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“THE Buddha OF Suburbia” – Hanif Kureishi

English literature 1 (Università degli Studi di Verona)

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INTRODUCTION TO THE NOVEL – “THE BUDDHA OF SUBURBIA” – HANIF KUREISHI

We must relate to the British Nationality Act (1948):

it had enormous importance because it contributes to change the social face of England in
the sense that this brought nationality to all the population of the ex
colonies.
This act in the novels of Selvon and Emecheta gave only an artificial idea of
equality  Englishness/ Britishness was only formal.
Above all the clash between the center and the margins/ borders continues
to exist, even after the collapse of the Empire and during the phase of Decolonization. →
There is still a cultural superiority of the English people over the country.

There was also an apparent contradiction between this political liberal position, this
apparent open mentality and the narrow mentality adopted by the society; if from the
political perspective the situation appears to be very open and very free in terms
of right, from a social perspective this rights and this openness were not so clear.

A part from this act, the positions of some politicians remained very strong against mass
migration and they used ferocious words against what they perceived as an invasion,
especially against the fear of contamination of the white blood.

The government did not officially oppose the entrance of these migrants, but at the same
time there was this ambivalent behavior.

It is evident this need to reaffirm the political power of England  huge white population +
ex members of the colonies = a sign of importance. It was necessary to represent England
again as the great power it had been during Colonialism  symbolic reaffirmation of the
imperial system, of the greatness of England that is

one of the reasons why the B.N.A. extended civilization.

But we noticed that the numbers of migrants increased a lot, and at the same time also
the problems increased; the situation was more difficult to manage due to the conflicts
that began to emerge in the society (1950s).

This implied that at the end of 1950s the legislation of migration to England was restricted
the Commonwealth Immigration

Act (1962)contributes to reduce the number of immigrants from the colonies.

These people continued to be British citizens but only some of them were allowed to
migrate to England. Immigration was allowed to those citizens who proved to have a job or
to have work skills.

This is also the period in which the right Wing becomes to emerge ENOCH POWELL, a
politician, was the leader of the conservative right Wing part and he attacked the
government immigration policies.

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He based his conservative ideas on the family, the patriotism and in particular racism. He
became famous due to his speech at the Parliament in 1968, the “Rivers of blood”,
because he proclaimed his unwillingness of accepting the way in which migrants continues
to live in England.

According to him these migrants were spoiling the traditional values.

In the 1970s there are alto the creation of the National Front, another extremist part of the
right Wing party, which

was promoting a very violent reaction against immigration “Keeping Britain

White”was the slogan they had.

In 1979 Margaret Thatcher became the prime minister and she remained until 1990;

→ she was a conservative and she based on privatization of the whole England (it provokes
a lot of strikes among workers) and conservative values and the need to limit immigration
in England.

All this brought to a NEW BRITISH NATIONALITY ACT (1981).

With this new act nationality became a matter of blood belonging  exclusionary identity
based on the idea of racial purity: the government could give the British citizenship
TO:

• to only those people who were born in England or

• at least those people who have mother or father English,

It was in contrast with the social context of hybridization and ethnical diversity
of 1970s and 1980s  the new political reaction does not accept the situation and tries
to solve the problem by exasperating the conflicts.

The situation is paradoxical in the sense that the political measures were stricter but the
social background was more multicultural. →Above all this is important also for the novel of
Kureishi ,the fact of an exclusionary identity that contributed to change the idea of what it
meant to be English and British.

During this phase of Decolonization we have seen the reverse movement of migration:

people who migrated from the colonies to the center of the old Empire  movement of
traditions, cultures, customs, languages, origins that were introduced in England.

In the 20th century the reverse movement brought to an implosion of ex colonies people
in London->They became effectively British citizens and gave a different image
of the English society.

In this process of social and cultural changed,literature played a fundamental role; it

contributed to give a reflection to the contemporary society.

With the second generation of writers the prospective changes.

→ With second generation we means:

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• writers representing the children of these migrants who arrived in the

1950s;

• those who were born and educated in England;

• they feel English and they write with an English sensibility  completely
different stylistic way of writing.

Kureishi and Smith confront themselves with the English traditional literature;
sometimes they identify with the national English stereotypes.

The prospective is no more an insider perspective but it is an outsider one.

But still is a different insider perspective from the white one because the origins of these
writers has to be found in another country, the one of their parents  they represent a
new definition of national identity, both from white English people and from their parents
migrant identity.

• Their way of being English is particularly complex and ambivalent.

In particular Kureishi, who lived during this generational change, wrote a lot from a
theoretical perspective about what it meant to be English in the 1990s, but having
different origins at the same time.

In an interview he gave in the 1990 he underlines the fact that English literature
changed a lot during the all decade of the 1980s because people/ writers like
him with a colonial background began to really be part of the English literature;
they wrote about England, London and they represented a new kind of Englishness.

Even though they have exotic origins, they perceived themselves as English people 
REDEFINATION OF THE CONCEPT OF ENGLISHNESS.

Kureishi wrote a lot about→ this idea of Englishness (a reference, something that
everyone has to look at).

With him we find the need of moving from the concept of Englishness to the concept of
Britishness.

THE CRITICS:

Kureishi at the beginning refused to be in – between two cultures: he wanted to be a

British person proving that there is a new way of Britishness.

He did not want to give the idea of an ambiguous identity.

This new identity Kureishi thinks to have is brought from the center; it is no more from the
margins  there is the passage from “writing back to the center” to “writing from the
center.

The topic of migration is no more to be perceived as a geographical transition; it

is more to be seen as a social migration.

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It means that this is a journey that these young characters attempt from a social identity to
another.

In particular what the novel focuses on is the transition from the poverty of the London
suburbs to the comfort of the middle – class centrality  IMMIGRATION OF CLASS: from
the suburbs to the center of London.

The suburbs are identified with a lower class position; the center is identified with a
higher class position.

The street and the house are represented in a new way in this novel;

• the street is mainly perceived as the place of crime, violence, drug dealing,
conflicts /(between black and white, conflicts with lower classes) ambition to become
middle – class. It is still a place of transformation but it is more to be seen in the
sense of dealing with the problems of society.

• On the other hand the house is perceived as something to go out of, something
restricted  centrifugal movement; the houses represent the limitation for the young
identity.

