Quote from the book: "...(T)he traitor, Gibreel Farishta, looking down at (Saladin) from the litter balcony outside Rosa's bedroom, and there wasn't any light shining around the bastard's head." (146)

This quote exemplifies the drift of the two main characters, Gibreel Farishta and Saladin Chamcha. When they land onto the United Kingdom's coast after a terrorist attack they are mistaken for illegal immigrants and become the subject of Her Majesty's police force. One character, Chamcha, turns into a demonic-looking character with horns and a goat-like body structure, while the other one, Farishta, becomes a more angelic-looking character with a halo. The devil enters custody while the angel avoids police detention. Throughout the novel, characters and identities with stark contrasts clash vigorously. In this case, it is devil vs. angel, though other contrasts like atheism vs. faith, monotheism vs. polytheism, honor vs. dishonor, and prophet vs. interpreter occur in the contexts of marriage, cities, familiar relationships, and religious grouping. All the while characters already have their minds set on on side. The book is largely about having to choose one of two options when you know you are already disposed to one, and only considering the other to confirm your alliance to a higher belief system.

Connections: The first immediate connection that I found was the Anglo-Indian relation on a cultural level in Indians. Saladin Chamcha's actual name is Salahuddin Chamchawala and was born to a rather orthodox Muslim family. Saladin attended school in the United Kingdom and took on "Saladin" after going through Anglonization and used this as his stage name when his acting agent preferred this. His father, Changez, is adamant on his son maintaining his submission to Islam and an Indian-Muslim identity; with this said he strongly disapproves of his son's wishes to become an actor because this would mean that he would follow a hedonistic lifestyle. He does not want Saladin to be something that Allah did not intend for him to be, which is Changez's view on acting. Obviously this drift has a larger clash: colonist vs. indigenous, and the factor of generations is rather evident. The younger generation, Saladin, favors the new and exotic British life because of the material benefits that come about assimilating to that culture. Meanwhile the older generation, Changez, prefers to keep things traditional and treads on the colonist's land with caution.

With Gibreel, the reader follows his very active sexual life and discovers that he very rarely has sex with Indian women. He prefers European women. This can attest to the concept that whiter, more Westernized looks are preferred over indigenous interpretation of beauty. He too strays away from going back to India and almost detests his life back home.

Secondly, the historical and theological aspects of The Satanic Verses are evident in Muslim theology. Mahound, who is the prophet Muhammad, goes to a mountain and receives messages from the angel Gibreel, the first of which favors the polytheism of Jahilia, a city. While these Satanic verses are labeled as coming from Satan and not the angel, there is still debate on whether Muhammad actually said these words. Further more, larger pieces of theology are aroused when Baal, a skeptic of Muhammad, begins to question if Muhammad is editing the prophesies to cater to his personal agenda. Similarly, Hind, a priestess of the polytheism of Jahilia, wishes to discredit Muhammad. Examining the theological drama in the Middle East is unique in The Satanic Verses because it does not follow the strict and vague voice of the religious texts. We can further imagine the feelings and thought processes of the characters involved, which is something that I think people tend to forget when the study religious texts. Characters in religious texts seem flat.

Thirdly, female characters seem very empowered in the novel, possibly as a statement of the author, Salman Rushdie. The book is filled with characters that have a streak of feminism or with the author's voice that highlights gender equality. For example, one of Gibreel Farishta's colleges, Zeenat Fakil, was loitering at a popular prostitution street drinking soda and smoking a cigarette. The pimps of the street threatened her with bodily harm, but all she did was stare them down and leave slowly. Or rather, how Muhammad's main competitor for prophet of Jahilia is a pagan priestess, Hind. Hind is a very interesting character because she is the wife of a very powerful man of the city, but yet the focus is on her. Also, this character is very sexually liberated without being identified in the Madonna-Whore dichotomy by other characters or with Rushdie's literary voice. Or consider the peon girl who becomes a prophetess with the same angel that came to Muhammad and convinces an entire village to embark on the hajj via a splitting of the ocean. When she decides to go with he female masters, her male master forbids her but does so anyways.

Rushdie -- after doing some research -- turns out to be rather distant from his Muslim upbringing. His feminist characters redefine the West's perception of gender in Islam; where the West considers the Muslim world to be very degrading towards women. Perhaps Rushdie is a strong believer of gender equality and integrated feminist-empowered women in time periods that typically did not allow this to make a statement about women in the Middle East. This anachronism engages the reader to reconsider the gender dimensions in positions of power and theology.

Visual Representation: The picture shown in this post is apart of a terrorist being escorted off a plane by Indonesian police. There is hostage situation in the novel involving Gibreel and Saladin by a group of Indian terrorists whereby the airplane is taken hostage for over 100 days. From the novel: "She's (one of the terrorists) telling them they have to issue and ultimatum ,' Gibreel Farishta said to Chamcha. 'One of us has to die.'" From the looks of the picture, it looks very serious and could be fitted for a hostage situation. When the group of terrorists finally decide to pick a man to kill to raise tensions for their demands, the crew takes off and flies towards London. The crew bickers and eventually destroys the plane.

So to analyze this photo we understand that there is a universal problem with evil: it must bicker with itself. The terrorists in this part of the book represent a petty political cause, one that Rushdie only vaguely identifies as a minor nationalist dispute in India (something that is actually quite common in Indian politics). In this picture, police foil the terrorists' plot and were able to do so because of the selfish planning that probably happened on evil's end. In the novel the terrorists' plot is foiled by themselves for fearing death, and the ultimatum is delivered by blowing herself up while in midair.

Questions: How does Rushdie's Indian and English cultural and literary background contribute to his voice and subject matter? What is the cultural significance of the three gods, and how do these gods differ from the Islamic god? What is the drive for Gibreel Farishta to regain his life after the plane crash: fame, fortune, closure for his fans? What drives a person to leave a religion and to join a completely new one, as in the case with Baal, only to arrive with doubt about the new prophet? Why is it that Gibreel Farishta was reincarnated into the archangel Gibreel and not a regular angel?

Reflection: The Satanic Verses is by far the most difficult book I have read so far, because of its English anecdote and Indian and Arabic diction. I enjoyed the characters because of their train wrecks for lives and of their frankness about their situations. I was not too fond of the side stories of Mahound, Ayesha, and the imam because they would interrupt the story of the two Indian Bollywood actors. Also, I did not appreciate the confusing detail that added spice to the story but drew out the story too long for my memory span to stay attentive. The epicness of the side stories, however, with its antiqued feel was a real treat and offered an oasis to the unfortunate reality of the terrible explosion that occurred over the English channel.

Overall, I would not recommend this story to everyone. The story is highly complex because of its elaboration and would completely go over someone who has not studied the basic skeleton on Islam and Middle Asia. When I am older, possibly in the next few years when I am in university, I will reread this text and understand it more.