08. Formal migrations and returns
To continue to discuss the form of the novel, it is to say that it does not only contain hybrid elements, but that it is also full of migrations and returns on a formal level. This begins with the just mentioned words that are written in the way the focalizer perceives them, which means the rules of English orthography are transgressed. The narrator does not always comply with these rules either. Words are frequently written with a capital to stress their meaning, even within the word itself: “re-Returned” (Roy 1997, 9). Sometimes the layout of the text is broken, very often to quote poems or verses of songs, but also within the normal text, giving it a poetic aspect, or to imitate signs, for example at the board at the police station, that reads:
P oliteness
O bedience
L oyalty
I ntelligence
C ourtesy
E fficiency
(Roy 1997, 8)
We also find numerous repetitions of the same expressions, sometimes slightly altered. The thoughts about the love laws appear three times in the novel, but always with small changes:
That it really began in the days when the Love Laws were made. The laws that lay down who should be loved, and how. And how much. (Roy 1997, 33)
Where the Love Laws lay down who should be loved. And how. And how much. (Roy 1997, 177)
Only that once again they broke the Love Laws. That lay down who should be loved. And how. And how much. (Roy 1997, 328)
If we look at how the whole story is presented, we come across a very mixed up timeline. There are the two main plot lines, one taking place in the two weeks of Sophie Mol’s time in Ayemenem, and the other one taking place 23 years later, after Rahel meets her twin brother Estha again. But even within these two timelines we also find frequent returns in time and shifts backwards and forwards, prolepses and analepses, and several incidents are narrated more than one time: “Then he tapped her breasts with his baton.” (Roy 1997, 8) and “he tapped her breasts with his baton” (Roy 1997, 260).
The main events, Sophie Mol’s death, Ammu’s and Velutha’s affair and Velutha’s death, Rahel’s return, they all are mentioned in the first pages of the book, even though the reader can not make all the connections yet. The detailed causes and effects of the events are only laid out in bits and pieces in the rest of the novel.