The God of Small Things is a family drama novel written by Indian writer Arundhati Roy.

It is a story about the childhood experiences of fraternal twins whose lives are destroyed by the "Love Laws" prevalent in the 1960s Kerala, India.

The novel explores how small, seemingly insignificant occurrences, decisions and experiences shape people's behavior in deeply significant ways.

[1] Roy took inspiration from her childhood experiences in Aymanam, a village in the Kottayam district of Kerala, India, where she led an unprotected child's life.

Being an "adult child", Roy observed and remembered what she sensed in the village and "said everything I wanted to say at that point of time" through writing the novel.

I actually started writing with a single image in my head: the sky blue Plymouth with two twins inside it, a Marxist procession surrounding it.

[8] Roy's mother confirmed she was very similar to the character Ammu, however, she was never involved with a man of lower caste, as was the case in the book is another instance.

When I read the book now I can't believe the amount of references there are to small things, but it was absolutely not the case that I started with the title and built the novel around it.

Ammu Ipe, their mother, marries Baba to escape her father and returns to Ayemenem after leaving her abusive husband.

The family home includes Baby Kochamma, Pappachi's sister, who remained unmarried due to unrequited love.

The death of Margaret's second husband in a car accident prompts Chacko to invite her and their daughter, Sophie, to spend Christmas in Ayemenem.

On the road to the airport, the family encounters a group of Communist protesters who surround the car and humiliate Baby Kochamma.

Later at the theater, Estha is sexually molested by the "Orangedrink Lemondrink Man", a vendor working at the snack counter.

They don't deceive you with thrills and trick endings.Baby Kochamma accuses Velutha of Sophie's death, leading to his brutal beating and arrest by the police.

The chief of police, aware of Velutha's Communist ties, fears unrest if the wrongful arrest is exposed.

Roy often uses metaphors that feature elements that are more prominent in the lives of children, such as toothpaste, secrets, or portable pianos.

They help take away the shock of the plot -- death, lives destroyed or the horror of the settings -- a crazy, chaotic, emotional house, the sinister movie theater.

"[6] Another way she plays with language is to join words together without punctuation, which we see in the description of the 'Orangedrink Lemondrink man' or 'bluegreyblue eyes'.

This subversion of the usual rules of syntax and grammar not only places us in a child's view of the world, but it also draws attention to the role of language in colonialism.

The story's many elements come together to construct a diverse look at one instance of Indian culture and the effect of the caste system on life and love during a time of post-colonialism.

This process also echoes the progression of the Indian people, like that of all cultures that try to find ways to maintain their traditions in a time of increasing globalization.

[11] Some critics also attribute the political awareness manifested in The God of Small Things to Roy's early life-influences from her mother, who was an activist and feminist.

E. K. Nayanar,[18] then Chief Minister of Roy's home state Kerala, voiced criticism about the book's depiction of women and sex, and she had to answer charges of obscenity.