Comparing and Contrasting To Kill a Mocking Bird and The God of Small Things

In the first year of the English Teachers Training program, there is a module called Ethnicity, consisting of the study of texts related to the theme. In this short essay, I would like to compare and contrast two of the focal texts, namely: To Kill a Mocking Bird by Harper Lee, and The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy.

Contrasting the two novels is not difficult. They differ in almost all aspects. The setting and time of H. Lee’s book is the Deep South of the early twentieth century, while the action in A. Roy’s book takes place some eighty years later in the Indian state of Kerala. An interesting point of comparison is that both novels won prestigious prizes: the Pulitzer and the Booker prize respectively. They are the authors’ first and only novel to date, and as such, they contain a fair amount of autobiographical elements. The plots differ essentially, although both are narrated from a child’s point of view.

The two novels have a very substantial point in common, namely their themes. The predominant theme of Harper Lee’s book is racial injustice. Similarly, The God of Small Things deals with the injustice of the caste system. Caste in India is, to a certain degree, based on race. We read in Roy’s book that Velutha, the Untouchable, is darker in color than his lover of a higher caste. Caste and race are easily comparable, as in either case people are not able to choose to which one they belong, nor does any amount of personal qualification help the ‘low-born’ against society’s harsh and unjust treatment. “If they hurt Velutha more than they intended to, it was only because any kinship, any connection between themselves and him, any implication that if nothing else, at least biologically he was a fellow creature – had been severed long ago.” In both books the protagonists become the scapegoats of social prejudice. Although of good character and considerable skill, they pay with their lives for sexual crimes they haven’t committed. Velutha is blamed for raping Amu, a woman and a divorcee – two facts that situate her in the lowest step of the social ladder. Mayella Ewell, on the other hand, can safely be put in the category of ‘White Trash’. Still, their ‘honor’ is worth more than the very life of a black man or an Untouchable, who are killed simply on the suspicion of infringing upon it.

The secondary themes of both novels are caste/class tension and gender roles. In presenting these matters the authors differ in their outlook on humanity. While Harper Lee is able to point out a good quality in almost anyone, A. Roy paints a picture of humanity in stark colors: almost all of her characters are subjected to vice – be it dishonesty, maliciousness or a ‘fierce lack of ambition’.

In this way, these two novels written on different continents, and describing societies which externally are hard to compare, expose humanity’s vicious tendency towards unfair and cruel treatment of the most vulnerable. A landmark of human civilization is how society treats its weaker and needier members.