Friendship, Religion, Fanaticism, and Identities Georgina Bensch College

Hanif Kureishi’s well known short story “My Son the Fanatic” (1997) explores themes of friendship, religion, fanaticism and identities. In a detailed discussion, this essay will discuss the significant relationship between the father, Parvez, and his friend, Bettina, who works as a sex worker. The discussion will begin with a contextualization of the passage found on page 97 and followed by an analysis of the use of spaces and places to reflect each of Parvez’s different identities.

Parvez, is a man from Lahore, Pakistan and the father of his son, Ali. It is implied that Parvez’s wife is living with them, but she remains unnamed throughout the story and is hardly mentioned. This creates a sense that Parvez and his wife are not close and later allows the reader to realize just how important Bettina is to Parvez, as she is the only woman he is close to in his life. Parvez immigrated to London from his home country in order to seek a better life for himself and his family, leaving behind his old life, culture and Islamic religion. He works as a taxi driver and throughout his time as a taxi driver, he befriends a woman, Bettina, who he lifts to work in the evening. After starting to notice little changes in his son’s behavior that...