This document summarizes key concepts from Arundhati Roy's novel The God of Small Things through a post-colonial lens. It discusses several post-colonial theorists and how their ideas are reflected in the novel, such as Anglophilia, double standards, class distinction, and hybridity. It analyzes how characters exemplify these post-colonial characteristics and struggles with identity in a society still shaped by the aftermath of colonial rule.

1. ‘Big Things’ Shaping Post Colonial Identity in
Roy's
The God of Small Things
Presented by:
Md. Rakibul Hasan

2. The God of Small Things
Arundhati Roy
Published: 1997

3. Post Colonial Theorist Marxist Theorist
 Edward Said
 Homi K. Bhabha
 Frantz Fanon
 Louis Althusser
• Anthonio Gramsci
Theorist

4. Post Colonial Identity’s Characteristics
Anglophilia
Double Standard
Class Distinction
Burden of Grand
Narratives
Hybridity

5. Anglophilia
Who is Anglophile?
‘‘Person well disposed to the English” (Roy 52).

6. Anglophilia
Pappachi
 Wore three piece wool suits even after retired
 "would not believe...any Englishman, would covet another
man's wife" (Roy 42).
Chacko
Oxford Education, Marrying Margret
"You don't go to Oxford. You read at Oxford“(Roy 55).
Baby Kochamma
 immense admiration for Western culture
 " made twins write... I will always speak in
English’’(36)

7. Double Standard
inherited in the post colonial society
one rule in the mother country
a different one in the colony
 Ammu vs Margaret
Edward Said’s Orientalism
‘rational West’ and ‘irrational other’
European identity superior to non-European cultures

8. Double Standard
 Sophie vs Eshta and Rahel
Frantz Fanon’s Black Skin, White Masks
• ‘‘white racial superiority over non-white’’
 Man’s need vs Ammu’s affair

9. Class Distinction
Edward Said’s Orientalism
 ‘the other’
Velutha
Vellya Paapen
Kuttapen

10.  Vellya Paapen
 Gramsci’s ‘Hegemony’
•Velutha
ALTHUSSER’S ‘RSA- REPRESSIVE STATE
APPARATUS
Class Distinction

11. Burden of Grand Narratives
Grand Narratives
• Religion
• Marxism
• Love Laws
• Colonialim
 Estha-Rahel’s Separation
 Breaking of Love Laws
fall victim to the claw of power structure.

12. Hybridity
 Family of Anglophile
 force “to sing in English
 influenced by-
Elvis Presley
Broadway musicals
Love-in-Tokyo hair bands
 Local Culture
 ‘‘culture’s hybridity’’ (Bhabha)
 ‘Half-Hindu Hybrids’(Roy 52)
Shirley Temple(The Bluest Eye) &
Sophie Mol vs Pecola & Estha- Rahel

13. Conclusion
 Colonialism may be dead but the concept of
“Empire” will never vanish
 India and Indian people still face identity crisis