...Ladybirds for Lunch The story “Ladybirds for Lunch” written by Hanif Kureishi is a children’s story because we get the story from a childish view. When you read the story you kind of get an understanding of the childish behaviour and children’s point of views, e.g. “Theo had gathered a group of ladybirds in his hand and was intending to place them, for the afternoon, in a cardboard box, so the insects could party together”. This action is done in a kind way, Theo clearly just wants the ladybirds to have a bit of fun, and does not worry about the consequences the ladybirds have to take by being looked in a box, I do not even think the consequences have crossed his mind in contrast to an adult mind, where things are being more considered from different point of views, before the thoughts are put in action. Another thing that also makes this story a children’s story, is the childish descriptions, e.g. when the boy’s mother has put her curlers in her hair, her hair is being described like this: “and her head looked like a bowl of pasta”. And when Mr and Mrs Binswangers are entering the garden they are being described like this: “Sabina’s jewellery jingle-jangled and her high heels punctured father’s new lawn, while Fraser’s confident voice boomed across the neighbourhood. They both wore sharp perfume which caused all flies in the vicinity to immediately become unconscious”. You can sense the childish imagination and how everything is seen with the eye of a child, I think that...
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...1. “The commitment to the Pleasure” is a short story written by Hanif Kureishi. The story is about a father who takes his twin sons to a rock concert. During the concert, he thinks back on his own youth and the music back then. He discovers music again through his sons and like his sons; he spends a lot of time listening to it. Through the short British history, we get from the father. He tells us that regardless if you are Black, Asian, gay, lesbian, hetero or what class you are in music is for everyone. It is the way to speak out freely, being heard, the way we get our identity, and the way. 2. All the texts have partly the same vision on each other. In the first text “The commitment to the Pleasure”, the main character's statement about pop music is very positive. He sees pop music as something everybody can hear and something where one can express themselves. He believes that pop music is Britain's identity. In the second story, the narrator is not quite agreeing with the statement of the main character of the first text, about pop music. He agrees that everybody can listen to pop music but believes that pop music has become more or less pornographic. He also believes that children can be damaged by the music and that Lady Gaga and Rihanna are the ones that show the way forward in the music world. In the third text, the narrator agrees with the opinion about Lady Gaga singing too much about sex and through that damaging the children. But the reason why Lady Gaga...
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...The Penis The short story ”The Penis” is written by Hanif Kureishi. The short story is about a penis, which has been separated from its owner Doug, who we hear from later on. At first though we hear about a guy called Alfie who was “a cutter – a hairdresser – and had to get to work”. He is having breakfast with his wife, when she asks him what he did last night, and if he had a good time last night? Alfie can not remember what he did last night, he then looks in his wallet to examine how much money he had spent or if he has any cocaine left or anything else, which could give him a clue of what he has been doing. He finds something strange inside his pocket. In his pocket he finds a penis, with balls, and pubic hair. This appears very incongruous to me, because I had not expected that he would find a penis in his pocket, maybe cocaine, which Hanif Kureishi had prepared the ground to. Alfie considered how he should get rid of the penis. His instinct is to drop it in a litterbin, but then he remembers how his wife wants him to be more “business minded”, and more than anything wanted him to appear on television. After this little thought he then considers selling the penis to an art dealer, but he ends up throwing the penis over the side of a bridge. Alfies story is told by a limited omniscient point of view, and when we hear about Doug, which I will tell a bit about next, Hanif Kureishi turns the point of view and tells the rest of the story in an omniscient third-person narrators...
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...The Decline of the West What happens when you get fired from your job, come home to a domineering wife, a self-centered brat of a son and a second material-obsessed son, who all three boss you around making you do their dishes and buy them, what they see as, vital objects? That is right! You reconsider life, but decide to let it all go instead… or that is at least what Mike does in this short story. The short story, The Decline of the West by Hanif Kureishi, takes place in London, where we meet Mike’s family, which consists of his two sons, Tom and Billy, and his wife, Imogen. Mike was a twelve-hours-a-day, hard-working man, yet who is recently fired. Mike is significantly divided between traditional values and modern values. On the first hand he refuses to let his wife, Imogen, work, because he could not imagine a home without a mother, who makes sure the kids behave. “He shows me neither love nor respect.” also he demands respect from his family, even though he literally does not spend time at home, because of his job, however on the other hand he lets them all boss him around, probably because of his declaration of him being the only provider. The short story only elapses over a day; however this day seems to turn out as being the most horrible of Mike’s life. “”My television’s broken,” said Tom. “Why don’t you get it fixed like you promised? What have you ever done for me?”” This is in the middle of a discussion between Tom and Mike. Through-out the entire short story it...
