Michael - 2/16 - Naipaul

Many factual errors and claims giving rise to questioning are made my saleem as narrator throughtout the novel. He speaks as if telling a story to a dinner party or a close friend eager to understnd his feelings towards his existence in unison with india. For instance he misplaces Gandhi’s death, an obviously monumentall moment in India’s history, as well as willfully misremembers the date of an election. He frets over the accuracy of his story and worries about future errors he might make. Yet, at the same time, after acknowledging his misrepresentation , Saleem decides to maintain his version of events, since that’s how they appeared to occur to him and now there can be no going back. Despite its potential historical inaccuracies, Saleem sees his story as being of equal importance as the world’s most important religious texts. for example he explainsns how this is not only his story but the story if india entirely. the relation between mythical txts i feel lies in the choice to belive them not based upon fact in the same way saleem believes his own story.