Barriers to Love

Paper Summary:

This paper analyzes the story and the characters of Roy's novel about castes in Indian society and explains how the book is about the norms and laws of society that stand as barriers to love.

From the Paper:

"Roy refers to the social norms that control sexual behavior as the Love Laws. They indicate "who should be loved and how. And how much" (311). There are a number of "love laws" that are broken in the story; however, Roy presents these socially unacceptable or barely tolerated instances in an existential light where they appear more as barriers than as crimes and, or, sins. Divorce, although socially frowned upon, is tolerated to a certain degree and sanctioned by social response. Sexual coercion is given greater negative response but is treated more as a "misstep" or "mistake" than the crime it would be in other, less patriarchal, societies. Incest is forbidden according to the moral parameters of the Indian society but is treated, by Roy, as a natural outcome of an intimacy derived from being twins. By far the "worst" of the transgressions that occur in the book is the affair between an untouchable and a respectable woman of the trader caste."

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