Pointless Toil - Literature Essay Samples

Though Salman RushdieÃÆ' ¢Ãƒâ€šÃ‚€Ã‚™s MidnightÃÆ' ¢Ãƒâ€šÃ‚€Ã‚™s Children if full of comic details and humorous anecdotes of Saleem SinaiÃÆ' ¢Ãƒâ€šÃ‚€Ã‚™s family history, the overall tone of the novel is in sharp contrast. Destruction and deception pervade much of the novel, and in the end, even when Saleem is getting married, he still sees his future as a journey to obliteration. Though it seems that SaleemÃÆ' ¢Ãƒâ€šÃ‚€Ã‚™s destruction is necessary to allow Aadam Sinai, who seems even more determined and powerful than the previous generation of midnightÃÆ' ¢Ãƒâ€šÃ‚€Ã‚™s children, to continue the life of his parents and country, Rushdie implies that the future offers no hope for Aadam. Despite AadamÃÆ' ¢Ãƒâ€šÃ‚€Ã‚™s position as the new child of midnight, his family has been condemned to a life of repetition, and thus he will only experience another cycle of annihilation.SaleemÃÆ' ¢Ãƒâ€šÃ‚€Ã‚™s fam ily history is plagued by the curse of repetition. From the spell of the perforated sheet to the name changes to the switching of babies, each generation seems merely an echo of the one past. Throughout the novel, Saleem emphasizes the theme of repetition, saying that ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒâ€šÃ‚€Ã‚ÂÅ"there was no escape from recurrenceÃÆ' ¢Ãƒâ€šÃ‚€? (326) and that his own life is a ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒâ€šÃ‚€Ã‚ÂÅ"repetitive cycle of my historyÃÆ' ¢Ãƒâ€šÃ‚€? (477). Though not directly related to Saleem, Aadam Sinai is the biological grandchild of Naseem and Aadam Aziz, and is convoluted into the history of SaleemÃÆ' ¢Ãƒâ€šÃ‚€Ã‚™s life by his association with Shiva. Thus this trend of repetition will also pass on to Aadam. Saleem says, ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒâ€šÃ‚€Ã‚ÂÅ"as my time of connection nears its end, his beganÃÆ' ¢Ãƒâ€šÃ‚€?, indicating AadamÃÆ' ¢Ãƒâ€šÃ‚€Ã‚™s fate to carry out the same role as Saleem (477).The events Aadam are to repeat present the mos t melancholic aspects of AadamÃÆ' ¢Ãƒâ€šÃ‚€Ã‚™s future. Saleem SinaiÃÆ' ¢Ãƒâ€šÃ‚€Ã‚™s life has, with few exceptions, been a downward path. As midnightÃÆ' ¢Ãƒâ€šÃ‚€Ã‚™s child, he was the embodiment of hope for India and her people, the ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒâ€šÃ‚€Ã‚ÂÅ"happy Child of that glorious HourÃÆ' ¢Ãƒâ€šÃ‚€? (133). However, his maturation is entangled in a string of shattered hopes. First, his desire to conduct a united midnightÃÆ' ¢Ãƒâ€šÃ‚€Ã‚™s childrenÃÆ' ¢Ãƒâ€šÃ‚€Ã‚™s conference was made impossible by the vastly different ideologies of the children. Then his love for Jamila Singer was sternly rejected, and to top it off, he is sent to fight for Pakistan. His dreams of saving India are again destroyed by his poverty, and finally, even his hope, which gave his life purpose, was drained out of him by the castration. Similarly, Aadam is the embodiment of hope, being the child of midnightÃÆ' ¢Ãƒâ€šÃ‚€Ã‚Â⠄¢s children as well as a child of the time emergency, Aadam should have even more potent powers. This, coupled with his tenacious will, which was so ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒâ€šÃ‚€Ã‚ÂÅ"steelyÃÆ' ¢Ãƒâ€šÃ‚€? that he would ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒâ€šÃ‚€Ã‚ÂÅ"surely refuse to be defeated by any mere diseaseÃÆ' ¢Ãƒâ€šÃ‚€? (487), indicates that he has the potential for even greater gifts. However, doomed to the curse of repetition, Aadam will simply live to see his hopes and power be crushed, just as his father did.Not only will AadamÃÆ' ¢Ãƒâ€šÃ‚€Ã‚™s life be marked by disappointment, the fate of India seems to also be one full of bloodshed. From the massacre of 1915 to the Chinese invasion to the Indo-Pakistani war to Indira GhandiÃÆ' ¢Ãƒâ€šÃ‚€Ã‚™s emergency rule, Indian history has been nothing but turmoil and war. Saleem states that his own life is ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒâ€šÃ‚€Ã‚ÂÅ"handcuffed to historyÃÆ' ¢Ãƒâ€šÃ‚€?, demonstrating that his association with the histor y of India is not a glorious gift, but rather an imprisonment. For Aadam Sinai to live in the same environment, and partake the same role of prisoner as his father, is not an uplifting image.The midnightÃÆ' ¢Ãƒâ€šÃ‚€Ã‚™s children are the embodiment of hope for India. Through their magical powers and their sacred bond with each other, they have all the potential to make differences, to be ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒâ€šÃ‚€Ã‚ÂÅ"the force which drives between the horns of the dilemmaÃÆ' ¢Ãƒâ€šÃ‚€? and ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒâ€šÃ‚€Ã‚ÂÅ"fulfill the promise of their birthÃÆ' ¢Ãƒâ€šÃ‚€? (292). Though Saleem tries to direct this power to save India, he concludes, ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒâ€šÃ‚€Ã‚ÂÅ"the purpose of the five hundred and eighty-one lay in their destruction; that