HAROUN AND THE SEA OF STORIES

The atmosphere in chapter one is set by many descriptions and events throughout chapter one. The most important description is on the first page and tells us that there will be a theme of sadness which will be further emphasised throughout the book. The quotation is,
“A city so ruinously sad that it had forgotten it’s name”
This quote is one of the most important parts of the description because it gives a huge emphasis on the sad atmosphere by the word ‘ruinously’ which means that the sadness was so bad that it had ruined a once legendary city. This is a foreshadowing of extremely sad events to come later on throughout the book. A few of these events are: Soraya, haroun’s mum, Leaves him and his dad; his dad forgets how to tell stories and then becomes sad like everyone else in the sad city. This is how Salman Rushdie creates an atmosphere in chapter one.

The author, Salman Rushdie, also has a main theme of storytelling which, has a few mentions throughout the book, like “Arabian Nights”, ” Tangled” and there is couple more in the book, i believe, because Rashid tells stories and is called “the ocean of notions” because he tells elaborate stories of by heart whenever needed. Thus, he is a happy citizen of the sad city, again, emphasising on sadness and desparity, compared to the fact that 1 in about 1000 is happy in the world. This prepares you for the events to come throughout the book, which make you feel for the characters in the book. Making you drawn in to keep reading through the book and find the final outcome for the family’s future. This is another way in which Salman Rushdie creates an atmosphere in chapter one.

There are some ideas that Salman Rushdie puts into chapter one and develops later on. One of these is the mentioning of ” story water “. This substance of ” story water ” is what Rashid says gives him the power to tell elaborate stories. But in chapter five, Rashid is sad ( because his wife, Soraya runs away ) and loses his ” subscription ” to the ” story water ” and it is removed from Rashid’s bathroom. Another one of these ideas is a theme of sadness and despair; many events in chapter one which happen, emphasise sadness and desparity throughout the chapter. One of these events is when Soraya, ( Rashid’s wife ) runs of with her neighbour ( Mr. Sungupta ) this leaves a hole in Rashid’s heart which emphasises on sadness and despair. This is also how Salman Rushdie creates an atmosphere in chapter one.

Another idea in chapter one is about ” Khattam Shud ” being the end. Whereas in chapter four, it becomes the name of a forbidden villain; A feared villain. I think this is because “the end” is a threatening phrase, thus becoming a forbidden name, like ‘Voldemort’ from Harry Potter. This is another idea that Salman Rushdie puts into his book, ” Haroun And the Sea Of Stories ”