The life of Velutha, an untouchable, is greatly impacted not only in the way the other untouchables were. Since he was young, he had to conform to acts of inferiority. He had to enter by “the back entrance of the Ayemenem House to deliver the coconuts they [ Velutha and his dad] had plucked from the trees in the compound” and was not allowed into the house – “Pappachi would not allow Paravans into the house. Nobody would.” On top of that, “They were not allowed to touch anything that Touchables touched”. Although, ever since he was young, he had fondness for Ammu, a touchable, he could only bring the toys that he had made “for Ammu, holding them out in his palm (as he had been taught) so she wouldn’t have to touch him to take them.” The caste system also hindered the development for his full potential that even “Mammachi (with impenetrable Tocuhable logic) often said that if only he hadn’t been a Paravan, he might become an engineer” The conflict and misunderstanding between his father, Vellaya Paapen, also originated from the idea of how Untouchables should behave. His father thought of him to have “a lack of hesitation. An unwarranted assurance”, things that Untouchables ought not have. He was uneasy at the way his son “held his head. The quiet way he offered suggestion without being asked. Or the quiet way in which he disregarded suggestions without appearing to rebel.” Velutha’s relationship with his father strained to the extent that “Velutha began to avoid home. He worked late. He caught fish in the river and cooked it on an open fire. He slept outdoors, on the banks of the river.” When “Mammachi rehired Velutha as the factory carpenter and put him in charge of general maintenance”, despite having disappeared mysteriously for four years, “It caused a great deal of resentment among the other Touchable factory workers because, according to them, Paravans were not meant to be carpenters. And certainly, prodigal Paravans [Velutha] were not meant to be rehired.” For that, he had to be paid less than a Touchable carpenter. And finally, when Velutha transgressed the boundary of the caste, when he made loved to and loved Ammu, his father betrayed him offering “to kill his son with his own bare hands. To destroy what he had created” because of they are the Untouchables and they were not fit to be associated with and, nevertheless, love anybody of another class.
The childhood of Estha and Rahel also had been greatly affected indirectly by the brutal discrimination of Untouchables. They adored Velutha but could not openly spend time with him because he is an Untouchable. Although “They were forbidden from visiting his [Velutha’s] house”, they did and would spend time with him for hours. They develop the strong desire to claim as surrogate father figure Velutha, their mother’s but they are unable to because of the caste system. Time and time again, Ammu would lecture them on how they should behave like people in their class would behave. She would reprimand them when they “blow spit-bubbles and shiver their legs” because “According to Ammu, only clerks behaved like that, not aristocrats”
The case of purity also exists in a gender and a woman’s marital status.
In most Asian society, women are considered to be an inferior class. This some how justifies the way Ammu had been treated by her dad and her husband. She had been deprived the right of further education because “Pappachi [her father] insisted that college education was an unnecessary expense for a girl”. She could not have other goals or ambition in her life “other than to wait for marriage proposals while she helped her mother with the house work.” Upon marrying her husband, she was almost sent by her husband to his English manager for sex in return for his job when he was about to loose it. Her husband had also violent tendencies – “he lunged at her, grabbed her hair, punched her” and treated her like an object.
For Ammu, she was considered “impure” because she had married out of her class as a Syrian Christian to a Bengali Hindhu. Further more, she had divorced him. For that, people start to sympathize her – “Old female relations… made overnight trips to Ayemenem to commiserate with her about her divorce. They squeezed her knee and gloated” She was also condemned by Baby Kochama “because she saw her quarelling with fate that she… graciously accepted”. This resentment answers for the betrayal of Baby Kochama to Ammu further up in the novel that led to Ammu’s tragic life. As a divorced woman, she had to secretly meet the man she love in the night.
The twins were also considered “impure” because grew up in a family with Syrian Christian ancestry but a Bengali Hindu father. They fall between traditions and are afforded no real recognition as said in what the novel calls “Locusts Stand I” or legal standing. Baby Kochama, once again hated them for that. She called them “Half-Hindhu Hybrids whom no self-respecting Syrian Christian would ever marry.” As a result, further on the novel, their lives were greatly affected by her.
The caste system on the whole traumatizes and affects Roy’s protagonist’s life in an unhealthy way. It took away the twin’s need to belong to someone and their identity and, later on the novel, their childhood. It cost Ammu her love and her freedom. It deprived Velutha of a bright future and somehow caused his death. This way, Roy is able to let the reader see the atrocities of the caste system in India and be more aware about the stereotypes the society made to “different” people. Two thumbs and two toes up for Roy!
