How is the atmosphere set in chapter 1

Salman Rushdie, the author of Haroun and the sea of stories prepares us in chapter 1 for the rest of the book by setting a mood, in this case its really sad and we found that out in the very first paragraph. “A city so ruinously sad it has forgotten its name” In this quote Rushdie is setting a mood by showing how sad the city really is by saying its forgotten its name. In my opinion if you forget your name you basically forget your personality because your name carries your personality.So if you forget your name your personality goes with it, so there in a town where they don’t know where they are. Also in that quote Rushdie is using personification because a town cant forget it name infact it cant forget anything at all. The main word in that quote is “ruinously” this is because it is a very strong word and this is emphasising how sad the city really is. it is  saying it is so sad it has forgotten its name. Rushdie is making the reader feel sad about them so we give sympathy for the town of Alifbay.

However it isn’t all devastating there is one family that still has hope, the khalifa family, and in the book it says “whose cheer fullness was famous through out the unhappy metropolis.” Which means them being the only happy people there known for it. However the happiness eventually lost against the sadness “Then something went wrong (maybe the sadness of the city finally crept through their window)” In this quote there is more personification because sadness is a felling and it cant creep through a window and it cant creep at all. Maybe Rushdie used personification to add effect to the book like he is giving the feelings and the sadness a body and a life of its own so it can take action. This also could make the reader more engaged with the fairy story.

In this story there is even subjects that are setting a mood , such as factories. “In the north of the sad stood mighty factories in which (so am told)sadness was actually manufactured, packaged and sent all over the world” once again Rushdie is using that old friend of mine personification . Its used here when the sadness is manufactured packaged  and sent around the world which it cant do because once again it is a feeling and it just cant do that, its like saying you can receive a mail full of sadness.

In this story even the character’s are setting a mood like when Haroun asks his father Rashid where he got his stories from. Rashid ‘s reply from that question was “from the great story sea, I drink the warm story water and then I feel full of stream” and “it comes out of an invisible tap from the water genie” I don’t know about but if I was haroun I wouldn’t have believed Rashid because it doesn’t really sound believable at all  it sounds like something from a fairy tale. However it wasn’t the first   Haroun asked that question and when Rashid kept on repeating the same answer so he got really annoyed when his mother, Soryia left because of Rashid kept telling  silly stories so at exactly 11:00 o’clock Haroun squawked “What’s the point of telling stories if there not even true” and that really sett the mood between them. Sooner enough they’ve got anxious to talk to each other and it became really awkward between the 2 of them. However  Haroun tries to fix things and soon enough the get better as a family. This is what keeps happening through out not only chapter 1 but probably the whole book.

FIN!