Everything's Arranged' by Siew Yue Killingley is basically about an arranged

marriage practiced by the Indian communities. The story is centered on Rukumani, a

young maiden from the Ceylonese Tamil community whose family has settled in
Malaya. This concept of arranged marriages are highly considered and respected by
the Indian and Ceylonese families as they are considered as a dignity and a symbol
of family honour.
Siew Yue Killingley used cultural criticism in Everythings Arranged as its main
literary theory. Cultural criticism is a school of thought that looks at how movies,
music, literature, art, politics and much more define a current culture. In this short
story, the background of Indian culture is well depicted and portrayed. Similar to the
criticism, this story shows the Indian culture that believes marriage as a spiritual
thing and hence. It makes sex as an issue that cannot be mentioned at home while
the girls should not also be in love before marriage. The story is amazing as it
exposes us the real Indian culture that has been truly practiced by them. This culture
has its own values and quality as it can avoid the communities from involving in
social problems like premarital sex. To a certain extent, this culture contradicts to
modern culture because nowadays people tend to choose their own spouses.
There are various behaviours being portrayed through many types of characters in
this short story. Rukumani, the protagonist is studying at the university and has fallen
in love with a guy named Devanayagam, also from the same community as she is.
Rukumani's parents are very old-fashioned in their ideas about marriage. The only
one type of marriage which is accepted by them is the arranged marriage. They
strongly believe that a man and a lady can never fall in love with each other before
marriage. Rukumanis little brother or known as 'Boy' (whose real name is
Nadarajah) is a naughty boy as after he saw...