74 pages • 2 hours read
Arundhati RoyThe Ministry Of Utmost Happiness
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2017A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Essay Topics
The Ministry of Utmost Happiness contains several minor characters who appear for only one or two scenes (e.g., Mr. Aggarwal or ACP Pinky). Choose one of these characters and discuss their relevance to the novel as a whole.
To what extent is Anjum a symbol of “Indo-Pak”—the schisms that currently divide India? To what extent is she a three-dimensional character in her own right?
Compare the different visions of society embodied by the old man-baby and Miss Jebeen the Second.
Although most of the novel is written in the third person, the chapters involving Biplab Dasgupta are told in first person. Why might Roy have chosen this structure?
Although much of the novel’s setting appears based on real people and events, Roy doesn’t typically refer to these by name or date. What is the effect or significance of this?
Discuss the role that cemeteries, graves, and shrines play in The Ministry of Utmost Happiness.
Consider the poem Tilo writes about the difficulty of telling a “shattered story.” What does it mean to “become everything,” and why might Tilo see that as the solution to her problem?
Toward the end of the novel, Saddam claims that “the world is only videos now” (412). How does Roy’s depiction of modern media intersect with her ideas about the nature of stories and storytelling?
What is the significance of the novel’s title? What does it mean to be “happy” in this novel?
Roy published The Ministry of Utmost Happiness roughly 20 years after the publication of her first novel, having spent the interim writing nonfiction on a number of social and political issues. In what way can the influence of Roy’s activism be seen in this novel, either in its themes or in its structure?
