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Midnight’s Children
- 426 statements
- 83 feature instances
- 36 referencing feature instances
Midnight’s Children | type |
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Midnight’s Children | label |
Midnight’s Children | |
Midnight’s Children | page |
MidnightsChildren | |
Midnight’s Children | comment |
Midnight's Children is a 1981 novel by Salman Rushdie, and is one of the two works for which he is best known (the other being The Satanic Verses, which is largely well-known for being the one that got him some very serious death threats). As well as winning the Booker Prize in the year it was released, it has twice won the Booker of Bookers, meaning that it was voted the best novel ever to have won. It is considered a major work in the Magical Realism genre, as well as of postcolonial literature and, of course, of Indian literature; Rushdie's prose style is quite a departure from previous Indian twentieth-century literature, often becoming very vernacular and creating a very vivid sense of the culture and atmosphere of India.The novel is structured as the hastily-written and occasionally verging-on-incoherent autobiography of Saleem Sinai, born note sort of into a wealthy Indian Muslim family at precisely midnight on 15th August 1947note the exact point in time at which India became independent from The British Empire. This results in Saleem and 1,000 other children born between midnight and one a.m. developing odd supernatural powers, with those born closest to midnight being the most powerful. The two children born at midnight exactly have the strongest powers of all: Saleem, whose telepathy manifests at the age of nine and allows him initially to read everyone's thoughts and later to telepathically connect the five hundred and eighty-one surviving midnight's children; and Shiva, whose powers are never described in great detail but whose name - the destroyer - he lives up to.Saleem has an incredibly strange and convoluted life, but this is not, in many ways, a novel about Saleem; nor is it a novel about cool supernatural abilities. First and foremost, it is a book about India. | |
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Dropped link to MagicalRealism: Not a Feature - UNKNOWN | |
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Dropped link to ShaggyDogStory: Not a Feature - ITEM | |
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Midnight’s Children / int_127fc252 | type |
Creator Cameo | |
Midnight’s Children / int_127fc252 | comment |
Creator Cameo: "Naturally, the prefects had the pick of the ladies; I watched them with passionate envy. Guzder and Joshi and Stevenson and Rushdie and Talyarkhan and Tayabali and Jussawalla and Waglé and King..." | |
Midnight’s Children / int_127fc252 | featureApplicability |
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Midnight’s Children / int_14f69e56 | type |
Psychic Radar | |
Midnight’s Children / int_14f69e56 | comment |
Psychic Radar: Saleem can intuitively sense the other midnight children with his Telepathy. | |
Midnight’s Children / int_14f69e56 | featureApplicability |
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Midnight’s Children / int_14f69e56 | |
Midnight’s Children / int_1869b4b1 | type |
Unreliable Narrator | |
Midnight’s Children / int_1869b4b1 | comment |
Unreliable Narrator: Saleem, on occasion, although he's quite upfront about his own fallibility. There is one event (Shiva's murder) he outright admits to falsifying less than two pages later. | |
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Midnight’s Children / int_1869b4b1 | |
Midnight’s Children / int_1b5c9c48 | type |
The Blank | |
Midnight’s Children / int_1b5c9c48 | comment |
The Blank: One of the titular children has this appearance during the psychic conferences due to living in the woods and never properly seeing their own face, though they do have eyes of a sort and a mouth-like hole. | |
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Midnight’s Children / int_1b5c9c48 | |
Midnight’s Children / int_1e1aa82a | type |
Diabolus ex Machina | |
Midnight’s Children / int_1e1aa82a | comment |
Diabolus ex Machina: Ahmed and his business partners are told "Shame If Something Happened" and must make a payment; but when they go to deliver it, a monkey comes out of nowhere and tosses their money sacks in a gutter. This forces Ahmed to relocate to Bombay, which sets many events in motion. | |
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Midnight’s Children / int_1e1aa82a | |
Midnight’s Children / int_1e1afc1b | type |
Framing Device | |
Midnight’s Children / int_1e1afc1b | comment |
Framing Device: While the novel is presented as Saleem's written autobiography, he is also telling it to his girlfriend and eventual fiancee, Padma, and makes frequent mention of her reactions. | |
Midnight’s Children / int_1e1afc1b | featureApplicability |
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Midnight’s Children / int_1e7c47ab | type |
Stealth Pun | |
Midnight’s Children / int_1e7c47ab | comment |
Stealth Pun: When Ahmed becomes The Alcoholic, Saleem refers to his behavior as "warring with djinns". "Djinn" is a homophone for "gin", the kind of alcohol he would be drinking at that point; and of course, both are found in bottles. | |
Midnight’s Children / int_1e7c47ab | featureApplicability |
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Midnight’s Children / int_1e7c47ab | |
Midnight’s Children / int_25bc8511 | type |
Generation Xerox | |
Midnight’s Children / int_25bc8511 | comment |
Generation Xerox: Discussed, and a major theme of the book. Saleem believes that he is doomed to inherit all of his parents' mistakes, and points to many instances in his life that echo the lives of his ancestors, metaphorically if not literally. | |
Midnight’s Children / int_25bc8511 | featureApplicability |
