My Son the Fanatic

My Son the Fanatic

Hanif Kureishi

Religion is a big part of the world nowadays. It can be good to believe and it helps a lot of people to keep up their hope and to stay strong, but it can also lead to war and discrepancies. Why people use religion as a weapon cannot be answered, but there is some different factors why people become so committed to a religion. Some people are born into their religion and because of that put all their faith to their parents and starts believing themselves. Another factor is the people who have a religion to be someone. They put all their energy into their religion and give their life to believing because it gives them something to live for. Religion can also cause a lot of trouble. The story “My Son the Fanatic”, written by Hanif Kureishi in 1997, is a good example of that. The text is about a dad, Parvez and his son, Ali. Ali is very committed to his religion, Islam and Parvez is having a hard time handling it. This essay evaluates an analyze of the text and a characterization on Parvez and Ali.

The story takes place in their home, and in Parvez taxi. Parvez is a taxa driver and he has a close relationship with a woman named Betina. Betina is a prostitute, but they talk together almost every night. Parvez works at night because he makes more money during the night, but also to avoid his wife  Parvez is an immigrant from Pakistan. He has left his religion, and drinks and eats pork like all the other people living in England. He wants to fit in. Parvez is suspicious about what his son Ali is doing. He cannot understand why he has emptied his room and why he is not playing his guitar anymore. He starts getting worried and accuses Ali for taking drugs. He turns to Betina and tells her about the situation. She tell him to look at his eyes, it’s all in the eyes”2. She tells him to look out for dilated eyes and she draws pictures of “capsuls, syrings, pills, powders, rocks”3. Parvez starts looking Ali in the eyes anytime he gets the chance, but there is nothing to see so when he finds out that Ali is committed to Islam he gets really depressed and starts drinking more whisky, but at one point he decide to take his son out to dinner to talk about it, but he didn’t get a chance to say anything before Ali said “don’t you know it’s wrong to drink alcohol?”4.