The introductory passage from Salman Rushdie's novel The Satanic Verses introduces the two main characters, Gibreel Farishta and Saladin Chamcha, two Indian men who have been living outside their homeland for some time. They are flying over England when the plane explodes, and both are thrown out and miraculously survive the fall to the ground. The two men are in some ways alternate halves of one personality, and much of the time one represents good and the other evil, as if it were the good and evil existing within each of us.
             During the course of the novel, these two men both change and, at times, change places. Saladin becomes a satanic figure in the course of the novel, but he is also subjected to a variety of evils when he travels to London he is met with police brutality, racial prejudice, and similar elements showing deep-rooted social problems and the prevalence of evil in the world. Saladin had tried to separate himself from his Indian heritage, but now he is forced to confront that heritage in his particular place in the exploration Rushdie is making of the different ways Indians have tried to assimilate into British society and often been rebuffed.
             Gibreel is a movie star in India, appearing in what are called "theologicals," or Indian religious films. He has a variety of religious experiences in his dreams as he recalls various Indian religious figures and the historical events surrounding their lives and works. These dreams are vivid and draw him into the religious world more thoroughly than had his films, but the dreams are in fact similar to throe films, built on an accretion of details and creating a mythology that is very real.
             Gibreel transforms into an angelic figure while Saladin metamorphoses into a satanic figure, though their differences are not always as clear-cut as this. For Rushdie, there are no absolutes, so calling one of these men good and the other evil does not suffice. Both have ...