Voices Silenced: Representing Children as Subalterns in Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus

Abstract

Postcolonial theorist Gayatri Spivak initiated the concept of ‘subaltern’. The term Subaltern encompasses individuals who are marginalized, oppressed and deprived. Racism and gender are the underlying causes of oppression faced by people. Children are the most miserable group in the subaltern category. The pain that children experience often goes unnoticed. They are compelled to be silenced and unable to speak. The purpose of this paper is to examine how children are depicted as inferior in Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus. In both novels, children are confronted with physical and emotional abuse from the person who is supposed to love them. It causes trauma in their mind that impacts their entire life. Through the character portrayal of Estha and Rahel in The God of Small Things and Kambili and Jaja in Purple Hibiscus, Roy and Adichie shed light on major social issue that is abusing and marginalising children. Children are future leaders and their childhood needs to be peaceful and harmonious to shape them into better humans. The scars left by childhood pain last for a long time, forever. The purpose of this comparative study is to establish a safe setting for children.