Roy and the Sixth Sense

Arundhati Roy's writing style in The God of Small Things is quite distinctive. Her sensory imagery is very strong and her carefully chosen diction creates almost an eerie atmosphere for the novel. While the story focuses on several characters, Roy dedicates the most time to Rahel. The novel switches back and forth from the 1960s to the 1990s, and readers frequently see Rahel as a child. Despite her young age, her thoughts and analogies are morbid and dark. She often thinks about death. While considered to be a love story, The God of Small Things in some aspects reads like a mystery. The audience knows that there has been a death, but it is not initially revealed how the death comes about. What really creates the mysterious and ominous atmosphere is Roy's appeals to the readers sixth sense. The objects and places she describe allows readers to visualize this almost electric quality of the world around the family in Ayemenem. Roy writes, "Rain. Rushing, inky water. And a smell. Sicksweet. Like old roses on a breeze,” (29). The combination of the visual, olfactory, and tactile all combine to create an unsettling feeling in readers. Another example is when the narrator describes how the loss of Sophie Mol affected the family remarking, "The Loss of Sophie Mol stepped softly around the Ayemenem House like a quiet thing in socks. It hid in books and food. In Mammachi’s violin case. In the scabs of the sores on Chacko’s shins that he constantly worried. In his slack, womanish legs," (18). The way she describes the emotions of the household almost has a ghostly quality to it. The diction and metaphors and similes Roy uses are quiet, yet powerful. While tragic, the language and writing style of The God of Small Things is beautiful. There is something oddly satisfying in the unsettling feeling that comes with this carefully written novel that evokes such strong emotions in readers.