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Midnight’s Children / int_25bc8511 | |
Midnight’s Children / int_26d1f65f | type |
Verbal Tic | |
Midnight’s Children / int_26d1f65f | comment |
Verbal Tic: Naseem gains a tendency to pepper her sentences with "whatsitsname" after her marriage. Saleem speculates: | |
Midnight’s Children / int_26d1f65f | featureApplicability |
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Midnight’s Children / int_26d1f65f | |
Midnight’s Children / int_2a090d00 | type |
Lampshade Hanging | |
Midnight’s Children / int_2a090d00 | comment |
Lampshade Hanging: Saleem is very self-aware and will frequently make tongue-in-cheek jabs at his own erratic, stream-of-consciousness style of writing. Even when he doesn't, Padma usually does it for him. | |
Midnight’s Children / int_2a090d00 | featureApplicability |
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Midnight’s Children | hasFeature |
Midnight’s Children / int_2a090d00 | |
Midnight’s Children / int_2d88e42c | type |
Gender Bender | |
Midnight’s Children / int_2d88e42c | comment |
Gender Bender: One of the titular children can do this by immersing themselves in water. Unfortunately for them, this means they have to undergo two sterilizing surgeries in the end. | |
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Midnight’s Children / int_2d88e42c | |
Midnight’s Children / int_39a8fc83 | type |
The Can Kicked Him | |
Midnight’s Children / int_39a8fc83 | comment |
The Can Kicked Him: Homi Catrack is killed on a toilet. General Zulfikar is killed in a bathtub. | |
Midnight’s Children / int_39a8fc83 | featureApplicability |
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Midnight’s Children / int_39a8fc83 | |
Midnight’s Children / int_3ad27180 | type |
The Chain of Harm | |
Midnight’s Children / int_3ad27180 | comment |
Mustapha's children are so abused into silence and irrelevance that Saleem can't remember any of their features. It's implied that The Chain of Harm might be at play here, as Mustapha is enraged at constantly being passed over for promotion. | |
Midnight’s Children / int_3ad27180 | featureApplicability |
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Midnight’s Children / int_3ad27180 | |
Midnight’s Children / int_3bc88a7f | type |
Foregone Conclusion | |
Midnight’s Children / int_3bc88a7f | comment |
Foregone Conclusion: The moment the resident time-traveler says "they will end us [the midnight's children] before we begin" and nobody listens, you know you're in for a Downer Ending. | |
Midnight’s Children / int_3bc88a7f | featureApplicability |
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Midnight’s Children | hasFeature |
Midnight’s Children / int_3bc88a7f | |
Midnight’s Children / int_3c3f28a5 | type |
Blessed with Suck | |
Midnight’s Children / int_3c3f28a5 | comment |
Blessed with Suck: One of the titular children is so beautiful that they blind anyone who looks at them. Their great-aunt eventually disfigures them, which negates the power. | |
Midnight’s Children / int_3c3f28a5 | featureApplicability |
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Midnight’s Children / int_3c3f28a5 | |
Midnight’s Children / int_3d7ff013 | type |
How Dare You Die on Me! | |
Midnight’s Children / int_3d7ff013 | comment |
How Dare You Die on Me!: Ahmed reacts badly to the death of his friend Doctor Narlikar. He calls it a "betrayal" on account of the fact that Ahmed couldn't actually attach his name to Narlikar's business due to religious persecution, and was thus totally dependent on Narlikar to give him the profits. | |
Midnight’s Children / int_3d7ff013 | featureApplicability |
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Midnight’s Children / int_3d7ff013 | |
Midnight’s Children / int_3ff156fa | type |
Nay-Theist | |
Midnight’s Children / int_3ff156fa | comment |
Nay-Theist: Aadam becomes this after he mistakes Joseph D'Costa's ghost for God, as he blames God for the bad events in his life. He spends the rest of his life haranguing priests and ranting outside of mosques. | |
Midnight’s Children / int_3ff156fa | featureApplicability |
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Midnight’s Children / int_3ff156fa | |
Midnight’s Children / int_4063acfd | type |
Woman Scorned | |
Midnight’s Children / int_4063acfd | comment |
Woman Scorned: Gender-flipped with Commander Sabarmati. When he learns his wife is cheating on him with Homi Catrack, he tries to kill them both. His wife survives, but her lover does not. Saleem's father Ahmed was initially engaged to his aunt Alia. He ended up marrying her sister instead, and Saleem claims that Alia was consumed by bitterness as a result. When they move to Pakistan, she gets her revenge by infusing their food with her jealousy and bitterness, causing the cheerful family to rot from within. Interestingly, however, Saleem's only evidence for this is his supernatural ability to smell emotions, raising the possibility that Unreliable Narrator is in effect. | |
Midnight’s Children / int_4063acfd | featureApplicability |
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Midnight’s Children | hasFeature |
Midnight’s Children / int_4063acfd | |
Midnight’s Children / int_40cc0c7e | type |
Bittersweet Ending | |
Midnight’s Children / int_40cc0c7e | comment |
Bittersweet Ending: Word of God argues that the ending is this. Readers usually see it as a Downer Ending. The children are all castrated during the Emergency, which also removes their powers. Saleem becomes a vagabond after that. He finds a new girlfriend in Padma and work at her Chutney factory and seems to have settled in despite his bitterness. On the other hand, all the Midnight's Children are either dead, or in hiding. Saleem's Evil Twin Shiva has become a Karma Houdini and 80s India and Bombay generally seems pretty hollow. Saleem's only hope is in his son Aadam, who he believes is part of another generation of magical children who can accomplish what he could not. | |
