The Role of Women Theme Analysis

In “My Son the Fanatic” women play a secondary and supporting role to the men at the center of the story. In Parvez’s circle of taxi drivers, wives are something to be avoided. Parvez’s wife shows up briefly in the story, and only in moments when he is ordering her around. As Parvez becomes increasingly concerned about his son, Ali’s, new and erratic behavior, he seeks advice not from his wife, but from the prostitute, Bettina, who he drives home each night and with whom he is carrying out an emotional affair. While this relationship seems friendly and mutual, at the end of the story, Ali takes his anger and disgust with Parvez out on Bettina, and thus she is unnecessarily harmed in this conflict between father and son. Kureishi’s portrayal of the relationships between men and women in “My Son the Fanatic” highlights the general reality that women bear the brunt of men’s inability to deal with their own emotions and vulnerability.

Parvez’s unnamed wife appears in the story only when he is ordering her around, and her absence itself represents how Parvez has turned his back on his past life in Pakistan to achieve his goals of assimilation in England. The first reference to wives in the story comes early on when the narrator explains that Parvez and his fellow Punjabi cab drivers prefer the night shift not only because it pays better, but because it means they can sleep during the day and avoid their wives. From early on in the story, then, it’s established that wives are something to be avoided. As Parvez’s concern over Ali’s behavior grows, he confides in Bettina, rather than his wife, Ali’s mother. When he spies on Ali and discovers that he’s praying, his wife is “still awake, sewing in bed,” but unaware of what is going on. Parvez doesn’t open up to her about what’s happening with Ali, but instead orders her to “sit down and keep quiet, though she had neither stood up nor said a word.” She appears here in the story only to be ordered around by Parvez, and remains unaware of the emotional turmoil that Parvez is experiencing over Ali. The second time Parvez’s wife is directly referenced in the story is in an anecdote that Ali retells and uses against Parvez as evidence that he has been a bad Muslim, and therefore a bad man. Ali remembers that Parvez had, against the dietary rules of Islam, “ordered his own wife to cook pork sausages, saying to her, ‘You’re not in the village now, this is England. We have to fit in!’” Again, Parvez’s wife appears in the story only to be ordered around, but this scene also reveals how his wife, symbolic of his past life in Pakistan, is a casualty of Parvez’s unyielding desire to assimilate into English culture. He wants assimilation at whatever cost, and in this moment that cost is the agency and desires of his wife.

Bettina, and the emotional affair she shares with Parvez, represents Parvez’s preoccupation with the West, but she also simultaneously takes on a role as the dumping ground for Parvez’s emotions and vulnerability that he otherwise cannot deal with on his own. While it’s unclear if Bettina and Parvez’s friendship has ever become physical, it is clear that they are carrying out an emotional affair. Parvez feels protective of Bettina after having once rescued her from a violent client. Bettina always sits in the front of Parvez’s cab, like a friend, rather than in the back as customers do. That Parvez can “talk to her about things he’d never be able to discuss with his own wife” reveals both the intensity of the emotional connection between them as well as the ways in which Bettina represents the freedom and flexibility of the West that Parvez loves so much. Parvez completely ignores his wife, part of his past Pakistani life, and instead focuses on Bettina whose “short skirt, gaudy rings, and ice-blue eyeshadow” represent what Ali would consider the shameful pleasure and temptations at the heart of Western culture. Bettina’s perfume, “which he loved,” intoxicates Parvez just as the West has for the fact that “they let you do almost anything here.” What’s most ironic about the relationship between Parvez and Bettina is that he considers her one of his regular customers. She pays him to drive her home each night after working her rounds as a prostitute, but on these long car rides back to her house it’s Parvez who should be paying her for the emotional labor she provides him.

In the story’s penultimate scene, Parvez is driving Bettina when they spot Ali walking alone on the street. Bettina jumps at the opportunity to meet Ali, and, once he accepts the ride, attempts to reason with Ali on behalf of Parvez. Bettina attempts to reconcile father and son by explaining to Ali that Parvez only wants what’s best for him because of how much he loves him. In response, Ali lashes out at Bettina, and insults her for being a prostitute. Bettina, hurt, storms out of the car. Her final attempt to manage Parvez’s emotions and vulnerability for him has resulted in her being hurt in a conflict that was, ultimately, between father and son. In other words, she becomes Ali’s punching bag, and Parvez has indirectly brought violence upon her just like the customer he’d once rescued her from had done. Women in the story, whether ignored or confided in, end up being harmed by the men around them.