Analyse af 'My Son the Fanatic'

My Son the FanaticThe text “My Son the Fanatic” is a short story written by Hanif Kureishi. The short story is about a boy called Ali and his father Parvez, who has migrated to England, London. The issue of the text is that Parvez one day thinks, that his son has changes his behaviour. To begin with he thinks that the son is on drugs, but suddenly he finds out that the son has changed behaviour because he was become more religious, and he notices that the son prays five times a day, but the problem is that Parvez does not accept that the son was become religious because he does not think that you can be religious in the western world.

In the beginning Parvez is portrayed as a good father, because you hear that he has payed for his sons education and all the books Ali has to buy when he is studying. But in the end of the text the father is portrayed as a bad father, because you hear that he attacked the son: “Parvez kicked him over. Then he dragged the boy up by his shirt and hit him. The boy fell back. Parvez hit him again. The boy's face was bloody. Parvez was panting. (…). The boy neither covered himself nor retaliated; there was no fear in his eyes. He only said, through his split lip: 'So who's the fanatic now?’”. Parvez is a very determined and wants to call all the shots. He can not accept that his boy has become religious when he lives in England. Parvez is also a very integrated person because you hear that he drinks alcohol eats pork etc., and stuff like alcohol is not a part of people who are Muslims. The main problem of the short story is that Ali does not understand his father and his father’s way of life and the father does not understand his son. Ali thinks that his father is too implicated in Western civilization. He says for instance: “You are too implicated in Western civilisation”.