How does Roy tell the story in Chapter 9? (taken from the 2015 AQA English Literature A Level paper, regarding "The God of Small Things" by Arundhati Roy)

What is particularly striking in Chapter 9 of "The God of Small Things" is Arundhati Roy’s narrative technique. She tells the story by merging several different, discernible voices, providing the reader with an insight into the characters’ thought processes, whilst simultaneously advancing the narrative by the use of flashback. This is illustrated by the narrative persona in the main body of the text, reflecting Rahel’s childlike inner voice, which is seemingly evoked by her return to her childhood home. To achieve this, Roy uses several devices, notably hyphenated strings of words to mimic the lilted vocals of a young child. Indeed, the Chapter opens with “The green-for-the-day had seeped from the trees,” a neologism reflecting a childlike description. A further device is the use of capitalisation, such as “Beautiful Ugly Toads.” This bestows the importance of a proper noun to what is in fact an oxymoronic description of an otherwise banal subject. The childlike voice continues with a description of the toads as “yearning, unkissed princes” – evoking fairy-tale imagery and its childhood connotations. This is juxtaposed with the sudden emergence of Rahel’s adult voice, italicised for emphasis. It is significantly more mature, even containing expletives: “‘Hey you! Black bitch!’”

This contrast between the adult and the childlike reflects Rahel’s conflicting feelings regarding the tumultuous memories that her childhood home elicits in her. Throughout the Chapter, and indeed the novel, Roy frequently uses asyndetic coordinations to give snapshot images of the evocative Keralan surroundings as well as Rahel's infancy. These sensorily powerful descriptions facilitate the flashbacks and nonlinear narrative that merges Rahel’s childhood trauma with present day events. For example, “The sky was thick with TV […] blondes, wars, famines, football, food shows, coups d’état, hairstyles stiff with hairspray.” From this list, we can vividly imagine the fleeting images Rahel must have seen on Baby Kochamma’s television as a child, which contributes to the nostalgic, childlike feel of the text.