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Midnight's Children is a story about the family history and personal life of Saleem Sinai, the protagonist and the narrator of the novel, who was born at the strike of midnight of August 15th, 1947, exactly at the time when India became independent from the British rule. The coincidence suggests that Saleem will have some kind of relation with his nation and its history. As the novel goes on, we can find more events relating to Indian history and personal experiences and life. As David Price has argued "Saleem offers us his autobiography, but his story is also the history of twentieth-century India" (91). My argument of the essay is that Saleem is the embodiment of history since his personal experiences are closely linked to historical events. As for Saleem, it seems that he embodies Indian history in all aspects. His birth time, his family background, his personal life and experience, and even his senses, feelings and emotions could embody historical events. To illuminate Saleem's central role, I will first focus on his birth time, which is a very important clue to his link to the nation and which plays a major role in the novel. It is emphasized again and again. Saleem and his nation India are born at exactly the same time, so he can be seen as the nation. Secondly, Saleem's family background is very complicated, which suggests the complicated background of India after the colonization of the Great Britain. Thirdly, his senses, feelings and emotions are also tightly linked to the development of India as a new nation. His ability to read other's mind enables him to sense and predicate some events and he always feels as if he is falling apart when some historical events in India happen.
At the very beginning, Rushdie emphasizes Saleem's birth time again and again in order to give his readers the feeling that Saleem is not a usual human being, and he should have something to do with his nation and its history. Saleem was born "on the stroke of midnight . . . at the precise instant of India's arrival at independence" (3). It seems that this is a coincidence. However, as a matter of fact, Rushdie meant to remind the readers that his protagonist could be seen as the nation. Thus Saleem's birth, to some extent, can be seen as the nation's birth. As we all know, a new country's birth is very important to their people. Thus soothsayers prophesy him, newspapers celebrate his arrival, and politicos ratify his authenticity (3). And also, his photograph appears on the front page of the Times of India. Even the Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru writes him a letter, which seems as the prediction of Saleem's role in India. "Dear Baby Saleem, My belated congratulations on the happy accident of your moment of birth! You are the newest bearer of that ancient face of India which is also eternally young. We shall be watching over your life with the closest attention; it will be, in a sense, the mirror of our own" (139). So we can see here that Rushdie is trying to relate his protagonist to the history of India. He gives many hints in order to tell the reader that Saleem is the symbol of India. As we can see from the novel, "I had been mysteriously handcuffed to history, my destinies indissolubly chained to those of my country" (3). Moreover, "there are so many stories to tell, too many, such an excess of intertwined lives events miracles places rumors, so dense a coming-gling of the improbable and the mundane! I have been a swallower of lives; and to know me, just the one of me, you'll have to swallow the lot as well" (4).From the beginning of the novel, Rushdie has established the link between Saleem and India. As the novel goes on, there are more events that indicate the link. And among these, the feeling of fragmentation and incapability with respect to identity constitute the most obvious link between him and the nation.
First of all, Saleem's family background shows his fragmentation and his incapability to identify himself. His parents are not his biological parents. Actually he is from a poor family. However, Mary Pereira switched him with Shiva, who is from a relatively richer family. Saleem's biological mother is a Hindu woman, and his father a British colonist. So Saleem is a hybrid with respect to race and religion. He is half-Hindu and half-Christian biologically. What's more, he is raised by a well-to-do Muslim couple. So he grows up under the influence of Muslim culture. That is to say, Saleem has something to do with all the three religions and they are mixed together in one person. The mixture of Saleem's background symbolizes India's complicated mixture of different cultures, religions and races. It is a reflection of India's history when it was colonized by Britain, and India had been influenced a lot by the colonization of the British colonizer. Its culture, habits, customs, and religion have been shaped by the English rule. "[India's] history has been supplanted by a dominant, European history that has controlled the continent" (Reder 225). We can also say that Saleem has many parents because India is fathered by many facts, like time, history and so on. Saleem is not raised by his biological parents, but by Ahmed Sinai and Amina Sinai, who he thinks, are his biological parents. He lived with someone who has no biological link with him. And his biological parents seem to be the least important ones to him. These feelings of homelessness and exile indicate the fragmentation of identity and memory both of Saleem and India.
