#100: Midnight's Children (3)

I decided that my posts are too long/long-winded, so in the future there will be far less commentary and the posts will be limited to one to three questions, rather five or six. Sorry for the overwhelming nature of the blog so far, but I hope it will improve as I get the hang of it.

Here are two questions I cut from yesterday and put for today:

• From litlovers.com: “Midnight’s Children is clearly a work of fiction; yet, like many modern novels, it is presented as an autobiography. How can we tell it isn’t? What literary devices are employed to make its fictional status clear?"


• We find out at the end of Book 1 that the family members that Saleem has described in such detail are not actually his ancestors. However, he continues to speak of them as his real family. Why do you think he does this?

I'd also like to add the following based on my reading of Chapter 1 ("The Fisherman's Pointing Finger") of Book 2:

• From greatbooks.org: "What is the significance of Saleem growing up in Methwold's Estate?" And how does his perception of the first days of his life relate to his later feeling that a lot of what goes wrong in his country is his fault? (Remember that he parallels his life with the life of independent India)