Perfect Harmony

Who are we to say who is mad or crazy and who is not? Do people consider working all their lives to buy things that they don’t need the norm? Or does mainstream society have it all wrong and the only normal people out there are the one’s who act crazy to us? In the short story “The Harmony of Spheres”, in the novel East, West by Salman Rushdie, Eliot Crane is a paranoid schizophrenic who is an author that attempts to write on spiritualism and the universe. The narrator in the story is Khan. He is a friend of Cranes who tries to visit him as much as possible. At the beginning of the story, Crane believes Khan is Martian, but later stops believing that he actually is a Martian.

Crane is married to Lucy who tries to help him with his disease. Crane seems to have always had something wrong with him throughout his life. A friend of Crane’s from school said “he’ll probably make something half-way decent of his life, if he doesn’t kill himself first” (Rushdie 145). Crane is only able to control his thoughts occasionally. The other times his obsessive, dedication to figuring out theories on the universe and hearing voices in his head overtake him.

Why is it that people go mad? Is it a chemical imbalance brought upon by a genetic defect or is it because one consumes his or her life into something and that greater power over takes the person’s mind? In Eliot Crane’s case, he is obsessed with his theories and writings. But the reader is not certain that Eliot has had this problem all along or not. But if he hasn’t, then Eliot, like most of us, have to find a perfect balance between going crazy and being completely apathetic.

Individuals with that much information going through their minds has to have an outlet in order to stay sane. They need to be able to release their thoughts somehow. Some do it by writing; others may do it through comedy. Whatever the release is, the person has to get rid of the demons inside or they will take over. “He had met a demon once and ever since that day he and Lucy had been on the run” (Rushdie 126). In the end, Crane was consumed by these demons and could not handle them anymore. He killed himself with a shotgun blast to the head which is very interesting because Eliot’s father “who had put it to the same use” (Rushdie 125).

Everyone has some type of outlet in order to stay somewhat sane. People may drink, do drugs, or exercise but they all help that person try and cope with reality. Not everyone is a genius like Crane, but everyone has to find peace in something. The hard part is finding what that particular thing is and balancing that with the rest of your life to create a perfect harmony so it does not consume you.