Harmony Between Two Spheres

         The human brain is divided into two spheres, one is an artistic and creative side, the other rationality. Most people can find a balance between the two spheres of the brain and therefore have harmony. However, there are some that have an imbalance between the two spheres where one part overrules the other. Some do not have harmony or control over their brains and have been called mentally ill or have been known to have lost their minds. In Salman Rushdies “Harmony of the Two Spheres” Elliot Crane is a schizophrenic and artist. He has no control of his two spheres and therefore has lost his mind. Why do we as people lose our minds? We lose our minds because we are unable to maintain harmony between the two spheres of our brain. Throughout Rushdie’s many short stories he addresses this question of balance. Fantasy and reality; madness and sanity; fiction and truth; disturbance and harmony; satire and tragedy; east and west. These are all binary opposites that Rushdie continues to explore in his fiction short stories. In the “Harmony of the Two Spheres” Rushdie’s main focus is to show how when there is not a balance between the two opposites once sphere overrules the other. When one sphere over rules the other, that is what causes one to lose their mind.

            Elliot Crane suffers from paranoid schitzophria, his father committed suicide and suffered from depression, Elliot’s genetics are working against him from the start. He considered the reason that he has lost his mind is from “a simple biochemical imbalance” (Rushdie 134). Elliot is a workaholic and is overworked, he is an artist/writer. He spends most of his time fantasizing about things, and having a big imagination. He often speaks of aliens, and demons. This shows that his left sphere has well taken over the right. When writing Elliot would use his left sphere, the creative side, however he is unable to use the right sphere to organize his creativity and thoughts, therefore his writing did not make sense. “He seemed better as long as he did not try to write, he seemed worse because not writing plunged him into such deep depressions”(Rushdie 128).  The narrator Khan is a friend of Elliot’s. Khan and his wife Mala spend a lot of time with Elliot and Elliot’s wife Lucy. Khan sees Elliot as one who has just lost his mind and suffers from a mental illness

            In the end Elliot commits suicide, and it comes out that Elliot and Khan’s wife Mala had been having a love affair for quite some time. Khan than realizes that the reasons for Elliot’s madness is because he had been hiding and keeping a big secret. He would write about it and those that read it would see it as fictional insane writings, when in fact it was true. Elliot went mad because he could not be with the one he loved, on top of everything else. His reality and fantasy were mashed together, and flipped so that fantasy was in fact reality. Elliot lost his mind because of his imbalance between fantasy and reality.  Rushdie’s point is again when there is not harmony between two opposites, that is what causes one to lose their mind.