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Importance of stories in haroun and the sea of stories
Importance of stories in haroun and the sea of stories
Importance of stories in haroun and the sea of stories
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In Salman Rushdie's 5th novel, Haroun and the Sea of Stories, the main character named Haroun questioned his father, “What's the use of stories that aren't even true?” In this Essay I will show you why I believe Rushdie does successfully answer this question; It is all in these three points. Stories bring joy to people, stories can deliver wisdom, lastly, stories bring new ideas together to make even better ideas. This essay is how Rushdie indirectly answers the central conflict of a book. Rashid loves what he does, he goes around to sad cities, with sad people, and sad landscapes to tell stories that bring joy and a sense of redemption for an hour or two. Although it may not seem like a lot for Rashid, it is well known to the public, “that if you could get Rashid’s magic tongue on your side then your troubles were over. (20)” I believe this means if you were lucky enough to hear Rashid's wonderful words, you could be blessed with happiness for a while. This itself justifies the reason to have …show more content…
stories that are not even true. If something can bring joy to utter depression, what more can anything or anybody do. People in the Sea of Stories are practically in love with Rashid.
They adore the stories he tells and ends up believing them or at least tries to believe everything and anything he says, “everyone had complete faith in Rashid. (19)” Because of this, some political figure try to bribe Rashid to support them in his stories, “The politicos needed Rashid to help them win the people’s votes. They lined up outside his door with their shiny faces and fake smiles and bags of hard cash. (20)” Now you may wonder why this makes stories useful. To be honest, this exact situation really does not prove much. Although it does prove one thing; that people will take advice from Rashid. If Rashid sneaks some truly amazing advice into his made up stories, he could potentially protect people from misfortune. This shows us that an unreal story could be useful because they can bring people something beyond joy. It has the possibility to save someone's life. How's that for use
Haroun! Even though In the Sea of Stories new stories are constantly being created; More often they are being mixed together to make something completely different, “A little bit of one story joins onto an idea from another, and hey presto, when they spew the stories out they are not old tales but new ones.(85)” This is the last way Rushdie shows us the use of stories that are not real. They don't just deliver joy or have the possibility to deliver some good advice. They are capable of creating completely new ideas that humans may never have thought of. In these ideas there may be something genius that no scientist or artificial intelligence machine has ever thought of. Maybe in one of these stories, the way we look at our lives will completely change. So what's the big deal you may ask? Well the big deal is that an author wrote an entire book around a quote. But if you look closely enough, you will find that he actually writes a book about disproving a quote. Throughout the entirety of this book, Rushdie sneaks in little elements or big pictures that actually go against the words of the main character. He disproved the big question by showing us how stories can be advantageous to the public.
Desperately confused, this everyday writer tries to step out of his culture and experience a whole new world. Day after day, this half ton gorilla, Ishmael, opens the narrators eyes and teaches him "how things came to be." He starts out by dividing man into two different cultures. He calls the people of our culture takers and the people of all other cultures leavers. Each culture has a story. In Ishmael's teachings, a story is a scenario interrelating man, the world, and the gods. This story is enacted by the people in a culture. In other words, people in a culture live as to make the story a reality.
Critics have already begun a heated debate over the success of the book that has addressed both its strengths and weaknesses. The debate may rage for a few years but it will eventually fizzle out as the success of the novel sustains. The characters, plot, emotional appeal, and easily relatable situations are too strong for this book to crumble. The internal characteristics have provided a strong base to withstand the petty attacks on underdeveloped metaphors and transparent descriptions. The novel does not need confrontations with the Middle East to remain a staple in modern reading, it can hold its own based on its life lessons that anyone can use.
In the book “A Thousand Splendid Suns”, by Khaled Hosseini, Is story about how no matter how bad the situation is, born a harabi, married off to an abusive husband you’ve never met, and dieing at the hand of a terrorist regime, as long as you have hope, patience, and a strong mental will, you just might make something good out of the sea of
Rushdie, Salman. `Outside the Whale' Imaginary Homelands: Essays and criticisms 1981-1991 Penguin Books Ltd. (1992)
There are many stories that follow Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey, and tells the tale of a Heroic character. These fables introduces us to heroes that begin their journey in an ordinary place, then receive a call to enter an unknown world full of bizarre powers and peculiar events. These heroes often display great traits, such as bravery or intelligence, that defines their character. One of these heroic's tales is Haroun and the Sea of Stories, telling the adventures of a young man named Haroun. This essay will prove that Haroun from Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie is a hero, because he possess heroic qualities. Haroun shows his heroic qualities by overcoming obstacles, helping his friends, and having good intentions.
It is difficult to face anything in the world when you cannot even face your own reality. In his book The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini uses kites to bring out the major themes of the novel in order to create a truly captivating story of a young boy’s quest to redeem his past mistakes. Amir is the narrator and protagonist of the story and throughout the entire novel, he faces enormous guilt following the horrible incident that happened to his closest friend, Hassan. This incident grows on Amir and fuels his quest for redemption, struggling to do whatever it takes to make up for his mistakes. In Hosseini’s novel, kites highlight aspects of Afghanistan’s ethnic caste system and emphasizes the story’s major themes of guilt, redemption and freedom.
