EMBODIED STORYTELLING: AN ANALYSIS OF THE ROLE OF CHILD GAIT IN SHAPING NARRATIVE IDENTITY IN THE SELECT NOVELS: BELOVED, THE GOD OF SMALL THINGS AND TO THE LIGHTHOUSE

Abstract

This research explores the literary representation of children's gait wobbling, toddling, skipping and stumbling as a symbolic register of psychological growth, emotional fragility, and resistance. Although mobility has been widely examined in literary and cultural studies, the specific ways in which children’s bodily movement contributes to narrative meaning remain largely overlooked. The aim of this study is to reposition the child’s developing gait as a significant literary device that reflects inner transformation, social constraints, and shifting power dynamics. The methodology employed involves close reading and comparative literary analysis of selected texts that foreground children's movement. Works analyzed include Beloved by Toni Morrison, The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy, and To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf. These texts reveal how the physicality of children’s movement is often used to express unspoken emotions, mark transitions in psychological development, and challenge adult-imposed structures. The findings indicate that the portrayal of children’s gait is deeply expressive, operating as a nonverbal language within the narrative. Whether signaling emotional instability, tentative autonomy, or subtle forms of defiance, changes in gait become powerful indicators of character evolution and narrative tension. In conclusion, the study argues that children's gait in literature offers a unique lens through which to understand embodiment, narrative form, and the politics of childhood. It invites a reconsideration of movement as not merely functional or decorative, but as a key element in literary meaning-making and in articulating the complexity of growing up.

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