Saleem Sinai, in the beginning of the book, claimed that he would soon turn in to 600 million pieces in a few days, perhaps months. When we reached the end of the book, his prediction proved to be true: he has fallen into 600 million pieces, which is also the population of India at that time. I think this number is an implication of Saleem’s relation to India and the people there: Saleem’s life is a reflection of what the country has went through in these years, after all these years of war and suffering, Saleem returned to his people by falling into 600 million particles of dusts.
The book itself is a first person narrative of Saleem Sinai, who told the story of his life to Padma. This style of storytelling reminded me of Forrest Gump where Forrest made himself part of modern US history by his accidental involvements in various historic events, like how Saleem exerted his influence on Indian history. One of the main differences between Forrest and Saleem is that while Forrest had no idea about the significance of what he had done, Saleem was aware of his involvement in history. Forrest was usually happy and carefree, while Saleem’s words often show the bitterness he felt for the inability to guide his life to a right way. Saleem’s trouble was also faced by India in the twentieth century, which gained independence for not long, and faced overwhelming problems within the country itself. There were wars, political instabilities, social transformations, religious conflicts, and separation of Pakistan. Little problems were neglected, and soon developed into bigger ones. Once the problems were fully developed, the country would find it unable to guide itself to the right way.
Not only Saleem himself, other characters in the book were also symbolized. For example, Shiva is the name of a major Hindu deity. He is the destroyer of evil and possesses great power. And Parvati is the name of Shiva’s wife. In the book, Shiva is like a destroyer of existing order; he believes that his power can take him everywhere. And Parvati carried Shiva’s biological son, though she is wife of Saleem.
Readers of the book often wonder if Saleem actually has done all these. Saleem seems to be faking the whole story, as it appears to be extraordinarily legendary. My point of view is that, Saleem is a symbol of all the people in India at that time; Rushdie used the decline and extinction of Saleem’s family to reflect the decline and extinction of thousands of families during the war, he used Saleem’s joining in the Pakistan army against India to reflect thousands of other young people’s joining in the Pakistan army against India. Saleem’s story is not a fake, it’s a story of millions of Indian people’s experiences.
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I really liked the comparison of Saleem to Forrest Gump. Both do have very similar relations to their country’s major historical event and play some role in these events. Yes, Saleem is aware of his involvement with his country, which changes the perception of the way we perceive India’s history, but Forrest’s story offers us a more modern, easy-to-understand version of U.S. history.
Comparing the events alone between the U.S and India, there are similar events that occurred within the same relative time period. India went to war with Pakistan, whereas the U.S. got involved in the Vietnam War. There was political upheaval in India with the Widow, and the Watergate Scandal occurred in the U.S. a few years later.
I also liked how you defined the meaning of the names. It really helps when relating the characters together and trying to figure out their place in the story.
I like the way you connected Saleem’s life to the history of India because though it was mentioned that Saleem has a significant relationship with the his country by being born on the day of India’s independence, I think the idea faded as I went further into the book. After his death, the prophecy made perfect sense and also your idea of Saleem’s life is a miniature history of India, because he was born on the Independence Day, he cannot live longer the country. Furthermore, many of India’s important events occurred during Saleem’s lifetime; for example, the Independence and the wars between India and Pakistan. Even though I like the miniature history idea, I like the most how you compared and contrasted the life of Forrest Gump and Saleem. You showed both of their personalities and their experiences during historical events in two different countries and time periods.
One can notice that Saleem has the innate ability to tie exact time periods into his personal happenings and, in my opinion, this is the factor that makes the story unique in its own way. I like the fact that Rushdie correlated historical knowledge of what the reader probably knew about into how he actually felt about the situation. In other words, there was no evidence of him being oblivious to the time period in which he lived in. He knew more about what occurred at times than what he felt or felt he needed to express to the reader. Unfortunately, Saleem, at times, knew that it was more about a happening that what he was telling, so he would retell the instance a chapter later and add in what he forgot, missed, or even made up. I like the fact that the author of this blog did tie in the Forest Gump theme of lucky happenstance. In some instances, Forest was introduced into situations that are renown within American history, but it was sheer luck that he was placed within them and even “affected” them.
When I first started reading Midnight’s Children, I had a very limited knowledge of India and its history. However, reading the novel gave me a better insight. This novel is a historical fiction, so there are both elements of true and make-believe. In the case of Midnight’s Children, the make-believe serves as symbolism. The fictional character of Saleem does not exist, but the 6 million people he represent does. Now that you mentioned it, this novel does remind me of Forest Gump. In both instances, the main character are portray as legends rather real people. Because legends can also serve as symbols, they have more power behind them. While a history book give you an objective account of India’s history, Midnight’s Children will give you a personal and perhaps a “true”, which is subjective but not necessarily false, account.
I think the way in which you view the book comes from a very unique and interesting perspective. Many people who read the book take the side of either fact or fiction when going along with their own interpretation i have yet to see someone who has taken the same perspective as you. I half way agree with the angle that your coming from because throughout the book Salman use many different India characteristics whether it be his reference to a thousand nights or his various other hints at Indian culture . It is also my belief that Rushdie used this book as a tribute to indian culture rather than using it as a straight biography or a work of fiction
I like your post. I did have some knowledge of Indian history because some of my best friends in high school were Indian, but this novel definitely opened new doors and developed some of the history that was just a bunch of bits and fragments to my mind. Now, my knowledge of Indian history can definitely rival that of my friends, and that is all due to the novel. I like the comparison to Forrest Gump, I can definitely see the similarities between the two stories. The magical realism slightly steers the story away from reality, but the real truth contains both historical fact and fictional allusions. I think he uses some of the magical examples to further enhance and even exaggerate the overall meaning of the narrative.
I agree with your connection with Saleem and India. Rushdie clearly wanted to establish Saleem’s fate early in the novel and expounds upon it throughout the book. On the first page Saleem says, “…because of the occult tyranny of those blandly saluting clocks I had been mysteriously handcuffed to history, my destinies indissolubly chained to those of my country.” The word chained in that quote clearly shows how inescapable his fate is; Saleem is a prisoner to his bond to India. I also liked how you drew connections with other characters such as Shiva, who as undoubtedly shares ties to India’s history. I think another important point is that Saleem goes further by connecting his whole family to India. When talking about his history Saleem states, “That was how the history of our family once again became the fate of a nation, because when Jamila sang …Pakistan fell in love with a fifteen-year-old girl…” (358).
I believe that symbolism does play a big role in this novel. The forseer, Ramram predicts the birth of Shiva and Saleem by refering to them as the “knees and nose”. Shiva and Saleem’s relationship between their particular physical traits and their role in the novel is clearly evident throughout the chapters. Shiva uses his knees to kill the prostitutes and Saleem uses his nose to spot a prostitute with his nose. Just like how Saleem and Shiva have symbolized creation and destruction, connection between knees and nose is definitely related with their symbolism in the novel. They play far greater role than simply showing unattractive physical characteristic.