Punishment and Atonement
Distributed via several passages, in Rushdie's novel Midnight's Children, there are several examples of the relationship between punishment and atonement, action and reaction.
There are the naive and disciplined examples of Amina's power to forbid her children from speaking, a common punishment for their misdeeds, for she cannot bring herself to raise her hands on them. The example of the wash closet, Saleem's coincidental witnessing of his mother's nudity and still intact vulnerability towards Nadir resulted in a days worth of silence. Later, the Brass Monkey awakes the next morning, eagerly urging her mother to retract the punishment, for Saleem has been good, he has not spoken since the sentence. Once allowed to speak; however, Saleem addresses the family with the news of his interaction with the archangels, leading to a powerful strike to his ears, partially deafening him. Along with Saleem's punishments, the Brass Monkey, the family's original malicious child, reputed for her shoe burning habits and fierce actions, has faced these punishments at a multiple rate.
Elevated, in a graver manner, there are the sins of the adults, and their punishments. One of the most striking and burdensome punishment is that of Mary Periera, who has been concealing her crime from the entire society: the exchanging of babies. With this act, Mary Periera inherited a sense of guilt, so prominent, that the apparitions of Joseph D'Costa reestablished several times, leaving Mary bewildered, paranoid, sleep deprived, but incapable of admitting her crime, severely heightening her already intense sense of guilt.
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