Futile? I hope not.

Roy's technique creates a dilemma in my eyes. On the one hand, her writing style allows for disheartening tragedies to be recounted without completely drowning the reader in despair. However, focusing on the minute details of a travesty through poetic aestheticism causes the real societal problems to fade into the background as the "small things" encapsulate the reader in a realm of often overlooked sensibility. I loved this novel. I feel it is important to stress this fact. Roy is obviously a young master of a style that she has freshly carved from longstanding formulas, but the effect of her writing seems to disrupt the underlying intent of her novel. Is the novel much more pleasurable to read than most fictional critiques of class and caste systems? Yes. But is Roy so successful in beautifying the abysmal reality of her novel that the caste system no longer appears problematic? Possibly. The novel's ending illustrates this predicament created by her literary strategy. The sex scene between Ammu and Velutha is wonderfully stimulating in its intricate sensualization of a scene that we know, as readers, results in the decay of an entire network of individuals. Roy's novel continues to suggest that the obstacles set in place by the caste system, among many other marginalizing structures, are so great that one must focus on the infinitesimal wonders of life lest they be smashed by the overbearing inequities of the world around them. I realize that this is only a novel, and in order to truly appreciate its value you can't expect it to have palpable, real-world applications at every turn. However, as a social activist who obviously understands the power of allegory, Roy employs a style that dances dangerously along the line of depicting social change as an exercise in futility.