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My Son the Fanatic

The short story is about a father, his son and their relationship. They emigrated from Pakistan to London.
The son, Ali, used to be very conscientious but he starts changing. He throws out his things, parts from his girlfriend and doesn’t have contact with his old friends anymore.
The father, Parvez, talks to his friend Bettina, who is a prostitute, about it and they figure out that he might be doing drugs. But Parvez doesn’t find any clues that he should be doing drugs. The only difference with Ali was that he was growing a beard.
Parvez decides to go out with Ali and so he does. The evening doesn’t turn out very well. Ali tells his father not to drink alcohol because it’s wrong and Parvez gets mad because he doesn’t want his son to tell him what to do. Ali tells Parvez that he is too implicated in the Western culture – he is not a real Muslim.
Parvez talks to Bettina about it. He feels like having lost his son and doesn’t know what to do about it. He feels powerless so he wants to throw him out of the house. Bettina thinks he should give Ali a second chance. Parvez decides to tell Ali about his own life philosophy so that Ali finds out that there are other life philosophies than his own, Muslim one. But Ali doesn’t understand it at all.
One evening Bettina is sitting in Parvez’s car and they see Ali. Bettina wants to talk to him so they pick him up. Bettina tries to talk to Ali but he doesn’t want to because she’s a prostitute. His life philosophy doesn’t accept him talking to prostitutes.
Bettina gets out of the car and Ali and Parvez drive home. When they come home Parvez hits his son but he’s unreachable.

#1

Tusind tak, jeg kan bruge ALT! :)

Har en analyse af My Son the Fanatic...

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My Son the Fanatic

Setting

Time: a precise timeindication is not mentioned, but it could easily be a contemporary short-story. Place: the story takes place in London
Mood: tense – the reader awaits in great suspense a confrontation of religion and life style between Ali and Parvez. The real confrontation ends the story.

Main characters

Parvez:

 external:
- hard-working cab-driver
- works at night
- married and has one child
- Punjabi – 1. generation immigrant

 internal:
- avoids conflicts – it’s hard for him to confront Ali and the first solution for him is to throw out Ali . Alcohol is always a way for him to get rid of the mental pain.
- tries to fit in and live an english life style, because of affection to English society. Especially he accepts english advantages, but keeps old norms and traditions as well. This is shown in the way he controls his wife – we don’t hear that she plays in role at all in Ali’s upbringing. She only cooks and serves.
- loves his son and wants the best of him – Ali’s succes is his succes. He has great expectations of his son
- non-religious – turned his back on religion after a humiliation in Pakistan .
- afraid of destroing other people’s opinion of him and his family
- he is not able to control his feelings and keep calm – shown in the end were his aggressions get out of control

Ali:

 external:
- good student and atlet
- used to be a normal english teenager
- Punjabi – 2. generation immigrant

 internal:
- very religious and against the western society
- he looks for identity
- rootless
- becomes a fanatic because of the fact that his father has made him rootless. Suddenly he’s aware of Islam and finds his identity. Manipulation is an opportunity.
- Superior to his father – his father is not able to influence him, he keeps calm, and stays on a non-violent level in contrast to his father

Themes

Fanaticism, integration and culture and family conflicts

 The fanaticism is already shown in the title ”My Son the Fanatic”, but also in the confrontations between father and son. Both Ali and Parvez have strong beliefs and don’t allow other ways of thinking. It’s therefore hard for them to co-operate because their opinions are very conflicting.

 Integration and culture is reflected through the whole novel. Ali represents one way to live in England and Parvez another one. As mentioned the ways are totally different.

 Family conflicts are shown in the conflicts between father and son. The whole novel is a great conflict – Parvez and Ali don’t agree at any point and it collapses in the end. Ali’s change and attitude can be characterized as a rebellion towards the older generation.

Perspective

A movie:

East is East, where family conflicts are shown. In this movie the father is divided – in one way he wants to a Pakistani life where he is in control of the family and in the other way he is married with a english woman and wants her to be english in sexual connections and in the way she looks. The roles have been twisted because it is the children who want to be integrated in the english society and not the father.

The society:

In the danish society it’s a more and more clear fact that the younger generation are getting more religious than the older generation. They settle with the way their parents were integrated in the society and some of them turn out as fanatics.

Also the general fact that the focus on fanaticism has been more clearly after the 11th of September is relevant.

