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Salman RushdieA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
“[The bus] arrived pushing a cloud of dust, veiling her beauty from the eyes of strangers until she descended.”
The use of the word “veiling” is intentional, as the history of the veil for women in Pakistan is a long and contested one. That the veil shrouding Miss Rehana is street dust is satirical, upending the assumption that she would be veiled at all. Miss Rehana’s introduction thus foreshadows the challenge she will pose to gender norms and colonial institutions, establishing the theme of The (Western) Male Gaze and Constructions of Femininity.
“The lala, usually so rude to the Consulate’s Tuesday women, answered Miss Rehana with something like courtesy. ‘Half an hour,’ he said gruffly. ‘Maybe two hours. Who knows? The sahibs are eating their breakfast.’”
The lala’s response is not truly courteous, despite the narrator suggesting otherwise. The juxtaposition of the narrator’s description with the lala’s actual response is humorous and pokes fun at the lala while demonstrating how little the guards (and by extension the Consulate) care for the Tuesday women.
“She turned to look at him, and at close range those eyes did bad things to his digestive tract.”
This passage conveys the supposed power inherent in the beauty of the Other (gendered or racial), which renders its viewer powerless. Muhammad Ali sees Miss Rehana simultaneously as a desirable object and as a preternaturally powerful agent.
By Salman Rushdie
East, West
East, West
Salman Rushdie
Fight of the Century: Writers Reflect on 100 Years of Landmark ACLU Cases
Fight of the Century: Writers Reflect on 100 Years of Landmark ACLU Cases
Michael Chabon, ed., Ayelet Waldman, ed., Adrian Nicole LeBlanc, Meg Wolitzer, Louise Erdrich, Héctor Tobar, Neil Gaiman, Jacqueline Woodson, Rabih Alameddine, Ayelet Waldman, Brenda J. Child, Michael Chabon, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Salman Rushdie, Jesmyn Ward, Aleksandar Hemon, George Saunders, Scott Turow, Timothy Egan, Steven Okazaki, Sergio de la Pava, Andrew Sean Greer, Geraldine Brooks, Anthony Doerr, Brit Bennett, Yaa Gyasi, Moriel Rothman-Zecher, William Finnegan, Marlon James, Morgan Parker, Jennifer Egan, David Cole, Lauren Groff, Ann Patchett, David Handler, C.J. Anders, Dave Eggers, Jonathan Lethem, Michael Cunningham, Elizabeth Strout, Li Yiyun
Haroun and the Sea of Stories
Haroun and the Sea of Stories (Khalifa Brothers, #1)
Salman Rushdie, Paul Birkbeck, Paul Brickbeck
Imaginary Homelands: Essays and Criticism 1981-1991
Imaginary Homelands: Essays and Criticism 1981-1991
Salman Rushdie
Joseph Anton: A Memoir
Joseph Anton: A Memoir
Salman Rushdie
Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder
Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder
Salman Rushdie
Midnight’s Children
Midnight’s Children
Salman Rushdie
Quichotte
Quichotte
Salman Rushdie
Shalimar the Clown
Shalimar the Clown
Salman Rushdie
Shame
Shame
Salman Rushdie
The Enchantress of Florence
The Enchantress of Florence
Salman Rushdie
The Golden House
The Golden House
Salman Rushdie
The Ground Beneath Her Feet
The Ground Beneath Her Feet
Salman Rushdie
The Moor's Last Sigh
The Moor's Last Sigh
Salman Rushdie
The Satanic Verses
The Satanic Verses
Salman Rushdie
Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights
Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights
Salman Rushdie
Victory City
Victory City
Salman Rushdie