One Tuesday forenoon. the beautiful Miss Rehana leaves a coach in forepart of the British Consulate somewhere in Pakistan. Her parents are dead. and her fiance . who lives in Bradford and who she has non seen since she was nine old ages old. has sent for her. and she has come to use for a visa to immigrate to Britain. She is instantly accosted ( D. : jmd. ansprechen ) by the advice expert Muhammad Ali. who is so attracted to the beautiful immature miss. that he even offers her his advice for free. Miss Rehana scrupulously uses his advice. but non to”pass” the trial. Alternatively. she intentionally ( D. : Massachusetts Institute of Technology Absicht ) fails. stating Muhammad afterwards that she has a occupation in a great house as ayah /nanny to three male childs who would hold been really sad to see her spell.
Structure of the secret plan
Rushdie has ever been fascinated by gesture images. and the action of this individual incident is presented to the reader as if he was watching histrions in a movie. At the beginning of the narrative Miss Rehana is at first concealed ( D. : verborgen ) by a cloud of dust. and so makes a dramatic entryway when she descends from the coach. The narrative is divided into short scenes. in which the reader forms certain outlooks as to ( D: hinsichtlich ) how the narration could go on.
p. 203 -205 /15: the reader has formed the feeling that Miss Rehana is a beautiful and polite immature lady.
p. 205/16-206/27: Miss Rehana does non look to be so polite any longer. as she is evidently doing merriment of the old adult male.p. 206/28-208/2: Muhammad Ali. the criminal and defrauder. who normally feels no guilt when it comes to flim-flaming adult females into giving him money. is giving his advice for free.
p. 208/3- 208/25: Miss Rehana is angry now and the old adult male feels like a sap. as she tells him off ( D: jmd. ausschimpfen ) p. 208/26- 210/29: Miss Rehana is happy once more. Against all the outlooks she does non desire to go forth Pakistan and travel to Britain to get married Mustafa Dar. Muhammad is puzzled. but impressed by Miss Rehana`s finding and the beautiful smiling she gives him when she departs.
The theatrical gap finds its analogue in the stoping: ”Her last smiling. which he watched from the compound until the coach concealed it in a dust-cloud. was the happiest thing he had of all time seen in his long. hot. difficult. unloving life. ”
PutingThe compound. Rushdie has revived the colonial scene of the compound or reach zone. The country in and around it is clearly defined by a bus-stop. a shanty-town and the closely restrained consulate. where the privileges for entry to the West are granted. The writer wants to demo that colonial constructions still exist even after independency and that entry to the West is still regarded as a privilege.
Good Advice Is Rarer Than Rubies by Salman Rushdie
Point of position
The narrative is told by a third-person storyteller who concentrates on Muhammad Ali. He offers us insight into Muhammad`s motivations and his captivation with Miss Rehana. As the reader concentrates more or less on him and forgets about Miss Rehana. the result of the narrative comes really much as a surprise to him.
MannerThe narrative is written in a really simple manner with comparatively short sentences. The reader is non distracted ( D. : ablenken ) from the events by any subplots or long. descriptive transitions. An of import characteristic is the spoken linguistic communication. which gives a realistic sense of the manner many people speak in Pakistan.
Muhammad`s English is non fluid and full of grammar errors. In contrast to him Miss Rehana`s English is perfect ; she has likely had a better instruction. The protagonists`s linguistic communication contains elements which are typically English ( “tip-top” . ”absolutely topsy-turvy” ) . On the other manus. Hindi. Urdu and Arabic looks besides come up ( “lala. sahib. pukka. babuji. bibi. salaam. wallah” ) . Besides there are looks which the Western reader might category as being oriental: “Good advice is rarer than rubies. ” “When destiny sends a gift. one receives good luck. ” Finally there are looks which the oriental reader might category as being British: “ . . a great state full of the coldest fish in the universe. ” Rushdie does non merely underscore the post-colonial effects of the spread of the English linguistic communication but besides the inquiry how it has mixed with autochthonal ( D: einheimisch ) languages to organize a intercrossed linguistic communication. which both the coloniser and the colonized can understand.
Fictional charactersMiss RehanaShe is different from all the other Tuesday adult females. From the really get downing. the writer stresses her breath-taking beauty by which she attracts the bus-driver`s. Muhammad`s and the Consulate official`s attending. When the advice-giver Muhammad Ali approaches her to give her advice. she confidently informs him that she is a hapless orphan and can non give him any money. Under her enchantment ( D: Zauber ) . he offers his advice for free. which she accepts. However. she is by no means the docile and diffident immature adult female the reader expects. She forms her ain thoughts and knows about what is right or incorrect. Probably. she has learnt merely to trust on herself. To the reader she appears as really self-assured. painstaking. content with her present state of affairs. polite. but besides rather steadfast and rigorous when the state of affairs demands it.
Muhammad AliHe is a unmerciful criminal who exploits the state of affairs of those who try uneasily to acquire permission to come in Great Britain. Muhammad can non make without the money he is given by these adult females. Yet Miss Rehana evidently manages to writhe him around her small finger by her beauty. that he does non look as the powerful advice-giver any longer who knows everything. He is all of a sudden a foolish old adult male. who has lost his caput. because of a immature adult female who even makes merriment of him. His male pride is highly hurt. when Miss Rehana turns down his advice.
Good Advice Is Rarer Than Rubies by Salman Rushdie
SubjectsPigeonholingThe narrative opens with the description of the coach which brings Miss Rehana to the compound: it is decorated with oriental arabesques but besides with Western mottos. and can therefore non be classed as belonging to one civilization or the other – it can non be stereotyped. Miss Rehana is non the beautiful. polite immature lady she seems to be and Muhammad is non the corrupt criminal. The narrative construction underscores in which manner stereotypes are formed. and by let downing the outlooks the reader has formed. Rushdie wishes to do the reader aware of the mechanisms which lead to pigeonholing. Rushdie stresses that the reader should reflect on historical and cultural procedures which have determined our manner of seeing things.
Linkss to other narrativesImmigration:Although it is non a cardinal issue. Spark`s “The Black Madonna” besides deals with in-migration. However. it shows the racism which some immigrants experienced when they entered Britain. whereas Rushdie underlines the fact that in-migration is non ever the ideal solution. Pigeonholing: This besides an issue in Qaisra Sharaz`s “A Pair of Jeans” : in the eyes of the future in-laws Miriam is at first the ideal stereotyped Muslim daughter-in-law. but when she sees her dressed in Western apparels she is automatically stereotyped as the natural state. disobedient miss.
The writerRushdie was born in Bombay in 1947 to a middle-class Muslim household. he was educated at the Engluish public school Rugby and studied at King`s College Cambridge. His 4th novel. “The Demonic Verses” opens with two Indian histrions falling from the sky after a elephantine jet is hijacked and explodes. The novel was controversial as it dealt with the laminitis of Islam. Muhammad. in a satirical manner. This led to accusals of blasphemy against Islam. so that the novel was banned in many states and was burned in the streets of Bradford. Iran`s religious leader at that clip. publish a fatwa ( a legal dictum ) naming on all Muslims to kill the author and the publishing houses of the book. which forced Rushdie to travel into concealment.
