Haroun And The Sea Of Stories: Chapter 9-12

Thoughts

This final reading was on the last section of HATSOS, consisting of chapter nine to the end. At this point, the book is at the peak of the plot, full of compelling action and wondrous adventure. Not only do these chapters greatly contribute to moving along the plot, but Haroun is at the peak of his development, something that has been anticipated since the beginning of the story. While reading this section, I was expecting a climactic confrontation with Khattam Shud, a hero rising out of the ashes, and a wrap up of all the loose ends, a classic ending to any story. Although, the resolution doesn’t seem like much of a happy ending at all. The ending follows the crazy adventure and heist in Kahani, when Haroun is granted the gift of a happy ending. When Haroun arrives back at his hometown, he is met with extreme changes and faced with a horrifying truth, the ending he dreamed of wasn’t as happy as he thought it would make him. If anything, Haroun only feels worse than he did at the beginning of the book.

Annotation

Many interesting lines and passages were addressed in this section of the novel. Something that especially stood out to me was on page 146, which addressed the state of old stories, now that people don’t use them anymore. It states, “ Look at the Ocean, look at it! The oldest stories ever made, and look at them now. We let them rot, we abandoned them, long before this poisoning. We lost touch with our beginnings, with our roots, our Wellspring, our Source. Boring, we said, not in demand, surplus to requirements. And now, look, just look! No color, no life, no nothing. Spoilt!” This quote stood out to me because it draws a parallel to our modern society. Now, we live in a world of constant innovation, where countless people focus on the new fads of society. Although, these improvements and changes can be good, we’ve lost the meaning of where it came from. Many of the old ways have been forgotten or even ignored, which is something that can be seen in HATSOS. Except, in HATSOS, we get to see the repercussions for ignoring the old stories and the original ways. Even though many new stories and paths were carved from older tales, they are just as important to keep the foundation for all other stories to build upon.

Discussion

This week, our class discussion surrounded the cryptic ending of HATSOS, a once very straightforward story. I’m sure no one was expecting an ending such as this one to conclude this adventurous, heroic, and imaginative tale. Just to recap, in these last few chapters, Haroun and his gang of spies have defeated Khattam Shud and are rewarded with the gift of a happy ending, which is actually more of a happy middle. Once Haroun wishes for happiness in his life and all of the sad city, him and his father are whisked away, back home. When Haroun and Rashid go back to the Sad City, it's raining happiness and people are out of their houses having fun, something the sad city hasn’t done in a long time. Not only is the city rejoicing because of the new emotions, but they finally remembered the name of their city, Kahani, meaning story.

Normally, this would seem like a happy ending, but in reality this isn’t one at all. Many people from the discussion seem to agree with this because the conversation focused on the true meaning of this book’s ending. We all were trying to decipher the reason behind the author using this sort of ending and whether it alluded to a whole different story or was used for a different purpose. On page 209 Haroun states, “he was finding his father’s cheerfulness simply unbearable, and he blamed the Walrus for it all, for everything, for all that was bad and wrong and fake in the whole wide motherless world.” These passages reveal that Haroun and the Reader know happy endings can be fabricated, but they don’t know whether an ending is fake, which would take the happiness completely out of it. An idea that popped up in the discussion because of this concept was the idea of the whole adventure in Kahani being fabricated as simply an implanted memory in Haroun and Rashid’s mind. This idea was quite far fetched, but got me thinking of the many possible ending of this story I could have, and did miss.

HATSOS as Allusion

In this last section, the book made many allusions to the characters, situations, and concepts of the Sad City in the beginning of the novel. The ending alluded to the Sad City’s society and living conditions in various ways. These include the shadow ship from Kahani being similar to the sadness factories of the Sad City. As well as the dreadful and dull spirit of society being present in both places. This also shows the similarity of Haroun being a hero in Kahani to being a hero in his own world. In reality, when Haroun saved Kahani, he also saved the Sad City because of his wish for happiness for all. Not only does Haroun’s accomplishment in Kahani allude to him saving of the Sad City, but many of the characters are similar as well. For instance, Khattam shud, the main antagonist in Kahani, is said to be similar to Mr. Sengupta, the main antagonist back in the Sad City. In addition, Butt the Hoopoe, Haroun and the gang’s mode of transportation, was said to have the same voice and similar qualities to Butt the train driver, who conducts the train Haroun and Rashid take throughout the valleys and towns near the Sad City. These allusions show how the countless parallels between Haroun's life in Kahani and in the Sad City can be interpreted in different views and translated into real life.

Fictional Stories are Morally Good Lie

The story has come full circle and we are back with the question of, “Are fictional stories morally good lies?” This question seemed very clear at first, as an avid reader myself, I believe stories don’t hold the deceptive nature that comes with the connotation of “lies”. Keep in mind, by Stanford's Encyclopedia of Philosophy’s definition, a statement is considered to be a lie if a “person must make a statement and believe that statement to be false and the person making the statement must intend for the audience to believe that the statement is true.” In addition, according to the Cambridge Dictionary, a story can be “a description of events that actually happened or that are invented,” or, “A story can also be a lie” The difference between these two definitions is the context of the word “story”. When reciting a series of events or ideas, it takes on the first definition of “story”. Although, a story can also be made out to be a lie. In the end, I don't believe fictional stories are lies because the feelings, thoughts, and impact they evoke are genuine to the reader, which is all that matters.

Final Thoughts

Now that we’ve come to the ending of this novel, it's as good of a time as any to say I enjoyed this book significantly more than the first read through of it. This time, instead of quickly reading through the novel in order to finish my summer assignment, I was intently reading and noting anything important to my lense or own insight. In addition, many new concepts were generated that I would not have thought of before. The first time reading this story, I thought of it as very two dimensional, but with the insights from others in the class, I was able to see it all three dimensionally. The many stories behind the main plot were easier to spot and I was able to pick a majority of them out. I had many insights concerning the allusions in the book, but was able to expand that through the numerous ideas bounced around during discussions.

This book not only opened my eyes to new ways of reading, analyzing, and viewing stories, but jumpstarted my imagination to developing theories surrounding these tales. This story addresses many allusions ranging from real life to various imaginative worlds, coupled with original characters following an unusual story to help people find their happy ending. These allusions show how Haroun is made the hero of Kahani, but in the same way proves he can be and was the Hero of his own story back in the Sad City, seeing as he forged a new path for himself and the people around him.

Links

https://musicandramen087.wordpress.com/2017/10/15/haroun-and-the-sea-of-stories-the-end/ - This is a link to a talented student with truly interetsing insights on the endign of HATSOS.

https://sometimesiwritestuffblog.wordpress.com - This link is to a hardworking and creative individual with an aesthetically pleasing blog, sharing his views on the ending of HATSOS.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vhd0XdedLpY - A video of a man named Jonathan Gottschall addressing the intriguing concept of “the storytelling animal”.