In this excellent novel Arundhati Roy seems to turn her
rapier-like wit and intellect on many aspects of modern Indian life, as well as
traditional Indian life. You might like to consider how she variously satirises the
caste system, the British Raj and British involvement in India, Communism, globalisation
and development. These are just some of the targets that she
demolishes.
One of the more amusing examples for me is seen
in Chapter One when Rahel returns to her old family home and sees the transformation
that buying a satellite dish has wrought in Baby Kochamma and how old serials and
poor-quality television now dominate her life. Now she has the satellite dish, we are
told that "She presided over the World in her drawing room on satellite TV." Note how
the description continues:
Blondes, wars, famines, football, sex, music,
coups d'etat--they all arrived on the same train. They unpacked together. They stayed at
the same hotel... And so, while her ornamental garden wilted and died, Baby Kochamma
followed American NBA league games, one-day cricket and all the Grand Slam tennis
tournaments. On weekdays she watched The Bold and the Beautiful and
Santa Barbara, where brittle blondes with lipstick and hairstyles
rigid with spray seduced androids and defended their sexual
empires.
Note how both
American shows are satirised by their characterisation as women "defending their sexual
empires" but also the way that Roy comments on the global American culture that is
beamed in to so many homes in the developing world and gives such a distorted impression
of life and the world and, in turn, distorts the lives of those who watch such
shows.
Having looked at this example, you might want to
pick another from the list I gave you in the first paragraph and consider how Roy
satirises that aspect of the novel. Good luck!
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