RELIGION AND MORALITY IN JOHN UPDIKES A&P AND SALMAN RUSHDIES THE PROPHETS HAIR.

by OLORUNTOLA MUFULIAT OLABISI

THE DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE, FACULTY OF ARTS, UNIVERSITY OF ILORIN, ILORIN. MAY, 2011. ABSTRACT Religion and morality, considered as two inseparable entities, are central preoccupations in literature. The two are viable tools in exploring the concerns of many writers including John Updike and Salman Rushdie. The research examines religion and morality in two short stories John Updikes A&P and Salman Rushdies The Prophets Hair. The study adopts formalism, a theory that examines form as related to the autonomy and aesthetics of an art work. The analysis of the two short stories revealed that the stories are preoccupied with morality and religion. Updikes concern is with Christianity while Rushdie focuses on Islam. Updike explores the idea that what is morally justifiable to one person may be morally unjustifiable to another while Rushdie treats the question of morality in the theme of retributive justice. John Updike and Salman Rushdie are radical writers who deploy religion to examine hypocrisy and retribution respectively.

CHAPTER I Introduction Statement of Research Problem Purpose of the Study Scope and Limitation Justification Methodology Authors Background Literature Review CHAPTER II John Updikes A&P The Plot of A&P Thematic Preoccupation in A&P The Setting of A&P Characterization in A&P Language and Style of A&P

CHAPTER II Salman Rushdies The Prophets Hair Plot Thematic Preoccupation in The Prophets Hair

The Setting of The Prophets Hair Characterization in The Prophets Hair Language and Style of The Prophets Hair CHAPTER IV A Comparative Study of John Updikes A&P and Salman Rushdies The Prophets Hair Findings Summary Conclusion CHAPTER V Recommendations Bibliography

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Religion has always been concerned with morality. Indeed, the Ten Commandments are moral commandments. Much of the life and teachings of Jesus Christ are concerned with the standards of conduct by which men ought to live. At the very core of religion is the message that man must live according to the moral standards of God in order to achieve ultimate salvation. Early philosophers, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, among them, were concerned with religion and morality. The earliest dramas of medieval Europe and England were miracle and morality plays. Khalid Latif (2008) believes that Islam is a comprehensive way of life, and morality is one of the cornerstones of Islam. Morality is one of the fundamental sources of a nations strength, just as immorality is one of the main causes of a nations decline. Islam has establish ed some universal fundamental rights for humanity as a whole, which are to be observed in all circumstances. To uphold these rights, Islam has provided not only legal safeguards, but also a very effective moral system. Thus, in Islam, whatever leads to the welfare of the individual or the society and does not oppose any maxims of the religion is morally good, and whatever is harmful is morally bad. John Updike and Salman Rushdie, whose short stories have been selected for this study, are concerned with morality. The society in John Updikes A&P is presented as a religious one that believes in morality and associates certain values with some moral standards. However, the writer uses the major character in the story, Sammy, a teenage boy, to protest against the belief held by the entire A&P society represented by Lengel, the manager of the supermarket and his sheep. In the same vein, Salman Rushdies The Prophets Hair examines the question of religion and morality and the writer uses the characters in the story to establish the theme of retributive justice for good or evil. Religion and morality will be examined in the two short stories and the formalist theory will be adopted in the study.

Statement of Research Problem

Researches have established the role of religion for upholding religious faith and religious uprightness. The research problem encountered is the peoples perception of religion, and the belief that it is only through religion that morality can be upheld. There is also the problem of using religion to inculcate moral values, and the notion and belief that ones mode of dressing may be a sign of moral delinquency. The notion that youths are the moral delinquent ones and the problem of religious uprightness are issues to be addressed. These identified problems encountered in the course of the research are critically going to be addressed. The questions arrived at after identifying the problems are:1. 2. 3. 4. What is the relationship (or the point of contact) between religion and morality? How has religion been able to increase and inculcate moral values? How can we use religion to address the issue of moral delinquency? What is the difference between religion and religious faith?

These questions among others are going to be addressed in the study of the two short stories. Purpose of The Study The purpose of the study is to examine religion and morality in the two short stories: John Updikes A&P and Salman Rushdies The Prophets Hair. The study also aims at examining the narrative elements in the stories. A short story is one of many narrative structures. Thus, the study will also focus on the definition as well as the properties of a short story. Scope and Limitation Religion and morality are aspect of human life that are inseparable and should be treated as a single indivisible entity. Issues of religion and morality have been addressed by John Updike and Salman Rushdie in their short stories; A&P and The Prophets Hair respectively. The study will therefore, limit itself to identifying the elements in the short stories that relate to issues of religion and morality. These issues will be addressed and examined critically in order to establish a relationship with the variables in the research topic; religion and morality. Justification Religion and morality in John Updikes A&P and Salman Rushdies The Prophets Hair is a topic which deserves attention. Few researches according to findings have dealt with the short story. The short story has suffered neglect in criticism. Researches deal more with the novel, the dramatic and poetic genres and shy away from the short story. This neglect may have been informed by the fact that the short story appears flimsy and can be read at one sitting. But the short story is not flimsy. It is a complex form and incorporates the features of both the novel and poetry. Poetry as we know is the most complex genre of literature. Therefore, this research will examine how the authors have addressed the issue of religion and morality in their works and add to the literature review on the short story and the two authors: Updike and Rushdie. Nevertheless, religious groups and the society at large will benefit from this research, because at the end

of the study, the examination of issues in the stories will help to re-shape their thinking and views on religion and morality. Methodology The research work will adopt the formalist theory. This theory will focus on the theme of hypocrisy in the short stories selected for study. The thematic concern will incorporate sub-themes that will revolve around the major thematic focus to create unity and establish the relationship between the various subthemes that will be selected alongside the major thematic focus. The formalist theory emanated in France in the 19th century, and the concern is with structure, form, and aestheticism and involves other sub-elements such as the nature of imagery, linguistic features and motif. Authors Background JOHN HOYER UPDIKE (1932-2009) John Hoyer Updike was born on March, 1932 in Reading, Pennsylvania. He is best known as the author of Rabbit, Run. He died on January 27th, 2009. FAMILY AND MARRIAGES Updike was the only child of Wesley Russell Updike and Linda Grace Hoyer in Reading, Pennsylvania and he grew up in a nearby small town-Shillington. The family later moved to the unincorporated village of Plowville. His mothers attempts to be a published writer influenced the young Updikes own aspirations. John Updike married Mary Entwisted Pennington in 1953. They separated in 1974 and were divorced in 1976. They had four children: David, Michael, Miranda and Elizabeth. He later married Martha Bernhard in 1977 and they remained married until his death in 2009. EARLY LIFE AND CAREER John Updike graduated from Shillington High School as a co-valedictorian and class president in 1950. He later attended Harvard after receiving a full scholarship. At Harvard, he immediately established himself as a major talent of indefatigable energy, submitting a steady stream of articles and drawings for the Harvard Lampoon, which he served as president before graduating Summa Cum Laude in 1954 with a degree in English. After graduation, he decided to become a graphic artist and attended the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art at the University of Oxford. His early ambition was to be a cartoonist. After moving to the United States, Updike and his family moved to New York, where he became a regular contributor to The New Yorker. He stayed only two years writing Talk of the Town columns and submit ting poetry and short stories to the magazine. During this time Updike also underwent spiritual crisis suffering from a loss of religious faith and began reading Soren Kierkeqaard and the theologian, Karl Barth. Both deeply influenced his own religious beliefs, which in turn figured prominently in his fiction. He remained a believing Christian for the rest of his life. Updikes subject is the American small town, protestant middle class. He is well recognized for his careful craftsmanship, his unique prose style, and his prolificness. He populated his fiction with characters who frequently experience personal turmoil and must respond to crises relating to religion,

family obligations and marital infidelity. His fiction emphasizes on Christian theology, sexuality, and sensual details. His highly distinctive prose style features a rich, unusual, sometimes arcane vocabulary as conveyed through the eye of a wry intelligent authorial voice that extravagantly describes the physical world while remaining squarely in the realist tradition. He variously described his own style as an attempt to give the mundane its beautiful due.

