Stop crying and lauph about it.

            Every situation in our lives are shaped by the perspective we approach them with; eagerly, apprehensively, joyful or hateful, once we have a certain mind set it becomes hard to re-evaluate the situation from a clear perspective. Often this re-evaluation can be stimulated by a friend or someone else stating their opinion that allows one to reflect on their initial thoughts. Another powerful tool to allow people to view things from another perspective is satire in all forms of media and daily conversation. Satire can flip a situation that makes someone angry into humorous light hearted entertainment. Take for example the many prestigious news papers or journals that run political cartoons in every issue and give readers a moment to chuckle at an otherwise frustrating situation. More importantly it offers comfort that others may share the same views as oneself without the negative connotation of just complaining. A great example of the wonder of satire is displayed in Salman Rushdie’s “The Prophet’s Hair”, a short story from a collection titled “East, West”.

            At face value the story is quite grim and brutal to its characters. A highly esteemed and honorable moneylender, Hashim, and his upstanding and liberal family is torn apart and destroyed. All events revolve around a vial containing the Prophet Mohammad’s hair which washes up at the moneymakers dock due to a persistent current in the lake.  As soon as the vial enters the household the moneylender’s liberal and kind values transform abruptly into tight religious based ones; this is quite confusing as the moneylender initially only valued the hair for the silver case around it an its inherent rarity. The transition first occurs at dinner the night of Hashim finding the vial where he verbally assaults both his son, daughter and wife stating that it is time for “An end to politeness!” and “An end to hypocrisy!” (45). Ironically he himself has entered into the beginning of hypocrisy by embracing values he worked so diligently not to bestow in his family. In the end it kills him, his son and daughter, drives his wife mad and indirectly destroys another family.

            It is easy at first to have distaste for satire from a story such as this one. One may wonder what positive or humorous message can come from such a brutal story. As I said before satire allows the reader a chance to step back and observe what would be a terrible tragedy if it were true as an ironically funny story with strong messages. So what are the messages and why is it funny? That’s the beauty of satire; it is what you make it and how you interpret it through personal connections to situations. Personally the situation I find very funny in this book is its shot at religion. I’ve always been confused at how anyone can buy into what I consider nothing more than a storybook. However I will never be against people using religion as a basis for moral standards and a beacon of good will towards other humans. In this story Hashim, a man of great morals who displays the same goodwill to every human who crosses his path, is hypnotized by this relic, fully embraces the Qur’an, and destroys the foundation of goodness he had spent so long building in his family. This story draws on a major flaw of religion as that in order to justify its existence it provides false paths of grandeur and power. The story is humorous because it’s ridiculous. No family is every going to be fully destroyed by a father randomly accepting a faith and trying to force it on his family but it shows how blind faith can lead one to actions they would otherwise understand to be wrong.

            I think one of the best traits a person can have is the ability to laugh at them self. There is no such thing as too much laughter and there are too many things to be stressed out about in our lifetimes. Satire provides the ability to diffuse the stress associated with a situation and turn it into something positive, even if its just the feeling that someone else views a situation similarly to yourself. Satire allows an artist to be brutally honest, to say I agree to disagree and this is why I disagree without the intention of being hurtful.