The Perforated Sheet by Salman Rushdie
analytical Essay
1035 words
When discussing the controversial authors of Indian literature, one name should come to mind before any other. Salman Rushdie, who is best known for writing the book “Midnights Children.” The first two chapters of “Midnights Children” are known as “The Perforated Sheet”. In “The Perforated Sheet” Rushdie utilizes magic realism as a literary device to link significant events and their effects on the lives of Saleem’s family to a changing India. In fact, it is in the beginning of the story that the reader is first exposed to Rushdie’s use of magic realism when being introduced to Saleem. “On the stroke of midnight/clocks joined palms” and “the instant of India’s arrival at independence. I tumbled forth into the world”(1711). Rushdie’s description of the clocks “joining palms” and explanation of India’s newfound independence is meant to make the reader understand the significance of Saleem’s birth. The supernatural action of the clocks joining palms is meant to instill wonder, while independence accentuates the significance of the beginning of a new era. Rushdie also utilizes magic realism as an unnatural narrative several times within the story to show the cultural significance of events that take place in the story in an abnormal way.
In “The Perforated Sheet” Rushdie makes use of magic realism as an unnatural narrative by giving detailed descriptions of Saleem’s grandfather’s life, as if Saleem had lived it himself. The first instance of this is described after Aadam hits his nose while praying only to notice that when his blood hits the air it turns to “rubies.” He also realizes that his tears have turned to “diamonds” and proceeds to wipe them away. It was “at that moment/he resolved never again to kiss earth for any god or man...
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After reading “The Perforated Sheet” readers should be able to understand that in any instance of pre and postcolonial history there will always be three generations involved. The eldest generation will be the unhappiest due to the subjugation of their traditions and culture by the colonizers themselves. The second generation is the middle one, who will have accepted the changes in their way of life. They will have already moved on, but will face more problems with connection to the older generation because of the changes. The third and final generation is the one that finally escapes the restraints of colonialism and pioneers the future of their nation. Rushdie explains this very bluntly in the beginning “with three drops of old, faded redness.”(1712) These drops are a representation of the three generations that shaped India and countless other countries
In this essay, the author
- Analyzes how rushdie uses magic realism to link significant events and their effects on saleem's family to a changing india.
- Analyzes how rushdie uses magic realism as an unnatural narrative to illustrate the significance of culture in a person's life.
- Analyzes how rushdie uses magic realism to illustrate aadam's obsession with the girl beneath sheet as a representation of westerners' curiosity and need for acceptance within foreign cultures.
- Analyzes how rushdie uses magic realism to link significant events and their effects on saleem's family to a changing india.
- Analyzes how rushdie uses magic realism as an unnatural narrative to illustrate the significance of culture in a person's life.
- Analyzes how rushdie uses magic realism to illustrate aadam's obsession with the girl beneath sheet as a representation of westerners' curiosity and need for acceptance within foreign cultures.
- Analyzes how rushdie uses magic realism when describing tai's claims to bridge the gap between pre-colonial and post colonial india.
- Analyzes how rushdie uses supernatural and surreal descriptions of everyday occurrences in "midnights children" to link the lives of the characters to the evolving history of india.
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- Analyzes how chacko elevated himself from the people that worked so hard for him to be able to go to england.
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- Explains that sophie mol is held in the highest regard by chako and chacko's sister. their children, through no fault of their own, find themselves less cherished by their aunt and grandmother.
- Explains how chacko and margaret are divorced, but their child, sophie mol, becomes the pride and joy of the family back in india. rahel and estha know that sophie is superior in every way from them.
- Analyzes how the children in "a suitable boy" are taught prejudice from the moment they met sophie, and their relationship was unbalanced and based on the anglophile tendencies of the kochamma family.
- Opines that the fragmentation of families in the post-colonial experience will only cease when their country and culture is ratified and the shameful mindset of the colonized victim is shed from their minds.
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- Analyzes how saleem questions the validity of traditional history when describing the war of the rann.
