God of Small Things by Haley Barrett https://padlet.com/HaleyKBarrett/8f5bhcid6o1t Made with a dash of regret en-us 2018-04-02 15:59:15 UTC 2026-03-13 13:33:50 UTC hello@padlet.com https://padlet-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/icons/Watchclock.png Chapter 4 (Chris) 384831 https://padlet.com/HaleyKBarrett/8f5bhcid6o1t/wish/247849493 2018-04-02 16:05:16 UTC https://padlet.com/HaleyKBarrett/8f5bhcid6o1t/wish/247849493 Chapter 5 (Chris 384831 https://padlet.com/HaleyKBarrett/8f5bhcid6o1t/wish/247849552 2018-04-02 16:05:27 UTC https://padlet.com/HaleyKBarrett/8f5bhcid6o1t/wish/247849552 Chapter 6 (Jacob) 4168371 https://padlet.com/HaleyKBarrett/8f5bhcid6o1t/wish/247849779 Summary: Starts with them at the airport just talking about a bunch of random stuff. Hard to follow the convo they're having. Then they continue talking as they walk out to the car, where they all almost get hit by cars.

"With an end to grinding poverty in their Aristocrat suitcases. With cement roofs fo their thatched house, and geyser for their parents bedrooms"(134)

"She turned around to find her crisp-knickered daughter communing with cement marsupials"(135)

"And the air was full of Thoughts and Things to say. But at times like these, only Small Things are ever said. The Big Things lurk unsaid inside" (136)

"He looked around and couldn't find her. Wmb. Rahel, unable to cope with the seesawing changes in her life, had raveled herself like a sausage..." (139) Good characterization]]> 2018-04-02 16:06:16 UTC https://padlet.com/HaleyKBarrett/8f5bhcid6o1t/wish/247849779 Chapter 7 (Jacob) 4168371 https://padlet.com/HaleyKBarrett/8f5bhcid6o1t/wish/247849821 Summary: About Pappachi's notebook where he talks about the wealth of india. Silverfish ate thorough his books.  Talks an unnessesary amount about handwriting and the corrections they make to their writing. Shifts to talking about Ammu's death and that the church wouldn't bury her so she had to be cremated. Ends with Sophie coming home, and states "Things can change in a day"

"...mounted butterflies and moths had disintegratws into small heaps of iridescent dust that powdered the bottom of their glass display cases..." (148)

"She [Ammu] was swollen with cortisone, moonfaced, not the slender mother Rahel knew" (153)

"Ammu died in a grimy room...she died alone" (154)

"There were no tears" (155)]]> 2018-04-02 16:06:24 UTC https://padlet.com/HaleyKBarrett/8f5bhcid6o1t/wish/247849821 Chapter 1 (Epiphany) 452838 https://padlet.com/HaleyKBarrett/8f5bhcid6o1t/wish/248358259 Summary: introducing the characters and the setting of the story. A lot of background on Baby Kochamma and setting up the story she is going to tell about the twins and Sophie Mol.

"The confusion lay in a deeper, more secret place" (4)

"She has memories too that she had no right to have....And these are only the small things" (5)

"She noticed that Sophie Mol was awake for her funeral. She showed Rahel Two Things" (7)

"She thought of what would happen if the rope snapped. She imagined him dropping like a dark star out of the sky that he had made. Lying broken on the hot church floor, dark blood spilling from his skull like a secret" (8)

"Estha occupied very little space in the world" (12)

"That the emptiness in one twin was only a version of the quietness in the other" (21)

"That it really began in the days the Love Laws were made. The laws that lay down who should be loved, and how. And how much" (33)

Overarching Literary Devices: colors again (a lot of yellow), vivid imagery, similes, rhyme, western references/post-colonial writing style]]> 2018-04-04 03:23:45 UTC https://padlet.com/HaleyKBarrett/8f5bhcid6o1t/wish/248358259 Chapter 3 (Epiphany) 452838 https://padlet.com/HaleyKBarrett/8f5bhcid6o1t/wish/248359290 Summary: Estha comes back to the house and Rahel observes him changing in the bathroom. She is trying to reconcile the man she sees with the boy she knew.

