Most of his class fellows were from the housing estate where he was living with his family. Osman was finding it hard to make English friends as his English was not very good and he found it hard to understand when other pupils would talk fast.Osman’s English was constantly improving, but it was obvious to the pupils from the housing estate that he was a foreigner not born in the United Kingdom. Many of the pupils from this deprived housing estate would tell him, that he and his family should go back to Bosnia.
He decided he would try to fit in more with the pupils and conceal his Bosnian origins.Osman tried to acquire more Englishness. He stopped going to the mosque on Fridays. He would make an excuse to his father .He would tell him he would prefer to go the Mosque by himself. He started avoiding his friend Ali as Ali wasn’t interested in Osman’s ideas of Englishness. Osman’s efforts at trying to become more English stopped the pupils from the housing estate from calling him names. Osman’s family lived on this housing estate and for some of the residents they were the centre of resentment. The town they lived in had a high unemployment rate as most of the local industries had shut down over the past ten years. There was already a housing shortage with many homeless people in the town centre.Osman and his family had recently received threats on the phone. Osman’s sister and mother were afraid to go out by themselves.Osman’s sister was very different she made many friends from the Asian community .She was happy to be accepted by these people and made very little effort in trying to become more English.
There was a conflict between Osman and his father at home. Osman and his father had a long chat and decided it wasn’t important to try to become English and gain acceptance from people who weren’t interested in his future. It was more important to keep his identity and his faith.
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Commentary
The inspiration for this story originates from recent events and stories that I have seen or heard. Several weeks ago I was watching the television. There was an interesting documentary on. It was a programme where an undercover reporter posed as an employee at an asylum seeker centre. The reporter was trying to uncover the abuse of asylum seekers at this centre. The reporter had a hidden camcorder where he could record any incidents of racism etc. The programme was then shown on television. The programme caused a lot of controversy when it was shown. It uncovered the racist attitudes of the staff to asylum seekers. The asylum seekers were treated in subhuman ways.
Many of the asylum seekers are eventually granted asylum in the United Kingdom. They will try to integrate into the communities in which they move to. If this is their first impression of the UK then their outlook will have been affected by a minority of staff at these centres.
The other source of inspiration for this piece of writing was the Buddha of Suburbia.The Buddha of Suburbia uncovers many of the ironies that underlie the recognition of Britain as a multicultural society and of Britain as racially diverse and culturally made up of different ethnicities. Recent events in the news showed the British National Party had secured good results in local elections in the North of England. The BNP are a party who are opposed to immigration, multiculturalism and ethnic diversity. They have extreme views based on the race of people. In this story the North of England is where Osman and his family moved to after being granted asylum in the UK. Multicultural Britain remains a major issue at the moment and is receiving a lot of public and media attention.
A lot of the novels and articles written by Hanif Kureishi are about racial identity and integration of ethnic people into British communities. Kureishi states.
“It is the British, the white British, who have to learn that being British isn’t what it was”.
This is a reference to the various ethnic minorities which are a part of Britain. They may have immigrated to the United Kingdom and have retained some of their own cultural and racial identity.
Kureishi further states “There must be a fresh way of seeing Britain and the choices it faces and a new way of being British after all this time.”
Britain is a multicultural society and now consists of many different groups In the story there is a conflict between Osman and his father, this is a common theme in many of Hanif Kureishi’s novel’s. Osman tries to become more English, which his father disagrees with. At the end of the novel they agree that being British can still enable Osman to retain his identity. The definition of being British would include Osman and his family.
Roy Jenkins’s has said “I do not think we need in this country a melting pot, which will turn every body out in a common mould, as one of a series of carbon copies of someone’s misplaced vision of the stereotyped Englishman…”
Osman’s father was explaining to his son a similar view. Osman’s father doesn’t want his son to integrate into his local community “with the misplaced vision of the stereotyped Englishman. “Based on the prejudiced views of the BNP (British National Party) influenced housing estate. Osman’s father could tell his son was trying to conform to what the pupils from the housing estates thought an Englishman should be. This view is against cultural diversity in the United Kingdom.
Osman’s sister’s adjustment to school was very different. She made new friends who were similar to her in beliefs and identity. She didn’t try to compromise her racial identity to gain acceptance from the other pupils. Her friends were mainly from the Asian community.
The story is mainly set in deprived areas of Northern England which don’t represent the UK. There were racial riots in Burnley in 2003 .These were mentioned in Monica Ali’s novel Brick lane. These riots caused a backlash in the community which the BNP were able to take advantage of in local elections. The BNP were able to exploit issues of race , immigration , asylum seekers after the riots. The BNP took advantage of local people’s insecurities about employment, housing.
The situation for Asylum seekers in Europe is becoming worse as many European countries are electing governments which are opposed to immigration and limiting the number of Asylum seekers. An asylum seeker can be defined as someone who has grounded fears of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion in their own country. They are usually unwilling to return home.
The representation of asylum seekers has to be more positive to prevent the abuse which was shown on the television documentary from reoccurring.
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Buddha of Suburbia by Hanif Kureishi, 1990.
Contemporary British Fiction: An introduction through interview, London Arnold,2002.
Gabriel’s Gift. London: Faber and Faber, 2001.
Roy Jenkins’s, Home Secretary in the Labour government, expressed a similar view about being an Englishman 1966.