In Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses, the ideas that man creates his own reality are explored in a way that complexly involves a series of relationships and of themes that ultimately create a dense meaning behind the idea of ​​reality and how it differs in each character's life. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary definition, reality is “the true situation that exists.” This definition, however, poses problems. A single definition of reality cannot accurately apply to every individual in the world. “Real situations” vary from person to person, depending on each person's origin, religion, culture, language and social status. So who can say what the real reality is? Salman Rushdie, Edward Said and Chinua Achebe are among the many authors who have studied conflicting realities, particularly between countries, leading to a more complex analysis of themes such as privilege, power and the nation. To a multitude of perspectives are added many realities, and to many existing realities are added conflicts, competitions and doubts. By examining all of these themes under the single idea of ​​how each man forms his own reality, the works of these scholars bring out thought-provoking ideas and cause readers to consciously doubt their own realities and how they were formed. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get the original essay Since the beginning of The Satanic Verses (1988), the characters have constantly questioned their identities and realities. On page 10, the question “Who am I?” » is first presented. As the book continues, each character struggles to answer this question and to shape their reality in a way that will bring happiness and success into their lives. Each character's attempt to form their reality is based on many factors. First, humanity's dependence on stability leads people to shape their reality in part based on what makes them feel safest, most confident, and most empowered. control. The religious aspect of human reality is often extremely designed in a way to benefit that individual. Often, people discover feelings of trust and control over their realities through religious entities. In The Satanic Verses, a religious text, there is ironically a feeling of absence of any kind of god. Many characters decide the path of their lives and their realities for themselves, using a higher power of their own creation to justify their actions and decisions. For example, in the third part of the novel, the archangel Gibreel serves not God, but Rosa Diamond. He obeys her requests and bows to her needs, which are not the actions expected of an archangel. In most stories, you would expect an angel to have higher power and status than a crazy, ghost-seeing old woman, like Rosa Diamond would. However, in this section, Rosa is in complete control of Gibreel, using him as a tool to feel comfortable and take charge of her life and reality. Gibreel is Rosa's divine source of affirmation and stability. Now confused about the difference between reality and dreams, true love and forced love, and life and death, Gibreel can't find a way to escape Rosa Diamond's control. “What am I doing here?”, Gibreel wondered, “But he stayed, held by invisible chains.” (Rushdie 148). The power in this section does not lie in thedivine figures, like the archangel Gibreel, but in ordinary people, like Rosa, because it is the people themselves, not their religious gods, who shape their realities. Each man has the power to form ideas and perceptions by creating his individual and unique reality. Rushdie presents this relationship between Rosa Diamond and Gibreel as an example of how humans use religious entities as a source of stability and comfort. The existence of gods and higher powers becomes the basis of reality for many individuals. People create gods because gods are easy to control and know. God is different for each individual because people have the ability to shape their god to their needs in order to feel the stability that humans need to be confident and comfortable in their own skin and in their own reality. “A man who invents himself needs someone to believe in him.” (Rushdie 49). For humans and characters like Rosa Diamond to believe that what they want to do is the right thing to do, they must have a higher power that reassures them that they are right. Their actions are good, their opinions are reasonable, and the reality they have created for themselves is logical. If an individual succeeds, then he can congratulate himself on his great idea, but if he fails, he must blame that divine entity who "told" him to do it. Mortals can never feel stable in their own beliefs, unless there is some sort of supernatural being to satisfy man's desire for "nothing left unregulated" (Rushdie 376) and unstable. By emphasizing such ideas about religious entities, Rushdie provokes doubt in the reader's mind about the validity of religion and about religion as a mere source of comfort in the human construction of one's own reality. Rushdie discredits religion as a mere instrument of man's will to power. Religion, however, is not the only factor that affects an individual's conception of reality. Another factor that affects a person's perception of reality is what they believe constitutes power in an individual. In The Satanic Verses, the reality that Saladin subscribes to is one that grants the English people all knowledge, power, and privilege over their neighbors. lower countries. Because this is his perception of the English, and therefore the truth by which he has chosen to live, he strives throughout the novel to literally become English in every aspect of his life. He tries to change the reality that he is Indian by changing his accent, moving to England, and