Both
Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things and U.R. Anantha
Murthy’s Samskara are centered on the debate over
traditional societal structure versus individual agency. However,
the two novels differ in theme: The God of Small Things
unambiguously supports individual agency over traditional structure,
whereas Samskara presents a more complex view in which both
sides are shown to have flaws and merits. Both authors use types of
self-interest on each side as a lens through which to present their
cases: in The God of Small Things, we find destructive
self-interest only on the side of tradition, whereas in Samskara,
we find it on both sides of the divide.
In
The God of Small Things, the conflict between tradition and
individual agency surfaces in the form of the “Love Laws”—laws
inherent in the societal structure that forbid love between certain
people, such as between people from different castes, and such as
between siblings. (“[It could be argued t]hat it [all—the
sequence of events that would lead to a great deal of destruction]
really began in the days when the Love Laws were made. The laws that
lay down who should be loved, and how. And how much” (33).) The
novel tells the story of twins, Esthappen and Rahel. Their family
owns a canning factory, which has employed an outcaste man, Velutha.
The children enjoy playing with Velutha. Their mother, Ammu, who has
been abandoned by her husband and is increasingly shut out from the
management of the factory by her un-business-smart Oxford-educated
brother, falls in love with Velutha and meets and sleeps with him
secretly. When Velutha’s father realizes what is going on, he
tells Ammu’s mother, Mammachi. She and her sister, Baby Kochamma,
lock Ammu in her room, where, in her desperation, she curses Rahel
and Estha through the door.
