Commentary on a passage from The God of Small Things Passage 2: Ammu loved her children [] and had midnight swims.
English D – Code
Sophie Karbjinski
1. February. 2012
Commentary on a passage from “The God of Small Things“
Passage 2: “Ammu loved her children […] and had midnight swims.” (41 lines)
The language and stylistic devices used in this excerpt characterizing Ammu can have a very strong effect on the reader. The image which is created of Ammu as a loving but nonetheless dangerous creature, mainly by musical devices and lexical field, is very detailed, in such a arbitrary way, that it seems to mirror the randomness of Ammus nature and mind and the unpredictability of her actions. This extract deals with her being a mother and the ways I which she loves her children Rahel and Estha. She looks at her wedding picture and back at her past, while the reader observes the sour acrimony with which she eyes herself. Then, one watches her slowly wander off into a world of her own as she slowly looses her mind and turns into what sounds like a wild sort-of amazon that has released herself from societies fangs. Many of the most powerful images and effects in this passage are created by alliterations and metaphors.