they had come, in order to come to nothingÃÆ' ¢Ãƒâ€šÃ‚€? (348). Even the most elite group is powerless to make any progress because ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒâ€šÃ‚€Ã‚ÂÅ"prejudices and world-view of adults began to take over th eir mindsÃÆ' ¢Ãƒâ€šÃ‚€?, thus they are forever bound to think the same way as their parents, with few ideas of change or advancement (292). It would naturally follow that even though Aadam has magical powers, they will be of no use as well.Saleem asks the question of whether thereÃÆ' ¢Ãƒâ€šÃ‚€Ã‚™s any point to action if everything is planned in advance, whether one should just ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒâ€šÃ‚€Ã‚ÂÅ"give up right here and now, understanding the futility of thought, decision, action, since nothing we think makes any difference anyway; things will be as they willÃÆ' ¢Ãƒâ€šÃ‚€? (86). According to him, his life is an exact fulfillment of RavanaÃÆ' ¢Ãƒâ€šÃ‚€Ã‚™s prophesies, who ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒâ€šÃ‚€Ã‚ÂÅ" got nothing wrongÃÆ' ¢Ãƒâ€šÃ‚€? (97). SaleemÃÆ' ¢Ãƒâ€šÃ‚€Ã‚™s life is planned and seen in advance, and none of his efforts bring about any results. Thus he indicates that the answer should be simply to give up, to surrender to t he pointlessness of life. AadamÃÆ' ¢Ãƒâ€šÃ‚€Ã‚™s life is also prophesized by his father to be an exact repetition of his own, thus implying that any effort on AadamÃÆ' ¢Ãƒâ€šÃ‚€Ã‚™s part to escape his imprisonment in the repetitive history will be futile as well.What is most surprising about this novel is that romantic love always fails to provide any hope. His love of Jamila Singer only results in his rejection and imprisonment in the military. In the end, his love for Padma also fails to give him any anticipation for the future. He states that ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒâ€šÃ‚€Ã‚ÂÅ"I will be separated from Padma, my dung-lotus extending an arm towards me across the turbulent sea, until she drowns in the crowd and I am alone in the vastness of the numbersI am being buffeted right and left while rip tear crunch reaches its climax, and my body is screamingÃÆ' ¢Ãƒâ€šÃ‚€? (532). Saleem sees love, the most powerful and uniting force of all, as another inevitable f ailure. His initial idealism and hopes of unity among all of India has disintegrated slowly as he lives and experiences life outside the overprotected world of the Methwold Estate. Doomed to repeat the past, Aadam will befall the same fate, where his initial determination will disintegrate with time and living. In the end, not even love, the most basic and powerful of human emotions, will be able to save him.Throughout the novel, Saleem refers to optimism as a disease. Regarding his goal of a united midnightÃÆ' ¢Ãƒâ€šÃ‚€Ã‚™s childrenÃÆ' ¢Ãƒâ€šÃ‚€Ã‚™s conference, he states that this idealism arose from the ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒâ€šÃ‚€Ã‚ÂÅ"optimism of youth ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒâ€šÃ‚€ which is a more virulent form of the diseaseÃÆ' ¢Ãƒâ€šÃ‚€? (262). Perhaps SaleemÃÆ' ¢Ãƒâ€šÃ‚€Ã‚™s bleak outlook arises from his recognition of the blinding nature of optimism. During the optimism disease, Mian AbudullahÃÆ' ¢Ãƒâ€šÃ‚€Ã‚™s downfall is attributed t o his ignorance of his enemies. ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒâ€šÃ‚€Ã‚ÂÅ"And so it was that none of the HummingbirdÃÆ' ¢Ãƒâ€šÃ‚€Ã‚™s optimists were prepared for what happened. They played hit-the-spittoon, and ignored the cracks in the earthÃÆ' ¢Ãƒâ€šÃ‚€? (47). After so many failures, Saleem finally realizes the fallacy of optimism. ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒâ€šÃ‚€Ã‚ÂÅ"It was the end; Saleem gave way to his grief. All my life, I have tried to keep my sorrows under lock and keybut no moreÃÆ' ¢Ãƒâ€šÃ‚€? (499).After experiencing so much defeat and disappointment, Saleem has come to realize that life is pointless, and dreams can never be achieved. He states that life is an ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒâ€šÃ‚€Ã‚ÂÅ"endless dualityÃÆ' ¢Ãƒâ€šÃ‚€?, an inescapable cycle of snakes and ladders, ups and downs that will not alter despite the greatest of efforts. In the end, he concludes that even though his son Aadam, a child of both magical times and magical children, represents a new chapter in his tory, he will, none the less, be ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒâ€šÃ‚€Ã‚ÂÅ"trampledÃÆ' ¢Ãƒâ€šÃ‚€? by history just as he has been, just as the next 1001 generations will be (533). Perhaps SaleemÃÆ' ¢Ãƒâ€šÃ‚€Ã‚™s need for centrality and his willingness to bend history to fit his life arises out of a desire for some form of purpose. He recognizes his failure to fulfill his duty as the savior of India, and thus asserts himself as the key to Indian history in hopes of finding some other connection to his mother nation.