1) What do we KNOW about Velutha?
- He is an Untouchable (a Paravan)
- He doesn't believe in the cast system --> he is a communist
- He has many positive qualities even though he is an Untouchable: he is good, helpful, smart (he finished the Untouchables' School and high school) and talented (he is a carpenter); he is proud and walks with his head high; he can read and write
- He works for Mammachi and becomes Estha and Rahel's friend and Ammu's lover
- His father tells Mammachi about his affair with Ammu and offers her to kill him
- When Baby Kochamma finds out about the affair, she accuses him of raping and kidnapping
- He is beaten to death by the police
2) How do other characters see Velutha?
- Mammachi
- she gives him the job
- she expects him to be indefinitely grateful to her
- she doesn't realize how unfair the cast system is and considers herself above Velutha
- Ammu
- while watching him playing with her children, she realizes how he had changed
- she sees him as a man and feels attracted to him
- finally, she has an affair with him
- she knows that he is a victim
- Rahel and Estha
- later they realize that he was a victim
- Baby Kochamma
- she sees him as an Untouchable and a communists
- she was once humiliated by the communists, so she decides to revenge on Velutha by accusing him of raping Ammu and kidnapping the twins.
This is how other characters see Velutha - how he is viewed. They all have their own reasons for their opinions, but they don't realize that their reasons sometimes don't make much sense and one of them is responsible for Velutha's death.
1 comment:
Your ending comment really makes me think of how tradition, ignorance and fear of the unknown(or the new) create inequality, a sense of unjust treatment and hate. Their ignorance is so thick that it costs a man's life, a woman's love and family, and the childhood innocents of two children.
Don't forget that just because a person was labeled an Untouchable didn't make him/her a bad person. You can't help where or to whom you were born. Velutha knew his own worth was higher than what society was telling him was acceptable. That made others afraid.
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