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Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, or literary devices that can help to develop and inform the text’s major themes.

Millstones

References to millstones are made frequently in the novel, both in describing the characters and alluding to their state of mind. Millstones are flat, round stones used for grinding grain. The references to millstones are a biblical allusion to Matthew 18:3 where people are warned by Jesus that they should sooner hang “millstones around their neck” than lead innocent children, or believers in God, into sin. Ammu, in Chapter 13, tells Rahel and Estha that they are “millstones round [her] neck,” in a fit of rage, blaming them as the root of her troubles and the reason she is trapped in Ayemenem. Ironically, Ammu’s transgressions with Velutha have given the twins each a metaphorical millstone around their necks, since they ultimately bear the burden of Velutha’s death for being forced to falsely testify against him by Baby Kochamma. Chacko also refers to the twins as millstones, and in some cases, Rahel’s own mind is described as being “full of millstones with bluegreyblue eyes,” a reference to her own psychological burdens.

Ants

Ants make a frequent appearance in the novel, as the chosen insect Roy uses whenever she wants to insert comedy or a sense of futility into the story. When Rahel is in her grandfather’s study, dusty with years of disuse, a line of ants marches along the windowsill. They’re described as a “line of mincing chorus girls in a Busby musical” silhouetted against the sun. The ants, personified in an act of showiness and gaiety, stand in contrast to the dour, dusty room, where all the marks of Pappachi’s honor, including his dissected insects, are now turning to dust. The ants are mocking Pappachi’s attempts at self-importance, parading around like he did in real life. Ants appear again when Rahel crushes a group of them after her mother scolds her, in an act to regain control over her surroundings. The ants here remind the reader of humanity’s futile attempts to control life. Ants also appear when Ammu’s body is discovered by a custodian in a room at a lodge outside of town for a job interview. A line of them marches out the door carrying a cockroach on their backs, “demonstrating what should be done with a corpse.” Ants become a reminder that nature will “laugh” at human melodrama, and they also arguably are the unlikely model for life’s decorum.

Laughing

Laughing appears repeatedly at crucial moments in the novel as an expression of bonding between characters, for good and bad. Rahel, Baby Kochamma, and Ammu share a laugh in the women’s restroom of the theater when they all take turns urinating. Rahel is young, and doesn’t understand why she feels this moment is special, but reflects later it is because she felt urinating in front of each other was a real, intimate moment, and the giggles were an outpouring of their family bonding. Similarly, Chacko and Margaret Kochamma’s relationship begins when Chacko tells a joke in her café and they laugh together. The joke doesn’t make Margaret laugh so much as Chacko’s laughing at his own joke, and their laughs build on each other, forging their bond. In contrast, the Orangedrink Lemondrink Man’s laugh is inscrutable, a “nasty laugh that Estha couldn’t understand” because he is only a boy. The man is laughing because he’s crudely delighting in the fact that he’s molesting an upper-caste boy. The laugh both haunts and fascinates Estha since he cannot understand it, and later, Estha becomes acutely attuned to moments when laughs are understandable. The man’s laugh has “bonded” them, however perversely.

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