Hanif Kureishi- EARLY LIFE

• Hanif Kureishi was born in 1944 in a suburb of London, to a British mother and a
Pakistan father.

• His ethnical background was peculiar because his colonial background was
never completely experienced, by himself but also by his father.
• His father has never lived in Pakistan really; he migrated to London after the
independence of India.

• Moreover he did not share the oriental side of his culture and tradition; he grown
up with a catholic education.

• His relationship with his colonial background was ambiguous because he did
not really know this part of himself.

• The journey to Pakistan when he was a teenager contributed to give him back this
part of his background.

• Since he was a child, he had a great passion for writing that was transmitted by
his father, a failed writer who worked as a journalist.

• Kureishi’s life was influenced by the racism of the political climate of the
1970s.

• Although he was not a migrant, because of his color of the skin and his surname
he was perceived as a foreign person and treated like a migrant.

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• He started his writing career by writing for pornographic magazines and then he
started writing for the theatre and the cinema.

• In “The Rainbow sign” (1986) he starts from his autobiographical experience in

order to portrait this new ambiguous definition of identity.

-In the essay he focuses on the concept of identity affected by different colors, cultures,
roots and also confronting with some stereotypes.

-He talks about his double experience both in London→ where he was born and
educated, and in Pakistan → that is the country his father came from where he has never
been to.

-In the first part (the London experience) he talks about this in terms of ambiguity and
ambivalence because as a child he was perceived as an outsider (different surname, darker
skin).

-At the same time when for the first time (he was a teenager) he decides to go to Pakistan
and visit the place of his father, he realizes that he was not a Pakistan as well; he really felt
to be in –between two identities.

So Britishness means → expand these restricted conditions that

characterized Englishness in the period of Colonialism.
• “The Buddha of Suburbia” was his first novel, published in 1990.

INTRODUCTION TO THE NOVEL – “THE BUDDHA OF SUBURBIA” HANIF KUREISHI

1990

It had immediately an enormous critical success and it had been transported in TV

production transmitted by the BBC in 1993.

In this novel the biographical sources are very evident and it opens a long tradition of
novels written by other authors who explain what it means to grow up in London as a
mixed origins child, and not to be perceived as an English person.

The book tells us the story of an adolescent boy called Karim who has different origins and
lives in the London

suburbs. He strongly wants to escape the suburbs and be free from the sense of
narrowness that characterized the suburban environment.

He wants to migrate to the metropolitan center of London and have an active part in this
city. Being a teenager is still very confused: he must make light on many aspects of his
identity; he appears not to have a clear direction in his life.

The novel of course deals with some of the topics that characterized post – war
migration  THEMES:

1. MIGRATION,

2. RACISMS,

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3. SUBURBANISM,

4. ADOLESCENT PROBLEMS

5. AMBIGUITY.

The novel is setting in the 1970s and it has been defined as an iconic novel, in the sense
that it is really pervaded by a series of icons (images) that contribute to give the idea of a
specific context.

There are a lot of descriptions that come from images/ icons and in particular these
images are related to two fields: the field of popular music and the field of fashion.

The novel is divided into two parts and they have two different settings:
1. The first part is set in the suburbs of south London and it is focused on Karim in
his young age  Karim is confused, uncertain, ambivalent and continually looks
for answers about the meaning of life and love  we only find the attempt of answers.
In this first part the predominant atmosphere is that of boredom, which is a typical
condition associated to the suburbs (uniformity, monolithic kind of life) but also to the
condition of adolescent (restlessness, need to find always something new).

2. The second part is set in the center of London and also set in New York. Karim is 20
years old and is moved to London where again he’s trying every possible experiences
(love, sex, drugs, troubles).→ Everything is brought to an extreme but this reflects the
need of rebellion.

All these experiences represent a rite of passage, because this passage from
inexperience to experience is not necessarily positive in the sense that growing up also
implies accepting hypocrisy and compromises, assuming hypocritical attitudes Bildungs
Roman.

The setting of this novel is not only the geographical setting (London) but also the
periodical setting (1970s)  the London of the 1970s is the real protagonist of this
novel, more than Karim.

It is important also the distinction between this two places because they functioned as two
different worlds. Again we have the distinction between the center and the
periphery  it seems like there are two different England within England, two different
London within London.

→ The suburbs here represent the colonies and the metropolitan city represents
the Empire.

The distinction of these two places is also to red as a social class distinction:

→ the suburban setting is associated with a lower – middle class;

→ the center with the upper – middle class.

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It is interesting that this sense of “London calling” continues to exist but it exists within
England. London continues to be perceives as a different world that has to be visited.

London calling represents → a passage towards freedom, the opportunity to become

someone (a human being) and escape the monotony/ narrowness of the suburbs.

For Karim London is a dream that can make it free and able to get what he wants.

→ Again we have a similar situation to the one that happened in the colonies; the only
difference is that the citizens want to escape from a part of the city to
another part of the same city.
HANIF KUREISHI – “THE BUDDHA OF SUBURBIA”

The first paragraph introduces KARIM AMIR and opens the interpretation of the novel, by
introducing the ambivalent sense of Englishness of Karim.

INSIDE PERCEPTION:

• The name is the first dissonant element of his Englishness (hybridize identity).

• The second dissonant element is represented by the “almost” used in the second line
 it introduces the ambiguity of his identity. It underlines the contradiction of his
certain identity.

OUTSIDE PERCEPTION(the way he is perceived by the other):

this funny tells a lot of his non – purity, something weird and strange. He relates the
identity of his family to the story of Colonialism (“two old histories”)

 history of India and history of London; he comes from two different worlds.

He doesn’t care about what people tell about him (typical teenager behavior).

The fact of not being proud of his Englishness makes his identity again
ambiguous  hard and negative relationship with his Englishness.

Then he specifies better what kind of Englishness he belongs to: the

Englishness of the suburbs.
By saying that he comes from the suburbs but he is going somewhere, immediately
makes the reader aware that he did not accept to remain in the suburbs  rebellion typical
of the teenagers.

CHAPTER 1

The first chapter seems to be more focused on Karim’s father, HAROON.

He is also the Buddha of Suburbia of the title; it describes the father as a sort
of guru;

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he is invited to this friend’s house to perform as an oriental expert  he is a sort of

spiritual guide for the people of the suburbs.

