25th Annual Student Research Conference
The Magnitude of the Small: An Ecofeminist Analysis of Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things
Rebecca L. Hancock
Dr. Hena Ahmad, Faculty Mentor
Ecofeminism seeks to explore the effects of the enduring cultural binaries present within patriarchal cultures and the seemingly inherent tendency to assign a particular half of such binaries with superior status. Nature and the female gender, concurrently oppressed within these cultures, are thus inextricably linked. These binaries are pervasive throughout Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things, visible in the tragic hypocrisy of its characters that eventually causes the collapse of the Ipe family. The environment also experiences deterioration, as commercialization claims the History House and reduces the once vigorous Meenachal River to a toxic trickle. In this paper, I will expose and analyze the oppression of women and nature and the connections between them in The God of Small Things.
Keywords: Ecofeminism, The God of Small Things, Cultural Binaries
Topic(s):English
Presentation Type: Oral Paper
Session: 102-3
Location: VH 1000
Time: 8:30