The role of the narrator is perhaps best understood with reference to the Structuralist model of the reader/narrator relationship. Although it doesn't by any means grasp all the complexities of the relationship - the following diagram is a useful starting point:

----> ------------------------------------- Actual- Implied- Narrator-/-Narratee- Implied- Actual Author Author Reader Reader -------------------------------------

• The Actual Author is this case is the living, breathing Salman Rushdie.
• The Implied Author is the persona that Rushdie projects of himself into his work. This cannot be said to be the 'real' Rushdie any more than a few sheets of paper with writing on them can be said to be a human being.
• The Narrator in Midnight's Children is predominantly Saleem Sinai because it is he who "tells the story". Characters such as Padma do have an important impact on the narration however.
• The Narratee is the person that the narrator is "speaking to". So it could be Padma or it could be whatever fictional character is going to read his scribblings.
• The Implied Reader is in some ways a mirror concept of the Implied Narrator. It is the supposed person who will read this book. Keith Wilson writes in Fletcher, D.M.(ed.):

The Implied Reader, then, is a kind of 'ideal' reader whom the book is written for. Something quite different from the Actual Reader who may not possess all the assumed knowledge in the book.
• The Actual Reader is you or me - the human beings etc. who are reading the book (and as such, like the Actual Author, we are outside the textual level of the narrative).

Midnight's Children is in many ways a story about the reader/ critic/ narrator/ author/ art / world relationships. Have a look at the Post- & Meta- etc. section to find out more about the relationships that the text has to its contexts.