God of Small Things and Identity Essay Example

style="text-align: justify">Rather than flowing, the extract consists of short choppy paragraphs; the structure is metaphorical of the content as irregular paragraphing is representational of the culture break down; a loss of identity is clear as losing sight of unique identity shown through weakened structure. Especially further down when chack explicitly mentions , I lines are less complex, sense of losing sight of their unique identity as the structure weakens, it seems almost nonsensical which too is unclear due to their remove Contrasted with ‘The Black Sahib’ Asian or british, family same Within the extract Chacko uses The History House allegorically to represent the family unit’s personal history.

He also creates a sense of history being tangible, the house becoming a physical manifestation. He describes it figuratively as being ‘like an old house’ which brings a sense of familial comfort and physicality to the abstract essence of ‘history’; this allows the audience; being reader, Rahel and Estha, to picture it as an actual concrete place.

However, the fact that there are ‘ancestors whispering inside’ creates a sense of their historical and cultural significance diminishing as whispers are heard but they cannot be communicated with, also forming a ghostly presence and atmosphere. A supernatural feel imagery of the family history dying out gives body to the past thus making it more significant yet ancestors are deceased and therefore exists but is out of reach, like history out of reach.

This is further emphasised through Chacko’s reason for being ‘trapped outside their own history’, which creates imagery of the family being prisoners OUTSIDE, which further disconnects the family from their origin, isolating them from their identifiable

Indian history and therefore simultaneously highlights their Anglophilic nature. No history= no identity transgressing the caste system The use of the word ‘trapped’ creates being imprisoned and not belonging to their past.

In comparison, the idea of history being existant, but not in their reach, is similarly explored as the history house is used metaphorically as a symbol of identity and the past, but is in fact non-existent; it is a figment of imagination, creating an sense of intangibility which makes the family appear even further detached from their Indian roots’ The History House is also expressed as being a ‘Heart of Darkness’ – this reference suggests that the metaphor of their past is mysterious and unexplored.

They are strangers to their ancestry and how they came to be today, it is unknown to them, which place the family in a parallel position to Marlow in that they too become outsiders within their own culture.