SALMAN RUSHDIE (1947 - ) Salman Rushdie is a famous writer. He was born in 1947 in a Muslim family in Bombay. His father was a Cambridge educated businessman. At the age of fourteen, Rushdie was sent to Rugby School in England. In 1964, his parents moved to Karachi, Pakistan. EDUCATION AND CAREER Salman Rushdie graduated from Kings College, Cambridge, in History with Honours. After graduation, he worked for sometime in the television Industry in Pakistan. He made a debut as a novelist with Grimus in 1975. In his writings, he uses tales from various genres fantasy, mythology, religion and oral tradition. Though most of his books have been subject of controversies, in the year 1988, Salman Rushdie came in the eye of storm with the publication of The Satanic Verses for its alleged blasphemous remarks on Islam and the Prophet. The entire Muslim world was enraged at the publication of the novel, The Satanic Verses. This led to the declaration of death sentence on him by Ayatollah Khomeini, the then religious sovereign of Iran. This was when Rushdie went into hiding in London. After remaining in hiding for many years, Rushdie came out recently. Rushdies work, Midnights Children was awarded the Booker Prize in 1993 and this brought him international fame. In 1996, he received the European Union Literary Award in Denmark. His other works are Shame (1983), The Wizard of Oz (1992), The Moors Last Sigh (1995), amongst others. MARRIAGES Salman Rushdie is known for his multiple marriages. In 1976, he married Clarissa Luard, they had a son from the marriage. Rushdie and Luard divorced in 1987. He latemarried Marianne Wiggins in 1988, a year after his divorce with Luard. Wiggins is an American novelist. Rushdie and Marianne Wiggins divorced in 1993. His third marriage was to Elizabeth West in the year 1997, through which she had a son. But the marriage also hit the rock in the year 2004. Rushdies last marriage, which is the fourth one, is to a prominent Indian model and actress, Padmalakshmi in 2004. The marriage lasted until the year 2007. JOHN UPDIKE, SALMAN RUSHDIE AND THE SHORT STORY Rushdie and Updike are both radical and controversial writers. They are also writers of short stories. The short story according to Wikipedia, is a work of prose fiction that is long enough for an average reader to finish it in one sitting rather than several, as the longer novel or novella normally takes. This usually means it would be somewhere under 10,000 words. Edgar Allan Poe once described a short story or tales as they were then called as a short prose narrative requiring from a half-hour to one or two hours in its perusal. During the hour, the hour of Perusal, the soul of the reader is at the writers control. There are no external or extrinsic influences resulting from weariness or interruption. This was taken from a review Poe had made in 1842 of Nathaniel Hawthornes Twice Told Tales. This is why it is common to say that a short story should be read at one sitting.

Poes comment implies the brevity of many short stories and points to the economy of management which the tightness of the form always imposes in some degree. We can say that, by and large, the short story writer introduces a very limited number of persons, cannot afford the space for the leisurely analysis and sustained development of character and cannot undertake to develop as dense and detailed social milieu as does the novelist. The author of the short story often begins the story close to, or even on the verge of the climax, minimizes both prior exposition and the details of the setting, keeps the complication down, and clears up the denouement quickly sometimes in a few sentences. The central incident is often selected to be as revelatory as possible of the totality of the protagonists life and character, and the details are devised to carry maximum significance. This sparseness in the narrative often gives the artistry in a well-constructed novel. The short story, like the novel, however, has all the elements of fiction. These are: theme, setting, plot, characterization, language, and point-of-view. SETTING This is the time and place or location in which a short story takes place. It is the background against which the events in the story are built. For some stories, the setting is very important, while for others it is not. Akande and Ibrahim (2000, 53) posits that, Without setting, the story is like a building without a foundation. No matter how beautiful a building is, if it lacks a foundation, its aesthetic and structural functionality are weakened. The setting of a short story however is usually strategically chosen and may be limited to just a few places, and the time setting may be made to run between the time space of morning, afternoon and night. PLOT This is the sequential arrangement of a series of events in the story. A story may be likened to a piece of a new cloth cut into pieces by a tailor to be sewn into a dress. The pieces are sewn together to make a dress. The complete dress is the plot. The plot may be sub-divided into three phases-the beginning, the middle, the end and must have a unity. The short story usually have one plot so it can maintain this unity. There are five essential parts of the plot: Introduction, rising action, falling action, climax and denouement which is the resolution of the conflict generated in the climax. CHARACTERIZATION What the writer does is to bring into focus how human imagination is physically entangled in the human character. The author therefore, is working from the point-of-view of an object marked or raised or made by man on a scene and this is worth ten times any such formed by unconscious nature. There are two meanings for the word character: the person in a work of fiction and the characteristics of a person. The main character in a work of fiction is either the antagonist or the protagonist. Short stories use few characters. One character is clearly central to the story with all the major events revolving around this character. This character is the protagonist. The opposer of the main character is the antagonist. Characters are convincing if they are consistent, motivated, and life-like (resemble real people). There are two major types of characters, they are round and flat characters. LANGUAGE According to Ibrahim and Akande (2000, 57) language is the putting of words together in order to achieve a piece of creative work. The setting of a work - rural or urban will determine the kind of diction

the

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STYLE This is where the wholeness of art comes into focus. Ranging from setting to denouement, the artist would demonstrate artistic skill. This is the authors ability to adapt his language to the material or the idea he is dealing with. Style, therefore, is the skillful interpretation or coating of ones thought, idea and feelings in a method that is peculiar or unique to a particular author. No two authors have exactly the same stylistic approach to writing. The beauty of any style thus lies in its intelligibility and its functionality. A novelist primarily uses language imaginatively for aesthetics. Therefore, without the use of language and other narrative elements, the novelists work would not be different from historical, sociological and anthropological documentations. THEME This is the message in a work of fiction. It is the central idea of any literary piece. No literature can exist without a theme or some themes readily presented through the content of the writing. The mood and tone can also be easily predicted from the underlining theme. The subject could be the quest motif; it could be birth or death, guilt or innocence, greed, scapegoatism, rituals, sacrifices, and so on. The theme is the minor category of ideas that could be gotten from the subject which is the central idea. POINT-OF-VIEW This is the medium used by the novelist to indicate the mode used by a character in a particular fictional work. Through this, the author allows the reader to see how a character expresses his thoughts, feelings, and at times gestures. The point-of-view may be classified as follows: Innocent eye, the stream of consciousness, the first person point-of-view, and the omniscient point-of-view. The short story differs from the novel and the novelette, though the three are fictions. The critical consciousness of the short story as a piece of fiction distinct in purpose and in method from the novel dates only from the nineteenth century. It was Edgar Allan Poe who first designated and realized the short story as a distinct form of literary art. A true short story is something other and something more than a mere story which is short. A true short story differs from the novel chiefly in its essential unity of impression. In a far more exact and precise use of the word, a short story has unity as a novel cannot have it. Often, it may be noted by the way the short story fulfils the three false unities of the French classic drama: it shows one action, in one place, on one day. A short story deals with a single character, a single event, and a single situation. The short story is the single effect, complete and self-contained, while the novel is of necessity broken into a series of episodes. Thus, the short story has what a novel cannot have -the effect of totality, as Poe called it, the unity of impression. The short story is not only not a chapter out of a novel or an incident or an episode extracted from a longer tale, but at its best it impresses the reader with the belief that it would be spoiled if it were made larger, or if it were incorporated into a more elaborate work. It may be said that no one has ever succeeded as a writer of short stories who had not ingenuity, originality, and compression, and that most who have succeeded in this line had also the touch of fantasy. The main aim or technique of a short story therefore, is to produce a single narrative effect with the greatest economy of means that is consistent with the utmost emphasis. The short story as said earlier has a single narrative effect. A narrative effect necessarily involves the

