Could you discuss parents/children relationship on the basis of relevant examples from

prose and drama?

 Very often parents are not alive or inactive throughout the course of the story

„My Son the Fanatic” Hanif Kureishi

Summary

 Parvez, the father of the teenage boy Ali, begins noticing changes in his son’s
behaviour and at first sees this as a good thing. He believes that his son is finally
growing out of his teenage attitude and taking more responsibility.
 However, when Ali begins throwing out valuable belongings and his friends starts
avoiding him, Parvez gets seriously worried, and feels as if his son is ungrateful and
that he himself has done something wrong as a father.
 Finally he opens up to his colleagues who instantly believe that Ali has a drug
problem and that he is selling his things to afford drugs, which later is revealed to be
incorrect, seeing that he is giving his belongings away to charity. Parvez begins
watching every movement Ali makes, but cannot find that anything is physically
wrong with his son.
 He shortly after finds out that Ali has become interested and fascinated by the
religion Islam, and that he spends all his time praying or going to the mosque. While
Parvez feels relived, he cannot help feeling frustrated and afraid at the same time.
After a disagreement between Ali and his father, in which Ali utters his distaste
towards his father’s friendship with an English woman and his consuming of alcohol,
Parvez ends up beating his son, to which his son’s only repose is the statement; “So
who’s the fanatic now?”.
 The setting is possibly a middleclass suburb city and they have to work hard to
achieve what they wish for; “He, for Ali, had worked long hours and spent a lot of
money paying for his education as an accountant”.

Relationship

 Parvez and his son clearly disagree on a numerous amount of issues, but what are
decisive to this short-story are Parvez’s alcohol consumption and his friendship with
the English prostitute.
 Parvez’s hate and distaste towards Islam has its roots in an experience he had as a
child, while he was being taught the Koran. This degrading incident made him avoid
all kinds of religion, and he, as well has his colleagues, makes fun of people who
believes.
 Ali encloses himself into his own little world where nothing which is against his belief
can be accepted. Ali’s fanatic behaviour when it comes to region and his urge to have
 something to believe in, might be owing to his desire and need to have somewhere
to belong and something to indulge in, which can give him a sense of belonging.
 The short-story focuses on the relationship between Pervez and Ali, a relationship
which slowly, but most certainly, decline and is broken down bit by bit.
 Parvez’s anger is most likely disguised fear. He is afraid that his son will be ill-treated
by people who does not accept his belief and that he will get his life destroyed
because he becomes too caught up in his belief that he will not accept anybody else.
 All in all, it is said that Parvez loves his son very much. He tries to keep Ali on the right
side of life but he fails to do it right. He changes from a good father to one who beat
his son when he is drunk. Instead of talking to him, he relies on advice from people
who do not know his son. That's why he seems to lose his son.
 We learn there that Ali turned to religion and the Koran. He thinks that “the Western
materialists hate [them]” and Ali cannot understand why his dad loves London and
the Western civilization. Ali would give his life for the jihad and he thinks that we
“will be [rewarded] in Paradise”.
 Parvez tries to win his son back by stop drinking alcohol and growing a beard. But Ali
didn’t notice that. The conflict escalates through an argument between Ali and
Bettina. At the end of the story, Parvez is drunk (caused by a conflict between Bettina
and Ali) and beat Ali until his face is bloody.
 The story finally ends with the words: “So who’s the fanatic now?” from Ali.
 The relationship is here finally broken. Parvez beat his son and doesn’t win anything.
He lost his son and destroyed the family with this.
 Especially when they are together in the restaurant the religious aspect why they do
not understand each other becomes clear. Ali does not accept his father’s way of life
because he does not stick to the Koran” Each time Parvez took a drink, the boy
winced, or made some kind of fastidious face” so that he even hates his father for
this “Ali had a horrible look, full of disgust and censure. It was as if he hated his
father”.
 In addition, I think it is not only the religious aspect which makes Parvez and Ali
understand each other so badly. I would also interpret their situation as generation
conflict because they often have different attitudes towards life.
 The communication fails to function between Ali and Parvez because their individual
views of Islam are diametrically opposed, and neither is willing to compromise
personal conviction for the sake of peace.
“Pride and Prejudice” Jane Austen

