Childhood in the World of Fantasy: Interrogation of Juvenile Ageism in Salman Rushdie’s Luka and the Fire of Life

Representation of childhood in fantasy fiction is an area of great critical interest. Children who occupy the social spaces in a fantasy fiction are often expected to be of great intelligence and maturity, forcing them to assume the role of an adult. However, children are also considered as tropes in advertising and fantasy novels as they are believed to be more imaginative and hence adept to this world that is built upon counter logic. Childhood depicted in such novels calls for adventure, courage, decision making and even taking big responsibilities. This paper is an attempt to examine Salman Rushdie’s fantasy narrative Luka and the Fire of Life to show how Rushdie depicts Luka’s childhood in the backdrop of magic and witchcraft. Luka has to take responsibility of his father against the effects of a spell and has to negotiate an adventurous journey to revive his father. This paper analyses the language and Luka’s actions and experiences of Luka to show how he has to occupy the worlds of childhood and adulthood in order to thrive. Rushdie’s attempts to make Luka a character beyond the ageist perspective is also commented upon with this paper. The convention of looking at a child as a dependent subject is ruptured by the author with a role reversal for Luka thereby endowing him responsibilities beyond his age.