8/3/2019 Paper Clip Discussion Sheet

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Paper Clip Discussion Sheet

Death of Gandhi [from pages 162-3]

His voice brokea sob from the Serpent, to lend power to its teeth!and then

continued. This afternoon, at Birla House in Delhi, our beloved Mahatma was killed.

Some madman shot him in the stomach, ladies and gentlemenour Bapu is gone!

The audience had begun to scream before he finished; the poison of his words

entered their veinsthere were grown men rolling in the aisles clutching their bellies,

not laughing but crying, Hai Ram! Hai Ram!and women tearing their hair: the citys

finest coiffures tumbling around the ears of the poisoned ladiesthere were film-stars

yelling like fishwives and something terrible to smell in the airand Hanif whispered,

Get out of here, big sisterif a Muslim did this thing there will be hell to pay.

For every ladder, there is a snakeand for forty-eight hours after the abortive

end of The Lovers of Kashmir; our family remained within the walls of Buckingham Villa

(Put furniture against the doors, whatsitsname! Reverend Mother ordered. If there are

Hindu servants, let them go home!); and Amina did not dare to visit the racetrack.

But for every snake, there is a ladder; and finally the radio gave us a name.

Nathuram Godse. Thank God, Amina burst out, its not a Muslim name!

And Aadam, upon whom the news of Gandhis death had placed a new burden of

age: This Godse is nothing to be grateful for!

Amina, however, was full of light-headedness of relief, she was rushing dizzily up

the long ladder of reliefWhy not, after all? By being Godse he has saved our lives!

Deep Thinking Questions

1) What is the significance to the plot that Gandhis death occurs here?2) What does the motif of snakes do here?

Saleems Reflection on the Death of Gandhi [from pages 189-90]

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Rereading my work, I have discovered an error in chronology. The assassination

of Mahatma Gandhi occurs, in these pages, on the wrong date. But I cannot say, now,

what the actual sequence of events might have been; in my India, Gandhi will continue

to die at the wrong time.

Does one error invalidate the entire fabric? Am I so far gone, in my desperate

need for meaning, that Im prepared to distort everythingto re-write the whole history

of my times purely in order to place myself in a central role? Today, in my confusion, I

cant judge. Ill have to leave it to others. For me, there can be no going back; I must

finish what Ive started, even if, inevitably, what I finish turns out not to be what I

began...

Deep Thinking Questions

1) Adding what you now know about the death of Gandhi to what you previouslydiscussed, what does this do to our understanding of the plot? What might have

happened had Saleem gotten it right?

2) What does it say about Saleem that he is unwilling to change his story in the faceof fact?

3) Look at the last paragraph: Saleem asks a question of us. He asks us, Does oneerror invalidate the entire fabric? Answer this question. What do you think of

Saleem at this point? Is he reliable? Is his need to be at the center of everything

because he is recording what happened, or is he re-creating what happened so

he can be at the center of everything?