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Part 1, Chapter 2
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Satanic Verses, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
The Fallibility of Prophets
Immigration and Identity
Religion and Blasphemy
Racial Prejudice and Xenophobia
Metamorphosis and Identity
Summary
Analysis
As Flight 420 takes off, Saladin Chamcha crosses his fingers, a superstitious habit of his. He has just completed a trip to his hometown of Bombay, which he regrets. Saladin spent much of his life running away from India and his Indian identity; in particular, he has tried to disguise his accent. However, after returning home only a brief time, his accent starts to come back, which frustrates him.
Identity, particularly as it relates to immigrants, is a key theme that runs throughout the novel. In Saladin’s case, he is attempting to run away from India and being Indian. However, as his returning accent demonstrates, running away from his national and cultural identity is not something he can do forever.
Themes
In a flashback, Saladin (full name Salahuddin Chamchawala) is a child living in Bombay. One day, while riding home on a bus, Saladin finds a wallet full of English currency. Excited, he takes it home, feeling as though providence has smiled upon him. However, Saladin’s father, Changez Chamchawala, confiscates the wallet, taking it for himself. Changez is a leader of India’s nationalist movement, who much of the public loves. In contrast, Saladin dislikes his father, whose presence he finds suffocating, and wants to escape him. Saladin wants to leave India for London and loves English culture so much that he even roots for England when India plays them in cricket. The one thing Saladin likes about his father is that he owns a magic lamp, which Saladin perceives as lucky. Changez refuses to let anyone touch the magic lamp, but Saladin hopes he will inherit it one day.
Saladin, like Gibreel, does not use the name he was born with. In Gibreel’s case, he changes his name to match the divine characters he is portraying on screen. Meanwhile, Saladin changes his name to make it more palatable to an English audience. When Saladin was a child, India was fighting for its independence—symbolically, then, rooting for the British in a sporting event is a far greater transgression that it may seem. In part, it seems Saladin was eager to support the English because it was a way to rebel against his nationalistic father. Meanwhile, the magic lamp is an important symbol not only because it is lucky but also because Saladin views it as something to inherit. It is a part of his culture and heritage that he would be happy to have, but, at least for the moment, the lamp remains beyond reach.
Themes
One day, when Saladin is 13, he is playing alone among some rocks. While exploring, he sees an old man who motions to Saladin to be quiet. Then, the old man beckons Saladin toward him. When Saladin approaches the old man, the man grabs him and forces Saladin to touch his genitals. This incident deeply disturbs Saladin, who never mentions it to anyone. After this moment, Saladin realizes that he must escape Bombay once and for all. Otherwise, he feels he will die.
Because Saladin never processes this incident, it is difficult for him to articulate how it affects him emotionally and psychologically for the rest of his life. Regardless, this is the moment where he feels definitively as though there is something rotten in India; something that wants to pray on him and eventually kill him.
Themes
Saladin’s prayers are answered when, seemingly out of nowhere, Changez offers to send him to England for schooling. Saladin’s mother, Nasreen, hates the idea of Saladin leaving India and protests. However, Changez insists it is a good idea. In the end, Saladin is allowed to go, but Nasreen refuses to go to the airport to send him off. On the plane to England, Saladin reads science fiction novels about interplanetary travel such as The Martian Chronicles and Foundation. On the airplane, Saladin thinks about his relationship with Changez. He used to have a great relationship with his father until he started questioning Changez’s thoughts and opinions. After that, Changez treated him like a traitor. Even so, Changez traveled with Saladin to London and then, in London, returned the stolen wallet to him with all the money still inside.
Changez’s sudden change of heart is a surprise given how much his identity is wrapped up in his Indian identity and culture. Nasreen’s refusal to see her only son off as he departs is another instance of Saladin feeling that his parents do not love him, which increases his sense of alienation from India. The science fiction books Saladin is reading—written by Ray Bradbury and Isaac Asimov, respectively—are stories about traveling to new planets and exploring different cultures and societies. Their themes fit with the journey on which Saladin is currently embarking.
Themes
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However, after Changez gives Saladin the wallet, Changez stops paying for things. The year is 1961 and Saladin is still a teenage boy. Changez lives with Saladin in London but refuses to help him with anything. However, Saladin does not care—he is too thrilled with the idea of becoming English. At school, other children make fun of his accent and do nothing to help him adjust to life in England. However, he is determined to become an Englishman nevertheless and internally vows revenge. Around this time, Saladin begins referring to himself as Saladin instead of Salahuddin, as that is what his English classmates call him.