Lidt rodet godt nok... Men det er også bare kopieret! De steder, hvor det gå helt galt med tal og tegn, er det altså bare words punktopstilling, der ryger sig en tur!

Har skrevet en stil om den her i 3. g... (tror godt nok det var et uddrag af den)
Men måske du kan bruge den til noget....

her kommer den:

My Son the Fanatic.

Religion is the answer to all your questions your doubts and your loneliness. It can make weak people strong and strong people weak. It can bring people together but it can also tear them apart. Religion is the one thing that causes most wars - wars between nations, people and also between family members.
We see an example of that in the British short story “My Son the Fanatic” by Hanif Kureishi, published in 1994.

Ali has suddenly changed (l. 2). He is no longer like an ordinary teenage boy. He has become more introspective and he has withdrawn from the people he used to talk with. (“Ali had parted from his English girlfriend. His old friends stopped ringing.” ll. 9-10, “I can’t talk to him any more.” l.26) His father, Parvez, does not understand why his son has turned out this way (I can’t understand it” l. 26) He is afraid that he is the cause of his son’s eccentricity. (“Where had he gone wrong?” l. 23, “…afraid that somehow he was to blame for all this.” l. 128) But he also feels “his son’s eccentricity as an injustice”(l. 11)
Parvez’s opinion is that he only has this one life, and the only way parts of him will live on is in other people. Here he means Ali. He says, “I will continue – in you” (l. 167) That is why it is so important for Parvez that Ali grows up to be like the picture his mind has constructed of him (ll. 18-23)
Parvez is talking to a couple of his friends about the problem with his son. And soon they conclude that Ali must be a drug abuser (ll.30-31). The sentence “Now it was clear” (l.30) is very ironic. The author wants to show us how wrong people can be. People tend to jump to conclusions, and the unknown is often criminalized.
Parvez feels “puzzled but relieved” (l.56-57) when he finds out that the reason why Ali has acted differently is that he has become religious. However, he really cannot see why Ali has turned out to be like this: “What has made you like this?” (l. 127)
Ali and his family are Punjabis but they live in England. Ali feels that he does not fit in; he feels that he is an outcast in western society. “The Western materialists hate us” (l. 105) I think that is the reason why he has become so religious. Religion gives him a feeling of belonging somewhere, “My people have taken enough” (l.116) “Around the world millions and millions of people share my beliefs” (l. 181).
Ali needs an answer to the cruelty and absurdity of life. The Koran gives an instruction and some fixed rules, which is important to Ali. The Koran gives Ali opportunities to criticize western culture. Now it is easy for Ali to tell what is right and wrong (ll.92-94).
The religion gives Ali hope; he can suppress the absurdity of life by thinking of paradise. He believes that his “reward will be in Paradise” (l.120).
Parvez is also a Muslim but he is not fanatic, as he eats pork and drinks alcohol (l. 82+97), “we are only human,” (l.85) he says. Parvez represents the well-integrated man; the man who has compromised with his old beliefs and who tries to fit in (l. 98) With Ali it is different. He does not even try to fit in. He has turned his back on western society, and thereby also on his father.
Bettina is the materialization of western culture. Consequently Ali does not like her (ll. 202 + 207). I think Ali feels that Bettina “steals” his father, just like he feels that Parvez is “too implicated in Western civilization.” (l.101) A picture of that is to be found in l. 190: “The boy shrugged and got into the back seat. Bettina sat in the front.” In this line Bettina can also be a picture of Western culture. Western culture takes up so much of the father’s room that Ali is relegated to the background. It is western society that has made Parvez work so hard, and the hard work has made him drink (l. 12 + ll. 80-83) I think that these facts also have made Ali hate the Western culture.
The relationship between Ali and his father has once been very good “ We were not father and son – we were brothers” (ll.27-28) But actually we do not know if Ali saw it that way too? Maybe Ali thought that their relationship was good, but one day he realized that it was all a dream. He might have found out that “the good life” was all an illusion, that the words were empty and that the colors were fake. The only answer to him must have been religion. But his religion tears him apart from his father. He becomes a stranger: “…the boy sat in back of the taxi, as if he were a customer” (ll. 126-127)
Ali is a strong boy and I think it is religion that has made him one. His is very strong in his attitudes. In the discussion with his father he is very self-possessed (“In a low monotonous voice, the boy explained…” l.92) and he has great aplomb (“he addressed his father fluently”, l. 109).
Ali has the upper hand in their discussions (ll. 122-123, ll. 182-183). The contrast of Ali being the strong boy and Parvez being the one who cries ((l.122), makes Parvez look even more weak and pathetic. The picture of Parvez being the loser and the pathetic one in their discussions is emphasized when Parvez hits his boy at the ending. Ali holds his head high, “there was no fear in his eyes” (l. 222). Parvez “knew the boy was unreachable, but he struck him none the less” (ll. 220-221) Parvez has realized that he cannot do anything; he has lost control both of the boy and himself. The line “So who’s the fanatic now?” (l. 223) implies that Parvez is just as fanatic as his son. He will do anything just to fit into western society, even hit his son, and that is in my opinion pretty fanatic.