Actually many critics discussed about why the title of the novel is “The Buddha of
Suburbia” because the focus on the father is only at the beginning of the novel.

The main reason behind this is that the narration at the beginning was just a short story,
focused on the figure of Haroon.

This contributes to create a chaotic atmosphere which is very similar to the

situation we found in Selvon: the need to represent the idea of directionless of the
characters.

The figure of the Buddha is something constructed; Haroon discovers that this might
be an opportunity to build on his exotic identity.

EVA KAY and the neighborhood seem to be more interested in the exoticism than in the
spiritualism in itself.

Spirituality remains superficial and Haroon plays on this superficial need,→ by

constructing for himself a different identity

 CONTRUCTION OF IDENTITY; he performs what they want to hear.

We don’t get the idea of spirituality; all is represented in ironical terms.

Above all Haroon, as an Indian or Pakistan person, supposes to be representative of this

oriental philosophy.

Haroon is taking advantages of this orientalist perspective, by making a sort of

commercial enterprise. He exploits this opportunity in a very active way.

→ He constructs his identity because as a job he is doing something completely

different(page 3).

“Train”, “raincoat”, “briefcase”contribute to define him as a common person going to work

in the center of London; he is a commuter.

If we compare this image of a commuter with the image of the guru, we understand that
the second has been constructed in order to represent another identity, to be a
point of reference and to be accepted in his environment.

COMMUTER= EVERYDAY IDENTITY / GURU= BUILT IDENTITY

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN KARIM’S HOUSE AND EVA’S HOUSE

 Karim’s house is characterized by ordinariness and normality.

His mother appears to be opposite from his father; when Haroon is practicing yoga, she
asks to pull the curtains because she understands that everyone can see what his
husband is doing.

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Closing the sight implies the narrowness, the suffocated environment from which
Karim wants to escape.

This closeness is in contrast with the atmosphere we find in Eva’s house, where
everything appears to be so open to new arrivals  completely different approach.

This openness is also evident in everything that happens in that house that night; Karim
says that “on that day everything changes”→ In particular everything changes in familiar
terms because that night Karim discovers his father has a lover, Eva.

After that moment the relationship between Haroon and Eva becomes more serious and
by the end he will decide to leave his wife.

This is the beginning of a new era for the family; the collapse of the family begins.

Karim and Haroon feel guilty, in particular Haroon because he will feel guilty for having
destroyed the family.

Karim decides to stay with his father and Eva because they represent the new world
he’s aspiring to.

Karim’s mother represents an embodiment of the suburb,of everything that the

suburbs mean to Karim  this sense of being bored, the normality, the ordinary life.

On the other hand Eva with her cultural ferment represents the new world he wants
to get to. But his roots remain in his mother.

SEXUAL EXPERIMENTATIONEva’s house represents also this sexual experience he has

with Eva’s son, CHARLIE.

-This is the beginning of his sexual ambiguity;

- Karim never decides if to be a homosexual of heterosexual; he will be both.

It is evidence this need of trying new experiences.

Charlie will become a sort of idol; he will represent a sort of reference, someone who
seems to know what he wants and someone who is able to give you advices. (page 16)

IMPORTANCE OF CLOTHES, FASHION AND BRANDS In the novel it is important the

obsession for clothes because the characters represent their personal identities through
clothes (1960s – 1970s fashion)  Karim will change his clothes according to the
different identity he wants to represent in that specific moment of his life.

It is important also to underline that if Eva’s house represent a sort of openness, she
still lives in the suburbs (page 12).

→ Here we have the description of the situation in Eva’s house; all the people,
coming from different suburbs of London appear to belong to the upper – class and to have
cultural interests.

Although they seem to be open minded, the narrowness of the suburbs remains. → And
we can see it in a dialogue between two people at page 12.

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This openness is just apparent because in reality there are a lot of prejudices and
stereotypes.

They work on these stereotypes of oriental people who seem to be uncivilized, to live
in a magic world.

So the culture that these people try to show is pretentious and superficial.

And Haroon plays on it, taking advantages on these superficial interests to give
them what they want.

And this is not a coincidence at page 5 that he, while preparing for the evening, mentions

some books of completely different subjects :

 he puts all together in a very superficial way, not focusing and specializing in a
specific topic.

→ Second thing, these books are not oriental but they very bought in London  we
have the idea of the manufacturing of an oriental philosophy that is homemade.

What we have is a decrease of the doctrine and just the interest for the exotic not the
spirituality but the exoticism as a sort of fashion interest.

The final part of the chapter→ is focused mainly of Karim’s mother,MARGARET.

• She appears to be a typical representation of suburban Englishness, who
definitely know all about her husband “secrets” but does not want that the people
will discover them.

• She wants to continue living in his narrowness; she realizes that a lot of things
do not work in her marriage and that her husband has a lover, but she wants to
pretend not seeing it.

We understand she knows a lot about his husband’s life when Karim discovers a drawing
representing his father and Eva naked.

But it is safety for her to pretend not to know.

Another aspect that confirms her closure in mentality is the fact that → always watches
TV, soap operas or sitcom  unwillingness to stay at home; she does not want to go out.

And for that her life is too much monotonous, an ordinary life.

She works in a shoe shop; she comes back home, works in the house and watches TV.

She represents what Karim called “the real world”  When Karim and Haroon
comes back home after the evening at Eva’s house, they find the woman, their normality
from which Karim wants to escape.

→ Karim and Haroon reject the suburban normal world and want to become part of the Eva’s
world.

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By doing this Haroon creates the figure of the guru as a sort of way out from the
ordinary life, from the banality.

It represents also the strangeness and the eccentricity typical of the suburbs, which appear
to be completely different in the inside.

This represents a consolidation of the relationship between father and son which
will continue though out the novel.

This is very important for Karim because he is looking for identification in his father.

There is the idea of identities in progress to have a role in the

society,and it is interest to know that this process involves only the two men of the
family; the mother, who is English, does not need to grow up in terms of identity.

(page 19): description of Karim’s brother, who has a marginal role in the novel.

He chooses a name that sounds more English than his Indian name (AMIRALLIE).

→ Like the others, he is building a new identity for himself starting from the name.

