In my Carribean Literature class, we learned about the concepts of roots and rhizomes (Glissant) and their presence in postcolonial texts. He states: “In the course of this journey, identity… consolidates itself implicitly at first (‘my root is the strongest’) and then is explicitly exported as a value (‘a person’s worth is determined by his root’). The conquered or visited peoples are thus forced into a long and painful quest after an identity…” What I find so interesting about Midnight’s Children are the many ways in which Saleem parallels himself to India. In The Kolynos Kid, Saleem says, “I was linked to history both literally and metaphorically, both actively and passively…” (272). Saleem never chooses to prove the worth of his root through outward expansion or selling aspects of India as cultural capital, rather his root functions as a self-identifier. It is in this way that Saleem is able to feel that his very being embodies the whole of India.