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Summary
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in My Son the Fanatic, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Immigration, Assimilation, and Radicalization
Immigration, Fathers, and Sons
The West and Islam
The Role of Women
Summary
Analysis
Parvez, a Pakistani immigrant in England, begins to secretly visit his son’s room because he has noticed changes in it. At first the changes in Ali’s room are welcome. The room, once messy, is now clean and orderly. But when Ali’s possessions gradually begin disappearing, and brand-new items are thrown out or given away, Parvez becomes alarmed. He also notes that Ali has recently broken up with his English girlfriend, and that his friends no longer call.
Ali’s room becoming clean indicates a growing discipline. But Ali throwing away his possessions suggests a discipline that is at odds with the Western focus on attaining material goods. Cutting off his English friends further indicates that Ali is in the early stages of his departure from English culture. Parvez’s concern over Ali’s new behaviors signifies the beginning of the conflict between father and son that will drive the plot of the story.
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Parvez is unable to confront Ali about these changes, as he finds himself suddenly afraid of his own son. Questions he does pose to Ali are met with sharp, inconclusive replies. Parvez is especially upset by Ali’s strange behavior because he was worked so hard throughout his life to provide for his son, including paying for his education to become an accountant. Parvez fears that these changes might indicate that England is ruining his son like it has the sons of other immigrant fathers.
Parvez’s fear of Ali represents both the growing distance between father and son as well as the West’s fear of Islam and Muslim people. Parvez, like other first-generation, immigrant fathers, has worked hard to ensure that his second-generation son will thrive and experience upward mobility in their adopted home. The stories of other immigrant fathers who lost their sons to negative influences in England exist as warnings of what can go wrong for Parvez and other first-generation fathers. Parvez sees Ali and his future as an accountant as the final step to achieving full assimilation into English culture for his family, and fears that Ali is squandering his own hard work and sacrifice by straying from this carefully constructed path to success.
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When Ali’s room is bare of almost everything, including even the pictures that once hung on the walls, Parvez is disturbed enough that he can’t sleep. He starts drinking more whiskey, even on the job. Parvez is a taxi driver, and most of his coworkers are fellow Punjabi immigrants from Pakistan who work the night shift in part because the money is better and in part so they can avoid their wives by sleeping in the daytime. They enjoy a “boy’s life” in the taxi office, where they bond over card games, jokes, lewd stories, meals, and conversations that span the personal and political.
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Parvez knows he needs to confide in his cabbie friends about Ali’s troublesome new behaviors, but he is ashamed and fearful that they will blame him for these changes the way they blame other fathers whose sons get caught up in drugs, gangs, and illicit sex in England. What’s worse is that Parvez always bragged to his friends about his son’s successes in school, sports, and life. Parvez’s “dreams of doing well in England” hinge upon Ali’s success. He desperately wants for his son to settle down as an accountant with a nice wife, and, eventually, children. Now this once certain future feels less guaranteed.
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Parvez finally breaks down one night and confides in his two closest friends at the taxi office. His friends are convinced that Ali must be selling his possessions in order to buy drugs. They advise Parvez that he must be strict and get Ali under control before he goes “mad, overdose[s], or murder[s] someone.” Parvez leaves the office convinced that his son has become a “drug addict killer.” Outside, he is relieved to see one of his regular riders, Bettina, waiting for him in the front seat of his taxicab.
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Bettina is a prostitute. The cabbies know the local prostitutes well, as they drive them to and from liaisons each night. Parvez and Bettina have known each other for three years, and they spend the long drives back to her house talking about their lives and hopes. Parvez talks with Bettina in a way that he can’t with his wife. He also feels protective of her ever since he rescued her from a violent client one night. Shaken by his friends’ suggestions that Ali is on drugs, Parvez confides in Bettina who advises him to be on the lookout for signs of drug abuse such as bloodshot eyes or mood changes.
