Haroun and The Sea of Stories - Allusions/references To Other Works

Allusions/references To Other Works

"Sea of the Rivers of Story" is the English equivalent of Kathāsaritsāgara, the title of an 11th century collection of Indian legends.

Elements of the story are indicated to have been drawn from Baum's The Wizard of Oz, Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, and Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

Another obvious reference is to the stories of One Thousand and One Nights. Haroun, the son of Rashid Khalifa refers to Harun al-Rashid, a caliph who ruled from 786 to 809 and who features frequently in Thousand and One Nights stories.

The Walrus plays off of a Beatles song, 'I am the Walrus.'

When the character Mudra is first encountered, the noises he emits are the gurgling sound "Gogogol" and the coughing noise "Kafkafka", which are obvious references to writers Nikolai Gogol and Franz Kafka, whose names they are distorting. Rushdie makes another reference to Kafka when Iff describes the Plentimaw Fish in the sea, who swallow stories, as hunger artists.

A reference is made to the folktale Rapunzel in the book's fourth chapter.

Also, Haroun encounters a warrior who is fighting his own shadow. This is a clear reference to Peter Pan.