When discussing the controversial authors of Indian literature, one name should come to mind before any other. Salman Rushdie, who is best known for writing the book “Midnights Children.” The first two chapters of “Midnights Children” are known as “The Perforated Sheet”. In “The Perforated Sheet” Rushdie utilizes magic realism as a literary device to link significant events and their effects on the lives of Saleem’s family to a changing India. In fact, it is in the beginning of the story that the reader is first exposed to Rushdie’s use of magic realism when being introduced to Saleem. “On the stroke of midnight/clocks joined palms” and “the instant of India’s arrival at independence. I tumbled forth into the world”(1711). Rushdie’s description of the clocks “joining palms” and explanation of India’s newfound independence is meant to make the reader understand the significance of Saleem’s birth. The supernatural action of the clocks joining palms is meant to instill wonder, while independence accentuates the significance of the beginning of a new era. Rushdie also utilizes magic realism as an unnatural narrative several times within the story to show the cultural significance of events that take place in the story in an abnormal way.
It has been such a joy reading “The Norton Introduction to Literature” by Kelly J. Mays. Of all the stories that I was assigned to read, one story in particular stood out to me because of how the author used words to create a vivid image in my mind. The story I’m talking about is “Araby” by James Joyce. James Joyce does a great job creating vivid images in the readers mind and creates a theme that most of us can relate. In this paper I will be discussing five scholarly peer reviewed journals that also discusses the use of image and theme that James Joyce created in his short story “Araby”. Before I start diving into discussing these five scholarly peer review journals, I would like to just write a little bit about “Araby” by James Joyce. James Joyce is an Irish writer, mostly known for modernist writing and his short story “Araby” is one of fifteen short stories from his first book that was published called “Dubliners”. Lastly, “Araby” is the third story in Dubliners. Now I will be transitioning to discussing the scholarly peer review journals.
He is able to capture the realness of the time and setting through his words, and write for a purpose. As a result, it can be said that he uses this work of historical fiction less as a theatrical stage and more as a platform to introduce the audience to the inhumaneness of Afghanistan. He not only incorporates the Taliban’s grueling “beard lookout men,” who patrol the roads in their fancy Toyota trucks in hopes of finding “a smooth-shaven face to bloody,” but he also displays the horrific and bloodcurdling abuse of women that exists at the hands’ of men and the feelings of great despair and pain that these women face as a result. Living in a state of unbearable fear of the next beating, the next detonating bomb, and the next brutal attempt of the Taliban, the lives of these characters feel almost too real to not be true. Resultantly, the reader is left to wonder whether or not this added literary dimension of realness is actually an introspective study of individuals that Hosseini has long
I have been somewhat critical of the author at times, but this is only because he opens the door for the reader to think. I would not be able to formulate opinions if he hadn’t questioned whether Muhammad was being a fair and effective leader. After all, he greatly changed the course of history as we know it. Cook’s objective way of looking at Muhammad’s life allows one to attain a clear view of just how deep of an impact he made.
James Joyce began his writing career in 1914 with a series of realistic stories published in a collection called The Dubliners. These short literary pieces are a glimpse into the ‘paralysis’ that those who lived in the turn of the century Ireland and its capital experienced at various points in life (Greenblatt, 2277). Two of the selections, “Araby” and “The Dead” are examples of Joyce’s ability to tell a story with precise details while remaining a detached third person narrator. “Araby” is centered on the main character experiencing an epiphany while “The Dead” is Joyce’s experiment with trying to remain objective. One might assume Joyce had trouble with objectivity when it concerned the setting of Ireland because Dublin would prove to be his only topic. According the editors of the Norton Anthology of Literature, “No writer has ever been more soaked in Dublin, its atmosphere, its history, its topography. He devised ways of expanding his account of the Irish capital, however, so that they became microcosms of human history, geography, and experience.” (Greenblatt, 2277) In both “Araby” and “The Dead” the climax reveals an epiphany of sorts that the main characters experience and each realize his actual position in life and its ultimate permanency.
The Uses of Story: according to Brunner, a story is illustrious from a trouncing string of events by a peripeteia; a sudden reversal in circumstances: “a seemingly true-blue English Oxbridge physician turns out to have leaking atomic secrets to the Russians, or a presumably merciful god all of a sudden asks the faithful Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac.” (Brunner.pp.5). Due to our vulnerability to narratives, one comes to await and believe in the traditional everyday experiences in a story. Stories display a sense of roadway to confront errors as well as surprises occurring in our daily lives. As humans, one is not always ambitious to exhibit our proclivity to stories. Brunner opens one’s mind to understanding the adamant truthfulness of l...
"Araby" is a short complex story by Joyce that I believe is a reflection of his own life as a boy growing up in Dublin. Joyce uses the voice of a young boy as a narrator; however the narrator seems much more mature then the boy in the story. The story focuses on escape and fantasy; about darkness, despair, and enlightenment: and I believe it is a retrospective of Joyce's look back at life and the constant struggle between ideals and reality.
In his short story, “The Prophet’s Hair,” Salman Rushdie make use of magic realism, symbolization and situational irony to comment on class, religion, and the fragility of human life. The story is brimming with ironic outcomes that add to the lighthearted and slightly fantastic tone. Rushdie’s use of the genre magic realism capitalizes on the absurdity of each situation but makes the events relevant to readers’ lives. In addition, the irony in the story serves as a way to further deepen Rushdie’s commentary on class and religion. Finally, his use of symbolization focuses on the concept of glass, and just how easily it can be broken.
Even before leaving for America, Mali had expressed his desire to become a writer and Jagan was eager to render all his support towards Mali’s writing career. But at the same time Jagan also has misgivings about his son’s experiences of life and his equipment to become a writer. In the opinion of Jagan, muses, languages, the experiences of life, the ideal to help humanity, are some of the basic conditions of creative writing. This traditional and yet realistic approach is sharply antagonistic to what Mali visualizes – writing stories by mixing various components like the preparation of a drug. For Mali, writing has relevance only in the terms of materialistic gains. Jagan is also ‘furious’ as much as his calm nature can allow him to be, at Mali’s idea of going to America to learn the technique of story-telling. inspiration from