Within Salman Rushdie’s The Prophet’s Hair we see Hashim fall under the influence of a hair of the Prophet Muhammad that had been stolen. Once Hashim received it, he decides to not return it to the mosque that it was taken from. The influence of the hair then takes over his life as if it was a horcrux from Harry Potter. Rather than go into the comparisons of two very different pieces of literature, I wanted to concentrate on a specific symbol in both, hair.
Other than being seen as a symbol for strength in many stories (thanks Samson), in these stories I believe it is a kind of escapism. Within the Harry Potter universe, we see witches and wizards often finding hairs of others to use in their Polyjuice potions. This potion in particular, changes the drinker into someone else. You just have to a piece of that person’s hair. This implies, that a strand of hair can carry everything about you. It also means you can turn into anyone if you have the ability to snag a piece of hair. That holds an extreme amount of power.
Back to Hashim, we see him covet this piece of Muhammad’s hair because he believes that he is basically the worthiest to keep it in their possession. However, when it begins influencing him in different ways, he is not right away concerned. I believe that this could be a possible form of escapism for Hashim. He goes from being somewhat of a secular Muslim into an extremist. Maybe, this is who he always wanted to be subconsciously, and the strand of hair just brought it out. We see that once again; a strand of hair can wield so much power.
Hair is a symbol of strength. Does it depend on the person whether they hide behind it or express themselves with it? Is it a way for people to escape?
Or did I just watch Harry Potter recently?
