When I was 6 years old, my family took a vacation to Hawaii. We had tons of fun but that’s not the reason for telling this story. We did the whole tourist thing with tons of tours and sightseeing, and one of the places we went to was the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. My dad told me a story about Hawaiiain Gods and Goddesses and about a certain curse that gets put on visitors that take any of the volcanic rock or black sand from the national park. With me being only 6 years old at the time I didn’t dare take anything from the park. When I got older, I remembered the story my dad told me about the curse and looked it up on the internet because I thought he was just messing with me. As it turns out, there is a myth about curses being put on people that take rocks and sand from the park in Hawaii. It is said to be made up by one of the National Park rangers that created the story to stop tourists from taking the rocks. But there has been many cases where rocks have been mailed back to the National Park with letters explaining the bad luck that the visitors encountered after taking the rocks and that they are returning the rock in an attempt to break the curse.
The short story, The Prophet’s Hair by Salman Rushdie, isn’t so much about a myth but it does relate to taking items and being cursed for doing so. This story is about a moneylender that comes across a stolen relic that has a great deal of importance in his culture/religion. Instead of giving it back, he keeps it to himself stating,” After all…the Prophet would have disapproved mightily of this relic-worship. He abhorred the idea of being deified! So, by keeping this hair from its distracted devotees, I perform – do I not? – a finer service than I would by returning it!(44)” In this statement he is trying to cover the fact that he wants the relic by saying that relic worship is looked down on and that he is doing everyone a favor by not returning it so they can continue to worship it.
After he decides to keep the relic, bad things start to happen to his family. His son sees that his family is suffering from the curse put on his father and goes to hire a theif to steal it away from his father. But as he is trying to find a theif, he is beaten into a coma. His sister then goes to finish her brothers work, where she finds the Thief of thieves to do it for her. As the theif is about to steal the relic, the curse breaks loose and the moneylender, his son, and his daughter all end up dying and the moneylenders wife goes insane from seeing her family die in front of her.
The thief then makes off with the relic where the curse works its magic on him and his family. The relic is then returned back to the mosque .
This story is a parable-esque story that while it entertains also teaches the reader a “lesson”. I associate parables with religious teachings so I wouldn’t consider this story to be what religions would actually call a parable. I say this because it kind of pokes fun at religions that say they are against relic worship but then have all kinds of relics that they seem to show devotion for. It definitely tells the story by using satire or irony to show people that some of the things that they do are different than what they say, where the people are hypocritical by saying one thing and doing another. This story can be offensive to those who take it too seriously but is written to show the flaws in people that are shown all the time.
1 comment on Satire and Parables
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robburton
said 5 months ago
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