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...A crisis of values With the recent financial crisis, many private economies in the Western world have been affected. Families have had to face the fact that they can’t keep up the life style they have grown accustomed to. But could the recession be a wake-up call, an opportunity to see things in a different light and change disadvantageous behaviors? In his short story, “The Decline of the West”, Hanif Kureishi puts this theme on the agenda. After losing his income, a family father realizes that his family is highly dysfunctional and that his family members value his money more than anything else. The main character is a 45-year old man named Mike who works in corporate finance. Together with Imogen, his reproachful and discontent wife, he has two sons of 15 and 11 years. Mike sees himself as a hard-working man and works at least 12 hours a day. He has provided his family with a nice house in a good neighborhood, an au pair and all sorts of material goods, but still no one is happy. The story is told from Mike’s point of view which gives us an insight into his feelings and thoughts about himself as a provider for the family, “I paid for this with my time, intelligence, and the education the state provided me with” (ll. 18-19). We get the impression that Mike sees himself as a good man who gives and gives while his family is never satisfied, “As the boys liked to point out, other children at their school lived in bigger...
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...The penis By Hanif Kureishi This essay will focus on how Hanif Kureishi uses humor and different points of view to portray his image of the human relationship to and appreciation of objects and likewise. Hanif Kureishi makes use of two of the three theories that has been set around humor. Hanif Kureishi uses ‘the relief theory’ and ‘the incongruity theory’. The relief theory is based around the fact that the reader is going to have a set of taboos or subjects that they do not like to talk about or discuss. Some of these taboos are often things as pornography, genitalia and sex in general, all of which we see in the story. Talking about or being confronted with these taboos will often cause an individual to feel ashamed or nervous. So by confronting the reader with his or her taboos Hanif Kureishi is forcing the reader to deal with his or her shame and/or nervousness and the most common way of doing so is by laughing. Hanif Kureishi implements this in the text by creating a main character, in this case Doug, whom is an “actor” in the industry of pornography, and by writing very obviously about Doug’s work experiences, doings and deeds. And of course there is the huge walking and talking penis… Should it be the case that pornography, genitalia nor sex is not included in the readers list of taboos Hanif Kureishi also makes use of the incongruity theory. The incongruity theory is base aroung the fact that the reader has an assumption about how the world is and works, about...
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...The short story ”The Penis” is written by Hanif Kureishi. The short story is about a penis, which has been separated from its owner Doug, who we hear from later on. At first though we hear about a guy called Alfie who was “a cutter – a hairdresser – and had to get to work”. He is having breakfast with his wife, when she asks him what he did last night, and if he had a good time last night? Alfie can not remember what he did last night, he then looks in his wallet to examine how much money he had spent or if he has any cocaine left or anything else, which could give him a clue of what he has been doing. He finds something strange inside his pocket. In his pocket he finds a penis, with balls, and pubic hair. This appears very incongruous to me, because I had not expected that he would find a penis in his pocket, maybe cocaine, which Hanif Kureishi had prepared the ground to. Alfie considered how he should get rid of the penis. His instinct is to drop it in a litterbin, but then he remembers how his wife wants him to be more “business minded”, and more than anything wanted him to appear on television. After this little thought he then considers selling the penis to an art dealer, but he ends up throwing the penis over the side of a bridge. Alfies story is told by a limited omniscient point of view, and when we hear about Doug, which I will tell a bit about next, Hanif Kureishi turns the point of view and tells the rest of the story in an omniscient third-person narrators...