Midnight’s Children / int_40cc0c7e | featureApplicability |
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Midnight’s Children | hasFeature |
Midnight’s Children / int_40cc0c7e | |
Midnight’s Children / int_40f3b23a | type |
FilmOfTheBook | |
Midnight’s Children / int_40f3b23a | comment |
Film of the Book: It was made in 2012, with Rushdie himself co-writing the screenplay. | |
Midnight’s Children / int_40f3b23a | featureApplicability |
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Midnight’s Children | hasFeature |
Midnight’s Children / int_40f3b23a | |
Midnight’s Children / int_4d97e2b9 | type |
Urine Trouble | |
Midnight’s Children / int_4d97e2b9 | comment |
Saleem's cousin Zafar is frequently beaten and harangued by his father for his enuresis, to the point that Saleem suspects The Dog Bites Back as a motive when Zafar decides to become a Self-Made Orphan. | |
Midnight’s Children / int_4d97e2b9 | featureApplicability |
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Midnight’s Children / int_4d97e2b9 | |
Midnight’s Children / int_4f4e43cc | type |
Always Second Best | |
Midnight’s Children / int_4f4e43cc | comment |
Always Second Best: Saleem's uncle Mustapha becomes a civil servant, but is constantly passed over for promotion, getting stuck in second-rate positions for his entire life. This infuriates him, causing him to take it out on his children. Even in the scope of his genealogy hobby, he discovers that someone's better at it than him. | |
Midnight’s Children / int_4f4e43cc | featureApplicability |
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Midnight’s Children / int_4f4e43cc | |
Midnight’s Children / int_51d8f2e3 | type |
Not-So-Omniscient Council of Bickering | |
Midnight’s Children / int_51d8f2e3 | comment |
Parvati-the-witch remains Saleem's most vocal supporter even after the Midnight's Children Conference descends into a Not-So-Omniscient Council of Bickering, and continues to tune in even after the conference disintegrates completely. Much later, she saves his life by smuggling him out of occupied Bangladesh. | |
Midnight’s Children / int_51d8f2e3 | featureApplicability |
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Midnight’s Children / int_51d8f2e3 | |
Midnight’s Children / int_55940b68 | type |
Doorstopper | |
Midnight’s Children / int_55940b68 | comment |
Doorstopper: ~600 pages. It is a slow read. | |
Midnight’s Children / int_55940b68 | featureApplicability |
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Midnight’s Children / int_57c25438 | type |
Green Thumb | |
Midnight’s Children / int_57c25438 | comment |
Green Thumb: One of the titular children can grow thriving plants even in the middle of a desert. | |
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Midnight’s Children / int_583ec33e | type |
Snark-to-Snark Combat | |
Midnight’s Children / int_583ec33e | comment |
Snark-to-Snark Combat: Saleem will often respond to Padma's wry criticisms in his narration. Since he reads his story to her aloud, it can sometimes result in extended banter. | |
Midnight’s Children / int_583ec33e | featureApplicability |
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Midnight’s Children / int_583ec33e | |
Midnight’s Children / int_5a75677c | type |
He's Just Hiding | |
Midnight’s Children / int_5a75677c | comment |
He's Just Hiding: In-Universe example. After she turns against Pakistan's government, Saleem's sister is arrested and never seen again. However, Saleem has a dream about her escaping and hiding among a group of nuns, and desperately clings to this happier possibility. Her ultimate fate is left ambiguous. | |
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Midnight’s Children / int_5ad80bf8 | type |
It's All My Fault | |
Midnight’s Children / int_5ad80bf8 | comment |
It's All My Fault: Due to his belief that his life is metaphorically linked to the nation's, Saleem blames himself for just about everything. | |
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Midnight’s Children / int_5ad80bf8 | |
Midnight’s Children / int_5c0fc07b | type |
Nightmare Sequence | |
Midnight’s Children / int_5c0fc07b | comment |
Nightmare Sequence: Midway through the book, Saleem has a nightmare of his time in the Widows' Hostel, with the Widow depicted as a grotesque, green-and-black monster who tears children in half. The narration for the scene is suitably confusing and chaotic, just like a real dream. | |
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Midnight’s Children / int_5c0fc07b | |
Midnight’s Children / int_6bd689ca | type |
Meaningful Echo | |
Midnight’s Children / int_6bd689ca | comment |
Meaningful Echo: The beginning of the Wham Episode chapter "Drainage and the Desert" echoes the rambling, evasive description of the time and date of Saleem's birth at the start of the story. This is likely because Saleem considers the events to be of equal importance: while his birth gave him his power, the telegram eventually took it away. The birth of Saleem's son Aadam similarly echoes the opening. This is fitting, because just as Saleem was born at the moment of India's inception, Aadam was born at the moment Indira Gandhi declared the Emergency, and thus the birth of a "new India". Another Wham Episode, "How Saleem Achieved Purity", makes references to a countdown and a "ticktock", just like the chapter detailing his birth. This countdown is to a much less happy event, however. The narration for Saleem's castration operation in "Midnight" echoes the sinus operation of "Drainage and the Desert", even cutting off at the exact same point. This is likely because both operations remove midnight powers. | |
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Midnight’s Children / int_6d332aea | type |