Moreover he is trying to adopt English attitudes in order to appear more English and
develop his English side.

CHAPTER 2

The second chapter focuses on Haroon’s past; at the beginning of the page he is
described with his friend ANWAR.

• They were neighborhood in Bombay and they migrated together to England in

the 1950s – 1960s.

• They come from an aristocratic background, a very upper – class origins and their
childhood is described as an idyllic moment of life.

• In spite of living in very positive conditions, they migrated to London. It is not

important from which background you come from, it remains the need of migration
for colonial people.

And in particular they were attracted by the cultural and educational opportunities that this
migration implies  once they arrived their social condition flatted (page 24).

The reaction that the two friends have after seeing the city of London is the same we
found in the other novels they were shocked by the climate.

By reading this line we understand that the image of London they see clashes deeply
with their expectations.

Moreover it is underlined the fact that Haroon and Anwar did not expect that London
could be a poor place.

They come from a colonial/ hierarchical structure so they had created a completely
different

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image of England  superiority and richness.

(end of page 24)Haroon did not expect this low social belonging alsoin terms of
education reversal of the image of London.

This passage about the childhood of Haroon is important to introduce Anwar and his family.
Anwar is married to princess JEETA and they manage a shop;

Anwar won a lot of money with a gamble and bought a toy shop. When this shop failed,
Jeeta changed it into a grocery shop, selling Indian typical products

Anwar’s daughter,JAMILA, is a friend of Karim and she is a very peculiar character, one of
the strongest female characters in the novel.

Jamila is political committed, she’s very interested in topic like blackness or women;
she studies feminist texts, she belongs to feminist association, she fights against racism.

She knows what she wants in life. She is introduced in the novel because she must
solve a big problem  her father decided that she has to marry an Indian boy (pre –
arrange marriage).

In London Anwar lives in a different suburb and he is described as a very different person
from Haroon. → He is much more concrete, material; he is not so spiritual but more
practical.

It is unexpected the fact that the image Anwar gives to the reader is much more English,
but at the end he is the one who is more linked to the Indian traditions.

On the other hand Haroon seems to be more Indian, but in reality he has an English
mentality.

→ This is probably due to the fact that Anwar in England hasn’t found a way to
realize him. This difficult life brings him to recover Indian tradition as this was the
way to shape his identity.

CHAPTER 3

Chapter three interrupts the narration about Anwar to focuses on the English side of
Karim’s family.

There is a second event organized by Eva and Haroon is invited to perform in front of these
people belonging to the upper class.

Karim follows him and during this meeting JEAN (Margaret’s sister) and his husband
TEDarrive. They are not the cultural people Haroon expected to see in this meeting and he
realizes that Margaret could has sent them in order to control him.

(page 33)The description of Ted and Jean gives us the idea of the perspective
that the English side of the family has on Haroon; the reaction to the marriage
between Margaret and Haroon was negative because they never accepted him (he was an
Indian person, a migrant).

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Especially the aunt always finds something negative in him.

They turn the name “Haroon” into an English name “Harry”  to domesticate the
strangeness in him and to turn his identity into a new one English identity. → In reaction
Haroon calls them “Gin” and “Tonic” (the aunt is always drunk)  we never find a
passive attitude.

The victimization in this novel is not present. Karim and Haroon always react also
with irony.

In particular Uncle Ted represents to Karim→ a sort of English reference that he does not
have in his father.

→ When they go out together they do very English things. In searching a fixed
identity, Ted represents for Karim his Englishness.

Karim likes to go out with his uncle because Ted knows things that Haroon does
not know  NEED TO FIND AN ENGLISH REFERENCE.

Back to the episode, Ted and Jean go to the party to see how Haroon is behaving and they
have nothing to do with this high society environment, which is always more pretentious
than real.

→ Cultural interests are always something that must be shown but it is not
really part to the behavior and thoughts of these people.

An example is represented by HELEN, an English girl, a friend of the daughter of the

family.

Helen appears very attractive to Karim, a sexual opportunity, and he decides to see
her the following day.

For meeting her, he has to see her father, who has a strong reaction(end of page 39).

To see her, Karim must go to an upper class suburb, where everything appears perfect.

Everyone wants to improve the house  obsessive to clean the house and the
environment so that other people can admire.

It implies that there is the need to accumulate reaches and to show them 
APPAREANCE OF A PERFECT WORLD that is in contrast with the episode.

When Karim arrives at Helen’s house, the strong and racist reaction of the father
shows that all the perfection in the suburbs is just a pretention; it seems to be a
closed world where

everything that comes from the outside is not accepted.

Helen’s father uses very racist words, synonym of “niggas” and professes his political
identity by mentioning Enoch Powell  Clash between the apparent perfection of
this world that turns out being much closed and having difficulties in accepting
what comes from the outside.

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At the same time the fact of being different is something that Karim does not
understand;

→ he is perceived by other people as different but he feels English.

We have an example of this when he goes out with uncle Ted(page 43).

They are going to the stadium with the train and they are passing though the English
suburbs to the center of London.

This is the same journey Haroon’s makes every day to go to work:

 The journey is a passage in the city that is a sort of conquest;

 Everyday Haroon takes with him some Indian food that defines his identity, even though
he wears like an English person;

 The river represents the border, the line that has to be crossed to go to the center of
London;

Before getting to the center there are these borders socially and politically
famous:Brixton, which is full of migrants.

Ted says that that place is where ‘niggas’ live, using a racist word and at the same
distinguishing himself and Karim from the niggas  double perception:

- in this case Karim and Ted seem to be the white people looking to the black
people;

-Karim and Ted do not perceive themselves as niggas  different perspectives

according to the point of view other people have on him.

Chapter 4

Chapter four gets back to Anwar and Jamila and the problem of arrange marriage is
introduced. Anwar had married an Indian princess and once in London he lives a quite
modest life as a owner of a grosser shop.

He feels rejectedfrom the English culture and he is trying to impose the

traditional Indian culture (arrange marriage)→ He has decided that his daughter
will marry an Indian boy coming from Bombay.

Jamila has never met him. This need to recreate the traditional and conservative
atmosphere of the Indian culture→ is a sort of necessity for Anwar once he finds
difficult to belong to the English environment.