three elements of action, character, and setting. In aiming to produce a narrative effect, the short story, therefore, differ from the sketch, which may concern itself with only one of these elements without involving the other two. The sketch most often deals with character or setting divested of the element of action, but in the short story, something has to happen. Short stories, therefore, may be divided into three classes, according to the effect which they wish to produce: is it primarily an effect of action, or of character, or of setting. Summarily, the short story is a work of prose fiction, and most of the terms for analyzing the component elements, the types, and the various narrative techniques of the novel are applicable to the short story as well. The short story differs from the anecdote the single and unelaborated narration of a single incident in that it organizes the action, thought, and interactions of its characters into the artful pattern of a plot. As in the novel, the plot form may be comic, tragic, romantic, or satiric. The story is presented to us from one of many available points-of-view, and it may be written in the mode of fantasy, realism or naturalism. The authors of the short story often use symbols and recurring images to help convey the ideas. This can take the form of personification. These are called narrative figures. LITERATURE REVIEW Obasola, cited in Dopamu (2003, 201) posits that the need for morality in the society has assumed a wider dimension especially in its relationship with the religious, political and economic related issues. This portends that the quest for morality is an indispensable fact of human existence. It will suffice to note that morality is not an abstract phenomenon but a real practical means of developing the sense of justice in the people as a prerequisite for social solidarity, welfare and happiness in the society. Thus, morality is so crucial, not only to the individual, but also to the society at large. The imperative of morality, therefore, is to establish the justifiability of an action, whether an action is well motivated or comprehensible. Hence, the hallmark of morality in any human society is to regulate those spheres of human life and conduct which no other aspect of human endeavor can curtail. It also regulates the personal and interpersonal relationships of people within an established social milieu thereby paving the way for social harmony, which engenders socio-political development. Consequently, the development of persons socially, politically, economically, and so on; will be incomplete without the guiding light of morality. Therefore, any human organization where morality is extricated from the body polity will inexplicably lead to perdition. Obasola states further that ethics and morality are used interchangeably. In other words, they are used as synonyms. Ethics, as such, has been defined as, the branch of philosophy that is concerned with what is morally good and bad, right and wrong. In the same vein, ethics considers social forms and institutions from the point-of-view of their completeness and coherence as expressions of human nature. It asks whether the social life is the best or the only life for a human soul. (Hastings, 415) Adewale (1997, 72) defines religion as, the means of communion and communicationbetween the human and super human beings, between the sensible and the super-sensible, between the finite and the infinite, between the visible and the invisible, in one word, between man and God. Religion is an intrinsic aspect of every human life and it forms the essential bed-rock upon which peoples moral and social obligations are based. Richardson (1948, 125) claims that morality is a product of religion. It is God who puts in people the sense of what is right and what is wrong, thereby bringing about the sense of obligation. This is clearly

stressed by Alan Richardson when he states that, the sense of obligation to do that which is believed to be right is, infact, the pressure of God upon every human life. Brunner (1947) and Barth (1938) corroborate and support the concept of morality by Alan Richardson. This means that morality is indeed the idea of God, who has imbued people with the consciousness of distinguishing right actions from wrong ones. Therefore, we assert that morality and religion are two sides of a coin and one cannot be divorced from the other. In Wikipedia, however, the idea that morality can be divorced from religion is dealt with by several prominent scholars as well as more popular culture based writers. But the idea remains in the realm of a debate. Several figures from religious traditions have stated that while the non-religious can and do act morally, the idea of morality and abstract standards of good and evil cannot exist without some kind of religious components. For example, Irishborn British academic and writer C.S Lewiss argument in Mere Christianity that if a supernatural, objective standard of right and wrong does not exist outside of the natural world, then right and wrong becomes mired in the is-ought difficulty. Thus, he wrote that preferences for one moral standard over another become as inherently indefensible and arbitrary as preferring a certain flavour of food over another or choosing to drive on certain side of a road. In Google, Irfan Hussain (2010), an Islamic scholar in his article Morality and Atheism, has cited an array of facts and figures to assert his point that despite rising agnostic or atheistic trends in secular Europe, those societies demonstrate better standards of morality as opposed to corrupt and decadent religious societies. This proves, according to Hussain, that there exists no direct link between religion and morality, and that atheism as opposed to religion, is equally moral, if not more. Most thinkers regardless of their Western or oriental affiliations, assent to the fact that the human being is morally neutral, with both the capacity to do good and the instinct to commit evil. This inherent moral neutrality emphasizes the importance of external influences; surroundings and milieu which will in large part determine whether the individual exercises his will to enact good or evil. The surah that supports this explanation is the Quran in Surah Shams : And indeed he has aspired it (the human self) with evil and with God consciousness (or goodness). The verse after this states : Indeed, he is successful who has purified it (from evil). The necessity of this act of purification to restrain the evil impulse and the importance of the social milieu to facilitate the process through external stimuli is central to the Islamic understanding. As the human being is capable of destruction and harm for selfish ends, he needs to be reined in through the presence of social institutions that guard the moral values and the inner moral imperative that comes from belief. Mr. Hussain asserts the preposterousness of the fear of punishment and the incentive or reward as the basis of morality, believing morality has a scientific and logical basis. The need and desire for retributive justice, thus goes deep within the concept of morality and religion. In other words, being good is sensible as it helps maximize happiness and minimize suffering, and the system ought to ensure this, so that people make the rational choice to behave morally.

SALMAN RUSHDIE: THE CONTROVERSIAL WRITER Rushdie has come under criticism as a writer, especially of The Satanic Verses, that generated crisis. Even before the publication of The Satanic Verses, his books stoked controversy. Rushdie himself saw his role as a writer as including the function of antagonist of the state . Vehement protest against Rushdies The Satanic Verses began with the title itself (especially as translated into Arabic), which Muslims found incredibly sacrilegious, and took to mean the books author claimed

the verses of the Quran, in fact the whole book, was the work of the Devil. The title refers to an alleged incident in the ministry of the Prophet Muhammad when a few verses were supposedly spoken by Muhammad as part of the Quran and then subsequently withdrawn on the grounds that the devil had sent them, deceiving Muhammad into thinking they came from God. Rushdie recalls the days when activism among minority groups in Britain was largely secular Asian left politics and he reacts to the different reactions of the Muslim societies by stating that what happened in response to The Satanic Verses demonstrated the beginning of a new era, (Wikipedia). Rushdie believes that it would be vain to say that he stimulated the rise of Islamic radicalism, but he was the prefix that they (the Islamic community) found. He believes what happened with The Satanic Verses helped into a religious discourse. Salman Rushdies The Prophets Hair is a short story that explores religion. The story is a moral fable in the tradition of The Thousand and One Nights and a magic realist extravaganza, packed with incident, poetic details, and humor, all brilliantly interwoven at breakneck speed. JOHN UPDIKE: AUTHOR OF RABBIT, RUN Updikes Rabbit, Run is one of his novels that generated controversy. Updike has recorded success and got to the peak of his career working at The New Yorker, his dream job, writing Talk of the Town items, short stories and poems but was dogged by controversies in his writing. A crisis came in 1959, when his publisher, Alfred A. Knoff urged him to expurgate the explicit sex scenes in Rabbit, Run his first major novel. A story of adultery, it was daring at a time when American courts were still deciding if Lady Chatterleys Lover D.H Lawrences long suppressed novel, should be considered obscene. Within a few years obscenity standards relaxed and Updike restored the original language, carefully pasting typed insertions in the margins of an early printed edition preserved in the Houghton archive. Some of Updikes last letters, written when his two sons and two daughters were grown, weigh the painful cost those closest to him paid for his high ambition and his remorseless work habits; success brought compromises. Eventually, sexual adventure, often rendered with graphic directness would become a staple of Updikes fiction, as his mission to record the protestant ethics met the upheavals of the sexual resolution. The formalist theory adopted for critical analysis is described by Wellek (1971) as a movement in Russian literary circle which dates back to 1916-1935. The criticism is concerned with the nature of literature and literary craft, rather than with its sociology. The school focuses on the art of literature, which is described a process of automatisation. According to the formalists, literature creates a reality of its own and it must avoid, at all cost a confusion of realms with life, reality and history. The idea of formalism was born in France in 1833, Edgar Allan Poe picked up the idea and Charles Baudlaire was its proponent. The other schools of formalism are: The New Criticism, Russian Formalism and Structuralism. The New Criticism is a 20th century movement in the American literary criticism. The movement emphasizes that a literary work is autonomous from culture, sociology and biography. The New Criticism tried to displace content in literary analysis and, therein, to treat a works form in a manner analogous to empirical research. The Russian formalism began in 1915 and the formalists sought to move away from the nineteenth century romantic attitudes in criticism and to avoid all romantic notions about poetic inspiration, genius or aesthetic organism. Instead, these formalists adopted a deliberately mechanistic view of poetry and other literary art as the product of craft, (David and Schleifer, 1989, 21).