Driven to Suicide | |
Midnight’s Children / int_6d332aea | comment |
Driven to Suicide: Aadam's colleague Ilse Lubin drowns herself in the Kashmiri lake after her husband dies. Saleem's uncle Hanif jumps off a building after Homi Catrack — his sole source of income — is murdered. Saleem blames himself, as he initiated the chain of events that led to Homi's murder. | |
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Midnight’s Children / int_7464705c | type |
Arc Words | |
Midnight’s Children / int_7464705c | comment |
Arc Words: "History", "time", and "inheritance". The "optimism disease". Pomfrets come up an awful lot. "Midnight". Snakes and ladders. FULL-TILT! "Knees and a nose, a nose and knees..." The blue of Kashmiri sky. "What can't be cured must be endured." | |
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Midnight’s Children / int_7464705c | |
Midnight’s Children / int_780a078e | type |
Self-Made Orphan | |
Midnight’s Children / int_780a078e | comment |
Self-Made Orphan: Zafar kills his father, General Zulfikar, after returning from a border skirmish. Saleem implies it is because he discovered Zulfikar's smuggling operations, but says it's impossible to be certain; the Pakistani government denied the scandal, and Zafar may have had other motives. | |
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Midnight’s Children / int_780a078e | |
Midnight’s Children / int_7913eb6f | type |
Healing Hands | |
Midnight’s Children / int_7913eb6f | comment |
Healing Hands: Parvati's most prominent power, though she often combines it with medicinal poultices and the like. She can presumably perform other magic as well, but refuses to demonstrate anything other than White Magic. | |
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Midnight’s Children / int_7913eb6f | |
Midnight’s Children / int_79c34029 | type |
The Nose Knows | |
Midnight’s Children / int_79c34029 | comment |
The Nose Knows: After Saleem's sinuses are cleared, he loses his Telepathy but gains a supernaturally keen sense of smell, to the point that he can even smell emotions and abstract concepts. | |
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Midnight’s Children / int_7e577db | type |
Slashed Throat | |
Midnight’s Children / int_7e577db | comment |
Slashed Throat: Zafar kills his father Zulfikar this way. | |
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Midnight’s Children / int_7e577db | |
Midnight’s Children / int_7eb73553 | type |
Bullying a Dragon | |
Midnight’s Children / int_7eb73553 | comment |
One of Saleem's neighbors decides to bully Shiva, who responds by hurling a sharp stone that blinds him in one eye. He is forever after known as "Eyeslice". | |
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Midnight’s Children / int_7eb73553 | |
Midnight’s Children / int_7eebe99c | type |
The Alcoholic | |
Midnight’s Children / int_7eebe99c | comment |
The Alcoholic: After purchasing Methwold's estate, Ahmed becomes a bit too attached to the English wine cabinet, and starts "warring with djinns". This eventually makes him very delusional. | |
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Midnight’s Children / int_7eebe99c | |
Midnight’s Children / int_8ace85ef | type |
Audience Surrogate | |
Midnight’s Children / int_8ace85ef | comment |
Audience Surrogate: Padma, possibly. Like the audience, she is hearing Saleem's life story for the first time. Some of her wry and impassioned commentary is bound to resonate with at least some readers (especially her urging Saleem to hurry up). | |
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Midnight’s Children / int_8ace85ef | |
Midnight’s Children / int_8e20979 | type |
Wham Episode | |
Midnight’s Children / int_8e20979 | comment |
Wham Episode: "Commander Sabarmati's Baton". Saleem sets off a chain of events that results in all his neighbors either dying or moving out. "Drainage and the Desert", positioned near the end of book two. The Midnight's Children Conference falls apart completely, Saleem loses his power of Telepathy, and the family departs for Pakistan once more. "How Saleem Achieved Purity", the finale of book two. Saleem's entire family (excluding his sister and one faraway uncle) is killed in a single night. | |
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Midnight’s Children / int_91672d3e | type |
Children Are Innocent | |
Midnight’s Children / int_91672d3e | comment |
Children Are Innocent: Sonny, who demonstrates Undying Loyalty to Saleem, and continues to love the Brass Monkey even after she subjects him to a Shameful Strip. Inverted everywhere else: The Brass Monkey lights shoes on fire and reacts violently to anyone who shows her affection; Evie Burns delights in torturing animals and murdered an old lady who objected to this (and also tries to murder Saleem). The other children in the neighborhood, while not nearly as violent, are still pretty belligerent. Also averted by the Midnight's Children Conference, whose eleven-year-old constituents turn on each other due to racial and religious prejudices. | |
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Midnight’s Children / int_91672d3e | |
Midnight’s Children / int_9203bf6 | type |
Arc Number | |
Midnight’s Children / int_9203bf6 | comment |
Arc Number: 1001. Most obviously, it's the number of the midnight's children, but it occurs in other contexts as well, mostly in Saleem's musings. | |
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Midnight’s Children / int_9203bf6 | |
Midnight’s Children / int_9b06e314 | type |
Greater-Scope Villain | |
Midnight’s Children / int_9b06e314 | comment |
Greater-Scope Villain: The Widow. Saleem never confronts her directly, but does run afoul of her subordinates. | |
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Midnight’s Children / int_9b06e314 | |
Midnight’s Children / int_9d12bbc1 | type |
Foreshadowing | |
