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Salman Rushdie: Midnight’s Children
1. Biography: Salman Rushdie
Salman Rushdie was born in Bombay on June 19, 1947, two months before India and Pakistan achieved independence from British rule. ... Rushdie’s parents had moved from Kashmir to Bombay before Salman was born. Rushdie has three sisters and generally he describes his childhood as happy and uneventful filled with books, bedtime fairy tales, and stories.
After going to Cathedral Boys High School in Bombay, Rushdie was sent to England in 1961 to attend the elite Rugby School. ... Rushdie never really learned to feel completely comfortable in either England or Pakistan, however.
From 1965 to 1968 Rushdie studied history at King’s College in Cambridge and after that he started to work as an actor in the theatre and as a writer in advertisements.
In 1975 Rushdie published his first novel “Grimus”. In 1981 he published his second novel “Midnight’s children”, with which he won the Booker Prize and which was the beginning of his international writing career.
After two other publications (“Shame” and “the Jaguar Smile”), Rushdie wrote his most controversial work, “The Satanic Verses” in 1988. ... The peak of this development was the Fatwa, a death sentence pronounced by Ayatollah Khomeini, the leader of the Iranian opposition, which forced Salman Rushdie to go underground. ... He published a children’s tale called “Haroun and the Sea of Stories” in 1990. ... In 1995 Rushdie wrote “The Moor’s last Sigh”. In this novel, the protagonist of the novel also writes under a death sentence, which alludes to Rushdie’s own situation.
On September 25, 1998 the Iranian government withdrew the Fatwa against Salman Rushdie. ... Since 2000, Salman Rushdie has lived in New York. ... Overview
At the stroke of midnight of August 15, 1947 India achieves independence after 190 years of British rule. All 1001 children born in this night are blessed and also burdened with extraordinary gifts. ... 196ff) One can multiply fish, one can eat metal, one is able to step into mirrors and come out into another place, one increases and reduces one’s size, one changes one’s sex just as one fancies, one has powers of transformation and a girl is so beautiful, that people get blind only by looking at her. The closer to midnight their birth-times are, the greater are their talents. ... But only Saleem can read other people’s minds and thanks to his gift, talk to each of the midnight’s children in his proper head.
This is the framework of the story of “Midnight’s Children”. ... No, that won’t do, there’s no getting away from the date: I was born in Doctor Narlikar’s Nursing Home on August 15th, 1947. ... No, it’s important to be more… On the stroke of midnight, as a matter of fact. ... Oh, spell it out: at the precise instant of India’s arrival at independence, I tumbled forth into the world. ... Narlikar’s Nursing Home”)
The history (“India’s arrival at independence”)
Fairy tale
He opens the story with ‘once upon a time’, a typical phrase of a fairy tale. ... Narlikar’s Nursing Home on August 15th, 1947. ... “
History
The history of India plays an important part in Saleem’s narration, too. In fact, India is Saleem’s ‘nation-twin, a protagonist as important as Saleem himself. ...
Some events linked between Saleem Sinai, his family and India
1915 Aadam Aziz comes back to Kashmir
April 7, 1919 Massacre in Amritsar Aadam Aziz is there as a doctor
August 15, 1947 Birth of Saleem Sinai and the other 1001 midnight children
August 5, 1965 – September, 23 1965 Saleem’s whole family dies in an air-raid on his aunt Alia’s house
December 3 – 16 1971 Saleem as Buddha
June 25, 1975 Birth of Aadam Sinai, Saleem’s son
January 1, 1977 Saleem’s vasectomy initiated by a governmental programme of Indira Gandhi
There are also two movements of time in the novel. ... She is Saleem’s lover and also plays the role of the listener of the story. ... 32 “…perhaps our Padma will be useful, because it’s impossible to stop her being a critic. ...
Rushdie also establishes an intimate connection between sensory experiences and memory. ... ” Mary’s chutney always tastes like her current mood.
Pickles: Rushdie has cleverly designed the chapters of Midnight’s Children. ... Saffron as the significance in Hinduism as a symbol of courage and determination and green as the colour of envy and also representing Pakistan’s Muslim majority.
Approximate Word count = 3636
Approximate Pages = 14.5
(250 words per page double spaced)
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