The Impacts of Globalization on the Natural Environment: A Case Study of The God of Small Things

Abstract

This study attempts to point out the impacts of globalization, industrialization,
and urbanization on the environment as mentioned by Roy (1997) in The God
of Small Things. Roy (1997) has discussed several issues in the novel among
which Ecocriticism is a central one. The study mainly deals with global, local,
and government involvement in the devastation of the environment and its
impacts on human life. Has Roy deliberately utilized such descriptions to
point out the impacts of human actions on the destruction of nature? This
question shall be answered in this study. Human greed for material progress,
globalization, imperialism, and urbanization have destroyed the environment.
This decay of natural resources results in the devastation of human life itself.
This eco-suicidal tendency of human beings has been criticized by Roy.
Various critics have highlighted this issue of the destruction of nature in the
novel, but the current study delves deeper into the novel to point out this
tendency of environmental destruction in detail. The study demonstrates how
the author is haunted by local, national, and worldwide environmental
destruction. Being a social worker her debt to environmental purity cannot be
ignored. Roy (1997) has highlighted these issues in the novel.
Keywords: globalization, natural environment, urbanization,
industrialization