Midnight’s Children / int_9d12bbc1 | comment |
Foreshadowing: Exaggerated, possibly even to the point of parody. Though the narrative is mostly linear, Saleem acts like a literature student performing a deep reading of a work, and excitedly references future events whenever he notices something significant. It may even overlap with Doomed by Canon, as Saleem will sometimes spoil future events outright (particularly the deaths of certain characters). But in particular, the negation of Saleem's Telepathy after his sinus operation foreshadows that surgical operations can remove the midnight powers, which occurs when the Widow castrates all of them at the end of the story. | |
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Midnight’s Children / int_9d12bbc1 | |
Midnight’s Children / int_9d6427ec | type |
Time Travel | |
Midnight’s Children / int_9d6427ec | comment |
Time Travel: One of the titular children has this power, though they don't seem to be able to actually affect events, only observe. They try to warn the other midnight children of impending doom, but they aren't believed. | |
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Midnight’s Children / int_9d6427ec | |
Midnight’s Children / int_9dfd7154 | type |
Fridge Logic | |
Midnight’s Children / int_9dfd7154 | comment |
Fridge Logic: Saleem briefly muses on this as applied to his own story when he's collating everything at the very end, wondering if people will pick apart inconsistencies such as Saleem having to awaken his midnight power when none of the other children did. invoked | |
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Midnight’s Children / int_9dfd7154 | |
Midnight’s Children / int_9e0b9695 | type |
Flight | |
Midnight’s Children / int_9e0b9695 | comment |
Flight: One of the titular children has this power. | |
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Midnight’s Children / int_9e0b9695 | |
Midnight’s Children / int_a2b38d3b | type |
Eye Scream | |
Midnight’s Children / int_a2b38d3b | comment |
Lila Sabarmati's son is only ever referred to as "Eyeslice", after the Eye Scream he suffers for bullying Shiva. | |
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Midnight’s Children / int_a2b38d3b | |
Midnight’s Children / int_a6be3ad5 | type |
Rule of Seven | |
Midnight’s Children / int_a6be3ad5 | comment |
Rule of Seven: Parvati-the-witch is born seven seconds after midnight, making her one of the most powerful of the titular children. | |
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Midnight’s Children / int_a6be3ad5 | |
Midnight’s Children / int_a70223 | type |
Karma Houdini | |
Midnight’s Children / int_a70223 | comment |
Karma Houdini: Double Subverted. Shiva sells out the midnight's children to the Widow, and personally captures Saleem himself. He's also implied to have murdered an awful lot of people. He does get castrated along with the other midnight's children, but otherwise gets off scot-free...until one of his mistresses returns to shoot him through the heart. Except not; less than two pages later Saleem reveals that Shiva is still at large, and he's so terrified that Shiva will find him that he made up the story for peace of mind. Greater-Scope Villain Indira Gandhi also returns to power after a Hope Spot where she loses the 1977 election. (In Real Life, she was later assassinated, but the book was published three years before that event took place.) | |
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Midnight’s Children / int_a70223 | |
Midnight’s Children / int_a7850fbf | type |
Only Known by Their Nickname | |
Midnight’s Children / int_a7850fbf | comment |
Only Known by Their Nickname: Naseem Aziz is known only as "Reverend Mother" after she becomes a mother. Saleem's sister, the Brass Monkey (so called for being a Fiery Redhead). Lila Sabarmati's son is only ever referred to as "Eyeslice", after the Eye Scream he suffers for bullying Shiva. | |
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Midnight’s Children / int_a7850fbf | |
Midnight’s Children / int_a8559a9f | type |
RealLife | |
Midnight’s Children / int_a8559a9f | comment |
After the traumatic events of the Widow's Hostel, Saleem hears the outcome of the historic 1977 election, where Indira Gandhi is defeated and loses her iron grip on the country. But when we return to the present day, Saleem dejectedly notes that she is experiencing a political second wind, and stands poised to become prime minister again. (In Real Life, this did happen in 1980.) | |
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Midnight’s Children / int_a8559a9f | |
Midnight’s Children / int_aa2cd0c9 | type |
Motifs | |
Midnight’s Children / int_aa2cd0c9 | comment |
Motifs: A recurring trend is that scenes will sometimes be described in film jargon, as if Saleem is scripting a movie scene. | |
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Midnight’s Children / int_aa2cd0c9 | |
Midnight’s Children / int_ab5eea65 | type |
Dramatic Irony | |
Midnight’s Children / int_ab5eea65 | comment |
Dramatic Irony: When Saleem formally introduces himself to Shiva, Shiva rhetorically asks why he was born poor and Saleem was born rich. He is trying to make a nihilistic philosophical point, but the readers know there is actually a specific reason for this: Mary switched the two at birth. | |
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Midnight’s Children / int_ab5eea65 | |
Midnight’s Children / int_abd29ad8 | type |
No-Sell | |
Midnight’s Children / int_abd29ad8 | comment |
No-Sell: Shiva can block Saleem's telepathy if he so desires. | |
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Midnight’s Children / int_abd29ad8 | |
Midnight’s Children / int_b11ac9f5 | type |
Abusive Parents | |
Midnight’s Children / int_b11ac9f5 | comment |
