2022 IB Diploma Extended Essays

How does Arundhati Roy explore the impacts of cultural values on the lives of individuals in ‘The God of Small Things’? Malayalam through the lens of Roy’s translations. The narration surrounding the untranslated lyrics is in a stream of consciousness style, juxtaposing the lyrics themselves, which are formally formatted, with indentation and each new lyric being on a new line. This positions the reader to feel unsettled by the insertion of these lyrics, and therefore uncomfortable with the lack of translation. Ultimately, this demonstrates to the reader that by only understanding the lyrics through the translation, the reader does not actually understand the lyrics at all, as they are unable to comprehend the cultural intricacies of the lyrics, and by extension Malayalam as a whole. By showing the reader the ease at which they can become alienated from the novel, simply through a lack of understanding of Malayalam, Roy demonstrates how the characters themselves, specifically the twins, can become alienated from their own culture, by being forced to adopt the English language, and by extension colonialist values. Overall, Roy develops the motif of the English language as an extension of colonialist cultural values, to explore how postcolonialism leads to a loss of traditional culture, preventing the freedom of the twins, as individuals within Indian society. Additionally, authoritative forces can use traditional beliefs to restrict the agency of individuals. Roy depicts the rising influence of communism, another aspect of Kerala’s changing society, to demonstrate the detrimental effects of the caste system on Velutha’s life. Throughout the novel, Comrade Pillai represents the influence of communism, as he is the leader of the Communist Party in Kerala. Velutha is a member of the Paravan people, who are considered to be outside of the traditional Indian caste system, and are thus ‘Untouchables’. Therefore, when Pillai tells Chacko to “send [Velutha] off” (278), as he believes “these caste issues are very deep-rooted” (278), he is discriminating against Velutha based on his caste, despite the ideals of communism suggesting that Pillai should be pursuing equality within society. This implies to the reader that Pillai only cares about his political power, and not the

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