Memory and Places: Moving through Different Pathways in Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children

Memory and Places: Moving through Different Pathways in Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children

With a definition of space as the physical location itself and place as a way in which space is socially, culturally, politically, and historically organized, this paper examines how, in Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children, the space of the Subcontinent aligned to the different places of India, West Pakistan, and East Pakistan.Thepaper further discussesSaleem’s journey, beginning from Kashmir and moving through India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and ending again in India. Saleem, upon his return to Bombay, realizes that the Bombay of his memory (place) does not align with the space of Bombay, which implies the multi-placeness of the city. Finally, the essay turns to how Saleem makes his own version of Bombay. By relying on his acknowledged inaccurate memory, Saleem enjoys wandering through the maze-like pathways that result from his imagination, allowing us as the audience to understand that there is really nothing beyond place—that space itself disappears.