The God of Small Things: Chapters 16-21

The last chapters were too short to do three at a time, so I grouped them all into one (plus I couldn't take not knowing the ending). Before I say anything about what happened in the chapters, I am very upset about the ending. That is not an acceptable ending. There is still more that I want to know! I feel like Estha and Rahel are just hanging out in Fiction Space on Loose Ends Avenue. I understand everything now that I was confused about in the beginning, but I just feel like there should be something more to their story. I feel like they need to say something, do something, think something.

Velutha met an even worse fate than I had predicted. He was beaten to death, attacked when he was asleep. Honestly, no wonder Estha and Rahel are a bit off. They watched the man they loved get beaten to death. I couldn't imagine seeing a loved one get killed like that. Even though it was dark, they were still there. They could hear it, they could smell it, they could feel it. Poor Velutha. I can't say that enough. I actually cried when I read about how he was treated. He was clinging to life, barely alive with absolutely no dignity left (his bowels and bladder released on the floor, his blood everywhere), and then they made Estha say in front of him that it was he who kidnapped them. If Velutha had any tiny bit of chance of living or any spark to fight death, I'm sure that put it out.

Baby Kochamma! Again, I want to punt her. Seriously, I hate her. I don't care if she is fictional, I hate her. She is manipulative, self-centered, terrible, and conniving. The only benefit of the novel ending suddenly without detail of the futures of the remaining characters is that I can imagine a painful, gruesome death for Baby Kochamma. I hope she drowns in Listerine. Tangy taste, fresh breath. May you die a thousand deaths, Baby Kochamma. I cannot believe she manipulated Estha and Rahel that way! They were children! CHILDREN! She called them murderers! She made them her cruel little puppets. Oh, I wish someone would have kicked her teeth in. I haven't encountered a fictional character I felt this strongly about in a long time. She thinks Velutha was the scum?! If she had been born into a different level of the caste system, she wouldn't be fit to even sweep away her own footprints. Her feet would be cut off.

Chacko really turned into a monster after Sophie Mol died. I can understand his terrible grief at the loss of his daughter, but he effectively pushed away the rest of his family. How could they blame Ammu for everything? She definitely had a hand in it indirectly, but everyone else was to blame, too. If they hadn't been so harsh on Ammu after they found out about her affair with Velutha, she never would have even thought to say those things to the twins. Then the twins never would have run away, Sophie Mol in tow considering that she insisted it wouldn't be effective if she wasn't with them. Estha and Rahel were definitely victims. They were not murderers in the least.

I am a bit baffled by the capitalization still. There was really no pattern. It was just a style of writing. It was a style of writing that I found puzzling. I was not fond of it. Apparently Unnecessary Capitalized Phrases are not my cup of tea. I will say that the confusing manner in which the story was arranged was very clever. It made for a good story, for sure. Despite the flat, abrupt ending, it was still a good book. It will stay with me for sure. I will forever note if my phlegm is ripe or not, despite the high gag level. I will also remember the description of blood spilling from a skull like secrets. It was in the beginning and the end. I enjoyed that little repetition.

Fate scorecard: Ammu-dead at a viable, die-able age (the man in her chest is to blame); Velutha- dead (beaten to death by Touchable policemen); Sophie Mol-dead (drowned in the river); Baby Kochamma's soul-dead (and possibly nonexistant from the start of the novel).

The God of Small Things: Chapters 13-15

Finally! I am beginning to understand what is going on! I am thrilled. Although I will admit the story is rather tragic. Poor Velutha! The caste system is ridiculous. He is being terribly punished just because of his social standing. It seems so ridiculous to me mostly because I am American and we don't have strict systems like that. I can't imagine that being normal. We have subtle, unspoken social systems similar to the caste system, but they are not nearly as exaggerated and intense. The caste system, still strongly influential on some, has destroyed what might have been happiness for two people. Things would have been wonderful if Velutha had not been an Untouchable. He got along fantastically with Estha and Rahel, and he and Ammu loved each other.

