The God of Small Things Chapters 15 - 21
Velutha makes his way to the river after being turned away by Pillai, he crosses the dark mass of the water in the storm. He makes way for the History house where he and Ammu had met nightly to consummate their love. The narrator christens him as the God of Small Things and details how Velutha experiences a sense of happiness at his secret being discovered. He goes to sleep in the backyard of the History house. After Ammu yells at her children, they decide to get out of her way by running away to the History House. They were prepared to return if Ammu begged them, but not until then. Sophie convinced them to accompany her as she argued that it would send a stronger message to the adults if they disappeared altogether. They cross the river with a few supplies during the dark and stormy night, but their river is suddenly struck by a log that upturns their vessel. The twins are experienced swimmers and they manage to cross to the other side, but they lose track of Sophie. They attempt to search for her but are unable to track her down. The twins head to the History House and fall asleep on the veranda, just a few meters away from the sleeping Velutha.
In the present, Baby Kochamma writes in her diary the daily mantra of love and thinks of the man she had loved, the Irish monk. She now felt closer to him despite his death. Estha thinks back on the day that Chacko had cast Ammu out of the house, holding her responsible for Sophie’s death due to her association with Velutha. The newspapers had printed a trumped-up version of Sophie’s death, but none of them had gotten close to the actual truth of the events that had taken place. On the morning following Sophie’s disappearance, a posse of policemen had crossed the river to the History House and discovered the sleeping Velutha. They set to work immediately and set to mercilessly beat the life out of Velutha like automatons tasked to protect the boundary between touchable and untouchables. They beat him with an inch of death and discovered the twins nearby who had been awoken by the violence. They noticed the supplies that the children had carried but made nothing of them as they took the twins and Velutha to the police station.
At the station, the police captain learns from the children that they haven’t been kidnapped by Velutha. However, he also realizes that Velutha is close to death and unlikely to survive past the night. He summons Baby Kochamma, who had filed the complaint against Velutha, and informs her that he would be forced to imprison her if he was unable to secure a charge against Velutha. She would either have to convince Ammu to file a rape charge against him, or the twins needed to accept that they had been kidnapped by Velutha. She speaks to the twins alone and accuses them of murdering Sophie. She frightened them and lied to them that Ammu would be sent to jail as well because of their actions. They agree to implicate Velutha, and although they were children, Rahel realizes that they had been aware of the importance of their actions. Estha accompanied the inspector to the cell and identified Velutha as the kidnapper while Baby Kochamma defected in the washroom adjoining the Inspector’s office. Baby Kochamma then realizes the threat that Ammu poses to her safety when she goes to see the police after Sophie’s funeral. She uses Chacko’s grief to poison him against his sister, and he casts her out of the house, holding her responsible for Sophie’s murder.
In the present Estha looks back on the events surrounding his departure from Aymenem, when his mother had forced to separate the twins of the family’s refusal to take care of them both. Estha had boarded the train with a family friend, and Ammu had come to see him off with Rahel. Ammu promised him that she would come to take him back when she secured a job that would allow her to afford the rent for a house, while Estha worried about how long they would have to be away. Rahel was unable to bear the departure of her brother and screamed in pain when the train departed with Estha. The adult looks back on those events, and he is pulled into Rahel’s arms. The twins lie on the bed and make love to one another, but it isn’t loved, but an acknowledgment of the emptiness that had existed inside them since Velutha’s death.
In the final chapter, the narrator turns to the passionate coupling between Velutha that began on the day of Sophie’s arrival. Velutha waited for Ammu in the river, without ever having traded words with her, and just as he begins to dismiss the notion that she would come, Ammu appears. Their lovemaking is tender, magical, and focused on the small things. They do not think about the consequences of their joining, but only about the delight that it brings them throughout the brief two weeks between Sophie’s arrival and her death.
Analysis
The final section of the novel reveals the true villainy of Baby, who has until this point of the novel faithfully served the role of comical relief. Her petty grudges against the family are fuelled by her paranoia, and chance aids her in working appalling revenge against her family members. She sees Ammu’s affair with Velutha as an opportunity to exercise vengeance against him for being associated with the people who had humiliated her during the communist rally. Her lies feed the hate of the policemen against the untouchable man who had violated the honor of a touchable woman. The inspector eventually discovers that Baby has fed him lies, but she rescues herself by manipulating Estha, who continues to experience the guilt of his false accusation well into his adult life. Baby Kochamma’s moral corruption is further highlighted by the stinking pile of feces that she leaves behind in the officer’s washroom.
The end of the novel offers relief in the form of love as Rahel takes Estha into her arms, and Ammu finds love in Velutha’s arms. The novel leaves the reader with an appreciation for the small things and communicates the idea that the pleasure of living is found nearly always in the small things.