Eagleton (1989) opines that structuralism grew out of Russian formalism. The school of structuralism felt that structure does more justice to the totality of the work of art and is less weighed down by suggestions of externality that form carries. The pure formalist criticism is adopted for the critical analysis of the work. The elements the formalists use in critically examining literary work will be used to develop the theme of morality in the course of this research. These elements include theme, plot, characterization, language, setting, structure and other rhetorical devices.

CHAPTER II RELIGION AND MORALITY IN JOHN UPDIKES A&P John Updikes A&P provides numerous perspectives for critical interpretation. His descriptive metaphors and underlying sexual tones are just the tip of the iceberg. A gender analysis could be drawn from the initial outline of the story and Sammys chauvinism towards the female. The sexual and sensual exploration of characters have become a typical line in Updikes fiction. He also explores this in his A&P. Further reading opens up a formalist perspective to the work. The economic and social differences are also evident through Sammys story telling techniques and even further opens up a look at Updikes own views and opinions. John Updikes A&P is a short story written in 1961 in which the hero and first person narrator seemingly takes a stand on his version of what is right, but only with some dire consequence. M. Gilbert Porter (1972) referred to the titular A&P in Updikes story as the common denominator of middle-class suburbia, an appropriate symbol for (the) mass ethic of a consumer conditioned society; According to Porter, when the main character chooses to rebel against A&P, he also rebels against his consumer conditioned society and in so doing he has chosen to live honestly and meaningfully. Porter by this conclusion suggests A&P is also preoccupied with morality but he does not discuss the theme. William Peden (1964), on the other hand, referred to the story as deftly narrated nonsense which contains nothing more significant than a checking clerks interest in three girls in bathing suits. This does not seem to be true of Updikes A&P because the author uses the A&P society to represent a class, while he carefully selects the three girls, alongside Sammy to represent another class. These two classes thus share different notions of what morality is. The story is not just about three girls in bathing suits, but about notions of morality, class conflict and difference. PLOT OF A&P In John Updikes short story, A&P, the main character, Sammy discovers a beauty unlike anything he has ever seen in his small town before. The teenage clerk in an A&P grocery is working the cash register on a hot boring day when three young girls about his age enter barefoot and clad only in swim suits to purchase herring snacks. Although they are dressed for the beach, they appear in a supermarket. While the girls are shopping, Sammy appraises them sexually in the manner of teenage boys. He gives details of the girls appearance and imagines why they are dressed as such. Sammy is shaken when the leader of the trio, a stunning girl

he has dubbed Queenie, speaks in a voice unlike that he had created in his mind. Her voice kind of startles him, the way voices do when one sees the person first, because it comes out so flat and dumb and yet kind of too tony too. Lengel, the manager, feels that the girls are not decently dressed to come into the grocery store. He admonishes them, saying Girls, this isnt the beach, that they should have thei r shoulders covered next time or have them refused service. Sammy believes Lengels approach embarrasses the girls and that it also offends them by injuring their pride and dignity and tells him that. Lengel and Sammy disagree on the matter and the latter thus ceremoniously removes his store apron and bow-tie and resigns on the spot. Sammy leaves expecting some display of affection, appreciation or heroism from the three girls involved, but finds that they have already left, apparently oblivious of his presence. THEMATIC PRE-OCCUPATIONS IN A&P The principal pre-occupations in Updikes works are religion, sexuality, and the family in America. His fiction is distinguished by its attention to the concerns, passions, and sufferings of average Americans. A&P however, concisely sets up the oppositions between several motifs: conservatism versus liberalism, the working class versus the upper class and the individual versus the collective. But central to A&Ps is the question of morality. A&P is a story about an average boy in the midst of various adolescent changes such as hormone, job anxiety, and disdain for authority, as well as hypocrisy which is a strong force that works together with other lesser forces that causes Sammy to quit his job. Interpretations of A&P depend to some degree upon the readers understanding of the reason for Sammys hasty decision to quit his job. Some argue that he is truly rebelling against the disparagement of the young girls by the puritanical manager, while others feel that he quits due to misguided self-interest in hopes that the girls will notice him. Critics have often viewed Sammys gesture as quixotically romantic, since he gains nothing through his decision except the loss of his job, (Enotes.com). Whichever interpretation the critic opts for, one can appreciate the fact that Sammy questions A&Ps perception of morality. The question of morality is a major theme which the author of A&P, John Updike, tries to enunciate. The A&P society believes a man (human being) is decent and morally upright if he dresses in a manner. This theme is evident in the character of Lengel and the sheep. The sheep and Lengel share the same view on what morality is in their actions and reactions when the girls in bathing suits enter the A&P supermarket. Lengel and the sheep typify the people who link morality with dressing in a particular way. This attitude is evident in their negative perception of the girls. Lengel for instance, goes on to address the girls in an insulting and embarrassing manner saying A&P has a policy people must conform to in the supermarket. He says,Girls, I dont want to argue with you, after this come in here with your shoulders covered. Its our policy. (p. 209) What Lengel and his sheep fail to realize is that what is policy for one person may not be so for another. Sammys rebellious attitude points to this. Sammy identifies with the girls who Lengel believes belong to the juvenile delinquent group and lack morals and religious uprightness. Sammy reacts to what Lengel says about the A&P policy saying, thats policy for you. Policy is what the kingpinswant, what others want is juvenile delinquency. (p.209) Lengel believes the A&P society has a policy on dress code and associates dress code with moral standards. Sammy however, does not agree with this notion, and to show this, he quits his job. Sammy supports the girls and shares their worldview. He says, I look around for my girls but they are gone, of course. This statement shows that he shares the girls sentiment, dress code and their view and is of the

opinion that their manner of dressing does not mean they are not decent. Sammy and the girls belong to a class in that one society, and represent a world John Updike is advocating for. A&P society links morality and decency with the way and manner a person is dressed and judges human character and personality by their mode of dressing. It judges man from the outside and not from the inside. But Sammy does not share this view and appears Updikes spokesperson. Updike is suggesting that we are not morally loose by a singular act of dressing. The hypocritical nature of the A&P society is evident in Mcmahon. He can be grouped under Lengels society because of his age a nd other factors. He is seen patting his mouth and looking at the girls, sizing up their joints. This society judges the girls as indecent because of their mode of dressing, but Mcmahon, an elderly man in the A&P society lusts, but is not judged. The old woman about fifty whom Sammy attends to is not better. She gives Sammy a little snort in passing, an act that would have had her burnt if she had been born at the right time in Salem. The society fails to judge these immoral acts. John Updike in his story presents two different classes and age groups and views on moral standards. On the one hand, are Lengel, Mcmahon, the sheep, and the witch about fifty who represent the hypocritical A&P society while on the other hand is Sammy, and the three girls in bathing suits who represent another generation, who disagree with the concept of morality and decency by Lengels group. Lengels generation represents the adult/older generation that believes Sammys generation (younger generation) are moral delinquents because of the way and manner they dress, but Sammys generation shares the opinion that dressing as the only parameter for judging decency and moral uprightness is not wholly right, because the way a person dresses does not determine his moral decency and uprightness. John Updike is thus an advocate for the younger generation.