"Filth had laid siege to the Ayemenem House like a medieval army advancing on an enemy castle. It clotted every crevice and clung to the windowpanes" (84)

"There are big dreams and little ones" (85)

"Rahel followed Estha to his room. Ammu's room. Once" (87)

"The room had kept his secrets" (87)

"Silence hung in the air like secret loss" (87)

"Slim snakes whispering to each other, head to head" (88)

"A sister a brother. A woman a man. A twin a twin" (89)

"The silence gathered its skirts and slid, like Spider Woman, up the slippery bathroom wall" (89)

Overarching Lit Devices: silence, snakes, metaphors, abrupt sentences]]> 2018-04-04 03:33:44 UTC https://padlet.com/HaleyKBarrett/8f5bhcid6o1t/wish/248359290 Chapter 2 (Haley) HaleyKBarrett https://padlet.com/HaleyKBarrett/8f5bhcid6o1t/wish/248539650 Summary: Estha, Rahel, Ammu, Chacko, and Baby Kochamma drive in the family’s blue Plymouth to Cochin, where they will see The Sound of Music (for the third time), stay at the Hotel Sea Queen, and then pick up Sophie Mol and her mother, Margaret Kochamma, from the airport. Margaret Kochamma is Chacko’s ex-wife, an English woman who left him for a man named Joe. Joe has recently died, and Chacko invited Margaret and Sophie to spend the holidays with him in Ayemenem.]]> 2018-04-04 15:20:40 UTC https://padlet.com/HaleyKBarrett/8f5bhcid6o1t/wish/248539650 ID'S 4168371 https://padlet.com/HaleyKBarrett/8f5bhcid6o1t/wish/248543926 Two-egg twins-
Some things come with their own punishment-
Elvis Presley Puff-
Orangedrink Lemondrink man-
Kochu Maria-
Pappachi's moth-
Prer-NUN sea ayshun-
The old house on the hill-
Silence hung in the air like a secret loss-
Coffin-cartwheeler-
CLEAN and DIRTY-
Cochin-
Thimble drinker-
Margret Kochamma-
Velutha-
Rahel Alone-
Lucky Leaf-
a viable diable age-
Ipe-
Elvis Pelvis-
Cochin-
The Earth Woman-
Kari Saipu-
Mammachi-
Anglophiles-]]> 2018-04-04 15:29:10 UTC https://padlet.com/HaleyKBarrett/8f5bhcid6o1t/wish/248543926 Chapter 13 (Jeremy) 286709 https://padlet.com/HaleyKBarrett/8f5bhcid6o1t/wish/248546379 Summary: Starts by describing Margaret and Chacko's relationship. Flashes back to when Sophie Mol dies, found drowned in the river. We also learn that Ammu and Velutha are having an affair. 

"She was haunted by that decision for as long as she lived" (238)

"An old Paravan, who had seen the Walking Backwards day, torn between Loyalty and Love. " (242)

"Offering to kill his son. To tear him limb from limb." (243)

"She never forgot her irrational rage at the other two younger children who had for some reason been spared...Estha was somehow responsible..." (249)

"The God of Loss. The God of Small Things" (250)]]> 2018-04-04 15:34:21 UTC https://padlet.com/HaleyKBarrett/8f5bhcid6o1t/wish/248546379 Chapter 12 (Epiphany) 4168371 https://padlet.com/HaleyKBarrett/8f5bhcid6o1t/wish/248546598 Summary: Rahel was watching a performance. There were two stories that were told, and Estha eventually joined her. She talked about how they had watched these "plays" as kids. Heart of Darkness is referenced often in this chapter. 

"In Ayemenem they danced to jettison their humiliation in the Heart of Darkness" (218)

"On their way back from the Heart of Darkness, they stopped at the temple to ask pardon of their gods. To apologize fore corrupting their stories. For encashing their identities. Masappropriating their lives" (218)

"She invoked the Love Laws" (222)

"Something altered in the air. And Rahel knew that Estha had come" (222)

"There was madness there that morning. Under the rose bowl. It was no performance. Esthappen and Rahel recognized it" (224)

"Searching for the Man who lives in him was perhaps what he really meant, because certainly no beast has essayed into boundless, infinitely inventive art of human hatred. No beast can match its range and power" (225)

"The twins, not rude, not polite, said nothing. They walked home together. He and She. We and Us" (225)]]> 2018-04-04 15:34:50 UTC https://padlet.com/HaleyKBarrett/8f5bhcid6o1t/wish/248546598 Chapter 11 (Chris) 384831 https://padlet.com/HaleyKBarrett/8f5bhcid6o1t/wish/248546662 A dream Ammu has about the sea, a one armed man, and moths. Estha and Rahel subtly wake her and they have a discussion anout dreams. Lots of foreshadowing symbolism and literary devices.

