Theme

     While reading this first section of Midnight’s Children, I noticed a certain reoccurring symbol in the text and the theme of major historical events connecting in the family’s lives. When Aadam had to examine Naseem’s body because of her illnesses, he had to do so through a perforated sheet. He slowly began to fall in love with her by seeing just glimpses of her, then when she complained of a headache, he was finally able to see her face which coincided with the day the World War ended. The perforated sheet symbol comes back again when Amina, who is in an unhappy marriage, attempts to fall in love with her husband by viewing just fragments of him. This seemed like a reversed version of what happened with Aadam and Naseem because they fell in love by viewing just glimpses of each other, then they found that they were unhappy with their marriage while Amina and Ahmed were unhappy together to begin with, so she had to fall in love with him in pieces “…to do this she divided him, mentally, into every single one of his component parts, physical as well as behavioral…” (p. 73). Amina attempted to fall in love with him by viewing just fragments of his personality instead of loving the entirety of him.