becoming in love with an English girl. Saladin strives to change his identity by becoming a new individual who satisfies his reality of what is socially accepted as powerful. This is driven by a kind of pressure to become the best person possible and the idea that this goal cannot be achieved in one's home country and culture. Happiness comes with success in Saladin's mind, and to achieve that success, he must recreate himself in a new place, where people are believed to be born with talent and power. Saladin is therefore constantly depicted as wearing masks to become someone else, as he struggles to shed his Indian culture in order to become an elegant Englishman. In his mind, if this goal is achieved, then the reality will be that he, now among the rest of the English, will suddenly have power and privilege. For Saladin, “becoming English” requires many steps. Early in the novel, as Saladin grew up, he began to dream of his promising future in England. He wasn't happy about following in his father's footsteps and he didn't feel he couldreach your potential by pursuing your Indian culture. Later, we see Saladin's name and accent change, which for him began the process of acceptance. in English culture. In one scene, Saladin literally wears a mask in his new English job, as he works as a voice-over actor, a job in which he hides his Indian appearance, but shows his new English accent. In the first part, Zeeny tries to convince Saladin that his job as a voice actor is degrading, as she tells him that "even now, they only let you on the air after covering your face with rubber and giving you a red wig. .” (Rushdie 64). Additionally, on pages 50 and 51, Saladin ignores the difficulties of his life with Pamela by pretending that their marriage is filled with happiness and love. Her love is something he needs. This gives him the impression that, now that he has an English lover, other English people will accept him as a man of their culture. “He needed her so much, as if to reassure himself about his own existence.” (Rushdie 50). All of these examples illustrate Saladin's struggle to transform his reality into one of English success and power. It's an idea that clearly creates struggles in a character's life, including struggles with culture, power, privilege, identity, and race. Regardless of these difficulties, characters, like Saladin, firmly combat these themes in their daily lives in order to create a life for themselves that satisfies their idea that power only exists in certain countries and cultures; in this situation, that powerful country is England. However, simply changing his identity cannot successfully change the reality that he really is not the person he is forcing himself to become. Saladin, for example, may truly believe that he has become a noble and respectable Englishman, but the reality in the minds of others remains that Saladin is an Indian, no matter where he lives or what his voice sounds like. Conflicting realities suddenly become a source of competition and struggle. Conflicting realities between different individuals often lead to conflict. Since humans tend to form personal realities – based on factors such as religion and the need for power – there will inevitably be many realities, and the majority of them will not exercise authority over the few. realities that have become strong ingrained stereotypes. in societies around the world. Not everyone can win. This idea is strongly expressed in Saladin. After putting in so much effort to become an Englishman, Saladin did not realize that even after all this effort, he would still be scrutinized and degraded by the English. For example, when he met the English officers, Saladin tried to pretend that he was English – because he truly believed that he had become a real Englishman – by giving the officers a London telephone number which was supposedly lead them to the “pretty, white, English Wife” (Rushdie 145). However, because Saladin looked Indian, the English officers treated him with disrespect and disgust, because the reality they had subscribed to is one that labels Indians, like Saladin, repulsive and bestial. People like Saladin exist all over the world, people who are robbed of their potential for success simply because of the false realities that surround their cultural identity. It is a deeply rooted and complex belief system, created by the human mind's natural instinct to judge and stereotype, but it is something that desperately needs to be unraveled and uprooted. Because Saladin's idea of ​​reality conflicted with that of the English officers andwas exceeded by that of the English officers, he was mistreated and degraded. Situations similar to Saladin's exist all over the world. Edward Said, author of the text Orientalism (1978), shares parallel ideas with Rushdie about the degrading stereotypes and false realities to which the majority of people in the world succumb. Said invented the terms “Orient” and “Oriental” to describe what he called “orientalism”. Said argues that the identity of the Orient is based on a series of refined European misconceptions. Asia and the Middle East are represented through the European imagination, and nothing else, whether the knowledge of Europeans is credible and/or even accurate or not. These often inaccurate and biased perceptions lock Easterners into an inevitable and inferior position, in which they are subject to foreign domination, religious oppression, powerless roles, and unjust and ignorantly designed stereotypes. Whether the Orientals succumb to this superior force is of no importance, for the self-proclaimed "superiority" and "knowledge" of the English gives them the power to draw the lines and make the decisions in all Eastern countries. On page 56 of Orientalism, Asia