The entire novel strives to break down absolutes, to blur easy

dichotomies, to question traditional assumptions of all kinds.

There are to be no simple answers to the query, What kind of
an idea are we? Demons can behave like angels and vice versa.
High ideals can lead people to commit terrible crimes. Love can
be mixed with jealous hate. Exalted faith can lead to tragedy. Just
as Rushdie strives to destroy the distinction between center and
periphery, so he challenges easy distinctions between good and
evil.
At the end of the novel, Saladin returns to India, fi nally to
Reconcile
In the end, despite the postmodern trappings of Rushdies
narrative, the values of the novel seem remarkably traditional:
belief in individual liberty and tolerance, freedom of expression,
skepticism about dogma, and belief in the redemptive power
of love. Lest we too quickly claim triumphantly that these
are distinctively European values, Rushdie reminds us of the
remarkably intelligent and innovative Mughal ruler of India,
Akbar, who challenged the orthodoxies of his time and brought
more than his share of newness into the world (190).
One could derive from the book a sort of existentialist morality:
there are no absolutes, but we are responsible for the choices
we make, the alliances we forge, the relationships we enter into.
Our choices defi ne us. We cannot shift the responsibility for our
actions to God or history. What kind of an idea are you? is a
question addressed not only to immigrants, but to all of us.

90

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