]]> 2018-04-04 15:34:57 UTC https://padlet.com/HaleyKBarrett/8f5bhcid6o1t/wish/248546662 Chapter 10 (Jacob) 4168371 https://padlet.com/HaleyKBarrett/8f5bhcid6o1t/wish/248546765 Summary: This chapter was a wild ride so strap in and get ready for a roller coaster. This chapter starts off by talking about a banana jam recipe left by Mammachi left. It goes into great detail about how to make the jam and the steps required. There is also this little song that they sing about a monkey man and how its butt is red (racism of some sort maybe). Then all of a sudden it flips and starts talking about a boat and a disabled man and how the twins are fixing it up. Then this mans comes and helps.

"Past...past...past...past...past(x13)" (184-185)

"Esthas arm hairs stood on end. The jam-stirring became a boat-rowing" (187)

"...map breath'd ansestors with tough toe-nails whispered to the lizards on the wall"(190)

"Distant cake-crumbledvoiced are approaching Blue Army foot-steps casued the Comrades to seal the secret" (191)

"The boat Ammu would use to cross the river. To love by night the man her children loved by day" (193)]]> 2018-04-04 15:35:09 UTC https://padlet.com/HaleyKBarrett/8f5bhcid6o1t/wish/248546765 HoD 452838 https://padlet.com/HaleyKBarrett/8f5bhcid6o1t/wish/248547890 "He was walking swiftly now, towards the Heart of Darkness. As lonely as a wolf. (274)]]> 2018-04-04 15:37:28 UTC https://padlet.com/HaleyKBarrett/8f5bhcid6o1t/wish/248547890 TEWWG 452838 https://padlet.com/HaleyKBarrett/8f5bhcid6o1t/wish/248547957 2018-04-04 15:37:36 UTC https://padlet.com/HaleyKBarrett/8f5bhcid6o1t/wish/248547957 Chapter 8 (Anna) 478282 https://padlet.com/HaleyKBarrett/8f5bhcid6o1t/wish/249128031 The "play" that has been set up for Sophie Mol's arrival continues as the Ayemenem house is prepared for the arrival f the blue Pontiac holding said cargo. Roy details the grand nature of the house and Mammachi before their decline. Mammachi willbe playing the violin as the car arrives. She is excited to meet her granddaughter but not too happy to see Chacko's ex-wife. Meanwhile, Kochu Mari ais completing the tall cake that reads "Welcome Home our Sophie Mol". Just as the car pulls up she finishes the cake and the factory workers stop in order to stand along the driveway. Chacko leads Margaret Kochamma and Sophie Mol to meet his mother. Ammu observes Rahel and Velutha, they make eye contact and feel a charge of desire as the "play" continues. Rahel asks Velutha about his involvement in the communist march which he coyly denies. Estha is nowhere to be found. Kochu Maria delivers the cake. Tensions rise between some of the women. Cake is served, Mammachi plays the violin, and Ammu takes Rahel for her afternoon nap to which Rahel stops to kill some ants. Sophie Mol tries to join but Rahel runs away. ]]> 2018-04-06 07:13:11 UTC https://padlet.com/HaleyKBarrett/8f5bhcid6o1t/wish/249128031 Chapter 9 (Anna) 478282 https://padlet.com/HaleyKBarrett/8f5bhcid6o1t/wish/249129974 The narrative returns to present time to Rahel sitting in the garden. She wonders what will become of her and Estha and thinks back to when they and Sophie Mol were close friends and once dressed ip in saris and visited Velutha posing as fine Indian women. She spots Estha in his room, still. She reflects on how damaged they both are and how they cannot get past their tragic childhood. Hours pass and Rahel is still sitting in the garden when she hears the kathakali drums and decides togo. She stops and looks at the abandoned factory, thinking back to when she found Estha there on the day Sophie Mol arrived. ]]> 2018-04-06 07:24:13 UTC https://padlet.com/HaleyKBarrett/8f5bhcid6o1t/wish/249129974 Symbols/Motifs 452838 https://padlet.com/HaleyKBarrett/8f5bhcid6o1t/wish/249273252 Love Laws
River
Vegetation
Jam/Jelly
Lemondrink Orangedrink
Boat
Jesus figure (chapter 10)
Moths
Colors
10 to 2
Handwritting

