Salman Rushdie wrote Haroun and The Sea of Stories, during the long period of exile and hiding that followed a 1988 contract (fatwah) put out against him by the Ajatollah-Khomeini. Rather than succeeding in his death, the fatwah served to make him the most famous living author in the world. Written as a long distance message to his then young son, Haroun and The Sea of Stories is about on the man's struggle to overcome cultural diversity, freedom of speech, and censorship.
The Guppees and the Chupwalas share more than they admit, and a misappropriated rage stands between their agreement: "If Guppees and Chupwalas didn't hate each other so, they might actually find each other pretty interesting. Opposites attract, as they say." (125 Haroun) The Guppees and Chupwalas concentrate on the belief that they are absolutely different to attempt to learn anything from one another. Gup and Chup are opposite sides of the moon, and through them, Rushdie hopes to define a middle ground, a compromise. Rushdie makes it apparent that neither city can thrive in an atmosphere of one salutary idea of belief. Rushdie uses light and dark symbolically to vary the political entitles in which the people of Gup and Chup live, "they developed techniques with which to bring the moon's rotation under control, separating day from night and Chupwala form Guppee." (450 Teverson) The situation as a whole is meaningful in the sense that people strive on many occasions for a medium, but no one wants to budge from their stand point, so a meeting place is never found. (450 Teverson) .
Free narration is a form of free speech and thus is good for society. It is only through the free exchange of ideas and words that members of a community can achieve their full potential. This "free" society is represented in Haroun by the Guppees who defend the sea of stories because it reflects the diversity of their own community.
