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Name:
Joshi Riddhi
Topic:Theme
of Midnight’s children
Roll
no: 30
Paper
no 11: Post-Colonial Literature
M.A:
Sem-3
Enrolment
no. : 2069108420180028
Year:
2017-19
Submitted
to:
S.B.
Gardi Department of English
Maharaja
Krishnakumarsinhji
Bhavnagar
University
Summary:
Saleem
sinai begins by mentioning his date of birth: August 15th,
1947. This is the same day that India gained its independence from the British
Empire. Even though this story is his autobiography, Saleem begins his tale in
earnest nearly thirty years prior to his birth.
His grandfather
Aadam
Aziz just returned to India after becoming a doctor in Germany. He falls in
love with a patient named Naseem. He can only see one part of her body at
a time due to her father's strict rules about preserving her modesty.
Book One: Mercurochrome
Aadam and Naseem fall in love and are soon married. They soon realize
that they are a bad match, but they remain together. Aadam begins to wither
away while Naseem, who now goes by Reverend Mother, gets more robust and
powerful with each child she bears.
Book One: Hit-the-Spittoon
Reverend Mother continues to become more angry and resolved, and Aadam falls
in line politically behind Mian Abdullah. He and his personal assistant Nadir
are the victims of an assassination attack, though Nadir is able to get away.
He is permitted to hide in Aadam's basement.
Book One: Under the Carpet
Aadam's second child, Mumtaz, falls in love with Nadir. Because Nadir is in
hiding, though, he and Mumtaz have a secret marriage. They live together in the
Aziz household's basement until Mumtaz becomes ill. Her father does a physical
and discovers that she is still a virgin even after two years of marriage.
Nadir runs away and divorces Mumtaz, but she soon becomes interested in
Ahmed
Sinai. The two get married, and Ahmed changes Mumtaz's name to
"Amina."
Book One: A Public Announcement
Like her parents, Amina does not have a healthy marriage with Ahmed. Still,
she tries to make herself fall in love with her husband. She soon becomes
pregnant. One day, she saves a man from being killed by a Muslim-hating crowd,
and he tells her that his cousin will tell her son's future.
Book One: Many-headed Monsters
Anima follows the man she saved to his cousin, and the mystic prophesies
that Amina's son will be the same age as his homeland, and that noses and knees
will be important. He also vaguely details different events in the child's life
that will be significant.
Book One: Methwold
Amina and Ahmed move into a grand estate owned by William Methwold. He
instructs that his Indian tenants use proper English manners and habits. Though
the tenants are angry about having to use Western customs, things like kitchen
appliances and cocktail hour become second nature to them.
Book One: Tick, Tock
Amina goes into labor and has her son at midnight on August 15th, 1947. In
the next room, another woman has a child at the exact same moment.
Mary
Pereira, a midwife at the clinic, sees a chance to impress her
revolutionary lover and switches the name tags on the two baskets. Amina and
Ahmed leave the hospital with Saleem, the narrator, while their true biological
child,
Shiva,
is raised in the slums by a poor singer.
Book Two: The Fisherman's Pointed Finger
Mary, feeling bad about her sin, devotes herself to being Saleem's nanny for
the rest of her life. She is like a mother to him. Ahmed, though, makes some
bad investments, and the government freezes his assets. Saleem's sister, Brass
Monkey, is conceived during this time before Ahmed becomes too cold and distant
for Amina to reach.
Book Two: Snakes and Ladders
Though Mary is devoted to raising Saleem, she is still in love with her
revolutionary lover. However, he is murdered by the police while trying to blow
up a nearby clock tower.
Book Two: Accident in a Washing-chest
Saleem, feeling the pressure of being the first-born son, begins to hide in
the washroom when he gets older. One day, he accidentally sees his mother
undress while hiding. She catches him and punishes Saleem to one day of
silence. It is during that day that Saleem begins to hear thousands of voices
in his head. When he tells his family that the voices are divine, he is
chastised for being sacrilegious.
Book Two: All-India Radio
Saleem realizes that the voices belong to every person in India. When he
focuses, Saleem can narrow in on the children who were born in the first hour
of India's independence -- the children of midnight. They also have magical
powers that vary in strength based on how close they were born to midnight. He
also learns that Amina and Ahmed's biological son, Shiva, has powerful knees
that are able to kill humans with their strength.
Book Two: Love in Bombay
Saleem falls in love with an American girl, but she doesn't pay him any
attention. He tries to impress her with his newly-found bicycle skills, but she
is more interested in a riot that is occurring nearby. Saleem becomes angry, so
he uses his mental powers to push into the girl's mind to try and find out why
she doesn't like him. She can feel him intruding, and Saleem discovers that he
can dig deep into people's minds.
Book Two: My Tenth Birthday
Saleem laments his birthday. He knows that 1,001 children were born at
midnight ten years earlier, but only 581 children lived to see their tenth
birthday with him. Ahmed is becoming more despondent as he continues to lose
money, regardless of how hard he tries.
