Haroun Essay

The Versatility of Stories Through Haroun Khalifa’s adventure on the story moon of Kahani, Salman Rushdie discloses to readers the value of stories that are not even true. In Rushdie’s Haroun and the Sea of Stories, the author illustrates how powerful and versatile fictional stories are to real life. From the colorful Ocean of the Streams of Stories to the conflicting Lands of Gup and Chup, Rushdie creates a world within the novel that undoubtedly and continually portrays the point of made-up tales to Haroun and readers. During his journey, Haroun encounters many obstacles that test his strength as a character. The first major trial Rushdie challenges Haroun with is making a wish using the Wishwater. After Haroun’s failure, Iff the Water Genie attempts to mitigate his sorrow, stating that “ ‘cheering-up procedures to be instituted at once’ ” (71). He goes on to “ ‘give the lad a happy story to drink ’ ” (71). Iff’s first reaction in how to make Haroun cheerful again was to give him a story from the Ocean. Rushdie implies that the nature of stories is to make people feel joy. Rushdie also states that Rashid’s storytelling abilities were constantly sought after by political parties because he could bring a sense of trust and happiness to places where no one else could. Different political parties were always pinning after Rashid because he could sway the outcome of the political vote just by telling stories. Snooty Buttoo—a client of Rashid’s—says, “You will tell happy stories, praising stories, and the people will believe you, and be happy, and vote for me” (47), further buttressing the idea that stories can change emotions. The need for Rashid represents how fictional stories have the power to influence and inspire people. Within the novel, Rushdie also fashions the Ocean of the Streams of Story indicative of the nature of story. The Ocean of the Streams of Story is “evidently a warm ocean” (68) and “Haroun could see steam rising off it” (68). The Ocean is depicted as warm purposely because Rushdie wants Haroun and readers to appreciate how fictional stories are designed make people feel warm internally. The Ocean is also illustrated as being a great body of water made up of intertwining story streams. The Ocean being a liquid substance symbolizes how stories are always changing and shifting. Oceans are not always calm and peaceful and currents are not always slow-moving. Like water, the stories are always shifting, changing, and adapting to the will of the teller. Fictional stories can change and shift and are not constricted by the laws of the possible. Fictional stories can be manipulated to become beneficial in any situation and are not restricted to follow within the boundaries of reality.
Stories also help develop imagination and creativity. Without stories, imaginations could hardly exist. To question the usefulness of fictional stories is to question the usefulness of imagination, for imagination is formed and shaped from stories. In Haroun and the Sea of Stories, Rushdie creates a character, Mr. Sengupta, whose lack of creativity and inspiration makes him to be the leading catalyst into Haroun and Rashid’s sadness. Mr. Sengupta is the character in the novel that first questions the point of stories that aren’t even true (leading Haroun to then question the same thing). Rushdie composes, “ ‘your brain is full of make-believe, so there is no room in it for facts. Mr. Sengupta has no imagination at all’ ” (22). Due to the lack of faith in stories, Mr. Sengupta “has no imagination at all” (22). In his novel, Rushdie implies that believing stories are not pointless will lead to more colorful and vivid imaginations. Imagination is crucial because it is the foundation of real life. No new invention was ever created without it first being a fixture of someone’s imagination. Stories, fairy tales, and fables also help to establish a person’s personality and character during childhood. Iff the Water Genie understood “no story comes from nowhere” (86), and in that sense all ideas in imagination was most likely first sparked by ideas in stories.
When Haroun asks, “what’s the point of stories that aren’t even true?” (22), he conveyed a question that had a simple answer. Every story is useful in its own way and no story is without purpose.

Works Cited:
Rushdie, Salman. Haroun and the Sea of Stories. New York: Penguin, 1991. Print.