Blog Post #1: Haroun and the Sea of Stories By: Salman Rushdie

My first time reading Haroun and the Sea of Stories, I was pleasantly surprised. Based on the cover and the title, I was expecting the plot to be similar to a children’s story. Although it was somewhat similar to a children’s story, it has a deeper and more mature message that makes the book more enjoyable for teenagers and adults. The story had so many hidden messages and symbols that I didn’t notice the first time through, but I know now. I found the characters names a little strange at first, like Oneeta Sengupta and Snooty Buttoo, but the names made more sense as I kept reading.

My group is reading the story through the lens of satire, which is the use of irony or sarcasm to often criticize a current issue. After reading the first four chapters, we noticed satire being used in references to politics. On page 20, Rushdie mocked politicians by saying, “Nobody ever believed anything a politico said, even though they pretended as hard as they could they were telling the truth.” Rashid Khalifa, a storyteller, was hired to tell stories at rallies because his stories created an automatic win for that particular party. Through the use of satire, Rushdie incorporated his own view of politicians into his novel, by calling politicians liars.

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Today’s discussion gave me a new perspective of the novel. I learned that many of the names that Rushdie gave to places and characters, have hidden meanings, like the second moon, Kahani, which means story. These hidden meanings really intrigue me, because not many authors put that much thought into the names of their characters. It also made me think about the fact that this book could be a children’s book, because of the basic storyline of a hero’s journey, or it could be an adult book, because of all of the mature themes and references. It all depends on how deep you dig into the book. The discussion also made me realize how skilled of a writer Rushdie was, and how much thought he put into his work. He incorporated his own views on certain topics, carefully chose names, and included many themes and messages, in just the first four chapters alone.

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