The Satanic Verses: Study Questions. IX. A Wonderful Lamp
1. As with other sections of The Satanic Verses, the title of this one may identify what is important about the material. What is the wonderful lamp? Why doesn't Rushdie call it a magic lamp? Why is it important to Chamcha? When he rubs it, does a genie appear? (Actually, several sorts of genies appear; what are they?)
2. The section begins with the marriage of Mishal Sufyan to Hanif Johnson. Does this promise to be a good marriage? What combination of qualities does the marriage represent? How does it compare to other marriages or matings in the novel? Is Mishal's open display of sexual feeling for Hanif embarrassing, funny, touching, dangerous, or all of them? Is it important that Chamcha attends the marriage?
3. Parallels between Chamcha's return flight to Bombay and his earlier flight to England are signaled by the name of the plane (Gulistan and Bostan were the two gardens of Paradise) and by the geographical reversal. Instead of traveling with Gibreel, Chamcha rides with Sisodia (who informs him about Gibreel). What is the significance of the parallel?
4. Gibreel's movies, based on his dreams in the novel, turn out to be significant failures. George Miranda comments, "Looks like he's trying deliberately to set up a final confrontation with religious sectarians, knowing he can't win, that he'll be broken to bits" (539). Are Miranda's observations a self-conscious characterization of the dream sections of Rushdie's novel?
5. But a few pages earlier, Bhupen Gandhi defends his own use of religious material in his poems: "We can't deny the ubiquity of faith. If we write in such a way as to pre-judge such belief as in some way deluded or false, then are we not guilty of elitism, of imposing our world-view on the masses?" (537). Is this view a description of Rushdie's openness in the novel or of the elitism that some of his opponents have claimed?
6. The central event of the last section is Chamcha's reconciliation with his dying father. What contribution does each man make towards the reconciliation? Why do they make it? In what ways does the reconciliation end Chamcha's career as an actor? His father had been a religious man. What are the religious implications of his death?
7. Saladin Chamcha changes his name back to Salahuddin Chamchawala (523-54)--or is it changed back for him (by whom--his father, the author)? What are the levels of meaning in that change?
8. The movement from one generation to another is represented twice in this section: in the marriage of Mishal and Hanif, and in Chamcha's inheritance from his father. As the new head of his father's household, Chamcha has to establish new relations to the other survivors, especially Nasreen and Kasturba. What is the nature of their joint-survivorship? Whose decision is it that the house at Scandal Point be sold, and why does it matter?
9. After his father's death one of the first activities Chamcha becomes involved in is the "human chain" organized by the communist party. What is the significance of the chain? Why is it important that it is organized by communists? Why (other than interest in Zeeny Vakil) does Chamcha participate? In what senses is the event successful, in what senses not?
10. The conclusion of the novel is both quick and surprising. Chamcha does not feel guilty about Sisodia but does about Allie. Why cannot he "find it in himself to call the death-sentence unjust" (348), when he fears that Gibreel will kill him? Did Gibreel kill Allie or did, as he says, Rekha do so? At the end, what is our attitude towards Gibreel? (For that matter, what do we think of Chamcha? Is he courageous, cowardly, or neither as he faces Gibreel?)
11. What do you make of all of the satanic references in the last pages? "Understand me Spoono / Bloody hell / I loved that girl" (345). "To the devil with it! Let the bulldozers come" (347). "'My place,' Zeeny offered. 'Let's get the hell out of here'" (347). Can these ordinary-speech references be connected to the big Angel-Satan images that run through the novel?
12. At the end, Zeeny and Chamcha ride slowly off into the sunset (or something like that). Some critics have commented that a novel that begins in wild postmodernism ends in nineteenth-century sentimentality. Others are moved by the reconciliations that take place and by the note of optimism they imply. Given Rushdie's notions of the instability of character, can the novel be said to end at all?