Haroun and the Sea of the Stories Essay

Haroun and the Sea of Stories, a novel by Salman Rushdie spans the adventurous pilgrimage of the protagonist of the story, Haroun who wishes to bring back his fathers gift of storytelling. Haroun is the discussion of the famous storyteller Rashid Khalifa whose stories enthr totally the listeners. The author of novel was place chthonic fatwa which compelled him to lead a life of isolation and hiding. And it was during his hiding that he wrote the to a higher place novel.Salman Rushdie uses his novel as a medium to defy the censorship placed on his writings. Through the characters of his novel, the author presents his own thoughts about the censorship and the volume who imposed the censorship upon him. The characters in the novel are influenced by the psychealised experiences of the author and resemble the persons of the real world. Prominent among them is the character of Khattam-Shud who reminds one of Ayatollah Khomeini, the person responsible for the fatwa of Salman Rushdie .Khattam-Shud rules the Land of Chupwalas by making them behave according to his rules. He wants to rule the whole world but his wish remains unrealised for he is unable to be in command of the world of many stories. Rushdie (2001) writes inside every single story, inside every Stream in the Ocean, there lies a world, a story-world, that I cannot Rule at all. (pg. 161).So when he realizes that he cannot control the world of the stories he decides to poison the Sea of Stories so that the source of stories itself is destroyed and the imagination of the story tellers is snatched from them forever. This strength of Khattam-Shud is analogous to that of Khomeini who wants to control the writings of Salman and when that is not possible he issues orders for Salmans killing. Khomeini insists that the world accept his beliefs about Islamism and when anyone tries to revolt against his authority he suppresses him by using his powers.