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...Lies Summary: Josephine is a 10 year old girl, who is living with her father Joe and her mother Ettie. Her best friend Joanna lives next door with her single mother Maxine. One Sunday at lunch, her father’s brother Roger visits and moves into their house, as he is tired of being in the navy, and would like an office job like his brother. Josephine’s father arrange that his wife should help Roger gaining better manners and a better English, and when she doesn’t hear it, he winks and recommend Roger to ask out their neighbour Maxine, whom he personally assures is a real lady. The mother and Roger are sitting together on the porch every day as she teaches him manners, and he manages to make her laugh, even though she usually just smiles. One day Josephine comes home from school and finds her mother alone, while hearing Roger laughing at Maxine’s porch. The mother asks weather Roger has ever taken liberties with her, and to please her mother Josephine says yes, and also states that she would like him to leave. To help her parents get rid of Roger, she tells him that her mother is pregnant, and he leaves shortly after. After a while the mother gives birth to a baby boy which they name Terence, and Josephine tells her father that the child belongs to Roger. At school, she writes an essay about her family and how things changed after Terence was born, and she is called to the teacher who wants her to admit that she story is a lie, and she tells him she made it all up. Character...
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...The Decline of the West Every family has its own problems, and sometimes we just feel like our own is the worst. But we never think about how others may feel, and there is always someone somewhere that has it far worse than what you do. However it can be rough, and bad times feel like the universe is going down. The situation is actually only that you are going through a fase in your life, and that it will go over soon. But it might be difficult to realize that when you are in it. Some people also do not realize how important love and the bond in the family is. Nowadays people care way too much about material things and the blame is probably on the society. In the text, “The Decline of the West” by Hanif Kureishi, we see a family situation of a father who actually tries to do a lot for his family, but they do not appreciate it. We follow the family from the minute the father gets home from work, and then throughout the evening, so it is chronologically built up. Mike, who is the main character in the story, starts out by telling what he would wish the family would turn out to be, but then we start hearing about his real life, and what issues he is dealing with. We hear about the problem he has with his food, the boys and then in the end what problem he has with his wife. She is a very difficult wife, and not at all what he really wanted her to be. His dream-family is actually the right opposite of what they are. He describes it as, “he´d been looking forward to opening the...
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...“My Son the Fanatic” er en novelle, som er skrev af Hanif Kureishi Brite af pakistansk herkomst MERE! Parvez er en immigrant fra Pakistant. Arbejde om natten, bedre løn, ”renere” veje. The narrative deals with the problems of Parvez, who has immigrated to England with his son Ali. Parvez worries because Ali’s behavior has changed significantly. Early in the story, Parvez is afraid of discussing his worries with his friends because his son has always been a kind of showpiece son. Eventually, Parvez breaks his silence and tells them how his son has changed, hoping to receive some advice. After having a short conversation, they come to the conclusion that his son might be addicted to drugs and that he sells his things to earn money to buy drugs. After this meeting, Parvez goes to his taxi to drive home. But in his car he finds Bettina, a prostitute, who drives with Parvez very often and has become a confidante. Since Parvez has defended Bettina from a client who had attacked her, they take care of each other. Parvez tells Bettina what he has observed and that he and his friends assume that his son does all these strange things because he is drug addicted. Bettina instructs Parvez on how he has to observe his son to find out if there is anything physically wrong with him. However, after a few days of observations Parvez decides that his son appears totally healthy. The only physical change Parvez observes is that Ali is growing a beard. And it turns out that his son does not...
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...Faye Jones ENC 1102 Professor Kenefick 9:30 – 10:45 “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid (Post-Modernism) Based on our lecture in class, I view “Girl” as a Post-Modern work. If “Girl” is viewed as ‘Modern’, the work is seen as nurturing, however if viewed as ‘Post-Modern’, the work is seen as abusive. The structure and language convey a tone of repressiveness and obedience. The mother is preaching at the girl to tell her how to act. The daughter meekly accepts what the mother says and only twice does she speak against her mother. Even then, she spoke in a passive manner. The mother-daughter relationship lacks real intimacy. The use of the word “slut” tells us the mother does not have a high opinion of the daughter even before the mother’s orders can be carried out. The mother is extremely dictatorial, which in itself is not a nurturing quality. Post-Modernism is work that denotes negativity and hopelessness and is meant to shake up the audience. Kincaid does an excellent job of this. Her use of sentence structure (the long sentences); the excess use of semi-colons; and the open ending of the story are demonstrative of Post-Modern writings. An important element is ‘deconstruction’ for example, how the story is really more of a speech and not a formalized story with definite structure. Another example is the writing style, which is the narrative. We do not know exactly who is speaking, and absolute clarity is absent because in Post-Modern writing it does...
