Culture clashes - essay

Write an essay on the basis of the short story My Son the Fanatic in which you discuss how cultural differences between generations may influence the relationship between parents and their children. You may include aspects from “Fated Attraction” as well.

- Er der måske en venlig sjæl, der vil rette min stil eller bare noget af den for fejl?

Our basic and fundamental values are established very early in life and the family, the cultural heritage and the surroundings are enabler for the individual’s way of thinking, culture, personality and an eventually social heritage later in life. This is described as “the primary socialization”.

This kind of socialization are formed early in life, as a child isn’t able to distinguish its world out of many possible worlds, cultures and ideologies. It is therefore that world the child will grow up under with family, culture, religion etc., which will make up a basis for the child’s socialization.

The secondary socialization occurs in connection with the child’s/individual’s contact of the world out of the primary. This could be everything from institutions, friends, sport and education etc. Here you will learn to handle norms in groups and learn how to behave towards other people.

“My family did allow me to go to university but didn’t want me to develop western ideals. As I see it, you can’t have one without the other. I spent three years away studying and I now work with mostly English people. Obvious I am influenced by the outside world, which has made me question my cultural values. For instance, I love to see my friends but that isn’t part of our culture. As a woman, I am not even allowed to drink alcohol”.   - This is a good example of secondary socialization.

Amarjit from the story “Fated Attraction” has an affair with the English boy Simon. They are both in the late 20s but Amarjit is a Sikh woman and still lives with her parents.
All that matters to her parents is to get her married. But Amarjit can’t just get married with Simon, because he is an Englishman and her father says that a Englishman who wants to get marry outside of his own people must have a ulterior motive. He says such a man would just want her money and would be a bad character and might beat her up. Her father is a good example of a typical immigrant in England: They don’t understand the culture in the country they have come to and therefore they get scared and insecure for all the new things. As well the ones who is grown up in the country, gets scared of the immigrant’s behavior because it is so different from their own.
The immigrant’s stick to “their own”, live close to other immigrants and goes shopping in stores where the owner is from their own country. They are very isolated and walk around with another cultural code than the one that is in the country which they live in.

The tertiary socialization is, when you get affected by TV, magazines, ideals and advertising.
The primary socialization weighted more high than the secondary in the past, and the tertiary socialization didn’t exist at all.
There is a more balanced proportion in the present society between the three socialization phases. Certain minorities and societies with other culture and religion than those we know in the Western are still true to the primary socialization, as we know from the past.

Some of the most complicated conflicts existing on this planet are the conflicts with religious aspects. Especially the conflicts which include Muslims, have led to both war and
terror and in the last couple of years the differences between the Muslim and Western parts of the
world have been even more evident.

In the story, “My son the fanatic”, which takes place in the UK, the young boy Ali faces these religious problems. His father Parvez, has worked in Britain for many years as a cabdriver, and he has spent a lot of money on his son’s education-
Parvez had avoided all religions since he was a little boy and now only believed in democracy and welfare.

When you are young and growing up is it important to have a role model you can ask central questions about life and look up to. If you can’t find it in your own father then you find it in other persons/things.
Ali has this exact problem with his father Parvez. Ali can’t find a role model in Parvez because he, as a cabdriver, never is home. Ali tries to find answers to his questions in religion.

The cultural conflicts occur, when different cultures have to live together: They can’t understand each other’s values and positions.