Secondly, Saleem's experiences and life embody India's history and sometimes even influence history. We can see the interrelated relationship between historical event and personal experience. When Saleem is still in his mother's womb, he has the ability to change people's destiny. In order to save a man's life, his mother announces to the public that she is pregnant. As a result of the announcement, Saleem himself has become public property. We can see from here that he is linked to public events even before he is born. And as he grows up, his face is described as the map of India. His teacher compares the stains on his face to Pakistan and the birthmark on the right ear the East Wing (265). So we come to the conclusion that Saleem is not just an embodiment of India, he can directly be seen as India. As a matter of fact, not only does history influence personal life, but also personal life affects history. We can find other evidence in the novel as well. In 1950s, fifteen people are killed and over three hundred wounded during the first of the language riots and Saleem is "directly responsible for triggering off the violence which ended with the partition of the state of Bombay" (219). However, Saleem does not only affect history, sometimes he shapes history. He cuts pieces out of newspapers to make a note for the commander and makes the commander kill two persons and be put into prison. This scene can be seen as an act of rearranging history. As we can see, newspapers are the records of history, cutting newspapers means cutting history, and putting all the pieces together to make new information thus can be considered as an act of rearranging and shaping history.
Thirdly, Saleem's feelings and emotions can also embody history. He feels falling apart when something in history is going to happen. It seems that Rushdie is trying to tell his readers that India's fragmentation of identity. "my poor body, singular, unlovely, buffeted by too much history"(36) indicates that India has suffered a lot by its colonial history when it was under the rule of Britain as well as other complicated historical aspects. Not only its people, but also its culture, religion and belief have difficulties finding their identity because they are no longer pure, no longer unique and distinct. It is a phenomenon called hybridity. After the long colonization of other nations, India has been influenced a lot. They are in contact with their colonizer day by day, thus inevitably take in other culture and meanwhile lose some parts of their own. Generation by generation, what they really have experienced is a mixed culture, neither their own nor their colonizer's. Despite the fact that India is independent from Britain, its people, its culture and ideology could hardly become independent as it used to be. So people in India do have difficulties in finding their roots and their pure identity.
Moreover, constant shifts of time throughout the novel indicate the feeling of fragmentation. During the narration, time shifts back and forth. For example, at the very beginning, Saleem is telling something that happened on his birthday, while on the same page he shifts to his present life. Then on the next page, he changes to tell his grandfather's life story in 1915, thirty years before he was born. And the first chapter mainly focuses on the life story of Saleem's grandfather Aadam Aziz before he marries Naseem Ghani while the second chapter jumps immediately to Saleem as a grown-up. The shifts of time suggest the instability of the time and history and thus reveal people's fragmentation as well as the nation's.
Even Salman Rushdie himself admits that the whole narrative is based on his and other peoples' memories. Therefore the novel is full of mistaken dates, myths, etc. He does not want to record history; otherwise, he will be a history writer. Rushdie says that Saleem Sinai, obviously, is not a reliable narrator, "and Midnight's Children is far from being an authoritative guide to the history of post-independence India" (Rushdie, "Errata", 23). He also claims that "Midnight's Children is a product of its moment in history, touched and shaped by its time in ways that its author cannot wholly know" (xv). So his mistakes in the novel represent that people in India do not remember their history and past exactly. It seems that they have forgotten some parts and almost lost themselves: as the novel says, "We are a nation of forgetters" (36). All of these are symbols of the fragmentation of identity. People in India found it hard to trace their original roots after the colonization by another nation. At the same time, India itself also has difficulties to find its roots because now it is a country mixed with lots of different cultures, religions and races.
In all, personal experiences and historical events are closely linked and personal experiences are the embodiment of historical events. What's more, sometimes personal experiences can affect history and in a way change and shape history as the novel suggests. Saleem is not just an embodiment or mirror of history. He is more than that because he shapes history sometimes. Thus the relationship between personal experiences and history is very intricate and interactive, they could influence each other
Bibliography:
[1]Rushdie, Salman. Midnight's Children. New York: Random House, 2006.
