Hanif Kureshi faced many complications as a diaspora identity in a place where people of his lot are hated and looked down on. His works represent everything he found. “The Rainbow Sign” and “My Son the Fanatic” also bear the traces of his life experiences. One of the many common things in both works is the shadow and the impression of the West in the minds of the “Others”. In “My Son the Fanatic”, we are told indirectly that Parvez wanted to do well in England “His dream of him doing well in England would have come true.” Similar is in “The Rainbow Sign”, the narrator recounts that his father “…married here and never returned to India” and “the young people kept asking me about the possibility of entering Britain”. In my opinion, there is this socially constructed image of the West that resides in people’s minds.
Parvez and even the narrator of “Sign of the Rainbow” are prone to the ways of the West. Apparently, they seem to have no major issues residing there. They have been through a lot and have largely embraced the lifestyle that the western world presents to them, regardless of the sufferings inflicted on them. As the narrator of “The Rainbow Sign” tells us, “…This is where the boys gathered to hunt down the Pakistanis and defeat them.” Despite the mistreatment, racial abuse, and discrimination, the narrator is fine with being there in England. “…But despite all this, some identification with England remains.”
Parvez knows what trouble he or his son could get into but he doesn’t entertain the idea that he is in a society that offers but less to the “Others”. His daughter Ali tells him: “‘Western materialists hate us,’ said Ali. ‘Dad, how can you love something that hates you?'” forced to accept the western world. Something very similar happens with the narrator of “The Rainbow Sign”. The attitude of the West towards the “Others” can be seen in both works.
The problem of being a “mongrel” arises, indirectly, if not directly. Being a mixed race, you don’t fully belong anywhere. You are made to sit on the fence unable to decide where you belong. This is exactly what has been presented, according to me. Culturally hybrid individuals are presented. The historical and cultural conflict between East and West, in one way or another, is raised in both works. Parvez has completely become a part of the western world, when his son acts the way he doesn’t expect her to, she freaks out, questions him and even kicks him at the end of it.
There is a clash between East and West. The base is oriental and they are in a completely different world; A world that is opposite to “his” world. Residence in a foreign country and the problems faced by those who live there present us with a point of similarity in both. The perspective of “fitting in” is seen in addition to Cultural Domination, which remains a persistent theme in both.