Velutha exists as one of the most innocent characters of the God of Small Things -- he does not make bad things happen, rather, they happen to him. A dutiful worker, a kind friend, a passionate lover; Velutha does not take advantage and act selfishly as the others do. Rather, from as early as his introduction, the reader can immediately identify Velutha as the sort of kind and caring man he is in a way that is familiar to an experienced reader. Using the same characteristics that Thomas C. Foster lists in his fourteenth chapter of How to Read Literature Like a Professor, the symbolism behind everything from his work to his name establishes Velutha as a Christ figure, and a blatant one at that.
Foster offers us a succint list (126) of characteristics …show more content…
An entire language of numbers is included, existing as more tenuous connections than other characteristics. While it doesn 't exist on Foster 's list, he does advise to watch out to any mention of disciples (127). While lonely Velutha does not have any speak of, what he does have is it 's matching number: twelve. He builds a Mammachi a dining table which seats, of course, twelve guests (72). Other numbers includes three, which appears when we learn Velutha is three years older than Ammu (71), and also features prominently in the Bible in the form of the Holy Trinity. Another number is four, which pops up when discussing how long Velutha disappeared for; four years (73). While this ruins the trope of a Christ figure disappearing or dying for three units of time (three days, three months, three years, etc.), it also gives us the opportunity to play with the number four. While quartets, inevitably, occur several times in a work as long as the Bible, the most symbolism-heavy one is the four horsemen. The four horsemen is a seriously morbid omen to place on someone pure enough to be established as a Christ figure, but when considering how after his return Rahel and her family 's lives begin to spiral, it 's certainly an omen that came
Foster offers us a succint list (126) of characteristics …show more content…
An entire language of numbers is included, existing as more tenuous connections than other characteristics. While it doesn 't exist on Foster 's list, he does advise to watch out to any mention of disciples (127). While lonely Velutha does not have any speak of, what he does have is it 's matching number: twelve. He builds a Mammachi a dining table which seats, of course, twelve guests (72). Other numbers includes three, which appears when we learn Velutha is three years older than Ammu (71), and also features prominently in the Bible in the form of the Holy Trinity. Another number is four, which pops up when discussing how long Velutha disappeared for; four years (73). While this ruins the trope of a Christ figure disappearing or dying for three units of time (three days, three months, three years, etc.), it also gives us the opportunity to play with the number four. While quartets, inevitably, occur several times in a work as long as the Bible, the most symbolism-heavy one is the four horsemen. The four horsemen is a seriously morbid omen to place on someone pure enough to be established as a Christ figure, but when considering how after his return Rahel and her family 's lives begin to spiral, it 's certainly an omen that came