Importance of Story Telling in Haroun and the Sea of Stories

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Humans pose an innate art of storytelling. We need narrative like we need spare time; it’s built in within us. Everyone is born with this wonderful talent because humans are a narrative species; storytelling is within our human nature as it helps us communicate thoughts and experiences among each other. Literature is a form of communication that helps you build your identity. Stories are a means to create new things and everybody possesses that ability but tyrants may want to destroy it so that they can be the only one with that power. Stories and storytelling needs to be protected because it is natural to humans and is therefore naturally our right which should not be taken. In the novel, Haroun and the sea of stories Iff, the water genie is an archetypal character that acts as a mentor and helps Haroun realize the art of story telling that Rashid Khalifa, his dad possesses and how it needs to be protected since its unique. Iff the water genie explains “Anybody can tell stories….Liars, and cheats, and crooks, for example. But for stories with that Extra Ingredient, ah, for those, even the best storytellers need the Story Waters.” (Rushdie,58). This helped Haroun realize the special ability that his father possessed of story telling, the reason why he was known as “The Ocean of Notions.” Haroun is given the oppurtunity to help his father get his storytelling ability back which got taken away by the negative critical views he received by his wife, Mr sengupta and Haroun himself. Haroun realizes that Rashid is sad without this special gift so he decides to go on an adventure to help his father. The water genie proves Rashid's stories to be real, since he had that “special ingredient” that made his stories unique and powerful. Haroun sees that storytelling is a natural and real process which is very important to his father and he must help him get it back. Just like
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