I couldn't believe that Velutha's father was waiting for him with an ax. How terrible! Regardless of unspoken social laws, I think that betraying your own blood is worse! I could never kill my child over something like that. I could never condemn anyone for loving someone else. It is so hard to understand the point of view for people like Mammachi and Velutha's father because they were raised in such a different enviornment than me. It was a different time, a different country, and different rules. There is such a ridiculous hooplah over Velutha loving Ammu. It rather reminds me of Helen of Troy. A war broke out over Helen, and now so many lives are going to ruins over Ammu and her lover. "Was this the face that launched a thousand ships?"

I enjoyed the bits about Chacko and Margaret Kochamma. I think that Chacko was probably a good looking man before he became extremely fat. I feel bad for Chacko. He got the short end of the stick. Then again, Margaret came to India in hopes of getting cheered up, and then she left without her daughter. I can't imagine what she felt like. I hope that none of the other chapters are on Sophie Mol's funeral. It will be massively depressing. Now that more things are coming to light, it is getting harder to read. I almost don't want to know what happens. I fear for their fates. Nobody in this novel gets off the hook.

Baby Kochamma! I want to punt her off a cliff! I'm not even kidding. I was unreasonably angry at a fictional character about twenty minutes ago. I was literally cursing her and muttering death threats. I'm sure my parents thought I was crazy. She is such a trouble maker! Baby Kochamma is a liar, too! She made Velutha sound terrible! I love Velutha. He is probably my favorite character. Baby Kochamma is such a jerk (for lack of a better word). She makes Velutha out to be an awful, Untouchable who rapes women and threatens them (and most likely kidnaps their children when they refuse his sexual advances). Velutha is not any of those things! He is a good man who was dealt a bad hand. Baby Kochamma has to go and make things a hundred times worse. Why the heck couldn't she have drowned instead of Sophie Mol?! I wouldn't have felt bad about that. Then again, I guess there wouldn't be much of a story because people wouldn't have cared half as much if it was her that was dead.

The God of Small Things: Chapters 10-12

This boat is a bad idea. It is a very, very bad idea. I have a terrible feeling that this boat will have something to do with Sophie Mol's death. Velutha's brother had a warning for the twins that they didn't take too much stock in, I believe. The river is not who she seems to be. I think my step father channels the spirit of Velutha's brother. Any time I go to Lori's camp on the river, I am told about every terrible drowning and death that has ever occurred in rivers. I am advised to wear a life jacket if I am within ten feet of the river. This is not a joke, but my friends sure thought my ridiculous, over-exaggerated fear of the river was. When Sophie Mol's funeral was described in the beginning, it said something about her skin being wrinkled from too much time in the water or something. I will assume that she does have a river related death. Marty can add the death of this fictional character to his list of River Evils. Even books see the evil in the fast flowing waters of nature!

Perhaps Velutha's involvement in fixing the boat is why he has such a terrible fate. He will probably be killed, judging from clues in the text. That may be another reason Ammu is so eager to follow in the darkness of the Velutha shaped hole in the universe. Her secret love is dead, her brother hates her, and Estha is being sent away. I think that the twins will get some of the blame because the boat was their idea, but Velutha will probably take most of the heat because he was the one who fixed it (and perhaps it might have something to do with his social status). Velutha is slowly evolving in this novel. Ammu's dream was confusing. One would assume that the one-armed man in her dream was Velutha because of her earlier thoughts about him. Then she starts mentioning gods. The God of Small Things. It is the title of the book, the title of the chapter, and possibly the title of the one-armed man. It has to mean something. This something has to be important, too. I just don't know what it means. Velutha cannot be the God of Small Things. That wouldn't make sense. Or would it? Everything is so cryptic!! I might be completely off-base with all of my assumptions (in which case, I will look like a fool), but I think I'm sorta close.

I'm not sure what the meaning of those stories were. Chapter 12 confused me a lot. The stories were interesting, I'm just not sure what the purpose of telling them was. Where exactly were Rahel and Estha? Were they just remembering these stories or were they actually happening? I couldn't really tell what was going on in the chapter. I finished the chapter and had to re-read most of it because I was lost. It didn't help much. The stories have symbolism, surely. I just don't understand the details of the chapter. Perhaps the next part will clear things up. I did enjoy the little snippet descriptions of the elephant, though. I think it is strangely fascinating that they are used in India. I thought it gave the book a nice touch.