Book Two: At the Pioneer Cafe
Saleem uses his mental abilities to follow Amina around the town. He
discovers that she is having an affair with Nadir. He also introduces himself
to Shiva, the boy whose life he was supposed to have. Shiva is angry and
aggressive, and he wants to rule the children of midnight with an iron fist,
though Saleem wants to do otherwise.
Book Two: Alpha and Omega
At a school dance, Saleem gets the tip of his finger cut off. His parents
race him to the hospital for surgery. When the doctors ask for blood, Amina and
Ahmed try to donate theirs. But the doctor informs them that Saleem is not a
match for either parent.
Book Two: The Kolynos Kid
Ahmed, angry with the revelation that Saleem is not his, sends Saleem away
for a few months. He lives with his filmmaker uncle and movie-star aunt. He is
attracted to his aunt, and he gropes her one day while she is crying. The two
send Saleem back to his parents.
Book Two: Commander Sabaarmati's Baton
When he comes back, Saleem's little sister, Brass Monkey, is the new
favorite of the family. Saleem then learns that his neighbor's wife is having
an affair. He feels betrayed since his mother was having an affair, so he
arranges things such that the affair would be discovered. The neighbor shoots
and kills his wife and her lover.
Book Two: Revelations
Everything is fine until Mary, still grieving about her actions, admits to
switching the children at birth. She runs away from the family and leaves their
lives in ruins.
Book Two: Movements Performed by Pepperpots
Amina, Saleem, and Brass Monkey move to Pakistan after Ahmed becomes a
violent drunk. They live with Amina's sister Emerald, and they are the poor
disgrace of the family. At Brass Monkey's fourteen birthday party, she sings
for her guests. They are amazed at her voice, and everybody starts to call her
"Jamila Singer," her real name.
Book Two: Drainage and the Desert
Amina, Saleem, and Brass Monkey are called back to India four years later.
Saleem then gets a serious sinus infection, and his parents make him undergo
surgery to get them cleared. He realizes that he has lost his power of
telepathy, but in its place is a powerful sense of smell.
Book Two: Jamila Singer
All four family members move to Pakistan to start a new life. Jamila becomes
famous as a singer, and Ahmed enjoys moderate success making bath linens.
Book Two: How Saleem Achieved Purity
The Sinais' happiness in Pakistan is short-lived. India invades Pakistan and
begins to bomb the city where the Sinais live. All of Saleem's family is killed
except for Saleem and his sister during an air raid. A spittoon flies through
the air and hits Saleem on the head, and he loses all of his memory.
Book Three: The Buddha
After a time jump, Saleem is in the Pakistani army. He memory and identity
are still lost. The army uses his super sense of smell like they would a dog's,
and Saleem becomes disillusioned with his orders to constantly kill Indians.
Book Three: In the Sundarbans
Saleem leads a group of young soldiers to the jungle. The trip is harrowing
as they nearly die and come into contact with ghostly spirits. However, Saleem
finds his identity in the forest. He tells his entire life story to his
four young companions. Their attempt to escape the jungle leaves the other four
members of his group dead.
Book Three: Sam and the Tiger
Saleem returns to Pakistan and meets Parvati-the-witch, one of the children
of midnight whom he knew when he was younger. Using her magic, Parvati smuggles
Saleem back into India.
Book Three: The Shadow of the Mosque
Once back in India, Saleem goes to live with his one remaining uncle. His
uncle, who works for the Indian government, receives a folder that looks
suspicious to Saleem. He is soon kicked out for not being devout enough, so he
returns to the slums and lives with Parvati and her father figure, Picture
Singh. Parvati urges Saleem to marry her, but he refuses constantly.
Book Three: A Wedding
In retaliation to Saleem's rejection, Parvati uses her magic to summon Shiva,
Saleem's midnight twin, and becomes pregnant with Shiva's child. Shiva, who is
violent to begin with, becomes even more violent until Parvati breaks the curse
she has over him. He leaves immediately, and Saleem marries Parvati so her
child is not raised without a father.
Book Three: Midnight
The prime minister of India, who believes in magic and mysticism, has heard
about the children of midnight. She uses Shiva to capture and torture
Saleem into telling the government the names of all the children of midnight.
Once they are all compounded, the prime minister has all the young men and
women sterilized. She knows surgery will cause them to lose their powers. She
also doesn't want any of their children rising up and trying to take her down
with their own powers.
Book Three: Abracadabra
Because Parvati had died when Saleem was captured, he and Picture begin
raising Parvati's son by themselves. They make a trip to Bombay and visit a
nightclub so Picture can challenge a snake charmer to a match. Saleem finds out
that the food he's eating is made locally, so he goes to the pickle factory.
When he arrives, he is greeted by his nanny, Mary Pereira. She takes care of
him and his son while the sickly Saleem writes his memoirs.