Although Changez giving Saladin the wallet initially seems like a kind gesture, it is really just Changez’s way of teaching Saladin a lesson. The same might be said about Changez’s decision to allow Saladin to come to an English school. He wants his son to see how the English will treat him and make him understand that he does not belong in England. However, Saladin is willing to fight against negative influences from both Indian and English people to achieve the goal of becoming an Englishman himself.
Themes
After five years of schooling in London, Saladin returns home to Bombay. There, Nasreen makes it a point to tease Saladin for what she perceives as a haughty attitude toward India now that Saladin thinks of himself as English. Although he does not say anything out loud, Saladin does not take the teasing well. Really, though, Saladin is angry with Changez. During a tense moment when all three family members are together, Changez explodes on Saladin because he hates what his son has become. Saladin responds, “Whatever I am, father dear […], I owe it all to you.” This is the last chat Saladin ever has with his mother and father at the same time.
Saladin’s return to Bombay after being educated in London highlights the tension between his adopted English identity and his Indian roots. Nasreen’s teasing and Changez’s anger reveal the generational and cultural conflict within the family. Saladin’s response to his father suggests a deep-seated resentment, as he feels that his father is responsible for his cultural dislocation. He has situated his identity as necessarily in conflict with his father’s. Changez wants to represent India, so Saladin wants to represent England.
Themes
In September of the same year, India goes to war with Pakistan. In a show of solidarity for her Hindu and Muslim friends, Nasreen throws a dinner party and invites them over. During the party, air raid sirens erupt, and everyone runs and hides except Nasreen, who wants to show that there is no real danger. While everyone else is hiding, Nasreen continues to eat her fish and ends up choking on a bone. Because no one is around to help her, the incident kills Nasreen. One year later, while Saladin is in college in London, Changez marries another woman named Nasreen.
The war mentioned is the India-Pakistan conflict of 1965. The conflict was primarily triggered by territorial disputes over Kashmir, a region both nations claimed. The war lasted from April to September of 1965 and involved large-scale tank battles and air strikes. Nasreen’s refusal to move during the dinner party is a political act that ultimately ends in her demise, albeit in an unlucky and bizarre fashion. Changez’s decision to marry another woman with the same name only a year later suggests that he has not truly moved on and is attempting to recreate the past.
Themes
When Changez informs Saladin of his new marriage, Saladin grows irate, and their relationship sours even further. A few years later, Saladin finishes college and informs Changez that he plans to be an actor, which all but dooms his relationship with his father, who thinks the devil has possessed Saladin. Changez tells Saladin that he will never inherit his magic lamp.
Every decision Saladin makes goes against Changez’s idea of what it means to be an Indian man. This idea that Saladin in demonically possessed is one that will recur throughout the novel. Because of Saladin’s career decisions, Changez cuts him off from the magic lamp, the one object from his childhood that Saladin truly cares about.
Themes
In the late 1960s, Saladin meets Pamela Lovelace, a fellow actor, and they get married a few years later. However, Saladin has a hard time getting Pamela to open up to him. Eventually, when it is already too late to save their marriage, Saladin learns that Pamela’s parents died by suicide when she was young. Additionally, he learns that he is unable to have children, which puts more strain on their relationship.
Although some sections of the novel are elongated and examined in detail, others gloss over significant developments in the lives of its characters. Saladin’s relationship with Pamela, for instance, is over before it really begins as far as the reader is concerned.
Themes
While in India for a role, Saladin starts an affair with Zeeny Vakil, a Marxist writer passionate about Indian culture and identity. Zeeny attempts to reconnect him with his roots in Bombay. One night, after a show, Zeeny takes Saladin out drinking with a few of her friends. One of Zeeny’s friends begins a passionate political debate, which causes Saladin to feel overwhelmed. He realizes he no longer feels truly connected to India.
Zeeny and her friends, like Changez, represent a kind of Indian politics and identity that makes Saladin deeply uncomfortable. Because he ran away from India and his Indian identity, he struggles to deal with people who seem to have done the opposite. Although he is not necessarily ashamed of his alternate path through life, he has a hard time explaining himself to someone like Zeeny.
