Nature as Refuge for the Marginalized: An Ecocritical Analysis Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things and The Ministry of Utmost Happiness

Abstract

Environmental well-being is a vital component of human life, as a healthy environment sustains not only physical survival but also social and psychological stability. Contemporary literary studies increasingly recognize literature as a powerful medium for articulating environmental concerns, and Arundhati Roy’s fiction occupies a significant place within this discourse due to its sustained engagement with ecological degradation, displacement, and social injustice. This paper presents an ecocritical analysis of select novels by Arundhati Roy, with particular emphasis on the representation of nature as a home and refuge for socially and psychologically suffocated individuals. Drawing on the theoretical framework of ecocriticism, the study examines how Roy’s narratives foreground the intricate and interdependent relationship between human beings and the natural world. The paper explores how marginalized, displaced, and silenced characters—victims of capitalist development, state violence, and ecological destruction—seek shelter, belonging, and emotional healing within natural spaces. Roy’s evocative portrayal of landscapes, rivers, and non-human environments reveals nature not merely as a backdrop but as an active, nurturing force that offers solace and restoration to those excluded from dominant social structures. In The God of Small Things, the river and its surrounding landscape emerge as spaces of comfort and emotional refuge, particularly for characters alienated by rigid social norms. Similarly, in The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, the graveyard is reimagined as a living ecological space that functions as a home, sanctuary, and site of resistance for brutally marginalized and victimized communities. The study argues that Roy presents nature as a healing and redemptive entity capable of absorbing human suffering and restoring fractured identities. Through her characters, she highlights how environmental degradation intensifies social suffocation, while a return to nature enables survival, dignity, and emotional recovery. Methodologically, the research adopts a qualitative textual analysis grounded in ecocritical theory. By examining The God of Small Things and The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, this paper demonstrates that Roy’s fiction advances a powerful ecological vision in which nature becomes a compassionate home for the oppressed, underscoring the urgent need for environmental consciousness and ethical coexistence