Anwar’s family is much closed, very suburban; the fact of having a shop is not
necessary enough to make them part of the English society.

They remain closed in their family world (page 51).

Here their difference from the other suburban people is underlined again; there is
an obsessive need to have, to acquire things and to show them off , in order to

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show other people they belong to an upper class. (TO POSSESS AND TO SHOW
POSSESSION).
Both Jeeta and Anwar seem to not care about belonging to the society in Chislehurst; they

don’t care about having all these possession.

They also do not care about the political and social situation around them; they show
ignorance but they do not care about it.

Jamila has a completely different approach to the English world; she is a highly
committed person, educated, she knows a lot about politic, wants to have an active role in
the life she lives.

This was also due to the education she received: talking about her education we have to
mention a person who took care of her cultural formation (page 52) MISS CUTMORE.

Important elements in this description, typical of a colonial relationship:

➔ Strong – willed character of Jamila, who seems to be always owner of her life; Jamila
decided she wanted to go beyond her parents’ ignorance. She wanted to be an
insider.

➔ In doing this she had a tutor: Miss Cutmore (not a character of the novel). She is
relevant also for her symbolic meaning.

➔ She is a western woman who wants to civilize Jamila (she represents the western
colonizer).

➔ She educated her also in western feminism (Simone de Beuvoir)  she tried to
construct her new identity as a western political feminist committed woman, but she was
not interested in her Indian culture.

➔ Lesbian relationship between Miss Cutmore and Jamila. The point is that Miss
Cutmore helped Jamila to grow up culturally but at the same time this helping her is
characterized by a totally western direction;

➔ no attention for her Indian culture. Growing up, Jamila realized she has been
colonized in the sense that her mind has been colonized.
 Reference to colonization and civilizing missions: Miss Cutmore had been a
missionary in Africa.

 Double perspective: on one hand the idea of having been forced to grow up a
western person; on the other hand there is this opportunity to grow up as an
intellectual person.

 Jamila started hating Miss Cutmore because she left South London for Bath; in
parallel with Colonialism  the colonizers after having colonized local people
leave the country. This is exactly what Miss Cutmore did.

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This sense of lost is typical of the colonial relationship.

Due to this abandon (due to the cultural formation but also to the environment in which
she lives), Jamila always has a sense of anger for everything  willing to protest and fight.
The decision of getting married imposed by his father

was terrible for her.

There is also a description of the suburb in which Jamila and her family live. It is a difficult
suburb, near to London but poorer and full of racism (page 56).

The description of the place in which they live is particularly violent but it reflects what was
very common in the 1970s  protests, fights, conflicts, protection of the police with
very violent

behaviors.

What we understand is the highly conflicting situation that was so widespread at the time
 always alarming, people live with fear and scare. → Jamila wants to fight against this
situation and protect her family.

Karim appears to be completely different from Jamila: he is not so much interested

in political and everyday life; he is not much prepared.

chapter 5
He seems to be not really desired to be involved. His reaction is represented by the
creation
of a personal world (chapter 5).
Living in a place like this is not what he wants; he knows he must go away to the center of
London.

(page 63) Karim must pass his exams and takes a drugs that he thinks it can help him.

→ He creates his own world, a better place to live, in his own room.

→ He tries to recreate what it is happening all around the world.

In his existential confusion he is trying to converge all the influences that come from
the outside world, in the inside world of his room.

The room becomes the microcosm of his own life  more claustrophobic
but he cannot live in the outside world.

This is particularly evident at school. He is treated like an outsider also abused 

violent and un- educational environment.

He cannot find a tutor or a friend; he must face violence and abuses because the
suburban

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school environment is not able to educate, to help in the formation of the multicultural
society.

We can also understand the refusal to be involved in the educational system.

In this entire situation it is quite interesting to analyze the decision taken by Anwar to
have her daughter accept pre arranges marriage → This makes Karim quite unable to
understand why Anwar wants to impose this on Jamila (page 64).

Karim compares Haroon’s decision of becoming a Buddha, a spiritual man and

Anwar’s decision of becoming a patriarchal man.→ Both tried to live like English
people but after attempting this, without being accepted in the society, they
decided to go back to their Indian culture, not geographically speaking but
they restored their traditions.
The decision of going back to the pre arrange marriage has different goals;

→ it is not for economical reasons but it represents more the re - creation of an Indian
identity  India has became a mental image.

So Karim and Jamila go to Haroon and ask for a support/help.

What Haroon tell them is again this need of going back mentally to the native country
because of their non acceptance in the English society.

In the meanwhile Anwar decided not to eat anymore until his daughter will marry an Indian
boy  to have the authority accepted.

→ The only thing Jamila can do is to accept because she does not want her father’s death.

But there is a quite ironical reverse of this situation;

 first of all she decides to marry him but she will never live as a married woman.

 The irony is that Anwar has great expectations of the man he chose. He thinks the
arrival of this man will change his family’s situation: Anwar is tired of his
ordinary life and he would like to do something different.

He really thinks that with the arrival of this man he will be able to change his life. before
the arrival of CHANGEZ we find all the expectations of Anwar that are really
similar to the expectations of the migrants

 parallelism between migrants’ expectations and Anwar’s expectations before

the arrival of what he considers the Indian tradition  Anwar has the same
delusion. Changez will be nothing of what he expected (page 79).
All these expectations will never happen because:

 Jamila does not want to have sex with Changez , no babies;

 Changez is physically and mentally disable , he cannot help Anwar in the shop;

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chapter 7
we can find this ironical reverse (page 96).

Anwar understands Changez cannot help him; so he decides to give him very simple
things to do  Changez can do nothing and changes Anwar’s life in a worst way 
ANWAR’S COLLAPSE.

Moving back to Karim, he has to face a similar disruption in the familiar context:

→ Haroon decided to divorce from Margaret and to live his life with Eva.

→ For Karim this situation is quite difficult and ambiguous to manage for two reasons:

 He feels bad thinking about his mother suffering; his mother is a victim of
Haroon’s decision;

 He feels attracted by Eva and he sees her as an opportunity to live, the same
opportunity his mother can not give him with her suburban mentality.

Eva represents the opportunity to get away from the routine of family life and
from a static existence.

The decision of his father represents→ the fact of being more unsettled and unfixed (page
93 - 94).

