Wheel of Morality by christinaa on Blogster

Animaniacs was one of my favorite shows as a child. At the end of the show, the three main characters, Wakko, Yakko, and Dot would spin the “Wheel of Morality” and tell us the moral of the day’s story. It would go a little something like this:

Silly I know, but I always think of this when I hear someone talk about “the moral of a story.”

I recently read short story called “The Prophet’s Hair” by Salman Rushdie. Like Animaniacs, the story had a moral, although the moral was not as silly. The story is about a woman named Huma who seeks out the services of a thief to steal something from her father, Hashim. This “something” just so happens to be a vial that contains a strand of hair from the Prophet Muhammad that had been reported stolen from the Hazratbal mosque. She is under the impression that the hair is the source of the strife that she and her family are experiencing and wants it out of her house.

(This was one thing that I found to be humorous. Isn’t it ironic that a person would want a sacred remnant to be removed from her house? Isn’t it even more ironic for her to blame this remnant for her bad luck?)

Hashim tells his son, Atta, about the hair that he finds, and after a few days of uneasiness in the house, his son attempts to steal the hair. Unfortunately, the hair conveniently slips through a hole in his pocket (which he notes is usually taken care of by his mother). His father finds out that Atta stole that hair and guards it even closer as a result.

So Huma finds a man willing to steal the hair. On the night of the robbery, things don’t go as planned and Huma ends up being accidentally stabbed by her father. He, of course, kills himself from the grief. Although the robber gets away, he is quickly found and shot by police who retrieve the hair.

It seems to me that there is quite clearly an underlying message in this story. In the end, I find that the moral of this story is not as clear cut as it can be in other stories. Is the moral, don’t be selfish/greedy? Things always work out in the end? Nothing in life is free? Nothing stays perfect forever? I can’t really choose just one. Like in real life, things aren’t always so black and white. You can’t always say one thing is “right” which makes the other thing(s) “wrong.” Maybe that’s the moral…

7 comments on Wheel of Morality

dlouie said 1 years ago
Hi Christina! I like the various "morals of the story" that you presented, and I think that elements can be found in the story to support each one. I also think one of the morals could be that we need to have respect for sacred things and for spiritual things. That seems a little ironic when this author has created so much controversy of the authenticity of the Koran. Yet, I still think the story holds an important message about being respectful of elements in the spiritual world.
robburton said 1 years ago
[THUMBUP]
nancylee said 1 years ago
[THUMBUP] Yes, you are right! In the real world, what we think is right when in fact it may be wrong to some one else. I like how you ended your paper by presenting more than one moral.
esousa said 1 years ago
I always liked that cartoon, but never really watched it. Very cute clip [THUMBUP]
tlrenot said 1 years ago
Good point about someone wanting a sacred remnant removed from their house; I hadn't thought of that before! I agree with the other comments about your ending and what IS the moral? I too, had a hard time trying to interpret this one...and still don't have that answer. I suppose it will keep us guessing for a while to come.
trendyblogger said 1 years ago
I like your paragraph about everyone dying off. I just died (no pun intended) when I read the last two pages of the story where it sounded like Rushdie was getting tired of writing and he decided to kill everyone off. Hah. [SMILE]
christinaa said 1 years ago
Yea it was pretty funny how everything was so rushed in the end. That's what made this story so funny to me. [LOL]