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23 pages 46 minutes read

Salman Rushdie

Good Advice is Rarer than Rubies

Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1987

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Literary Devices

Irony

Irony is a literary device that involves a discrepancy between expectations and reality. Rushdie uses irony throughout the narrative to critique the notion that one person (or people) can know what is best for another. For example, Muhammad Ali truly believes giving Miss Rehana a British passport is the greatest gift he can offer; when she doesn’t accept, this creates tension for the reader and for the self-styled advice expert. Yet Muhammad Ali’s assumption that Miss Rehana needs his advice, and that the advice he gives is beneficial, proves ironic once Miss Rehana reveals her circumstances and true desires.

Rushdie’s use of irony is therefore integral to the story’s exploration of gender norms, the postcolonial world, and the way in which those things intersect. Because readers likely see women (particularly non-Western women) as oppressed, Miss Rehana’s agency is surprising. Similarly, because readers likely see life in England as preferable to life in Pakistan, Miss Rehana’s preference for the latter upends expectations. These narrative ironies challenge readers to think more broadly about the assumptions they bring to discussions of gender and imperialism—e.g., “independence” in the context of both the narrative and, historically, India and Pakistan.

Foreshadowing

To foreshadow means to hint at future narrative developments. In this story, foreshadowing prepares the reader for the final twist and supports the irony throughout the story. For example, Miss Rehana agrees to go with Muhammad Ali because it might mean “good fortune” for her; she does in fact find “good fortune” by the story’s conclusion, though it is the opposite of what both Muhammad Ali and the reader assume she seeks.

Similarly, when Muhammad Ali reviews her application, Miss Rehana’s body language registers as anxious, which suggests that she hopes the papers are in order. The end of the narrative, though, suggests that she is anxious because her papers are too good and might actually secure her passage to England. In another instance, as Muhammad Ali primes her for the Consulate’s interrogation, she displays something that could be anxiety but in retrospect suggests her excitement at having so many opportunities to flub the interview.

Satire

The use of satire—humor, exaggeration, or irony that comments on society’s failings—supports Rushdie’s critique of the United Kingdom and colonialism broadly. The narrator introduces the story’s premise in an exaggerated manner, as Miss Rehana appears out of a cloud of dust, and the bus driver bows theatrically to her as she enters the compound.

The way Muhammad Ali describes England, choosing to commend the “great nation” because of the temperature of its fish (or possibly the stodginess of its people—it’s unclear whether Muhammad Ali knows the idiom “cold fish”) pokes fun at the country while simultaneously hinting that a history of imperialism does not indicate a great nation. The response from the lala, defined by the narrator as close to courtesy but in fact gruff and terse, pokes fun at him not only as an individual but as an extension of the Consulate’s power.

Colloquialisms and Aphorisms

The story is full of regionally specific titles, phrases, and terms. Besides developing the story’s setting, these colloquialisms (informal speech) and aphorisms (sayings or proverbs) support the idea that tools of power can be coopted by the oppressed and develop the theme of Colonialism’s Displacements and Destabilizations.

From the multilingual phrases painted on the bus to the title of the story itself, the use of language drops the reader into a world of multiple languages, cultures, and wisdoms. These literary devices are critical to the narrative, as they represent the fusion of cultures present at the British Consulate, as well as the cultural rifts created by colonialism, which cut in both directions. Muhammad Ali and Miss Rehana use unexpected colloquialisms during ironic or satirical moments in the narrative. For example, Miss Rehana says her answers were all “topsy-turvy,” yet for her, they were the correct answers: those that spared her emigration to England.

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