These places are all located in different suburbs and represent different part of
Karim’s identity.

The fact of being different also represents Karim’s unwillingness to settle down
permanently for the rest of his life in a single place.

This family disruption represents for him the beginning of a new life
and the beginning of his migration from the suburbs to a new place (page 101) he
underlines this need of going away from the suburban reality.

This is probably a rite of passage from adolescence to adulthood→ characterized by

this attraction for the center of London.

By mentioning Eva and Margaret, Karim seems to have two mothers now; his
biological mother and the mother that gives him the opportunity to go away from the
suburbs.

→ The situation in which the two women live is opposite.

Margaret goes to live with her sister and forces herself to stay in the domestic world;
→ she wears a nightdress and she closes herself in a room.

On the other hand we find Eva, very busy and interested in culture; → she always
organizes

parties. She is fashionable, like her house in which there is always a cultural atmosphere
(page 113).

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(END OF PART ONE)His gateway to the center of London is represented by Eva.

Eva decides to go away from the suburbs because she realizes that by staying in the
suburbs Haroon will continue thinking to his ex wife  he has a sense of guilt.

Karim’s expectation are the same every migrants have; the point is that he is moving to a
different

part of the same city (page 121) Karim starts fantasize about London.

In this passage there also all the things he expects to find in London:

 Cultural richness: reference to music that defines a society that is white ranging,
spreading a different musical style  music as the reflection of the time he’s living

 Multicultural environment: wider mentality and the possibility to be accepted

 Fashion

 Culture: experimental literature

 Sexual life to impose his identity

 Drugs referred to his need to experiment new things.

Karim’s expectation are to be related to his own age and to his own contemporary period
of life; → there is always the idea that London will provide for a better kind of life, for
a wider mentality that allows people to be what they want.

He really expects to belong to the society  incomplete sense of belonging because in the
suburbs it was impossible.

The re – birth of Karim in London is closely related to the symbolic death of the old
Kari mans his old family.

There is the idea of the dispersal of the original family  Haroon and Karim leave
Margaret; Allie migrates to Milan.

The first experience he has in London is characterized by a sense of lost but it is a

different kind of lost  lost= trying to encourage himself, to really be part of this city; it is
part of the excitement represented by London.

It is important to underline that the first place they find to live is a place in in – between
again.

By going to London Karim’s condition of in – between is not solved; he will not find
everything ready for him.

He lives with his family in West Kensington, between two different areas (page 126 –
127).

→ Kensington is the rich area;

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→ Earls Court is much more multicultural and even more degraded (going to a place and be
free of doing everything, even those things that are not socially accepted).

By living in West Kensington Karim is free to experiment both parts of London and
decided which part to belong to  his identity is still in progress of being defined.

So it is evident that Karim has to have an active role and choose his own way. In the same
situation we find both Charlie (Eva’s son) and Eva; → they represent the characters who
can better adapt to the life in London, in the sense of being ready to change their
identities.

Shaping the identities also means accepting compromises = capacity to be flexible

and re – invented the identity.

In the meanwhile Charlie has become a singer; he has a group but it clashes with the
metropolitan music style and it is a failure.

→ The kind of music they played in the suburbs will never catch people in
London.

Charlie is quite desperate; he thinks he has made a wrong choice by going to

London.

But then he realizes he has to react and this reaction happens one night when → Karim and
Charlie go to a pub to a concert of punk music.

Charlie understands this is what people want  punk music might be the right turn. He
decides to become a punk musician (page 131 - 132).

At the end of the concert Karim and Charlie are verbally accused no to be part of the

punk community; Karim is scared but Charlie is excited  different approach to life.

CHARLIE’S DEATH AND RE – BIRTH: Charlie wants to be part of a punk group or at least
play punk music; → Karim tries to persuade him that this lifestyle is different from
their background.

The point is that for Karim music still represents an expression of oneself and also of the
background of a person.

Punk music comes from a violent background and it does not deal with the cultural
roots of the two boys.

→ But Charlie thinks in a completely different way; he doesn’t care about being
authentic.

→ So Karim in his expression of identity is looking for a sort of authenticity;

Charlie is looking for→ a kind of identity that might help him to be someone,
famous.

In this sense Charlie→ is more ready than Karim to accept compromises;

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he just wants take the opportunity.

So at the end of this episode Charlie leaves Karim and Karim says “it seemed he’d
been knocked down by a bus” (in reality he just crossed the street and followed the
band).

→ This appearance of being knocked means a metaphorical death of Charlie

(cinematic image):

• Charlie disappears behind the bus and than appears again as a different person; he
has decided who he wants to be.

By contrast Karim goes home  new experiences ǂ old traditional background.

At the end Charlie will become a famous punk singer; he will change his surname (Charlie
Hero). [The figure of Charlie was based on David Bowie].

Eva is the other character ready to change her suburban identity. She changes also her
relationship with Haroon:

• once in London she realizes that his spirituality does not work.

• She leaves the project of the Buddha and she is annoyed at the fact that Haroon still
continues to read spiritual books.

• She improvises herself as a sort of artist: she wants to become famous in the
field of furniture.

By contrast Haroon is the only one who remains attached to his traditional and original
suburban identity. → He was potential in the first part (beginning) of the novel, in the
second part is completely hidden in the second part; he becomes a marginal character
because he does not have the courage or just the willingness to change and to choose a
new identity for himself.

Karims gets the opportunity when Eva introduces him to a stage director,MR. SHADWELL.

Karim begins his new London identity in the field of theatre  he wants to become an
actor. Shadwell tells Karim to play a part in the “Jungle Book”.

It is evident that it is quite ironical in the sense that he begins his new progress in the
creation of a

new identity by continuing to be a sort of stereotype  by playing the part of Mowgli, he

continues to be stuck in his stereotyped Indian identity.

So Mr.Shadwell on one hand gives the opportunity to Karim to be an actor; on the

other hand he continues to make him known as a stereotyped colonial person(page 140).

In this passage there is a conversation between Shadwell and Karim, in which Shadwell
gives for granted that Karim must know the book because he is Indian  this is very
important in terms of the impossibility for Karim to get out of a stereotyped identity 
imposing on him an exotic role.

