The God of Small Things Lesson Plan

How do the kangaroos characterize the scene in the airport?

The kangaroos are concrete statues standing in the arrivals lounge, with pouches meant to be used as ash-trays. They are covered in spit stains and filled with garbage and cockroaches. They represent the ineffective veneer set up by the Kerala Tourism Development Corporation--they are cartoonishly 'exotic,' like the gifts in the airport shop, and they are meant to contain the mess of the crowded lounge. In practice, however, they are covered in the mess in a way that only amplifies it further, and their cartoonish merriment comes off as creepy and insincere. The very objects that are meant to lull...