Classes in “The God of Small Things”

            In the first two chapters of “The God of Small Things,” class plays a major role. The main characters Estha and Rahel face people looking down on them because of their class. At Sophie Mol’s funeral, Estha Rahel and Ammu are standing apart from everyone else and are ignored by the rest of the family. Estha and Rahel are children of Ammu and her divorced husband Baba. Since divorce is not accepted in their culture, this causes Ammu, the divorced woman and the children of the divorced parents to be thought of and treated differently. The family is a family of well off Syrian Christians. They own a pickle factory and a car which demonstrates that they are fairly well off, but Ammu, Estha, and Rahel are still treated differently. When Sophie Mol and Margaret Kochamma come to Ayemenem, their arrival is a big event and their opinions are valued. The family tries to force Estha and Rahel to only speak in English when these two come so that they can be seen in a more favorable light than they would be. Later, Miss Mitten comes and tries to get them to read and write forwards because thats how its done in English. Baby Kochamma also treats them differently because they are the children of divorced parents. Baby Kochamma also treats Velutha and Paravans differently because of her experience on the way to The Sound of Music. The distinction of the main characters’ class sets up conflict for the rest of the story. The class conflict between Estha and Rahel is set up to occur in society as against the Marxists, in their culture because they are children of divorced parents, and in their own family against Baby Kochamma.