THE SETTING OF A&P A&P is a supermarket. It is located in a small coastal town which is five miles from the beach. The proximity of A&P to the beach is significant. It allows the possibility of people appearing in bathing suits the way the girls do. The story is set on a Thursday afternoon when there happens to be less patronage which creates boredom in the entire atmosphere, especially for Sammy. A&P is set against a religious background. This is evident because of the presence of Lengel, who is the Sunday-school teacher and thus, is the shepherd of the sheep who are the customers in A&P. The presence of only one congregational church also sets the story firmly in a religious society. The various controversies generated in the arguments that ensued in the A&P supermarket revolve around the issue of religiousness and the concept of morality by the two groups in the story. Their arguments on what morality is or should be thus make the story have a religious setting. Also, brandnames appear throughout A&P, setting the story firmly in the post war period of American prosperity, when a flood of consumer goods hit the markets and advertising became a persuasive force. These brandnames among others are Hiho crackers, Diet Delight, Peaches, Kingfish Fancy Herring Snacks. CHARACTERIZATION IN A&P John Updike portrays few characters but develops only some of them. This is typical of short stories where the author only develops the major character that he weaves the story around, and ceases to develop the characters that have little or no significant roles to play in the story. In A&P, Updike develops Sammy and some characters.

The characters in the story are Sammy, Lengel, Queenie, Plaid and Big Tall Goony Goony, Stokesie, Mcmahon and the sheep - the A&P customers. SAMMY He is the main character from whose point-of-view the story is told. The reader does not learn his name until the end of the story. He is the narrator of the story. He is a checkout clerk at A&P supermarket. He is nineteen, observant, cynical and romantic. He notes for instance, that there is a contrast between his world and that of Queenie just from her purchase. He vacillates back and forth between extremes of opinion during the story. He quits his job in an effort to be a hero to the girls and as a way of rebelling against the strict society. In a sudden moment of insight an epiphany he realizes how hard the world is going to be to me here after, if he refuses to follow the policy of A&P. LENGEL He is the Manager of the local A&P. He spends most of his days behind the door marked Manager. He represents the shepherd of the sheep because he is a Sunday school teacher in the only congregational church in the A&P society. He is a sentimental and pretty dreary man, who believes moral uprightness, is measured by the way a person is dressed and not necessarily from the way a person behaves. He is introduced near the end of the story. He represents the system economic, social, religion, management, policy, decent, and the way things are. However, he is not a one-dimensional character. He has known Sammys parents for a long time, and he tells Sammy that he should at least for his parents sake, not quit his job in such a dramatic, knee-jerk way. He seems truly concerned even while he feels the needs to enforce management policy. QUEENIE Queenie is the name Sammy gives to the pretty girl who leads her two friends through the grocery store in their bathing suits. Sammy has never seen her before but immediately becomes infatuated with her. According to Sammy, she is regal and tantalizing in appearance. She is somewhat objectified by nineteen year-old Sammy, who notes the shape of her body and the seductiveness of the straps which have slipped off her shoulders. In her manner of dressing, she defies convention, Queenie appears to belong to the upper-middle class world of backyard swimming pools and fancy hors doeuvres.

PLAID AND BIG TALL GOONY GOONY The above are the nicknames Sammy gives Queenies friends, who are somewhat more uneasy about their inappropriate attire. Plaid is a plump, pretty girl in a two-piece bathing suit; Big Tall Goony Goony is cynically observed by Sammy to have a sort of striking features other girls pretend to admire because they know she is no real competition to them (although he concedes that she is not bad looking on the whole). STOKESIE He is another character in A&P. He is twenty-two, married and has two children. He works with Sammy at the A&P checkout. He has little to say or do in this story, but like Sammy, he observes the girls in the store with interest. He is a glimpse of what Sammys future might be like; Stokesies family is the only difference between them, Sammy comments.

MCMAHON He is an elderly man. He is one of the minor characters in the story. He plays only a little but significant part in the story. He displays the hypocritical nature of the adults world when he sizes up the girls joints and pats his mouth. He abuses the girls sexually. He belongs to the society of Lengel the strict, judgmental and hypocritical society. THE SHEEP The other characters in the story are presented as the sheep. The sheep are the customers of A& P. They are presented as dummies in the way they push their carts down the same aisle, though there is no one way sign. They also all bunch on Stokesie on seeing a scene. They are also a ridiculous lot because they are the set of people that will not notice the explosion of a dynamite if set off in the A&P while they are shopping, but on the entrance of the three girls in bathing suits into the A&P supermarket, start jerking, hopping, hiccupping, and snapping their eyes. Updike shows class contrast using Sammy and Queenies world. Sammy is a member of the low class, the working class. His world is characterized by lack and want this is suggested when he is about to quit his job. Lengel, the manager tells him then that he would be hurting his parents by quitting his job. From Lengels statement, Sammys parents may probably depend on his earnings to support the family. The Kingfish Fancy Herring Snacks in pure sour cream purchased by Queenie take on a symbolic value in Sammys eyes when he hears Queenie explain that she is buying them for her mother. The snack cost 49. Instantly, Sammy has a vision of the kind of party at which such herring snacks would be served, and it is a world away from the parties his own parents throw. Sammy mentally contrasts the white jackets, herring snacks, and sophisticated cocktails of Queenies social set with the lemonade, Schiltz beer (a working class brew), and novelty glasses of his own parents group. This contrast shows that Queenies social status and Sammys are worlds apart. LANGUAGE AND STYLE OF A&P Language in A&P is creatively selected by the author. Metaphors, sexual tones, hyperboles that also generate humour, play on words (pun) and other literary devices are used to weave the story to achieve its desired effect on the human society. The author uses hyperbole and weaves it to generate humour, when Sammy says the witch about fifty has been watching cash registers for fifty years. This is hyperbolic and it also generates humour because it means the woman has been watching cash registers from the very day she was born and this is not possible. Thus, the hyperbole here generates humour. The author also employs metaphor. This is evident where Sammy tries to calm the witch about fifty down saying: by the time I got her feathers smoothed and her goodies into a bag-she gives me a little snort in passing, if shed been born at the right time they would have burned her over in Salem. (p.205). Sammy compares the woman to a bird with his choice of words by the t ime I got her feathers smoothed . This comparison is direct and metaphorical. The author also uses metaphor to expose the hypocritical nature of the society. The sheep in the story is a literary use of language. The image of the sheep keeps recurring in the story. The motif refers to the customers that line-up in one particular aisle as if there is any rule that stops them from moving in different aisles. This is the use of language to describe the foolishness of all the customers who react stupidly to the three girls entrance but who, if a dynamite explodes in an A&P would keep shopping.

John Updike symbolizes the generation of Lengel as sheep. This symbolism represents a set of people who are not creative and behave as if they do not have a mind of their own for as we know, sheep follow each other about like dummies. The motif of sheep also relates to Lengel who is a Sunday school teacher. Lengel is thus suggested as the shepherd and the customers who apparently attend his church are the sheep. The motif, thus acquires a religious meaning and has a derogatory connotation. In pun, a word pattern may suggest two different words or meanings. The author plays on a phrase in at the right time. This expression could mean different things. It could refer also to a wrong time for the womans manner of behaviour. Inherent in the narrative figure is a historical allusion. The author alludes to American history when he states that the womans snort would have gotten her to be burnt over in Salem. Salem was a settlement in USA where at a point anybody discovered to be a witch was burnt at the stakes. John Updikes adoption of rich literary devices are done artistically and systematically in order to add a flowery and concrete beauty to the words employed in achieving the overall artistic effect of the story.

