The rules, restrictions, prejudices and values within a society can have profound impacts on an individual’s sense of identity and place in the world. This is exemplified in Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things and Celeste Ng's Everything I Never Told You, set respectively in the Indian village of Ayemenem and 1970s Ohio. Both texts provide similar provocative insights to identity through the exploration of context and the construction of characters whose personal values are in constant conflict with the expectations and social injustices that are imposed upon them.
While both texts share a common theme of identity, their vastly different contexts have profound effects on the protagonists and their developments. The God of Small Things …show more content…
The author employs a third person omniscient narrator to tell the story, which enables readers to gain knowledge about each character, delve deeper into the emotions and relationships that are integral to the story’s development, and reinforces the idea that social expectations can have considerable effects on everyone within a society. This idea is portrayed through the character, Lydia, who finds herself struggling to keep up with the expectations of her family and is demonstrated when Lydia’s father advises her to “remember what really matters...blending in. Don’t feel like smiling? Force yourself to smile. Don’t criticize, condemn, or complain.” The characterisation of Lydia’s father delineates the burdens Lydia has to face due to the skewed ideals of society and enables the author to espouse the notion that individuals are often forced to put up a facade in order to assimilate. The author’s use of alliteration also draws attention to the fact that individuals have limited ability to find their place in their world as they are taught to give in to societal pressures without question and repress their true feelings. The detrimental effect of the expectations imposed upon individuals is conveyed when the author states “expectations - like snow - drifted, settled and crushed you with their weight. Lydia sat bolt upright with a fake smile, like a doll on display”. The implementation of these similes further illustrate the pressure individuals are faced with in their society to fit in, and Lydia’s choice to follow these ideals and repress her identity brings light to the destruction caused by a society strictly steeped in rules. The exploration of social expectations within both texts allows the
While both texts share a common theme of identity, their vastly different contexts have profound effects on the protagonists and their developments. The God of Small Things …show more content…
The author employs a third person omniscient narrator to tell the story, which enables readers to gain knowledge about each character, delve deeper into the emotions and relationships that are integral to the story’s development, and reinforces the idea that social expectations can have considerable effects on everyone within a society. This idea is portrayed through the character, Lydia, who finds herself struggling to keep up with the expectations of her family and is demonstrated when Lydia’s father advises her to “remember what really matters...blending in. Don’t feel like smiling? Force yourself to smile. Don’t criticize, condemn, or complain.” The characterisation of Lydia’s father delineates the burdens Lydia has to face due to the skewed ideals of society and enables the author to espouse the notion that individuals are often forced to put up a facade in order to assimilate. The author’s use of alliteration also draws attention to the fact that individuals have limited ability to find their place in their world as they are taught to give in to societal pressures without question and repress their true feelings. The detrimental effect of the expectations imposed upon individuals is conveyed when the author states “expectations - like snow - drifted, settled and crushed you with their weight. Lydia sat bolt upright with a fake smile, like a doll on display”. The implementation of these similes further illustrate the pressure individuals are faced with in their society to fit in, and Lydia’s choice to follow these ideals and repress her identity brings light to the destruction caused by a society strictly steeped in rules. The exploration of social expectations within both texts allows the