 Mrs Bennet is always urging her daughters to marry and goes to considerable lengths to
ensure that her schemes will work.
 Furthermore, the whole family suffers from her nervous breakdowns. Mr. Bennet’s influence
is mainly detectable in Elizabeth and in the way she copes with certain events and situations.
 Many people seem to agree that Mr. Bennet and Mrs. Bennet are far from ideal parents if
not bad parents.
 From Austen’s opening statement on the Bennet parents it becomes clear that Mrs. Bennet
is a peculiar type of woman and “the business of her life was to get her daughters married
[and] its solace was visiting and news”
 Furthermore, it is also very clear that the narrator of Pride and Prejudice does not think much
of her intelligence either because Mrs. Bennet is deemed “a woman of mean understanding,
little information, and uncertain temper”
 Mrs. Bennet focuses so much on getting her daughters married that she completely loses
sight of her daughters’ wellbeing. For example, she does everything in her power to make
sure that her daughters are noticed when Mr. Bingley moves into the neighbourhood.
 Moreover, Mrs. Bennet's efforts seem to be successful when it turns out that Mr. Bingley
indeed seems interested in Jane Bennet, her eldest daughter. However, she is determined
not to be satisfied until she knows that her daughter has secured a promise of marriage from
Mr. Bingley and goes to great lengths to ensure that Jane succeeds. For instance, in response
to an invitation of Mr. Bingley Mrs Bennet forces Jane to go to Mr. Bingley’s house on
horseback even though it looks like rain, to enforce a longer stay
 The fact that Jane might get very ill from travelling in the rain does not concern Mrs. Bennet
because in her mind it will only aid in extending Jane’s stay at Netherfield. Nowadays having
a cold is not a life-threatening disease but in the nineteenth century it was not unheard of
that people died of the effects of a cold. It appears a bit heartless that Mrs. Bennet seems
perfectly willing to risk Jane’s life in exchange for a few more days of Mr. Bingley’s company.
 What makes matters even worse is that she seems most unwilling to receive her daughter
home again, almost as if she expects that her interference will immediately result in a
proposal of marriage from Mr. Bingley
 Part of Mrs. Bennet’s behaviour is understandable though, especially when looked at in
context. Considering that in eighteenth and nineteenth century families having a male heir
was the most important and that daughters were usually considered an economic
inconvenience, the Bennet family is not exactly well off.
 First of all, the Bennet family consists of five daughters, whose future needs to be secured
because the estate is entailed to Mr. Collins. The entailment of the estate means that the
Bennet women are not provided for when Mr. Bennet dies and Mrs. Bennet finds this almost
impossible to bear
 However, it is obvious from the text that Mrs. Bennet prefers one daughter over the other
when it comes to marrying them off.
 Elizabeth often tries to moderate her mother’s exclamations but without much success and is
often very much embarrassed because Mrs. Bennet often speaks of things she knows
nothing, or very little about.
Mr Bennet

 The Bennets have 5 daughters: Jane, Elizabeth, Mary, Kitty, Lydia

 Mr. Bennet made the mistake of marrying a foolish woman. He takes refuge in his
books and seems to want nothing more than to be bothered as little as possible by
his family. His indolence leads to the neglect of the education of daughters
 Mr Bennet fits the archetype of a tyrannical father because he never paid much
attention to his daughters and failed as a husband and father
 He acts as though his three youngest daughters and wife are foolish and never
prevents them from acting out
 He found amusement in the way his family acted and neglected them by laughing at
them
 he is too fond of his books and luxuries to make the effort of saving money for his daughters.
 Pride and prejudice reveals that a parent’s actions can make a dramatic impact on
their children and its parent’s responsibility to set an example
 However:
 In an age where marriages of convenience were common, Mr Bennet ignores all worldly
considerations and prioritises his daughter’s happiness by allowing Elizabeth to refuse
marrying Mr Collins, even though the marriage would be very advantageous and profitable
 He prefers his older daughters to the younger ones
 Favourite daughter : Elizabeth

Mrs Bennet

 Mrs. Bennet is a foolish and frivolous woman.

 She lacks all sense of propriety and virtue and has no concern for the moral or
intellectual education of her daughters.
 From the beginning of the novel her sole obsession is to marry off her daughters.
 Least favourite daughter – Elizabeth
 If Mrs Bennet can but marry one or two of her daughter’s off, she not only ensures their
comfort, but her own as well. If she can marry but one of them off well, she can reasonably
assume that when her husband dies, and she and other daughters are deprived of home and
income, they may seek shelter with the married daughter(s).
 In short, the parents of the Bennet sisters have very little to recommend them. One
is likeable but odiously selfish, the other has her daughters’ welfare at heart but so
little sense that she actively damages their prospects.