At this point, I find the novel to be completely infuriating because it is so cryptic. It is keeping secrets from me. At the same time, the novel is obnoxiously interesting and good. It is getting harder and harder to put down after every chapter. I might end up finishing it quite soon. I am hanging loose; left unknowing in the knowing-world of Rahel and Estha.

The God of Small Things: Chapters 7-9

Velutha is wonderful. There has not been much about him yet, but I think he is fantastic. He is so good with Estha and Rahel. He seems like a genuinely good person. I'm worried about what is going to happen to him, though. This book is so cryptic! It appears that he has an unpleasant future awaiting him. In chapter 9, it said he left a Velutha shaped hole in the universe, which seeped darkness. It also said that Ammu followed the darkness into the Velutha shaped hole in the universe, which makes me think once again that they have a little something going on.

I wonder if what is going to happen to Velutha has anything to do with the way Ammu seemed to unravel. I don't know exactly how circumstances came to be the way they were, but I was shocked at how Ammu was before she died. The phlegm thing really grossed me out. It was true, but still disgusting. For the rest of my life, I will now consider yellow phlegm as "ripe." I think that Ammu's condition was a result of a combination between Velutha's unpleasant future that has yet to be revealed and the death of Sophie Mol.

I get the feeling that everyone does not really like Ammu or her children. They didn't seem to mind her before Margaret Kochamma and Sophie Mol came, though. Chacko is not very kind to his sister. I don't know much about Margaret Kochamma, but I kind of want to punch her in the face. She was not very nice to Chacko, and she left him, taking their daughter with her. I don't think Chacko ever really got to see his daughter after she left. That is terrible. Kids only grow up once. Margaret Kochamma took that experience from Chacko without even caring. Her daughter grew up without even getting the chance to know her own father (who loves her more than anything).

I can definitely understand why Rahel was feeling a bit hostile towards Sophie Mol. Everyone was fawning over her when she arrived and they were all too eager to replace Estha and Rahel with Sophie Mol. It seems like they only ever paid attention to the twins because they were the only children around, but now that Sophie Mol has arrived, the twins are hardly worthy of their attention. I have to give Sophie Mol credit, though. She doesn't like the attention she is getting, either. She was pretty upset when Rahel and Estha ditched her to visit Velutha. Like Rahel said, she is human. Poor Sophie Mol. We already know what her fate is.

I feel like I should be keeping a scorecard on the fates of these characters. Sophie Mol: dead; Ammu: dead (at a viable, die-able age); Velutha: unknown, but surely not good. No wonder Estha and Rahel are the way that they are now! Their childhood was pretty awful. Not to mention they probably got blamed for things that happened. I think they deserve therapy. Apparently psychology was not popular at the time. America might be sort of ridiculous, but honestly, there were like therapy hotlines for readers to call after they finished the last Harry Potter book. Estha and Rahel had tragic childhoods! Where were their therapy hotlines?

I find it a bit ironic that I was just suggesting therapy for fictional characters by mentioning the fact that real people could call therapy hotlines to cope with the deaths of fictional characters (the aformentioned characters also from a fictional book). That would be like Harry Potter getting therapy to cope with Hamlet's death. Perhaps I am overthinking this. I keep forgetting that, unlike Three Cups of Tea, this didn't actually happen. I'm getting sucked into this fictional world.

This fictional world with Unnecessary Capitalized Phrases.
And sentence fragments with Unnecessary Capitalized Phrases.

Why are such random phrases capitalized? It really is unnecessary. There better be a logical pattern by the end!

The God of Small Things: Chapters 4-6

Finally Sophie Mol is introduced. Well, introduced meaning that she is alive in the novel. She is a very interesting child. I think that she feels like Estha and Rahel are below her and childish. It wouldn't be completely unfounded, though. Rahel hid when being introduced and Estha got reprimanded by Ammu. Also, they randomly sprung the question of who she loved most on her quite suddenly out of the blue. I think that it might be tragic when Sophie Mol dies. I already know it is coming, but I have a feeling that the author is going to make me feel some attachment to the character so I am as upset as Estha and Rahel when she dies. I'm on to her. Poor Sophie Mol.