]]> 2018-04-06 15:41:28 UTC https://padlet.com/HaleyKBarrett/8f5bhcid6o1t/wish/249273252 Chapter 21 (Jeremy) 286709 https://padlet.com/HaleyKBarrett/8f5bhcid6o1t/wish/249274010 Summary: This chapter talks about the night Ammu and Velutha make love. Velutha is floating on the river.

"The water. The mud. The trees. The fish. The stars. He moved so easily through it." (316)

"He tried to be rational. What's the worst thing that can happen? I could lose everything. My job. My family. My livelihood. Everything." (316)

"They knew that there was nowhere for them to go. They had nothing. No future. So they stuck to the small things" (320)]]> 2018-04-06 15:43:26 UTC https://padlet.com/HaleyKBarrett/8f5bhcid6o1t/wish/249274010 Chapter 20 (Jeremy) 452838 https://padlet.com/HaleyKBarrett/8f5bhcid6o1t/wish/249274068 Summary: Chapter starts with describing the day Estha is Returned. Then it returns to present day where Estha and Rahel have sex. Then it returns to the day Sophie Mol arrives.

"And a greenwavy, thickwatery, lumpy, seaweedy, floaty, bottomless bottomful feeling." (306)

"Every First Class train thing was green. The seats green. The berths green. The floor green. The chains green. Darkgreen Light-green" (307)

"Sophie Mol. Hatted, bell-bottomed and Loved from the Beginning" (311)]]> 2018-04-06 15:43:36 UTC https://padlet.com/HaleyKBarrett/8f5bhcid6o1t/wish/249274068 Chapter 18 (Anna) 478282 https://padlet.com/HaleyKBarrett/8f5bhcid6o1t/wish/249274774 2018-04-06 15:45:36 UTC https://padlet.com/HaleyKBarrett/8f5bhcid6o1t/wish/249274774 Banana Jam Recipe 4168371 https://padlet.com/HaleyKBarrett/8f5bhcid6o1t/wish/249279839 1. Crush ripe banana. Add water to cover and cook on a very hot fire till the fruit is soft
2. Squeeze out juice by straining through cource muslin
3. Weigh equal quantity of sugar and keep by
4. Cook fruit till it turns scarlet and about half the quantity evaporates
5. Prepare geliton (pectin) thus:
Proportion 1:5 
ie: 4 teasoopns Pectin: 20 teasppons sugar
6. Add the Pectin to concentrated juice
7. Cook for a few (5) minuets. Use a strong fire burning heavily all around
8. Add the sugar. Cook until sheeting consitancy is obtained
9. Cool slowly

Hope you enjoy this recipe

(186-187)]]> 2018-04-06 15:58:45 UTC https://padlet.com/HaleyKBarrett/8f5bhcid6o1t/wish/249279839 Chapter 14 (Chris) 384831 https://padlet.com/HaleyKBarrett/8f5bhcid6o1t/wish/249301830 First part is dumb but after a break it goes to Velutha though and he gets spat in his face by mammachi, he has a moment of epiphany



 “If I find you on my property tomorrow I ll have you castrate like the pariah dog that you are! I’ll have you killed!’ ‘ We’ll see about that’ Velutha said quietly.”(Roy 269) 


“Mammachi spat into Velutha’s face. Thick spit. It spattered across his skin. His mouth and eyes.”(269)


“As he walked away from the house, he felt his senses had been heightened. As though everything around him had been flattened into a neat illustration. A machine drawing with an instruction manual that told him what to do.”(269)


“Once again Velutha heard himself say something which made no difference to the man he spoke to. His words coiled around him like a snake.” (271)


