My son the fanatic - Abiturmaterial

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My Son the Fanatic

Summary The

story tells from Parvez a Pakistani Taxi Driver in Northern England

and his son Ali. Parvez used to care very much for his only son and

was because of this very shocked when Ali changed his behavior. He

left his girlfriend, distanced himself from his other friends and gave

away most of the things which were in his room. The shocked Parvez

is talking after this with his taxi driver colleagues who suggest that

the young Ali is taking drugs. Parvez is convinced from this idea and

talks as well to Bettina, a prostitute and friend of him, who

describes him the usual signs of drugs. Parvez supervises his son and

realizes that he actually isn’t taking drugs but that he is a

religious fanatic. The father wants to talk to his son and goes out

for a dinner with him. While eating, Ali accuses Parvez’s western

lifestyle and openly criticizes his behavior. The discussion escalates

and Parvez is drinking too much alcohol to play down his anger. After

this Parvez talks another time to Bettina who tries to support him

and who even talks to the fanatic in the taxi. But when Ali insults her

for her work as a prostitute she goes out of the taxi and leaves

Parvez and Ali alone. When they arrive at home Parvez is really angry

about his son’s behavior, especially because he had made bad

experiences with religion and he hits his face. Ali, probably shocked

by this, answers with the simple question “Who’s the fanatic now?”

when the story ends.

Setting The story is set in a not

specified town in Great Britain. You can suggest that it is a rather

big town, when hearing from traffic jams and the taxi drivers. The

story isn’t related to the colonization times but seems to take place

in the 1980s or the 1990s, so rather in our time (arguments are again:

traffic jam, lots of taxis). The next important part of the setting is

Ali’s room which dramatically changes from a teenager’s room with

television, video games, books and cricket bats in a very tidy and

ordered room with a surprising emptiness. In the social environment of

the Protagonist we’ve the taxi drivers, the prostitutes and Parvez’s

wife, who is just like in other short stories suppressed by him.

Parvez in Alis clean room Parvez afraid: talks to his collegues (drug

theory) no drugs but praying dinner with Ali Parvez talks to

Bettina "I've lost my son" Bettina meets Ali Parvez and Ali drove

home and went up Parvez hits Ali's face.

The Characters Ali Parvez Bettina son of Parvez second generation immigrant broke

his education as an accouter left his girlfriend cleaned out his

room left all his friends religious fanatic, devout acts like

Parvez’s father (tells him what is right and wrong) first

generation immigrant from Punjabi (Pakistan) taxi driver proud of

his son not religious since his religious education adopted western

values, unable to accept religious fanaticism alcoholic and

violent (in the end) superior to his women prostitute good friend

of Parvez (for years) beautiful not religious and no understanding

for religious fanaticism knows a lot about “underground

phenomena” (drugs,…) nice, friendly understanding

The

Author: Hanif Kureishi Hanif Kureishi was born 1954 in Great Britain.

He had a Pakistani father and a British mother. So he used to grow up

under two cultures and that’s one of the topics he often deals with in

his plenty works. Kureishi wanted to be a writer since his childhood

but started publishing his first works when Salman Rushdie was

sentenced to death by religious fanatics (see also 3.2.4. The Author:

Salman Rushdie). Shocked by this outbreak of violence in the Muslim

world, Hanif Kureishi often criticizes fanatic behavior and made it to

one of his central themes in lots of his plays and novels. The author

received several prices for his works and was even once nominated for

the Oscars for the best screenplay with the film “My Beautiful

Launderette”.

Historical Background The Pakistan

community in Great Britain The Pakistanis are a minority in Great

Britain. They immigrated after Indians declaration of independence.. In Northern Britain they often form separated groups

with own quarters in which they often have separate shops and markets.

Furthermore it’s interesting that every 6th Pakistani men in Great

Britain is working as a taxi driver. Today the Pakistan community

changes in that far that she begins to demand full integration instead

of creating a separate group. But even though there are still some

radical and fanatic groups working in an international network to

terrorize the country. The relation to the short story is that the

story is set in a Pakistani community and that furthermore Parvez is a

taxi driver. The religious fanatic is Ali, who rejects the western

lifestyle and isn’t accepting that his father has another opinion.

Main themes

Generation gap A Generation gap

describes differences in understandings and ratings of certain

phenomena between members of two generations. In “My Son the

Fanatic” we have this difference between Parvez (a first generation

immigrant) and his son Ali (second generation immigrant). Parvez

probably immigrated to England because he saw the Western lifestyle as

something progressive and desirable. Parvez dislikes religious

education because he had bad experiences while he was educated. Ali

is a second generation immigrant and suddenly changed to religious

fanaticism without that the reader knows from a certain occasion which

leads to this.

Religious fanaticism In the short story

there’s Ali who has changed into a religious fanatic and claims that his

opinion is the only right one. Religious fanaticism often leads to

violent breakouts and so it’s quite surprising that in the short story

the non-fanatic immigrant hits his son instead of Ali. But even though

you feel, when you read the short story, rather sympathy for Parvez and

not for Ali that far. So Hanif Kureishi rates religious fanaticism as

well as something bad and wants to convince you to get the same

opinion. And anyhow religious fanaticism leads as well in this short

story to a violent breakout, even though it is one from the other side,

it isn’t rated as being something good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqS8eFLa1ns (Incorporar)