CHAPTER III RELIGION AND MORALITY IN SALMAN RUSHDIES THE PROPHETS HAIR. PLOT Salman Rushdies The Prophets Hair was published in East, West, 1994. It is a short story. The story takes place in Srinagar during a fierce winter when Hashim, a money lender comes upon a glass jar containing a silver hair from the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). It was stolen only the day before from the Hazratbal Mosque and is faced with an important decision. Hashim knows that the right thing to do is to return the hair to the mosque. However, being a collector of artifacts, he decides to keep the glass jar and convinces himself that by doing so, he is a finer server to the Prophet. The decision c auses many strange changes; Hashim becomes violent and insulting towards his family, telling his wife that their marriage had been the worst of his afflictions and admitting his adultery with hired women, his constant visit to paid women in brothels, and also his having a mistress. Hashim also insults his son and threatens to disown his daughter if she continues to go about bare faced. These new developments makes Atta, the money lenders son feel he must do something before everything gets out of hand completely. He recognizes that his father has a spell on him cast by the hair. Atta attempts to steal the hair from his father in the hope to rid him of his rage but he loses the jar through a hole in his pocket. Hashim finds it again and takes it, and outraged, turns on Huma his daughter and demands to know what happened. To put an end to the development, Atta then attempts to seek out a burglar to steal the hair for the second time, but fails and is seriously beaten. Then Huma now attempts to hire a professional burglar, Sheikh Sin, to steal the hair from their home. On the night of the robbery, everything turns badly. Atta dies mysteriously; Hashim kills Huma by accident, discovers this and commits suicide. Sheikh Sin is trailed and found. The jar is found from the pocket of Sin and is returned to its resting place. Sheikh Sin receives punishment for his deeds. Although the jar causes so much havoc to Hashim and his family, it brings a miracle to Sheikh Sins family. The

night Sheikh Sin steals the hair home, his four crippled sons are healed; his wife, once blind is blessed and her vision is restored. THEMATIC PRE-OCCUPATION IN THE PROPHETS HAIR. The theme of Salman Rushdies The Prophets Hair is religious hypocrisy. The theme is however linked with the question of morality. Religious hypocrisy is a major theme in the story. Hashim, the money lender appears a religious man but does not act like a Muslim. He keeps saying that while he is not a godly man, he sets great store by living honourably in the world. Yet, he lives a hypocritical life. Hashims hypocritical nature is revealed when he comes in possession of the jar of hair. The magic hair seeks to transform him but he does not bend and so he is broken. The hair compels Hashim to state who he truly is, his actual feelings regarding his family members, his constant visit to paid women and his having a mistress. Sheikh Sin The thief of thieves also claims to be a Muslim but he fails as one. He is a failed Muslim like Hashim. He is a burglar and has committed a great sin by crippling his four sons at birth, according to him, to provide them with a means of having a life time income. He is a man with no fear of God. He accepts Humas lavish reward to steal. Hashim is worldly. His worldliness and not living according to moral codes and upholding religious doctrine leads to the calamity that befalls him. It is his act of not seeing the religious value attached to the relic but seeing its worldly value of being an object of rarity and blinding beauty which makes him resolve not to return it to its devout worshippers and that is what causes the catastrophe for him and his family. Sheikh Sins lack of religious faith makes him cripple his sons and accepts to rob Hashim of the relic. His profession (robbery) is one greatly frowned at by God and is considered evil. He robs people of their possessions and leave them in grief. He accepts to steal the jar of hair, and by so doing visits judgment upon himself. The author presents class differences in the story. Two families from two different classes are depicted in The Prophet Hair. Hashim, a wealthy man, with his family lives in a spacious lakeside residence, while Sheikh Sin, a poor man, with his own family lives in the insalubrious gullies of Kashmir. Hashim is from the upper class while Sin is from the lower class (lumping proletariat). The author compares Hashims world and Sheikh Sins and reveals that both are cheats, greedy, worldly, unreligious and sinners. The author is saying in essence that it is not only the act of being poor and deprived that makes a man immoral and behave ungodly and dishonourably, and that even the rich in the upper society may exhibit less or more vices than the poor man. The author lifts the lower society above the upper society when he makes the family of Sin be blessed and Hashims family perish. From the foregoing, we can say that The Prophets Hair is basically written to revolve around morality. The hair symbolizes the law of retributive justice that the wicked/unrighteous shall be punished and the good/righteous shall be rewarded. We take for instance, Hashims home. Hashim claims he is a Muslim, but he is wrong on many fronts and he pays for his misdeeds with the calamity that befalls him and his entire household. Sheikh Sin is also punished for his wicked deeds because he is evil. His sons are however presented as righteous and devout men, desiring to make the pilgrimage to Mecca, the Holy land, some day and so is his wife, who is also presented as a religious woman. For this she and her sons are blessed by the magic of the vial of hair.

Rushdies story is preoccupied with morality. The story has to do with principles concerning right and wrong, good and bad behaviour, (Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary). In Nuttal (1993), morality is concerned with,right and wrong, good and bad, virtue and vice, with judging what we do and theconsequences of what we do. In other words, morality as depicted by Salman Rushdie in The Prophets Hair is based on character judgment, human behaviour evil or good and the consequences of these behaviours. The Prophets Hair significantly explores the question of morality. The issue is overtly depicted throughout the story. It is more a moralistic fairy tale using religious elements. A silver vial containing a famous relic brings catastrophe upon the greedy, (Google). In Rushdies story, his characters are in constant moral dilemma when faced with the relic of The Prophets Hair. Rushdie also recasts the relic from holy relic to secular icon by removing it from its religious framework. This is done by Rushdie to stress the significance of morality in the story: reward for good and punishment for evil. The hair is removed from the mosque, where it is a religious relic and is placed into the hands of a money lender, where it is viewed as a prized possession for its rarity and monetary value. Then it is stolen by the thief, Sin, who views it as a means to gain some retirement benefits, again a monetary value and avoid an ignominous death. Rushdie systematically and artfully rotates the hair between the family of Hashim and Sheikh Sin, both unreligious Muslims, cheats and sinners. The two families especially Hashims family and Sheikh Sin have both done evil deeds and according to moral codes and standards, they stand short and both receive punishment for their deeds. This is the lesson from morality. The flower vendor performs a holy act of helping someone in distress, a good act, and he is rewarded for his deed. Sheikh Sins so ns and wife set great store by living righteously and are rewarded, but Sheikh Sin, Hashim and his family are not righteous, they live dishonourably, and for this they are punished. SETTING OF THE PROPHETS HAIR The story takes place in the disputed state of Kashmir. The setting in Kashmir combines its genuine social engagement with a refusal to positively identify a moral high ground. The author systematically sets the story to revolve around the world of Hashim - a spacious lakeside residence and the world of Sheikh Sin the insalubrious gullies of Kashmir. The story The Prophets Hair, has a religious background. The story is set within an Islamic society. The presence of the Hazratbal mosque attests to this and so does the reference to pilgrimage to Mecca. Sheikh Sins four crippled sons show their wish to one day make the pilgrimage to the Holy land, Mecca. The story also presents devout Muslims who are looking for the relic. Also, the story has a firm religious root in Islam with the mention of the Prophet Mohammad (SAW) himself. Hashim, the money lender, and Sheikh Sin, The thief of thieves; two families whose backgrounds contrast are Muslims, though they do not uphold the Islamic moral teachings and moral codes religiously. All these among others, give the story a religious atmosphere. CHARACTERIZATION IN THE PROPHETS HAIR. The author makes use of few characters to fulfil the demands of the short story. He develops only the significant characters in the story and makes the minor characters appear briefly and disappear once they