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Relieved to have a plan, Parvez begins to carefully observe Ali’s every move. As Parvez watches over Ali, he notices that his son is likewise watchful over him. In fact, Ali looks at Parvez with such a critical eye that it leaves Parvez feeling like he is the one who is behaving strangely. Eventually, Parvez realizes that there are no signs of drug abuse, and that Ali isn’t even selling his possessions, just throwing or giving them away. The only physical change he notes is that Ali is growing a beard.
One night after staying out late discussing the matter with Bettina, Parvez comes home and uncovers a clue to Ali’s mysterious behavior. As Parvez is standing in the hall, he hears his son’s alarm go off. He rushes to hide in his bedroom, and orders his wife “to sit down and keep quiet, though she had neither stood up nor said a word.” Peering out from his bedroom, Parvez observes Ali go into the bathroom to wash up. When Ali returns to his bedroom, Parvez follows behind and presses his ear to Ali’s door. From behind the door, Parvez hears a muttering sound that leaves him “puzzled but relieved.” He realizes that Ali is praying, and, through continued spying over the course of several days, confirms that Ali is praying the full five times a day required in Islam.
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In light of this realization, Parvez thinks back to his boyhood in Lahore and his time spent learning the Koran. He remembers that one day an instructor attached a string to the ceiling and then tied it to his hair, so that if he fell asleep the string would yank him awake. This incident left him with a distaste for all religions. Similarly, his taxi driver friends scoff at the mullahs of their neighborhood and enjoy exposing what they see as their hypocrisies. However, when he tells Bettina and his friends that Ali’s strange behavior turned out to be prayer, no one knows what to say as religions is not so easy to condemn as drugs.
Parvez wants to sit down and talk to Ali about his newfound interest in Islam. After refusal and evasion on Ali’s part, Parvez convinces him to have dinner. The next day, though, Parvez meets with Bettina in his car and recounts the uncomfortable dinner he shared with Ali the night before. At the start of the meal, the waiter, a friend of Parvez’s, brings him his usual whiskey and water. Immediately, this sets off a fierce debate between Parvez and Ali. Ali scolds his father for violating the tenets of Islam by drinking and gambling. Parvez, upset, keeps drinking and gets more and more drunk. As the waiter refills his whiskey, Parvez realizes that his son is looking at him from across the table with a face full of disgust and hatred.
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Midway through the dinner, Parvez is so upset and enraged that he throws a plate on the floor. He is furious that his son is trying to dictate to him the difference between right and wrong, while suggesting that he is a bad man who has lived a shameful life. Ali continues to insist that his father has lived a bad life because he has broken so many rules of the Koran. He admonishes Parvez for eating pork, and for pressuring his wife to cook it for him by telling her that “You’re not in the village now, this is England. We have to fit in!”
Ali then tells his father that he is “implicated in Western civilization.” Parvez believes this is absurd, and replies, “Implicated!...But we live here!” Ali continues, telling him that Westerners hate them, and asks how he can love something that hates him for who he is. Ali preaches to his father about the coming rule of Islam over the world, the hypocrisy of the West, and his willingness to give his life for jihad if the persecution of his people does not stop. At this, and with eyes full of tears, Parvez directs his son out of the restaurant while feeling as if the voice speaking these words is not Ali’s at all.
On the way home, Ali sits in the back seat of his father’s taxicab, as if he is a customer. Parvez asks what inspired him to adopt this radicalized version of Islam, and Ali explains that it was simply living in England. Confused, Parvez tells his son that he loves England because “they let you do almost anything here.” “That,” Ali replies, “is the problem.” Parvez is so distraught that he veers into a passing truck and knocks the side-view mirror off his car. He knows he is lucky not to have gotten stopped by the police, which would have resulted in a lost license and lost job. When they arrive home, Parvez falls in the road injuring his hands and tearing his pants, but Ali doesn’t help his father get back up.
As Parvez recounts this story to Bettina, he tells her that he is so desperate to get through to his son that he would even be willing start praying. Simultaneously, he is enraged that his own son is telling him that he belongs in hell. The last straw for Parvez, however, had been when Ali told him that he was dropping out of accounting school because Western education is anti-religious. Instead, Ali says that has decided to work with Muslims in prison struggling to maintain their Islamic purity. Before finally heading to bed for the night, Ali asks his father why he doesn’t at least have a beard or mustache.