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Shadwell is sure that Karim knows the Indian culture and language that he had been in
India, that he speaks with his father the Indian language; all things that do not belong to
Karim.

Shadwell also mentions all the most important cities of India (in a touristic way); and this is
quite ironical because he introduces Karim to the Oriental world  reversal of things: there
is the English man that tells the Indian men to go to India.

KARIM FEELS ENGLISH AND WANTS TO BE PART OF THE ENGLISH SOCIETY; HE IS

NOT ABLE TO BE A LONDONER BUT HE IS REDUCED TO THE ROLE OF THE INDIAN.

In this situation the stage has a highly metaphorical meaning  the theatre represent a
part

he has to play and perform, an identity he has to create, which is not his real identity.

THEATRE= THE NEED FOR KARIM TO CONTINUE PERFORM AND INTERPRETATE

DIFFERENT IDENTITIES difficulty to be authentic. [He wants to impose this authenticity
to Charlie but he is not allowed to have a personal authenticity.]

LOOK FOR EXOTICISM, THE STEREOTYPES, THE SUPERFICIALITY

(page 142) Shadwell goes on insisting in having Karim playing the part of Mowgli and he
thinks Karim is perfect for that role also because of his physical aspect. He also have to
wear a costume to play this part (page 146).

First of all ha has to put on his face a cream because he has to turn his face into
something darker; than a loin – cloth. Karim does not accept passively this choice but tries
to persuade Shadwell.

He does not care about it and he asks Karim to use his Indian accent while performing. But
Karim must invent it because he has an English accent (page 147).

Shadwell use the word “authentic” but it is ironical because Karim is not Indian authentic.
It is important a passage in which Karim, after all these misadventures with Shadwell,
thinks about going back to the suburbs (page 148)  a brief moment of desolation in the
experience of Karim; this is not his real desire. In this case the suburbs represent a shelter,
the place were he was protected and not forced to be someone else  a moment of
weakness.

When the night of the premier arrives, Karim says that he wants both his mother and his
father. This is not possible so he calls his mother to the preview and his father to the
premier.

Both have a different reaction to the performance; his mother (with Ted and Jean)is
absolutely excited at the sight of Karim; she appreciated it and finds Karim very
professional  positive reaction because they do not understand the problems behind that
representation.

What instead his father sees is exactly what Karim saw.

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Haroon accuses Shadwell of being disgusted

and fascist. In this case we understand the different background of the family; they do
belong to different ethnical traditions that will never find a meeting point.

The performance is successful and the great success for Karim is given by the fact that he
is noticed by an important stage director, PYKE, one of the most experimental stage
director who had worked in the USA.

Pyke wants Karim in his group  the big jump. Karim has accepted the compromise and
this helps him to climb the social level and to become someone; he understands that the
need of accepting compromises in fundamental.

But the approach Pyke has with Karim is not very different. During the meeting in which
they have to invent a new play, Pyke asks to the group to think about something they
know very well and to do play it.

Karim’s first idea is to interpret Charlie because he feels affinity.

When he mentioned his idea to Pyke, Pyke discourages him and he says that he should
interpret someone with a more similar background  someone black  forced
identification with blackness (page 170).

Karim cannot really understand how to identify with blackness because he does not feel
black.

By the end Karim decides to interpret the character of Anwar. This re – introduces in the
narration Jamila’s family and the life in the suburbs; this goes on in parallel with Karim’s
life in London

 certain dynamics are not so different.

The experience with Pyke is important for Karim not only for his career but especially
because he met a woman,

ELEANOR: for the first time he really falls in love with her. She is a turning point in
the life of Karim; they begin an apparently serious relationship:

 She is a sentimental education; Karim learns how to manage a relationship with a

woman and how to be in love;

 She allows him to climb the social level because she comes from an upper class; Karim
learns how to be part of this high society.

➔ At the same time he always feels a sense of inferiority.

➔ The relationship is not easy in the sense that he feels the difference between himself
and his woman. Moreover he regrets having wasted the opportunity to be educated when
he was a young boy (page 177)  sense of guilt.

➔ He realizes for the first time in his life that education is important and he had missed
an opportunity in deciding to leave college.

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There is this clear cut distinction between Eleanor’s friends (progress in education) and
Karim: he feels he will never be able to relate with them.

The problem is between people living in the suburbs, who must work and earn money to
survive, and people living in the center of London (like Eleanor), who can also decide not to
work because they have the familiar.

In this case culture and studies become a privilege of the upper classes: Eleanor decided to
do want she wanted because she had not to pay for her living; on the other hand Karim
had to go to business (humble jobs to survive); Karim had not enough time to interest in
culture.

For that reason Karim remains subordinated by Eleanor.

There is a passage in which Karim shows the accent he was forced to use and
Eleanor identifies it with the accent of people coming from South London  she
gives him back the London identity (second class identity of the suburbs) that had been
taken away by Shadwell  significance use of the metaphor of the accent.

Going back to the episode he decided to play the part of Anwar but when he explains the
story he wants to perform (he wants to focus on the episode in which Anwar had a strong
reaction due to the fact that Jamile refused the pre – arrange married), the group find the
opposition of another character of the novel:

TRACEY, a black actress who is very similar to Jamila, very attached to the cause of
blackness. When she hears Karim’s intention, she is not convinced (page 180).

First of all there is the clash between reality and fiction: Karim just wants to play a real
fact; on

the other hand Tracey feels this representation as fictional. She perceives this intention of
Karim as being extremely delicate and dangerous for people like them.

Tracey is worried about a positive representation of blackness in that period; she considers
blackness as a homogeneous group (idealize representation of blackness given by the fact
that

she is not deep down in what being black means).

Karim instead, coming from the suburbs and dealing with all the problems of being black,
is much more realistic.

TRACEY- KARIM

She perceives Karim’s intention as fictional and dangerous.

She represents blackness as a homogeneous group (no distinctions between different kind
of being black). POSITIVE IDEAL AND IDEALIZATION OF BLACKNESS

He only wants to perform a real episode. He represents blackness as something with a lot
of different distinctions. REALISTIC IMAGE OF BLACKNESS

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DIFFERENT AWARNESS OF BEING BLACK

So Tracey persuades the company and Karim decides to play the character of CHANGEZ,
first Jamila’s husband, but to focus on less political matters and more irony.