Themes
Saladin and Zeeny have a conversation about Saladin’s work as an actor. The TV show Saladin is most famous for is a sitcom about aliens that receives censure from both conservative and liberal critics. Conservatives think the show is too sexually explicit, while liberals think that the show has racist implications, as the alien characters are played by non-white actors. Zeeny teases and criticizes Saladin for using accents in his roles, which she thinks are offensive. Saladin defends himself, thinking there is nothing wrong with the way he acts. To him, the accents he uses are part of his talent. Zeeny also points out that Saladin only every appears on television if he is in some sort of costume. He is never allowed to look as he does in everyday life. For that, he has to be part of a theatre troupe that travels all the way to India.
Zeeny wants Saladin to understand that the roles he plays in his television show reinforce negative stereotypes about immigrants. In other words, the British television producers are merely using him to reinforce their xenophobic agenda. However, Saladin sees things differently; he thinks of himself only as an actor—not an Indian actor. Even if one grants Saladin this point, Rushdie uses this argument to underline an obvious contrast between the roles Saladin gets—which are questionable at best—and those Gibreel gets, as he literally portrays Gods.
Themes
During their conversation, Saladin mentions Changez. Zeeny recognizes the name because of Changez’s involvement in politics. When Saladin mentions that is thinking of visiting Changez, Zeeny convinces him to take her along. Together, Saladin and Zeeny travel to Saladin’s childhood home. There, Saladin finds that his home looks exactly the same as he left it except that everything is rundown. His housekeeper, Vallabhbhai, answers the door and invites him inside. There, Saladin sees what he thinks is the ghost of Nasreen, though it is really just Kasturba, Vallabhbhai’s wife, wearing Saladin’s mother’s clothes. Saladin learns that Changez has demanded that the entire house be kept as it was following Nasreen’s death.
The unchanged yet rundown state of Saladin’s childhood home symbolizes his arrested development and his stagnated connection to his past. The house represents a frozen memory, kept in a state of disrepair as if time has stopped since Nasreen’s death. The ghostly vision of Nasreen suggests that Saladin’s past haunts him. Of course, that his house remains in disrepair indicates that Changez has not moved on, either. Regardless of whether either would admit it, both father and son are stuck in the past.
Themes
Changez comes to see Saladin and Zeeny, but it is not a happy reunion. Although Changez is still married to the other Nasreen, it quickly becomes clear to Saladin that he is also carrying on an affair with Kasturba. Evidently, Vallabhbhai is aware of this arrangement, and Changez pays them extra to allow it to happen. Before long, Saladin and Changez get into a big fight. Changez tells Zeeny that she should listen carefully to both sides of the argument and decide a winner at the end. For his part, Saladin blames Changez for the way his life has unfolded. Meanwhile, Changez reminds him that they have not spoken in a long time and, therefore, he cannot be blamed for how Saladin’s life turned out. Changez also tells Saladin that he has no interest in continuing their relationship, making Saladin realize that the magic lamp is lost to him forever.
The affair between Changez and Kasturba, with Vallabhbhai’s complicity, reveals the moral decay that Changez has allowed to degrade his life. Meanwhile, Saladin’s attempt to blame Changez for his life’s trajectory suggests a a desire to hold someone else accountable for how his life turned out, even though he has been on his own for a long time. However, Changez’s dismissal of this blame forces Saladin to confront the reality that he is now disconnected from the heritage and familial ties that once defined him. The severing of this connection also means that Saladin will never get his hands on the object he desires: the magic lamp.
Themes
After the argument, Zeeny declares Changez the winner, which makes Saladin furious. Back at Saladin’s hotel, he and Zeeny get into a fight about Saladin’s identity and his relationship with Changez. Although Saladin thinks Zeeny is only trying to score political points, Zeeny assures him that she initially wanted to help him. However, at this point, Saladin thinks there is nothing left for him in India. He wants to return to England where he can switch back to a version of himself that makes him feel comfortable. As such, he packs up his things and boards Flight 420 to London.
Zeeny’s declaration that Changez is the winner of their argument further alienates Saladin and exacerbates his feelings of betrayal. This moment is crucial: Zeeny’s siding with Changez represents a broader societal judgment against Saladin’s choices and identity. He wants to return to England so desperately because, in England, he can hide behind the mask of his acting. To some extent, he enjoys the superficial way the English perceive him as to the more complex, messy way Zeeny and Changez see him.
Themes