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Parvez concludes the story of this terrible night by telling Bettina that he feels that he’s lost his son. He can’t stand that Ali looks at him like he’s a criminal, so has resolved to kick him out of the house. Bettina, however, convinces Parvez not to kick Ali out, arguing that it’s normal for teenagers to be superstitious or caught up in cult-like beliefs. She tells Parvez that Ali will grow out of it, and trusting that she’s right, Parvez lets Ali stay and continues to endure his son’s scorn.
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Ali’s preaching shows no signs of fading, however. He claims that Parvez is “grovelling to the whites,” rather than acknowledging that there is “more to the world than the West.” Sarcastically, Parvez asks how Ali could know this given that he’s never left England. Ali looks at him with contempt.
A few days later, Parvez and Bettina are together in Parvez’s car, and Parvez explains to her that he does believe that Westerners are sometimes “inwardly empty,” and that everyone needs “philosophy to live by.” Bettina suggests that he sit down with Ali and share his philosophy, in hopes that Ali will see and be influenced to see that there are more than just his own beliefs. The following night, Parvez sits with Ali. Before their conversation begins, he hopes that his son will notice the beard he has started growing, but Ali says nothing.
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Parvez begins by talking about the importance of respect, especially between children and their parents, which appears to resonate with Ali. Encouraged, Parvez explains that he believes life ends with death, and that once “rotted in the earth,” you live on only in your children, grandchildren, and generations to come. Ali appears less receptive to this idea, but Parvez continues, explaining that he wants to make the best of his time on earth, and wishes that Ali will, too. Confused, Ali asks what this means. Parvez clarifies that he means that one must enjoy life, but Ali retorts that “enjoyment is a bottomless pit.”
Parvez wishes that Ali could recognize the beauty of living, but Ali is focused on the oppression of “our people.” Parvez is unsure of what Ali means when he says, “our people.” The conversation ends when Ali asserts that millions of people over the course of hundreds of years have agreed with his beliefs and asks who Parvez is to suggest that he is right while these millions of other people are wrong. Shocked by the forcefulness of Ali’s beliefs, Parvez is left speechless.
One evening sometime after this failed conversation, Parvez has picked up Bettina. She has visited a client and they are driving through a poor neighborhood where there are two mosques. They drive past Ali. Bettina insists that they pick him up because she wants a chance to talk to him. Ali gets into the back seat of the taxicab, as Bettina is sitting in the front seat. Parvez becomes suddenly aware of Bettina’s “short skirt, gaudy rings, and ice-blue eyeshadow” as well as the strong scent of her perfume, which he himself loves.
Parvez begins driving faster, as Bettina asks Ali where he’s been that night. Ali replies tersely that he was at the mosque. When Bettina asks him how he’s doing in school, Ali retorts, “Who are you to ask me these questions?” Bettina places her hand on Parvez’s shoulder as she explains to Ali that his father loves him deeply and is simply very worried about him. Ali counters that if his father loved him he wouldn’t let a woman like Bettina touch him. At this point, both Bettina and Ali regard each other with looks of pure fury. Bettina asks, “What kind of woman am I that deserves to be spoken to like that?” Ali simply replies, “You know,” and then threatens to get out of the car. Before he can, Bettina lets herself out despite Parvez’s protestations.
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Parvez and Ali return home in silence. Ali retreats to his room while Parvez retreats to his bottle of whiskey. Parvez pours himself drink after drink and attempts to distract himself with TV and the newspaper. Unable to calm down, he goes upstairs and paces back and forth in front of Ali’s closed door before finally deciding to enter. Inside his room, Ali is praying, and does not acknowledge his father’s presence. Parvez suddenly begins to attack his son, kicking him, dragging him up off the floor by his shirt, and hitting him again and again until Ali’s face is bloodied. Though he “knew that the boy was unreachable…he struck him nonetheless.” Ali does not try to fight back or protect himself. Without a hint of fear in his eyes, he asks his father: “So who’s the fanatic now?”
