Comparing Khattum-Shud In Haroun And The Sea Of Stories

They cannot be whom they want to be, or act for themselves. All forms of individualism are repressed. These people are simply like tools in the dictator’s hands. These dictators can end the lives of others, choose who they will be and what they will do for the rest of their lives, and even what they will look like! The characters are forced or molded into what the dictators see as perfection. There is no such thing as a perfect society. Not everyone can be pleased, but at least there is a way the people could have the rights they

Throughout history, tyranny has been demonstrated on many occasions.When rulers wanted to have an absolute power over all the aspects of the country they are ruling. One of the most famous tyrants in the history of the middle east countries, or maybe the history of the world, is Saddam Hussein. Saddam Hussein ruled Iraq for more than 23 years; he tortured, arrested, and killed countless number of people during the time of his reign. In the article of Tales of Tyrants, Mark Bowden claimed that Saddam Hussein was a brutal and cruel leader who used violence and ferocity in order to manipulate the Iraqis and plant his fear in them. Bowden used word diction, and pathos to prove that Saddam is a diabolical and ruthless person who is trying to dominate Iraqis and get whatever he wants mercilessly, justifying his means by believing that he is a direct descendent of the Prophet Mohammed which gives him the right to do anything.

Throughout civilization rulers and authority have taken steps to gain power and to take over their citizens. Three rulers include Louis XIV of France, Joseph Stalin of the Soviet Union, and Pol Pot of Cambodia. The steps taken by these rulers and other types of authority have had a great impact on the citizens and their society.

In history, there have been many leaders that manipulated their citizens to maintain a high profile. One case of this is during 1917 when the Russian leader, Joseph Stalin, overthrew the government. George Orwell wrote an allegory called Animal Farm which criticized the ways Stalin manipulated his citizens to maintain control. Throughout the story, Napoleon stays in power through the use of revisionism, indoctrination, and intimidation.

The story has successfully applied fiction to show people how oppressive the government is through the process of censorship. It hinders the both originality and liberty of its people. The story’s central idea is that there is a popular fiction that illustrates how the society has successfully installed order at the cost of people’s rights and freedom. Furthermore, the book expresses how risky it is for the government or society to outlaw books just because they provide ideas,

The struggle against a totalitarian government is unsurprisingly a frequent theme in dystopian literature. Almost by definition the genre is set in a futuristic society characterized by extreme oppression and despondence. Malevolent autocrats at the helms of totalitarian governments have, throughout our history, been responsible for innumerable travesties. This young century alone has witnessed the evil of Bashar al-Assad, Omar Bashir, and Saddam Hussein. Probing only slightly deeper into our collective memory, we are acquainted with the reigns of Idi Amin, Pol Pot, Mao Zedong, Josef Stalin, Hideki Tojo, Francisco Franco, and (of course) Adolf Hitler. The last hundred years have undeniably been bloody, and it is therefore only natural that

Lastly, another situation in which the theme, abuse of power and bullying, is evidently portrayed is when society’s power is abused and bullies Hazaras. Racial conflict is common, especially in Kabul, when those

It is normal for humans to crave power and control, but resentful feelings may occur if dominance and authority are not asserted with complete control. This idea of power and control surface in A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah and in Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. In both cases, dominance over the lower members of their societies is key for the leaders to retain control. In Fahrenheit 451 and A Long Way Gone, authorities in both books control their subjects through force, but the government in Fahrenheit 451 utilizes strategic changes in the educational system and home life, while the leaders in A Long Way Gone coerce their fighters with drugs and brainwashing.

This explains why his tone appears fervent and of extreme consequence. This piece reveals the power of personal stories to motivate change in the light of extreme injustice of his people.