Abusive Parents: Saleem's father starts off kind, but gradually becomes more distant, eventually disowning him entirely after the Switched at Birth reveal. He eventually comes around, though. Saleem's cousin Zafar is frequently beaten and harangued by his father for his enuresis, to the point that Saleem suspects The Dog Bites Back as a motive when Zafar decides to become a Self-Made Orphan. Mustapha's children are so abused into silence and irrelevance that Saleem can't remember any of their features. It's implied that The Chain of Harm might be at play here, as Mustapha is enraged at constantly being passed over for promotion. | |
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Midnight’s Children / int_b11ac9f5 | |
Midnight’s Children / int_b14ca7ba | type |
Two Aliases, One Character | |
Midnight’s Children / int_b14ca7ba | comment |
Two Aliases, One Character: Throughout the novel Saleem makes references to Indira Gandhi and her Emergency, and to the Black Widow, one of the women who seriously affected his life, but it isn't revealed until near the end that they are the same person, and 'seriously affected his life' is something of an understatement. Saleem's sister the Brass Monkey's transformation into Pakistan's national darling Jamila Singer entails such a sudden and total change of personality that they are effectively different characters (highlighted, of course, by the use of different names). Subverted in that it's not kept as a surprise; in fact, we see the transformation take place. | |
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Midnight’s Children / int_b14ca7ba | |
Midnight’s Children / int_b43dfc8d | type |
Your Days Are Numbered | |
Midnight’s Children / int_b43dfc8d | comment |
Your Days Are Numbered: Saleem is dying of a mysterious illness, which is what pushes him to write his autobiography with such fervor. He is certain that he will die on the coming Independence Day. He writes what he thinks his death will be like in the final scene, but we never see it ourselves. | |
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Midnight’s Children / int_b43dfc8d | |
Midnight’s Children / int_b7e0c5ff | type |
Love Triangle | |
Midnight’s Children / int_b7e0c5ff | comment |
Love Triangle: During Saleem's childhood, he develops a crush on Evelyn Lilith Burns (an American girl who moves into his gated community), but she develops a crush on his friend Sonny, who in turn is enamored with Saleem's sister the Brass Monkey. The Brass Monkey doesn't love anyone, and reacts violently to shows of affection. | |
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Midnight’s Children / int_b7e0c5ff | |
Midnight’s Children / int_bb0c0a4d | type |
Fiery Redhead | |
Midnight’s Children / int_bb0c0a4d | comment |
Saleem's sister, the Brass Monkey (so called for being a Fiery Redhead). | |
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Midnight’s Children / int_bb0c0a4d | |
Midnight’s Children / int_bb18a227 | type |
It's All About Me | |
Midnight’s Children / int_bb18a227 | comment |
Amina and Ahmed Sinai. After Saleem is born, Amina devotes most of her attentions to their son, which infuriates the attention-hogging Ahmed. Alcoholism and financial hardship drive them even further apart. After Mary confesses that Saleem is not their biological son, they break off and Amina moves in with her family. In a subversion, she later returns to nurse him back to health after a heart attack, at which point they finally become Happily Married. | |
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Midnight’s Children / int_bb18a227 | |
Midnight’s Children / int_bc03c871 | type |
Child Hater | |
Midnight’s Children / int_bc03c871 | comment |
Child Hater: Downplayed with Doctor Narlikar, who just prefers to avoid them and has no children of his own. Oddly enough, he works as a gynecologist despite this. | |
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Midnight’s Children / int_bc03c871 | |
Midnight’s Children / int_be009bbc | type |
Alliterative Name | |
Midnight’s Children / int_be009bbc | comment |
Alliterative Name: Aadam Aziz, Alia Aziz, Saleem Sinai, and Ismail Ibrahim. | |
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Midnight’s Children / int_be009bbc | |
Midnight’s Children / int_bec0417c | type |
Happily Married | |
Midnight’s Children / int_bec0417c | comment |
After Ahmed's heart attack, Amina returns to care for him, and, after years of a tumultuous family life, they finally learn to love each other and become Happily Married. Amina even becomes pregnant with a third child. Then Ahmed has a stroke that reduces him to a near-vegetative state, and Amina starts losing her mind over fears that her 42-year-old body is too old to birth a healthy child. Then a bomb kills them both. | |
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Midnight’s Children / int_bec0417c | |
Midnight’s Children / int_c145f69b | type |
Subverted Trope | |
Midnight’s Children / int_c145f69b | comment |
When she's initially introduced, Parvati-the-witch is merely Saleem's most vocal supporter during the Midnight's Children Conference, but Saleem makes no attempt to hide her later importance. Towards the end of the story, she encounters him in the flesh at Bangladesh, and saves his life by smuggling him back into India. | |
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Midnight’s Children / int_c145f69b | |
Midnight’s Children / int_c3c18143 | type |
Hope Spot | |
Midnight’s Children / int_c3c18143 | comment |
