The God of Small Things Characters Analysis
Estha - Estha is Ammu’s son and Rahel’s twin brother who is molested by an attendant at the movie theatre, a day before the arrival of Sophie and Margaret. He is deeply affected by the molestation, and unable to disclose the event to anyone. After Sophie Mol’s death, Estha is sent to the northeastern part of India to be raised by his father since Ammu is unable to support either of her children. He develops into a socially awkward and mute individual. The novel reveals that Estha is also haunted by guilt due to his part in the injustice that took place with Velutha.
Rahel - Estha’s twin sister serves as one of the major narrative voices of the novel. She shares a deep connection with Estha, and her forced separation from him as well as Ammu leaves her with a deep scar. After Sophie’s death, Rahel moves through life with indifference, unable to care or experience deep emotions even when Ammu dies a lonely death in an obscure inn. She pursues a degree in Architecture, marries an American, moves to America, and goes through a divorce without truly experiencing any deep emotions. In the final scenes of the novel, Estha and Rahel enjoin one another through sex and attempt to heal the vacuum that exists inside them both.
Ammu - Rahel and Estha’s mother marries their father at a young age to escape from her deeply misogynistic and abusive father. Unfortunately, she marries an alcoholic man who attempts to trade her as a sexual object with his white employer for the sake of his job. She leaves him and returns to her paternal home, where she is discriminated against because of the disgrace she brings to them through her divorce. She falls in love with an untouchable man, Velutha, but she loses him to death as he is persecuted by the policemen for violating a touchable woman.
Velutha - A skilled craftsman who hails from an untouchable caste and serves as a crucial worker for the Ipe pickle factory. Velutha is the moral center of the novel, he doesn’t let himself be defined by his untouchable background and stands upright against a world that wishes to make him bow. He falls in love with Ammu and carries on a love affair with her that eventually leads him to persecution and death.
Baby Kochamma - The principal antagonist of the novel is a petty old woman who is unable to fulfill her fantasy of love with an Irish monk. She spends most of the novel antagonizing the twins, and Ammu for their status in a patriarchal society that punishes women for divorce. Her paranoia and her inflated ego lead her to hatefully manipulate the people around her which eventually leads to the deaths of both Velutha and Sophie.
