LOOooKk!

HEJ
skal aflevere denne eng. stil man. og har derfor en bøn om, at en, som er rigtig god til det engelske (for jeg er ikke!) lige ville kigge den igennem for mig...? Please.. (fik en dårlig karakter til årsprøven pga. nervøsitet, og nu VIL jeg bare bevise overfor læreren, at jeg KAN.)

Håber du vil hjælpe mig med det.. På forhånd tak. Marie

The Buddha of Suburbia
-by: Hanif Kureishi


Q. 6: Compare the short-story with the first chapter of the novel. Analyse the changes made for the novel version and discuss whether they have improved the text.

Fundamentally, the first chapter of ’The Buddha of Suburbia’ and the short story of the same name are about the same. In both versions we hear about Karim, a product of an Indian father and an English mother, the visit to Mrs. Kay’s (or Mrs. Cooper’s, as she is called in the short story) Karim’s sexual experience with Mrs. Kay’s son and, moreover, we hear about Karim’s family braking down. However, when reading the first chapter of ’The Buddha of Suburbia’, it becomes clear that it is much more detailed compared to the short story. The changes made for the novel version are e.g. that we hear about Karim’s four years younger brother, Amar. In addition, Karim’s thoughts about his background and life in the suburb are clarified. This especially becomes clear in the beginning of chapter one; “Englishman I am (though not proud of it) (...) Perhaps it is the odd mixture of continents and blood (...) that makes me restless and easily bored.” (p. 3, l. 4).
Later on in the story, when Karim and his father, Haroon, are on their way to Mrs. Kay’s, we hear that they go into a pub. This passage is not mentioned in the short story. Weather it has improved the text or not is difficult to say. On one hand it seems rather superfluous. On the other hand, however, the reader gets some information about the other people in pub; “The pub was full of kids dressed like me (colourful, Indian, clothes)”. Moreover this passage shows Haroon’s feelings towards his wife; “Your mother upsets me (...) She doesn’t join in things”. He says to Karim. However these information could have been given to the reader without using a whole page. This passage, in my opinion, has not improved the text.
Another change made for the novel version is the fact that Karim’s mother knows about the Haroon’s relationship with Mrs. Kay. This especially becomes clear when Karim finds his mother’s sketch pad, a drawing of Haroon and Eva: “One afternoon (...) I opened Mum’s sketch pad. (...) I flipped through the pages until I came to a drawing of my father naked. Standing next to him, slightly taller, was Eva, also naked (...) They were holding hands like frightened children. (...) They looked like John Lennon and Yoko Ono. How could mum be so objective? How did she even know they’d fucked?” (p. 20, l.23-31) This passage has improved the text in the way, that the family breaking down becomes much more obvious, whereas in the short story, you could only guess that the family was breaking down because of the mothers behaviour; her not wanting to go out, just sitting in front of the TV. Another passage that is not mentioned in the short story is Karim’s flash-back where he thinks of Eva Kay coming into his room and talking about the secrets of her love life. According to Karim, Eva gets very intimate and tells that her husband hits her and that they do not have a sex life. “She used the word ‘fuck’. She wanted to live, she said. She frightened me; she excited me; somehow she had disturbed our hole household from the moment she entered it” says Karim (p. 11, l.4-6) This passage is important and improves the text because it becomes clear why Eva wants to cheat on her husband and be together with Haroon. She plays an important role in the breaking down of the family; “she disturbed our hole household”.
Another change made for the novel version is the fact that Amar (or Allie as he calls himself to avoid racial trouble), is mentioned. We hear that he wants to become a ballet dancer and reads fashion magazines ‘and anything European he could lay his hands on’ (p. 19, l. 27-28). The fact that he is mentioned improves the text in a way that one can see the difference being a mixture of blood and continence. It is obvious that Karim feels torn. He actually says that he is not proud being an Englishman and that the mixture of blood and continents makes him feel restless. However, his brother, Amar, is opposite. It seems as if he wants to hide his Indian roots; he changes his name and reads European magazines.
Last, but not least, there has been made some changes in the last part of the story. The last part of the short story ends with the passage where Karim is making the bed for his mother after he and Haroon had come home from Mrs. Kay’s house. In the novel version, however, the last part of the story ends with Haroon asking Karim to join him at another ‘ceremony’, where Haroon is appearing. In my opinion, the changes made for the last part of the novel version have improved the text because they show how close Karim is to his father -even though Karim wonders, whether his father is a charlatan or not. “What I wanted to see was weather (...) dad really did have anything to offer other people, or if he would turn out to be merely another suburban eccentric”.