Midnight's Children Analysis

All right, we have a lot to cover here—about sixty-two years of history spread across three countries. So strap on your thinking cap, because this might be a bumpy ride.First, the basics. Time pe...

It's actually kind of funny if you think about it. Why write a novel about a kid with telepathy in the first person? Rushdie could've written it in the third person omniscient, and it would have be...

AutobiographyThis clearly isn't your everyday autobiography. It's not linear, no one expects you to think it's true, and there's not even anyone named Salman in the novel. We are not trying to say...

I did this, and I did that, and I'm responsible for a coup d'état, and it's my fault that the Indo Pakistani war started. No one can deny that about 9/10 of this novel is pompous. Saleem just goes...

Big surprise! The novel about a kid with a supernatural nose is jam packed with sensory description. Yeah, we know it's obvious, but it's still important to note since it's what helps us to really...

It's a tease. The title of this novel is a tease. It's gotta be.Before we even start reading Midnight's Children, we want to know about these kids. We want to know who they are, what they do, why t...

Yes, they will trample me underfoot, the numbers marching one two three, four hundred million five hundred six, reducing me to specks of voiceless dust, just as, all in good time, they will trample...

We don't want to scare you—we just thought you should know what you're getting into. Over 500 pages of text. 70 years of history and politics. Extensive references to Indian culture. A nontraditi...

It's All In The FamilyTo understand this kid, we have to understand his whole darn family, so sit back and relax while we learn about the last two generations of the Aziz family. We don't really kn...

Saleem looks for purpose and finds his nose.We have waited 200 pages for Saleem to be born, so we have pretty high expectations. So does everyone else, and they expect him to do great things. So Sa...

We learn everything about the Aziz and Sinai families so that we're ready when Saleem is born. One day while sneaking around, he discovers that he has telepathy, but it's the knock on the head that...

Those Seinfeld guys need to brush up on their literature. In one episode they mistook Salman Rushdie for some guy named Sal Bass! (Source.) Rushdie is not a religious guy, though when he was threat...

Nope. No kids. Not even with their parents. Nuh-uh. Not in here.First of all, this book is constantly talking about sex. We see Saleem's mom fondling his dad's testicles, Saleem attempting to get i...

One Thousand and One Nights (1.1.2) Adi Shankara (1.1.7) Edmond Rostand, Cyrano de Bergerac (1.1.13) Shakespeare, The Tempest (1.1.19), Romeo and Juliet (2.18.22) Vladimir Lenin, Wha...