Midnight’s Children

Rushdie uses many techniques in “Midnight’s Children” which involves magical reality, history and political issues. The oral narrative used by Saleem Sinai is the advanced technique, where he narrates his story of life to his beloved, called Padma. It is a story of two nations.

Midnight’s Children is described as a national allegory. Neil ten Kortenaar argues that Saleem’s narrative is a narrative of India’s national Independence and it is for this reason that the story of Saleem Sinai in Midnight’s Children has been described as a national Allegory. Personal history of the characters intersects with political history.Saleem Sinai represents historical facts as a narrative in Midnights children.

Historical narration give birth too many consequences, which forms violence. History is remembered by legends as saleem narrates, “sometimes legends make reality, and becomes more useful than the facts (57). ”The legends like Brahma and Shiva give realism to Hindus. In the history of Hinduism Brahma is the God of creation and Shiva is the embodiment of destruction, though together with Vishnu create the holy trinity. The destruction of Shiva also reflects Mian Abdullah, who is a dedicated participant to resist the partition of India along religious lines.He is also known as hummingbird, considered to be symbols of peace, love and happiness.

He is sacred for his tireless energy among his companions. Mian Abdullah is a political figure before independence. He is the founder of an organization called Free Islam Convocation whose mission is to make India as one nation, where different cultures and religions will be practiced, whereas his opponent is Muslim League. The leader of Muslim League Muhammad Ali Jinnah wants an independent state for Muslims of India, which later is named as Pakistan.

The tension between his Convocation and Jinnah’s Muslim League takes a violent shape.Nadir khan already warns Mian Abdullah about his bad luck. According to Rushdie the Muslim league and the Communist Movement brought violence to India. But the movements failed due to their dependence on their leaders. The rule of British Empire is overpowering such movements. Brigadier Dodson who was a British ruler dislikes Mian Abdullah due to political conflicts.

At the night of crescent moon, where crescent and star also represent the flag of Pakistan or Islamic state, Mian Abdullah worked with Nadir khan. History overpowers the reality of night where night could be the corruption or destruction which is taking place in India.Both of them want to see the new horizons of success in form of a one united nation Saleem discusses about the facts behind Abdullah’s assassination. Saleem reveals that Abdullah is not concerned with facts. “Facts: Abdullah had plenty of enemies. ”.

Here enemies reflect Muslim League who came like assassinators. The existence of Mian Abdullah became history with his assassination, and his Convocation is broken into glasses. Saleem’s historical background portrays his identity of family and community. Nadir Khan seeks refuge in the cellar of Adam Aziz’s house, who is Saleem’s grandfather.In a very dramatic way life of Nadir Khan reminded him of the painter who wanted to be an “elephantiasis” rather than “miniaturist.

”According to Indian history, elephants are considered to be preserved like jewels. Elephant is also one of the Gods in Hindu religion called Ganesh. Similarly Nadir Khan, like elephant became immortal after his escape. Thus this historical event reflects the narrative technique of Saleem Sinai.

Saleem’s self historical narration reveals the remarks of betel chewers, who witness the event of Abdullah’s assassination.The story telling of betel chewers takes the form of oral narrative. It is the intersexuality. According to betel chewers, “we have been alive too long, and we know”. This statement reveals the suffering of the nation which is explored by Iqbal’s poetry where he calls for a separate homeland for Muslims. Along with that, he uses many techniques in his narration.

The technique of Saleem asking question and then asking the audience to check, is very unique. “Dogs? Assassins?....

If you don’t believe me, check. ”(59) Here Rushdie breaks the rule of punctuation and neologism.Similarly Hindi and Urdu words are embedded in the text. With the contemporary narration, Saleem wants the readers to focus on the events. “.

.. And see this: the assassins cannot have feared.. ” Rushdie breaks up the language and then put it together in a different way. He destroys the natural rhythm of English language by adding dots, semicolons, dashes and exclamation marks.

Saleem’s self conscious historical narration is marginalised. Like Abdullah and Nadir, who supported a secular state in India well before partition, these narratives are often swept under the carpet.Repetition of stories makes the narration unreliable, where Nadir Khan memorizes his stay at painters house and multiple voices appears following the painter’s , Nadir Khan’s and Saleem’s voice. Self reflective narration appears with the painter’s voice using “I. ” Whereas Saleems questioning narrative gives the reader an idea to explore others life, “How did Nadir Khan run across the night town without being noticed? (59)”.

Rushdie prolepsis to describe Nadir’s impotence and poverty which is symbolic of his powerlessness. Rushdie manages to tell a story of a population of millions through one character.Saleem narrates “in Agra there are maybe eight thousand four hundred and twenty pie-dogs. (58)”The nation is sleeping, some were eating and enjoying, whereas some were dying and some overheard the brutality occurred on Abdullah.

According to Anderson, “nation doesn’t exist, it is imagined and constructed: This concept of nattiness was then’ transported’ to other parts of the world. ” The assassination of Mian Abdullah left us with the reality of magic and folk wisdom. The magical reality of two independent nations is taking place as Pakistan and India.. The magical description of the surroundings gives the account of a setting.

Rushdie defines magical reality which combines the real objects in a way which is far from what human eye used to see. Humming of Abdullah denotes the magical realism which is quite unusual for a politician to hum. The magical imagery of new moon appeared in form of flag of Pakistan with a crescent on it. The magical effect of the eyes of assassins gives a wider look to the situation. Abdullah at this stage calls out for Allah (God).

The effect of the knives is cruel and Abdullah’s voice is crossing all the boarders. The incident of Abdullah has shaken the souls of individuals.The visual effects of war and history of India is hidden in these magical moments where everyone is running around and creating chaos. The terrorism which is created by the dead bodies fallen on the ground with the blood shed of innocents forms magical reality because the trauma of war has given a new shape to these magical events Reality follows the collective politics.

As for the political makeup for nation, there is a tension in ‘Midnight’s Children’, between the desire to explore heroism and individuality. Unfortunately Nadir couldn’t explore heroism and chose to escape, while the killers and dogs were busy is stabbing each other.The magical realism is derived through the description of the setting around Nadir, where audience can assume his state after the thrilling episode of his survivor. The magical realism denotes the setting of night where Nadir Khan after his escape is roaming around in the streets like a sacred cow, who fits into everywhere and walks around like he owns India. In religious history, cows like elephants is also sacred, and Saleem states “Sacred cows will eat anything. ”So due to the lack of power in Nadir and Abdullah’s mission of making India a one secular state dissolves with Abdullah’s death and Nadir’s escape.