Other Tall Tales

Throughout history, people have told and written stories about their heroes. A tall tale is a special kind of hero story because the heroes of tall tales are 'larger than life'. They are bigger or stronger than real people, even when the tall tale is based on a real person. Tall tale heroes solve problems in funny ways that are hard to believe.  We all have heard some tall tales at some point in our life. Paul Bunyan and his great giant ox Babe, Johnny Appleseed, Pecos Bill, and many others are some examples of those one might have heard.  Paul Bunyan’s story mostly takes place in the Northwest. He is supposed to be responsible for making the Grand Canyon while fighting with his huge, blue bull named Babe. He also could cut down a tree with one blow. As you can see this story has been told to the extreme.  These tall tales have a certain tone and style of writing which indicate this sort of storytelling. Lots of verbs, metaphors, and adjectives are used as well as exaggeration throughout the body of a tall tale and usually ends with a bang.  This style of storytelling seems to be apparent in one of the stories in Salman Rushdie’s collection of short readings “East, West”.

The story in which I am referring to in Rushdie’s book is called “The Prophet’s Hair”, which seems to have a tall tale style in the way it conveys it story to the reader.  Although a common tall tale is suppose to contain a hero that accomplishes some great tasks or feat through some exaggeration of skill or strength, this tall tale seems to go another direction and tell a tale of greed and shows how a valuable relic breaks a man away from his family and ultimately leads to his death.  It is a tragic tall tale, if there was such a thing.

The first indication that labels this story as a tall tale is in the first few paragraphs.  A tall tale contains lots of verbs, metaphors, and adjectives, which seem to be very abundant in the opening paragraph. It is not the simple fact of a lot of adjectives and verbs, but the way it is portraying a picture of what we are reading.  The way the story is being told also constitutes some merit to this idea.  Huma, the daughter of Hashim, is telling the story to this rugged wretched thief, appropriately named Sin, to gain his services in stealing the prophet’s hair from her father.  Read and judge for yourself in this excerpt from the story:

“Early in the year 19—, when Srinagar was under the spell of winter so fierce it could crack men’s bones as if they were glass, a young man upon whose cold-pinked skin there, like a frost, the unmistakable sheen of wealth was to be seen entering the most wretched and disreputable part of the city, where houses of wood and corrugated iron seemed perpetually on the verge of losing their balance, and asking in low, grave tones where he might go to engage the services of a dependably professional burglar.”

The characters also seem to portray this kind of storytelling.  When Huma, the daughter of Hashim, is telling the reader her descriptions of the other characters in the story, we get a sense of this rugged rough thief that she hires, her kind father before he discovers the prophet’s hair, and Huma.  We get a sense of these eccentric characters that fit right into this eccentric story. Well none of these characters seem to be ‘larger than life’, which is common in most tall tales, these characters are described is such a unique fashion, that I feel they are extraordinary in some manner. Below are the descriptions of the characters: 

Skeikh Sin, the thief and thieves – “…..Huma saw facing her a grey-haired giant down whose left cheek ran the most sinister of scars, a cicatrice in the shape of the letter sin in the Nastaliq script. She was gripped by the insupportably nostalgic notion that the bogeyman of her childhood nursery had risen up to confront her,…..”

Hashim, Huma’s father – “ Hashim was fond of pointing our that while he was not a godly man he set great store by ‘living honourably in the world’.  ….all outsiders were greeted with the same formality and respect, even those unfortunates who came to negotiate for small fragments of Hashim’s large fortune…..”

Huma – “Her exceptional beauty, which was visible even through the enormous welts and bruises disfiguring her arms and forehead.”

The final supporting features to this idea lie in the whole story line and the ending of the story.  In traditional tall tales, there is a funny solution to a problem in the story or a great event that takes place.  In this short reading, there is a tragic end to a great eccentric story with a resolution that seems fitting.  In short, this story is about a man named Hashim, who finds the prophet Muhammad’s hair and turns from a caring considerate man into this greedy angry man who abuses his family.  The daughter hires a great thief to come and steal the hair in the night, but everything goes wrong and the whole family and thief die in the end.  The prophet’s hair is returned to the Hazratbal mosque, from where it was stolen.  The whole family dying in the end is somewhat significant in the matter in which they each die and how it follows this crazy story line.  It also follows the traditional style of ending with a “bang”.  The way the story is told and how it ends, I believe, is what makes this a tall tale. The final paragraphs also seem to be relevant in this argument and are as follows:

“But before our story can conclude properly be concluded, it is necessary to record that when the four sons of the dead Skeikh awoke on ht morning of his death, having unwittingly spent a few minutes under the same roof as the famous hair, they found that a miracle had occurred, that they were all sound of limb and strong of wind, as whole as they might have been if their father had not thought to smash their legs in the first hours of their lives.”

“Only the Sheikh’s widow had some reason for feeling grateful, because although her husband was dead she had regained her sight, so it was possible for her to spend her last days gazing once more upon the beauties of the valley of Kashmir.”

After reading the story and analyzing it from this stand point, we can see how this story can be mistaken for a tall tale. I feel like I have read a traditional tall tale.  It seems to also contain a moral or message in the story, which is a whole other topic that can be discussed. Salman Rushdie has produced a tall tale with no hero in it, no individuals with special attributes, no special feat or event; subsequently a tragic tall tale of greed and infatuation.