Stories and dreams occurring in this land of fiction symbolize the healing power of the imaginary. The journey to, and on, the sea waters that cover a large portion of Kahani depicts an entirely different dimension of reality. Haroun, the child protagonist, travels from the world of apparent everyday reality (represented by planet Earth) to a Moon world called Kahani.

In the former, the author introduces different worlds that are nevertheless interconnected, each with a reality of its own. This is true also for Rushdie ’s two works for children, Haroun and the Sea of Stories (1991) and Luka and the Fire of Life (2010). Protagonists who find themselves immersed in bodies of water, be it in Midnight’s Children (1981) or The Satanic Verses (1988), are not the same people when they come out of them (if they do). Haroun’s mother returns to Rashid, and the family is whole once again.As in works by other Indian writers, water as a symbol plays a crucial role in several novels by Salman Rushdie, the imagery being rooted in the Hindu worldview. The Walrus manufactures a happy ending for Haroun’s city, which remembers its name: Kahani. Haroun wishes for his city to become happy again.

The idol of Bezaban topples from a tower and lands on Khattam-Shud during an earthquake, killing him.Īfterward, Haroun meets with a man named The Walrus, who grants him one wish. When the sun rises on the dark land of Chup, it melts the shadows away. He uses a substance called Wishwater-given to him by Iff-to wish for the sun to rise. Haroun manages to help destroy the machinery that was going to plug the Wellspring. Khattam-Shud forbids free speech and has enacted a series of decrees called the Silence Laws, which forbid his people from speaking. Haroun learns that Khattam-Shud has a plan to plug the hole that produces the currents of stories. The Sea of Stories is under threat by an evil ruler, Khattam-Shud, whose name means “The End.” Iff travels with Haroun to Kahani, a fictional moon of earth that contains the Sea of Stories-the source of all stories and creativity. Rashid was a subscriber to a storytelling service, and Iff has disconnected it. That night, Haroun learns something disturbing-a water genie named Iff has taken his father’s storytelling gift. Shortly after, Rashid finds that he has run out of stories to tell. In the first chapter, Haroun’s mother leaves her husband for a man named Mr.

Haroun’s father, Rashid, is a celebrated storyteller known for his ability to entertain, instruct, and persuade crowds on behalf of politicians. Haroun lives with his parents in a city that is so sad it no longer remembers its name. The novel begins with a young boy named Haroun Khalifa.

Haroun and the sea of stories