The God of Small Things Chapters 9 & 10 Summary & Analysis

Chapters 9 & 10

Summary: Chapter 9, Mrs Pillai, Mrs Eapen, Mrs Rajagopalan

In this chapter, the reader enters deeply into Rahel’s thoughts. Rahel is at the swamp near the house in Ayemenem. She remembers one day when she and Estha took Sophie Mol to meet Velutha. They were all playing with Ammu’s makeup earlier, and arrived looking like “raccoons.” She remembers how he entertained their “fictions,” treating them like children without judging them and just playing along. Back in the present, Rahel sees the adult Estha in his room sitting on his bed looking out into the darkness. They both feel trapped like two actors in a play they never created. Rahel reflects on how they had no chance of ever freeing themselves from their “roles” with the help of a counselor or other person who could help them see that they weren’t the sinners or perpetrators, but the ones perpetrated against. It’s not yet clear what their “sin” is, but a reference to Velutha and Sophie Mol suggests the sin is related to them. Rahel then wanders to the pickle factory, and reminisces about how the day Sophie Mol arrived, Estha had thought “Two Thoughts” that he “pickled and sealed” in a jar of scarlet jam. The chapter ends with the refrain that appears several times in the novel that “Things can change in a day.”

Summary: Chapter 10, The River in the Boat

Back at the pickle factory when the twins are younger and on the day of Sophie Mol’s arrival, it is revealed what the “Two Thoughts” were that Estha sealed in the jar. One is that “Anything can happen to anyone,” and the other is “It is best to be prepared,” two things he learned from his experience with the Orangedrink Lemondrink Man. Estha begins to have macabre thoughts, worrying that the Orangedrink Lemondrink Man will come to assault him again now that he knows where the pickle factory is. Rahel comes to the pickle factory and interrupts his thoughts. Estha tells Rahel that he plans to go to the History House, an abandoned house near the river that Vellya Paapen, Velutha’s father, has told them is haunted by a spirit of the man who lived there, Kari Saipu. Estha explains that he wants to go there because “Anything can happen to anyone” and “It’s best to be prepared.” The twins decide that since Communists don’t believe in ghosts, they will plant a Communist flag (Velutha’s flag) in front of the house to ward off the ghost.

The twins find a boat on the river, the same one it is revealed that is used by Velutha every night to go to Ammu so they can make love. The boat sinks into the river as they launch it, so they wash it and bring it to Velutha’s hut to get fixed. There, they find Velutha’s brother Kuttapen, who is paralyzed from the chest downward. He lies in the corner of the hut on his back all day listening and calling to young people as they pass by. He tells the children how to fix the boat and warns them that the river “isn’t always what it pretends to be.” Velutha spots the Communist flag outside the hut and realizes the children are inside, and that they did spot him at the protest on their way to Cochin to meet Sophie Mol earlier. For a moment, he relishes in the vision of Ammu’s children living in his hut, but suppresses the feeling, as well as his growing feelings for Ammu.

Analysis: Chapters 9 & 10

In Chapters 9 and 10, the novel explores the blending of fiction and reality in the characters’ minds which creates garish and ill-fated results. Like much of the novel, the blending of elements—Indian culture with European tastes in the Kathakali dances; Indian labor practices with Marxist ideologies in Comrade K. N. M. Pillai’s misguided efforts; fantasy and reality in the child Rahel’s horrific vision at Sophie Mol’s funeral—all result in situations, people, and traditions that are warped, ineffectual versions of their former selves.

Estha’s “Two Thoughts”—“Anything can happen to anyone,” and “It is best to be prepared”—are the result of his tragic experience with the Orangedrink Lemondrink Man and evidence of a child’s mind trying to make sense of a very real event. When Estha is sexually abused by the man, he is forced to navigate sexuality, abuse, and adulthood with the limitations of an immature consciousness. The result is a falsely “mature” sense of practicality that life is never safe, that anything can happen to him at any time, and it’s best to be prepared for the worst. The harsh realities of life are superimposed on an innocent child’s mind, and the result is a distorted version of preparedness. It’s these “Two Thoughts” that send the kids to the History House, where they hope to find refuge from their mother and the Ayemenem house, and which will eventually lead to Sophie Mol’s death. Estha creates a “fictional” posturing of maturity as he tries to blend the sober realities presented to him from the abuse he experiences.

The children also blend fantasy and reality by wearing makeup and pretending to be adults. Velutha, notably, entertains their fictions and lets them stand, unlike Ammu, who grows impatient with the kids’ playing. Velutha and the History House are the two “places” where the children can go to be true children. Rahel’s reflections on role-playing further imply the necessity of purging children’s consciousnesses of the “roles” adults hoist on them, in this case, Baby Kochamma’s later convictions of them as “sinners” and “murderers.” Velutha’s act of kindness with the children becomes even more poignant here, as it shows the enormity of the respite the children feel in his presence, and how necessary his acceptance and kindness are to their development. But like most things in the twins’ lives, including their innocence, Velutha is prematurely stripped from their lives.

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