{"id":138,"date":"2014-01-04T15:55:15","date_gmt":"2014-01-04T20:55:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress.clarku.edu\/mixlit\/?p=138"},"modified":"2015-12-14T07:21:29","modified_gmt":"2015-12-14T12:21:29","slug":"sophiemol","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.clarku.edu\/mixlit\/sophiemol\/","title":{"rendered":"Sophie Mol"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"The<\/a>Character: <\/strong>Sophie Mol<\/span><\/span><\/span> <\/p>\n

Source Text:<\/strong> <\/span>\u00a0Roy, Arundhati.\u00a0The God of Small Things<\/i>. New York: Random House Trade Paperbacks,2008. Print.Entry Author:<\/strong> <\/span>\u00a0Apollonia Roman<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

In the multi-layered novel The God of Small Things <\/i>by Arundhati Roy, Sophie Mol is the half Caucasian, half Indian nine year old visiting her two younger cousins in India. Even though there are several other tragedies in the book, including the molestation of her cousin Estha and the death of the \u201cuntouchable\u201d Ammu, Sophie\u2019s death is the locus from which the entire novel revolves, even though she is physically present in only a few chapters. While tragedies are covered up, Sophie\u2019s rises to importance because is part white and has been raised in the west. Her Westernness makes her special in the novel. She is the only character who is referred to with any excitement by the others.<\/div>\n
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Sophie has been raised in England away from her biological Indian father, Chacko. Chacko uses his education at Oxford University in England to elevate himself in his Indian family, with whom he currently lives. He previously married \u00a0Sophie\u2019s mother, Margaret Kochamma, to combine his most proud accomplishments: receiving an education and obtaining a white wife (Roy 114). Sophie and Margaret have come to visit Sophie\u2019s Indian relatives in Ayemenem after the death of Sophie\u2019s step-father, Joe, who she \u201cloves most in d\u2019world\u201d (Roy 72). Joe is everything Chacko is not; he is \u201csteady, solvent, thin\u2026a wedge of light\u201d and presumably white (Roy 118). Sophie idolizes him and regards him as her true father, while Chacko is just her less important \u201crealdad\u201d (Roy 72). \u00a0This gravitation towards a man so different in personality and race both elevates and distances Sophie from her Indian family and father.<\/p>\n

Sophie\u2019s only physical likeness to her \u201crealdad\u201d is a similar nose, \u201cshe had [her grandfather\u2019s] nose waiting inside of hers\u201d (Roy 68). This nose is sign of intelligence, \u201ca moth-loving nose,\u201d an \u201centomologist\u2019s nose,\u201d because it is something that gives educated Chacko pride (Roy 68). In contrast, Sophie\u2019s white skin is described as much as her nose. This attribute is what differentiates her most from Chacko and his side of the family, binds her intimately with the white Margaret and biologically unrelated Joe. Her seven year old cousin Rahel describes her skin as precious, \u201cshe\u2019s very delicate, if she gets dirty she\u2019ll die\u201d (Roy 100). After this statement, Rahel goes on to list Sophie\u2019s other beautiful attributes: her hair, teeth, and legs. Yet, Sophie\u2019s skin color takes precedence as her most impressive feature.<\/p>\n

Every event in the novel, past, present, and future, refer, revolve, and lead up to the death of Sophie Mol. This is likely important because her \u201cwhiteness\u201d makes her more valuable to her Indian family. \u201cWhite\u201d is mentioned nearly one hundred times throughout the novel, including references to white saris, lilies, insects, clouds, hair, etc. This imagery consistently reminds the reader that \u201cwhite\u201d is beautiful, fragile, and something to be treasured. Sophie Mol is treated as if she is such, even though she is obstinate, often speaking without reservations to her cousins. On page 73 Sophie declares that she doesn’t love her Indian family because she doesn’t know them. She is able to escape chastisement for infractions her cousins are not, such as being rude at the dinner table (Roy 153). The importance of Sophie\u2019s fair skin eclipses her actions to her Indian family; she becomes more precious for her symbolically Western features makes her the crux of Roy’s critique on the problematic perception and reactions to class differences and reactions in the novel.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Character: Sophie Mol  Source Text: \u00a0Roy, Arundhati.\u00a0The God of Small Things. New York: Random House Trade Paperbacks,2008. Print.Entry Author: \u00a0Apollonia Roman In the multi-layered novel The God of Small Things […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":139,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20654],"tags":[20606,20609,20594,20607,20608,20578],"class_list":{"0":"post-138","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-the-god-of-small-things","8":"tag-caucasian","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-female","11":"tag-indian","12":"tag-western","13":"tag-white","14":"czr-hentry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.clarku.edu\/mixlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.clarku.edu\/mixlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.clarku.edu\/mixlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.clarku.edu\/mixlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.clarku.edu\/mixlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.clarku.edu\/mixlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.clarku.edu\/mixlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.clarku.edu\/mixlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.clarku.edu\/mixlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.clarku.edu\/mixlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}