The perception of time plays a peculiar role in The God of Small Things, acting both as a linear force, which carries the plot with it, and as a proverbial well of tar, trapping and preserving a moment and a time. The entire Kochamma family seems stuck in the latter; their ideology of familial superiority no longer matches current circumstances by the end of the novel. In this way, the Kochamma family's fall from grace can be seen as a divergence between Time and Time Perception, with Time carrying India towards the revolution of modernity and Perception holding the Kochamma family firmly in the past, clinging to the ghosts of ancient glory. in a vain attempt to maintain a reputation for power and means. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The first indicator of the Kochamma family's perception of time is the nonlinear way in which the novel is written, which forces mention of past success as if to compensate for the steady decline in the family's fortune. With recurring pseudo-flashbacks, each of the older Kochammas finds comfort from the fear of the present by reminiscing and ruminating on the past. Chacko does this during his days as a Rhodes scholar at Oxford, pining for Margaret but content with her suffering. Baby Kochamma is left longing for past years of prosperity as she sits stagnant on her couch, enraptured by the superficiality of television. Estha is trapped in the moment where he lost his innocence in cinema, losing the simplicity of childhood. Even Pappachi, the patriarch of the family, was privately intimidated by his father, the Reverend. Rahel was a different matter; by actively trying to escape her family history, she has come closer to normality. Her boarding school years (imperfect as they were) distanced her further and further from her family's influence until, after arriving in Washington D.C., Rahel succumbed to the undeniable pull of family history and returned once again to Ayemenem. There were, however, exceptions whose contrasting approach reinforces the point, two being Ammu and Velutha. Ammu was only able to escape the black hole of the Kochamma family story by escaping into her fantasy. Velutha was himself a force of the times. It offered her an escape from tradition, an escape from her social role and, above all, an escape from the past. With Velutha there were no flashbacks simply because there was no need for Ammu to try to obscure the present with the past when she was with him. Together, they made time useless; they had no reason to burden themselves with history since social norms had already made their relationship publicly impossible. The only life force left was their emotions: “Somehow, by not mentioning his name, she knew she had drawn him into the tangled intimacy of that blue cross-stitch afternoon and the mandarin transistor song. By not mentioning his name, he sensed that a pact had been made between his Dream and the World” (210). The third person left unscathed by time was Sophie Mol. Visitor of Ayemenem, she had no perception of her role in the Kochamma lineage and death is the greatest liberator of the soul from Time. Even before her sudden departure, Sophie Mol maintained an air of detached curiosity about Ayemenem, the Kochamma house and its inhabitants. By refusing to accept his family ties, he effectively isolated himself from any influence of his family past. Her death was the final event that made her immune to the pull of Time and the influence of the Kochamma family. With only the memory of his existence, his identity could not be altered by time or"?