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Characterization of Parvez In the short story "My Son the Fanatic" by Hanif Kureishi Parvez is one of the main characters. He is a middle aged Pakistani immigrant who was born in Lahore and now lives in London, where he has worked as a cab driver for about 20 years. He is married and has a son, Ali, who is a young adult. Parvez is a hard-working, cheerful man with a generally positive outlook on life. Parvez loves his son. On the one hand, this can be seen in the way he worries when Ali's behaviour changes. On the other hand, this also becomes obvious in the way he has tried to support his son: Parvez hopes for a good life for Ali and has worked hard to be able to buy him expensive computer equipment, good suits and aid him with his higher education so that he can become a white-collar worker. He believes that this is the best he can offer his son (cf. p. 2, II.15-19). Parvez does not have a good relationship with Islam, as in his childhood in Pakistan he went through a strict Islamic education and was at times humiliated by his religious teachers. This made him turn away from religion in general (cf. p. 4, II. 24-25, p. 5, II. 1-2). Being able to live in Western culture and prosperity and enjoying its advantages for him is a way to be free. When he says to Ali "[...] but still - life is for living!“ (p. 10, I. 4), this neatly sums up his attitude. He is not much interested in spirituality and does not care about Muslim prohibitions. Living in a rather assimilated way, he enjoys pork and alcohol. He is also close with a prostitute, Bettina (cf. p.3, II. 16-18). She even appears to be his main confidante, as he avoids his wife who he does not seem to have a real relationship with. When his son confronts him about his "unislamic” behaviour that he dislikes, Parvez reacts unapologetically (cf. p. 6). At times, Parvez seems to be rather insecure. He can not bring himself to adress the change Ali is going through verbally (cf. p. 1, I. 10). Later in the story, he is too nervous to use the meeting in the restaurant for a controlled conversation, getting drunk instead (cf. p. 5, II. 23-25). This does not only happen once: Parvez does drink too much on occasion. When he worries about the changing behaviour of Ali's, he goes "to the whisky bottle more often, even when he [is] at work" (p 2, 1. 4). In the decisive scene in the restaurant, he is unable to control his drinking, thus losing control over himself and the situation as well (cf. pp. 7-8). In the final scene when he beats his son, Parvez is drunk once again (cf. p. 11, l. 11). Because Parvez is a very pragmatic person, he cannot understand why his son rejects the good life he offers him. Having grown up in Pakistan, he finds it impossible to idealize Muslim life and purity in the way Ali does. He is very hurt by the disdain his son is treating him with. Fueled by too much alcohol, he is not able to control himself on a number of occasions. All of this adds up in such a way that Parvez is unable to try and understand his son and ends up losing him in the end 2