Near the beginning of chapter twelve, Kathy talks about the “possibles” each of the people living in the cottages were copied from. She notes that her and the others would look for evidence of their models because they wanted to see where they came from. They wanted to see a glimpse into their future based on what their model did in life. This struck me as odd that they would think about their futures that way, because early in the novel Miss Lucy told the children at Hailsham that their lives were already mapped out for them, and that they knew their place in life was to be donors and carers. This was when Kathy was much younger than she is when she is at the cottages, so for them to still be fantasizing about their futures based on their models seems strange. 

Throughout the first few chapters, Kathy consistently returns to thoughts of her time at Hailsham. Even when talking about things closer to her present she finds herself veering back to Hailsham. She even notes on page five that, “There have been times over the years when I’ve tried to leave Hailsham behind, when I’ve told myself I shouldn’t look back so much. But then there cam a point where I just stopped resisting.” It’s interesting to think that at one point she wanted to stop thinking about Hailsham. She wanted to move on, but thoughts of Hailsham wore her down and broke her. For her to “stop resisting” shows that Hailsham has a powerful and possibly permanent hold on Kathy at this point. 

Throughout chapter 35 and 36, Grace recollects her version of events from the night of the murders. I do feel extremely sorry for Grace and the position she has found herself in, and it does seem pretty likely McDermott had a heavy hand in how the murders took place. But the way Grace tells the story to Simon makes it seem like she was completely innocent of the whole affair. There are so many instances where she admits she wanted Nancy dead, but then follows it up with, “but not at that moment.” She paints the entire murder as if she is completely helpless to do anything about it, citing her fear of McDermott. Every time she is faced with a question that indicates her involvement with the murder, she claims she couldn’t remember that particular instance. This is particularly egregious when Simon brings up Jamie’s recount of the day of the murder. He notes that Grace was fine and dandy when he happened upon her. She was better dressed than usual, and all Grace could come up with is “I cannot account for it, Sir.” (p.320) It feels like she is playing the victim to Simon.

There seem to be plenty of instances in Alias Grace where men are extremely dismissive of women. One of the more obvious instances is when Simon talks to Reverend Verringer about Mrs. Moodie. Simon has read her work on Grace and seems genuinely interested in getting more information from her to further study discrepancies in her article. It’s when he asks Verringer his opinion on how he should meet with her that some pretty slimy things are thrown around. Verringer immediately dismissed Mrs. Moodie’s work as mimicry. He notes on page 190 that “Mrs. Moodie is subject to influences,” which seems completely dismissive of her work. He then mocks her poem “The Maniac” by stating “Her poem contains all the requirements – a cliff, a moon, a raging sea, a betrayed maiden chanting a wild melody,” and so on. He does this all to show that Mrs. Moodie’s work copies other writers. It seems that even Reverend Verringer is dismissive of women, especially those who tired to dabble in things usually reserved to men during the time period.   

In chapter two, the murder of Thomas Kinnear and Nancy is shown through a poem. I thought this very interesting, because it feels like something children might recite to their friends, similar to something like the nursery rhyme Solomon Grundy. This poem has some seriously disturbing content in it, like Nancy being stuck in the head with an axe and then thrown down the stairs. Despite the horrifying imagery displayed in this poem, it censors the word hell. In the latter half of the poem, there is a stanza that states, “He forced me  to accompany him, He said if I did tell, That with one shot of his trusty gun ,He’d send me straight to H__l.” I am assuming that this censoring of hell is in all copies of the novel, and thus I am curious why hell would be censored in a poem that already features an abundance of disturbing content. Perhaps, despite describing a murder, using the word hell is still seen as too taboo during the middle 1800’s?   

I saw some posts about Saleem’s status as an unreliable narrator and I think Saleem comes off as such an unreliable narrator because the style in which his story is written seems like stream of consciousness. He is all over the place when he recounts events in his life, and often times makes mistakes when recounting dates and such. He jumps around so many times between different thoughts, sometimes even getting side tracked by things going on in the background such as Padma’s interjections. His stream of conscious style of story telling, mixed with his tendency to be an unreliable narrator makes his makes his version of India feel unique to him.

Something I noticed while reading through Midnight’s Children was Saleem’s seeming obsession with making himself the center of everything. There is even an instance in the chapter “All-India Radio” where Saleem is remarking on the fact that he had Ghandi’s assassination on the wrong date. During this error in memory, he states “Am I so far gone, in my desperate need for meaning, that I’m prepared to distort everything – to re-write the whole history of my times purely in order to place myself in a central role?” It absolutely seems like Saleem is willing to place himself in the center of everything in his history. There are multiple times where he claims he was to blame for both good and bad things happening around him. Things where his father has a successful business venture, or his mother wins money gambling, Saleem claims responsibility for these actions. He even places himself at the center of the fight between The Monkey and Evie, claiming they clearly fought over him. It seems Saleem just can’t help but force himself upon people, whether it be within his story telling of events, or his invading of their minds through telepathy.

I think they way Rushdie chooses to look at his homeland when writing about it is super interesting. He notes that in facing his problem of recapturing his image of India, he realized that his image of India was in fact his. It is unique to him. His version of India would be different from the million other possible India’s, and because he moved away from his homeland, he was faced with the fact that his view of India is fragmented. Lower down the page he states that “The broken mirror may actually be as valuable as the one which is supposedly unflawed.” He notes that because his memories of India are so fragmented, it makes what he can remember seem like symbols, despite how mundane they may seem.

Both “The Demon Lover” and “The Happy Autumn Fields” seem to deal with a haunting through a past figure. “The Demon Lover” is through Mrs. Drover receiving the mysterious letter upon which causes her to remember her deceased husband. This ghost of the past haunts her as she worries about the letters intent and origins. Mary struggles with a similar ghost from the past in “The Happy Autumn Fields.” The picture of Henrietta and Sarah seems to put her in a dream like state upon which she is able to feel Sarah’s fear of loneliness. She is haunted from something from a perceived past, much like Mrs. Drover is haunted by an actual past. 

There are two instances early on in the novel where we see two different perspectives on the conflicting cultural differences between India and England. The vast differences between cultures cause a noticeable tension between the “natives” of India and the “conquering” English transplants. The majority of chapter II is a discussion among Hamidullah, Mahmoud Ali, and Dr. Aziz. These men discuss Englishwomen and their deceiving nature, notably Mrs. Turton. They note she turns the red-nosed boy against them, encouraging him to belittle them. This leads the the comment that “The English take and do nothing. I admire them.” From an Indian perspective, they seem to view the English as manipulators. 

Later on in chapter III, in a conversation between Mrs. Moore, Mrs. Callendar and Miss Quested, Mrs. Callendar views the natives as lesser peoples. She even states that “Why, the kindest thing one can do to a native is to let him die.” Later on in this same chapter, Mrs. Moore’s own son scolds her for interacting with a “native,” only to find himself relived to learn it was Dr. Aziz. He was very troubled his mother was interacting with someone he viewed as baser to his countrymen. I think both of these chapters make it clear that both Englishmen and Indians don’t view each other in high regard during a time of high tension within the country.