Justify the title of The God of Small Things.

This is one of my favourite all-time novels, so well done
for studying it! You have asked a very important question, as obviously the title that
an author gives to their work is a very important decision to make, and clearly it must
link in somehow with the overall theme or message of the
book.

One place to start would be looking at Chapter
Eleven, which itself bears the same title as the title of this great book. One of the
things that is described in this section is the coming together of Ammu and
Velutha:

Who
was he, the one-armed man? Who could he have been? The God of Loss? The God of Small
Things? The God of Goose Bumps and Sudden Smiles? Of Sourmetal Smells - like steel
bus-rails and the smell of the bus conductor's hands from holding
them?

Considering this quote,
as the series of rhetorical questions thinks about the identity of Velutha, we can apply
the title of "The God of Small Things" to his character. However, of course, the
significance of this title is much wider and bigger than merely representing his
character.

One stylistic aspect of the novel is the way in
which Roy uses flashbacks and two separate time frames, jumping between the twins now
and the twins then, in their childhood. However, the novel ends with one critical
moment, describing the two lovers who have broken all of the Love Rules together,
sharing a moment of happiness. Pay attention to what Roy says about the focus of Ammu
and Velutha in the final chapter:

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Even later, on the thirteen nights that followed
this one, instinctively they stuck to the Small Things. The Big Things ever lurked
inside. They knew that there was nowhere for them to go. They had nothing. No future. So
they stuck to the small
things.

Therefore we can say
that Roy chose to give this novel the title it bears because the God of Small Things
somehow represents the determination and stubbornness to make the most of a situation
and enjoy it for its pleasures no matter how fleeting those joys may be. Ammu and
Velutha instinctively realise that they are fighting a losing battle. So much goes
against them as they break the "Love Laws" of caste and race. They instinctively accept
the tragic fact that "they had nothing" and "nowhere to go," and so deliberately limit
their thinking to the "small things" that enable them to enjoy their love until the
inevitable happens. Arundhati Roy presents us with the operation of "big things" such as
caste and race and how people become the victims of such concepts. "The God of Small
Things" therefore celebrates the lives of such victims, lamenting their unjust end, and
recognising that against such big forces, it is perhaps only the "small things" that we
can build our lives around.