Rushdie salman midnights children book

Home / General Biography Information / Rushdie salman midnights children book

Saleem’s Muslim background, Mary Pereira’s Catholicism, and the Hindu context of Bombay illustrate the religious diversity of India . It represents the limited and fragmented way in which individuals often perceive each other and the world around them . Midnight's Children is one of those novels that are reader-neutral or even reader-antagonistic -- they seem to have been written for the sole purpose of letting a writer wallow in their own history, their own problems, their own pet concerns, desires, and childhood hangups.

His act of telling his story, of “pickling time,” becomes an attempt to preserve and make sense of his own life and the history of his nation, even if that history is filtered through his subjective experiences and flawed memory . Books like this are not mirrors of the world, or even mirrors of the author, but mirrors of how the author wants to be seen by the world.

There are patches of writing in this book that startle, amuse, and tantalize the reader, but the story is not as interesting as the narrator or the author seem to think it is; in fact, the narrator's constant references to the depth/difficulty/complex interconnectedness of his story all rang false to me.

He witnesses the horrific atrocities of the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971 and eventually flees into the Sundarbans jungle with other soldiers . Saleem grows up in Bombay, bearing a distinctive large nose and blue eyes, and at the age of ten, he discovers his telepathic ability, which connects him to 1001 other children born within the first hour of India’s independence – the “midnight’s children” .

It represents his heightened senses, particularly his telepathic abilities and later his acute sense of smell, which allows him to perceive emotions . The novel explores the historical coexistence of these diverse groups, but also acknowledges the religious tensions that have sometimes erupted, particularly in the context of the partition and subsequent communal conflicts .

Their diverse magical powers represent the heterogeneity of India, while their inability to cooperate effectively in the Midnight Children’s Conference mirrors the challenges of national unity . The novel vividly portrays the atmosphere of hope and uncertainty that accompanied independence, while also highlighting the trauma and violence of the partition through the experiences of Saleem’s family and the broader social unrest .   

Political Climate of Post-Independence India: The novel spans the first three decades of India’s independence, a period marked by significant political developments .

The Emergency, a 21-month period during which civil liberties were suspended and political opponents were imprisoned, forms a crucial backdrop to the later part of the novel, directly impacting the lives of Saleem and the other midnight’s children through the forced sterilization program . He forms the Midnight Children’s Conference (MCC), a telepathic gathering that mirrors the linguistic, cultural, and religious diversity of India, yet also reflects the challenges of achieving unity within this diversity .