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...Hanif Kureishi: The Decline of the West In a time where many people have gotten accustomed to having plenty of money and therefore buying a lot of stuff they do not actually need, a lot of these consumers have also experienced the downside of their materialism. The economic crisis has resulted in a lot of people losing their jobs, investments turning out badly and huge debts. But what happens when one of these individuals gets caught between a greedy family and his own desire to do what is right and stop spending money like there is no tomorrow? A desire emerging from not only being disgusted by the greedy consumerism but also from being laid off his job which forces him to take care of the family’s financial situation. This short story, The Decline of the West written in 2010 by the English writer Hanif Kureishi, deals with this theme and engages the reader in a brilliantly written story about a man who experiences the difficulties of the economic decline. Mike, a 45-year old man working in corporate finance, has been “stalked by good fortune [his] whole life” (l. 40) – at least that is what his father claims – but his luck turns when he is forced to dismiss his department of forty people and then get lost himself. Not ever having to worry about money before, his previous peace of mind is suddenly shattered to pieces. The short story starts in the middle of Mike getting ready to tell his wife the news but he is hindered in doing so when she does not even take the time to say...
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...A The Decline of the West Hanif Kureishi published “The Decline of the West” in 2010 in Collected Stories. The story deals with the modern western capitalistic society and which affects it has on family life. The materialistics values have marked the West, which affect the family life. The father in the history want the family to look good outwardly, even if the family is in disorder, specially between the father and the oldest son. The father, called Mark, obvious thinks that happiness is given by material amenities, but instead the family bond falling apart. In the story we meet the father Mark, his wife Imogen and their common children Tom and Billy. We meet Mark immediately after he has been fired and arrives to his house. Mark is used to working late and because of the firing he has a complicated relationship to his family. The family has also been used to have their material things, but after Mark has been fired, the family must get used to live the more poor life, which would be a problem since the to boys already talks about they want to live somewhere else, a place which is more bigger just like there classmates. The two boys are used to get what they point out, but still the boys feel they are being neglected by their parent, maybe because Mark show his love to his boys through material values. Mark isn’t the typically family man if you ask his family. Mark just get fired and it’s hard to tell his wife, especially because he has a problem with women who...
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...My son the fanatic - Hanif Kureishi Parvez & his enviroment Parvez is born and has grown up in Lahore which is the biggest city in Pakistan. Now he lives in England together with his wife and son Ali. Parvez likes to live in England and he makes a great effort to adapt to the English culture. Parvez has always been aware of the pitfall which other men’s sons had fallen into. Consequently he works really hard so his son can have a good education as an accountant. Earlier, Parvez often boasted to his friends about how clever his son was; Ali was very special and talented compared to many other boys. Parvez works as a taxi driver and has driven taxi for many years. Two of his closest friends he knows from work. Many of the other taxi drivers are Punjabis like himself. It a very simple job and the drivers are often having a nice time together in the taxi office away from their wives. They play cards, exchange lewd stories and discuss their problems in a superficial way. When Parvez asks his two best friends for a piece of advice, he gets a triumphant reply. - His son is presumably a drug addict killer! Parvez’s other friend Bettina, the prostitute, is a much better help. She tells him what to watch for and does not have a prejudiced attitude. Bettina and Parvez have known each other for three years. He once rescued her from a violent costumer. The taxi drivers often drive the prostitutes home at the end of the night. Some of them even go with the girls – “a ride in exchange...
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...The Decline of The West Short story by: Hanif Kureishi The Decline of the West is a short story written by the English, half Pakistani writer Hanif Kureishi in 2010. The main theme in the short story is the capitalism and how material we have become in the West in the year of 2010 and how we strive to gain material comfort ahead of true happiness and greater meaning in life. The short story’s main character is a forty-five year old man named Mike who is on his way home to his family. It takes place in the upper class of the outskirts of London. Mike thinks that his family will appreciate that he is home early from work, which is not something that occurs since he is not working less than twelve-hour shifts. Mike seems as a hard-working man who does not spend much time with his family and we get a very negative picture of his family. There is a very cold attachment between him and he family since he is never home. But they can be demanding and the content that fills up their lives is material goods. At the short beginning the atmosphere and language is described very positive. Mike has endured the most desolate tube trip home and is looking forward to come home to his family and their home which is described as a nice and warm home he is looking forward to come home to; “Opening the door to a warm hall hearing the voices of his wife and children”. Though he has to tell his wife, Imogen that he got fired from his job. The language is well written in informal language...
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