Midnight Children
Homework
1. The children are described as having extraordinary features. What are the features in general terms?
The children are described as endowed with miraculous talents, abilities and faculties.
2. What examples are given of the extraordinary features?
An exampleof extraordinary feature is twin sisters’s one.
3.What was special about the twin sisters in Baud?
The twin sisters in Baud were considered already a talent in their region beacuse they had a sort of “supernatural power”. They were able to make falling in love with them every man of the town. So everyone of the men was constantly trying to propose them.
Moreover, the twin sisters also seemed to have the capacity to make some other children committing violent acts on themlseves, like mutilation, self-immolation, etc.
4. When and how does narrator become aware of his special “true siblings”?
The narrator became aware of the midnight children thanks to a bicycle accident.
5. What kind of narrator tells the story?
The syory is told by a first person omniscient narrator, who often stops the natural facts’s narration for adding some personal comments.
6. Which of the following features aplly the narrator? Give examples from the text.
-He is very detached from his subject matter /
-He makes comment and addresses the reader YES
He is a sort of inner narrator.
Example from the text:
“In itself, that is not an unusual fact”
“(noteworthy!)”
“And then, as a resul of a jolt received bycicle-accident, I, Saleem Sinai, became aware of them all”
-He piles up details and information YES
He gives informations to the reader to justify the reality of the text.
Example from the text:
“During the first hour of August 15th. 1947 –between midnight and one a.m.- no less than 1001 children were born in India”
“At the time, births in our part of the world exceeded deaths by approximately 687 an our”
“These deaths were 420”
“By 1957 the surviving 581 children…”
-He uses a plain, simple language /
-He hardly ever goes straight to the point YES
He gives indirect informations to make the reader reflect by himself. He does this, for example, by some historical references..
Example from the text:
“The infant sovereign state of India”
“If a similar miracle was worked across the border, in the newly-partitioned-off Pakistan…”
7. What realistic and fantastic elements can you detect in the narration?
Surely the twin sisters’s supernatural powers are fantastic elements, where as the historical references and data informations are so realistic.
8. Would you describe the text as humourous? Why/ why not? Personal response.
I would not describe the text as humorous, becuase it isn’t “funny”. Indeed thanks to the realistic informations I would consider it more serious, interesting and especially informative, despite the fantastic parts.