Summary: The Buddha Of Suburbia Hanif Kureishi
Angel Lucia Yiangou
07040088
Reading 20th century fiction HL1003N
Explore the representation of race
Initial novel: Sonny’s blues – James Baldwin
Secondary novel: The Buddha of Suburbia Hanif Kureishi
The journey undergone by the narrator (and elder brother) in Sonny’s blues may be short in literary terms but is said to be one of the tenderest and thought provoking pieces in modern fiction.
Indirect comparisons between life and music are rich within many of the paragraphs and pages and remain quietly present throughout the duration of the story even when less patent.
Jazz as a genre is undeniably unpredictable and often misunderstood.
The jazz listened to, played and loved by Sonny is used as a colorful metaphor right through the …show more content…
An ‘on the spot’ example is the conversation between himself and an old friend of Sonny’s, ‘But now, abruptly, I hated him. I couldn’t stand the way he looked at me, partly like a dog, partly like a cunning child… he says to him… ‘Look. Don’t tell me your sad story, if it was up to me, I’d give you one’ ‘Then I felt guilty’…By the end of the scene he tells us, ‘All at once something inside me gave and threatened to come pouring out of me. I didn’t hate him anymore. I felt at that moment I’d start crying like a child. (Sonny’s blues. …show more content…
Hanif Kureishi almost writes an alter ego in the character of Karim. He uses blunt humor to detail his journey as a white-Asian male in England. They both have an indignant opinion on the way many people view them. In ‘The Rainbow Sign’ in a response to Duncan Sandy (1967) saying ‘The breeding of millions of half-caste children would merely produce a generation of misfits and create national tensions’ he simply states ‘I wasn’t a misfit. It was the others, they wanted misfits, they wanted you to embody within yourself their ambivalence’. (The rainbow sign. 75).
Karim greets you on the first page by saying, ‘perhaps it’s the odd mixture of continents and blood, of here and there, of belonging and not, that makes me restless and easily bored’. (The Buddha of Suburbia. 3).
Although he does struggle with the expected uncertanties of living as a mixed race teenager in a suburban town, Karim’s mixed parentage is not a taboo topic for him and as he is the narrator and focus point of the story, this encourages us, the readers, to also be comfortable with his
07040088
Reading 20th century fiction HL1003N
Explore the representation of race
Initial novel: Sonny’s blues – James Baldwin
Secondary novel: The Buddha of Suburbia Hanif Kureishi
The journey undergone by the narrator (and elder brother) in Sonny’s blues may be short in literary terms but is said to be one of the tenderest and thought provoking pieces in modern fiction.
Indirect comparisons between life and music are rich within many of the paragraphs and pages and remain quietly present throughout the duration of the story even when less patent.
Jazz as a genre is undeniably unpredictable and often misunderstood.
The jazz listened to, played and loved by Sonny is used as a colorful metaphor right through the …show more content…
An ‘on the spot’ example is the conversation between himself and an old friend of Sonny’s, ‘But now, abruptly, I hated him. I couldn’t stand the way he looked at me, partly like a dog, partly like a cunning child… he says to him… ‘Look. Don’t tell me your sad story, if it was up to me, I’d give you one’ ‘Then I felt guilty’…By the end of the scene he tells us, ‘All at once something inside me gave and threatened to come pouring out of me. I didn’t hate him anymore. I felt at that moment I’d start crying like a child. (Sonny’s blues. …show more content…
Hanif Kureishi almost writes an alter ego in the character of Karim. He uses blunt humor to detail his journey as a white-Asian male in England. They both have an indignant opinion on the way many people view them. In ‘The Rainbow Sign’ in a response to Duncan Sandy (1967) saying ‘The breeding of millions of half-caste children would merely produce a generation of misfits and create national tensions’ he simply states ‘I wasn’t a misfit. It was the others, they wanted misfits, they wanted you to embody within yourself their ambivalence’. (The rainbow sign. 75).
Karim greets you on the first page by saying, ‘perhaps it’s the odd mixture of continents and blood, of here and there, of belonging and not, that makes me restless and easily bored’. (The Buddha of Suburbia. 3).
Although he does struggle with the expected uncertanties of living as a mixed race teenager in a suburban town, Karim’s mixed parentage is not a taboo topic for him and as he is the narrator and focus point of the story, this encourages us, the readers, to also be comfortable with his