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Fire and Water
In The Satanic Verses, bad breath symbolizes inherent moral corruption. Gibreel's bad breath reveals the disparity between his public persona as a beloved actor playing deities and his flawed, human reality. When he portrays gods in Bollywood films, his foul breath signifies a spiritual taint that exists beneath the surface. This contrast exposes the irony of Gibreel’s existence—the public sees him as a divine figure, yet he is morally compromised. When he and Saladin survive the fall back to Earth after the plane explodes, his bad breath transfers to Saladin. This transfer represents the spread of inner decay, infecting Saladin with the same moral compromise that plagues Gibreel.
Bad Breath Quotes in The Satanic Verses
The The Satanic Verses quotes below all refer to the symbol of Bad Breath. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Part 3, Chapter 1
Quotes
One man’s breath was sweetened, while another’s, by an equal and opposite mystery, was soured. What did they expect? Falling like that out of the sky: did they imagine there would be no sideeffects? Higher Powers had taken an interest, it should have been obvious to them both, and such Powers (I am, of course, speaking of myself) have a mischievous, almost a wanton attitude to tumbling flies. And another thing, let’s be clear: great falls change people. You think they fell a long way? In the matter of tumbles, I yield pride of place to no personage, whether mortal or im—. From clouds to ashes, down the chimney you might say, from heavenlight to hellfire. . . under the stress of a long plunge, I was saying, mutations are to be expected, not all of them random. Unnatural selections. Not much of a price to pay for survival, for being reborn, for becoming new, and at their age at that.
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Bad Breath Symbol Timeline in The Satanic Verses
The timeline below shows where the symbol Bad Breath appears in The Satanic Verses. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Part 1, Chapter 2
...supposed to shoot a love scene, and she did not want to deal with his horrible breath . Although Miss Pimple Billimoria is being spiteful, the narrator acknowledges that what she says...
(full context)
Part 3, Chapter 1
...temples, which he initially dismisses as injuries from the fall. Additionally, he has acquired Gibreel’s bad breath (Gibreel, meanwhile, now has pleasant-smelling breath).
(full context)
Part 9
...begin to circulate about his strange behavior, as well as the return of his infamous bad breath . Gibreel plans to finance his new films with his own money, but he struggles...
(full context)
