Midnight's Children

“I was born in the city of Bombay… once upon a time.”

As a narrator and as a protagonist, Saleem is caught in a tangle of fiction and non-fiction. He claims to want to tell the accurate history of his life and his country, but the story begins with a traditional allusion to fairy tales. Saleem blends together the realistic and the fantastical, demonstrating how the history of India and the story of his life are inherently magical. The blurred lines between fiction and reality create a mystifying blend that hopes to portray the magic of reality and the reality of magic.

“The Indians have fought for the British; so many of them have seen the world by now, and been tainted by Abroad.”

The effects of colonialism are portrayed as a stain in Indian culture. By leaving to fight for the British, Indian people pick up habits and ideas from their colonial rulers, which are then implemented in Indian culture. The use of the word “tainted” (37) indicates these ideas are a poisonous corruption of Indian culture. In the novel, violence and the lingering effects of colonialism are portrayed as a foreign import, thrust on to India by the British.

“But those were the years of the drought; many crops planted at that time ended up coming to nothing.”

Natural phenomena, such as floods and droughts, are just as linked to the personal lives of the characters as the more manmade aspects of history.