Research Paper on:
Midnight's Children/Salman Rushdie

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
the first hour of Indian independence from Great Britain on August 15, 1947. The protagonist of this modern-day quasi-myth is one of these children. His name is Saleem Sinai.  At first glance, Midnights Children appears to resemble an epic, and it is (ostensibly) about the birth of India. Like a figure from mythology, there is a great deal that  is symbolic and supernatural about Saleem. Like a subject of myth, mystery surrounded Saleems birth, as he was not the only child born at the stroke of midnight on  that auspicious date. Saleem learns that a nurse at the hospital switched two babies at birth. Saleem was raised by an affluent Muslim couple, but he is actually the  illegitimate, biological son of a low-caste Hindu woman and a British colonial who departed the country. The child that should have gone home with the affluent Muslim couple is now  called Shiva and was raised by a poor Hindu street performer, whose unfaithful wife died giving birth to Saleem. Therefore, Saleem, like India, itself is intricately tied to both the  Muslim and the Hindu worlds. This metaphorical connection to India is difficult for Saleem. At the age of thirty, when he records this narrative, he is already an old  man. Saleems much beleaguered body is like an analogy of and trials and tribulations of Indian over the same period. Like India in many ways, Saleem relates that he  is, quite literally, falling apart; and, therefore, he must get down the myriad stories that constitute his life. The narrative abounds with symbols that imply that certain aspects of  the story have meanings deeper then just surface appearance. Undoubtedly, there are many more symbols, inferences, and allusions in this novel then this writer/tutor was able to discern because to