[2]Price, David W. "Salman Rushdie's 'Use and Abuse of History' in 'Midnight's Children'." ARIEL: A Review of International English Literature 25:2 .1994,91-108.
[3]Reder, Michael. "Rewriting History and Identity: The Reinvention of Myth, Epic, and Allegory in Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children." M. Keith Booker, ed. Critical Essays on Salman Rushdie. New York: G. K. Hall, 1999,225-250.
[4]Rushdie, Salman. "'Errata': Or, Unreliable Narration in Midnight's Children." Imaginary Homelands:Essays and Criticisms 1981-1991.London: Granta, 1991,22-25.
At the very beginning, Rushdie emphasizes Saleem's birth time again and again in order to give his readers the feeling that Saleem is not a usual human being, and he should have something to do with his nation and its history. Saleem was born "on the stroke of midnight . . . at the precise instant of India's arrival at independence" (3). It seems that this is a coincidence. However, as a matter of fact, Rushdie meant to remind the readers that his protagonist could be seen as the nation. Thus Saleem's birth, to some extent, can be seen as the nation's birth. As we all know, a new country's birth is very important to their people. Thus soothsayers prophesy him, newspapers celebrate his arrival, and politicos ratify his authenticity (3). And also, his photograph appears on the front page of the Times of India. Even the Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru writes him a letter, which seems as the prediction of Saleem's role in India. "Dear Baby Saleem, My belated congratulations on the happy accident of your moment of birth! You are the newest bearer of that ancient face of India which is also eternally young. We shall be watching over your life with the closest attention; it will be, in a sense, the mirror of our own" (139). So we can see here that Rushdie is trying to relate his protagonist to the history of India. He gives many hints in order to tell the reader that Saleem is the symbol of India. As we can see from the novel, "I had been mysteriously handcuffed to history, my destinies indissolubly chained to those of my country" (3). Moreover, "there are so many stories to tell, too many, such an excess of intertwined lives events miracles places rumors, so dense a coming-gling of the improbable and the mundane! I have been a swallower of lives; and to know me, just the one of me, you'll have to swallow the lot as well" (4).From the beginning of the novel, Rushdie has established the link between Saleem and India. As the novel goes on, there are more events that indicate the link. And among these, the feeling of fragmentation and incapability with respect to identity constitute the most obvious link between him and the nation.
First of all, Saleem's family background shows his fragmentation and his incapability to identify himself. His parents are not his biological parents. Actually he is from a poor family. However, Mary Pereira switched him with Shiva, who is from a relatively richer family. Saleem's biological mother is a Hindu woman, and his father a British colonist. So Saleem is a hybrid with respect to race and religion. He is half-Hindu and half-Christian biologically. What's more, he is raised by a well-to-do Muslim couple. So he grows up under the influence of Muslim culture. That is to say, Saleem has something to do with all the three religions and they are mixed together in one person. The mixture of Saleem's background symbolizes India's complicated mixture of different cultures, religions and races. It is a reflection of India's history when it was colonized by Britain, and India had been influenced a lot by the colonization of the British colonizer. Its culture, habits, customs, and religion have been shaped by the English rule. "[India's] history has been supplanted by a dominant, European history that has controlled the continent" (Reder 225). We can also say that Saleem has many parents because India is fathered by many facts, like time, history and so on. Saleem is not raised by his biological parents, but by Ahmed Sinai and Amina Sinai, who he thinks, are his biological parents. He lived with someone who has no biological link with him. And his biological parents seem to be the least important ones to him. These feelings of homelessness and exile indicate the fragmentation of identity and memory both of Saleem and India.
