Haroun and the Sea of Stories Essay Example

Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie uses the text containing stories that aren’t true as masks and allegories of stories that are true involving symbolic people, places or ideas that exist in the author’s life and provide a manner of communication for Rushdie to publicize his opinions about his standpoint on cultural identity and experiences of hiding in secrecy just for writing a book encompassing his views leading to the conflict between censorship and the freedom of speech. The general idea of sharing an opinion about a global issue through fiction has appeared in a variety of novels. Throughout Rushdie’s novel, he uses names that allude to a reference for readers to compare and contrast the person or place to. For instance, Rashid, the protagonist’s father, is being compared to Rushdie himself. When Rushdie wrote the Satanic Verses he, like Rashid was “as stuffed with cheery stories as the sea was full of glumfish” (15), but to the Ayatollah, “his rivals, he was the Shah of Blah.” (15) Khattam-Shud is quite openly associated with Khomeini, the same man who issued Rushdie the fatwa destining him to a completely silent life just like Khattam-Shud does to his citizens in the land of Chup. The Sea of Stories itself is a symbol of free speech and the great effects of cultural identity. In the land of Chup, where the Sea of Stories is being polluted and wasted, there is no happiness, but in the land of Gup, there is a sense of nationalism which allows the citizens to work together and consequently overthrow Khattam-Shud. When the source is found, “Haroun watched, the glowing flow of pure, unpolluted stories came bubbling up from the very heart of the Kshsni. There were so many Streams of story, of so many different colours, all pouring out of the Source at once, that it looked like a huge underwater fountain of shining white light.” (167) The description displays Rushdie’s vision of a perfect society or a Utopia where people with unique identities come