Naming as an Identity
Midnight’s
Children has strong
ties with the idea that naming creates identity. The majority of names in the
novel allude to the archetype that the character resembles. Saleem’s
grandfather Aadam, for example, alludes to the Biblical Adam who was the first
man. Saleem’s grandmother takes on the name Reverend Mother after she becomes
engulfed in her religious identity. The women in the novel change their name
after getting married, essentially leaving their unmarried identity behind and
becoming a new person in union with their husbands. For a while, Saleem even
forgets his own name during a time when he is not particularly proud of his
actions. He has lost his moral compass and has therefore lost the name which
gives him meaning and direction.
Post-Colonialism
Before becoming
an independent nation, India was under the rule of the British Empire. The
British used their influence to erase the customs of India and impose their own
culture and morality. The Indians, however, found it difficult to recall their
own culture. Many cast aside the “old ways” of polytheistic religion and ornate
ceremonies, and instead tried to veer the country to follow Western culture.
Others tried to return to their customs but were caught identity crisis. The
shadow of the British Empire still clouded India’s vision, making it difficult
to move forward with their own identity. Characters like William Methwold and
Evie Lilith Burns served as reminders of how white characters were able to make
Indians feel subservient and out-of-place in their own country.
The Unreliability of Oral Storytelling
Midnight’s
Children is told
entirely through the voice of Saleem, who is recalling the mystical events of
his life on his deathbed. He expects Padma, who represents the readers, to
completely believe the series of events that comprise his life, which is
difficult because his story is filled with supernatural occurrences set against
a realistic world. Yet at the same time, there are moments in the novel when
Saleem admits that he might have forgotten a date or mixed up a series of
events due to his failing mental health. This puts the reader in a difficult position:
they can either fully believe Saleem’s occultish story and forgive his slights
of memory, or they can take everything Saleem says with a grain of salt.
Either way, Saleem’s authority as a reliable narrator is undermined through
both magical realism as well as his admission of mixing up dates and events.
Mythology and the Epic Story
Hindu, Christian, Greek, and other religious mythologies are Saleem’s props
that lend credence to his elaborate tale of India’s creation. He sets his
grandfather up as a progenitor by comparing him to the first man in Christian
mythology, Adam. With respect to his “evil” counterpart,
Shiva,
he conjures the Hindu god to compare Shiva’s position as a major player in the
story with the god’s own influence on people’s lives. The same goes for
Parvati, who represents the caring and motherly form who has a strong control
over Shiva as well as everyone else in India. Throughout his story, Saleem
makes connections between himself and Scheherazade, the storyteller from One
Thousand and One Nights. To set up his story as an epic adventure, he uses
classic traditions from Homer’s
The
Odyssey as a way to draw further parallels to his own journey to find
himself.
Boundaries and Borders
From the moment that England breaks ties with India, India is given autonomy
and independence. In theory, this means that India should have finite,
indisputable borders.
Midnight’s Children takes a different approach,
saying that boundaries and borders are often more blurred than one might think.
This is seen in the characters time and again -- for example, the struggle
for presence between Aadam and Reverend Mother. Saleem is able to surpass the
boundaries of his body by telepathically shoving himself into someone else’s
brain. In the national sense, the impermanence of borders is apparent even at
the beginning of India’s independence when these countries decide to create new
borders, separating Pakistan from India. The only problem with this is that
these borders were unable to separate Hindus from Muslims as they were
intended to do.
Racism and Sexism
Left over from colonialism is the idea that white skin is desirable and
pure. While the Western characters exhibit these ideas more prominently, the
ideas seep through to the Indian characters. Saleem’s father’s cousin relays
these racist thoughts when she begins harping on other dark-skinned Indians. When
Jamila Singer appears in public, she is covered in a white silk chadar to
symbolize her purity. Sexism is also prevalent in the novel, with many male
characters (even Saleem) ignoring women’s autonomy and identity. Both Amina and
Parvati accept their new first names after becoming married, and neither Sonny
nor Saleem respect Brass Monkey’s and Evelyn’s insistence that they don’t want
to be in a relationship with boys who are pursuing them. Instead, the boys
doggedly pursue the girls regardless of what the girls want.
Class and Social Structure
It is impossible to overlook Saleem’s journey through India’s different
social structures. Saleem begins his life in an upper-middle class family,
enjoying a beautiful home and having enough money to be comfortable. Their
wealth is created from their capitalistic lifestyle, left over from British
Imperialism. But as soon as Saleem’s parents split up, his social standing is
significantly lowered to the point where he, his mother, and his sister are
recognized as the needy relatives. Once India enters the war, Saleem loses all
hopes of ever belonging to “respectable” society and instead lives in the
slums, spreading the word about how a communist government would be more
inclined to help the poor break free from their squalor. All these different
parts in Saleem’s life are representative of the vast differences in class and
social structures present in India.
Work cited:
https://www.gradesaver.com/midnights-children/study-guide/summary
https://www.gradesaver.com/midnights-children/study-guide/themes