Changez is a quite comical character and Karim focuses on Changez’s desire in sexual field
[Changez is depicted a sort of disable person, physically and mentally; Karim became
friend of Changez and helps him to adapt to this new situation. Changez (=Jamila)is a
victim and not so strong].

From this moment we have the idea that Karim is changing, growing up as a person (page
186).

At this point Karim does not know exactly what to do: to play the part of Changez showing
a performance that is not perfect, and go on with his career; or to renounce and be more
loyal to Changez. He understands that relationship with people have to be

seen in a more human level, not utilitarian (sense of guilt). At this point he discovers much
of the moral corruption/ degeneration of people around him.

We can find a perfect example of this with the character of Pyke, who has become for
Karim a sort of guru of theatre. One night Pyke, who appears to be particularly interested
in Karim,

invited for dinner Karim and Eleanor by saying that it is going to be a big party.

Once they got there, they realize that it was not a party at all; Pyke and his wife Marlene
have organized an orgy.

chapter 13

In this chapter there is also the mentioning of another character linked to Eleanor.

Karim knows his wife had a boyfriend when she was younger and she does not want to
talk about him.

This boyfriend was called GENE and died (page 201) Marlene tells Karim the story of
Gene, who remains an unsolved lost for Eleanor.

This description is highly symbolic: it refers to the past and it is a description of the first
generation migrants totally incapacity to be accepted.

Gene is described as a very talented actor, a person who had a good education but he has
never had a serious part in theatre; he was always marginalized  mime: he was not
allowed to speak (imposed silence). In the meanwhile he had also to work in the hospitals
(humble job).

He killed himself with an overdose due to the discrimination and racism. Eleanor has never
forgotten about him; she has always remained deep in love with this boyfriend.

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So Gene is someone Karim has to confront with but someone who will always be
superior in Eleanor’s mind.→ Gene represents for Karim the past he wasn’t able to
come in terms with.

And he seriously started thinking about his past when Anwar died 

Chapter 14

Anwar’s death): tragic – comic episode in the novel for the way Anwar died.

While working for this theatre company, Karim often feels the need to go back to the
suburbs. Usually he goes back to his mother and in particular to Jamila and Changez
(second family)  parallel life: during the day the works in the theatre and helps Eva with
his activity of furniture; at night he works in Anwar’s shop  double identity.

He realizes how Anwar is abused and abandoned by his family: resentment of Jeeta and
Jamila, the failure with Changez.

ANWAR’S DEATH: he was walking back home and he discovered that Changez his walking
with his lover.

Changez loves Jamila but she does not behave like a wife; he has decided to give
expression to his sexual desires with Japanese prostitute,SHINKO.

They were going out for shopping(page 210). → They went to a sex shop to buy some sex
toys.

Anwar saw them and Changez hit him with a dildo and Anwar died  metaphorical
meaning: western depravation/ degeneration killed the Indian Anwar.

→ He died because he had a heart attack at the same time in which Changez hit
him with a dildo.

Karim realizes for the first time that Anwar represented his Indian identity and roots that
Haroon has never given to him.

Both the story of Gene and Anwar are important to go deep in his rootlessness; Karim feels
to recuperate this roots and traditions after Anwar’s death (page 212) and to create the
Indian identity that he has never had.

This was also the reason why the relationship with Jamila and Changez became more and
more important for him.

Changez of course was never accused to kill Anwar because of the heart attack he had
and went on living his life with his wife.

Jamila decided that after his father’s death she wanted to change something in
her life  she wanted to be part of a commune (live in community) with other people
fighting for rights.

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Things get worse for Changez: Jamila in this commune fell in love with SIMON and she
became pregnant of this boy. → Changez is happy to have a half child. Simon went to live
in America for work and abandoned Jamila with a baby daughter.

Jamila fell in love with a woman and started a lesbian relationship.

The relationship between Eleanor and Karim did not go on; he discovered she had
had a secret relationship with Pyke.

By the end of the novel Karim was engaged to work in a soap opera, like the story of his
life.

At the end of the novel Karim understands Eleanor was corrupted like all the other people
and he has a short experience in New York because the company of Pyke starts touring all
around the world, including in the USA.

Once in America Karim has the opportunity to meet Charlie again; he migrated and
became famous singer in the USA

Chapter 17

Karim decides to try to live in New York, after leaving Pyke’s company.

He stayed there for 6 months but then he realized he had to go back home: he was called
by his agent proposing to him an important part in a soap opera  compromise: the
theatre represents the higher culture; the soap opera is much more popular.

It isalso very important the fact of money  if he accepts the part in the soap opera he will
become very rich (moral dilemma: good actor but poor; popular work but very rich?).

Obviously he accepts the compromise and the part in the soap opera.

Karim understands that accepting compromises is part of the passage from adolescence
to

adulthood.

Karim goes back to England but before leaving he had to assist to Charlie’s sexual
experiences. Karim was embarrassed and Charlie accused him to be “too much English” 

irony: defining Karim’s Englishness in negative terms.

The novel with a sort of family reunion: Karim understands his family, his friend, the city of
London are what he wants to stay with HOMESICKNESS that Karim feels especially when
he was in NYC, that proves that he belongs to

that place.

The bildungs roman ends with the belonging of the protagonist: Karim returns back home,
from which he wanted to escape at the beginning of the novel.

6 months later, all the characters seem to be older: people have come to terms with
identity and sense of belonging  this getting older also means to mature and to grow up.

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There is an happy ending because Karim decides to invite his family and friends to a
restaurant to celebrate his new job  in reality they celebrate their being a family
again.

In this reunion there is also Allie, who comes back England from Italy  restored
relationship. Margaret has found a new younger man;

→ Haroon and Eva announced they’re going to get married.

Everything appears to be positive at the end but there is always this sense of having
accepted

compromises to change their lives (page 284) opening to the future: Karim
understands family remains the most important aspect of life;

haroon has obtains his symbolic citizenship→ he has become a Londoners.

At the end the city is trivialized just a city at the bottom of a tiny island.

re – dimensioning of London: the city is no more the center of the empire, the
place where everything is possible, where everyone wants to go to ->
DECENTRALIZATION OF LONDON
that tells us that→ Karim has learnt to give London the right importance.

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