Identity Formation : A Process Entwining Generations

The core of this essay is the book "The God of Small Things" written by the Indian novelist Arundhati Roy. The strong power of both caste systems or traditional principles and politics is the starting-point of this essay. For this reason, as the center of this tale is a Hindu family of high caste, and consequently very traditional, the identity of the women in the book are of great interest. The women in "The God of Small Things" are very fascinating not only for the reason that they are strongly influenced by their life stories, but even more for the influence their actions and identities have on their children. Of course, none of them can be judged for the shape of their identity, as they all are a merger of culture, religion and politics. More exactly, the divided identities of these women are discussed in relation to firstly their Hindu identity acquired by their society and traditions, and secondly their colonial/post-colonial identity nearly imposed upon them by the colonial forces. In this essay I discuss and analyse three generations of women, a total of four characters. In addition, two other characters are used in order to illustrate the differences that women from the colonizing country (Great Britain) hold in contrast to women from the colonized country (India)