January 27, 2014
The World is Made of Stories 1-29

The passage I believed to best describe and apply to Haroun is on page 6, “Reality is what doesn’t go away when you stop believing in it.” One of the main themes of Haroun that we discussed in class is reality. Even though Haroun didn’t want to believe his father’s stories because he saw no point in telling a story if it wasn’t true, the reality was that it was in his nature. In order to live a fulfilling life, Haroun’s father needed to tell stories. Even after he decided not to believe them, they still existed in the Sea of Stories and all throughout the book.

The passage I found most compelling is on page 24, “In the long run, whatever it may be, every man must become the hero of his own story; his own fairy tale, if you like, a real fairy tale.” In the paragraph after it states “When I’m depressed I look for a story that makes sense of it, even if only a biochemical imbalance in the brain.” I do the same, not necessarily when depressed but for any mood. If I am happy, I like to look at happy quotes, if I am thinking about a late loved one, I look at quotes about death. For some reason, which I do not question, it makes me feel better and make the feeling more intense and more meaningful to me. It makes me become more aware of my mood and/or situation and makes me understand myself more.

The passage I found most confusing is on page 11, “The sense of the world must be outside the world.” I understand