hair based mass

During America’s young existence it has developed a thick history of spoken short stories mimicking in many ways the age-old tradition of verbal accounts to preserve knowledge. Salman Rushdie’s style also mirrors this style of short story telling that’s quick time-frame can allow for a much deeper second reading. His words are all loaded with double meanings that may or may not be picked up by the general audience. The language is directed at a slightly more perceptive crowd, but is simple enough that it could be told around a campfire. Rushdie’s “The Prophet’s Hair” is a deliberate commentary on religious icons and religious practices in general, but is all shrouded behind the guise of irony.

                 Focusing all the action of the tale on a simple, yet highly revered relic of a holy human hair, the author leaps into his work with the loaded idea that human hair worship is not only imaginable, but actually took place within at least one real life culture. This symbol could have been a scrap of clothing worn once by a prophet or a golden goblet believed to hold the secret power to restore youth and vitality. However, the author chose to depict his main relic as something unfamiliar to many Westerners. This may or may not have been deliberately intended for a Western audience, but its effect is evident. In Western society the goal of big crusades is without fail some large treasure or at least a special, shiny medallion with the power to rule the world. Either way, Americans are only interested in something as simple as a goblet if they are promised it will eventually lead them or at least the main character to power.

                Rushdie, by invoking the relic associated with power, is commenting heavily on the power seeking that he seems to associate with mass religious groups. The character Sheikh Sin’s whole motivation throughout “The Prophet’s Hair” is under the false-pretenses of religion. The relic he covets is intended for religious idolatry, which, in many Western stories is the path to ruin, Sin’s wife, who avoids involving herself in the obsession and greed, is rewarded in the end for her righteous behavior.  Rushdie’s insight is not a new concept, but his style is inventive.