Essay on My Son the Fanatic Essay

subsequentlywards several terrorist attacks, society have focuse and learned a lot slightly Islamic extremist, international jihad and countries of the Middle East in general. Almost every day the news contains stories about how Orthodox Muslims and root recruits young promising students to fight the suppression of Muslims all over the world. This is also the issue which is talked about in this short tale My son the fanatic by Hanif Kureishi. Ali is one of those promising students. He got straight As and was remarkable at cricket, swimming and football, had lots of friends and a lovely girlfriend.He was completely combine in the English society. Then suddenly he becomes an orthodox Muslim and gives all of his belongings away, peradventure because he is the type of Muslim who believes that only by neglecting the material world you are a neat Muslim, or its because all of those things is a symbol for the western sandwich world which he is trying to contend from. Ali also chang es his attitude. He disperses with his friends and his girlfriend and begins to talk harsh and disrespectfully towards his father Parvez.He and his father used to be like brothers, We were not father and son we were brothers (P. 194 l. 14-15) They used to talk about everything and after Alis transformation, its really awkward when they are together. Parvez takes Ali to a restaurant and tries to break the secrecy but Ali was extremely reluctant to talk and started lecturing Parvez on all his wrongs in life concord to the Koran. He no longer talks to Parvez as his father but like he is someone that he must convince to become a Muslim. Parvez is the father of Ali. He is born in Pakistan but is now a taxi driver in England. He loves living in England is completely merged in the western culture.He does everything he can to create a normal life for his family. He works a lot to give Ali a first-class education. However, Ali drops out of school and Parvez is bothering his head about i t. He talks to his friends about and they concludes that he must be taking drugs, however, after a a couple of(prenominal) days with that theory, he finds out that Ali has become an orthodox Muslim, it consequently breaks Parves heart. Parvez isnt Muslim but believes that you should merry your life the way you want to, but keep mum respect others. He believes that if you would like some porc or a drink you should be allowed to have it.This and his friendship with the brass Bettina clash with Alis orthodox belief. Parvez has the amazing ability to get wind something good in everyone. Even when Ali disgraces him at the restaurant he still believes in the good in him. Bettina is one of Parvez regular customers due to being a brass and and then working late, when Parvez like to work. She is an extremely good friend of Parvez and he can talk to her about things he wouldnt even discuss with his wife he could talk to her about things hed never be able to discuss with his own wife. (P . 195l. 1-2) Nevertheless Bettina is, for Ali, a symbol of everything that is wrong about the western society. Ali might also think that Bettina has something with his father that his father doesnt have with his mother. Bettina also helps Parvez trough the tough-minded times when he dont know what is going on with Ali. I think the moderateness that the writer has chosen a prostitute to be the wise one is to show how Parvez can see something good in everyone, even those who you see as the bottom of the society.The ending drastically shows how frustrated and nerveless Parvez is feeling. He has no idea of what to do. Everything he has worked for is just tossed out the window. To sum up the themes of this short story its all about clash of cultures. We have the western culture which we see in Bettina and Parvez run into the Islamic culture which is represented by Ali. It also takes up the theme about the relationship in the midst of father and son, and furthermore how a fathers exp ectations can make a son go the opposite direction.