My son the fanatic is a story about a pakistani man and his family, who have migrated to England. They are living a pretty normal english life, until their son becomes more and more fanatical in practicing the muslim ways. This isn’t what his father expects and so he becomes anxious and sad on behalf of his son.
This all leads to a major conflict between father and son.
Themes:
Fanaticism, religion, adaptation, immigration.
Characters:
Parvez:
Parvez is a hard working man, he is trying hard to be accepted in England.
He tries to live like the English. He wants to be imminate.
He used to have a close relationship with his son. Parvez has made an effort to give Ali the life that he dreamt of himself when he left Pakistan.
He doesn’t share the parenting role with his wife. It doesn’t seem like the wife is a part of Parvez’s and Ali’s lives. In that way he still lives like a Muslim.
When Parvez gets frustrated and when he has a problem he turns to the alcohol, even when he is at work.
Ali does not like that his father is drinking alcohol, it makes Parvez drink more quickly. He can’t stop himself and gets drunk.
When he feels that Ali has disrespected him and Bettina he gets angry again and turns to the alcohol and keeps pouring himself drinks.
Parvez has been a taxi driver for twenty years. He, like the other Punjabis, prefers to work at night, the roads are clearer and it pays better. This way he can sleep during the day and avoid the wife. Most customers at this time are local “brasses” or prostitutes.
Bettina:
Bettina is one of the main characters in this story “My son the Fanatic”.
She has an important part throughout the story’s plot, because she is the one that Parves goes to for help when he has troubles with Ali.
Bettina is a prostitute and works every night. One night when is is at work, she ends up with a violent klient, where Parvez comes at rescues her from this klient. Bettina got to know Parvez after working, where he often drove her home or to different liaisions. But it was after his night with the violent klient that Bettina and Parvez started bonding. Now they have known each other for three years. Parves can talk to Bettina about everything, including things he does not talk to his wife about.
Bettina knows lots about the nightlife and drug use. She is very calm when Parves says that he is worried that Ali is taking drugs. She only replies “It’s all in his eyes”. (p. 195. ll. 9-22)
After Parvez find out that Ali does not have drug problems, but has become a fanatic in his religion, Parvez tells Bettina that he does not like the way Ali is looking at him and is thinking about throwing Ali out. Bettina advises him and says that young people often go through a period in their lives where they fall behind society and into cuts and superstitious groups. But they never end up this way though. There could be two very different reasons for this, one that Bettina knows young people that have fallen into this period of their life and after a while they have ended up the right place. Or two, that she has fallen into this cut herself when she was young and is still dreaming of a better life.
Bettina’s look is different because of her work, she dresses like a prostitute. She is wearing high heels, a short skirt, rings, ice-blue eye shadow, perfume and a long raincoat. (p. 196. ll. 32-33) (p.201.ll. 10-12)
Ali:
Before Ali changes he was determined to finish his education, he wanted to be an accountant. He had an English girlfriend, and this his father likes very much. Ali got straight A’s, played the guitar and was a very good cricket player. But one day Ali started behaving weirdly, he took down all his photos from the bedroom wall (ll.26-28 p.193), started praying and dropped out of school. He started to become very rude and arrogant towards other people (ll.3-4 p.199). He knew his father was very worried, but it seems as if he does not care. Ali said he believed that enjoyment was a ‘bottomless pit’, that is one of the reason why Ali wants to help Muslim prisoners. He desperately wants to go back to his roots, his Muslim religion. He feels as if the Muslims are inferiors in the Western world. He threatens with Jihad.
The Mother:
The mother is only mentioned twice:
“ Parves hurried into his bedroom, where his wife was still awake, sewing in bed. He ordered her to sit down and keep quiet, though she neither stood up nor said a word” (p. 195, l. 41-43)
“he had ordered his wife to cook port sausages, saying to her, ´You´re not in the village now, this is England. We have to fit in!” ( p. 197, l 41-43)
And another indirectly remark: “They slept during the day, avoiding their wives.” (p. 193, l. 35-36)
Family Relations:
Parves and Ali used to have a problem free relationship. Ali lived up to all his father’s expectations. When Ali starts going his own way, Pavez and Ali´s conflict starts evolving. Ali´s religiousness and his distance behavior. And Parvezs lack of presence is all due to a bad father and son relationship.
There are very unhealthy family patterns in this family. Parvez does not trust Ali and Ali condemns Parvez. Other problems are neglecting, whiskey abuse, violence, fanaticism and the different religions.
Things that are worth considering are the fathers point of view, Ali´s point of view.
And we do not get very little information about violent, alcoholism and the affair with Bettina.
Religion:
In this short story we hear about Parvez, a Punjab who has immigrated to England. Where he grew up, young men were taught the Koran. To stop Parvez from falling asleep during his studies the Maulvi (Islamic religious scholars) had tied a piece of string between his hair and the ceiling. After this embarrassing treatment, he stopped being religious, in any way.
Since Parvez has been living in England for quite a while now, he has grown accustomed to the English culture, he has started eating food which is forbidden for Islamic Muslims, including pork, and drinking alcohol. Parvez has a son, who has had a British girlfriend and had started educating himself to be an accountant. Parvez’ dream is to lead a successful life in England, in his eyes, that is having a son, who meets the right girl, and gets a good job. Ali, Parvez’ son, however, has gotten into the Muslim society in London, where he lives, and has lived, all his life. He has been going to the mosques and educating himself about the religion of “his people”.
This has lead to Ali starting to lead the life of a proper Muslim, and has started giving away all of his expensive things to charity and the homeless. Ali’s unusual behaviour has gotten Parvez worried, and Parvez tries to figure out what it is that his son is doing, he does not yet know that Ali has started going to the mosques. At first he thinks it’s drugs. But as Ali starts talking to him, he figures out what is happening. Ali fully believes in the Koran, and he also wants his father to be a pure Muslim, he starts criticizing his father, telling him that he has lost his ways, asking his wife to cook him pork. He also hangs out with a prostitute, Bettina, which Ali does not like, as well as drinking alcohol.
Parvez cannot take that his own son is criticizing his way of living, and tries to convince Ali that they have to fit in, he doesn’t want to be different.
Ali is uncompromising towards his father and his westernized lifestyle, which he finds to be disgraceful to his father and family. He persistently tries to shame his father into doing the right thing, from Ali’s perspective, Parvez does not seem to agree with Ali’s ideals, as seen in the restaurant where the father tries to convince his son to be more tolerant and open towards him. Ali speaks to his father about jihad and other imagined slights that he has likely gotten from the generic stereotypes about hatred for minorities. He shows no restraint in his zealous ideas, and at one point Parvez thinks to himself that Ali did not come up with any of this himself, despite his obvious intelligence.
In the end of the short story, everything gets flipped completely on its head, Ali asks Parvez, as he’s beating him, “who’s the fanatic now?”. Parvez has thought that Ali was a fanatic the entire time, when Parvez himself has been trying really hard to stop Ali from becoming this fanatic muslim. Parvez can’t take it anymore at one point, and starts beating Ali, in frustration.
One might say that Parvez is a fanatic of the English culture.
Additional information from Contexts:
Hanif Kureishi, (b. 1954) was born in Bromley, Kent in 1954 the son of a Pakistani father and an English mother. He has published novels and short stories. The Budha of Suburbia (1990), for which he also wrote the screenplay, are some of his novels, as is Gabriel’s Gift (2001). He has published the following collections of short stories Love in a Blue Time (including My Son the Fanatic) 1997, The Black Album (1998), and Intimacy (2003). His play Sleep with Me was performed at the National Theatre in London (2000).
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