Hope Spot: After Ahmed's heart attack, Amina returns to care for him, and, after years of a tumultuous family life, they finally learn to love each other and become Happily Married. Amina even becomes pregnant with a third child. Then Ahmed has a stroke that reduces him to a near-vegetative state, and Amina starts losing her mind over fears that her 42-year-old body is too old to birth a healthy child. Then a bomb kills them both. After the midnight's children are gathered in the Widows' Hostel, Saleem believes that they can fight back now that they're finally all together. He encourages them to endure the torture and strike back once the Widow thinks they're finished... but then that torture turns out to remove their powers. Lampshaded by Saleem, who says that in addition to vasectomies and hysterectomies, the sterilization crew performed "sperectomies" — the removal of hope. After the traumatic events of the Widow's Hostel, Saleem hears the outcome of the historic 1977 election, where Indira Gandhi is defeated and loses her iron grip on the country. But when we return to the present day, Saleem dejectedly notes that she is experiencing a political second wind, and stands poised to become prime minister again. (In Real Life, this did happen in 1980.) | |
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Midnight’s Children / int_c3c18143 | |
Midnight’s Children / int_c6d11745 | type |
Telepathy | |
Midnight’s Children / int_c6d11745 | comment |
"Drainage and the Desert", positioned near the end of book two. The Midnight's Children Conference falls apart completely, Saleem loses his power of Telepathy, and the family departs for Pakistan once more. | |
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Midnight’s Children / int_c6d11745 | |
Midnight’s Children / int_c75df49a | type |
Shout-Out | |
Midnight’s Children / int_c75df49a | comment |
Shout-Out: There are one thousand and one children of midnight. Saleem makes note of the parallel. | |
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Midnight’s Children / int_c75df49a | |
Midnight’s Children / int_cd54b574 | type |
Switched at Birth | |
Midnight’s Children / int_cd54b574 | comment |
Switched at Birth: Saleem and Shiva. One was born from a wealthy family (the Sinais), while the other was born from a poor family; the midwife was in love with a Communist at the time, and so she switched them to echo his principles. Saleem says he doesn't care about his true parentage, and still considers the Sinais his family. Notably, this is one of the few twists that Saleem doesn't spoil in advance or even hint at. Padma feels betrayed by it as a result. | |
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Midnight’s Children / int_cd54b574 | |
Midnight’s Children / int_cf92fea8 | type |
Cassandra Truth | |
Midnight’s Children / int_cf92fea8 | comment |
Cassandra Truth: One of the midnight children can Time Travel. They warn of impending doom, but nobody believes them, and they eventually leave the conference out of frustration. | |
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Midnight’s Children / int_cf92fea8 | |
Midnight’s Children / int_d08049db | type |
Taken for Granite | |
Midnight’s Children / int_d08049db | comment |
Taken for Granite: Mary's mother suffers this fate after accidentally biting off a saint's toe... possibly. | |
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Midnight’s Children / int_d08049db | |
Midnight’s Children / int_d29a6629 | type |
Death by Childbirth | |
Midnight’s Children / int_d29a6629 | comment |
Death by Childbirth: Wee Willie Winkie's wife Vanita, who bleeds out because the understaffed hospital is too busy fussing over Ahmed's broken toe. | |
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Midnight’s Children / int_d29a6629 | |
Midnight’s Children / int_dc1761bd | type |
A God Am I | |
Midnight’s Children / int_dc1761bd | comment |
A God Am I: Though we never hear the Widow's own stance on it, the Widow's Hand claims this of her. Saleem believes this delusion to be the reason why she goes to such lengths to neutralize her political rivals and the midnight's children — she refuses to tolerate any other potential "gods" that could undermine her superiority. | |
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Midnight’s Children / int_dc1761bd | |
Midnight’s Children / int_dc579c91 | type |
Contrived Coincidence | |
Midnight’s Children / int_dc579c91 | comment |
Contrived Coincidence: A lot. Saleem often becomes introspective when they occur, examining all the events that led up to them and wondering if there might be greater purpose to it after all. He also believes that his life is a metaphorical reflection of India's history, such that the events in his life can affect India even though they appear unconnected and vice versa. The Diabolus ex Machina of the Delhi monkey destroying Ahmed's Shame If Something Happened payments, which sets many later events in motion by forcing him to move to Bombay. Perhaps most notable is Ahmed dropping his chair and breaking his toe upon hearing the news of his son's birth. The entire staff of the understaffed hospital flocks to tend to him, which is what allows Mary to switch the nametags of the two children and causes Vanita to suffer Death by Childbirth. Exactly 420 midnight children die before Saleem can contact them, which seems like an oddly significant number for seemingly random deaths. Saleem himself briefly ruminates on this one. Jawaharlal Nehru falls terminally ill the same day that Saleem's grandfather dies. Saleem wonders if this was in fact a coincidence, and blames himself for Nehru's death. Only a few bombs actually hit anything on the final day of the Indian-Pakistan war of '65. Every single one of them hits somewhere relevant to Saleem (all his family members except his sister, a friend of the family who could have sheltered him, the jail where his cousin was being held, and the housing project he could have gotten some resources out of). | |
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Midnight’s Children / int_dc579c91 | |
Midnight’s Children / int_dcbe8a6e | type |
Chekhov's Gunman | |
Midnight’s Children / int_dcbe8a6e | comment |
