries to find a way to make his family happy, sophisticated, and proud. It was until a guy stole his idea of the moth that things started to go down. After this Pappachi started to change. He started to beat his wife more and his children. It wasn't until the kids got older that they were comfortable with Pappachi.

Chapter starts as Sophie mol wakes up in Chacko's house and seems to have homesick. Margaret and her daughter is using Chacko's room while their visit. Margaret's father did not support Margaret's wedding as he disliked the Indians. The story tells about Chacko and Margarets story as Margaret was a waitress in Oxford cafy and Chacko is a rhodes scholar.

"Revolution is not a dinner party. Revolution is an insurrection, an act of violence in which one class overthrows another." (pg 265) Comrade Pillai is threatening Chacko about Velutha and his presence in the factory. That there will be an uprising against him since he is a Paravan. "He deftly banished Chacko from the fighting ranks of the Overthrowers to the treacherous ranks of the To Be Over-thrown." (pg 265) Comrade Pillai wanted to take authority over Chacko though he "realized that what he really needed was the process of war more than the outcome of victory." (pg 266) Why did Comrade Pillai want this change to happen, was it because Comrade Pillai wanted to take revenge on Chacko and him running the factory. Or was it a specific revenge on Velutha being a Paravan?

Why did Ammu yell at her children when right before they were having a fine time after the nap? I think it might have been something one of the twins might have said. Ammu yelled at them and told them that she should have giving them away when they were first born.

Why does Margret Kochamma blame Estha for Sophie Mol's death, even though she does not know if Sophie Mol was killed by someone? I think it is because Margret Kochamma had never really liked Ammu and thought that it was unfair that her children got to live when she was a nobody and they have no father.

Dear Bloggers, I realize I asked my question but never really had the chance to discuss it. So I will use this post to do that. Why didn't Estha run, or yell or say anything? We know he felt powerless, it says so, 'Estha held it because he had to." (98) but could he not scream or protest in anyway? No. It was impossible, fear gripped him, it paralyzed him. We can ask what was he afraid of, the man? certainly not had he screamed people would of come, they would of heard him and they would of come to his aid, surely no one would of held him in the wrong. I think what it was that he was afraid of was people no longer loving him, no longer caring about him because he was no longer innocent. I think he blamed himself. After all it was his hand that held the Orangedrink Lemondrink man's penis. It was his but that the man pinched when he was done, and it was he who sat there drinking Lemontoolemon while seamen rolled all down his hand. How could anyone love him after he had just done all of this? How could he love himself? On page 101 after he had gone back into the movie theater, him and Rahel sit there asking the stern yet comforting, white, face of Baron von Trapp, if he could love them. To help him decide, they ask themselves a few questions comparing themselves to the children and people does love. I think question d says it all. Not only does it make them feel unloved it begings to sow the seed of self-loathing because for everything they are that is "wrong" Sophie Mol is "right". She is white, well-behaved, and has never held in her hand a strangers penis. And maybe if she has never done that, the Baron can love her. But never could he ever love them.

Dear Bloggers, I have a question. Why didn't Estha leave, or yell or say anything? Instead he allowed himself to be humiliated, raped even by a perveted old man. But was his mind really all that perverted or just his action. What I mean is did he rape Estha as a way to satisfy his terrible desires, or did he do it to exact revenge upon a society he felt has treated him unfairly. Is he just angry at his position in a post feudal yet hugely impoverished India? He has probably never even had the true chance to escape his predicament, maybe he has even climbed in the social ladder. I don't mean to play devils advokat, and I certainly am not excusing his actions, but I can't escape Thinking about what it was that he said at the end of the scene, "Now finish your drink, you musn't waste it. Think of all the poor people who have nothing to eat or drink. You're a lucky rich boy, with porketmunny and a grandmother's factory to inherit. You should Thank God that you have no worries. Now finish your drink." If I were going to speculate as to which side of the socionomic scale the Lemonorangedrink man grew up on, I would say it was probably the impoverished one. I would bet that seeing a young boy going into a movie, rich white people, who is able to buy cool drinks, instead of being grateful for the dirty, excrement filled river water, fills him with an unbelievable spite. To me it looks like a perverse action that subconciously translates to him literally raping the system, a much more malicious version of telling it to the man.

I think that Sophie Mol is symbol for love. I think she and her death remind the family of sadness and also love. Just like the moth, Sophie keeps appearing in in the book at random times, and each times it has something to do with the family.

We can tell from Arundhati Roy's description of Ayemenem that it is not especially well off. Though the Ipe family is more fortunate than the other residents, they are an exception. When Rahel and Estha go looking for Velutha, they encounter Kuthappen who is paralyzed and thus bound to a small shack-like residence away from any human connection besides Velutha and Vellya Paapen, ostracized from society. Even worse, however, was Velutha's "Untouchability" I find. This was a man extremely close to the Ayemenem house, and idolized by Rahel and Estha and yet, he was unable to shake off his rank as an untouchable. "The God of Small Things" paints a nasty picture of India's archaic, antiquated, obsolete caste system.

Hey Everyone,

I tallied posts and comments and recorded them. I'll bring a new inventory chart to class tomorrow!

Recorded at 1:30pm, Sunday, April 25, 2010.

Nice work all!

Lisa