have no more roles to play. The florist for instance is a minor character and the author makes him appear briefly in the story. When the florist has no more important role to play in the story, the author sees no need in keeping him any further. The other characters in the story are Hashim, Sheikh Sin, Atta, Huma and other minor characters. HASHIM Hashim is a moneylender and an art collector. He is not a religious but a worldly man. He is also an hypocrite who claims that by keeping The Prophets Hair for its great value, he performs a finer service than he would by returning it. Hashim is a wealthy, greedy, promiscuous and ungodly man. His greedy nature lands him into all the calamities that befall him and his family. He is also a cheat, he loans people money and charges an interest rate of over seventy percent, so that they find it hard to pay and remain indebted to him forever. He is a self-satisfied hypocrite with two spoiled, Westernized children. The author describes the glassy contentment of the household of that life of porcelain delicacy and alabaster sensibilities, breakfast conversation is filled with those expressions of courtesy and solicitude on which the family prided itself as things that mark Hashims family out as the likely object of satire. ATTA He is Hashims son who sees the need to get rid of the relic because it has started causing chaos in his family. Atta makes his first attempt to rid his family of the relic and sneaks into h is fathers room, being the only son and having an access to the room, but the relic gets lost through a hole in his pocket. Having failed, he then seeks out a thief to come and rob his father of the relic of The Prophets Hair but he is beaten and robbed. He is rescued back home by a flower vendor who finds him groaning on the deserted embarkment of the water. At the end of the story, he receives his punishment and dies after being unconscious for a long time. HUMA She is Hashims daughter. She is disowned by Hashim for deciding to go against his order and go about bare faced dishonouring him. She is the one that finally seeks the thief, Sheikh Sin, to come and steal the jar of hair in order to put an end to the calamity befalling her family. The mission to rob Hashim of the relic fails on the night of the robbery and it spells doom for Hashim. She is mistakenly stabbed by her father and thus takes her punishment. SHEIKH SIN AND HIS FAMILY Sheikh Sin and his family are another point of satirical contrast. Sheikh Sin cheats people robbing them of their possessions. He is a professional burglar or robber. He also values riches above all else. He commits the greatest sin of crippling his four sons at birth, believing he has done an excellent job of preparing his children for a life long employment. He thinks that by crippling them, he provides them with a means of livelihood. He shows a parents absolutist love by crippling his children so that they would be more effective beggars. Sin is also a sick man and thinks by robbing Hashim of the relic and claiming Humas lavish rewards, he is going to have a one last taste and feel of wealth. But, he performs a finer service when the relic he brings under his roof, miraculously heal his sons, enable them r egain the use of their legs and restore his blind wifes vision. Sheikh Sin is discovered with the hair by the Deputy Commissioner of Police, Humas uncle, who is

alerted after the tragic occurrence at Hashims house. Sin is shot; the hair is retrieved fr om his pocket and returned to its resting place the Hazratbal mosque. DEPUTY COMMISSIONER OF POLICE He is a minor character in the story. He is Humas uncle with whom she lodges a letter to be opened in the effect that she fails to return to her home when she goes out on the mission to seek out the thief. He is alerted on the night of the robbery at Hashims house, opens Humas letter and reads it and then goes in search of Sheikh Sin. He finds him and shoots him, retrieves the hair and returns it to its devotees. His character and role is open to different interpretations. One could say his allegiance is to the law, or rather to justice, which is another significant motivator. He seems to be the personification of government in the society. THE FLORIST He is a minor character in the story. He is the one that rescues Atta, whom he finds lying prone with deathly pale skin, but still sees the sheen of wealth on him. He rescues Atta home on his boat and is given a large tip by the family. His role is a minor one and the author makes him disappear as soon as his role is performed. MULLAHS They are minor characters in the story. They are the Muslims that worship at the Hazratbal mosque where the relic of The Prophets Hair is stolen. They are the ones looking for the relic so as for it to be returned to its resting place. They are the devotees of the relic The Prophets Hair. They are presented as the valleys holiest men: when the hair is found, they are called to come and authenticate it; and it is returned to its rightful place the Hazratbal mosque. LANGUAGE AND STYLE OF THE PROPHETS HAIR The Prophets Hair is rich in other narrative elements, such as language, contrast, humour, suspense, irony, and other poetic elements. The author selects his words carefully to fit class distinction, as well as to accommodate the different issues addressed in the story. He uses words like wretched, disreputable, corrugated iron, insalubrious gullies, burglar, etc to describe the part of town where the poor community inhabits. The author now through language choice contrasts the setting by selecting finer words to describe the environment where the rich live. Words like unmistakable sheen of wealth, beautiful, wealthy moneylender, lakeside residence, porcelain delicacy, personal Shikara (boat), bear the difference out. The author also shows contrast in characterization. He depicts two social classes in the story. The class distinction between Shiekh Sin and Hashim is done very artfully. Hashim belongs to the rich (upper class) society, surrounded by helps and maids and lives a sophisticated life. He is also a money lender. He is contrasted with Sheikh Sin, who is a professional burglar or robber. Sins life is characterized by lack and want and he is even a sick man who is in dire need of money to live just one last good life before he dies. Sheikh Sins children are beggars as opposed to Hashims children who display the aura of unmistakable sheen of wealth. Also, Sheikh Sins wife is a blind raggy woman as opposed to Hashims classy and sophisticate wife. Sheikh Sin, lives in the gullies while Hashim lives in a spacious lakeside residence.

The author also uses a literary technique and a telescoping device to fulfil the principle of the short story to ensure brevity. The florist appears in the story when the need arises and is dispensed with when the need ends and he plays no further part in our story. The author also uses this same technique to explain Humas intention of visiting the gullies without necessarily giving another elaborate explanation, but merely connecting her visit to Attas first visit. The author summarizes her mission thus: and her question was the same as her brothers and asked in the same low, gravetones where may I hire a thief? (p. 273) Rushdie uses suspense in the story. It is the style of language which the author uses to sustain the attention of the reader, and excite his or her interest. The author uses this to introduce a part of the city where a character that will later play an important role in the story lives, the most wretched and disreputable part of the city received a second unexpected visitor. (p.273). Rushdie employs humour, a technique used to generate laughter or reduce tension, in the story. The author uses this when Huma refers to the burglars household as some sort of employment agency. This generates humour. It sounds funny that a burglar can openly declare an act of robbing others a profession. Irony is employed in the story. It is evident in Humas statement, in which she declares her identity and makes reference to a letter she lodges with the Deputy Commissioner of Police, and a letter has been lodged with the Deputy Commissioner of Police, my uncle, to be opened in the event of my not being safe at home by morning. In that letter, he will find details of my journey here, and he will move heaven and earth to punish my assailants. (p. 274) This statement by Huma is ironic for it is pretty peculiar for someone who is trying to hire a crook to invoke the protection of an uncle who is the Deputy Commissioner of Police. Also it is ironic that a man who is not godly will set great store by living honourably in the world. This irony is inherent in Hashims character, Hashim is fond of pointing out that while he was not a godly man, he sets great store by living honourably in the world. (p. 2741) There is no honour in a man who lacks the fear of God and charges people he loans an exorbitant interest. The Prophets Hair is symbolic. It symbolizes morality: an agent of justice or retribution. The hair is magical. Its magical power is evident in many ways. Firstly, it transforms Hashims home and personality. With the hair under Hashims roof, Atta who had been unconscious on the night of the burglary sits upright in his room as if pulled by a force stronger than him, and shouts thief thrice just when the thief breaks in and dies. Secondly, the night the hair sleeps in Sheikh Sins home, his four crippled sons regain the use of their legs and his blind wife, her sight. The author makes absolutely sure that the hair comes into the possession of Hashim the moneylender, and Sheikh Sin The thief of thieves. The author rotates the hair and makes sure it touches both on the rich and the poor background. At the end of the story, it is crystal clear what the authors intentions are: The author uses the hair to expose hypocrisy in the two families and symbolize justice. Justice is delivered to the two respective families and worlds rich and poor in the story. Summarily, no human behaviour goes unnoticed by God, and every act of living in this world are recorded and rewarded accordingly by God who keeps complete record of every good and evil act perpetuated by every human being.