Poor Chacko, too. Even though he is her real dad, she loves Joe most. I know that in some cases step-dads can be way better than real dads, but Chacko was never even given the chance to be present in his daughter's life. I hope that Sophie Mol opens up to him more. She seemed rather uncomfortable when he was being affectionate with her. Then again, I suppose that Sophie Mol cannot open up too much to Chacko. Her number is up quite soon, I imagine. The clues from previous chapters hint to her death being not long after her arrival. I feel bad for Margaret. First she loses her husband, and then her daughter when they take a trip to try to ease the pain. I'm certain that happy endings do not exist any more. After the age of about 14, fictional novels are no longer allowed to have happy endings. It is some unwritten law.

Ammu is rather harsh with her children. She is an affectionate mother, but she has callous punishments for simple misdemeanors. I think that I would cry if my mother told me that she loved me less when I misbehaved. I am glad for my mother's unconditional love. If mothers stopped loving their children a little less every time they were bad, I think most mothers probably wouldn't love their children at all. When it comes to toddler years, I think it would be dipping down into the negatives. Rahel was deeply upset by that remark. I think Ammu should be a little more lenient with them. They are just kids. Then again, it is a different culture. I suppose I should not hold it to American standards. It just seems strange to me. I guess even love can be measured differently. Math is probably just about the only real constant throughout the world.

Poor Estha. That is so, so, so terrible. He was molested at the movie theater! I don't understand why he didn't leave. It didn't seem to even bother him until afterwards. Why on earth didn't he tell Ammu?! She seems like a pretty imposing woman. She probably would have told that slimeball what's up despite society's unwritten social laws. If she is anything, Ammu is protective of her children. Now Estha has this terrible thing to hold inside of him. Why didn't Rahel know about it? They seem to have a mental connection. Why didn't she see it or at least sense that something was tragically wrong with her twin? No wonder Estha is introverted nowadays! That had to be a rough time. He got molested, his cousin died, and he was later separated from Ammu and Rahel. What is even worse though, is that the man knows where he can find Estha now. He seemed a bit interested in Rahel, too. Don't they tell children about stranger danger in India?!

I must say that I enjoy the somewhat puzzling manner that the story is written. It reveals only tidbits at a time. Regardless of what just happened at the end of the chapter, it is a cliffhanger. Right now I'm really wondering what is going to happen to Sophie Mol. I want to know if she actually was alive when they buried her. That would be so awful. I also find it interesting how some words and phrases are capitalized even though they are not proper nouns. I know they are significant in some way, but I'm not sure what the method to her maddness is. Perhaps it is something to do with an Indian interpretation of English things?

The God of Small Things: Chapters 1-3

This book is both extremely interesting and extremely confusing. I feel like everyone is laughing at an inside joke that I don't understand. It jumps around so much that I'm having difficulty keeping up. I wish I knew more about Sophie Mol because it definitely had a profound effect on the life of the entire family. I also would like to know more about why Estha and Rahel didn't speak for so long despite the distance between them. I would have thought that such a strong bond would have withstood their separation. I can't imagine being so attuned to someone and then being separated, cut off for years.

There are so many cultural literacy references in this book. Thank you, Mrs. Fox! I understand all of them! I have never read Heart of Darkness, but I understood the reference and the character. I also knew the meaning of "Et tu, Brute." Honestly, I think cultural literacy should be a part of all English classes. It is so useful. It helps you understand so many other books (and win game shows).

I'm a bit confused about some events in the book. I'm really hoping that they get cleared up. Was Sophie Mol truly alive when she was buried or was Rahel just making a really intense analogy/description of her emotions at the burial? How did she die? I know they said her skin was wrinkled from too much time spent in water? Did she drown? There is a river near the house. Where is Chako nowadays? Only the aunt and servant are at the house with Estha. The crazy order that everything is happening in leaves me with a lot of questions. I can't wait to get more insight into the past of the characters. It will make everything much easier to understand.

