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Part 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
Rosa Diamond, an 88-year-old English woman living by the sea, looks out at the water and thinks about ghosts. She believes ghosts are manifestations of unfinished business rather than simple apparitions. Rosa, who has always had a keen sense of the supernatural, thinks about a time in her childhood when she believes she saw the Battle of Hastings. This memory, true or not, has become a cornerstone of her identity. As she looks out her window, she suddenly sees something moving near the water’s edge, so she goes outside to investigate.
First, the name of this section of the novel is worth mentioning. Although the title may look like gibberish, when spoken aloud it sounds like one is spelling “London.” It is an example of the wordplay that recurs throughout the novel. Additionally, the Battle of Hastings occurred in 1066, when William the Conqueror’s Normans defeated King Harold II’s forces, ending Anglo-Saxon rule. This victory led to William becoming the first Norman king of England. Given the date of the battle relative to the setting of the novel, Rosa is surely mistaken unless she, like Gibreel, has visions of the past.
Themes
Down by the shore, Gibreel awakens, covered in snow, and immediately begins celebrating his survival. He makes snowballs and sings carols. Meanwhile, Saladin lies nearby encased in a thin layer of ice. Saladin cannot comprehend what has happened to him, and he thinks about the recent past with a sense of fear. As Saladin struggles with his thoughts, he feels his body freezing and worries that he might shatter like glass. Suddenly, Rosa appears. She scolds the two men for trespassing on her property. However, her sternness quickly gives way to concern. Realizing they need help, Rosa invites them into her home to warm up.
Gibreel and Saladin’s contrasting reactions to their respective rebirths foreshadows what is to come for both men. Gibreel eagerly plays in the snow—like a snow angel, one might say—while Saladin is trapped in ice, which is perhaps a reference to Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy, in which Lucifer is similarly frozen in ice. Despite the strange nature of their arrival, Rosa treats Saladin and Gibreel with kindness, representing a warmth neither is man is used to receiving from an English person.
Themes
Inside Rosa’s house, Saladin reflects on his past, particularly on how his looks served him well in his younger years, especially with women. This is an aspect of himself that he felt was long gone. However, upon waking from a disturbing dream, Saladin notices that his face has reverted to its earlier cherubic form. He also notices two painful swellings at his temples, which he initially dismisses as injuries from the fall. Additionally, he has acquired Gibreel’s bad breath (Gibreel, meanwhile, now has pleasant-smelling breath).
Although Saladin’s outside is becoming more attractive, his inside is rotting. He has inherited Gibreel’s bad breath, suggesting moral corruption. Meanwhile, the bumps appearing on his head are suspiciously placed where one might expect devil horns to grow. However, it is unclear at this point whether Saladin’s transformation is physical or if it exists purely in his mind.
Themes
As Saladin contemplates his current situation, he experiences a sense of unreality, as if the world beyond Rosa’s house no longer exists. He knows he should call Pamela to let her know he is alive, but he feels uncertain whether that is the right move. Eventually, Saladin decides to make the call, but when he does, a man answers the phone. Upset, Saladin hangs up immediately. Saladin then recalls a play he had once seen, about a man who returns home after being presumed dead, only to find his wife remarried. Overwhelmed, Saladin begins to weep uncontrollably, cursing his Indian heritage.
Because everything seems too unreal to Saladin, he calls Pamela, in part, to ground himself. However, instead of reaffirming his sense of reality, Saladin’s call in Pamela ends in disaster, as he assumes the man who picks up the phone is someone with whom Pamela is having an affair. Saladin blames his Indian heritage because he does not know to what else he can attribute his bad luck.
Themes
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Meanwhile, Rosa, unable to sleep, watches the sea from her window and hears Gibreel pacing in the room above her. Outside, Rosa sees strange figures moving on the beach. Determined to protect her property, she gets up to see what is going on. As she opens her door to go outside, she sees the bright beam of a police officer’s flashlight. The police force has come because they received reports of a suspicious person in the area. One of the officers, Inspector Lime, shows Rosa a warrant to search her property. Rosa protests, but the policemen go through with their search anyway.
The sudden arrival of the police seems strange given that Gibreel and Saladin were only outside briefly before Rosa brought them indoors. Furthermore, since Rosa did not call the police, it seems strange that someone else would have on her behalf. Either way, the police are a threatening force for Gibreel and Saladin, who are foreigners that have just entered the country in an unusual manner.
Themes
When Saladin appears in Rosa’s hallway, the police, particularly three plain-clothed immigration officers, react with glee, believing they have found an illegal immigrant. They mock Saladin, who desperately tries to explain that he is a British citizen. When Saladin raises his hands to his forehead, he discovers that he has grown two sharp, goat-like horns, confirming the officers’ suspicions that something is not right about him.
Here, the novel’s magical realism is once again in full-effect. None of the characters are particularly offput by Saladin’s bizarre appearance—in fact, the police care much more about him being an illegal immigrant than they care about the horns sprouting from his head. Their racism completely blinds them to whatever is going on with Saladin—who is, as he claims, a British citizen.
Themes
Before the police can take Saladin away, Gibreel appears on the staircase, dressed in a maroon smoking jacket and jodhpurs from Rosa’s late husband’s wardrobe. His sudden appearance, coupled with the faint golden light emanating from behind his head, causes the police to hesitate. Saladin, scared and desperate, tries to get Gibreel to stick up for him, as he senses that the police trust Gibreel for some reason. However, Gibreel, for reasons he cannot understand, cannot stop thinking about Rosa, and he ignores Saladin’s pleas. The police put Saladin in handcuffs and take them to their van. As Saladin looks back, he sees Gibreel watching him from a balcony, though there is no longer a light emanating from his head.
Unlike Saladin, who looks like a dangerous foreigner to the police, Gibreel is dressed like an elderly Englishman. Thus, to the police, he poses no threat. Gibreel seems to have almost taken on the very character of Rosa’s husband and therefore does not care when Saladin is taken away. The light that appears—and then disappears—above Gibreel’s head is meant to resemble a halo, giving him an angelic appearance. In other words, as Saladin is transforming into a devil, Gibreel seems to be becoming an angel. Notably, this coincides with Gibreel dressing as though he is English and Saladin being identified as an illegal immigrant.
Themes