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- Analyzes how saleem makes the reader aware that the master narratives of history and media, as well as his own narrative, are lies. he introduces memory as the only basis of truth for the individual.
- Analyzes how rushdie uses false dates and saleem's unreliability with the purpose of demonstrating the ambiguity of history, fact, and truth.
- Analyzes how rushdie questions the need for any purpose in history. saleem's story is the story of realizing that there is no purpose.
- Analyzes how the midnight's children conference illustrates the quest for purpose and the ultimate failure to find one.
- Analyzes how saleem has to realize that their only purpose is their annihilation. their destruction serves as a symbol of the meaninglessness of traditional history.
- Analyzes how rushdie, through his astonishing command of the english language and brilliant use of salem's unreliable narration, questions the validity of traditional history and the misleading relationship between truth and fact.
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- Analyzes how salman rushdie uses magic realism, symbolization and situational irony to comment on class, religion, and the fragility of human life.
- Analyzes how salman rushdie's "the prophet’s hair" uses magic realism to draw readers into the story as he intertwines reality with fantasy, creating a storyline filled with magical elements.
- Analyzes how rushdie cleverly crafts a winding narrative in which everything is not what it seems.
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- Analyzes how sheikh sin's sons are devout believers in the prophet, despite their father’s nonbelief. they earn a high income because of their status as cripples.
- Analyzes how rushdie uses situational irony to emphasize the absurdity of each situation. every twist in the narrative seems just the opposite of what readers expect.
- Analyzes how the word glass symbolizes the fragility of life and humanity in "the prophet's hair."
- Analyzes how rushdie creates a narrative within "the prophet's hair" that twists and turns with every paragraph. he uses situational irony to make readers second guess certain stereotypes surrounding the classic ideas of class and religion.
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- Explains that the orient has been fundamental in defining the west as its contrasting image, idea, personality, experience.
- Analyzes edward said's book orientalism as a specific way of looking to the east.
- Analyzes how salman rushdie, a writer of diasporic consciousness, perceives india and its people as orientalist stereotypes and presents them in derogatory manner.
- Explains that the orient has been fundamental in defining the west as its contrasting image, idea, personality, experience.
- Analyzes edward said's book orientalism as a specific way of looking to the east.
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- Analyzes how midnight's children is a novel of postcolonial india by rushdie. it presents the whole history of 20th century india through the experiences of three generations of the sinai family.
- Narrates how the stethoscope returned him to a hostile environment after years in germany. the hole inside him was clogged up with hate.
- Analyzes how adam aziz resented his native place and was in the grip of eurocentric thoughts after his return from germany. oskar was filled with admiration for vasco de - gama.
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- Analyzes how salman rushdie uses generalized perceptions of india without examining their reasonability.
- Explains that salman rushdie was influenced by the generalizing concept of orientalism. his descriptions of india as an impotent, battle-making nation of forgetters are based on orientalist perceptions of the western world.
- Analyzes how the narrator confesses that the europeans are superior because of the orientalist mindset that projects the west as the civilized, cultured centre of uncivilized, uncultured, barbarous other
- Opines that europe repeats itself, in india, as farce. evie was american.
- Opines that europeans, on the other hand, see indians as primitive, savage, pagan, undeveloped, and criminal who needs to be civilized
- Analyzes how zagallo claimed to be peruvian, and was fond of calling us jungle - indians, bead lovers. he hung a print of stern, sweaty, soldier in pointy tin hat and metal pantaloons above his blackboard.
- Analyzes how the novel portrays the east as a place which only breeds lust and terror. it is presented as it exists in the western mind.
- Explains that the hot climate of the east breeds fantasy, unreason, and lust, while the cold climate in the west naturally, according to writer's perception, produces reality, reason and control.
- Analyzes how salman rushdie gives full freedom to his imagination in describing the fortune teller and his prophecies in midnight's children.
- Explains that the stereotypes of crowd, filth, and beggars are always associated with indian life. salman rushdie doesn't violate this western orientalist tradition.
