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Finding One's Self Identity In Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses


In 1988, British author Salman Rushdie released The Satanic Verses amidst much controversy. With many intertwining and varied storylines, the novel quickly becomes a mass of confusion, causing the reader to easily become lost. It is through the confusion of storylines that the main theme of finding one's self identity is raised. Although seen as incoherent and disorganized, Rushdie's The Satanic Verses deals with a search for self identity through the question of "what kind of idea are you?".

The theme of self identity in the novel doesn't appear right away, and even when it is revealed, it is obscured by Rushdie's skillful employment of a confusing, yet effective story telling method. The theme first reveals itself through the sub-plot involving Mahound, the prophet, and Hind, a monster of a woman married to the Grandee of Jahilia. Mahound is trying with limited success, to start up a new religion, when he is first approached by Hind.

Hind speaks to Mahound after the archangel Gibreel is tricked into speaking the 'Satanic Verses' to Mahound. The verses told him that the Islamic culture must embrace three female Goddesses, Al-Lat, Uzza, and Manat, along with the current God, Al-Lah. hind tells Mahound that the four Gods cannot live peacefully together, for she will not allow it:

Between Al-Lah and the Three there can be no peace. I don't want it.
I want the fight. To the death; that is the kind of idea I am.
What kind of idea are you?
(p.124)
This reveals to Mahound the true identity of Hind, and he soon realizes that he has been duped into allowing the Three Goddesses to be worshipped alongside Al-Lah. Hind doesn't want that though, she only wants the Three to rule, and sets them about the destruction of Al-Lah. Hind tells Mahound that that is who she is, what she represents, and then she goes on to ask Mahound what kind of idea he is. By raising this question to the prophet, Hind brings out the prophet's tragic flaw. Mahound realizes that he does not truely know what he represents, or who is is. It is this flaw which eventually brings about the prophet's demise.

Mahound struggles with the question until his death because of his inability to come to terms with who he really is. Mahound has devoted his entire life to his new religion, and he essentially has become that religion, leaving his previous identity behind. Ironically, Hind has named the new religion "Submission", as all of Mahound's followers shed their former identities and become yet another piece of the ever growing religion. Mahound realizes that he has become the religion that he created and along with a handful of followers, he flees the desert city of Jahilia for the water town of Yathrib, which embraces Submission. Upon the discovery of Mahound's flight, Hind's lover, the poet Baal writes:

What kind of idea
Does 'Submission' seem today?
One full of fear.
An idea that runs away.

(p.128)

Baal is referring to the religion itself, Mahound. He sees Mahound as being full of fear and unable to stand up for his cause and his beliefs. Instead of remaining in Jahilia and fighting for what he believes in while dealing with Hind and the city's unwillingness to accept Submission, Mahound elects to take the easy way out and he flees to Yathrib.

On Mahound's arrival in Yathrib, Hind's husband, the Grandee Abu Simbel plays yet another trick on Mahound. The Grandee turns the entire city over to Submission. This is merely a clever ruse on his part, as Hind prepares her magic skills to destroy Mahound, while he is distracted by teaching Submission to an entire city. With the religion serving as Mahound's identity, he is unable to realize what is happenning until it is too late. At this point, Hind is at the peak of her power and uses it to summon the Goddess Al-Lat to destroy Mahound.

When Hind calls upon Al-Lat to kill Mahound, it is twenty-five years since Mahound fled Jahilia and he is making his triumphant return to the city, rejoicing in his new found power and omnipotence. Mahound the man no longer exists, all that remains is Mahound the religion.

After Al-Lat has destroyed Mahound with a sickness, she tells him, "it is my revenge upon you and I am satisfied. Let them cut out a camel's hamstring and set it upon your grave." (p.406) Mahound replies "I thank yee Al-Lat, for this gift." (p.406) Mahound lies dead a few minutes later. By doing this, Al-Lat is showing Mahound the error of his ways and also her hidden respect for the messenger of Al-Lah. Mahound realizes, all too late, his mistakes and he is now able to answer the question of what kind of idea he is, as he once again finds his formerly misplaced identity in death.

Shortly after his death, Mahound's wife, Ayesha announces to a large crowd:

If there is anyone here who worshipped the Messenger, let them grieve, for Mahound is dead; but if there be any here who worship God, then let them rejoice, for he is surely alive.

(p.407)

Ayesha was in the room at the time of Mahound's death and she bore witness to all that occurred there. Unlike her husband, Ayesha never fully submitted to Submission, as she always maintained a small piece of her self-identity with her. By saying this to the crowd, Ayesha is telling the people that if all they worshipped was Mahound (Submission), then they should grieve because both are dead. God, however, lives on. Ayesha saw that God had taken Mahound from the living world because he was no longer human; he had become a religion. This reasserts Ayesha's faith in God and she rejoices in this fact, in the wake of her husband's death.

The question of "what kind of idea are you?" also presents itself in the other main storyline involving Saladin and Gibreel. Both men have lost sight of all that's important in life and they have become products of the materialistic society that we live in. When the jet explodes mid-air and both men land safely in London, England, they begin to change both mentally and physically:

Around the edges of Gibreel Farishta's head, as he stood with his back to the dawn, it seemed to Rosa Diamond that she discerned a faint, but distinctly golden glow.

And were those bumps, at Chamcha's temples, under his sodden and still-in-place bowler hat?

(p.137)

This is what Rosa Diamond thinks when she finds the two men on the beach in front of her Londo home. The men have begun to change physically at this point and it is reminiscent of God and Satan coming to Earth.

Both men attempt to get on with their lives in drastically different ways. Gibreel has been granted heavely powers, and he abuses them by bending other people's will so that they will do what he wants them to do. Gibreel has no intentions of regaining his former self identity, and like Mahound, this will prove to be his tragic flaw that will lead to his death. In the end Gibreel destroys himself with his own power and his unwillingness to recover his self-identity that he lost when he first became an actor.

Saladin, meanwhile, has the worst of everything; he is shunned by socitey, looks like a goat and even talks like a goat. Saladin learns to live with this and he makes do with what he has and he accepts to changes that have occurred in him. He sees it as God's way of telling him that he must live his life on his own terms, not those dictated by society. By accepting the fact that he once took everything for granted and much change in order to survive, Saladin is able to find his self-identity and change back into his former human form.

What Saladin Chamcha understood that day was that he had been living in a state of phony peace, that the change in him was irreversible. A new dark world had opened up for him when he fell from the sky; no matter how assidiously he attempted to recreate his old existence, this was, he saw now, a fact that could not be unmade. He seemed to see a fork before him, forking to the left and right. Closing his eyes, settling back against taxicab uphoulstery, he chose the left-hand path.

(p.433)

This shows that Saladin has realized, through the underworld, that everything he had was good. If Saladin had chosen the path to the right he would not have been accepting who he was and he too would have gone the way of Mahound and Gibreel before him, to his imminent death. Instead, Saladin goes on with hos life and newfound identity and lives a good life.

Through the plights of the characters in The Satanic Verses, Salman Rushdie is trying to teach us a very important lesson in life. He is conveying the idea that if we don't have self-identity and don't understand our role in life, that we will be living only as society dictates. Without self-identity in our lives, we're just another useless product produced by our materialistic society and it is through this lack of self-identity that we will bring aboutan early death. Rushdie's characters, though difficult to understand at times, show us that to truly live a satisfying and fulfilling life we must be able to have self-identity and be able to answer the question, "what kind of idea are you?".






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Cory Seaman
January 6,2000 ENG OA1

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