CHAPTER IV A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF JOHN UPDIKES A&P AND SALMAN RUSHDIES THE PROPHETS HAIR. John Updike and Salman Rushdie are both radical writers. Updikes works are written to protest either against a held belief or certain issues that relate to religion. Updikes works are based on Christian ethics and it reflect Protestantism. Salman Rushdie, on the other hand, is a writer who uses his works to radicalize Islam. He uses his works to radicalize Islamic ethics and morals. The two authors Updike and Rushdie, are radical writers who explore religious issues. Updike and Rushdie have written works that stoke controversy. Updike is popularly called the author of Rabbit, Run and this is because the story has generated controversy. The controversy generated by the story is the explicit sex scenes in the story. Rushdies The Satanic Verses is a controversial novel which caused uproar in the Islamic society for its blasphemous remarks about some verses in the Holy Quran and about the Prophet. The author, Rushdie, claims the Quran, actually some verses of the Quran were revelations from the devil, so condemning those verses. The story outraged the entire Muslim society and a death sentence was declared on him and caused him to go into exile for several years. Updike and Rushdie aim at radicalizing religion. Some of their works have sometimes been traced to be directed towards the satirization of the religious society. In Updikes A&P, the author protests against the held notion of morality. A&P society is largely presented as a hypocritical one and the author protests against its values using the character of Sammy. Sammy serves as Updikes spokesperson. Rushdies The Prophets Hair satirizes an Islamic society in order to identify the basis for morality and moral standards. The author presents two families from whose point of view he presents the theme of retributive justice, reward for good and punishment for evil. A&P and The Prophets Hair depict class differences. In A&P, Updike presents two classes and predicates their differences on age groups and idea of morality. Updike systematically uses Lengel and the sheep to represent a class in A&P society which shares the same view on the concept of morality, while he uses Sammy, the protagonist, and the three girls Sammy identifies with, to represent another class. Sammy and the girls have the same views of what morality is. Updike is an advocate for the younger generation the generation of Sammy and the three girls. Updike presents another class difference and separates the upper society from the lower society. Sammy psychologically differentiates his class from Queenies through her purchase of Fancy Herring Snacks. He pictures the kind of party where such drink would be served as opposed to the parties held by his parents where only working class brews are served. Salman Rushdie also presents class differences in The Prophets Hair. The author uses Hashim to represent the upper class, while Sheikh Sin represents the lower class. Hashim in the story The Prophets Hair is a moneylender who wallows in wealth, he lives in a spacious lakeside residence. He is also an art collector with two westernized spoilt children. Hashims world and class is in contrast to Sheikh Sins who is a professional burglar. He lives in the insalubrious gullies of Kashmir characterized by rot and decay, lack and penury. This contrast in class is systematically done by Rushdie to show a clear difference between the two groups involved. From the foregoing, it is evident that the two authors are not only concerned with religion and morality, but are also interested in the class system in the society. This is portrayed in their focus on the major class systems in the society the upper and the lower class. Both authors at the end of the story identify with the lower class. This is evident in A&P because

Updike presents Sammy who represents the lower class and the younger generation as the hero and so appears to advocate for Sammys class. In Rushdies The Prophets Hair, some characters among the lower class are portrayed positively and are rewarded. The florist is rewarded and so are Sheikh Sins sons and wife. This signifies that Salman Rushdie also identifies with the lower class in the society. The two stories A&P and The Prophets Hair, are different in other respects. Updikes story explores the question of morality through the theme of hypocrisy in A&P, while Rushdies The Prophets Hair examines the issue of morality through the theme of retributive justice. The theme of hypocrisy in A&P is based on the belief on dress code as the basis for morality. The Prophets Hair explores the theme of retributive justice in the character of the two major figures in the story Hashim and his family and Sheikh Sin and his family. Hashim is a worldly, selfish, wealthy man, he did not act righteously in the story and he and his family are punished accordingly. Sheikh Sin is a burglar who is also rightly punished while his righteous sons and wife are rewarded according to their good deeds. Though the two stories use religious symbolism, they explore different symbols for different ends. Updikes A&P symbolizes the customers in the A&P society as sheep. They are characterized as dummies and people with no mind of their own. They rely on the general belief on dress code and morality that is held to be correct in their society. In The Prophets Hair, the relic is a religious icon. The Prophets hair is a symbol of justice to sinners and the upright. The hair punishes or rewards characters as appropriate. Updikes A&P is a realist fiction. The story explores realistic issues that affect human thinking in the society. Realism means the visual art in literature that aids the depiction of subjects as they appear in everyday life. Realism is also a style in art or literature that shows things and people as they are in real life. Updike presents us with how the human mind works and treats issues affecting the human society. The author depicts the controversy surrounding dress code and morality and advocates against a superficial perception of morality. Rushdies The Prophets Hair blends magic with realism. It is in a magic realism mode. Magic realism is an aesthetic style or genre in literature in which magical elements are blended into a realist atmosphere in order to access a deeper understanding of reality. These magical elements are explained like normal occurrences that are presented in a straight forward manner which allows the real and the fantastic to be accepted in the same stream of thought. It has been widely considered a literary and visual art genre, (Wikipedia). Rushdie blends magic with reality in order to radicalize the Muslim society. He uses The Prophets Hair as a magic icon and blends the supernatural with reality to treat issues that he addresses. The author uses this religious icon to address the issue of materialism and retributive justice. Rushdies The Prophets Hair is overtly didactic. The story not only addresses the question of morality, but also aims at educating the human society on retribution-reward for good and punishment for evil. The story is a moral lesson to the entire society, it teaches the need to exhibit a good moral behaviour. Updikes A&P is not overtly didactic. The author writes the story to satirize the Christian society but we can tease from it some moral lessons. It teaches the need to be careful in condemning human beings. The story also teaches the need not to always judge others by their outward appearance. A&P thrives greatly on allusion. Updike alludes to history and the Bible. He alludes to Salem, a settlement in USA where anyone discovered to be a witch was burnt at the stakes. The essence of this historical allusion is to create a link between the religious present and a religious past. The Biblical allusion in the story is the reference to the Shepherd Lengel of the sheep A&P customers. Lengel, the A&P manager is presented as a Sunday school teacher and there is only one church in that society.

This suggests that he is a shepherd at the only congregational church in A&P society. The customers in A&P apparently are members of his church. So they are Lengels sheep since they are presented as sheep. In the Bible, the pastor or religious leader is seen as the shepherd and the church members, the sheep. Rushdies The Prophets Hair relies greatly on contrast in the story. The author contrasts the upper class society, represented by Hashim and his family with the lower class society, represented by Sheikh Sin and his family. The author contrasts the two classes and employs words like ugly, insalubrious, wretched, and so on to describe the lower class society, while he uses words like beautiful, wealthy, and so on, to describe the upper class. Rushdie and Updike also use telescoping device to achieve brevity in the story. Rushdie deploys the technique in characterization. The florist is characterized in a manner that fulfils the principle of brevity in the short story. He appears only briefly in the story and the author makes him disappear when his role has been performed. In A&P, Updike uses compounding as a telescoping device in presenting setting. For brevity and economy, the author lists the goods on an aisle in the supermarket, turns the list into a descriptive device and saves the reader the elaborate details of the girls movements from one variety of good to another. Sammy says, and they all three went up the oat and dog food breakfast cereal macaroni rice raisins seasonings spreads spaghetti soft drinks crackers and cookies aisle. (p. 206) In the shortest means possible, Updike gives a list of the variety of consumer goods A&P provides. FINDINGS The analysis of the two short stories have established the fact that morality can mean different things to different people because what is morally justifiable to one person may be morally unjustifiable to another. SUMMARY The belief in the existence of God and partaking in worship is not the same as having the inner instinct to do good or evil. Though the two major religions (Islam and Christianity) preach the need for human beings to do good, but it is not every individual that upholds the doctrine of what his religion preaches upholds moral standards. John Updike and Salman Rushdie, in their two short stories A&P and The Prophets Hair, display their concept of religion and morality. In Updikes A&P, the author shows that morality can mean different things to different people. Rushdie in The Prophets Hair teaches the need to always be righteous and uphold moral standards, draws attention to retributive justice, an underscoring theme of morality and stresses that there is a reward for good and punishment for evil. CONCLUSION John Updike and Salman Rushdie are writers whose works explore religion and morality and whose works have also stoked controversy. They write within different religious experiences. Updike writes within a Christian background; Rushdie does as an Islamic writer. They have agreed that being religious may not necessarily be being moral. They both support the common man and write in this vein.

CHAPTER V RECOMMENDATION The concept of morality and religion has been linked to the development of a society. Therefore, for a society to develop, the moral aptitude of its members is essential. There is no gainsaying the fact that Nigeria is on the verge of moral collapse and this level of moral decadence has reached an alarming and disturbing proportion which is unhealthy for national development. There is the urgent need therefore for a re-engineering, a re-orientation and a refocusing on our moral uprightness. Morality should be inculcated into every fabric of our life and imbibed for peaceful co-existence.

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