The God of Small Things: Chapter 4 Summary & Analysis

Back in 1969 the family reaches the cinema hall, which is called “Abhilash Talkies.” Ammu, Baby Kochamma, and Rahel go into the girls’ bathroom and take turns peeing into the same toilet. Rahel enjoys the intimacy this activity creates. Meanwhile Estha goes alone into the boys’ bathroom and climbs onto some junk so he is tall enough to pee in the urinal. Chacko has gone to see about the hotel.

The family enters the movie theater, where The Sound of Music has already begun. In the movie the nuns are singing “How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria,” and Estha can’t stop himself singing along in his high, pure voice. The people in the audience get angry, but Estha can’t seem to help singing, so Ammu sends him out to the lobby.

Estha sits down and sings in the lobby, and he wakes up the man selling refreshments, the “Orangedrink Lemondrink Man.” The fat, dirty man is angry at first, but then he coaxes Estha into accepting a free drink and coming behind the counter. The man asks Estha about Ayemenem and his Mammachi, and he makes Estha hold his penis while Estha drinks the lemon drink. Estha recites the different pickled products Mammachi makes to try and mentally escape from the situation. Then the man ejaculates onto Estha’s hand, wipes it off, and sends him back into the movie.

Estha feels unclean and traumatized. He watches the clean, white children in The Sound of Music and compares them to his own feeling of dirtiness and degradation. In his mind he associates Sophie Mol with these white children who seem more deserving of love than he. Estha gets nauseated and Ammu takes him into the bathroom. He retches and washes his hands and face many times, and then Ammu takes him to get a lemon drink to cheer him up.

The Orangedrink Lemondrink Man is polite and friendly to Ammu, but he also mentions that he knows exactly where Paradise Pickles is. Estha knows that this is a veiled threat, and he helplessly accepts some sweets from the man and says nothing to Ammu. Ammu makes the rest of the family leave the movie, as she doesn’t want Estha to risk a fever before Sophie Mol comes. They walk through the lobby and the Orangedrink Man offers Rahel a sweet, but she is repulsed by his yellow teeth and turns away.

As they are walking out Ammu compliments the Orangedrink Lemondrink Man’s friendliness, and Rahel unthinkingly says “why don’t you marry him then?” Everyone freezes, and Ammu tells Rahel that when you hurt someone, they love you a little less. Rahel feels Pappachi’s moth land on her heart, and she is terrified that Ammu now loves her less.

They take a taxi to the Hotel Sea Queen, and Estha longs for a river to wash away his sickness. The family goes up to Chacko’s room, where he is feasting. Rahel asks Ammu to punish her, but Ammu says “some things come with their own punishments.” Then Estha goes off to sleep with Ammu and Baby Kochamma, and Rahel, panicked about losing Ammu’s love, stays with Chacko.

Chacko lies awake and thinks about Sophie Mol, who is coming tomorrow. He last saw her as a baby after his wife Margaret told Chacko she was leaving him for Joe. Rahel can’t sleep either, and she asks Chacko worriedly if it’s possible that Ammu will love Sophie Mol more than she loves the twins. Chacko says anything is possible.

In the other room Estha wakes up and vomits in the sink. Then he goes and stands outside Rahel’s room. Rahel somehow knows he is there and opens the door for him. Chacko ignores them and wonders if Velutha was really in the Communist march earlier. Comrade K. N. M. Pillai, the head of the Party in Ayemenem, had been hoping to create a new labor union at Paradise Pickles. Chacko himself talked to his workers about Marxism, but Pillai would also invite them into his printing press and encourage them to rebel against Chacko, all the while printing labels for Paradise Pickles as well.

Velutha is the only card-carrying Communist in the factory, but Pillai does not want him as an ally because he is an Untouchable. Still the workers began asking for raises, and Mammachi always acted as the traditional landlord and denied them. Chacko meanwhile continued to play-act as a Marxist and ignore the discontent. Chacko lies in bed and muses that maybe he will organize his own labor union. On the next bed Estha and Rahel sleep while embracing each other. They dream about their river, which runs behind the Ayemenem house.