- Narrates how ahmed sinai bolted the compartment door and shutters to amina's amazement, but suddenly there were thumps outside and hands moving the door knobs and voices saying 'let us in maharaj!
- Explains that the way of seeing one in opposition to the other has taken such deep roots in both eastern and western peoples that any deviation from this is seen as something unusual and even sometimes unnatural.
- Analyzes how a woman looks embarrassmentfully into the face of an impossible whiteman, who says, "give something begum sahiba."
- Analyzes how rushdie uses the names and references of indian political leaders in a derogatory manner to satisfy the western critics of india.
- Analyzes how picture singh revealed that the country's corrupt, 'black' economy had grown as large as the official, white variety by showing them a newspaper photograph of mrs. gandhi.
- Analyzes how l. n. mishra is presented in the novel as the officially appointed minister for bribery through whom the biggest deals in black economy were cleared and who arranged for pay-offs to appropriate ministers and officials.
- Analyzes how salman rushdie presents the derogatory picture of india throughout the novel, preferring the superiority of what is european and inferiority
2085 wordsRead More - Salman Rushdieanalytical essayThere have been very few writers who have been dogged by controversy throughout their careers. Some have been persecuted in less enlightened times such as Mark Twain, and some have been ridiculed by the press like Edgar Allan Poe. Yet, Salman Rushdie was the first author in the free world to have been pursued from across continents and forced into hiding because of a death sentence by a foreign government. To say Salman Rushdie is a very controversial writer in today’s society would be a gross understatement.
In this essay, the author
- Opines that salman rushdie was the first author in the free world to have been pursued from across continents and forced into hiding because of a death sentence by the foreign government.
- Opines that rushdie could be considered the ideal poster boy for absolute freedom of the press.
- Explains that rushdie was born in 1947 to a middle-class moslem family in the great city of bombay, india. his paternal grandfather was an urdu poet, and his father was cambridge educated businessman.
- Opines that salman rushdie was the first author in the free world to have been pursued from across continents and forced into hiding because of a death sentence by the foreign government.
- Opines that rushdie could be considered the ideal poster boy for absolute freedom of the press.
- Explains that rushdie was born in 1947 to a middle-class moslem family in the great city of bombay, india. his paternal grandfather was an urdu poet, and his father was cambridge educated businessman.
- Analyzes how rushdie began his literary career in 1975 with grimus, a fantastical science fiction novel based on the twelfth century sufi poem "the conference of birds". midnight's children won him the booker prize and international fame.
- Analyzes how rushdie's "unflattering" depiction of indira gandhi and her son sanjay sparked controversy in india. shame (1983) centered on a well-to-do pakistani family.
- Analyzes how rushdie released satanic verses in 1989, a book that has brought him more fame than any of his other works combined.
- Explains that the muslim church retaliated by placing a million-dollar bounty on the head of rushdie. this reaction also gave him new podiums to shout from.
703 wordsRead More - Analysis of Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Childrenanalytical essaySalman Rushdie’s novel Midnight’s Children employs strategies which engage in an exploration of History, Nationalism and Hybridity. This essay will examine three passages from the novel which demonstrate these issues. Furthermore, it will explore why each passage is a good demonstration of these issues, how these issues apply to India in the novel, and how the novel critiques these concepts.
In this essay, the author
- Analyzes how salman rushdie's novel midnight’s children employs strategies which engage in an exploration of history, nationalism and hybridity.
- Analyzes how rushdie challenges the conventional modes of history through his self reflective narrative structure. saleem writes "please believe that i am falling apart", illustrating a sense of fragmentation of his story.
- Analyzes how rushdie's 'fictionality' of history is grounded in the simple assumption that life is shaped like a story.
- Analyzes how salman rushdie's novel midnight’s children employs strategies which engage in an exploration of history, nationalism and hybridity.
- Analyzes how rushdie challenges the conventional modes of history through his self reflective narrative structure. saleem writes "please believe that i am falling apart", illustrating a sense of fragmentation of his story.