is represented by ideas formed only by foreigners, and specifically by Orientalists. Rushdie explored this idea with Saladin and British officers. Saladin was metaphorically defined as a monstrous goat-like animal by British officers because of his birthplace and heritage and nothing else. Likewise, Asia “speaks through and by virtue of the European imagination” (Said 56). Whatever vision European Orientalists have of Asia, that is what Asia will be. It is assumed that as a superior nation, Europe has the power to create and impose these descriptions and stereotypes on Asians, no matter how absurd and crude these descriptions may be. Through ideas passed down in literature and word of mouth, Asia is portrayed as ignorant and powerless, while Europeans are the opposite. It is difficult to escape this deeply ingrained description and so it is almost necessary for Asians to accept and succumb to it. All of these "realities", however, are invented simply by the Orientalist imagination, so how can much of the world justify subscribing to such degrading so-called realities? Said's ideas about orientalism are directly related to the theme of the formation of one's own reality. explored by Rushdie. Orientalist views are all created by nothing other than imagination. “The Orient was a scholarly word, signifying what modern Europe had recently made of the still particular Orient” (Said 92). This quote describes well the essence of orientilism. European Orientalists are a group of people who publish facts that are not real. necessarily even researchable – facts about culture, religion, language – all things that must be experienced to truly understand. Therefore, most of the knowledge on which the study of Orientals is based contains information constituted by the Orientalist perception and by the reality that Orientals have. Orientalists were formed around Orientals. In this quote, it is emphasized that the word "Orient" is even a scholar's word. The very name that describes this group of people from Asia and the Middle East was even invented. The rest of the information provided by the orientalists? This quote clearly indicates the likelihood that this is all false. Nothing is completely accurate, as it is almost entirely a false reality created based on opinion and perception, including the name. “Orient” itself. imaginationOrientalist is limited by what they actually know. This knowledge does not include knowledge of what Eastern culture actually is, because Orientalists have never actually experienced Eastern cultures. Therefore, the misleading realities and stereotypes we subscribe to are all formed by unquestioned false information. Many realities exist in the world, as each individual creates their own reality based on their opinions, perceptions and experiences. However, only certain realities are considered powerful and credible, whether they deserve it or not. The reality created by Orientalism is an example of a recognized and dominant perspective. The dominant realities are those that circulate the most throughout the world. To prove this point, Said refers to the authority that humanity gives to books. Humans doubt themselves so much that they don't trust humanity as a source of information. Humans need books or texts to assure themselves that certain truths are indeed true. The texts state the laws and indicate how things should be done, and once the texts are published, the words cannot be changed. Words are tangible and irrevocable. A person's opinion, on the other hand, can change and their words are not tangible. Humans therefore “tend to fall back on a text when the uncertainties of traveling to strange regions seem to threaten their equanimity” (Said 93). This fact works in favor of Western nations because, with English being the dominant language in many parts of the world, it is English books and films that are most frequently released and recognized worldwide. If humans tend to trust the information in books simply because the words are comforting to the extent that they are tangible, and if the majority of books are in English, then the majority of words that individuals around the world will relate to trust will be words of the world. Western English Nations. African writer Chinua Achebe has similar ideas about the stereotypes created by imperialist Britain. In The African Writer and the English Language (1975), he explores ideas explored by Said and Rushdie – ideas about Western perspectives as influences on others' views of citizens of potentially less powerful nations. “These nations were created in the first place by the intervention of the British, which I hasten to add is not to say that the people compromising these nations were invented by the British” (Achebe). Achebe argues that the British did build the countries of the East, but they did not literally invent the people of those countries. In Said's terms, today's Orients – or in this case, Nigerians – were constructed through the natural process by which culture was born. Because the British did not “invent” Nigerians, and because the British do not share the same or even similar culture with Nigerians, the British have no right to claim to understand that culture. This is where Achebe's and Said's arguments come together. The British may have been responsible for the birth of Nigerian culture and its many colonized nations. However, the British did not directly experience this birth of culture. Therefore, categorizing and examining these nations by attempting to define their culture is a mistake. And subscribing to the false reality that we, as Westerners, are better or superior to everyone else, as Easterners, is wrong. It is important to understand Achebe's statement about the role of the British in the,, 1978.