What are the various themes of the novel, "Haroun and the Sea of Stories?"Pertaining to the first chapter

The artist going silent is an immediate theme that is
evident in the first chapter of Rushdie's story.  If we consider the artistic voice as
something that is thematically important, we can see that it is the voice that allows us
to fully understand reality, a narration that is to be treasured as it helps us to
construct reality as what can be as opposed to what is.  The first chapter helps
establish the theme of the silenced artist.  When Rashid, the Shah of Blah, ends up
going silent, we are immediately reminded of Rushdie's own hell that preceded the
writing of the novel.  The fatwa issued by the Ayatollah, the forced hiding, the
estrangement from son and wife are all realities that Rushdie, himself, endured.  When
we see Rashid lose the desire to tell stories, it is a development of this theme and one
that we, as the reader, can immediately sense has some level of resonance to Rushdie's
own plight.  Being forced to go underground, there were moments when he endured his own
sensation of losing the abilities to tell stories.  In this light, the opening chapter
helps to establish the theme of reclamation of voice, in this sense an artistic
one.