Secondly, Saleem's experiences and life embody India's history and sometimes even influence history. We can see the interrelated relationship between historical event and personal experience. When Saleem is still in his mother's womb, he has the ability to change people's destiny. In order to save a man's life, his mother announces to the public that she is pregnant. As a result of the announcement, Saleem himself has become public property. We can see from here that he is linked to public events even before he is born. And as he grows up, his face is described as the map of India. His teacher compares the stains on his face to Pakistan and the birthmark on the right ear the East Wing (265). So we come to the conclusion that Saleem is not just an embodiment of India, he can directly be seen as India. As a matter of fact, not only does history influence personal life, but also personal life affects history. We can find other evidence in the novel as well. In 1950s, fifteen people are killed and over three hundred wounded during the first of the language riots and Saleem is "directly responsible for triggering off the violence which ended with the partition of the state of Bombay" (219). However, Saleem does not only affect history, sometimes he shapes history. He cuts pieces out of newspapers to make a note for the commander and makes the commander kill two persons and be put into prison. This scene can be seen as an act of rearranging history. As we can see, newspapers are the records of history, cutting newspapers means cutting history, and putting all the pieces together to make new information thus can be considered as an act of rearranging and shaping history.
Thirdly, Saleem's feelings and emotions can also embody history. He feels falling apart when something in history is going to happen. It seems that Rushdie is trying to tell his readers that India's fragmentation of identity. "my poor body, singular, unlovely, buffeted by too much history"(36) indicates that India has suffered a lot by its colonial history when it was under the rule of Britain as well as other complicated historical aspects. Not only its people, but also its culture, religion and belief have difficulties finding their identity because they are no longer pure, no longer unique and distinct. It is a phenomenon called hybridity. After the long colonization of other nations, India has been influenced a lot. They are in contact with their colonizer day by day, thus inevitably take in other culture and meanwhile lose some parts of their own. Generation by generation, what they really have experienced is a mixed culture, neither their own nor their colonizer's. Despite the fact that India is independent from Britain, its people, its culture and ideology could hardly become independent as it used to be. So people in India do have difficulties in finding their roots and their pure identity.
Moreover, constant shifts of time throughout the novel indicate the feeling of fragmentation. During the narration, time shifts back and forth. For example, at the very beginning, Saleem is telling something that happened on his birthday, while on the same page he shifts to his present life. Then on the next page, he changes to tell his grandfather's life story in 1915, thirty years before he was born. And the first chapter mainly focuses on the life story of Saleem's grandfather Aadam Aziz before he marries Naseem Ghani while the second chapter jumps immediately to Saleem as a grown-up. The shifts of time suggest the instability of the time and history and thus reveal people's fragmentation as well as the nation's.
Even Salman Rushdie himself admits that the whole narrative is based on his and other peoples' memories. Therefore the novel is full of mistaken dates, myths, etc. He does not want to record history; otherwise, he will be a history writer. Rushdie says that Saleem Sinai, obviously, is not a reliable narrator, "and Midnight's Children is far from being an authoritative guide to the history of post-independence India" (Rushdie, "Errata", 23). He also claims that "Midnight's Children is a product of its moment in history, touched and shaped by its time in ways that its author cannot wholly know" (xv). So his mistakes in the novel represent that people in India do not remember their history and past exactly. It seems that they have forgotten some parts and almost lost themselves: as the novel says, "We are a nation of forgetters" (36). All of these are symbols of the fragmentation of identity. People in India found it hard to trace their original roots after the colonization by another nation. At the same time, India itself also has difficulties to find its roots because now it is a country mixed with lots of different cultures, religions and races.
In all, personal experiences and historical events are closely linked and personal experiences are the embodiment of historical events. What's more, sometimes personal experiences can affect history and in a way change and shape history as the novel suggests. Saleem is not just an embodiment or mirror of history. He is more than that because he shapes history sometimes. Thus the relationship between personal experiences and history is very intricate and interactive, they could influence each other
Bibliography:
[1]Rushdie, Salman. Midnight's Children. New York: Random House, 2006.
[2]Price, David W. "Salman Rushdie's 'Use and Abuse of History' in 'Midnight's Children'." ARIEL: A Review of International English Literature 25:2 .1994,91-108.
[3]Reder, Michael. "Rewriting History and Identity: The Reinvention of Myth, Epic, and Allegory in Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children." M. Keith Booker, ed. Critical Essays on Salman Rushdie. New York: G. K. Hall, 1999,225-250.
[4]Rushdie, Salman. "'Errata': Or, Unreliable Narration in Midnight's Children." Imaginary Homelands:Essays and Criticisms 1981-1991.London: Granta, 1991,22-25.