The way that the regime does this is through heavy amounts of propaganda that tell people only what they want them to hear. This can be seen towards the end of the book when Montage escapes the police; then after they realize that they lost him they kill an innocent man and claim that it is Montage. Ultimately, this is a prime example of the way that government covers up their failures by killing an innocent man; furthermore, this shows the bureaucracy creating propaganda through media outlets in order to keep a strong grip on its people. The final way that the government controls the society is by using fear tactics and intimidation. This can be seen when anyone in the society sells out anyone in order to obey the government. Furthermore, this can be seen when Montage gets caught with books; he ended up getting caught due to his wife and other neighbors ratting him out. This shows that Montage’s own wife gave him over not because she wanted to, but she feared what would happen to her if she didn’t. This is a clear example of the government using

By writing Haroun and the Sea of Stories, Salman Rushdie intends to show “that in spite of everything he has not been silenced. He has survived the death threats of his own Khattam-Shud” (Lurie www.newyorktimes.com). Rushdie turned his past experiences and aspirations for the future into an imaginary story, where he and his son are portrayed through a variety of characters. Parts of Rushdie’s personal life shine through in Rashid’s journey because they both have almost lost their storytelling abilities, however are able to prevail. In another instance, Rushdie is represented as Blabbermouth because she is rewarded for exercising her right to freedom of speech, as Rushdie wishes he had been when he wrote the Satanic Verses. Creating Blabbermouth

The absolute power Hussein possessed led to the absolute corruption of Iraq for nearly twenty-four years. During Hussein?s rule, 200,000 people were killed or ?disappeared?. Another major dictator was Adolf Hitler who dictated and killed countless human beings. Hitler?s philosophy of thinking made him kill retarded, crippled, and disabled children along with homosexuals and Jewish people. The power that Hitler received when he became leader corrupted him and made him kill six million Jews, nearly committing genocide on the Jewish population. The corruption increased, with Hitler?s desired to expand Nazi Germany. In addition, the dictatorship and corruption caused by power is also expressed in fictional stories.

Nobel Prize winner Nadine Gordimer once stated, “Censorship is never over for those who have experienced it. It is a brand on the imagination that affects the individual who has suffered it, forever.” This was a problem faced by Salman Rushdie. After years of suffering from writers block, he overcame his obstacles and published "Haroun and the Sea of Stories". It is not only a story for his son, but a proclamation of the triumph of the writer over the oppressive forces that sought to silence him. When read literally, the resolution of "Haroun and the Sea of Stories" is the defeat of Khattam-Shud as dictator. However, Rushdie’s true resolution is the conquest of freedom of speech over oppression. This is seen in how the characters’

Rushdie uses opposites frequently throughout his book and one of them deals with the lands of Gup and Chup. In the novel, Haroun explains "Gup is bright and Chup is dark. Gup is warm and Chup is freezing cold. Gup is all chattering and noise, whereas Chup is silent as a shadow" (114). In the story, Gup represents the West where we value freedom of speech, whereas the land of Chup represents the East. Kattam-Shud, the dictator of Chup, wishes to poison the Sea of Stories in order to silence the stories forever because he believes "Inside every single story . . . there lies a world . . . that I cannot Rule" (151). His sign is a symbol of stitched lips which points to that he represents censorship unlike the Gups who value freedom of speech tremendously. However, the importance of free speech doesn't mean one should always speak, unthinkingly. Haroun observes that "Silence has its own grace and beauty (just as speech can be graceless and ugly) . . . Action could be as noble as Words" (115). Rushdie argues that a society must have a healthy balance of speech. Silence in itself is not a bad thing, but forced silence

Over the course of history, it can be determined that the most evil of dictators follow the same set of characteristics. Generally, these tyrants rule with an iron fist, deploying military power whenever they feel they should. They often funnel their state’s coffers into their own personal bank accounts, and it is common for dictators to force their people to treat them with the utmost reverence and respect. These traits are seen in rulers like Hitler, Stalin, Mugabe and Hussein. However, there is one dictator set apart from the rest--the North Korean former President Kim Jong Il. It is Il’s eccentricities, of which there are many, distinguish from the other members of Dictator’s Club.