]]> 2018-04-06 16:56:45 UTC https://padlet.com/HaleyKBarrett/8f5bhcid6o1t/wish/249301830 Chapter 13 (Haley) HaleyKBarrett https://padlet.com/HaleyKBarrett/8f5bhcid6o1t/wish/250101488  ]]> 2018-04-10 03:12:40 UTC https://padlet.com/HaleyKBarrett/8f5bhcid6o1t/wish/250101488 Chapter 15 (Jacob) 4168371 https://padlet.com/HaleyKBarrett/8f5bhcid6o1t/wish/250106474 Summary: This chapter meantions HOD on page 274. Talks about a man and his quest(a easy one) to cross the river and how he is magestic. That's it. Short chapter.

"He was very still, very wet. Very young" (273)

"The moonlit river fell from his swimming arms like sleeves of silver" (273)

"He left no ripples in the water. No footpronts on shore" (274)

"He was walking swiftly now, towards the Heart of Darkness. As lonely as a wolf. 
The God of Loss
The God of Small Things. 
Naked but for his nail varnish." (274)]]> 2018-04-10 03:47:59 UTC https://padlet.com/HaleyKBarrett/8f5bhcid6o1t/wish/250106474 Chapter 16 (Jacob) 4168371 https://padlet.com/HaleyKBarrett/8f5bhcid6o1t/wish/250106509 Summary: This chapter is all about the twins and Sophie taking their boat to get to the other side of the river to the History House to release a moth. In the process the twins lose the boat and Sophie in the river. At the end it menations them not seeing anyone else hiding in the shadowns. And mentions monsoons (connection to RITF).

"He Jolly Well knew. Little Man. He lived in a Cara-van. Dum dum" (278)

"Wet leaves shimmered like beaten metal" (275)

"If it werent for you I would be free. I should have dumped you in an orphanage the day you were born. You're millstones round my neck" (276)]]> 2018-04-10 03:48:14 UTC https://padlet.com/HaleyKBarrett/8f5bhcid6o1t/wish/250106509 Chapter 19 (Epiphany) 452838 https://padlet.com/HaleyKBarrett/8f5bhcid6o1t/wish/250300032 Summary: The stupid bitch Baby Kochamma manipulated Rahel and Estha into saying yes when asked if Velutha kidnapped them. She told them they would never see their mother and a bunch of other crap that made me want to rip her throat out. The inspector took only Estha back to see Velutha and when he asked a question, Estha said "yes".

"So once again, in the space of two weeks, bottled Fear for Estha. Chilled. Fizzed. Sometimes Things went worse with Coke" (297)

"Baby Kochamma looked as though she had shrunk. Pouches of flesh hung from her eyes and jowls. Fear fermented in her and the spit in her mouth turned sour" (298)

"The moth with unusually dense dorsal tufts spread its wings over both their hearts" (299)

"'And yet'--she looked sadly at them--'you did it.' She looked them in the eye. 'You are murderers.' She waited for this to sink in" (300)

"When she had stamped out every ray of hope, destroyed their lives completely, like a fairy godmother she presented them with a solution" (301)

"The inspector asked his question. Estha's mouth said Yes. Childhood tiptoed out. Silence slid in like a bolt. Someone switched off the light and Velutha disappeared" (303)

  1. "Not death. Just the end of living" (304)

"It was her idea that Ammu be made to pack her bags and leave. That Estha be Returned" (305)
]]> 2018-04-10 14:40:11 UTC https://padlet.com/HaleyKBarrett/8f5bhcid6o1t/wish/250300032 Chapter 17 (Haley) HaleyKBarrett https://padlet.com/HaleyKBarrett/8f5bhcid6o1t/wish/250308788 2018-04-10 14:55:04 UTC https://padlet.com/HaleyKBarrett/8f5bhcid6o1t/wish/250308788 Themes HaleyKBarrett https://padlet.com/HaleyKBarrett/8f5bhcid6o1t/wish/250311322 - Family / social obligation
- Indian politics/society/class
- Love and sexuality
- Change vs preservation
- Little things/moments to symbolize the bigger meaning ]]> 2018-04-10 15:00:05 UTC https://padlet.com/HaleyKBarrett/8f5bhcid6o1t/wish/250311322