'My Son the Fanatic', analyse af Ali's fanatisme

The writer behind the story “My son the Fanatic” is Hanif Kureishi.Hanif Kureishi was born the 5 of December 1954 he grew up in Bromley, South London with a Pakistani father and an English mother.He made his debut in 1976 as a pornography writer, but went on to write plays for Hampstead Theater, and by the age of 18 he was with the Royal Court, in 1985 he wrote “My beautiful Laundrette” a screenplay about a gay Pakistani-British boy growing up in the 1980s.Today Hanif Kureishi is a professor in the creative writing department at Kingston University

The short story, “My Son the Fanatic” is about a father, his son and their relationship. They have emigrated from Pakistan to England, where they live in London. Ali, the son is a good kid. He is doing well in school, where he almost only gets A’s and he is becoming a good athlete in the sports cricket, swimming and football. Ali is changing though and his father, Parvez, gets worried for what is happening. He discusses the subject with two male friends and a female friend, Bettina, who is a prostitute. They figure that Ali might be doing drugs and Parvez looks for any clue for if that should be the case. He does not find any clues and one evening Parvez decides to take a night off and go out with the boy. All the evening Ali criticizes his dad for drinking alcohol, this leads to a long discussion of what is allowed and what is not. Parvez loves England where almost everything is allowed, but Ali thinks it is wrong. Cause Ali is religious and he is giving up his studies because he thinks that a Western education cultivates an anti- religious attitude. All Parvez wants is to make the best of it and he wants the boy to do that as well. Wants him to find the right girl and get married and so on.