What does Arundhati Roy mean by small things

Answer

Question: What does Arundhati Roy mean by “small things?”

Arundhati Roy portrays the differences by the term ‘small things’ that Indian society casts upon its people because of being born under different circumstances. She refers to the small things to her readers besides the big things in society, like the caste system, political affairs, and marriage. Let us discuss it.

Innocent thinking for Small things: Velutha’s identity as the God of Small Things is supported at the end of the book when we learn about Ammu and Velutha’s first romantic encounters. Since they know their love can’t exist in the real world, they never talk or think about the future or the “big things”; they stick to the here and now.

Even later, on the thirteen nights that followed this one, instinctively, they stuck to the Small Things. The Big Things ever lurked inside. They knew that there was nowhere for them to go. They had nothing. No future. So, they stuck to the small things.

Illicit Relationship as Small Things: The sexual relationship between Ammu and Velutha may be represented as “small things” if it is correctly placed in the context of the Ayemenem family. That is because having illegitimate relations with women was something very ordinary for Chacko, the Ayemenem man. He had affairs with the women workers in the factory, and his mother Mammachi took it to be a normal affair as ‘man’s needs.’ 

Again, Baby Kochamma was madly after Father Mulligan to have a physical relationship with him. However, because of the restraint shown by the Father, she failed to have such a relationship with him. If that is so, illegitimate sexual relations can certainly be described as “small things”. It became a big thing when it came to Ammu’s relationship with Velutha because of other reasons such as the change in their attitude to Velutha, his untouchability, etc. Then society says: 

No ‘untouchable’ was allowed to touch a Hindu. The laws were there, but people found ways around them.

To sum up, these can be little creatures and their activities. Besides, the small things can be secrets, promises, sins, and other emotive ‘creatures’ that people do not want to confess.