Krisven Mae R.

Obedo 2006 42719

Dr. Lily Rose Tope ENG 133 WFV

Midnights Children Although this novel by Salman Rushdie is extremely long, it is still exceptional in regards of addressing thoroughly what it intends to express. Basically, it is allegorical in the sense of emphasizing symbolism that greatly was incorporated in its characters and the sequence of events in the narrative. Midnight's Children is a family saga set against the volatile events in the thirty years following the country's independence the partitioning of India and Pakistan, the rule of Indira Gandhi, the onset of violence and war, and the imposition of martial law. It is a magical and haunting tale of both fragmentation and the struggle for identity that links personal life with national history. Multiculturalism with intense struggles between religions is clearly manifested in the narrative. Also, social division portrayal between rich and poor is an effective tool that totally signified an understanding on the impacts British colonizers brought to their colonies, particularly in India. Saleems family dispute resonate political instability in the society. Rashdie presented an ensemble of people with different attitudes comprising a portrait image with miserable and tragic characters that undeniably reflected not only internal conflict but external dilemma as well. Among the most apparent representations in the novel are the comparison between the single and many, the unreliability of memory versus the narrative, and more importantly the great rendering between creation and destruction. Throughout Midnight's Children, Indian and global politics resonate in the lives of the characters, often to an improbable degree. As Saleem's grandparents fall in love, readers could

witness the first occasion in which a great event in world history corresponds to a personal event in the lives of Saleem's family: World War I ends on the same day that Aadam finally sees Naseem's face. Rushdie links the two events to illustrate the ways in which humans rely on their individual experiences to make sense of huge, abstract historical events. Sometimes, public history and private history relate in parallel but apparently unconnected ways. From the very first passages of Midnight's Children, Rushdie establishes the novel's unique narrative voice. Saleem narrates in the first person, often addressing the audience directly and informally. He also writes in a prose style that feels spontaneous and improvised, as if he were writing his thoughts down as fast as he can, without stopping to revise or edit. Midnight's Children doesn't represent a cool, composed account of past events, nor does it resemble an objective voice recollecting events from a distant vantage point. Saleem rambles and veers off, rephrases and reworks, much as one does in conversation. This prose style is referred to as stream of consciousness, and, in its immediacy, it reflects Saleem's desperate, urgent need to finish his tale before he dies. Saleem Sinai manages to represent the entirety of India within his individual self being born at the dawn of Indian independence and destined, upon his death, to break into as many pieces as there are citizens of India. The notion that a single person could possibly embody a teeming, diverse, multitudinous nation like India encapsulates one of the novel's fundamental concerns: the tension between the single and the many. The dynamic relationship between Saleem's individual life and the collective life of the nation suggests that public and private will always influence one another, but it remains unclear whether they can be completely equated with one another. Significantly, what's true isn't necessarily what's real. Quoting, truth is created and shaped; it is not fixed and static.