阿蘭達蒂‧洛伊（Arundhati Roy）的處女作《微物之神》（The God of small Things）於西元1997年出版後即得到廣大的回響。此外，該年也是印度獨立五十周年的重要歷史時刻。小說主要聚焦於主人翁童年時的創傷事件，但小說卻開始於創傷事件發生後的23年之後，採倒敘手法描敘故事經過。《微物之神》透過第三人稱敘述觀點，以瑞海兒孩提時期的回憶及全知觀點作為中立的方式，來敘述瑞海兒（Rahel）未知之事。故事劇情於兩個獨立時空中交錯推展，一為1969年，另一則是二十三年後瑞海兒與她雙胞胎哥哥艾斯沙（Estha）長大後的再次重逢。因此，探討洛伊透過小說試圖傳達的想法即為主要關切的議題。
本論文主張洛伊藉由《微物之神》，以伊培家族（the Ipe family）的內在衝突、寶寶克加瑪（Baby Kochamma）的生存手段及異卵雙胞胎瑞海兒及艾斯沙的創傷和創傷覺醒來檢視印度社會。導論主要探討作者和故事背景。第一章以佛洛伊德的「家族傳奇」（family romance）討論主角與父母的互動。第二章則分析寶寶克加瑪如何在一連串的悲慘事件中存活，並提出寶寶克加瑪被賦予扮演印度過去及現況的象徵性角色。第三章以克魯絲（Cathy Caruth）的創傷及創傷覺醒概念詮釋悲慘事件對主角瑞海兒及艾斯沙帶來的影響，進而於此雙胞胎瑞海兒及艾斯沙的創傷敘事中傳達洛伊對印度的期許。

Arundhati Roy released her debut novel The God of small Things in 1997, which is the year that India celebrated her fiftieth anniversary of independence and received enthusiastic accolade at the same time. The novel begins twenty-three years after the main events, with flashbacks to that earlier period which culminated in the funeral of Sophie Mol. A chorus of voices speaks through The God of Small Things. On the one hand, the novel consists of the adult character Rahel’s memories of her childhood and, on the other hand, it is also filtered through the perspective of an omniscient narrator who fills in, in a neutral style, other events that are not available to Rahel. The story fluctuates between two separate times, one is in 1969, and the other happens after twenty-three years when the twins—Rahel and Estha—grow up and get reunited again. Thus, examining what Roy wants to convey through the novel becomes my main concern. This thesis argues that Arundhati Roy uses The God of Small Things to scrutinize India in terms of the Ipe family’s internal conflicts, Baby Kochamma’s surviving techniques and the two-egg twins’ trauma and their traumatic awakening.
Background knowledge of the author and the work will be surveyed in the Introduction. Next, in the first chapter, I will use Freud’s concept of the “family romance” to discuss how the main characters interact with their parents. Later, in Chapter Two, how Baby Kochamma survives through several tragic events will be analyzed. Furthermore, Baby Kochamma, will be treated as an allegorical figure who embodies the symptoms of India, both the India of the past and the India of today. In Chapter Three, concepts derived from Cathy Caruth’s trauma and traumatic awakening will be used to interpret how the tragic events impact on the leading characters, Rahel and Estha, and Roy’s expectation toward India will be brought out through the twins’ trauma narrative. Finally, the Conclusion will include a brief review of each chapter.

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