Chekhov's Gunman: Nadir Khan may be an inversion. He has a fairly important role as Amina's first husband before disappearing from the story. He shows up a fair bit later as Qasim the Red, whom Amina is seeing secretly. However, his only contribution is as a living plot device, by motivating Saleem to get them to break up. Saleem's uncle Mustapha is so irrelevant for most of the story that Saleem barely even describes him or his children. However, towards the end of the book, he briefly gives Saleem shelter after the rest of the family is killed. It's also implied that he helped the Widow track down the midnight children. When she's initially introduced, Parvati-the-witch is merely Saleem's most vocal supporter during the Midnight's Children Conference, but Saleem makes no attempt to hide her later importance. Towards the end of the story, she encounters him in the flesh at Bangladesh, and saves his life by smuggling him back into India. Mary Pereira. She runs away after her confession to the Sinais, and Saleem says he doesn't know what happened to her after that, implying she's gone from the story for good. At the very end she's revealed to be the manager of the pickle factory where Saleem works in the present day, who took him under her wing after all his other friends and family were gone. | |
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Midnight’s Children / int_dcbe8a6e | |
Midnight’s Children / int_deecc9eb | type |
Awful Wedded Life | |
Midnight’s Children / int_deecc9eb | comment |
Awful Wedded Life: Aadam and Naseem Aziz. He's a secular, foreign-educated progressivist, while she's a deeply religious traditionalist. They butt heads constantly over this, and Naseem once tries to starve Aadam to death when he throws the children's religious tutor out on his ear. Aadam eventually dies before her, and she doesn't seem to care one whit. Amina and Ahmed Sinai. After Saleem is born, Amina devotes most of her attentions to their son, which infuriates the attention-hogging Ahmed. Alcoholism and financial hardship drive them even further apart. After Mary confesses that Saleem is not their biological son, they break off and Amina moves in with her family. In a subversion, she later returns to nurse him back to health after a heart attack, at which point they finally become Happily Married. | |
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Midnight’s Children / int_deecc9eb | |
Midnight’s Children / int_e68d9ddd | type |
Not Blood Siblings | |
Midnight’s Children / int_e68d9ddd | comment |
Not Blood Siblings: Saleem tries to invoke this when confessing his love to his sister. She doesn't go for it, and in fact punishes him by abandoning him to the army after they become orphans. | |
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Midnight’s Children | hasFeature |
Midnight’s Children / int_e68d9ddd | |
Midnight’s Children / int_e791e16b | type |
Weapons-Grade Vocabulary | |
Midnight’s Children / int_e791e16b | comment |
Weapons-Grade Vocabulary: One of the titular children has this power. The villagers are so terrified of her that they banish her to the jungle. | |
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Midnight’s Children / int_e791e16b | |
Midnight’s Children / int_e8d46c29 | type |
Backstory | |
Midnight’s Children / int_e8d46c29 | comment |
Backstory: Lots of backstory. Before it even begins chronicling the entirety of Saleem's thirty-one years in incredible detail the novel spends about 150 pages describing the lives of the two preceding generations of the Aziz-Sinai family. Even characters not related to the family get an awful lot of backstory, often injected at awkward moments in the story (which is lampshaded by Saleem). A possible justification is given in the opening: "I have been a swallower of lives; and to know me, just the lot of me, you'll have to swallow the lot as well." Saleem lampshades his tendency to do this at the very end: | |
Midnight’s Children / int_e8d46c29 | featureApplicability |
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Midnight’s Children / int_e8d46c29 | |
Midnight’s Children / int_eaf5a1ac | type |
Groin Attack | |
Midnight’s Children / int_eaf5a1ac | comment |
Groin Attack: Homi Catrack is shot in the groin, likely due to his killer's motive. Saleem and the other midnight children are all castrated and hysterectomied by the Widow's sterilization crew. This has the side effect of removing their powers as well. | |
Midnight’s Children / int_eaf5a1ac | featureApplicability |
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Midnight’s Children / int_eaf5a1ac | |
Midnight’s Children / int_edc22fe8 | type |
Cartwright Curse | |
Midnight’s Children / int_edc22fe8 | comment |
Cartwright Curse: Saleem believes he has this; everyone directly connected to his family, even through something as minor as a betrothal, dies by the story's end. When Padma makes her marriage offer, he fears that she will suffer this fate as well, but acquiesces. We never see what comes of it. | |
Midnight’s Children / int_edc22fe8 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
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Midnight’s Children | hasFeature |
Midnight’s Children / int_edc22fe8 | |
Midnight’s Children / int_f16da697 | type |
Undying Loyalty | |
Midnight’s Children / int_f16da697 | comment |
Undying Loyalty: Sonny Ibrahim remains a steadfast friend to Saleem despite the numerous indignities he receives for it, such as the bicycle accident and the Brass Monkey's torment. Parvati-the-witch remains Saleem's most vocal supporter even after the Midnight's Children Conference descends into a Not-So-Omniscient Council of Bickering, and continues to tune in even after the conference disintegrates completely. Much later, she saves his life by smuggling him out of occupied Bangladesh. | |
Midnight’s Children / int_f16da697 | featureApplicability |
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Midnight’s Children |
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