the object of our life

                Religious, belief, hobbies and personal characteristics are touchy subjects one dare not enter. That brings out the satire when it is joke about. Satire has been controversial through literature. It can be a simple joke with no harm done or it can be the most powerful expression to draw attention to the truth, your truth. Satire is, somewhat, ironic. It can be a powerful expression at the expense of offending a single person to a whole group of people. Salmon Rushdie, a famous writer, just recently came out of his cave after the bounty on his head was lifted. Rushdie goes where few dare. He touches the touchy subject few ever mention. In Rushdie short stories book, “East, West”, he satirize two worlds, the East and West. Specifically, the story “The Prophet’s Hair”, Rushdie focus on the individual item that we cherish and worship. In a sense, we all have objects that draw us away from reality and into our own world. Rushdie satirized the religious objects and the associates individual or group. The idea of an object controlling you is just to “ironic”.

                Hashim, the main character in “The Prophet’s Hair”, is a wealthy money lender married with a boy and a girl. The title in itself is satire of Hashim’s life. “The money lender”, is Hashim’s title. He is very successful, “the money lender and his wife had successfully sough to inculcate the virtues of thrift”(42). A piece of paper can be extremely value depending on what is on it, while other papers are use for the likes of wiping yourself.

One day, Hashim discovered a vial that forever changed his perspective on objects. Confide in the vial, “is a walls a silver pendant bearing a single strand of hair” (42). Later, he discovered “he was in possession of the famous relic of the Prophet Muhammad” (43). After discovering this object, this strand of hair, Hashim forever changed religiously. Deciding that he is the one to carry Muhammad’s job leaving out everyone else. He believe “the Prophet would have disapproved mightily of this relic-worship” so instead of returning it, he “perform a finer service than I would by returning it” (44). This piece of hair is able to draw Hashim into the religious world.

The hair changed Hashim way of thinking, drawing him away from reality and into his dream. He starts to beat on his wife, threaten her with divorce, and a crumbling family all because of the hair he discovered. This lead to his demise when he killed his own daughter, thinking that a theft has come for Muhammad’s hair and ,ultimately, lead to his death after discovering that he has taken his own daughter’s life.

It is ironic how we put so much value into objects. Like the hair that Hashim discovered, we have lucky charms, key chain, photograph, paper with a head on it to simply a card with numbers on it. We, sometimes, even set the standard of these objects over a human life. Hashim didn’t realize that until it was too late. For me, I would have a ritual with my cell phone, believing that if I place it on top of my card at a poker table, I would have a high chance of hitting the cards I need. It’s ironic, placing a single object over one self’s intuition on a bet playing for “poker chips”.