hej.. jeg har noget om "Eveline" hvis det er..

Summary
Eveline sits at the window, watching the avenue. She thinks of her family, and the neighbors. Years ago, the children on the avenue used to play on a field where now stand many houses. She and her siblings are now grown up, and her mother is dead. Eveline is nineteen years old, and she is planning to leave Ireland forever. She works very hard, at a store and also at home, where she cares for her old father. She won't miss her job in the store. She has mixed feelings about her father. He can be cruel, and though he doesn't beat her, as he did her brothers, he often threatens her with violence. With her brothers gone (Ernest is dead and Harry is often away on business) there is no one to protect her. She takes care of two young siblings and gives over her whole salary for the family, but her father is always accusing her of being a spendthrift.
She is going to leave Ireland for good with a sailor named Frank. He has a home in Buenos Ayres. Frank treats her respectfully and with great tenderness, and he entertains her with stories about his travels around the world. Her father dislikes him.
Still, she loves her father and regrets the idea of leaving him in his old age. At times he can be kind. She remembers her mother's death, when she promised her mother to keep the home together as long as she could. Her mother lived a life "of commonplace sacrifices closing in final craziness" (33). She finished babbling the enigmatic phrase "Derevaun Seraun!" again and again. The fear of that memory strengthens the resolve in Eveline to leave.
But at the station, with the boat ready to leave, she is paralyzed. She cannot go; the world is too frightening. "All the seas of the world tumbled about her heart. He [Frank] was drawing her into them: he would drown her" (34). Frank calls to her, trying to get her to board with the rush of people. She merely stares at him as if he is a stranger.

Analysis:

Yet again, this story focuses on the theme of escape. While the young boy narrators of the previous stories are too young to leave Ireland or do anything about their poverty, Eveline has been given a chance. Yet in the end, the girl finds herself incapable of going.
Certainly, she has every reason to leave. The portrait we have of her family life is less than heart-warming. We see that she has taken on an incredible part of the burden in keeping the family together, as her mother did before her. Her father, despite the points he wins for not beating her, is a domineering and unfair man, who makes his daughter work and then keeps her wages. Rather than appreciate her sacrifices, he ridicules her. Unpleasant characters in Joyce's works often criticize the Irishman who leaves Ireland, the most common sentiment being that these expatriates are ungrateful children of their country. Joyce, himself an expatriate, turns this insult around in "Eveline": we see not an ungrateful child, but an ungrateful parent. Eveline's stifling family life becomes a metaphor for the trap that is Ireland.
Her mother provides the chilling example of what it means to be a grateful child, and to do what is expected: we learn that she lived a life "of commonplace sacrifices closing in final craziness" (33). At the end of her life she is true Irish, babbling in Ireland's native language (which nationalists had been trying to revitalize). However, the phrase she utters repeatedly is probably nonsense; at best it is corrupt Gaelic. The meaninglessness of the phrase suggests, metaphorically, that the sacrifices have also been meaningless. Eveline's mother has earned nothing but madness.
The stages-of-life structure continues. Eveline is adult, a young woman old enough to get married. Joyce gives us in concise detail the terrible poverty and pressure of her situation. The weight of poverty and family responsibilities bear down on this young woman heavily; her financial situation is far worse than that of the three boy narrators of the previous stories. She is trapped in an ugly situation, responsible for her siblings and the aging father who abuses her.
Paralysis is a common theme in Dubliners, and poor Eveline finds herself unable to move forward. She lacks the courage and strength to make that leap that will free her of her oppressive situation. She's too scared to leave Ireland, and sees her lover as a possible source of danger: "All the seas of the world tumbled about her heart. He [Frank] was drawing her into them: he would drown her" (34). But her paralysis will cost her. Instead of an uncertain but hopeful future, she faces a certain and dismal future that may well repeat her mother's sad life story.