Pappachi character analysis

Pranav Chandrasekaran
Mr. Paul Dyer
English
3rd September, 2014 CHARACTER ANALYSIS: PAPPACHI
Pappachi is the original patriarch of the Ipe Family. His real name was Shri Benaan John Ipe. Pappachi had lived during the British occupation of India and had worked as the Imperial Entomologist. In British India, Britishers formed the dominating class and ruled over the Indians. In such an environment, Pappachi had begun to consider Britishers as the cream of society. He was an anglophile. He was proud to be ‘high-ranking government official’ and behaved the part. Pappachi took care to look dapper and well groomed. He would always be well dressed in suits. He always took care to ensure that he looked suave. He was considered to be the ideal husband by all who knew him. Yet Pappachi was in reality a cruel and vile man who put up an image. He would regularly beat up Mammachi because he considered it a vital part of him being a man. Pappachi believed that beating up one’s wife was an assertion of manliness. He would even abuse Ammu in this manner. He tore up Ammu’s new gum boots in anger with shears. He didn’t care about Ammu’s feelings or the fact that she was a child who would be negatively affected by his actions.
Pappachi was cruel because of the British occupation. During the British occupation, Indians had no social status. Thus men could not exercise in society, their cravings for dominance and power. They eventually were driven to exercising these cravings at home. Beating up one’s wife was considered manly since it had connotations of dominance which was desirable for men. Thus, marriage, meant to be a union between two people, turned into a perverse abusive relationship.
Pappachi derived his authority from the British government. He was the Imperial Entomologist. The high ranking government job which he had was given to him by the British government. Thus the authority and respect which he had in society was given to him by the British government in the form of a career.
When Pappachi retired he felt very uncomfortable. Since there were seventeen years of difference between them, Mammachi was still in her prime while Pappachi was on the wane. Pappachi grew sullen and morose on seeing the successfulness of Mammachi’s Pickles and Jam making business. He had lived his entire life as ‘the man in control’ and now, the control that he cherished was being wrested from his hands. Pappachi disapproved of the popularity of his wife’s business. Driven by jealousy, Pappachi would beat Mammachi up every night with a brass vase. He would walk around the mounds of red chili powder used to make the pickles, throughout the day, dressed in expensive suits. Pappachi however, would never help in the making of the pickles because he considered this to be below his status.
Pappachi purchased a sky blue Plymouth from an Englishman in Munnar. He was very proud of the car. He took revenge against Mammachi by not allowing her in the car. He would drive around Ayemenem in his Plymouth, wearing expensive suits and sweating in them.
Pappachi’s violence was based in insecurity. He was in reality a weak man who felt insecure about his social status. Pappachi sought to clarify his status by beating up his wife. Hence Chacko stopped Pappachi from hitting Mammachi. Pappachi stopped interacting with Mammachi. He would sit in the front verandah and polish his shoes as if to show that Mammachi would not help him.
Pappachi oppressed Mammachi by not allowing her to continue taking violin lessons in Vienna. When he was told that she was a concert grade violinist, he stopped her from playing because he did not want Mammachi to become more successful than him.
Pappachi had once discovered a new species of moth. It fell in his drink while he was sitting in a rest house. Pappachi, sent the moth for identification and after six months, was told that it was a slightly unusual form of the species of moth belonging to the family of Lymantriidae. Later, a taxonomic reshuffle, identified the moth which Pappachi had discovered as a new species. By this time Pappachi had retired. He did not have the claim to glory which he deserved for having discovered the moth. Arundhati Roy compares the moth to the specter of death and destruction that would later hang over the Ipe family. She says that the people of the Ipe family believed that Pappachi was unhappy because he had been cheated out of fame by not having his butterfly named after him. Thus his temper and frustration was justified to the family.
Pappachi is a rather complex character, and his roles as a father and a husband blend into that of an insecure, envious, abusive, misogynistic failure.