Chapter XIV Buddha of Suburbia

Page 205 to 212

The Buddha of Suburbia, written by Hanif Kureishi, is a novel that deals with identity,
staging of the self, expression of emotions and migration. Karim, the main character , is half
Pakistani half English. The story takes place in the 1970's London.

Chapter XIV begins page 205, when Karim, during a break in rehearsal, starts working for
Eva, cleaning her flat. Eleanor, who's Karim girlfriend, asks him if she can share the job with him.
Karim talks to Eva about it and tries to negociate Eleanor's job, but Eva doesn't look that open-
minded, calling actors bad words. After Karim offers her an ultimatum, Eva agrees to hire Eleanor.
In the meantime, Eva splits her time between her flat and one in a wealthier neighboorhood.

Karim and Eleanor work all day long, then shower at Eleanor's place before going to several
theaters to see plays. Eleanor knows a lot of them and likes plays about British class strugles.
Karim has a premonition ( a feeling ) that bad things are going to happen, though he enjoys those
days.

After they finished work for Eva, Karim goes to spend some time with Jeeta and Jamila.
Anwar doesn't look in good health, as he drinks, smokes and does not work. Nobody feel the desire
to help him. They still hold his hunger strike against him. Jeeta changes as Anwar degrades, she
becomes more cruel but more powerful, doesn't speak to him, and cooking food that makes him
sick. She takes control of the grocery store and remodels it without consulting Anwar. Princess
Jeeta also taunts Anwar about Changez, and what a bad son in-law he is.

One day as Anwar returns from the mosque, he sees Changez and Shinko in the streets.
They had been at a sex shop and walk back home, while talking about India and Japan. Anwar
loses his composure and rushes at Changez. Anwar waves his walking stick at Changez and tries to
hurt him. Changez, when he understands that Anwar wants to harm him, hits Anwar over the head
with a pink dildo. During the fight, Shinko ran to a phone-box in which three boys had freshly
urinated and called an ambulance. Changez gets arrested and called “immigrant, Paki, scum,
wog,bastard, murderer”.Showing how racist the police could be. Meanwhile Anwar was in
intensive care for a week, because he'd had heart failure. Karim, Jamila and occasionnaly Princess
Jeeta visited him.

Karim then talks about his Dad, and how he doesn't understand why he doesn't want to see
Anwar at all, even though they had disagreements. Haroon only says that he doesn't want to give
himself depression. They had been in bad terms since Haroon left Margaret. Anwar thought that
Haroon should just have had a mistress and treated both women equally well, but he never should
have left Margaret, it was a corrupt thing to do, especially when the women you left for is “an
immoral woman”. They had a disagreement in belief.
 In parallel, Haroon gived Eva the confidence she needed in herself. She moved away from
him as she became more and more successful. Meanwhile Haroon missed Margaret more than ever,
they started talking to each other on the phone.

This chapter tackles the axis of art of debate, we can see it when Karim tries to negociate
Eleanor's job with Eva. They debate on the terms of the deal, when Karim has the idea to offer an
ultimatum that forces Eva to accept. It shows that Karim finally has the boldness to confront his
ideas to people and manages to make them accept them.

Chapter XIV also deals with the axis of coming of age : at the beginning of the chapter, we
can see that Karim has concerns of money. Those problems aren't the kind of problems most
children have , they don't ask themselves how they are going to eat or where they are going to sleep
because they have no money, it is a typical questioning of adulthood. Also, just after that, when
Karim negociates with Eva, she tells him “Actors, Karim, are convivial company. They put on
funny voices and do imitations. But they have no personality.” She didn't remember that Karim was
an actor, because she doesn't see him as an adult yet. Also, Karim grew up, we can see that because
he

It also tackles the axis of anchoring and legacy : On top of page 207, we can see that
Eleanor and Karim are well integrated, “sitting among students, Americans and brainys from north
london”. Moreover, page 210, we can see that Changez insults a group of Sikhs : “ yes they have
souls, but the reason there is this bad racialism is because they are so dirty,so rough looking, so bad
mannered. And they are wearing such strange clothes for the Englishman, turbans and all. To be
accepted they must take upt the English ways and forget their filthy villages !” That looks really
disrepectful from him, and shows that racism and discrimination aren't only from people so
different from us.

This chapter talks about migration and exile, as we can see when Changez is being arrested
by the police and they call him really bad names like. We can also see that as a backfire for what he
said before. Migration and exile is also approached when Shinko and Changez are walking down
the streets and they talk about their homelands. Migration and exile is also brought to the table
when it talks about Anwar's past, and his homeland and brother, before he came to England.

Expression of emotion is also important here ; we can see it when Karim asks his dad why
he doesn't come and see Anwar in the hospital. Karim almost feels more concerned about Anwar
than Haroon, despite of their relationship.

Last but not least, we can talk about crossing of boundaries. The first example is when
Anwar drinks un-islamic drinks. He crossed the boundaries and belief, but afterwards he still goes
to pray at the mosque. The second example is a little further in the book, page 213, when Anwar
cross the line between death and life.

We can conclude this chapter by saying that there are some other axes tackled in this
chapter like travel, but they aren't as important as the previous ones . This chapter focuses on the
relation ship between Karim and his relatives, but also between Haroon and Anwar, and Jeeta and
Anwar.