Reading Response #8

Due Friday, April 4, 2003

Instructions

Choose one question and construct a 3-page essay based on that question. You do not need to answer every one of the questions under each number. Rather, use the questions to springboard your own thinking to create an argument about the novel and the specific passages or ideas.

Remember: an argument should be arguable, meaning that people should disagree with you. In an essay this small, you should state a very clear thesis near the beginning of your essay. Then you should back up your thesis with evidence from the text. Do not merely quote from the text but explain what the passages say and mean. Try to go beyond mere summary to really argue an important point about the text.

You do not need to include the question in your essay. Your thesis and evidence should be enough for me to know what question you are dealing with. Begin with your own introduction that leads into your thesis.

Questions

1. In “My Tenth Birthday,” Saleem Sinai explains the “Midnight’s Children” group and his own telepathic powers. Must his story be true? How else can we read it? Does Sinai protest too much? What clues do we have that the story is “true” or “false”?

2. How can we read the Midnight’s Children Convocation as a metaphor or allegory of the way a government should or should not be run?

3. How does the chapter title “Alpha and Omega” work? Why does Saleem Sinai use this title and not the other titles he mentions in the chapter?