Water as a central motif in Haroun and the Sea of Stories

¶ … Salmon Rushdie's Haroun and the Sea of Stories, a famous storyteller Rashid Khalifa loses his gift of telling tales after his wife leaves him for a man who hates stories. His son Haroun goes to the Ocean of Stories to recover his father's lost powers. Haroun drinks from the ocean, as instructed by the Water Genie, but finds out that the ocean of stories is poisoned. When Haroun tries to tell a pleasing and romantic story, the story suddenly is transformed into a nightmare. Haroun finds the source of the water's poisoning. He is rewarded for his ingenuity by the rightful King of Gup, whose land is now freed from the tyrant's grasp. The oppressive tyrant also poisoned the spring from which all stories come. Haroun is granted a happy ending for his efforts. "Haroun" is a truly worldly book for, though written in English, it incorporates different dialects and even different languages into the text. The novel draws upon Indian, American, and British idioms and speech, creating a hodgepodge of English that animates the characters' dialogue. Snooty Buttoo speaks Indian English when he says, "you will please to provide up-beat sagas only,"(49) whereas Iff uses American idioms, saying "no can do" and "no way, Jose"(59). The different dialects do more than give character depth, however, for they remind us of the number of English dialects, no one of which can properly claim correctness. In "Haroun," English avoids being strictly defined, allowing a richness of language diversity that can serve as a model for story-telling: by embracing different versions (in this case, of English) one enriches the work and provides a more authentic portrayal of a wide-ranging language" (Acadedemon essay).

Haroun awakes on a houseboat, discovering that his father has recovered his power of storytelling once again, and that the boy's mother is now restored to him.

Water is a metaphor not only for the power and source storytelling in the novel, but the nature of storytelling in general. All stories, regardless of their culture of origin, Rushdie suggests, come from the same source or metaphorical ocean. These stories mingle together in the water and produce more stories. Even the name of the King of Gup suggests Guppy, a fish that lives in the water. It is the genie of the water who leads Haroun to reunite his family. Water is fluid, undefined, and difficult to grasp, yet it is also life-giving. This is the nature of the glue that holds families and entire societies together, Rushdie suggests. When our stories are denied or poisoned with ugliness, we lose not only art, but the essence of life itself. And if we believe in the possibility of stories having happy endings, however unrealistic they may seem, there is a chance that our dreams can come true.

In the story, he claims that a big title wave hinder him from doing what he wanted to do. However, when he accomplished his goal, he claimed the title wave was not there at all. The reader could take as the water/title wave to be a metaphor to represent the obstacles he had to go through in order to become a good storyteller again.

Part fantasy, part allegory and always clever and engaging, the story told of Haroun's adventures speaks to the power of story in our lives and in the world. The constant word play and twists of language are funny, though at times I felt they became just "too much." While we are being entertained by maniac bus drivers, strange genies and odd fish, Haroun and his father both are coming to terms with the things in the world that truly matter. This is one of those rare books, written for adult readers, that children will enjoy read aloud, cuddled up next to you on the couch, swept away by the fantasy (Amazon).