This book has some clever humor. I enjoyed the free bus ride comment as well as the irony of the woman who criticized their backward-reading being run over by a backward-moving vehicle. It made me laugh. The twins are certainly strange in the way their minds are connected and in the fact that they can read backwards. Who does that?! It's crazy. I can't even say the alphabet backwards.

I was interested by the fact that the family is Christian. It is set in India, and they are natives, but they are not Hindus. Yet, the caste system still applies. I suppose that is an Indian thing, though. Although the book didn't directly state it, I think that Ammu and Velutha have a little something going on. Ammu was obviously never one to follow the rules, but that seems pretty intense. Maybe I'm way off base, but I'm just going off hints that have been dropped. I would imagine that forbidden love is somewhat common in India (for rule breakers, that is). I don't know what I would do if I fell in love with someone society told me I couldn't be with. I'm not sure that their relationship will go far. It was already stated that Ammu died when she was thirty-one. I will feel stupid if I completely misinterpreted everything about Ammu and Velutha. That is just what I am gathering from the text, though.

Even though we learned about the caste system in class, I was a bit shocked by what I read. The fact that the Untouchables had to broom backwards is ridiculous! How degrading! I am so glad that I do not live in a society like that. Although I think the Hindu religion is pretty awesome, I don't understand how the caste system and Hinduism can coexist. They treat cows a billion times better than they treat the Untouchables.

Hopefully the next chapters give some more insight and understanding. At this rate, I will have the book finished by next week. The confusion is enthralling and certainly keeps me reading.

Three Cups of Tea: Final Reflection

Greg Mortenson really, truly is a hero. He has risked life and limb for the children of Pakistan, and now Afghanistan. He has put the education of these children into the well-deserved perspective it should be in. In countries such as Pakistan and Afghanistan, the education of children is extremely important. It is as important as fighting terror with guns and artillery, maybe even more so. The work he has done in the Middle East has not only effected the people of those countries, but America, too. Mortenson's story really changed my view of the people in the Middle East. They aren't all Muslim extremists who desire nothing more than to bomb anything American. Many are very friendly, welcoming people who are in dire need of simple things such as clean, running water, electricity, and a solid education. I believe that more Americans need to hear Greg Mortenson's story. Although many people do know of the work he is doing, so many more need to hear what he has to say. Like Mortenson and several others, I also believe that a good education will solve many of the problems in that area of the world. Children are simply being brainwashed. This could so easily be prevented with a CAI-funded school.

Not only has Greg Mortenson risked his safety in foreign countries to promote his cause, but he has also given great personal sacrifice. He leaves his family for months on end to do his work. Even before he had a family, he barely had enough money to live by. What Mortenson has done with his life, from climbing mountains to being a nurse to helping the students in Pakistan and Afghanistan, is utterly amazing. It really shows that one person can make all the difference in the world. We need more role models like Greg Mortenson. His cause is admirable, and he has worked so very hard to accomplish what he believes in. He is much more worthy of admiration than any American celebrity. Kids today should aspire to do good things like he does. Actually, everyone should try to do accomplish things like Greg, although not necessarily to that scale. Simple donations to organizations like the CAI are a simple, but very worthwhile, gesture.

I thought Three Cups of Tea was an excellent book. It educated me on the Muslim culture and problems in the Middle East better than an text book ever could. Greg Mortenson has accomplished amazing things and I believe that everyone should hear his story. It helps people understand not only the importance of education, but how the people of those countries deserve our help. Americans tend to group everyone of Islamic descent as an extremist and that is simply unjust and ignorant. A majority of Muslims do not have bad intentions. Mortenson and Relin's novel sheds true light on what life is like over in Middle Eastern countries. The information and personal stories in this book are something that every American should know. His cause is something that every American should know. The world needs more Greg Mortensons. He is the epotime of a hero.

I must say though, I think they drank more than three cups of tea... : P

On a final note, I hope that we, as a class, can do something for the CAI.