- Analyzes how rushdie's 'fictionality' of history is grounded in the simple assumption that life is shaped like a story.
- Analyzes how rushdie uses unreliable events to subvert official notions of history. saleem sinai provides an alternative version of india's modern history from his point of view.
- Analyzes how the passage detailing methwold's estate illustrates the issue of nationalism and the transfer of national assets to the elites.
- Analyzes how saleem describes an india that is "changing them", adapting to "celebrating the cocktail hour" and "indulging in their gardens". rushdie comments on the authenticity of this desire to create a unified state.
- Analyzes how the novel critiques concepts of nationalism by challenging the legacy of the empire.
- Analyzes how rushdie critiques the concept of ‘print capitalism’, where printed matter tries to unify a group of people through the language.
- Analyzes how saleem relates hybridity to history by entailing the hetreogeneity of memory. his memory provides a search for the truth rather than many truths.
- Analyzes how saleem links his hybrid history to ‘chutney’ which illustrates the sign of a mixed identity. rushdie tackles issues of post-colonial studies of history, nationalism, and hybridity.
1061 wordsRead More - Midnight's Children Postmodernismanalytical essayRushdie’s Midnight’s Children, published in 1980, was perhaps the seminal text in conceiving opinions as to interplay of post-modern and post-colonial theory. The title of the novel refers to the birth of Saleem Sinai, the novel’s principal narrator, who is born at midnight August 15th 1947, the precise date of Indian independence. From this remarkable coincidence we are immediately drawn to the conclusion that the novel’s concerns are of the new India, and how someone born into this new state of the ‘Midnight’s child’, if you will, interacts with this post-colonial state. To characterise the novel as one merely concerned with post-colonial India, and its various machinations, is however a reductive practice. While the novel does at various times deal with what it is to be Indian, both pre and post 1947, it is a much more layered and interesting piece of work. Midnight’s Children’s popularity is such that it was to be voted 25th in a poll conducted by the Guardian, listing the 100 best books of the last century, and was also to receive the Booker Prize in 1981 and the coveted ‘Booker of Bookers’ in 1993. http://www.bookerprize.co.uk/
In this essay, the author
- Analyzes how rushdie's midnight’s children, published in 1980, was perhaps the seminal text in conceiving opinions as to interplay of post-modern and postcolonial theory.
- Explains why midnight's children is more of interest to the reader interested in post-colonialism due to its strong elements of magic realism, a literary device that goes hand in hand with postmodernism.
- Explains that marquez was an undoubted influence on rushdie's work and midnight’s children, which was to adopt many of the surrealist ‘flights of fancy’ which characterised one hundred years of solitude.
- Analyzes how rushdie's midnight’s children, published in 1980, was perhaps the seminal text in conceiving opinions as to interplay of post-modern and postcolonial theory.
- Explains why midnight's children is more of interest to the reader interested in post-colonialism due to its strong elements of magic realism, a literary device that goes hand in hand with postmodernism.
- Explains that marquez was an undoubted influence on rushdie's work and midnight’s children, which was to adopt many of the surrealist ‘flights of fancy’ which characterised one hundred years of solitude.
- Argues that post-colonialism is politically ambivalent, but the practice of magic realism challenges conventionally accepted distinctions of genre and its questioning of reality.
- Opines that modernist art is often characterised by its depressive qualities, but post-modernism is synonymous with whimsicality and there is an undoubted element of this whimsy in these paintings.
- Analyzes how the self-referentiality in midnight's children is characteristically post-modern. the narrator, saleem sinai,'steps out of the work' to communicate with the reader.
- Analyzes how rushdie abandons linear narrative in midnight's children and merges fact with fantastic. seleem encounters the very real events of nehru’s first five-year plan in 1956, the indo pakistan war of 1965, and the conviction of indira gandhi in 1975.
- Opines that a writer can say, "here's the way in which your supposed to look at the world, but actually there are other ways."
990 wordsRead More