MY FATHER, THE ENGLISHMAN AND I by Nurrudin Farah

SUMMARY:
         The narrator has absorbed the effects of it around him from his family, specifically his father and mother, and interpreted their communications regarding the Englishman and his father. The boy sees how his mother reacts to his father’s occupation with the Englishman, and how she deeply resents it all. The boy automatically begins to take sides with his mother, partly due to his mother’s kindness towards him and partly due to his father’s harsh disposition towards the children. It seems as though the boy lost respect for his father as he thought about his interaction with the Englishman, relating their relationship as one of a student and his teacher, with his father “speaking only when spoken to or after he had been given the go-ahead” (292). The boy sees his father kowtowing to the Englishman, “doing his bidding and never speaking an unkind word about him” (290). The problem for the boy seeing this interaction and having his mind made up in partial alliance with his mother is that he is unable to allow himself to enjoy the sweets given to him by the Englishman or willingly be embraced by him. The boy sees his father as weak, unable to stand up to the Englishman even when the occasion might call for it. He believes he held off the treaty due to his cry at the meeting, and had he or his mother been present at the next meeting it might not have been signed at all. This last thought leaves the reader realizing that even the young and powerless can feel convicted and react to the colonization of their land.

>>>The factor that struck me most in this story was the difference between the boy's father at home and with the Englishman. He's obviously a man to be feared at home and totally subservient in the presence of the Englishman. How difficult that would be for a child to process. My only criticism is that Farah is attributing thoughts to a 3 year old that I don't believe he would have had. My praise has to do with his ability to portray entire lives, completely, in the space of 2 and a half pages, amazing. 
#PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY