Midnight's Children Character Analysis

Throughout Midnight’s Children, the private life of the protagonist coincides with the historical and religious life of India during the twentieth century. (Pascoe) To understand the life of the main character, one should swallow the religious, cultural and historical background of India, which is used by Salman Rushdie in creating the characters of Midnight’s Children. In Salman Rushdie 's first novel, Midnight 's Children, the protagonist 's very mixed parentage reflects India 's diverse cultural and religious heritage. Aadam Aziz, Amina, Shiva and William Methwold, all relatives of Saleem Sinai, mirror the different aspects of the religious and cultural heritage of India. This statement will be discussed by analyzing these characters and their importance referring to the cultural and religious heritage of

The great differences in welfare has subtly shaped the characters related to the main character in Midnights Children. The biological mother of the main character represents not only Hindi India but also the extreme poverty of India. Bombay illustrates the cultural heritage of India in Midnight´s Children. The protagonist tells the audience about the great city of Bombay: ‘Prima in Indis, Gateway to India, Star of the East, with her face to the West’ (Midnights, Children, Salman Rushdie, 93) In the case of Wiliam Methwold, biological father of the protagonist, the welfare differences are also used by Rushdie to refer to the time of British colonialism in India. Historical parallels can be made between Methwold´s Estate and the cultural legacy of British colonialism. The protagonist describes Metwold’s Estate as a typical English establishment; ‘…And pictures of old Englishwomen everywhere, baba!’ (Midnight’s Children, Salman Rusdie, 96) The nostalgic feelings felt by William Methwold represent the melancholic feelings of the British who left a main part of their empire in 1947, when India gained independence. (Rajeshwar and Mallikarjuna, Indian fiction in English,