The following analysis is of a passage extracted from Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children. This passage is centralised around the date 15th August, 1947 which may be used as a main theme of the novel. The writing style and the writer’s subjective attitude support this. A close reading of the passage shows how meaning is created through character, tone and diction. The writer, being born at the start of Indian independence (free from British rule), represents the entirety of India within his inner self.
This passage indicates that Midnight’s Children is an autobiography, in the prose form, set in a city in India (“I was born in the city of Bombay …”). It is not the usual everyday autobiography that one reads. This is shown, in the …show more content…
Instead the name that features is, “I, Saleem Sinai”; therefore we get the feeling that the text may be untrue. Instead Saleem Sinai is Salam Rushdie’s protagonist (The Year of Magical Reading: 2014). Through Saleem Sinai, Rushdie maps out the history of Indian independence. The passage is muddled and confusing; however this links to the history of India itself.
The passage is about the protagonist, Saleem Sinai. It describes his moment of birth which coincides with the moment India received its independence. When analysing the passage one can note that it is written in the first person (“I”). It is written in such a way that we see and understand things that Saleem wants us to see, and nothing else. The use of the pronoun creates a personal and intimate atmosphere, immediately drawing the reader in to his subjective view. There is a historical reference in the passage too; The Indian Independence Act of 1947. The passage has a post-modernism literary style of writing which became popular just after World War 2. It is non-linear, …show more content…
The title “Midnight’s Children” links to the main focus of the text Saleem Sinai. He realises that his identity and life events are parallel and inseparable from India’s identity and fate. We see this in the passage when he says, “at the best of times a dangerous sort of involvement”. Saleem is saying that even through the good times, bad will always reign.
In line 4, “Clock-hands joined palms in respectful greeting as I came”, there is the use of personification and metaphorical figures of speech. The clocks hands are being given the human quality of palms touching together in unison. The metaphor compares the clock-hands to a human joining their palms together as if to greet (Namaste) the young child into the world. This adds a religious element to the text. Hinduism and Buddhism are one of the two main religions within
This passage indicates that Midnight’s Children is an autobiography, in the prose form, set in a city in India (“I was born in the city of Bombay …”). It is not the usual everyday autobiography that one reads. This is shown, in the …show more content…
Instead the name that features is, “I, Saleem Sinai”; therefore we get the feeling that the text may be untrue. Instead Saleem Sinai is Salam Rushdie’s protagonist (The Year of Magical Reading: 2014). Through Saleem Sinai, Rushdie maps out the history of Indian independence. The passage is muddled and confusing; however this links to the history of India itself.
The passage is about the protagonist, Saleem Sinai. It describes his moment of birth which coincides with the moment India received its independence. When analysing the passage one can note that it is written in the first person (“I”). It is written in such a way that we see and understand things that Saleem wants us to see, and nothing else. The use of the pronoun creates a personal and intimate atmosphere, immediately drawing the reader in to his subjective view. There is a historical reference in the passage too; The Indian Independence Act of 1947. The passage has a post-modernism literary style of writing which became popular just after World War 2. It is non-linear, …show more content…
The title “Midnight’s Children” links to the main focus of the text Saleem Sinai. He realises that his identity and life events are parallel and inseparable from India’s identity and fate. We see this in the passage when he says, “at the best of times a dangerous sort of involvement”. Saleem is saying that even through the good times, bad will always reign.
In line 4, “Clock-hands joined palms in respectful greeting as I came”, there is the use of personification and metaphorical figures of speech. The clocks hands are being given the human quality of palms touching together in unison. The metaphor compares the clock-hands to a human joining their palms together as if to greet (Namaste) the young child into the world. This adds a religious element to the text. Hinduism and Buddhism are one of the two main religions within