52 pages • 1 hour read
The Satanic Verses
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Themes
Performance and Parody
Saladin and Gibreel are both actors who are used to adopting new temporary identities and performing these identities for the entertainment of others. Saladin is an expert voice actor who can alter his voice in thousands of different ways. Beyond his career, however, his entire life is a performance. Saladin grows up to dislike India and would much rather be English. After spending his school years in England, he adopts a new identity. He changes his accent, name, and mannerisms to resemble what he believes is an English identity. However, Saladin's performance is a parody. English people like Pamela can distinguish between authenticity and performance, and they mock Saladin’s fake accent and assumed identity. Meanwhile, Indian people like Zeenat chide Saladin for betraying his roots and trying to turn himself into something he is not. Saladin becomes a caricature of Englishness, an unwitting stereotype that is so exaggerated it becomes even more inauthentic. Unfortunately for Saladin, his attempts to fit into English culture only make him stand out as a target for derision.
Gibreel is most famous for playing gods in theological movies. Because he does not believe in any god or religion, he views the deities as characters rather than powerful beings. After the events on Flight AI-420, however, Gibreel is thrust into a new role. In reality and in his dreams, he plays the role of the archangel Gibreel. The lack of belief that once allowed him to succeed in his performances becomes a problem, as he struggles to believe in religion despite having a halo over his head. Gibreel's time as an archangel becomes a parody of religion. He does not become any more moral or angelic, and he does not stop to think about the theological implications of his own existence. Instead, Gibreel loses his mind and burns down an entire London community.
Gibreel also plays the role of the archangel in his dreams. He speaks to Mahound at the top of the mountain and fights against the goddess Al-Lat. Each time, Gibreel is little more than a spectator. He feels no agency in his own dreams, dutifully doing as he is told. In this respect, he is akin to an actor in a theatrical performance. He reads his lines from a script and follows his instructions without any capacity to influence or change the narrative. Gibreel watches himself perform this role in a detached manner. His dreams become a parody of reality, in which he remembers or imagines events from history viewed through his atheistic lens.
Death and Rebirth
In the opening chapter of the book, Saladin and Gibreel are thrown from an exploding airplane but do not die. Saladin is transformed into a devil, and Gibreel is transformed into an angel; they are born again as religious entities. Gibreel cycles through the identities of angel, actor, murderer, and confessor while Saladin returns to his roots and is born again as an Indian man in his father's house. The more the men change, the more they suffer.
Rebirth can also happen in a symbolic sense. Alleluia and Mahound are reborn by ascending a mountain. Alleluia returns from her trip to Mount Everest as a different person. Not only do her fallen arches mean that her body has undergone a physical change, but her perspective on the world has altered. After looking down on the world from one of its highest points, she realizes that she has no more peaks to conquer. Alleluia loses her optimism and hope; she is reborn as a cynical, jaded person. Mahound ascends the mountain as a man and descends the mountain as a prophet and the founder of a religion. His world view and his beliefs remain the same, but the world perceives Mahound differently after his symbolic rebirth. The act of ascending a mountain becomes a symbol of the transformative effect of rebirth because the older versions of Alleluia and Mahound are consigned to the past.
Gibreel is caught in the transformative cycle of death and rebirth. He lives many lives as a man, an angel, and—in a vicarious sense—as the many gods he has portrayed in his films. The cycle has a disastrous effect on his psyche. Eventually, Gibreel cannot continue. After he murders Alleluia, he searches for Saladin because Saladin is the only other person who might understand the torture of the cycle of rebirths and transformations. Gibreel confesses his sins to Saladin and dies by suicide after realizing that transformation can harmful while death can be cathartic.
Faith and Cynicism
Faith is typically balanced with cynicism throughout the story, as the characters struggle to engage sincerely with the idea of belief and harbor their own doubts about the nature of the world. The interplay between faith and cynicism is encapsulated in Gibreel's character. He has always taken a cynical attitude toward religion and his lack of faith is what makes him successful, allowing him to play any religious figure in the movies that make him famous. Gibreel sees faith as a performance, so taking on the role of the gods is a natural opportunity for him. However, his cynicism endures even when he has religious experiences of his own. After surviving the attack on Flight AI-420, he begins to transform into an archangel while Saladin begins to resemble a devil. Despite this seeming demonstration of divine power, Gibreel refuses to believe. He still refers to himself as an atheist and even notes the irony of his being an angel who does not believe in God. As such, Gibreel refuses to suspend his disbelief, even in the face of evidence.
After Mahound founds the religion Submission, one of his foremost followers (Salman) loses faith in him. Salman begins to see every verse and edict in a cynical light, noticing how the religion founded by a businessman seems to tally exactly with the beliefs that a businessman might have. Salman views Mahound's teachings as a way for Mahound to validate and excuse his own behavior, rather than the literal word of God. Salman struggles to resolve the tension between his faith and his cynicism, so much so that he loses his faith and tries to run away from Mahound and his religion. He is eventually caught and put on trial by the people who never lost their faith. Salman's fate illustrates the danger of cynicism in the face of true believers. He is punished for his skepticism and his inability to maintain his faith.
The struggles between Ayesha and Mirza Saeed also capture the tension between faith and cynicism. The people of the town believe that Ayesha, like Mahound, can perform miracles and talk to angels. As a result, they follow her on a pilgrimage to Mecca. Only Mirza Saeed does not believe in the young girl and cannot overcome his cynicism. He follows the pilgrims in his car, hoping to spread his cynicism among them just like Ayesha spreads her faith. Mirza Saeed in his station wagon of skepticism and Ayesha at the head of the pilgrimage represent the competing forces of faith and cynicism, competing for the minds of the people on the walk to Mecca. By the time they reach the Arabian Sea, Mirza Saeed is beginning to have an effect. The long and difficult nature of the journey turns many of the pilgrims into cynics. They begin to doubt Ayesha and refuse to believe that she can part the sea, as she has promised to do. However, their faith is restored by the sudden and seemingly miraculous appearance of a cloud of butterflies. The pilgrims, with their faith restored and their cynicism abandoned, follow Ayesha into the water and drown. Mizra Saeed and the cynics can only watch as the faithful kill themselves for their belief. If Salman's fate reveals the danger of cynicism, then the fate of the pilgrims reveals the danger of faith. Rather than committing wholly to one or the other, the novel illustrates the need for cynicism to offset faith and vice versa.
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